Twenty Twelve

Euan's new smile... so cheesy.


Happy girl


Euan helping to feed Olivia..


A rare moment of happiness sitting together.


Ok so thought it was time for another blog post, we have been busy lately and a little bit stressed out trying to tackle all the major life events in one go. We are currently trying to sell our house and its been for sale for 2 weeks, fingers crossed something happens soon. We are going to move an hour east of here to a place called Mission and have been looking at some nice houses out there. The only downfall is the commute..1.5 hrs each way roughly maybe a little more for both of us so its going to be hard. We will see how it goes I guess and review, that's if we sell our place. I have been looking for a new job lately and also looking for some childcare for the kids, its not going that great so if any of you who reads this wants to come over and volunteer yourself as babysitter that would be ace ;)

Posting some videos from Christmas morning as a few of you have been asking to see them so that should be nice to see. We had quite a big snowfall recently so there is a nice video of Euan making a snow angel which he loved. The other videos are of Olivia doing some walking with her walker, and some videos of the 2 kids together. Hope you enjoy them.

Just enjoying the last few weeks with the children before returning to work. Graeme arrives on Sunday for a visit so it will be nice, looking forward to it, he doesn't have a bedroom this time since we are selling so he will have lots of early wake ups with the kids coming downstairs.

Just an update some of the christmas videos that I was trying to post are too long and won't load.



Christmas morning... lots of fun.


Olivia walking


Euan feeding pudding to Olivia


attempting a snow angel


Attempt number 2


Euan feeding Livi..he was very happy but she didn't tolerate it for long before I took over.

Winter and pre Christmas fun 2011

Euan at his dance class. This was most of the class with the teacher. Little Henry is just to his left.


on a tram at Burnaby's Heritage Village


Euan and Olivia seeing Santa at Grouse Mountain. Olivia was very upset as soon as she saw him.


OOps she isn't getting over the snow


Poor Livi, this was after some snow in the face.


Olivia and Euan sitting in the snow.


Daddy, Euan and Olivia on the sleigh at the top of Grouse Mountain. 'The peak of Christmas'


Olivia in her jacket which is more than a little too big!!


Euan seeing Santa at Van Dusen Garden. 'The festival of lights' He was very happy.



Ok Where do I start. I have rather a lot to upload and I had a bit more but have picked the better ones for you to see. We have been trying to take advantage of all the Christmas activities for children here in Vancouver. Its such a nice time of year and its nice when there is so much effort made for children.

First of all we have spent some time at Burnaby's heritage village - Heritage Christmas.. its basically a history lesson and Euan was bored out of his mind obviously, but there was one fun part for him and that is a old fashioned carousel. We were going to put him on one of the normal horses but you were not allowed to sit on the horse with a child so we figured the small horse for now was a bit safer. He was fairly excited at the time although you will be hard pushed to find an excited shot. He has talked of the carousel often since he went on it with Dad. We went on it again today and this time it was with Mum. The village itself is buildings from roughly 1915-1925 but here that is ancient. We got to sit in a old tram car so that was nice.

There is also a garden here called Van Dusen, basically its just a big botanic garden open all year round but in the winter time 1.5 million LED lights are placed all round the gardens. The lights dance to Christmas music. There is also a gingerbread garden, candy cane walks, lots of stalls selling gingerbread men, mulled wine and of course Santa was there. Euan waited for awhile before he could see Santa so by the time he got there onto his lap he was quite excited. Really nice evening. It was very very wet and cold but despite this we had lots of fun.

Another great Christmas activity is heading up Grouse Mountain. All of you who read this have been up there too so you will know what its like. In the summer its a 4 minute cable car ride (or gondola in Canadian) up to the summit. Lots of activities and beautiful views. In the winter time its a big ski resort, where you can ski down miles and miles of track, go on some of the snow shoeing trails, do some tubing. Prior to CHristmas they have activities for children and its called 'The Peak of Christmas'. We had a very busy gondola ride up the mountain which Euan loved and he now thinks cable cars are the most exciting thing ever. I don't like them but I have developed this fear from my Dad (thanks Dad ;). SO I over pretend that its the best thing EVER! At the top we saw some of Santas's reindeer, some snowy owls, we went on a sleigh ride around the mountain and Steven took the 2 kids to see Santa. Euan and I tried to make some snow angels but the snow was a bit too icy, although it was still fun to try. Euan likes the snow and finds it fun and he has done since he was little. Olivia on the other hand isn't so impressed. Whether it was due to the snowball in the face first thing or just getting a fright touching the snow I don't know but she didn't like it at all. She also hated Santa, Steven said as soon as she saw him she burst into tears.

