A White Christmas?

For the last week and a bit, it has actually looked like Christmas around here. I LOVE IT! Although it is cold, and that isn't always fun, it has meant that the snow has remained. It has snowed all of today as well, but I am hearing rumours that it will be getting close to the zero mark and that makes me nervous. Please, not before Christmas! With all the winter weather, I was inspired to do some Christmas baking. I like baking, but with previous years, working and what not, I have never done Christmas baking. Yesterday I made shortbread, honig kuchen (which is actually cookies), and butter tarts. I rounded it off with Italian Chocolate Panafort (similar to an eatmore bar) today. Hopefully everyone wants to dig in this Christmas, I know my pants are elastic at the top, but there is only so much that can be blamed on the baby.

Katie's First Christmas Pageant

Last Sunday was Katie's first pageant. This year the two year olds were not little wandering sheep, but Bethlehem children (with Camels). Although we practiced and could sing and do the actions for all the songs, there were too many people watching and she decided she would just watch everyone else. Katie is not afraid to be in front of people and did great. She even decided to say hi to Oma, Opa and Daddy who were in plain view. Every year there is one child that does this, I must admit I never actually thought it would be ours, but it was and for some reason I am not surprised by this either. It was actually really cute. Overall the pageant was a great success and the front was full of preschoolers which is really good to see.

Half Way There

Yesterday morning, I had my 19 week ultrasound (I know that isn't 1/2 way but a couple of days isn't much). I was nervous going into it, since I haven't felt a lot and I was scared that we may be blindsided again. However the only thing that blindsided us was when the tech retook the measurements because "this is a big baby." Hmmm, how big is big? It is within normal range, but at the very upper of normal (8o percentile). They asked us multiple times if we wanted to know what the baby was, but we held strong and will wait for the surprise. The baby was very active for us and it was fun to watch, we even found out that we have another thumb sucker, I guess we get to go through the whole soother thing again. We have discovered it was much easier to get rid of a soother than it would be a thumb. Now we get to sit back an relax for the last half. If Katie is right, it will be a baby sister, but I really don't think she knows what the difference is. Aaron and I both have suspisions, but they are both different so it will be fun when the time comes.

Recent Photos

I have been a bit behind on updating things lately. We have a new camera to play with, and it has taken me a while to get around to putting things on the computer. This fall has been unusually sunny so we have taken advantage of the nice days to go outside. Here is a couple of photos we took of Katie playing on her swing and slide. She has also been playing with a balloon she got at a friends birthday for days. Cheap entertainment! It lasted for over a week, and ever since I threw it out early this week, I have been asked where the balloon is every day. I suppose I could get another one...maybe I will.

Chicken Anyone?

After much debating about what do on Halloween this year, we ended up heading to the mall in Richmond. The weather forcast for this year was blustery (aka, raining and windy). As it turned out it was a nice evening, the rain held off and it wasn't very windy afterall, but it appeared that everyone else thought trick or treating at the mall would be fun as well. Despite all the people we had a great time. After we got a bag for Katie to use, we went to the first store. Katie really wasn't sure what was happening but after a little coaxing she held her bag out. As soon as the candy dropped in the bag we heard a shocked squeak from Katie. "What was this? If I just hold out my bag people will put candy in it?" And off we went fully enthusiastic! She did a great job of saying thank you and we had a lot of fun. We also met up with Brad, Carolyne, Joel and Nathan later. The community of Hamilton has fireworks for the community on Halloween, so we walked to the park and had a great time watching the fireworks. Katie liked the show, but wasn't so crazy about the volume. I think most of us would agree. You always forget just how loud they are, until you are there covering someone else's little ears!

Picking Pumpkins

On Thursday morning Katie and I met Melissa and David for a morning at the pumpkin patch. Although cold, it wasn't raining, and it wasn't too muddy either. Katie was thrilled to see David! I think she has missed seeing all her friends. She didn't seem too excited about the outing, but she was very happy as long as she could hold Davids hand the whole time (poor David). We had fun listening the music, enjoying the hayride and of course picking a pumpkin. I must agree with Melissa though, next year I will make sure that I find a very small pumpkin to carry around. They don't feel heavy in the beginning but after a while, you realize how heavy they really are. I had a hard time getting a good picture of Katie or David since there were so many things to see, but below is a sample of some of the passable ones.

Someone New To Be Grateful For...

For those of you who haven't heard, we are expecting another baby due April 21,22,23 or 24th. We have been given all of the above due dates at different appointments. I am sticking to the 21st for obvious reasons though.

Thanksgiving Weekend

On Friday morning we loaded up the car and headed for Alberta. This is the first time that we have driven a long distance with Katie (not counting the truck since she can move around and watch movies). We drove to Revelstoke and then continued on to Lacombe on Saturday morning. We had a great trip and the weather was amazing! I checked the whole way on Saturday and didn't see one cloud the whole drive. We celebrated Thanksgiving at my grandparents house with all the family, and it is in that type of a situation, that you wonder how you can ever be ungrateful. We were also able to get together with Travis and Jen on Saturday evening. It was a lot of fun to see Jen's ring (yes, they are finally engaged!) and look at wedding magazines with Jen. All too soon though we were back in the car for the drive home on Monday morning. The weather was not quite as nice, and we ran into a good amount of snow at the Rogers Pass, but now I can't wait for the first snowfall here. It was beautiful up there, if you could look past the sanding truck in front of us! Overall, it was far too quick of a trip home, but I am still very glad that we did it. Happy late Thanksgiving Everyone!

