The Gilbert Family

Seasons Greetings!!!!

2011-12-25T22:12:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas!!!!
Love the Gilberts :)

Joshua (7), Claire (4), Wyatt (2), and baby girl - due April 5th, 2012!

Halloween Family Fun Day 2011!

2011-11-15T00:36:00.000-05:00

Our yearly tradition continues...

Fun and ice cream in hell, michigan.

And then ON TO THE PUMPKIN PATCH.

The pumpkin patch we go to is a small family farm, not very well known.
We are usually the only ones there.

You just grab a wagon and hike out to their garden pumpkin patch back behind the house.
They decorate the path to the pumpkin patch really cute with lots of fun Halloween decorations for the kids.
Wyatt especially loved this Winnie The Pooh tea party.

All that's left to do is pick your pumpkins

In our search for that perfect pumpkin, we found a little something we didn't expect....

Meet "Pumpkin Seed", the mouse.
(seemed an appropriate name)

She was just a baby mouse, and barely alive. The kids fell in love, and to tell you the truth I really didn't expect her to live the trip home, but we took her home to see if she would get better.

The kids were so happy.
We had found pumpkins, and a new "pet". Haha.

Pumpkin Seed actually perked up quite a bit on the way home, and lived for 2 days with us.
She seemed to make a quick recovery and was doing really well. She ran around and jumped all over the place. I began to think she really would make a full recovery.
We made her a little home in the old aquarium tank from Jason's college pet gecko, Draco.
Josh even made some lego obstacles for her to climb, and this sweet lego car.
We fed her with an eye dropper, she was too young to eat on her own.

The poor little thing only lived for 2 days, then passed away. We think she was just too young to be on her own, and she really was not well when we found her.
The kids were sad, but they felt good about giving her 2 more days of a warm and happy place to live, and they had a lot of fun playing with her.

Nature Walk

2011-11-13T23:29:00.000-05:00

Josh had a nature walk at school back in october,

and Claire and Wyatt wanted to go on one too,

so we had a little outing of our own!

Claire learned a lot about the seasons changing and why trees drop their leaves for the winter.

She still brings it up all the time on her own! :)

Wyatt at least understood that the trees are getting ready to go to sleep for the winter!

I caught this picture right as she was about to blow a wish fluff!

"Expelliarmus!"

Here is our day's collection!!

And a super creepy tree!!!

Can you see the face?

When we got home we created some fun fall artwork!

The kids have a cool book that shows how to make people and animals from collected leaves.

We made a few of our own!

I just love fall days like this!

Wyatt the Riot turns 2!

2011-10-18T22:36:00.009-04:00

I love Wyatt the Riot!

Wyatt turned 2 a couple of weeks ago, and it has been a tradition with our kids that on their 2nd birthday we take them to Domino's Farms to see the animals.

Yup, Domino's Pizza owns it.

The headquarters are in Ann Arbor, and the farm has a collection of regular petting farm animals as well as several species from all around the world that are too strange to pet.

When we took Claire and Josh there for their 2nd birthdays it was exciting and fun,

but Wyatt surprised us...he was afraid of the animals!

Everything was cool until the donkey started heehawing in the barn, which got all the other animals riled up, and they all started singing their appropriate animals sounds.

All of a sudden Old MacDonald's farm was too loud and overwhelming for Wyatt, and he cried and cried and wouldn't let me put him down.

He would say "I scared!" Sad!!

He was ok a little later when we saw the animals outside, but was still weary of the animals inside the barn.

Claire loved the goats, and the feeling was mutual I think!

And Josh really loved the bunnies and guinea pigs - very cute!

Although I am forever reminded of a certain brother of Jason's who lost the tip of his finger to a vicious bunny!

("Where? Behind the rabbit?" "It IS the rabbit!")

Ya. So it was kinda a muddy day.

My kids are no strangers to mud.

I can only imagine that Josh was probably thinking of swan diving into the mud at this precise moment!

We waited a really really long time for the hayride to begin because the farm had a surprise farm inspection to attend to, so we had lots of time to see every single animal!

Since Jason was in Switzerland during Wyatt's bday, my mom came to help me out. She was heaven sent!

We made sure to skype with Jason as Wyatt opened his presents.

Josh drew Wyatt this awesome Thomas picture for a gift!

That night Wyatt wanted to sleep with his "birthday ball".

He even said "Move over kitty!" to the stuffed cats he sleeps with every night!

We held a tiny party for Wyatt the day after his birthday.

This was really his first birthday party ever because he was in the hospital last year at this time and we missed out on giving him a party.

It was pretty little. Just my 3, and 3 other kiddos.

The only kid missing in this picture is his little friend Isabelle, his betrothed.

She's cute, and her mom is Canadian too, so it would make immigration papers a cinch!

I made orange julius for the party, and it was delicious!

Here are Wyatt's cute ice cream cone cupcakes .... right before I dropped half of them on the floor! Ha.

Wyatt loves to sing the happy birthday song to himself!

He was quite delighted that everyone was singing it to him.

When you ask him "How old are you?" He will always answer "Good."

Then, if you ask him again he will reply "6", because that's how old Josh is.

He's in denial over the whole terrible 2's.

Wyatt James is not terrible at all.

He is such a sweet boy, and he loved the cupcakes....

Even if they did fall on the floor! :)

Claire bear turns 4!

2011-10-13T16:42:00.033-04:00

Claire turned 4 in september, and we had a fun fairy party!

We were hoping and praying for an outdoor party and it had been raining for days!

I actually ended up setting up inside the morning of the party because it was pouring rain.

But about an hour before party time our prayers were answered!

The sky cleared up and we had beautiful weather!

We quickly put up a canopy and re-set the party outside.

Claire's friends came dressed in their best fairy gowns and wings, and we had a grand time!

I made these little fairies for each of the girls to take home.

The toadstool cake was supposed to be simple, just regular icing on top of a bundt cake,

but when I took it out of the pan the top fell apart!!

So.... I covered it in some fondant I had left over from the only other fancy cake I've made!

It was kind of serendipitous the way it turned out.

We set up the canopy just in case it should start to rain again, but we were lucky!

Josh was especially excited about the chocolate rocks we found.

We put them in these tiny nests on the table.

I also made fairy wands, which were pretzel rods dipped in pink chocolate and covered in sprinkles. I didn't really take a picture of those though.

One of our first games was to protect the floating wuzzles....

don't let them touch the ground!

After, the kids searched for fairy homes and collected "silver dewdrops" (hershey kisses).

We played lots of circle games.

I made felt toadstools for the kids to sit on, which helped to keep a little order among the chaos!

We played "fairy, fairy, troll" (duck, duck, goose) among other games.

The birthday fairy sat on a special toadstool!

She was the fairy queen for the day!

And here are all the fairies, and a couple of elves!

It's nice having a kid who can read all the birthday cards, while I take pictures!

Thanks Josh!

And of course, the fairies needed houses!!!

Josh, Claire and Wyatt had lots of fun helping to pick out jewels, little ladybugs, butterflies and birds, and other fun decorations to attach to the fairy houses.

And the cake.... pink, naturally!!!

Claire had a really nice birthday.

We went to Red Robin for dinner and they sang to her and brought her ice cream,

so she felt pretty special!

Claire was especially excited to get her own packages of gum, and to chew gum for the first time!

