Winter Wonderland

We never know when to take the weather forecast for snow seriously. Yesterday we clearly did not! I forgot my coat on my way to work (it really wasn't that cold anyways) and I planned to get groceries Saturday afternoon so even though we had stuff, we didnt have the basics. At lunch time I saw a few flakes and they were so random that we didnt think much of it and we knew they wouldn't send us home early. Well by 1:30pm it was snowing pretty heavy and pretty steady. Jermaine called me to say he was getting of at 3pm. We were finally allowed to leave at 2:30pm, which by then there was snow everywhere and it was already icy. I was pretty nervous about getting the kids on my own so I decided to go get Jermaine first and let him pick up the kids while I got some groceries. It was a perfect plan except that it took me just 30mins to get groceries but it took him an hour and some to get the kids even though they were just 10mins away. On our way home our neighbour called. They had a challenging time trying to get into our subdivision so she was worried about us. We finally made it home at 5:45pm - not enough daylight to play in the snow and Javan had fallen asleep so I snapped a few pics and we went inside.

This morning we woke up ready to play! we had so much fun. Javan refused to come inside but after almost 2hrs out he really needed to. We took so many pics ... close to 400 actually ... but days like this are so few that we just kept snapping away.

we didn't have a sled so we improvised ... i know totally hideous but Javan had SO much fun that we didn't care:)

You know the only bad part of this snow day ... it fell on a Friday afternoon and Saturday. It would have been totally awesome if it started snowing Monday!!! Anyways, I have a feeling this might be the last snow day for this winter so I'm glad we got the chance to go out and play. We were so wet and cold but it was worth it.

~V

Toofies

Look what we could finally see tonight:

she flashed us one of these sweet smiles during supper

we caught a glimpse of her teeth and 20 pics later, we finally got that first pic!

~Veryll

No Need To Buy Toys!

Jermaine was folding clothes last night and Javan grabbed the baskets to play with. He wanted to make a little cage and who better to be trap inside than his little sister!

and then he decided to make both baskets his 'freight cars'

I guess we could have saved our money during Christmas ... this is reason enough to not buy toys!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and just wanted to note another Javan funny: we were driving home the other day and two motorcycles passed us and they were pretty loud

Javan: that motorcycle needs a new spark plug
Me: needs what?
Javan: a spark plug
Me: how do you know what a spark plug is?
Javan: Oh I see it on Handy Manny Motorcycle Adventure

I have no idea what a spark plug is, but I'm sure glad my son does!
~V

The Best Sleep ...

... is either on your pillows

or on the changing table!

~V

On The Move

We have a little busy body on our hands!

Ria sure is getting around these days ... she started officially crawling two weeks ago. She has been moving around, but I didn't count it as crawling until she figured out how to move around on her hands and knees. Its so funny watching her. The minute we put her on the floor, she crawls straight to were all the toys are.

and some random cuteness ... I found this dress on ebay. I need to stay of that site. My watch list is pages long. I could seriously hit buy it now several times a day but thankfully my bank account wont let me!

I have some videos of her crawling for the first time but we need a new battery for the camera. Once we get one I will share those ... it was pretty funny how Jermaine got her to crawl.

~Veryll

Dress Up

Saturday I was cleaning up the house and I could hear Javan and Ria playing. They got a little quiet so I asked Javan what they're doing. He says 'I'm just getting dressed mummy' I followed their voices and found them in our closet.

 This is how he wanted to go to church on Sunday

 

 Btw the closets seem to be their fave place to hang out. One night last week, J and I were cleaning up after supper and they were playing. Ria crawled into Javan's closet and he followed her playing peek-a-boo and had closed the door. We could hear them laughing inside. So much fun watching them interact.

************

and here's a few random funnies I want to remember from Javan

'Don't be sad mummy. We'll figure out a way to get some snow.'

-------

He called me at work with this request:
Javan: 'Mummy can we got to Chix fil eight (aka Chik-fil-a) for supper.'
Me: 'Do you have any money?'
Javan; 'No but daddy does. We can use his money.'
Me: I will have to think about it.
Javan: Can we go pls? Can we? Can we? I think its a great idea.

-------

And this might be a little overshare but it was pretty funny:  he needed to go to the potty while at my office the other day. So I took him and he went into one stall and I went into the other stall. He's busy peeing and so am I.
He says: 'I hear your penis mummy'
me: 'only boys have a penis Javan'
Javan: 'But I can hear yours'

-------

at my office as well:
'Gosh this place is a mess. These peoples need to vacuum in here.'

