Quinton & Andrea

New Year, new stuff

2012-01-20T09:59:00.001-08:00

OK so its already almost Febuary... So we have had a busy last 6-8 weeks. We have decided that we are pursuing a dream of ours; we plan to purchase some acreage. We have gone from buying a house on acreage to building a house on acreage, and back to buying a house on acreage. We have added up dollars, talked to the bank, talked to our realestate agents... We have our house listed now and just experienced our first weekend full of showings. We recieved positive feedback, but no offers yet (houses just don't sell that fast). We found a house in Ferndale (about 5-10 minutes drive north from our house), that we love, but the seller is not intersted in any offers that are subject to the sale of our house, so we have to wait. Its a little excruitating because we love this other place and we have no control over this situation, our only option is to wait until our house sells. Quinton and I have not been sleeping well, plus a crazy week of snow, means we are tired! Oh well, so is life :) We are excited for this next step in life, we know that this will be a good thing for our family.

The boys have been a little restless this week, the weather has been cold, the ground here is still covered in icy snow. Today was the first day I could get out of our lane with my car... Ben is teething in his LAST TWO MOLARS! He is cranky, but this is the end of teething so I have only positive things to say about it :)

The pictures are from December...

Waiting for Papa to come pick them up.

The Nativity. Mary and Joseph had some improvements. Also their manger was often hi-jacked by Percy and Thomas the trains. You can see him there, eyeing up the shed.

The aquarium. We went there in the beginning of December. The boys had a great time, Quinton hates driving into Vancouver, next time we may leave him at home. Robbie's favorite part was the sharks.

Ben being cheeky as usual.

Zip

2011-12-29T13:59:00.001-08:00

So here we are at the end of 2011. A good year.
I delved into landscape design and fell in love with it. We bought a bigger boat and spent countless hours over the summer on the river. The boys grew several inches and shoe sizes. More of the boys' personalities became apparent. Such as Ben affinty for particular articles of clothing. It started with his crocs that he wore all summer, getting tanned spots on his feet. Then into fall I hid them and he is now obessed with his boots. And now his winter jacket. He speaks in sentances that are blurred together to sound like something other than English although he is sometimes very clear so there is promise. Robbie is becoming more grownup, he and Ben are great friends and often get along very well. They love to play Baby Horses were they crawl around pretending to be horses and we have to pet them and feed them. Robbie is very considerate and kind hearted, although he does like guns and pretending that he is a bad guy.
Ben's birthday was on the 2nd, we took the boys to the aquarium the following week which they loved. Robbie loved the sharks, Ben almost killed an exotic butterfly the size of his face by grabbing it.
Yesterday was Quinton's 30th Birthday! So thats somethin', a good way to end the year I suppose. Next year should be a good one, we hope.

Birthday boy Ben!

The rest of the picture are off of my phone, taken since September when I got it. Its a good compilation of what we have been up to all fall.
Hiking with Ben.

Still so green. This is the bug on the way to the bluff behind my mom's house. It has been there for-ever.

Visiting my grandparents (kitty grandma and grandpa). They have cats running around and Ben and Robbie got to play with some kittens. Ben was not the gentlest, but it was so cute.

Biking in Heritage Park with Lisa, Marin and Isabel. Robbie was digging for gold in the hole.

Not gold, better yet he found a worm.

We had such amazing fall colour this year. Everywhere I went I thought wow the trees are beautiful. The Katsura trees by my regular shopping were splendid.

Helping Kitty Grandpa rake leaves.

Foggy walk at Hayward Lake.

How mysterious...

Christmas tree time!

Karen has the sweetest cat, he dosn't mind a lot of attention.

Robbie testing his binoculars (occuculars, as he calls them) he got for Christmas.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T08:16:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Posts have been lacking lately, this I know. We have been busy, I will do one soon. I have lots of pics on my new phone from Fall til now, I just have to figure out how to upload them onto the computer...

Thanks and Remembrance

2011-11-16T15:48:00.000-08:00

I havn't talked much about Thanksgiving or Remembrance day. We didn't do anything unduly special on those days, but I still think about the reason behind these holidays, and today more so I guess. I got a special package in the mail today. My grandpa's book. His story of growing up a Mennonite in the Ukraine. I am sitting on my couch listening the crazy cold rain falling, my house in a mess as usual, but I am warm and cozy and happy. I can't help but think of my Oma, my great grandma, and how very very different it was for her. I look around and my children have toys, warm clothes, diapers, good food to eat. I wish I could go back in time to when she was struggling alone (Opa was taken by the communists for a time) to raise her children, I can't even imagine how hard it must have been. Imposibly hard for so many reasons. I wish I could go back in time and tell her that it would be okay, tell her that she was strong, that she would come to Canada and her children, and her great-grandchildren would be happy and safe. Sometimes I think my life is hard, but it isn't. I am blessed, very blessed. So as I remember my Oma through my grandpa's words, I am thankful, thankful that she and my grandpa had the courage and strenth that they did/do. I just hope that I have the strength to follow in their footsteps and be strong for my family.

Birthday Boy!

2011-11-05T17:01:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Robbie!!

Robbie's birthday was last tuesday. We went to Mcdonalds for lunch, the boys had a blast playing in the play-place. We went to the park with Lisa and Jaime and their kiddies. After Robbie's nap we went down to the bike store and met Oma, Papa and Uncle Carl and Robbie got to pick out his peddle bike. He got a great bike, it is much bigger than his run bike so I thought he would be intimidated by it, but he hopped right on and rode it all over the store. We went home and I made waffles. The big birthday party for the boys is in two weeks.

Halloween was right before Robbie's birthday and Lisa hosted a great Halloween party. The kids had a blast, we trick or treated down their street. It was great fun watching the kids in their costumes :) Ben even allowed me to dress him up as a dragon for trick-or-treating. Robbie was a chicken. I took him to Old Navy a while ago so he could pick out a costume, they had a great shark costume, a cute monster costume, but he really wanted the chicken costume. Go figure. He also would not pose for a picture... these are the best I got.

I dressed up as a fox, i figure it went with the chicken and I had the ears and tail from last year as Mrs Fantastic Fox. The kids refused to take a picture with us, this pic was curtosy of Lisa btw.

This and that

2011-10-23T13:05:00.001-07:00

What have we been up to lately? Not too much. I feel like I have finally emerged from a fog of exhaustion from the last few months (or years). Ben has started sleeping through the night again and wow what a difference sleeping eight hours in a row makes. So I am feeling better, tackling some of my projects that are on my list. Robbie's birthday is just around the corner so I am planning a party for the boys for November, which is promising to be a busy month - in a good way. I have the birthday party (hopefully on the 19th), my mom and I are doing a class at a Yoga conference, and I am taking a workshop at the end of the month on digital painting by these guys http://www.imaginismstudios.com/ for which I am really excited about! My parents took the boys last weekend and Quinton and I went Sturgeon fishing. And did not catch any. It was a gorgeous day to be out on the river so it was hardly a waste of a day. Gotta start somewhere. We saw lots getting caught, which was cool, Quinton saw one jump that he swears was 15 long. I didn't see it.
The boys are doing great. Ben is talking in leaps and bounds even though he is almost impossible to understand. He loves trains. He wakes up in the morning and demands to watch "trains!". We have toy track in the basement that he builds and unbuilds all day long. Robbie is getting so grown up, he has been through such a growth spurt lately he is growing out of all his pants (length wise only). He is such a worker and is always 'doing my work". "Don't bug me mom, I'm doing my work". I hear it a lot :)
Thanksgiving weekend we had treat and our friends Jonathan and Laura came out from Cranbrook with their two boys. We hadn't seen them in almost two years, not since right after Ben was born. It was so nice to see them and they have the two sweetest little boys. Riley is a year younger then Robbie, and Braydon is a year and a bit younger then Ben. Riley and Robbie played so well together it was wonderful to see :) It is so nice to know that even though we don't see them often, it doesn't matter, we can still get together and have a great time :) Hopefully when the boys are bigger we can make some trips out to visit them.

The four boys, Braydon is the only one who was actually looking in the camera for the pictures I took.

This is called stink bait - a dead pink salmon. Yummy for sturgeon! And yes Quinton did harvest some and hook it to his hook.

Drinking tea, enjoying the sunshine on the river! Have I mentioned I love our boat? Best impulsive purchase ever!

Dead salmon. Funny how this sight is nostalgic to me, and the smell :)

Robbie hiking, we went looking for mushrooms.

Me and the boys playing around waiting for Quinton to get back from his scourge of the hillside.

This little guys was covered in frost on our way up the path, on the way back it was thawing out and moving around a little.

A conglomerate of events

2011-10-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

I don't want to believe that it is October today. I want summer back!! Of course I love fall, the smells, the foggy mornings, the crispness, its lovely. But I miss the hot sun already, I hate rainy days were I am in a fatigue fog and can't think of anything to keep the boys from going crazy.
Anyways... We have not been up to too much. Quinton has been fishing, we went to Kelowna with Raegan, Ainsley and their girls (which was great). I've been tired.... I've been hiking with the boys a couple times (one of my favorite things to do in fall). They are such good little hikers! They did so well. We went up Bear Mtn here in Mission, which is a downhill mountain biking trail, so the trail is full of drops, rocks, and roots, and they loved it! Scrambling over roots and rocks, they would follow Maggie off the trail and rummage through the ferns and over logs. It was great, I am thrilled that they are big enough for us to enjoy that together. And they need the exercise.
Kelowna was great. We were gone for five nights, Robbie didn't want to come home. I never knew you could feel so relaxed with five little kids running around and hardly any sleep. But it was really great. The weather was perfect! We went swimming and boating. Celebrated my niece Lauren's 2nd birthday. We are so fortunate that Robbie and Ben have such fun cousins to play with their age.
On a sad note, we (mostly I) have not been on the river forever... It just isn't nice on the weekends and it gets dark early these days making a weekday excursion tricky. I miss you river...
On a frivolous note I went shopping last sunday and got some awesome deals on boots for fall. The styles they have out right now are FABULOUS! I have been waiting my whole life for boots like these to be in style. I got an awesome pair of over the knee, riding like boots. And an amazing pair of gum boots. And some shoes to wear to my sisters wedding. Also I got a new phone. A smart phone, with a touch screen, I feel ever so technological. I even have the theme song to Game of Thrones as my ring tone, makes me smile every time! Small pleasures I guess...
Anyways enjoy the pictures!

Fish fish fish. We have a full fillet of this beauty of a red spring in our freezer, it is huge, Quinton and I preen a little when we see it.

We went to Connie Peters for a pony party (I guess that was end of August, beginning of Sept) Robbie and Ben both had a blast. They love horses.

Ben riding a donkey.Then Robbie got to ride a big horse, oh my how he grinned. He loved it! He was thrilled to ride Cherokee. Even holding the riens. I love this pic because he has such great posture :)

Connie had two kittens who were the friendliest cats ever, Ben loved them!! He loves cats.

Kelowna:

Dangling feet off the back of the boat.

We even saw the northern lights! Only the second time I have ever seen them in my life.

Kids playing in the bunk of the boat. (bunk?)

Ben helping daddy drive, a highlight for him I'm sure. He is a funny boy. He needs you acknowledge him when he has something to say or else he just gets louder and louder!

Here he is pointing out something of interest. He's not upset, just animated.

So many mansions along Okanagan Lake, this one is my favorite, it has a growing roof. You can look down on it from the road and most of what you see looks like a garden.

Huge mansion under construction, probobly the most impressive.

Star gazing.

All the kids.

Lauren had her birthday while we were there so Camille made these hearts for her to make it more festive. Such a sweetie.

