February 2014

At the beginning of February a group of ladies from my ward decided to go roller skating.  I loved that all of them, bar one who goes weekly, told me that they were terrible at it and since they hadn't done it in 20+ years they'd be falling on their bottoms!  Well, every single one of them lied!  The second they got there they were whizzing around doing fancy moves and skating backwards...I was in shock and kinda devastated that I was the only one that couldn't skate.  I mean I had one pair of skates when I was quite young, but I just went down the bumpy wee path by my house once in a while, so I really had no experience. Anyway, thankfully I am a cautious soul and moved like a snail around the edge until I got the hang of it, so I never did fall! Victory and I laughed at myself until my cheeks ached.

The boys have just finished their third round of swimming lessons.  I'm really pleased with how comfortable they are in the water now, how well they like all the teachers they have had, and that they want to keep going!  So we will power on with the lessons until they are good wee swimmers.

I'm kinda into holiday decorating, well at least for the ones I like.  So we had lots of lovely wee bits and bobs around the house for Valentine's Day, the wee ones loved it.

Jack was excited to make some valentines for his class mates and, of course, loved receiving 25 cards in return.  What a heart breaker! ...but actually they make you bring enough for everyone.

 I have lovely memories of my mum making each of us the most beautiful Valentine's Day cards that we would wake up to on the morning of, along with really yummy chocolate.  I'm trying to do the same for my wee ones, and hopefully it will mean as much to them as they grow.
Ryan and I went out for a really nice dinner at Tina's in Dundee; a wee town next to Newberg.  I'd heard great things about the food from some friends and it did not disappoint.  It wasn't quite as good as our fanciest dinner to present at 'The Painted Lady', but it was still really delicious.  I'll be heading there again soon.

 Penelope is really into looking through old pictures, especially ones of Jack and Peter as babies and Ryan and I as young love birds/newlyweds.  She's been the sort to carry around little "treasures" since she was a  wee 9 month old, so these little photo books have become her newest treasure.  Hopefully she'll love looking back at this blog when she's older too.

 I've shown a couple pics of Olive with all her many bags on Instagram before.  But I need to document it on here too.  She piles her favourite books, toys, and even food into these backpacks and tote bags and drags them around the house with her everywhere.  In this particular pic she only has 3, but I've seen her with as many as 6!  Absolute nutter I tell you! 

Here's the girls playing their "baby game".  Olive is always the one pushing since Penelope is too much of a weakling to even budge Olive! Ha.
  I love these wee dresses my sister in-law, Margaret, made for the girls.  When I won the Pegbuddies giveaway I thought it would be a nice idea to have the wee girl pegs in the dresses.  Now we'll always remember how bloomin' cute they looked in them.

I've been on a wee winning streak lately.  But I think it's come to an end now unfortunately.  After I won the pegs of us, I won a brill t-shirt with an artist's illustration on it and then I won these fab letterpress prints!  I am really thrilled with them, as I'd been eyeing them for a while on the company's website.  Nice to not have to buy them!

Bath time 'crazy hair'!  And I'm amazed how dirty these lovelies get...well really only just Olive, but Penelope insists on going in too.  Sometimes 2 baths a day are needed for that girl.

The weather is picking up around here and we've spent a great deal of time at the library lately, which then leads us to the park behind it.  It's funny watching all their wee faces really light up when they are outside with the sun shining.  And mine does too, I seriously can't wait for summer!

 Callie and Zoe came over to visit a couple of weeks ago.  Callie is expecting her second child, a wee boy, that they are going to call Wyatt James.  Zoe is baby crazy like my girls and it was very sweet watching them carry around their dolls and care for them as they played together.  The girls still take one nap most days and usually I send Peter in to wake them up.  He's really good about waking them up gently and not going in screaming at them.  Sometimes he gets in bed along side one of them and starts reading them a book and just has a wee chat for a while until they fully wake up.  Best big brother award.

January 2014

I am mega behind with this old blog, but really, what's new?  January seems so long ago, but it was pretty jam packed and I'm grateful I love to take photos of my wee ones as much as I do.  These photos are helping to keep our fun and crazy memories alive! :) 

First, my boys.  These two.  These photos are favourites of mine.  My heart swells when I look at the happiness on both their faces.  It feels like I tell them to stop annoying each other a lot, but really it's not.  They are the greatest of friends.  I am so happy they have each other.  One day I picked Peter up from school and he jumped into the car shouting, "Guess what, Jack? I made the best picture at school!"  He hadn't even looked to see that, of course, like always, because he's at school, Jack wasn't there.  When I reminded him, he burst into tears and asked me if he'd be home in 5 minutes because he really needed to talk to him.  It's little things like that.  I can see how much they care about one another and I simply love it.

