Happy New Year!

Source

then and now

potato boys?

then

Caelan, November 2010

now

Ronan, December 2013

Boys

Just a moment captured of Caelan playing with his new play d'oh and Ronan waiting for the pieces to fall under the table!

Merry Christmas!

From our home to yours, xo

Merry Christmas Eve!

Ryland, Ronan, Darcy and Caelan

Christmas Eve 2013

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Caelan and I did some Christmas baking today...

These taste a lot like two bite brownies.  Super yummm!

I highly recommend this recipe and have to thank Laura for the inspiration!!

Best Part

This is Damian's most favourite part of visiting Upper Canada Village...

The bread!

Can't argue with that, it is delicious.

Alight the Night!

What a great time we had at Upper Canada Village's Alight the Night!  We were so happy that Nana and Grampsy invited us and although we had to reschedule several times due to weather we ended up with a beautiful night.

These giant nutcrackers were in the lobby.

Lights, lights everywhere...

Caelan and Daddy 

Every building was lit up 

This one was spectacular; lit up to music, more of a sound and light show

The Gang

Grampsy, Darcy, Nana, Ry, Caelan, Daddy and Ronan in front.

If you've never been, I highly recommend it.

up and up

Ronan has mastered pulling himself up on things...

 

He moves pretty fast when he sees the dishwasher or refrigerator open...

 

Getting pretty brave now - one handed!!

Here come's Santa Claus

Ronan's first Christmas

First time on Santa's knee

First of my four kids to smile for this pic!

Edit: I've been corrected, Darcy smiled on Santa's knee in her first pic too!!

good place to hide when mom pulls out the vacuum

Is it safe to come out now?

 

For the record there was no vacuuming today with all the toys all over the floor,

but when I do this is usually what he does!

Darcy the snowman

My goofy Darcy sporting our snowman's buttons as eyeballs!!

Happy Birthday to us!

This year was a big birthday for Damian so we celebrated in style...

 

We had a great time away and are very thankful to everyone at home who helped make this possible!

We came home exhausted and ready for a vacation from our vacation!!

ooey gooey goodness

Yup, I made them...

Happy half birthday Darcy!

xo

Three Boys

Caelan's been counting. 

Actually we've all been counting trying to help Caelan with his counting.

He has no trouble at all counting to three.  (He can count higher than that but this post is about him counting to three)

Whenever Daddy, Ronan and Caelan are home, Caelan is all about counting the one, two, three boys!  In fact it's the minute that Daddy walks in the door that he starts talking about the three boys.

 

He's signing three on his chest. 

 

Three boys.

 

Three boys on the couch.

 

Three boys on one cushion of the couch.

 

Now he's taking it one step further.

 

No girls, right Dad?

 

This is the boys couch. 

 

No girls allowed!

 

 

oh my.

Tooth Number Two

has arrived!

I thought it had cut through but was having a hard time getting a visual or a good feel of it.

Darcy spotted it tonight at dinner though. Definitely two!

Snow

We were doing errands yesterday as a whole family.

I know.  Either crazy or very brave.

We came out from one store to find it snowing.

Caelan was so excited.  He talked all the way home about how he wanted to make a snowman.  We kept telling him that we'd have to wait and see if it snowed enough to make one.  He was relentless as he can be when he gets fixated on a specific idea.  Unfortunately we didn't get enough (read: any)snow accumulation to make a snowman that day but we told him that maybe if it snowed all night we might be able to in the morning.

Well, it started raining in the wee hours of morning and didn't stop.  When we woke up there wasn't any snow to be seen but plenty of tears from my little man who was so distraught over his snowman.

I told him that we could make one inside.  That we'd make a craft and build a special snowman.

I asked him to go down the hall to Mom and Dad's bathroom and to look under the sink for the cotton balls.  He headed right off.  Then promptly returned.

"Caelan do you know what cotton balls look like?"

"Umm. No." (with his finger on his lip as he contemplates this)

"They're fluffy white balls and there in a bag with blue and red on it"

"and green?"

