Francis' 9th birthday

On January 29th Francis turned 9 years old. Wow. I feel old! Next year we hit the double digits! Here are a few pictures from his birthday:
Morning of his birthday opening presents ... video games...

In the evening we had the grandparents over - here's Francis opening more presents ...

Little sister gets in on the presents ...

Here he is blowing out his candles - he asked for a football cake - Loblaws made this one ...

On Saturday he had his friend party where they played Laser Tag. It was a big hit with all the kids. I was so happy to not have 10 9-year olds tearing up my house! :o)

I have lots of fun pictures of the boys playing Laser Tag but I just don't have the energy to blank out the faces and since I don't have permission to print their pictures these will have to do to give you an idea of what it looks like. It's all in the dark and there are those lights that make any white clothing florescent.

One happy kid!!

Happy New Year!

Ok, so it’s January 12th and life is back in full swing after the respite of the holidays. Steph started his new job and is loving the 5 minute commute. I’m back to work, Francis is back to school and Naomi is back to daycare. In an effort to get more exercise in I signed up for a Zumba class – I did the first one yesterday - wow, what a workout!! It is non-stop aerobic dancing for 1 hour. I have signed Naomi up for a music rhythms class that starts this Saturday. I am not quite sure what to expect but the brochure said music and dancing and parental participation!

On January 6th Steph bought a “Gâteau des rois” (Kings’ cake) . Each person gets a slice and one lucky person finds a “fève” (bean) and in this case a small ceramic animal. This person is deemed the king and the king chooses a queen. Pictures below. Oh, and the cake was delicious – an almond cake with a light flaky crust.

Christmas pictures

Here are some pictures from Christmas. It seemed to just fly by this year. We have spent the past few days relaxing and enjoying our new toys (aka: playing Wii non-stop). We also went sledding and took the kids to see the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. Tomorrow we are going skiing (whee) I hope I remember how!

Christmas eve, leaving cookies and eggnog for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer ..

Opening the Barb1e camper - best gift evah in Naomi's mind ...

Francis on his new snowboard reading a hockey magazine ...

The kids opening prezzies for the hamsters ...

New books!

Naomi holding her newest cousin Isaiah (1 week old)

Naomi and Stephan out for a walk ...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and wishing you all the best for the new year!!

Naomi and the Big Guy

Love this picture, even though I forgot to bring some shoes for Naomi to change into (sigh). Believe it or not she was really nervous to sit on his lap. The promise of a sticker book and the fact that she just had to ask him for a Barbie camper helped to get her up there.

I have a new nephew!

Yesterday my brother and my S-I-L welcomed their second child, Isaiah Blake! Big brother, Hugo Kaleb, looks happy to be holding his new brother in one of their first pictures as a family of 4! I am so happy for them!!

2010 Olympic Torch Relay

A week ago the Olympic Torch Relay came through our neighbourhood on it's way to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, BC. A huge party was held in its honour and we had so much fun! There was a huge stage with live dancers and musicians and Coke was there taking pictures of families holding one of the official Olympic torches - they were also passing out special Coke bottles with the Olympic logos and light up Coke bottles. There were food stations selling hot chocolate and other typical Canadian treats. What a fun event!

My little helper

Yeesh, it's Wednesday and I'm just getting around to posting about our weekend!

The princess and I made our first batch of Christmas cookies on Saturday. She was thrilled to get to wear her "cooker" again. Lol.

A generous helping of sprinkles ... lots of tasting ...

This is the "kids" tree upstairs just outside her bedroom door - she was such a good helper but I have noticed that several of the candy canes are already missing. Hmmmm...

More signs of Xmas upstairs ...

I always add a greenery garland here but this year I was feeling sparkly - the hubs is not loving it - he thinks it's tacky! Well, next year when he decorates the house for Christmas he can choose what he wants (as if). :o)

Update on the hammies - they have fur and look like hamsters now! They are ridiculously cute!

Skating, baking, and babies

Last Sunday while I was attending a baby shower for Doris (who will be traveling to China to get Daphne soon!) hubby took the kids to the local rink for some skating practice. We had taken Naomi last year and she hated every minute of it! This time she apparently loved it and stayed on the ice for a good 45 minutes! Not the best quality photo since it's from a phone camera but I am glad to have the moment captured!!! She has been asking to go back all week!

