it has to be midnight somewhere

We just arrived home from our little New Year's celebration with our friends Kim, Trevor and the lovely Brooklyn.  Kate and Brooklyn got along beautifully this evening - last time we were at their place we had to leave after Kate couldn't recover from a time out. I think it was 5 after 7 this evening when I first asked the time - I thought it felt like midnight.  Oh things have changed. It's 8:45 Kate just fell asleep with her milk watching a little Coronation Street and I'm blogging about our big night. 

It was a lovely night and I thank Kim and Trevor for the dinner and visit. So 2011 here we come. 

Today I literally had 5 minutes and I actually wrote out my resolutions for the coming year and for the first time ever, losing weight wasn't the top of the list. What was?  Well potty training Kate of course.  Second to potty training - having more fun. Third - relax more. Fourth - read more. Actually read something, anything. And fifth - get more vegetables into Kate and Cody. 

What I am looking most forward to in 2011. Elliott walking, talking and giving us a glimpse as to who he is going to be.  Kate saying yes more and throwing tantrums less. Kate's 2 year molars. The Oprah Winfrey Network. Seeing all my friends and family out West again soon - this time with Kate. Skiing!!! Being a little less sick. A date night with my husband. Okay that's it - I don't want to be too greedy.

Happy New Year everyone! Here's how we celebrated...

Hugs.

A very serious looking Brooklyn.

 Thank you Kim - thank you for thinking of champagne.

Our little love.

 Elliott's out - he's definitely my son.

 Cheers.

Our little New Year's babe.

Hope everyone had a great night but not so great as to cause head injuries tomorrow. Does that make sense? Weird. People are just arriving at our neighbour's house now. Rude it's almost 9.
xox aj

our family's first christmas

It's official our family's first Christmas has come and gone and it was lovely.  It was pretty much stress free and it was fun. Kate was a little sick and a lot tired but she was excited by all the activity Christmas day and again on Boxing day with her her cousins on the island. Elliott - he was great but oblivious - sleeping through most of Christmas morning and all of dinner. 

We have now assembled all of the kids' goodies and Cody and I are more than a little overwhelmed by the volume. Kate doesn't know which way to look so we are working on paring down the toys and we'll set to rotate them.

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas too - here are a few pics of our holidays. 

My Christmas kiddies.

 Our cowgirl.

Monkey Elliott working on opening Lego with Grandpa Paul.

The big one - Kate and Elliott's new trampoline. It's super fun.

A pooped Elliott tucking into Grampie for a nap.

Grandma Janice with E.

 

Me and Kate in her new dress Grandma Sherri made for her. Isn't it lovely?

Grammie's turn opening presents!

Uncle Paul and E.

The cousins, Aunty and a lot of gifts yet to be opened.

 

Sleeping over at Grammie's.

My little Mongolian (the hat is from Aunty Rho - love it!)

I'll post more soon - the kids are too wild. I can't finish anything. xox aj

my new favourite rudolf rendition

I just took my computer's imovie tutorial and I'm excited. Unfortunately I have little to no time to actually try out what I have just learned. As such you'll have to deal with the rough cut of Kate's little class sort of, actually not singing Rudolf, but stamping to Rudolf and wait for future cinematic masterpieces. It ends abruptly because I needed to keep it short in order for Blogger to take it. 

FYI - Kate's favourite friend is the lovely Alaya who is second from the left - the giggling monkey.  Just to help, Kate is third from the right - the first stomper. Here goes...

Let me know what you thought.

5 more sleeps! XOXO AJ

kate's big night

It was Kate's first Christmas concert tonight and to make a long story short - it was one of the highlights of my life as a parent and I believe Cody's too.  We were nervous, nervous dropping her off that she wouldn't go join the other kids (which she did no problem), nervous that when she came out on the stage in front of the crowd and saw Cody or me that she would cry and or run to us (she didn't - instead she yelled Pappa and started to giggle), we were worried too that if she stayed on stage she would do nothing but stand in terror (she in fact stomped her feet, laughed, rang her jingle bells and had a gay ol' time).  In the end our only worry is just how wild Kate actually was tonight.  She sort of was the craziest girl in the whole school.  Ah we'll worry about that later - it was awesome. 

Thanks to Grammie Donna who made the trip over from the island for the show. She was in tears by the end of Kate's class's performance. Tears of laughter and joy. 

We do have the whole thing on video I just have to edit it down to be shorter for the blog to take it.  I'll try to get it up soon. In the mean time here's my little Christmas family, pre-concert:

 It's a tough feat getting 2 little people smiling looking at the camera - we're getting close with this one.

 Kate looking like a little doll. Pappa got her all dressed up and did her hair. Unfortunately by the time we left the house her hair didn't look half this pretty.

Who are these little people?

Is this hilarious or what?  Elliott has lots of fans at Kate's school so we thought we would dress him up in the Santa suit that Grandpa George got him. It's for a 9 month old but our 4 month old seems to fill it out just fine.

Christmas has gotten a lot sweeter this year. Thank you Kate for the great night - we love you so much.
Mamma & Pappa

santa isn't the only 'jolly' fella

Yesterday I broke out Kate's old Jolly Jumper for Elliott to try. He did pretty good given that his sister was right in his face with both hands on the contraption ensuring he JUMP. I can't believe how time has flown, the first time we had Kate in the jumper was the first time she really laughed.  I think I have watched the video of that moment a 100 times. And now she's helping her little brother.  Lately she has really taken an interest in Elliott. The other morning when she woke, I went in to get her and the first thing she said was, "where's Elliott?" Every morning he's up before her and we go into her room together but he was having a late lie in.  And yesterday when I tried Elliott in the exersaucer she was re-discovering it too and kept pointing out things and saying' "look Elliott, look Elliott." It's so awesome. The 3 of us dance together each girl holding 1 of his tiny, chubby hands. He's our little man.

