Lots Has Happened Since We Last Spoke!

So I promise I am not trying to make it a habit to take so long to update this thing, I will keep trying to do my best and be more consistent for those loyal readers!

As usual we will start with the center of our little world Aidan! His 5th birthday went off without a hitch, I think we had just the right amount of kids show up so that it wasn't too crazy and they all behaved really well which was a bonus for the parents. It was nice to get to talk to his friends parents for more than a moment passing in the hallway at the daycare. The theme was Pirates and of course we went all out with decorations, a pirate cake, pirate hats & tattoos and of course treasure chest loot bags! We rented a bouncer which was WELL worth the money for how long it kept the kids occupied! Aidan had tons of fun and was in a daze for the rest of the day and had a bit of a birthday hangover the following day!

Soccer finished up and we will be going to the awards this weekend where he receives his trophy for participating...when I was little we only got one if we won, I guess times have changed and it's all about "participation" not "winning". Aidan is not a natural soccer player by far and was more interested usually in what was for half time snack but I think he had fun none the less and met some new friends. I think next year it will get a little more structured which would be better to watch!

Finally our little man officially started Kindergarten today! He was soooo excited and got dressed really fast this morning, put on his backpack and was ready to go! He seemed a little nervous when we got there but warmed up pretty quick when he saw his new teacher which he has been saying "Bonjour" to in the hallway for the past year! I can't wait to pick him up and see how it went!

Judd has been busy with home renovations and him and Papa have gotten so much done in the past few months! The entire exterior is prepped and ready for stucco. 11 new windows and a new front door have gone in and we love every single one of them! They even built a new little porch in the front off the deck to give us some room for shoes and jackets. It is surreal that this is all happening so fast, I am very lucky to have the father I have who was willing to help us do all this! I will post some completed pictures after the weekend as they will be done the porch then too.

Wedding preparations are still under way and I was able to pick out and purchase my wedding dress in 3 hours flat with the help of my mom and maid of honor! I didn't really feel like a bride until then but I sure starting acting like one after that! I also got my new engagement ring which we upgraded the color and downgraded the clarity so that we wouldn't have to pay any extra. I have to say I absolutely love this one, and although it is not the original it is definitely the next best thing (and much more sparkle).

We are busy gearing up for the Bud, Spud & Steak wedding fundraiser on October 13th trying to get all the tickets out and organizing prizes for the raffle. So far so good and we are really getting excited to see everyone all at once! As a bonus it turned out that recording artist David Usher is going to be playing a show right after and the hotel is giving everyone at the Bud, Spud a discounted price for his show! Hope you all got your tickets so you can join the fun!

Kneessa is really depressed as I have been home with Mono for the past 2.5 weeks and haven't been taking her for walks so she mopes around and gives me puppy dog eyes, although we have done plenty of bonding and she now loves to sleep right on top of me while I have one of my many naps! I was feeling a bit better but then found out I also got strep throat so I am now on antibiotics for that as well! Hopefully I will be good as new soon so I can get on with all this planning I have going on! I go back to work next Wednesday...what a holiday, I spent most of it in bed! Ichabod is much skinnier and is busy killing small animals for sport outside which we find mean and greedy of him but CANNOT keep him inside as he just continuously does his worst Siamese meow at the door until we let him out. If you've ever had a Siamese cat, you know there is no ignoring him.

Well I think that the gist for now! Thanks to those who continuously check and are interested in our lives! Like I said I will try to update more regularly for you! Maybe I will get Judd to start updating...yeah right!

Take care everyone!

Love, Judd, Sarah, Aidan, Kneessa & Ichabod

Hello my name is Sarah and I am a Procrastinator!

Well Hello to you all! So I was sitting here thinking maybe it's about time that I make an entry...or more an effort to keep you all updated on our little world here. I was shocked to learn that it has been almost 2 months since I last wrote...yeesh.

