Wrapping the house

The house wrap is nearly up. Jon had to build platforms to be able to reach the top.

Jon's not a fan of heights, but did a fantastic job :)

I love being a mum

We decided to have a little photo shoot last week... we tried to get Jude to stay in the pictures, but he was far to busy to stay still for more than this one and then refused to give up his play bread.
Abby decided that we should take different pictures... here is happy...
sad...
& surprised. Staying home with little ones is fun :)

The beach at Kakabeka

Abby had so much fun at the beach this morning.
Daddy helped her make a whole sandcastle village, complete with gardens!
Jude had a blast in the sand and by the water's edge.
This picture doesn't do justice to how dirty this child was when we left the beach. By the end of the hour or so that we were there, he had eaten a mouthful of sand and small rocks, thrown wet sand by the fist fulls, crawled from one end of the beach to the other, and thrown handfuls of sand onto his head and shoulders. But, he had fun!

Abby would only let me take this cute-smile picture after I took this....
...silly face picture

We survived the night...

There were times though the night that we considered driving home and returning to the campground this morning... Jude was much more interested in playing than sleeping. Although we let him play and play and play before bed so he'd be tired, he would cry (a lot) when we left the tent. I tried lying on the other side of the tent (so he would know I was there, feel safe, and go to sleep), which worked for awhile. Then, he heard something more exciting going on outside. We brought him out to have the campfire with us (since he wasn't even close to falling asleep). He sat in the stroller, looking very sleepy (deceiving!). When we were all ready to go to sleep, Jude was ready to PLAY! After about an hour in his playpen, we thought that he would maybe fall asleep more easily if he was on the tent floor with us (nope)... Abby fell asleep, Jude crawled all over the place. He FINALLY fell asleep, only to wake crying several times through the night. If this first picture looks a little dark, it's because it was not really light out when Jude decided it was time for breakfast. This is one of his new favourite things to do, try to put food in his drink.
Abby with her oatmeal.
The falls. Amazing.

More camping

Helping pitch the tent was hard work... time for a snack!
Who knew bagels could be so exciting!?
Abby LOVED the teeter-totter. It was the first time she'd been on one. She was also fond of the tire swing and laughed while Jon spun us around. I, on the other hand, thought I was going to lose my lunch.
Roasting marshmallows for s'mores... mmmmm!

Camping at Kakabeka Provincial Park

We went camping at Kakabeka last night. It's only a half hour from home, so we thought it would be a good first experience with 2 kids. We took Abby camping when she was 6 months old, but haven't been with her since. Jude had never been camping. Summers in our lives before kids were filled with camping... Camping with kids is a much different experience!

The kids "helped" us pitch the tent.


Jude checking out the potty that we brought for Abby to avoid mid-night trips to the bathroom. Who knows, maybe he'll be easier to train than we think (or, he'll just enjoy putting rocks in the potty, what he was doing yesterday!)

You'd think from this picture that Jude was ready for bed and would sleep well...

Where has the summer gone?!?

Yikes! Sorry for my serious lack of updates in the last few weeks. The summer has gone by sooooo quickly! Here are a few pictures of summer fun with the kids and a bit of an update on our lives in the last month.

I started my internship at the Children's Centre on August 1 and the days that I am not there I seem to be catching up for the days that I am. Although it's only 2 days a week, I'm struggling to fit all the stuff that I did on those 2 days into the other 5 that I am home. I seriously don't know how working mothers pull it all off- spending quality time with 2 children (and a husband!), keeping up with the laundry, dishes, cleaning, trying to have something prepared a day ahead for supper the nights the days that I am working AND trying to take it easy as I head into my 3rd trimester!

Jon's been busy with working full-time and working one the addition whenever he's not at work or with me & the kids. The framing inspection went fine. The house wrap is pretty much done, the electrical rough-in inspection should be able to be scheduled soon & insulation is well underway. We'll soon need to insulate the sun-room off Jude's room for Jude to take over once the little one arrives. We'll take some pictures once the house wrap is done (not that it's that exciting, but it's still a step completed!)

We have become mini-van people...although Jon and I never thought it would happen to us, trying to fit a third car seat into our little civic was a little unrealistic. We're trying to convince ourselves that mini-vans are cool... it's not really working. I am enjoying the air conditioning and power steering, although parallel parking is a much different experience than in our little civic. Ahhhh, our little civic.... it's gone. We realized that we really didn't need a 2nd vehicle, but did need insulation for our addition (especially since fall seems to be approaching particularly quickly this year...) There were tears (mine... I'm blaming the pregnancy). We'd had our little car for nearly a decade. We bought it before we were married, took it on our honeymoon, to Old Quebec on March breaks when we lived in NB, camping at Fundy, moved to Thunder Bay with only what would fit in the hatch & in the hockey bag on the top, drove it back from Ottawa after the twins passed away, brought Abby home from the hospital in it... it was part of our family (okay, maybe that's stretching it a little... I do know that it's a car! It just had lots of memories associated with it *sigh*)

In the country, at Nana & Papa's

Picking strawberries

We spent some time picking strawberries, both cultivated and wild, while in NB.

Searching for wild strawberries...we didn't need containers or bowls because Abby ate them as quickly as we picked them!

More kids at the cottage

Hanging out, enjoying the view.

The beach at the cottage has natural clay, so we played with it... until Jude decided to taste it!


















Abby loved the time that she spent with her Nana & Papa.

Kayaking on the Saint John River

My sister Joan has kayaks at her cottage, so we went out a couple times while we were there. My growing belly left little room for Abby, so she went with Auntie Joan.

Helping Auntie Joan bring the kayak back onto the shore.
Jude out in the kayak for the first time. He didn't so much like when I splashed him (by accident!) but did enjoy himself once we got on the water.