Changes

Well I though that I would write about all the new things that are going on with us, since all our loved ones back home don't get to see us.

Most of the new things are with Lucas. 5 months was the big changing point for him.

• 5months 1 wk he started crawling now he is very fast and nothing stops him
  
• 2 days before turning 6 months he said his first word daddy, not da da but daddy to tom's face.
• Sitting up on his own actually when he was 4 1/2 months but at five he was doing better and longer. Now at 6 months he can hold it for more than 5 mins if he doesn't want to move. At music class he just sits and stares for about 10mins the other day.
• The day he turned 6months he got his first tooth.
• He can stand while holding on to things and if sitting in your lap on the floor he can pull himself up into standing but he' still wobbly.
• Love his jolly jumper and goes absolutely nuts in it and we only have 3 loops of the chain left, he's is going to be the first one to out grow it in this house.

Noah

• Can spell a few words and write his own name, with no help at all.
• He is still shy in big setting when we aren't involved so I am hoping this next soccer class helps(we had our next soccer class since I started writing this and it went wonderfully that mum was almost crying and dad was just as happy when he saw the last 15 mins of it)
  
• He'll be starting preschool 2 days a week in august(did you know schools start in august not September?) for 3 hours a morning.
• Noah has been getting himself dressed for over a yr but mum sometime tweaks our outfit choices lol.
  

Jonas

• Jonas has been potty trained for quite some time now. We started before moving, we had a short set back when Lucas came but was back on track with in a week or two. Still the rare accident but that happens more at home when we are playing hard and scared to stop playing and can't quite get to the bathroom in time or have harder pants to pull off and don't make it. But like I said it not often.
• we can count to ten, and a little with our fingers, we can see our ABC. We are still working on recognizing letters and numbers though.
• We can get dressed a little on our own but most of the time we still want help

Tom and I

WE are getting older haha, something our parents probably don't want to think about and something we don't want to either.

Tom's work is going well, he is still enjoying it. Which is the most important to us.

I am busy with the kids and the house(even though I am not making great progress on the house which is frustrating to say the least)

We are all healthy and happy so I shouldn't complain, too much.


Well this has taken a few days if not weeks to write and my time is up, so I am sorry for all the mistakes you might find reading this if you choose to do so. But if I don't hit the publish than you won't even get this to read.

Trip to Tahoe

I can never find the time to write on here these days. From time to time I start but am never able to finish, plus I figure since I never write here anymore no one checks this long forgotten blog. As well it is not like we do a lot of exciting things: so there is not a lot to report.

This week Tom took a few days off(a break before the storm of work to come) and we took the boys to South Lake Tahoe. The drive up was one long crazy trip. I have to say I am proud of our boys because it was such a long trip up. Will try and write about that adventure later. But they did well and no we don't travel with DVD player, but the boys do watch the GPS a little and I think Jonas was coloring and spelling on the iPad I feel blessed our boys travel really good. Noah did cry a bit during the last 10 miles or so because his bum hurt, and let's just say after what we went through everyone's bum was killing them from sitting so long. Jonas woke up two miles from the hotel and vomited all over his blanket. Lucas did well. So lots of adventure for us.

Any how we had lots of fun in the snow and swimming in the pool. It was an awesome family trip. I have to say I love our family trips! I don't really get families or couple that don't vacation together. There are so many memories we made and shared it is completely priceless. We keep talking about our trip and I know we will for a long time. Tom and I keep laughing at the sight of Noah coming back in from sledding, he was so tired his eye were almost shut, but he had the biggest smile on his face, he was a pretty funny sight to say the least.

The second day we were there we went to go to our sliding hill but the dump trucks took it over since it was snowing so much while we were there, that we we did the gondola ride up the mountain and than went into the pool. I have to say from skiing when I was a kid you use to take the chair lift or t-bar up the mountain to ski down. However I know the mountain back home are like peanuts compared to the Sierra's but it feels weird that you have to take the gondola up and down the mountain to to get to the chair lifts to go up the mountain further so that you can ski down the the top part.The view though is amazing!!

Lucas started crawling that week. He's a week earlier than Jonas was. Thankfully he not fast but he does get around quicker now instead of rotating in circles to move.

We had a wonderful time, I can't say it enough" I absolutely love family vacation" where there is no schedule and you just wake up and plan one thing and go from there. I have some pictures but they are on my phone(so they aren't that good) and this has taken more than a day to write so it will have to wait till next time.