Crazy cuddler.

Birthday girl.Sunset over the lake. I love the Okanagan.

Camping

2011-09-05T11:49:00.000-07:00

When we were kids my parents would take us to Lightening Lake in Manning Park everywhere. Needless to say it has always been one of my favorite places. The lake is beautiful, the air smells so wonderful, there are lots of great hiking trails. Mom and Dad purchased a trailer this summer, so we thought it would be fun to go on a family camping trip since Melissa and Mark were coming out for a bit anyways. So we went for two nights (mom and dad stayed three nights) we stayed in a tent in the campsite across the way. The kids did amazingly well sleeping in a tent, they slept far better than I did, even though the nights were chilly. Robbie and Ben had so much fun, Robbie rode his bike so much and Ben rode his little fisher price quad. Ben became obsessive with it and that was all he wanted to do - ride ride ride! And he is a bit of a mad man on it and aims for all the bumps, hills and obstacles... Thankfully Mark (and everyone else too) took the boys all over the place, so Quinton and I could relax. Robbie developed a bit of hero worship towards his newest uncle, Quinton and I felt a little guilty taking advantage of it... Quinton and Mark climbed Mt Frosty, I would have loved to have had the energy to join them, but alas it would have killed me in my sleep-deprived-out-of-shape. It was so nice to spend so much time as a family, something we have not done for a long long time. Everyday should start with a walk to the lake :) The boys loved spending all their time outdoors. It was a great (but short) trip.

View of Strike Lake and Lightening lake from the trail up Mt Frosty.

Mark walking through the Larch meadows.

Apparently (if I heard this correctly) some the Larchs are around 2000 years old. I was very disapointed that I didn't get to see them, I love trees and old trees are very special.

Abby, Mark and Quinton, at the top.

Click on picture to see it bigger.

Eating fruit loops. A camping tradition of ours is eating sugary junk cereal for breakfast.

Mark plunging into the cold water, it was the only way to go as it was sooo cold that was the only way to get yourself to do it.

Quinton.

Ben looks happy in this post-dunk, but he was actaully not happy about the cold water.

All of us together, just for the record I had to fight to get this family shot, but they unwillingly oblidged :)

Playing catch-up

2011-08-22T18:52:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we got back from a great weekend of camping. I was wanting to do a blog last week so that when I got back from camping I could just share all those pictures, however that never happened so I will be doing a blog soon about camping... hopefully.
Sooo... In July we had our anniversary. We were spoiled and had two weekends where grandparents took the boys!!! Yay! BIG THANKYOUS ALL AROUND! Grandpa Tom and Baba took the boys one night. We were going to go rock climbing, but it rained :( So we went for a good old fashioned rain hike. We went up centenial trail (all my idea) to the big trees. There were so-so-so many mosquitos... (that was the beginning of July). We got drenched because it was really raining, didn't take any pictures because we couldn't stop without literally being eaten alive. Then the next weekend my parents took the boys for two nights so we could celebrate our 10th anniversary. We went up Grouse Mtn for dinner, got terrible seats in the restaruant with the view, ate very expensive food that didn't taste great, but it was fun :) Then the next day we went up Harrison, ate breakfast ate the Hotel and spent the day on the boat. It was two days of pure relaxation :) A colon smiley face doesn't do it justice.
Other then that I can not remember what we have been doing. We seem to be busy, we have lots going on, I have so many projects I want to do and am in the process of doing. Should be a busy rest of the summer and soon to be fall... Anyways camping blog soon to come.

Robbie being a hippie and playing his guitar while cloud gazing.

One of these is not like the other...

River fun.

Diggin' holes.

Getting river muddy.

The blankie goes everywhere....

Robbie camping with Quinton on the river.

Life is good

2011-07-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

Last thursday was our 10th wedding anniversary! Its a pretty amazing feeling to hit that mark. Ten years is a long time and I feel very blessed to have them. Marriage is a wonderful institution, with ten years that was gone by so fast I feel like a lifetime wouldn't be enough... so I will take what I get with the wonderful man who is my partner in life :) Quinton you are the greatest gift, without you I wouldn't be who I am today, and I would not have the two most beautiful boys in the world! You are the yin to my yang ;)

This is us on our honeymoon.

Camping at Adam's lake.Quinton the vampire... Don't ask me why I like this one, but I do.Just after we moved to Mission.One of our many mountain biking adventures...

Hawaii for our 5th anniversary.Quinton losing chess to a pregnant girl... The one and only time I beat him.Us with Robbie who is about 6 months old here.

Our family when Robbie was one year old.Us at Harrison. I only had a suspesion at the time, but I was pregnant with Benjamin.Our 8th Anniversary, out on the river. I am about 5 months pregnant here.Last picture of a family of three - four if you count maggie :)Our family all complete :)Dressing up for Halloween Mr. and Mrs. Fantastic Fox.Our only camping trip last year as a whole family, at Stave Lake.
Us at Harrison river in May sometime.

So I guess that's ten years in a nutshell.

Only one complaint....

2011-07-11T17:10:00.000-07:00

mosquitoes.... We have them in drones. Ben looks like a victim of chicken pox. They come in the sun, persistent in the wind, blood thirsty little pests. We purchased a large supply of natural bug spray and lotion, and a sun tent with mesh sides that fits perfectly on the deck, it works well, without it we would be stuck either in the house, or smelling like citronella all summer... or at least until the river goes down (I have no confidence that it will be soon). Anyways...
My sister Melissa is engaged!!! We are very excited, she and Mark are getting married out here next summer. They are coming out in August for a visit and we get to go wedding dress shopping :) Also I had a birthday. I am now 28. I have arrived at the opinion that getting old is a privilege, a good thing :) And in less than two weeks from now it is our 10th wedding anniversary! WOOT! Life is good.

Summer shave for Maggie.
We have been spending lots of time at Stave Lake, since the river is high. It is beautiful up there, we have been up there almost every weekend.

Robbie, Isabel, and Papa Peter (hunting for deer, as Robbie claimed)

Lisa and Marin.

Oma and Ben looking at a tiny flower, Ben loves flowers :) and trees.

Canada we were in the Mt Lehman Parade. Robbie rod Joyce's mini pony Tushodi. It was fun.

Lisa, Joyce and Isabel (and Tankini the pony).

Robbie riding Tushodi. I took him off after the picture because Tushodi was a little nervous with the fire trucks in the background and the general hubbub. The last thing I wanted was Robbie falling off and Robbie doesn't ride very often. Tushodi did do very well, not being that used to parades.Happy Canada Day! This is what we saw later on Canada Day. How perfect :) An Osprey in its nest.

It wasn't so fond of us lurking around.

Chillin' with Dad.

Givin' up the crawl

2011-06-03T15:12:00.000-07:00

Yep Benjamin is walking!! Yesterday he turned 18 months, and he started walking about a week ago, and now he does not crawl at all to get around. Yeah!! Sometimes he even refuses to hold my hand (I knew that was coming).
So as I sit here, the boys are napping, they have been for some time and will wake any minute so I am trying to make this fast. Uploading pictures took awhile... internet explorer crashed several times... I was out in my garden cleaning up tulips and weeding. I came to see that "some colour" I was hoping to get on my pale arms is in fact a burn, already feircly visable. Ah well. I need to buy some sunscreen me thinks.
This past weekend the boys went to my parents, had a great time, there wasn't even time to play with Oma's playmobil! Quinton and I had a lovely time. We went out for dinner, ate lots. Then the next day we went in the boat up the harrison river. It was beautiful, that river is etching out a place in my heart next to the fraser. The water is so blue! Even though it is high, much much higher then last time, it didn't have the feirceness that the Fraser has right now. We saw the picographs which has been on my to-do list for forever. We hiked up sasquatch rock (or point?) ate lunch at the top. We went up the river to the lake, it got windy, we turned back, it was not lovely sailing due to the wind, but we had a great time. All and all a good time with no kids :)

Eating cookies on the couch. Yeah I know letting them eat chocolate cookies on the couch is not a good idea. You just can't set these pictures up... Woohoo! Look at Ben's hair! I love it. Eating popcorn, their FAVORITE! again on the couch... just the way it is at our house.

Robbie being a sweet brother and keeping Ben from getting cabin fever in his highchair waiting for lunch.

The rest are from the Harrison... no kids.

Picotgraphs.

You don't really get a sense of the overhang of the cliff here, but it was very dramatic. Aron Ralston quoted a mountaineer in his book that was in my mind as we hiked around the place: "geological time includes now".

I played around with the pictures trying to make the pictogrphs come up as much as possible, not sure I was that successful.

Maggie enjoying herself. As far as I know she was just rolling in the moss.

The bluff was a kind of micro-climate that had plants that you don't see often around here. This one I deduced at the time (lamenting the fact that I forgot my native plant book) as a camas. I looked up today and I think it is the Death Camas - cool. It was very pretty and luckily I did not have a desire to lick it.The view towards Mission, down river I suppose. Last time it was just a single channel.

I have been trying to identify these guys and I think the blue flower is a small flower penstemen, the white one as far as I could conclude is some sort of wild pink. Wish I had had my book.

Sasquatch rock from the river.

We went to where the fraser meets the harrison. Man the Fraser was UGLY. We stayed in the nice friendly blue water. The pictures again don't really give you a feeling of the churnning muddiness of the Fraser, there was so much debris and everything was really moving fast.

Awesome, I did that without the boys waking up! Time to make waffles.

Green

2011-05-28T15:13:00.000-07:00

Every thing is so green. I guess the rain is good for something. I walked out of the grocery store today and it was sunny, I could not see and my eyes were burning because they were not used to the sun... not funny. Anyway we have not been up to too much, when the weather is nice we go outside. The boys love being outside and they are much happier boys for it. I love watching them get dirty in the back yard, there is something wholesome about scrubbing mud off their hands and feet in the bath tub at the end of the day. I think that is how childhood is supposed to be! I got my garden planted up, many of my plants I planted in fall died, I didn't mulch them very well. I am so pleased with my tulips, I planted two big costco bags last fall and they look fabulous! They are looking a little beaten now, we have had crazy rain and hail the last couple days.
Robbie and Ben are doing great. Ben is almost 18 months old now, and only in the last few days has he really started walking more by himself. He only walks about 60% of the time, he is getting there. It is amazing how much he understands now and can communicate, he still doesn't really have any words. His own language is starting to get closer to ours, in the car the other day he said "I want milk" it didn't quite sound like that but you could tell that was what he was saying. He knows nap time and bed time, which he does not like. Robbie is Mr Imagination, it is so much fun to have conversations with him about the things he comes up with.
I have to wrap this up and get the boys ready to go up to Oma and Papa's for night (yeah!). Robbie has been asking me everytime we go up to my mom's if he can stay for night, it is so convenient that he loves it :) Grandparents are awesome!

Robbie climbing the gravel pile at the pond.

Little tiny cones on a Tsuga.
Vine maple blooms.

Ben pointing at the camera man. I requested a picture of myself 'cause I often end up taking most of the pictures so I am never in them.

I promised Robbie we would bake cookies only to realize I didn't have any butter. So we made a box cake instead and Robbie was very excited to decorate it and blow out candles.Silly boy.

Mucking in the backyard.

Purple tulips.

"I just doing my work" He is building a house.

Hostas

More hostas. My single flower on my Fothergilla. I love this little guy, I love having plants in my garden that I just love and get excited about. This is one of my favs. Next in line is my Stewartia, my contorted filbert and my black fountain grass. I had a dream the other night about a big beautiful Stewartia, their bark is so beautiful.Lady's mantle.

Ben walking and looking proud.

