bunk beds and cottage days

trying to enjoy the bottom bunk with dad

Sammy crying because I made him pose on the bottom bunk instead of being on the top bunk. He still doesn't quite believe he'll end up sleeping down there and not up top with Luke. He went up to the top bunk after this picture, looked at me and said "CHEESE"!

hanging out.

wrestling

top bunk fun

biking at the lake
big pregnant lady on a bike
marshmallow goodness
Our lives have been filled with much cottage fun these past few weekends, much laundry and trying to get back into city life, and much packing up to do it all over again. It's great. We took the boys on a hike, which they both loved and which for sure Luke had more energy for than I did, we had fun at the beach, fun with friends and some time with my parents out there too...truly, some of the funnest cottage times I've had yet. It's so neat to see all the things the boys can do now. Luke is really into biking and I was able to bike around the block a couple of times with him at the lake. He's really getting the hang of braking, even going downhill, and yet still reminds us that he's not quite four by needing a little break on the way up. It's hard to remember that he's such a little guy still when he's so into trying everything. He was eager to help Julio clean out a bunch of brush that Julio had cut down and had massive work gloves while he gathered sticks, etc. I remember being a kid at the cottage and having to gather sticks so my dad could use the driving lawnmower and not finding it all that fun. I'm quite sure all of Luke's good work ethic and attitude comes completely from Julio! We also got to spend some time with some of our favorite people, the Krymusas, or the "Musas" as Sammy calls them, and their one (unknown to us before this weekend) brother and wife and cutie baby girl, the "other Musas", as Sammy referred to them. They were all so lovely and it was fun to hang out and visit at the beach with good weather and fun friends. So now we officially know and love all of those "Musas", as I just came from having a wonderful visit from the other "Musa" wife, Kirsten, who is visiting from Africa for the summer. What fun. And all the laundry is already folded and put away so I have absolutely nothing in the world to complain about. But watch me try anyway.

In other news, we now have bunk beds for the boys. Tonight is Luke's first night up top and, much to Sammy's dismay, when it's time for him to join Luke in the bunk bed fun he will be stuck with the bottom bunk. Tonight he opted for his crib instead of trying out the bottom bunk and I'm not quite sure when I'll be willing to do away with such fabulous confinement, so we'll see when we officially transfer him in. We got an amazing deal on kijiji for the bunk beds and couldn't be happier with the set-up. Julio's dream has now officially come true - I think within a few weeks of Sammy being born Julio was talking about how great it would be when one day we could get bunk beds for the boys. They are loving them, and basically think of them as a play structure in their room, which is still a little scary in the Sammy department. He's such a climber and has already climbed onto the dresser beside, from the top bunk, and once I caught him hanging off the top bunk above the lower one...yikes. Feel free to say a prayer or two for Sammy's safety if you'd like :).

It's way too late so I'm off to bed...enjoy the pictures above, I don't even have the energy to put them all in nice places so place all this above commentary by the appropriate pictures please and thank-you. Here's a video for your amusement. It's long and sticky, don't feel obligated to watch it all.

variations on a lyric

I may just have to add to this post as more things come to mind, but I thought I'd do a post on all the funny lyrics I hear out of the mouths of my boys. They both LOVE to sing, it's almost constant when we're in the van, although Luke would prefer it if Samuel and I didn't sing along. I hope you know some of these!
"Wings of an Eagle" a la Luke: "We will not grow weary, we will not grow far, on the wings of an easel we will rise!!" Yesterday he asked me, "mom, what does 'wings of an easel' mean?" Good question!
"Baa baa black sheep" a la Luke: "Baa baa black sheep have you any wool, yes sir yes sir flee flags flull."
"Baa baa black sheep" a la Sam: "Baa baa back sheep ya ya ya ya wool, yes sir yes sir..."
We were singing some song with the word "hosanna" in it, and then Luke says to me yesterday in the van, "what's that one that goes hosanna don't cry for me?" I thought for a long time and finally figured it out: "Oh Susanna, oh don't you cry for me..."
Luke also likes to make up some of his own songs. He's big on the word "strength" for some reason. His songs are often along the lines of "God is our strength! He is so mighty!" And now Samuel has started to sing "God is mighty. God is mighty" over and over again. Let's just say that sometimes even a van seems small. I can only take so much repetition.
Luke loves singing in church and often belts out the choruses that he is familiar with. It's quite cute - I can see him thinking during the verse part, wondering if he knows the song, and then if he does he is completely oblivious to the volume at which he joins in during the chorus. It's awesome. Some of his faves are "Shout to the north and the south. Sing to the east and the west..." I think he just likes that he can sing the word 'shout'. He and Sam also sing "How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be..." over and over again. Although sometimes Luke mixes up the order of the marvelous and wonderful, and today when he was singing it, he did it in this order: the wonderful, marvelous, then remembered the wonderful was supposed to come afterwards and sang the wonderful part again, just tons higher. That's always a treat in a confined space.
More to come as memory and moments arise...

