Various Pics

The kids liking their new trucks from Christmas.


Landon posing for the camera. Yes, he's wearing pajamas. He LOVES pajamas. When I go away for a weekend, I bring him pajamas instead of a toy, because he loves them that much!! lol


Hallowe'en 2010 -- we held the block party, and here are 4 of the 5 gals all dressed up.


Landon dressed up as a Fireman for Hallowe'en. He may love his jammies, but he LOVED this costume and wore it non-stop for about a week ... until it was just too grubby to be worn anymore. Great Costco value :-D

Christmas 2010 in Moose Jaw

Landon and Arlan got crazy carpets from Uncle "Dregg" and Aunty Yvonne. Arlan could NOT have cared less, usually bawling because he got snow in his face. Landon, on the other hand, had a BLAST crazy carpeting, despite the cold weather. We found this ideal spot about a 5 minute walk from the house that was just right.













Family picture on Christmas Day ... after opening gifts. Note Landon's Christmas attire. He flat out refused to wear the most adorable "Santa Claus Rocks" t-shirt I bought him for Christmas (until after New Years, then it became cool I guess).

Landon opening one of the semi's the boys got from Grandma and Grandpa. They played constantly with these semi's, until they managed to thoroughly destroy them :-(

Christmas 2010

Opening presents on Christmas Morning...Both boys are in their RoughRider jammies they got on Christmas Eve (that they've now outgrown!!).

Arlan had no clue at this point how much he'd love this bounce back racer! LOL













Christmas Eve gifts -- jammies and a book for each. Landon LOVED his Roughrider jammies, and wore them the entire time we were in Moose Jaw!

Arlan loved his Christmas puzzle book (this kid loves puzzles more than any kid I know!). Landon got a really cool book on the earth ... it took him a while longer to love it, but it has become a staple bedtime story book

Landon's 5th Birthday

So proud with his presents on his birthday (March 7). These are his gifts from mom & dad, Arlan, and Grandma & Grandpa.

Arlan is particularly fond of the Lincoln Logs Landon received from his good friends Madison & Douglas!













The Birthday Party! We had Landon's party on Sat the 5th, with 8 guests :-) It was the first real 'party party' we'd had, usually it's just a few kids and it was more about us adults. This time I actually planned some games and fun. Like "Spin the Bottle" (with a beer bottle no less!). Spinning the bottle is how we determined whose gift Landon would open, and also each guest got a small present as well.
Then it was time for cake. Landon decided on Wednesday that he wanted a Transformers cake -- so voila! It was one of the easier of the character cakes I've made actually, and I think it turned out well.

Landon was so excited to receive so many gifts: Hotwheels, Transformers (his favourite right now), and lots and lots of LEGO! In fact, Landon took his birthday money from Great Grandpa and bought even more lego!! He has now discovered that we can take the lego apart and rebuild each piece, so I think he'll be more content with what he has (versus begging to go out and buy more lego EVERY day!).

Oh yeah - Landon also got a RC truck. He and Arlan spent the days immediately following his birthday racing the truck and Arlan's Bounceback racer around and around and around the house. come to think of it, haven't seen them racing for a few days (ah peace!).

Sept pics of the boys

Here are the boys at Camryn's birthday party - they had such a blast!!
Our little Rider Fan (whether he's aware of the fact or not)





Landon has discovered the wondrous joy of the Sears Wish Book!! LOL He tore out his favourite stuff, slept with those pages for about 2 weeks, before the catalogue was so destroyed I needed to toss it. Maybe -- MAYBE -- we'll bring a new one home again in November :-D

Niagara Falls

Landon's trip to Niagara Falls

Hanging out after the butterflies - both boys are a tad bit tired I'd say!

When we first arrived, Isabel and Landon set off to do some exploring!!

All the kids loved the butterflies. Landon was amazed at the butterflies "eating".














Chasing butterflies. Landon did not catch any of them though ...

Arlan's trip to Niagara Falls

Chasing butterflies -- Arlan was on the floor studying this one, which was so co-operative to just sit there with him.


Wet, and wanting to check it all out!

Arlan was in heaven 'driving' this video game!! Too funny :-)

Niagara Falls picture

Talk about silly :-) When we went to Niagara Falls, we went up the 'tower'...of course they offer to take your picture before you get on the elevator. The first one was miserable, but this silly picture turned out pretty well. We had no idea what they were going to do with it, we were just told to put our hands in the air and act scared :-) I love Arlan's expression!!

How can it be a month already

I know how a month can go by so fast - we've been SO busy! I have LOADS of pics on the camera, hoping to get them up here Monday!

What has the past month brought? I was gone to Pennsylvania Aug 8 - 12, so the boys had fun everyday with Chantelle (our neighbours daughter who babysat for us). There was no problems that I heard about, and both kids liked to eat crackers all day! aiaiai

Then home for a week - Landon went to daycamp again, and this time there were no illnesses contracted which was great. He sure enjoyed himself, and didn't complain too much when I dropped him off. I have to admit, those afternoons with Landon at camp and Arlan napping were dreamy!

