July 2 in Invermere

This pic of Arlan sleeping is actually taken AFTER the hike :-) He was VERY tuckered out from that climb!

Looking out at the top - with dad holding on very tightly!

Landon tuckered out, but carried on (eventually). Our biggest challenge with him was getting him to walk down (John had to carry him a chunk of the way). Partly it was due to fear, not just being tired. He was running like a monkey at the lookout, so I put the fear of falling forever into his head if he didn't quit running. Then he was scared to walk down the path because he might fall forever. aiaiaiaiai


Us at the "jump-off" ramp for hang-gliding. A nice view, when the clouds weren't obscuring it.



At the trail head, before we started up. How did I get these pics completely backwards?

More Canada Day pics

A family shot taken in the condo (self-timer).


We watched Canada Day fireworks on the night of the 1st at Fairmont. Here is Landon, sliding down the grassy hill right by where the fireworks went off. He had so much fun he barely cared about the fireworks at all!

Landon on his hike with dad - Canada Day.

Arlan checking out the water - it was a tad bit cold! I only made 1 complete "dip" all weekend - on Saturday. The forecast for 20 all weekend was not correct ... it was cloudy, highs in the mid-teens, with many rain showers. But we still had a blast (just spent less time on the beach than originally planned).

Canada Day Parade

Cool fire truck - one of the first vehicles to go by. The parade started right outside our condo, so we were able to watch them preparing from about 9 am (parade started at 11 am).
Arlan watched the parade from dad's shoulders - best seat in the house!
Before the parade started, the boys waited very patiently. That is attributed solely to the fact that the police car started the parade, and was parked just up the street from where we were waiting. Landon rarely took his eyes off the police car.

Gettin' Ready...

We are getting ready to head out tomorrow for the long weekend. I just checked the forecast - 20 all weekend. So not super hot, which will likely be a blessing! I'm sure the boys will still have a blast at the beach :-) I'm not looking forward to packing - which will be all that I do tomorrow morning since I haven't even started yet.

We had a great day today though. I met a great gal at Coffee n Scream for a visit while the boys played. Then we met Mike & Kathleen (I used to work with Mike) and their kids at the zoo. It had been much longer than I realized since we were last at the zoo. Arlan was already sleepy when we got there, so he just hung out in the stroller. Landon whined because he was tired from Coffee N Scream and wanted to ride too (and I brought only the umbrella stroller!). But it all worked out, we wandered about, had some lunch, played, and then came home.

On the way home, I managed to catch the 'ground-breaking' for the new Coventry Hills Middle School - slated to open Sept 2012. This will be the school the boys attend for Grades 5 - 8. I hadn't been at one of these ceremonies before, so that was kind of neat.

Then we came home. Arlan had a good nap while Landon and I washed off the driveway and side of the house, and watered the flowers. I hooked up the new sprinkler I bought for the boys, which broke within 3 seconds (cheap Superstore junk!). Then Landon had a fit when Arlan woke up and was sent to his room where he promptly crashed. So he's still awake, of course! His schedule's definitely off-kilter for the past 10 days or so ... won't likely improve while we're gone. Maybe not all summer since he doesn't have to get up for preschool until Sept! Maybe I'll have to break down and be waking him up in the mornings ... he's been sleeping later and later ... he's so much like his mother!

Anyway, that's the news from here. Tomorrow will be rushing around and packing - we'll hopefully be on the road by 2. See you next month :-) Until next time...

Pics from Swifty

My cousin, Mark, and I when I was in Swifty in early May. This is at the Big I, of course!!

Landon, Ryder and Arlan. Amazing that I captured all three of them sitting at the same time. Yup - they're watching tv - the only thing that could slow them down!

We had a visit with Great Grandpa in Swifty as well. This is about as good as I could get these two munchkins to sit with Great Grandpa!! Stinkers...

Invermere - July 13

After John's gig in Panorama, we thought we'd just check out the town of Invermere -- take a quick drive. Well, we found this nice beach, and since it was such a nice day we grabbed a blanket and hung out here for about 3 hours. As you can see the kids were in heaven!! They even got themselves wet, despite the chill of the water! There was a great playground, all the kids were incredibly friendly, and we had such a nice relaxing time. We certainly didn't want to go, but Arlan got to the point where he NEEDED to have a nap so we got back in the car and came home.

