dec 29 08: 3 months old!

she is sitting up really well

getting chubbier all the time

holding her own hands

chews on her hands constantly

i'm so behind in my posts its hard to think back. i guess 3 kids IS busy ha ha
audrey is still a very easy, content, well-fed baby. she is such a joy to have around and her brother and sister are still quite excited by her and she by them!
she still feeds once or more per night and is also teething so its still very random.

another 3 month milestone is jolly jumping!





so jolly

thats who's been making her smile

zeke is just below the max. weight of 28lbs...

Christmas & Boxing Day

Merry Christmas!

audrey looks like she's being tickled by cloudy.

Christmas PJs shot

Christmas Morning Brunch

Pepere & Grandma came over to spend Christmas Day with us and a fabulous turkey dinner. i'm pretty disappointed that there are no pictures because the camera batteries died (i had to use the camera for videotaping since our handycam was out of tape argh and the weather was too bad to go get more, so then i had very few pictures and videotaping with the camera uses more battery power...and i guess i was too busy cooking/napping to recharge them :( . it still makes me feel a little sick to my stomach that i didnt get any christmas pictures of our kids opening gifts before my parents arrived. snif.

Merry Christmas again: aka Boxing Day!

Boxing Day family dinner at my brothers' in White Rock. They had soooo much snow and getting into their neighbourhood was tricky. The family all made it and we celebrated with Mellenger Grandparents, Gagne Grandparents, my brother & family and our family.

poppy & zeke hanging out

baby audrey all bundled to watch the kids sledding/snowboarding.

ezekiel is a real natural shredder (excuse the pink barbie snowboard ha ha)

diedre was good at riding her new board too

diedre, poppy and auntie heather sledding.

see more Christmas pictures here :)

December before Christmas 2008

december has been too busy for me. i've not had time to blog and am really missing it. i'll try to catch up a bit!

West Coast Express Santa Train on Dec 6 more pictures here

diedre was in our churches production and sang:
I saw three ships
Caroling, caroling
Deck the halls

audrey tried the bouncy seat and loved it! that really helped with all the holiday baking i did. which i hope, "NOTE TO SELF" not to do so much of next year because it cost too much and was stressful and took too much time away from holding Audrey!

we took the kids rockclimbing with some friends

audrey wore a super-cute hat and waved at me :)

derek really got into decorating this year

we all went to see the Nutcracker Ballet

December part 1 photo album

December part 2 photo album

December Christmas Parties album

window & door renos

yes, this is ridiculously late. i will blame: a. the Christmas season and b. having 3 kids where at least one is awake between the hours or 7am and 11pm.

before

here is the photo album from facebook for the window and door renos that were completed on dec 5th.

after

ezekiel's actual birthday

ezekiel's birthday began with the early arrival of the window renovation crew.

here is the large suite window before picture

the after picture of the same window

ezekiel loves watching people work so it was a fun birthday event. this man was cutting a square out of cement for a new window installation. we watched for awhile and then went out for breakfast.

some of my gorgeous family

after nap time, ezekiel opened his family gifts.

he was really happy about this dinosaur

he didnt quite know what this was, but once it got all put together he was LOVING it!

at dinner, he got some balloons, which he was obviously excited about! ha ha

then we went bowling

diedre gives it a good toss

very happy to be checking out the scoreboard.

well another year with ezekiel has flown by.

he is such a happy and thoughtful boy. he insists on being called a big boy.

he has become a great host and likes to share his snacks and even toys (impressive for a two-year-old!). he tries to do the same things his sister does (like open the fridge to get a yogurt or an apple, get spoons, cups, bowls for snacks, etc.). he can fully dress himself but i still pick his clothes out because i think he would make a big mess of them if i had them within reach. its very helpful that he can dress himself and get his shoes on the right feet!

he is also a sweet big brother and likes to hug and hold audrey. he's been sick, so i try not to let him kiss her too much, but he does like to do that too. he can be very gentle.

he is very daring and can jump off of things with great style, something i hope he keeps up so he can be a good snowboarder ha ha.