Ps. short version our our drive up. Made it up with no problems until the last 16miles from town. It was snowing the whole time and the traffic wasn't moving we didn't know why for a long time and than we found out it was closed both way for avalanche control; meaning they put dynamite in the snow on the mountain and induce and avalanche and than they have to clean it up. It was a long 4 + hours sitting there. Mean while probably 40 min before traffic picked up again we realized our car battery died. Tom left the lights on and it didn't help I had my phone plug into the car for the GPS. sigh Luckily probably 7 cars back a group of young men had jumpers and the car in front of us helps us up...fun time in the Flynn Vacation. Oh and driving with chains is not fun at all. it's so bumpy and you can't go over 30 mph so long. I miss good studded snow tires when driving in those road condition. We finally got there at 9pm something could have been close to ten. exhausted and sore and tired. We were luck the trip home was smooth and uneventful, oh and only took 4.5 hours haha.

Pictures/ viedos of our holidays

Santa's gifts are here...

What's on the go

So we have survived the first week which is the calm before the storm. It hasn't been too bad Noah been up at 6:30am ish now for some reason and is going to bed a 6:30pm, which I am loving that part. Jonas only woke up once last night from 7:30pm to 9am which was also awesome and now if we can only keep that going it would be great, but my hopes aren't very high.

I am pretty sure Jonas is growing like Noah, he has lost his big round tummy and is looking more long an lean, he still has some little rolls on his leg(not so much as rolls but creases), i measured him and he's 27inchs long and if my scale is right for him while he was sitting on it with a wet diaper he was 15lbs or a little more but under 15 1/2lbs, which means he hasn't even put on 1lbs since he was 4 months. Just like his brother did.

Jonas can now sit up by himself for very long periods or till he wants to move, he can also crawl some but it's very slow by stretching with one arm and than the other while lean some to that side, and with that and all the rolling he is completely mobile. Noah is great even though he doesn't nap. I can't believe he is almost 2 in just a few weeks. Where did the time go i don't know. I really wish it didn't have to go so fast, and I was told when I was pregnant with Jonas, that with each consecutive child it goes even fast and it is so so true. It feels like I just came home from the hospital with Jonas and he is going to start solid foods here in a short few wish if I decided to or I might just hold off a little bit but I doubt it b/c he's grabbing everything in sight .

Plans that we have right now aren't much. We or I will be helping friends move Saturday/Sunday. Than starting Sunday Tom is in at a Jave One conference in the city till Friday night (two night he'll stay in there over night and than the other nights he'll get home at midnight most likely and head in at 6am) so we are on our own again, but we'll survive I have no doubt. We'll miss him a lot though. The boys went crazy today b/c he came home early just as I was getting them in bed and that was only not seeing Dad for two days. It will be interesting how they will react the next Friday or Saturday when they see dad.

Well tomorrow is Friday and I am hoping to get myself and the boys to my exercise class than get back and finish house work I didn't get done today and than I hope to meet up with some other mom's from class and take the boys swimming which I need to remember to pick up some swim diapers.

Our BC trip

Some of you knew we were going to drive up to Victoria BC for my friend's wedding. We had a good trip overall. Tiffany and Brendon had a beautiful wedding and we were happy to be there for their day. .

Oh but lets back up.... it's a total of 985 mi or 1,587 km – about 17 hours 36 mins, that is if you drive straight and no stopping. Those who have kids, know it's going to be longer with lots of stops on the way. Well we were late leaving and it didn't help that Noah got up for reasons we don't know at 5:30am that morning (he's normally gets up at 7:30-8am) and of course didn't nap. So I was hoping he would fall asleep but he didn't and two hours into our drive he power puked everywhere which explained the 30-40 mins of screaming for mommy leading up to that. That made us feel like great parents let me tell you. So we had to stop a lot earlier than we wanted to because even though we cleaned everything up we knew things had to be washed that night, or everything was going to stink.

Next day of driving was very long but the boys did well. We stopped at Anacortes, WA to get the ferry to Sidney BC the next morning which left at 7:30am but they ask you to be there 45 min early. Noah up early on the ferry it left at 7:30m

view from the ferry

...We all enjoyed the ferry ride very much. It was a 3 hour crossing with two stops at islands. It was really scenic. Then we got settled into the hotel and walked around a little but didn't do too much else as we were exhausted. Next day was Saturday/wedding day and first day not in the car.

Victoria along the water at night, view from the hotel we stayed at.

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The wedding was beautiful and Noah loved the dance and it took a while to get Noah off the dance floor, Jonas even joined in on the last song we stayed for. Tiffany and her dad

Her dad giving her to Brendon

I sat there hoping she would turn around and she did.

My little man cleans up nice. They all do actually.

Back in the hotel room trying to get the boys to nap before the reception started. No luck with this one.He's still going.


On Sunday we decided to go for a walk and than we headed to Craigdarroch castle which looked amazing but took longer than we thought to get there and we had the stroller so we couldn't go in...I was a little bummed(go to the website and you'll see some pictures and understand why) Here is one from outside. As well we didn't get to go to Butchart garden or the BBQ Tiffany invited us too because by the time we got back to the hotel it was time to drive to the ferry which we just caught(we had a reserved a spot).
Craigdarroch castle

The ferry ride, different route that we took on the way to Victoria, heading to Vancouver instead of Anacortes, WA was also a beautiful ferry ride.
View from the ferry to Vancouver

We spent that evening and the full next day in Vancouver and, being tourists, went on a city tour bus which Noah loved. I wish we had more time there b/c we didn't get to do everything we wanted at all.


