We have smiles!!

(Pretend I didn't cut the top of her head off in this pic...)

Merry Christmas!!

I hope all of you out there had a great holiday! We had a wonderful Christmas here. It was very exciting because Liam actually understood the whole present thing - he was thrilled with each thing he opened! Among his favourites are his kitchen set from Santa(he loves to cook us "runCH") and his FP Ramps around Garage from Grandma and Grandpa J. Lily, well she slept through most of Christmas morning but she was quite happy to spend so much time with her Grandparents!


Christmas Eve (and yes, my son is wearing an oven mitt)


Liam and his kitchen set


Lily not too thrilled about posing with one of her toys

Two Peas in a Pod

Lily is one month old!!

Okay, so I am a day late! Lily is doing wonderfully. She is starting to sleep longer stretches at night and has lots of awake time during the day. She is quite laid-back and is content to just gaze around most of the time. Cuddles with Mommy or Daddy are her favourite things, along with being held by her big brother. She is starting to coo a bit and we are anxiously awaiting that first smile!

At her check-up yesterday, the doctor said she is doing great! She now weighs 10lbs 12 oz so she is growing like a weed. She's gone from the 57th percentile at birth, to the 72nd percentile at 2 weeks (9lbs 2oz), to the 90th percentile at one month!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

We just couldn't get Liam to pose with Santa - but Lily had no problem!

More of Liam and Lily

Some new pics

Lily's first "real" clothes

Unfortunately, Derek's Grandpa passed away this week. For the funeral, Lily was dressed in "real" clothes for the first time. The dress is one of the only things we have besides sleepers that fits her - she is still too tiny for anything other than newborn!

Suckie babes

It's only been two weeks and Lily's already picking up Liam's bad habits...

Liam and Lily

Introducing Lily Grace!

Here she is, our brand new baby girl!

Lily arrived on November 12, 2006 at 12:56 pm. She weighed 7lbs 13oz and was 19 3/4 inches long. Her early appearance was a bit of a surprise - I guess she just couldn't wait until the 22nd!

We are home now and doing well - so far Lily is a very easy going baby! Liam seems to like his new baby sister and he's always giving her kisses or rubbing her head. Derek starts his holidays tomorrow, so we will have 4 weeks to spend together getting used to our new family.

I'll update again when I can!

Happy Halloween!

Liam had a great time trick or treating on Halloween. You should have seen the look of amazement on his face when we went to the first house and they put a treat in his bucket! "Mommy,treat!!!" he kept on saying while staring into his pumpkin. After that, there was no stopping him. He was running from house to house and refused to let me or his Daddy even touch his bucket, even though it was getting full and heavy. After he had his turn outside, Liam still had lots of fun chatting with the kids that visited our house. It was quite a challenge getting the little man to bed when there was so much activity going on!

Overall, the whole experience left quite an impression. The next day we came home after work/daycare and he went running to the neighbours front door yelling "trick or treat!" He was quite upset when I explained that "trick or treat" was all done!

What a little turkey!

Our sick little boy has made it so we have had quite a few near-sleepless nights. His latest trick is waking up very early - as in around 4 am. The other night we brought him into bed with us as we were desperate for some rest. Liam was quite good and was content cuddling with his Mommy. Unfortunately for Mommy, cuddling for Liam generally entails laying entirely on top of Mommy or putting his face so close that Mommy can barely breathe. Finally, after what seemed (and in reality was)hours, Liam finally fell asleep. Mommy moved Liam over and got comfy...just in time to turn the alarm off and get ready for work. So as Derek and I dragged our butts around trying to get ready for the day, King Liam enjoyed a peaceful sleep in our bed. Must have been nice...

An overdue update

Yes, Kate, I am still here! :D

The past two weeks have been pretty crazy. Derek and I have been in overdrive making sure that things are ready for this new little one to arrive. Besides all the baby gear, clothes, and accessories, we have also been trying to get all our Christmas shopping done, organise and clean out the house, and today Derek is building new side steps for the house. Slowly but surely we are making progress. At this rate there actually is a chance we may be ready before the end of November!