Mucking on the river. The river is now too high for any beach and too full of logs. The snow hasn't even started melting yet....

Green!

Plants and other things

2011-05-05T07:15:00.000-07:00

Life has been much quieter since school ended. Unfortunatly the day after exams I got a cold and have been waylaid by that for the last two and a half weeks. The boys got it too, so we have all been tired and dealing with runny noses. The last week has been better, the sunshine feels so good when it comes out. Ben is teething again I think, eye-teeth this time. He has been running a temperture, but he might also have the flu which has been going around. I have read two great books! Totally different literary spectrums... First one was 'Between a rock and hard place' by Aron Ralston. His accounts of how he fell into a Utah canyon and got his hand crushed by a rock. He was there for six days until he finally cut his own hand off with a dull knife and walked 8 miles out of the canyon. An amazing story, he also talks about his mountaineering and the many crazy stories of a adreniline junky. It was really good. The other book was historical fiction/fantasy by my favorite author Juliet Marillier, her new book which I have been waiting for four months to read. It is about a young druid in training and I love the connection she writes about people and nature, the elements. I wish I had more time to read books. Anyways that was a bit of a tangent...

Easter weekend was lovely. We went out in the boat two days in a row, the weather was great. Day one was the Fraser River, day two was up the Harrison. I wanted to find the pictographs but the river was too low, we couldn't get onto the beach.
Ben loves the river. When we drive over the bridge he can see a glimpse of the river and gets excited and jabbers on about it. It is very cute :) Quinton was playing with the boys in the boat (in the garage), Ben wanted to put his life jacket on and wore it the whole time they were playing in the boat. Ben is still not walking!! He can walk, he loves to walk around if you hold his hand, he even runs holding your hand. But he won't walk on his own...
Last weekend we did not go out on the river, I went to Darts Hill Garden in Surrey with my professor, another person from my plant id class and another horticulturist (the garden guide). We toured the old garden originally started by a couple in the 1940's who bequethed it to the city of surrey when they retired. The wife started many of the plants from seed, there are many spiecies rhodendron and many other lovely mature specimen trees. It was sooo much fun! It made me wish for more room to plant lots of lovely specimen trees... A lot just doesn't have room for them all. I did pick up a fothergilla, a new favorite of mine, which will work well in my small garden.

Trying to remember what else I was going to say... Think that was it, time to go make biscuits!

Robbie making easter eggs!

Ben playing peek-a-boo.

The best picture we have of me and the boys...

The sun was warm, but the fresh snow was a reminder that winter is still trying its best to stick around....

The new leaves of the cottonwoods were so yellow.

Ben loved playing in the rocks at the Harrison. He had a ball.

I love love love our new boat. An old wreck.

http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG8nsf8q5lg

Here is a link to a video of Robbie casting his fishing rod. Quinton gave him a 15 min lesson and he was a natural. He picked up the rod days latter with no refresher and still had suprising accuracy.

done.

2011-04-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

So I am done my school. Yesterday was my last exam and I am proud to say that I memorized 160 plants! Latin names, common names and families. The last three and a half months have gone by quickly and have been completely exhausting. I am looking forward to having my free time back! And I say that relativly :) Although I have a long list of things I want to do - spring cleaning is at the top of the list. I already got started on that by washing my floors this morning (and by floors I mean the floor and up to child finger hieght on the walls). Anyways. School was fun, I enjoyed being busy and getting out of the house. I love love love what I have learned so far about landscaping. I loved my plant id course and I will miss it... I could not have done it without Quinton, who is my constant support! And my parents who often take Robbie and Ben for night letting Quinton and I have a night (and restful morning) to ourselves. And the boys love going to Oma and Papa's! It's such a blessing. So what is new in the Gibb house-hold you ask? We got a new boat! Yes a couple weeks back we sold our flatbottom jet boat and got a new one (see picture below). I love it. The weather has been poor, Quinton and I did get out once without the boys to test it out. We are planning to go sturgeon fishing soon - hopefully! Quinton and I have both been dreaming about it at night, which makes me laugh. Robbie has been doing really great with his potty training and is now totally out of diapers and pullups. We still have some challenges to overcome, but he is doing so great! He is such a great kid, but he needs a lot of stimulation, sometimes I find it challenging (especially being so tired) to find things to do that keep him busy. We went swimming to the pool (just Robbie, Ben and I - interesting expereince), we try to go for walks to the park and up at Oma's. We have had a couple nice warm days and it was so nice to sit in the backyard and watch the boys happily play away. I am sooo looking forward to more of those days! Benjamin is still not walking. He can walk and does, but he still crawls most of the time. So outside he gets very dirty... That boy is so determined. I thought Robbie was a determined child, but Benjamin is ridiculous. He gets into everything! If he falls on his bum and hurts himself he cries (loudly!) and goes and tries it again. And again. He is such a sweetie though, he is so cudly. He talks a lot, he always has, but doesn't have very many real words yet (at least that I can understand) but he does say 'mama' and a version of that that I think means Robbie. I woke up the other morning to "mama? mama?" it was very loud and made me smile. I know this is long but it has been a while....

The new boat!

Robbie is obsessed with bad guys. He chases them, sometimes he pretends to be the bad guys with his axe. Bad guys and horses. He pretends to be horse most of the time too.

Urgh. I woke up (was it thursday) and it was white outside and the snow was falling so heavly... Robbie was excited to shovel the snow and make a snow man....

They are hugging and wrestling. Usually ends with Robbie getting bitten.

Busy gets busier

2011-03-16T13:29:00.000-07:00

Ok so this going to be written really quickly.
I have four weeks left of classes and then exams. Almost done! I think it will be a crunch before the end, but I can see it! It has gone by quickly, I have enjoyed it, but I am looking forward to the end.

I realized it has been a month since our last post... we are doing great, but I really don't have time for this, soooo enjoy the pictures...

Robbie trying out for the "Cirque"

I think its funny how they are both holding each other's handles.

They love thier blankies. Below Robbie is showing Ben how to lie it out flat to lie on.

Oh yeah, we did get some snow...

We built snowmen, its been a long time since I made a snow man...

Busy

2011-02-13T16:09:00.001-08:00

So life has been busy - or still is busy.
Finally got photoshop on our computer so I feel like it is worth while to do a post.
School is going great, I am enjoying my classes immensly! Even if it is exhausting... It is only until April, and this week I have midterm exams so that means I am almost half way done! Crazy.
Benjamin has had a hard time these past five days teething. He is getting molars (three are in the works that I can see), he has had a high tempreture, which is gone now thank goodness. He has hardly eaten anything, although yesterday and today have been better. Now he has a rash all over from the fever, he looks speckled. He has been a little happier today, but he is still pretty miserable.
Robbie has been peeing on the potty! This is very exciting because potty training with him has been far from easy. But he is doing great now! We took a great idea from a friend and are giving Robbie stickers everytime he pees, he then gets to put them on a chart and when he gets a certain amount he gets playmobil! He is very excited about this which is great because he is not a reward based child. He will not do things for rewards but he will for playmobil. He is set on getting the same playmobil as his friend Isabel, which is one of the most expensive sets there are :P Robbie came up with the notion that what goes down the toliet goes out into the ocean and then is eaten by sharks - that means that sharks like to eat little boy pee and poop, he feels it is his duty to go on the potty so the sharks don't get hungry. We decided to run with the idea so if you hear Robbie talking about sharks eating pee you know why we chose not to correct him :)
OK I have to go figure out something to make for supper.... Enjoy some random pictures:

Robbie is a natural with the "top jaw noose"

Benjamin the cuddle bug.

Already a pro.

A regular occurance in our house. Ben in the fridge... If its not the fridge its the garbage, or the dog water, or the bathroom garbage.

My little climber. He climbs everything!

Welcome 2011

2011-01-09T09:42:00.000-08:00

A New Year. We have a busy couple of months ahead of us as I am going to school! I am taking some landscape design related classes. The plan is to do some landscape design to augument my mothering. I am so glad I have this oppurtunity to do this because I love it and I am soo excited about it. Landscaping, plants, nature, all things that I have always loved, or more like craved in my life. I read an interesting excerp from one of my instructors about the evolution of people, and that some people are genically hardwired to identify plants better then others. I don't know if that is true, but it seems like there are a lot of gardeners in my family, the Mennonites were farmers, connected to the land so to speak, there does seem to be something in the blood! So I am excited about it. So that will be a change in our life, hopefully for the better.

Quinton is busy because it snowed! More snow is in the forecast so we will see how this week goes.

The boys are as boys are: busy. They keep me on my toes, for sure. Benjamin's favorite thing right now is to get into the garbage. He pulls things out and starts eating them, diapers, bannana peels etc. Its great. So I always have one ear open for him, if I can't hear him, it means he is getting into something. He has been teething lately, two at once, his poor gums look so sore, a couple more days and he will be done for now, I think. Robbie is so sweet, well they both are very sweet boys, I am very lucky. Robbie always talks about Ben as his special brother. He always shares his snacks with him, asking me if its okay first. He thanks me at dinner almost everynight for making him "this special dinner". Robbie always wants to help me out, or show me the best way to do something - har har! The other day we were drawing together and he told me his squiggles were names. I offered to show him how to write his name, he promtly pointed to his lines and siad "I did, its right there." Yeah mommy, common. Okay thats it for now. Enjoy the snow!

So we still do not have any photo editing software on our computer, so I put up some pictures from awhile back...

Belated Greetings

2011-01-04T14:53:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
The new year is already in full swing, we have lots of things going, one of which is updating our computer. We have no photo editing software on the computer yet, so I can't upload any pictures. I will soon, as well as an update on our holiday and our plans for the new year... i know you can't wait!

Andrea's Pre-Christmas Post

2010-12-18T13:14:00.000-08:00

Another blog I read did this and thought it was fun... Even if it makes me seem quite consumeristic... which I try not to be. Here we go:

Andrea's Favorite Things: Things (yes things, not people, places etc) that make my life a little easier and put a smile on my face... Not in any particular order.

Kermode Wines: A local award winning winery in Mission here that makes wild berry wines, and they are amazing!! They even have Salal berry wine, and Oregan Grape wine amoung many others. And if you go there they are super friendly and let you try any wine you want. They are very reasonably priced. My favorites so far are their Black berry wine and their Black Cap Raspberry wine.

My Ipod. I listen to this all the time in the car, when the battery dies I cry a little because I don't have a car charger.

I absolutely love the Twilight soundtracks, there were only three songs out of all three albums I didn't like. Really good off the beaten track kind of music! Listen the them all the time (on my ipod :) )

My big super sharp knife, makes cooking sooo much better! I hate hate using dull knives..

Lepps Farm Market on the corner of Clayburn Rd and the Abby-Mission Highway. They have such a great selection of meats and they are all antibiotic-free. They are a little more expensive, but well worth the quality. They have a great selection of local and organic produce and other yummy stuff.

My Favorite book, by my favorite author, Juliet Marillier, she is amazing. If you are looking for some books to read, look no further. They are really good.

Okay that's all, I know there's no update on the boys... Trust me they are keeping me busy despite the frivolous nature of my post :)

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

2010-12-02T15:17:00.000-08:00

So I started this blog on Ben's birthday, but for reasons beyond my control it didn't get done til today :)

Thursday was Benjamin's birthday. He even got me up in morning at the right time, I looked at the clock and it said 4:15, he was born at 3:59 one year ago. He is such a pleasure in our lives, he has his own very distinct personality which becomes more clear to us every day, we are so blessed to have him in our family :)

I really love having boys (i know i know, if I had girls I am sure I would say I love having girls :) ). They are just so silly! Benjamin hasn't got to the "watch me" stage yet, but I am sure he will get there. Robbie always says that and then goes on to show me an amazing side kick out of nowwhere, or he says "I'm going to fall down," and then does it, kicks his feet out and falls on the ground. Why? who knows. But it sure makes me laugh. Some funny Robbie phrases lately have been:

"The sun is trying to get into my eyes."

