Arrested Development

I couldn't think of a title. I'm downstairs working on this blog entry, watching Arrested Development on....

...our "new-to-us" TV! This is what we'd envisioned for the basement and as fortune would have it, a friend was upgrading to a bigger (yes bigger!) tv and gave us a great deal. Movie night at our house!

In other news....Madeline got her first "salon" haircut at Auntie Natalie's!

She also attended a birthday party for a friend at West Ed. I couldn't catch her still for one moment, hence the blurred photo.

She also had a preschool field trip to the Muttart Conservatory. They learned about ladybugs and visited all the pyramids before planting their own flower to take home.

Claire and I tagged along and had fun exploring the different landscapes.

Claire's also been busy with Little Bits horse riding and kindergarten. Her birthday party has been the talk of her class for an entire week. :)

Ryan's taken up early morning swimming to keep in shape - if anyone wants to tag along, he's looking for company! He's also put his motorcycle back together and went out for his first ride today. It's officially Spring!

We had a wonderful Easter long, long weekend. Good Friday was spent with the Laytons at Nelda's school gym. We played variations of hockey, lacrosse, volleyball, bowling, badminton, soccer and basketball and had a great time. We had so much fun that we all forgot to take pictures! However, I was reminded how sporadic I am at sports. I'm either really good or really awful and there's no predicting the outcome from one shot to the next. It's so exciting. We also had a lovely turkey dinner and celebrated Jim's birthday with the traditional ice cream cake.

Sunday was the Easter celebration at my Aunt Sheila's. We were all surprised at how warm it was. Most of us had left the house without any thought to sunscreen or hats and then found ourselves in need of them once we settled down in the back yard.

Madeline is such a little dare devil. She hopped on top of the car as Luke was barrelling down the hill and they ran into the snowbank at the bottom.

We were lucky to have Olivia, Rob and Cairo come with us to share the day.

Claire and I on the hunt for some eggs. I actually found the coveted Golden Egg that came with a grand prize! Madeline took all the credit though.

Hanging out with the horses.

A child's paradise.

Claire's fancy new glasses.

The Easter Bunny came early Monday morning. He must have known that we'd overdone it with the sweets already, since he only brought dresses, socks and toys.

I'm sure Claire is thinking, "Seriously? These ears? Every year you take of picture of me wearing these. It's getting old."

I'm always thrown off by a holiday Monday. I'll wake up tomorrow and it will feel like Monday, but be Tuesday and I'll be behind a day all week. It's a small price to pay for a day off, but it's still a rather strange feeling. I hope everyone had a lovely Easter break!

A catch-up, ketchup, catsup post

Gob: I believe I told you I was going to be off for the holidays. It's Spring Break.

From one of my favourite shows.

Ah Spring Break. You are almost over. Although I'm grateful for Ryan's holiday schedule as a teacher, it often feels like you're just settling into holiday mode and then you are thrust back into your regular schedule. I know you're probably thinking "Stop whining." So I will.

Here's what we've been up to lately:

We had a lovely visit from my cousin (technically my dad's cousin, so I don't know what that makes us officially) Dave and his wife Marla and their great kids. They stayed the night before Grandpa's funeral and although it was for a sad occasion, it was great to get to know them better. The funny thing is, growing up and attending family reunions, I always imagined that Dave was much older than me. Now that gap in age, whatever it may actually be, seems smaller. It's funny how that changes as you grow. It was nice to watch the kids play together and Ryan even gave rides on his motorbike for those who were willing and big enough to wear the helmet.

This was the best we could do for a group photo of the kids at the funeral. At least all of their bodies are in the same picture. You can't really ask for more with a group like that!


The funeral service for Grandpa was as good as a funeral can be. There were lots of touching, funny and poignant stories shared about his life and it gave us all a chance to say goodbye and to be with friends and family. I was fortunate to be able to accompany Reed's musical number and was glad to offer that as a way to honour Grandpa. I appreciate the tenor of LDS funerals. The focus on the eternities doesn't belittle the grief and pain of separation, but they are not overly despondent.