Happy birthday sweet Claire bear.... our big 4 year old girl!

Back to Schooooooool!

2011-10-12T23:34:00.004-04:00

The first day of school was a few weeks ago, but here are the pictures anyways!

The kids were pretty excited, and it wasn't even raining!

(Wyatt wears his rainboots every day!)

Josh started first grade this year!

In Canada we would say "grade 1", and I don't know if I will ever get used to saying "first grade/second grade", etc!

Claire started her 2nd year of preschool, and she was super excited

and ready to make some new friends since her closest friends graduated preschool last year.

and Wyatt...

well, Wyatt just wanted to hold up a sign!

Josh did half-day kindergarten last year,

and so he was a little nervous about going to school for a full day.

He has a few kindergarten friends in his class and a really sweet teacher,

and quickly caught on that full day school is pretty awesome!

How do these kids keep growing up so fast??

It's just Wyatt and me at home in the mornings now!
He's pretty excited to start preschool, but I just want him to stay little.

Just for awhile.

A Day Out With Thomas

2011-05-26T16:20:00.012-04:00

Joshua has always had a super crazy obsession with Thomas the Tank Engine.

Exhibit A:

Every year we have wanted to take him to see the REAL Thomas, who comes to our area every year, but it is very expensive, so we never have been able to go.

This year Jason actually has a real job, and so we got tickets to ride Thomas.

It was just this year that Josh started getting out of trains, and into other things, so we thought we may have missed that small amount of time when it would be truly magical for him.

The cool thing was, it all came back. :)

We had so much fun!

Greenfield Village is a really cool place that we've never been to, and now we have a year membership, so we will go a lot this summer!

Josh is passing on his love of trains to Wyatt and Claire.

Wyatt plays with them all day long now, just like his big brother did at his age.

We were really surprised to see that Greenfield Village actually has a real roundhouse!

... complete with a turntable that they were turning by hand!

Look how beautiful that building is!

I just want to turn it into a house. haha :)

The kids met Sir Topham Hatt

Then they got to do a bunch of Thomas activities while we waited for our time to board.

We admired the $10.00 Thomas balloon, but did NOT buy it!!!

Wyatt loved huge lego Thomas!

And the kids got tattoos...

Claire and Wyatt rocked out in this cool train...

While Josh caught up on his Thomas episodes.

I love how their faces look exactly the same in this picture.

"Horray! The REAL Thomas!!!"

The kids blew their train whistles as Thomas approached....

"All aboard"

This was Josh's face every time Thomas' whistle blew.... it was pure bliss.

All in all, I think it was a pretty awesome day for everyone!!!

Easter eggs and stitches.... April fun!

2011-04-29T23:57:00.012-04:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!!!

Here are a few pictures from the month of April.

Claire likes to dance!

Her first recital is coming up in May, and she is a pink butterfly!

She has a video she watches and copies, and I know she's only 3, but she is pretty good.

It's fun to watch her.

A few eventful things happened this month. Wyatt had his first haircut (hard for mom!), our family attended a Passover Seder with our good friends,

and Claire had to get 4 stitches when she split her chin open falling off of her bed - A full-speed lunge while attempting to hug Wyatt, who was a moving target.

It was a late bedtime after the Seder earlier that evening, and we headed to the ER around midnight. It was sad! But Claire was so brave.... I couldn't believe how well she did during the stitches, especially since she could feel everything. She was in a lot of pain, but she held very still for the doctors and was completely drenched in sweat by the end of the procedure, but she didn't move, and barely whimpered. I was very proud of her.

And afterwards she got a pink and red band-aid, and a Popsicle, so she was happy!

And she will have a scar on her chin to match her Daddy's from when he was a little boy.

She thought that was pretty cool.

Josh started up soccer again.

This is his 2nd season playing soccer, since he started in the fall.

He is on a team with some kids from his kindergarten class, with one of his friends' dad as the coach. He is having fun playing games 1 day a week, and practicing 2 other days a week!

It is busy, but he likes it!

April started out pretty nice, and then we got snow again... a few inches!!

By mid-day this is all that was left, but the kids still managed to make this huge snowball

(the beginnings of a snowman).

I've had requests for Easter pictures, so I will show our Easter Sunday morning pictures now!

These were taken after church at my parents' house in Canada.

It rained earlier that morning, but turned out to be a beautiful day!

Claire's curtsy :)

This is the best family picture we were able to get...

The rest of these pictures were taken earlier in the week....

These pictures are from the Easter egg hunt the week before Easter.

Every year our good friends host this lil' shindig!!!

They have 3 acres and hundreds of eggs are hidden by all the parents!

This was Wyatt's first egg hunt.

He wasn't sure what to do with the eggs once he found them!!

Some of the parents got creative when it came to hiding the eggs.

But that didn't stop Claire!

Don't you hate it when there are no more eggs to be found?

And here are their spoils!

(I think the girls found more than the boys did!

Shhhh!!)

Easter weekend in Canada.

Lots of fun stuff!!!

We went to Springridge farm for lunch with Granny, and Wyatt got acquainted with a chicken!

He was pretty stoked.

My Dad made the kids shields so they could have knight battles in the driveway.

Later, the kids dyed Easter eggs.

To save their clothes, Grandad outfitted them with this new garb.

The bead socks are a nice touch, Claire! As were the ears.

Wyatt did NOT participate!!!!

We took the kids to see the movie "Hop" on Saturday as well.

The kids were kind enough to leave a "drum set" out for the Easter bunny, in addition to the usual carrots and water :)

We also learned from the movie that the Easter bunny poops jelly beans!

He left a token on the chair.

he he he

And one more easter egg hunt!!!!

It was a really nice weekend with my family, and we are so happy that spring is here!

Birthday catch-up.... Wyatt!!!

2011-02-22T22:24:00.007-05:00

I feel bad that Wyatt didn't get to have a birthday party in September,

but he was too sick and was actually in the hospital on the day his party was supposed to be,

and the week after, and he spent the month recovering.

So we just never ended up doing a party for him.

But we did a few family things on the actual day of his first birthday,

so I thought I would post a couple of those pictures.

Yes, it was awhile ago (our grass is now covered with a foot and a half of snow).

Wyatt is such a sweet little boy. Here is his update for the baby book:

At 16 months....

He is very verbal. A couple of weeks ago I followed him around and wrote down 146 words!

He tells us "I love you" at least once an hour, and loves to give kisses and hugs.

He even tries to sign "I love you", which is basically him showing us the palm of his hand :)

He also says "All done. I stuck." when he wants out of his highchair.

He signs about 12-15 words.

He curls up on my shoulder in the sweetest way when he's cuddling.

He loves to sing songs, especially happy birthday!

He is a pretty musical kid, and loves to play instruments.

He sleeps with several stuffed animals, his favorites are: a "kitty cat", a "Tucker" cat, a toy baby named "baby", and lots of books.

His favorite book is a book called "babies", which he insists on sleeping with every night!

Wyatt mostly follows Josh and Claire around all day and plays with whatever they are playing with (much to their dismay). Actually, they are very sweet to him.

He has gotten much pickier with his eating, ever since he first tasted his birthday cake! Coincidence?? :)

But he still LOVES bananas, and m&m's... if he hears any wrapper crinkling he gets very excited and will say "M'n M'n M'n M'n M'n....!!" until you give him one.

