Don't Blink, You Might Miss Something

This past week has been HECTIC to say the very least. I have so much to write about! My baby girl turned 6 on Saturday, six! Did you hear me? SIX!!!!! What? When did that happen? When did six years go by?
Seriously, everyone says "it goes by so fast, they grow up before you know it, blah, blah, blah..." but, they are right.

Lets just take a little trip down memory lane to February 2006...

10pm, Feb 23rd. An unsuspecting husband and wife have just finished watching some TV before bed, the wife steps onto the staircase to go up to bed and... GUSH... "honey, I think my water just broke!" Husband replies (in his most loving way) "get off the new carpet!"
Off to the hospital she waddles, because we all know that very pregnant women don't walk, they waddle. No signs of contractions, and this being a first pregnancy, they are sent home to "get some sleep".
2am, Feb 24th. The wife hasn't slept, contractions started as soon as they got into bed. She attempts to waste some time watching episodes of Friends on DVD, (remember this is 2006 the PVR had not yet been invented). The husband feels it is his husbandly duty to write down the time and duration of each and every contraction.
4am, Feb 24th. Back to the hospital, but this time they stay put. The husband sets up cameras (yes, cameraS plural) and they are ready for a LOOOOOOOOOONG day ahead.
Now this is where this story could get awfully boring, so I'll give you the short version. Contractions, walk around, contractions, massage, contractions, shower, contractions, laughing gas, contractions, birthing ball, contractions... and repeat, not necessarily in that order, for 18 hours.
10pm, Feb 24th. The wife gives in and has an epidural, ahhhh sleep. For one glorious hour. Then, time to push!
1:02am, Feb 25th. It's a girl!!!! The new mom and dad can barely see straight from exhaustion, but they can see enough to know that this wrinkly, cone-headed, vernix covered, screaming little girl is the absolute most beautiful sight they have ever laid eyes on.

 And *BLINK* She's one year old

And *BLINK* She's two years old

And *BLINK* She's three years old

And *BLINK* She's four years old

Aaaaaaaand *BLINK* She's five years old

And *BLINK* We're back to present day. Our beautiful little baby, our princess, our pumpkin pie is SIX YEARS OLD!!!!

Happy Birthday Mika-moo, you are beyond loved.

A Ballerina, A Cow & A Big Mean Robot

What do you get when you add together a ridiculous amount of imagination, an impending visit from grandparents, a long-weekend of time to fill, and 3 kids?

Well of course you get a puppet show! And not just any puppet show, one that comes complete with a stage, a paper-mache robot, and a written screen play.

Mikayla got it in her head that she wanted to make a "play" for her grandma and grandpa when they came into town this past weekend. I said "sure" and figured it wouldn't lead to too much. Boy was I wrong. After being pestered asked for a cardboard box for about 3 hours straight (we recycle every box that makes its way into our home it seems), Jan had to empty out a full box and help assemble the stage. Then Mikayla made up the story that was going to take place on this stage. She spent close to an hour writing out the storyboard, and drawing pictures. Her unsuspecting brother got dragged into the fun. Gavin has a slight obsession with "The Incredibles" Disney movie, and especially the "big mean robot" aka The Omnidroid created by Syndrome. So, Mikayla figured the best way to keep his interest in this little project was to involve the big mean robot. Well, we don't have a big mean robot, trust me we tried to find one for Gavin at Christmas, so what's a dad to do? He makes one of course. Jan spent the better part of two days making a papermache robot for his son, what a good daddy!

When Grandma and Grandpa arrived on Sunday it was time for the big event. Video camera rolling, check. But, what about Levi? He wasn't going to be left out of the fun, so we grabbed his cow puppet and let him get his moment in the spotlight as well.

Priceless.

Valentines Cookies

It seams every holiday or important event in our house these days is anticipated with such excitment. I shouldn't have been surprised when Mikayla showed up in our bedroom at 4:30 on Valentines morning. Ugh. No rest for the momma.
Daddy had to go to site that morning as well, so we had an early morning card exchange and let the munchkins eat copious amounts of sugar for breakfast!
And in keeping with the sugary theme of the morning we made DE-LISH-US Valentines cookies for Mika to take to school, and of course for our own consumption as well. I was not happy with the usual sugar cookie recipe I had been using for a number of years, so I decided to go on-line and find something new. Fortunately it paid off this time, the new recipe was by far superior to my (now deceased) old recipe.

I also decided to change things up by icing the cookies with a butter-cream instead of my usual royal icing, this too was a change in the right direction.
Baking with 3 "helpers" is always, umm, interesting? There is more often than not a fight over who is pouring in an ingredient, or who's turn it is to mix, who is taking someone's spot on the step stool, and so-on...

This baking session went relatively smoothly, although I did have to force everyone downstairs at one point for me to just get things done. (Thank you TV and/or Wii for your babysitting services). All in all a successful morning of baking, and 2 dozen beautiful cookies sent to school.

The baking continued in the afternoon with only Gavin and myself, what a treat to have just one little set of fingers to keep away from snatching the cookie dough.

Let Them Eat Cake

Riding our bikes and scooters in February!!!

 The last post made note of our camera loss, and now I'm making due with the iPhone camera to capture those little moments.

We had an absolutely gorgeous day this past weekend, and while daddy was taking advantage of it by taking down the Christmas lights, we got out and enjoyed the spring-like weather.

Gavin racing along the front sidewalk

A treehouse picnic to keep that energy up.

Well, Gavin and Mikayla got to enjoy the weather, poor Levi missed out as he was napping. Life is so hard when you're not quite 2!
Mikayla absolutely begged me to give them a picnic snack, so I caved (as usual) and gave them a summertime treat in the middle of winter!
Mikayla had been to a birthday party the day before and had leftover cake she had decorated there. So the two of them had their cake and got to eat it too :)

A loss...

So last week we had a big loss to our family, our beloved Nikon D90 bit the dust. Well, it actually bit the carpet, but luckily this is not going to be a permanent loss. However it is going to be rather costly. Of course with my slightly obsessive picture-taking habit I am feeling a little lost. Especially because we have a lot of things going on in the next few weeks. The in-laws are showing up just in time for the hubby's 43rd birthday and staying until my baby girl's 6th birthday. February is always a busy month around here. My grandmother's 92nd birthday will be on the 14th (also Valentines Day for anyone who's keeping track), then Jan's birthday on the 19th, Jan's grandmother on the 24th, Mikayla's on the 25th and my sister-in-law on the 28th. So, of course this time of the year brings many family get-togethers and photo opportunities too numerous to even imagine! And here I am without my favourite toy to capture these moments. What is a girl to do? I think I'm going to have to beg/borrow/steal a camera or at least the pictures from other people's cameras through out this busy month. We have sent our beloved D90 into Nikon to get fixed, so hopefully it can be done rather quickly, but of course who knows how long that will actually be.....