Victoria aka The Funk Invasion!

Last weekend we made a little trip to the island to see our friends Toni and Terri and their little girl Amaryllis. They moved into their new house in April and did this awesome reno on their kitchen. Beautiful!! Their whole house was awesome! I love older houses, they have great character and I love Victoria so much. We had such a great time!




We spent Friday evening at Buchart Gardens, where despite many trips to Victoria, I haven't been since I was a little, little girl. Sean had never been. It was so beautiful there! I was really wishing for a macro lens let me tell ya! There was a live oldies rock and roll band there as well. So we did some strolling and then made our way over to listen to the band. The girls danced and danced. Did somersaults and ran around. It was so fun to watch them. They wiped themselves out. Kaylum loved the music and was bopping around to it. I wish we could have spent a little more time there. We will have to go again for sure!


On Saturday we spent the morning at the butterfly gardens. What a great place. There were hundreds of butterflies flying around. Also a few exotic birds. Here too I was missing a macro lens, but never the less got some great shots. The girls had a lot of fun here too. After we headed downtown to the children's fringe festival in Market Square. I was so surprised at the lack of people there. You would think something in downtown Victoria on a beautiful summer day would be jammed packed, but it wasn't. It was awesome. We saw a puppet show, a children's entertainer, the girls painted and then got their faces painted. We ate some awful sushi that took way too long to make and watched Kaylum have fun with a balloon. We didn't do any shopping. Yes you heard me right. LOL!
That evening the girls watched a movie and the adults talked. The girls all got along so well. It was really nice to see them play so well together. We also had a few too many drinks and played the Wii! Good times!!

Sunday it rained so we stayed in the house and just relaxed. We made the 5 pm ferry and it was packed! We walked around for 20 minutes trying to find a spot to sit to eat our dinner. We ended up on the floor tucked away in a corner so we could eat. I guess with the rain, most people were inside taking up the seats. But despite that, we had an awesome weekend! I can't wait to go back for another visit!

OK APPARENTLY BLOGGER IS NOT GOING TO LET ME DOWNLOAD MORE PICS, SO STAYED TUNED, I WILL POST MORE TOMORROW!

The Budgie

Ever since we were away in Manitoba where we spent some time with my cousin's budgie bird Lily, we thought a budgie would be a neat addition to our family. Unfourtunatly Kylie didn't think so. For some reason she was really afraid of the bird. We weren't sure why, it didn't bite or hurt her. So when we got home and started to talk about maybe getting one she would get really upset. So we would leave it for awhile, talk about it some more, make a couple visits to the pet store. Eventually she became comfortable enough to get one. We were relived because we really wanted one and Keira did too!
So today was the day. We made our way down to Petland to pick out our bird. They had all sorts to choose from yellow, green and blues. We decided on a pretty blue and white one. The lady chased the poor thing around for a long time before she got him in the box. I was afraid he was going to have a heart attack before we even got him home! Another lady gave us a lesson on how to calm the bird down, which we were really thankful for. She calmed him down nicely for the ride home. We also got a budgie starter kit that comes with a cage, food and all the other gear you need to start off with.
Next came the name game. We have been talking for weeks about names for our birds. We sort of decided on Cherry, but then found we had a boy bird. So we started over. We came up with some good names, Willow, Parker and some not so good, Milkshake, Buck. But we decided on Indy. Not after the car race, but the movie character. It took Keira a little while to accept that name though. She was really stuck on Cherry.
So Indy came home and once we got his cage together we put him in it while still inside the box. He sat there for awhile and slowly made is way to the opening of the box. The girls sat waiting and waiting and talking to him. Surprisingly Kylie spent the most time talking and sitting with him.
We went out tonight and when we came home he was sitting on a pearch and there was seed on the table, so he found his food. Keira even said goodnight Indy, so I think she has accepted his name. I can hear him playing under his cage blanket, so I think he will be just fine. We now have to train him to be used to us holding him. That should be fun! Or painfull!