And here he is.

Kate's baby's turn. Wow did she jump.

 Exploring the exersaucer.

Finally Kate's turn. I kind of liked her contained for a bit. Fewer messes.

Love to everyone - Aimee

this is dedicated to one i love

Everyone needs a little extra love and support sometimes. My sister is in need right now and being so far away I feel a little helpless. So I'm sending love in the forms of a sweet smile and little laugh to let her know I'm thinking of her and wish I could be by her side.

A smile.

A laugh.

We love you Aunty Rho. xoxo Jorgensen Sandwich

naughty or nice?

I posted earlier today about our recent trip to Santa's workshop, wishing I had a scanner so that I could share our family's photo. It later dawned on me that I could try taking a photo of the photo for your viewing pleasure - so that's what I did. Enjoy!

Here they are - my babes.  The photo could use a lot of art direction and Santa is not that legit looking but ah heck it still makes me smile.

Closer...

Closer...

Papa you're a good sport. Love you. xox aj

and the festivities have begun

We have had a Christmas-packed start to December. We got our tree up then decorating it took me three days. I thought Kate would be into helping but it's a little early yet.  Once she saw Candy Canes in the decoration boxes it was game over. Unfortunately for her the Canes were long past - over. It turns out that living in a humid climate means you have to throw Candy Canes out at the end of the season as the had turned in to an gooey mess. I'm a Maritimer in-training.

We finished our shopping this weekend too which feels great as I'm predicting it will take me the rest of the season to get all the goodies wrapped. While shopping we did come upon Santa's workshop right there in the middle of the mall. I've been pretty steadfast in my resolve not to force my babies to sit on some strange bearded man's knee.  But some magical spirit overcame me on Saturday morning when I saw him and no line to get in to see him. The kids weren't dressed particularly festive compared to the sequin-adorned toddler ahead of us but what the heck. It turns out that my initial Mama intuition was bang on. Kate just lost it. We really weren't surprised so plan B was just to have Elliott's photo taken. I guess Santa knew this was probable and slid over in his chair so Papa Cody holding a miserable Kate could get a group photo after all. I wish I had a scanner so you could all see the photo. It's priceless. Cody doesn't think so - he hates it. Kate in tears, Elliott completely sombre and Cody grinning ear to ear.

Kate checking out the tree.

Elliott bundled up for a walk through the community to look at everyone's lights.

Kate playing "Nativity" with the characters and animals from the advent calendar that Grandma Sherri made for us. She plays this every morning after choosing one to hang.

This is a partial view of our floor Saturday night after Kate and her friend Reese finished playing with the Christmas nuts. It seems everything related to Christmas and Christmas decor can become a child's game. Yeah! new messes.

Kate is absolutely taken with the stockings my Mom has made us all and knows whose is whose.  My Mom was so smart last year when she designed Kate's to have the equivalent of a necklace around it - again every morning she points to it and says "please".  When I get it down for her she carries it around, playing with the beads and tassel and fills it up with cars and jewelry. She seems to have gotten the hang of the consumer portion of Christmas.

Lights are up, cards are posted, I just need to bake some goodies and then eat them again.  The only thing missing is the litres of egg nog that I would have normally consumed by now. Oh Elliott, you and your lactose intolerance - you have saved Mama many calories through Halloween and now Christmas. A blessing and a curse.

Happy December to all. AJ

lydia turns 2

This weekend was cousin Lydia's 2nd birthday party (she officially turns 2 on December 1st) so we headed to the island for a sleep over and a slice of her beautiful Dora cake. Cody and I looked after the 4 kiddies on Saturday night and it was very sweet and fun. 

Can you spot our monkey who fell asleep in all the kids' activity?

This is moments later when the little people discovered that Elliott had fallen asleep in front of the Christmas tree. They each kissed him, kicked him, touched or leaned on him and he slept through it all. Cody described them as a group of zombies hunting for fresh meat.

The birthday girl Lydia, Sally the cat and Aunty Candace.

Happy Birthday beautiful girl. What a good birthday girl you were, thanking everyone and so excited for each gift and your cake. We love you very much! 

Uncle Papa, Aunty Aimee, Kate & Elliott

the west was won

Elliott and I had just a fantastic trip to Calgary. He was a marvellous flyer (not a tear) and upon landing he made lots of friends. Wow there are a lot of kids and babies in our lives now. Thanks to all my friends and my family for making time for us - we had such a great visit.

The boys...

 Marek, Misha and Elliott

The girls...

Lauren

Sophie

Friends...

 Carolyn

Diane

Becky

And family...

Madi

 

Grandma Sherri

Grandpa George

Aunty Rhonda

 Uncle Norm

We can't wait to see you all again in a couple of months - next time with Kate and Cody.
All our love, Aimee & Elli

my cowboy heads west

Elliott is making his first trip to Calgary on Thursday morning to meet friends and family. I'm very excited to see everyone but nervous as this is his first flight and it's a long way home. Oh and I am sick. I'm sure everyone in the airport will be thrilled to see me coming - leaking, coughing, carrying a 3 month old. Only 2 short years ago I despised the person I have now become.

While we head West, Kate, Cody and Grammie Donna are heading South to Maine for some shopping and pool time. I'm so happy as Kate will be thrilled to have Pappa and Grammie-time all to herself for 3 days.

Not much to share other than these photos that I think are absolutely lovely of my 3 month old - 15 and a half pound - Cowboy.

See some of you soon.
All my love - aj