Hunter Can...

Take a toy, and put it to his mouth.

Switch the toy from hand to hand to examine it.

Put something in front of his face to look at it.

Giggle, though for me this is rare...everyone can make his giggle but me.

lean up to show that he wants to be picked up.

Arch his back to help you pick him up better.

Extend his arm to bat a toy in front of him.

Do a specific "I want my mommy" cry...

Follow me accross the room, and smile when he can clearly see my face (about 6 ft).

Smile for the simple joy that someone is directly communicating with him.

Steal your heart with a single gummy grin.

Look @ That Dimple!

The Perfect Pair

I'm gonna be in so much trouble when Hunter gets old enough.

Practice Makes Perfect

Having some Tummy Time

Tired

That's what I call exhaustion.
After a long day of play, he took a nap in his room, woke up and came out to the living room. Sat on the couch, and fell asleep again like this. He slept for another hour here.

I love my kids

I watched tonights episode of Criminal Minds.
I honestly don't know how I could've sat and watched the whole thing, cause it really bothered me.
I was crying by the end of it.

Look@the Size of That Smile!

Our Neighbour across the street was kind enough to treat D to a ride around the block on his quad...

I really need to find the timer on my camera...this arms length stuff just isn't working

Pictures

Sometimes I really enjoy just being a lazy bug

K...so, just combine both of those together
LOL
stupid website...

Wish Lists

They seem to get earlier and earlier each year...hmm...

Darius:
-skateboard (with pads would be preferrable)
-a Marble Tower from Discovery Toys http://www.discoverytoysinc.com/toys1b.htm (He's been asking for one of these since last Christmas, and I just now found one)
-Hat, scarf, and mitts
-Shoes in a child size 9 (Running shoes are most needed right now)
-A Gameboy Advance (this is cool cause it also hooks up to the Gamecube)
-Costumes : Pirate, Cowboy, Astronaut, Indian
-Movie Passes

Hunter:
-clothing in 9&12 months
-Baby Einstein toys
-Teething rings
-Gift Certificates for Wal-Mart (for diapers, wipes and such)
-Blank Audio cassette tapes to begin some vocal recordings

amber:
-Gift Certificates for Wal Mart (for picture print outs)
-Barenaked Ladies tickets
-A Gift Certificate for New Image Salon & Day Spa
-Pretty Earrings (I've realized I've had my ears pierced for 4 yrs and have no really pretty earrings)
-Fabric of your choice (I would like a collection from different places) at least 2meters worth
-Movie Passes
-A Gamecube game easy enough for me to play :o)
-1 year subscription for any Canadian parenting-style magazine, or Canadian Living (they have good recipes)
-1 year subscription to BC Mag http://www.bcmag.ca/index.asp?id=1280
-4 month subscription to the Kelowna Daily Courier
-Derailed, Finding Neverland, Spanglish, Mirror Mask
-Weird Al's Newest

That's All I can think of offhand

Wish Lists

Yes yes, it's that time again. I swear these things come out earlier and earlier each year.

Darius:

-a skateboard
-Bee bah stuff (morning show on PBS I believe)
-Gameboy Advance (tall order, I know...but it's compatable with the gamecube)
-Hoodwinked
-Costumes
-Shoes in a childs size 9 (we especially need running)
-Hat and Mitts
-Movie passes
-Mettalic tape (for decoration and art purposes)

That's all I can think of for him right now

Hunter:

-clothing in size 12 months (stuff he can grow into hopefully)
-teething rings
-socks
-colourful rattles
-baby einstein stuff
-baby box to store memorobelia

me:

-phone minutes for a PC pay as you go phone (can get them at Superstore, Extra Foods)
-new scissors (my old ones from the states are finally dulling up)
-Weird Al's newest
-Wal Mart gift cards (to be used to print out pictures)
-a magazine subscription for one year for any Canadian parenting magazine
-a 6 month subscription to the Kelowna Daily Courier?
-Concert Tickets (Barenaked Ladies perhaps) for a nice trip away from the kids (heck, I'd accept movie passes and a g/c for a nice restaurant)
-a cd deck for my car, or mebbe just some new speakers cause mine seem to be goin out the window.
-Finding Neverland, Spanglish, Derailed, X-Men 3, Brotherhood of the Wolf (Original French Version), Mirror Mask, I know there's another one that I want bad, but can't think of what it is offhand.
-Hot rollers
-CD RW's
-wild nail polish colours

Immi

So, we're so close to getting Chance's permanent residency. Just a few more items need to be sent and we're homefree...finally. But, as things would happen...it could screw with his work permit, which could possibly put me in the range of having to work. Just as I understand it anyways. We'll see though.
At least we know where we stand. That's always a plus.
I'm hungry.

