Needles and No Needles

Okay so I hmm'd and hah'd over whether or not to get the H1N1 vaccination for the boys. In the end I decided to do it. Last month the boys had their first shot, both boys needed to be pinned down for the needles. Mr O even tried to run away I had to chase him and catch him.

This time I prepped Mr O more. I told him he was lucky as he only needed to get one needle. Baby K and I both had to have two. He seemed ready. When we got there I went first so that I could show the boys that it was no big deal. Mr O was supposed to go next but he was near tears and asked if Baby K could go first. Mr O was getting really worked up about it and then I overheard two nurses talking about how for the healthy kids ages 3 and up only one vaccination was required. So Mr O was off the hook! I honestly don't think I have ever seen him look so happy. He was grinning from ear to ear. It almost brought tears to my eyes. lol.

Baby K still had to get his needles though poor little guy. He was not a fan although he does not seem bothered by them at all now. My arm is bothering me a little bit but not too bad. Good night.

Today is the day...

... that my baby turns four! I can hardly believe how fast the time has gone. Today we are just chilling out and enjoying our time together as a family. We'll take the kids to the playplace at McDonalds for lunch. Then later we are going to have Grama & Grampa over for Owen's favorite dinner - spaghetti and meatballs! Happy Birthday Dude! We love you.

WEM Santa

We took the boys to see Santa at the WEM. Baby K wanted nothing to do with it. Mr O was all for it until we got close and then the nerves hit. I had to explain to him that I would be right there and that he would be okay. Mr O had a nice chat with Santa about the space ship that Evan has that he wants for Christmas. lol. Kids are awesome.

Afterwards we went for lunch and then to Galaxy land with some friends. The kids had a blast. It is getting closer to Christmas. I can't wait I love this time of year. Next weekend we will put up the tree and decorate the house! Yippee!

4th Birthday Party

Today was the big day! We celebrated Mr O's 4th fourth birthday in style . . . Batman Style! Mr O has been wanting a Batman birthday party for the last couple of months, although he did waver about 4 days before, thinking that perhaps he would prefer a dinosaur themed party. We (by we I mean me) stuck to our guns though and Batman it was! Good thing too because by the next day he was back to Batman. It was a total success!! Almost everyone we invited came and the house was totally full!

Mr O and Mitch wrestling around.

The Pinata.

Evan.

Mr O was an excellent host. I was so proud of him. He thanked everyone for the gifts, he did a very good job of sharing his toys (new & old) and played nice with his friends. His 2 best buds in the whole world were there - thanks Evan & Mitch for making the day especially great! His little brother Baby K crashed about half-way through the party and managed to sleep through the chaos!

The little guy spent a good part of the party like this. He made it to the cake but missed the pinata and presents.

Vala ... she is so stinkin' cute and loves to pose for the camera. lol.

Its so hard to believe that my baby is four. He is growing up soooo fast. It weird before you have kids you don't really notice time passing. Now that I have kids I can't believe that 4 years are gone! I can remember being pregnant with him and our time in the hospital like it was yesterday. Mr O you are awesome and I love you more and more every single day. Happy Birthday Bud.

Hello again...

It sometimes gets so busy around here that it feels like everything is spiraling out of control. That is what the last 5 months have been like. Mr O is now in a specialized preschool program in Spruce Grove to help him with his language delays. Its great and I'm glad that the programming is available for him but the downside is is that I have to drive him into Spruce Grove 4 times a week. Its about a 20 min drive. We are lucky though that he can at least take the bus home. At first I was really nervous about his going on the bus but its been great. They have a special needs bus and there is a harness in it and everything for him. His bus driver is great and the kids on the bus are great. Owen is by far the youngest on the bus so they all really take good care of him. It is also door to door so its nice that we don't have to go to wait at a bus stop for him.

Baby K is SUCH a mommas boy. I cannot believe the difference that the year of daycare has made in Owens life. Kael is so much more clingy. Maybe its a personality thing though too. Kael has been having involuntary breath-holding spells followed by seizures. I took him into his pediatrician who assured me that it is normal to have short seizures after these spells. I have managed to avoid 2 spells by getting him to take in that breath. Yay me!! I know there are worse things but when you are watching your child have a seizure it is hard to believe.

