Weekend Update: Beaver Edition

We had an "ok" weekend. Just "ok" because Ian and I are still sick. I have a cough and my ears remain blocked. Ian is almost constantly coughing. But he is trying to get in with his doctor today and I have an ENT appointment on Friday. Emma is good... finishing up her antibiotic and she seems much better. 

On Saturday, Emma did her usual check of the front yard... 

We went to get asparagus and briefly stopped to see the piggies. 

We also barbecued on Saturday and Emma felt the need to relocate the barbecue cover.

She's obsessed with shoes. She'll desperately try to put on her own shoes.. Ian has found her standing in his shoes.. and this weekend she tried on my flip flops.

On Sunday morning, we were hanging out in bed with Emma. I walked into the bathroom and heard Ian start screaming "There's a beaver!!! There's a beaver!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". Sure enough.. there was a beaver walking down the sidewalk. He looked pretty wet, like he had just stepped out of his pond. He walked up the sidewalk, across our neighbor's lawn, back down the sidewalk, crossed the street and headed back towards the big pond in our area. Oh Canada.

We've added numerous games to our collection over the last month due to Ian's birthday and Mother's/Father's Day. We did some reorganizing and Emma helped. [She's actually playing with a bunch of "her games". They are empty boxes that we've filled with punched cardboard. Very entertaining for her.]

Someone Explain It To Me

Why does Emma feel the need to spit at the waterfall???

Too Cool

It's the weekend! Oh boy, do I need a good weekend. Emma's ready. She's got her shades on. :P

Dining Room Transformation

This post is 5 months late. January and February were spent enjoying the remaining Mat Leave time with Emma. March was spent with my family and celebrating Emma's birthday before heading back to work. April was the start of our illnesses, plus a trip to California. May was the worst month we've had in a really long time. June is all about getting back to normal! So yes.. this post is 5 months but.. better late than never? :) 

---

For Christmas, I requested a storage solution for our board games that didn't include the entertainment center cabinets. This led to a long debate between Ian and I about our future house plans. We were allocating a gaming space in the basement.. but how far away was the renovation? Probably too far away to justify waiting on gaming storage.

We planned our house around having a dining room. Not many people have one these days.. we wanted one because my family comes to visit and we'd like to eat around a table (when we aren't going out to a restaurant!). Plus I think it's nice to have a big table handy... for me I can use it for crafting. It's helped "stage" big excursions. I can spread out around the holidays and get a bunch of wrapping done. But outside these uses, the room wasn't used often. I floated the idea of turning it into our gaming room. It can still be used as a dining/crafting/staging/wrapping room... but now we have a great space for tabletop gaming.

I'm lucky I have a brother-in-law who doesn't like outstanding projects.... Here's Drew in his jammies after he put it together. [blurry] :)

Putting it in the space.. [you can tell how late this post is just by the mini Christmas tree..]

Ian rehanging the Tree artwork. Something is slightly wrong with the left canvas.......

Here it is filled with games. We have added many more to our collection... but still need to keep some of the bottom rows empty due to DestructoBot-5000.

Finally, a view of the whole room - best view I could get. Since this picture was taken, Ian and my brother-in-law added a plug to put a TV above the shelving unit. This way I can easily put on music or a football game while we play.... or dwarven mining music if we're playing Rockwell... :)

I'm posting this now... because this weekend is our first BOARDGAME WEEKEND EXTRAVAGANZA that we've had in a really long time. :D

State of Our Union: Viral Edition

This saga started back in March. I got prepared to go back to work. My family visited for Emma's birthday. The following week Emma entered daycare part time and we settled into our new routine. The next week we came down with the norovirus. It was the most violently sick 48 hours of our lives. We had a week or so of semi good health and then were hit with regular colds. No big deal. We headed to California for a visit - Ian got sick 2nd day, me the 3rd and Emma the 4th.

 

We returned to Canada on May 2nd. Over the next 3 weeks, we battled a bad virus that let strep throat take a ride. Ian came down with pneumonia. All of us got eye infections. May was a really hard month. I feel for anyone dealing with chronic illness. It's hard to see the light at the end of tunnel but I believe we have turned a corner. Ian is mostly back together. My eyes are getting better but I still have a sore throat. It's nice to be functional again. Emma was the healthiest of our party. Her appetite is back and is now just working through cutting some teeth.

 

We had a really good weekend of running errands and enjoying the rain. I'm looking forward to life getting back to normal. Tonight Ian did the normal thing and read to Emma after her bath. :)

 

 

 

 

My Little Ducky

Status Update: Both Ian and I are feeling worse. I have viral conjunctivitis (fml). Emma seems to be better. She hasn't slept through the night in awhile... but maybe that's because we've babied her a bit while she was sick. She might be used to seeing us at 2am. We are somewhat hopeful that the curse that has been laid upon our house will lift soon. :\

Emma's Got Hair

Normal postings should resume once we stop being sick. For now, enjoy some pictures of Emma's awesome hair. Curly Girl! 

First Snow Experience

In the beginning of February, we finally got enough snow to take Emma outside and throw her in a snowbank. It was right before her nap so she was a little less than thrilled. It was still fun for us. :) [Sorry the pictures and video are kind of dark... the sun had dipped behind the houses.]

First time sitting in the snowbank out front. 

Kind of ridiculous looking... :)

She seemed curious but reserved... lol.

Her snowsuit was a little big on her.

She started to get into it...

What...?

Yes, I'm having fun. :P

Here's Ian forcing her to slide...

...and a slow slide. :P

When we brought her back inside, she was little rosy cheeked! ...and crazy looking. :)

Christmas Recap

[Still not too late to talk about Christmas right?] The picture above was our Christmas card. It took about 5 million pictures to get 1 that looked okay to use. I think it turned out nice.. but man, is it hard to capture a moving target on camera! Below is a slideshow of everything we tried. The moose was going to be a last resort.

Before my family arrived, we got the decor ready. We put Emma in her snowsuit for the first time since it was so cold out! She was less than impressed. 

But she looked pretty cozy in her car seat!

We put her in the snowsuit because we usually spend an hour walking around the nursery looking for a tree. We spent all of 5 minutes picking it out this year. :| She was a little freaked out when we loaded it up.

She's okay! :)

Back at home, Ian worked on getting the lights up...

Emma seemed to enjoy the tree. Thankfully for most of the time it was up, she seemed slightly scared of it. :)

I made this cool video using the Kringle app. Santa visit our house!!

On Christmas Day, Emma was little more interested in it...

...but also a little tired. :)

Ian and Em got to work on their stockings.

By far, the cutest thing was her inspecting her big gift. Adorable!

Later that day, Pops turned Emma into a present. :P

Emma enjoyed her gift from Pops and Mamie - an Elephant Car! :)

She then "helped" Pops put together his new popcorn machine.

Here's Ian and Emma hanging out during the Matheson Family Christmas Party.

We got to meet Ian's Cousin's new baby, Noah. Emma had a knack for making him cry. :P

Christmas 2014 was a wonderful time. We got a ton of gifts - almost all of them games. :D I got to spend time with my family which I am always super thankful for. We visited with Ian's extended family. It was really nice. Christmas is different when you have kids... but just seeing Emma light up looking into the bag makes me realize how much fun the future will be!