Julia and Emily's World

Hi Everybody! Emily is now 1 year old. It's hard to believe that it really has been 12 months since she was born. It has been an eventful year. From those first few weeks in the hospital to now cruising around tables and anything else she can climb up to. Boy has she grown! Other than those first weeks of life, Emily has generally been a health baby (knock on wood). I remember Julia being sick a lot more often in the first year. Emily has proven to be very different from her older sister. Where Julia loved her cuddles as a baby, Emily is hmmm...how do I put this nicely...stand off-ish. She will give you a whack in the nose before you get a hug. Hugs are very rare from Emily. Julia gets the most hugs from Emily. However, Emily seems to be much more independant. She will play by herself for longer periods than Julia at the same age. How will this all translate in the coming years? only time will tell. Emily will be starting daycare at my work in March. Until then, Grandm...

On Saturday morning we went to Mya's birthday party. We had the extra pressure of getting there on time because we had the birthday girl with us. The highlight of the party was the critter show. I was surprised to see how brave all the kids were. They even touched a spider! No way was I going to do that!

Julia slept over Grandma K's house for 2 night this week. Selena and Mya also joined in for a night. Mommy, Emily and I were in Leamington. Julia likes to go to Grandma because she gets to do whatever she wants. Tonight the sleepover party is at our house. Selena, Mya and Jenna are here for the night. Auntie Jackie and Jacob were over in the afternoon for a swim too. Tonight we went to Chuck E Cheese for "dinner". The girls had a great time. Afterwards the girls went for a night swim. The air was cool but the water was really warm. The heater's been cranked up high all day! Tomorrow morning it is off to Selena and Mya's for Mya's 6th birthday party.

This week Julia took advantage of the nice hot weather by staying home from school for a 3 day "Stay-cation". Finally we were able to really use the pool all week. On Saturday we headed to Bracebridge for the day to go to Santa's Village. I remember going there as a kid so I thought it would be fun to check it out. Well the drive up there was hell! The 400 was packed with cottagers. We broke off the 400 and head up hwy 27 which was only marginally better. With a 30 min stop in Barrie for a break, we finally arrived after 4 hours! Now we only had 3.5 hours until it closed. We basically saw everything in that time. It's not that big a place. It's a nice place but not worth the drive. It's a good place to go if you're cottaging in the area. The trip home was just over 2 hours...no traffic. Surprisingly the kids were great in the car. Today we just relaxed in the backyard. Everyone was still tired from yesterday.

Emily's Baptism was on Aug 9th. The service was long but Emily didn't cry. She was her fidgety self though so it was tough holding her at times. Thank you to Uncle Ron and Auntie Gina for being the God Parents. After the church we headed back to our place for some summer fun and food. Luckily the weather held up for just long enough. It was hot and humid but as least it didn't rain until everyone was ready to go home. Thank you to everyone for all the generous gifts.

Well, as of July 22nd we are officially in our now house. That was the day we moved out of our old house. The move was long. We had a crew of 4 guys and they took all day. They did a great job though. They disassembled and assembled all the furniture. Not one piece was damaged. They did damage the hardwood stairs at the old house but the moving company sent a repair guy and they had it all fixed up in a couple of hours. Since the move we have been doing our best to get organized. This house is significantly smaller than our old house. We really bought it for the yard so we are sacrificing square footage. It has been a challenge dealing with less space. Nothing major on the renos has started yet. Just a bit of painting and trim work in the bedrooms and wallpaper removal (thanks Auntie Weezie and Auntie Linda!). Lots to come though. We have decided on a contractor to do the structural changes so that's one decision out of the way. We are finding that keeping to our bud...

I'm back! I'm still blogging but other activities have been occupying my time plus I've just been too tired to do this. We have been very busy lately with packing and hammering out renovation details. This past week we officially took possession of our new house. We still have our house for a couple more weeks so the official move will happen soon. Even though we haven't moved we have been enjoying our new home. Julia has enjoyed running around in the backyard (finally space to run) and swimming in the pool. She even got a surprise from the old owners. They left her a piano! Julia has been asking for one for a long time. She was thrilled to see it. On Saturday Gary and Lou helped move a bunch of stuff and later the family came over to see the house. There is lots of work to do on the inside. This house is 27 years old and although it was well maintained it looks like 1982 inside. Renovation plans have begun and we hope to have that complete by sometime in th...

