happy birthday, David!

My little boy, I can't believe you are 3! Before I had you I was totally worried about having a boy. I had taught enough boys over the years who were rude, hyper and crazy to warrant my worries. You are the complete opposite! I am so thankful to have such a compassionate, patient, smart little guy. You have your moments - like running around the track to the popcorn song, but for the most part you would rather snuggle with mom and read a book than climb the furniture. You are finally starting to talk and it's so cute to see what is going on inside your head. Your first 3 word sentence was "I like snakes." Actually it was more like "I yike sakes." You still can't pronounce a multitude of sounds - like v's and f's and r's but I have confidence that will come. You actually enjoy practicing your sounds sheets which we do every night before bed. You love boy stuff - anything cars, bad guys, trains, etc. you totally gravitate toward; yet you play baby dolls and barbies with your sisters, too. You love jumping on the trampoline and you have had so much fun this summer camping and swimming and being outside.

You are a momma's boy through and through. Daddy still thinks you hate him. Probably because you used to close your eyes whenever he appeared in the room. Or scream if he tried to hold you or play with you. Now that you are a bit older you tolerate him much better. Except for when you randomly whack him as you walk past... You are very protective of me though - we think that is why you dislike your father so much - jealous!! You adore your sisters. You sometimes walk around just copying them to the tee - mimicking what they say as best you can. Everyone always fights over who gets to sit by you in the car and Libby often claims she can't go to the washroom without having you in there to watch her. (Go figure...) You love to say the prayer and every time it is the same: "Heabeny Fahdder, Yesus Chist, amen." To the point, I guess! One of the best things about you is your smile - it still takes you a good while to wake up or even just warm up in some situations but once it comes out you are the smiliest, laughable guy around.

You had a great birthday party! We went to north glenmore park and had a picnic with the family.

You got tons of cool gifts - Daddy was jealous of all your new star wars toys. You especially like your "bad guys" and your batman pyjamas - complete with cape.

Everyone was commenting on your patience as you opened your presents. Your sisters would bring you a gift and help you open the card and you would sit still and listen as it was read to you - even as you were rocking with excitement to open your gift.

Here is a picture of your train cake - you were so excited about your "choo-choo."

I love you, David!

summer lovin'

Ahhh, it's just as good as I hoped it would be! We have squeezed so much fun into July, it might be nice to relax and let August slow down a bit!

We made our annual car map for David to play with, we made a huge lego city with a building out of each colour of lego.

We went to the church Canada Day party and I thought I would be brave and take the girls downtown to see the fireworks as well.

I was glad I did as Cadie pointed to a building with white lights all over it and squealed "I see them! I see the fireworks!" You can imagine her excitement when she saw the actual fireworks! It was a crazy night with transit issues but luckily friendly strangers were very helpful when they saw a mom with a sleeping child on her shoulder dragging another tired child up and down the streets :)

We also had fun going to stampede breakfasts - this one at the YMCA had awesome face painting. When the lady asked David what he wanted he said "bad guy" but she thought he said "bat guy" and turned him into batman. He was thrilled. I've noticed a few more sounds he cannot for the life of him pronounce - F's and V's are now on the list, too.

We went on a brief camping trip, filled with it's own adventures - we used handcarts to hike up to a campsite - which was gorgeous - but next time I would stay for more than one night as the whole time was setting up/taking down- with only my friend and I and our 6 kids it was a little much.

The kids were awesome though! They made up games the entire time we were busy getting camp/food/etc ready. This particular game was invented when I asked them to help me carry some wood for a fire. The wood getting turned into a parade which made this wood band recital seem less ridiculous.

I love my kids! They were also AMAZING on our latest escapade - we went camping in waterton for 4 days - they didn't get to bed until after 10 or 11 every night and were still up early early and they were happy and helpful the whole trip. They crashed when we got home, but that was to be expected!

We hiked up to a pristine mountain lake.

Libby was the only one brave enough to go in it...

The girls had so much fun with Tami's friend Donna's daughter, Cali! Here they are climbing cliffs... They also had fun driving around the town for girls night out in the Oviatt's HUGE van. Apparently, Cali let Cadie drive... Cali also helped save their lives a number of times while we were white water rafting in our little dinghy. David got bonked on the head by a tree we accidentally had to go under and Cadie cried pretty much the entire time she was so terrified.

We went to the great canadian barn dance - David was so excited to see all the "cowboys" and danced up a storm!

We've also been to Victoria, done the Stampede

and other "day trip" adventures.

We've had friends over and as soon as I take care of the wasps nest under our deck, we'll be back in the back yard again! We are the luckiest people on the planet. We had a hail storm about a year ago and our shingles were worn from the hail and we had a few pieces of our siding crack. Our insurance people came and said they would need to replace our entire roof - which they did while we were in Victoria. (Which I will have to update about in a separate blog post because this one is getting long) Now they are telling us they can't match our siding colour so they will need to replace all the siding on our house as well - and what colour would we like!? Any suggestions? We get a whole new exterior of our house for free! We decided on a browner-grey for our shingles. I don't think people will recognize our house by the end of the summer. Well, with all of that it's no wonder my kids are randomly falling asleep on the floor... in the hallway... I will get back into being a good mom once the school year hits, honest!