Festive Fun!

We have been starting to get into fall and all the great holidays that it brings.  Last weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving.  Yes my American friends we have it much earlier in the year but we don't get Turkey overload in a months span!  Last Saturday we started off our festivities with the ward Fun Run.  No I didn't participate but I went for the breakfast they had afterward!  After that McKay, Kimber and I went and watched the family Turkey bowl.  Starting last year Daniel's family has done an annual Turkey bowl with my SIL's family.  It was fun to watch, well lets be honest, I read a book while they played!

Daniel's Aunt found some really cute onesies for the younger two.  I am having a hard time believing how big McKay is getting.  I know that I say that every time I am on here but he is turning 1 in a month!

Kimber's onesie is a little bit too accurate!  McKay has had fewer bite marks but Kimber keeps them coming still!

I was so proud of McKay for listening on demand here.  He is such a sweet little man.  I am starting to think I need to give him a haircut but I don't want to lose his curls.  I suppose I will do the sides and then try and trip up the top.

Kimber was so cute when she started listing everybody that she loves.  Sorry she didn't get the entire family but she did pretty good considering her attention span suits her 2 years!

My little monkey!  When I put her down for her nap last week she was looking so pretty and had a sleeping bag on.  This is how she emerged!  How could I not laugh and take a picture!

McKay and Grandma enjoying the football game.  Poor Daniel got kneed near the beginning of the game and had to sit it out.  He is doing much better.

Oh Kimber!  She loves playing dress up.  It actually reminds me of me when I was little.  Unfortunately I don't have the picture I was thinking of on my computer!

Anyways, we are getting ready for Halloween now.  Daniel brought home a pumpkin today so let the fun begin!  Benson is wanting to be pirate for Halloween.  Kimber will be donning our dog costume and McKay is not the same age the other two were so he can't continue the tradition of being a Monkey for his first halloween.  I guess we will skip right on to being Dracula for him!

Playtime!

We finally got a playroom together for the kids.  Daniel worked really hard last Thursday and the kids have loved playing down there ever since.

Daniel was looking for some carpet to put down there but long story short that didn't work out.  He went to Wal-Mart instead and bought the colored mats.  Daniel's brother Jared gave us the love seat that we put down there.  It is nice to have down there for us when we are watching them.

Only problem I see with it is that Kimber can't open the doors or turn on/off the lights.  Yesterday she wanted to put a couple of toys back in there that she had brought upstairs and sat on the bottom step just bawling.  She has been pretty good at perfecting her crying.  On Monday she started crying when Benson left for school.  I told her that he was going to school to which to retorted pointing to herself and bawling, "My school!"  I told her she could maybe go next year if she started going potty on the toilet and talked better.  She went to the bathroom and sat on the toilet with no success.  Yesterday Daniel took McKay out for a few minutes and she started bawling again.  I told her I need some help singing songs because I didn't think I knew them.  I asked if she knew them and she cried "Yes".  I then asked if she would help me sing them and she cried "No".  It was so pitiful!

McKay has been a sad boy lately too, with good reason.  He pushed his 5th tooth through this week.  It wasn't the tooth I was expecting though so we are still waiting for more to pop through.  He is getting too grown up!  My niece Naomi is turning one in a week and just makes me realize that McKay's birthday is coming quickly behind it.  I don't know when he grew up!

Daniel is doing well.  We are waiting for his license to come through.  It seems like it never will but I am enjoying having Daniel home so much.  He is working 2 days a week at the clinic doing non chiropractic related work.  Oh, we got a second recliner so now we watch TV like an old married couple side by side in our recliners.  Have to say that I am loving it!

Not too much else is going on here.  We are enjoying being so close to our family.  The weather is in full swing fall which is nice.  I am just waiting for the morning that we wake up to snow though.  What are the chances it will wait until after Halloween?  Pretty slim I think!!

Preschool!

I am not sure I was really ready for this!  Benson is in Preschool now.  He had his first day yesterday and I am happy to report he did very well!

All morning he was super excited to go and kept asking when we were going to leave.  I had him pack his snacks on his own.