The amazing thing is we have been doing all of this with a sick toddler. Liam has been either battling one superbug or a battillion of smaller bugs. It started with a cold that turned into chest/sinus infection. He went on a round of antibiotics and it started to clear up, but as soon as the medicine was done he was sick again. This time, not only did it include a barking cough, boatloads of snot, and goopy, runny eyes, but also major vomiting. (And being that Liam has never been a big puker, this sick-till-there-is-absolutely-nothing-left has left him quite traumatized) Poor guy, he has never been sick like he has the past few days. I did get him into the clinic today where I also found out that he has a raging ear infection to boot. (Isn't it funny that the doctor I took him to on Wednesday said absolutely nothing was wrong? Grrrr...)

Smelling fresh

So it took me a while to realize why every time Liam got a hold of one of our sticks of deodorant he would hold it above his head. Then it clicked - what does he see us do when we put it on? Lift our arm above our head!

Let's go fly a kite

Yesterday Grandma and Grandpa J brought Liam a kite. We had a chance to go out with it this afternoon and Liam had a blast! He was too funny to watch running around watching the kite dart back and forth. When the kite got too high he hard a hard time watching it and would usually end up losing his balance and falling back on his bum. If it weren't for the fact that Liam was ready for supper, I don't think we would have ever have gotten him home!

Smart boy!

So tonight we were reading Liam his bedtime books. We were reading one of his favourites, Cookie's Week. It is all about a cat named Cookie who gets into all sorts of trouble through the week. For instance, "On Monday Cookie fell in the toilet. There was water everywhere!" - get the picture? Well we get to Tuesday "On Tuesday, Cookie knocked over a plant on the windowsill. There was dirt everywhere!" and Liam turns to me and says in a very knowing voice "vacuum". It kind of took us by surprise as there is no mention of any kind of cleaning up in this book. It absolutely amazes me the connections that Liam is able to make now. That's our smart boy!

We are still here, I swear!

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth! Things have been unbelievably busy with the start of school - I've barely had time to stop and think, never mind blog or take pictures to post.

I'll leave you with a promise to blog more this weekend...and let you know that a date has been scheduled for my c-section. Baby J will be arriving on November 22, if he/she doesn't decide to come earlier!

Dancing Baby

Remember that annoying dancing animated baby that was so popular during the Ally McBeal days? Well, we have our very own live version - much cuter and not annoying at all! If you listen carefully you can even hear him "singing", too!

Baby Bump

I have had a few requests to see how "big" I am getting with this pregnancy. Here I am (or my belly at least) at 25 weeks.

The downside of pudding cups

There's nothing like fur in your teeth...

Really, Liam has to learn how to kiss the kitties without getting his mouth full of fur...

Eye-yah and Obi

Okay, so I've neglected posting for a while. We've been fairly busy the past few weeks and things are finally slowing down.

Over the long weekend my Mom and two brothers came up for a visit. We had a great time - I think everyone especially enjoyed our trip to Clear Lake. I'll admit, I got totally spoiled while they were here. For three days I didn't have to run after and entertain Liam! It was so nice to take it easy and besides, Liam loved playing with his uncles. I did feel kind of bad though - Liam definately missed them when they left. He kept on asking about "eye-yah and obi" (Ian and Colby - Liam's uncles )for a few days, and was always looking down the basement steps to see if they were down there. I'd love to post pictures for you all, but I don't know what I was thinking - I didn't take a single pic!

A family outing to the doctor

Liam and I both had a doctor appointment last Tuesday, and Derek came too(mostly to keep Liam occupied during my portion!) - so we had a family trip to the clinic!

