Risa

Risa has turned two!!!!  I can't believe where the time has gone and my baby is 2!  She has been such a joy to have in our lives.  She is shy (until she warms up to you and then watch out!), sassy, smart, sweet, caring, playful (with a touch of crazy), loves to cuddle, can hold her own and will tell you what she thinks no matter what.  Which in my opinion is her best character trait!  She will take her hair out and undress any chance she gets, loves books, Doc McStuffins (Disney Junior show), loves to pretend she is a princess, loves to run around and laugh and well just be crazy.  She just loves life and she reminds me often that I need to too! 

The things that Risa currently loves to say is:
"don't do that"
"stop it"
"I don't like that"
"I'n scared"
"Mcstuffinsssssssssss"
"Okay Mum!"
"Daddy's home"
"Excuse me"
and my favorite is when I drop Jaxon off at school and she says "Bye, love you"

We have loved our sweet Risa so much and feel so blessed that she is a part of our lives.  We have loved watching her grow up and develop into this beautiful person.  When I put her to bed at night and I am rocking her and singing her song to her and she puts her little head on my shoulder and cuddles up to me and starts to sing with me, I realize that she won't be my baby much longer and that I won't be able to hold her like I do now and I just want to scream "stop growing".  But I know that won't happen and she will only get bigger, but a mum can wish can't she?

 

 

Happy Birthday Risa!

And thank you to all the people who helped celebrate with us!  It was a nice coincidence that it was on her birthday weekend that our friends were here from California and Oregon.

Life

It has been a while since I blogged about anything.  We have been keeping busy though.  From moving into a new place and with Christmas shortly after that and trying to finish up those toy boxes, where do I begin!  Actually it's just me being lazy and losing the will to blog.  It does happen. 
Like I mentioned earlier, we moved into a new place and Jaxon and Risa have their own rooms!!! (insert huge relief here).  It wasn't working out too well with them in one room.  In fact I think that every night I told Bob that we would NEVER have a two bedroom again!  But that can always change, so I won't hold anyone to it.  But for now they have their own rooms! 

We started getting ready for Christmas.  Jaxon was getting really excited for it and pretty much every day he would ask me if it was Christmas tomorrow.  Risa in her own way was excited too, she learned what Santa says and would yell out "Santa" every time she saw him.  It was pretty cute!  This year was the first year that we wouldn't be close to family.  It was sad and in some ways nice not to have to travel and to just really relax and stay in one place the entire break.  However, we do look forward to next year when we will be back around family and be able to celebrate with all of them.

We are still enjoying our time here in Nevada and love it here!  It has snowed and has gotten cold, but I think that it is just breaking us in for next year when we will be back to the FREEZING cold winters in Canada!

The kids in their Christmas attire for Christmas Sunday

All ready for bed and excited for Santa to come!

The tree after Santa came. And no, all of those presents are NOT from Santa, they are from extremely giving family members. And if you look, you can see the finished toy boxes, just in time for Christmas!

 

Risa after opening up all her loot

Jaxon opening gifts

 

 

Risa in her tent that Santa brought her

Risa ended up getting pretty sick on Christmas day, which landed her in the ER.  It was croup, so we laid low for the rest of the break and enjoyed being together.  When she did feel better we went sledding for the first time with the kids, which they loved.

 

Going down the hill for the first time

Bob and I

Jaxon decided that he would try and pull Risa.  He did a good job.

Making snow angels with Dad.

 Life is moving fast, we only have few months left until graduation and then "real" life begins I guess.  We feel very blessed to have been given the opportunities that come with school and the MANY changes that it brings.  So here's to a new year, where school will end and a brand new chapter will begin!

Tables and Chairs

For some of you, you might think that this is a post about a new table and chairs that I found for the our kitchen, but it is not.  The table and chairs are still going strong, minus the chair that literally broke to pieces.  So we now have a folding chair in it's place and it only has less than six months left, so I think that the whole thing can hold on until then!

But the real post is about this table and chairs that I saw online for kids and I thought to myself I could do that.  So before I knew it, I was ordering fabric, the table and chairs from Ikea, finding paint colors then changing my mind about paint color and repainting everything, 900 trips to Lowe's (a bit of an exaggeration, but I think that it was pretty close), ordering the map 3 different times (because the coloring was off) and waiting for it to come in the mail (took about a week each time)  and then only to find out that Office Max just up the road will do it for the same price and better!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh and then after deciding all of this, we thought that we should do two tables instead of one!  ANYWAYS, it is all done now and we have the cutest looking table and chairs for each of the kids if I do say so myself.  I am very proud of Bob and I, because I don't craft and I am NOT crafty in the least, so for me to do this it was a BIG thing.  In fact I think that Bob is more crafty than me and has enjoyed it more than me;)

 So here it is the most beautiful table and chairs you will ever see (and that's the truth, at least I think so!)...



Jaxon's table and chairs

Risa's table and chairs
 

The top of the table is a map of the world and it has hearts in the places that represent where the kids heritage is from


Bob made the map on the computer and we had it made into a poster to fit the table

Originally I was only going to do one table for both kids so we chose paint that would be appropriate for both and that's why Risa's is red, maybe one day I will paint it more girly, just not today.

 

Jaxon's fabric, robots.  Thank you Kristina for letting me know what sites to go to, it was a big help!



Risa's fabric, little woodland creatures

And since I was so pleased with how the table and chairs turned out, I think that I got cocky and said why not do the toy boxes that match... probably one of the dumbest ideas I have EVER had.  We are still working on those and we will see how that turns out. Wish us luck! 

