Long Overdue Zoo Pics

I meant to post these last fall after we actually went to the zoo... my bad. Better late than never, right? We got a membership to the zoo, so I have far more pictures than I could ever throw at you, but here are a few of my favorites.
Poor Michaela tried to hard to get this chicken to eat out of her hand. It kept coming close, but never quite got there.
Storybook Gardens anyone???
Well, who could resist, when faced with a giant statue of an animal with an large gaping mouth, grabbing their kid, sticking 'em in and taking a picture? Personally, I think it's humanly impossible. Nate however wasn't impressed, and while he couldn't quite vocalize it, made it clear that using kids as props for funny pictures is grossly irresponsible. Two seconds after the picture, he hopped out.
No they didn't fall in, but if they had, I would have taken video... Am I a great mom or what!? ;)

Anyway, hope these make up for the scarcity of pictures from us lately... when something remotely interesting happens, I'll post more. Nate's Birthday is the next big event, so you can expect pictures then.

Bonus:

I overheard this the other day and it gave me giggles:

Michaela to Nathanael: Do you know what cotton candy is? It’s like a hairball but made from cotton… (pause) Cotton is a type of fruit.

After a Snowfall

This wasn't taken that long ago, but the snow's all gone now. I can't wait for drier weather though; coming inside now after a walk is a pain since both kids and dog are, more often than not, muddy.

Christmas

This awesome castle and all the neat-o accessories were thanks to the generosity of family back home. Thanks!!!

I just love the look on Nate's face here.

My little Christmas elfs! Aren't they beautiful!

Michaela's Holiday Concert

Consistent with Missie's usual precociousness, she barely paid attention to the music teacher, preferring instead to make cutesy faces for my camera and waving at Mommy and Daddy. It was pretty darn cute!

Thought I'd also include this picture of Nate and me. It was a nice moment.

Halloween - That's Right, I said, Halloween

I know, I know - I'm not the most consistent blogger. Sorry!!! ;) I don't think I ever posted the picture of the kids at Halloween, so I thought I would rectify that now.

I think it would be very, very hard to find a cuter outfit than what Nate's wearing! Heehee.

Introducing...

We are very proud to be able to introduce the newest member of our family,

Tallulah

(LuLu for short) Today we drove over to the Humaine Society where this sweet girl was waiting patiently for a family to take her home. Tallulah is a two year old St. Bernard/Collie mix. She is calm, quiet and completely unfazed by the excited bouncing and over-enthusiastic petting from both Michaela and Nathanael. She is now officially ours! She has looked at the cats with curiosity, but has made no move to enter their personal space. Lulu seems to be the perfect fit for our family and we already love her very much. After twelve years of waiting, it still seems a little surreal to have a dog, but we're very, very happy!

Stained Glass

I was talking to Mom yesterday about my recent stained glass project and I mentioned that I had posted pictures of them on the blog. Turns out I only thought I had posted them, but never actually got around to doing it. Here are most of them, there's one I made for Auntie Donna that I don't have a picture of.

This last one I finished yesterday. It's a gift for Jon's secretary's son who is getting married next weekend. They are devote Catholics and when Jon talked to his secretary, she suggested this pattern because it was meaningful to them. I think they'll like it...

Juxtaposition - I just love that word

Last week's snow came so unexpectedly; my neighbour's flowers were completely unprepared. The result made for some lovely pictures. The snow melted away completely the day it fell, but the flowers never recovered sadly enough. We had a gorgeous day today. Jon mowed the lawn and it was warm enough for t-shirts. You know, the trees haven't even started to change colour yet. (And yes I wrote 'colour' instead of 'color'. I'm a Canadian and sticking to it!!!)

Michaela and I were forced to stay inside though because Missie fell sick yesterday; bad fever, cough, no appetite, chills and aches (Please don't say swine flu... I know you're all thinking it...) She seemed a little better this evening, but we'll keep a close eye on it.

As Aaron mentioned in my last post; we here in Nebraska seem to be serving as an early weather prediction system... if that's the case, get ready for some nice weather, because it's beautiful here today.

An Unexpected Day

I think these pictures speak for themselves. We were woken this morning by the kid's excited squeals of, "It's snowing! Mommy, Daddy! It's snowing!" We crawled out of bed begrudgingly because the house had cooled significantly during the night and ate a hurried breakfast. We had to bring up all our winter clothes from storage as the kids practically bounced off the walls in their excitement. I think I kept hearing the word "Christmas" whispered by both the kids more than once.

Nate seemed to realize that we'd skipped over another important holiday and he stopped saying, "Christmas! Presents!" and started asking, "Halloweenie? Mommy, Halloweenie?" I had to reassure him we hadn't missed it.

It's so weird. Yesterday we were riding bikes and watching the neighbours mow their lawns. The kids were even running around outside in bare feet yesterday. This weather came as quite a surprise!

Of course all good things must come to an end and by the afternoon this is all that was left of the snow. :(

It was fun while it lasted!

Sunny Skies

Can you spot my neighbour's house... I can't. Still, it's really pretty. I keep walking past trying to find the front door. All the windows facing our house are completely covered so I guess privacy isn't an issue.

This is our front door. I took this picture to prove a point. Take a good look at the sky...

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This is an exact recreation of a conversation Jon and I had on Thurday:

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Jon: It's supposed to be rainy this weekend.

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Cara: Oh good! That's nice.

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Jon: Really? Why?

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Cara: Well it's just so sunny here all the time... It's depressing!

