Eastern Promises

Yup, we're still planning to move to Ontario. I hesitate to say it's a sure thing yet becuase we haven't got all the details. Matt still has that job offer, only without enough details. When he gets them we will decide whether to take that one or look for another. It's happening incredibly slowly, but meanwhile we're definately here for one more beautiful summer. Robin, I have been meaning to ask, what's a GRE?

The kids, as usual, are amazing. Now Angelina is starting to READ. I feel weird telling that becuase I don't want anyone to think that I push her. She's barely two for heaven's sake. She just picks it up so fast! She knows all her phonics and recognizes lots of words whether they are in print or handwriting.Stuff like "house", "thank you", "I love you", "teddy bear"... and on and on. I've seen her recognize and/or spell probably 30 words, so who knows how many more she knows.

Roman can drink with a sippy cup and feed himself with a spoon, pretty impressive I think. He is such a joy to be around. If Angelina is anywhere near him, he is so happy, and if she pays him attention he laughs his adorable deep laugh. He still gets up all night, but remains cheerful most of the time anyway. He is such a wonderful little guy.

May Long

How wonderful the weather is finally warming up. Our view is so pretty now, with the grass and flowering trees and pool. Angelina loves soccer, something we discovered last year watching Lee play. Luckily, we live right next to a huge park with about 6 soccer fields and there are always games going on, every day. The kids are doing some crazy stuff; more about that later.

Taking a break from playing to give Roman a kiss. What a wonderful sister.
Me and Gigi Bear
Hanging out by the pool
Pool boys

Where's Waldo?

Is it summer yet??

Hello everyone....hope you guys/gals are doing wonderful!! I'm doing good super busy but good....the last 3 weekends in a row I've been out of town for stagette's, weddings, and big birthday bashes and had my parents in town....this upcoming weekend is going to be spent local and mostly at home and I've looking forward to it. But I have to ask...where did the nice weather go?? This past weekend I was in Nanaimo/Ladysmith for a wedding and it was freaking gorgeous and warm....Lee was up in Vernon for soccer with his dad and came back looking like a lobster (and for the family that is in Vernon he didn't have time to visit, sorry!)....and this week has been rain, thunder & lightning and just plain gloomy....I think I need to write Mother Nature a letter and let her know I'm ready for summer on a full-time basis.

In other news....Lee and I have postponed moving in together (again) and we're hopefully looking at September 1st but we'll see how it goes....things are great between us and we hit our 2 year mark next month so why fix something that isn't broken right??? We've managed this long in my 680 sq.ft house why not longer! LOL

So for you Vernon/Kelowna and in between folk...we've booked our time off to come up and we're going to spend most of our time at the Keough family cabin but are open to other things as well....We'll be up from July 25 - August 4. Mark it on your calendars!!

Key - the recent pictures of the kids are adorable!! Excellent work with Angelina's birthday cake it looks amazing and from the sounds of it, Gina thought it tasted even better!! You've got a chocolate lover on your hands - be careful! The picture of Roman (your new fav) is priceless...look at those cheeks.....he makes me think of my cabbage patch doll...so cute and cuddly. Have you guys decided if/when you're moving to Ontario yet??

Kirsten - how's pregnancy going??? You showing yet? How's the puppies?? Did you keep them all?

To Everyone else - Hello!!

P.S. Sammy - Sex & the City comes out in 8 days!!

My Favourite New Picture

Big Birthday Bash

Its hard to take pictures with the kids and commotion! At future parties I'll try to get more pictures of all the people; they'll befun to look at years down the road.

The cake. I made the animals and trees out of chocolate. It was labour intensive, but lots of fun! I'm happy to have an excuse to do this kind of stuff now.

Opening a million presents.
Snacktime. Angelina has never liked cake, but as it turns out, that's because she never had chocolate cake! Me and matt don't like chocolate but this little girl really does.
Later, in her adorable new ladybug jammies and with a new doll.

Playing with her beautiful new doll house

Braids

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Yes, Tuesday was Angelina's birthday and now she is two! I can hardly believe it. She's a wonderful, cool, sweet, smart, fun little kid. We're having a big party on Saturday. Oh, I have waited so long for her to be old enough to bake with! Here she is making gingerbread cookies. So much fun!
My baby loooves that ride at the mall. She talks about the "big red dog ride" all the time.
Swinging on the big girl swing. She also loves the big, high tire swing, which makes me so nervous!
This is what Roman usually does at the park. Oh, how I love that big fat chin!
Feed me, please.

