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!!

Kinley Paige

Wow, I have not written in a very long time! We have been very busy. Where to start......
On August 19th, at 1:19 am Kinley Paige made her very dramatic debut. We went into the hospital around 11:30 pm on August 18th (our due date) as my contractions were about 2-4 minutes apart. I was checked and told I was only a finger tip dialated. I couldn't believe it! I was given a shot of moriphine and gravol and told to go home and sleep and come back when the labour got more intense. We left the hospital at 12:30 and by the time we got home it was about 12:50. We were home maybe 15 minutes and I felt like I had to push, so we made our way back to the car to get back to the hospital. We only live about 7 minutes from the hospital. We made it about 3 minutes up the road and I told Jaice he needed to pull over right now because the baby was coming! He told me to keep breathing, because there is no way the baby should be coming yet as they just checked me 30 minutes ago and I was barely dialated! I may have yelled :) and told him he HAD to pull over and call 911. He did and as he dialed Kinley's head was already out. He caught her on the next push as the 911 operator came on. He cleaned out her mouth and she cryed right away. That was the most amazing sound I have ever heard! Jaice was fantastic! We got her all wrapped up as the ambulance arrived. They cut the cord. Kinley was doing so well they let us go in the same ambulance to the hospital. Jaice met us there. She weighed 6 lbs 13 oz and was 20 inches long. So tiny....not that I am complaining! We are so in love with her. Carter now looks like a giant (not that he looked all that small before) compaired to her. He was very excited to see Kinley in the hospital and wanted to hold her. He wanted to hold her for the first few days we were home, but that wore off pretty quickly. He doesn't seem too interested in her right now. I figure as soon as she starts taking his toys he will take a big interest in her!
I will update more often with pictures! We are adjusting to having 2 at home, and so far it isn't too bad.
We hope everyone is having a good last week of summer before school gets back in.

Little Music Man

Easter fun

Well the Easter bunny made it to our house! He brought chocolate and books. Carter was more interested in finding the eggs once he figured out there was chocolate inside! This also meant that with every egg he found he wanted to open it and eat the chocolate. The smart little monkey figured out how to get the chocolate eggs out of their wrapping!
Gran and Grandpa came for a visit! We had such a great time with them. Carter called Grandpa 'grampytoo' and he is still working on Gran. Carter had do much fun outside with Grandpa putting in the garden boxes. While fixing up the yard Daddy discovered a snake! What and exciting treat! Carter loved watching it slither. Every time he is outside he goes looking for it. We think it is gone now....but you never know! Gran and Grandpa got Carter a harmonica for Easter. It took Carter a little bit to figure out how it worked. Once he got that figured he was a music man! He took out his stool and stood on top of it to play. What a little monkey!
We hope everyone had a great Easter. We will post pictures of the garden and the yard when we get things planted this weekend!
We miss everyone lots.