Little Rabbit Foo Foo...

Come on sing with me..... Little rabbit Foo Foo hoping through the forest, scooping up the field mice and boppin them on the head. Then along comes the gooooooooooood fairy.....

Swimming

Monday evening was Riley and Simon's first night of swimming. Riley is in pre school B and swims without us. She is in a class of all boys and she has a female instructor and a male helper. I was watching from the viewing area and could tell by her body language that she was nervous. After swimming she told me that she didn't like the older boy holding her in the water....another obstacle to overcome.
Simon is in parent and tot 3 and Jason went in the pool with him. I will take my turn going in with him too...if I can squeeze this body into a bathing suit. Here are our two little fish ready to go into the pool.

This Week??????

I am sitting here with our calender out trying to figure out how I am going to survive this week. Monday both kids start swimming and Jason has practice. Tuesday Jason is gone for volleyball. Wednesday Riley has dance, Simon has his Active Kids program and Jason leaves right from work for volleyball....I am trying to figure out how I can be with Riley and be in with Simon for Active Kids at the same time????, Thursday, Jason has volleyball. Friday, I have to work this Friday and I have a doctors appointment. Saturday and Sunday Jason is in London for volleyball and the kids have a birthday party to attend. YIKES!!!! All this and I have started being sick AGAIN....what's with that?????? It went away for a couple of weeks but surprise, it's back. Hopefully Friday at my appointment I can get something for my poor legs, the veins are popping through and bleeding all the time and it freaking hurts!!! Okay, enough complaining, I gotta run, I have a lot of work to do.

The Krose Family

Sunday afternoon we had friends from university up for the day. It was a wonderful visit with Heidi, Don, Ashlyn and Jayce. We haven't seen them since Simon was a baby, they live in Milton and life is busy, but it always feels like we haven't missed a beat with them. That's what friendship is. We played in the afternoon, made homemade pizza together, had yummy chocolate fruit cups for dessert and even had time to play a little Wii together.

Riley and Ashlyn making pizza together.


Simon and Ashlyn in dress up.


Yummy dessert....look at Simon's face, I think he liked it:)

Happy Birthday Nancy

Our friend Nancy celebrated a birthday this weekend. On Saturday night Nancy and Owen came over for dinner and some birthday cake. I made homemade lasagna and a chocolate birthday cake for everyone, it was yummy if I do say so myself. Riley, Simon and Owen always play so well together, it allows for us to have adult time. Here are some of our birthday photos.

Morning Read

This seems to be the morning ritual lately....and we love it. Riley and Simon sit together and Riley reads him stories. Precious moments.

One year ago....

My brother Ryan and my almost sister in law Hillary (YEAH) asked me to send them the photos I have of them and the kids together. I took some time to look at what they both looked like one year ago, I can't get over how much they have grown and changed. This is from the end of September last year.

First Dance Class

Today Riley started her first dance class for the fall session. Here she is ready to go, showing off her moves.



Here they are waiting to go into the class having a dance together.


The good news is when the class was over Riley came running out saying "I love dance." The bad news is her teacher followed her out telling us that the class will be canceled because of low enrollment. Now I am on the hunt to try to move her into another class around the same time. SHOOT!!!!

Thank You Uncle Ryan And Aunt Hillary!!!!!

What a nice surprise today, Uncle Ryan and Aunt Hillary sent Riley a package in the mail. She was so thrilled to get the package from the mailbox and carry it home. It was even more of a thrill when she found these cute little ladybug rain boots.



The best part about this is she is still wearing them while she naps...and she is napping naked:)

Best Friends

We LOVE how well Riley and Simon play together. They play well and fight well:) Look how cute they are.

CAUTION: Not For People With A Weak Stomach!!!!

Well, another day, another mess.....and one we hope NEVER happens again. Simon no longer wears diapers to nap, he most often stays dry until.....today. I came upstairs today to wake him as it was almost 5:00 and found him out of his bed 'painting' the walls. Oh yes, he had an accident in bed and decided that it would be a good idea to pick it up and rub it all over the walls......YIKES!!!!!! I know what my mom is thinking, karma....yes, I did this too as a child. WHAT A DISGUSTING MESS!!!!! Jason put Simon in the bath and I got the honour of cleaning the walls....no organic cleaner for this job, straight to the extra strength chemicals.

I did think of taking a picture but I just couldn't stomach it. There is never a dull moment in this house:)

Basement Fun

The kids are loving the newly cleaned and organized basement. Here is some of the basement fun we had in the morning.

Painting


Riding bikes....watch out because she goes fast!!!


Simon chasing Riley. "Watch out Yiley, here comes the green gobbler."