"I'm just opening my mouth so some air can get in there."

Shwoing me his long rubber snake "Is this nate real?" Then sounding slightly disappointed: "Why not?"

He also showers us all with kisses and hugs regularily through out the day. Such a cutie. Benjamin already gives kisses too, but they are pretty slobery!

So here are some of my favorite Ben pictures from the past year...

Tea Time!

2010-11-20T16:52:00.000-08:00

This is the invitation for Robbie and Ben's birthday party that we had last sunday for them at our house. Since their birthdays are close (just one month appart) I thought that puting more effort into one party made more sense then doing two seperate affairs. We had tea and sandwiches, and a snake cake to finish it off. We built a box castle in the basement for the kids to run around in, I am so thankful for our downstairs, we may have a low ceiling but that extra play room is invaluble! So I think the kids had fun, Robbie and Ben had fun, so all in all I think it was a successful party. I wish I had taken more pictures of the decorations and all the kids, but I was too busy, and its hard to get good pictures with a flash anyways. Thankyou everyone who came and for the help and lovelly gifts!!

Robbie in his top hat. I made felt top hats for all the bigger kids with trinkets that velcroed on.
Meredith looking very sweet and looking for her lost puppy.
She found him!

Robbie's room was a scene of some sort of natural disaster...

Opening presents.

The snake cake. I wanted it to look like the snake on the invite, in case you are wondering how the tea cup and bow tie fit it.

Birthday boys. Ben was gettnig tired at this point.

Cake time!

Waiting patiently for a clean up.

These are not from the birthday party, but are just to cute not to share :)

Happy Birthday Robbie

2010-11-02T19:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Robbie's 3rd birthday. We celebrated with waffles. Robbie loves waffles (who doesn't). It is so amazing to see him growing up, he is an amazing kid, I see so much of Quinton and myself in him which makes me think that our creator has given us an amazing gift. First he gives as the gift of each other, a person to love, confide in, find comfort with, then we get to create this little person who is an amazing mixture of both of us, with bits and peices of other people we love sprinkled in. It is truly amazing :) Time goes fast which makes me sad, but on the other hand I do look forward to watching him grow up, seeing the type of person he becomes, what he will want to do, be interested in etc.
Benjamin is such a character as well, he is crawling all over the place now and is very eager to stand up and walk. When you hold his hands he tries to jump and run rather then walk. He loves playing with Robbie's little cars, he will hold the car in one hand and push it around the floor while crawling with the other hand, he will do this for quite a while, making lots of noises. I have noticed there are a lot of similarities between Robbie and Ben, Ben is into all the same things that Robbie was into at the same age. The fridge, the dishwasher, the dog water (favorite), the vacuum, the baby gate, but I have noticed one big difference which I find interesting. Robbie would always always crawl over to Maggie and immediatly crawl onto her tummy and pull her fur with both hands. Ben loves Maggie, but he crawls over to her and touches her just a little bit on the paw or nose, and then leaves her alone. No hair pulling at all, which is odd because he loves pulling hair (mine, Robbie's and Quinton's).
We haven't been up to much lately because we have been sick. I have had a persistant cough for a week and a half, and yesterday I woke up with very sore tight ribs, so today I went to the chiropractor for the first time in nearly ten years. I just hope it gets better soon, beacuse now everytime I cough it feels like I am being stabbed in the ribs.
We had a great halloween on sunday, we all dressed up and went to Lisa's halloween party. Quinton and I went as Mr. and Mrs. Fantastic Fox which was fun, Robbie was Wild THing Max from Where the Wild Things Are, one of his favorite books. Ben wore a monkey hat, I knew he would be unhappy in the whole costume. We went trick or treating for about 2 or 3 blocks around Lisa and Erik's place in Mission here and got tons of candy. People in Mission seem to be very generous!

We made grape juice with all our extra grapes (there were lots and lots) thanks to Rachel for the lend of the juice steamer! It worked great.

Robbie slept in this basket when we brought him home from the hospital...

We went on the river last weekend because it was kinda nice and we hadn't been for so long. It was a little chilly but still nice - well worth the effort of getting out.

yeah we didn't want Maggie to roll in it... Oh she wanted too!

Thanksgiving...

2010-10-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I am so thankful that I live in Canada, I know its not perfect, but I am so thankful to live here, for so many reasons which I won't get into right now... I did something on saturday that I never thought I would do: I made a turkey dinner (well it was a chicken but its pretty much the same thing right?) with stuffing and everything. I never thought I would make stuffing, but we had some Chanterelles that I thought would make an awesome stuffing. I want to be that kind of mom and wife who makes wholesome home baked stuff for their families, not everyday mind you, but enough to be good at it :)

We have been out picking Chanterelles lately, lots of them. They are delicious and freeze well so we are freezing a bunch. It has been lovelly to go out hiking this time of year, I love love love the forest, its so pretty! The smell of the wet moss and all the different kinds of mushrooms sprouting up everywhere. Robbie has gotten into mushroom hunting too and gets excited when he finds some, he can now tell the difference between a fungus and a mushroom :P He picks it and immediatly starts cleaning off the dirt, just like daddy. Sometimes I wonder about that boy, he is such his father's son, he always points out messes and dirt, he was concerned about getting a piggy back ride because his shoes were muddy : "but daddy I will get you all dirty!" he says. He also came up to me the other day gives me a hug around my legs and says "Nice clean house mommy!" I mean honestly... I keep telling Quinton to be prepared for Benjamin to be the complete opposite. Robbie does take after me in the sense that he always says to me "I'm hungry." I think I tortured my mother with that phrase all my childhood... so the wheel turns :)

Ben is crawling all over the place, still more of a scoot then a real crawl but he is mobile! He doesn't play with baby toys any more, he plays with Robbie's trucks and diggers, the baby montior is his favorite, and the dog water. Also he has five teeth now and is getting a sixth.

WE also spent some time in the garden. I wanted to do some cleaning up. I can't do so many perrenials anymore, it is just too much work and I don't have time. I love our backyard because we have mostly grasses there that look great, so I decided to do the same in the front. So Quinton and I dug everything out, and put in grasses. We are not quite done yet, will post some pics when its done. anyways...

So cute and so poisonous.

In my garden before the overhaul.

Into October already

2010-10-01T18:42:00.000-07:00

One month from today Robbie will be turning three! My goodness... But he does seem like he is getting so grown up - I already think of him as a three year old, no longer a two year old.
So today was another gorgeous day, I so wish we had had this weather all September! I feel like summer was way to short, there was still so much I wanted to do in the sun. But fall is lovelly too, I like the crispness of it, the cool nights and foggy mornings. I like wearing boots and thinking of Christmas and the boys' birthdays.
But back to the sun. Today we went to Hayward lake to play on the beach with Lisa and her girls. We were there at the dog park yesterday and Robbie wanted to play in the water and in the sand very badly, but I just wasn't prepared, so we headed up there again today with all the right equipment. He had a blast, as did Isabel and Ben loved it too, trying to eat as much sand as he could. Ben is crawling now, he does the sitting scoot, but he can get where he wants to! He also just got his top two middle teeth and is working on at least two more already... sheesh! He has been waking up so early for the past three weeks and I kept telling myself that would change when he got his teeth but now he is getting more so I just give up having any dreams of sleeping in (sleeping in means until 7am in my world).
We went up to Kelowna for a weekend in September with Quinton's brothers and families. It was sooo much fun!! It was wonderful for all the kids to have so much time to spend together and it was great for us adults to have some time to visit after the kids went to bed at night. The weather was not great, we only had one nice day to enjoy the lake and the great boat. But it was still a lot of fun even with the rain. It was fun to see all the fancy houses along the lake, there are some beautiful places...
Other then that we havn't been up to too much, this weekend we have plans to rennovate one of my front garden beds. I just no energy for perrenials right now, I have hardly spent any time in the garden this year. Our backyard is mostly grasses and I just love them! So we are taking out most of the plants and planting grasses. Have I mentioned that I love having a landscaper for a husband?

Hayward...

Kelowna...

Everyone in the boat.

Ben fell asleep on the boat ride.

Meredith taking a turn at the wheel.

Playing naptime. They look so quiet and peaceful - don't be decieved I think that lasted as long as it took to take the picture.

Ben and Lauren cruising around.

One day I thought of a witty title for the blog and then I promtly forgot it...

2010-09-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

Yes it takes a while to get a blog done, I have been working on the pictures for a couple days and then I got a good book to read from David (Howl's Moving Castle - the book the movie is based on and so far it is awesome, thanks David! But I have to read it by monday and return it to the library, which I should beable to do even taking a break to get the blog done...anyhow). So last week my sister finished her masters degree!! What an accomplishment. She now has a Master of Science, sorry Melissa I can't remember the exact title, but Melissa is studying theoretical partical physics which she has explained to me several times and it goes way beyond my imagining so I just like to say that she is a magician. After that she drove out with my parents who had flown out to listen to her defense and she is here until saturday when she leaves for Toronto where she will be living.

Last weekend we went camping on the river to have some fun and so some fishing, we went with David and Rachel, my Dad and Melissa and Robbie. Ben stayed with Oma for night, it was his first night away from home and it went as well as could be hoped for, even though he was teething a little. We had a fun time and the fishing was great for everyone except me. David and Rachel both caught fish, for Rachel it was the first time ever, she did it all by herself and I was so happy she did :) I however was in a bit of a grumpy mood and somehow the fishing gods decided to school me and the two fish I caught I lost just as their noses touched the shore.... and I got more snarls in my reel then ever - argh. So eventually I gave up - which is a hard thing for me to stomach. Anyways we havn't been out since then. But it was still fun. I fished with Robbie for "baby fish" aka sqaw fish which are about eight inchs long and easy to catch with a bit of guts dangled off a hook off the end of the boat. He loved it, but he did tell me he didn't want to catch a big fish because they are scary.

Ben is almost crawling, he moves around on his tummy and get onto all four. He is such an eater! If he sees his food and for some reason it gets taken away (like I go and get a bib) he screws up his face and cries, he can't see that his food has come back because his eyes are squeezed shut -its comical! And after he eats he is so happy that he has to talk about it and he is loud!

Robbie is such a sweety (most of the time) and getting so grown up (most of time). We had our nieghbors over last weekend and they have a boy a year younger then Robbie, so he is not quite in the same playing stage as Robbie. We told Robbie ahead of time that he was coming over and that he would want to play with Robbie's toys because they were new and different from Robbie's, we told Robbie that it would be very nice to share. Robbie was so good, he shared all his toys with the little boy, didn't complain at all when he played with Robbie's favorite toys. Quinton and I were so impressed and of course told Robbie that, Robbie always looks so happy to hear that he has been a good boy, and who wouldn't? Andrea's parenting tip: try tov encourage your kids more then you discourage them, which is hard because there are so many things kids shouldn't do, bad behaviour is so much easier to spot then good behaviour.

Today is the MCC sale, and although I am tired and would kind of like to stay home and watch the two episodes of Grand Deisgns that I realized I havn't seen (a bit of a revelation to me) we are going to go beacuse the MCC sale only comes once a year and it is fun, if very very busy. Should be fun :)

Rachel took this picture of us all in the boat way back in July. I sure would like a bigger boat, it comes with such a big price tag though :(Benjamin helping, his expression makes me laugh.