I have no excuse really and I am now wondering why time is flying by me so quickly. I have allowed myself to join an online community called Face Book where I have found mostly all of my old school pals and some long lost friends so I assume that is what has been eating up my computer time enough for me not to keep up. So without further adieu...the long awaited update!

Aidan has been busy as usual, he is so very excited that his 5Th birthday is coming up and is really grasping the idea that he gets to have a birthday party. He has already managed to invite half the neighbourhood, his entire soccer team and pretty much anyone else that will pay attention long enough for him to ask them. We are going to make it a special one as we feel this is a big milestone in his life and he will start a new chapter when he begins Kindergarten in September.

He is preparing for this next chapter diligently as his teacher has given him a portfolio full of preparation activities and he had his first meeting with a Literacy Links worker this past Monday. It is a program offered by the St.James school division to help pre-schoolers get interested in reading and involves the parents in helping them to develop their children's skill set. They also do a small assessment with letters, comprehension and preliminary math and give it to the Kindergarten teacher so she will know what level he is at before he even walks into class. We think it is a very involved, well thought out program but can't help but feel the pressure that Kindergarten with the St.James School Division has imposed on us. We are enjoying all the activities and books that they have given us and are attempting to take it not so seriously as we don't want Aidan to feel any negative emotion surrounding school. He has already charmed the lady that comes here as she left telling us that he is such a sweetheart and has such a beautiful face. It is amazing to watch him interact with strangers, he really knows how to woo people right away.

He has played almost all of his soccer games now and he will get pictures done next week. The last 2 games have been quite interesting as they are all getting much better at the game and it is much more exciting to watch. Aidan is definitely not a "natural" talent at soccer but he enjoys getting out there and really likes the social aspect...ahh our little social butterfly! He managed to score 1 goal in the first game and hasn't come close to a 2nd yet although before every game he tells us he will score "50 hundred this game" and yes we always instill the age old lesson "It's not about winning or loosing or how many goals you score...and so on"

He passed his first level of swimming and received the Salamander badge. He volunteered to be the first one tested and was the only child not to have to be told numerous times what to do or have the aid of the instructor, so we were very proud as was he. He is looking forward to receiving his Sun Fish badge this July.

Other than that he is busy being Aidan, drawing pictures for everyone, being a kid and having fun with life. He is talking a mile a minute to everyone who will listen and amazes us on a regular basis. We can't help but feel so blessed to have him and out hearts are always full when he is around. It sure is hard to stay mad at that little guy for long! He will have to prepare himself for we just got his daycare schedule for the summer months and they have a field trip scheduled almost daily so he will be really busy!

Judd and I are doing great. We are happy the nice weather is finally here and not so happy that we are getting so much rain...especially Judd as it delays precious working on the house time! The reno's are in full force and one quarter of the house has already been ripped of, insulated and is ready for stucco and siding. We ordered all new windows for the whole house which are coming in a few weeks thanks to Uncle Al so we are very excited to see those go in as currently we can only open 4 out of the 10+ windows on our main level and I can be a tad bit claustrophobic at times! I can't wait to see the finished result and Judd is having a nice time learning all this home renovation stuff with my dad. It's really nice to see them bonding and it's nice to have Papa around here more to talk to as we don't do that very often and tend to become very detached from each other. I am definitely in awe of my father as I watched him work in 30+ degree weather and humidity like crazy up on a scaffold hammering up plywood from 9 am until 6 pm only stopping once to eat a peanut butter sandwich. I can not even pretend I would be able to do that for half the time, those are the moments I am proud to have him as one of the halves that made me whole .

This is getting long so some other quick things are that I lost my engagement ring at the pool...luckily it was covered on our insurance and I will get to pick out a new one next week (2 rings without getting a divorce...lucky me!) I am hoping to get something similar to the original as I loved the one we picked out the first time.

