Victoria's Starting to Walk!!!!

She's getting braver by the day... check out Miss Victoria Faith Smethurst at 10 and a half months learning to walk!

How proud am I?!?!

Gotta Love Facebook!

Get this... my friend Christy is adopted and on Friday she searched her birth mother's name on Facebook. The search came up with a lady that had a different last name but had the last name she was looking for as a former last name. So Christy e-mails the lady to ask her if she is this person or if she knows someone by that name etc. The lady e-mails back to her yesterday that yes indeed she used to go by that name and that YES she did give up a baby for adoption on that date etc. etc. So Christy has finally after 31 years found her birth mother with the help of Facebook! Apparently her birth mother had just signed up for a Facebook account 2 days prior to Christy searching her name.

She said she feels like she is in a dream and it is all so surreal to her. What a journey she is about to start... she will finally get some answers to lots of questions she has had all her life. I am so happy for her!

Going for a Stroll

I haven't blogged in over a week... yikes! We have been up to pretty much the same old stuff. Hannah and Victoria have had a bit of a cold for the last few days... hopefully they don't give it to me.

Here is a little video of Victoria taking her Care Bear for a walk in the doll stroller... she is walking everywhere as long as she has something to hold onto. She took a couple steps on her own last week but then she fell on her face and hasn't been brave enough to try again. She is so much more cautious than Hannah was at this age... Hannah always had bruises all over her from falling down while trying so desperately to walk.

And here is a new picture from last week of Hannah and Victoria hanging out in the crib. Hannah is going through a phase where she wants to try and sleep with Victoria in the crib...

The Wiggles!!

Hannah and Ryan had their hot date to The Wiggles concert this afternoon... they had a great time! Lots of singing, dancing and just staring in amazement at all the action. Hannah really enjoyed herself... Thanks so much Tammy and Ryan for inviting us!











Now Hannah is off for her second 'date' of the day... dinner with Tysen. She's playing the field ;) We are heading out for dinner with Tanya, Jeff, Tysen and Joshua and then back to their house so the adults can watch the UFC fight on pay per view.

Some Exciting News & More Dance Pictures

Christy has been hassling me that I haven't blogged since Monday... she is such a stalker ;) But I am really excited that she is coming home to visit at the end of May for a week or so!! We are going to be taking LOTS of pictures together... she is taking some intermediate camera classes (what a nerd!) and has some tips and tricks to show me. I can't wait but it shall prove to be interesting because I will be in a cast when she is here... can you take pictures with your hand in a cast? I will try my best! I told her she can help me out by changing Victoria's diapers for me while she is visiting... she has politely declined.

Other exciting news... Hannah and I are going to see The Wiggles tomorrow afternoon (OK, it is not exciting for me but for Hannah)! My friend Tammy (great name by the way) has 2 extra tickets for the show and she is giving them to us... we went to The Backyardigans with her and her son Ryan a few months ago. Hannah is pumped... she is currently laying in bed and refusing to have a nap because she is so wired about the thought of going to the show tomorrow. Of course I will take pictures and post them this weekend :)

Dave is going to stay home with Victoria while Hannah and I are at the show... I think he is pleased that he doesn't have to sit through The Wiggles performance. 4 grown men singing children's songs can be kinda creepy ;)

Here are a few pictures from Hannah's dance class this morning...

-Disclaimer - My friend Mandy took a couple of these pictures - I wouldn't want her to sue me for copyright infringements;)

But there was one little 'meltdown' part way through the class... I told her I was going to take a picture of her crying on the floor to show everyone she was acting like a baby. So here it is...

She stopped pretty quickly after that :)

T-Ball & 10 Months

Today was Hannah's first T-Ball class! She is the only girl in the class... I don't think she even noticed. She really needs to work on her listening skills... she spent the first half of the class either running around or digging in our diaper bag for snacks. She was better for the last part of the class when they played a little 'game'. She got to hit the ball and 'Coach Megan' helped her run the bases... she definitely liked that alot :) Her T-Ball session is 10 weeks long so hopefully by the end she will be a better participant. Although I think she might have to miss the last few classes unless I can find someone to take her because I will be in a cast from my hand surgery then.







Also today Victoria is 10 months old :) She is growing like a weed and getting into lots of mischief (usually with the help of her big sis!) She is walking all over the house as long as she has something to hold on to. She has yet to get brave enough to try and take steps on her own. I took a little video of Victoria walking with the 'Little Moose Mountain' car this morning...





Oh and I forgot to post this picture from the other day... Victoria's first pig tails :) Her hair is starting to grow... finally!

Weekend News

I hurt my hand some more on Friday :( I was trying to open a jar of salsa and I felt a kind of 'popping' sensation in my hand right before I had shooting pain up my arm. I am fairly certain that my ruptured tendon is not longer just ruptured... I think it has torn away a bit. My hand is so sore and swollen right now. I have had to go back to wearing the brace that the Dr. had made for me... I think I will be wearing the brace until my surgery next month. Right now I am keeping Advil in business and I think I am going to dip into my little stash of Tylenol 3 tonight. I'll call the specialist's office tomorrow to see if there is anything else I should do for my hand in the meantime.

On to more happy news...

Saturday morning we attended the Open House at Hannah's pre-school that she will be going to in September. I applied for a spot for her back in November and she got in! There are over 30 kids on the wait list for her class so I am glad that she got a spot. My friend Mandy tried to register Rebecca for the same class and she did her online application 8 minutes after me and Rebecca is 6th on the wait list to get in. So that shows you how popular this pre-school is... they have 19 locations and they all have huge wait lists.