We have been spending a lot of time at the mall due to one thing. A Christmas train. We saw Santa up there he is in the middle and round about him is a small train track with miniature train which Euan adores. We have been on it about 6-7 times so far its lots of fun. Every hour snow comes out up above so it comes down onto the track and its really nice.

I have also included some videos of Olivia standing which is her favourite thing to do. She has been pulling to stand for about 3 weeks and she is getting stronger every day. She turns 10 months in a few days so I think she might be walking soon ish but we will see. I have popped a picture of Euan and his class mates at dance class. He loved it, its finished now and he misses it. Euan has a new little friend called Henry and we have had a few play dates together.. I have popped a few videos on with Euan and Henry feeding the ducks! It was a nice day, we had a walk to Burnaby Lake, had a little picnic which was great then fed the ducks. We will probably do it again soon.

Its Christmas eve tomorrow. We are all looking forward to Christmas day and Euan seems to remember on occasions that Santa is going to put presents under the tree when he is asleep.




Daddy and Euan on the carousel at Burnaby Heritage Village. He has raved about it ever since.


More Carousel. Can you find Euan spinning past?


Euan donating some toys... to the toy Christmas drive.


Mummy and Euan in the snow trying to make snow angels


Euan getting snow in the face... he thought it was funny for awhile ;)


Euan playing Round and Round the garden with Olivia


Euan's favourite thing to do at the mall. Ride the Christmas train


Euan and his little friend Henry chatting and about to feed the ducks.


Little bit of a feeding frenzy. Euan loves feeding the ducks.


Decorating gingerbread men... prior to this we made and painted a snowman


Finished gingerbread men and snowman picture


Olivia standing.. her current favourite thing to do


The dancing lights at Van Dusen Garden.

New developments

We have not been up too much lately, not too much going on. Enjoying some walks outside with Euan at the park. The big thing really is that Olivia is now crawling, its great to see her progressing but its terribly upsetting for her big brother :)

Just uploading a few videos and a picture for you all to see. I will try and take some more soon.





Family out for a walk in the park, with Euan's favourite thing. Throwing stones into the water.


Olivia crawling, after her brother.

Halloween & Pumpkins

Smiling Olivia


Euan in the farmyard train


Euan


Olivia..not quite as good when you can see Mummy behind the post!






The pumpkins


family fun in amongst the pumpkins


Daddy and his pumpkins


Mom and her kidlets at the pumpkin patch


Our scary halloween pumpkins


Our finished pumpkins. Lots of work but lots of fun too!


Olivia as cat baby


with the side kick Batman


So its fall or Autumn. The thing to do here in Canada with children is head to the pumpkin patch for some fun. Not only do you buy your pumpkins to take home, there are lots of wooden vehicles to play on, there are wooden cows and goats to milk, there is a good sized corn maze, there is a petting zoo with lots of animals to see, a little concession stand which Euan was excited about, he got a cookie as a treat. Its a really large farm filled with tonnes of pumpkins, its very muddy so wellington boots are in order and we had to carry Livi. Some parents were there with prams but too messy and hard to push.
Euan had a really good time. He picked his own pumpkin and the carving that he wanted on it. He seemed quite excited to pick his own, although it did take several picks before we got there. He liked playing on the toy train and a tractor. We got to go on a tractor and have a tractor ride which I was quite excited about. We went into the corn maze, he liked leading the way round although it did take quite a bit of time to get out, there were lots of wrong turns. We looked at the animals, lots of cute baby chicks, rabbits, ponies. We came home and we hollowed out all the pumpkins and set about carving them, we were very pleased with how they turned out.

