Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I remember when New Year's Eve meant getting dressed up, going out for a nice dinner, enjoying some wine with friends. And tonight I am updating the blog at 10:30 p.m....However, we did enjoy a nice dinner with our friends the Thornton's earlier this evening, which was a lot of fun. Gone was the dressing up and wine (at least for Steph and I) but at least the friend part hasn't changed!!! Really blogging now is the only way I could guarantee that I would be up at midnight to at least give Scott a Happy New Year kiss!

Ethan and Christine are enjoying playing together these days, which is great to see. Ethan, Christine and Olivia also had a lot of fun playing with the cushions of the couch while Dash and Troy looked on. Olivia was getting tired near the end but we missed the "window" and she is now wide awake playing with Scott downstairs.

Ethan is now dressing himself these days...this is the outfit he picked for this afternoon - although the pants didn't last long, as most of you who have visited know, Ethan prefers to be in his underwear, no matter who is over...I am not sure what this means for the future....

He also received a Fisher Price camera for Christmas. He is enjoying getting people to pose for pictures. He took a number of me this morning. I thought that camera just made it look like he was really taking pictures, so I wasn't really concerned about appearance, that was until Scott downloaded the pictures...Either Ethan is a horrible picture taker or I need to go on a serious diet...unfortunately I don't think Ethan's picture taking is the problem...

My neat (not eater)!!!

On the 23rd and the 25th we headed down to St. Catharines for some Christmas dinners, the first at my brothers and the second at my moms. It was good fun and the kids were spoiled with lots of presents. Here are some pictures from Christmas Day at my mom's. Scott and I also must have been good this year because we were also spoiled by all - including our BC family members!

Christmas this year with Ethan was lots of fun. This year was filled with much more anticipation. We left Santa a nice note and some snacks and Ethan went to bed easily so that Santa could come. He woke up once around 2:15 a.m. to check and see if it was morning but luckily went right back to bed when Scott told him that it wasn't time yet. The next time was around 8:00 a.m. - which was much better!

Here is Ethan and Olivia playing with some of Olivia's new blocks. Ethan is at a stage where he really doesn't like Olivia much - never wants her to come with us, never wants to share anything with her etc... This is likely normal big brother behaviour but hopefully they will start to be able to play nicely together soon. Santa wrote Ethan a letter back saying that he needed to be nice to his sister but the Santa effect isn't what it was a couple of days ago!

He has such a beautiful smile....my little sweetie!!

Ethan with his moon sand...it is a fun toy but not as "neat" as they claim....he still manages to get sand all over the floor...

Here is Olivia walking around with her shopping cart from Santa.

Here is a really bad picture of Ethan opening some presents...

Olivia is giving her little brother a kiss with likely a bit of slobber!!

We go for Troy's three month check up on Friday. He is continuing to grow at a fast pace. He is almost in 12-18 month clothing. He has outgrow most of his 6-12 months stuff and don't even try to put on any size pants - his stomach is too big, only one pieces outfits for now. I have so many outfits he never had a chance to wear....A turtleneck that fit Ethan at 9 months almost fits Troy now (and Ethan was not a small baby)!

Happy New Year everyone!!! 2007 had its highs (especially the birth of Troy) and lows - we are hoping that 2008 will be filled with many more highs (and very few lows)! The next blog will likely be after Scott, Troy and I get back from a mini-vacation on the 13th..I can't wait!!

Olivia's Second Birthday

Olivia's birthday turned out to be a very snowy day!! Luckily we celebrated her birthday last night. We had my family (which totals about 20) over for dinner. Olivia had a great time and really enjoyed her Dora cake!! She received a lot of cute outfits, which is great because she decided to change sizes after I had already bought all her winter clothes!!

Here is Troy spending some time on his tummy!! He still really enjoys it and is getting quite strong! I can't believe that he is going to be three months next week!! He is starting to sleep a lot more at night, which is great, only getting up once to eat (ususally) and then going back right back to sleep until the morning.

This week, Paola and I tried to get a picture of all three kids in front of the Christmas tree to send to everyone. We got everyone all dressed up and tried for about a half an hour but to no avail. It was impossible to get all three of them together because either Ethan was jumping in front of the camera or Olivia was taking off!! Here is a picture of one of the attempts!!

Last weekend we decorated the Christmas tree and Ethan helped Scott put the star on top. It is a little bit lopsided, I think the star is a little bit too heavy, but we had a lot of fun decorating nonetheless.

Olivia is very interested in Troy these days. She loves watching him, smiling at him and laughing at him. Here she is smiling at him while he is in his car seat.

Last weekend we went to our friend Sydney's first birthday party. We attempted to get a picture of all the kids, but it was hard!! Olivia was having a nap and missed the picture. In this one, Troy is getting a little impatient and wants out of his car seat!

What a cutie!!

Ethan finished his swimming lessons last week and passed into the next level. I am kinda glad he is done because they were on Thursday nights at 8:00 p.m., not a great time!! Hopefully he will be able to swim on his own this summer. He starts lessons again in January - this time on Sunday mornings.

Ethan has done a couple of funny things over the past couple of weeks. About two weeks ago during dinner he asked Scott how he felt about having a baby (i.e. - Troy) that wasn't his....This prompted Scott to ask if I was having any strange male visitors during the day (which of course I was not). Ethan later explained himself saying that because I had the baby in my tummy and I feed that baby that Troy was mine and not Scott's.

The other thing was, sometimes Ethan doesn't like going to his preschool on T/T afternoons. He really enjoys it once he is there but he doesn't like going. Anyway, I have been telling him that we have to give it a try and that if after Christmas he still doesn't like it, then he doesn't have to go. Last week when I dropped him off the teacher pulled me aside and told me about their withdrawal policy and the requirement to give notice. Apparently Ethan had told the class during circle time that he wasn't coming back after Christmas, he was just going to go to his other school!!! Too funny - luckily he seems to be liking it more these days.

Here is Ethan and Paola decorating a gingerbread house. I am always amazed at how little creative/artisitic ability I have. I put the house together before they started decorating it and for a while it was in great danger of collapsing. The interior walls were collapsing and there was a large crack in the roof. Luckily with a lot of icing it managed to stay together!!

Two weeks ago Olivia was sick (just before the birthday party) and she spent most of the week like this - being held by someone. She missed school all week and was generally not very happy. By the weekend, her fever was gone but she was still very cranky and having some temper tantrums. I was worried that my happy, easy going daughter had been replaced with a terrible two. Luckily she was back to her usual self this week!

Me and my boys!!

Off to help with the baths...

Big Baby

We went for Troy's two month check up on Wednesday. He weighed in at a whopping 16.2 lbs....needless to say he was off the charts for weight. He is 90th percentile for height and 75 percentile for his head. Here he is taking a snooze before heading out to the mall for some Christmas shopping. We all headed to the mall yesterday...it was an interesting experience taking all three of them to the mall. All things considered, they were all very well behaved!!
Ethan and Daddy taking a snooze while Daddy was recovering from his surgery.

We got a lot of snow last night, so Scott, Ethan and Olivia spent the morning playing in the snow and shovelling. Olivia wasn't really sure what to do in the snow, she found it a bit hard to move around with her snowsuit and boots. I also found out that her snow suit is not water proof. This afternoon, Jerry, Michele and Truman came over for a playdate. Ethan and Truman had fun being boys together!!

Just a quick post... Ethan is started to host a fireworks display in our bedroom....