Coming around the bend...

I would just like to say that it is 9:00 and I am still up and I did not have a nap today...I am officially still awake while my family has gone to bed. That hasn't happened in months...! My energy level just may start to be on the rise (well, for a while anyways!!!). I might even make it till 9:30!

My heart is smiling...

Hi,

Like many people right now, we have been quite effected by the news of the situation in Haiti. It really hits home since I have two colleagues at work who have yet to hear news from their family still living there. I particularly find it hard to think about all the children over there who are hurt or have lost their families. Apparently the orphanages are overwhelmed...


We decided to talk about the situation to Mathieu in terms that he could understand and absorb. We explained to him that tomorrow we would be going down to a place called the Red Cross where we could give money to help all the boys and girls in Haiti have new homes to live in and food and clothes. Mathieu took a minute to think about this and then went to get his piggy bank from this room. He told us that he wanted to give $100 dollars and proceeded to dump out his change and count out a hundred coins. He asked me, "Do you think $100 dollars is enough to buy a boy or a girl a new house?". If only...

Anyways, we are so blessed to have all that we do and so blessed to have a son whose heart is big enough to want to share the money that he has been carefully saving...

Wow, it has been a whole year since I started this blog. As I was updating the picture of the boys on this blog it struck me how much they have changed in the last year and all that has happened. I am glad that I have this blog as well as hundreds of pictures to help remind me of the many wonderful moments and memories.

Well, the latest news is that we recently got back from Winnipeg and Quebec city after our Christmas vacation. The boys and I flew out on the 18th and spent two weeks there and Vincent flew out to join us on the 25th. The timing was nice since he was able to come out to Portage with us where our whole extended family had gathered. It was the first time in years that all the grandchildren and great grandchildren were there at the same time so my Grandma was very happy and many pictures were taken of this photo-op! I also took a video of Mathieu learning to fiddle with my cousin's boyfriend. The room was swinging!

Our visit to Winnipeg was wonderful and very very restful. It was great to have a break from the regular routine and I so appreciated having the extra and very willing hands to help me out with the kids. It is such a break for me to have all the help and such a wonderful experience for Mathieu and Gabriel to get to spend so much time with his grandparents, aunts and cousins. Mathieu, in particular, is a very busy man when we go to Winnipeg and very much in demand! He went sliding with grandpapa and his cousins several times, skating with Grandpapa, supper, snowmobiling and sliding with Grandpa at his cottage, the movies with Grandmama, sleepovers at Josh's, play dates with the twins etc. It is so cute because to him, Winnipeg is still the most magical place on earth and he is convinced that when he is bigger he is going to live their "when I am big like papa and married"

In addition to being spoiled with free babysitting and a built-in house keeper, I appreciated being able to get together with my special friend Cori-Lee ("one is silver but the other gold", a night out with my sister's, as well as a date night with my favorite husband...

After our vacation in Winnipeg (and yes, despite the cold, I can call it a vacation!) we flew to Quebec city for a family celebration on January 1. I didn't quite make it to the end of the evening as I pooped out about 10 and fell asleep on Francois and Isabelle's bed but a good time was had by all and great wine was enjoyed by most!

Yesterday, the "la vraie vie" began with Mathieu off to school and Vincent and I off to work. Today, I was home but took Gabriel to the doctor for his regular check up. And yes, the rumors are confirmed as Gabriel's head measure on the 97th percentile. So yes, big head do indeed run in our family!!! She also said that he has grown more in the last 6 months than other times in his development.

Hi,

A friend of mine pointed out that I neglected to include a little caption with these pictures! I thought I had but obviously was mistaken!!

These pictures were just to show the recent addition to our family: bunk beds!! Mathieu was very proud to be the big brother and therefore get the top bunk and Gabriel adjusted quickly to his big boy beds. We've done a lot of rearranging in our house lately with brand new book shelves in the office which means the boys got the old shelves in their room. I went to the dollar store the other day and got a bunch of blue bins to organize all their toys. It certainly makes their room seem bigger and now every single toy has its place!! Obviously, in practice it take about 5 minutes before Gabriel begins dumping bins of toys onto the floor but you can only control so much!

Hi,

Well, one of the many wonderful things about having kids is you start to see certain things differently because you are seeing it through their eyes. It is for this reason that, rather than my previous Halloween-scrooge self, I get excited about this "holiday". Mathieu of course, was very excited for the day to arrive and was very proud to wear his new superman costume to the halloween party at school. His school also did a big haunted house so he thought that was just the greatest thing. Then, the next night, as you can see, he was happy to don his dinosaur costume and go roaring and howling through out the neighborhood. Gabriel, of course is too young to have remembered halloween from last year but he quickly caught on to the hold concept. It was so funny to watch the little wheels turning inside his head (i.e, "Hmm...strangers seem to be randomly putting candy into my bag...what a concept!!") and was quickly walking down the street muttering, "I want more candy...Je veux des bonbons!!.

We were also lucky enough to have a visit from my mom the other week. The boys were very happy to see her and spend some time with her and we had a lot of fun hanging out in the neighborhood, going out for dinner at a wonderful little Moroccan restaurant, going to a halloween fair in the country (despite it being a very rainy, cold day- check out the picture of us taken by the local paper!), as well as checking out the Chinese lanterns in the botanical gardens. She was also a big help for us to have around the house. Vincent and I are not used to having a grandparent around to help out so we really appreciated having the extra pair of hands!! Mathieu had a ped day while she was in so the boys got to stay home with her while I was at work which was nice for everyone. She also took the initiative to completely organize my pantry with new tupperware containers (as we learned we may have a little mouse friend)! Anyways, it inspired me and, 3 trips to the store later, I have been in an organizing frenzy the past few days. If something is not glued down in this house lately I will tupperware it!!! Visitors be warned!

All is well here all round. We are very excited because we just learned that Yuko will be arriving from Japan in the next few days so we will soon be going down to Quebec city to see her. We also got our tickets for Winnipeg so we are looking forward to spending some time there at Christmas (even though it seems counterintuitive to spend a lot of money to fly somewhere even COLDER in the winter time)...ahhhh...what I won't do for family! (and free babysitting!)

Anyways, chicken's almost cooked and papa bear will be home soon!!

Till next time.

"I want bravo" (Quote of the week from Gabriel)

Hi,

Well, we had an eventful thanksgiving weekend. We hosted Vincent's family this year and it was quite the feast!!! It was so good that I had to take pictures of some of the food! Isabelle and Francois made this incredible shrimp dish and Vincent worked hard preparing mussels with two different kinds of sauces- we had a garbage bag full of shells by the end of the meal!!

Today was a lovely, but cool, day and we took the kids to the Botanical gardens where they enjoyed some of the halloween displays and activities that they had going on. We could not tear Gabriel away! Then, we went to the Insectarium to warm up and to get a good look at tarantulas...

Mathieu has started swimming classes again and Gabriel has started for the first time. We managed to get their classes at the same time so Vincent is on one end of the pool with Gabriel while Mathieu is on the other end with the big kids. Gabriel absolutely adores the water and Vincent calls him the Tasmanian Water Devil since he is constantly kicking, splashing and squealing the whole time. Its no wonder he sleeps so well afterwards...