Naomi loves to "help" in the kitchen. She was so happy to try out the new apron my mom made for her.

She *loves* to crack the eggs ... mmmm .... crunchy brownies ... lol!

little miss poser ....

...being silly ....

Last Friday night I was at the grocery store when my son called me to announce that our two (supposedly) female hamsters produced a litter of 6! Lovely. Never trust the employees at the pet shop. Lesson learned. They are super cute though ... anyone want a hammie?

The little princess has been skipping her naps on the weekends lately ... apparently she is "big" now and doesn't need them ... lol. In her defence, this was after all that skating ... :o)

Fall Peektures

Halloween pictures

Birthday pictures!

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you ...

Happy birthday princess Naomi, Happy birthday to you!
Make a wish ...

Friends (some in halloween costumes ... That's Francis with the red hair)

Opening presents ...

Happy 3rd Birthday Naomi!!!

I can hardly believe you are already three. I feel like you are growing up too fast and I wish there was a way to keep you little forever. On the other hand I love to see you grow and learn about the world around you. I love watching you learn new things. You are so smart. Everyone tells me so. One of your birthday gifts is an 87 piece puzzle because you can do all the 24 and 36 piece ones in 10 minutes. The lady in the store didn’t even believe daddy when he told her. Your daycare teacher says you are more advanced than most of the 5 year olds she’s taught. I am so proud of you. I love your big personality. You believe in fairy tales and princesses and princes. You know every Disney princess story by heart. Some days you are so girly and other days you are rough and tumble. One moment asking for nail polish, the next you are shooting your brother with your fingers. You are affectionate and can’t go to sleep without a huggy and kissy. I love the way you drag your stuffed"doggie" around. You love the way he smells and never want me to wash him. You love animals, all animals. You love to visit the snakes at the pet store much to my horror and you call your hamster Fatso in a loving way. You make me laugh every day with your silly antics and it is easy to make you laugh as well.

Every year on your birthday I can’t help but wonder about the mother who gave birth to you. I wonder what her circumstances were. I wonder if she is thinking of you today. I’ll bet she is. I feel so lucky to be your mom and I am grateful to be the one who gets to spend every day with you.

Love always,

Mommy

xxx

Apple Picking 2009

And the award for worst blogger goes to ...

What can I say, it's been a bit crazy around here. Francis is back to school and is off to a good start. His French teacher is a man - he really seems to like that. Ahhh grade 3! I signed Naomi up for gymnastics with the 3-5 year olds since she will be three next month but she doesn't love it. She is used to me participating with her and now she is on her own with the other kids and she is having some major separation anxiety. The first time she ran in and did about half the class before becoming hysterical because she realized I was not there. The second class I could not get her in the door. We also did a ballet trial class. The ballet teacher (a man) told all the parents to leave and Naomi lost it. Ok, so we'll try again next year. It's too bad because at home she is constantly dancing or jumping around!

I have not been very good at taking pictures of the kids lately. Sigh. I did get this one from a recent hike we did and the other one is Naomi wearing her pink kitty pj's same as she saw Ro and Ree wearing the other day. Every day she wants to see what the Salsa Twins are up to!

How to avoid getting your kids a dog in 2 easy steps

Step one: purchase 2 fancy rodents (winter white mini hamsters). Allow children to name them Bugzy and Snowbell. Purchase deluxe cage and accessories, special mini hamster food and aspen pine bedding. Teach children not to squeeze them too hard and to pick up the ...ahem ... dropping they leave on the furniture.

Step two: purchase second type of animal in case they get bored with rodents. Pick aqua colored "wild" budgie along with cage (found) bird toys, food, vitamins and prepare him a raw food diet daily. Try to teach bird to be gentle and not bite children. Allow child #3 (husband) to name bird after favourite hockey player (Kovy). Make children promise to feed and clean cages.

There now, that's MUCH easier than getting a dog right?

Mont Tremblant

This past weekend we spent a couple of days in Mont Tremblant, a ski resort 2 hours north of Montreal. There is lots to do in the summer as well! The above picture was taken during a ride in the gondola.

Naomi enjoying the walk uphill - see how pretty it is? Great views too!

Naomi and Francis enjoying a beaver tail. Not a real one of course, it's deep fried dough with lemon, sugar and cinnamon. Yummy!

