Our Christmas 2011

So it's almost been a whole month since I've blogged but I have been busy! We took off to Edmonton on December 15th and got back to Regina January 2nd, and we were busy,busy,busy while we were gone so I didn't find much time to blog. So I will do a little catch up.

When we left on the 15th it was a last minute decision as we were suppose to leave early on the 16th. But we thought maybe the drive would be easier if Magoo slept while we drove. So we left Regina at 10pm and got to my parents house at 4am (which was really 5am in Regina)... and Mr.Magoo didn't sleep like we thought he would. So Jared got about 3 hours of sleep and I got about 45min. Good thing G-Lo was happy to watch him in the morning while we slept in a little longer. I still felt sooo tired all day.

Oh ya and we didn't tell my family we were going to come in the night either. And when we got there I had forgotten that they had a new lock box for the spare key and I had also forgotten the code for it, good thing my bro Dallin responded to my texts and was able to get me in the house. But neither of my parents woke up when we clamoured through the house at four in the morning, making our way to the basement. Mr. Magoo even shouted right outside their door and it didn't wake them up. So if you ever need a place to rob in the middle of the night... I mean that's a bad idea... anyways needless to say they were all surprised when we crawled upstairs at 7 in the morning for breakfast.

We spent the week there plus Christmas and we had a great time, not too many pictures, I'll just share some of my favourite.

Nana Jo got Magoo a suit, he looks so handsome in it!

 Magoo's 'Bates' cousins came to visit and we had so much fun with them.

 My little gamer...

 Showing off our muscles.

 On Christmas Eve when all went outside and played and quads and sleds since it was so beautiful out.

The first Saturday we were there we went to our 'van Bruggen' annual Christmas Party and we had so much fun. Lots of family and LOTS of food! There were some great talents shared and a white elephant exchange and to top it all off Santa came to visit. I am hoping to find some pictures from that night and then I will add them later.

Also during the week we did lots of shopping and I even got to go to the gym with my two sisters. What power houses. We had so much fun together and of course as a reward for hard work we ate some good food and bought some new clothes!

I also got to talk to my brother Riley who is on his mission in Madagascar for the LDS Church it was so good to hear his voice. He has been going through some difficulties but is hoping that once the holidays come to a close people will be more interested in the gospel. We continually pray for him while he goes to do a marvellous work.

On boxing day we headed south for the New Year with Jared's family, details and pictures to come in the next post.

The facts

So I feel like I have been slacking when it comes to the blog, but I feel like Christmas prep is keeping me busy. My sister Robyn once asked me what I do all day to which I can only answer "I don't know" cause honestly my life passes by waaayyyy to quickly for the amount of "things" I do in my week. No I don't have a full time job, or am I member of choir or some other equally time consuming group, or craft excessively, or even bake like I use to. I don't have my child in swimming lessons, of have a husband who's life demands a ton of my time in the day; a bit but not a ton. I don't have a church calling that keeps me on my toes every time the phone rings. I don't even exercise lately (obviously I know what I look like lately, so the next time you see me please keep your shocked expression to yourself, I know...). My house is relatively clean, but not sparkling. And my child is happy, although we definitely have our moments... like today... all day.

So now you ask. What the heck do you do all day?
To which I will answer: "I don't know, come peek through my windows..."

Well with all that being said I am going to now list some fun facts about Mr.Magoo like I promised in my last post:

• He is ONE!
• He is a walker/very quick walker
• He can stand up on his own, with out help of a wall, couch, toy, leg, or the like.
• He just switched to one nap, in the afternoon this past week. I actually kinda like it as I can go out in the morning without worrying that he will get excessively cranky
• He friggen LOVES to eat. And I feel like I have a teenage boy eating me out of house and home. He also knows the sign for food very well
• He finally did the sign for 'please' in the last week, just so he could eat the chocolate-peppermint cookies I made.
• He pooed on the toilet for the first time YESTERDAY! It was a very impromptu thing and I am not trying to 'potty train' him or anything at the moment, just giving him opportunities. I think he was just as excited as I was, and after it was all done and cleaned up he kept pointing into the toilet at his poo saying "whoa!".
• He is actually 'little', people always tell me that he looks 'big', but I think they mean 'mature' cause these are is measurements: Length 30inches (76cm) 50th percentile, Weight 19lbs 13oz. -10th percentile
• We are done nursing. It just kinda happened. I was happy to continue. But alas we are done. But he will NOT drink cows milk, I've tried everything. I have even tried almond milk, ew (sorry Robyn). And have come to decide that it's ok if he never likes 'milk' . He loves cheese and yogurt and will get plenty of nutrition (i.e. calcium) through those ( I also will force feed him broccoli once in a while). But if any of you, my peps, out there think I should be more concerned let me know as I am open to thoughts and what not.
• Magoo drinks water, and lots of it. Out of a cup.
• He is not a horribly picky eater, unless its veggies. What a kid.
• He loves raisins and knows the sign for it
• Teeth 5 and 6 and breaking/cutting/tearing/ripping through is poor little gum line these days. On the top, on either side of the two middle teeth.
• Magoo likes to pull ornaments off my tree.
• He loves FaceTime and giving Nana Jo, and G-Lo kisses on it. 
• Magoo likes to carry things around. Things like my phone, and our iPad, all things we don't really want him to carry around as he also likes to hide things on us lately.
• Magoo is still unsure about the snow (can you blame him?) but likes to be outside.
• He sleeps so well most nights, usually 7:30-8:30. The other morning he even slept till 9, that morning was friggen glorious!
• He sleeps without a soother, or anything else other than pj's and blankets.