Biker Luke and other summer fun

(A spontaneous, share-the-chair popsicle moment.)

Our biggest news around here is that our Luke can bike without training wheels! We are so proud of him and his determination. He just decided one day that he wanted to do it, so Julio took the training wheels off and after Luke saw how tippy it was, he immediately wanted them back on. But...Julio wanted him to at least try it, and Julio ran, holding on to the back of Luke's bike, all the way to the park and back. The next day, Luke pretty much got the hang of it, (as shown in the video below), with a bit of help with the starts, and then the next time we biked, we did a family 3km bike to my sister's place, and after lowering Luke's seat he could do the starts no problem. I couldn't believe he biked that far, but he was very determined and did great.

Okay, that's probably enough bragging. On to other events. We went to "Morning Sound Farm", just outside the city, for a little farm experience the other Saturday with some of our favorite people, Steve and Sheri-Lee Krymusa and their boys, or the "Musas" as Sammy refers to them. We had a blast.Sammy was completely into everything and loved being thrown into any pen with any animal. He was a little scary with the baby chicks, holding one by the leg and refusing to let go, but other than that I think the animals and him were unharmed. It was so great to see him so excited and in awe of everything.Cowboy Sam. He was a pro.

Not-so-cowboy Luke. He had a death grip on me for the first part of the pony ride and didn't even want to do it, but I kind of forced him to. He eased his grip slightly and talked pretty tough about riding the pony afterwards, saying he was glad he went. Our boys are SO different!

Sheep shearing demo. Just before that was the goat milking demo, which Sam got to try with Julio's help. Luke wasn't so into that. This picture pretty much sums up Luke's farm experience. Cautiously checking things out. He spent a good amount of time making sure Sammy wasn't getting too close to any of the animals and avoiding them himself. But he did say he really liked the farm after the fact, and I do appreciate his caring, protective nature towards Sam. I just wish he could relax a bit more sometimes...This pretty much sums up Sam's farm experience. Pure giddiness and bliss. We now think we should get some land outside the city to have a few chickens and a goat. And some kittens and dogs. And a big garden. And lots of energy for all of it. Julio was practically sleepless the night after the farm, dreaming of our country life! I have absolutely no concept of how much work it would all be (we wouldn't have a massive farm or anything, just a few animals, that can't be that much work, right??) but it sure looked dreamy after our visit to the farm. Just don't look at our backyard currently and see all my crazy weeds and fairly pathetic garden. You will think I have no farming future whatsoever! Alas...it's good to dream.

And now, life has consisted of trips to the wading pool, the park, washing swimming clothes, drying swimming clothes, repairing sandals, finding sand in every imaginable place, eating far too much ice cream...ahhh, sweet summer! I love this time of year.

First trip to the cottage...and a bath.

I haven't posted pictures in a while, mostly because I haven't really been taking any, but here are some cottage pictures from the long weekend. The May long weekend was gorgeous, lots of sun and the kids spent a lot of time at the beach with their other three cousins on my side, and we squeezed in some walks and the evenings were filled with Wii. It was a really good time. Here is the one time I brought out the camera to take pictures, on one of our walks.

Luke's latest trick is refusing to look at me when i have a camera. Thankfully that isn't Claire's newest trick. And finally, two boys in a bath. We hadn't taken a bath shot in a while and thought it was time. They are looking more and more like brothers to me, shorn heads and all.
That's all I've got for now...

before I forget...