BUT - we liked it so much, we've rented a condo and are headed back there for July long. We'll leave Wed, return Sunday. I'm very much looking forward to it. I know it won't be quite as idyllic as this impromptu stop (there will be so many more people this trip!), but I am still very much looking forward to getting out there again.

Panorama - June 11 - 12

John played a gig in Panorama on June 12, so all of us decided to head up there for the weekend. It was Landon's 1st time in the mountains that he even realized the mountains are big! lol Arlan realized it as well. Arlan likes to comment on the terrain we're driving on: "Going up-hill! Going down-hill!". So you can just imagine the entire drive out to Panorama! aiaiai
We arrived Friday night, just hung out. The pic of Landon in the car is him so excited to have arrived in Panorama!!

Then Saturday we "played" mini-golf, walked around, checked out the COLD water, ate lunch while the kids climbed the fence. Then Landon went with John for set-up while Arlan and mommy napped. We went swimming after that, had some supper and then the boys and I hung out while John had to go play. It was quite a nice Saturda - the boys sure enjoyed it and I liked getting away!

Arlan's Birthday

Arlan turned TWO on June 18!! I can hardly believe that my baby is running around, jumping off of everything, speaking in sentences, and generally causing as much mischief as humanly possible! We had a small party for him with Grandma and Grandpa (who made it up here despite the extreme flooding and highway washed out near the SK/AB border!), and our neighbour Trevor with his twins Evan and Dara. It was nice. I had fun decorating his cake, and he enjoyed all of his presents. Lucky kid! He particularly enjoyed the race cars from Dara and Evan, the "fridge phonics" toy from mom & dad, and the chair from grandma and grandpa. All of them have already received a lot of use!!

I finally made his 2-year check-up appointment, it'll be July 8, so I'll have stats then!

Hair Cuts!

The boys (finally) got hair cuts, and they look like such little men again! Landon's is buzzed quite short, and so is Arlan's but he has a bit more length on top. They are so sweet. Arlan looks even more like John, and I'm getting compliments all over the grocery store again because you can really see his eyes once more. They're just so big and blue :-D

I'm so excited as we have booked our summer vacation. Our first one as a family - just the 4 of us! We are off to Kalamalka Lake (Vernon, BC). We've rented a great cabin, just a short walk from the beach but with a fenced and private yard so the kids don't have to spend the entire week in life jackets! lol I am so pumped - I know we will all have a blast, especially the boys. Even John is pretty excited.

in addition to that, we are spending a week in Ontario with Liz & Rob and the kids, which will be incredible as well. Landon is so pumped to see Thomson and Isabel - he absolutely loves them! He was telling John and I tonight about how we have to fly on a plane to Toronto to see Thomson and Isabel. Then he went into some sort of gobbledy-gook that we have to drive a bus, and then a rocket ship, but at least he has the first part of the trip cased! lol

So we are excited to have some summer plans. Hopefully we get back to Sk sometime in there as well ... the summer has filled up incredibly quickly all of a sudden. *sigh*

That is, if summer ever arrives. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be as nice as they're promising (and that's only high teens, maybe 20! *shaking head*

Anyway, here's to nice weather tomorrow for some outside play-time! Until next time...

Life is...Life!

Isn't that song from the '80's?

Life is just a moving along here. Both boys are growing. Arlan imitates every single thing that Landon does - drives me insane. Landon is starting to calm down a bit more now though, which is a blessing. For example, I only had to yell at him once to slow down and come back to mommy while at the mall this morning. The rest of the time he walked beside me (and helped me to chase Arlan).

Today Landon asked me "Mommy, are all asses hard?" "ummm, not all of them Landon" "yeah right, some are fluffy!" What do you think of that! Wonder where he got the "hardass" idea in his head in the first place?? It was on the way back from the mall, which makes me wonder if he heard it there? it's not a term that's common to my vocabulary ...

Other than that, we're just waiting for the return of spring. The ground was covered with snow again this morning. That foggy winter (Jan through Mar) has certainly proven the saying true (that one about 90 days after frost there will be rain). Grandpa's going to be sowing rice in the fields soon, as he can't seed!!

Which reminds me - on the way to the mall, we pass an equipment dealer. Joyous. Today Landon was bawling he wants to buy a combine - a real one. I told him I'd have to sell him just to get the down payment! Maybe that's where he learned hardass....

until next time...

Almost an entire month has flown by...

What a fun, and busy month! I've been traveling a lot, busy with my wonderful business, and the boys are stinkers...what can I say!?