Mission Complete

We never would have thought it was possible but we did it!!!!!!! I drove the kids to the IKEA in Hamilton on Friday morning to meet up with Nee Nee. We did a little shopping and had some lunch together. The kids continued on with Nee Nee to Welland and I drove back to our house. We were Riley and Simon free for the whole weekend to try to get some of our to do's before baby arrives tasks done. Let me tell you how much one accomplish when there are no kids in the house. Here is a list of some of things that we did.

1. Cut the front and back grass (this takes almost 3 hours on the riding lawn mower).
2. Cleaned out both kids closets. They are now spotless.
3. Stripped and washed all bedding.
4. Hung the jungle leaves in Simon's room that I bought at Ikea on Friday.
5. Cleaned out the kids drawers.
6. Hung some picture frames on the wall
7. Cleaned out the basement. This was no small task, we had the messiest basement you have ever seen.
8. Did the grocery shopping
9. Hooked up a T.V. and V.C.R. in the basement
10. Set up a craft and painting area in the basement.

We worked about 4 hours on Friday night, 7 hours on Saturday and another 5 on Sunday. With all this work we managed to watch a movie, go out for a nice dinner and even sneak in a little nap. On Sunday late afternoon we headed back down to Hamilton and met Nee Nee and the kids at East Side Mario's for dinner. Here are some photo's of some of our work.

I thought of doing a before photo but I was to embarrassed to show the mess.....here is the after shots.



Jason in his pimped out basement cleaning attire.


Simon's new bedsheets and jungle leaves. Now my quest continues to find a nice brown and green muted quilt for his bed.



Now our to do before the baby is born list is only 4 pages long not four and a half....YIKES!!!!!

Operation Impossible?

This weekend Jason and I are attempting to complete a seemingly impossible task. Thank goodness my mom suggested she take the kids for the weekend...the task seems a little less impossible now. We are going to try to clean out our basement!!!!! We have to do this in order to move our office down there, the office will become the baby's room. Now, that may seem easy for some, but let me tell you a little of what is in our basement. We can completely stock a kindergarten, grade one, grade two, grade three and grade four classroom. Half of the contents of my mother's house are being stored down there until she moves into her condo. Jason is a pack rat, I think I have finally convinced him that he no longer needs his books and notes from university...we all know he didn't use them when he was there, why start now?

I am driving Riley and Simon to the IKEA is Hamilton Friday morning. My mom will meet us there and take the kids for the weekend. We will drive back down on Sunday night to pick them up. I am feeling a little excited, a little worried and a little nervous about them being gone for the weekend. I know they are in great hands but being away from them is hard for me. I am looking forward to being in our house for the very first time on my own. We have lived here for almost three years and I have NEVER been here by myself.

I was going to post a before picture for you but I have just realized that my camera is in the van and Jason is gone to volleyball. I will try to post one later. Wish us luck in our mission.

Enjoying The Little Kicks

Jason, Riley and Simon are feeling the little baby kicks now. Riley loves to cuddle, kiss and sing songs to the baby, it is so cute. Simon comes over lifts my shirt and gives the baby raspberries, he has such a funny little personality. Here's Riley showing some love to baby.

Blown Away

Riley was working on Monday morning colouring a picture. She was very busy for a very long time. We are completely blown away by how much her colouring has improved, we are amazed.

Road To Reading Festival

Sunday morning in the rain we went to a reading festival in Barrie. The kids had the chance to see Clifford, do crafts, watch puppet shows, hear stories, play games and get books.

Time With G.G. and G.G. 2

After our visit in Waterloo we stopped in at Jason's grandparents in Toronto for a little visit. Riley and Simon only had a short, very short nap in the car on the way there so they were silly, silly, silly. Both of the kids get hyper and silly if they haven't had enough rest....not a good combination when you are going to a house full of antiques and Royal Dalton figurines. Here are the two crazies in semi-controlled hyperness.

Olijnyk Family

Good friends of ours from university had a beautiful baby girl named Isabelle at the end of August. One week after the baby was born their toddler Bree had a little slip at home and twisted the wrong way. She now has a spiral fracture and is in a cast to just over her knee. Can you imagine having a newborn and a 2 1/5 year old in cast????? We certainly can't, somehow they are doing very well and everyone there is handling it like champions.

Saturday morning we headed to Waterloo to meet baby Isabelle and have some playtime with Bree. Bree looked so cute in that pink cast and has mangaed to figure out how to scoot around the house with it on.

Here are the kids playing...the big kids.


The little kids playing.





Nice coconuts Peter!!!!!

Halloween Preperations

Halloween is already a major discussion in our home. Riley has asked to be Cinderella...what a shock, Simon has said he wants to be a birthday cake. I have no idea where this idea came from but hopefully he changes his mind to a costume that is a little easier to find. We went out shopping the other day and found these window transfers, needless to say right after we walked in the door on the windows they went.