He also does this with "Scooby Doobie Doobie Doobie Doobie..." (scooby doo).

He goes up and down stairs by himself pretty well.

My heart stops every time he goes down.

He is very patient, and will sit in his stroller or highchair without complaint for quite a long time when we are out. You can tell he's a 3rd child and is used to waiting his turn!

He is still the biggest of all of our kids, and actually weighed exactly 20 pounds on his first birthday. Josh weighed 17 pounds and Claire 15 pounds respectively :)

His growing curve has changed though, and is closer to how Josh was at his age

... maybe slightly bigger.

His eyes are still bright blue, and his hair is reddish/strawberry!

So we have 3 different combos with our kids:

Josh = brown hair, green eyes

Claire = blond hair, brown eyes

Wyatt = strawberry blond hair, blue eyes

I usually make a cake for our kids, but on their actual birthday we usually

just buy cupcakes at the grocery store and then save the cool cake for the party.

Wyatt didn't know the difference though, and loved his cupcake!

It was a really nice day, so we spent most of the time playing outside.

Wyatt was pretty happy about all the walnuts on the ground at Claire's preschool,

thinking they were apples!

Lots of love from Josh and Claire :)

We love you Wyatt!!!

Happy birthday baby.

Halloween Happenings - January recap!

2011-01-10T19:00:00.005-05:00

Happy Halloween, in January!!!

Yes, I've been busy. Sorry, but better late than never, right??

I have a LOT of pictures here.... halloween is my favorite, so I take a lot of pictures, and want to share them all!! So get comfortable...

Starting out in October, the kids helped decorate for halloween... they were really into it this year, but maybe got just a little side tracked at times :)

Here is proof that even though Claire is a girly girl, she has a tomboy streak :)

She thinks worms are really cute.

We read a lot of books and watched a movie this summer on making faerie houses in nature, and the kids were pretty proud of this one.

Claire said the worm could live there too. :)

Here is a picture of my front garden, .... some of it was dying since this was October,

but you get the gist.

I also included some pictures of the porch and some of the pots.

Claire went to the pumpkin patch with her preschool class to pick out pumpkins.

Our Halloween Family fun day in pictures:

We ate lunch in "Hell, Michigan" at the only restaurant in town, which happens to be really good!

Then went to Hell's little halloween gift shop for some of Hell's famous "Screams Ice Cream".

The kids each made this little walking spider craft.

Next we went pumpkin picking

Afterwards, we had doughnuts and the kids played in a hay maze!

I have a couple of pictures from another day, same place :)

Grandma Grimmett came to play with us for a week!

She helped the kids carve pumpkins :)

Claire insisted we carve her tiny pumpkin "Bingo".

Bingo is a gourd, so you can imagine it wasn't easy to light, let alone carve.

But somehow Jason managed... Go Daddy!

COSTUMES!

Our family theme this year was "toy story".

I don't know how much longer we can swing a theme, so we may as well live it up!

Jason and I were Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head.

You can see the resemblance, I'm sure!

Everything was attached with velcro, so we could switch the pieces around, putting the eyes where the mouth goes, and replacing an eye with an ear... etc.

Josh wanted to be a cowboy, so I dressed him as Woody.

This actually started our theme.

But if you ask him, he is NOT Woody... he is just a regular cowboy ;p

Claire was "Princess" Little Bo Peep.

I have a few pictures because I'm pretty proud of how this actually turned out. It was a compilation of old dresses with a new overskirt and some new accessories to jazz it up.

(ruffly blue bloomers!)

She has a cane, but it's not in these pictures.

And Wyatt was Bo Peep's sheep.

We had a trunk-or-treat at the church, so the kids got a TON of candy!

My friend Abrea and I threw a little Halloween party at her house.

I decorated the walkway with ghost lights made from milk jugs:

And I dressed up as the tooth fairy for this party.

(my Mrs. Potato Head costume wasn't ready yet!)

I had a dental floss necklace, and toothpaste cap earrings, plus a little bag full of money, and a toothbrush magic wand, of course.

And just for fun I put Wyatt in Josh's halloween costume from when he was a year old.

(I was a beehive that year)

Here is Wyatt... having a pumpkin party on the porch!

Look how strong our kid is!

Ok, it's plastic.

A pumpkin that size would weigh more than Wyatt does!

Did he fool anyone?

Wyatt's Hospital Stay

2010-11-04T23:19:00.012-04:00

Riddle me this:

What was our family most afraid of this halloween season??

a) ghosts

b) vampires

c) zombies

d) MRSA

If you answered "d", you must have heard of our eventful October,

and Wyatt's 9-day stay in the hospital.

Wyatt got MRSA... stands for "multiple-resistant staphylococcus aureus",

aka the "superbug".

Traditionally, MRSA infections have been a problem in healthcare facilities. However, MRSA is beginning to spread to the general population. This is a bacteria that is everywhere... it's even on our skin and in our noses. Usually people can ward of a MRSA infection without the aid of antibiotics, but if not, it can be life threatening. In fact, MRSA now causes more deaths in the USA per year than AIDS - more than 18,000.

Somehow Wyatt got MRSA.

The doctors say there is nothing we could have done to prevent it or predict it... it's a random freak thing. He was put on a topical antibiotic for 2 little tiny red diaper rash-type dots.... looked like nothing at all, but I pointed them out to the doctor at his 1 year check-up. It didn't help, and the infection spread to his lymph nodes in the crease where his leg connects to his body. The doctor then gave us some oral antibiotics for Wyatt to take in addition to the cream. It didn't help.

His abdoman, groin, and leg joint area swelled up and was very red and rock hard from the infection. He had a fever. The doctors were not not sure what was going on... they thought it could possibly be a hernia. We were sent to emergency where they determined it was not a hernia, and then ran tests on Wyatt and attempted to drain the infection. It was horrible. He felt everything and screamed the entire time. They had to insert the needle twice and it was excruciating and traumatizing for him. And me too.

They were unable to drain anything, and he was admitted to pediatrics.

The kids were at least happy to see that Wyatt's doctor in the ER was named after their beloved kitty! :)

This was Wyatt's crib. The bed was elevated about 3 feet off the ground.

I couldn't help but feel like he was an exhibit at the zoo!

At first Wyatt needed antibiotics every 4 hours. Later they were able to spread it out to every 6 hours. However, the IV treatment lasted for an hour and a half. The only way to get Wyatt to stay still and not pull his IV out, was if we put him in his highchair to eat, or if he was sleeping. If neither of these were an option, I had to nurse him for an hour and a half straight to keep the IV.

Vancomycin... the strongest antibiotic available to treat this illness.

The doctors started Wyatt on this, and it wasn't working.

That was scary.

They decided to back off because it was harsh on his body and not doing any good. They put him on a different, yet weaker antibiotic called Clindamycin.

It didn't help. He was getting worse, so they put him back on the vancomycin.

Every couple of days they would tell us they thought he might be improving, only to find that he was worse again the next day.

You can see in this picture how there is zero slack on the IV line between Wyatt's arm and the machine... he pulled his IV out twice, just rolling over. I learned to stand over his crib for the entire hour and a half, or I held him.

Neither of us slept much at night.

I got really good at connecting all of his wires!! :)

You learn quick.

