Big One Birthday

Well it was my little guy's big day today, (Tim here). He turned the big 01. That's right, it's hard to believe that it has been a year since he was born. Colin has lived in three houses already and attended two churches. That's more places and churches than a lot of people around here. The downer of the day was that poor Nadia has the chicken pox. Colin has a few and they don't really bug him. But Nadia got them full force. So Anna and the kids stayed home from church and tried to relax.Colin thought is was cool that we sang happy birthday to him but for the most part didn't really see anything different. My Mom and Dad came for the day so the kids were excited to see them and had fun playing together. Then our friends Gord and Becky stopped by and we had a good visit. And Colin did what we all want to do on our Birthday's, went for a nap. When he got up Nadia just couldn't take it any more and she wanted him to open presents but he was hungry so we all ate supper together. Then the presents.
Nadia is a wonderful helper and showed Colin how to open his presents. She was so excited for him.
Our one request for his birthday was some boy toys. Mission accomplished. Oma and Opa got him this cool basketball thing that he loves. Grandma and Grandpa got him some books and a fire truck, and we got him a little people construction zone. They all make loud noises and have moving parts or lights. He loves them.
Then it was time for cake, or banana chocolate chip muffins with chocolate icing, as the case may be. He was getting tired at this point and so the thumb was in his mouth and Nadia helped blow out the candle. But once he got a taste of that chocolaty goodness Mommy had to pry it out of his hands. Yes, he likes chocolate.
Overall it was a fun day. And in case Colin gets nostalgic and reads the blogs that we wrote about him when he was a kid, Colin, I love you lots. You are quite the little man and I am very proud of you. Love, your daddy.

What is that?

I'm not entirely sure what kind of emotion Colin is expressing here, but I think it's hilarious. I laugh every time I see this picture. Nadia is so calm and he's.....so....not!

visitors

Last weekend we went to Grandpa & Grandma's house to visit. Great Uncle Lorne and Great Auntie Audrey were there too. At first Nadia wanted nothing to do with them, especially Lorne. Even though he continually offered her money...she wouldn't take it. I think we pay with plastic too much, she hardly knows what coins are for. But after we spent the night she warmed up and played catch. Nadia adores you Uncle Lorne!
And Colin is completely the opposite, he loves everyone. Especially if you pick him up and carry him around. He was even snuggling with Auntie Audrey, the head butt snuggle.
Auntie Lisa was there too, on vacation, and we went to the Martensville parade. Grandma bought Nadia this baby stroller and car seat (and a playpen and highchair too) so Nadia had to take it to the parade. A week later she's still talking about how cool the parade was.
Yesterday, Grandma and Auntie Lisa came for a visit. We made cookies and decorated them. And of course ate them. Here's Nadia pausing to smile. But that cookie is in mid-motion going right back into her mouth.
And finally, about the puffy eye. If you saw our last post you probably thought something tragic happened. But it was just a mosquito bite. I saw the mosquito and everything, but couldn't reach it in time. A few days later she looked herself again. Way to go Danielle and Andrea for guess it!

Now a word from Nadia: o0gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg ggggg7gggggggggggggg mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmnnnnnn yggggggggggggggggggggggggg ggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

What happened?

We actually do know what happened. But we thought it would be fun to ask you to guess. So...what do you think happened?

play time

If you saw the last few posts, you're probably wondering if yard work is all we do. Not so! There's lots of playing that happens in our yard too.

Learning to golf is harder than it looks.
Colin gave it a go too.

Playing around in the sand box. Tim, how come you don't sit in the sand and play? Scared you'll get sand dumped down your pants?

the yard

I don't mean to offend anyone with the gruesome content of these first few photos. But, I was looking at my garden and thinking that I can't even remember what it looked like when I started. So I dug-up some old photos from April when the snow was melting. And yuck! Here are a few before photos.
After much hauling, digging, and moving, our front garden is finally starting to look presentable. The previous people tried to make a rock garden. So we hauled out many loads of rock and then started to re-arrange the boulders. I can't wait to see it in full bloom. This bush, I think a honey suckle, is always buzzing with bees. And the smell is sweet and pure and delicious. I just love this bush.

And what about the back of the yard? We decided to turn the dirt and weeds into grass and vegetable garden, so we started seeding. I was so shocked and amazed when the baby grass started to come up, I just had to take pictures. And here is the first thing to come up in the veggie garden, the radishes. Nadia helped me plant almost all of the garden. It was so fun to hear her talk about all the different shapes of seeds. Did you know that the beans are cow seeds?

day 3, 4 & 5...

Just in case you were keeping up with the progress on our roof. It has been 5 very full days of hard work for the guys, but they are finally finished. Our roof was pretty tricky, but we're glad to say it's done and I think it looks great. Just in case you forgot what the old cedar shakes looked like, here's a before and after. Now we just need to re-paint the trim, to brown, and do the siding. Any takers for helping with that? Don't worry, that's next summers project.