It's done!

Hannah's 'Princess' bedroom is finished :-) She LOVES it!

Jump!

Hannah is trying to teach Victoria how to jump... Victoria doesn't quite get it yet and she just bends her knees and then stands up straight. It is cute to watch them :-)

Victoria has started saying lots of new words some are still more clear than others. Her latest word is 'Sissy' which is what she calls Hannah. She can say Hannah but she now knows that Hannah is her sister so she calls her 'Sissy'.

Dave has been busy this weekend painting Hannah's princess bedroom. The painting is done but he needs to wait another day before hanging the wallpaper border. Then we can move all the furniture back into place and put the finishing touches on the walls. The room should be fit for a princess when it is done :-) Next up will be Victoria's bedroom although I am having difficulties finding all the Care Bears accessories I had envisioned for her room. I may have to abandon that theme and go with something else... Dora, Tinkerbell etc. I am waiting until after I go to California before I decide... I am hoping to find some cute stuff there.

Here are a few more pictures of the girls taken this weekend... Victoria's new thing is to try and wear the Mr. Potato Head glasses!

Stallone has claimed the Princess couch... Hannah and Victoria have to muscle him off it if they want to sit there. As soon as the kids get off of it he is right back on there!

Have a great week!

PS - There were no biting episodes this weekend... YAY!

What Up?

I haven't blogged in almost a week! Sorry! I was getting worried that all our 'peeps' may have lost interest since I was slacking off :-)

So here's a quick (or maybe not so quick) recap of our week....

Victoria a.k.a. 'Jaws' has developed a new bad habit... biting! She seems to be selective in her biting because she only bites Hannah. Hannah has the bruises to prove it too! This is how it happens almost every time... Hannah refuses to share something with Victoria - they start fighting over what ever it is - Victoria bites Hannah - Hannah screams and cries - Victoria laughs - Victoria gets punished for biting - Victoria screams and cries - Both girls see who can scream and cry the loudest. Fun times. I hope Victoria outgrows this stage real quick!

We have all been up to the usual stuff... swimming lessons, skating lessons, preschool, laundry, grocery shopping, work etc. with the occasional round of Guitar Hero in between :-) Mike and Crystl came over last Saturday night and we played Guitar Hero with them. Dave got 100% on a couple songs but the best I have done is 99% and you know it is killing me to have Dave beating me! I need to work some more Guitar Hero practice into my weekly schedule somehow...

My friend Rhonda called me this week with a fun surprise for me :-) Her brother in law gave her some tickets in his penthouse suite to the Brad Paisley concert coming up next month. (I just have to mention 'penthouse suite' again because it makes me feel so cool!) So Rhonda is giving me 2 tickets for the show... I asked Dave to join me because he missed out on Toby Keith last time but since Dave would have to get up at 4am the next day for work he declined. So I asked Mandy to join me instead... she took me to a hockey game on Boxing Day so I am paying her back :-) It will be a fun night and I am looking forward to it!

Rhonda also invited me to sign up for fitness 'boot camp' with a group of her co-workers. They needed 15 people to sign up in order to get the group rate. Rhonda's work (Anipet) is paying for part of everyone's sign up fee and are going to pay for part of mine too even though I don't even work there! Rhonda is the girl to know... she is hooking me up this week ;-) Thanks!

I am super nervous about the boot camp though... I think I might keel over! But I am going to stick it out... 3 nights a week for 4 weeks... gulp! What have I gotten myself into?!?! It starts after I get back from California so at least I can have a good time and eat lots of 'In N Out' burgers without as much guilt :-)

The photographer that Hannah and Jaws had their modeling shoot with in December e-mailed me to let me know that their pictures were on her new website and blog. Considering how terrible the girls were behaving at that photo shoot I was surprised that there were a couple cute pictures. None of them together of course because they weren't co-operating! There was also one of me with Victoria and my face could not look any bigger... I would like to think it is a bad camera angle but I did think to myself that this boot camp is good timing!

Click here to see the pictures from the modeling shoot! I just love how she says such nice things about how they behaved... I guess since she is promoting her work she didn't want to say 'Here are the two brats that I couldn't wait to get rid of!'

Hannah's new bed was delivered today and she was SO excited!! She was happy to finally get to sleep in her new princess bed that she has been waiting for.

Victoria's hair is getting long... and it is so curly! I took a picture of the back of her hair tonight so you could see how curly it is getting. I am going to need a crash course is curly hair styling soon.

OK - That's it I think I am all caught up for now :-) Thanks for reading!

Teddy Bear Picnic

Hannah's preschool class had their first field trip today... a 'Teddy Bear Picnic'! The kids all met at the school and they spent the first half an hour in the classroom for circle time and making name tags for their teddy bears.

Hannah's friend Rebecca was the 'helping hand' today. Being the 'helping hand' is something the kid's can't wait for their turn for. The 'helping hand' checks the weather for the day, counts all the kid's for attendance and gets to go first to the art table. For three year olds it is a very desirable job to have for the day.

After all the teddy bears had name tags made Teacher Vanessa 'found' a map to a secret picnic location. So all of the kids got bundled up to help Teacher Vanessa follow the map... they walked down the path behind the school and up the street to a townhouse complex clubhouse near by. When the kids got inside the clubhouse there was a big blanket set up with a picnic basket full of snacks for the kids. They had a little picnic, sang songs and played a couple games before walking back to the school.

Victoria's 'Only Child' Night Out

My Mom and Dad took Hannah on Saturday afternoon to go see 'Tale of Despereux' and then Hannah had a sleep over at their place. Hannah had a great time, she ate lots of junk food, got spoiled and then came home nice and hyper the next day.

