Siding, Father's Day, and Imax!

In the last few weeks, Scott has been working on getting the siding up on our house - what a big job!! There is a lot of work involved, seeing as our house has so many jut-outs, corners, and windows! Thankfully, my dad has been able to come and help Scott much of the time, and even his brothers have been over once or twice. It's slow going though - all of the cutting and nailing up trim pieces seems to take a while! It's exciting seeing it go up, and we are absolutely loving the color we chose. It's hard to tell from those little swatches in Menards!! The kids are just loving all of the action as well. They want to get right in there and get to work, too. Especially Oliver, he seems to have designated himself as the official nail supplier to Scott and Dad. The kids love it that they can be just out and about on the yard, coming and going as they please.

Here they are working away pounding nails into a board. What good helpers!

Helping the big boys. Oliver has also been walking around with a measuring tape lately, pulling it out to measure various things and saying "two inches, two inches!" So cute.

Reaching for more nails - can never have enough!

Taking a little snooze after all of the hard work one day. This just melts me!

Fathers Day:

We had a fun and mostly relaxing day. The kids gave Scott their gifts (golf balls, which had been Kalia's idea) and a Snow White father's day card in the morning before church, and then we headed out to my mom and dad's for lunch and the afternoon. Scott had really been hoping to golf, but it didn't work out, because we ended up meeting his parents in the city for a later supper. After that, Scott and I took the kids to Dairy Queen for an ice cream treat. I think it was a good day, and definitely worth it to celebrate this man who is such a wonderful father to our two kids. Love you Scott!

Smiles with Daddy

Playing with their 'telescopes' and treasure maps!

A bit of a goofy picture, but this is the best one I had of the three of them.

Sunday after our Sunday School picnic got rained out, we took the kids home for a quick nap, and then went off to the Imax with my parents and sisters. It was a Whale and Dolphin 3D show, and we had such a fun time. The kids were totally fascinated and it was so much fun to see the show through their excited eyes. I myself have never been to a 3D show of any kind before, so I really liked that part of it as well. Kalia kept reaching out to touch all of the fish, whales and dolpins or if she wasn't quite brave enough, she'd poke her toes out at them! She was fascinated by the informational part of it as well, and soaked up the details about the beautiful mammals.

Waiting for the show to start

Mom took some pictures of the rest of us. They didn't turn out that great in the dark theatre, but I still wanted to post them.

She was so proud to have her very own "movie popcorn". She said to my mom "Nana, this is even better than the popcorn that YOU make!!"

My little goof. Could those glasses BE any bigger?! I was quite impressed that he actually kept them on most of the time. Scott helped him out by showing him the difference of how the movie looked with the glasses and without them. Way better with!! He sat pretty well for the movie, though he of course had to lap shuffle a bit between all of us. He kept shouting out things that excited him like "BIG whale" or "little fishies!!". I loved his enthusiasm.

Kalia with her silly glasses as well.

And lastly, here are a couple of pictures of Oliver from yesterday. Scott took him along to the barn with him because Oliver has been begging for weeks! He was just beside himself that he actually got to go along with Daddy. The only reason it worked out is becasue Scott didn't actually have that much to do IN the barn that day, and they did a whole bunch of other errands and adventures. Kalia and I then had a day together as well and had a great time! I took her to Superstore to get some new craft supplies, to McDonald's for lunch and then through DQ on the way home. Once we got home, we spent the afternoon together doing crafts and art projects. We've been so busy lately, that I think it was great for the kids to each get some one on one time doing something a little out of the ordinary. Sometimes these spur of the moment plans make for the best days.

GIVEAWAY!!

Hey blog readers!! I just wanted to tell you about an amazing giveaway that I am a part of with my jewelry business "B Jewelled". Head over to CT Designs to check it out - there are THREE amazing prize packages available to be won with a total of over $500 worth of prizes from 8 different businesses!! WOW!! The first prize package can ONLY by won by an expectant mother... and the second prize package can be won by ANYONE!! If we reach 1000+ entries into the contest there will also be a third prize package drawn from ALL the entries. So be sure if you enter to tell your friends about it so that we can draw for that 3rd prize!

Family Trip

In April, Scott and I took the kids on a 5 day trip to Minneapolis and the Mall of America! We had a great time - the kids could not have possibly been better behaved, so we were able to make time for lots of fun adventures! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I ended up buying a couple of cheap disposibles at Target. The pictures aren't the greatest quality, but I still wanted to post a few to share all of the fun!

Our kids are generally decent drivers, but for longer distances it can still get a bit trying. This trip was the best they have ever travelled! They played nicely, slept, and sang songs. It was just a delight!!

We ended up having to get an unexpected repair done on our van the first morning in Minneapolis. We were going to walk to a store to go shopping, but ended up coming accross this great playground and the kids just had so much fun. Much better than shopping!

Later that day, we went to the Minnesota Zoo. Being used to the one in Winnipeg which is, um, not great, this was a real treat! We spent the better part of the day there and Oliver even took a nap in the stroller, so we could keep up the happy moods! They both loved getting the fresh air as well as seeing all of the different animals, and Scott and I just loved their excitement.

Checking out the tiger. He would have stayed there all day if we let him I think!

Posing in front of the camels - you can see one way back and off to the right if you look closely!

Petting Snakes and a lizard - they were braver than mommy that's for sure!!

Swim time!!

We had lots of fun in the pool every day. I loved seeing how the kids got braver and more comfortable in the water each time we went in.

Relaxing in the hotel after a long day with milk and cookies

We did hardly any shopping at all in that huge mall! We really wanted to focus on the kids and make sure that they had a great time. So instead of a ton of shopping we did mini golfing, rides, and all sorts of other little adventures that were to be had.

We took the kids for a fun dinner one night at Rainforest Cafe. They love the all of the animals, the real fish tanks, and the "thunder and lightning" storms. We even lucked out and that night there was a guy going around making animal balloons for each table!

The blues clues ride was definitely a highlight! They were pumped to circle around on the giant-sized dog! This ride was crazy! Those cars whipped around so fast that I didn't dare going on it being pregnant! Scott took each kid seperately. I did go on most of the tamer rides though.

They loved all of the rides so much, but I think the Carousel is always Kalia's favorite.

Oliver's favorite ride was of course the one with Semi trucks! Scott took him on it 3 times!