What a fun but busy weekend! It started on Saturday at Planet Gymnastics for Selena's 9th birthday. The kids had fun running around, jumping and playing. After that it was on to Selena's house for more fun and food. Then we took Selena, Mya and Jenna home with us for a sleep-over party. The kids were very well behaved. No fighting at all. Selena was a big help. She read stories and helped the others brush their teeth and get ready for bed. Bedtime was a bit of a challenge. We had them all in the office sleeping together. Selena was the first to sleep. No fussing from her. She's tired so she sleeps. Mya falls asleep shortly afterwards. Jenna and Julia are a different story. Bathroom breaks, thirsty, another bathroom break, talking, wandering the halls. Finally we moved them to Julia's room so they wouldn't wake up the other two. Eventually they fall asleep shortly after 11pm! Now you would think they would sleep in. Nope. All are up at 6:45am!!! N...

Julia is losing teeth faster than are coming in. She lost another one on Friday. Dentures soon?

This week I got a vacation while Mommy and the girls stayed home. I was in Vegas for 4 days to celebrate with friends. They were celebrating their 40th birthdays. I'm not quite there yet but I'm happy for them so I HAD to go and celebrate with them. The highlight of the trip was a helicopter tour to Grand Canyon West. We had 10 in our group so we were actually in two helicopters. We landed in the Canyon and had breakfast before heading back to Vegas. Check out the video below that one of the guys put together. I came home tired, broke (I have NO LUCK!) and in need of another vacation. This may have been a one time only trip with the boys but I sure hope we can pull it off again someday.

Emily has teeth! Her bottom two have sprouted. She's had them for a few weeks but it took awhile to get a picture of them. If you look closely you can see them.

Julia had a field trip from school to Puck's Farm. She really loved it because Mommy came along. Highlights included petting the animals, pony rides, wagon ride and milking a real cow! Luckily the weather co-operated and gave them a bit of sunshine in the afternoon.

Julia had her first soccer game and loved it. She didn't score (yet) but she did kick the ball a few times. Overall she played a good game and expect her to continue enjoying it until she has her first blind-sided collision with a team mate. She really loves her uniform because it "glows in the dark"!

The long weekend wasn't too busy. Saturday was rainy so we went for a drive to check out some backyard play sets. Man they are expensive! The cheap ones at Wal-Mart are looking better every day. On Sunday, Grandma, Papa, and Grandma came for a visit and dinner. We had the first BBQ of the season. Too bad it wasn't a bit warmer. Monday was pretty low key. We went to help Grandma and Auntie Weezie with their backyard gazeebo thing.

After battling a skunk last year and a mouse more recently, a new opponent has entered the arena. Mommy spied this bold raccoon sunning on our patio chair. She tried scaring it away by banging on the glass door. That didn't work. He just got off the chair and came to the door to see who was banging. There is nowhere for him to live in our backyard so he took off and we haven't seen him since.

Today we went to Grandma's for a swim, to celebrate Mother's day and Grandma's birthday.

Emily had her first try at the Jolly Jumper. She's getting the hang of it and really enjoys it!

We had a huge hail storm on Saturday morning. The house was rumbling! Julia thought it was cool. Emily was awake bug-eyed in her crib wondering what all that noise was. Luckily the hail stayed pea sized so no damage was done except for the flowers. There was enough hail to shovel! The road looked like a river! I have some video which I'll post soon.

This was a busy weekend filled with birthday activities. Saturday was my birthday. We went to visit Russell to give him his birthday present. We missed his party last weekend when we were at Wonderland. Later on Saturday we went to Grandma and Papa's for dinner. On Sunday Mommy, Julia, Emily and Grandma went to a fund raiser lunch at the Four Seasons downtown. Then it was off to Woodbridge for Julia's friend Makayla's birthday party. Then it was back home to celebrate Grandma's birthday with dinner and cake. That's it for birthday's...until next week.

Emily is now 6 months old. We celebrated with a little cake and ate it up for her. The girls were proud to show off their matching PJs.