A couple of funny stories. I'm still in the peak of nausea and fatigue, so this will be short but in an effort to remember cute things my kids have said for when they're teenagers and not as cute as I'd like, here's some current samplings.
Luke, in the van today as we're driving..."Ahhhhh....I just love being a kid". When I asked why he liked being a kid he said, "I like playing and I like soccer..." and his voice just kind of trailed off. I hope his comment was because he was thinking that life was grand and not that he dreaded adulthood...
Sammy, as we're trying to watch hockey on cbc.ca and it's having trouble loading..."What's happening it? Stuck?" I am so amazed at his vocabulary and sentences lately...I feel like I can say anything to him and he'll just get it. Usually his sentences just mimic Luke's, like if Luke will say, "Mom, I'm the biggest right?" then Sammy will pipe up, "I biggest too!!"
In an effort to be positive and not dwell on my overwhelmingly horizontal moments lately, I will just say that today was great. By some miracle it was not only my day off from work, but the sun was shining, I had energy enough for Fabricland with the two boys, a trip to St. Vital Park to feed some ravenously scary ducks some dried out bread and fun at the park with the boys' cousin Victoria, a playdate for Luke in the afternoon, a long nap for Sammy, time to myself to read my Bible, catch up on email and relax all while having the doors and windows open, nice chats with my sister and a slurpee. I have truly been forced to learn how to take life one day at a time, as these days are pretty overwhelming, and I can truly say that this day has not been one to be dreaded. Praise God.
Can I also just say, if you've never done so before READ ELLEN'S BLOG! That woman makes me laugh every time I read her posts, she's a beautiful woman, inside and out, with a wonderful way of finding humour in the everyday and with three amazing children who say and do the funniest things. She makes parenting three look fun, despite the challenges and I often think "I hope I do those kinds of things with my kids someday" when I read her fun outings and ideas. Her current Mother's Day post was priceless, but read any really, they're all good.

A noteworthy day

This is how my day began. It's 6:30am, Julio and I are sleeping peacefully when suddenly we here a tiny person say in a loud voice: "Anybody home?? Anybody home??" I think this may be one of the first times in my life when the first thing I do in a morning is laugh. What a riot. We have no idea where he got that from! And no, we don't leave our children home alone, but yes, it's true that first thing in the morning we're not always exactly scrambling to get to Sammy's room when he calls. I guess he thought he'd cut out the preliminary babble and whimpers today. Blessed Julio got up and said, "Yes Sam, I'm home!".So that was a little something from offspring #2. Would you like to hear news from offspring #3?? Well, here you go, I heard a little heartbeat today! It took a while to find, but it was there and strong and the best sound in the world. After all this nausea I needed a bit of good news. And despite the fact that my belly is gigantic and people are asking me all the time if I'm pregnant, my doctor is quite sure there's only one little Silvestri in there. Phew and phew! Today I actually had a conversation with another grade 7 teacher who basically stared at my stomach the whole time he and I were chatting. It's a christian school, so I suppose staring at a woman's chest is frowned upon, but seriously, eyes off the belly too! I still have a face you know!! And finally, a little something from the firstborn. My sister Robyn thinks everything he says is pretty much hilarious so I should just try to remember ANYTHING he says, but I'll just recap the events that happened just moments ago as that's all this pregnant brain can come up with. I was putting Luke to bed, and he's having a lot of issues lately with wanting to talk about "killing" and we've pretty much figured out that it's coming from his Bible stories at night. Seriously, I don't think the Old Testament was intended for preschoolers. It's like the 10 commandments are the only place where killing is NOT advised. Just kidding, I know God is the same in the Old Testament and the New and His graciousness and love abounds all over the place, but what do I say to my 3-year-old when he starts worrying that the walls of our house are going to come tumbling down or that giants are going to come and try and kill us and that we're going to get eaten by whales and then puked up? It gets tricky. Anyhow, he had a change of heart tonight and decided he was against killing and loved Jesus and God and so when I asked him if he wanted to pray he said sure, I want to pray for someone who doesn't love Jesus to love Him. I said that sounded like a good idea, who did he have in mind? He said, "Goliath!" Well, I explained that Goliath had been dead for a long time but that he could pray for other people that don't love God because they're around too and he said, "No, I think I'll just pray for Goliath". So, tonight Goliath got prayed for. Probably the longest and most sincere prayer I've ever heard from Luke. That's all I've got, it's about 51 minutes until my bedtime and I'm going to use all those precious moments to sew. See the shameless self-promotion below:

