Fun Weekend

Chasing after dogs! Love this face - future wedding material I think!
Mid step! Playing outside in a white dress - what was I thinking?
New friend Sean, and this little boy got some exciting news today #1 - His adoption is finalized! #2 - He is going to be a big brother to the little brother (my friend is 20 weeks along and they found out today they are having a boy)
Lounging with Daddy watching all the action take place! I love this picture of the two of them together!
Kenzie petting Stella (I think this is Stella or it is Ruby - hmmm, not to sure oh well). My little girl loves dogs and cats. I look forward to the day out rottie is in doggie heaven and we can get a more kid friendly dog for the kids to grow up with!

Sean getting stuck. It was so funny and yet he was not happy. Glad I had the camera on hand to catch this moment!

Trying to stand up unaided! He almost got it up. He has gotten up a few times on his own, it is just his big head that he struggles with balancing. He is getting there though!

Playing the drums on daddy's head and loving it!

Let me outta here! Come on mommy and daddy why did you have to build the fence I wanna fun free!

I love it when she does this. It is her way of saying what is up with this, I just don't get it.

Jaris looking at daddy - and his look says it all "Really daddy, you really want me to kiss you? Well okay if that is what you want!"

Here comes the kiss!

We just finished yet another busy weekend with some friends. This past weekend was the Metis Cultural Festival here in Armstrong, and some friends of ours from Kamloops came out to partake in the weekend. We joined them for a little bit on Saturday and then on Sunday they came to our place and stayed until this morning. It was fun for Kenzie and Jaris to have another little buddy to play with. I must admit though Kenzie was a little possessive of her toys. Totally developmentally appropriate though. Yet I found my self apologizing a lot in the beginning because Kenzie was acting like a bit of a brute. We were trying not to laugh though because it was sort of funny. At one point Sean was trying to slide down the slide, yet Kenzie did not want him to so she stood in front of the slide with on hand on her hip the other foot firmly placed on the slide so he would have to go through her to get down. Oiy, seriously where does she learn these things?

Grandma and Grandpa Krahn came for a short visit today, the kids got to see them in the morning, however when they were finished butchering chickens the kids were going down for naps. I think I heard them come to say hi and goodbye, however I was almost had Kenzie asleep and moving from the rocking chair would have spelled disaster and a nap was very much so needed for the kids since they have had way to many late nights and got up earlier than normal this morning. For me if I stay up to late then I want to sleep in, with the kids nope. If they stay up late then they want to get up early. Go figure! However one very sweet thing that happened when Grandma K. was here - Jaris saw her and walked right on over to her very excited to she his grandma! It was very sweet and he I am pretty sure that was the most steps in a row he has taken to date!

Well I think that is it. Now life will consist of us getting ready for our trip over the next few days. I figure if I spend the next few nights once the kids are in bed packing things, I will be a little less stressed the day before and morning of leaving! I am very excited to see my one of my best friends and I am very excited to celebrate the joys of adoption with some friends!

Reading Daddy's motorcycle magazine

The three loves of my life

Eating Spaghetti! He loves meals like this, however it sure does make a huge mess!

Life is good. What can I say? Jaris is getting more steady on his feet day after day. He still has a ways to go before he is walking all the time, however he is trying and it is so fun watching him reach this milestone. He also has figured out how to climb up the stairs to the slide and then how to slide down feet first on his stomach. When he gets to the bottom he sits on his knees and starts to clap for himself and waits for Jeral or I to start clapping for him too! So cute!

Kenzie is so funny. Last night she was not tired so we let her stay up and she was running all over talking away (I wish I could understand it all). She would come up to one of us and say something, wink at us and start laughing hysterically. Seriously adorable!

In other news it has been a week since we were told our fence would be finished and still it is not finished! Not to happy about that. It would make play time out side a little easier on me, as both kids head for separate open gates at the same time. I am pretty sure they think it is hilarious watching mommy scramble to keep them in the fenced area!

In a week we are going on holidays. We have our passports so we are going to the States to celebrate with some friends the adoption of their daughter whose name is Makenzie (called Kenzie for short too). I love hearing stories of adoption and getting to watch this unfold first hand was wonderful, and way less stressful on us than when we were adopting. It is always way nicer being an onlooker.

May Long Weekend

My beautiful little niece Maddy!

Ahhh, this is the life! Playing outside with my Grandma, brother, and cousin!


My adorable and very handsome nephew!

Hmmm, looking all serious my son!

For some reason Kenzie does not like walking over the cracks on the side walk so she crawls over them. Man if I could read her mind and figure out her reasoning behind it. Still stinking cute though!

Getting slobbery kisses from auntie! Jaris loved follwing her around and was mr. personality with auntie around. Actually his personality has been coming out more and more and he is getting very social these days!

Jaris at my cousin's wedding. He and Jeral wore matching purple shirts! The looked very handsome together!

Posing all nicely for mommy! Man these two are handsome!

Throwing rocks at the Trestles! Seriosuly having Tyson there made my day. He was in awe of everything we saw from the height of the trestles to the little waterfall we stopped to take pictures at. Man somewhere along the line we loose the awe and wonder that we had as kids. It was nice to get that back for a little bit!

Being held by Daddy and walking along. This was one of Jeral's favorite pictures!

This was one of y favorite pictures. I love seeing her and just Jeral's hand. So blessed t be her mommy!