he is still a bit short compared to what diedre was around now, but weighs in at about 27 lbs. i measured his height and he is 2 ft 9 and 3/4 in. when the height of a boy at 2 years old is doubled, it supposedly gives the approximate height he will be when full-grown. so roughy, 5 ft 8 in. ezekiel actually grew 1 inch since November 2nd!

anyway, family life with three is going well especially when each child is so sweet! happy birthday buddy! you're awesome!

more pictures from his birthday

more reno info to come...

ezekiel's birthday party

the spread for our car themed party. we invited our favourite babysitter to come join us and help me get the party prepped and then to help watch the kids. it worked out really well.

the car cake (not a CARS cake, but a car cake. perhaps a 1979 volvo?). i was about to make a red car, like Lightning McQueen from CARS but i read on the internet that the red coloured icing is very hard to achieve without it looking pinky...so i decided to go with blue. later, some friends at the party commented that the red coloured dye is supposedly the worst for kids and if your kids are acting wacky, maybe its from having red dye. disaster averted. :D

about half of our guests :D it was a good turnout. we were definitely filled to the max. we threw the party in our empty suite downstairs. it worked perfectly as there was no clutter or extra items around. just the bare party-throwin' necessities! and there was a full kitchen to use for clean up!

the game: stick the "95" on Lightning McQueen

ezekiel was pointing to all his guests for who should go first. most of the kids went before he took his turn. i thought it was very sweet; both because he was letting other kids go first and also because he was observing how to play the game before taking his turn.

he did pretty well! you can see his "95" sticker that isnt totally stuck down yet, sideways right where it should go!

derek felt like santa ha ha

zeke made sure to say "Thank you!" after each gift and he seemed to try to make sure the person who gave it to him was paying attention. so cute!

blowing out the candles. i think i lit four or 5 of the "H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y" letter candles, but he blew them all out.

see many more birthday party pictures here

new heights, fun times, and baby sleep

yesterday was MOPS. it was ezekiel's first time in the 2-3 year class which is like preschool for 2 hours. it was great! i was so proud of him. the teacher did tell me that diedre was overly mothering him (smothering?) and kept trying to get him to sit on her lap or force him to sit beside her...the teacher told her firmly to leave him alone (which i was totally fine with). i guess my instructions to diedre to "take care of him, and help him feel comfortable in the class" were taken a little too far by our little mother hen.

my big boy learned to climb this yesterday following MOPS

he would slide his body onto the platform, jump up and yell "did it! did it!" Dora-and-Boots-style. it was so cute, but i couldnt get a picture of it. this lady standing there said "oh, you can never get a picture when you want to, isnt that just the way?" and i was thinking "no, i actually have about a gazillion pictures of my kids...probably way more than i need." ha ha but thats just the way when you are documenting their little lives i guess.

today there was another children's event at our local leisure centre. we arrived late and i met alot of people i knew leaving right then who said "oh you're lucky, its just calming down. it was CRAZY." so i guess in a way, God orchestrated the whole thing because my kids were not cooperating in a timely fashion and it took an extra hour to leave the house, but it worked out much better. i probably would have been very overwhelmed to have had this hassle of leaving the house and then to be met with hoards of people there...i knew i was taking a chance. phew.

ezekiel and diedre played really well in the bouncy castle and then we did some parachute games (after i rounded up some more kids and parents) and then managed to even get face/arm painting from the ever so talented SEASTARFACES.

then my friend Cyndi invited us over for lunch which was also lovely. quite a full half of the day :P

tonight we need to shop for a card for ezekiel, the food for the party, and then home in time for the office at 9pm ;D

i'm getting excited for his party and i'm so glad that our favourite babysitter is going to come and help out too! helps keep the kids under control and frees me up to host and get food out and such.

another note: audrey had her best sleep yet! she was very fussy last evening and finally i thought, maybe it was because i was trying to get her to sleep in a sleepsack instead of swaddling her. so finally, by 10.30pm i swaddled and nursed her to sleep. we slept together and she didnt wake up until 5am! woo hoo! but now, she's been sleeping since 11am and its nearly 4pm...this could be interesting...i dont mind if she's awake for all of our shopping, its more the crying carrides that aren't my fave.