The Pictures to Go WIth the Story...

Halloween

My trip to Winnipeg has come and gone, as has October. I know I say it often, but time flies so quickly. At least I've put up some pictures recently!

Halloween went off without a hitch here - Jaden had a blast and only ate a bit of candy! In fact, he woke up this morning and I heard him tell Tyson "Daddy, it's too early to eat candy, right?". Not sure if that was a question, or merely testing the waters to see if Tyson was really listening...
Our Halloween kick-off was a party on the 30th at Jaden's friend's house. He had a blast playing games with four children all the same age. Also, I got a chance to chat with grown-ups for a few hours - neither of us wanted to leave! :)
That night we decorated a gingerbread house: well, I assembled it, and Jaden and Tyson decorated. I'm not going to tell you which one of those two ate candy the fastest . . .
Yesterday, on Halloween proper, we carved our pumpkin. Jaden surprisingly was squeamish about putting his hand in the pumpkin to clean it out. The child will pick up worms, squish bugs between his fingers, but pumpkin goo? Heck no!
All day Jaden asked about when we would go trick-or-treating. I think he would have gone first thing in the morning if he could. But we passed the time by getting a haircut. I am always surprised by how much of a riot Jaden can be in front of strangers. After questioning the hairdresser about curling irons being only for girls, and what the hair dryer was (I guess he doesn't see either of those at home), the subjet changed to the tooth fairy. The hairdresser commented on how he could use money from the hairdresser to go get a toy from the dollar store....to which Jaden confidently replied "I don't think I would buy a toy from there, those toys are junky.". You never know when they're going to come out with these things! As we were leaving, Jaden asked the hairdresser what she was going to be for Halloween, and she said something like "I'm already dressed up as a grumpy old woman", to which Jaden replied "No, you're really nice.". At least he's sweet.

Trick-or-treating was fun. Captain Hook, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell went out for about an hour, and Peter was ecstatic with a small bucket of candy. I don't think he'll be so easily fooled next year. At one house, as Jaden was leaving (he was smart, and left his comments until AFTER he got the candy), he turned around and said "Your steps need painting". The guy at the house was cracking up, thankfully he had a good sense of humour. At the second house, Jaden turned around and said "Your stairs need a railing." I think at first the woman was shocked, but then she said "I've been telling my husband that for years", and then she opened the door and told him what Jaden had said. We just could not help but laugh it was so funny. And then there were the "scary" moments for Jaden.... At one house, Jaden went up the driveway by himself, and they had a motion sensor monster that would shake and make a spooky noise. The look on Jaden's face as he turned and high tailed it back down the driveway was hilarious - I know I shouldn't laugh, but it was SO funny. And finally at another house, the woman had a doormat that howled when you stepped on it. Well, Jaden would not step on any more doormats for the rest of the night. All in all it was a spooktacular Halloween!

Just a few Pictures

Jaden at Badger

We are in Winnipeg at the moment, until near the end of October. This last weekend my mom, dad, Jaden and I went out to Badger - my parents' cabin. I haven't been out there at all since Jaden was a wee baby, and so it was great to go out and visit. I can't believe how much I really missed it there. Jaden of course had a blast and was definitely filthy - "Badger Dirt" we called it. He thought it was great.
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Nyah Nyah Nyah!

I decided to do a quick test of some new software - which makes posting pictures to a blog a heck of a lot easier! Yay! I know I haven't updated in a bit, and this is what Jaden thinks of that.
I will definitely have to play around with Picasa some more. It's awesome.

And then More Pics

Well, I know most people are more interested in the pics than the details! So, without further delay. . .

June and July

Well, it's almost August, and the summer feels like it's starting to wind down. We've had a busy one, and of course I keep thinking "I'll update the blog tomorrow"......and then two months pass by.
June was very busy. I finally got my Green Card, thankfully. So I'm a free woman again, I can travel! Which meant the day after my interview, I was off to Winnipeg. That was a great trip, long overdue, and of course far too short.
Here's some pictures of June. And some pictures of July will come - eventually!

Letchworth State Park

Well, I'm trying to get these pictures up in a hurry so that my parents can see them, so I'm going to leave the description of the day a bit to be desired for now. Yesterday we took a jaunt to Letchworth State Park, and it was beautiful. We had a great time, and look forward to maybe camping there this summer.

And Even More Pictures

Wow, I truly am on a roll...three posts in one month! May is a good month for me!
Our garden was visited by deer yesterday, and so the battle begins. I say Bring It. They thankfully didn't eat anything, not that there's much there I suppose. Maybe they were just scoping it out for later.

Mother's Day was very nice. We went for a drive to explore Lake Erie. The pictures were from our stop at the beach - it's nice to see sand again. I missed it! I'm not sure if anyone ever swims in Lake Erie (I'll have to research the whole pollution thing before we don our swimsuits at this beach). Jaden had a blast chasing sea gulls and looking for seashells. It was a wonderful day.

