A belated Birthday

On the weekend our sweet little Nyla turned 11! Happy Birthday Sweetie!

A Visit to Vancouver

Yesterday was my birthday and I turned 32! Ack! It's crazy how fast time flies by isn't it? I had a lovely day spent relaxing with my family as the previous few days were busy busy. My sister, my mom and I went to Vancouver (B.C.) for a couple of days as my sister had to have a surgery done there (she's doing great!). And though the reason we were there wasn't so great, we had a great time doing some touristy stuff despite that reason. We had to stay right downtown Vancouver for a night and two days and the first day we were there it was gorgeous! We decided to go down to Granville Island to see the sights (and get some dinner!) Here's my sister Kim at the market enjoying her gelato :) We had dinner in the Public Market and I can't even describe how amazing the food is, in fact just click on the link above and it'll take you to their website which explains it all way better than I ever could.

:)

Happy 8th Birthday Cadence!

Although I said in my last post that I wouldn't post anymore this week, I felt that my grandma and Pat's aunt wouldn't want our sadness to overshadow the happiness of a certain sweet girls' birthday :)

And it certainly is a happy day as our sweet Cady-boo is turning 8 today!  I know I say this for every birthday and every year but I can't believe how fast time has gone! It still feels like not long ago our little girl was this adorable baby....

Happy 5th Birthday Gabe!

I can't believe our "baby" is 5! Time has flown by so fast and every year it seems to go faster and faster doesn't it? I had such a great time this morning going through a bunch of old photos for this post. I think that is my favorite part of doing birthday posts because it forces me to go back to older pictures and enjoy and remember. 

Dear Gabe,

 You are such a sweet little boy and always have been. We knew we were lucky to have such an easy baby for our third, especially with all the craziness that went on in your first year. You were born  less than one week after we moved to our new place (the old Kozy Kabin) on thanksgiving weekend. Then when you were about 6 months old, mommy decided to open an at-home daycare and you were so good with having new kids around all the time. 

Happy Birthday to me!

On Saturday it was my birthday and I had a lovely day, but what I was most thrilled about was learning I was an auntie again to this sweet girl :) Isn't she sweet? I've never met anyone with the same birthday as me (there are a few pretty close though, right Sarah? Auntie Steph?)



Like I said, I had a lovely day. It was pretty relaxing, my dear hubby made me breakfast, my kids were sweet and helpful and then they went to grandmas house while hubby and I went to a dinner and dance. The dinner was fantastic and I got cheesecake for dessert (my favorite!) and then we visited with friends and danced our socks off !

I felt so loved by all the phone calls and facebook birthday wishes I received! Thank you to everyone who called and wrote!
Have a great Monday!

Rainbow Cake

Remember this baby from this post  a couple of weeks ago? Well, today I am going to share with you how I made it :)

A Bright and Colourful Birthday Party

Just to warn you, this post has a ton of pictures!

Yesterday was my Cadence's 7th birthday. First of all I can't believe she is seven already! Seems like just yesterday she was this pudgy cheeked little baby...




Cady at about 4 months



I remember when I was pregnant with her that I was hoping and hoping for a little girl because I wanted Nyla to have a little sister that was close to her age (they're 2 1/2 yrs apart) and for both of them to have the closeness and friendship of sisterhood. Well I got my wish and Pat and I were both ecstatic when our little baby Cady arrived!




Cadence is such a bundle of energy always moving in some way or another, though when she does slow down, she enjoys doing puzzles as well as playing barbies, playmobil and littlest petshops.



Cadence has a great love of animals and creatures of all kinds especially chickens!

Cadence, you are such a sweet girly girl. You have a great love for your family and animals, and a never ending abundance of enthusiasm for trying and learning new things. You have an innate natural ability with sports and anything physical and a sweet cuddly side to those you truly care about.

I love you very much and look forward to watching you grow and learn and be you!


Hope you all have a great week!

P.S We would have been just as ecstatic to have a boy on that day 7 years ago, but we were doubly lucky to have one 2 1/2 years later when we had Gabe :)

My Man's Birthday

Well it was yesterday actually :) My hubby, Pat, turned 31 yesterday. We had a pretty quiet, normal,Thursday. Work, school, gymnastics, etc. the only difference was I took last night off work (I usually work Tuesday and Thursday nights) and made one of his favorite meals (tortellini with alfredo sauce and salad). Gabe and I made a cake yesterday, banana split cake with strawberry sauce and whipped cream. Yum!

And here's the birthday boy,

He is such a great dad :)

And a lovely husband :)

He is a great friend and loves to do so many different things.

He is wonderful with puzzles (both physical and mental) and he is a fountain of useless information (right Sherry?!) which makes him deadly in a game of Trivial Pursuit! He is goofy, friendly, funny, sincere, honest and the love of my life :)

Happy Birthday hon, and just remember....................... you are only half way to 62 !