Getting his backpack ready.  A big thank you to Brooke who came over and looked after Kimber and McKay while I took Benson to school.

How cute is he?

Please excuse all the crying but Benson was too cute, I couldn't cut this out of the post!  After the camera was off he added 'I love you'!

"School was fun.  Exercising was fun.  I exercised with a soccer ball.  I played in a play kitchen.  They have a little house in the school with a little kitchen.  I like preschool so much I want to go to it all day."  That is from an email we sent to my Mom this morning telling her about his first day.

His teacher told me when I picked him up that he is ready for school and excited about it.  I guess he told her at one point that he 'already knows the classroom'.

Picking him up from school was a bit interesting.  I brought the younger two with me.  I ended up carrying Kimber while Benson pushed McKay in the stroller.  Benson kept letting go of the stroller while we were walking and I kept telling him to hang on to it.  This ended up with me screaming my head off as I watched McKay roll over the squared off curb and into the road.  Luckily my scream startled the one car on the road and I ran out and grabbed the stroller.  Benson is no longer allowed to push the stroller.

 Now a cute video of McKay eating spaghetti last night.  I don't know if he is scared of Benson now or if he really doesn't like Benson trying to feed him, this is what happened right before Benson's cute video telling us about his day.

Now I must be off.  Kimber is sick again today and I am not feeling so hot right now and should use the kids nap time as down time for myself!  Enjoy your day!!

Backyard

So I told you a little bit about our backyard when we first got here.  I never did get a picture of my friends but they were there!  Now I look forward to our kids being able to go out into a backyard and play.  We have only been married 5 years so I think it is about time that we actually had a backyard.

This is our lovely before of the yard.  I wish I had gotten a video or picture of the old fence but it was decrepit and the gate did not open without much persuasion.

Here is our lovely backyard now.  I love it so much!  But for now it is to look at until the sod takes.  Can you tell that I am a bit excited about the backyard?

Thanks to the help of my in-laws we got most of the work done before Daniel got home from work today.  Jordan did a great job with the grunt work and the rest of the family took care of the kids while we worked.  Benson actually helped Gramps replace a toilet, well with the beginning of the job.

Daniel and I also went and test drove some Hyundai's and got 4 free movie tickets.  I think we will be going on some dates soon!

Now to end here are some video's and pictures of the kids eating oreo's and showing me their guns.

Poor Girl.

My poor baby girl is sick today.  She is cute regardless what comes out of her though.  I hope she starts feeling better soon though!

This is Kimber earlier today.  She has been in pretty good spirits despite being sick.

When I got jer out of bed this morning she had a piece of tape Daniel had put on her foot last night (he tapes Bens' foot nightly and she doesn't like being left out) wadded up and said she had it in her mouth.  She then started gagging and spat up a bit but I thought it was nothing.  Guess not!

August thus far.

Keep going after this post as I have done 3 postings today!!

So we are starting to get settled in here in Edmonton.  First I want to say Thank You to all our friends in Portland.  I really couldn't have made it through all of the packing/cleaning without all of you help!

Meaghan was awesome and kicked us out of our house when we finished the cleaning.  She arranged for sleepovers for Benson and Kimber and then Daniel, McKay and I slept at her house so we could just be done at the apartment and could just get up and go the next morning.  My Father-in-law also flew down and helped with loading the truck and then drove the truck to Edmonton in one straight shot.  Thanks to Rob and Rachel, well Rob as Rachel was gone, who let him crash there so he could get up early and leave.

My in-laws found us a town house and made all the arrangements for us to get in early and get settled in so quickly.  I feel really blessed to have such amazing in-laws!  I love you!

Daniel is settling in really well at the office.  He has a lighter schedule for now as he can only be there when Curtis is.  Once he is licensed he will go in a lot more.  For now I enjoy his 3 day week and long lunches!!

Other than settling in we have been pretty busy.  We were lucky enough that Curtis decided to take 1 day off which meant Daniel had almost a week off from work so we went out to Gram's cabin in the Okanagan.  While we were there we met some cousins from England and took them to Fintry which is nearby and climbed the stairs to the falls.  I would say hike but it was just stairs.  I had never done it so Daniel said we should go.

