Double J Photos – Week 7 – Feb 9 - 15

Starting off this week with James and a favorite photo I've taken of him in the past year. Will definitely be framed when I print my yearly faves for the wall.

And now to my happy little hippie boy! James used to wear his hat backwards all the time and called himself a hippie so this day he put Jordie's hat on backwards and giggled when he saw him.

And of course a couple of them together too!

 2014 Double J Photo Project

"Watching my boys grow up right in front of my eyes"

Some adorable big/little brother moments captured

Going to start this post with two pictures from my iPhone that I just love.

James is obviously used to me taking pictures with my phone because he will often grab the iPod and take photos of Jordan at the same time that I do.

And some other also really adorable photos of my two boys together!

James climbing onto my couch to get to the lamp

Jordan watching James climbing up the couch! Oh dear, this is going to be trouble in a year or so when Jordie is able to climb!

And some adorable natural light photos of them playing so nicely together on Jordie's music table. I love these moments so much and makes me so proud to be their Mommy.

New Outfits from Tana

My awesome niece Tyanna loves nothing more than to spoil my boys with new clothes when she can. Here are their latest outfits that she sent to us.

I love this Major Hunk shirt on James and the dark jeans are so grown up looking! 

And Jordie's matching Little Hunk onesie!

This outfit is probably the cutest outfit we have gotten for him in his whole short life. It is a plaid collared onesie and denim OshKosh overalls. Unfortunately the overalls are tight so he may only wear them a few times until he starts getting moving and thins out a little bit!

This shirt was another Tana buy, and coupled with the awesome hat from Melanie and Darren this adorable photo happened!

There are of course more tops from the packages from her and as they wear them I will take pictures and post again with more photos for her to see! Thanks again kiddo for being such a great Auntie to my little guys! We love you and miss you!

Double J Photos – Week 6 – Feb 2 - 8

A bit blurry because it's cropped from a much bigger picture but for some reason I love this shot of Jordie. His big brown eyes just suck me in completely!

He is starting to lose his cheesy smiley faces which is making for some awesome recent shots of James lately.

And my two recent favorites of me and my boys. I especially love the selfie one of me and James.

New favorite photo that will be framed for sure!

 2014 Double J Photo Project

"Watching my boys grow up right in front of my eyes"

This kid is gonna kill me!

Yes....this handsome, adorable, funny, and awesome little man is going to KILL ME!

Oh dear, another edition of James's bad language (well actually maybe that should be Mommy's bad language) hits the blog!

Last night we are all sitting around the table at my parents for Sunday family dinner and James comes out with this gem:

"Hey guys, I have to tell you sumfing" so we all say "okay buddy what is it?"

"A mumth ago, my mom said an adult word to Dane and that word was...FUCK!" Just like that...with the pause and a cheeky little smirk at me when he said it.

Mom, Dad, Ang and Mowat just burst out laughing while I sputtered and tried to contain myself enough to give him trouble. Uncle Larry just kind of kept eating and kept his giggling to a minimum. 

Through my laughter I said to him "Uuummm...I don't deny that I could have said that word but I don't think I said it to Dane" to which he replied "Oh yes you did, at the hockey game"

Oops! He busted me on that one. 

On Friday night (which was 2 nights before, not a mumth ago like in his world) we had walked out of the arena after the game and I said "holy f**k it's cold out here" and yes I will admit that Dane, Theresa and James were all there and yes Dane did giggle when I said it but I assure you I did not outright say that word directly to my little buddy Dane :o)

Oh yeah, and then immediately following the F word debacle and in between all the laughter, he looks right at me and says "another adult word starts with S and that word is Shit"

HHhhmmmm...maybe I should start watching my language? Or maybe I'll just keep telling him that it's an adult word and he isn't allowed to say it but I can because I am an adult! 

Preschool Show & Tell – Week 20

Another week = another book for show and tell.

 

Big steps in James's big world

This my friends and family members, is my very big boy who no longer sleeps with a blankey, stuffie or with any lights on. He's all grown up now and I'm feeling a little bit lost, yet so damn proud at the same time!