We are currently in Swift Current - Landon is having fun fighting with Ryder, Arlan's trying to keep up and is loving playing with the puppies and kitties. Landon loves Lulu so much -- she slept with us last night, and the first thing Landon said when he woke up was "where's lulu?" Then he told me it was too early for me to get up, I could stay in bed (YES!).
It was actually nice that we all slept in today. Arlan's been waking up ~5 or 6 am at Grandma and Grandpa's -- WAY too early for me! today he slept in until 10 am, SWEET! I like that much better. But of course he isn't wanting to nap now ... but that's ok.

So we are fine. The kids are trouble-makers. particularly Arlan. It's like he knows he'll get away with lots with those eyes...
We are in Swifty until Sunday, then up to Aunty's in Kyle, then to Med Hat for a night with Julie which I'm really looking forward to. Tuesday we'll be home again - which will be super nice for all of us!

That's the quick update for now...until next time.

Time goes by...

Not much happening here. We had a nice relaxing weekend. The Easter bunny brought chocolate for the boys, which they devoured. It was pretty cute to see Arlan running for the cupboard, arms stretched out, "choholah!!"
Landon's still riding his bike - has worn the rubber off the training wheels!! lol It's been really windy though, too windy for anyone to want to be outside. But the boys do spend some time in the backyard most days ... swinging and throwing sand around. I don't know if we'll have grass back there this year, or a beach.

Arlan had a fever tonight, pretty miserable. Sure hope he's not getting sick :-( We gave him some Motrin and put him to bed ... will have to see what the morning brings. I am worried that it's maybe his ears as we went swimming today and he seemed fine, then he slept for 3 hours when we came home, and woke up slightly fevered and VERY grumpy. He got worse as the evening progressed, refused to eat or have his bottle. So I think it's either his 2-year molars, or his ears. And if it's his ears, then to the doc we'll go tomorrow :-( Poor little stinker-pants.

Anyway, that's the news ... until next time. ...

Not much happenin'

We are enjoying some nice weather, despite the wind :-/ The boys are loving playing outside, and I'm happy that the backyard is getting more "playable". The sandbox is wide open now, so hopefully it'll dry out soon (the boys are playing in it anyway!).

Arlan continues to talk more and more. He's starting to say sentences, like "Landon sit now" and things like that. He definitely knows what he wants, and when he doesn't get it he shares his feelings. Usually by crying / screaming in your face. It's annoying, but mostly funny (unless you have a head ache or are on the phone ... not fun for people on the other end of the phone either!). The boys mostly fight all day, with brief periods of peaceful playing which I love. But they're fun.

Landon seems to be enjoying preschool more. He actually asked to go to preschool Monday morning, but he only goes Tues and Thurs mornings. And of course, now he doesn't have preschool until Apr 13!! Easter break. But at least he's enjoying it more.
Oh yeah, Landon's spring concert was at preschool last Thursday. I enjoyed it (Arlan loved playing with the toys there). Landon didn't squeak a single word, or participate in any way. He just sat there quite shy. But he didn't cry, so I was happy about that. Maybe next concert he'll find his voice.

Landon is getting better at controlling his strong emotions too. The other night he was so mad at John because John told him to quit hitting the window. He picked up the pillow, and you could see in every fibre of his body just how badly he wanted to throw that pillow at John. We just watched him with that "go ahead and try it" look in our eyes. He marched over to John with the pillow poised over his head, and put it on John's legs and stamped away. Much better - very impressive self-control I think. So it's an improvement. In fact, he's much less aggressive in many ways. I'm definitely seeing a pattern - Feb / Mar is an aggressive time for Landon, and I'm thinking maybe due to it being the end of winter and he's sick of being inside? But I distinctly recall us having some challenges right when he turned 2, then 3, and now at 4. So perhaps we'll be able to better manage that at 5? We'll see

Anyway, I'd better go, just thought I should put a note up. Until next time...

times, they be a-changin'

I did it, I left the kids in the car *gasp* for approximately 1 minute today while I dropped candles off. Bad mommy, I know. Arlan was asleep, Landon was enjoying his A&W bribery winnings. Then Landon walks up the stairs to get me. Yup, I forget, he's in his booster seat and can easily undo the buckle. Then he climbs over the seats to the front, as the back doors have the child-locks engaged. Gets out and comes on up to get me. Of course.

