Simple Pleasures

Well, I learnt today what it means to be tagged! Alexa tagged me today as she was also tagged today. What a crazy thing these blogs are turning out to be!! So here we go... in no particular order:

1. chocolate (has to be #1 on my list actually!)
2. blogging
3. hug from Jason
4. going for a walk
5. shopping - finding a deal
6. crossing things off my to-do list
7. "scanning code of practice" which is when I get an item under $10 for free when shopping (and this happens a lot to me! Next time you go to Walmart or Superstore for example, look at the little sticker on the door that explains this policy... then the point is to watch your prices and USE IT)
8. sitting in the sun
9. singing with my boys
10. watching my boys grasp a new concept

So now I have to tag someone... and I think I have a few I'd like to tag: Julene, Laurie, Korinne, Julie and Leah. So there you go girls, TAG YOU'RE IT! Have fun.

Sunny in Stanley Park

What a beautiful Sunday to go into Vancouver and spend a bit of time at Stanley Park before picking up Jason from Canada Place. Uncle Paul and Auntie Carla came to assist me! Thanks a lot! It was a fun time walking, eating out and kicking the ball around.

Play Time at Guildford Towne Centre

On Friday we drove Jason into Surrey to catch the sky train. He had to be in Vancouver all weekend for a Trade Show, so doing it this way I was still able to have a vehicle for the weekend. Phew. After dropping him off we went to Guildford Towne Centre to check our their play area Dana has told me about. It was SO cool. The floor is soft and kinda spongy... and all the figures are a soft plastic for the kids to climb on/in/under/through. It is a fantastic area especially for toddlers. Keep that in mind Moms, if you want a trip to Old Navy but you have to take your child(ren) with you... it's okay! Have fun.Elijah on this 4x4 slide and climber.Thanks for coming Auntie Carla! Couldn't have done it without your help with the three boys.

Future Mathematician

Elijah is now two and a half years old! This is very exciting for me because I went to post secondary school for Early Childhood Education based on teaching children ages 2 1/2 to 5. Finally I can put into action now more of what I learnt.
Elijah has just started imaginary play... which is so great. He puts his "Little People" or stuffed animals on the chairs at the kitchen table for them to eat lunch. It's very fun to watch!
Here you'll see that Elijah has colour sorted the blocks and stacked them accordingly. I did this with him early on... sorting of colours which is considered a basic Math concept. This is typically what he'll do when he gets the blocks out. So... like his Father, he will be a Mathematician! (Jason is so a numbers guy, in case you don't know him.) And I am noticing that Elijah is starting to become particular in how he lays things out, for example, signs of perfectionism maybe... again, like this Daddy!

I am just so thrilled that he has reached this new milestone... makes it more fun for me! Out come all my home-made games, puzzles, etc to play with and use to teach Elijah now.

The Family at Easter

Happy Easter

Elijah spends time with Beppe Beppe (means Great Grandma in Dutch)Uncle Potter and Auntie Carla enjoy SammieElijah enjoys playing on the floor... today it was Uncle Matt's turn to be jumped on!Grandpa loves his second Grandson here and can't wait

til he is a bit older to they can go out for ice cream cones together!

Wyatt's Visit

Today we had Wyatt (the child I had full time until Christmas for daycare) come back for a drop-in day. Of course, with Easter almost here we had more fun doing Easter activities together. Before the rain started we got outside for an egg hunt. They all had so much fun.

The boys were so happy to have Wyatt over this morning. Here are my three little 2 year olds. (Wyatt will start again with me in May one day a week... maybe more to come!)

Wyatt even brought us cupcakes for a snack after lunch. So yummy! Thanks Wyatt!

Canada's National Sport - (ice) Hockey

The other evening Jason cut his old hockey stick down to a size suitable for Elijah. Then the two of them played a bit in our driveway. When Jason would pass Elijah the puck, Elijah would drop his stick to go retrieve it! Too funny. He'll get it. Here Jason is showing Elijah how to shoot it. (am I using the right language for hockey??)
Jason goes to the Evangelical Free church on Monday nights to play floor hockey with the men. He enjoys that excercise and time out of the house - especially on nights when he hasn't been hit in the shins. Hopefully Elijah will take a liking to this sport too... which I am sure he will. Jason can't wait for Samuel to get big enough to get down and dirty with him too! Won't be long...

Easter Crafts...

Alexa has been collecting her egg shells for a long time and offered to share some with us for a Easter craft. So, today we glued the multi-coloured-dyed shells onto a cardboard that I cut into a picture frame shape. They are quite pretty frames, eh?! Both Jayden and Elijah enjoyed this craft. Now that it is dry I am going to go and put a picture in Jayden's frame for his mommy. She'll just love it! (thanks for sharing this craft idea with us and the materials to do it)

Take Time to Smell the Flowers

Dana and Alexa both brought me a pot of beautiful spring flowers as housewarming gifts. Thanks Ladies! I just LOVE Hyacinth and Daffodils... and now I'll get to enjoy them every spring right here in my backyard. I took the boys outside this morning to play in the sun and then I transplanted these beauties into the empty planters that await me. Happy Spring everyone!!

Elijah loves to smell the flowers thankfully and not pick these ones! You'll notice 2 dandilions in his hands... these he knows he is allowed to pick. Of course, yellow happens to be his favourite colour so far so dandilions are the perfect "flower" for him.

