Fall fun

Well I would like to say we have been really busy, but we have just been lacking sleep. Who knew Carter would be my bad sleeper?!!? Hopefully we are over the hump of it. Last night he slept from 8 all the way to 5:20!!! It seems early to most, but it wasn't between 2 - 4 and he didn't get up once in between. I can handle 5:20 because that is usually when Kinley wakes up. The difference is she goes back to sleep......Carter does not. I am sure glad I know where to get some good coffee :)

We have been sticking pretty close to home as there isn't much going on at 5 in the morning :) We packed a lot into our weekend though. We had our dinner club on Sunday. There are about 9 couples and we pick a country and we all cook something from it. We switch houses each month as well. We still haven't had everyone show up at once....we are a little scared that might happen soon! With 18 adults and 8 kids it could get a little crazy! We had lots of fun and I made a pineapple upside down cake with a dark rum sauce (it was a caribbean theme). All our kids are around the same age and we all seem to be having our second together as well.

Monday was our Gymnastics day. Carter did great. It was his best week yet. He listened to Jaice and the teacher. I missed half the class because I had some running around to do. He was telling me all the things he did at gymnastics, it was really cute! For the afternoon we went out to the pumpkin patch. We got the same photographer we had do our family photos in June come out with us. The pumpkins made for a beautiful background. Carter had so much fun running around in the pumpkin patch. He would have picked all the pumpkins he could lift if we would have let him. We settled on 2 bigger ones (daddy had to help get them in our wagon) and Carter snuck in a smaller one! They also have goats and chickens out there. Carter had lots of fun feeding them. He went to give the goat some kisses.....I didn't think that was a good idea! We just stuck to feeding them. I can't wait to get the pictures back from Kayla. She put up a few sneak peaks, so I put them on here for you!

I finally got some shots of Kinley smiling! What a cutie. She is smiling at the fan mostly but she will also smile for Jaice and I as well.

I have really been working on counting and letters with Carter. He can now count to 10 when he is counting things! It is so cute listening to him 'park' his cars and then count them. He can say the whole alphabet and recognizes most letters. He has pretzels in the shape of letters so he keeps asking me to 'read it' when he pulls out a letter he doesn't know or it is broken.

I will share more pictures as we get them!

We miss everyone lots and hope everyone is having a good fall.

pictures

Building a tower as high as the couch



Kisses, so sweet!

Tummy time
See the chocolates he was trying to get to?
Halloween matching....apparently it was easy!

'Painting' with coloured salt
Salt + Chalk + lots of shaking = fun colours to 'paint' with

Where did he learn that??

Some of the things that Carter is saying and doing got me thinking, where did he learn that? For example, when he is in another room I will ask "Carter, what are you doing?" and he will reply very sweetly 'Nothing, Mommy'. I learned very quickly this isn't an accurate status update! Another example, the other day we were playing down stairs and he dissappeared to the main floor so I asked 'Carter, what are you doing?' (you would think I would have learned by now) and this time I got nothing but silence......now when this happens it is a cue to run as fast as you can to see what he is distroying! Jaice rushes up the 4 stairs (well that makes it sound a little less dramatic) to find Carter trying to build a tower to climb up to get the Halloween chocolates off the mantel. Ok, his love of sweets migh have been inherited, but figuring out he needed to build something to get to them, I want to know who taught him that???
There aren't a lot of pictures this time because Carter has decided he doesn't want to sleep....even though he needs it. He was grumpy all day Monday and then Monday night he woke up at 1:30 am....yes you read that right!!! I layed with him and sang him every song I know. I think he slept for a total of an hour more by the time 6 rolled around. Needless to say yesterday was a long grumpy day and you don't want to see pictures of that!
This morning we built a tower out of blocks, and I told him towers are just for building and knocking down, not climbing on! Later today we are making turkeys out of the pinecones we used to paint with the other day. When I told Carter we were making turkeys today, he laughed and said 'oops silly turkey'. To understand what he is talking about you need to read 'Red Hat, Blue Hat'. For those of you that don't have the book it has a turkey in it that keeps putting clothing on the wrong body parts. So when Carter reads it (yes he is that smart and can 'read' the whole book) and gets to the turkey he laughs and says 'oops silly turkey'.
In Kinley news, she is starting to 'talk' so much more! She mostly talks to the ceiling fan (much like her brother did). It is so adorable seeing her smile at us now. I was so impressed and proud that she is really starting to follow me everywhere with her eyes until today. I was taking her upstairs and she was looking at the fan, she tried to keep track of that fan longer then she has ever paid attention to me! I guess it's her way of keeping me humble. She is getting bigger everyday. I think her eyelashes migh be longer then Carter's, they are just lighter. I will replace the batteries in the camera and get pictures of her as well today!
I will post pictures whe the kids are sleeping tonight.
We miss everyone lots!

