Our little trip

We are home. We just went on a little trip with our guys and had such a great time. With a 9 month old and 3.5 year old we had to plan our trip according to what they could handle, and I think we were pretty successful.
Here is what we did.
Last December we said goodbye to some of the best friends we have ever known. The Depews moved from Edmonton then spent the last few months in Arizona, and recently moved back to Canada living in Raymond. We decided to go and spend a few days visiting them, then drive through Logan's pass to Kalispell and then come back to southern Alberta for Magrath Days.
It was so great to see our friends. Every once in a while you have the privileged of having friends who are more like family. This is how the Depews are. Cooper and Bronson were born just 1day apart and they were the CUTEST to watch play and crawl around together. Either I was feeling insane or they were just tugging at my heart strings, but momentarily I watched them and thought how fun it would be to have little twins.

The cutest little buds getting their morning baths!

Adorable little bums!

Bronson and Cooper just hanging out!

Hudson loved playing with Jaxen, Rex and Sadie, and Shane and I loved visiting with their parents. The kids played outside climbing the apple tree, spraying each other with the hose and pulling veggies from the garden(even if they were not supposed to). We were able to take Hudson to  their farm(his first experience with a farm) and he even got to feed the horses and stand on a hay bail:)

Hudson making his Dad proud! He would have been a good little farm boy:)

Jesse showing Hudson how to feed the horsee! Made Hudson's day!!

The cutest picture ever, of Jaxen and Rex! They are such nice boys!

On Monday we got up and drove down to Kalispell. We drove through the Logan's pass and it was INCREDIBLE. It really was breathtaking. Maybe my favorite part of the entire trip. I loved it, but poor Hudson was pretty scared and kept telling us that the mountains were hurting his feelings. We made sure to try and keep it fun honking and screaming as we drove through the mountain tunnels.

Driving on the Pass, with Mountain run off spraying us.

One of many beautiful lookouts on the pass.

A little family photo, taken by another sweet driver while we were waiting for construction crews.

In Kalipsell we hit up a lot of parks, and we found a great outdoor pool with a spray area, lazy river and some waterslides.We had to put Hudson in a lifejacket for the lazy river, and Shane said his favorite part of the trip was watching Hudson gain confidence in the water and have fun kicking and "swimming" around.

In the lazy river with the boys. They looked so cute with their little life jackets on.

Random picture, I know, but I think EVERY change room should have these seats! Genius!

 When Shane was young he went to the Hungry Horse Dam, and he loved it, so we took a trip just outside the city and went there too. It was beautiful and a really neat thing for Hudson to see.  The surroundings were so picturesque, too bad my camera battery died and all of our trip photos were taken with my iPhone. Seriously so many pictures:)

Trying to get a pic of Hudson in his new Angry Birds shirt. My Dad has always told us that he thinks Hudson looks like an Angry Bird-ha!

Cute Happy boys!

A rare Mama shot!

Hudson could have done this for hours!! He loves to throw rocks!

BFF'S

Such beautiful scenery, and such a cutie boy! I couldn't resist adding all of these photos!

I love him!

A view of the Dam

Being that we were in the States, we hit up target a couple times and did as little bit of other shopping.Randomly we even saw Jeff and Jessica at the target-ha! I loved being able to spend time just the 4 of us and be a family.We were so lucky, and had PERFECT weather the whole time.On Thursday afternoon we went back to Raymond and had more fun! Jesse and Shane took the kids tubing and out for a boat ride(Hudson hated it-actually Rex was the only one who liked it), and Serena and I were able to go to Lethbridge shopping. Saturday we met up with one of our other friends, Jessica Leishman and her adorable kids, Benson, Lucy and Sophie and we all went to the Magrath Parade.  The kids all played and collected candy. Shane was the unofficial candy rationer at the parade-making sure all of the kids got lots of treats. Then we went to Grandma Jan's for a BBQ, and then enjoyed the other Magrath Days festivities. Hudson was being a total pill.  I majorly broke my diet and got an elephant ear and we got to see some old friends(the Sala's) and other people we hadn't seen in a long time. It was great. Now that we are home, I am soooo glad that we planned this little trip and were able to go. So many cute memories. I sure do love my little family and I feel so blessed that we are able to take the time and be together!

I sure miss these guys! Rex and Lucy! Such sweethearts!

Everyone awaiting the parade! I asked Benson to give me his biggest smile ever! He sure delivered!

 

July Heatwave!