It all started about 6 months ago when he randomly one day told me he didn't want to sleep with his blankey anymore. He had never been overly attached to it so I didn't think much of it. He still usually always slept with his Kitty stuffy and somewhere around that time had started to fear the dark after sleeping in it his whole life and had asked us to leave Daddy's hallway closet light on.

Fast forward to last week when he out of the blue asked me if when Coal was better at the vets would he be coming home (swallow back sob while answering). I calmly as I could reminded him that Coal had died and would never be coming home to us again. That day he asked me if he could call his stuffed kitty Coal now. I said sure you can and he ran upstairs and I didn't think anything of it. A few nights later I walked into his room at bedtime and I notice Kitty facing the wall sitting on his folded up blankey in the corner of the room. I asked him if he wanted me to grab Kitty for him and he so grown up said to me "Mommy, that's Coal now and that's his bed" and just like that, no more stuffy in the bed either. For two nights he attempted a different stuffy but he really just isn't interested. I am sad, but I get it that its time. I'm curious to see how often he will however bring her to my bed with him as that seemed to be where she would appear the most frequently.

Now for the light...this one came out of left field completely. His fear of the dark started overnight sometime around 6 months ago or maybe a little less. He asked Daddy one night to turn on the closet light so really no harm in it so we went along with it. After Jim started going away to work I would turn the closet light off when I went to bed and for awhile it worked, but then I noticed James was coming into my bed almost every single night. When Jim was home last we talked to him about staying in his bed and that if he was waking up and was afraid that we would start leaving the light on through the night again (so annoying but better than bed sharing with a crazy kicked and talking 3 year old!). Jim's been gone this time for 9 nights now and only last night did James crawl in with me. I kicked him out sometime around 2 am to go back to his own bed and what do I hear that wakes me from a dead sleep at 3 am? James saying to me "Mommy, you can turn that light off now, I'm not afraid of the dark anymore". And just like that I got up, turned it off and happily crawled back into bed in the darkness. I credit those Bearenstain Bears books for that one. We've been reading the In the Dark book for a few weeks now and Papa Bear explains to Sister that the dark is not scary, it's just your imagination that makes you afraid. Well, holy heck, it worked! Tonight I put him to bed and walked away with no lights on and he even pulled the covers up over his head as I left :o)

Next up will be removing the rails on his bed (he's a big mover and I worry how many times he will fall out!) and possibly attempting some night time potty training (this one may be tough as he's also a very deep sleeper apparently).

I can't believe we are now just under 2 months away from the big 4th birthday and every single day he amazes me with how grown up and mature he is. I'm so proud of the little man he is becoming and every day I am proud to be James's Mommy. 

Double J Photos – Week 5 – Jan 26 – Feb 1

Some may have seen this picture as I posted it on Jim's wall the other night because I thought it was just too cute!

A very happy James loving a fun Mommy/James date at Willingdon Beach. I love the beautiful sunny winter days we are having this week!

And some cute together photos taken the other night on our PJ day. I love capturing these moments of them together, especially the last picture of these three.

2014 Double J Photo Project

"Watching my boys grow up right in front of my eyes"

Tracy's Celebration of Life

Our most important and special event of the spring is happening on Sunday, June 22 in Nanaimo. I didn't mention it in the previous post because I really feel it deserves its own post. If you are reader of this blog you may remember that my mother-in-law Tracy passed away last year on March 31. Here is a link to the post I wrote back then about her very sad passing and here is a link to a post full of photos of her life.

Jim and Tom have talked a lot in the past year about when and how they want to do Tracy's Celebration of Life. With Jim only home and available one weekend per month and with the boy's birthdays coming up in April and May we chose his one weekend off in June in hopes of some beautiful spring weather for it. We've decided on Sunday, June 22 as Jim is off the whole week before so we are able to head to Nanaimo early for a really good family visit.

The plan at this point is to spread her ashes with the immediate family and then we've booked the lower picnic shelter at Bowen Park for a BBQ with all invited from noon - 4 pm for lunch. I think both of the boys are feeling like it's time to have some closure and it will be good for all of us to have a chance to say our goodbyes and to honour her all together as a family.