Moving on to the regular spin of our lives...

Ryan and I got out for two big events at Rexall - a hockey game and a Muse/Silversun Pickups concert. First, the hockey game we were able to attend because a parent of one of Ryan's students couldn't use his tickets and offered them to us. Thanks to ever-ready babysitters (Aunt Nat & Uncle Trav), we were able to go and had a blast. Neither of us had sat that close before and although the Oilers lost, it was an exciting and pretty close game with the Ducks. The best part of the night? Us on the Jumbotron! Yeah that's right. We cheered and smiled and waved like all the other crazy people on there.



Then the Muse concert with Rob. We got him tickets (and used it as an excuse for us to go too) for his birthday. The opening band was so-so, but Muse was great. Of course they put on a huge light/laser show, but they played all our favourite songs and sounded great. Despite 8 drunk men in front of us who all took turns going to the bathroom every 2 minutes, a crazy dancing lady in the aisle and a Nazi usher, the night was super fun. Even being crowded into a stuffed LRT car on the way home was fun.

Here are links to two of my favourite Muse songs in case you don't know them:

Supermassive Black Hole

Starlight


Rob and I waiting for Muse to start.


Ryan and I doing our classic self-portrait with the stage in the background.


Frickin laser beams.


I think I'm addicted to group fitness classes at Spa Lady. It's good to get that off my chest. Well, to be more specific, step classes and more recently, free weights/barbell classes. Ryan now teases me that I'm a bodybuilder in training. Yeah - I think I lifted 30 pounds at the heaviest so don't get the wrong idea. I also had a great brunch/shopping trip with Kathy, spoke in Church, did our taxes and have gotten to know a great lady that's working with the missionaries in our ward.

The girls have loved having Dad home everyday and he's taken them out to the park, to play in the backyard, invited their friends over to play, conducted dance parties and is probably ready to get back to work now. :)

Madeline got a fun present from Aunt Nat & Uncle Travis. Magic powder to have a princess gelly bath. If you click on the picture you can see the texture of the water after we added the powder. She stayed in there for such a long time. It was definitely a hit.


We had a lovely afternoon at Aunt Sheila's house today for her annual Easter party. Pictures were taken by others so I don't have any to share but both girls have a pile of Easter loot to show for their efforts and it is always good to spend time with family.

Madeline taking after her dad. It's finally biking weather again!

Easter Weekend

Happy Easter!

We had a nice long weekend with friends and family. Everyone (except Steph and Mel) came up to our place for an Easter dinner on Sunday since we had to get up early to go to the hospital for Claire on Monday morning. Here are some Easter pics.
Grandma and Grandpa tag-teaming to give Madeline some ice cream. She walked around the living room begging for food like a little puppy dog, even though we just fed her!

Here's our best attempt at an Easter bunny ears picture. The girls would only keep the ears for for approximately 3 milliseconds so this was a lucky photo shot.

Here's Grandpa cuddling with sleepy-head Claire. She was tuckered out from nursery.


Both the girls enjoyed their baskets. No candy this year, just a movie and some toys - but still lots of fun.

On Monday morning we had to be at the hospital at 6:30am for Claire feeding tube change. She initially had a PEG g-tube placed in December and we had to deal with a tube hanging out all the time and it was a pain. Now she has a little button (called a MIC-KEY) that we can attach the tube to.

Here's what her old tube looked like. We would tuck in the tube under her diaper tabs to keep it in place.


Here's Claire this afternoon just a few hours after the switch. She's totally happy and it was a relatively easy procedure. Now she doesn't have to wear undershirts all the time and it's a lot easier for everyone!

For more info here's a website that tells a bit about feeding tubes:
http://pedsurg.ucsf.edu/conditions--treatments/gastronomy-tubes.aspx