Just thought I would jot down a couple thoughts tonight because when I am writing posts, I often have a minute to reflect, and those reflections*usually make me feel very blessed. Today was a BAD day(we have 4 little infected ears). I will just leave it at that.

Earlier in July(Canada Day weekend), we went up to Slave Lake and visited our family. We had so much fun. My parents new house is beautiful and our next door neighbors, the Loves were just moving into their new house too, making the visit that much better. Jodie and her kids came from Grande Prairie, which seriously added to the fun. As an adult I have never fully appreciated the park across the street from my parents house, but that quickly changed as I watched Hudson play there for hours with his cousins. We were able to go to the beach and play, and Hudsy even got his first boat ride, and tube ride. Shane got to go out and spend a morning fishing with my Dad, and nephew Cody and his friend "Dillard". Rudi's house is now under construction, so we took tours of it's progress, we ate, visited, laughed and enjoyed some great weather.

I love EVERYTHING about this photo!I can't believe it is from an Iphone. Everyone was working hard digging a hole and filling it with water.

 

The perfect day at Devonshire Beach.

Edmonton is notorious for having crappy summers. Last year it was mosquitos, the year prior, rain, and so on and so forth. This year however, we are having an incredible summer weather wise.(I write this as, a lot of my friends basements are flooded from the hail storm we had last night-oops)
We usually don't see many above 30 degree Celsius days, but we have had over as week of them here, and it looks like more to come. I LOVE IT. We don't have AC, but we do have sprinklers, outdoor pools, spray parks, playgrounds,  and best of all slip n slides. All of these things mentioned are useless on a 20 degree day, so while it has been HOT we have been trying to take full advantage.

Some of the funnest times our backyard has seen! Busting out our homemade slip n slide for Family Home Evening! We posted it on facebook and had lots of people show up for a perfect night!

Enjoying the heat. 36oC with humid-ex. Hudson kindly gave Cooper some balls for his pool-ha!

Getting a cool down spray from Dad

I would have to say that this summer has been pretty awesome so far. I feel so lucky to be home with my boys enjoying it.
Lots of outside, lots of popsicles and freezees, and lots of family time. I sure hope the rest of the summer can live up to the last three weeks!!

We LOVE our Dad(s)

The other day I mentioned to Hudson that I loved my Hudson, my Cooper and my Dad. He responded, "Mom, Grandpa is your Dad".
In that instance I was referring to Shane, but I do want to give a shout out to my Dad in this post too. I will start with Shane.
Lately I have been overwhelmed with stories of bad Dads. Horrible stories that literally keep me up at night. Dad's who have affairs, keep dark horrible secrets, walk away from their families, Dads who lie and mistreat their children, and many other disgraceful Dad stories. All of these stories have made me realize that having a great Dad is not necessarily the norm these days. Lots of people out there do not even have anyone to call Dad. I think that having a great supportive, selfless Dad is not only the  not the norm, it may even be rare. Reflecting on Dad's and their important role in society makes me so thankful that my boys are fortunate enough to have a great Dad.

A few things that make Shane an exceptional Dad, and make my boys very lucky are:

• Shane makes being a Daddy his top priority.
• Shane has always wanted to be a Dad, but did not always know if his dream of parenthood would come true (making him so thankful for his opportunity to have kids).
• Shane takes wrestling and playing made up games with his sons very seriously.
• Shane is very patient in explaining things to Hudson and is a really great teacher. Hudson always remembers the things his Dad tells him.
• Shane is always the funnest Dad at the swimming pool.
• Shane tucks our babies in EVERY night and makes sure that they are covered in their blankets.
• Shane is the chicken noodle soup/grilled cheese guru in our house.
• 9 times out of 10 Shane will turn off sports in lieu of Dora the Explorer to keep Hudson happy.
• Shane has the fortitude to teach a three year old how to play play station.
• Shane knows exactly what to do to make BOTH of our boys laugh hysterically.
• Shane snuggles Hudson to sleep and says Hudson's prayers with him EVERY night.
• Shane will apologize to Hudson if he is wrong.
• Shane comes home from work each day excited to see his family.
• Each morning before Shane goes to work he makes sure to give Hudson, Cooper and I a kiss and hug, and tell us all that he loves us.
• Shane is willing to work hard for our family to provide for us.

I am sure I could go on and on, but since this post is already a couple weeks late, I will just leave it at this concise list. We sure love you Dad, and we are so thankful for all of the ways you show us that you love us!

