17/52 - A Portrait a Week

Such concentration from my little chocolate chip cookie helper.
His favorite part of helping is definitely licking the beaters! 

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013."

Big Brothers Are The Best

Yesterday I witnessed three of the cutest big brother moments I think I will see between now and baby's birth next month.

First was yesterday morning James came running upstairs while I was on the phone and kept saying "Mom, excuse me" over and over again. I kept motioning for him to wait a minute and he wouldn't stop. Finally I said "what do you need James" and he reached up to my bare belly and said "I just wanted to say good morning to the baby"  Aaaawwww...it was adorable, although I didn't believe him for a second because I know he just wanted my attention because it wasn't on him when he wanted it, but boy was it ever a cute moment at the same time!

Second was after supper when Jim and I were going upstairs to the baby's room to raise the crib mattress back up to the top and getting things organized. James of course wanted to help and was so excited when Auntie Shirley stopped by to show her the room (after he showed her his room of course!) Here is a photo of James "helping" Daddy put the crib mattress back in after we had finished raising up the platform. I cannot believe how close we are to baby being here!

The third and best one was when he brought me his bedtime story books and I realized that for the 10th night in a row we were going to read the new book he got for his birthday called Big Brothers Are the Best. In a matter of just over a week he has fallen in love with the book and honestly the book has helped. He is happy when we talk about the baby and we are getting a lot less "no's" when people ask about whether we are having a baby soon :o) This book is truly so cute and I couldn't believe two nights ago when he literally "read" me the whole book from memory. Last night I did my usual read through of the book, and then he said "we read it again Mom?" and I said sure but you read it to me...and so he did! The WHOLE BOOK! Then Daddy came downstairs and he read it again to both of us. I want to send a great big huge thank you to the wonderful Bumma who bought it for him because he absolutely LOVES it and I plan on reading it every single night he will let me before baby is born.

Here is what it looks like if anyone out there is looking for a great Big Brother book. It is certainly the best one we've read, and the best part is that it doesn't really identify the gender of the baby, unlike all the other big brother books we've seen where they ALL have little sisters (Franklin, Berenstain Bears, and the Little Critter).

More Memories of Grandma Tracy

Ever since Tracy's sad passing 3 weeks ago I've been wanting to go through our old photos of the McEwan family that we got from Grandpa before he passed away. I went through the box the other day and found over 30 photos of her that were great so scanned them and here they are. We have tried to caption them the best we could and think they are in approximate order of her life.

I may have not known her nearly as well as I would have liked as over the past 10 years her relationship with Jim had often been quite strained but I do appreciate the love she had for us and the care and concern she always showed when asking how we were doing. She was so excited to be a grandma again in May and I am absolutely heartbroken that she won't be here to meet her new little grand one. We will make sure her grandbabies always know who she was and she will definitely never be forgotten.

High School Photo

  

Tracy with her paternal grandfather

  

A favourite photo of mine of Tracy with her wonderful father Doug and his parents, her grandparents

 

She was such a beautiful lady 

 Grandpa walking Tracy down the aisle on her wedding day

This photo makes me giggle...Tracy and Colin on their wedding day

Tracy with Doug's second wife, Corrie

As a young mom with her firstborn, my adorable hubby Jimmy

 

Just a few years later with Tommy as a baby

 

  

Happy times with Tommy, Corrie and Doug

Christmas hugs with her boys

Some of my favourite photos of Tracy and her boys, playing in the leaves at Bowen Park.
Jim says this is one of his most vivid childhood memories of his Mom.

 

Tracy with Bill McFarlane

Another great photo of her, Jim says it was taken on Grandpa's boat

With her best friend, her doggie Ben

In Grandma's backyard with Tasha and Ben

 

Two more favourites of her with the boys as they are getting older

With Grandpa and Bonnie at Jim's graduation

Family photos at Tom's graduation

A GREAT photo of Tracy with her sister Bonnie

Here is the copy of the obituary that ran in the Nanaimo News Bulletin on Thursday, April 11. Written by her sister Bonnie and her mother Dorothy.

16/52 - A Portrait a Week

This photo is one of those ones that the second I took it I knew it was going to be my photo of the week. The light, his smile and the love I feel in my heart when I look at it, I just knew that it would be one of my favorite photos to be taken of him this year. 

Now that he's turned 3...as he tells everyone "I turned to 3 the other day"...he just seems so grown up to me. Maybe it's because Baby #2 will be here within the next 5 weeks, but I'm just feeling emotional about him growing up.

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013."

More of James's Birthday Memories

I finally got around to picking up the memory card from my parents camera and realize that my Dad took a ton of photos and videos at James's party that I hadn't even seen him taking. I love that now that he has a camera he is thinking about capturing memories too. For many years if I didn't take pictures at a family event there were none taken. I like that that is different now!

Here are some of the pictures he took:

Big hugs for his best buddy Diesel

  

Clearly not happy for a photo with Nana & Mommy

  

A closer up of the one I posted in the first blog post

The kids have arrived and the fun with balloons has started

And my mom is clearly in her glory again, here she is holding Baby Ella Lawry

Me holding Tye Doxsee while Maddie Tassell sleeps in her car seat behind us

A GREAT photo of Dad & Melony

And one of Colin with his two mini-me's. I used to think Jim looked a lot like Colin until I met Melony! 

4 ladies holding babies, Katryna Lawry holding Tye Doxsee, Alena Devlin (due in July) holding Adayah Burton, Nana Jo holding Maddie Tassell, and Bumma holding Ella Lawry

She took a turn holding all of the babies

Present opening time

Once he got that backpack he didn't want to take it off

Here is the ad that I put into the Friday Weekend Shopper for this year's big birthday.

Video of us singing Happy Birthday to James

Video of our awesome Angry Birds game in action!