"No, no green.  Just blue and red, maybe some white."

"and green Mom?"

"No Caelan.  No green. Blue, red and white.  It's in the cupboard under the sink."

"Ok Mom" 

Five steps down the hall from the kitchen and still many, many steps from our bathroom, Caelan calls out:

"I no find it Mom.  I no find it."

We went and found it together and made this

half birthday

Darcy and I were doing the grocery shopping recently when she drooled over some frosted cinnamon buns in the bakery section. 

Please Mom... With full on puppy dog eyes.

Being the mean mom that I am, I told her I wouldn't pay for those but that maybe we could make some soon.  Wouldn't she rather have the homemade ones, anyway?

I didn't get a very convinced look in return but she suggested that perhaps I could make them for her half birthday.

Half birthday?  Sure Darcy.  Sounds like a plan... Wait, when is your half birthday?

Well, let's count it out.  May. June, July, August, Sept, October, November. 

November 16th.

So you'll make me cinnamon rolls for my half birthday?

Yes Darcy, I will...  Don't expect any presents though!

An apple a day...

Look at these pictures I was sent today...

 

 

 

Yep, those are teeth marks!!

 

(As you can see those dang spots are still there, they're fading though)

Halloween 2013

 

My little pirate

Believe it or not those spots are starting to look better

 

Ryland, the Devil and Darcy, the tutu wearing zebra.

and my poor spotted baby Ronan... caught in a rare smile because he really wasn't a very happy boy on Halloween.  I didn't even attempt at putting his costume on him!!

More spots!

Mr. Ronan has not escaped his brothers spots.

Really doesn't surprise me since they play on the same floors, with a lot of the same toys and both put their hands (and in Ronan's case everything) in their mouths!!

Poor little guy isn't handling it quite as well as his big brother.  He's absolutely miserable and his spots have spread quickly all over his hands, feet and around his mouth, chin and neck.

We went to see his Doctor today and now have two boys on antibiotics and getting 'creamers' three times a day for their spots.

Our doctor suggested that even though it's true Caelan's spots shouldn't be contagious after 48 hours on the antibiotic that it would probably be safer to just keep him home the week. You really don't want to have it going through the classroom and I couldn't agree more. So today after Ronan's appointment we picked up a couple new dinosaur movies to help keep us busy over the next few days, especially since Ronan is so unhappy.  Hopefully a couple days on antibiotics will help with his humour...

Spots?

Caelan came home after a fun day at school...

Playing in the school Halloween store with his buddy Jack

 

 

When Caelan left for school he had some red spots on his hands that I thought were from him chewing them as he's known to do. With the colder weather they've been off limits in his mitts and as a result his upper lip in getting a chewing and quite chapped.

 

When Caelan got home there were significantly more spots on his hands and all around his mouth. We kept an eye on them. They got redder.  By this morning the spots were blistered and open... oozing... yuck.

 

We were lucky enough to get in to see his Pediatrician this morning and were quickly diagnosed with impetigo. It's a nasty bacterial infection and is highly contagious.  We were prescribed an antibiotic and a topical ointment to help sooth the itchiness.  I have to say though that they don't seem to be bothering him at all.  He's actually quite disappointed that he can't go to school because of these spots. At least he's in a good mood since he'll be home with me for the next 48 hours while he's contagious!

 

Fingers crossed nobody else gets it!!

Pumpkins

Tonight was carving night...

 

Caelan checking out the goop - had to post because it reminded me of this!

 

 

Ry, not loving the goop

 

 

Caelan making sure Daddy's following instructions

 

Darcy planning her pumpkin

 

Ronan supervising (with cheerios)

 

and the final products...

 

 

Caelan's pumpkin on the left is supposed to be Ronan with his one tooth.

Ryland was asked ever so kindly (and insistently) by Caelan to make her pumpkin a Caelan one.

She obliged.  Her original plan of a candle was then used on Ronan's pumpkin.