So, no need to scold me too much, it'll be the absolutely last time he's left in there at all (except maybe when I get the mail, maybe, he was half-way to the front seats today when I got the mail, ready to climb out the door after me ... to "help" of course). *sigh*

Arlan was oblivious to it all, drooling on his jacket. Poor kid. He was so grumpy all morning, so sleepy. He didn't even eat his A&W winnings, hamburger's in the fridge :-/ He's so cute, it's ridiculous really.

Landon also scared the pants off of me tonight. He's in bed, has been for 1.5 hours or so. It's quiet, I'm thinking he's asleep finally. I go there, no Landon. The mattress is off the bed, all the bedding strewn about the room, but no Landon. Then I pick the mattress up to put it on the bed, and Landon's been playing under it! Seriously. So, the long-time threat was followed through - all toys in Landon's room were boxed up and put in the garage where they will remain for 1 full week. That includes Thomas trains and trains, his hotwheels spinning fire-thingy, stuffed animals. Of course, while I took the first load down to the garage, I could hear him scampering about. I asked him what he was doing. "Just moving my favourite toys downstairs!" he tells me (so that they don't go out to the garage!). He was huffing and puffing like he'd run a marathon! So I gave him that one, smart little bugger; whatever toys he managed to salvage to the toybox downstairs did not put into the garage :-/

TOO SMART FOR HIS OWN GOOD!

That's the news from here...

Finally - PLAYING OUTSIDE!

I love when the boys can play outside. And not only outside, but in the backyard too! The sun is shining on more ground back there every day, so the snow is finally disappearing :-D Even Arlan was out there today ... although he fell on the icy parts and hurt his bottom, poor kid.

Landon actually spent the entire afternoon playing with Camryn from down the street. Firstly they played out front of our house for a bit, then at Camryn's, then back to our house and Caitlin came over too, then in the backyard. It was so nice to see him having so much fun with his friends. And of course Arlan loved every minute that he was awake for...

We also learned today that Landon's friend from preschool lives on our street too :-) So that should add to the play-time fun on the block! YAY

We haven't been doing too much besides playing with the kids. I've been busy with some Mia Bella fun. I'm just so glad the weather's getting nicer, my house is a bit muddier, but it's quieter for a good chunk of the day and that's good.

until next time...

more pics - randoms

Arlan was playing so hard he fell asleep - on the floor in the living room! A site we've never seen with Landon, that's for sure!!


Landon's new favourite activity is "tories" at bedtime with Landon. We all snuggle up in Landon's bed to read ... Arlan's always first, waiting for Landon and mommy!

Arlan just hanging out, drinking his bottle, doing a "cool dude" impression...













Landon painted himself so nicely one day -- thank goodness for washable paints! Even his toenails were done so beautifully!

And this is the kind of help I can afford in my house ... the boys were, ahem, sorting?? laundry. Very helpful, certainly.

Birthday Party Pics

Here's the shot of Landon's construction cake. The toys were a hit with him, of course :-) Thank you to Grandma for helping mom make this cake!!

Landon's favourite present was his new two-wheeler bike! This pic is about 15 minutes after he got it ... he was riding like a pro right from the start! I think we'll be doing a lot of bike riding this summer!


Opening presents - this one is the hotwheels (look at his face!), he has been playing with that whenever he isn't outside riding bike (and Arlan's been scheming to get that monster truck...)

Landon picking the construction vehicles off of his cake, and all the kids waiting oh-so-patiently for their piece!!

Success - and Landon's FOUR

Landon's birthday party (and the entire weekend) was very successful! We had a great party - with no meltdowns or fights or anything (phew!). Landon had a blast with friends here and presents. He definitely has the idea of presents now - it's all he wanted to do was to open presents! LOL His favourite was his new two-wheeler (with training wheels), which he took to immediately. He can even leave "blackies" when he stops! I can hardly wait for warmer weather, he'll be riding his bike all the time I'm sure.
Present fave #2 was his first HotWheels set -- some monster truck slammin' jammin' fire shootin' thing a ma hooey. He plays with it non-stop.
We've also started a "chores" list for Landon. He gets stamps when he does his chores, and when he gets enough stamps he can have money and can buy what he wants (which fluctuates between more monster trucks, Frosters from Mac's - which he refers to as treats - and today he was going to buy a movie). He's quite proud when he gets to put stamps on the chart, as I haven't let him use my stamps before. And the chart is up high, we have to help him up there, so it's a big deal.

