Happy Father's Day

Sadly, I have to work on Father's Day, so we don't have any big plans for Father's Day.  But I do want to wish my wonderful husband a happy Father's Day.  He is the most amazing dad!

one of Lynden & daddy's first photos

totally in love with his son

one of our favourite pictures of all time

at the aquarium

checkin' out the beach

going for a walk

Wedding Week: Ceremony

It's wedding week at Love Grows Wild and The Grant Life!!

 

Danny and I got married 2.5 years ago in a beautiful park in the Okanagan. We were lucky enough to have mother nature cooperate - it lightly rained all morning and around 1 the sun started to poke through (we got married at 2:30).

In all honesty the ceremony went by quickly and I don't remember much. I remember having a moment waiting for the music to start, however my sister's boyfriend who was in charge of the music couldn't get into our laptop because he didn't have the password. By the time Danny entered the password my "moment" had passed and I was ready to get married.

I also remember knowing Danny was crying when I was walking down the aisle but because I wasn't wearing my glasses I couldn't actually see it. Probably a good thing or else I would have started too, which I did when it was my turn to say my vows.

I remember after the ceremony was done and waiting for pictures to start realizing what a silly idea it was to decide to wear a strapless dress in October (I was freezing).

That's all I really remember from the ceremony. Thankfully we have lots of pictures to fill in the rest.

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Also, I just started a Facebook page for my lil blog.  Stop by and say hi!

Wordless Wednesday: Water Baby

While at the park we took Alyssa over to the water area; she Loved it!

Some Kids' Parents

Saturday was such a beautiful day and since Danny and I both had the day off we decided to do something with the kids.  We took them to a water park that's about 4 blocks away.  It's a great park!  There's 2 water areas, one for smaller kids and one for the older crowd, a small creek you can go wading in, and a great playground that's completely shaded in. 

One of the downsides of the park is the size of it; if you have 2 kids it's pretty much impossible to keep track of both of them.  Thankfully Danny and I swapped off on which child we watched. 

This was sadly not the case for another boy's father.  I'll start at the beginning.

Alyssa and I were sitting on the blanket and three boys ran by with water guns; I'm guessing they were around Lynden's age (no more than 2 years older).  For the sake of the story I'm going to call the youngest Johnny, his brother/friend (I'm not sure which) Sam, and the third boy (who did not know the other two) Peter. 

(This is no indication of people I know with these names)

After registering them I went back to feeding Alyssa her snack.  Shortly I heard one of the boys crying; it was Johnny.  Sam was telling Peter he needed to apologize for spraying Johnny in the eye.  Peter was refusing and telling Johnny to stop being a baby. 

Sam was getting more upset with the way his brother/friend was being treated and they decided to not play with Peter anymore.  When Johnny tried to walk away Peter kept getting in his way so Sam (not aggressively) pushed him out of the way so Johnny could walk away.  Sam also said "stop being a bully.  You are a bullying him."

This is when Peter got mad and wrapped his arm around Sam's neck and tried to drag him to the ground.  When Sam managed to get away Peter said (loudly) "f*#k, f*#k, f*#k". 

My jaw hit the ground!

You're A Mom When...

You know you're a mom when:

- you try to catch vomit coming out of your child(ren)'s mouths instead of running in the opposite direction

- your idea of privacy is peeing alone

- you wonder "where the hell are Max and Ruby's parents?"

- your favourite time of the day is bedtime

Wordless Wednesday: Owie!

This is what happens when a 3 year old trips and falls onto cement

Park Time

One of the perks of our place is there's a good park super close; I mean less than 5 minutes to walk there (although it takes a little longer now that Lynden rides his scooter there and back, but still super close).  Every day this week he has asked to go; he loves the park.

I thought I'd share some pictures I took while there this week (as you'll be able to tell, the kids love the swings)

playing peek-a-boo in the tunnel

wearing the jacket Aunty got her for Xmas

Wordless Wednesday: Stylish Girl Part 2

In case you missed Part 1, check it out here.  And, yes those are her brother's pants she insisted I put on her head

Can I Do This For A Career?

I mentioned before that I we switched over to a new computer so I've had to go through all our old photos and I found a folder that I thought I had deleted; the photos of me trying on wedding dresses.

I have to say, trying on wedding dresses was a ball.  There is nothing more fantastic than wearing pretty dress after pretty dress after pretty dress (a few I tried on just for the sake of trying them on).

I really liked this dress. The neck line was beautiful, the embellishment under
 the bodice was stunning, and I loved the shape and colour.
It was just a bit too formal for what we had planned.

Same idea as the one above,
but I didn't love the neckline as much or the bunching at the waist

Again, same sort of style, and,
again, not right for our style of wedding. 

This was another one I really liked,
which is surprising since I have never pictured myself wearing a wedding dress.
  The beading was lovely. 

New Boots

This week we had to buy Lynden new shoes, again.  His feet grow ridiculously fast (since last August he's gone up 3 sizes). 

He was very excited at the idea of new shoes, which he normally fights us on.  Danny took him to the store and while there Lynden fell in love with a pair of rain boots, fireman rain boots. 