Robbie is so pleased to have a counterfull of fish.

Robbie and Ben playing in Robbie's "Sail boat"

Line up of our fisherpeople in the twillight.
Sunset....

Eating friut loops, we only ever buy fruit loops when we go camping. I remember when we would go camping when I was a kid, it was the only time we got to eat them so it made it special, I like to continue the tradition. It was cold in the morning camping.

Quinton fishing in the morning.

THe first rays of sunlight, very welcome indeed.

Robbie helping Papa pull in a fish.

Rachel's fish, David ready with the stick of death.

Robbie and Auntie Melissa

Sockeye with a capital S

2010-08-25T14:30:00.001-07:00

My house is a mess, my yard is a mess, laundry needs to be folded, flowers need to be watered, kids need to be bathed... but the fishing is awesome! If you know anyone who fishes you will know that this year has been an outstanding year for sockeye. They have been saying that it is the biggest run since 1918... So naturally we have been out fishing and just about every time we go out we get our limit (two each). There are so many fish it is really amazing, the beach is full of eager fishermen and everywhere you look people are pulling fish in. The only thing about sockeye fishing is that you have to use a bottom bouncing rig and it is not conducive to having little children running around because you can't watch them and fish at the same time. So Quinton and I have taken to leaving our boys behind (with willing grandparents) and just going out the two of us, which makes us feel guilty but at the same time we have a blast fishing just the two of us :) Really it is a lot of fun, and the weather has been so amazing. I was pleased to discover that I have not lost too many fishing skills in the many years (6 or 7 perhaps) that we have not been fishing, and I caught all my fish by my self with no help from Quinton! Made me feel very accomplished. I did flounder a little when on our third of fourth outing on Monday after bringing in the first fish of the day Quinton told me I had to kill it myself, it was big and slippery and I admit I looked like a silly girl trying to bonk it on the head.... Ah well.. But fishing is really fun, Quinton is very thankful to my dad who raised me to be a fisherwoman :) As I sat sitting on the beach, my two fish nicely packaged up I realized that the smell of rotting fish (prevalent on the beach these days) which to most would turn a persons stomach, is a nostalgic smell to me. That and skunk cabbage.

We were boating along and I saw a big sturgeon jump out of the water, it was so cool! I had never before seen a wild sturgeon before and it was amazing, made my day! I always thought they just surfaced, but this one was out of the water except for its tail. Very very cool.

So last time I wrote on the blog I was at the end of my rope, Ben was teething and I am pleased to say he now has two teeth and is sleeping much much better! He only gets up one to two times a night which is a huge improvement!

Robbie is such a character, he is really good at talking now and understanding more complex concepts. He comes up with the funniest things. Here are a few of my favorites.

"My fingers are falling off."

"I have a spider in my nose, oh wait its just a booger."

"That fish is waiting."
"What is it waiting for Robbie?"
"The fish is waiting for the knife."

"I just love you mommy."

Our pictures like our lives right now revolve around fishing :)

What do I say?

2010-08-01T16:29:00.000-07:00

Quinton posted the pictures up a few days ago so I figure I should write something (while waiting for Ben to go to sleep)... But the problem is I am not in a very good mood. This last week (since saturday) I have been feeling a little like I am crashing. Crashing from not enough sleep, crying babies etc. Ben is getting his first two teeth and they are almost through, so hopefully he will get happier. It has been impossible to do anything without him getting upset and when he is upset he screams! I mean real blood curdleing ear shattering screaming... sigh. Robbie has been pushing his boundaries with me too, and I know its just a normal part of childhood and he is just learning, but it is hard to always say no and follow through when you have another child to deal with who is screaming in your ear.... I know I know... I am trying hard not to complain ( not working to well is it?)
Anyway... Quinton has done lots of fishing with Robbie, which is great. Robbie loves it, they have a great time together. I did request one day for the two of us to do something alone, since my mom is always eager to take the boys. Quinton oblidged me and we drove off to find our creek behind stave lake and couldn't find it. We did the math and realized it has been five years since we have been there, logging roads change a lot in five years apparently and went home (were we had left our gps with the coordernates), we will go there again this summer. We stopped at a different smaller creek and walked up it until we found some pools that were deep enough to swim in. So that was really nice but not as nice as our creek...
Robbie is in a big boy bed now, and loves it. He has been much better then I expected about not getting out at nap time, which is a pleasant surprise. Ben is in the crib now and it is much nicer lifting him out of there then out of the playpen. We are in the basement which I have gotten used to and we are enjoying it. I like that Quinton can come to bed and we can actually have a conversation without worrying about waking up Ben.
OKay I don't have anything else to add...

Look at his crazy hair - it is like this all the time, might have to start blowdrying it straight..

Oh yeah we went to the Agrifair. Robbie loved all the tractors, old and new, big and small. He wanted to pose and ride in each one. And he loved the horses and the rest of the farm animals. He watched the rides going around with big eyes and asked "I go on this?" that was the one with the hang gliding them were you go around and around at varies crazy angles to the ground. Funny kid.

Jaime's big fish.

Robbie's fishing rod set up. the yellow drumstick with the happy face is the rod, the orange thing is attatched to the bell (which is very important, Robbie kept taking it out of Quinton's tackle bag) , Robbie pushed it into the dirt just like daddy does it.

The big fish they had to put back because it was too big. That is our nieghbor Bill and his daughter Abby.

Peter's less impressive fish but still a good one.

Robbie eating blueberries. Luckily blueberries are so healthy, he can eat as many as he wants.

Fishing Bums....

2010-07-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

Fishing season opened last friday. And it has gripped our house like an inevitable tide... Quinton took Robbie camping on the river and lost two big fish... the first one took all his line and then his leader... the second one got tangled in the other lines and got away when it was almost on the shore... Quinton was very disappointed. So he had to redeem himself, so I let him go out on sunday and he did, he got a big fish, and is very happy about it. Robbie wasn't too sure of the big fish, but he wants to see the pictures all the time, and he always says "I love fish, I love it!" But it sounds more like "Ah wub ish, ah wub id." So cute :)

Wednesday is our anniversary!! Nine years! Feels pretty good to say that. Celebrating our anniverasry is pretty special, I am so lucky to have such a wonderful man in my life who loves me so much and who is just so good :) Quinton you are good at everything :) Thankyou for being crazy enough to get married at nineteen - you know I wouldn't change it for the world.

Anyway I know you are dying to see the fish pictures :)

Sunrise

Titles Schmitles

2010-07-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

So since my last post I had a birthday, we went to a wedding, we had our first bbq on the river, and we moved our bedroom into the basement...
Just for the record it is impossible to write a blog whilst both kids are awake.... I started this with Ben in the exersaucer as happy as can be, and Robbie was busy playing with his trucks, but that changed real quick...
So starting with my birthday, I am now 27 which does not seem so old as it used to. I guess when most of your friends are older then you it helps you feel younger :) Or maybe its that I have two growing boys and have been married for almost nine years which makes me feel older then I think, I am have all that but I am only 27, so that is not so bad :) I celebrated by going shopping with my mom, leaving the boys with Quinton. Ben takes formula out of sippy cup so I can leave him when ever I want! Which is awesome, and Quinton being the wonderful husband he is says I can ditch him and the boys whenever I want! Quinton and I also went out for lunch by ourselves to celebrate and have a moment alone.
We went to Colby's wedding on saturday. It was a very beautiful wedding, one of the prettiest I have been to. They had the ring bearer pull a wagon down the isle with a baby boy in it, and I thought Robbie and Ben would make the cutest ringer bearers ever!! (hint hint Melissa) We left Robbie with Grandma for the night and picked him up the next day. He had a fun time at Grandmas and Karen said he was so well behaved and polite :) We took Ben along to the wedding and he did so well, he was very happy and slept on my lap for a bit.
On friday (this is out of order) we went on the river for a BBQ joined by all the Kehlers (except David and Rachel), it was so wonderful (and nostalgic) watching Robbie and Isabel have a blast in the sand and river mud.
Yesterday we also moved our bedroom in the basement. Ben is seven + months old now and he is still such a terrible sleeper that we had to do something even though I was dreading moving into the basement for so many reasons which I will not go into. But we bit the proverbial bullet and did it. And so far it is a success, last night I only had to get up twice, which is a huge improvement! And it wasn't so bad making the trek up the steps. It also helps that I have made him a sleep sack which he can not kick off; its a pretty brutal peice of home-stichery (half t-shirt half receiving blanket) but what can you do? But even though Ben slept great last night, I did not. I felt really anxious sleeping so far away from the kids, so hopefully I can get over that...
Anyhoo enjoy the pictures:

Backyard pool time.

boats boats boats This is Robbie puting weasley into his "weasel house". The house has a handle and he was carrying it around with weasel sticking out. Oh how I laughed.

Ben looking adorable and deceptively innocent, moments earlier he almost pulled Jaime's dress right down...
David looking very suave for the camera.
Beautiful flowers and decorations, the yellow was lovelly.

Crazy Lisa and Erik. Lisa is nine months pregnant and that baby is coming any day :) Exciting!!Sleeping Ben.Us minus Robbie. Colby and Sam.

Our boat and Robbie loading up his garbage truck full of sand.

Robbie and Isabel - so cute :)

Camping Weekend

2010-06-26T21:05:00.000-07:00

So this weekend we decided to go camping - we wanted to go camping with some friends but no one was available but we went anyway to see what it would be like. We went to Stave lake and boated across the lake to a lovely beach. Quinton really wanted to camp on the little island in the middle of the lake but it was already taken, and I figured this was a better spot anyway, better for kids and more sunshine. So camping with a baby is.... interesting. Lets just say that Ben didn't sleep all that well - but Robbie slept great in his little sleeping bag like such a big boy, even with Ben crying in the middle of the night. So because Ben didn't sleep well and the weather was not perfect we only stayed one night when we planned to stay for two. If it had been prestinely sunny and warm then I may have roughed it with so little sleep. As it was I am glad we came home early as I am still exhausted after going to bed early and sleeping in after Quinton got up with the boys. I felt like I could have slept forever when I got up this morning.... And I would have never gotten this blog done except that Quinton did all the photo editing and uploading so all I have to do is type and hit "publish". But it was fun and a gorgeous place to camp so close to home. We marveled at the beauty of our "backyard".

Bed time stories by the camp fire - too perfect. There was so much drift wood it was easy to keep the fire going - there wouldn't have been much wood on your island Quinton....

Our camp.

Eagle nest.

Ben getting ready for bed.

Last weekend was Father's day and I made Quinton eggs benedict for breakfast. Which was special becuase I had never poached an egg or made hollandiase sauce before. It turned out great! Will have to make it again in the future. But we also went strawberry picking. It was something we wanted to get out of the way. We have really enjoyed having whole frozen strawberries in the freezer and wanted to replenish our stock. Robbie ate a lot of strawberries... he was a great helper, but his berries were a little on the green side.

Robbie is very imaginative.

Waiting

2010-06-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

We are waiting for summer to arrive. All we get is one day glimpses into the season which is being subornly elusive... ah well. We can't wait to camping. We are planning to go to Stave lake, which is not far from our house, and take the boat to a secluded beach where we will not be bothered by any strange people to judge us for our crying babies and vagrant dog. Can't wait! Anyone who doesn't mind loud neighbors are welcome to join us!!! But I am a fair weather camper so we must wait a little longer... I don't have much to write as I am feeling exhuasted today and can hardly string two thoughts together. But Quinton keeps asking me when I am going to finish this post - its been about a week open in various stages on the computer. So enjoy the pictures:

A while back when we actually had some nice warm weather. Ramps, trailer and tractor.