Since Victoria was an 'only child' for the day Dave and I decided to take her to Chuck E Cheese for pizza and to play. I have to say that Victoria really enjoyed herself... she never stopped smiling! When we got home she spent the entire rest of the evening playing with all of Hannah's princess dolls that Hannah refuses to share. What Hannah doesn't know won't hurt her right?

Hannah's ice skating lessons started again today. She is in level 2 now and needs to work on her gliding... she was doing well but she was very tired afterwards. She has even gone for a nap this afternoon so it must have been hard work for her.

My mom came with us to the rink to watch and while Hannah was in her lesson we took Victoria out on the ice. Santa brought Victoria some little bob skates that strap onto her shoes and she tried them out today. She did pretty good with them on and she even took a few steps on her own :-)

***********

I got some more sad news this afternoon. One of Hannah's little friends Emily from her baby group is in Children's Hospital right now. The doctor's thought that maybe she had pneumonia but they have discovered a tumor on her lung. Emily began chemotherapy this morning. I don't have much more information than that right now but it is definitely shocking news. It certainly makes me count my blessings and puts things into perspective. Please keep little Emily and her family in your prayers.

Gary Sallee

Gary Sallee passed away this morning. Who is Gary Sallee you are probably wondering... His story is one I have been following for quite some time now. Gary and his wife Lisa are friends of my friends Christy and Michele in California. Gary had been battling cancer since August of 2007. Gary's wife Lisa has shared their story and their family's journey on her blog (click here to read) since his diagnosis just over a year and a half ago.

Each time I have read updates on Gary's courageous battle with cancer I have felt such admiration for this family. Their strong faith in God and love and support from their friends and family has lifted them up during this difficult time. This family is truly inspiring.

Our hearts go out to Gary's wife Lisa, their three young sons, their extended family and friends. They will be in our prayers.

Strike A Pose!

Hannah's swimming lessons got moved to Saturday mornings so now Friday is a 'free' day for us. The weather is cold and rainy so we couldn't really go to the park or do anything outside. So this morning I got the camera out and thought I would try and take some pictures of the girls showing some of their sisterly love. They were not interested in sitting together for pictures... so much for the sisterly love. This was the only picture I could get of the two of them together before the pushing and shoving began....

Hannah started rolling around on the couch and asking me to take her picture. She was being such a little poser... and she has the attitude to go with it trust me. Here are some shots of Hannah...

Of course Victoria did not want to even look at the camera for more than a few seconds before she was off into something. With Hannah being occupied by the camera Victoria saw the opportunity to finally get to play with some toys that Hannah has been monopolizing. Smart kid! I did manage to get a couple pictures of Victoria and her beloved 'Rocky' as she was heading up for her nap... that darn raccoon is so stinky and she won't let me take it away to wash it!

California Bound!

I am sick and tired of the snow, rain and cold weather! So I just booked myself a little weekend getaway to visit Christy in California! I am so excited :-)

I am going to be flying from Bellingham, WA to San Diego, CA on Thursday, February 5th and then flying back home on Sunday, February 8th. So I will only be gone for the weekend but it should be a nice little break... maybe I can even catch a bit of a tan?

My Mom and Dave will be taking care of the kids... THANKS!

I got a wicked seat sale... so I just couldn't resist. Now the countdown is on!

Dinner Conversation in The Smethurst Household

Hannah: BURP!

Dave: Hannah! That's rude!

Hannah: Better out than in!

Can you tell who has been watching too much Shrek??

Victoria Is Moving On Up!

Victoria is moving to a 'big girl' bed! She has been using Hannah's bed for her naps now for the past week and she is doing well with the transition.



Dave took Hannah to Ashley Furniture yesterday to order Hannah's new bed and Victoria's new dresser. We are going to get Hannah a double sleigh bed and then give Victoria the twin bed Hannah has right now. This way when we have company stay over Hannah can give her double bed up for guests.

So the new bedroom furniture should be arriving at the end of the month and that will be when we make the big change over. Then Dave will have to paint the walls to match all the new bedding that I have to shop for now :-)

Hannah is back to school tomorrow.... YAY!

Happy New Year!

We had a fun New Years Eve yesterday :-) We met up with Tanya, Jeff, Tysen and Joshua plus Shivone who is visiting from Edmonton as well as Chad and Madison at 'The Great Escape' yesterday afternoon. 'The Great Escape' is a new indoor play place for kids that just opened recently and we wanted to check it out. It was a fun place... there was a HUGE maze of tunnels and slides, ball pits, arcade games, laser tag and other fun stuff. All of the kids had a great time playing (even the adults had fun sliding down the HUGE red slide).

After a couple hours of play time for the kids we all headed over to 'The Olive Garden' for dinner. Hannah ate her whole bowl of pasta! The food was great... I love their yummy fettuccine alfredo :-)

We all came back to our house after dinner and the kids played and watched movies in the playroom. Jeff and Tanya brought their Guitar Hero over and we hooked it up to our Wii. What a fun night! We played Guitar Hero right up until midnight and by the end of the night everyone was really into it :-) We were all rocking out to Guitar Hero... some of us more so than others. I woke up this morning with a sore hip... too many high kicks into the air while playing Bon Jovi! When I called Jeff this morning he said his knee was really sore... more so because of the door he walked into than the Guitar Hero!

Dave has the Guitar Hero bug now... I think he may be buying it for himself soon. He started out really serious about getting all the notes right but by the end of the night he had unleashed his inner rocker and was sliding on the floor while whammying the notes! Fun times!

Yesterday Dave found Mario Kart for me at HMV in Abbotsford and he drove out to pick it up. So this afternoon I think Dave, Hannah and I are going to try it out. It looks like it will be fun... and a little easier on my hip ;-)