And the rain came...

... its pouring rain outside, and most likely will be raining for the festivities coming up this week, bah! Still hoping it might lighten up, we shall see. Since it was such a beautiful day yesterday, I decided to dress the kids up to take some pictures. I wanted to practice curling Ariel's hair since I had never done it before. Doesn't she look cute with the rollers?


She didn't seem to mind at all, but then I let her watch tv when I did it. Haha. I finished and she was still absorbed in Yo Yo Gabba, hehe.


So I took the kids out to the little grassy area with the leaves and snapped some pictures. Here is Ariel my Little Bo Peep!


Not to be outdone by little Xander the sheep.


Oh my gosh, I am just gushing over this shot. I love it to pieces, my cuties!


Its so funny that I am having fun dressing up the kids since I was not a fan of Halloween as a kid at all. Ken is more into it than I am, frankly I am more into the whole idea of harvest rather than scary stuff. I had a talk with a friend a few years ago about my feelings on the subject and how it related to my faith. She too being a Christian gave me some words that have stuck with me, 'make it what you want it to be.' So I make it about fun dress up and pretend, my daughter is a huge fan of that, and I don't want to ruin that part of it for her. We don't hang up scary decorations, we only have 'harvest style' things around our home (pumpkins, turkeys, leaves etc). We trick or treat with friends from church and gather for a fun time after wards with food and fellowship. The kids all play and its fun to just hang out with others. I take the kids to the community event that is aimed at younger kids and isn't scary. I want them to enjoy the wonderful town we live in and how special it is that we have events like this in a safe setting, others aren't so lucky. So that is my thoughts on it, I know others have different views and that is cool, but I thought I'd share my own since I don't think I have before.

Last night we also carved our family pumpkins. Ken sketched some ideas and came up with with a cute concept.


Ariel helped me scoop some pumpkin guts.


Xander was pretty excited by the whole event... um, yeah. Haha.


He did eventually wake up and gave us some cute smiles. Gosh he is cute!


Ariel trying to recreate the face on her pumpkin, haha.


My little pumpkins!


When the pumpkins were finished, we lit them to see how they looked... perfect. The little Xander pumpkin has the best face, haha.


Today was a rough start. I was up at 6am to feed Xander and went back to sleep... only to have Ariel wake me up... at 10 to 9am! It was a school day!!!!! Ack!!!!!!! I threw on some clothes, handed her a quick breakfast to eat in the car, made up her snack and got us out the door and at the school within 10 minutes! I was a little out of breath but we did it.

After that Xander and I went off to pick up the special putty Ken needed for his class tomorrow night. Since my little man was sleeping soundly, I took my time and once getting the putty spent a long time in this super cute toy store up in Tsawwassen. I wanted to get a jack in the box for Xander and they had a darling one that was a sock monkey.

During the afternoon while Ariel was playing and Xander slept, I finished up the pillows for Ariel's room. The list of things I made up to do is pretty much done! I have some new ideas of things to do, so I might make a new list. I am just happy these things are getting done. Ariel was thrilled!


Going back to the beginning of the week, Xander turned 2 months on Monday!!! Wow, I can't believe it. My little guy is sure starting to become his own little person. He is smiling more and more, and at other people now, not just us. I have to book his visit to the doctor, but I haven't decided if I will get her to do his shots or go through the health unit. I am also waiting till his sniffles finish up. My little guy is also very solid! Such a change compared to the light weight Ariel. He is good for my upper body workout, haha. Love this picture of him, its like he is saying 'eh!' My good Canadian boy. Hee.


That morning was Ariel's photo retakes for school and THANK HEAVENS it was a huge improvement! The photographer was so much better, he was also good with kids and was very warm to her. She sat on the block and gave the best smile. I can't wait to share it since its like night and day compared to the other picture. I am glad Ken pushed me to get retakes, I was afraid of a repeat of last time, can you blame me? Ariel was so proud of herself, she couldn't wait to tell Daddy how brave she was and how she smiled big for him. That's my girl!

Monday was also Ariel's first field trip with her class. We went to a local farm and although it was muddy and cold, thankfully the rain held off. Dad and Rita were able to watch Xander at the last minutes so I didn't have to have him outside the whole time with us.


On Tuesday, Ariel went to ballet class and had a blast as usual. We are getting closer to her performance, and I am very excited to see it. After class, we went to Dad's and got to go out for lunch with him and Rita. They were getting ready to leave on their trip to Mexico and it was nice for the kids to see them before they left since it be awhile till they got home. We went to White Spot and Ariel polished off a pirate pak in no time. She must be getting ready for another growth spurt, the girl is eating big time again. After we got home from lunch, she wanted a sandwich, apple and cheese. Dang!

