Boys with Grandparents

I made it out to Victoria with the boys on my own! I was a little nervous, just thinking through the various scenarios of travelling with two young boys, but they took it very easy on me. Sam asked to go to the bathroom just before we had to board, and making it through the airport was a snap. They didn't even blink at my bag that was over the weight limit! The flight itself went well - I gave Max the snuggle down and had him asleep a few minutes after takeoff. Sam watch Steve Irwin wrestle some crocs for a bit, and finally succumbed to the lulling ride of the CRJ. I too, even managed a few minutes of napping.


I had a really hard time waking Sam, and even with Max slapping him knee it took us about 5 minutes to wake him after landing. We were the last ones off, but only because of Sam. He took a few minutes to really come to, but still managed big smiles and a run to Grandma who was waiting at the airport.

I had my Christmas party on Friday night, and hooked up with Richard, Lyn, Alex and Nathan today for lunch. After Max's nap we hit Esquimalt Rec centre. Sam impressed his grandparents with his diving off the big diving board while Max tooled around in circles in the 'river'. It is a pretty cool pool (but warm in temperature!). They even have movies while you swim on Saturday night (this week anyways).

I've got the kids to bed tonight and finally have a chance to catch up on Darcy's birthday present (for last year)...

Boys having fun!

Here are some pictures of the three boys from Tuesday. They sure look like they are having a good time together!
Max is getting to be a bit of a ham:

Pretty soon they'll be holding up the peace sign behind each other's head!

Sleepover / Grey Cup

Saturday night we looked after Rogan and Lily while Ali and Matt had a night out (returning the favor from the previous night). Rogan stayed the whole night for a sleepover, and we didn't hear a peep from them until 7:30am. They were super cute in the morning, and Rogan was VERY excited to have waffles. Lily, Ali and Matt came over as well once they were up and at it:
In the afternoon we went over to the Ross's and helped stuff Christmas boxes for kids, then watched the Grey cup. The kids were pretty rowdy for a while, but noone was seriously maimed!Here is Max enjoying his mountain of chocolate dessert!

Max looking super cute in his Christmas PJ's - which barely fit :)

Max & Daniel Reading

Lately Max has taken to climbing into the rocking chair in his room and settling down with a good board book. He is starting to enjoy reading books, and asks for them... Yesterday while I was looking after Max and Daniel they both climbed into the chair and pulled some blankets on. They were pretty cute!

Helping with breakfast

Both boys now like to get up on the counter and help stir, mix, pour and generally help make a mess :) Max has taken to carrying a blanket around rather than his soother - most of the time anyways. The other day Sam was upstairs with Max and talked him into throwing his soother back into his crib - "You can have it downstairs, Max!"

Photo Shoot

I returned home from Alaska last week on Saturday afternoon. I came home and then took Sam down to Vistek to pick up some lighting equipment that I had rented. Ryan and I set it up that evening and then on Sunday morning we shot our families, followed by 7 other families! It was pretty fun, although I didn't have to spend any time next door at Allie's with the 7 kids all day:) This shot is pretty much the best shot of the 5 kids that we managed to get. We just couldn't keep all of them happy at one time. All of them looked great in individual shots and shots with Mom and Dad, but no happy cousin shot this time. Oh well, sometimes reality is better!

Weekend bike ride

Before I was off to Alaska I took a nice bike ride with Sam and Andrew to the South Glenmore Park where we met up with the two little guys, Darcy and eventually Dawn. It was a nice sunny day and we enjoyed a nice picnic. Here are the boys scooping up the pea-gravel and moving it back where it belonged (according to them!)...

Scare at Ikea

I got a call from Darcy yesterday and it wasn't a happy one. Allie and Darcy were at the IKEA in Calgary with Sam and Rogan in Smalland. Suddenly an announcement came that everyone needed to evacuate the store. Allison took the little kids and Darcy tried to locate Rogan and Sam. They eventually found the Smalland people outside with the kids - or so they thought! Darcy found that Sam was not with them. When she asked where the rest of the kids were they replied that they had them all. Darcy eventually got a guard to help her go back into the store and they found Sam still playing in the play area. How they miscounted 7 kids and left him there is a mystery - but safe to say it was the worst 10 minutes of Darcy's life. Fortunately nothing was actually wrong at the store, and Sam was none the wiser and not at all upset. Scary to think if it had been a real emergency, though.

These boys love jumping!

Sam and Max love to jump off things. Sam gets a little more height, but Max makes up for it with arm swinging enthusiasm!