Angelina Rose is TWO!!!!

Wow, can't believe Angelina turned 2 yesterday!! Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Key are you having a birthday party for her this weekend?? Is there a theme?? Send my love to Gina and give her a big belated birthday hug and kiss for me. How's the family doing? By the recent posted pictures I'd say the kids are growing like weeds and are happy/doing very well. Lee and I will be up that way July 25 - Aug 4 hopefully in that time I can meet Roman and we can get a visit in with you four.

I have quite a lot to report but not a lot of time right now as I am at work....it's 8:30 and I've been here for an hour already, I wish I was still in bed. I'll write back in a few days, hope everyone is doing well.

Babes in Toyland

Roman's baby shower was so much fun! Roman got to do his favourite thing in the world, socialize, and Angelina got to play with his new toys and model his new clothes.

We'll get to do that stuff again at Angelina's birthday party next weekend. I can't believe she is almost 2! She is smat as a whip these days, and getting more and more fun. The other day we made cookies actually together; she poured the ingredients in and stirred them and stuff. And she has such an amazing imagination. Recently she had a whole conversation with herself in front of the mirror, like this:

"What is this pig's name?"
"I don't know."
"Yes, you do know. His name is Ortman!"

And she has great logic skills. She was telling Matt about her day yesterday and she had gone on that merry-go-round ride in the mall. She said to Matt (without my ever having said it) "Baby Roman is too small for the ride. It's just for kids."

Trying on mommy's new shoes

Hanging out, haha

figuring out how to crawl

With great-grandma at the shower

Hi, yes it has been a while. Sorry. Things have been so hectic with me lately. So no, I don't work at Kindale which is what you're thinking, Keira. I only worked there one day and then got my job at NONA. I think I posted this before but you must've forgotten. Kindale was not exactly what I was looking for, but NONA is in my field. I am a behaviour inteventionist for autistic children and their families. It's wicked great! I love it! I will work there until i go back to school in Vancouver or Victoria next Sept. I am excited for that too! Still studying for my GRE now though.

Wow, your babies are growing so fast!

April Shower

My cousin Teri is throwing me a shower this weekend for the Keough family. It's so nice of her! I can't wait. Angelina had more than one shower but Roman never got one. He will love it; all those Aunties and cousins to hold him and talk to him. He'll be in heaven. Angelina will like it too; all those presents to open and stuff to play with.

The other morning Angelina lined up some letters on the fridge and then pointed to them and said, "M-o-m-y. What does that spell? It spells mommy!" What a smart cookie. I certainly don't drill this stuff into her, she just picks it up so easily.


Roman already has two teeth coming up; these kids do everything early! He also has started eating pablum and rolling over. He's still a big jolly fat guy, and the most talkative kid ever! As soon as he wakes up in the morning he starts happily hollering, grunting and squawking.

Angelina wearing Roman's shirt a couple months ago...

...and now he wears it!

Rock on, pudgy prince

This is a picture of Roman's skinny legs in December...

...and here they are now, so big and squishy!

Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Stayin' Alive...

It was Kirsten's birthday on the 8th! Happy 26th, old lady. And happy telescoping! have you used it yet? I can't get that MLS number to work, is the condo still for sale?

Oh yeah, I don't think I ever mentioned moving east again. It's getting kind of complicated with this Ontario company; it looks like either we will stay here for one year and then take that job (that's what Matt's work is pushing and I am dreading) or we will just find something else and go in the fall like we want to. Either way, we do still want to move to Ontario.

It's so good to hear from you guys. Wow Robin, I haven't talked to you in ages! Are you still working at the mental health place? It's in Armstrong, right? Kirsten knows about it becuase her mom worked there.

Remember Linus from the Peanuts (Charlie brown)?

Hi guys
Wow, so many of you have all this great news to report! For me, it's same old... going to work everyday forever, coming home and making dinner or going out for dinner, doing the dishes, sometimes watching a movie or going out with friends, and then going to bed. Pretty boring life I lead LOL.

So Angela, I saw that you know Sheena from paintballing with all those people. That's cool! I have never been paintballing, but it sounds like you're hardcore and way too good for me to go with! :P

Keira, your kids are adorable! I love them! Are you guys moving away? What have you been up to? Matt is all fancy and formal with his job now. Sounds really cool and interesting!

Well just thought I would check in and catch up with you guys. Have a nice week.

Puppies!