Liam had his 18 month well baby check and is doing great! He weighs 29 1/2 lbs and is 33 inches tall. He took his needles like a champ, and I think the whole process bothered his Daddy more than it did him. Derek has never been to one of Liam's immunizations and I think he was a little surprised at how Liam had to be restrained, then quickly jabbed with the needle - twice!

My appointment went really well. The baby's heartbeat was 150 bpm, and according to the ultrasound babe is growing just as he/she should. AND, I've only gained 3 1/2 lbs so far so I was really happy about that!

Van + Scary Animals + "The Freak" = Vacation!

We just got back from our huge summer vacation of a weekend trip to Winnipeg - how exciting! Actually, we had a great time and Liam really surprised us with how well he behaved away from home. He did not sleep well, but generally Liam was in very good spirits the whole trip. He even did really well on the car trip, thanks to a kid's music CD we made before we left.

We spent 3 days in the city, so we didn't have to rush around to get both the fun and essential things done. Since we may not be in the city again before the new baby comes, we did a ton of shopping. Mostly it was things for the fall for Liam - we've finally run out of his baby gifts and had to start building him a fall/winter wardrobe.

One of the trip's highlights was taking Liam to the Manitoba Children's Museum. He absolutely loved it! He had a blast in the forest area (although he was afraid of the animal statues! LOL!) and loved the tree slide. A good half-hour was spent playing with blocks in the infant room, and he kept on returning to the sweet world display (although I think that had more to do with wanting to eat the jelly beans they were using to make a craft than actually playing...)

We also took Liam to visit his Great-Grandma Chris. We haven't seen her since last summer, so it was a real treat. Liam was a bit crabby because he didn't nap too well (and he was afraid of Grandma's dog statue), but he did manage to entertain us all for over 3 hours. By that time it was a little hard to get him to pose for a picture with Grandma - but for that matter, it was a little hard to get Grandma to post too! She said she didn't want to have pictures because she looked "like a freak!" LOL! For those of you who remember, last year she said she looked like a "wild witch woman!" (Click here and scroll down to see last year's pic!) When I reminded her of this, she launched into a tale of her worst "picture" ever - apparently 10+ minutes of video of her removing tape from a package! (I had to stick that in here for any of you Ikerts/McQuakers - Jason, I don't think she'll ever forgive you! LOL!)


Our last main stop was the zoo. Last year when we went, we said "wait until next year, Liam will love it!". This year we said "wait until next year, Liam will love it!" At first he seemed to like it - he was thrilled with bears (or "puppies" as he called them)and liked some of the birds. However, by the time we got to the Monkey house he became a little afraid of all the animals. He kept on saying "Kunkey's go!", "No kitties!", and "a-malls go!" The one thing he did like was the fish pond in the tropical house - although he wanted to go swimming!


Overall we had a great trip and it was so nice to spend the family time together. In fact, even though he was originally dreading this trip, Derek even brought up the subject of a return visit on our way home!

Liam's First Fort!

Silly Sleeper

If you look closely at this picture, you may pick up on Liam's odd sleeping habit. Every nap and bed time, Liam goes to bed with his "Nigh-Night"s - a Monkey lovey (the yellow blanket with the satin trim) and a tag blanket (you can see a blue tag sticking up behind him). Does he hold them in his hands, or cuddle them in his arms? No, he sleeps on top of them. The same goes for his blanket, too - there's no keeping a cover on this boy. By morning it (and everything else) is always underneath him.

Tag! I'm it!

I've been tagged by Brandy at Getting Through Life!

I WANT: my kids to be happy
I HAVE: everything I really need
I WISH: I had the money to be a stay at home mom
I HATE: people who get everything they want with no effort
I MISS: my friends who live far away
I WONDER: what Liam (and this baby) will be like in 10 years
I REGRET: nothing. Mistakes are only tools to teach.
I AM NOT: good at geography
I DANCE: with Liam in front of the windows
I SING: Liam's Backyardigans songs in my head over, and over, and over, and over..
I CRY: when I watch A Baby Story
I AM NOT ALWAYS: as smart as I can be
I MAKE WITH MY HANDS: scrapbooks and sewing projects
I WRITE: not as much as I used to
I CONFUSE: my husband on a daily basis, I'm sure
I NEED: to enjoy my holidays and not worry about work
I SHOULD: call people more often
I START: all sorts of house and craft projects
I FINISH: most of them...eventually!