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Jon: *looks at wife like she's crazy* Uh.. ok...

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Cara: *realizes what she's just said... thinks about retracting the statement... decides that she actually meant it and sticks by her feelings... is proud to be a Quebecer who is never happy with the weather, no matter how nice it may be*

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So, yeah... let's just say I miss clouds. It rained yesterday and I sat in the front porch and watched it for an hour with a smile on my face. It was lovely and reminded me of home. :)

Today

There's no specific reason for today's post. The kids were playing outside and I decided to get some pictures. The first one isn't Michaela taking a cat nap on the walk-way; she's actually examining a grub. She spent the better part of an hour like this. :)

Yes, Michaela's learning how to dress herself without any input from mommy. Still, she looks pretty darn cute.

That's my guy. The proud American. (do they put something in all their flags that make them flutter majestically every time they're held aloft???)

Moving Day!!!

I thought we should get a quick picture before the insanity of unloading the truck began. :)

Mom and I distracted the kids while Jon and Dad unloaded. They were helped by a wonderful woman named Marie who is Jon's new department's secretary and her two grown children. With their help the truck was emptied faster than I ever thought possible. It was quite something.

Unfortunately my previous 'guess' that Omaha has similar weather to Montreal was a little off base! It's HOT!!! And the week we moved in was insanely so. Although, according to neighbours this has been a uniquely cool summer. My response is always... WHAT!!!??? From what I hear, normal summer temperatures stay above 40 Deg. and the humidity is enough to give Montreal a run for its money. Sigh. Well, thank God for air conditioning!!! :D

By now the days are still quite hot, but the evenings and mornings are cooler, which is awesome. It still amazes me how blue the sky always is. We've had about two days with rain and other than that it's been sunny, sunny, sunny. But when it rains... OH BOY! Does it ever rain. Our street is a hill and when it rains, it looks like a river in front of our house. It pours and there's thunder and lightning. It's quite something to watch... which we happily do from inside our dry porch.

This is a picture of two of my best friends, Carrie and Tina, at the Karaoke party my friends threw as a going away celebration for me. (Tina was by far one of the best singers there!!!)

This is a Happy Birthday shout-out to Tina; one of my dearest and oldest friends (It’s a day late, so hopefully she’s also one of my most forgiving friends!)

I met Tina and Cegep when we were 17. I’ve always been impressed by her gentle spirit, her kindness and her devotion to her faith. She is funny, adventurous and so much fun to be around (and she’s a snappy dresser too!)

I remember this one time seven years when Tina decided she wanted to go to Old Navy after church. Yes, this was in the ancient days before there was one down the street at Fairview. She and I hopped in her car and drove to Ottawa, just like that. I loved that impulsiveness and we had a brilliant time.

Tina, over the years you have enriched my life in so many ways, and I know you are a blessing to so many others too. Happy 32nd Birthday. I hope someday we live close enough to be able to share our Birthday parties again! Miss you and love you and I wish you a wonderful year.

Our drive to Omaha was LOOOOOOOOOOONG!... and then some. I don't know what we would have done without Grandma in the back seat entertaining the kids and breaking up squabbles. She has the patience of a saint!!! Thanks Mom. :) May your daughter's undying gratitude and your grandchildren's love and devotion be compensation enough for the hours of therapy you undoubtedly needed after being stuck in the back of a car for over 25 hours with two very noisy, restless kiddies. ;)

Love ya!

My good friend Amanda took these pictures of the kids this summer at a local park. I can't believe how wonderfully she captured these two little troublemakers. I can't get them to sit still long enough! Well, thank you so much Amanda. I can't tell you how much I love these pictures!

Poor Baby!

After almost a year illness-free, this new year brought sickness after sickness. Since January we've had strep-throat, colds, sinus infections, stomach bugs and chest infections. It's been almost non-stop, Michaela missed several weeks of school and Mommy's on the verge of insanity! ;)

The worst was in February when I went in to get Nathanael up from his nap to find him struggling to breathe. The local walk-in clinic gave him two ventolin treatments which didn't help. They had me in a panic because they kept asking me "does he have any family history of allergies or asthma?" I kept telling them, "I don't know, he's adopted!" But they kept asking. It was making me feel like a bad mom for not knowing the answers to their questions. When he didn't improve they sent us to the Children's hospital. He was seen quickly, diagnosed with croup and given some sort of steroid drink to open the lungs. We then had to stay in the respiratory observation room for a couple of long, boring hours. It was such a great hospital though. Over every bed there was an adjustable T.V. that the kids could watch with a DVD slot if you brought your own movie. The kids lay back and watched Tintin.

It was a long exhausting day, but the kids behaved beautifully and we got to do something different as a family!

Biodome

In February I joined another Mom and her two kids for a trip the Biodome. Michaela had been a few times, but this was Nathanael's first visit. He looooooved it!

Yikes, Has it Really Been That Long...?

Sorry I haven't been posting... Life has just been flying by! So here I am, going back to the beginning of the year to share some family fun.

In January we enjoyed a beautiful day at the Ecomuseum with Grandmaman Marthe. We all had a wonderful time despite the cold. :)
Is it just me, or should Jon be holding onto Nathanael... It looks like he's about to dive in.

What a great picture! It amazing what a family resemblance there is between Marthe and Michaela!

First Day of School

Yes our little baby has started school. Where did the time go? So far she's doing great, and making lots of friends.

Wow, I can't believe how fast she's grown. I love watching her grow, but days like this I look at her and miss the little baby I could cuddle and hold all day long.