Hannah wanted to wear her pink and white dress to meet her teachers and I crimped her hair. She looked really cute. I showed up with my camera planning to take a whole bunch of pictures despite my mangled hand and when I went to take her picture I realized that my camera battery was dead!! I was so mad at myself for not checking the battery level because I was so preoccupied the night before with my sore hand! So I have no pictures to share with all of you...

Hannah will have 2 teachers... Teacher Susie and Teacher Kim. They were both really nice and Hannah went right in and was very comfortable in the classroom. I had to fill out several pages of information like emergency contact info etc. and it took me almost the whole time just to write all the stuff down while wearing my lovely arm brace. My writing looked like a little kids... I hope they can read it :)

I am excited for Hannah to start pre-school... she seemed really eager to go and she has been talking about it alot. She was really excited when the teacher told her that she can bring Pistol, Stallone and Abby for Show and Tell... that should be an interesting day.

Saturday was also Pistol's 8th Birthday... It was such a warm sunny day so Hannah and I took Pistol for a nice walk down to the park to play. Both girls (Hannah & Pistol) were very well behaved :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PISTOL!

WE LOVE YOU LOTS

Dance Class

Today was Hannah's first dance class :) Quite a few of Hannah's friends are in this class which she was thrilled about. The girls all wore little 'tutus' (or 'tattoos' as Hannah calls them) and they all looked adorable!

She seemed to enjoy the class although she did have a hard time paying attention at times. She took off and started running around a few times but for the most part she participated fairly well. All they really did was play follow the leader type games, sing some songs and dance / run around the room. I guess that is all you can really expect from a bunch of 2 year olds :)


Notice in the picture (above left) that Hannah's friend Rebecca (standing just to Hannah's right in the picture) has her tutu hiked up to her armpits! So cute!





At one point in the class when they were singing the 'Slippery Fish' song Hannah blurted out to the whole class 'Buggy is taking me to the Slippery Fish concert!!' Apparently she is looking forward to that show next month :)

Hannah has been practicing her 'twirls' since we have been home this afternoon. She says she is a ballerina now...

Jesus Loves Me...

Hannah has been going to Sunday School for the last couple months and she is really enjoying herself :) She has made lots of new friends... one in particular a boy named 'Matito' I think she has made up. I am going to have to ask the teacher if there is really a kid named Matito in her class or not. She is so adamant about it that I kind of believe her but it is totally possible that he is a figment of her imagination.

She talks about her new friends all the time and she is constantly singing her new favourite song... Jesus Loves Me. She sings this song so much that I have it stuck in my head all the time now too! I actually caught myself humming Jesus Loves Me in the shower this morning. Anyways... it is pretty cute and I'm glad she is enjoying her Sunday School class so much... that is really nice to see :)

Standing Alone!

Victoria is now standing on her own... I can't believe how quickly she has discovered how to balance. Now instead of falling over she has learned how to bend her knees and then reach down to the floor. I have a feeling that she might be walking up to the gate to meet Uncle Daryl and Auntie Kara when they get off the plane next month...



Tonight the girls had some fun playing in an empty diaper box which was cute. It's so true... they can have all the toys in the world but nothing beats a plain old cardboard box :)



PS - I took the girls in to get weighed yesterday... Victoria is now 20 pounds 3 ounces! I knew she was over 20 pounds... my arms are totally feeling it after holding her for any length of time. Hannah now weighs 30 pounds... she finally made it! She has been 28 pounds forever... it must be all the Easter chocolate that put her over ;)

So Big!

Here's a little video of Victoria playing her 'So Big!' game :) When you ask her how big she is she will lift her arms up above her head. I remember when Hannah used to do that :)

I just had to post these pictures I took the other day as well... when ever we feed Pistol both girls have to 'supervise'. Hannah even pulls up a stool to sit on. Poor Pistol... she has to have an audience when she is trying to eat!

After Pistol is done eating... Hannah and Victoria have to 'inspect' to make sure all the food is gone :)

Happy Birthday Tysen!

Today was Tysen's Birthday Party :) It was an outside party in the backyard and the rain managed to hold off just long enough. It was a bit chilly out but the kids all had a great time running around and playing outside.



My Mom bought Hannah a new rain coat and matching rain boots the other day and Hannah has insisted on wearing them everyday since. So today was no exception... she just had to wear them to the birthday party too.

Victoria had her first hot dog today at the party! She really liked it :) What kid (or adult in my case) doesn't like hot dogs?!? Victoria has been eating lots of new foods lately... she went nuts for the fettuccine alfredo I made the other night. She also is cutting some new teeth right now too... her 'fangs' on the top which are coming in before the middle teeth. She is going to look like a snake just like Hannah did! What are the chances that both of my kids would get their teeth in the wrong order???



After Tysen's party we went over to Tanya and Jeff's so the kids could continue playing and we ordered in pizza for dinner. Then we watched the Canucks lose 7-1 to Calgary :( I sure hope they make some changes to the team for a better chance at making the play offs next year.

Happy 5th Birthday Tysen!

Hope You Had A Great Day!

Girls Night Out

Last night Tanya, Shivone and I had a Girls Night Out :) Actually it was more of a Girls Afternoon AND Night Out. We went shopping on Robson Street in the afternoon and then had dinner at Moxies downtown before going to the Rascal Flatts and Taylor Swift concert at GM Place. We had lots of fun! The concert was great!

The only bad thing was that I got some horrible blisters on my feet after walking downtown all afternoon :( My feet are still sore today... I think I will have to wear some flip flops for a few days until my feet heal up a bit. Ouch!

Thanks for babysitting the girls so we could go out Mom!

P.S. I have no pictures of Shivone to post because she had her eyes closed in every picture I took (all 8 of them!)