So that is just a little bit of what we have been up to lately. Owen is going to be turning 4 next week and we are having his birthday party on Saturday. A Batman Party!! He is so excited.

Small Big Cook

Well we finally did it, I think I blogged about doing a "Big Cook" like months ago. Jen & I prepared about 18 meals in 2 hours! We are awesome, I know. Actually we wimped out a little bit because it is hard to try to buy the ingredients for a whole months worth of meals at once (without dipping into savings, LOL) so we improvised and did a mini version.

It worked out well, and I am looking forward to doing it again. It is really nice having the prepared meals handy. Saves sooooo much time! Sometimes it scares me what a little mama I've become. LOL. Anyways we are off to enjoy another glorious day in the sunshine. Take Care!

Talkie Talkerson

Baby K is really starting to talk more and more. He is such a little chatterbox - most of it we can't understand but today he learned 5 new words.

Down by the River

The boys are both so drawn to water, I think most kids are, they could spend all day playing in and around water.

Devon Days

I'm not going to mention the fact that it has been a really long time since I last blogged. Whoops! I just did. Anyways mostly just pictures from Devon Days a couple of weekends ago. I was really disappointed with it. We were there for about 20 minutes and spent $80.00! Crazy! Afterwards we went down to the river and had way more fun and it was free! Lesson learnt.

Ti To

Baby K said Thank You for the first time today! Pronounced as above.

Once a Month Cooking

Ok so one of the mom's in my moms group has been doing this and I kept on thinking what a great idea it is. Prepare all of your meals for the month in one day. Then you either bake, BBQ or slow cook it and dinner is ready! What a great time saver.

I recieved this cookbook for my birthday:

The book is even published in Canada! Here is their website www.thebigcook.com there are pictures of the recipes and even one to try out.

So I am excited to give this a try. I just need to get organized, pick which recipes I'm going to try and then make a shopping list. So when I try it I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Hope's Pics

I just love this series of pictures. Although not techically perfect they absolutely show the interaction between my boys, perfectly.
So freakin' cute

Ahhhhhh... my little momma's boy.

Mr O looking as handsome as ever.

Baby K too cute for words.

Baby K's little hands.

This is Mr O's impression of Frank from Cars (you know the big red combine that chases McQueen & Mater). Very funny stuff.

Handsome boys

I'm not entirely sure why but I really love this picture of Baby K's feet.

Here is the link for the rest of the pictures if you feel so inclined:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=h.walls.ticdesign&target=ALBUM&id=5308129962997350545&authkey=Gv1sRgCITW44Gj2LDQqgE&authkey=Gv1sRgCITW44Gj2LDQqgE&feat=email

What We've been Up To

Well, where to begin? How about right after the party. On Sunday Hope came out to take pictures of the boys, the last set of the milestones package. As always we were really pleased with the results. I wish my pictures could look that good! lol.

Monday Baby K had his appointment with his pediatrician, just a well baby check up. He is up to 19 lbs and was 29 inches tall. Mr O was 16 lbs and 26 inches tall at a year. Baby K is definitely our "big" baby though according to the charts he is only in the 3rd and 10th percentiles respectively.

Monday evening somehow (Brandy this was your girls fault, lol) Baby K came down with a horrible stomach flu. Vomiting & diarrhea, horrible horrible horrible. Thankfully the rough patch only lasted about 24 hours. Unfortunately the rest of the family went on to get it (grandparents too) The only one to escape unscathed was Mr O.

Baby K got his 1 year vaccinations at the end of that week too. I really hate doing the vaccines when they are "aware" enough to really anticipate the needle. Its so sad when they are screaming already because they know what is coming. He recovered quickly however and suffered no ill effects from the vaccines.

