Photo's before we leave

Just a quick post to share some of our highlights recently. We went to Peggy's Cove one day and another day we went muscle picking with neighbours. Peggy's Cove is 20 minutes from our house and the place we pick muscles from is 5 minutes away. What a great place to live!

Too bad I need to make this a short post as I have some nice little stories of the kids lately, but I must get started on my packing as we are heading to Saskatchewan on Friday. Still I thought I'd best get these photos up, just incase I don't make a post until we return from our trip.

Charlotte and Robbie on one of the rocks at Peggy's Cove. If you've never been there, it is practically ALL rock.

Peggy's Cove is busy year round with tourists, this is probably one of the few photos ever taken with only the people you want in front of the lighthouse. And they wouldn't all look at me!

The kids (all kids probably) love to throw rocks into water. This is one of the safer coves at Peggy's.
Can't forget Mary-Anne, she was there too.

Here are photo's from our muscle picking.

Robbie finding muscles

The kids... Sydney, Charlotte and Robbie

Charlotte showing me one of her finds... she loves to find them, but won't go dare eat them. That's fine with me, I love them and gladly eat her share.

We load the muscles in milk crates. Charlotte is moving hers.

Robbie is dumping out his boots. He went a bit too deep.

Billy... the ol'pro

Finished with a hotdog lunch

And once again... Mary-Anne was there too. She slept most of the time and just woke towards the end. But don't let these photo's fool you, she is proving to NOT be the easiest baby.

Tree

Did I ever tell you about Mike and his run in with a tree?? To summarize he was out for a run one day with a friend. They like to trail run and have to often follow eachother thru the bushes. Jim was leading and came upon a tree branch he needed to duck under... he then yelled "TREE" so my husband who is a good 3-4 inches taller than Jim simply ducked his head, and ended up running straight into the tree branch causing a gash in his head nearly 2 inches long and quite deep. After these two outdoors men attempted to stop the bleeding with a band-aid (at Starbucks mind you), I was called upon to take Mike for stitches. This was a few years ago but you'll see where I'm going with this in a moment. Sadly, or funny enough (depends on your point of view) Mike has had a few run ins with trees. Those who saw will remember when Mike was looking for his golf ball in the trees and some how managed to snap a branch back into his open eye. This was another trip to the doctor just to make sure no serious damage was done. I will not go on, I think you get the idea now...

Jump to today, and Charlotte, Robbie and I were walking through the woods in my neighbours yard. Mae was safely sleeping in my neighbours arms. The woods were getting pretty dense and I said to Robbie "Be careful, we don't want to poke an eye". Robbie then covered both eyes with his hands and walked smack dab into a tree! I tried my hardest to stifle my laugh, but I couldn't help but see the similarities between father and son.

The Mohawk!

As I was updating the blog Mike had Robbie getting his hair cut. Look what he came back with!

Hello Daddy... Good-Bye Grandma

Mike has been away in the USA, and got back this morning. It started as a normal soccer trip, one he's done many times but sadly this one will forever be marked with sadness as one of his collegues and coaches suffered a major heart attack on the trip and sadly passed away. This is not something that I am sure Mike ever thought he'd have to deal with. I am sure that he as well as the teams are going to be glad to be home. Our thoughts go out to Duncan's family.

Today Grandama leaves for Saskatchewan. Mom's are invaluable people and there have been numerous times that I'd have been lost without my mom. These last few weeks are no exception. With Mike's work schedule and the limited family we have around us we all know that there have been times were I feel very much like a single parent. Well I don't know if I could have done a 4 year old, a 2 year old (who is always going 100 miles an hour) and a new born on my own. Come 4pm this house is CRRRAAAZZZZYYY!!!! So my mom has been coming out everyday to help with supper, bath and bed. THANK YOU MOM! On any given night one of the kids is having a rough night and needs a little extra, and having my mom here certainly helps. What am I going to do for the next 2 weeks?!?!

Kid updates....

Mary-Anne, like all of us, has been struggling with a cold. Poor thing has been coughing, sneezing and all stuffy. I've been to the doctor twice jsut to be on the safe side that it is still within normal cold symptoms. This cold added a bit of stress in the house only because she wanted to be attached to me 24/7. Look at the poor thing...

Thank goodness for my sling. She loves it, and it was/is a santiy saver.

Almost better... look at her little grin!

Robbie too had the cold, but it didn't slow him down... it just made him a HUGE fussy pants. I figured that is because he posesses the 'Whiny-Y Chromozone'. Robbie has discovered tjoy of dress up. He takes his Fire Fighting duty very serious. We hid stuffed animals in a toy house and he flies in, usually through the window and rescues everyone! He also is a serious pirate, and LOVES to steal his sisters jewerly box. This always ends up in a major fight. Argh!

Charlotte is still our Princess. Sparkles, Bling, Ribbons, Ruffles she loves it all, and has recently discovered the joy of doing her own hair :-) She is also a super big sister, and now that Mary-Anne is cooing, and looking around Charlotte is teaching her about the princesses and who the 'mean' guys are.