Arlan loved the weekend too. Grandma and Grandpa were here. He kept pointing to Grandpa and saying "Look! Grandpaaaaa!" with big grin on his face. He is talking more and more, now it's just to figure out what he's saying. "rhoni" means macaroni, got that one figured out tonight. He loved the toys and people and everything on the weekend as well. He didn't even make it through the party - he went to nap right after lunch and missed the present opening and everything! lol Last night both boys were snoozing early - Arlan didn't even want to hear all of his "tory".
Arlan LOVES stories at bedtime. All you have to do is mention story-time and he's burning up the stairs. I didn't know where he went the other night, I went upstairs and there's Arlan laying in the middle of Landon's bed, looking at me with bright eyes, "Tory!" Too funny! Landon quite tolerant of Arlan sharing story-time with him, thankfully. Although the past 2 nights he's taken to reading his own stories in mom's bed ... Dad changed that one up tonight though. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

I have the camera and all the wonderful pictures sitting here. I have to upload and go through them and hope to be able to do that tomorrow night. The kids are much less tolerant of mommy on the computer these days - I really don't get much chance at all before they're in bed. And I certainly don't get blocks of time to get anything major, like pictures, accomplished throughout the day. So hopefully tomorrow evening...

Oh yeah - and Landon had his 4-year check up on Monday morning. He's just a smidgen under 40 pounds, and is 40.5" tall. 75th percentile for both height and weight, as he's always been. Everything else is great. He was a big boy too. I asked him to sit nicely beside mommy and show Arlan how a good boy waits patiently for the doctor. And he did it! For only about 45 seconds, but he did it!! lol Now to get that patience stretched out a bit further...

until next time...

happy morning...

Well this has been an incredibly happy morning. Landon woke up in the best mood I've seen him in in several days! Likely because we all slept until after 9 am (which makes mommy in a very happy mood too!).
Or maybe Landon's getting the vibe for his birthday coming up this weekend ... the next few days are all about party-planning! Gotta figure out a cake, party snacks, etc. Again, ideas are welcomed! I'm leaning towards a construction cake, using little construction vehicles ...maybe a mining scene with big dump trucks????

preschool struggles

Well, it seems that Landon really isn't liking preschool. It all began at his Valentine's party there on Feb 9. Since then he has hated it - begging me to leave him in the car while I go inside, fighting not to go, then refusing to let go of me when we do arrive. One day he even had a couple of tears escape after I left :-(
So I had to call today to see what's up. It all stems from that party. That day when I picked him up he was sad, he said that his cookies weren't eaten because someone said there's 'too much sugar' in them (they were iced roll-out cookies, in the shape of hearts - nothing too fancy). I do believe this all stems from that careless comment made by a volunteer mom, no doubt (really, would a 3 year old kid say there was too much sugar in anything??!!). We are going to send cookies to preschool for his birthday party on Thursday - hoping to replace a bad cookie experience with a good one. This time I think I'll buy Oreos and leave it at that (I don't need to feel bad about my baking skills too!). Landon doesn't want to bake cookies, he said he doesn't like the other kids :-/ He has related an incident where someone yelled at him "Get out of here! You're not supposed to be here!" I think this was most likely some kid wanting to keep the toys they were playing with to themselves, but I wonder if Landon took that to mean he wasn't supposed to be at preschool?

If that doesn't work, I'll volunteer to see how things happen at preschool. It's really heartbreaking -- he absolutely LOVED preschool up until that day, and I so hope we can get that magic back for him. Plus I simply don't want to face the fight to get him there, and then deal with him when I pick him up (he's horrible for about an hour, yelling, screaming, sulking, throwing things, hitting ... ). I know that preschool is valuable for him (and me), but not if it's a horrid experience for him -- and I am contemplating pulling him out, at least until the fall, if things don't turn around.

The teachers say he has a lot of fun at preschool (she hadn't noticed anything was wrong at all). He's got some buddies that giggle and play together, he loves the trucks and trains. He enjoyed the ambulance that was at the school today (although he didn't even want to tell me about it when I picked him up, just throwing his hat and colouring book all over the car and pouting). After an hour, he did admit to having some fun, and told me all about the ambulance -- but that was a looooong hour to get to that point.

Anyway, that is where we're at. Hopefully Thursday can bring some positive memories into his head. I'm open to suggestions on this one ....