unresistable.

Magoo at his happiest. How could I not share?

Curtains for my Kitchen

Alright so I have to apologizes for the quality of the pictures, but they are what they are.

So since we moved to our new place in Regina I have been working on curtains for our big windows and so far I got the ones for the kitchen done so I thought I would share.

My inspiration were "waterfall curtains" and I kinda worked with what I had.
The first fabric is white with grey wavy stripes running through it and it was an old duvet cover I had growing up (I actually kinda was sad cutting it up knowing it would never go on a bed again) and the blue fabric I got from the $1 bin at Fabricland! And I layered them on an old fitted sheet that had a hole in it.


The people looking into our house might not get the nicest view since I didn't really sew any kind of backing on it, but it sure it nice from the inside.
I don't think the pictures do it justice so I guess you will just have to come visit and see it for yourself!

The cutest Magoo you've ever seen.

If you know another kid who goes by the name "Magoo" well he's just not as handsome as mine, I hate to break it to ya.

Bevan (my BIL) took some pics of my little man and I didn't even know it! Who knows what I was doing but obviously I knew he was in good hands.

What a Chunk Hunk!

(These were taken in G-Lo's office)

Family Pictures 2011

So I have this awesome Brother-in-law, he's a photographer and a good one at that. We like him.

He took some great pictures of our little family this summer at our "Bates" Family Reunion and they turned out great. Here are a few...





And by the end of our picture taking I'm pretty sure Magoo was expressing how Jared was feeling... apparently he takes after his Daddy when it comes to pictures.

274 days

How does it happen that a baby grows to be longer than half of his crib from head to toe? Just wait 9 months and go check on him while he is sleeping and you'll see, he'll be taller. It will blow your mind.



Today marks 9 months for Magoo, it's crazy to think that's how long it took to cook the little monkey. He just gets more fun as time passes, he makes so many funny faces and totally understands lots of what I say. Words like: Milk, food, poop, stop, come, brush teeth,kisses (Mommy kisses) and I'm sure there are a few others... He can stand and walk while holding onto things and I think it will be a matter of time before he starts really walking. He also eats like a horse, no kidding, and I don't know where he stuffs it all, it looks like he might have gotten the Hamon genes after all except for them cheeks!



I really don't know exactly how much he weighs, when I sit him on our scale it says 18ish pounds, and I should really measure his length, I will try to post it later this week for anyone who is interested. I should really find a health centre her in R-town to weigh him on...

But we love our little turd. He is a big ball'o fun!

10 Things about my new place.

1. You have to go through my bathroom to get to my storage room

2. I have big windows that still have blankets/sheets up in them...

3. Everything fits!

4. It doesn't have couches in it as of yet (if you know of any cheap/free ones, we'll take 'em!)

5. When you run the bath the shower joins in

6. We figured out we can smell what others are cooking through our oven vent... now I need to go teach my neighbours how to cook things like bread and cookies instead of what ever putrid thing they feed to their families.

7. It's starting to look and feel like a home, my home!

8. There are no plugins in the bathroom, not even a razor one. I dislike this feature a ton.

9. It's not level, so water and toy balls all roll toward the front door.

10. I can see into my mailbox without even opening it, so if there is nothing in there it's saves me a bit of hassle, it's handy.

Home at Last

So first of all I would like to apologize seeing how this will be my seventh post in like a little over 24 hours, never mind the other blog I started and the two posts on that! So read at your own will, that's all I'm going to encourage.

The four hours it took me to to get to Regina were Great, especially since I thought it would take me closer to five, and Magoo slept for three of them, Miracle! Anyways we got to our apartment I tossed Magoo into his backpack carrier and was all unpacked pretty much completely within an hour of being home, bags and everything. I know, I know, I'm amazing but thanks.

And by the next day (Saturday) I kept thinking "it's only Saturday". Why would I think that? Well because Jared stayed back in Lethbridge for one more week of work, and honestly I didn't think it would be so hard (lonely) but it really is. The most adult face to face conversation I had had since Sunday was with the guy who hooked up my internet yesterday morning. So thanks internet hooking upper guy, you have kept my sanity at bay more than you could ever know.