We have booked out Bud, Spud and Steak for the wedding fundraiser (instead of a social) for October 13th so keep it open on your calenders as we would love to see everyone there! More details to come with that of course.

I have opted out of the Doula thing for now as the demand on my time was far greater than I was willing to give. My family is the most important thing to me and I have plenty of time to chase dreams a little later on. I found I was missing and was going to miss a lot of Aidan and I am not prepared to sacrifice much of that time when he is still this little. I am glad for the experience and I learnt a lot...it could still be something I may pursue further when I am able to fully commit to it.

The wedding plans are on their way, the photographer is chosen, the deposits for those who are coming are in and I will begin the ever so exciting task of picking out my wedding dress shortly and Judd's attire as well (although he is far less excited than I and just continually gives me high 5's when I talk about the wedding plans)

I am still swimming and have now added running to the roster...oh yes I will look good in a bikini in Mexico I am determined! Judd is not worried about his growing pot belly as he figures he will sweat it off this summer...hmmm should I be so lucky! We are both working and enjoying being parents (well most of the time)...We turned another year older and celebrated another year together (6 to be exact) and looking forward to a lifetime of celebrations to come!

Kneesaa is enjoying all the trips to the dog park and not enjoying that we have had enough of her teenage antics and are becoming more stern with her. Ichabod is MIA most of the time and usually only comes in to eat and enjoy the air conditioning for a "cat nap" He is looking trim and fit from chasing all the mice around outside.

That's it for us...I'm sure I missed out a lot but hopefully included the key highlights. Not too many photos as I haven't been inspired lately to take many, but none the less a couple to please the eye! As always we hope you are all healthy, happy and in good spirits and if not, know that we think of you all often even though our presence can sometimes be minimal. It is one of our shortcomings to be so busy all the time and one thing we are constantly trying to improve. Glad we can at least give little updates here and there, and love to hear back!

Love: Judd, Sarah, Aidan, Kneesaa & Ichabod


Ps - Thanks to Jason for taking the soccer pics of Aidan...we are lucky to have a friend that is a photographer!

Spring has Sprung!

Hello Everyone!

These posts are getting few and far between and our lives are getting busier by the day. When the weather gets nice the whole world comes alive! We have been taking advantage of the warmth that's for sure!

We will start off with our little man AIDAN as that is why most of you come here I'm sure! He is doing great, a little sick right now but nothing that can keep him off his toes. He really enjoyed Easter this year and really bought in to the whole Easter Bunny idea. It is always so uplifting to witness his enthusiasm and innocence on days like those, tis what makes life worth living, for me anyway. We are still overflowed with chocolate and candy as I tend to over-do the whole Easter egg hunt thing not realizing how much junk I've actually bought. A lot of it goes in Judd's belly too though so it's good portion control for Aidan. I was smart enough to buy things I don't really like so that I would stay away from it, although I have also succumbed to temptation and snuck a few treats for myself.

He had his first, second and third swimming lesson which are going very well. We are really happy that we chose 9 am on a Sunday because it gets us up and out of the house early and we usually have a great day because of it! He enjoys them very much and is always excited to go back. We weren't really sure what to expect with him having to go in the water without us, but there were no problems and he jumped right in! He is doing well and follows direction although he is really focused on getting our attention to see every little thing he does. After swimming we all go to Tim Horton's and we get coffee to wake us up a little and we all share some Tim Bits in celebration of his morning accomplishments as Tim Bits are his favorite!

We got his bike out from the basement and he rode it for the first time since he got it for his birthday and he was a little nervous at first because he went over a big bump and almost tipped over but now he motors along pretty good. We are hoping to practise enough this year to be able to remove his training wheels (well that is the goal anyway) We try to make an effort for him to ride every evening after dinner because it really winds down the day nicely for all of us.

Other than that he is still busy making art like crazy, it is starting to get a little more creative which is nice but I still have the problem of being over-run with it all over the house. Apparently this is pay back as when I was little my parents were forced to put everything on the fridge that I made. My father would put them all in a garbage bag later and told me he was sending them to the "art gallery"....hmmm maybe that would work with Aidan?