Animal Ark

A few weeks ago we took the kids to a place called Animal Ark.  It's a place where they have animals that they rescued from various places and they now keep them here.  We loved walking around looking at the animals and playing at the park that they had there.  Risa didn't care too much for the animals if she got too close and in fact would hold onto you if she felt they got to close.  Which wasn't that close considering they were caged animals.

Pic with the kids it was cool that morning so we had to bundle up!

Risa being scared of the mountain lion, honestly what's to be scared of... it's just an animal that can run faster than you and possibly eat you.  She did this almost every time she spotted the animal. 

walking through the park

the only picture of the whole family looking at the camera and Jax takes a bite of his apple.  Nice.

looking at the animals, it was hard to get a pic of the animal and the kids, this was the best that I could do.

Leopard

going down the slide with dad

Having fun at the park that they have.
 

The kids enjoyed being able to see the animals and it was really neat to walk around and read about them and how they all got there. 

Other things that have happened in the last little bit, is that Bob has finished his second rotation and is moving on to his third!!!  Wahoo half way done!!!!  And I was able to meet up with my mum, sisters and a few friends in Vegas for a few days with no kids.  Wahoo!!!!  So we are trucking along and we can really see the end now only 6 more months and we are DONE!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!!!  I feel like we have been celebrating this day forever!!!  With party after party, it's the day that just keeps on going.  Anyways, the kids have enjoyed all of the hoop la that goes with it.  Jaxon and Risa enjoyed a ward Halloween party, a preschool party, carving pumpkins, trick or treating and devouring candy every chance they get.  They have had a lot fun and it's been fun watching them enjoy it.

 

Jaxon at the ward Halloween party.  Risa didn't make it she was exhausted and fell asleep before it started. So we stayed home and dad and Jaxon went.

Going through a maze at the party.

 

 We were able to go to a friends house and carve pumpkins, which I have no pictures of.  But I do have pictures of the finished product.



Lighting it up with dad

Jaxon told me that it is red because it has blood ALL over it!   I don't know if I should be disturbed by this or not.

And our happier looking pumpkins that we made at the pumpkin patch



Picture of Risa with food on her mouth and not wanting to get involved in the lighting of the pumpkin.
 

 

And then Jaxon had a preschool Halloween party and this was the treat that we decided to take for him to share with his friends.  And Jaxon informed me after school that there was WAY TOO MANY CUPCKAES!

posing with his skeleton cupcakes

He had a ton of fun at school and loved the different activities that they did.  Finally after all of this it was actually Halloween!!!  So to start off our night, I made a Halloween themed dinner which consisted of mummy pizza's, bone breadsticks, fruit, salad and of course Jack O' Lantern pop.  Or as we like to call it diet orange crush:)

Mummy pizza's

bone breadsticks

Jack O' Lantern drink

and the finished product

Then we were off trick or treating.  After a few houses the kids were done, but being the great mum that I am I kept them going.  I think I now know why my dad kept us going from house to house when I was little on Halloween night, it gets addictive to see how much you can get and the kinds of candy you can get and if you can get the big chocolate bars...uh hum I digress! Anyways they had fun and they loved collecting all the candy and that's what really matters!

before trick or treating.  Thank you Laura for the kitty costume for Risa.

Jaxon blocking Risa's face, nice.

Out trick or treating



at home after all of their hard work

dumping out their loot

they were both VERY excited about this part

 The kids had a lot of fun the last few days and I don't know what they will do now that there isn't talk about Halloween anymore, I guess they will just have to wait for Christmas!  And here is one last shot of how much we enjoyed the candy this year.

Never let your 1 year old eat an entire bag of  M and M's without really monitoring them because this will happen...yum!

Pumpkin patch and other happenings

The last few weeks here in Nevada have been really nice, and I can't believe that we are still wearing shorts and it's the middle of October!  I could get used to this:)  Anyways we had the chance to go to a pumpkin patch not to far from our house on the weekend and the kids loved it.  They had animals, a child size hay bale maze, horse rides, sling shots with corn, a fake garden etc. etc., so needless to say the children had a ton of fun! And here are the pictures to prove it.

Jaxon on the tractor

Risa on the tractor

Jaxon being a "real" cowboy and getting that bull

Risa not really impressed with the whole cowboy thing

in the maze

gardening

Jaxon by the animals, this is the closest he would get.

Bob trying to get him to get closer, it didn't really work

Choosing his pumpkin

Risa found her's.

and the two of them in the pumpkin patch

and last but not least Jaxon got to ride the horse, which he loved!  Risa did  not want to get on, thank goodness for

refundable tickets:)

We have also been getting ready for Halloween and we have the Pajamas to prove it!

They glow in the dark and everything!!!

Also we have had superhero parties under the table, dumped out all of our stuffed animals, had movie night and celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving, just to name a few.

Having snacks under the table in the hideout as superheros.

Every stuffed animal they owned was on this bed.

Ready for their movie night!

Canadian Thanksgiving we had visitors from Aunt Katie, Uncle Mike and Grandma and Papa.

But most importantly, we said goodbye to Uncle Mike for two years, because he is going to serve a mission for our church.  I know that Jaxon will miss him and he prays every night that Mike will be safe on his mission and that he (Jaxon) will be safe too when he goes on one.  So cute! 

 We've had a lot fun the last little bit and are enjoying our time here.  Can't believe we have been here two months already!  Time flies!

I had to throw this one in, because it looks like she is posing for the picture.