But I have been trying to keep us busy so our days pass by quickly. On Monday I took our huge pile of laundry to a laundry mat to do (since I only have coin laundry in my building anyways) and that was quite the event, hauling big boxes of dirty clothes out to my car, then a stroller, then a child, while remember snacks and other things to keep said child entertained... at a laundry mat. Then hauling it all back into my Apartment (except for the stroller I chose to leave it in the car).

And then the rest of the time we have been going for bike rides and playing at the park and going swimming, and bleaching everything in this apartment that didn't previously belong to us. Oh and watching Musicals, I think I have watched six Rogers and Hammerstein's in the last five or so days.

So the other night while getting Magoo ready for bed I spotted this and it scared the crap out of me until I remembered he had some raspberries with dinner, haha.

And the rest are of our bike adventures, enjoy.

almost done Catching Up: Week 2, The Bates Reunion

Alright so after our exciting weekend with The Hamon clan we headed to Calgary for one night and stayed with Adam, Erin, and Teya (Jared's sister and family) we decided to stop at Cross Iron Mills and met up with Robyn and Bevan (my sister and her hubby) and we by chance ran into Colter and Karmyn and their little kiddies (my brother and his family). So we all grabbed some ice-cream together!

At the Bass Pro Shop Corner store(or whatever it's called).

from left to right: Karmyn with child #4 in her belly, Bevan holding Magoo, Jared, Me, Robyn and Payton (Robs was so worried about Payton getting ice-cream in her hair I don't think she stayed up there very long) and then Kendal and Hesston on the bottom. Colter took the picture.

After some laundry and some sleep in Calgary we were next headed to Elk Water, Alberta in Cypress Hills (yay! closer to my final destination!) Me and Magoo took the car and Jared took his motor bike ( he burnt his hands on the ride cause he wore his jacket and not his gloves and it was really quite sunny out that day, haha).

It was lots of fun with the Bates extended family. It was held at the Girl Guide facility in Elk Water, it was a perfect spot. The theme was Survivor this year so each family got a colour and bandanas, ours was Yellow, and we painted posters (I wish I had gotten a picture...) and we played lots of games, and went to the beach and ate Lots of Food!

Here are some pictures:

Haha! I don't think either are very impressed.

Magoo on a hike, we forgot his hat so we just tied one of our bandanas around his head, it was great and he looked to cute!

At one point some one gave him flowers (I want to say it was Riley) but he carried them the whole hike and never dropped them.

My awesome sister Emily did this 3 times that week (put him to sleep) she rocks my socks!

The next two are of us at the beach...

And my Dad with all his brother in laws (my dad grew up with 3 sisters and no brothers, lucky guy!) they had to eat three cherries out of a pan of whipped cream without their hands, what good sports!

Seriously it was so nice to be able to see cousins and Aunts and Uncles, I always enjoy getting together. And the nice thing too was that my entire immediate family was able to make it this year. Next reunion is in 3 years, I can't wait!

Catch Up: Riley's Farewell

So while at Sylvan Lake (see previous post) My brother Riley had his farewell talk. You see he has been called to serve in the Madagascar Antananarivo Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for the next two year. Where his only contact with his family will be letters and a couple phone calls a year (Christmas and Mother's Day). So as a last hooray we had a farewell for him and since I was already most of the way there I thought might as well go up (of course, duh).

Yesterday was the day he reported to the MTC and I seriously wish I could call him and he could tell me all about it, but instead I will anxiously wait for that first letter... it better be a good one. I have also started a blog for him so his friends and family can read about his mission while he's out, elderrbates.blogspot.com.

And if you would like to know about the LDS church visit:

LDS.org

Mormon.org

Theres my handsome missionary brother, with my good looking folks!

Happy 2 years Ri, I will miss you like crazy but I know you are in good hands.