The first time she held and met her beloved grandbaby James

Sadly I think this is the only photo that Tracy and I were ever in together. It is one of my favorites from our wedding.

Her obituary that ran in the paper two weeks after her passing.

Some fun times coming up for the Barrows Family

I'm finding these days that with Jim away it is making me plan things even further in advance than I usually would because we are only guaranteed one weekend per month with him when he's home. I think only twice this whole year he will get two weekends on one set of days off. So, with two boys birthdays coming up as well as two trips planned we have lots of fun stuff to look forward to on Daddy's days off.

First up of course will be James's FOURTH birthday party! How the heck did he get to be almost four already?! I had my hopes pinned on having a monster truck or car birthday party but he changed it up on me and decided he really wanted a Mike the Knight party so off I went on the planning. For all of our local friends, it's going to be held on Saturday, April 19 from 11:30am - 2pm at Assumption School Gym. It's being held on Easter weekend and we picked the time so parents could come up after the Easter egg hunt that is held at Willingdon Beach every year on that morning. I'm already really looking forward to his party as he is so excited and can't wait to see his school friends there too. I hope lots of them say yes!

The awesome James the Knight image I ordered from Etsy. This will be featured throughout the birthday party!

Did I mention that we also rented a bouncy castle to add to the fun?!?!

Party stuff that I found online at PartyCity

Another Etsy find... a personalized placemat and coaster for the birthday boy!

Next up in May will be a family trip to Vancouver. Jim and I have both loved Cirque Du Soleil since the first time we saw it years ago under the big top in Vancouver. This will be my fifth show and Jim's fourth. Three have been seen in Vancouver; Quidam we saw together, Varekai I saw with my old boss Lynn, and then Corteo again together. Our favorite one and the one we saw last was O at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. It was an incredible show and one that I will never forget. We are both really looking forward to going back under the big top to add to our list of shows seen. If you've never been to a Cirque show, all I can say is DO IT. It is amazing! Jim thought he wouldn't like it the first time we went but he ended up really enjoying it and since then we've talked about going back again and again over the years! This will be the first time we've had the means to make a trip to Vancouver happen.

James's big birthday present this year is going to be a trip to the Vancouver Aquarium while we are there. Again, something we've wanted to do for a long time but we've never just gone to the city to be tourists, so we've decided that now that James is older it's time to do it. We are also thinking a day wandering around Stanley Park is in order while we are there.

Next up immediately following our trip to Vancouver will be Jordan's 1st birthday party. Not much planning has been done for this one because it's being held at my parents house as we will be house sitting there while my parents are in Europe. It will be on Saturday, May 24 from 11 am - 1 pm for those local friends reading this blog post. I'm thinking of doing a Barnyard Dance themed party for our little guy cause he loves this book...and really so do I!

And the event that if I'm being honest here I'm most looking forward to is Jim and I's big trip to SunFest Countryfest in Duncan over the August long weekend. Last year's trip to Seattle was so much fun that Jim decided to ask my parents if they would take the kids again and surprised me with the idea that we could book tickets to see this festival. It has been my dream to see Tim McGraw in concert since I was just a young teenager and fell in love with country music. When I first found out months ago that Tim was playing I told Jim I wanted to go if we could, and he remembered and has made my dream a reality. It will be the first time we've gone anywhere just the two of us since we went on our anniversary trip to Sechelt in 2008. We are going all out and camping on the site, which should be interesting to say the least but I'm really looking forward to it. As tickets have been on sale for months already we were too late to get reserved seating tickets so instead we had to pay the big bucks to be in the Stage Pit area which is standing room only but I'll be so close to Tim that I will deal with the standing without a problem! I'm sure afterwards I'll have tons of photos to share with you all!

Two recent videos

Here are two adorable new videos of Jordie. I find it way easier now with my phone to upload videos to YouTube (although saying that I do know that both of these were taken on my camera which made for ridiculously long upload times on there!).

First time on the swings - January 20, 2014

First bath time video - January 30, 2014

I really need to get a new video of James to record what he is like now...which is loud and constantly talking, jabbering, muttering, yelling, etc. Maybe I'll try to convince him to sing O' Canada with me or maybe the Itsy Bitsy Spider book song that we sing.