Big brother help

Jordan loves his little sister Kaitlyn. He is always trying to make her smile and play with him. I could have never wished for him to be as great of a big brother as he has become. He makes funny faces to make her laugh, he comes to get me if she starts to cry, and he even tries to help feed her. Yesterday while I was feeding Katie some peas the microwave beeped so I left her in the high chair to get whatever was in the microwave. When I returned, which was not even a minute, JJ had decided to help me out by continuing to feed his little sister. It was so adorable how hard he tried I couldn’t help not taking a picture. I'm just impressed that she didn’t even mind. Anyways enjoy the pictures.

 

The Basement

We had a wonderful, very busy visit with Papa and Nana this weekend. They arrived Friday afternoon and the boys got straight to work on building a guest room and dog room. Cindy and I played with the kids the whole weekend and kept them away from the construction zone. It was so great to have her help me keep them entertained and happy. I am so impressed with Sean and his dad, they managed to get everything finished before noon on Sunday. They put up two doors, moved two light switches, put in a new light and switch where there wasn’t any before, built three walls, and insulated the dog room. The basement looks great. before it was just a huge open room now the family room is cozy and we have separate dog and guest rooms. Now I just have to finish the walls with the mud and sanding along with priming and painting. The main thing is that the walls are in place and it works. The dogs love the room. Before we had old dressers blocking them in that area, now they can go in and out all they want and can only dirty their tile floor. How great is that? The guest room is perfect, it’s quiet and away from animals and people. Very private. These were our main priorities when we were looking to purchase a new house. It had to have a fourth room for guest because we knew we will be having family staying over because of how far we moved away. And a dog room where the dogs could go in and out of the dog run as much as they wanted with out dirtying up the entire house. I'm just so happy with the way it turned out and can’t wait to have more people over. Sean loves his theater room now and JJ can finally play in the play room with out running over to play in the dog dishes.

Looking down the new hallway in the basement

Living room. Sean still has all his pictures to hang to complete the room.

Back of family room which is the playroom and bar.

Sean’s dream theater room!

The new rooms!

Dog room and the new light

The guest room

Nana enjoying some time with JJ

Helping put on his boots

The princess playing around her daddy's feet

Sean and the kids after a long weekend of renovations. JJ is learning early.

Renovations

I can’t believe we actually did it, we got the bathroom almost finished. We got the new floor down, the new toilet, the new vanity sink in and everything is working. It was a lot harder this time because between doing the bathroom renovations we were also taking care of our children with nothing to entertain them but the construction zone we were living in. We ran into a few problems, the incoming toilet value died and needed replacing, and the sink drain had a little leak but everything seems in working order now. We also had to purchase a new vanity which meant we needed a new tap because it no longer fit. We need a bathroom mirror and light still then we will be done. I got the whole bathroom painted last night when the kiddies were asleep. I will get the pictures up once I find a mirror and light. unfortunately  this bathroom turned into one of those expensive bathroom renovations with all the changes that needed to be made. But it looks beautiful.

 

During our relaxing time from the bathroom I painted one of my dining room chairs white. We totally love it and now I can not wait to paint the rest of the dining room furniture. I am on the hunt for chocolate brown material to cover the seats in. Just 5 more chairs, 1 table and a hutch to paint. My mom and I plan to get it finished when she comes over for a couple weeks in June. I'm just so pleased at the way the chair turned out. You know when you have an idea in your mind and not sure how it will really look, well it looks better then I thought it would.

