Medicine Hat... AGAIN

I feel like I am always posting pictures or talking about our reoccurring trips to Medicine Hat. But we always seem to have so much fun when we go there. I love the Holiday Inn Express there. And the boys were so good this trip. Plus some of the pictures turned out cute so I thought I would share them.

And yes, Moses is only wearing water wings now! They work pretty good for him. He can swim all over the pool with just those. He's getting to be a pretty good swimmer!

Check out Kael with his GIGANTIC piece of pizza. He wouldn't let me give him a smaller one. He could see how big Moses' was and he wouldn't take anything smaller!

Brooks

Well, as some of you may know we have been hanging out in a little town called Brooks for the past 8 weeks. Scott had to work in a rural site for a couple months and they had Brooks lined up for us since last July. It was actually an OK trip. The Condo they provided for us was a little small, and by the end both Scott and I were feeling the need for space. The ward there was very nice and welcoming. Even though we were only there for a few weeks we were invited over for supper, included in all kinds of activities, and even invited on a boat ride! The people we met made our time there so much more enjoyable than it would have otherwise been.

To give us something to do, I put Moses in a 6 week gymnastics course. Moses isn't the most coordinated child, so some things were obviously harder for him. But he improved so quickly! He went from crying on the trampoline the first day, to doing tricks on the last. And at first he wouldn't even touch the rings or the bars, even with teacher help. It gave him a lot more confidence at the park as well. He'll climb all kinds of ladders now (well, most kinds). BTW - I bet you are totally laughing at my son right now, Emily L. Don't pee your pants!!!!!

We spent a lot of time at parks, with or without other children. The condo didn't include a yard, or anywhere the kids could play. So we went out a lot.

Brooks had the best swimming pool. With a water slide, and wading pool, lazy river and lots of fun floating things. We went there a couple times and the boys both loved it. Scott would get some mornings off if he was working late in the walk in clinic, and we would go then. There weren't a lot of people around in the mornings. We really enjoyed ourselves there.

There was a lake just outside of Brooks with a nice sandy beach. When it was nice we would go there and play in the sand and wade in the water. At first the boys didn't seem as excited about it as I thought they would be. But they got into it after awhile. I still wouldn't say they loved it, but they will get lots of beach practice this summer!

While we were there we were lucky enough to meet up with some friends from Edmonton. The Hatch's were in our ward in Edmonton when Moses was born. Their daughter Addison is only a couple months younger than Moses. And now they have a son that is only a month older than Kael. Anyway, Roxanne grew up in Brooks and came down to be with family while we were there. So of course we got together and hung out a couple times. Moses and Addi were inseperable as little babies and 1 year olds. Now they barely know eachother. In fact, Moses was feeling very nervous when we first arrived. We were just serving lunch when I had the following converstaion with Moses:

Moses: Mom, I'm feeling kinda nervous.
Me: Really?! (somewhat surprised at his
vocabulary choice) Why are you nervous?
Moses: Well, I don't like these people. I don't
know them. And they make me feel shy.
I don't like to feel shy.

Keep in mind that the entire time he is talking all "these people" are sitting right there around the table, ready for lunch.

It didn't take to long for him to warm up to Addison and when it was time to go he was crying because he wanted to stay and play longer. It was really good to catch up and I am glad we were able to get together.

Moses and Addi hiding under the slide.

All in all, Brooks was a good experience. I'm really happy to be home and unpacked. And to have a backyard again.

All by myself...

After Moses got dressed the other day he told me, "Mom, I can make my bed ALL BY MYSELf - watch!" If you know Moses at all you know that he NEVER says the words, "All by myself." He is the least independent toddler I have ever met. He hates doing anything by himself. Needless to say I was so proud and happy when he said this and proceeded to show me his sweet, sweet bed making skills that I simply had to document the moment with a picture and it's very own post!

Happy 1st Birthday, Kael!