Chris (my bro-in-law) and his son Tyson having fun!

Well I hope everyone had a great long weekend! We sure did! First off my youngest cousin got married so that ade for a great weekend. We took the kids to the ceremony and then we went to the Kettle Valley Trestles with my sister and her family for a nice walk. Times like that are way more enjoyable with little kids. Everything is so amazing through their eyes! After our walk we headed out to Boston Pizza (it's kid friendly) for supper to celebrate my brother in laws 35 Birthday. All in all it was a good day.

My sister and her family actually spent ost of the weekend with us at our house. I will admit I was worried at first simply because well to put it nicely my bro-in-law and I sometimes struggle to get along. So a whole weekend could be challenging, however I am happy to say that we got along just fine and it was a great weekend!

So I am proud of myself! In previous post I have mentioned how I get overwhelmed with the astronomical amount of weight I desire to loose. Well I have been chuncking it and making my goals smaller, and the first goal I accomplished this past weekend. I was a little worried with all the visiting and eating we were going to be doing this weekend, however I still lost weight and in the process made one goal, and almost accomplished the second one! It has been a good day so far!

Love this boy so very much!

My amazing little girl deciding to be a bit Steve Erkleish!!! She refuses to wear the sunglasses with the lens in however she loves hamming it up with these ones on! Gotta love the booger hanging out her nose too!

Blossoms from one of our trees!

I am hoping we are finally over all the sickness that we had going on here for the last little while! I am done with being sick and with having sick kids! I have never seen so much snot. It has been crazy. However I love the cuddles I have been getting lately.

We had my mom out for a few days to help me get all the flower beds weeded and the flowers planted out front. I am liking how things are looking and look forward to adding things here and there over the next little while to add to the beauty of it all! I never thought I would be one who would get all excited about flowers and so on, however I guess having my own home and growing up a little has helped. Plus this year the babes are a whole year older and that makes life just a little bit easier!

Just some more photo's of our amazing kids! Life as of late has been filled with snotty noses, sore throats, puking, tears and everything else that comes with being sick! Yet surprisingly we are surviving and hoping that soon al of this is behind us and life is back to it's usual happy times!

More Pictures!

Its a jungle out here! Daddy I think it is time to cut the grass!

Sitting with daddy and getting a head message! Oh yeah, nothing is better than that!

Where did my sister go?

Jaris' foot! My boy has big feet!

Such kissable and squeezeable cheeks my boy!

Licking my snot so yummy! Mommy thinks it is grow though!

Sitting in the stroller waiting for someone to take me out so I can crawl on the grass.

Should I wear it or not?

Just after a laundry basket slide! Daddy can slide me further than mommy!

Hmmm, mommy what is this? Note to self do not leave my bag on the ground.

Sweetness!

Chilling in the toy room on a sick day!

So all 4 of us caught the cold. AHHHHHHHHH! Alas that is life, however the thing that made it all better was seeing Jaris take his first unassisted steps yesterday! Yep you read that right Jaris has started to walk! He is still not that steady and crawling is fast however he is braving new territory and walking little bits here and there! When he started walking towards me yesterday it took everything in me not to scream for joy and startle him. I wanted him to keep walking and if I startled him I he was sure to fall down. I get so excited every time he accomplishes a major milestone. With Kenzie it was different she was so fast at meeting her milestones, and while I was excited for her it was almost expected that she would accomplish things when she did. Jaris however despite knowing all the genetic testing came back normal last summer, we still were unsure and had many questions. So every milestone accomplished grants us added room to breathe and puts our minds and hearts at rest! I am so thankful for 2 beautiful, healthy children!

Just Playing Around

Playing Hide and Go Seek with mommy and the camera and then she found a rock and that was more interesting!

I love these two so very much!!!!

My son is not that mischievous however one would think from looking at this picture that he has a wild side to him! I mean he is my son after all and well those who know me know I have a crazy side!

Yummy I love Grapes!!!

Look at that Face and Smile! Seriously little boy your expressions crack mommy up!!!

So we have two sick babes and I can feel whatever they got about to hit me too! So not fun and yet so the way it goes as a parent!

I have been taking Kenzie to a Play Therapy Group on Wednesday mornings I have been learning lots about my self as a mom and as a human being in general. Really the group is all about teaching us a parents how to play with our kids in healthy nurturing ways. One thing I realized is that man did we ever spend a fortune on developmental toys for Jaris when in fact I could have gone and bought a few packages of stickers to stick on my face and that would have helped with his fine motor skills!!!!! Seriously the games that we play with our children are way better than any old toy and really when it boils down to it out kids want us! One of the things I really enjoyed watching today was how one of the other mom's let her son cover her face in dot stickers and just left them there. How many mom's would do that? Fortunately for me Kenzie was more interested in taking them off of my face than putting them on! Thank you baby girl!

At the end of our time together the group leader who just happens to be my sister in law and on of Kenzie's favorite people in the world asks all of us "what was something that stuck out for us during our time?" Then she asks the harder question, "What was one thing you appreciated about yourself during this time?" Now talk about a tough question. Yet how many of us do actually take a few seconds to think about this question and answer it honestly. So for me today I appreciated about my self was that I was able to feel okay going out in public without make-up on. Now for those of you who knew me back in the day I never wore make-up. However now a days I wear it all the time. Anyways maybe take a moment and tell yourself what is one thing you are able to appreciate about your self today!