My first soup!

So this is a second post for today.  I made my first attempt ever at homemade soup.  We had a spiral cut ham for Easter dinner, so I decided to save the bone and try my hand at ham & navy bean soup. 

One of two chef's helpers of the day.

Soooo tasty!! 

Superman is in da house

Pure. Delight.

Carnival Practice

It's that time of year again, folks!  The year end carnival is coming up this weekend.  Logan and two of his best buddies are cowboys, skating to Achy Breaky Heart.  We had the dress rehearsal last night and ended up stuck at the arena for 2.5 hours while things got figured out.  And these three little cowboys were the only ones who showed up.  All the rest were girls.   And...a special announcement is coming in Saturday's post...

Just another day

That's one strong bunny!

Ok, so Logan only has a Radio Flyer trike, which he's waaay too big for now.  We'd also been discussing getting a swingset at some point for the kids.  The result?  A pretty darn lucrative Easter morning for two little kids.  Logan has been begging for this bike for weeks on end, talking about it non-stop.  He barely even shot it a glance on Easter morning.  He's so cautious and wary of things - he told me he's afraid to sit on it because it might make him hurt himself.  He also wanted to make sure that the swing set was small and that I wouldn't make him go on the swings.  Poor dude.  I'm sure this means that Avery is going to be a real dare devil and I'll be having one panic attack after another once she's on the move.

Doesn't play well with others :(

Poor Avery.  I don't know what to do with this little girl.  She cries and cries and cries when anyone other than Mama or Daddy tries to talk  to her or pick her up.  Perfect example...she sees Aunt Wally pretty often, and this is what happened when Aunt Wally tried to play with her at Easter Dinner.

Monkey on my back

I had cleaning that I wanted to get done, and of course, Avery just wanted me to hold her. Soooo...despite weeks of thinking about doing this and then chickening out because I was too nervous to try it...I got TJ to help me wrangle Avery into a back carry in my BabyHawk.  I'm pretty positive that I didn't have her in there right, but we got a few things done anyway.  I think it's hilarious how teeny tiny she looks next to Mama's big head!  Don't mind me - I wasn't wearing any makeup and I'd been cleaning the house so my hair looks scary.  Oh well...Avery looks cute!

Eggciting times!

We got together with Logan's best friend Nick and his family to do some egg-colouring with the boys.  I think the mommies were more excited than the kids!  It was a lot of fun, and the kids had a blast!

(yes, we are still trying to wash glitter out of his hair!)

Take our pictures, Mama!

A little song & dance

TJ downloaded a version of the alphabet song a while back - at the end, the singer decides to try it backwards.  Apparently this inspired Logan to try it, too.  He set out to learn the backwards alphabet, and he has reached his goal!  Umm...I learned it through listening to him practice, so he's a few years ahead of me on that one!




No, he doesn't have to pee!  He always dances while he sings.  I have a video where he sings through without any trouble at all, but the bow at the end of this one makes it the clear winner!

Here's the other one...

Light up the Night

What grandparent could say no to the constant nagging of a not-too-subtle 4 year old who would LOVE to have some shoes that Light up the Night?  Apparently not Logan's!

Playing Catch Up

Ughhhhhh.  I have a bunch of photos to catch up with.  I've been out of service for the past week.  I had what I thought was a nasty stomach bug that hit me hard.  However...it's been a week since I first started with it, and nobody else in the house has gotten sick.  Just me.  (Thank goodness, though!). 

So for today, I'll post a pic of the evolution of drinks.  I have been a diet-coke-aholic for years.  I would crave it, it was the only thing that truly quenched my thirst, etc.  Since I got sick, I've had it twice and after I drank it I wished I hadn't.  Right now, my staples are apple juice and ginger ale (not at the same time). 

My diet for the past week, with the exception of 4 meals, has been water, apple juice or ginger ale, dry toast, crackers and chicken noodle soup.  The actual illness only lasted 3 days, but I have had this constant nausea since then that has been nagging me.  Oh well...seems like it's improving my habits, anyways.

