31.10.07

I'm sitting in my chair, drinking my rooibus tea, and watching the frost slowly disappear from the neighbor's rooftops. Our first frost, I think. It is beautiful and just in time to make trick-or-treating a real chill...I mean thrill. Also perfect timing for Ryan, who begins a new job tomorrow and gets to bid a sweet farewell to field work. I'm certain the weather is tipping its hat today. The fire is crackling (okay, hissing) in the living room. What a great day! My student is getting in some independent practice with her math. Yes, this is the student who recently raced in the front door to tell me that with my hair such as it was, I looked just like Lindsey Lohan. In the next breath she exclaimed, "OMG. She is SO ugly!" What do you say to that? :-)

There seems to be no shortage of smarty pants in this house. You all I know I married one. Unfortunately, I also birthed one. Just yesterday, Ryker informed me I was too fat to sit in the recliner with him. We had to read on the couch instead. Ryan is a merciless tease and Ryker occasionally gets a little sass going. "It's only funny to YOU, Dad!" Last night he was contemplating who was the strongest (Daddy of course), the richest (Ryker of course), the smelliest (Ryker again), the cutest (Emerson), the nicest (Mommy) and the funniest. "NOT Daddy!" he states emphatically.

We're working on initial letter sounds with Ryker. He always wants to know which is every one's favorite letter. His is 'C' for kick and he has to demonstrate of course. After several days of this, I decided it was time to break the bad news. "K is for kick." I inform. "C is for cow, candy and Uncle Case." He looks at me like I'm the strangest thing he's seen in his short life. "Kay...ssss." He sounds out. This is all so confusing. Call us Uncle Ks!

Well, good fall to all! Stoke the fire, break out the steamy soup recipes, brew some hot cocoa and kiss the family. The holidays are near.

25.10.07

Happy Birthday, Eric!

Whoa! Look at all that candle smoke! It's just a thong, guys. It doesn't require engineering. (photos by Michelle)


pretty cool, grandpa steve!

















Dad has been working on this project for a while now. The grandkids seem pretty pleased with the finished project. (photos by Michelle)

time with grandpa tim...

Who's having more fun is anyone's guess!



18.10.07

Vancouver, B.C.

Emerson's first trip to the city, Vancouver that is. A group of us took the skytrain downtown for breakfast. Caffe Crepes...yum! Found the cutest baby clothes in the world at Zaras. Ryan called while we were in transit, not to tell us he missed us but to remind me that we're broke. Sad but true. I have the names and numbers of all my hot cousins for anyone interested (so long as I approve).



Caffe Artigiano has won international awards for their foam art. The latte looked great and tasted even better. The owner of I AM, EH hangs out most Saturday mornings at a Starbucks on Robson Street. He looked so normal. :-)





Cousin Luke...good looking, kind hearted and employed. What more could the ladies want? Even the pigeons in Canada don't respect the Americans. Yep. I was pooed on. "The good news is that it could have been worse and it probably won't happen again." says Luke. Oh my. He's funny too.




This is what happens when you go shopping with teenage girls. You spend a lot of time on the sidewalk...waiting. This half of the entourage was broke.

We had a great time with the cousins at Grandpa and Grandma Good's. Ryker thinks Grandpa's elevator is sooooo cool! He's pretty impressed with Auntie Cathy's wig as well! "It's like magic!" he says. Too bad no one wanted to hold Emers. Tee hee.





9.10.07

Congratulations Chip and Cherie!

"Is it going to be a yooong wedding?" Ryker whines on the way in. "But I don't want to yeave!" he whines on the way out. He loved break-dancing with Gabe and Katy. He also ate his share of the cake and mints, which we revisited at 5:00 the following morning. This is the stuff memories are supposed to be made of!





boy (n): a noise with dirt on it









Ryker loves sharing his new, though much smaller, sandbox. For two years he had an empty lot to dig in. Dennis was kind enough to help the neighbor kids with his backhoe. You can only imagine the disappointment when the grass went in!

Happy Birthday, Jaden!















Boys and bugs...too many of both! Not really. The boys were wearing bug tats, decorating bug cakes, eating real-live chocolate covered dead bugs, digging for buried bugs and licking suckers with dead bugs visible inside. Oh...and bugging one another!

sleep over (attempt)

After reading 20 or so "ories", Jaden still hadn't fallen asleep and had to head back to Grandma's house. It was only 11:45 or so.





pumpkin patch





Our days have been full, crazy, chaotic and wonderfully exhausting. Come back soon, Auntie Michelle and Cousin Jaden!