Kael is one! As I tell Moses he is officially not a baby anymore. (although he still feels like a baby to me) He had a great birthday. Scott was out of town on Saturday, the 9th, his official birthday. So we celebrated on the 10th. We didn't do anything big, just had his grandparents over for his favorite dinner, spaghetti and meatballs, and a cupcake cake (like how I arranged these pictures to make it look like I made the cake myself!!!!).

He is such a sweet little boy. Full of cuddles and kisses. He has blessed our lives in so many ways. I can't believe it has already been a year since he joined our family and at the same time I can't believe he hasn't always been here as a part of our family.

First steps

Kael is no longer a crawler...so sad. :( But his little steps are so adorable that it makes up for the fact that he is less like a baby everyday. He has gotten much better since this video was taken and has almost entirely given up crawling. He just uses little wobbly baby steps everywhere.

Getting caught up

Well, our computer was hit with a nasty virus after my last post. Luckily I'm married to a nerdy, but still sexy, computer genius. He wiped our hard drive and reinstalled everything. I just got photoshop back last weekend. I decided there were too many good pictures and stories not to post everything that happened last month, so I have been trying to get caught back up. I changed the dates so that everything would be in order, so be sure to scroll down and see what we have been up to lately. I still don't have my video editing software, but I have some really cute Easter videos I want to post. You will probably see those much later - but for sure before Christmas!

Ain't no sunshine anymore....

The sun went away and we've been hit with two HUGE snow storms. :( We had a foot of snow outside last weekend. As soon as it went away we got another foot. We still can't see our entire lawn. I keep having to look at the calender to make sure that it is really April 29th! I hear it is good for our grass seed, so I guess I can't complain too much. Still, I was really enjoying that brief stint in shorts and capris. We made the best of it and decided to do some late spring sledding. It was actually a lot of fun. Making family memories - although really they are just memories for Scott and I since neither of our boys will likely remember this.

Girl's Trip!

As Scott said us ladies got away for a day. We had so much fun - it was like a slumber party in a hotel room. At first we all felt like we forgot something, but then we realized it was our children that are usually so attached to us! We stayed in a hotel, ate at nice restaurants, and did a lot of shopping. We took this picture - holding the camera out - on a bench in the mall. It took us about 6 tries to get us all in the same shot without anyone blinking! People were looking at us like we were crazy tourists (or maybe just too old to be acting that silly). The best part of it all was coming home and seeing my boys (this includes Scott) again. Absence makes the heart grow fonder!

DAD

So, LaShauna abandoned myself and the boys for the weekend to go on a quarter life crisis with some friends in Calgary. So yes, Dad is taking care of the boys....and I realized something! Yes I do respect the work and great job that my wife is doing raising our boys day in and day out....but I already appreciated that (maybe not as much as now). But actually what I realized is that.....I REALLY LIKE BEING A DAD!


This realization came in the mini van, after I loaded the kids into their car seats from the park, the windows were all down, I was wearing LaShauna's girly sunglasses, and Fred Penner's version of "The Cat Came Back" was BLAREING on the stereo. We passed three teenage boys with weird looks as Moses and I screamed the "Meow" in the chorus and Kael was laughing histerically. I have never been so NOT emberassed in my life. I REALLY DO LOVE BEING A DAD!

Outside!!!!

Yeah - We can finally be outside. The weather has been beautiful here; we've even broken out the shorts. We have a lot of work to do on our backyard. We rearranged our yard a little and have planted grass. Scott enjoyed the rototiller best. He said it made him feel like a manly man! We are leaving for a couple months for Scott to do a rural rotation the beginning of May, and we wanted to get the grass in first. There was a lot of raking, and tilling, and watering, but hopefully it will all be worth it and we will have the greenest, thickest, grassiest lawn ever!

The boys have been playing together more and more lately. They fight a lot, but in between there are the sweetest moments of happiness. The sandbox is a good place for them to play. There is always enough sand for everyone! Until they start throwing it...

I'm proud to say that Kael did not eat that dirt in his hand. Not that he hasn't tried that before, but this time he was above such things.