Stave lake where we are going camping. Can't wait to sit in the sun with my sketch book to draw all the shapes of the roots and textures of the stumps.

I love this picture Quinton took.

Before his hair cut - boy his hair was long. Two reels are better then one...and three are better then two apparently.

Fishing with Papa.

Walking the ferrets. He walks his stuffed weasel all the time at home. It is almost as special to him as teddy.
But the real ones are so much cuter.

Me doing some yoga with Ben.

Just before his haircut - meant to get an after picture too, but I didn't get his whole head done (actually Quinton took him to his hair dresser soon afterward, not because I did a bad job, just because he needed a hair cut too and Robbie was only half done) and Ben woke up etc etc.

Kamy letting Ben pull her fur and ears. He loves fur and hair. He yanks at my hair so hard.

Such a cutie. He is over six months now and wieghs 18 lbs.

Please keep my cousin Lesha in your thoughts and prayers as she is already into her six weeks of radiation followed by chemo.

Just one more reason BC is the best place to live...

2010-05-16T15:20:00.000-07:00

Today we went for a family boat ride at Stave Lake behind Mission. I had never really been on Stave Lake and I hadn't been in our boat since before Benjamin was born. Stave Lake is beautiful. The water is low right now, which exposes much more of the rocks along the edge and the amazing trunks and roots of the trees. Because it is a reservoir lake, there are huge stumps everywhere -thankfully we now have a jet boat so it is not so much of concern. We went slowly along close to the edge of the water, just under the surface were lots of sunken stumps, you could see their roots twisted and bare under the water. I loved it. I just wanted to sit with my sketch book and draw the trees and rocks - such lovely shapes. And some of the stumps are soooo big, they must have been amazing trees when they were alive. It is sad to think of them cut down, but seeing them like that gives you such a respect for the colossal presence one tree has. It was also Ben's first trip in the boat, he was a little grumpy in the big life jacket but he did ok and slept a little on the way back. Luckily Ben is so big that he fits into the life jacket Robbie wore last summer - very convenient because we don't have any smaller ones. So Robbie was good in the boat, Maggie was good, and Ben was good - a good start to the summer.
Jaime is now home for good from the UK, her and Dave are moving here and will be living in Mission, just two blocks away from us which is awesome! It is so nice to have her home and it will be nice when Dave joins her in a week. She showed Robbie her ferrets which made the trek out here with her two dogs last week. They are so adorable! She put Enzo on a leash and Robbie got to take him for a walk around the mountain. I thought he might be scared of them, having never seen a ferret before, but he loved them. He loved taking Enzo for a walk and today I put a leash on Robbie's stuffed weasel and he took him with us to Stave Lake and wanted to walk him around the beach. But Weasly had to stay in the boat because it was just to dirty :P
Benjamin can roll over from both sides now! What a big boy. I have been trying to get him to sleep longer periods at night, but I am pretty sure he has started teething, so that makes it tricky. I gave him some rice cereal for the first time last night, he wasn't too thrilled about it, but I don't think he was very hungry at the time...
My Uncle received his stem cell transplant on Wednesday for his leukemia, he has been pretty sick from the anti-rejection drugs. I think they will know by next Sunday if the transplant took, so please pray for him and his family :)

My Allium.

Pinks. Oooh I love pinks!

Quinton went out on the Fraser River last weekend with Robbie.

Mother's day at Paul and Karen's. I love this shot :)

What is this in my mouth?

Stave Lake looking north.All of us in the boat - except QuintonSuch cool roots.

Robbie loved the variety of sicks, he had such a variety of noises to go with them.

And he loved climbing everything. He is very good at navigating the rocks and stumps and logs - takes after his mommy :)

Relaxing on the way back, note Weasley and his 'leash'

And we saw a bear along the edge, just a little one. We didn't get too close though because we didn't want Maggie to jump out of the boat and chase it - not sure if she would, but you never know with her.

Rejuvenate

2010-05-07T15:14:00.001-07:00

Today I went for a little hike. By myself. I love hiking by myself, it makes me feel rejuvenated :) To be surrounded by the forest, the birds, the wind, the smell of the dirt and the new leaves. Ahhhh.... It is very nostalgic for me, I remember how on spring days like today we would have spent it all out side, making forts, playing in the creek, climbing trees, looking for frogs and the first snakes of the year. I can't beleive how lucky we were as kids to have that as our backyard. I want so badly to live there, so that Robbie and Ben can expereince the same things that I did; I am so thankful that I can go there when ever I want with the boys, Oma is only to happy to have us :)
In other news we are almost over our colds - again. Hopefully that will be the last of that for a while. It has been exhausting to say the least, and Ben is still only sleeping in 2 hour stretches at night so I think I am going to have to let him cry it out at night... not fun, but he needs to sleep longer at night! I need him too. I keep saying to myself, soon Ben will be sleeping better, and I will feel like I have more energy and then - then the list starts...
Ben rolled over for the first time yesterday. What a big boy! He is getting so grown up, five months old already! Robbie too is getting so grown up, he is such a good talker, he can keep up quite a detailed conversation. He is getting very coordinated, he can go up and down stairs without holding onto the railing (gives me a heart attack watching him).
ok I have a squrimy tired baby on my lap so I have to go...

Sure why not take a lemon in the bath?

helping daddy.

The hot tub pergola all finished.

Robbie hugging fozzy - more like pinning him to the ground.

Happy Earth Day

2010-04-22T16:22:00.001-07:00

Today is Earth Day. We celebrated by going to Hayward lake. (the kids are too little for manual labour or else we would go collect litter or something) I was tired and unsure whether we would get rained on or not, but decided to go any way. And I am glad we did, it was nice, and the sun even came out briefly. There was a big pile of bear scat on our way to the dog park, but it wasn't steaming (aka fresh) so I wasn't too concerned. Ben fell asleep and Robbie ran around in the sand and threw rocks. A pair of geese came at us from a little ways down the lake in a huff and I was concerned that they were guarding eggs and would get violent (as geese do) but they stalked us for a while and the closer they got the calmer they became. But they were keeping a close eye on us.
Last weekend we had a weiner roast for Carl's birthday. The weather cooperated and was quite fine. Robbie rode his bike around my parents driveway and then Joyce and Rachel came over with Takinni with her little saddle on so Robbie got to go for his second horse ride (the first was when he was eight months old so it doesn't quite count). He was scared and didn't want to do it but I put him on anyways and he really enjoyed it! Maybe he will be less scared of horses now, we will see.
We also have our hot tub up and running now and it is lovelly. So far our chemical free all natural seaweed water treatment is working well and much nicer then bromine. Robbie loves it and is always saying "Hot tub in now?" . Robbie is such a talker at home (although when we go out he is usually quiet) he is always telling me stories and I can't understand half of what he says... I know I should being his mother and all... but man his sentances are often out of context and jumbled :) or maybe its because I'm sleep deprived and its hard to concentrate. We were in the hot tub yesterday and he comes up to me and leans against me with his head on my shoulder and says "oh mommy, oh mommy, you tired?" as he pats me. It was sooo cute. Such a little sweetie pie.
Took Ben to the Dr for his four month appointment. He is doing great. He is 17.3 lbs which puts him in the 90% (which means out of 100 kids he is heavier the 90 of the them) and he is in the 90% for length, which surprised me because I didn't think he was that long, but I guess he is. Dr also said that he has excellent tone and neck control, way to go my little squirmer! He is such a sweetie too, he always has big smiles for everyone. OK thats it, have a happy earth day, do some recycling, turn of some lights and enjoy the sunshine.

Lesha had her surgery on Monday to remove the tumour and it went really well! She was talking right out of surgery so that is wonderful because they weren't sure if she would be able to talk at all from the location of the tumour. Her PET scan showed no secondary tumours so that is also really good. They are waiting for results of her biopsy in the coming weeks, but thankfully she is doing really well. Thank God :)

The geese checking us out.
Maggie chasing them.

Still hanging around.

My tulip picture with Quinton's editing :)

Getting rid of some of the extra concrete around our hot tub. We thought it would easy and straight forward, but not so much... it was really thick. This was the first try - concrete saw.

Then the jack-hammer.

Robbie helped his daddy in the rain carry the concrete chunks to the dump trailer.

Waiting for dirt and turf.

My lilacs. so lovelly.

Hostas coming up.Ladies Mantle.

Wiener roast.

Getting there...

2010-04-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

So we are slowly getting over our colds. Benjamin has been pretty sick, well not that sick, but sicker then Robbie ever was as a baby. He has been coughing and very congested, and for a couple days there he was just sooo miserable. He is a happier baby now but he is not getting much sleep as with his cold he won't go to sleep by himself, so I have to wait for him to get better then I will let him cry himself to sleep and thus regain our old schedule... a couple days yet. I got sick a couple days after Robbie and have had a really really hard time shaking it (could have something to do with very little sleep), so I still have a headache most of the time and feel pretty rotten in the evenings.
So as you can imagine we havn't been up to much. We did go to Heritage park in Mission here on saturday to take in the dandilions and also so Ben could sleep in the car and stroller; which worked out nicely. It was a bit cold - not like yesterday which was beautiful! Robbie, Ben and I went to Hayward lake and it was delightfully warm and Robbie had a blast running around in the sand while Ben slept in the stroller.

Also my cousin Lesha is going to have surgery some time before friday to remove an orange sized tumour in her brain. Yes in her brain, she only found out about it late last week; please please pray for her! And for her husband and family, it is such a hard time for them.

Okay Ben is crying from overtiredness and it is time for the boys to go to bed so I am off!

What can I say?
Robbie bestowing his trucks upon Ben.

Robbie and Teddy. He put teddy in Quinton's shoes, one foot perfectly in each shoe.

Robbie decided Teddy liked drawing too.

Robbie plays with these toys all day long. They are his favorite, the digger and the boat get loaded and offloaded all day long. But Robbie adds his own creative touch.

Dandilions!

My crazy boy.

The stick was entirely his idea.

Paska, Flu and Hot tubs:

2010-04-04T10:07:00.000-07:00

What do these things have in common? Easter weekend! First Robbie got the flu... he is feeling quite miserable due to a stuffy nose and lots of congestion. He only threw up once so thank goodness for that. Then I baked Paska... which turned out ok, but could be fluffier, my muffins are good, but my loaf didn't turn out at all because by the time all the muffins had baked it had over risen... I have come to the conclusion that I need two ovens. Then we got our hot tub. We found one on craigslist and when Quinton and his dad and brothers (a big thanks to them!) went to pick it up it turned out to have a very very rotten frame - so we had to rebuild it - Quinton's weekend project (and by we I mean Quinton).
So we are not going to any wonderful Easter dinners this weekend, but I am going to make a ham tonight and we will have a nice little dinner just the four of us.
So I am not going to say anymore because I would just complain about lack of sleep etc etc and this weekend of all weekends we should just be thankful... and thankful I am that we have a wonderful loving God who is gracious and sacrificed his son (and I know how special those are) for us... He really loves us :)

Old hot tub frame remnants...

New hot tub frame - Quinton's preparation for the new hot tub.

New nail polish - Andrea's preparation for the hot tub.

Robbie is always ready to help his daddy! Three part serenade.

Potty time.

Last weekend we were invited to Erik's 30th birthday breakfast celebration. Happy Birthday Erik!!

Tea time.Robbie and Isabel love having tea parties together.