Miss Penelope.  Still my wee darling sidekick, it's a rare thing if she leaves me alone.  On occasion that will kinda drive me batty, but for the most part it's fine.  It's not going to last forever, so I might as well make the most of it, right?!  She has a tender wee heart and is very motherly.  She watches over Olive and the boys.  Always telling Olive, 'No, no, Ollie' when she can see Olive either doing something or about to do something naughty.  She says, "I love you Mummy" in the sweetest way and is still so very fond of her Daddy.  She asks me at least 10 times a day, "where's Daddy, mum?"  And then she freaks out when she hears the garage door opening in the evening because she knows he's home.  

She's happiest when she's: blowing bubbles, at the library, reading a search and find book, being chased through the house by her brothers, playing baby with Olive (she's always the one who sits in the pram while Olive pushes her), skyping with Bailey(the new dog) and Granny, or eating a piece of chocolate.  She loves Daniel Tiger, Yo Gabba Gabba, Peppa, and 'Justin time' more than words can say and I think her brothers are very close to hating all, but one of those programes thanks to her!  

My darlin' Olive.  She's an absolute riot.  Never a dull moment with this girl.  She's the sweetest wee thing.  We say the lines from Rapuzel to each other a lot, "I love you, I love you more, I love you most"...she's always the one who starts it too.  She's a die hard superhero fan, but also very girly.  She like her hair to be fixed and out of her face.  She really loves all the clothes she has because we get them from our sweet friend who's daughter had a lot of pink.  So, now Olive really does too.

  She amazes me with her vocabulary and talks my ear off all day long.  She's quite the opposite of her sister in mostly every way.  It's kinda lovely to have two wonderful and very unique wee girls.

She is constantly saying, "I'm Olive and I LOVE to dance!"  Then she does a crazy dance and asks me to get some music turned on in the kitchen.  That's where we have our dance parties.  

What a doll.  She has me in stitches one minute and then I could tear my hair out the next when I see the mess she's made (it's amazing how much she's like Peter!).

She's happiest when she's:  watching Peter Pan, dancing, giving high-fives, playing hide and seek, dressing up in superhero costumes, eating peas, or sweet pickles, and most importantly playing with her "best brothers".  

She loves Daniel Tiger, Yo Gabba Gabba, Peppa Pig, and ponies.

Big news around our house mid January was that Peter lost his first tooth!  He was utterly horrified at first to be honest, but came around quite quickly when he remembered he'd be more like Jack who has lost many a tooth.

He got to read lots of books about the tooth fairy that night before bed and was so happy with his money the next morning.  He couldn't believe she came and is now constantly pushing on different teeth to see if they're wobbly yet. Heck! 

We got a bit of snow that was great fun for the kids.  School was cancelled for 2 days and they got to play in it to their hearts content.  None of them lasted more than about half an hour at a time though.  It was lovely to take a wee break at home though and just be together, as Ryan was off from work because of it too.

I kinda hate that there is never much, if any plowing going on, but it was nice to slow things down for a few days.

Penelope did not like the snow one bit on the first day, but by the second I couldn't keep her in the house!  I couldn't believe she changed her feelings on it that quickly.

And, well, I didn't expect anything less from Olive really!  Absolute nutter!

Those icicles were amazing!!!!

Before the snow hit, I hit up the Little Bird's 'Chocolate for Congo' fundraiser with some friends in Portland. It was the absolute best chocolate I'd had in a long time.  I wouldn't mind going there for wee day out every other weekend.  It was beautiful to look at as well!

But the best part of the whole day was celebrating Rabbie Burns day with haggis, neeps, and tatties.   I couldn't have been more chuffed that I finally got to go try this wee food cart, and what a perfect day to go!  It was really very good, and I was surprised that a few of my friends really liked it too.

They even had irn bru!  I was too greedy to share this with the rest of the ladies....I quickly bagged it before any of them even noticed! Ha!

Lastly, Ryan has had to work late nights a lot recently and even had to travel down to Medford over night a few times in January for a trial.  He was only gone for one over night trip but these wee ones were so ecstatic when they saw he'd made it back just before they were heading to bed.  It was lovely to see how much they love their dad.  I am glad I captured this moment!