Going up on the chairlift - feels weird without my skis! Check out the helmets and toboggans

Francis demonstrating the luge that we came down (hence the ride up on the chairlift).

Naomi showing off her pool jumps. She is also swimming with her face in the water (trying to be like her brother)

Gotcha Day #2!!

Today is Naomi and Zoe's 2nd Gotcha Day!

Here are some pictures from the Chinese restaurant we enjoyed tonight.

Bestest buddies ...

These Guizhou girls have big appetites! Yummy noodles!

I love it when they hold hands ...

Elisa made chocolate dipped fortune cookies and added some #2 candles. The kids enjoyed the attention and getting to blow out their candles!

In the side bar there is a picture of Naomi wearing a Chinese dress - that was taken last year on gotcha day! My she has changed and grown!

And here we are on Gotcha day. Wow, it feels like yesterday and at the same time it feels like a million years ago.

With great sadness

We said goodbye to our family pet, Billy yesterday.

More than a cat, he was a member of our family.

He will be dearly missed.

Mid-July

Time for an update! Despite all the rain we've been getting we are having a very nice summer. Here are a few pictures from the past 2 weeks.

Naomi's "bonhomme" or self portrait. All her "people" look like potatoes but they have arms and legs and eyes and a mouth and hair. I have to say I'm impressed considering she is only 2 years old!

Naomi showing a little Canada spirit for Canada Day

I actually took this picture in the car - this kid always has this mischievous smile (like he's up to

something). Mr. personality ...

Naomi at the lake on an outing with Elisa, Thomas and Zoe. She really loves this "ballerina" swimsuit - turns out Zoe had the same one but in a different color!

Love this picture of Miss Zo-Zo Pinky!

The kids found this giant log floating in the water and decided to hop on. Elisa is trying to hold it steady so they don't tip off.

Francis had a big baseball tournament over the weekend - they won first place!!!

Tired but happy. The game finished at 10pm!

June is almost over???

Wow, where did June go? The summer is going too fast!! Anyways, here a quick picture post to keep you up to speed with us.
Today Naomi had her first dentist visit. She did really well and they made it fun for her. The first visit sets the tone for the rest. It seems I have misplaced her medicare card so today's visit was a ridiculous $157 and all they did was count her teeth and give her a free toothbrush. What a crock. Luckily I can reclaim it but still. Anyhow - moving on.

This shot reminds me why I love my big clunky inconveniently-sized camera. Love it.

Kiddos enjoying la piscine. So glad we went for it even though it was a total pain in the a$$ to repair after the winter got hold of it. Francis is a real fish, you just can't get him out of the pool. Naomi loves the water but she is more cautious and doesn't really enjoy having water in her face yet. I need to find one of those new style life jackets.

Here is Francis meeting Georges Laraque of the Montreal Canadians. Francis won a contest by being part of the Habs fan club and got to skate with him on a special "ice" they set up outside the Bell Center on Saturday. They also got to attend the draft picks.

Little Miss Personality ...

I have been doing really well sticking to my new exercise regime. It's been a month and I have lost a few pounds and inches. We've been doing a lot of bike rides lately - fun for the whole family! Icky picture of me but proof that I'm up off the couch ... :o)

The rest of the team ...

Happy Daddy Day!

Happy Father's day to my husband, my dad, my father-in-law and my grandfather!

Bad Blogger!

Ok, so I’ve been somewhat MIA for the past 2 weeks. So here’s an update.

I joined a health/fitness online group at Sparkpeople.com. It’s highly addictive! You can create a blog page and monitor nutrition and workouts and end up meeting a whole bunch of great people who encourage you along the way. I’m going to be 40 in a couple months and it recently hit me that when Naomi is 13 I’ll be 50! I want to get in shape and take care of my health. So this is where I have spent the most computer-time lately!

We’re also getting closer to the end of the school year and the planning of the summer (time off, camp, etc). Also, the hubby got laid off and re-hired at the same company in a weeks time … weird I know. He start his new position on July 1. Less traveling for him (yay) but more chauffeuring the kids around for me (boo). Anyways we will make it work. We are thankful to both be employed in this economy!

The pool is up and the sun is finally warming us Canadians so my bad blogging days are here to stay for the summer I think. I want to send out a big congrats to Sugar and Spice and a little Rice for their recent referral and I continue to wait for happy news for 3D’s, Catherine’s Chatter and at last, Milana's commin home.