Before

After (I have placed on of my place mats on the cushion so you can see my plan)

  

and just to compare

Our Weekend

So Sean finished his year 2 exams on Monday. He still has his thesis to write before the end of June and then he has 2weeks worth of exams to write in the end of June. Then it will be over no more school for Sean. For now he has no more homework ever just research for his thesis and studding for the finals. So he is back to the renovations starting with our bathroom. You have no idea how excited I am to do our bathroom. I have been using all the other sinks in our house to brush my teeth, now I will be able to finally use MY bathroom to brush my teeth. I'm just a little weird about brushing my teeth. I don’t like to use other sinks that I'm not comfortable with. When I go to a hotel I use bottled water and can’t wait till I get home. Anyways Im so excited after this bathroom is done I will feel really at home. We have run into one problem already, the sink we bought wont work because of the pipes so I am in a mad rush to find another one I like. Tonight we will be putting the new floor in, it’s the same as the other bathroom and then on Friday Sean will attempt the toilet. Last time Sean and my dad ran into a few problems but they made it through. I just hope it goes a bit better this time. So far the toilet area looks good but you never know. I will leave you with the demolition pictures of my bathroom. Enjoy. The one picture looks a little funny because I used windows stitch to put the picture together so you can kinda see the whole bathroom.

Please don’t mind the bedroom mess in the background, everything from the bathroom got tossed into the bedroom last night during demo.

Park Play date

Today the kids and I went to Maffeo-Sutton park with the Nanaimo mommy group. The kids had a blast. JJ was such a big boy going down all the big kid slides. Katie went for a ride on the swings then played in the grass most of the time. Sean joined us on this play date because he finished his exams early and his work is right beside the park. Thank goodness Sean came it gave me time to relax with Katie in the grass while Sean and Jordan played on the playground.

My little princess!

Our big boy has to try every toy at the park

Katie playing in the grass

JJ loves the slide!

Easter Sunday

JJ did his first Easter egg hunt on Sunday morning. He did great but tried to pick up a few eggs at once and he tried to eat some in the wrappers he was so excited. We then went out shopping for Sean’s new lawn mower and got JJ his hockey net from Great Grandma John for his birthday.

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Easter Saturday

It was a beautiful day on Easter Saturday. The kids both got kites from Grandma and Grandpa Cousins so we took them to the beach to fly them. Poor little Katie didn’t enjoy the wind at the beach so I kept her bundled up in the stroller. She missed the whole kite flying.

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Sean and my dad also rented a trailer and got the rocks for the dog run which is so great because now the dogs are almost mud free. They also did a huge dump run from all the Reno's. That has freed up so much room and taken a big weight off Sean’s shoulders. I can’t believe how much work they did. It’s a good thing they had a big dinner to fill them up after. We did our Turkey dinner on the Saturday because my parents were taking the 5pm ferry back on the Sunday. It was our first really family turkey dinner in my new kitchen. We used the convection oven which cooked the turkey perfect. I'm sure my mother had a lot to do with the perfect turkey also. You can see in the pictures my dad teaching Sean how to cut the turkey and JJ was also learning for the future when he invites his mom and dad over.

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Doodlebops!

We took our little man to his first rock concert the other night, The doodlebops. The concert was on the mainland on Thursday night so we packed up the kiddies Thursday morning and headed to my parents place. during the day on the mainland we picked up Sean’s new wheels from his grandpa :) which means I get my van again! It has been really difficult living here with no car but we just never got a chance to get back and pick up the other one. I'm so happy now! Then we had a visit with my parents and Sean’s family before we headed to the doodlebops.

JJ loved the doodlebops. at the beginning he was a little unsure of what was going on but as the other kids started dancing in the isle so did JJ. We had a bit of a difficult time keeping him near he wanted to go stand at the very front near the stage. It was so neat to watch all the little kids dancing the night away. We thought for sure he would fall asleep on the rid home but he was way to excited. My mom bought him a toy doll from the concert, Moe. It’s too funny in the show they are always looking for Moe and I swear he always goes missing in our house and we are all walking around looking for Moe. Where’s Moe?

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It feels like Spring!

