Matt's Birthday

Yesterday was Matt's birthday, to celebrate we had some family & friends over for cake last night. We had fun, and it was nice to have everyone over.

This is the cake I made for Matt, I actually used a template of the guitar he's planning to build. He was impressed!

Matt, his sister Jen & Bethany

Matt's parents, Stu & Bev

James & my parents, Ardith & Les

John, Dan, Jessica (Matt's sister) & Karl (Matt's brother)

Daddy & his girl

Family

Rachel, Gary & Ryan

Friends!

Bethany, Chloe & Ryan with their "Babysitters" (aka their dads)

Later in the evening Sarah & Jill stopped by for some cake, but I didn't think to get a picture...they only stayed for a few minutes, long enough to wake up Bethany (nice Sarah!).

Matt, I hope you had a good day, you're a great husband and father & we love you so much!!!!

Milk, Good to the last drop

Bethany is now officially on whole milk. She had her last bottle with formula in it this morning. The rest of the day was straight milk and she loved it! Matt & I are excited about this transition as it will save us some money in formula costs!! The next big step will be the transition from bottle to sippy cup...this has not gone well in the past so we'll see what happens, for now Bethany only likes water and juice in her sippy cup. As long as it goes better than her friend Naomi's sippy cup transition (sorry Sarah!).

The rain gutter came partly off our house yesterday...good times, so our friend Aaron came over tonight and climbed up on the roof and fixed it. There always seems to be something when you own a home!!! Matt finishes up work on Thursday and then will hopefully be off for 8 weeks if his 2 week vacation gets approved. It will be lots of fun to have him home for that long...I have lots of little projects for him to do! I'm most excited about the new dishwasher we bought today! We are relocating a section of cupboards, so we can put the dishwasher in. I can't wait....I am so looking forward to the day when I don't have to wash my dishes!!!!

Visit from our friends

Last Tuesday we had a visit from our friends Steven & Alana and 2 of their 3 kids, Christine & Calum from Cape Breton (2 year old Ainsley stayed home with her grandparents). They were spending part of March Break here in Halifax, so on Tuesday they came to our place and then we went to Montana's for supper.

We haven't seen them since we moved from CB last June, so it was great to see them. I used to work with Steven, so that's how we all met. We always had a lot of fun with them when we lived up there, and their kids are very special to us to!

Anyways it was so great to spend some time with them, Matt & I said on the way home that hanging out with them again made us realize how much we miss them, so it was sad to say goodbye again. Bethany loved them all right away, even though she was only 7 1/2 weeks old the last time they saw her. So here are some pics from our evening together...Bethany of course has her eyes closed in most of them!!

Bethany took right to Christine, she kept laying her head on her shoulder hugging her, it was so cute

Calum entertaining Bethany!

Steven, Alana, Christine, Bethany & Calum

Hugs at Montana's!

Smiling with her eyes closed of course

Tickle Time!!

Calum's shirt said "I make dirt look good" He's grown up so much in the last few months, I couldn't believe how tall he is now.

Me, Matt & Christine. Christine just turned 10, she's getting so old. She's such a nice little girl, we love her!!!

The whole gang (minus Ainsley, we missed her!)

We had so much fun, we're planning to go to CB for a visit in May, so hopefully that'll work out. Nine months between visits is just way to long!

Tour of the Louis

Tonight Gary, Rachel, Me & the kids met Matt at the ship and had supper on board and then Matt took Gary & Rach on a tour. They hadn't been on the ship before so it was all new to them. Anyways we had a fun time, and it was nice to see Matt, since he won't be home tonight. Supper was really good to, it's always good when you don't have to cook it or pay for it!!!

Our fearless tour guide
Rachel felt a little safer standing off to the side instead of on the catwalk like thing!

Matt & Bethany on the bridge

The family

I'm so tired, please take me home

Party, Party, Party

I've been waiting for Matt to bring home the cord for the computer to upload pictures of our weekend, so finally here is the recap!!

Saturday Bethany & I went to Naomi's 1st birthday party! It was a lot of fun and Bethany was very interested in Naomi's gifts, fortunately Naomi doesn't mind sharing! It was a great day, with only the minor glitch of me getting a flat tire! Thankfully it happened in front of Jamin & Sarah's house, Jamin & his brother changed it for me which was a huge help! There's always something!

The Moms and Babes at the party
Checking out the presents

Yummy cake!

The other day I took Bethany to the park for her first time on the swings. She loved swinging, she loved watching her feet dangling in the air. It's going to be so much fun with her once the weather warms up. We have a park at the end of our street, which is really nice.

The back swing

I love the swings!!!

Later that afternoon 2 of Matt's sisters stopped by for a visit. Bethany always loves to see her aunts, and so do I!

Aunt Jessica relaxing on her day off

Aunt Erica & Bethany

It's always great to have visitors to break up the day...Bethany gets excited to see someone other than just me!!

Standing on my own

In the last couple of days Bethany has really started to stand on her own for longer periods of time. She had done it occasionally, but would get nervous right away, but she's getting much braver. And of course every time she stands up we make a huge deal of it, so that encourages her. Tonight when Matt got home, she even moved one of her feet forward, I wouldn't call it a step, maybe a quasi-step. It is so exciting to watch her learning new things, and she's so proud of herself to!

Getting ready to stand up


Taking Mommy's picture

Such a big girl!

Bethany's a little like me (Tamara) and loves to talk on the phone. She puts the phone to her ear and says "Hi" it's very cute. She's really starting to say lots of little words, I love listening to her try to talk.

This weekend Bethany has her first birthday party to go to for her friend Naomi, she is very excited. It's so hard to believe these little girls are coming up on their 1st birthdays. The last year has flown by!

Friends, Movies & Music

This morning Bethany's friend Campbell came over to play for a couple of hours while his mom & dad (our friends Amy & Shaun) went to a meeting. Bethany was so excited when she woke up from her nap and saw him! She loves playing with other kids so much!

Snack time! Bethany kept trying to feed Cam her banana, but he was happy to just help himself.

Last night Mom & I went to see Music & Lyrics, the Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore movie. We really liked it. It was pretty funny, but had enough romance to be a good chick flick! It was also pretty clean, not much bad language at all, which was nice! I definitely recommend this movie. Hugh Grant even does all his own singing!!

I'll leave you with a picture of Bethany cuddling with her Daddy. She does this all the time, he'll put on music (loud, not soothing, there's no soothing music in our house), and she lays her head on his shoulder and they dance around and he sings to her. She'll stay like this for a good 20 minutes, she just totally mellows out. And it's definitely a time that it's all about Daddy, when they're having their music time, she won't come to me, she wants to stay with him. She's a music lover for sure. Anyways, it's really sweet, and I know Matt loves these times with her!