On to my Pops! I have a great Dad. He is a tease and a bug, and very social. He doesn't EVER speak bad of people, and he works hard.He pretty much thinks he is the funniest guy around, and almost always is the one laughing the loudest at his own jokes. He is strong in the gospel, but very easy going(except about certain things...right Dad-Arts Degrees). My Dad has a tone of hobbies. He likes to golf, fish, hunt, watch sports, build things and he is extremely handy. He can fix or build just about anything.Getting him to help you build or fix anything is another storey-ha.This past year I think has been one of the busiest and most stressful years of my poor Dad's life. He went from spending his days relaxing in his basement with my Mom, on the cusp of retirement, to homeless in an instant. My meticulous Dad had his little abode all fixed up and enjoyed free time and relaxing, until the Slave Lake fire took everything of his. While me and many others were just beginning to come to terms with what was going on and mourning the loss of our HOME, my Dad was making content lists, looking at house plans, contacting builders, dealing with annoying insurance people and purchasing things he needed. I look back and can't believe that he did not waste even one second feeling bad for himself. In fact, I have never heard him whine about the fire at all. Less than a year after the unexpected fire, because of my Dad's diligence, he and my Mom were already living in their new home! Amazing!! My Mom moved to Edmonton, leaving my Dad living in a hotel for 4 months, driving back and forth on his days off, while also "supervising" the construction of their home. No offense to my Mom, but my Dad really did almost everything to take care of his wife and family after the fire. My Mom struggled a lot emotionally, and instead of being impatient, my Dad just added that burden to the long list of other burdens he took on. Right after the fire(within a few weeks) my Dad also had the unfortunate experience of seeing a man get into an accident at work, and although he tried to rescue him, and did attempt CPR, the man past away. I know that was also very hard for my poor Dad, but again, he just carried on. These are just a few examples out of HUNDREDS, this past year, that have increased my respect and love for my Dad. I am really so lucky to be able to call him Dad. Without him, I don't know who I would be able to argue with, or brag to about all of my garage sale/kijiji finds! Love you Dad. I am so glad you are in your house, and thanks for being a great DAD!!!!

My DAD, the impossible to photograph!

Annnnd YELLOW it is!

A while back I decided my little abode needed a bit of color. I love the trend of aqua and yellow, but with my wall color and sectional color I couldn't really make it work. I found an adorable rug at target and even bought it and had it shipped to my friend who was living in the States, but realized the aqua was what was not really working. I decided to keep the yellow and add a bit of grey. I like to switch things up pretty often around here, but I never like spending much money to do it. I knew that by adding a bit more grey and yellow I could keep costs low and it would give me the change that I needed.

So here is what I did!

I bought some awesome fabric from fabric.com. It is Joel Dewberry fabric and it only cost less than 9 bucks a yard. I made some super easy curtains(I just lined the curtains with some sheets I bought at X/S Cargo for 10 bucks). All in, the curtains cost maybe 40 bucks. I also hung them a bit higher on the wall.

I also made some easy envelope pillow covers(like seen in this post) for the room and then busted out some wonderful spray paint for a couple of things to add some pops of yellow. I also hung up a magnet board that I made a while back that was sitting around that I made out of an old mirror frame and a piece of sheet metal.

I found some new bar stools on Kijiji for 40 bucks(I wanted wood-Hudson had "forked" the leather ones) and spray painted them white, and lastly I put new paper on the back of my hutch to go with the rest of the room. I am so happy with the change already, but now I just need to figure out the right colors of paint for the walls. I am thinking a pale grey and a charcoal grey accent wall. We will see if it ever happens. Projects around here get started a lot, but it is not always easy finding time to finish them.

Here are a few pics. All of the changes maybe cost a hundred bucks.

Our little boys

What a crazy month it has been. My little bebes are changing so much! Each day they progress and develop, and it is so fun to watch, but really difficult to document. I can write blog posts, take pictures and videos, but somehow I feel like it is hard to really express my pride and love for these guys. When they do something for the first time, or learn a new skill, it really makes my day!
So that being said, we have had a very exciting month around here. (I have had this post as a draft for weeks, but I never seem to manage to finish anything-so I figure better late than never)