Officially Spring

2010-03-23T13:01:00.000-07:00

So it is officially spring, but of course we never had winter so its not such a big deal :) I bought some orange nail polish today and I was going to do my nails in the sunshine, but so far I havn't really been able to due to uncordinated nap times... Some other time I guess.
So Robbie and Ben have colds again...! They just got over colds and now they are sick again. Frusterating!! Just little colds, Robbie is fine except for a runny nose, but Ben has a little cough and is not sleeping well at night at all. He wakes up every 1-2 hours - which you can imagine is very tiring- sounding snuffly and uncomfortable, poor guy, hopefully it will go away soon, it has been 4 or 5 nights of this and I am really tired. He sleeps very well during the day though. I am so pleased to report that he now goes down for a nap without any crying! And naps anywhere from 45 min to an hour and a half. And he goes to sleep in the evenings around 7-8 - so we can have both kids in bed and have the evening to ourselves! Yay! Ben wakes up in the morning cooing and when I look over the edge of the crib he always gives me a big smile. Yes he loves to smile and has even started laughing, he is ticklish so when I change him he giggles a little - it is so cute, he sounds just like Robbie did, but perhaps a little more reserved. Robbie has always loved to laugh - it is very easy to get him into a histeric fit of laughter.
I don't know when Robbie started this, but recently I have noticed how he is talking in two or three word sentances. His favorite verb is "now". He is also surprisingly polite, "move please" he says all the time, even to inanimate objects that are in his way, and he often says "thankyou" and "Robbie turn" - that one he likes to.
So Quinton and I are seriously looking into getting a hot tub, a used one, new ones are wayyy to expensive, so if you know of anyone who is looking to get rid of a decent hot tub let us know! We had a hottub when we lived on the mountain and it was lovelly. It is such a good thing for a marriage, we would sit in our hot tub and just talk for hours. We never hooked it up in Mission because I got pregnant, and then pregnant again. But now since we are most likley done having children, it will be worth it to get one. Quinton works hard, and he is really looking forward to having a well deserved soak at the end of the day :)
Enjoy the pictures...

OK Ben got tired of daddy taking so many pictures.
Robbie's "man" this guy operates all Robbie's equipment.

Trucks, traliers, ramps, ladders, Robbie loves them all.
Boating with Quinton and Peter

Visiting the horses. Robbie threw an apple to Joe, but it hit Joe on the nose, poor guy.

Sitting on the mini, a big deal for Robbie.

Frogs, snails and puppy dog tails...

2010-03-10T17:38:00.000-08:00

.. that's what little boys are made of.

Robbie is such a character. Right now he likes to pretend that he is a dog and barks around the house. When he is outside with Maggie and she is barking, he is barking right along with her at the top of his lungs. We know when he wakes up in the morning or from his nap because we here a loud "mommy!!" which he repeats quite loudly until one of us gets him. He is such a sweetie and showers us with hugs and kisses, but he is so stuborn! Try and get him to something he doesn't want to do and I know it will be a fight. are all toddlers like that? I was at Save-on getting groceries with the boys, we were all done and ready to go and Robbie didn't want to sit in his seat and get buckled in, so of course my options were to let him run around inside the car until he decided it was time to get buckled in or make him do it... well I wasn't about to sit in the parking lot for half an hour so I made him and he screamed! I had a woman approach me asking me if I had left a quarter she found at the cart, but I think she just wanted to make sure I wasn't killing my child... sigh... most of the time when Robbie gets like that I can't help but laugh a little because he is sooo over the top! He is like a spring day: all sunshine and stormy weather at once :P
Ben is three months old now and my hair has started to fall out - strange sentance I know. Not from stress or anything, its just that all new mothers start losing hair around three months because of hormones... He is not sleeping any more then 2-3 hrs at a time at night... but he has started sucking his thumb! Last night I didn't have to give him a pacificer at all so I am optimistic about that... It is almost exactly a year ago that I got pregnant and it is AMAZING to me to think that a year ago he did not exist and now he is here!
Last week we were quite busy. Quinton took a day off and we went into Vancouver (for the first time forever!) and took the boys to the Aquarium. Robbie loved it, Ben loved watching the fish too, when he was awake. Then Quinton took Robbie on the river again last weekend, while Ben and I went to enjoy some sunshine up on the mountain. Quinton and Robbie saw otters on the river! I was soooo jealous! I love otters: they are adorable. Quinton knew I would be so sad that I missed them so he grabbed his camera and took some pictures for me. Then on sunday we went to the BC Hunting and Sports show. Mostly there were a lot of boats and other boy toys there. And it was really really busy! I didn't expect so many people. But Robbie loved seeing all the boats (with trailers) and fishing rods and watching the kids catch fish in the fish pool. This weekend is the Log and timber frame home show, I would like to go, but since we are not building a house it wouldn't be worth the $12 per person entry fee plus parking...sigh.... So thats all for now, enjoy the pictures...

The otters... so cute!

Thumb sucker :)

Monkey see, monkey do.

Cutie pies 1 and 2.

Robbie loves to chase Kamy, or pick her up. She is so good and doesn't even scratch him (yet) even when Maggie gets involved and starts barking at her, Robbie just bursts into peals of laughter, he thinks it is sooo funny when Maggie chases her. And yet she keeps letting Robbie catch her....

My puppy dog. He comes up to me and I think he is going to give me a kiss but no, he licks me! then he licked himself...

... and the pillow.

Robbie stuffing his face, doesn't happen often so I thought I'd take a picture :)

My son the goat...

2010-02-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

Yeah so Robbie was playing outside the other day, I was inside but still keeping a close eye on him, I peer out to see him carrying around my primrose that my Grandma gave me. As I am watching him he takes a big bit out of the leaves and starts munching. I open the door and tell him in a stern voice that he cannot eat the plants! He put the plant down and went to find something else to do whilst I hop on the internet to make sure that primroses are not poisonous. I also looked up "poisonour perrenials" to make sure nothing else in my garden could be harmful to my ever adventurous child. Turns out iris' are poisonous, which I didn't know. The internet can be a wonderful thing.
So the past week or so has been a little trying on me. Robbie, Ben and I all have colds. We are almost over them now. But with Ben sick, I wasn't about to let him cry himself to sleep, so he hasn't been on a routine. He wasn't sleeping well at night, waking even more then he does normally. So I was really really tired. Human beings are not meant to function on so little sleep... Trying to be the nurturing mom I need to be to my boys was stretching my abilities with so little sleep. I am afraid Quinton bore the brunt of my grumpyness even though I was trying very very hard not to be. But I am better now :) Got some sleep and Benjamin is sleeping better, so its all good.
Robbie is at Oma's for night tonight and Quinton and I are enjoying a quiet house. One baby is so easy compared to two! We are watching curling and later we will watch the hockey game. (I know, so not like us to watch so much sports) Robbie loves going to Oma's so I know he will have such a fun time, and it is nice to beable to give Ben our undivided attention for a little while. Robbie is getting to be such a talker, he is always trying to tell me things, he has so many words and he putting them together. He now calls me "mommy" instead of "mama" which is fun.
Ben is getting so big! He is a big baby, smiles a lot when he is in a good mood. He also has started to coo and talk, which is so cute.

Feeding the horses.

Hanging out with cousins. On Valentines we went to Whiterock to see the other Gibbs. Robbie has such a fun time visiting with Camille and Meredith, dragging their dollies around and playing with their toy kitchen. They are all eating their cake.

Benjamin gets so many kisses from Robbie. He is so sweet.

Robbie giving a strangle hug.

Walking on the dikes with Lisa and Isabel. Robbie ran back and forth, he is such a busy boy.

Beautiful Sumas Mountain framed by Matsqui.

Picture op.

Robbie in costume.

Quinton took Robbie for a boat ride on the river.

Snack time.

Wonderful Spring weather and ramblings...

2010-02-04T15:53:00.000-08:00

Crocus' in Melissa's garden.

Yesterday we were on the mountain visiting Oma. I felt like a spring flower soaking up the sun, it was so warm and so wonderful just to stand there in the sun :) It was t-shirt weather! I love wet coast British Columbia!! Yes my snowdrops are in full bloom, everything is coming up, my mom's crocus' are blooming, my rose bushes are getting new leaves. We walked around mom's garden, made our way over to the horses where Joyce and Peter were outside taking down Christmas lights, Lisa and Isabel arrived as Robbie was visiting the horses and they spent time brushing them and feeding them carrots. Robbie was so brave and brushed Joyce's mini and even sat on the mini's back, I think it helped that Isabel did it first. He even tried to feed Joe (the big horse) some hay but Joe wasn't interested after all the carrots. I wouldn't say Robbie is over his fear of horses but he was very brave. Today though he was telling me how scary the barn was :)

I also wanted to talk about my blog ramblings, I write these blogs very fast and almost never have what I want to write thought out; so please forgive me if it is incoherent or there are missing words etc.... Priorities priorites...not to mention spelling mistakes - hahaha

So these last few weeks have been interesting and a little challenging. Ben was getting progressivly fussier and fussier, he didnt even want to take the soother anymore. He is getting so big and it was becoming impossible for me to get anything done because he insisted on being held constantly and would only sleep during the day if he was being held. So I would hold him until he would be asleep and then I would put him down, knowing that in five minutes he would wake up, so I would quickly change Robbie's diaper or what else needed to be done and then the cycle would repeat itself.... Not fun. the problem was that he just wasn't getting enough sleep, so I have put him on a pretty tight schedule and let him cry himself to sleep. He is doing so much better! He is hardly fussy at all, he still cries himself to sleep and sometimes just doesn't go down for a nap, but it is such an improvement! he is much happier when he is awake, smiley and happy to just look around and watch Robbie. And he sleeps much better at night and I am getting enough sleep and my new bed time is around 9 instead of 7. awesome! I still am watching my diet very closely - no dairy or tomatoey stuff, which is so limiting... so looking forward to eating cheese again.

Speaking of food... I did something really stupid. Quinton comes up from getting something out of the basement first thing in the morning, gives me a look and says "remember when you were looking through the freezer last night?" and immediatly I knew and remembered that I had taken a bag of fish out so I could rummage around better - all the salmon! I nearly died and felt so stupid, Quinton said it was thawed but still cold so he put it back in the freezer. He also told me that this summer I have to be extra supportive of his fishing to make up for it :) Like I was hardly unsuportive before... I even went camping on the river in a tent, seven months pregant in the hot weather with a two year old and no bathroom, even the bushes were a long ways away I remember - I am the best fishing wife ever!
Speaking of fishing Quinton bought Robbie his very own bar fishing rod today.. it was on sale for a steal of a bargain (so I'm told). Anyways I want to be there when he is fishing with three rods in the water (His, Robbie's and Ben's) when fisheries pulls up and asks him exactly what he is doing with so many rods in the water and one fishing license - well the rules say that any child under the age of 15 can fish without a license so long as they are accompanied by an adult with a valid license. But I wonder if a two year old and an infant count.... it doesn't say that they don't or do.
I also been meaning to point out that Quinton has been taking most of the pictures posted on the blog. We are really enjoying our new camera, I am really happy to have an SLR once more, I didn't realize how much I missed it. Quinton is much better then me at getting all the settings right, I am always in too much of a hurry to just take a picture. It shows when we compare our pictures :)
Okay I think I'm done... enjoy the pics.

Witch Hazel...

Viburnum...?

Robbie has his "baby" too.

Not much...

