Happy Daddy's Day!

To the man in our life, who is the most amazing Daddy in the whole world! Ken, we love you so much for everything that you do. You are such a hard worker, kind, nurturing and such a creative soul. I thank God everyday for you, and the blessing you are to both Ariel and I. Nothing could explain our love for you, but we will try with this little video we made for you. I hope you like Ariel's new sentence she learned just for this special day.
Have a wonderful Fathers Day!

Much love,
Jay and Ariel

What Day is it Again?

By far the worse thing that happens to me when I get sick is that I lose all track of what day it is. Nothing drives me nuts more than being totally off and missing things... ie, my sister in law's birthday on the 10th. Ugh, sorry again Jo! We will be celebrating her b-day along with Father's Day this Sunday. Speaking of which, make sure to swing by here on Sunday for the little Father's Day surprise Ariel and I have been working on. Tee hee.

Ariel and her Cheerios, or 'cheers' as she calls them.


Overall I am feeling much better. My sinus is still draining, yuck, but for the most part I am back to normal. It was another cold day around here, so we went to the mall for some walking in the warmth. Ariel was itching to get out, as was I, and until it starts acting like summer we are forced to keep well inside. Blah. Ok, seriously, its June! Warm weather anytime please!

So at the mall we had fun and a great walk. My legs were in shock to be moving and it was FABULOUS! Nana was in Richmond for a trip to Costco, so we met up at the food court for lunch which was great. Its been weird not seeing her all week, but I guess that happens when you are avoiding sharing your sick bugs.

We came home again after a fun morning only to have Ariel trip in the hallway by our door and cut her lip open on her tooth. Ugh, this girl loves to slice open that lip of hers... not to mention reopen the scab on her knee, AGAIN! She definitely has mom's klutziness gene. Doh!

How many can I get in my mouth?


Last night we had the local police put on a show for our building. Shortly after midnight, Ken and I were still up (barely) watching tv in bed when we heard from way down the hall from our bedroom window the cops calling people out of their apartment. Of course everyone is at their windows now watching as they dragged out 4 guys and had them cuffed. It wasn't ugly, nothing like our old friends, but this one seemed far more interesting as they pulled a bag off the roof that I think they were trying to hide. Looks like something possibly drug related, hard to say. Either way, I sat up in Ariel's room watching her sleep for quite awhile until the action ended. Sometimes I wonder about the world she has to grow up in... sigh. Either way, heard building manager saying they were all getting kicked out, and so ends that saga.

After Ariel woke up from her nap, we played on the deck. She wanted to water mommy's plants...


...such a helpful girl!


My bleeding heart plant has its first bloom finally! It usually full at this point, but it hasn't been warm... poor plant.


Ariel getting ready to do some gardening.


Tomorrow we are having breakfast with Dad and Rita in the morning. Still unsure if we will make it to swimming class or not. Will see how we feel in the morning. We only have a few classes left, and Ariel is always talking about going to the pool so I don't want to miss it if we can. Also, people started getting their birthday invites in the mail today! Yay! So will post them soon to share with you all. Hee.

Ariel and Mommy, still alive!


After dinner Ariel and Daddy watched some Muppet Show together.


I shall leave you with this little story. Ariel said a new word the other night during dinner. She held up her utensil and said 'FORK!' Lets just say it doesn't sound totally like fork.... um, yeah. Ken says as long as she doesn't say 'you' afterwards, we should be ok.

And for absolutely no reason, one of my favorite weird 80's music vidoes... they sure don't make cheese like this anymore.

Sick, sick, blah!

Tis been quiet around here... most likely since I haven't had much of a voice since Sunday. Gack! Monday morning I woke up around 5am in terrible pain. My whole head felt like it was being squished... translation, sinus issues. Ugh. It lead to a migraine, which lead to my whole jaw hurting, which lead to my sore throat and cough... it just seemed to get worse and worse. For someone who barely ever gets sick, this was down right nasty.

Ken, the super hubby that he is, decided that he would work from home so that I could sleep and he would watch Ariel. Oh my goodness, it was such an answer to prayer. Its times like these that I realize how much I love Ken. He would check on me through out the day, bring me food, change my dvd discs, and just let me rest without little Ariel clawing at me. I really don't know what I would have done had he not been home. I couldn't even stand up longer than a few minutes. I stayed in bed all day, slept most of the time, except when the sneezing fits happened. Oh that was painful. Ugh.

Ariel is somewhat showing slight signs of this bug now as well. Nothing as bad as me, but the cough is present, and the tiredness. She is still super perky, and non stop energy... except while sleeping. This is her impression of how Mommy felt yesterday.