quick update

It's 9:08 which is about 8 minutes past my newly determined bedtime, so I'm going to make this quick. I haven't blogged in so long that it's daunting to start, but "You must begin before you can finish" as the wise Nunga Punga and the Booch once said. (Side note: "The Nunga Punga and the Booch" is one of the best children's books ever and in no bookstores anywhere.)
Begin I shall. The best and most exciting part of our lives right now is a little someone who has taken up residence in my womb. Coming soon to a world near you, sometime probably well after the expected due date of November 11th. We're thrilled. The other side of this thrilling news is that I'm experiencing the most intense pregnancy symptoms of my life and have no trouble declaring this our last child. Lord willing and all that jazz. I'm almost 11 weeks along now and in a week we will have an appointment to hopefully hear the little heartbeat that has caused all this nausea. As Luke put it the other day, "Mom, I'm sorry the baby is hurting you so much and kicking your stomach". What compassion. I hope he doesn't take all my months of lethargy and nausea out on the poor thing when they finally meet. So far both boys have already really loved to give the baby hugs and kisses, which is easy to do since my abdomen has swollen nicely, or rather, never fully unswelled from Samuel making this pregnancy somewhat convenient as I can now answer YES! to the perpetual "are you pregnant" questions. I still forget not to be grumpy when people ask that now and rather just celebrate the belly. I realize this baby is still only a bit bigger than a plump olive, but I will celebrate my bump nonetheless.
I have also, because I am a glutton for punishment, started teaching grade 7 part-time again, the exact grade I vowed never to go back to. So, add hyper pre-adolescents in springtime every morning to the general nausea and fatigue I'm experiencing and voila my life. The grade 7s are starting to become more tolerable to me and hopefully I to them and life is really not as bleak as I'm making it sound. It's the evening and I always feel worse in the evening so forgive this post for being a little bit more grumpy than it needs to be. The morning version would be, "oh bliss! God has granted me this golden opportunity to speak French and goodwill into the lives of children on the cusp of adulthood!" Who are we kidding, I couldn't foster that kind of enthusiasm any time of day.
The best part about teaching is my mom. She is looking after the boys 2 or 3 times a week (Julio does the other days and he's great too) and I usually come home, sit on the couch and my mom feeds me. Today when I came home, Luke realized it was near lunch time, as I only work mornings, and said to my mom, "Gramma Anne can you make me lunch now?" Yes, the children know she is more reliable to feed them and take care of them than I am. My mother is a dream on all fronts, including washing my dishes and sweeping my floors, not to mention saying my kids are wonderful and what a joy it is to be with them. They definitely have a good deal having my mom and Julio around in the mornings, they are much more chipper and energetic than I could muster at this point in life. Today I managed to drag myself along with my family to the park before supper, sit on the park bench and watch them all play, and it genuinely amazed me to see how much energy Julio had for chasing the boys around. Julio has had the most remarkable attitude this time around and even deals with my spontaneous bouts of tears and emotion with amazing calm. He has obviously walked this road before. He said to me, after my first emotional pregnant outburst, "Oh yeah, I forgot about this!" That just shows you how even keel I am emotionally most of my life. Take that.
Okay, it is now 9:25 and the nausea is winning out and my bed is calling. There, I blogged. Happy??

whirlwind days...