Aug 20 we flew to Toronto - stayed a week and came home Aug 28. Liz & Rob kept the boys while John and I traveled on to Montreal for a wedding (which was actually 1.5 hours north of Montreal). The wedding was a LOT of fun, and it was so great to get out and see John's friends without the kidlets.
Then back to TO for the week. We had a lot of fun - swimming several times, we drove to Niagara Falls one day, we went to the Canadian National Exhibition and the kids went on rides ALL day -- so much FUN! It really was a great week. (except when Landon got bit by a yellowjacket ... that wasn't fun for him, right under his nose poor kid!)

Then home again to all the stuff I hadn't been getting to this past month, and here we are Sept long weekend already! It's been an incredible summer - so many great memories and visits! But I'm glad to stay home for a couple of weeks as well :-)

Watch for some pics to come...

PS - John took Landon's training wheels off of his bike today, and he zooms along the back path like nobody's business! How did he get so big??

PPS - And Arlan climbs out of his crib like a pro too ... started the week before Toronto. He actually dive-bombs out of it into the lazy-boy recliner sitting beside the crib. This morning I woke up to patting on my head "Mommy, I up now!" at 6:50 am :-/ Big boy bed coming right up ...

final beach pictures

Landon's belly flop that ended the "Landon tossing" fun!


And look at that sandy face ... too funny!

These ducks came by the beach late in the day as the sun bathers packed up. They knew what they were doing! Someone had dumped some cheesies on the beach (and chosen not to clean them up), so we fed them to the ducks (I know - don't feed the wildlife!! They were going to get the cheesies anyway, we just participated in the fun).
Then Arlan would "shoo" the ducks, which we have a video of because it was priceless! I'll see if I can get that loaded up on here as well :-)

More beach

We spent a couple of days on Juniper Beach in Kalamalka Provincial Park. The water was glorious, the beach smaller, and the water got deeper much quicker which meant we could really throw Landon high in the air (like dad's doing here). Landon thought that was fabulous, until he did a belly flop with mom!! lol















At first Landon only wanted to swim with "floaties" or water wings on (like in this pic with dad). But on the second day (which you see here in this smoky picture) he discovered that swimming with his life jacket was even better. He would even lay on his back "floating" ... told me he was sleeping there!
Despite the smoke, this picture is pretty nice and is making me miss the beach :-(

You can sort of see here the beautiful colour of the water through the trees. This was taken on the path walking to the beach and is of Jade Bay (the side of the point where boaters pull up, we didn't swim there due to that, preferring Juniper Bay as it's buoyed off for swimming).

Some beach pictures

Arlan playing in the sand. We were SO happy to have the happy HEALTHY Arlan back!

Two busy boys -- making holes and filling them up. We only had one pail (silly silly parents), but luckily someone left behind their broken sand pail which we scavenged and the boys loved all week!! One person's garbage is another's treasure...


The view on the beach at 7 pm - how lovely! We would head to the beach in the morning, go back for Arlan's afternoon nap, and return to the beach between 5 and 6 for another hour or 2. Gotta love that!

Davison Orchards - Vernon, BC

Hanging out with the trucks in the play area. All the fun stuff to see & this is where he wanted to spend his time (surprise surprise)

heading out on the orchard tour - the tractor pulled about 7 cars behind it ... plenty bumpy and dusty, but a pretty cool tour 9in my opinion, Landon wasn't as impressed)


"driving" the old truck in the play area. It was so hot he didn't last long ... see his red cheeks??
the "market" ... full of yummy things like homemade bread, pies, ice cream, real apple juice, plus the produce of the orchards. Not to mention the toys (yes, Landon and Arlan each got a toy, even though Arlan wasn't with us as he was still sick at home with dad ... I'm so weak).

A cute sign leading in to the petting zoo. I can attest that it was the parents and grandparents that had fun ... the kids were all like 'meh'

misc holiday pics

Reading stories to the boys before bed. Landon slept in the top bunk almost every night (some nights he was so sleepy after stories that he'd stay on the bottom to go to sleep, we'd lift him up top after). Either John or I would sleep in the bottom bunk, then other in the 'master bedroom' with Arlan. Why? The master bed wasn't as comfy as the bunk bed, but the bunk bed was too hot for both of us to sleep. oh yeah, and John was snoring every night!
The boys playing piano together. Arlan loved the "demo" song on here, Landon would cover his ears. But they both enjoyed making noise ...er I mean music on it!
Mom and Arlan - as you can see here, he was fully recovered from his illness and being a stinker again!
Landon had fun spraying dad with the water gun. The weather was so gorgeous, even into the evening, that we didn't mind getting sprayed with water at all!

The view from the balcony of the house we stayed at on Friday July 23 in Fairmont. On the beautiful Fairmont golf course. Saturday morning I was awoken by a golf ball hitting the wall right beside the bedroom window!