Crafting

I have been doing some serious reorganizing of our house. It was starting to look a bit like a toy store. I had been telling myself that Carter plays with it all so I should keep it all out. Well I packed up most of his toys and he still hasn't noticed!!! He still has all his cars out so that is probably why. Anyone that has been to our house knows that we have to play areas. Well now we have a play area and a book and puzzle area. It looks so much neater and is somewhat contained. In the process I decided to make Carter a little craft/art space. He loves when we do crafts and Auntie Cathy and Uncle Dave had picked up an art desk for Carter last year, so it seemed like a great idea. I am so excited about it. It is perfect for him. I organized some of his craft supplies and put them on the bookshelf for easy access. Today we tested the table out. This morning we just did some colouring with crayons (tomorrow we are going to use pencil crayons). During Carter's nap I was trying to think of something really fun to do because Kinley has decided to abandon sleep and only wants to be held. So I thought why not paint....that should be easy with a baby and a toddler! It actually turned out pretty good. We started making a caterpillar out of a paper towel roll. Carter really likes 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' right now, so it seemed like a good choice. He did really well holding the piece of paper towel roll in one hand and using a paint brush to paint with the other hand. He picked the eyes out and put them on and decided where the mouth should go. I then remembered that I had a bunch of pinecones from an adventure to the park. I figured it is fall, why not paint with them. He really liked this. We used them in all sorts of ways. We used them as paint brushes, we rolled them down the page, and we used them like stamps. All in all I would say our craft corner is a success! Kinley didn't really participate, but she did get some paint on her shirt! I think Carter was about 4 months when we first did finger painting with him, so don't worry Kinley will be making art in no time! I actually have a fun halloween idea I am going to do with both kids, so watch out for that one :) I was telling Jaice the other day, I wonder how much of what we do at home he will do in preschool next year?! Oh well, he will be a seasoned pro and be able to help others.
Well Kinley has decided to wake up from her nap 20 minutes in and is hungry, so I must go.
Enjoy the pictures and I am sure we will have more to come.

Kinley

Seeing as most of the pictures in the last post were of Carter, I took some of Kinley this morning. She was looking extra cute in her dress and tights! There is so much more to girls clothes.
Enjoy

