1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (EDITED TO ADD 3!!!)

Jenna at age 1!
Jenna at Age 2!
Jenna at age 3! (Thank You SOOO much Julie!!!)Jenna at Age 4!
Jenna at age 5!


~Lisa~

Party Pictures!!!

Here they are!! Party pics!!! We had SOOO much fun!! I missed a couple pictures, I'm hoping that my Mom has some :( Oh well...there's lots here :)

The girls started out with musical chairs, then they practiced their posture by balancing a book on their heads. After that they painted wooden jewlery boxes...

After that it was lunch. My Mom and Grandma taught the girls the "Proper" way to set a table for tea. LOL... Mmm...Lunch!! I made cucumber/cream cheese, PB&J, Ham& Cheese, Bologna, and Jam/cream cheese sandwiches!! SOOO Yummy :) And my Mom made a really great fruit tray.
And Now, my FAVOURITE part...the cakes :) I have one left over to take a better picture of, it'll come later. :) If you look at the teacup cake at the back/right, you can see the handle, I made them using melted white chocolate and a #5 shaped cookie cutter. :) A true labour of love. Of course, then I ran out of white chocolate and had to use pink...and LOST the cookie cutter! UGH!! I just freehanded teacup handles. I made the 'saucers' out of sugar cookies :)
Jenna with her 'best friend' (du'jour) Peyton.
My Birthday girl :)
After lunch and cake the girls played 'Pin the Spout on the Teapot'. It was SOOO Much fun :)
Jenna got a Skip-it!! And soooo many other presents. Man...good gift givers around these parts! lol
After some Simon Says, Freeze dancing and running around like hooligans...the party was over. And a huge success. Jenna and I were Both exhausted after the party :) About 7 seconds after I snapped this picture I was curled up in a very similar manner :)

Thanks for looking!!!

~Lisa~

Things to do while on hold with Bell Expressvu

1. Clean grubby hand prints off of giant windows.

2. Rescue baby from imminent strangulation by digital camera cable.

3. Get HUNG UP ON! BASTARDS!!!

4. Call back.

5. Tell "Emily" to bite me.

6. Eat an entire row of chewy chips ahoy cookies. BAD BAD BAD!!!

7. Blog.

8. Clean grubby hand prints off of TV.

9. Make a chocolate #5.

10. Drink a bottle of lemon water.

11. Check BZ.

12. Have the TV scare the CRAP out of you when it starts working again all on it's own.

13. Hang up.

~Lisa~

Counting down the days!!

First of all, this is a record setting SECOND post in One Day! WOOT! So, please read my earlier entry too...it's a Great one!!

So, on to This post!

Only 6 days until my little girl turns 5! Wow. I don't really know how this happened!! She's Very excited!

I'm really excited about her party this year. The invitations were a HIT! :) One of the mom's mentions them everytime I see her :) YAY ME!! Here's a picture...

Pretty cool eh :) That's right...hand drawn. Oh yes. Shameless bragging abounds today!

I got the custard cups I needed to make the tea cup cakes today. I realized late last night, OMG, I still didn't have them!! There's still lots to do, but it's coming together. I still need to decide if I am going to use chocolate icing for the "tea" on the the cupcakes, or if the brown gel will be more authentic...looking at it from a 5 year old perspective, I'm guessing the icing will be preferred. this is my inspiration:

The 'saucer' is a cookie :) Neat eh?

I'm still not sure about games. I'll maybe google victorian party games. Or I may stick to traditional games like musical chairs...pin the spout on the teapot...I probably need more though...

I think I'll get some small wooden boxes for the girls to paint. I'll probably set that up for when the arrive, then they have time to dry...hopefully :)

Jenna wants cut out sandwiches. Shaped like butterflies and hearts and flowers. I'm not sold on that yet :) I was just going to do finger sandwiches. Cut into small rectangles. I'll probably be the loser on this battle!! Maybe I can convince Al to do that part HAHA.

Anyway, best get some housework done. Too much party planning makes me sleepy :)

~Lisa~

YAHOO!!!!!!!

Oh Heavens. What a little sleep will do for everyone!!

Mason had mostly bottles all weekend. And was thrilled with it. Last night he was in bed by about 8:30 and not a peep was heard from him until 4:20! When he adamantly refused the breast, but gobbled up a bottle (Making me think I did the right thing weaning him). And! HE WENT BACK TO SLEEP!!!!!! Oh yes. sleep, glorious sleep!! Mind you, Jenna woke me up at 6:00AM. But still! YAY! Progress!!

Onto other even Bigger news!!

MASON CRAWLED TODAY!!! On Hands and Knees!!! He's been trying real hard lately, but finally mastered it today!

He's also sitting himslef up ALL THE TIME, climbing the stairs, and pulling himself to standing on Everything!! I hate this age as much as I love it! LOL!

Now I can't Wait to go for Mason's follow-up assessment to brag and gloat about all of Mason's new accomplishments :)

Thanks to everyone who offered support. I appreciated every word.

~Lisa~

The End. Almost.

I've decided to wean Mason. I think. Mostly.

We were doing pretty good. But then her got 4 gigantic teeth within 2 weeks. And he became a biter. Then he decided to be the boss of Me (as IF!), and went on a 36 hour nursing strike. Every since then it hasn't been the same for us. He's been disinterested. Not that I ever really shared the same nursing bond with Mason as I had with Aidan though. We were great in the beginning, but it's never been real 'special'.

I'm hoping, rather selfishly - go ahead, blast and berate, I can take it - that more formula during the day will help him make it through the night easier. I'm tired. I'm yelling too much. I'm fuzzy in my head. I'm done. I told my 9 1/2 month old to F-off this morning. Through tears so thick I could barely see him. This is NOT the kind of mommy my baby needs. The only excuse I had was that I was tired. Sounds pretty lame doesn't it.