Happy Birthday Gabriel!

I can't believe my "baby" is four today!

Gabe you are such a sweet little boy and we are so lucky to have you in our family. You are silly and goofy and so loving to all of us with your willingness to give us all kisses and big bear hugs. You love playing with your sisters and you love to help out around the house, especially when it comes to "boy" things like getting firewood and filling the wood trolley and building and fixing things. 

Me and my little buddy :)

Such a good helper getting firewood!

And such a goofball, you always make us laugh!

You have your serious moments,

but mostly you are a goofball :)

 

I am so proud of the little boy you are now and I am so looking forward to watching you grow and come into your own as a person. We love you buddy and we wish you the happiest of birthdays!

Happy Birthday Nyla!

We interrupt this originally scheduled house tour because today is Nyla's birthday! I can't believe she is 9!

Nine years ago today she changed our lives forever (for the good). Nyla, you have always been my snuggly girl and you are so sweet and loving with all your family. I am so proud of the girl you have become and I look forward to watching you grow and evolve into a young woman over the next nine years :)

I love you sweetie and I hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Nyla at nine months :)

and almost nine years :)

A Birthday Bash

Since it is this little girls first birthday tomorrow and her sisters yesterday, I decided to share some pics from the joint birthday party we had for them during their visit a couple weekends ago. Both girls are my nieces and they are two of the sweetest girls in the world ( as well as my own two of course :)

Soooooooooooo Cuuuuuuttttteeeee!!!!!!!!!

Her first taste of cupcake :)

And the big birthday girl who's 12 now :)

The yummalicious cupcakes that the cupcake queen, Auntie Cookie made for all of us

Gabe loved the cupcakes!

The bbq masters :)

Baby A and her mom

Baby A and her dad, who she kind of looks like :)

                                             Birthday girl and her great auntie :)

And with the cupcake queen herself :)

Some of the party animals!

We all had a lovely day and a  wonderful visit. How about you? Are you having company over lots this summer? Or are you the company that's visiting others?

Weekend Fun

      Did you have a good weekend?  We did! On Saturday we had Cady's birthday party here at home. She invited six of her little kindergarten friends and of course there was cake and ice cream and presents. She had a good time but was a little overwhelmed ( it was her first party with friends, we usually have a party with all our family and relatives before they are in school.) so thankfully I had planned on it only being two hours long. They had a great time, Nyla helped out a lot and Gabe, well Gabe didn't quite understand the concept that all the presents were Cady's and he wanted to open them all! He was quite upset and would go into a corner and cry pitifully, it broke my heart! We had a nice long snuggle after the party, he and I, while the girls played littlest pet shops for a bit.









     Then daddy had the idea to go down to the park close to our house and check out if the lake was frozen. So, we bundled up, hopped in the truck and went down there to check it out, little realizing how freaking cold it was out! It wasn't so bad on most of the trail that was in the trees and bushes, but as soon as we were in the open and especially down by the water, it was super windy and FREEZING! Seriously, I think it was about -26 out. It was pretty neat seeing how much everything was frozen (our lake doesn't actually freeze over, as there are a few dams further down.) there was a good portion that was frozen solid close to the shore as you can see in the right side of the picture below.








    On Sunday, Pat took the girls up skiing while Gabe and I had a quiet day at home, which was really nice. I had one of those days where I could think of a million things I COULD do, but alas got nothing done. Well, not really nothing, I did a few loads of laundry and read a few chapters of my current book ( I'm reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon) That is definitely my favorite part about winter, snowflakes falling outside, nice warm fire inside, curled up in a cozy blanket, drinking a cup of tea (or hot chocolate if you prefer) and reading a good book. What's your favorite part of winter? Do you have fresh snow too?

Happy Birthday Pat!

Last week we celebrated Pats 30th birthday. Happy Birthday honey!  I keep teasing him that he's my old man but I'll catch up in a couple months :) That cake looks pretty pathetic but rest assured we loaded it up with whipped cream on top. It was a chocolate oatmeal cake and it was yummy!

Here's our sick Nyla, she was sick all last week and now Gabe and Cady are feeling it too.

Last week the younger two were feeling fine and they enjoyed all the fresh new snow we got :)

And they were so cute snuggled up reading "Brown Bear" together.

While I got some more organizing and scrapbooking done. Here is one of the four pages I did, it's about making cookies with Nyla in 2005!! Now, some might say that is pretty far behind, but last year I took an online course called Library of Memories with Stacy Julian and it was fantastic! I will have to do a post about that soon, but the basic idea is, you are not behind and you don't have to "catch up" with scrapbooking if you are organized properly.

How is your winter going? Are you enjoying some new snow? Or are you (like me) enjoying the excuse to be indoors and get some crafty things done? Do tell!