Adventures with Roy

Friday, November 20, 2009

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Well, inside anyways! It's been very nice outside, so we went for a walk yesterday and Linaya got to ride her bike. She's getting very good at it, and I think we'll be looking for a pedal bike for her early next summer. We walked to the park, where the girls had fun playing in the leaves.

From nov09

Today we decorated the house for Christmas. Linaya was quite into it, and kept saying "This is going to be my best Christmas EVER!"

From nov09

G was enjoying it, too, and I was very glad I bought these plastic ornaments last year!

From nov09

We bought a Fisher Price nativity set this week, and Linaya is enjoying learning about the Christmas story. She is happy to tell you that the angel says "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy." And what is the good news? "A baby! Jesus!" She's pretty cute :)

After our decorating, Linaya wanted to do crafts. I love the look of determination on her face!

From nov09

And the look of satisfaction with a job well done.

From nov09

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Lego man Indiana Jones

I had the opportunity to do a different style of cake from what I'm used to yesterday, for our nephew Kaleb's 8th birthday. Jay came out to work on it with me. First, here's the actual picture of the lego man:

From nov09

and the picture of the Nintendo game

From nov09

And here's our creation before we put the "skin" on:

From nov09

And the finished product:

From nov09

I'm still waiting to hear if the birthday boy was impressed, as his party is today.

fall

This year has been quite mixed up for weather. Sept was summer, Oct was winter, and Nov is fall so far. It's been nice to be able to get out again and enjoy the weather a little. First, here's Linaya trick or treating.

From nov09

I wanted to get some fall pictures, but Gianna wasn't feeling well and Linaya doesn't like to sit still for the camera, so this is about all I got.

From nov09

Gianna did get feeling better now, and was quite smiley while eating her muffin yesterday.

From nov09

Friday, October 30, 2009

Gianna's first birthday!

Her favorite thing is her stuffed sheep, so it was easy to decide on a cake idea!

From oct09

She got right into opening her presents!

From oct09

with a little help, of course!

From oct09

We didn't have a party for her really, we just took her cake to serve after church.

From oct09

That way she got to celebrate with lots of friends!

From oct09

catching up

I just realized as I was loading pictures of Gianna's birthday that I haven't posted any since Linaya's birthday! So here's what we've been up to in between:
The pumpkin maze! It's become an annual tradition for us to meet up with our friends at the pumpkin maze. It's always good for a photo op, but my camera battery died about 10 minutes in. Here are the couple I got.

From oct09

And one from Melissa's camera of the whole crew:

From oct09

Linaya has been practicing her new skates, although we've only had the wheels on so far.

From oct09

We went to a Halloween party at Michelle's for village time on Tuesday, and I made pumpkin cupcakes.

From oct09

Linaya "decorated" her own:

From oct09

She actually did a really good job of putting a face on it, but by the time I got the camera you couldn't tell! I guess it was yummy!
Gianna hasn't been feeling well, and so Grandma Mary got to come stay with the girls on Monday. By Tuesday I thought she was better, but Gianna slept through the whole party! She only stayed awake long enough to eat lunch.

From oct09

Here are the elephants of the party!

From oct09

Linaya was busy at the magnadoodle the other day and then announced "I drew my whole family!" Here's what she drew:

From oct09

Pretty good, I think! I remember Stephen drawing lots of people that looked like this, so she's on a good track!

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Linaya's 3rd birthday-the party

We had Linaya's birthday party at the preschool room of Lakewood civic center. It was a fairly good location, as it had a slide, a playhouse, riding toys, and other toys, and we didn't have to clean our house before and after a party! The kids all seemed to have fun, but when I asked Linaya if she had fun with her friends she answered, "No, there was too much friends, Mom. And I didn't like the place, the slide was too fast. And I didn't like your cake, there was too much icing on it." I think she was just too tired by that point to think it was fun!
Here are some pics:

From oct09

And one more cute one, of Linaya playing Wii fit with us:

From oct09

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Linaya's 3rd birthday cake

As you may remember, when I asked Linaya about what she wanted on her birthday cake she said brown, a circle, and with writing that said "Linaya it's your birthday, come and eat your cake!" Well, I didn't follow the brown part, unless you count what's under the icing! I just finished it this morning, so I decided not to wait till Saturday for her party to post pictures.

From sept09

I got my inspiration from the Tinker Bell music box in the last picture. Kristie gave it to Linaya, and she really likes it. I tried to sneak it out of Linaya's room while she was napping to copy the flowers and colours, and the first thing she said to me when she got up was "Why did you take my TinkerBell downstairs?"

The flowers and leaves are all made from Starburst candies. They were surprisingly easy to work with! I may never make fondant flowers again! The rest of the icing is cream cheese, and the cake is carrot cake.

Gianna's 11 months old...

and wouldn't hold still for teddy bear pictures!

From sept09

This was the best I could get, of Gianna with Sheep. She LOVES her sheep!!!
Linaya wanted to hold Gianna for this one.

From sept09

And of course Linaya needs pictures too. She loves Rascal.

From sept09

Gianna got her first haircut today. I don't have an "After" photo yet, but here's a cute "before" from last night. She only has one tooth, but she can sure eat!

From sept09

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

summer in September

We've had a beautiful September, and been able to spend a lot of time outside.

From sept09

Gianna doesn't walk on her own yet, but she's getting good at pushing her car around.

From sept09

Linaya loves being in the backyard!
Gianna was in the baby crawl a couple weeks ago, which is a crawling race. She was raring to go at the beginning, but once the announcer was done talking she was more interested in the other babies and their toys. She did crawl about half way. Afterward, we found her a Halloween costume though. Doesn't she make a cute flower?

From sept09

This past weekend our family did the MS Bike Tour at Waskesiu again. This was Roy's 8th year, my fourth, Linaya's third, and Gianna's first! It was a beautiful weekend, and warm enough to even swim in the lake! The only pictures we have of the weekend are from the beach.

From sept09

This one's for my mom, who gave us the corn and the corn picks!

From sept09

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

September

I can't believe that the summer is over, and yet it felt more like summer today than it did all summer! We had a beautiful weekend, and then yesterday was the first day of day care for the girls. It seemed to go well. When Linaya woke up, Roy told her she got to go to Roz's house and she didn't want to, but once we told her some of the things she'd get to do, she wanted to go "right now!" When I picked them up they seemed like they were both enjoying it. I asked Linaya if she made new friends, and she said "Mmm hmmm. I have 1, 2, 3, 4 new friends!" Another funny story: Roz teaches baby sign language as a side job, so I asked Linaya, "Did you learn any sign language today?" She said,"No, but I know how to say apple!" I looked in the rearview mirror to watch and asked "How do you say apple?" And she answered, "Like this-- ap-ple"

Here are some backyard pictures from the last couple days, and some of Linaya learning to ride her run bike. She's really catching on to it, and has much better balance than her mom!