Fall

Well it seems fall is here! It is amazing how quick it came in. We just had a great visit wth Uncle Cale. It rained the whole time he was here. He got to see Carter in all his fine forms :) Carter really enjoyed having him here and Cale was a hit with Kinley. We didn't want him to go as he was our baby whisperer. Kinley enjoyed lots of cuddles.
Carter is loving gymnastics. He is getting really good at jumping on the trampoline. He is gaining more control each week. He still doesn't have any fear and will try most anything. He still seems to be the only one willing to jump from high heights on his own. I keep telling myself that independence is a good thing :) We went to go to the pool last night with friends, but when we got there it was shut down because someone had gotten sick in the pool. We are glad we weren't there for that. We ended up going to the park instead. Carter did really well. He is being much more careful around the other children. I think he is becoming more aware that they are around. I think next week we are going to attempt going to strong start. It is a program for children walking to 5. It is similar to preschool, just with parents there. There is a program just up the street from us, so I don't really have an excuse not to go! It is nice to have things to do inside when winter gets here. We don't get a lot of snow but we do get our share of rain. We still try and get outside when it is raining. It doesn't usually rain ALL day so most days we can still get out.
Kinley smiled for me yesterday!!!! I was playing peek-a-boo with her and she smiled back at me. I tried to recreate it when Jaice got home so we could get some pictures.....but she wouldn't do it. Jaice thinks I am making it up. I am sure she will smile again soon. We will keep trying for pictures. She had a few rough nights of sleep but I think she was growing. She seems to be getting back into a schedule. Lately she has been in bed by 10.
October is going to be a busy month for us. Kinley is getting her 2 month shots. After that we will attempt the pool with her and Carter. We are going to the pumpkin patch again. We are really looking forward to that! I haven't decided if we are going to go before or after Thanksgiving. There is also Thanksgiving! Mmmm pumpkin pie! We get to end the month with Halloween! We think Carter will be a pirate, but we haven't decided on what Kinley is going to be yet. We will get lots of pictures of everything.
Jaice informed me this morning that there is less then 3 months until Christmas! Yikes! We are very excited to hopefully have both our families here over the holidays. We think Carter might be more into it this year. He has been talking about Santa. There is a lot to do around town in December. I can't believe I am thinking about Christmas already....don't worry our tree won't be up until December 1st :) Jaice is looking forward to starting volleyball again in October.
We hope everyone is having a great fall. We miss everyone lots. There will be more pictures soon!

4 weeks

I can't believe it has been 4 weeks already! Time is flying by. We had visitors from Alberta here for almost a week. It was great seeing them again! Carter had lots of fun with Kaylan and asks for her daily now. She is 10 weeks younger then Carter. We are slowly getting back into a routine. Carter started gymnastics last week. He loves it. It might give me a heart attack (who knew trampolines could be so dangerious?) but he is having lots of fun. He is in it until January. We decided to wait until Oct./Nov. to put Carter back in swimming lessons. Kinley can't go until January, but we will be taking her to the pool after her 2 month shots!
We are taking Kinley to the health unit on Monday to see how much she weighs. Everyone keeps telling me how big she is looking, but I still think she is tiny. That could have to do with the fact that she is around Carter all the time, so most kids look small in comparision. Kinley is starting to follow me with her eyes. She is also turning into a mommy's girl. She seems to only want me when she is fussy...... I am going to enjoy it for now :)
I am trying to take pictures often because they grow so fast and I remember there isn't a lot of baby pictures of me and I don't want Kinley complaining like I do :)
Carter has been full of kisses lately. What a different little boy. He likes to give Kinley kisses, we just have to keep an eye on him as he isn't always that gental. (It's the thought that counts, right?!) We went to family gym yesterday and it was quite the improvement over the spring. Essentially they fill a gym with balls, push toys, obstical courses, and anything else they can think of, and let the kids go wild. In the spring we had to always keep a very close eye on Carter. In fact, we always had to be within arms reach. Carter was working on sharing.....well we were, he wasn't! Yesterday we both had so much fun. I put Kinley in our Moby wrap (kind of like a sling) and that way I had both hands free. Kinley slept and Carter played. The best part was, I didn't have to clean up a big mess at the end! Carter did fantastic waiting his turn. I needed to remind him a few times, but he is 2, that is normal. It was the first time I felt like I could stand back and let him play without feeling like he was going to push someone over. YAY Carter!
Fall has set in here. Last Sunday is was +29 and today it is +12 and raining. We are still managing to get out for at least one walk a day. Some days we take the double stroller and somedays I put Kinley in the wrap and Carter in the stroller. They are doing some construction around the corner from us....talk about a dream come true for Carter. The construction workers were great with Carter the other day. They stopped and talked to him. The guy driving the dump truck stopped and waved to Carter. We saw the backhoe dump dirt into the big hole. I was asking Carter what trucks he saw (because he knows all their actual names...apparently they aren't all diggers) and he said, 'big dump truck, backhoe, bobcat, and roller'. I told him, 'No there wasn't a roller today'. Then a construction worker inturrupted me to tell me, yes there was a roller down the street I must have not seen it. Carter saw it! When it comes to trucks, not much gets by him!
We hope everyone had a great summer and we hope everyone has a great fall!!