Rapidly Expanding

Baby number 3 is certainly making my waist line expand. I am starting to feel stronger movements and kicks. I am looking forward to the day that Jason and the kids can feel the movement. I am finally over the sickness, for the most part but have a whole new host of problems. Three pregnancies, three totally different issues. I am much more tired this time. I am having some major vein issues in my legs, way worse then with Simon. A vein actually has started to come through my skin. I have low blood pressure, which causes me to have major head rushes. And my last pregnancy issue so far is I have a pulled muscle in my big belly. With all this craziness going on I am still amazed by the miracle of it all...who would of thought I would be on baby number three after all we went through. We are so blessed.

Fun And Games

A few interesting fun and games have been happening at our house lately. The first is Riley running around the house holding a skipping rope and Simon attached at the other end. Riley runs as fast as she can and Simon tries his best to keep up, it looks like a game of crack the whip. Jason and I stand there cringing trying to remind Riley to slow down and they laugh their heads off. Here is Simon enjoying the game.



The other popular game to play is flipping upside down over the ottoman in our family room. They lay on their backs and flip their feet over. Here's Riley giving it a go.

Piano Man

We are blessed with being able to inherit a very old family piano. The piano was originally my great aunts when she was growing up. Thanks to our good friends Paul and Kara we were able to go to Welland in a cube van and move it out of my aunts house. When we arrived to pick it up we had 6 men waiting to help us, the piano weighs over 1000 pounds. When we got back to Barrie, it was a different story....we had to have the truck back and we arrived home very. Jason and I some how...still can't figure out how...moved it into our house on our own.

The piano is a hit with everyone. The kids love to play or should I say bang on it, Jason has managed to teach himself a couple of songs. Here is Jason playing and Riley enjoying his tune:)


I guess we should get lessons sooner than later.

First Day of School

This morning was filled with many emotions in our house. Jason and I both dreading going back to work mixed with excitment for Riley and Simon's first day. Also, nervousness for the kids first day back at it. Last year Riley had a hard time adjusting to being away from me...there were tears...a lot of tears, not sure what this year would bring. Our little man was leaving us for the first time...so many fears, will he be ok? Will Riley boss him around all day? Will he tell his teachers that he has to go to the washroom? Will he listen?

Here they are ready for the first day of school.







I am happy to report that Riley and Simon did not shed a tear this morning when I dropped them off. I can not say the same for me though. In fact, in the car Riley was telling Simon that he had to be brave and not get sad when mommy went to work. I am sure she was saying it for her own benefit. They both walked right in and settled down to colouring before I was even out the door.

Grandpa picked them both up at lunch time and found them both playing with friends outside and riding their bikes. They had a lunch with grandma and grandpa and then grandpa took them home for their naps. When I got home from school everyone was happy and excited. Riley tells me that they played basketball, coloured, painted and read a Franklin story. Simon told me they did days of the week, played with new friends and rode bikes. We are so pleased that day number one went so well, one can only hope this is the start of tear free drop offs.

Summer Reflections

We can not believe our summer has already come to an end. Time sure does fly by. We had a fantastic summer together as a family and are thankful for the careers we have chosen and the opportunities they afford us. Jason nor I can fathom how people work all year round, we treasure our time together.

Busy is a word I would use to describe this summer. We pretty much did it all: Toronto Zoo, Ontario Science Center, ROM, Canada's Wonderland, African Lion Safari, Elmvale Zoo, Wasaga Beach, the cottage, Sherkston, Riverdale Farms, Muskoka Wildlife, many weekends in hotels, Jason spent almost 2 weeks in Holland, Jason and I went to Vegas for four days, birthday parties, BBQ's, swimming to name a few. As many of you know we are a family who loves to be busy and active, in fact most weekends from now until Christmas are already booked up.

It doesn't look like the fall is going to slow down for us. Jason has accepted a position coaching the Georgian College Men's Volleyball Team. We have many commitments for the weekends in the fall and the kids start up all of their fall activities. Both Riley and Simon will be taking swimming lessons. Riley chose her second activity to be dance and Simon asked to "play with balls and run" so we registered him in a gym program at the rec centre. We are also hoping to get them into a music program....who needs sleep???

All of this and we have a basement to clean....that's a big job at our house, an office to move, a nursery to paint and a baby to get ready for.

We are all sad to see the summer come to an end but look forward to all of our new adventures this fall.

Muskoka Wildlife Centre

On Sunday on the way home from the cottage we stopped at the Muskoka Wildlife Centre. We had passes from Jason's Aunt Rosemary and Uncle Rick from last Christmas. Thank you Aunt Rosemary and Uncle Rick, we had a great morning together.