Best of 2011 Video

2011 has been a good year.  We got to go on lots of fun vacations,  Europe with Alexis, San Francisco with Darryl and Vancouver with Lori and Mackenzie.   The boys are at a really good ages, they can do most things for themselves and so are not totally dependent on us, but still love to spend time with us.  Lucas is at an age where he is learning new things and that is very fun to watch.  Although it can also be very hard to watch too.  But in all instances it has taken time but he figures it out.  I guess that is the joy of kids, they are resilient and always bounce back.    Here is some of the best pictures of the year.

Christmas 2011

Well as quick as it comes up, it is gone again. It was fun and uneventful and filled with all the luck and love that is in my life. I really am a lucky person to have such a great family. And when my house is filled with noise and happiness and laughter that is the best present I could ask for. Here are some of the picture highlights of Christmas day:

This picutre is Lucas and Nathan playing Nathan's new leapster.  Although I think Lucas has played it more then Nathan, Nathan usually watches so hopefully he is learning by watching and will play with it more as the year goes on. 

Of course one of the big stories this year was Steve Jobs passing. Darryl got the book for Christmas but I think everyone in the room wants to read it. 

 We got lots of Lego for Christmas, as it is Darryl and the boys favorite thing.  Here is the boys and Pop doing some building on Christmas morning.

Alexis has moved back to town and we are all so happy to have her around again.  Although no one quite as happy as mom, to have her best friend close to her.

One of my favorite presents was my new ukelele.  It's purple!  Here Lucas is playing it. 

Here's a picture of the adult table at Christmas dinner and below is the kids table.  With there plastic wine glasses and fake wine.

There was some video conferencing with Uncle Arnie and Aunt Lucille. 

And Matt hanging out with his favorite teaser

And myself, Darryl and Tammy cleaning up after dinner.

And Alexis's turn to build some lego

And the boys turn to build some Lego. 

I hope you all had a fun Christmas filled with love and laughter and good food.

Till Next Time

Jenn

November Round Up

By god, two posts in two days!  While posting about Torin today it reminded me I hadn't done my November roundup. 

That being said, maybe there's a reason.  As I went through the pictures of November I saw there was very few.  November is my least favorite of all the months.  Blah, it's dark here will 8am and then it gets dark again at 4:30.  But here is the a quick update on things we did do:

We have been attending swimming lessons which is going well for both boys.  Lucas was put in a more advanced class, so even though he's not the best in the class, he's being pushed more, which is a good thing for him.  He is working on both his front crawl and back crawl, plus diving in. 



We did go to some birthday parties and Christmas parties.  Which was lots of fun.  Nice for the boys to get out and have some fun and exercise.

I did go for a job interview which was a good experience as I haven't done that in a while. Although the idea of the job did consume my thoughts for 4 days straight. 

The boys are both doing well, Lucas has got more use to school which is good.  Nathan continues to be his funny self.   They continue to love Phineus and Ferb and oatmeal and chicken and guns and their imaginations and their Dad (especially Lucas, who wants to spend every evening playing videogames with Darryl.)

Till Next Time

Jenn

Torin

On Friday we had to put Torin down.  About a week before he stopped eating and when we took him into the vet we had blood work done and saw that his kidney's had stopped functioning.  As most of you know, you can't function without kidneys so we knew his days were numbered.  He continued to go downhill to the point where he was barely responding to us.  We knew he was suffering with not eating and so we talked to talked to the vet and decided it was best to send him off to kitty heaven.

Torin was a great cat.   He was the super friendly one.  He loved to be outside and would make friends with anyone outside (or inside if they came in).  He was the one who played with the kids and the one you could

 He was also very photogenic.

 And him and Emma were quite good friends.  They would play together all the time.  At first I use to worry about it as Emma is a dog, and bigger, but Torin had the claws and had no problem using them if he needed them.  I think Emma will miss Torin as much as the rest of us.  Just having that presence in the house. 

 Torin also had no problem sleeping right on us.  Or sleeping right in my face. 

Just over a year ago we said goodbye to Tigger.  She was a great cat and it was really hard to make that decision and the decision with Torin was just as hard.   The house feels empty without him here.  When Tigger died we still had a cat around and there was the cat presence.  Now there is no cat and I can really feel it. 

Till Next Time

Jenn