Halloween itself was a bit of a washout. I had planned on taking Euan up to the mall dressed up as Batman while Olivia stayed home and napped, but he was so naughty that we stayed at home instead. There were a million children at the door on Halloween night but I had forgotten to buy sweets, that's all they do here candy, no fruit and definitely no nuts, its a huge no no here. Needless to say I never answered the door, even though the carved pumpkins at the door was an invitation to come. I must get better organized for next year. The traditional things here at Halloween here is fireworks so there was plenty of them until just before midnight.

Nothing much else has happened. We went to the zoo a few weeks back which was lots of fun, but we don't have any good pictures from that, and we will be heading out today for a little while. Its nice and sunny so we should get outside for some exercise.




Olivia has just learned to clap her hands, she likes to do it and look for your reaction.


Euan & his pumpkin


Euan & pumpkin


spooky pumpkins


Olivia playing peekaboo


I think its time to lower the mattress. She spends a lot of time on her knees and is trying to pull herself up to standing in it.

Olivia at breakast time causing a ruccus

Thought I would show you our morning routine with the wee one and how she is quite demanding when it comes to feeding time. Patience is not a strong point with this one :)
Its quite funny though and you can clearly see her personality. (Mum you were so right when you said that she is going to be a little terror from a few hours old!) Here's hoping that she doesn't evolve into a full on mini Joanne!, but I think she will and maybe worse!!



Olivia screaming and generally being very impatient while waiting for her breakfast


A little bit of toast crust in an aim to stop the screaming - it semi worked! ;)


Olivia enjoying and trying to get to get toast into her mouth.. she is settling down a bit now that food is finally getting to that tummy.


Happy baby

October 2011

Euan and Olivia watching a baby Einstein dvd together.



Euan watching some tv first thing in the morning, while I was getting Olivia up.


I don't have much news to report. Weather has been nice and sunny the past week, so we have been out and about lots which is great. Euan and Olivia have both been going to some classes with me, which has been lots of fun! Just uploading a few videos that you might like! Nothing particularly exciting but you can see how Olivia is developing into a cheeky little thing and Euan is as patient as ever with her. They are demanding and quite the handful but lots of fun.



Euan and Oliva watching a Baby Einstein dvd together.. Euan is in a trance watching it and Olivia looks a little bored at times but its nice to seem them sitting together.


Euan and Olivia having a tug of war over a book of transport. Olivia puts up a pretty good fight but Euan wins in the end.


Euan and Olivia being musical together

Summer fun continues

Evil Owl

2 Racoons

Joanne & Graeme @ Prospect Point - Stanely Park

The 3 boys

Olivia having fun

Pool fun

Euan

Olivia

Since the last post the weather has been beautiful and super hot. We have been spending a lot of time at the beach and a lot of time at the pool cooling off and basically enjoying the sunshine. Graeme was over for a week and ended up staying a bit longer but we had lots of fun. Euan loved having his uncle here to visit and we visited lots while he was here. We went to Steveston and flew our butterfly kite, We went to Buntzen Lake and had fun in the water, Euan spent most of his time with his life jacket on at the edge and spent his time throwing all his water toys into the Lake and Mum and Uncle Graeme spent all there time getting them back out again. We had a little swim at the end of the day it was lovely, really refreshing. We went to another Lake called Stave Lake which was very nice too we stayed for awhile with Euan throwing stones into the water. We had a little visit to Deep Cove in North Vancouver and Euan spent alot of time with his feet in the water throwing stones, there were tonnes of baby crabs around so that was really nice to see. We ended Graeme's sightseeing visit going around Stanely Park where we saw some Racoons and a really cheeky Owl just sitting on a tree branch in the day time which was brilliant, my first Owl to see that wasnt in a bird sanctuary. We have had a lovely summer, and I don't think it will be long before its Autumn and raining.




Euan trying to fly his kite!


Euan and the caterpillar


Euan & Uncle Graeme @ Buntzen Lake


Uncle Graeme & Olivia plus Euan jumping into the pool


Graeme & Livi


Pool fun


Euan jumping in the pool