Happy 2009!

Happy New Year to my family and friends. It has been a long while since my last post and a lot has happened. I will try to give you the shortest version I can.....
Our biggest news of the year, as I am sure you will all agree, was the arrival of our baby girl, Lexie Aliya. She was born on August 13th weighing in at 8 lbs and 9oz. She is now almost 5 months old and doing great! We did a lot of travelling throughout the summer, and fit in quite a few camping trips. Fall found us driving back and forth to swimming lessons (both Nick and Kayla) and Sparks (Kayla). Winter found us, still driving back and forth to swimming although only twice a week now. Nick is 1/3 the way through Grade 2, and still likes to go to school. He is doing great; only needs to work on listening more and talking less. (gee, I wonder where that comes from) Kayla will start Kindergarten this coming September, even though she wishes she was there now. It's hard to be February baby. Christmas and New Years came and went as fast as it always does. Luckily we found the time to share it with family and friends and to have a good time. I don't want to say that I have made any new year resolutions, because you can't break 'em if you don't got 'em, but I do have a few goals that I would like to work towards in the year to come. That pretty much brings us to today. I hope that you will check back periodically to read about what is going in our household and to see what's new. I will try to keep it as updated as possible and promise to post lots of pictures of the kids.

Finally

Not that flattering of a picture, but finally Nick's two front teeth have come out.

They have been loose for so long, like months and months. But would not come out. Brian and I tried wiggling them to death, pulling them with pliers and even tying dental floss around them (and all this after he fell asleep at night as that was the only time he would let us!!!) Then the left adult tooth started growing in and pushed the baby tooth in to his right baby tooth wedging it in between really tight. So he had 3 teeth there for a bit. Thankfully we had some nice weather this past weekend and Brian cut the grass in the back yard for the first time this year and we set the trampoline up. Well, it only took one collision of Nicks mouth on Kayla' s head and voila! we were able to pull out the left one - with a LOT of crying and screaming (and Nick would say) blood. With the one tooth gone and the right one free of being wedged, it didn't take long at all for it to come out as well. I think the next night while Nick was sleeping he bumped it with his hand and it came out. It was hand delivered to me in bed at about 3 am....

Baseball

On the first of April Nick started T-ball! His team is called the Marlin's and he was happy to find out that he knew almost everyone on his team from school (it is a mix of Kindergarten and grade 1's). It seems to be a busy schedule having about 2-3 games per week until the end of June. So far he likes it a lot. Here are a few pictures that we took of his first game.


Warming up before the game

Up to bat....

This is Nick "paying attention" and "looking ready" on 3rd. lol

I wonder who will notice...

Today I felt like writing in my blog. It has been almost 5 months since I last posted. I have thought about updating it on different occassions, but just ended up with writers block. Hopefully I can get back in to the habbit of blogging again. It's seems to be a phase that comes and goes with me.

Our Kitchen:
Our new kitchen is just about complete. The new floor and cupboards are in and really all it needs is the finishing touches. Our back-splash broke on route to us so I think we are awaiting a new one. Here are some pictures of the progress.

Today is Kayla's birthday and she is now a big 4!! She had a birthday dinner with family on Saturday night and then she and Sam had a party on the Sunday at the bowling alley. They had a really fun time.

From March 9th to 19th we are going to be going on a family vacation (I am so excited) to Arizona to spend some time with my mom and dad. The kids are really excited about going on the airplane to the dessert; or is it desert? I'm not sure, and it doesn't matter, I like them both. I will be sure to post pictures when we get home.

I am still working 3 nights a week although now with Christmas done and over with, it is very slow at the store.

Well I think that's it for now. My big project of the day is to tackle Nick's room. It really needs some organizing and I would rather do it while he is at school so I can do it all my way! Ha. I'm sure we wont hear any complaining from him.

Facebook!

I feel like I have been swept away in the tidal wave known as facebook. Those of you who are familiar with facebook know what I am talking about. You know, checking it in the morning when you get up, again with your first cup of coffee, in between switching loads of laundry, again before and after dinner, and one last time before bed just in hopes that someone knew has joined or someone has sent you message, sent you a comment, or even sent you an egg that will be hatching in a couple of days! Geeeez, it's like a small addiction that will take over your life. But like most things the novelty will (and in my case; has) wore off. I hope. And after only four attempts to remember my sign in to www.blogspot.com and one email reminding me of my password, I hope to re-kindle my hobby of blogging! Hopefully I haven't lost too many readers since my last post of APRIL!!

Bad Dog!

This weekend was beautiful. It makes me excited for summer, when the days are consistently nice. The plan was to put up the new fence this weekend. Finally. In doggy that means: Oh no! New fence. I must try and find one last way out of the yard before I am officially trapped in. And I better make it a good one! Translation for humans: $131 to bail her out of the Langley Animal Shelter! It's like she knew that we were distracted and decided to wander off. She found a way out the back of our neighbours (3 houses up) on to 200th Street. And for all you people who are not familiar with this road, it is VERY busy. It is the main road that travels through the town of Langley. I have to say that she is lucky actually. She could have been squished by one of the many semi trucks that frequent the street. She got to ride in a police car and play with other dogs at the shelter all day (hmm...doesn't really sound like a punishment to me, does it?) Now she is sporting a nice shiny new licence tag! Bad dog.

Happy Easter

Kayla with her basket full of eggs...

What'cha got Nick?

Hot Tub party! Cameron, Christine and Alexis, Nick, Kayla in front, Breanne and Nicole.

Naked Kayla!

Nick cooling off

Happy Easter! We had a great day yesterday. Not only was it Easter, but for our family it was also Ava's Baptism Day. We got up fairly early with the "Easter Bunny" and then were off to Church for 10am, followed by another egg hunt on the front lawn of the church and then over to the Bergen house for lunch. The kids really had a fun day and by the end of it they were exhausted! Kayla fell asleep at about 6:30 and stayed asleep until about 8:00am this morning. The Hot tub probably played a roll with that too!

Let's go Fly a Kite...

Hello Everyone. I think it was about this time, one month ago, when I was saying this very same thing: I can not ever remember having snow on April the 2nd! What is going on with the weather? This past weekend was pretty good. It was a bit cloudy, but when the sun peaked out it was quite warm. We managed to get my vegetable gardens "built" at the back of the yard and picked up a load of good dirt to fill them with. I even got my peas and strawberrys planted! Then totally oblivious to the forecast (I am not sure if even it was forecasted) I wake up to SNOW on Monday morning. I will say it again; very strange. Not much is new around here. I feel like I am always reporting the same thing. Brian has put his unit up for sale now in addition to the actual business part(packaging depot itself). Chances are pretty good that the unit will sell before the business in which case Brian will go and work with Mike at his store for a while until the Langley store also sells. I think this will be good for now, as it will give both Mike and Brian a chance to take some days off it they want or need. And who knows? We might actually be able to go on a real vacation- some where far away. And HOT! I am still working evenings- 3 nights at the moment. Our house is still kind of a disaster area. The top kitchen cabinets are off and the stuff that was inside is bulging out of my other cupboards, or lying around on the counter and table. The walls are patched and I think they are ready for new paint and then the new cupboards (yet to be purchased) As for the outside, the plan is to put up the new fence on the north side this long weekend. So we'll see. The new neighbour is getting all the supplies and then Brian will help him with it.

Nick and his Dragon kite he bought at Costco with his bottle money. I don't think flying a kite was as exciting as he was thinking. Good thing he brought his roller blades along too (pictured here-complete with helmet)

and Kayla- and yes, her shoes are on the wrong feet!