Anyways that should hold you over until at least 11 more days... when he'll be 13 months.
And since I will not be blogging about his birthday parties I will leave you with pictures from them.

The party at NannJo's house was a blast, and he got totally spoiled. 

This is what happens when G-Lo falls asleep...

Magoo helped me make is Red Velvet cupcakes for his actual birthday. It was fun.

 It was just the three of us, plus Nanna Jo, G-Lo and Aunt Em on FaceTime to help us sing 'Happy Birthday' to him.

I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. But you might hear from me again before that New Years bell rings.... if your lucky.

One Year

"How old is Magoo?"

                   [insert real name here]

"ONE YEAR!"

Seriously I train 'em well.

He will even show off for me to the old ladies in the grocery store, just for them to be like, "my grandkid can't do that". haha.

I have been meaning to post something for like a week now, since his birthday was on the 21st. But I do have a life... haha who am I kidding, it's more like my husband has a life that involves taking the computer with him out and about, so I am left to put up posts from my phone and that's only so cool... like the first time. 

I am going to put up tons of fun facts about my little "turd nugget" but not right now, it is currently too late for my brain to function properly. So if your lucky I will post again within the week. 

oh and p.s. this is my 100th post. cha-ching. I know what would you have done without these past 100 glimpses into this adventure I call my life?...

Trick-or-Treat

Magoo had his very first Halloween while we were visiting Ardrossan and you could tell the whole thing seemed a bit odd to him. I really considered not taking him trick-or-treating, but once the cousins showed up for a few days and they were all ready to go out I decided it would be okay, Jared especially liked the results of trick-or-treating since Magoo really didn't eat any of the candy he collected.

Magoo and his cousin were superhero's, very suiting.

Spiderman, Superman and Princess Belle.

Magoo loved it when his cousin would put on his spiddy mask.

The whole gang. Our little Unicorn was not very excited for being all dressed up and really didn't sit still for pictures, so this is the best one I got.

Superman was saving some books from a life on the shelf.... or something like that.

When we were out trick-or-treating people kept giving me funny looks like "do you think we are dumb? You aren't actually going to feed this kid all this candy, and if you do you are dumb." And a few skipped right over our bag, haha. It was really fine with me though we weren't really out there for the candy, more just the experience and spending time with cousins.

Family Fun

So be warned I have a butt load of pictures coming. But really who doesn't love looking at pictures? Sometimes thats the only thing that makes a blog good...

Magoo trying out the new carseat. 

Nanna Jo got him a snow suit for his birthday, we all think it's pretty rad. I especially like that I will Never  lose him playing in the snow...

He was playing with Nanna Jo and she gave him little boobies using pingpong balls...haha, my mother never changes.

We went and visited Old Old Nannie, and Old Old Granpi, I unfortunately didn't get any pictures while we were out there.

It was a packed ride with all of us filling up Nanna Jo's van. I got to squish sit in between my two nieces who were both in carseats... oh and did I mention I can get quite carsick, ya it was fun.

We got to meet new baby Mady. She is so tiny and cute. And thumbs up to my SIL Karmyn for travelling from Lethbridge to Ardrossan with 4 kids the newest one being only a week old! She is so awesome.  (Okay my brother came up too, but we all know the Mom does all the work, plus she had just given birth)

My nieces had me paint their toenails matching purple and then they picked out their own colours for their cute little fingernails, it was fun, and they are both really good at sitting still while getting beautified.

Mr.Magoo and I went and got some fresh air and played on G-Lo's trailers and equipment. He loved it!

My Dad does fall cleanups for yards and so he has this ginormous pile of leaves in the backyard. I'm talking like bigger pile than you can fathom. If you need something fun to do go take your kids to play in the leaves at my folks house, it's hours of fun!

Uncle Dallin (aka Mountian Man, Harry, ect.) took Magoo on a very short quad ride.

And Magoo found a new best friend... we call him John, John Deer.

Early morning cartoon watching.

And we got to go eat lunch at Red Robin with Aunt Alana! 

Did you know they give free balloons to kids at Red Robin? True story.

Also Emily got some cheap blue contacts for Halloween, what do you think? I think it's kinda fun, Jared was a little freaked out. As was my BIL Bevan when my sister Robyn put them on.

