Just for Laughs

My friend Becky asked on her blog what made us laugh...well, this video sure does. Turn on your sound, it's more of an audio clip...Karina singing in the tub...it's usually super loud because her ears are under water and totally hilarious because she makes it up as she goes.

Aidan's Birthday Part 2

Sunday was Aidan's 2nd birthday! We had grandparents over and our close friends, the Presbys for lunch and cake. Thank-you Presbys for much of lunch and thanks to Grandma MacLeod for an awesome cake!

Opening gifts.


Grandma MacLeod's awesome Mickey cake---Malcolm's mom made him the same cake when he was little!


I love these pics, Aidan's clearly thinking about blowing out those candles...we did not sing happy birthday before, but just said happy birthday because of Aidan's aforementioned hatred of the birthday song.


Should I?


Nah.


Aidan is cracking up laughing at my dad in this one.


Scott and baby Ethan just too tired.


Harry Potter glasses? I guess not with the flip-up sunglasses.



Ethan with those cool shades!

Aidan's Birthday Part 1

My friend Mariluz is simply amazing and took the charge in arranging a birthday party for Aidan at the park. It was such a blessing for us---I've been so busy and just plain distracted since my Mom died that I was and still am super grateful for my friends giving a super-fun party for my little guy. Here are some pictures from his Wednesday party:

All of the kids.


Joshua, Melody, Karina, and Vanessa serving up "ice cream" (aka woodchips) at this "ice cream counter."

2 little monkeys: Karina and Melody


Aidan just having fun.

OK, so my son is a little different. He strongly dislikes the happy birthday song. This video shows his reaction. FYI, he also dislikes ice cream!

Park Day Pics

A Thursday at the park:

Karina's First Bike Ride

Karina's birthday is New Year's Day---it's sort of tough on the gift-giving front since Christmas is a mere week before. This year, we decided to give her a bike for her birthday so she would have something new for the spring and this past week, we broke it out. Here's my four-year old on her first bike ride:

Mom

Most of you who read this blog know that my mother, Dawn Rena Landry, was diagnosed with lung cancer last May. She passed away last Wednesday, April 16th at home. She was 49 years old. This is the most recent picture I have of her (my mom wasn't one to pose for a photo, this is at Christmas dinner at our house with my dad, her husband of 31 years--since she was 18.)

In the summer of 2006, my mother's sister, Lora, passed away. She also fought cancer and although my mother's family had not been close, my mother worked from the time of her sister's illness to her own death on repairing hurts and putting her family back together. In some cases, over a decade had gone by without family seeing eachother or keeping in touch. Since she was sick, she let us know what she wanted in the way of memorial and here are some pictures from the Memorial luncheon we had on Saturday. It was exactly what my mother wanted--her family together, sharing fond memories, listening to her favorite music, outside on a perfect spring day.

Malcolm, me, my Dad, and Uncle Joe.

My cousin Angel's daughter Lily in the wagon with Karina. They released balloons for grandma and Aunt Dee.

My mom's siblings and mother: brother Joe, sister Linda, mother Lavern, sister Debbie. You can just see Aidan and Malcolm in the background.

Me with all but one of my girl cousins on my Mom's side: Me, Angel, Brandy, Stephanie, and Jessica.

Thanks mom, for getting your family back in touch over the last couple of years--we all love you!

Friday Night Fun

On Friday, I took Karina and Aidan to play at our friends house. While my husband is still on the 2nd shift schedule to allow for school and accounting work during the day, Erica's husband was spending the evening at the temple, so we figured it was the perfect time to get everyone together (Erica's two oldest kids go to school full day, so they aren't around for daytime visits.)

First here's a picture of the girls in their princess dresses eating ice cream. A trip to the Presby's house usually mean the princess dresses will come out in under 20 minutes. This trip did not disappoint.

Disclaimer: I do not routinely visit my friends homes with my son wearing Spiderman pajamas...his real clothing got wet and we borrowed these...just when I thought he was old enough to not have a spare outfit. Ok, now several people have emailed me to ask if I have any pictures of me. The answer was no before this week. I'm almost always the one taking the pictures and the last photo taken of me was over last summer with the exception of one pj pic on Christmas morning. Anyway, my friend, Erica was kind enough to snap some pictures of me with the kids. I'll work on getting some pics of Malcolm on here soon. I know I'll have some in May at graduation at the latest.

Me with my sweet baby boy!

Can you say cheesey?

Silly girls!

Girls' Day Out

Here are some pictures of

KARINA AND MELODY'S DAY OF FUN!!!

These two adorable little girlies are the only girls in their primary class--outnumbered two to one! I took them out for a girls' day out after preschool last Tuesday---after all, with those odds, the girls need to stick together!

Location, Location, Location

In case any of you didn't know, we live in a townhouse. Our building faces another building of town homes with the parking lot in between us. Now the afternoon sun shines on the front of our house, but on the back decks of the building across from us, so while our back deck looks like this still:

(yes, there is a deck under all that snow), our neighbors across the parking lot are BARBECUING!!!