For some reason these last few weeks and months have felt like a whirlwind. I thought that after having finished work in January I would have this sense of freedom and life would be restful and relaxing...it has been some of that, but life with kids just isn't exactly that, and I'm always trying to squeeze in some fun and excitement (aka sewing) into the mix. Anyhow, excuses excuses as to why I never blog anymore. But here's a little attempt.
First a couple of Luke stories:
We were having a conversation about porcupines the other day and Luke insisted that they were called "poke-u-pines" instead of porcupines. Can I argue with such brilliance??
Then there is his singing...he's been into medley's lately, one of my favorites being "How Great Thou Art/O Canada"...at least we're no longer "standing on God for thee", that didn't seem very nice. We have some nice, cheesy, 80s christian VHS video where young kids do different songs to music and Luke pretty much knows them all now. It's pretty neat to be at a point where when I don't know the words to a song, or I can't remember where I put something, I can just ask Luke and 9 times out of 10 he knows.
And then there's been birthday talk floating around, first of all much talk about his birthday and turning four, and what kind of cake to have. He said he wanted a "heaven" cake. Hmmm.... Usually his cake requests are firetrucks or firefighters or spiderman (which he knows absolutely nothing about but heard of somewhere and talks about him all the time). His cousin Victoria is having a birthday party on Saturday and today he was speculating about what kind of cake SHE would like. His first thought was a princess cake, and then he changed his mind and thought maybe she would like a lawnmower cake. A lawnmower cake?!?
Finally, when talking about what present he would like for his birthday he said, "I want a parrotshoot (parachute), so I can shoot parrots." What?!?!? Poor parrots, what did they ever do to him???
And now for some pictures. Here are the boys watching themselves eat coconut lollipops. Strange, yes, cute, also yes.
Reading...in matching pjs. Always a hit.

An attempt at ice skating at the Forks. It was so freaking cold that day we didn't last very long.

Sammy and I trying to be excited about how freaking cold it is.

Short-lived skating.

My dad. The 60-year-old. We've just had a few celebrations for him so he's a big hit around here. As is his hot yellow curling sweater. We go and watch him curl, mostly for the sweater.

The boys, in Papa Ron glory, watching curling.

Wrestling with dad. Good times.

Luke in a bumbo chair. Playing an obnoxious xylophone.

That's all for now, this winter has been long so I'll spare you the un-taken shots of us lazing around at home, playing blocks for hours on end and watching cheesy 80s praise videos.

motherly musings

I'm back to being a full-time mom, except for today as I'm subbing and have a moment to reflect on life these days. I like being home again. It feels great, in every way. I love being in pyjamas until at least 9am, I love sitting and reading to the boys, snuggling and not looking at the clock, sitting on the floor playing with magnets, and watching them play contentedly as I do some blanket stitching. I feel like I've finally gotten to a point where I genuinely like my kids, nearly all the time. That probably sounds horrible in a sense, but parenting is just not an easy job. I still get frustrated at the many spills and messes, the toddler temper tantrums which are becoming quite frequent with little Sam, and all manner of irrationality that abounds, but on the whole, life has gotten easier. I think one thing I've noticed since being home again is that Luke seems a lot more settled. During Sammy's nap he will often just play by himself in his own little world, creating stories and talking out loud, oblivious to anything else. It's beautiful to see. A contented child is a mother's dream. I think my attachment to them has grown a bit more too...last night we dropped them off at my mom's for the night and they both didn't want us to leave and I had a few tears as we drove away...my mom was babysitting today while I sub so it was just easier, but I'm getting quite used to having these little guys around and am not used to days without them. What a gushy post so far, yeesh! It's not all roses, let me assure you. Here are some ponderings and questions to you, my readers and experienced parents!!
Luke is starting to talk a lot about "scary guys". He is entering into the realm of childhood fears and I don't like it. We watched "The Incredibles" with him a few weeks ago, after much begging on his part, and Julio and I both realized this is completely NOT a kid's show! Ever since that he's been afraid that bad guys are going to kill people and be in our backyard and in the basement and I just feel horrible about it. What to do?!? Is this normal growth or have we permanently wrecked him? He's a sensitive kid and it just makes me sad that he has to have these fears. He asked me to put our baby gate up yesterday to keep the bad guys in the basement, and brought the gate to me and was explaining all this to me as I was on the phone so I started to try and hook up the gate which is really not easy with the phone in the crick of your neck and I finally lost it and said, "we don't have a baby here! we don't need a baby gate!!!" Oh, lovely irrationality, how familiar you are to me.
And just to keep things well-rounded, Sammy has issues too. He's a little toddler bully it turns out. I'm saying that a little tongue-in-cheek as I don't really believe that or want to label him as such, and really he is so tender and sweet too, but I suppose after months of trying to hold your own with a 3-year-old, it has reprecussions with his peers. We had playdates twice this week with kids Sammy's age, and he was just plain not nice. Lots of pulling, pushing, grabbing and a bit of hitting thrown in for good measure. I honestly think he's more comfortable with 3-year-olds than kids his age. He's built like a truck, too, so he's pretty good at winning the toy battles which isn't necessarily a good thing. So what to do?!? Should I intervene all the time or let nature take it's course? Not that I want him pushing, etc, but how much do you let kids solve their own problems at that age, especially as I know he wouldn't be able to really hurt anyone, and how much to intervene? Thoughts on this are appreciated as well...it is truly a dilemma for me! Parenting the second time around definitely looks a little different, I'll say that. I definitely remember being more protective and worried about Luke when other kids were around, and sometimes feel bad that I don't hover around Samuel more, and am sometimes glad I don't.
On the whole, I have to say that I'm enjoying this phase of motherhood the most so far, probably especially for all the nice chats with Luke. He is getting to be so much fun to be around, loves to help out and has a real tenderness about him that I just marvel at and love. The other day Sammy wanted yogurt and Luke said, "I'll get it for him mom" and proceeded to take out the yogurt, a spoon, peel the yogurt lid and told Sammy in his patronizing baby voice, "get into your chair Sammy" and gave him his snack. It's not all roses, but life is pretty good and I am thankful.