I tag Amanda and Jill!!

First peek at the new baby!

Last Wednesday we got our first peek at the new baby. I will get more information at my next doctor's appointment, but the technician said that baby looked good. The heartbeat was 142 bpm, and baby measured about a week ahead.

So here you go - the first pictures of Liam's little brother, Charles (Charlie) Ellis, or sister, Ella Grace!

Some pics to get you through the weekend...

Did you notice the purple popsicle face?

What a difference a year makes...

Fair Fun

What to do on a long weekend at home? Lucky us, the fair was in town! We started out yesterday morning by going to the parade. Liam seemed to enjoy watching all the floats go by and he had a few suckers passed out to him. The highlight of his morning though was the balloon on a stick that the kids were given. He just waved that balloon around, giggling like crazy!

After Liam's afternoon nap, we headed out to the fair. We took Liam to the petting zoo and he had fun looking at all the animals. We also went by the cattle displays and Liam was thrilled with all the big "puppies" as he called them! After checking out all the displays, we finally walked around the carnival. Liam was all eyes looking at the people and watching the rides move around. Finally we made our way to the kiddie area and took Liam for his first ride! We decided that the merry-go-round would probably be the best bet, bought some tickets and got that boy on a horse. We weren't too sure how he would react, but as soon as the ride started the biggest smile came on his face and he started yelling "Wheee!!!". He liked it so much we had to ride twice! After that we bought some fair treats. Liam loved the perogies (no surprise there) but didn't even want to try my cotton candy. I thought he would have liked it, but oh well, maybe next year!

We ended our day with the Canada Day fireworks. Bad parents that we are, we woke up Liam and headed out to find a good spot before the 11pm start time. Liam didn't seem to mind being woke up and I'm sure was wondering what in the world was going on. Well, we found our spot and waited...and waited...and waited... I'm not sure what happened, but for some reason they couldn't get the fireworks to go until midnight! We were just leaving for home when we noticed them starting so we pulled back into our spot to watch the show. Liam thought the first few bursts were pretty cool, but after that was more interested in pushing the dashboard buttons. We liked it though and it was definately good enough to be worth the wait!

This year's first Clear Lake afternoon

Today we embarked on this year's first Clear Lake excursion. We had a great time walking around and browsing the shops, but the highlight had to be the beach. We were telling Liam yesterday that we were going to go to the beach. He's such a little copycat right now that he starting saying "beach" right away - only it comes out sounding more like an inappropriate 5-letter word...can you guess? Anyway, last year Liam was content to just put his toes a bit in the water, but not this year. As soon as his feet touched the water Liam sat right down, giggling away. Good thing I thought to bring extra clothes!

New baby update

I had my latest doctor's appointment on Thursday and everything is great. We also heard the new baby's heartbeat thump-thumping away at about 150 bpm. Now, if you buy into old wives' tales, 140 and above means girl and less than 140 means boy. Well, Liam always measured at 160 and we all know how he turned out...

My new sandbox!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa J for my new sandbox!!

First bike ride!!

Okay, so I'm a little behind on the posts. About two weeks ago we finally got the bike trailer hitched up. Liam loved going for a ride - everytime there was a bump he said "Ow!" and then giggled like crazy!

Backyard Vacation

We spend a good part of last weekend creating a play space for Liam in our backyard. We bought and set up a swing set (This boy loves his "wheee!"), took out his castle climber and some other outside toys, and because it was such a beautiful day on Monday we inflated and filled his pool. We had a wonderful time relaxing outside, and Liam had a blast in his pool. (unlike last year!)