Canada Day

Oh Canada Day, your are one of my favorites! This year the actual day found us on the road en route to Idaho for a family reunion (more on that later). 

I couldn't let the opportunity to celebrate pass us by, so we celebrated in August.

I had found awesome Photo Booth props and was too excited to not use them.

And Matt printed the Biebs off for me because he's awesome. 

 My sister and parents had mailed me poutine and chocolate supplies so I couldn't eat them all on my own... 

We enjoyed Canada Dry, Nanaimo bars, Poutine, Ketchup chips, Chocolate bars, and other things. But really who needs anything more than Poutine and Nanaimo bars?

I didn't take any pictures of the decorations or the food, which is too bad because they were awesome.

I did however take pictures of these cool cats

Our neighbors Mary, Vake and Gill

The Mencl's 

The Trejo's

The Phair's

Our neighbors: The Rooney's 

The Olsen's

The Steven's

The Johnson's came down for this grand occasion from Portland.

We were so happy to see them! 

The cat was out of the bag, officially, about our move and I spent a lot of time holding back tears. I am going to miss every single one of these people terribly. 

Good friends are hard to find and we have been so lucky here.

so, what's new with you?

I think we can all agree that I'm basically the worst at keeping this blog updated, so lets just move past that.

A lot has been happening for our family in the last few months. So here's a quick update:

Since moving to Klamath Falls, last August, I enrolled in school. I've been working towards my set aside goal of becoming a dental hygienist. I've been doing really well and enjoying it more than expected.  I am currently done with summer classes and have a longer break until Fall term starts up. I wouldn't have been able to do so well without Matt and his willingness to help and support me in my goals. Another large shout out goes to my 3.5 year old for still taking a two hour nap at the same time as his brother. It would have been impossible without these two things. 

Oh, and we bought our first home in February.

We've been DIY-ing up a storm and I've been realizing how much I dislike DIY in general. 

Here's what it looked like before

Our first project was the new roof (we did not DIY this).

Roofing is loud and messy. 

Second project was the stairs. As you can see they were not pretty or safe.

William idolized our carpenter and he was kind enough to let William watch most of the time. 

Now they are both pretty and safe. 

Even though I had absolutely nothing to do with the actual construction of the stairs, the process was  exhausting.  I learned that I've watched too much HGTV and have unrealistic expectations on time lines... Without the Property Brothers, things take much longer. 

This is my favorite room in the whole house. I have always wanted a formal dinning room (to display the china from my grandmother) and having one is just as awesome as I thought it would be. 

I love it mostly because every night we get to see the most beautiful sunsets.

My other favorite thing would have to be our front door. Call me crazy but I love a good door. This one comes with an old mail slot. William retrieves the mail each day and thinks it's pretty magical. I do too. 

My Dad and I recently painted the front door yellow on the outside and I love it. 

Here's our living room with bare walls. I have such commitment issues when it comes to hanging pictures. I have yet to collect exactly what I'm looking for. 

I am envisioning a large mantel with christmas stockings right now... 

Here's the before

Here's our kitchen, for which I have big plans.

Those doors are another favorite feature because they open right up to the backyard and let me keep and eye on the boys while I'm cooking. 

All of my extra moments go towards schoolwork and painting. We have painted almost every room in this house and all I have to say is that Painting. Is. The. Worst.

I never want to paint again. 

Despite my feelings about painting, working on our home together has been rewarding and even sentimental. 

BUT... now we are saying good-bye.

I did not expect to love Klamath Falls as much as I have. I did not expect to make such wonderful forever friends. I didn't ever want to leave Oregon, unless it meant moving back to Canada and when we bought our home we expected to be here for another 5-7 years. 

 About a month ago Matt got a call from a previous employer (from two of his internships in Salt Lake) and they said that they had a position for him... in Florida.  At first we laughed, then we considered it, then we flew there to check it out and somehow we decided it was too great of an opportunity to pass up. 

So in about a week, we are moving to St. Cloud, FL just Southeast of Orlando.

Just when I thought we were done moving all the time...

Sad to say good-bye to this street

So there it is, that's whats new with us. 

Paul Turns One

 I am a second child 

and therefore I am sensitive to the struggle second children have. Less pictures, hand-me-down clothes that don't fit,  second hand bikes outgrown by an older sister. Older "cool" friends coming over and not being allowed to play with them, going to bed earlier than a sibling, I could go on. 

Say what you will about birth order but let me tell you...

The struggle is real. 

I had high hopes for myself when I was pregnant with Paul. No second child clichés I swore. 

I have failed.

So, so badly.

Happy Birthday, Paul! We got William a new car seat so that you could use his old one!! 

Promise you'll forget about that and if you ever read this, I'm sorry. 

While talking to my mom on the phone about Paul's upcoming birthday we decided that I had better destroy all pictures of William's first "over the top birthday party" or pull up my sleeves for Paul. 

I mustered up all my strength and found my inner first-time-mom-ness to bake him a sugar free cake. 

I wanted to make him a mini cake but couldn't find a cake pan small enough in the .2 seconds I gave myself to plan. So, I did what anyone would do,

I used an empty tuna can.

 #nailedit

 Chicken of the Sea does not sponsor my blog but let me tell you, it made the perfect little cake for my babe. 

Tuna can for the win!

I'm getting ahead of myself. We started the day off with the our family tradition, 

shirtless pancakes.

Paul looks like he got punched in the nose due to a basketball/walking/pavement/older bother incident 

Pretty much every birthday meal deserves a candle 

and of course what Paul gets, William NEEDS

Not only does this picture illustrate my sons model qualities, it highlights a diaper on the table.

I am an awesome mother 

Looks like I cleaned up my act for the re-take. 

Paul, 

Please forgive your mother for not documenting your life in as much detail as your brothers!

You are the sweetest little squish around!

You are sensitive and kind. 

Observant and smart. 

Adventurous and daring. 

You're quick to laugh and smile. 

You snuggle with me all the time.

You still peacefully fall asleep in my arms at church (I love you for this)

You would eat one million raisons a day if I let you and I would, if it weren't for the diaper later. 

You look, act and behave older than you are.

You love music and will dance and clap and laugh when you hear a tune you like.

You love your brother and think he is the funniest.

You are sneaky and unroll the toilet paper at the earliest opportunity. 

You are social and dislike being alone.

You are still happy if you're tired but

if you're hungry, you're a bear

You like to cuddle stuffed animals and will scream with excitement when you see them in the store.

You say, car, doggy, bubble, water, milk, amen, no, bravo, hello, bye-bye 

Happy Birthday, Paul. Let me take a million pictures of you on laundry day.

Matt met us for lunch and then we went to the jumping castle

because I thought that would be fun for a one year old

 It was super fun for a three-year-old...

I also hadn't chopped of your mullet yet. 

By this point, Paul had been walking for a little over two months.  The inflated plastic however, was still a big hurtle for the little dude. 

   

I'd say he was only minorly traumatized 

He kept looking at me like, "Why did you take me here mom?"

All he wanted was that giant bear

 The rest of us had fun though

And now what you've all been waiting for, 

the sugar free tuna can cake!

For the record, William and Paul preferred this cake over the chocolate cupcakes I made for the party. 

And of course,

William's 

 That night we had a little cake celebration and I cried myself to sleep. 

How is my baby so big!

I don't remember being this emotional when William turned one.

Was I?

That weekend (Valentines Day) we had a little party. And I do mean little because our apartment (although twice the size of our last) only fits like 5 people in it.  I tried to get a few baby friends for Paul but again, I think William had more fun.

I tried

Happy Birthday sweet Polly Ollie