boy talk, as in, my boys talk, and say funny things

I've been really bad at keeping up any sort of journaling lately, and Sammy is so completely funny these days with all he says and understands that every 5 min I could write something funny. As in, mildly amusing and probably excruciatingly boring to the majority of the population so let's just be thankful I DON'T journal that much, but cute nonetheless. The current tidbit of mild cuteness? Sammy has been giving us menu ideas. So kind of him. Usually it’s just “sushi, sushi” followed by “esh, esh” (yes) with a few very emphatic head nods. But the last two mornings he’s been giving breakfast suggestions. I got him out of his crib yesterday, brought him to our bed to say good morning to Julio, and he started his menu monologue of “bek-ist, bek-ist (breakfast), ug, ug (egg), toes toes (toast), esh esh (yes) *head nod*”. So Julio made him an egg. Who wouldn’t?!
Luke’s cute too. I was just eavesdropping on Julio’s conversation with him, as he (Julio) was multi-tasking, making cookies with both boys and carrying on conversations with them, while I get tendonitis writing this. Luke said, “we shouldn’t eat our snot, right?” Those are quality moments.
But on to the real story of the day. Luke and I have been getting into his new library books this week, one of them being a Curious George story all about George going to the “hostable” (hospital, for non pre-schooler parents). In it, there’s a girl named Betsy who is sad because she’s at the hospital and has never been there before and is a bit afraid. Well, today when we got to the part with Betsy being sad because she’s never been to a hospital before, Luke says to me, “mom, of course she has! We’ve read this lots of times already and she always goes to the hospital!” Isn’t that priceless?!?

And finally, I leave you with my current source of daily amusement. Favorite lines: “splish splosh”, “voila mon passeport”, “Gerard Depardieu!’’. Sammy now says ‘fa fa’ and ‘ah-ee-ah’.

imaginary friends

Luke and I were just colouring and he was telling me stories. His story went something like this:
"Mom, you know what? I was going to school, and I was waiting for my school bus, and mom you know what? My school bus came, and I went on the bus with all my friends...all my friends...Do you know what my friends' names are? There's (be prepared to be amused) Audi, Keg, Rod, Cimmamim (at this point I started writing them down, and he noticed, and kept going), and Ahay, and Awee, and Aseesa, and Josh and Jake, and Aray...and yeah, and Bod. Yeah, Bod."
I love his stories. Although I was a little sad that "Jurda and Urda" didn't make the cut today. They're my favorite. The other day they were the goalies. Maybe they were too busy with they're blossoming hockey careers today to have time for school.

Three videos, for your viewing pleasure

Luke skating with the infamous Josh and Uncle Marco...


Muscles and monkeys, our talented Sam.