Lola Beans had her Puppies April 12th. one male and one female. They are so cute. the male has more brown then the female. Both will be under 5 pounds and will be non-shedding.

Little bits of news

Keira thank you so much for visiting with me when I came down. And sorry I couldn't make it back to your place after Costco. I found that I had to barf like crazy after a all to yummy ice cream cone...
But yes, a little new from our way. Drew and I are moving to Kamloops and buying a nice condo. its on MLS in south Kamloops listed at 189900 if you wanted to check it out.
I have some job interviews in Kamloops on the 9th and also will be looking at the condo along with some others as well.
Lola is getting so friggen fat with her puppies ready to pop out in 10 days! I can't wait to see them all.
My pregnancy isn't working very well and i have had an AC check up and the results came back pretty harsh.I wont go into details in case I offend someone. But yes it was apparent from the begining with an ultra sound that showed the babies heart beating at an extra slow pace. And it doesn't help that I have now lost 30 pounds in total in the 5 weeks I have known I was pregnant.
This has been a really hard last couple of days. Besides me and my pregnancy we found that Drews mom is doing really quite badly. Thus the move back to Kamloops to be close to her.
other then those couple of hard things to deal with Life is still staying pretty exciting with Lolas puppies and the new place we buy.
Oh My birthday is on Tuesday and my lovely husband bought me a telescope! I can't wait till I get away from overcast Vancouver to sunny Kamloops so I can use it.
thats it.
hope everyone has a great week

Can't believe it's April already!!

Hello Everyone!!
Just thought I'd write a quick note to say hello.....been a busy couple of weeks with work, social life, family, friends etc....sometimes I wish I was a teenager again everything seemed so much easier.
Mine and Lee's road trip was wonderful - if you're on facebook all the photos are on there, I'll try to post some on here soon. Overall the weather was great, cold but good....the roads were all clear, the skies were clear for the driving days. We stopped in a lot of cool towns, saw some cool things (World's largest teepee, largest piggy bank, largest truck). Had a wonderful 4 days visit with my Mom and Bill (step-dad) - 4 days was just enough though hahaha - good news though lee and bill got along marvelously well and his 2nd time meeting mom was just as good as the first. Love it!!

Anywho...I'm at work so I should get working, I'm off to Whistler tonight until Monday afternoon....going away with Lee and his buddy Adam, we rented a cabin and we're going to do some skiing, snowboarding, drinking, playing wii, movie watching etc. Good times for sure!

Hope all is well with everyone - keep blogging!

Easter Feaster

What a great easter weekend we had. I hardly remember it now but it was a good one. Three days off is always exciting, and we had the Garcias over here for easter.

That was also when Roman really laughed for the first time! It's so priceless, he makes a huge fat smile and then starts making low noises and snorts. I finally found him that play saucer where he can walk along. He's too young to do the walking and turning but he loves it and especially loves that Gina plays with it too (he absolutely loves to watch her do anything).

Angelina can sing you are my sunshine and a sesame street song. She thinks it's hillarious to count to 20 or say the alphabet while running around and dancing.

Can you believe it was snowing here this week! I saw lots of snow in Vancouver on the news and Bill said Salmon arm still has snow on the ground. Weird!

What have you guys been up to? Did you have a good Easter? Sam, how was your awesome road trip?

Roman and his cousin Laynee at Easter. She is eight days older, but if she was born three hours ealier and he was born two hours later, she would be 10 days older.

My little comedian, pretending to be a baby.

Just chillin

Playing on that toy I mentioned

I just took this one now, they're still asleep.

Happy Action Shots

Road Trip, Road Trip, Road Trip!!!

Hello Everyone - glad to see things are going alright for you all...

As you can tell by the title of this posting, I'm going on my road trip and am very excited about it! We leave tomorrow afternoon and are driving to our first stop, Golden, BC. However, depending on the weather we may stay in Revelstoke instead to avoid Rogers Pass at night.We've got a week full of sight seeing, driving and my favourite part time with my mom and step-dad. Yay!! What a great Easter weekend it will be.

Key - the documentary isn't neccessarily depressing....but it is a documentary....I really liked it. If you decide to watch it let me know what you thought of it.

Anyways happy belated St. Patty's Day & Happy Easter to All!! Take Care! xoxo

Spring is Sprung, the Grass is Riz

I am so happy about this nice weather. We've been going for walks in the afternoon and playing in the park! The other day though, it was so windy that Angelina's friend Tyler was almost blown over.