Well, my hubby just got home, so gonna go visit with him. Have a good night and a big congrats to my friend and blog buddy Kristin and her family. They welcomed a new baby boy named Jeriah Ross. Yay!

Busy Bee!

Again, another week, another neglected blog! Ken has been on the computer nightly for work, and lets face it, Mommy's don't get much time for blogging during the busy day. The few times I had a moment, I spent it cross stitching. I did finish Xander's Christmas stocking (just need to sew it into an actual stocking now) so it was worth it. Now I can go back to working on his birth announcement one for his room, hoping I can get it done before Christmas, but its pretty detailed so who knows. As long as its before his first birthday, haha.


I have been in a mad rush sewing the kids Halloween costumes... I totally freaked when I realized that next week was when the festivities would happen. Ack! Thursday night is the family fun night in town when the little kids can trick or treat at the seniors center. I am bummed though because it is also the same night Ken works late, so he won't be able to join us. Bah!


We are going out with friends again on Halloween, Ariel always loves being with all the kids. Following which is a fun party. Whee! So it will be a fun evening indeed. I am dying to share how Ariel's costume turned out... soooooooon. Until then, enjoy Ariel modeling her cute Gap dress for church.


This week brought rain several days, and it was cold and nasty. Many times I found myself bathing the kids early and us all getting in our pjs. Cozy times, whee!


Xander continues to smile more and more. Its fun discovering what he likes. He loves when I sing softly when we do diaper changes. He just grins and grins and I just melt every time. He is definitely more into quiet tones than Ariel was.


Its hard to get pictures of him smiling since he sees the camera and just stares at it. I did manage to get a smile on the flip video though, huzzah!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

On Wednesday, I picked Ariel up from school and then got Stella and headed out to this cute little tea house in Surrey to celebrate her birthday (since she would be away in Hawaii when it actually occurs later next week). Kara met us there to join in the fun and we had a great time!

Xander gets snuggles with Lala.


They had a little tea service for kids there, and Ariel was thrilled with her little peanut butter sandwiches, although she wanted the egg ones when she saw that is what I got. My girl loves fancy sandwiches, good thing the Christmas tea is coming at the bazaar. I loved that they brought her lemonade in a mini tea pot and had a little cup and saucer for her t0 use too.


Kara, Lala and Xander. He is a popular guy I tell ya.


Thursday was a LONG day. Ken was out late teaching and so I spent the day making and freezing some meals. Some sweet and sour pork to have over rice or noodles, a pork and apple casserole and a lazy chicken enchilada casserole. I want to make up some soups and scones too as well, maybe tomorrow. I must say a day of work is worth it to just pull things out in the morning to thaw for dinner that night.

Today was another rainy day, and since I needed my walk, we headed to the mall. I also took it upon myself to get some things for the kids that we needed. Ariel needed new jeans, Xander needed some mittens and I wanted to get some early Christmas shopping done. Yeah, yeah, I know. I actually have the kids pretty much done (I love to be early and enjoy the season), but still need a few things for Ken. We are just doing stockings since we are saving for some trips this summer for family weddings. Personally, I think stockings are the best anyways, so its cool.

Xander isn't sure about the mitts, but he will like his warm hands when we walk now. Hee.


I have been also getting lots of housework done this week. I made a list and have been plugging through it. I must say I am pretty pleased with myself. My energy has been really been coming back and I love finding my groove with the kids and home life. Speaking of which, my little man is demanding food. Have a good weekend, and look forward to some costume pictures next week. Yay!

He smiles!!!!

At seven weeks old my little guy started to finally start to smile more regularly, although I am yet to get a really good picture of one of them. I am so excited to see those smiles more, and guess who gets most of them?


ARIEL! He loves her and usually when she is sitting beside his chair he flashes a huge grin at her. I must say its very sweet, especially since she dotes on him so much. I just melt when I see them together, awww. My beautiful kids, gosh I love them!


Oh, speaking of pictures, we got her school picture proofs. Oh man, they were as bad as I thought they might be. I was just going to to order one for her school memory book but Ariel saw the proof sheet and freaked out. She kept calling it her 'bad news'. Sooooo, we are signed up for retakes in a week. If you are wondering how bad it was... you be the judge.... oh and this was the better of the 2, ha!


This was a short week and again I got behind on blogging, oh well. We have been all been recovering from our sniffles and are pretty much all better. Ken stayed home on both Tuesday and Wednesday to recover, which actually helped me out since I had my 6 week post-partum visit with the doctor in Richmond and didn't want to have to drag both kids along. I left Ariel at home and just took Xander with me.