And yes, my son is wearing pink.

He wore a LOT of pink in the hospital... they didn't seem to have any clothing his size that wasn't pink, and even that was too big.. we had to cut the feet off.

Josh and Claire, bless their hearts, hung out with Wyatt and I all day long.

We weren't allowed to leave the room.

So, we watched a LOT of movies... I think i counted 30 or more by the time we left.

They had this little TV from home, and they also had a huge flatscreen TV on the wall.

It was a nice room, as far as hospitals go!

Long long days and nights.

You can get an idea in this picture just how large the room was.

There was a chair that pulled out into a bed for me, and I lived at the hospital with Wyatt.

Jason still had to work, and the kids had school. We had lots of friends help us out with meals (the hospital food wasn't the greatest... breakfast was good, but it's hard to mess up breakfast). Our friends also helped to drop off and pick up our kids. We are so blessed :)

The nurses brought Wyatt a few toys to play with during our stay. He especially liked his ball :)

Whenever we were wheeled downstairs for an ultrasound, Wyatt pointed out all of the convex mirrors in the hallway, pointing and shouting "ball!" at each one.

In our room I would lay blankets out across the floor to give him a clean place to play.

He especially loved this exersaucer thing... it spun all around a central base like a satellite... he spent a lot of his time running in circles :)

Part of Wyatt's treatment was long soaks in the tub 3 times a day... not an easy feat with a giant heplock IV that can't get wet, and a 1 year old. So 3 times daily I wrapped his arm in a diaper and plastic bags and hoped for the best.

Since the antibiotics weren't touching the infection, the doctors thought Wyatt might have an abscess, which is a pocket where the infection dwells, forming a protective barrier against antibiotics. They did several ultrasounds throughout Wyatt's stay, and couldn't really see one until about day 6. Since he wasn't getting better the surgeon decided that surgery was necessary to try to drain and remove some of the infection. They whisked him away very quickly once they decided to do it, and brought him back pretty fast. It was only after this surgery that Wyatt started to show some improvement.

A couple of days after Wyatt's surgery, we were let out of our room to go for a walk!

Wyatt got to sit in this sweeeeeet ride!

We shared a smoothie.

It was a beautiful day, and felt so good to get OUT!!!

The day before we went home there was a problem with Wyatt's IV. I noticed his heplock was wet and couldn't figure out why. It turns out the IV had been pulled out partially, and his antibiotics were spilling out. The nurse didn't even notice, and she was the one hooking up his antibiotics! Jason proclaimed that she was not the brightest star in the sky. It was a dangerous mistake! Wyatt lost a couple of doses of his antibiotics, which was concerning, and he no longer had his IV line. They decided to try him on a day of oral antibiotics, rather than re-insert his IV again. He didn't get worse, so they decided we could go home!

He just had to take 2 more weeks of antibiotics at home.

Writing this post was hard... it brought back all the fear and emotions of these horrible 2 weeks.

We are trying not to worry, but the doctors warned us that it could come back. They were hopeful that it wouldn't.

We'll just keep praying and loving our little guy!

He is very strong! And was such an amazing sport through the whole thing... smiling away (when he wasn't being poked!), and charming all the nurses!

He is doing a lot better now, but still healing. It will take awhile for the swelling and hardness of the lymph nodes to decrease, but Wyatt improves a little bit every day.

He is happy to be home, as I think that after awhile he thought the hospital was actually his new home!! No joke!

And Josh and Claire are awesome!!! I couldn't ask for 3 better kids.

Thank you every one for your prayers and service to our family!!

Happy fall!

Summer fun!

2010-09-18T01:56:00.008-04:00

Look at this little guy ... so cute.

Can you believe Wyatt is going to be 1 year old on Wednesday??

Crazy!!

And Claire just turned 3!

I have lots of birthday pictures to put up, but haven't had time to do so.

Hopefully soon :)

And it's fall already!!!

I was looking through some pictures from this summer and thought I would post a few from one of my favorite family days with the kids :)

One of our favorite places to go in our town is this park.

We can walk around the lake, have a picnic lunch, and feed the ducks.

It's beautiful!

Wyatt and Josh are very cute... here they are doing the brotherly thing.

And now.... sunglasses!!!!

good times :)

And a couple of cute pics of the kids sleeping.

Just look at these sweet little kids.

They look so angelic when they're asleep.

Is this sweet little guy actually going to become a "terrible two"?

Let's start with an angelic one year old first! :)

Oregon beach trip 2010

2010-09-18T01:13:00.049-04:00

This is a very very long post full of pictures of our beach trip to the Oregon coast in August.

Every year or 2 Jason's grandma rents a beach house around Lincoln City, Oregon.

It is so much fun!

Here are some pictures of some of our fun on the beach:

And here are all of the sisters!

Whitney, me, Stephanie, Lindsey, and Lena

The steps up to our beach house...

The sunsets were amazing!

We had a big bonfire and roasted smores.

While we were in Lincoln City we visited the aquarium.

Grandpa Gilbert sneaked away from the farm for a few days to play with us!

Josh and Grandma...

Wyatt and his cousin Naomi are only 15 days apart!

They were so cute together :)

A typical day at the beach house...

Josh could be found like this:

playing games on Nana's "bubble phone".

Wyatt: trouble!

opening and closing every drawer and cupboard as he crawled around!

And Claire could be found like this:

dancing around in her cousin Lucy's tutu.

Nice arabesque, don't you think?

It was fun to see Josh and his cousin Isak get along so well!

They loved the hot tub!

Jason's sister Whitney took some of these pictures with her super sweet camera.

She is a great photographer! Thanks Whit!

We love Aunt Lori!

Lori was kind enough to give Claire her first haircut :)

She sat very still...

and voila!

all ready for preschool! :)

thank you Lori!

The kids had fun playing at this wooden castle play stucture...

Josh and his little cousin Conner... so cute!

We found a little bay where the water was warmer than the ocean

Wyatt was very excited to play in the sand and water!

He played for a very long time splashing around,

making engine sounds with the toy motor boat.

Claire in her yellow polka-dot bikini! :)

All of Jason's siblings pitched in to buy this knight (Sir Prance-a-lot)

for Jason's uncle Michael....

My eyes are closed! Oh well.

And here are some pictures of the beautiful beach house!

It was gorgeous!!!

There were 3 floors.... the top floor had the main living areas and kitchen, plus a bedroom.

The 2nd floor had most of the bedrooms and 2 baths,

and the basement had a garage, laundry room, and game room (including an arcade game), with more sleeping accommodations.

There were decks on the 2nd and 3rd floor, and on the 2nd story deck there was a hot tub.

We hung out there a lot!

Ocean views! Beautiful thick carpet... everything was new.

Even the furniture was fancy... it was all Ethan Allen.

It was luxury!

This is the 2nd floor hallway.

And here is the room we stayed in.

A queen bed, a crib, and a pull out couch.

Isn't that whale print adorable?

All the sisters again... our traditional beach picture :)

And a new set of beach girls!

And here is the family all together :)

thank you Grandma for an amazing week!!!

Back to school!

2010-09-07T22:43:00.014-04:00

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!

Joshua started kindergarten this week,

and Claire started preschool!
We also have a new front door!

Such an exciting, busy day for every one!