This dress is one of her favorite dresses, becuase it goes all the way to the floor like Cinderlla's... it was a flower girl dress from the 80's. NICE!

Mary-Anne Photos

Okay I felt bad there were no photos of Mary-Anne. So I went to facebook where a friend of mine posted some photos of Mary-Anne when we went to visit my co-workers. This was 2 weeks ago.

Tamara you take great photo's. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!

Okay now I'm off to bed.

We are back online.

Yes, yes it has been a long time since I posted last. Mainly becasue of a virus that was on our computer and the fact that I could not stand working on the slow lap top. So I will do my best to put on some updates, and forgive me if I jump around. We've been up to quite a lot and I know I won't be able to share it all.

First and foremost... we have a new Hudson. Mike's sister had a little boy at that end of March. It is her 3rd son, and they named him Freddie Ross Edward. I keep referring to him as Freddie Eddie... I sure hope I stop that before I meet him. They all seem to be doing well, and we are simply over the moon for Nicola and Dan.

We also had a recent adjustment, the kids are now out of daycare. They stayed in for the month of March to allow me a little breather before I had all 3 at home full time. Their last day was a pajama day (just to explain the outfits). We were so incredibly lucky to have such wonderful teachers. Even though the kids are on the list to return in September there were plenty of tears as we made such close friendships with their class and the staff. Thank you Thank you to the Niki, Sarah, Jennifer, Crystal and all the subs for helping our kids adjust to daycare/school so well.

Charlotte and Niki

Robbie and Crystal

Jennifer and Robbie

Charlotte and Sarah

Robbie and his class.

Charlotte and some of her friends with their Froot Loop necklaces.

We went Bowling for our friend Sydney's birthday. It was an absolute blast and we promised the kids we'd do it again soon.

We had some disappointing news, as we won't be in the Cabot Trail Relay this year. There is a lottery to get in, and it is a bit complicated. However the bottom line is we didn't make the cut and are now looking at doing another event in James's memory. Perhaps for those of you who believe in things beyond our control this is a good year to miss (at least I'm trying to convince myself of that). I'm still recovering from Mary-Anne's birth and I have no idea where I would ever get the time or energy to train for a run of that level. The other thing is that I am taking this time to finally dealing with my bad hip that has been plaguing me for 3-4 years. I go to physio once a week and am hoping that I see improvements soon. It is just so nice to know that I'm not a wimp and that something is actually wrong with my hip. They physio hopes to have me running by May and lets hope pain free!

As fir the kids... Mary-Anne is changing so fast and really starting to grow. She is cooing and smiling and the kids adore her, almost to the point where it drives me crazy. Charlotte just won't leave the poor baby alone, and continually wakes her up, and is poking at her.
This is how you will often find Charlotte... snuggling her sister.

I pump a bottle for Mary-Anne a couple times a week. It is good to know that she can take a bottle and the kids like being able to help care for their sister.





Although he still loves her and gives her hugs and kisses Robbie does become disinterested in her. I think he is starting to find it difficult to share Mom, especially since he left daycare. We've had some tantrum when Mike or Grandma try to do something and he wants mom to do, so yesterday I took him out for a morning with Mom. As we were getting ready he asked "Sissy have skating?" I said no, just Robbie and Mommy. He said "Mary-Anne coming?" I said no, just Robbie and Mommy. As he was runnign out the door he yells back "Charlotte YOU NOT COMING!" and ran off to the van. I guess he was excited. We didn't do much, actually just ran errands, and stopped for a milkshake but it was still nice for us. I also had to laugh when I said you can pick a toy at Wal-Mart. He requested a purple motor cycle... Ha Ha, purple right! So I suggested a little dump truck, he was happy with that, then in the next isle what caught my eye was a purple motorcycle. It only cost a dollar so he got both, and I said "Mommy is a Sucker". The rest of the trip through Wal-Mart he kept repeating "Mommy is a Sucker".

Easter was fantastic. We coloured eggs with John-Micheal. Rinny and Jonah. We had an egg hunt easter morning and the entire weekend was full of amazing weather. we were even able to have a picnic outside. Life is much easier when we can be outside. Robbie could play with his trucks in the sandbox for hours and Charlotte loves to swing. Our other middle child Sydney (tee hee that is what I call her, she is actually our neighbour but born between Charlotte and Robbie) she just jumps on the trampoline until somone makes her get off.

This boy loves cars, trucks, motor cycles....etc

The Easter Bunny brought all the kids sunglasses. Even Mary-Anne.

Checking out her stash!

Looking for more candy

Robbie's BIG find.

Could someone tell me WHAT the Easter Bunny was thinking?!?!?! At least we waited until the next day to dig into these.

Then we went OUTSIDE to the playground.



Followed by Rock Climbing :-)


That is about all for now, I need to go off to bed. During this post, I have come to realize that I need to take a few more photo's of Mary-Anne. I promise more photo's of her next time.