The appointment was good and my scar has healed nicely and everything looked good. In fact, I got a huge surprise with some new info in regards to having more children, it IS possible, but it would require tight monitoring and a controlled c-section where they don't use as many fluids during the surgery. It still has risks and personally I am still torn. The more I look at my kids I am content, but I am sure we will pray about it and see what happens in 2 years. Its nice knowing there is a choice again, but its still a hard one. Basically, my doctor didn't want us to rush into permanent measures that wouldn't allow any more kids until we got more results about my condition, so I appreciate that. She has been a great doctor, and I am thankful I got to have her for this pregnancy.

Ariel had another great week at ballet, and has been starting to practice at home. Her memory really amazes me. From her retaining her dance moves to reciting her 'children's Bible' stories word for word, I just shake my head in awe. Last night Ken called me up to watch her read out (although it was from memory) her Bible book. Not only did she say it perfectly, she did it with expression. Can we say performing is in her future? Most likely at this rate. I hope to get a video of it soon, its just crazy!


Xander, besides starting to smile more, also had another trick to show off. Check out this raising his head action! He is just growing up so fast.


Look at his cutie! I know, I'm bias, but he is so adorable I could squeal. Hee.


Oh, and on a funny note.... people often asked which Disney movie did Xander come from, haha. (Seriously, just because we are animators, doesn't mean we name our kids after cartoons, we just happened to like the name Ariel when picked it) Well, he may not have a Disney name, but he looks like a Disney baby. Xander and baby Tarzan... haha. Sorry it isn't the greatest picture, but it was the only one I could find online.


On Friday, Kara sent me a message if the kids and I would meet her for lunch. So we drove out to meet her at De Dutch, yay. Ariel was happy to see her and it was a perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon.


Ariel decided to show off her eating skills... a nice full plate...


...ta da! Thumbs up for a clean plate. Her appetite is back full force, yay.


We went back to Kara's place to hang out and Ariel did a drawing for Chris and God. Its up on their fridge now, haha.


Some cute smiles for Aunty Kara


Today was my special day, I got to go to the spa for some serious pampering. Whee! Ken's mom had sent a gift card shortly after Xander was born to the local spa. I had been waiting to go and then this week I got an email about their anniversary specials, and they had several services lowered so much I could get a real bang for my gift card. So I got a 30 minute massage, facial, manicure and pedicure. Plus with booking those, I got a $30 package of skin care products for free. It was soooooooooooo awesome. The massage was so relaxing and what my body totally needed. I had never had a facial before and I can say it was pretty darn cool. I was there for 4 hours of pure bliss, ahhh.

While I was out this morning, Ken got us some tickets to the Disney on Ice show next month! That will be so much fun, and its Ariel's first ice show. I love a good skating show, and the commercial for this one looks fabulous with all the costumes and characters involved. Yay, can't wait.

Had to share this picture, Daddy and Ariel enjoy playing 'My little ponies' together. Soooooooooooo cute!


Ok, I have decided what my new show is this year... GLEE! Its so awesome, the writing is funny and the music is great. Ken is enjoying it as well, which is nice since we don't have a lot of things we watch together since ER ended last year. If you haven't seen it, I found this promo on you tube.



I also had to show this, I just can't stop laughing at this, just so awesome.



Well this week I hope to get started and hopefully finish Ariel's costume. I made a list of things to do around the house too, so hoping I get lots of those crossed off. I am slowly going around and tidying up things in various closets and cupboards. I just wish I had more time and energy, oh well. Ok, time to get ready for bed. Good night!

Thanksgiving, pumpkins and sniffles oh my!

Sniff, sniff.... snort! Sorry, we are all sick here and frankly its gross. Ariel went down first and boy did she ever. She is usually one to stay well like me, but this time it got a hold of her and she is miserable. I should have thought something was off on Friday when she fell asleep on the couch. My daughter doesn't nap, so that should have been a red flag. By Saturday night, she was snotty and congested. No fever, so no swine flu, yay for that. This is probably the average 'school' caught cold. I know who gave it to her too, her little friend who came to school sick because it was picture day... um... yeah.


I realized this morning that I have been very lazy this week about blogging, so here is a week's worth of updates on everything. Monday and Wednesday were school days for the princess. They talked all about Thanksgiving and turkeys. On the Wednesday they made a community fruit salad, very cute! Tuesday was ballet and Ariel's teacher was telling me how she asked the class if they had their listening ears on? My daughter, the intellectual, replied no because she had never heard the expression. Her teacher then said she better get them on, so she proceeded to twist both ears. What a doll... although I never heard if they worked, haha.

Sweet dreams for Xander. He isn't really smiling much yet, so I love the sleeping smiles. Awww.


Xander seems to be growing like a weed. I honestly think he looks huge and yet when I go out people stop me to see him and say how cute and small he is. He was kinda cranky this week, so maybe it was his cold building up. How sad is this? Poor baby boy, mean old mommy taking pictures when your sad.... I must say his sad is cute.