So other things we did was Trick-or-Treating, and a little Birthday Party for Magoo, I will post separate entries for those as I have so many pictures. We also did lots of shopping, eating, laughing. And we overall had a really great time! Magoo already missed hanging out with all his cousins, and will even glance at the door while saying "Nanna?" Good thing we are going back in about a month!

Jet set to G-Lo's

So recently I took Mr. Magoo on his very first airplane ride (not the kind where you fly them through the air with your feet...) and he did so well. Why did the two of you hop on a plane, you ask? Well I'll just tell you that I have the most awesome husband ever! Seriously though that's why. 

So we flew from Regina, SK to Edmonton, Ab. It was a 1 hour and 15 min, so really not bad at all, and Magoo did so great.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and they let Jared go through security with us as a helper guy (I can't remember the actual term right now) which was so good cause honestly this kid wares me out sometimes, so it was nice to just let Jared walk him around and waste time with him.

We were checking out our airplane right before we boarded, Magoo loved watching all the planes taxiing and whatnot. 

Magoo and I after our goodbyes to Jared and sitting in our seat. We took and isle seat which was fine, Magoo still got a good enough look out the window. 

Did I mention how good he was? I even had a flight attendant walk by me once we had landed in Edmonton and she exclaimed that she had no idea there was even a child in our row! 

Once we landed G-Lo (Grandpa Logan) came and picked us up with Magoo's new carseat in tow (pictures of that to come in another post). G-Lo was the only one who knew we were coming earlier than planned which made the trip that much more fun as we got to go around surprising my siblings, the stories are as follows;

Robyn:

After my Dad picked us up we had to track down Robyn (one of my sisters) and I will spare you the details of that since this story is already going to be long enough. We found out she was going to a Gelato place called "De Capo" on 109st. So we got there and we had to wait as she was en route. Since she didn't know I was in town I called her and told her I was bored since Jared was at work. I made small talk and asked silly questions mostly just to gather info that would benefit me like, I would ask her where she was numerous times. Also her and her Hubby had to drive a rental car for a few days so I was asking her the details of it (so I would know when the pulled into the parking lot) ect. So as I saw them pulling in I  jumped out of the truck and started walking towards them, while still on the phone with her. Asking her for the third or fourth time where she was at that very moment. And she answered "trying to park my car". All the while I could see her Hubby, Bevan pointing fervently towards me and Robyn shewing (?sp) his pointing away, thinking he was pointing at the empty spot that some girl was so annoyingly just standing in front of blocking it... until finally that girl walked right up beside the car door, and I was telling her she should stop the car in her ear as she talked to me on the phone. That's when you saw her realize who the girl in the parking lot was, ME! Oh my it was so fun. Needless to say she ditched Bevan and their car and came and hung out with us for the rest of the night. Bevan joined us later.

We then had a bit of an intermission as we waited for the next sibling to travel to their location of surprise. While we waited we enjoyed a nice dinner 

Dallin:

He was next. We headed towards the Institutes building where one of my brothers, Dallin had an Institute Choir practise. But even though we had stalled and stalled getting there we still beat him there. So Robyn, Magoo and I hid in the boot room. Dal did see my Dad as he came in but suspected he was just there checking up on Dal and making sure he was actually attending Institute...haha, oh to not be trusted by your parents... anyways. So we heard/saw Dallin enter into the gym so we crept after him and set Magoo just inside the gym door and this is what we heard

Dallin: "Magoo!? Magoo? That looks just like Magoo!?????" Another successful surprise!

On the way to surprise the last sibling Magoo was soooooo done with being out and about, strapped into a carseat you name it. He. Was. DONE! But luckily stop number 3 was on the way to G-Lo's!

Emily:

My youngest sister Emily, was at a Young Women's activity that she has once a week with our church. Robyn spotted her in the back of the gym hanging out with some friends, as it was a big combined activity with the Young Men as well and there was lots going on. So we snuck over to where she was, luckily she kept her back turned to us. I set Magoo on her lap and she was all like "What are you doing here?" haha. 

Then we were off to the grandparents house, with Magoo  doing a little better since I sat in the back with him. My Mom wasn't home, she was down in Lethbridge with my oldest brothers family as they had just welcomed their fourth baby into the world. 

Mom:

My dad took some pictures of Me, Robyn and Magoo in the kitchen and sent them to my Mom. But she didn't reply so my Dad called her and asked her if she got them. She said she did and said they were cute but thought they were old pictures...

So while Dad was talking on the phone with her Magoo and I went down the hall and FaceTimed' her so she couldn't tell we were in her house. Then as Dad hung up I walked down the hall and started showing the house, and Robyn, Emily, and my Dad in the background. Then she was like "Hey! Are you in my house!?" haha she had no clue. It was awesome. She had already been planning to come home the next day which was nice.

We had a great visit with family, Jared joined us a week later and we drove home with him a few days after that. I have LOTS of pictures from our trip so look forward to lots more posts!