The kids got their shots last night, which was a nightmare, but at least I got to weigh them. Angelina is 27 lbs, Roman is 17 lbs! What a giant! He goes in the jolly jumper now and loves it! I need to get him one of those things that babies sit in and play with all the toys. I have a specific one in mind but I can't find it anywhere! It's one where the baby gets to walk along a track, and it's by Fisher Price, and I would pay any price for it. So if you come across it, let me know!

The nurse last night asked if Angelina can say 10 words yet. What?! Wow, she can say hundreds. The other day I was changing her diaper and she recited the entire song "You are my Sunshine". She also enjoys saying "mommy said..." and then repeating every word that I said, even multiple sentences. She also likes to read stories this way now: I read a sentence, she repeats it. I read the next sentence, she repeats it, and so on. It's so funny to see her concentrating on getting every little word. How studious.

Awh!! that sucks....

Come in on Friday!!!!

ya, we already have plans for other things on Sat... :( so I am affraid Fri still stands...
would have been nice to see you though!!

Keira?? you coming with a little singing princess...? leave the two boys at home to have a boys night.... that is if Matt is in town ???

Ang's house

I would love to come but I dont' get into town until Sat. If you guys can hold over until Sat evening then I can come and would love to do the sing-a-game. But now is boils down to Keira.
thanks for the invite!
Kirsten

I have an idea!!

Keira and Kristen should come over to Ang's on Friday evening. So far it's Ang, Lindsay, and myself making haystacks for dinner and then playing 'sing star' or watching a couple of movies. I'm sure Ang will agree the more the merrier. Ang's place is kid friendly too; well, except for a bunch of girls trying to sing their way to super stardom.
What do you think...huh, huh, huh?

Sammi

More More More

I had a wonderful birthday, with lots of unexpected phone calls and happy stuff. Pat came over and babysat while me and Matt went out for Indian food (my favourite!) Thank you guys for all your wishes, and thanks for the blogs! I love it when I'm not the only one writing on here! Keep it up, pleeease!

Matt has been corresponding with the company in Oshawa and is just waiting on their specific offer in terms of vacation, benefits, and salary. But he has already breifly talked this stuff over with them. I don't want to say it's for sure yet, but things would have to take a pretty bad unexpected turn to make us not go. Anyway we are just waiting for the last details and hopefully we'll get them this week. Matt told them he wouldn't take the job until next fall, but we still want to know right away!

It's true, Roman is really catching up fast to Angelina in size. He can sit up now if he's propped up with lots of pillows, and soon I'll try putting him in that bouncy doorway thing that Angelina used to love so much. Angelina is talking in complete sentences now even with all the little words like 'and', 'of' and 'the'. What a little grownup!

I'm excited that Kirsten is pregnant and think about it all the time. Maybe I'm annoying, but I feel like I have so much wisdom to pass along! I had two very different pregnancies, extremely different births and completely opposite babies, as well as some extra hospital experiences. Whenever I hear someone is pregnant I can't help but think about it all the time and wonder how they're doing, even if I don't know the person. I hope it happens to you all soon!

I have heard about that Born into Brothels movie more than once. Thanks for the recommendation, Sam. Is it sad and depressing? If not, i'll go rent it.

Can't wait to see your website, Ang! I'll add it, and Kirsten's blog, to my links.

Yay, call me as soon as you're here, Kirsten. I'll give you my pregnancy book if you don't already have it. How was your first ultrasound? I can't wait untill a couple months from now when you find out if you're having a boy or a girl!

i'm coming up

hey Key.
I"m coming up this weekend! I"ll be in the Okanangan until Wed. wanna hang out. I still haven't met little baby boy!

He's Almost out growing her!!!

Ummm.... What happens when he is only a fraction of her age and is way bigger than her!!!??? :) WOW! He sure looks like MAtt!! I know, I've said that before...
So what is the news on moving Keira?? Did Matt take the job over east??
What have you been up to??

Congrats Kirsten!!! I am soo happy for you both! you will have to keep us updated.

What is everyone else up to?? Nothing new here.... just trying to get rid of this Bronchial pneumonia for the last 3 weeks... and well.. the usual... work work work! I cant wait to start playint Paintball in a couple of weeks though when the weather gets nice.... and get our in the sun and do some hiking and take some pictures.... I have lots of people wanting couples or family shots... still working on my web page though.... I have had it designed for weeks but have to wait for Bryce to get time to put it all together.

Well take care.