Ariel the protector! Gosh she loves him so much, I hope she has a good relationship with him in the years to come.


Thursday was my cardiologist appointment. Overall, it was good, still some progress to make, but overall we are improving! Yay. My blood pressure was high under stress while there, aka screaming baby in the waiting room. Its not 'that' high, but doctor wants to see it lower in a stress situation. So I am on a smaller water pill now, and continued exercise and low sodium diet. See that, LOW sodium, no longer NO sodium, needless to say this was the best news to me, haha. The other big news is my hole may be shrinking in my heart!!! My heart rhythms were good and she said the sound of it showed signs of it possibly not needing to be fixed. The echo next month will give us a better idea, and I ended up having another chest x-ray that morning as well. I don't go back till May and she told me to continue what I am doing and not to think about her, ok - will do!

Following that, Stella and I went to lunch and fabric shopping for Ariel's halloween costume. If I didn't say already, she is going as Bo Peep and Xander is her sheep! I found the cutest fabric and can't wait to get sewing. Whee. I was looking online for ideas to make her staff, and found a great suggestion for using a large candy cane decoration. Kara called me last week to say she found one at her dollar store, yay, so she is all set now that I pealed off the red tape. Here is sneak peek at the fabric, but now you have to wait till the end of the month.


This week we had a delivery from the UPS man. Now that Ken is writing a new book, we have lots of shipments from them with contracts, payments etc. I mentioned once before about how Ariel is obsessed with the delivery man and likes to pretend to be him... she finally let me tape it on the flip video. Enjoy... don't you love her 'man voice'?



Saturday came and Ken was now on his long weekend! It was a beautiful day and we packed up the kids and went to the opening day at the pumpkin patch, whee.


This was Ken's first trip because he use to work on Saturdays, so it was so much fun... Xander slept through most of it, I am sure next year will be a blast for him. We arrived shortly after it opened and it was already packed! Ariel was eager to see the dancing pumpkin and corn again... yes, she is SOOOOOOOOOOOO our daughter. Haha. She was even more thrilled to see a strawberry on stage this year as well.


We loaded on to the wagon and rode out to the patch. It was perfect, no mud and lots of pumpkins to chose from. I had Ariel in her boots but she probably didn't need them, crazy! Usually its raining and muddy, so it was so nice to have a dry and somewhat warm day.


Before pumpkin picking, the official photo for 2009, haha.


Ariel found her pumpkin pretty fast....


...and then helped Xander find his, since he was busy sleeping.


Mommy and her little pumpkins!


After finding Mommy and Daddy's pumpkins, we got back on the wagon. Time for an apple and to watch more of those crazy dancing produce! Ken's childhood tradition at the patch was to have donuts, and funny enough they had some there! So I got a bag of the mini donuts for us all to share, yum.


One of Xander's brief moments of being awake... usually when those dancing produce were around, haha, must definitely be a family thing. Hee.


On the way out they had a pony ride set up, and Ariel seemed all excited until I paid the man and we were standing in front of the pony. Before she could protest, I had her on the saddle and she was grinning! She smiles and tells me it isn't scary. Sometimes we just have to try new things right? Ariel nodded and enjoyed the rest of her ride.


We left to go home and the kids were all tired and hungry... so much crying filled the car, oh well. After lunch and a nice and quiet afternoon, we got ready to go for our turkey dinner at Dad and Rita's. Mike and Jo were coming as well as Tim and Liz (one of Rita's daughters and son in law) and all the girls.


Xander and his first official holiday, just like Ariel, Thanksgiving! Sadly, when we did his turkey picture, he was fast to sleep. Oh well.


Ariel was excited to get to play with all the girls, although she was showing signs of the cold taking a hold. Her nose was running and she wasn't herself. She did still eat her dinner and a piece of pie... in fact she stopped eating dinner half way and announced she needed to save room for pie. Haha.


When we got home Ariel was really tired and crying. We got her in bed but the night was filled with us getting up several times as she would start crying in her sleep. Eventually I brought her into our room and made a bed on the floor for her. The next morning she was puffy and red. Her nose was running like crazy and she had a little cough. We had her quarantined to her bedroom to try and protect Xander from it. Ken brought in his editing tv so she could watch cartoons and rest. Thankfully it worked well and we managed to keep her in bed all day! She ate toast, soup and some fruit, so that was good.


She slept through the night, and that was good for her little body, however it was my turn, I couldn't sleep and was up blowing my nose for several hours, ugh. I also awoke to little Xander coughing and having a stuffy nose. So that sucks! We are all staying inside to rest again today, hoping tomorrow we are on the mend.

Ok, time for me to go back to bed... sniff.