The moment he walked in the door he showed me his new boots and has been wearing them almost non-stop.  He wakes up in the morning and puts them on, he gets upset when I tell him to take them off before he crawls into bed, he's even figured out the best way to sit at the table with them still on.

Even Alyssa was excited about Lynden's new rain boots. 

Yes, I put her in them but she brought them to me and sat down so I could put them on her. 

I'm a little worried how he's going to handle out growing them, which I'm sure will happen before the summer is over.

Tuesday 10: Easter

10 Easter Memories (in no particular order)

1. Easter on the Island. 
   I remember being about 10 and spending Easter with my mom and sister at a lifelong family friend's on the Island.  I remember we set up a trap to catch the Easter Bunny, which didn't work; we only found chocolate bunnies.  I also remember going outside in their front yard that was covered in Easter goodies, it was the second biggest Easter haul!
2. The year of chocolate.
   Oh.my.gosh!  This has been told many times over and it still flabbergasts us.  My mother went chocolate crazy one year and it was insanity!  I have a major sweet tooth and at Halloween I still had stuff left over, no word of a lie!  We took it to school and tried to pawn as much of it off as we could and still had mountains left.  It was nuts!
3. Our cousin
   I have tons of cousins, but 99% of them are a numbered cousin so many times removed (I don't really understand how to figure it all out, so everyone is a cousin).  Growing up it was my sister, our one and only full cousin (on my mom's side), and I.  We only saw our cousin a few times a year but Easter was usually one of our regular visits.
   
4. Colouring eggs
   Every year we coloured eggs at my grandparent's place. I can still picture the newspapers or sheets (depending on what year it was since they discovered newspaper print got everywhere when soaked in egg dyes) covering the table and floor. It was always a competition as to who could make the best looking egg, which usually ended up with them all different shades of brown from the mixing Every colour of dye. (It's kinda sad to think today's kids won't have those eggs with the new dye systems. There's rollers, which we used this year, bags, sponges, along with other ways to keep the mess contained).
   
   

   

   colouring eggs

   
   
   

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was a huge hit in our house. 

Danny's sister arrived at our place on Friday and Lynden had a ball!  They played cars (she might be a favourite now), built a fort over his bed, coloured Easter eggs, and she went down the slide multiple times at the park (that might have cemented it). 

love how he stuck his tongue out while working

having fun

painting

Magic Eggs

one of my favourite shots

Saturday we had dinner with Danny's family at his other sister's. The moment we arrived Lynden was off playing with his cousins.  They ran circles around the house playing tag, played trains, rode bikes outside, and Lynden even had his first taste of a trampoline, which he loved.  It was really nice to see him play all day, especially since we have not seen them nearly as much as we want to.  (I'm really sad, I took my camera but didn't get any pictures.  Not even one in Alyssa's Beautiful dress and shoes.  I may have to dress her up in it once I wash it just to get the picture.)

That night Lynden planted his Magic Beans from Dash and was thrilled to be having a sleep over with his Aunt (although it's hard to have a sleep over when you sleep in our bed all night). 

Out And About: Weekend On The Island

(I'm pre-warning you, lots of photos!)

This past weekend the kids and I headed over to the Island to visit with my dad, stepmom, and youngest sister.  (My other sister and her boyfriend were able to join us for part of the trip)

We were really sad to see them move, but they're new place is great and they live super close to the beach, which Lynden loved!!  He enjoyed it more when he was given a beach shovel!! 

Aunty and Lynden excited to be at the beach
Isn't his shovel cool??

using his shovel to search for treasures

hard to see but in the tree there's a bald eagle

Alyssa enjoying her beach time ;-)
Uncle Kevin is too cozy!

Lynden's other favourite: throwing rocks

On Sunday, after our sunny trip to the beach the Easter bunny arranged for Lynden to do a small egg hunt with his Aunty. 

Trip Down Memory Lane: Winter Classic

Over the last month and a bit I've been backing up our photos and it's been fun to look back at them.

Back in 2008 Danny and I spent New Years back east to go to the Winter Classic Game in Buffalo, NY. 

There are some more pictures somewhere but I cannot find them for the life of me.  Hmmm...

It was a good game, Pittsburgh won in a shoot out.  We got to talking to a bunch of people in our section, most of whom were quite surprised we travelled from Canada to watch a hockey game.  A) Canada is about not far from Buffalo and B) We Canadians LOVE our hockey! 

Pig Tails!

I didn't play with dolls, I didn't play dress up much as a kid, but there's something about putting Alyssa in pretty clothes that makes me smile.  I've been totally jealous of a few babies because their moms have been able to put their daughter's hair in pig tails. 

This past weekend I was playing with Alyssa's hair, as I do a lot, and thought "maybe there's enough hair to do pig tails".  We bought some hair ties from the dollar store (no, I did not pre-own any.  And why do the dollar store sell them in packs of 100 or 300?!?!?  I understand they get lost but I do not want 300 hair ties in my bathroom drawer) and when I got home I did her hair. 

It didn't go over so well at first

But I managed to get them in.  Here's a shot of the back of her head.  I need to practice getting them even, but to be fair she squirmed through most of it.

Then we got her to smile after cuddles and bouncing her on my lap.