Happy Summer Everyone!

Naomi enjoying the big pool

Strange kid ... I guess the little pool is not small enough. lol.

Kids enjoying ice cream at the fair on the weekend.

Photo at the top is Naomi modeling the knot dress my mom made for her. Adorable eh?

FRIENDS

A girl and her bike

This is Naomi on her bike. It's currently her favorite thing. (ahhh ... to be two and a half ...) Sorry for all my blah, blah, blah, man I'm annoying!!!

It was a blah rainy weekend. We went to see the movie UP which was really good. Poor Naomi had a lot of trouble keeping those big 3D glasses on. When I asked her if she liked the movie, her response was, "mhmmm, yummy popcorn ..."

Playing Photograper

Due to cut backs at work, I am working a 4-day week. Yay for more time with the kids, boo for the cut in income. So on Wednesday, I decided to play photographer for a day with Naomi as my model. I wanted to get some nice pictures of the lovely doggie twirl skirt my mom made for Naomi. With camera in hand I headed for a lovely area near the water. 5 shots later and I had a dead battery and a kid who needed to pee. I quickly found that the life of a photographer was a lot less glamorous than I thought. Back home I got a few more shots in before my model had a meltdown and needed a nap.

Dress up / Fashion choices

This was Miss Naomi's choice of fashion for today. Ahhh, princess for a day!

This was last Friday's fashion choice (I was planning to join in om M3's fashion photo challenge). She said that she was a rock star. lol!

This was yesterday's fashion choice - hmmm ... from rock star to preppy!

Naomi a la ferme

It was unusually warm here today and I wanted to spend a good part of it outside so Naomi and I headed off to a farm that is open to visitors and only 15 minutes away by car. It was so nice to see all the baby animals and enjoy the sun!

Naomi's favorite by far were the big cows. Kids are allowed to help feed the animals and they are allowed to touch all the animals which makes things very fun and hands-on.

The farm is in a forest and just behind there is a lovely picnic area by the river.

The best part of the day was throwing stones into the river!

pictures

I love this picture ... makes me think of a Chinese Holly Hobbie! Lol!


Naomi loves this little sandbox - it has legs so it's the perfect height. In the sunlight you can see that her hair is more of a chocolate/auburn than black. Not sure if that is one of the traits of her minority group (Miao /Hmong) but it is very fine and thin as well. Finally her bangs are starting to grow in - yay!! (click photos to enlarge)

It's begining to look like spring!

don't know what these are called, but they're teeny - about 4" high

I love the blue vein in these - I think it's a type of hyacinth - also tiny 3"

this is a bud on my lilac tree

mini Irises - about 3" tall

The begining of a fragrant fave

Forgot to say that these were taken with my Canon Rebel XTi with the 35 mm lens (no filter).

If you click on the image you can see all the detail as the pictures are huge. Love this camera but I still want to get a mommy purse cam!!

Gottcha Day and Easter Pics

7 years ago (yesterday) Stephan and I became parents for the first time. We spent a month in Russia as it was a turbulent time in Russian adoption - but finally we were allowed to adopt a sweet little baby boy known as Andrei (Androushka) who will forever be known as our son, Francis.

This is Francis' referral picture. A picture that changed our lives forever. We had very little information to make a decision with. We decided to take a leap of faith - that this child was meant to be ours - so happy that we did. I can't imagine life without you Francis! Happy Adoption Day! Love always, Mommy and Daddy. xxx

Here's a picture from Easter morning. The kids we up so freekin' early!!!

Here's Francis with Buddy (my dad's dog) on Easter Sunday at my mom's house. He was so happy to get to be the Easter Bunny this year and organize the egg hunt. There were only a few pictures of him and this was the best of them all - he's been shying away from the camera lately, not sure what's up with that.

Naomi and Cousin Kaleb partaking in the Easter Egg Hunt that Francis organized for them. It was freezing cold (about 5 degrees Celsius) but we got to enjoy a few minutes of fresh air!!

More cupcakes!

Tonight the princess and I made Easter cupcake "nests" for her daycare group. They were really fun and easy to make. Ice cupcakes then sprinkle with (combo of melted chocolate and coconut) then add mini eggs.