Darcy's pumpkin is the spooky spider-y one.

 

Can't wait for the big night!!

 

chicklets!

Ronan's first tooth has cut through the gums!!

Hopefully that means better nights sleep ahead!?!?!

Avocado

I love avocado and so does Darcy.

 

Damian and Ryland do not.

 

I was really hoping that Ronan would love it too...

 

but it doesn't look like it

 

and this boy loves his food!

 

apparently not avocado

 

at least not yet

 

At one point he even turned his head away from me, and he's NEVER done that!!!

 

I'm not ready to give up though.

on the move

 

and so proud of himself!

 

This past weekend Ronan has been determined to get from point A to point B.

He's not up on all fours but he's mobile.

He's pulling himself forward with his left forearm and mostly his right knee.

Sort of an army or commando crawl.

 

Let the trouble begin!!!

Happy Birthday Caelan!

Five years old...
Where has the time gone?

Today was a bit of an emotional day. Not only was Caelan turning five, he also had his very first big boy birthday party.  Four little boys from his class came to help him celebrate this birthday.  Caelan was so excited, I can't even begin to tell you!  He didn't stop moving for a minute and made it very difficult to capture pictures of him on his special day!

I basically pinned him down for this picture.  He was too cool to smile though...

Then there was his cake... Somehow this little handsome dude managed to convince me I could make him a dinosaur cake!?!  I scoured the internet looking for some kind of template or design and came across quite a few different dinosaur cakes.  In the end, this is how Caelan's turned out.  

It was far from perfect, but I was proud at my first attempt at a dinosaur cake!  More importantly Caelan was happy and that's all that counts.  He even insisted on having a piece of it, which he broke all up and stirred all over his plate before deciding he was done.  I think he may have had a tiny taste of the icing but that was it.

This year Caelan's wish list has been everything Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Disney's Cars, Disney's Planes, new books and of course dinosaurs.

I get quite overwhelmed when I start to think of all Caelan has accomplished in the past year.  Walking is HUGE.  Learning his letters. Spelling his name. Printing his name. Counting.  A Senior in kindergarten. Making friends. Going to his first school friend birthday party.

Just becoming his own little person with an amazing personality.

Thank you Caelan for making me smile everyday.  We love you very much. xo

Silly silly soother

A while back I posted a picture of Ronan attempting unsuccessfully to put his soother in his mouth...

While he has certainly mastered getting his soother he still can be a little silly sometimes!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a busy long weekend!

Friday the kids didn't have school.  The girls spent the day with Nana and Grampsy and headed out to Pumpkinferno in the evening.  The rest of us were supposed to meet up with them but Ronan and I both had miserable colds and it just didn't seem like a good idea.  Sounds like everyone had a great time again and I'm so disappointed that I haven't been yet.

Saturday we went to Poppa and Lolo's for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.  My highlight was that despite not having seen my niece Jill since her first birthday party at the end of August she came right to me without hesitation. Love her!  My sister speculates that it's because we have so many similar mannerisms but whatever! I know it's because she loves me too!

Sunday we had dinner with Damian's extended family on his moms side.  This is always a big crowd and it was great to see everyone again.  I made this four layer pumpkin cake for dessert and it was a big hit!

Monday we went to Damian's parents house for an early dinner.  How lucky are we?  Three turkey dinners and I didn't have to cook any of them!

From our family to yours... Happy Thanksgiving!

Do you like my hat?

I think he felt super silly because he completely refused to look at the camera!

Beets

I made Ronan some pureed beets...

They made him look like a messy vampire!

Garden Bounty

Of course we got quite a few of these giant zucchinis.

 

A variety of hot peppers, some that we pickled

 

 

A first for us, melons!

 

 

 

We picked our watermelons too early because I was worried about frost.

 

 

Lots of green peppers, no red though.

 

Our herbs did really well this year and we thoroughly enjoyed lots of fresh basil, cilantro, rosemary, sage, oregano and thyme.