Working up to a smile

Handsome

If you don't think these two are the most handsomest guys in the world, you must be crazy!

Cute

I swear, H is just too cute now.
he's got tons of new faces comin out now, and he can say Ba!
I just discovered that this morning. ;o)
Made a bunch of face masks to give D's pre-school classmates for their Halloween bags. This year I plan on giving away the trick-or-treat bags that I made a coupla years ago that haven't sold off. Stuff them with a few treats (maybe I can concoct some sort of miracle treat that's healthy AND yummy) and a couple of little gifts that I make. :o)
Anything to keep me occupied and busy, cause the monotinay of being at home doing nothing everyday is depressing just thinking about it.
Get on with life, those people weren't everything, and they certainly don't define you.

Dreary Days

So, we're closing out the week again already, sheepers. How fast time is flying...already to the end of September almost. One more wednesday left (yes, last wednesday of the month shopping here I come) and then we're into October...jeez, I guess we had better start our birthday party planning now if we expect anyone to show...not that they would cause, you know, parties at our house that are planned just don't work out, no matter how much advance you give everyone.
Chance's friend gave us a printer, and even though I downloaded the driver online (yes I knew as much) I can't seem to get it to work. Apparently we have another virus on our comp cause I can't seem to get our computer to get any programs to download. I tried d/l-ing AVG but it gets stuck at 24%, and when I go to install my printer driver it freezes the whole comp, and I can't do anything, but when i reboot it won't let me finish installing, and won't print.
*sighs*
I'm sick of our computer now.

I made some pretty yummy spaghetti the other night, and I decided to toss in some extra hot garlic that mum and kimmie had bought, and also used some hot peppers that kimmie had grown this summer, and scraped the seeds out with my nails. Bad idea...they didn't burn, but after trying to eat some sunflower seeds I found that the spicy taste stuck around. After I tried to get the spitz out from under my nails, man did they start burnin. I tried a lot of things to get the spicy flavour out (I was afraid the oils would rub off on Hunter in the midst of a diaper change) but nothing seemed to work. Oh well, guess I just need to work it off, slowlu but surely.

I kind of re-arranged the house a bit, pulled out the ole playpen cause I was tired of doing diaper changes on the couch and being afraid of staining them. Hunter barely fits in the changer, too long.

Hunter is so close to giggling... :o)
It's been nothing but rainy here this last week. Dreary, and boring. Hope the sun comes out soon, I love the sun in the fall.

Radio Days

Darius with Kevin Lim. I thought it was kinda cute, Kevin actually smiled while he talked on the radio. I guess it's true, people can hear you smile. :oD

Bath time

Hunter in Sepia!
Having a special bath time with his Nana. He's on the counter in the bathroom in his bath tub, and he splashed so much he got the wall all wet! He sure had fun that night. :o)