Aidan is extremely helpful, he is always wanting to be involved in anything we are doing. He helps me vacuum, load the dishwasher and is always up for helping make dinner or lunch and still one of his favorite things to do is the laundry! We are very lucky there for now! Some of his tasks are short lived though and he usually wanders off saying he's tired of cleaning etc now....if life were only like that for us adults!

Soccer starts for him next week and we are all pumped up for that. They found a coach after all so Judd is out for that and now he regrets not volunteering outright. He says he will do it next year for sure. We can't wait to see him playing on a team it should be pretty amusing to see all those little ones running around together! I am sad as I will have to miss his first game due to a class I am taking, but Judd will video tape it for me and Aidan and I will watch it together I figure on Friday as I have the day off....next best thing right?

Judd & I have been busy ourselves. Work for Judd just hasn't seemed to slow down yet like it usually does so he is still at it everyday. We are in the planning stages of what renovations are going to be done this summer so that is exciting and scary at the same time! Judd also has a few weddings that he is involved in so lots of commitments there with showers, stags, fittings etc.

I have been busy with work and a Doula course I am taking every Thursday. Today I went on a hospital tour of the labor floors at Women's Hospital which was pretty cool. I am just about ready to start taking clients which is exciting for me! In my down time I am still lap swimming to get in shape and I am actually starting to see some real results which has been uplifting and encouraging to keep going. Between all of that I am still trying to stay on top of this wedding planning and have sort of faltered a little in that department. I am going to pick it back up full force when my Doula course is over so that I limit how much I am doing, otherwise I tend to get a little psycho! I have been missing Aidan a lot lately as I am either working, swimming or at my Doula course it seems and I feel like I never get to see him. Needless to say there have been a few tears in that department. I am trying now to keep him home as much as I can on my days off and we do some catching up there. He is really good about it and even got up last night when he heard me come home just to give me a hug awwww! I almost melted, what a sweetie!

Kneesaa & Ichabod are great. Ick has lost pretty much all the dog food weight and is starting to look like himself again. Kneesaa is so happy that the yard has finally dried up so she can run around out there a bit instead of us carrying her through the mud to the dog run....it's just as funny as you are picturing it trust me. She is also getting out for walks more which always makes her calmer at night which is good for us!

That's All Folks...hope you are all enjoying this weather change and are happy and healthy mind and body! Enjoy some candid shots over your morning coffee perhaps and we hope to talk with you all soon.

PS - some of these photos were taken by Aidan as he decided he wanted to take some shots while we were out in the yard...pretty good I must say!!


Photos 1-5 shot by Aidan

Weddings, Renovations....What Else Can We Put on Our Plate?

Sitting here waiting for the laundry to finish drying so I can put the last load in and head off to bed and thought it would be a perfect time to do some updating!

So pretty much everything has been wedding related in our lives this past month. We sent out our letters and have been talking to everyone about their decisions whether to go or not. We were very pleased to get such a good response and it will make our wedding day all the more meaningful to have so many loved ones with us. I am always busy updating the wedding website and often don't have time after that to keep up this blog, but I am trying my best!

Me - I have been doing allot of wedding stuff (a little too much I think at this stage, but hey I'm excited!) A really good thing that the wedding has brought on is me trying to get my body back into pre-Aidan shape. I think blaming my extra pounds on "baby weight" for almost 5 years has probably expired as a good excuse. Plus, allot of you are going to see me in a bikini next March ahhhh! Funny how with destination weddings the brides are usually more concerned with the bikini rather than the wedding dress! I have been lap swimming with my maid of honor (she is teaching me technique) on a regular basis. When I can't do that I've been riding our stationary bike (and my dad said I would never use it!) and doing some strength training exercises here in my lair (or office whatever).
We did an aqua size class last week as well which was so much fun and a really good workout so I would like to do more of those! For a while my work hours were cut back so I had lots of time to focus on all these things now I am back to my regular hours. I am so thankful that I am able to work part time so that I have time to do all this fun stuff!