Today was better, as I was able to stand and speak a bit more. I was still very tired, but Ariel got me going. In fact she was at the door with her shoes and coat on DEMANDING a walk in the buggy. Soooo, we did a short walk into town to mail her birthday invitations. I was slightly bummed I had to get more postage on them this year because of the weight and thickness of the invitation. Doh, oh well. The girls at the post office were so sweet because they wanted to try and find the nicest way to make them look pretty because of the cute 'Ariel' stamps I already had on them. Anyhoo, just happy they are out, and by next week I can post what they look like as everyone should receive them late this week. Yay!

I am going to keep this short and sweet since I want to get to bed. I am fading fast.... Zzzzzzzz.

A Breath of Life...

Well, we survived the Animation Festival weekend! It all began on Friday evening when we went to the church to start setting up the rooms with the computers and supplies. Ariel joined us of course and after starting at 630pm we didn't actually leave till 10pm, so Ariel gets the award for best daughter! She was awesome and was a total angel.

While we were setting up, we just happened to see the beautiful light shinning through the stain glass, simply stunning. I love this picture.


Ariel of course was totally drained by the time we were wrapping up. She even came up to us and kept saying car... car? As if to mean, get me in the car and get me home, I am sleepy. What a trooper!

Next morning, we were back at the church bright and early at 9am. The helpers started arriving at 10am so it was around then that things got rolling. Ken got everyone briefed and doing practice runs with the softwares or preparing demos. By noon we were ready and had some pizza for lunch. Yum.

At 1pm the kids started to arrive and it got really exciting and overwhelming at the some time. We had around 100 people (kids and adults) come through the doors during the course of the festival, totally awesome! Everyone was having a fabulous time, and we didn't have any major kinks at all.

Ariel again was AMAZING! She missed her nap and yet kept busy with several people taking time to watch her for us so we could run around and keep things running smoothly. We only had one moment of panic when Brenda realized she had crept away from her. Thankfully she was sitting on the stairs, totally oblivious. Gave Mommy and Daddy a good scare. Brenda felt horrible but all we cared about was the fact she was alright.

Ariel really liked the flipbook Grandpa made, she kept laughing at it. Hee hee.


Doodle room was cool too. Except she wasn't impressed when she got marker on her hands.


The caricature artist did a super cute drawing of Ariel for us. Haha.

I had so many pictures and footage from the animation the kids did, that I had to put it all together into a little movie. It really was a big success and we hope it can become an annual event. Wouldn't that be something, wow. Enjoy a little piece of our day at the Breath of Life Animation Festival. Whee.

After the festival wrapped up at 5pm, we spent time cleaning up and then went to dinner with Kevin and Brenda to celebrate an amazing day. I tell ya, that dinner never tasted so good. Yummy. I brought Ariel home while Brenda and Ken drove to Vancouver to return things to the school. My little princess crashed pretty fast.

Today we had church, and still made it regardless of how tired we were today. My voice is pretty much gone and I have a bit of a stuffy nose. I guess its what I get for those long days. Blah. Ariel was getting cranky in the nursery today, especially after skinning her knee, ouch. She was totally upset and overtired, so we told her she got to do what she wanted to do after church.


That then led us to the bunnies, her new favorite hangout. She was totally happy watching the baby bunnies come out of hiding and visit her.


Waiting...


There he is! Hi bunny! Sooooooo cute.


Then after bunnies I asked what Ariel wanted for lunch. Of course first answer was cookies. Typical right? Hehe. Then came fries, so we spoiled her by getting a Happy Meal from McDonald's. Ken and I tried the new sandwiches they had only to be disappointed that there was no tomato in them. Apparently they are having a situation and so the tomatoes were removed from all burgers. I later found out it was due to salmonella poisoning. Yuck.

Ariel was so happy with her nuggets and fries, not to mention the big talking panda that came with her meal. She then went right to bed and had a good long nap. Actually its time to go wake her up and have dinner. Wow, that day went by fast!

Not much planned for this week... need to recover for the next few days. Hoping tomorrow I will have my voice back, wouldn't that be nice.

Busy with the Ordinary

Hey everyone, sorry to disappear. Its been a busy week of normal activities around here, you know things like grocery shopping, errands etc. On top of that I have been helping Ken in the evenings with the last minute things for the Animation Festival that is happening this weekend.

On Monday, Ariel and I went for a long walk and stopped by Stella's for a visit. She would be leaving later this week to go see Kara's graduation later this month. Yay! So I wanted to spend some time with her before she left. That morning she had made some fresh buns, Ariel quite liked those indeed. Yummy.


Tuesday morning was customer application day at Safeway, so Ariel and I went very early to do our shopping without a crowd. I had several rain checks and coupons saved up and with the 10% off, I managed to make get a $100 in savings. Woot! Ariel was excited to ride in the cart shaped like a car, something she wants to do every time we go in the store but usually can't because we have the stroller. After loading up the car, we drove to Stella's again.

