Super Cities Walk for MS

This year I walked to raise money to fight MS. I have a few friends who have the disease and I decided to do something about it. Thanks to the help of co-workers, family and friends, I managed to raise $815! So thank you to everyone who pledged me.

We were all supposed to go today, but Jude and Gage had a bad fever so they stayed at home with Dad. I took Nate with me and we did the 5 km walk. Nate walked about 4 km of it, riding in the stroller only for juice and grapes. He was totally into the high fives and would run back to high five people behind us on the path.

Mama? This shirt is a little big.

Much better.

One of my fellow walkers gave Nate a chocolate peanut butter square. Nate bounced off the walls all afternoon. I have to babysit Scott's son when he's old enough to eat sugar cubes.





I let Nate run through the finish line so he could high five the volunteers that were cheering the walkers in. He made the local news! I was very proud of him. If you watch this clip, he's the little guy in the very first few seconds.

Family Photo 2008

Bathing with Bubbles

A favorite thing to do in the tub is blow bubbles. (This way we can blow bubbles all year round and blow bubbles in the house without Mama getting upset about sticky floors and such!) Thanx to Auntie Amber and Dad for these great shots (which I missed because I was working the crappy late shift!).

Why I Love Our Backyard (Part 2)

One word: MUD!







As you can see, Jude enjoys mud the most. He has absolutely no problem getting disgustingly dirty. Just before I took these pictures, he was making mud angels. Nate and Gage were shoveling what was left of the snow. Gage does his best not to get too dirty, and Nate actually fell into the mud. Nate doesn't mind getting too dirty if it's his idea. He just doesn't like falling all that much.

They'd spend all day outside playing in the dirt and the mud if I let them.

Growing Up *sigh*

It was finally time to change the twins' cribs into toddler beds. They were trying to climb out after nap and were getting caught in the bars during the night. Funny how doing that has made their once small room seem so much bigger.




None of my boys will sleep with their heads against a wall, and I have no idea why. All three of them have moved their pillows so that they are further from the wall and closer to the door. Inner fung shui maybe? All I know is that Nate did this even before lying down on the bed.

Jude was really upset by the change, he kept crying and screaming "That's not my bed! That's not my bed!" over and over. For some reason he and Nate switched beds and now he's happier.

They have gotten used to staying in their beds and since we got the rails, they don't fall out. The first night Jude hit the floor twice and Nate fell once, but the rails have made a huge difference.

Aren't we CUTE?

Nate pretending to be a cat. He rotates from cat to dog. The dog is really good, he woofs and carries a ball around in his mouth. He'll even fetch. I'm thinking he wants to be a puppy when he grows up! (This is the last bit of the black eye that he got when he fell into a gate. I think sometimes that babyproofing and safety are not his friends.)


Jude blowing kisses. This is him reminding us what a wonderful, loving and cute boy he is. He hopes that we will remember this when he has his next meltdown.
Gage playing Thomas in his room. This way his brothers don't bother him and he can play with all of his playsets at the same time.

Deceptively Delicious

For Christmas, I got Deceptively Delicious, an awesome cookbook about adding vegetables to your food. I've made all sorts of stuff from this book, most of which the kids just love.

Preparation is easy, if you prepare ahead of time. Hard to believe I can get Gage to eat carrots, but when they look like this and you hide them in things, he has no idea what they are.

Nate is a notoriously neat eater. He doesn't use his hands very often, preferring a fork or a spoon (I've seen him eat toast and chicken nuggets with a fork). So, when he eats something like this, you know that it's good.
(Chocolate pudding with avacado)

Nate's Finger

In January, we were playing in our yard with trucks. Nate didn't have any mittens on because it was nice and warm. He scraped his hand up against our garage (stucco) and got a bit of a cut. James cleaned it out and we kept on eye on it. It didn't seem to be getting any better so I cleaned it out really well and put a whole bunch of polysporin on it. The boys went to the farm for the weekend and my mom kept it clean and put polysporin on it a lot. By the time we picked him up Sunday night, it was really infected and swollen. So James took him to the medicentre where they cleaned it all out and dressed it. He was on strong antibiotics for almost two weeks and we had to go have the dressing changed each day (or twice a day when he and Jude would pull it off). It took him forever to heal, the nurses and doctors kept saying "It should be getting better by now...".
Finally, about a week later, a lot of the infection came out of it and it healed up really fast after that. Two days later it was fine. He had a big purple mark all the way around his finger for a while, but it's hardly noticeable now. This is the third bacterial infection we've had to take him in for. The first was a stubbed toe that got infected and the second was a nasty ear infection. He can fight off a virus really well, but has a really hard time with bacteria. I guess he needs more yogurt!

Nate, eating with his glove on. Here he's pointing to his owie while trying to stare Dad down so he wouldn't take him to the doctor.

Jude, pointing to where his owie would be if he had one. Poor little guy felt so left out.

Getting ready to go for a dressing change. Note the mark on his forehead where he whacked it on something. People should not be surprised when we say we are taking him to emergency!

Why I Love Our Backyard (Part 1)

You can shovel until your heart's content.

Jude prefers a small shovel. He's all about the little details.
Put that camera away Dad, before I head-butt you right in the junk.

When you are all done shovelling, you can always play trucks on the covered patio.

Barb's Wedding

On January 6, James' sister Barb got married. It was the twins' first wedding and Gage's second. They behaved very well I thought, we spent all of our time playing with the toys in the nursery. They looked really smart, too. (If you ignore the winter boots.)

Don't you just love that his socks match his tie?
James and I looked pretty good too, but it's hard to get pictures of us when the kids are running around.

The happy couple, Barb and Jeramie.

Maid of honour was Barb's twin sister Amber and best man was Jeramie's brother.

Christmas (a little over three months late)

I really wish I had a good excuse as to why I have not updated this thing in over three months. But, sadly, I don't. I blame facebook, laziness and a renewed love for things not kept in the basement (like the backyard). Slowly but surely, I will get caught up. So here's Christmas, 2007.

The twins were the first to see the tree. We set it up Christmas Eve after the boys had gone to bed. They were enthralled with it, and were even more amazed when James plugged in the lights.

Seriously, we thought that a lot of these gifts would go home with people. We've now learned that when you have kids, a lot of those gifts stay with you.



Opening stockings at the table.


Gage wouldn't open any presents unless he was sitting in his Thomas the Train couch/engine that Auntie Amber gave him for his birthday.
Nate was really into opening presents. His, Judes, Gage's, ours...
Jude wasn't that into the presents this year. He liked carrying the presents around and then wanted someone else to open them. Then he'd play with the toys and the paper.
I even cooked Christmas dinner for James' family this year! I'm not brave enough to do turkey yet (and I don't really like turkey anyway), so I did a ham. It turned out really well.
You can't see Nate, but he was there. Stuck in between James and his Dad, his chair is the blue spot. Christmas was so much fun with the boys this year, and being in our new house made it very nice. I'm looking forward to next year, when I can decorate a bit more and the boys will understand more about Santa, making Christmas cookies and giving gifts.