Judd - He is working hard as he always does keeping our boat afloat over here! He has talked allot about getting fit for the wedding as well (he doesn't really have much to lose) I have yet to see him actually do anything towards this! He is getting that renovations bug again as he spent the beginning of this week helping & watching one of our friends put in our new electrical system. We upgraded to 200 amp service, I am unsure why we need this much power? All I can say is that there were men involved in that decision and I try to stay out of it!!! Our new electrical box is pretty comical though, it is like 3 feet long and massive, I have attached some pics so you can have a giggle too! As the snow slowly melts away we are starting to see our lovely yard full of mud again and Judd was outside today trying to clean up all of Kneesaa's poop that was missed under the snow before it melted and made poop soup in our yard! He came in only to tell me sternly that in the spring she better start using the dog run! Hopefully we will get some sod down early so we won't have to deal with the mud over the summer, but spring is going to be downright dirty! Alot of Judd's friends (4) are getting married this season and next so we will be doing the social, shower, wedding thing alot! We also have a family friends wedding to attend over the summer so it will be a busy one for us!

Aidan - He starts swimming lessons this Sunday so he is quite pumped about that and has been showing us how good of a swimmer he is in the bathtub lately. He has really shown an interest in reading lately, the other day I opened the door to his room and he was on his bed with a book reading (pretending to as he has it memorized) it was very cute! I think this is my sign to initiate the learning to read process as before I kind of pushed him into it which did not go over well!

He is still enjoying daycare very much as they are always keeping him very busy! He comes home everyday with like 10 pieces of "art" for us which consists mostly of scribbles and cut up pieces of paper (he learnt how to use scissors really well recently). I usually leave it out or put some of it on the fridge and then slowly throw pieces of it away so he doesn't notice. Sometimes Kneesaa throws a bit of a tantrum and rips his stuff off the fridge when we leave her alone and I have to pretend to be "mad" at her for doing it, but really I am kind of relieved that it's another piece I can get rid of! Don't get me wrong we keep everything that he really puts an effort into and any gifts he hand makes for us but yeesh...we already have 3 big tubs full of his "memories", soon we're going to have to rent a storage unit for his stuff!

This week was spring break for the school so the daycare decided to have theme days for the whole week. Monday was "crazy hair day" where he came home with all different colored hair (needless to say he wore a hat when we went out for dinner with my dad) I have attached pictures of that one! Tuesday was sports day so he wore a sports jersey, Wednesday was pool party day and he wore his swim suit and a surf t-shirt and lei. Apparently they set up a pool in the daycare room and they went swimming! Today they went on a field trip to the bowling alley (Aidan hit 2 pins this time, yeah!) and tomorrow is pajama and movie day.

He is a busy little guy, and is always keeping up with the social circle. He has started inviting his friends over to our house without asking us (or their parents) so when I pick him up I have a bunch of kids asking when they can come over to Aidan's house, oh boy! They usually go for an afternoon walk with the kids and if I'm off early I can catch them as they walk down our street, so they actually sometimes walk him home which is kind of funny!

Kneesaa & Ichabod - Kneesaa has gotten out a few times lately and has been much easier to get back so far which is great for us! She is so happy that the weather is a bit warmer so that she can stay outside and frolic a little longer! We have put Ichabod on diet food and he is starting to slim down a bit, hopefully he will loose the rest of the dog food pounds this spring when he starts going outside more.

That's all for now folks! We leave you with some of our last winter pictures, the upgraded electricity box (too funny) and Aidan's "crazy hair" Take care until next time!

Love: Judd, Sarah, Aidan, Kneesaa & Ichabod







Old electricity:New"more power" electricity