Jingle Bells forever...this has been a frequent favorite, especially in the car, at high volumes, for extended periods of time. Niiiiccccceeeeeeee.....

More holiday fun

Be prepared to be impressed with all the pictures and video that this post will contain. I'm hopeful anyway, we'll see if the videos cooperate. (Video update: SLOW! Check back later, I'll post separately).

So here we are in our happy, lounging state at home. You don't get to see any pictures of me in my new candy cane pyjamas, but they have gotten a lot of use already and I am in no hurry to change out of them each day. We've had quite a bit of time to just hang out at home and I've been loving it. The only thing missing is a good springbok puzzle, but Sammy would probably just mess it up anyway. He already does that to my train set-ups and I get annoyed at that, and him using the excuse that it's HIS toy and not mine is just lame, in my opinion. I was here first.

Anyway, enough about me, here's our boys. This is the year of the matching attire. Here they are in their matching pajamas. They also have matching football shirts. It's cheesy, but I'm loving it.

Awww...that's what it's like all the time here, really...The boys, just playing contentedly, together, for hours on end. You believe me, right?!?

Sam, pjs, and new farm set.

Luke, pjs, and new hockey pads. His new hockey outfit includes some dreadful looking knee pads and gloves I made for him once a while back, sunglasses, booties from a 1-year-old snowsuit, and his new elbow pads. He takes this outfit quite seriously too!

What memories would be complete without a picture of famous Josh. Now Sammy has just got on the Josh bandwagon and was all over him when they were here for Christmas. He kept going up to Jake and calling him Josh too, and today he was calling some other older boy at church Josh. I guess, in his mind, "Josh" just means "big, cool boy". Today on the way home from church I heard Sammy saying over and over, "Josh, Josh, Josh". We plan on funding his college years as long as he stays out of trouble in his adolescence and comes over weekly.

Luke, on skates! First time this year, and he did GREAT! Such perseverance, I was so proud. He never let go of that hockey stick and just kept at it. We definitely need to get him out skating more!

Sammy could not be left out, and kept dropping his stick over and over again and said "hockey hockey" until someone picked it up.

Family photo! Aren't we cute and outdoorsy.

Sam's first quad ride! Marco and Darci have neighbours with horses behind their house on their large property, so Darci took Sam and I to see them. Sam's word for horse right now is "Ah-ho!" He enjoyed the "ah-hos" a lot!

There we go. Proof that we weren't just in our pajamas 24-7.

Christmas, in no particular order

As I sit here eating my kinder surprise egg, looking at the weird genie toy found inside, I have to say, it's been a fun Christmas. A good balance of family, time at home, crazy prepping, busy malls, more coffee than usual and way more chocolate than is humanly acceptable. Good times. Here's a little glimpse at our festivities, in words and pictures.
The initial prepping began last week. We hosted Julio's side of the family, including a couple of aunts and uncles, on Saturday and I have to say, I honestly did not feel overly stessed and actually was able to enjoy myself. Good laughs, fun times, and a snowman pinata for the kids even! Julio's mom made it and it was a huge hit. It's usually at Dino and Shannon's house but this year we decided to give them a break and host it, so in lieu of it being at their house I made Shannon come over and help me decorate. She is so talented at that kind of thing and within a few minutes transformed my boring living room into something more orderly and appealing, and even gave me a shopping list and a "to do" list for how I could shape up the rest. It was very helpful, if anyone needs decorating advice I strongly advise you to talk to her! I made some purple and white cushion covers, bought some purple ribbon for the tree, a vase with silver balls and silver spiky things coming out and she came over with a wreath and some other decorating goodies, and VOILA! We look festive. A highlight for Julio's Auntie Angie that night was a conversation she had with Luke. He had just finished licking all the icing off a cookie, the only part he really likes, and then asked her, "Is there gluten in this? Because I probably shouldn't eat it if there is." What a sneak...all he wanted was the icing! He has also been known to ask if there's "gluten-free" in something because he doesn't like "gluten-free". He sure knows the lingo.
So, back to the festivities. That was Saturday. On Sunday we had our church's kids concert in the evening. Luke knew pretty much all the words to the 2 songs with 3 and 4 verses each and told us each week before the concert that he knew all the words but that he never sings at church and wouldn't sing at the concert. Good to know he's a boy of his word. He would not even get up on stage and just stood off to the side with Julio for the whole thing. I asked him later if he sang with dad up there and he said, "no, but daddy sang!". Way to go Julio. You get a treat.
Here's Luke looking like an active participant in the concert. Way to go Luke!