As many of you know, I am STILL waiting on my travel papers. It's gotten old, this waiting thing. I run to the mailbox every day to look. Had a close call on Monday, but no, it was my appointment to get my green card, set for June. I guess Tyson and I need to prove we're really married or something like that. We're bring Jaden, that should be enough said. At the very least we're hoping his endless questions will hurry things along a bit.

Jaden is doing very well. He's full of questions, and of course saying the funniest things. I always find it interesting when we go out and people ask him a question. I think to myself "now you've done it", because he'll chat them up until I either drag him away or they start answering "uh-huh". It's highly entertaining.

Some more pictures

Well, not a lot of time today, but here's a few more pictures. We're quite busy with the garden this week, so maybe when the rain comes next week, I'll have a bit more time? Who knows.

Also, I'm not sure if the picture of Jaden with his head on the table is Jaden sad or Jaden angry...could be either at this age... :)

More soon!

May?

Whenever I think about updating our blog, I realize how quickly time flies. I had no idea that I haven't put anything up since March...and so much has happened. Snow has melted, returned and melted again! We have leaves on our trees now. Our cats don't hate each other anymore!

Well, perhaps our biggest endeavour to date has been our garden. It's not easy to garden with a three year old. Just two days ago, I was out digging up some grass, and Jaden was playing with the worms. When I looked over and saw him climbing his slide, I asked if he had a worm. He said "Well, I was only going to put it down the slide." . . . I feel bad for those poor worms. Today we'll go out and finish that garden - digging it up that is - and we'll stake out the next. We were supposed to do that yesterday, but someone (small, three feet tall, talkative) was having a bad day and such a project would surely have ended in tears.

We also just finished a visit from Linda, Don and Skip. It was such a short visit, that it flew by in no time. I hope that everyone had a good time - we were certainly very busy. Jaden had a heyday with his nana, papa Don and GG, and he told me he wishes they were still here.

So, the pictures I've picked out this time are mostly Jaden around the house - helping rake the yard (where he got "deliciously dirty" - his own words) , showing off his new ATV, in his cool shades, at the Explore and More hammering away and finally together at the botanical gardens, where we've been twice now. Most of these pictures were taken in April, though I realized we rakes our yard in March - can you believe that?!? Of course, it snowed after that, delaying our garden progress until now.

March and another new addition

Of the feline persuasion!! Here's some pictures of Percy, Jaden , and our newest addition, Fergus. We're enjoying having two cats, and thankfully they seem to be enjoying the company as well (after a couple of sketchy days)!

Please note, in the picture of Fergus and Jaden, those are not scratch marks on Jaden - it's washable marker that wouldn't wash off...
Jaden, Tyson and I have all gotten spring colds this last week (Tyson first...). So Jaden was able to have a popsicle last night. As you can see, it was grape flavour and went over very well.

Introducing....

Here is a picture of our new addition, little Percy. Named for a Thomas the Tank Engine character, his name was by far one of the better options Jaden came up with. Other contenders included "Lumpy" "Blah Blah" "Swiper" "Poop" and my favorite "Boots". Jaden finally decided on Percy (thank heavens for small miracles).



I've also posted a picture of Jaden with his snowman. It did have gumdrop eyes and a licorice mouth, but they disappeared fast...
And finally, Jaden reposing on his couch. He sure loves to recline on the couch.

Jaden's Birthday

Our little Jaden is finally three. Hard to believe how quickly time has flown (and how many places he's lived since he was born). While Shelley was here, we celebrated his birthday complete with a Bob the Builder cake, gifts, balloons and the whole nine yards. The next morning he asked if we could do it again - you know since the balloons were still up.
On his birthday proper, Jaden and I made some cupcakes, which we decorated once Tyson got home. Then supper and presents and getting to eat the cupcakes. We also went cat hunting since that was to be Jaden's birthday gift from us, but had no luck. It's very difficult to adopt a cat in New York!!! Instead we travelled over to Toys R Us for a tour, and I think that was just as much fun for Jaden.
Almost every morning Jaden asks me if he's still three, and when can he have another birthday. When I explain all the other holidays that have to happen he exclaims "Oh Good, I Love Halloween. Is it Halloween now?!?". Not quite what I had in mind. Anyway, here are a few pictures from his birthday.

I Just Noticed

I just noticed that I had some comments on the site! Thanks Serena and Carolyn :) Anyway, just wanted to say I finally saw the comments today. We have built a snowman in our backyard, there might be enough snow for a whole family of snowmen.


The move was really rather seamless, thanks to my sister and her family's help and things coming on different days. We have a lot left to do, but we can live in most spaces for now. Yay!