Wyatt joined his big bro and sis on the porch.
Weird that he will be the only one home with me while the other 2 are at school!

Claire brought apples to school for her teachers!
The weather called for rain, but it was a perfect sunny day... sunny, but windy!Here are some pics of Claire as she headed to preschool with Wyatt and me.

She is so proud to be a big preschool girl :)

Claire is pointing at her cubby in this picture. Each child has a symbol that goes with the first letter of their name. When Josh went to preschool here he was "Joshua Jack-o-lantern".
Claire is "Claire Cloud".

Claire's cubby :)

At greeting time we read books, and then read the message board.
I stay with Claire for the first half hour for greeting time, and then leave and she's in school for 2 hours. Then I spend the last 1/2 hour at outside time with her.

Claire is reading with her teacher in this picture.
And here she is at her table! :)
She is the youngest in her class.... all the other kids are 3 or older,
but she was almost 3 when she started!

Our days are crazy now.
Claire and Josh both start school around the same time, so I take Claire to school, and Jason takes Josh since it's close to his work.

Josh was pretty nervous to start kindergarten!

Nervous, but excited!

He's a small fish in a big pond right now...

courage.

I hope the school is smarter than their sign.

Jason and Josh arrived early for school because they had to sort out his registration.
Apparently the school had all of our paperwork, but it was never entered into their computer, so the teacher didn't have him on her list.
The principal sorted everything out with great apologies, and Josh's teacher quickly made some signs and name tags to help him feel welcome.

His teacher made him a cute matching sign for the 2nd day of school...
this is just his temporary cubby sign.

He was the first kid in class, so he was able to explore the classroom.
Josh and Claire are both in school for the morning only,
so we get to have fun all afternoon!
We went to the park and had a picnic lunch, then played :)
I was watching a friend's little boy for the week, so he hung out and joined in the fun as well.

Josh just seemed older today.

He had a big boy backpack, and a watch.... he picked out that shirt too.

He's a big kindergarten boy.
He can even pump his own swing!
And Wyatt stands by himself all the time, but won't take a step! :)

He has 5 teeth! (and a chunk of bread on the right)

It was a long day!! :)

We were all ready for naps!

How did my little babies get so big?

Our manners meal!

2010-08-16T23:59:00.007-04:00

We had a manners meal tonight!

The kids dressed up in their Sunday best, and I made a fancy dinner, complete with a real tablecloth, cloth napkins, and all of our good china!

I made game hens and all the fixings!

Stuffing, mashed potatoes, a green bean casserole, rolls... the works.

We even had ice cream in crystal bowls for dessert!

The kids were anxious to use their dessert spoon!!

The kids especially loved the sparkling cider and saying "cheers!", the salad forks, and the napkin rings.

It was really tough convincing Claire that the gravy boat was not actually a tea cup.

Jason came in from mowing the lawn and I handed him a shirt and tie... it was probably a little confusing at the time.

Josh kept asking why I got to have 3 plates... I had to explain to him a few times that I really only had 1 dinner plate, and 1 plate for the dinner roll... the other little plate was for Daddy's dinner roll.

Wyatt has much to learn in the manners department.... but isn't he cute?

He got a kick out of teasing me with his pieces of bread... he threw one over the side and then continued to tease me with other pieces of bread... would hold them over the side with a huge grin on his face, and then I would say "noooo wyatt!", and he would pull the bread back and giggle and giggle! It was pretty cute.

And, totally unrelated to our manners dinner....

A couple of weeks ago Josh got to read to this dog at the library :)

It's a really cute program... the kids get a 10 minute session where they read to a companion dog... it's a great way for them to practice their reading in a fun way, and beneficial to the dog's training as well. The entire summer was booked, so I couldn't get Josh in, but someone cancelled this particular day.

Josh is allergic to dogs, but he loves them.

So I gave him some zyrtec before we left and he was fine.

Josh read the entire book to Logan the dog, all by himself!!

Very cool.

the happenings... july :)

2010-08-16T00:31:00.011-04:00

Thought I would post some pics from the last couple of months.

Mmm.... shopping cart.

We've been talking about heroes this summer, including fire fighters!!

My friend Abrea recently started a home daycare, and on her son's birthday the fire department came to her house to teach the kids about fire safety. We were ecstatic when they pulled up in their fire truck!

The fire marshal hooked up the hoses and let the kids spray water all over the yard!!

Joshua and Fitzgerald - best buddies!

And Claire... the princess firefighter :)

Wyatt wore this hat for about 5 seconds... a little blurry, but this is the only pic I could get!

With the addition of our sweet little Wyatt, our house is getting...well, a little crowded.

Josh had to move into a cardboard box in the back yard.

Just kidding! It's not that bad... well, it's pretty tight!

We have a very small house, but we love it!

So, we decided to do as they do in Japan and build up!

The kids got bunkbeds!!!

We moved them into the guest room, and Wyatt is now in the crib in the nursery.

Claire gets the bottom bunk, and Joshua the top. We decided on a twin over full, so that when we have guests over, we will still have a guest room with a full bed for our guests to sleep on. The kids will just temporarily relocate. We're also hoping that if anyone falls off of the top bunk they will land on the bottom! So far Claire stays on the bottom unless mom or dad are there with her, so we haven't had any problems... yet!

I'm working on decorating the room. I'll post more pics when it's done :)

A sweet couple in our ward just got married and baptized, and the entire ward pitched in to help throw a beautiful wedding for them. I helped out with the flower arrangements...

and decorated the getaway car!!!

Jason spray painted the pop cans white for me :)

He is a great husband!

This is the front of the car.

Turned out pretty cute :)

And here is a picture Josh took with my phone... I was in the other room and heard Josh laughing. I went in to see what he was laughing at and found Wyatt standing up in his chair!! EEK! He is getting pretty daring!

He likes to climb into his rocking chair.... usually standing!

Here's a pic of Joshua at about 2 months old in this same rocking chair:

Sorry if these pics are not up to standard... they were all taken with our phones, aside from that last one of Joshua.

Have a great night everyone!

Many happenings...

2010-06-21T00:23:00.015-04:00

Happy Father's Day to my sweet husband, Jason!!!

I love you sweetheart.

You are an amazing husband and Father.

I couldn't ask for a better man to help me raise up these sweet little souls!

So.... it's been a long time! And I have a lot to talk about I guess.

Here's a brief summary, with pictures :)

We spent Easter with my family up in the Great White North...

The dress Claire wore for Easter is the first article of baby clothing I ever bought... I bought it before Jason and I were even married! It finally fits her :)

Good times.

Then we headed out west for Jason's sister Lindsey's wedding in Rexburg Idaho.

We actually flew into Salt Lake and drove to Idaho, then a few days later drove to Washington for the Othello reception. It was lots of driving and lots of fun!

Just look at this beautiful, happy couple!

Mr. and Mrs. Beutler! Aren't they gorgeous??

Lena and I...

Wyatt isn't in these pictures... it was very cold and he was covered up most of the time, and not very happy.

All of the siblings (plus Nate):

Jason, Kevin, Nate and Lindsey, Whitney, Nathan

The girls' dresses were beautiful.

We stayed up late to finish making their pretty flower hair pieces.

The kids LOVED playing with their Nana, Grandpa, aunts and uncles, and all of their cousins!