Soother Free

Last Monday, Katie had her 2nd dentist appointment. All was fine, but we were told that we really needed to try to get rid of her soother. I kept thinking the whole time, that they would understand more if they knew how difficult this was going to be. We had tried weaning her slowly from it, and it doesn't work! On Friday, I was at the park with Carolyne, Joel and Nathan, when Katie had a complete meltdown for her soother (which was in the car and no where close). The tantrum lasted all the way to the car, the trip home and in total about an hour. By the end of it, I was so mad that I wouldn't have given it to her even if she had become a complete angel and said please over and over. It was then that I decided she would never see it again, since it couldn't be worse than what had just happened. Surprise, surprise, it was a piece of cake. She hasn't stopped sleeping or napping, and although for a couple of days she would ask for it from time to time, it has been soo easy! If I had know it would be this simple we would have been rid of it long ago.

Katie Turns 2

I can hardly believe that 2 years have come and gone already, but yesterday it was official, Katie turned 2. Unfortunately for her, she had a terrible cold, so it wasn't a very fun day for her. Thankfully she perked up after her nap in the afternoon, and was able to have a little fun, but she still didn't even eat a piece of her birthday cake. My parents were here for a couple days, and yesterday as her birthday present they built her a swing. She was so excited when she figured out what was actually happening. She tried to squeel but only a whisper came out, but the jumping up and down was enough of a sign that she was excited. In the evening, we still opened gifts and the rest of us enjoyed her cake. Here are a couple pictures of her birthday.

A Late Summer Vacation

This past week Aaron took the last of his holiday time. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end as this week has. We began the week up in Whistler from Sunday until Tuesday. We hadn't been up since before Katie was born, and it was nice to go back. We did a lot of walking and just enjoying the outdoors, and of course we had to spend time at the pool. Unfortunately for Katie, it was an outdoor pool, and although it was heated, she was so cold after about 15 minutes, we would have to get out. We did get to go several times though, and she loved it. She also had fun just being able to run, and us not worrying about cars or streets. Hopefully we can go up again this winter.

We also went to Maplewood Farms on Thursday morning. What a great place! We enjoyed it almost as much as Katie. On Thursday evening we met the Breedvelds for a walk and on the way to meet them we asked Katie if she knew who we were going to see. She answered "Goats?" By far the ducks and goats were the highlight of the day.

Tomorrow Aaron is headed back to work, and Katie and I are headed to Alberta. I know who got the better end of the deal! Once again it was a great week together, we were able to relax as well as play tourist.

Lonely

Katie was not impressed that Venice had to go home. Many people knew this when we left the airport yesterday, but I didn't know just how lonely until she started making conversation with her rubber duck today.

Company

This past week, my cousin Ali and her daughter Venice came to visit. It was the first time that Katie had someone more her age come and stay, and Venice and her are as close to cousins as Katie has. We knew they hit it off when the first day included hand holding between the car seats and lots of hugs and kisses. I, being the delinquent that I am only had my camera with me one day, however we did get a lot of things in. We were able to take the girls to the aquarium (which is what the pictures are from), we went to Fort Langley, Steveston, Granville Island and of course we still found lots of time for shopping! We will defintely need to do these girl weeks more often. Here are a few of the "few" pictures that I did take. Thanks for the great week Ali!

Sunset

I am definitely not a heat person. I like it in the low 20's, but the sunsets the last few nights have been amazing! I took this from our balcony looking over to central park and thought I would share it.

Sommersaults

Katie's has found a new talent.

The long weekend

Travis and his girlfriend Jen came out this past long weekend for a visit. We had a great time, and were busy most of the weekend. I had the camera along the whole time, but as you can see, only stopped long enough to take a token picture. Over the whole weekend, we went to Steveston, the finale of the fireworks, Fort Langley, and Granville Island. On Monday night, after dropping them off at the airport, we were also able to get together for coffee with my uncle Andy, aunt Maureen and cousins Kaylee and Sarah who are in town from Manitoba. It was so nice to get together with family. I wish it happened more often.

Katie's New Bed

Well, we finally did it, and Katie is in her new bed...most of the time. We haven't taken the crib out yet, and sometimes she still ends up in it. She is quite excited about the fact that it is just her size, you just can't tell by the picture.

Painting

Two weeks ago now, my Mom came out to help me paint as many rooms as we could in a week. Aaron's Mom was able to also help by taking Katie for a couple of those days. By the end of the week, we had painted 3 bathrooms, and painted and wallpapered our bedroom (and yes, wallpaper is coming back). I took pictures of the downstairs bath, and our bedroom, since the others really aren't that changed from before. Now all that is left is the living room area upstairs and the extra bedroom in the basement.

Katie & Joel

For a couple of times in July, Joel came and spent the day with Katie and I. One of those days was great weather, and I have been meaning to put the pictures up for a while. Better late than never though.