Swing of things

Went to see 54-40 yesterday! Wow, did they ever put on a good show! My legs are sore from standing and dancing the whole time. The opening act was just ok, nothing special.
The other day I submitted some songs for the 4 o'clock 4 play at Sun FM and dedicated them to D (all from his fav movies) when I didn't get a call that day I figured they didn't want to choose mine.
Yesterday (Friday) I got a phone call from Kevin Lim (The DJ who does the 4 o'clock 4 play) asking me if I could bring D downtown where they were broadcasting from live to do the 4 o'clock 4 play on air live. I of course said yes. So, there I am at home, anxiously awaiting Chance and D's arrival (I had booted them out so I could make a pair of PJ's for D's birthday party today) cause they had gone up the hill, and I'm counting down the minutes before they finally arrive at 3:40 (with friday traffic I don't know if they'll make it) and I rush outside like a madwoman and tell Chance to get going downtown to the place where Sun FM was broadcasting live. I tell ya, He had just started announcing the 4 o'clock 4 play stuff, and Chance and D went running up (I had followed in my car, so I caught a bit of the show while I found a parking place). So we spent a half hour with Kevin and talkin on the radio live, which was kinda cool. By the end of it, he gave me two free tickets to 54-40 (I had already bought two) and I also get a 4 pack of papa burgers from A&W.
So, mom, Lori, Lynn and I went to the concert. Now, what happened next is what pissed me off, but fortunately for the scum who pissed me off, I won't bother getting into details, only because it's embaressing to me. Let's just say I don't think I've ever been that mad at someone else, besides Chance, in my life. I truly felt violent.
Made it home by 11:30, which wasn't too bad, and was pleasantly surprised to find that both D, and Hunter were peacefully asleep. That was the first time Chance was at home alone with both the boys when they were awake. :oD
Finished watching Inside Man, and fell asleep just before the last scene. Was a good movie I spose.
Fell asleep late, and kept waking up cause of Chance...so neither of us got much sleep lastnight.

D has a birthday party to go to today, hope it goes well. :oD

Wed Shots 2

I like my camera, especially when I can get shots like this!

Wed Shots

One of my fav shots from the many that I got this weekend. I love the contrast. This is a bridesmaid.

Adventures

Well, after all the worry this weekend was one helluva whopper. Other than the wedding, not entirely certain it was worth it. All the trouble we went through with the kids, and the different things that needed to be accomplished, it was really tough.
We had a long drive out there cause we did an over-nighter, but seeing the Jasper area during sunrise was truly spectacular and we managed to see a lot of wildlife.
I swear, if I hadn't known we were in Northern Alberta I would've thought I was magically transported to Ohio.
Our hotel was nice, and once we checked in we had enough time to shower and re-humanize ourselves before heading to the rehearsal and set up for the wedding. I really enjoyed helping decorate cause we used quite a bit of stuff from my emergency kit to build some decorations.
The wedding was beautiful, and I was very impressed that they managed a perfect ceremony after all their hard work.
D ended up getting blisters on his heels cause the shoes he was wearing were too tight. :o(
We went back to our hotel in the period between the ceremony and the reception and ended up having Niamh with us to go swimming in the hotel pool (which had two waterslides, a hot tub, and a small wading pool just perfect for D plus a regular swimming pool) and Gramma was nice and watched Hunter while we swam.
We went back to the Hall for the reception, but ended up leaving soon after dinner cause D was acting up so much from being tired. Got them back to the hotel and to sleep, and went to mom's hotel to visit with ppl some more before they left in the morning.
The next morning we got stuck with Niamh when we went to the Waterpark at West Edmonton Mall which actually worked out quite nicely because she was our companion (whomever had their turn to slide) to ride the slides with, so was nice. D was a bit difficult to get sliding, but he did eventually and had a blast! Hunter was magnificent and basically slept the entire time we were there.
The shit that went on afterwards was what pissed me off. Apparently everyone decided to stay at their hotel (without informing me) after telling us we were all gonna stay at Martin's. So, after not having any way to contact ANYone we drove all the way to North Edmonton to Matrin's house, only to find that no one was there except the roommate who had no idea of our plans, but kindly pointed us back to the Hotel where everyone else was at. So, with all of us in the tiny vehicle of mine (without dinner & after 8pm by this time) we drove back to the south side of Edmonton and managed to snag a room at their hotel. Which I must say was more expensive, not near as nice, and had a bigger deposit on it.
That really pissed me off. I feel like we got taken advantage of. Like...you people know how ti dial a phone number. You knew where we were, you could've paged us to let us know what was going on instead of fucking us over like that.
I love my cousin Niamh, but sometimes I feel like we're always getting stuck with her whenever we're in the vicinity because we always go do the family things, but no one else feels like it, so she comes with us. It's not that she's a nuisance or anything (well, she is when I have to fork out money from my budget which is over as it is), but if she's out there for a specific reason (like the wedding and to see her dad) should she not be spending time doing that thing or with that person?
Well, anyways, we had breakfast with Will and Kristy the next morning (and we were the first ones there amazingly enough) and everyone else (Gramma, Ralph, Robert, Martin, Niamh) and Robert was nice and paid for it. Them W&K headed home, everyone else went to drive Martin home, and we went to a wonderful store called the Dollarama!! Everything in the store was $1. I was very impressed, and spent 63 dollars. :o)
Took us forever to get home, but the kids did better than I thought they would, and I did more driving on the way home.
D got the Wizard of Oz on DVD for a thank you gift, which he watched twice on the way home.
Now that I'm home, I've uploaded all the pictures to the comp, and unpacked my suitcases, and sorted all clothing, and am now in the proccess of putting away the clean laundry that I left here to begin with. *sighs*
All in all, I guess it was a neat experience.
So much to do...blah. Back to reality.