...but those pictures will have to wait for another post!!! :)

After the wedding I spent 6 weeks doing shows.... I was in the musical "Oklahoma", and then 2 weekends of dance recitals for 2 different studios. It was crazy, and I'm glad it's over. But it was also fun having the opportunity to perform on pointe in the ballet "An American in Paris"... (my tutu was actually red for the performance). I also performed a tap solo.

Josh was in one of the recitals, and was the only boy in his class, so he got to be Mickey Mouse among a bunch of Minnies. Very cute!

In the dance they would take turns jumping on the "M-I-C, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E..." and he was supposed to jump up on that last "E", but he would jump up and yell "C!"

He insisted they were saying "C", and if you listen it kind of sounds like that because they slur the S and E together... "M-O-U-essSeeeeeeeeee" :)

Claire is pretty much potty trained, with the exception of an occasional "accident". Arrg.

Still, this is how we did it:

She had #1 down, but was having problems training for #2, so we made this Princess Poo Poo Chart, and it worked!

Kind of like a game board.... moves one space each time, and when she lands on a princess, she got to have that princess toy.... Claire is REALLY into princesses and ballerinas right now.

OH and the question mark at the end of the poo poo chart??

I wasn't entirely sure what that was going to be either.... I just drew too many squares.

We ended up giving her a package of tinkerbell underwear that has been waiting in the closet for her to be "proficient" in the art.

Memorial Day!!! Claire was not being very lady-like for this picture!

We tried to get them to salute.... I think they actually did better last year!

His eyes used to be blue.... :)

This is my lovely Mother!

I'm so glad my Mom could come and play with us so much this month.

She also helped watch Josh and Claire while Jason, Wyatt and I went out west for Grandma Gilbert's funeral.

It was very sad, but also a beautiful ceremony celebrating her amazing life and the legacy of her lovely family.

Wyatt now has 2 teeth on the bottom. He got them both at the same time, just like his big brother! You can't really see them in this picture, but just know they are there, waiting to bite anything in their path!

Wyatt was permitted to stay up past his bedtime and watch the series finale of Lost with us.

He showed his support the best way he could, and even drooled on the remote!

Here are a few pictures from our walk at one of our favorite parks.

Jason saved a turtle that had been caught on a fish hook!

Claire's attempt at a pull-up... couldn't do one to save her life I'm afraid.

Must have inherited that from me... sorry Claire! :)

And now, in no particular order, some random happenings....

Claire is modeling the beautiful handmade sweater from Aunt Lori!

We LOVE it.

My kids LOVE to play dress up... we are gaining a pretty nice collection of random dress-up clothing and accessories.

Claire refuses to wear anything but a dress... and it has to be one that twirls too. She is very particular!

We put her to bed one night in her pj's, just like every other night, and when I went in to check on the kids I found the dresser drawers open and the floor covered in all of her clothes.

She was in bed with a skirt on over her pj's.

She has slept in a dress on top of her pj's every night since!

Wyatt is wearing his "helmet" in this picture.... a leather hat trimmed in lambs wool... helped protect his noggin on our hardwood floors!

He didn't like it and would pull it off. He doesn't really need it anymore, which is good because it's too hot now anyways!

Wyatt is a movin' and a shakin'!

He started crawling when he turned 6 months! By far the quickest of our 3.

A month later he started pulling himself up to stand and walk along stuff, holding on.

It was weird that he didn't start sitting on his own until after he learned to crawl, stand, and walk along furniture.

He can now bend down and pick something up with one hand, then stand back up. And the last couple of days he has stood momentarily on his own for a few seconds after letting go!

He signs milk and says "MMMMM" when he's hungry, and waves "hi" and "bye", will say "hi", but it sounds more like "HA", and says "all done" and signs it, but it's more like "Aww DUH". He also says "mama" and jabbers incoherently the rest of the time.

Slow down!!! You're getting too big little Wyatt!

Josh is great at building lego creations.

He now says that he wants to design and build trains and race cars, instead of drive them.

Sorry Uncle Keith.... :)

Claire loves to play in the rain!

And.....

This beautiful butterfly had an injured leg, and consequently landed and stayed in Claire's hand for quite some time! It was pretty awesome.

It flew away shortly after this.

Josh went to a birthday party where all the kids had to come in fairy or elf costumes.... He was Terrence from "tinkerbell and the lost treasure.." My mom and I came up with this costume pretty much that day.... it's supposed to be an acorn hat and maple leaves for the vest.

Josh thought it was pretty sweet.

I love this little knock-kneed boy :)

And here is a preview for next time... fun on the farm!!!

Stay tuned!!!

The reason Claire's skin is so soft today...

2010-03-31T00:29:00.009-04:00

Tonight while I was at rehearsal, Jason got the kids all ready for bed. He promised them that if they got their pajamas on and read their bedtime stories, they could watch a couple of songs on American Idol before bed. Claire decided she would rather chase Tucker around, so while Josh and Jason watched the show, she herded Tucker into the guest room and closed the door. After a couple of songs, Jason noticed that it had gotten pretty quiet in the guest room, so he opened the door to see what was going on. He found Claire sitting on the bed in a pile of clean, unfolded laundry, gouging handfuls of Aquaphor out of the container and wiping it into her hair. He pulled her off the bed and made her stand in the hall and not touch anything while he hunted around for the camera, then deleted some pictures because the memory card was full.

Clearly he had his priorities in order.

Jason spent half an hour trying to wash the waterproof gel out of her hair, while poor Wyatt was screaming for attention in his bassinet and Josh was making some random messes around the house because he knew he could get away with it for awhile. Tonight Claire is sleeping with a towel on her pillow. It will probably take a few more washes with dish soap to get all that greasy gel out of her hair! I'm happy I wasn't there at the time, but at least I get to laugh at the pictures!!!

haha :)

awww, poor Jason

Scarlett's Ballerina Bag

2010-03-09T12:53:00.005-05:00

My good friend Lauren's little girl Scarlett is turning 5 today, and for her 5th birthday I wanted to do something special for her. She LOVES ballet, and being a girl after my own heart I knew just what she needed! I made her this little ballet bag to keep her shoes and whatever else in when she goes to class.

The back of the bag...

The front again....

Detail of the front.... the buttons on the front are a light pink crystal.... don't know if they show up that way. The tulle netting is also a light pink.

Her name embroidered on the inside above the pockets...

There are 2 pockets inside.... the inside of the bag is done in a coordinating fabric, and the pockets are edged in the same fabric as the outside of the bag.

The ribbon on the handbag handles are sewn into the bow so they won't come undone, and I added the coordinating button to cover the knot....

The handbag handles are a dark walnut wood, and there are magnetic snaps to hold the bag closed...

So it turned out pretty nice!!! And now I want to make one for Claire for when she starts ballet...

But first she has to be potty trained!!

I took this picture yesterday... potty time!!! (yes, she is sitting on a potty under that blanket!)

And who else is potty training??

Well... Dolly, Tucker, and a pirate skeleton of course :)

Wyatt's Blessing....

2010-01-02T13:11:00.005-05:00

Here are Wyatt's baby blessing pictures!

We blessed Wyatt in November, and were very happy to have Jason's Dad come to town for the week to visit, as well as Doug and Sharon and their beautiful family, and a few close friends.

It was a full house!