Chuddy!

We all piled in the car and met Aunt Wally and Chuddy for Chud's first time at the off leash dog park.  He is SUCH a big goof!! I love him!  He was such a good boy while we were there, and it's so fun to see how much he loves Logan.  I'm sure once Avery is on the floor (and not in the wrap), he'll be all over her, too.  He's not aware of how big he is though.  When he stands on his hind legs, he easily puts his front paws on Logan's shoulders.  He's gonna be a big boy...but he's a gentle giant.  Sweet as can be.  The poor fella had a rough ending to the afternoon though when for who knows what reason, another dog tackled him and started a scrap.  It did not sound pretty!!  Poor Chuds.  He survived though, and I'm sure it won't sour him on making friends.

Pretty in Pink

Mmmkay.  See how bald she is?  I bought hair clips for her hair! HAHA!  They were specially designed for babies with very little and very fine hair.  Yeah.  She doesn't have enough to keep them in...they last around 5 minutes before they slip out.  It wasn't a waste of money though, because some day...you know, some day when she's about 30, she'll have enough hair, and she can use them then!  My next goal is to get a picture of her wearing them.

Nature

Silly Face Self Portraits

Avery, Avery, Avery

When I was pregnant with Avery, TJ and I used to joke - you know, half scared that it would happen and half willing it not to - that since Logan was such a great sleeper (he slept 18 hours a day for his first year of life, I swear!), that we'd end up with a baby this time who never slept.  It didn't seem like that was actually a possibility.  I mean, all babies sleep, right?  Right??  WRONG!  Not this one!  Just for the record...just because we joked about it, didn't mean we wanted it to be that way! 

Avery looooves her Mama.  That is flattering in the best way, but at the same time, she needs to learn to detatch just a wee bit.  Many days, I can't even put her down to get her a bottle without her screaming herself silly (although she can still see and hear me) to the point of getting herself sick.  She wants me to hold her all the time, she only sleeps for 5-10 minutes at a time during the day, she is horrible with "strangers" (even the strangers that she sees on an almost daily basis - those are the worst kind!), and she has been up an average of 5x per night for the past month, too.  Something had to give.  So I bought The Secrets of the Baby Whisperer to help us figure out something to get her sleeping better.  I'm convinced that if she slept more she'd be far less cranky.  Wish us luck!! 

He's growing up so fast

I can't believe this is my baby, but this picture is so him. 

Spring is here...

Sure sign that spring is here - there are plenty of geese around for feeding.

The World Premiere

Drumroll please.....Logan's interpretation of Humpty Dumpty sitting on his wall

I believe that the only pieces that were pre-cut were the large red square that makes the background of the wall.  He did the rest on his own.  Not too shabby.

The Reptile Zoo

We went to the Reptile Zoo today and met TJ there after work.  Last year when we went, Logan was terrified the whole time. He really didn't "get" the idea that the animals were enclosed and he thought everything was going to eat him.  He got it this year but still wasn't entirely laid back about the whole thing.  I'll take it as a good thing that he's afraid of reptiles that could potentially gobble him up!

Meet Lady.  Note, she only has 3 legs.  Note also, she is NOT in an enclosure of any kind in these pictures...and YES, we were *that* close.  We were even closer - almost touching her at one point, but then Logan backed out at the last second.

Avery checking out the Horned Owl.

Logan feeding the tortoise (Mommy got to feed him, too!)

A little wary of the two giant pythons behind him in this enclosure.

The cutest best friends ever...

At the beginning of September, these two didn't even know each other.  They had met a few times when we first moved to this street, but those were brief encounters while we were out on walks.  They never actually played together.  But Logan started JK this year, and Nicky is in SK - they are in the same class and ride the same bus.  Nicky's mom is also on mat leave so the stars were aligned for these two to spend lots of time together.  Now it's March and they are joined at the hip!  We took advantage of an absolutely gorgeous March Break day to go to the park and I got this very adorable shot of them together. 

Pure Cuteness