------

And his South African blood is coming through more and more ... he's obviously very observant and listens to our conversations. Yesterday he says 'Mummy this house is a bloody mess. You need to clean it.' Yea that one threw me off guard! I assure you I am not teaching my son bad words ... its a pretty common word to use in the other south, but of cos I try not to use it in THIS south ... sometimes I can't help it!

~Veryll

Six and Counting

It has been 6 years since I saw my bride-to-be walk down the center aisle of the church. It's still fresh in mind .... feels like it just happened today. We embarked on an adventure that has had it ups and downs but to be honest, there is no other person I would have wanted to be on this journey with.

How is it possible for a person like me to be so blessed and loved by someone like my bride? She is the best addition to my life and as a mother she exceeds all my expectations of what I imagined the mother of my kids to be.

To celebrate this milestone, we went to ...

This was our first time there and it was definitely a memorable and fun experience. And thanks to restaurant.com we didnt break the budget! Veryll ordered the signature plate (salmon, shrimp, chicken, steak) and I had the seafood trio (salmon, shrimp, scallops). We enjoyed cooking and reflecting over the last six years.

the various dipping sauces

No fondue experience can be complete without a little chocolate. We tried the Chocolate Smores (chocolate and marshmallows with graham crackers .... are you hungry yet?)

This is what it came with:

rice crispy treats, graham crackers, strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, pound cake, brownies, cheesecake. wow. it was delightful.

I am looking forward to the next 6 years and beyond. I feel like we have just begun this journey.

Jermaine

A Perfect Day

I had such a wonderful day today that I just wanted to freeze time! J had to work and since I was off, I wanted to enjoy my day instead of staying home. I went for a run in the morning (yay for me time!) and had initially planned to go out for a little bit with the kids and then come home, put them down for naps and then clean. Well we left home around 10:45 and didn't get back til about 7:30pm!

I've been wanting to go shopping for a while .... I had a few gift cards from Christmas that were just aching to be spent and there were so many sales going on, I really didnt want to miss out. So we headed to the 'big' mall, ate lunch (Javan says, 'Mummy I get to eat Chix-fil-eight and you get to eat Subway eat fresh!') and walked around, shopped a bit and walked some more. I loved that I was so relaxed and really had no place specific to go so we took our time. I didn't get to go all the places I wanted to but it was still fun. A bonus was that both kids were really great and I didnt need to stress about meltdowns! One of my fave memories of the day was in the dressing room at NYCO. I was trying on clothes and both kids were sitting on the floor just playing .... it was nothing fancy but something of that memory was just simple and sweet.

Of cos no trip to the mall is complete without some time with the trains so we spent a good chunk of time at Barnes of Nobles (thats what Javan calls it). And, just cos I can I'd like to give myself a pat on the back for mastering this whole nursing in public thing ... don't worry no one got flashed and no one even knew I was feeding Ria so i do feel like a pro now:)  We made a quick trip to Babies-R-Us and then got some groceries and headed home. As you can see, the activities for today were nothing special, but just getting to do something I rarely do (shop for myself, spend an unplanned day with the kids and not rush from place to place, etc) made it really memorable.

And it got even better when we got home and after supper, I got to watch The Bachelor .... with my hubby. He actually asked me to wait on him so he could watch with me!!!

~Veryll

Mama's Girl

I'm not really sure why everything for little girls always says 'I love daddy' or 'daddy has my heart' or daddy something or the other. Ria loves her daddy and she will most likely sport some of this stuff every once in a while.  
 

I always hear people talk about mama's boys and daddy's girls but never anything about mama's girls. 

 Well our baby girl is 100% a mama's girl. 

  

 J actually mentioned this to me so I'm not thinking this up on my own!  I know some of it has to do with separation anxiety. I really miss her during the day and I can tell she does too. It could be the fact that since I am not with her all day, when I am with her I dont necessarily want to put her down. And, it could also be the fact that she knows mama has what she wants (ie her milk!). When she sees me enter the room, she gets really excited and starts waving her hands. She keeps her gaze on me and will follow me around, until I pick her up. When I sit down to play on the floor with her, she leaves the toys and scoots right to me and pulls up and wants to get in my lap. When she started doing this, it was the first time I noticed Javan get a little jealous. He would ask if he could be my baby. I had to remind him that he is my baby and that I have two babies. So, I let him sit in my lap while still holding her and told him I had both my babies with me. The other night I handed Ria to J and he was holding Javan. Javan says ' Daddy, now you've got all your babies with you!'

Now that Javan is in the 'I want my daddy' stage, I have to admit Ria's affinity to me is pretty sweet. I know this can change at any time so for now I'll just eat it up and take all the baby girl loving she's throwing my way:)

~Veryll