The Catch Up: Hamon Reunion

So we camped at Jarvis Bay right by Sylvan Lake and I personally thought it was a beautiful spot and great for a group like ours. Plus there was so much to do this year which made it ubber fun! I should note here that we normally go to Writing on Stone, yay, hoodoo's... again... but ya this year we did paintball (many for the first time), and my father-in-law even did a draw with me. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from paint balling but I'm hoping someone who does will email me some of those, hint hint nudge nudge...

We also went to the Wild Rapids water slide park and that was a ton of fun too. My only recommendation, don't go on the half pipe slide until you are ready to think the other rides are lame because it is a blast. And one of my sister-in-laws tried to get a picture but it ended up just being a big load of water into her camera, sad. But she did get some great ones of Magoo!

It was so nice there was enough people there that were willing/wanting to hang out with Mr.Magoo that Jared and I barely saw him all afternoon and he just enjoyed playing with other people, and we enjoyed some time together going down slides on tubes!

At the end of the day I thought "oh my, Magoo hasn't even gone down a kiddie slide yet" so I quickly went to the top with him, and at the beginning there was good water flow, but by the bottom there was nothing and I ended up scootching down the last couple meters inch by inch I found it quite amusing.

Seriously we could have sat right there all day and not move a millimeter.

Also Mr.Magoo learned the art of crawling through grass on his feet. Although he did have to stop every once in a while to rub his tummy from the tickley grass, so cute.

We also now have a Monkey Magoo, as he mastered the art of banana eating.

And when all was said and done I think we all felt this way.

The Catch up: Week 1.

So in the few days spent in Regina we got ourselves mostly unpacked, all except our home decor like pictures and what not. Then we were back to Alberta for a couple weeks.

We spent the first night and day and Jared's sisters house in Colehurst.

Magoo had lots of fun playing with his cousins and their toys...

and eating Aunt Christi's strawberries out of her garden, thanks for sharing!

Then Magoo and I were off to Claresholm for the rest of the week to visit Grandma and Granpa while Jared stayed and his sisters and worked. Magoo had lots of fun there too.

Grandpa gave him his own keyboard...

and he figured out how to play Grandma's piano.

There was so much other things we did, Magoo was obsessed with Shmuka (sp?) Grandma's dog. He just wanted to pull her hair, poor thing, it growled at him a couple times and so I tried to keep Magoo away from her so she wouldn't become his new hat...

Also went for walks, and mowed Grandma's lawn, ate lots of food, gave Magoo another hair cut (that's 5 since birth!), and I even got to show off my muscles while helping unpack groceries everyone was impressed.

We had so much fun spending so much time with them, and once the week was over we still got to hang out with them as we headed up to Sylvan Lake for the Hamon Family reunion that weekend.

Catch up: 23, Really!?

So in the midst of our moving I turned 23. Honestly I still get confused and tell people I'm 21 and then later realize I'm not 21 at all. How did the last 2 years get away from me like that?

So on my birthday I really spent the whole time packing but then for dinner Jared and Magoo took me for dinner at the "Firestone" and it was way better than the first time we went there, I got the Salmon, yum! Afterwards we got dessert from DQ of course a DQ birthday cake was the only thing I ever request, double yum. Then Jared's sister and family offered to watch Magoo while we went and watched the last Harry Potter movie. So nice of them and the movie was really good!

I got a present once we got to Regina since is was large and we really didn't want another big box to have to move. This is what was:

A bike carrier for Kasper, which we both love!

We have gone for many rides since being back in Regina and I will have to put up some pictures of our adventures later.

The catch up: Moving.

So I packed our little apartment up entirely all in three days! Gives you a good idea of how much stuff we own, not much. And did you know cardboard boxes are great for containing children while you are trying to get stuff down.

Magoo "helping" me pack.

Can you spot Jared behind all our stuff? This was pretty late and I was pretty much done packing and the next day I planned to clean and go.

Jared packed this whole thing himself! (with the exception of the few big things, I helped) It all fit into a 14foot haul.

And unpacking, this is Magoo's new room, however it no longer looks like this anymore.

I will have to post some pictures of our place once I am all caught up on blogging and Jared is back at home to help me hang pictures and what not.

We stayed in our new place for a few days and then headed back to Alberta for a couple weeks for Jared's work and Family reunions.