Let's backtrack for a minute. On Thursday evening we had a small group get together and played games and had a lot of fun, except that we could hardly cope with missing the Krymusas so much (they're in Germany, the bums). This was the game of choice, putting bins on your legs and head to look like a medicine capsule. You have no idea how entertaining that was...for the kids. All in all, fun times.

Brotherly bonding. Samuel got up onto Luke's chair to play play-dough with him and Luke didn't push him off. That's photo worthy. They are actually playing quite well together lately. The other day when it was time for Sammy's nap Luke said, "no! I was playing with him!!!" Can't beat that. And lately Sammy has been climbing all over Luke giving him hugs and kisses and Luke doesn't mind one bit. I just can't get enough of sibling lovin', it's the best.

Christmas morning! It's amazing how much less spooky I look in the little version of this picture I clicked on to post up here!

Luke enjoying his new flashlight...

I made Sammy this scary looking doll (this is the closest picture I'll show anyone, it's really quite a frightful thing) and he pulled it out of his stocking and said, "no bunny!". Niiiiccceeee...I was contemplating making the hideous thing some clothes today but I don't even know if it's clothes worthy. I'm so glad I didn't make two...Luke didn't seem to have an ounce of jealousy.

Cutie Sam.

Luke, gearing up to get into the presents.

Christmas carnage. I have since found places for all the new toys (there weren't too many thankfully) and tidied up a bit to give me some Christmas sanity. But I'm not going overboard and am also enjoying the mess. Luke is currently putting together, with Julio's help, a 6+ toy he got from his cousin that he was so excited about...it's a fire engine with lots of small parts and lots of assembly required. He was very much wanting Sammy to nap today as that was the criteria...wait until Sammy's nap and then Julio would help him. So far I don't hear Julio swearing so it must be going well.

The boys enjoying Luke's new hockey game. Julio played a game against Luke and I and was way better, and all Sammy wants to do is pop the guys off, but I think it'll get some use. Luke was quite excited about it.

More Christmas morning messes and cutie Sam.

Luke went and saw Santa in the mall a few times before Christmas, pretty much just because "Santa has really good candy canes!" The two times we visited Santa he was quite happy to tell him that he wanted "outside hockey stuff" for Christmas. We weren't really sure what that meant as he already has skates and a bike helmet, so we got him some elbow pads that could also work for his knees. He seemed appeased, and I just reinforced that this was "outside hockey stuff" hoping we got it right. He seemed happy enough...phew!

Julio, eating a turtle from his stocking.

A couple of other events, which have no pictures to prove it, include sledding at a hill nearby and the 2nd annual Charleswood train ride which we did as a familiy the evening of the 23rd. It's a lot of fun, there's a whole bunch of lights set up and tunnels to walk through and a little train station where you buy $2 tickets, and then get to go on a pretty cool little train ride. Definitely a fun experience, even in -30 weather. Our cheeks were cold but it was still pretty magical. And it was very Christian...lots of Christian Christmas music, two nativity scenes and "Christ is Born" in lights, among other things. It's nice to see Christians doing cool Christmasy things. Luke especially liked the manger scenes and asked lots of questions, like "where's Jesus? Is that Mary? Why aren't there THREE shepherds?!? Are these the wise men?" It's cool to see him connecting with the real story of Christmas, it's my hope that it'll make more and more sense each year. I was trying to explain what Christmas was to Luke on the way to church this morning, and why Jesus came, etc, and I said to Julio, as he was rolling his eyes slightly at all the over-your-head-details, "well, the more we talk about it, the more some of it will sink in!" And Julio said, "I've heard this story over and over and I'm still not sure I get it". So true. In my own life lately, I've been thinking a lot more about heaven and eternity, with the passing of my gramma and just the passing of time in general, and I have to say, this life is sure a mystery. But I'll keep telling my boys the story in hopes that we all keep getting glimpses of what it's really all about.