I had the camera on the wrong setting so most of these are blurry.  Sorry!

McKay was sleeping to Grandma stayed with him at the cabin so here are the rest of us on one of the platforms.

I was not wanting to have my picture taken as I was just waiting to get into the lake and wash my hair.  Daniel really wanted to have documentation that I actually went to Fintry so here we go.  I was there!

My Father-in-law being a good sport wearing Kimber's hat.

We loved being at the lake and regret that the trip was so short!  We are looking forward to going back out there next summer!  Daniel enjoyed getting out behind the boat again.  He wakeboarded, slalomed, and surfed.  I was finally convinced to go kneeboarding.  They have a kneeboard that the rope hooks onto so you don't have to hold yourself on the rope while you get up.  Perfect for me!  I went out 2 different times, the first time ended by me getting hit by my elbow (?) on my thigh and getting an insta bruise which is finally going away after a week and the last time by my arms getting tired and I let go and waved to them as the drove off.  It was fun.

I have been enjoying being so close to family.  Brooke stopped by yesterday on her way to Wal-Mart so I offered to look after Naomi while she did her shopping.

Kimber loves Naomi but she can be a bit of a bully so I have to keep an eye on her.  I did her hair which she wasn't a fan of but she looked cute!

McKay started to wave at me so I got out the camera and got mesmerized by the camera.  He is growing up way too fast.  He has 3 teeth now, 4 and 5 should be coming through any day now though.  He is crawling all over the place army style but tries to get up on all 4's.  The other day we went swimming and he was crawling on all 4's in the shallow end so he can do it.  He has also started to pull himself up on stuff.  My days with a stationary baby are quickly coming to an end!

Hey You Gu-uys!

Yup, that is right!  We went to the Goonies sights!  We had to keep the Wutzke/Palsky (now known as the Wulsky's for writing purposes) entertained while visiting us and they wanted a beach day so why not do something we hadn't done before?

On our walk up the driveway I told Benson what we were doing.  He had never seen the movie so it meant nothing to him.  A few days later though Goonies was on TV so he was allowed to stay up and watch it.  Lucky guy!

Benson having fun.  He was more excited about this rock then the house.

Mommy and Benson infront of the house.  McKay and Kimber fell asleep in the car so Daniel waited down there for us and then he ran up after to see the house.

Auntie Brooke taken by Benson.  If the camera is out he wants to take pictures!

We stopped for lunch in Astoria at a Thai restaurant.  In theory that sounds great but I am not that adventurous and I had 4 large sores scattered through my mouth so this was less than good for me.  I like the cone of rice though.

Benson trying to get out of the County Jail from the beginning of the movie.

Daniel succeeded in getting out.

Along our journey we stopped in Seaside to look at the beach there.  Benson was cold so he used Daniel's sweater.  Did I mention it rained the entire day?  Oh yeah, it was sunny, even hot in Portland that day and we missed that!

Finally made it down to Cannon beach.

Kimber loved walking in the water.  She also biffed it on the sand about 4 times and had to keep washing off in the water.  She had fun with that the first time and then didn't want to do it anymore.  She was so cold!!

Yes, this was all on our 5 anniversary.  We learned on thing that day.  Wulsky's we love you so don't take this personally.  We are never hosting on our anniversary again.  If anybody wants to come for a visit around July 15 we will neglect our hosting duties for the day and you will be babysitting so we can go out and have a proper date.

This reminds me of a picture we took on our honeymoon in Banff.

Me trying to hold the rocks at Canon Beach.

From here we drove to Newport to catch the drive in theater.  We followed the GPS and it took us on some random, windy, back roads.  We kept losing the Wulsky's and found out later that Brooke who had been in the back of the van was very car sick.  I should have known as she gets sick looking at a merry go round.  We saw Kung-fu Panda 2 and Green Lantern.  The kids enjoyed the first and went to sleep after.  Daniel and I both also went to sleep as Green Lantern was less than steller but Daniel wanted to see the ending so we stayed.  Bonus though is that we went and saw the midnight showing of Harry Potter in 3D the night, or morning, before so that was awesome!!