Well, our baby Sammie is already 4 months old. I actually can't believe it. Time does go so quick indeed. Samuel is not sleeping through the night (and unfortunately not even close to it yet); he rolls over from his tummy to his back and has done it from his back to his tummy a few times; he's starting to laugh when we tickle him... it's very sweet.

We are loving our new central location... we go on foot when we can to do our running around or fun times. Like here, on Sunday, we walked to Mill Lake to go to the park with the boys after we included into our loop the mall and dinner.

Elijah loves the park of course, and Samuel loved being in the swing.

First Time Swinging

Well, our baby Sammie is already 4 months old. I actually can't believe it. Time does go so quick indeed. Samuel is not sleeping through the night (and unfortunately not even close to it yet); he rolls over from his tummy to his back and has done it from his back to his tummy a few times; he's starting to laugh when we tickle him... it's very sweet.

We are loving our new central location... we go on foot when we can to do our running around or fun times. Like here, on Sunday, we walked to Mill Lake to go to the park with the boys after we included into our loop the mall and dinner.

Elijah loves the park of course, and Samuel loved being in the swing.

First Time Swinging

Well, our baby Sammie is already 4 months old. I actually can't believe it. Time does go so quick indeed. Samuel is not sleeping through the night (and unfortunately not even close to it yet); he rolls over from his tummy to his back and has done it from his back to his tummy a few times; he's starting to laugh when we tickle him... it's very sweet.

We are loving our new central location... we go on foot when we can to do our running around or fun times. Like here, on Sunday, we walked to Mill Lake to go to the park with the boys after we included into our loop the mall and dinner.

Elijah loves the park of course, and Samuel loved being in the swing.

First Time Swinging

Well, our baby Sammie is already 4 months old. I actually can't believe it. Time does go so quick indeed. Samuel is not sleeping through the night (and unfortunately not even close to it yet); he rolls over from his tummy to his back and has done it from his back to his tummy a few times; he's starting to laugh when we tickle him... it's very sweet.

We are loving our new central location... we go on foot when we can to do our running around or fun times. Like here, on Sunday, we walked to Mill Lake to go to the park with the boys after we included into our loop the mall and dinner.

Elijah loves the park of course, and Samuel loved being in the swing.

Veggie Tales Rockin' Tour Live

On Friday, March 31 Elijah and I took a time out from our move to go on a date to a Veggie Tales concert. Great timing eh?! While Jason and his friends unloaded furniture and boxes I was at this event with Elijah. (the tickets were purchased before Christmas... so it just so happened to be our moving day too) Samuel stayed with Grandma for the evening while we had a great time together! The characters were amazing... they entertained us with song after song and lots of dancing.
We saw many of our friends at the concert... Danika, Alise and Mrs Dana; Jayden and his mommy and many, many others that we didn't spot amongst the 1550 other people.
And here we are as you can see with Danika W., Travis, Ms Miriam and Mrs Alexa (taking the picture).

Alexa does such fun, creative things on her computer~ like this picture collage. Neat, huh? (BTW, these photos are all from Alexa too...thanks)

Other dates Elijah and I had in March were: Curious George movie in the theatre (first one for him) with Luke, Danika and Mrs Alexa too; and we went to see African Children's Choir too. Uncle Paul and Auntie Carla met us there for that. It was really nice to spend that time together doing such fun things!

Samuel's new 'toy'

Today we got our exersaucer back from friends who borrowed it for their son... so, Samuel went right away into it! He had a good time sitting there looking around. Elijah and Jayden were kept busy checking out Sammie's new toy too!
I couldn't believe what else Samuel did today. I was in the kitchen preparing dinner when Elijah and Jason were at the pool this afternoon, I had Samuel laying on the living room floor (yea, now we have carpet, which is a nice change from laminate!) on his back. I've been noticing the past couple days he isn't in the same spot I lay him in... and that's because he is kicking a lot and then his body moves a bit. So today I heard his cry sound like he was in a bit of a panic... I looked and there he was on his tummy!! I had no clue he was going to do that. He's shown no signs of being ready to do that, so this was a huge surprise to both Jason and I. Yeah for Samuel!!

Samuel at 12 weeks

Samuel is enjoying his activity mat now! It's very exciting. The older boys leave him alone too, so I am okay with him on the floor. Last week he started to bat around the toys that hang above his head and he grabs onto the things. I even noticed him pulling the things down so he could nibble on them!! Very fun. Elijah is enjoying Sam's stage too. Elijah will bring him rattles and even lie down beside him on the mat to interact a bit. He loves his little Sammie! We all do!

Elijah's THIRD move already...

Here he is vacuuming for me!













This past weekend we moved from our house on Austin Ave to a townhome. Elijah wasn't too certain what was keeping Jason and I so preoccupied last week (packing) but he was eager to give a lending hand when and where he could (and where he couldn't too!).
And he got to help load the truck with Uncle Matt and Daddy. He kept saying "more" because he wanted more things to be handed to him to bring to the back of the truck. Jason said he was able to lift quite the items. He was impressed.
Jason also said Elijah is instinctively nomadic the way he was helping out... oh no, if I can help it and I sure hope I can, we aren't going to move again for awhile. It wasn't the funnest time.
Elijah spent a lot of time with his Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle while we unloaded and unpacked. That was a huge blessing. As it was I am still unpacking my stuff because of my mommy responsibilities. I'll get there. (I should be doing it right now rather than blogging actually!) Jason, on the otherhand, has already hung pictures on the walls ~ he is amazing. No wonder he likes moving.
Please come and visit! We'd love to have you over for a dessert. I am always in the mood for whipping up a favourite recipe.