So, on to a new era. Not a long one though. Mason will be 10 months old next Friday (Wait? WHAT??). So only a couple months of formula and then it's on to milk in a sippy for him :)

I'll probably still nurse him in the night(Who likes making bottles at 3AM anyway?) and I will probably keep his first morning nursing session too. But other than that, My boobies will be my own again.

I guess the up side to all this is new bras for me. woo...hoo **said with very little enthusiasm** I know I have shrunk. Which is totally unfair. But, whatever, I'll have an easier time finding my new size I'm sure...whatever that may be.

I am saddened by this decision. I mean...never again will I hold a newborn to my breast and pray so Hard for him to drink baby, drink. Never again will I have the satisfaction of knowing that my baby got to be so big, and so healthy because I nourished him with my own body. Mason is our last. My Baby forever. It's weird.

I dont know if I'm weepy tonight because I am sad to be moving on, or because I'm so sleepy. :)

~Lisa~

I don't get it. I don't know what I am doing wrong. For a week now Mason has been back to his old 'get-up-at-the-effing-crack-of-dawn' tricks. I feel like my head is going to explode. Today he's been awake since 4:40. I tried everything to get him to go back to sleep. Including bringing him to bed with me, which I know is his favourite place to sleep. but no. He didn't want to sleep. He wanted to kick and jab and pinch and be a general PITA!

Al's no help. Whenever Mason gets near him in bed he gets all pissy and moves over. Granted, he is a heavy sleeper, but still. Wake the hell up and give ME a friggin break would ya!

I did get to go back to bed once this past week. for an extra hour. until Al woke me up to ask where the effing Wipes were. OMG.

See?!? I am totally losing my mind.

Lisa

Is the Devil wearing a snowsuit!?

Because seriously!!

Yesterday, Mason did all of the following...

1. Pulled himself to standing using Jenna's dollhouse. Not real sturdy standing, but he was up on his feet!!

2. Climbed the stairs. Only up two, but I am quite sure that if we had let him, he would have tackled the entire flight!

3. Sat himself up. Or down perhaps...he gets himself onto his knees, and then can sit from that position.

4. Not yesterday, but he is getting really good at getting himself back onto his belly from a sitting position.

YAY!! What a monkey. I knew, as soon as I said anything about him being delayed, he'd advance leaps and bounds. Now he's really giving us a run for our money!

AND!!

Jenna and Aidan had popcorn for a snack yesterday. They made a mess on the floor (as usual). BUT!! Jenna came into the kitchen while I as doing dishes, and said to me:

"Mom, I was wondering if I could ask you a favour?"
"Can you show me how to work the vacuum? I need to clean up the popcorn mess."

Oh yes. She did. I know. I had to pick up my jaw from the floor too!!

Things are looking up around here :)

~Lisa~

It's ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!

Or, more correctly I'm Alive! I just never seem to get a chance to Blog during the week. I kept thinking, "I should blog about this" and now that I have a few minutes, I can't think of a single thing!!

We went garage saleing with my mom and george last Saturday. It started out just fine. BUt then we went to cookstown, and down came the rain. By the lakeful it seemed. The kids didn't seem to care. Just splashed through every puddle they could fine, and carried on! My mom figures she's created seasoned garage salers at the tender ages of 4 and 2 :)

Jenna earned herself a new bike! It's pretty. Purple and Silver. She rode it once and declared that it was time to take off the training wheels LOL!

Henry has been having a good couple of weeks. Scores are up, behaviours are down :) It's been lovely.

Mason has started trying to pull himself up to his knees on everything. Me, the cupboard shelves, the bathtub. He's been told to stop numerous times, but insists on growing up. Silly baby.

Aidan is still doing AWESOME on the toilet!! I can't believe how easy it was to train him :D

Jenna is almost finished school for the year. She's going to be so upset when it's over. Every day she asks me when she's going back :) Which is great, but will be so hard on her in the summer. Hopefully I can make it fun enough that she'll get over it quick enough.

Her birthday is on the 25th. I can't believe my little girl is going to be FIVE!! I've got her tea party mostly planned. I figured out the invitations finally. I LOVE them!! I drew a teapot, cut out 2 of them, and glued them together, leaving the top open. The I cut a paper in the shape of a tea bag and wrote on it, "My day would be much brighter, and I'd be happier too, if I could turn 5 years old, sipping tea with you. So Dress up in your finery and come enjoy a cup with me!" That's on one side, on the other is the party date etc. Then I stapled some string to the 'tea bag' and then stapled a little square on the other end, and wrote the girls' names on that :) Then the 'tea bag' slides into the tea pot!!! I am so stinkin' proud of these!!! I hope the party holds up to the invitations! LOL

I went crazy in the kitchen yesterday!! Moved the microwave (twice) pulled out the fridge and cleaned behind it. EWWW!!! Gagnasty!! I sorted and tossed and wiped and washed. It looks sooo much better. Jenny offered us a tall white corner cupboard for the kitchen, so I am hoping it's going to fit!! It means losing a couple feet of counter space, but the organization/storage factor alone makes up for it!! I'm very excited.

I can't think of anything else. Hope all is well with you!!

~Lisa~

Milestones!!

Mason is such a monkey :)

Yesterday, I gave him a banana flavoured Arrowroot cookie for the first time. He LOVED it!! I went to wipe off the goo when he was finished, and he looked at me, and SHOOK HIS HEAD NO!!! YAY!!

Same this morning when I was giving him his breakfast. He was nearing the end of the bowl, and again, shook his head No to tell me he didn't want any more!!

This morning he was in bed with me, climbing all over me, and he ALMOST got himself into a sitting position. Soooooo close :)

It's a lovely relief.

~Lisa~