Hudson first this time. I remember my sisters and other friends telling me about the questions phase and thinking it was funny. Hudson is there right now and yes, it can be a tad annoying, but it really is hilarious to watch his little mind race. He asks (for the most part) awesome thoughtful questions. Mom what is jealous? What is a shenanigan?ect.ect. He is really fun to talk to. He has always been the type of kid that tells both Shane and I twenty times a day that he loves us so much, but the past couple days be has added, "Mom, your so beautiful" too. Love it, esp when I am covered in spit up and not wearing a bra! Hudson has become a lot more independent, wanting to dress himself(always in jammies and backward gaunchies) and even say his own prayers! Each night we get a good laugh as he prays to get ice cream, go on quad rides, watch movies, and that his little brother won't cry. It has become one of my favorite things, as I know he will come up with something funny every night. Hudson has been enjoying quite the social life lately hanging out with lots of buddies. He has two pals Landon and Parker, who he LOVES to play with, especially outside on the hill in our back yard.

Hudson and Cooper's friends, the Kutanzi's(Landon, Parker and Ashlyn)

 Even more than usual, I need to watch what and how I say things and be careful of my little parrot. He hears EVERYTHING. Yesterday at Home Depot, he told the worker that he was driving him crazy because he was taking so long cutting our chain. Hudson is proving to be very outgoing and has no inhibitions regarding talking to strangers. We are trying to help him with manners and descriptive words as he thinks it appropriate to call out to people based on their gender, size or color of clothing. For example he wanted to talk to a boy at the park wearing a black shirt the other day, so he chased him around screaming "black boy" come here.Yikes!Yesterday he mastered "Excuse me Mam" while we were at Winners, it was pretty cute.

Hudson and Coops at Home Depot right after her told off the nice worker.

On to Machy! 8 freakin Months!!!!! How???
With this little guy it is a bit easier to document his changes, as they have a bit less to do with personality, and a bit more to do with activities of daily living ADL's -A shout out to my OT husband). Mach, is definitely on the move. He stands and walks a long furniture and although he is pretty quiet, he is snoopy and manages to always keep up with Hudson and I. With Cooper on the move I often find him already "getting into things". We keep all of our games and craft supplies in our hutch, and Coops can open the doors, making it a favorite pastime  to empty. He is also discovering the cuisine of plant dirt. Not cool son, not cool!

Enjoying a tasty treat!

A couple of weeks ago when Shane went to get Mach out of bed he was standing in his crib. I am not too sure what it is about him standing there that made him seem so big, but I was definitely sad about it.

Hudson entertaining his brother with a good morning naked dance! 

 I just LOVE babies, and these guys grow up so fast! Little guy has really taken to a schedule lately and consistently sleeps through the nigh(hooray), but is now thinking that it is appropriate to be wide awake and giddy at 5-5:30 am. I am desperately trying to break him  of this, as I am NOT a morning person! Machy has been loving to be outside and just crawl on the grass. Most babies don't like the grass,but he really likes it. Coops has  also been teething a lot, and is up to 5 teeth. I didn't think this I could love our little guy anymore than I did, but now that he is sporting his two buck teeth with a huge gap between them, I do! His smile with his teeth is ADORABLE!

Look at this gappy tooth smile! He is so proud to be standing up!

In the past couple of days I have been learning a bit about Coop's personality. He is a a lot more sensitive than his brother and it appears that he gets scared a lot easier too. The past couple times I had the water running in the bath, or turned on the vacuum or even just flushed the toilet in his presence, he has freaked. He cries and tries to get outta dodge! It is a bit funny, and so cute. As soon as the noise is gone he is okay. He is still a very quiet guy. We went home for the long weekend when we arrived it was way past Cooper's bedtime. Everyone wanted to hold him, and he was feeling nervous. He was trying so hard to be brave and not cry, but he had a quivery pout lip. He never cried, but he just wanted his Mama. He really is such a doll!!Hudson still seems to be the only person who can consistently get giggles out of Cooper. He LOVES his brother!

At Jackie Parker Park-enjoying the warm weather and green grass!

Quickly an update on moi. Only for the purposes of recording my weigh loss. I must say one of the biggest challenges of dieting and exercising, is making the time. It is so easy to just snack all day and eat crap. It is so quick! It is also really nice after a long day to lay on the couch and veg rather than do my cardio, but I am still plugging away and noticing results. I checked in a couple weeks ago with Lisa and I was down 13 inches overall, and at my two month mark I was down 11 lbs. By three months I really want to be under 155lbs. I just need to stay focused and remember I was 220 when I went in to deliver Cooper. I will do a proper post about my clean eating in a couple weeks.

A swimsuit shot-ahhhh(me and Mach at the Queen E pool)

Phew I think that catches me up for now:)