I felt kinda bad that I didn't plan very well for Joshua's baby blessing.

He was going to wear the christening gown that my mom, Uncle Keith, and my sister and I wore for our christenings, but Jason was very adamant that his son would not wear a dress....

Here's Claire wearing the gown.... ok, so it is pretty girly, and it's not the 1940's anymore, so I guess he was justified.

and therefore we put Josh in a fleece snowman outfit for the blessing.... it was all we could find!!!

Here's Josh in his snowman outfit... 2 months after the blessing. Um ya, because we also didn't take any pictures on his blessing day.... mother of the year award.

well, it was white at least.

And HERE is Wyatt!!! In a REAL blessing outfit.... he even had little shoes :)

And he is lying on the blessing blanket Aunt Lori made for Josh as a baby.

(Claire used the blanket too! - thanks Lori!)

Here we were looking at the family picture we took with the whole Gilbert family

when Josh was only 2 weeks old....

Our happy family of 5!

Wyatt and his Grandpa

This picture is for Grandma.... 2 of her boys together again

Bob and Doug

Good looking Gilbert men!

Spencer and Sam Gilbert

Claire loves her baby!

Here is a pic of all the cousins (minus Isak, Lucy, Conner and Naomi)

we have....

Jack, big Claire, little Claire, Joshua, Suzanna, Spencer and Sam.

oops we forgot to put Wyatt in the picture!

I love this picture.... Wyatt and Grandpa

Doug and Sharon Gilbert and their family...

Doug, Jack, Claire, Suzanna (holding Wyatt), Spencer, Sharon and Sam

Wyatt's New Trick

2009-10-24T23:18:00.002-04:00

Tonight after we got his pajamas on and set him up for a little tummy time, Wyatt surprised us with his new trick - rolling over!

By the time we got the camera out he had already done it twice, but we caught his third roll. Once he gets on his back he's like a turtle though, and he gets stuck. I guess we should stop laying him on his tummy at the top of the stairs now.

(Just Kidding!)

Welcome Wyatt!!!

2009-10-05T23:30:00.003-04:00

On Tuesday 9-29-09 we welcomed our 3rd baby into the family!!!

WYATT JAMES GILBERT

Born at 9:53pm
8 pounds, 20.5 inches long
Blonde hair, baby gray eyes

I was induced because I was 5 days overdue, and he still didn't want to budge.
It was a longer labor than we anticipated.... lots of petocin and about 6 hours.
But I only had to push twice!
I will post more pics later and talk later, but he is sleeping right now so I'm going to take advantage of that and go to sleep too!!

nitey nite!

STILL pregnant.

2009-09-27T20:59:00.006-04:00

You may have noticed that my pregnancy ticker on the side bar of the blog says I have "3 days to go"... that's really how many days I'm overdue. Either that or it's psychic and I will have the baby in 3 days, but that's just depressing, and their predictions will just keep getting longer!!!

Anyways, here are some pics Jason took of the kids playing outside this week...

Claire loves driving this little car, but she really only ever goes backwards in it :)
She fits into Josh's Thomas helmet now and wants to wear it whenever he has his on!

Awww this is sad... he must have just fallen off his bike.
Jason kissed his owie better, but took a picture first :)

Here is Claire with her diaper wipe :) She does this when she's tired!

All is well.... Josh gives Jason the thumbs up!

Party time!

2009-09-24T00:54:00.005-04:00

We threw Claire a little birthday party the saturday after she turned 2. It was pretty low key, and turned out really fun!

We ate lots of junk and let the kids run around for a couple of hours. It was great :)

Since Claire loves ladybugs so much I made some ladybug cupcakes for her.
The head is a junior mint, and the polka dots are upside-down chocolate chips.

She was really shy when everyone sang to her at her party, but not when we sang with just our family at home on her birthday.

We also had a little "game" where the kids simply picked black polka dots and took turns decorating a big paper ladybug.

Claire was given her first pair of real ballet slippers from her friend Scarlett!

She loved the ponies, dress up clothes, paints, and pretty sweater.

(Mom especially loved the paint set that only paints on certain paper.... to save our walls! Thanks Tara!)

Thank you every one for coming and for the wonderful gifts!

Happy 2nd Birthday Claire!

2009-09-23T23:57:00.005-04:00

Claire is 2!!!

On September 10th our little girl turned 2 years old.
Can't believe how fast those 2 years have gone!

We celebrated the day by taking her to the petting zoo at Domino's farms with our good friends, Abrea Adams and her 3 kids.

Abrea's daughter Danny lent Claire her tinkerbell costume to wear for the day because Claire loves Tinkerbell!

Later that night we had cupcakes at home with our family.

Claire opened a few presents.... she loved her ladybug luggage!

Some of claire's favorite things right now are Charlie Brown (she'll sing the theme song all the time!), ladybugs, Tinkerbell, winnie the pooh, rain boots, bead socks, animals, firetrucks, airplanes, and coloring. She likes to take a stack of post-it notes and peel them all off, then take a "pencil" which is anything to write with, and draw all over them. Last week she took a magnetic note pad I had just bought to stick on the fridge and drew on every page, then brought it to me and said "look mama, a book!"

She is always drawing "kitties" and will point out details like their ears and whiskers in her drawings. She really has a clear artistic side to her. She has drawn and painted on our walls, floors, couch, doors, cabinetry, and even some toys and furniture. Oy. And of course, herself! When Claire hears a beat or music of some kind she can't help herself and will stamp her feet to the rhythm. She also can carry a tune beautifully!

Claire has a girly side and a tom-boy side... she loves to dress up and put on chapstick and ribbons. She loves to take care of her baby dollies and animals, but she also loves to play with pirates and racecars. She has a very active imagination already and will turn inanimate objects into people and animals and make them talk to each other.... usually with a deep gruff voice that cracks us up.
She loves to eat oranges and will devour several before anyone else in the family has a chance to take a slice off the plate!
Claire's vocabulary of words is too large to count now! She speaks in complete sentences and will tell us in no uncertain terms what her opinion is.
She is still a very cuddly little girl, and still sucks her 2 fingers on her left hand. She also will carry around a diaper wipe and cuddle with it... she will not fall asleep without a fresh diaper wipe in her hand, and her little Tucker kitty.

She loves her big brother. He is her best friend!
She was pretty upset and worried when we left Josh at preschool on his first day back!

Josh made this picture at preschool to give to Claire on her birthday.

They play well together most of the time, and he really looks out for her. She's excited for baby Wyatt to come so she can be a big sister, although we're not quite sure she really understands the concept! She seems to get it though.

Happy Birthday to our little Claire bear!!! We love you :)

Labor day (not mine!) and Josh's first day of preschool!

2009-09-23T23:14:00.006-04:00

Well, tomorrow is my due date, so I figured I'd better hurry up and blog some of the exciting events that have happened in the last couple of weeks before the next exciting event happens!

Josh started his 2nd year of preschool and he is loving it!
Here are some pictures from his first day at school.

Last fall Jason and I started building this flagstone path in our front yard, but an early frost put our efforts on hold until the spring. Here is it, fall again, and we are still working on it. But we are almost done!!! Since I'm 9 months prego I'm pretty useless when it comes to construction and landscaping projects. Jason is hoping to get it all done before winter hits again!! We're so close, and it is beautiful! I'll post pics when it's done.