All the while through everything since Baby K became sick he never really got back to being himself. His little belly was sticking out, he had bags under his eyes, he was incredibly fussy, no appetite, which just isn't like him. He is normally so very happy. So back to the pediatrician we go. He recommends we try Lactaid to give his little intestines time to recover from the stomach bug that he had had weeks earlier. It works! Within a day or 2 he was back to normal. His little prego belly gone and everything!

So he is just finishing up the Lactaid milk and then we will try to switch him back to Homo milk. I'm paranoid now that he is lactose intolerant or something but we'll just have to wait and see.
Karl snapped these last two pics one right after the other. Mr O pitching a fit and my reaction to it. Do you think I've had enough. Oh Yeah!

Party Pictures ... A month overdue

Sorry about the delay folks but it has been a bit crazy around here the last month. But without furthur adieu here are some of the birthday pics. Just a few cause my internet is so slow! I made the cake! I was quite happy with how it turned out.

Happy 1st Birthday Baby K

Party pictures coming soon!

Why?

Okay I really have to wonder what my hubby is thinking sometimes. Why on earth would you let a preschooler (Mr O) color with a permanent Sharpie marker when there are washable markers an arms reach away? And then why would you let him LEAVE THE TABLE WITH IT? I mean honestly - this just cannot end well. We have blue windows, a blue windowsill and a blue Baby K. Mr O also thought that his brother and himself should have matching blue belly buttons. The only thing I could think of when I found him (with a guilty face and a Sharpie hiding behind his back) was at least he didn't draw all over Baby K's face.

Any tips on making PERMANENT markers to be less permanent?

A Real Sweet Guy

Mr O is definitely one of the cutest, sweetest kids around. Yesterday as we were driving home I slowed down to drive past some kids sledding in the ditch near our house. I waved at the boys and they waved back. Mr O saw them waving and in a really excited voice said, "Mom, Mom the kids waved at me, Stop mom stop I have to go talk to them!"

How freaking cute is that?!

Baby K's Talking

Baby K is starting to talk! He says "Mama", "num num", "whats that?" and "uh, oh". He's just started and he already says 4 things! Give him another week or two and he'll be speaking in full sentences. lol!

Happy Valentines Day!!

Talented Baby K

With his first birthday drawing near I find myself reflecting on the past year with him. We were so blessed to have such a sweet boy. Its funny because Mr O was a great baby and everyone told us - don't have another one because there is no way you'll get 2 babies like that. We must have been really good or something because Baby K was so easy going, a good sleeper, never colicky, basically just a joy to be around! The "perfect" baby

Now he is a toddler. He is walking and has been for about 2 months. He likes to put things in the garbage - things that don't belong in the garbage. Things like our canned goods from the cupboards. He loves loves loves Mr O and for the most part they play really well together. Baby K makes kissy noises now, he gives mooches, waves bye bye, says "Mama". He's trying to figure out how to open the baby gate.

As he gets older his strong will is showing. He is putting up a fight when Mr O tries to take things now. Just this morning they were having a tug of war over a toy. He has temper tantrums - real ones; lying down kicking and screaming. We're working on that though. He has the saddest little face when his feelings get hurt. He's a sensitive loving boy. I'm looking forward to what his next year has in store for us.

Oops!

Mr O is in big trouble. On Saturday while over at his grandparents house in an unsupervised moment (and I mean moment!) he turned off their deep freeze. It was discovered today so I'm sure you can imagine the result. BTW he's not really in trouble ;)

Bumper Sticker

I ordered a custom bumper sticker from http://www.bumperart.com/ It turned out awesome hey?!! I've actually had it for a couple of months now but am finally getting around to blogging about it.

Mr O how did your hands get so dirty?
Oh.

Playing with the Manual Setting

I got a Nikon D60 for Mother's Day last year and it is my first SLR. It has been a slow learning process but I think that I am starting to grasp at least some aspects of this camera. Here are some pictures I took today.

I know this picture is a little out of focus but it was just way to cute not to share.

I love my Baby K!

I know my opinion is totally biased but look at those eyes. Gorgeous!

I snuck outside so I could get a quick shot of Baby K watching Mr O & Daddy playing in the snow.