Sunday, December 12, 2010

Lily has arrived!




Calm and assertive, calm and assertive....

Lily is an awesome dog, such a good girl. We however are nervous nellies who need a chill pill.

Joseph espeically has responded with so much calm and care around Lily.

We can't get over how soft and cuddly she is. I love poodles that the hair stays where it belongs, attached to the dog and not your nose!

Enjoy the photos, there will be more to come soon.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

James turns 5



























November 11th, a special day indeed. Remembrance day in Canada, Veterans day in the US. Also the day we remember my (Eileen's) Grandpa Frank Carson who died in 1948 in Alberta and left Grandma behind to raise 8 beautiful kids, including Mom who was only 3 at the time. It's always been special to me personally.
Then along came our precious boy, our second child, James. A very textbook labor for a not so textbook kid. James was my first homebirth and it was beautiful. Things kicked off at 11 a.m. I began making butternut squash soup and cherry pie! He was born at 11:10 pm on 11/11/05.

What a blessing this boy has been to so many. His name really could have been bundle of joy, not a care in the world or sping in my step! It also could have been short temper, rockets red flare and several other little catch phrases we commonly use for this not so cool headed but oh so lovable passionate, sanguine little kid who wears his heart on his sleeve and lives by his stomach!

James has had more trips to the hospital on average than any of our children, we fell that simply being around to celebrate his 5th is truly cause enough to celebrate. He did take quite a whack to the face when concrete came up to meet him yesterday, so his birthday pic's wont be too lovely!

I hope you enjoy his photo collage as much as we enjoyed reviewing the photos and shooting them. James we love you so much, you bing us indescribable amounts of joy, you pull at Mama's heart to the core and Daddy would do just about anything for you.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Lily the North Star Dog





Sometime in late December or early January this little lady named "Lily" will become a new member of our family. She is a standard size poodle. In these photos she is about 19 weeks old.
Much like a seeing eye dog, Lily is a working dog or service dog specially trained to meet the needs of a child with autism. She is from North Star Foundation. They have been a superb organization to work with. We are most greatful to our wonderful friends who assisted us in raising the funds needed to cover the cost of Lily's training.
I will be writing a little more later to explain what Lily can do and more about the program. We are just delighted for this special blessing in our life.

Happy Homeschoolers and Therese on her 3rd b-day







Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Jumping into fall

I love season changes. It’s taken a while to get use to the California season changes though but if you look for them they do exist. Now I know to my fellow Canadians that changing from shorts to capris might not mean much but…

Seriously though I have come to love to cool mornings with a hint of rain, it does remind me a bit of the snowy north, just the darkness and the cozy feel. I sure do enjoy the fireplace. Though this is our first slightly chilly week, last week was in the high 80’s and sunscreen was still being liberally applied!

We have been quite busy recently so Ill try to give a few little photos along with some brief telling of events here.

For my 35th birthday in August, and my Dad’s 66th, Dad flew down to California and was a wonderful Grandpa again to his grandkids. We took the kids camping at Big Sur and it was a very memorable 2 nights.

We had the pleasure of a weekend visit from one of our dear nieces Julia who is currently attending college in Oregon. She is such a beautiful sweet girl and we have enjoyed getting to know her better on her visits.

Vincent was given tickets very generously by his manager for a recent SF Giants game, and if you are following the baseball season at all well then you will know just how valuable these tickets were! They were the best tickets we could have imagined right behind the dugout and we spotted the owner of the Giants a row ahead of us. We took Joseph with us. We knew the external noise would be tough for him but we wanted to try with him since it was so close up. He struggled quite a bit, though we bought him a big set of earmuffs which he wore the entire time. The giants lost that night but went on to win the next important game. That night Wille Mac was released temporarily from the hospital to be at the game to give out the Wille Mac award to Andres Torres. Kind of emotional I have to say! Andres Torres really accredited God for his success, very beautiful.

In San Francisco a few weekends ago we went to fleet week and the kids were able to board some coats guard ships. 2 ships from Canada were down and I nearly cried. Then we took the kids to the North Beach Columbus Day parade, which was very Italian and family friendly. From where we were we could also catch the Blue Angels air show The kids were sitting on a curb in a great location and needless to say they garnished a lot of attention sitting there. Pretty near every float stopped to give something to our kids. Unfortunately it was a lot of candy! We generally don’t give our kids candy so this was not really a great thing! Luckily with Therese’s 3 year old bday the next day I was able to stick it in a piƱata and pass it along to some wonderful little darling kids who came to play.


So yes our baby girl turned 3, hard to believe, all on Oct 11, Canadian Thanksgiving. We were extremely blessed with a visit from Uncle Anthony- Father Anthony, or as the kids say Uncle Father Bananthony, yup, it’s a long one. He said Mass in our home as well as at friend’s of ours who had just moved into a new home, what a blessing that was to christen their new digs. Basically a large acreage, couldn’t be happier for our good friends. They also surprised us with go cart rides that day on their property and Father Anthony and Vincent proved to the kids that they still have what it takes to tear up a field. Father Anthony also took Joseph in our inflatable kayak (thank you Clark) at Half Moon bay as we spent an afternoon there during the visit.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Nawdy Baby


"Mommy I didn't do anything. Ok Mommy I did it, but Mommy Mommy Celine is nawdy."

Her words not mine.