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids "helping" Jason with our front path...

They started out playing in the sand with their trucks and trains, and ended up building sand castles :)

These pictures were taken on Labor day, so we hadn't given Josh his back-to-school haircut yet.
His before and after hair styles are hard to miss!

I kinda miss his shaggy look though :)

My kids love to catch bugs.... Josh had caught a butterfly (I think it was really a moth...shhhhh) and was very excited!

Claire is always looking for a ladybug.
At night when the fireflies come out the kids will run out into the grass to try and catch one.

Claire will set out in search of ladybugs... yes, at night, in the dark.
The girl is determined.

Bless her heart, she really wants to catch one!!

A lover scorned!!!

2009-08-28T15:28:00.005-04:00

Anyone remember me mentioning Josh's little friend from preschool, Meredith?

The little girl he says he is going to marry one day?
(the kid likes older women).

Well, apparently absence does make the heart grow fonder, because all summer long he has been writing her letters, drawing and coloring pictures for her, and has even sent some in the mail.

So I was pretty surprised when I saw his latest letter!!

I will translate for you....

"Dear Meredith,
I hope you
are having
a bad day
because I won't
do ..."

I'm not sure what he was going to say in the end.

But sometimes you just have to get something off your chest, ya know? haha

This is as far as he got, then I think he had a change of heart. Because I asked him why he didn't finish it, and he said he decided not to send it to her, and that he really means that he wants her to have a good day.

what a funny little man :)

So after having a fun playdate with Meredith the next week at the park, and then hanging out at the heritage festival with her family, Josh is back to writing her sweet letters again.

And since we're talking about letters, here's a good one for my garden:
It's true.
I have good intentions for my gardens.... I really do.
I work really really hard in the spring, and once everything is growing and looking good,
I get kinda neglectful... especially when I'm pregnant in the summer!
(I'm 3 for 3 here).

Oh well.
So the corn isn't as high as an elephant's eye.... it would be lucky to reach an elephant's knee!
And maybe I did let the remaining lettuce and spinach get old and go to seed....
And yes, I should have picked some of those cucumbers LONG ago... not to mention the weeds....
But....

there are green and yellow beans in my freezer, the pumpkins look promising,
and my kids have been eating tomatoes, peas, and cucumbers straight from the garden!

what more could you ask for???

We have had a pretty sweet harvest so far, even if it has been neglected!

Nova Scotia - Day 5

2009-08-17T22:33:00.004-04:00

This was our last full day in Nova Scotia :(
We've had a lot of fun! It was hard to leave!

This is a picture of the area from the top of the hills.... this is the money shot!

Today we went to Halls Harbour, which is a huge fishing port for Lobster especially.

We saw the cages for catching the lobster, and even some live fellas....
Josh and Claire loved to look at them, but I think Josh was a little traumatized by the whole process! You picked out your lobster, put it in one of those plastic bins that you put your shoes and carry-on baggage on when going through security at the airport, and then you take it to the register where they weigh it and you pay. Then you walk your lobster to the kitchen and hand it to the cook... they seat you at a table, and bring you your lobster all red and ready to eat!
Josh just looked very disturbed by the sight of everyone eating their lobsters after seeing them alive. He was also very surprised to see that they weren't red when they came out of the water, and only became red after cooking them!

Here is my Mom and sister Veronica standing by the pier with Josh and Claire.
It was so nice having them with us and hanging out all week!

When we arrived at the harbour, it was about 2 or 3pm,
and the tide had already begun to go out.

You can see on the piers where the water line was originally,
and how much it had already started to go down.

I took a picture of this boat shortly after arriving.....

And then just an hour and a half or so later I took this picture of the same boat....

already beached!

I love how the name of this boat is "Tide Bound" !

It's really odd to see all the boats beached so quickly after arriving with them all floating!

I love this washroom...

This is one for people who are skinny, and for people who have love handles.
Naturally.

Here Josh is winding his rock up for a big pitch into the ocean!

Claire is so cute.
With her hair growing out a little longer now she will say "look mama!" and swish her head back and forth and her hair will swish around the sides of her face!
She loves to do that.

And here is my big little man :)
He must be going through a growth spurt,
because he's been asking for 2 sandwiches or hot dogs,
and eating them both every day at lunch lately!

Claire's hair is actually getting long enough that I thought I would give pigtails a whirl...

and it worked!!!
This is our first attempt at pig tails!

She did pretty well leaving them in... they slipped out a lot though, so I had to keep sliding them back on.

She looked really sweet in them.
And she really looked a lot older... like a real big girl!

I can't believe our little Claire bear is going to be 2 years old in just a few weeks!

Nova Scotia - Day 4

2009-08-12T13:57:00.012-04:00

This was probably my favourite day of our trip!!

We went to a place called "Blue Beach", which is apparently known only to the locals... it was recommended by the owners of the B & B we were staying at because they often go there to fish. It is a rare beach made up of shale, where prehistoric fossils may be found and picked up just by walking up and down the shore. A local expert on the fossils had set up a tiny museum where he displayed some of the better fossils he had found. These included prehistoric tetrapod amphibians, insects, fish, etc. There were also fossils of rain drops, tree branches, waves, leaves, and worm tubes - the tunnels of worms in the dirt. We found several of these fossils just on our hour walk, including a tree branch, fish scales, rain drops, waves, and worm tubes. But we couldn't bring them all home. We kept a stone with the tree branch and fish scales, and another with worm tubes.... that is the picture below... the worm tubes. Unfortunately, it was conficated by customs on our way home! So this is the picture I took of it right before they took it away from us in the airport. Hehehe
We had quite the hike to even get down to the beach! And of course we had the stroller with us (seemed like a good idea at the time) and had a very steep and rocky path to the beach.
So while we were at the museum I asked the fossil expert guy where the washroom was, and he said he didn't have a washroom for the public, but that there was a porta-potty just before you climb down "the hill", so off we went.

This is what I expected to find:

However, this is what we actually found:

Deep in the woods we found the creepiest outhouse I have ever been in.
It was VERY dark, but the wide cracks between the logs gave just enough light to show me that you didn't want to know what was crawling around in there! Creepy.
I will never complain about a Honey Bucket again!
Heavenly, in comparison. The tulips are a nice touch :)

So anyways, back to Blue Beach... here are some pics of the kids playing in the water,
and looking for fossils.

My sister, Veronica, setting up her sweet camera.

Jason had the afternoon off, so we met up with him and had lunch, then headed out to Blomidon to see the beach and the big cliffs!!! This is what I really wanted to see the whole trip.
The tide was going out when we got there.

High tide was at around noon every day, and low tide was at 6pm, but then would fill up again by midnight, so it really filled up and emptied out twice a day. We got there around 3 which turned out to be perfect timing as the tide had begun to go out, but you can see just how far it goes!

The red sand was more mud than sand...

It took 2 washes of tide with bleach, along with oxyclean, spray and wash, and Clorox color-safe-bleach to get the stains out of everyone's clothes....

and worth every second!!

There were waterfalls running down the cliffs all along the seashore!

We saw this view while driving back and tried to find a way to get to it, but never found the way... so it will have to be admired from afar!It was cool to see the boats in the harbors banked on the sand when the tide went out!!!

We saw a LOT this day, and it was exhausting, but so much fun!!!!