2010-01-19T16:45:00.000-08:00

Yes we have not been up to much lately, staying home mostly, going to bed early etc. Quinton finsihed his nine seasons of Grand Designs, the British show about building awesome houses. I am taking a break from watching it as it was making me want to build a house very badly, and who knows if that will ever happen... I am still going to bed fairly early while Quinton stays up with Ben. Ben is sometimes sleeping better at night and so as a result sometimes I get more sleep. I feel like I am managing fairly well despite my sleep deprivation. I would get more done, but Benjamin gets fussy unless he is being held so I spend a lot of time holding him - which is ok most of the time, I love holding him, he is getting big so fast. He had a check up with the doctor on Friday and he wieghed in at 11 lbs 14 oz, he is getting so chubby! And today he smiled at me for the first time :) It wasn't just one little smile either it was a series of big little boy smiles, so special! Robbie was holding him at the time and I think Ben really liked that. The weather has been so mild that it feels like spring. I love it! Today we went to Hayward lake for a walk, me, Ben, Robbie and Maggie. I like going there off season 'cause there is never anyone there.

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OK that was yesterday - didn't quite get the post finished. So today Quinton is home from work so it is much easier for me to get stuff done - yay!
What else have we been up to? Quinton took Robbie fishing at the pond a little while ago, Robbie loved it. Although when a fish would hook on his line he didn't want to reel it in, he was to nervous about it. Also unfortunatly because of the beaver problem at the pond the dock has spent a lot of time submerged as is very slippery with algea, it also feels like it is getting rotten, I think one of these days someone will fall through it, so it makes me a little nervous. Robbie was walking off the dock to go play in the bushes along the hill and at the edge of the dock there was a pile of leaves hiding where the edge of the dock meets the hill, and Robbie fell through it into a hole filled with water. He fell up to his tummy and was completely soaked from the waist down, he was very very unhappy about it understandably. But we had extra clothes in the car and we dried him up really quick. Poor guy- we'll make a mountain kid out of him yet :P

Robbie found this stick at Hayward lake and insisted that it was a fishing rod, here he is fishing in the puddles. We took the stick home but Maggie thought it was a toy for her and she destroyed it - i think he encouraged her because he wasn't that upset about it.

Ben slept the whole time tucked away in the stroller. Throwing rocks into the water.
Throwing rocks in the puddle.

Collecting worms for bait.

After falling in the hole. Robbie brought Ben his snakes.

2010 here we are

2010-01-03T14:39:00.001-08:00

Okay... I will start with the present and then go backwards... its much easier to write that way.

We started 2010 feeling wretched. We have had the flu this last week and although we all seem to be over it, and feeling much much better, it was awful. Mostly for me. Robbie got it first last monday and threw up a couple times, but other then that he didn't seem sick. He was active, eating and cheerful. Tuesday was Quinton's 28th birthday so Happy Birthday Quinton! I always feel sorry that we can't celebrate his birthday better and this year was particularly bad. I got sick that night and all of wednesday I was sooo sick. I don't remember the last time I was so sick, it felt worse I think because I had to get up every 2-3 hours to nurse Ben and couldn't sleep myself better. Plus nursing is already taxing on your body, then to have absolutely no fluids left in your body, and having aches and pains every where: it was awful. I was so thirsty, I would drink and drink only to throw it back up again. If I had been sick any longer I think I would have had issues nursing as it was I almost ran out of milk. Awful! Thursday I was exhuasted and Friday luckliy I was starting to feel better because Quinton got it. He wasn't as sick as I was luckily and he recovered much faster and was back to his almost normal self on saturday and today he is fine, which is good because he has to go back to work tommorrow. Thankfully he took last week off to take care of me :)
So that was our New Years...
Chirstmas was good this year as I hoped. We carted our new family of four around and it went well. We stayed home Christmas morning with no where to rush off to, which was really nice. We watched Robbie open presents and have fun playing with them, cuddled Ben and had a relaxing day, going up to Karen and Paul's for the afternoon. The only bust was that I had planned to make Vreneki as an easy yummy Christmas day dinner only to discover when I went to the freezer to fetch it that it was not there.... apparently the one bag I thought we had left we had eaten a while back.
So today we took down our fire hazard of a Christmas tree and cleaned up the house. Robbie's toys need to be organized yet as they are spilling out all over our living room. I feel like now that Christmas is over it is time for Spring. I know I know.... I just can't wait to do more hiking, working outside etc. Last year I was pregnant so it didn't count. All I got done in the garden was barkmulching before the nausea hit, and then exhaustion, and then hot summer. I have plants I want to move, add, etc. Oh well I guess I have a couple months to think on it :)
Quinton and I (more Quinton as he dosn't go to bed at the strike of 7 pm) have also been watching a show called Grand Designs (introduced to us by Lisa and Erik via Lara and James) it is an awesome British show about people building/restoring really cool houses. Makes me really want to build a house :) A lot of work I know and craziness, but it would be awesome, and Quinton and I do love our projects ... maybe when the kids are bigger, I can't imagine building when they are little, although my parents did it :)
I love being able to use the plural "kids" or "boys" when it comes to Robbie and Ben. It fills me with so much satisfaction and contentment, like there were some peices in my life missing that are now filled. Speaking of the kids :) Benjamin is growing so fast! I can not beleive how big he is getting, growing into and out of his sleepers. He even seems to be getting a little bit of personality, he loves to look around, never wanting to see the same thing for too long, and he is really squirmy. He is getting really strong and can hold his head up quite well now. He has been getting harder to settle, he does cry some in the evenings becuase of it. Always around the same time and dosn't settle until around midnight and is up quite a bit at night. Luckily Quinton takes him while I sleep in the evenings or else I don't know how I would survive.
OKay I am going to finish this before Benjamin wakes demanding to be fed... enjoy the pics

Christmas Eve day sunrise from the Mission boat launch taken by Quinton (from inside the car as it was cold).We got Robbie a guitar for Christmas. He loves it and insists on wearing the hat while he plays it.

Robbie and his fishing rod. Quinton bought this for him on boxing day, it is an ice fishing rod, so a real fishing rod not a toy. Robbie loves it but is constantly getting the line tangled, I think Quinton has put in more hours detangling the reel then anything else...

The little push bike he got from my parents. He opened it up and immediately started saying "Hat hat" so he could ride it. I was so proud that he already knew he had to wear a helmet :) My semi-cautious boy.

At Paul and Karen's with the cousins. Do I need to say how impossible it is to take a picture with them all looking? This was the best we got :)

The holdidays brought our dear friends Jonathan and Laura and thier boy Riley down from Cranbrook, so we got to see them, if only for a little while. Riley is just starting to walk and already so grown up. Robbie enjoyed showing him his trucks.

I got Robbie this giant stuffed crocodile for Christmas. He loves it almost as much as I do. Its a Steve Irwin croc and has his signature sewn into its tummy. I think we will name him Craig the Crocodile. Robbie rides him around the house and feeds him things like t-rexs and trucks.

my little cutie pie

Robbie made a hole in wall with his bike, he is trying fix it.

Robbie chilling out.

Almost Christmas

2009-12-21T17:16:00.001-08:00

First I would like to say that we have the most wonderful friends and family :) We have had so much support and many yummy meals and wonderful baby gifts brought to us we feel very blessed. It is sooo apreciated, so a big THANKYOU is in order :) Thankyou thankyou thankyou!
Christmas is almost here, the last few weeks have gone by very fast! Quinton and Robbie went to get a Christmas tree last weekend. Ben and I stayed home as the weather was a bit chilly. So we got our tree set up, I put non-breakable ornaments on it this year, and it was a good thing too, as Robbie thinks the Christmas tree is a great novelty... Anyways can't think of anything else I was going to mention... probobly remember later what I wanted to write... ah well.

So with that we wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas tree hunting.

Helping cut down the tree.Tasting the tree. Just so you know he does these things without any encouragement.

Brothers.

Robbie being creative with his dumptruck and the Christmas tree.

Okay this is exactly what it looks like. I turned around and there is Robbie sitting on the couch, the nursing pillow wrapped around him as he is lifting his shirt to feed teddy, mumbling something about "num nums". Someday I am sure he will be so emabarassed about it.

Burping teddy.

Helping decorate the tree. He was a good helper and again I was very happy with my new plastic Ikea ornaments.

Its snowing...

2009-12-11T11:44:00.000-08:00

Its snowing outside today. I am not excited about that, but Quinton of course is happy about it. It means he will have a good chance that he will need to go out with the tractor and do snow removal. To me it means that I am stuck inside, not that I have plans to go anywhere anyhow, not quite up to carting two babies out and about yet, but if I wanted to I couldn't cause there is no way I am driving in the snow! I am hoping it turns to rain quickly, hopefully before Melissa gets out here next week, I would be very sad if I couldn't go visit her because of being snowed in. Being snowed in is only fun if you live on the mountain, where everything is soooo beautiful and perfect when it is covered in snow, and there are lots of hills to sled down :) anyways....
Ben is over a week old already! He is such a great baby so far, we had his one week check up on tuesday and he is already over his birth wieght at 7 lbs 8 ounces. He is a little jaundiced, just like Robbie was. He sleeps a lot, poops a lot, nurses very well. He doesn't sleep for long periods but he goes back down at night in his bassinet after nursing very easily. He doesn't cry very much yet, just when he gets a bath and sometimes when you change his diaper, he seems pretty easy going. Yesterday I had the two boys all by myself for the first time and it went really well. Robbie was great, no tantrums :) We do feel like we are up to our necks in diapers... sheesh new borns go through a lot of diapers!! Tomorrow we are hoping to get a Christmas tree if the snow isn't too much of an obstical. We will see, its getting close to Christmas :)

Robbie decided to try out the pacifier for a day, thankfully it didn't take.

Benjamin getting his first bath at home. Not too happy about it either.

Maggie. She is such a good dog with the boys.

Benjamin Quin Gibb

2009-12-03T14:30:00.000-08:00

We are thrilled to announce the birth of our second little boy, Benjamin Quin Gibb! He was born December 2nd at 4 am. 7 lbs 7 ounces and 20 inches long. I started having cramps at 8 in the evening but wasn't sure I was actually in labour until around 11:30, we went to the hospital after my mom got to our house at 1 am and he was born at 3:59. The labour was quick and the nurses told me how in control I was and that they wished all women would labour like me :) They said I made it look easy and I assured them it was anything but easy. It was such a relief to have him out! Because it was so quick I got to labour without medication, which is what I wanted and they didn't have time to put an IV in my arm for Strep-B antibiotics, which wasn't a concern because my water hadn't broken yet (didn't break until minutes before he came out). I got to hold him right away, he came out and I pulled him onto my chest all covered in slime, I know it sounds gross, but it was actually wonderful, he was so warm and real! With Robbie I was kind of incoherent from fatigue and pain, this time I was very aware of what was going on.

Robbie seems very excited about Ben and already is being very helpful. Anyways he is here and healthy and we are thrilled with our newest addition.

Right after he was born after we both got cleaned up a bit.

Getting less wrinkly.

Big brother Robbie, he was not too sure what to make of him at first.

Grandpa Thom.

Oma.

New stuff

2009-11-27T18:59:00.000-08:00

So as we continue to wait for our new arrival... one week left until my due date.... we have been busy. We bought a new DSLR camera which we have been learning to use, we bought a new boat - a 16 ft flatbottom outboard jet boat, bigger and better for our growing family :) The sun came out today and Quinton came home early from work to persuade me to come out with him on the river to try out the new boat since Peter didn't want to go out with him. He convinced nine month pregnant me after some discussion off we went. he told me Peter and Joyce were sure that I would never agree to go with him, being very pregnant and I almost didn't, but I figured it might put me into labour which wouldn't be so bad. The river was glassy as promised and it was actually nice to get out in the fresh air even if only for a little while before the sun set, and I do love going out on the river....
So Quinton will be happy if the baby waits until tuesday or wednesday next week, but I am really ready, so any time I go into labour I will be thrilled. I am ready for this baby!

Enjoy the pics taken with our new camera on the beach today...

Our own little wild thing.