11 Months

Where did this month go? My little boy has entered his last month of "baby hood" soon he's going to be a toddler! I can remember this time last year so clearly. VERY pregnant, with the Dr telling me I had a 7 pound baby inside and still 5 weeks to go!!
We have a little monkey on our hands! You love to climb anything you can. You even climb up the girls slide outside, by yourself! Its a little scary. Of course you love the stairs and will even turn around to go back down them! It amazes me that you know how to get down off of things.
You have mastered "So Big" and put you arms way up in the air when we ask how big you are. When you hear someone say "HI" or "Hello" you put your hand to your ear and say "Hi!", like you are talking on the phone.
You are drinking formula from a bottle about twice a day now and are loving to try all sorts of food. You have even tasted a few french fries this month! You want to eat whatever we are eating but are still a bit young for most.
I think the biggest event that happened this month is that you started to sleep through the night in your own crib! Its been about 2 weeks now and Mommy and Daddy are so relieved! You were crying at first when we would put you to bed, but now you go to sleep without any tears around 9pm and will wake up between 7 and 8. Sometimes you nap in your crib too, but you are still a little hit and miss on the naps. But hey, doesn't matter you are sleeping through the night!
You also got your 7th tooth this month, on the bottom right! WOW!!

Happy Anniversary!

11 years ago today Sean and I started "going out".
7 years ago today Sean and I got married. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon.
We were married in my parents back yard and had our reception in Sean's parent's backyard. It was a great wedding and I was so pleased with how the day went. Still thinking back, the only thing I would have changed was invite more people. For a while we were planning on going to Vegas to be married, but I am so glad that we didn't.
So Happy Anniversary to the Love of my Life!!
We have built a great life together and I am so excited to watch our children grow with you!!!!! I am so glad that you are the one I get to spend the rest of my days with! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU!

and I hope you take me out for dinner tonight :o)

A Little Peak

I just wanted to put a little sneaky peak of the wedding I helped out with on the weekend. Now is the hard part, the editing.
I made myself do the laundry tonight after the kids went to bed so I could have lots of time tomorrow night to edit, otherwise, nothing is going to get done around the house!
I had so much fun on Saturday, despite the killer heat and black polyester pants. It was a long day but sooooo worth it. We started shooting the bride at noon and went all day in 4 locations, including where the actual wedding was. Everyone was beautiful and all the details were amazing! Thanks Jill for telling everyone I was your second shooter ;o) I learned a lot, had great fun and hope to do it again soon! You have an assistant for life!
Make sure you check out Jill's blog for her amazing shots!

Our Week

This week held some adventures and changes for us. The biggest one being that Kaylum seems to have finally started to sleep through the night! Its been 3 nights in a row, so I hope I am not speaking too soon or jinxing it. It was strange because on Monday night he kept us up from 3am to about 5am, when Sean finally decided to take him for a drive so that he would sleep. Worked like a charm of course. But we were wrecks the next day. Come Tuesday night, he was sleeping through the night, IN HIS OWN BED! Yes, that's right, we have that brand new king size bed all to ourselves!
Here are a few other things we did this week, in pictures..........

:: yummy treats on a hot day ::

:: a beautiful baby ::

:: a monkey in disguise! ::

:: A walk at Derby Reach ::

:: A Visit to Grandmama (the kid's Great Grandma!) ::

oops, I though I fixed the red eye.

:: a couple a neat captures ::




:: more time in Fort Langley ::

:: my self portrait ::

:: a new watermark from a friend ::

And now the heat has moved in. As much as I love the sun, I don't like being hot and sticky. It makes me lazy and really I don't need any help. All I want to do is drive around in the van to keep cool. Is that "green"? LOL!
Tomorrow I am very excited to help my friend Jillian at a wedding she is shooting! I even get to take some of my own shots! Its going to be fun!

Moved Out

After 10 months of Kaylum sharing our room, he finally moved out. He of course does not know this. Last night was his first "night" in his own room. I use the quotes because it was really only a few hours as he ended up in our bed as he usually does. I felt a little sad, not being able just to look over and see that he is alright. But I was a little happy as well that we won't have to tip-toe around when we go to bed. I knew he would be alright, just as his sisters were when they moved into their own rooms. Now if I can get him to stay there all night.........
Did I mention our king size bed comes Thursday?

The Drive-In

We are lucky enough to have a drive-in in our town. We don't take advantage of it as much as we like but on Friday they were playing a family movie so we went. The last time we went was 2 years ago and the girls stayed up for BOTH movies!
This time they were playing Kung Fu Panda and the Dark Knight. We were really hoping the girls would fall asleep because we really wanted to see Dark Knight. My sister also joined us for the show. The girls and Sam snuggled in the back while Sean and I sat out on our camping chairs and Kaylum snuggled up in the blanket with me and slept the whole time. We had lots of fun, pigged out on popcorn, nachos and licorice and the girls fell asleep by the time Dark Knight came on and I wasn't too far behind them. DOH! Sean and Sam stayed up but I was in and out for most of it. It was 2 am by the time we got home and everyone went right to bed and slept in the next morning. Except Kaylum!