That particular morning Stella and her friends were getting pedicures, something I totally need to remember to book, note to self. It was nice to visit and Ariel was happily stealing any muffins or banana bread that was left unprotected. We then stopped in at Nana and Papa's for a visit. Papa has been having some rough mornings, so that is not fun. Sigh, its difficult when there is little you can do to help.

When we got home we found a package in the mail. The dvd of the Otter film from Galen arrived! Woot. This was one of the little animation side projects that Ken sometimes helps Galen with. This particular one I helped out too so I got a credit as well, so cool. Ariel really enjoyed this one. If you want to see a preview clip, click on Do Unto Otters. Such a cute little film.


Yesterday we went for long walk out in the cold. The weather has been changing from lovely summer into chilly and rainy again. Blah. Ariel was really upset when I didn't let her wear her sandals, she loves those things, takes after her mommy that way. Hee. We then picked up some milk, some stamps for the animation festival and had a quick visit with Nana and Papa.

In the afternoon I worked on Ariel's birthday invitations. They are looking great and I can't wait to send them out. Just a few more things to do and then hopefully the stamps I ordered will arrive. Yay.

When Ken got home, we worked several hours on the program and festival passes. I am happy to say they are finished and today I will be going over to the church to print them off. We have over 60 people signed up to come, so this will be very exciting indeed. Ken has put so much work into this on top of everything else he does with his job and freelance gigs. He amazes me so much, way to go honey!


Ariel has started the 'funny' phase. If she does something she knows is silly, she says, 'I funny'. Its quite amazing actually that she is starting to understand the concept of comedy. She is really quite a ham, just look at these goofy grins...


But silliness ends when a good book shows up. Such a little book worm she is.


Last night when we were working, she kept trying to cover herself up with her little blankie. It was so cute and she lay there very still until she burst out laughing.


Ariel is also starting to use sentences more and more. Its strange to think she never talked, and now she does. New words show up daily, sometimes they surprise me like when she walked up to me when I had a popsicle and said 'lick', or when she finds the Muppet show dvd and brings it to me and says 'puppets'.

Last night she also surprised us by pulling down her pants and diaper and sitting on her potty. She didn't go, but the fact she was able to do the lead up was a great sign of good things to come. I love watching her figure things out, makes her feel good and me proud as a parent.

Well I need to go eat, Ariel is watching her morning cartoon on CBC, so I think I will join her. Love that Poko. Hee.

Click, Flash!

Happy June! Ok, after much prodding from the gals, I got Ken to snap a picture this morning of me in my new outfit I got to wear to the Sex and the City opening. Hee. Ariel posed with me. I tried to channel my inner Carrie , even though I am a total Charlotte... the outfit proves it. The tank is really cute, its hard to see, but the shoulder had sequins so its very pretty and sparkles. Gotta love Old Navy!


I never did mention that at the movie I was very much UNDER dressed compared to the women around me. I saw some amazing heels that night, and some pricey handbags. Last night I downloaded my new favorite songs from the movie, and Ken wrote a review for Hollywood Jesus (click here to read it).

Love this song, as does my little dance queen Ariel. It was featured during a dramatic fashion moment in the film and the girls were literally swooning in the theater. Did I mention I want to see this movie again!


So yesterday was a beautiful day and Ariel and I went out for a walk in the sun. We stopped for coffee with Nana and Papa at the cafe.


Ariel was totally hamming it up with her puppy.


Caught the moment when she was saying 'no'


Afterwards we went to the park. Last weekend marked the opening of the water area for the season, and although it wasn't warm enough for bathing suits, we thought a dip in with our feet was in order. A little boy Ariel's age and her mom were there playing and let Ariel join in the game of boats. She was thrilled and they played for a good hour. Here are a few cute pictures...


Today we had church in the morning. I was in the nursery which worked out well since Ken was doing Faithweaver friends today with the kids. Following the service they had a BBQ pulled pork sandwich and coleslaw donation lunch. Oh that was soooooo yummy, and they sold the leftovers too, so I got a bag of yummy farmer sausage, pork and coleslaw for dinner tonight and tomorrow. Yay. Ariel surprised us again by LOVING coleslaw, who knew?

We then zipped to the craft store to pick up the things Ken needed for the upcoming Animation Festival. Poor Ariel was so tired but hung in like a trooper but came home and crashed... as did her daddy.


This was her hair after we took her pigtails out, hehehe. Looking a little rough, but still super cute.


Hoping we have some nice weather this week. I want to wash down the deck so I can set up Ariel's little pool so she can play. Guess we will see how it goes. Ok, off to bath the princess and do our 3rd night of no bedtime nursing... yes the time has come. This was all she was still getting, and after Stella babysitting on Friday and no fussing over going to bed without it, we figured it was time to cut it out totally. Very exciting but a little sad too, but when your kid comes to you and asks for it, you know its time to quit. Haha.