Our Fun Family

Oh, we have a sick baby girl! Don't let the silly smile in this picture fool you. She does not feel very good these days. Over the last 24 hours both car seats have needed to be stripped down and cleaned, the crib has been stripped down, the changing table stripped down, the carpets cleaned... oh goodness... She wasn't even able to keep Pedialyte down this morning. We took her to see the doctor this morning and the doctor suspected that she picked up a virus, probably from the nursery at church since thats the only group of kiddos she has been around recently. Fortunately, the virus seems to be winding down. She hasn't been sick since this morning, but she has only eaten cheerios and small doses of juice today. I felt so bad for her. She really has been very good though. She isn't overly fussy when she gets sick. She goes through phases of being a clingy little Mommy's Girl (or Daddy's girl or Gram's girl or Granddad's girl, etc...) and then sh...

A big part of my job involves traveling to other cities where to provide user training for the software we build for credit unions and banks. And while I really enjoy seeing new places, there usually isn't time to hit the tourist spots just for fun. For example, this week I was in "The Sunshine State", at the home of the "Most Wonderful Place on Earth" and home to Shamu and Universal Studios! Yep... Florida. Now just to make sure nobody gets the wrong idea, it rained the entire time we were there. And while there was no time for a day at any of the attractions, there was no way I was coming home without a small momento for Grace. There is not shortage of Disney characters for sale in Orlando, and I knew that Pooh was the right choice for Grace. When I got home on Thursday evening, Brenda and Grace were out to dinner with Gram and friends. I had time to unpack and leave Pooh on the counter top so Grace would see him when she walked in the door. It wor...

Now Richard will probably tell you that he was doing this for the kids... I ain't buyin' that stuff! I am sure that Richard had as much fun as any of the other kiddos on Saturday zooming down the slide and splashing in the pool. It was a wet and muddy start to the party, but in the end, the sun was bright and shining, the kiddos had a blast and so did the parents. I did love this picture. There was no way that I was going to be able to make it up the "ladder" on this water slide. But Uncle Richard did his "uncle duty" and took Grace down. If you look closely through the water drops and splashes, Grace has her eyes closed, but she is smilin'. That didn't last long. The full splashdown scared her pretty good. She spent the rest of the day in the baby "Whale" pool. She did muster up the courage to climb up again, but she fell backwards down the "ladder" and that pretty much ended our day. A little sunburn, late dinner and...

When your Gram is Canadian, it is important to celebrate your heritage on important days, like Canada Day. This is especially true when Gram goes to Canada and brings you back a present, like a red t-shirt celebrating the Canadian Olympics in 2010. Brenda and I both tried hard to teach Grace to say "Happy Canada Day Gram" on Tuesday morning before I dropped her off at Gram's for the day. She has the "Happy" part down, and I think she has the "Day" part. So what Gram got on Tuesday morning was "Happy Day!" I think Grace makes a pretty good Canadian ambassador lounging on Gram's maple leaf pillow. I included this pic, not because it celebrates Canada Day, but because it displays one of Grace's new favorite expressions. She doesn't like to hear the word "No", much like other kiddos, but she sure likes to use it a lot. I imagine this was Grace telling Gram "No smile" or "No picture" or something s...