Our family has been spending most of our time in the backyard over these past couple of days. It has just been beautiful weather. The first day I got a little burnt, I didn’t even realize it was time for the sunscreen but since then I have been lathering the kids and I up. We have been playing in the grass, on the deck and of course on the new playground. At the begging JJ would get really upset when I would take him inside from his playground but he is starting to get a lot better with it now he just waves and says bye in a really sad tone. I think he is starting to realize that it’s not going anywhere. They say it should start raining later in the week which is fine with me I'm just happy we got to enjoy these beautiful days while they were here. Can’t really get upset with the weather it’s Vancouver and April showers :)

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You can really tell that spring is arriving because our grass/moss has started to grow. Poor Sean has no idea what he is in for mowing that lawn. It is a lot bigger then he thinks but I'm sure he will love it when JJ follows behind with his little bubble mower. At the present time we have no mower so our grass will have to wait, lucky Sean :) his mom has offered to buy us our first lawn mower as a house warming gift which we are really excited for.

Jordan’s 2nd birthday

What a wonderful birthday we celebrated for Jordan this weekend. His Grandma and Grandpa Cousins, Grandma Simpson, Papa Simpson, Great Grandma Bapchia, Auntie’s Krista and Allie along with cousin Nadia all came to celebrate his 2nd birthday. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day which was great because we spent most of the day in our backyard while the boys put together grandma Simpson's present for both kids. It is a huge play set with 2 swings a play house and a big tube slide. My mom and dad actually came over the day before to help try and get it together for Jordan’s birthday. On the instructions it says it will take 14 hrs and 2 men to build it. We asked toys r us what the cost would be for them to build us and they quoted us $500.00 that’s half the price of the play set! So Sean and my dad spent the weekend putting it together. The finished it just before Sean had to drive his family to the ferry. I spent the day before they started separating and labeling all the screws that took about half a day. In the end it is great! Took a lot of time but it is well worth it. Jordan just loves it I have a hard time bring him inside the house. Katie May doesn’t really know what is going on yet but I'm sure she will soon love it. My mom and I went out the day before an bought the young kid swings, we will put the swings it came with once the kids are older and know how to use them. JJ also received a fire truck peddle car from my parents, a Thomas bath toy from his aunties, a car sleeping bag from his papa and Nana, and a big boy bike from his mom and dad. My mom and I made the cake the night before, the theme for his birthday this year was construction theme so we made a pudding type cake in the back of a toy dump truck. It was so cute I think we will be making this cake every year.

Another great thing my parents managed to fit our BBQ in the van on their trip over. Man did we miss our BBQ. Thank you so much for fitting that into the van you have just opened up a whole new world of dinner options to us again :)

The princess all dressed up for her big brother’s birthday

Auntie Krista was also taking lots of pictures. I hope to get some of those pictures from her.

Sean and my dad building the play set

Bapchia and Jordan enjoying his new bike from his mom and dad

grandma Simpson pushing the kids on the new play set

The kids enjoying the new swing set

Present time!

Of course JJ shared this special time with his baby sister. I can’t get over how much he loves to play with her.

This is the special cake my mom and I made!

Jordan and his fire truck from grandma and grandpa Cousins

Mom and daughter

Mom and kids

Cake time. After we blew out the candles JJ kept saying oh no!

More pictures of the boys building the play set. We are so thankful they built it. That was like an additional $500.00 present from Sean and my dad to the kids. I can’t believe how much work it was to get that thing together.

This is a present the kids will enjoy for years to come!

Our little boy coming down the slide for the first time.

As you can see from the pictures Jordan had another great Birthday party.

In the future, the only thing Sean and I would do differently is not offering to pick up family and friends from the Ferry terminal. We normally have no problem offering to do this; however, we both felt really bad that Sean had to leave his son's birthday party and drive back and forth to the Ferry terminal. So for special events like Birthdays, Easter, Christmas etc... we would ask that you make travel arrangements prior to the occasion and possibly use transit or car pool so that we are not constantly shuffling back & forth and we can enjoy the special day with our family.

Thank you everyone for celebrating Jordan’s 2nd birthday.