We did get to go to the Granville Island market (still didn't get to see everything there) Kids market place, where there was everything from toy stores, to kite and clothing stores.

And we got to go to Chinatown to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden.

We saw a bit of the rest of the Vancouver Chinatown too which is suppose to be the largest in Canada and the second largest in North America.

Next day it was off to Whistler. I now wish we took the train up there so that we could have relaxed more and walked around on the train. It was amazing up there and I wish I could be up there in the winter, there was still a few skiers and snowboarders up there as the tops of some ski slopes were still open.
Jonas sporting his new winter Olympic 2010 clothes which he thought he needed so he exploded his diaper right up to his neck(kid got skills).

Than it was time to drive home which would now be 1,058 mi or 1,705 km about 18hours. Again that is if you drive straight and no stops so it took us a lot longer than that. It was a long drive home with the last 40min of two screaming kids, Jonas screaming b/c Noah was screaming 'bed bed sleep sleep'.

The boys ready for the drive back home from Whistler.

Best Show ...

we have ever seen. We went to the July 4th symphony fireworks show here in town at the amphitheater and it was awesome. If you went to the box office a few weeks before, they were giving free tickets out to city residents. We were planning to go anyhow but free tickets are really a nice bonus. They also had a kids event too with little fair games and a kids concert, which I thought was great, maybe we'll take Noah to that when he's older. Anyhow we got there a bit early and found a spot on the grass section and waited for the 8 o'clock show to start. We loved the San Fransisco symphony, I miss going to stuff like that. We have gone to a few things since living here and we use to go to stuff like that in Ottawa all the time, but nothing in well over a year now, so it was so great to get out and go to something like that. Then after an hour or so, some time after 9pm the fireworks started and they were done to the music as well, which was truly amazing and to our surprise, the fireworks went on for three pieces(songs). Coming from small towns you aren't use to good fireworks or even long shows so we were in awe, Halifax, Ottawa and even San Francisco(we went there two yrs ago for July 4th) firework's are nothing compared to what we saw last night. I really want to go every year to the july 4th firework's here in town as long as we live here.

Before the show

Half of the symphony

Noah and Dad watch the fireworks

Welcome Hayden Flynn

We want to Congratulate Trevor and Sarah on the birth of their second son. Hayden David Flynn who was born today 8lbs 5oz, 21.5 inches!!! Not sure when we'll get to meet this little guy, I have a feeling he will be walking and running around when we do :(.

Our trip

we are back from our trip to Florida and we had a pretty good time. It went by fast but than I am also glad to be back home too. Noah's pretty fussy today and it was expected, he travels well but it seem to also take a toll on him. I am hoping by the weekend that he gets back into his routine.

Here are a few pictures taken at south beach in Miami and at our friends pool. Noah loved the water so much that he actually would start to cry when we would take him out of it. He's going to be a little fish, that is for sure.

Snow Snow Snow

Hard to believe it is 2008!!! Happy New Year Everyone and Noah got to play in the snow!!!

Earth quake news......Noah wants to trick or treat with you.

So before Noah begins his trick or treat with you. We have to tell you that last night when we were carving our jack-o-lanterns we have felt our first earth quake and I can say I don't ever want to feel that again. At first I thought Dad and Noah were running up and down the hall and coming towards me or that it was our neighbours kid running in their place(got to love the thin walls). I yelled to Tom to ask what they were doing b/c he was in the other room watching hockey. When he yelled to me earth quake, now I mind you this all happen in a span of 10mins. So we ran to the door and stood in the door frame and met our across the pathway neighbours who were standing in their front door. Anyhow to make this story shorter, it was a 5.6 at it origin was a bit aways away but enough to shake us up and one picture frame fell off the bookcase. All I can say if a bigger one comes or a lot more I am moving.



Anyhow here are our jack-o-lanterns. I helped Noah carve his the little boo pumpkin, Daddy made the dead jack-o-lantern with the tongue sticking out and mommy made the pirate jack-o-lantern. Now tonight we get to roast some pumpkin seeds... yummy.

Well here is Noah in his first Halloween outfit that daddy bought him.
Here is Noah off to see daddy at work, to go trick or treating. Lots of tricks were done...no treating!












Noah sitting by himself







































Noah outside with the family jack-0-lanterns!!! and the ghost that our friend Jake made us.

Our family

Well it's a little late but we got these take back in September when Noah was 3 months and 6 days old , so I thought I would share them with you.