I Wish I Could Still Do This

The whole body smile, one of the first expressions of true emotion, and body language begins.

Wow!

My boys, it's truly scary how quickly they grow.
Funny how I can only ever see them getting older, but I don't seem to have the ability to put myself in that same light.

Passion

Was half asleep when Chance told me the other night that Steve Irwin was dead.
How do you put feeling into a statement like that?
Someone who means so much not just to the animal world, but to the entire world for making us even catch a glimpse of comprehension of how he felt towards those animals that he was filmed with.
At least it was doing what he loved...
It's tough to hear news like that when you can tell how passion filled that person was. It's always sad when a passion like that is blinked out of existence.
Passion is what makes the world go round.

Counting Down

holy hannah!
Plan plan plan plan plan plan plan.
I spent my morning writing down directions for different places today. Made a copy for mom, and a copy for me, so my hand is kinda sore.
hunter is super gassy today and refuses to get a good sleep in.
D is rowdy as all hell, and I feel like my mind has taken a leave of absence.
Never mind all the extra planning I'm doing for Gramma, and keeping track of who's going where!
I can't even begin to imagine how Kirsty and Will feel! I feel stressed and it's not even my wedding!
LOL
I guess I only feel stressed cause I know we're in a different hotel from everyone, and that D is in the wedding and I want it to go smoothly. Not to mention the fact that it's H's first majour road trip, and I'm worried about his back.
*sighs*

I still needs gifts for Will and Kritsy, and Pokie.
I'm aiming to be thoughtful this year.

Sweet

my perfect vision of innosence(sp?)

Shots and Statements

So, I wrote out my statement today, and am having Chance fax it over to the RCMP's office tommorow. I talked to the Constable on the phone today and that's what he asked me to do.
Tommorow H's Birth Announcement should be coming out in the Capital News. It ran on the 25th in the Daily Courier, but for whatever reason the Cap News forgot to run it in theirs that day. :oP So it's being run both on Friday and Sundays Cap News *free*. Oooh boy, I only paid 29 dollars, they'd better run the damned thing.
H got his first set of immunizations today. I took him to the new Health Unit here on the reserve (they've got a brand spankin new building right next to Sensisysten). The RN was very nice and personable. She informed me off their programs, took his weight, height, head circumfrence and such from him. She plotted that on a chart. and gave me a booklet for H's immunization record. She also got me started on their "Breastfeeding program" that gives nursing mothers a 25 dollar gift certificate for Extra Foods each month to help with nutrition. (not as much as the states, but then again I'm not taking provincial/government funding, this is strictly reserve based) So...bonus! If I go for an entire year I get a 50 dollar gift certificate for Zellers or something. Cute idea anyways.
H was very shocked he was being hurt on purpose, and didn't like it at all at first, but once he got the idea I was trying to comfort him he latched on but good. I don't think I could've pried him off if I tried. He ended up falling asleep right afterwards, guess the shock was too much for him, and he chose to sleep it off. He spent the majority of the day sleeping off and on.
I nursed whenever he woke up, changed his bum and such, and spent lots of time cuddling him (more so than usual). When I did put him down though, it was in his car seat, and he happened to discover our ceiling fan today.
Daddy was nice and switched off tonights shift with a co-worker and spent the day with D.
I'm glad to report that he's had no adverse effects from the immunizations. He's been rather cheery with us, unless we put him down (what else is new).

I hate not having a printer.
Watched Elizabethtown tonight on the movie channels (whilst H enjoyed some skin-to-skin contact) and I do believe I'll hafta buy it.

today was otherwise uneventful...hmm...not too bad, I could definately have more days like today.