Vancouver

We had such a great trip to Vancouver in the middle of March. We got to see so many people and sights and really had a nice time. What a great way to celebrate Gracie's 6 month birthday.

Thought I'd show a few pictures of the trip while I have a minute:

Great Grandma Malacko playing with Gracie. It was their first time meeting and there were a lot of smiles from both of them.







Cousin Rob hunting for crabs and other creepy crawlies.



Gracie waking up from a little nap while walking with dad.



Brad and Gracie, Uncle Richard, Cousin Rob, Aunt Lynn, and Grandma posing with the Globe.



Richard and Grandpa enjoying some kettle corn.



Grandpa and Lynn enjoying the sites.



Richard playing with Gracie.
Sizing each other up....



Completely winning her over.



The Olympic Torch





Not sure exactly why Brad wanted this one.... Gracie sitting on an eagle's head?? Apparently I was supposed to cut him out of the picture, but I think this is funnier.



And a few snowshoeing pictures. Cousin Caylee and her boyfriend, Cam, Rob, Brad and Grandpa all went out for a quick, wet snowshoe.

Long Time Gone

We've been gone on the road for the past two weeks, so I'll try and play catch up.

First, we were sick, we're over it. Everyone is healthy in our household for the time being. Fingers crossed.

Then, our trips.... Since I posted last we flew to Vancouver for a visit with some of Brad's family, drove to Lethbridge for a hockey tournament and a visit and made a quick stopover in Hanna for a visit with my folks.

Whew!

No, we're home and trying to get a routine of some sort back under our belts so we can get some sleep!

The highlights of the past few weeks:

-Gracie flies really well! Yippee! She slept the whole way to Vancouver and back.

-G got to meet her Great Grandparents and a ton of family in Vancouver ( I even met a few new ones!)

-Brad won his hockey tournament

-there are a few baby calves at the farm, so we got to see them and my parents quick (will be seeing more of them soon)

- G is 6 months old, can you believe it?? She got her shots (somewhere in between our travels) and got weighed and measured. She weighs 15 pounds, 14 and a half ounces and is 26 and a quarter inches long!

-We had our last Salsa Babies class on Wednesday, wrapping up three months of dancing with a bunch of babes

-my mom came for a quick visit

-Bailey got a new haircut and had his first stay at a kennel in Edmonton

That's all I can think of now, but I"m sure more will come to me later. It's been an action packed couple of weeks. I'll post some pictures soon.

Gracie's New Bike

Great Grandma and Grandpa Sackett always find the best gifts for Gracie.

They got her the chair that she sat in for hours when she was little, that she still likes to play in now.

They got her the great toy that we use on her carseat which has saved us on quite a few car trips.

Last time we saw them, they got her this cute little pink bike.



We were playing with it the other night and she loves it.



That looks like a little pout, but it was just shortly before bedtime and she was still a little sick (hence the red eyes and pathetic little look - if this had sound, you'd probably hear a fake cough or two as well).





She likes to be pushed around on it and loves to press the buttons, which make sound effects and make the headlights light up.



In no time, she'll be pushing herself around. Yikes!

And, in order to limber up her muscles for that day, she's been stretching her glutes. Here's a little clip of her playing with her toes. Holy flexibility!

Back to Gracie...

Whew, two whole days with hardly a mention of the little one.... must be a record. Of course, all of the layouts I make are about her.... still, it counts.

I thought I'd share some pics of what it looks like when it's Dad's turn to feed Miss Gracie:



Her forehead? Really? Impressive.





I'm told she did get some cereal in her mouth, but I can't be sure. She eats about a Tbsp. and a half.... looks like there's a good portion of that on her face and bib.

Since everyone is surely going through a little withdrawal, here's a video of Gracie and her dad, too. Just because it makes me laugh.



Have a good St. Patrick's Day!

A few favourites

I love these two layouts.

I love the picture in the first one. This picture of my brother playing with Jada and Gracie is so cute and really captures the fun these three were having!



Most of these stickers and chipboard pieces are from Scenic Route. They're from a Valentine's pack that worked well with this photo of the two girls in pink. The title sticker and the butterfly are from We R Memory Keepers. I believe the paper is all K & Company.







Curtis will love that I chose to capture the moment with a pink scrapbook page :)

This one, I love. These papers are favourites of mine and are perfect for a sweet, little girl layout. Plus, the saying is super cute and it's a sweet photo of Gracie playing with her toes. I just had fun with this one.



These papers are from Cosmo Cricket. I used them before on an acryllic album class that I taught and had some leftover. I still love them. There's also one sheet of Dreamstreet Papers used in this layout.









And, I do love, love, love her!

Some Scrapbooking

This scrapbooking blog sure has turned into a Gracie blog......

Thought I'd post a few layouts just to make it seem like it's still my focus here.

I made this one really quick and simple. I usually start my layouts with photos and add stickers and papers and what not from there. This time, had a packet of stickers that I thought were really cute, but I was having trouble just adding them to random layouts, so I decided to make a layout, starting with stickers.



Like I said, simple, but kinda cute.

This only uses one sheet of cardstock and one sheet of Sassafras Lass paper and a package of their stickers. The neat thing about their paper is they use the skinny strip of paper along the bottom (where most companies label the paper and have their logo) to create a cute edge. It'slike a little bonus. See the cute border strip (blue and orange)? That's the piece of paper that you usually just trim off and discard.

Here's the paper I used, so you can see what I'm talking about. You may notice, the green pleated border is a strip of the back side of the polka dot paper.

This was just a layout I did, piecing together little squares in the background to look like a quilt:



Love these pictures of Gracie stretching. She used to stretch out every little muscle in her body when she woke up. So cute. Now, she wakes up with a fake cough, a fart, a few leg drops on the mattress, and a raspberry. But, this post isn't about her... right....



The funny thing about this is I was determined to use my Cricut on this layout. I saw these birds and thought they were cute, and if I changed the title to 'Stretch your wings', instead of just 'stretch' it would work. So, I cut out two bird silhouettes and glued them down, had the title all lined up and ready to go and thought, "She doesn't have wings. She's not flying away. Why should she stretch her wings?" So, I canned the title but the birds were all ready apart of the layout, so they had to stay...



Also, my friend Lacey came over for a pre-birthday supper last night, but since today's the actual day...
Happy birthday Lacey! Hope you have a good day.

Some Cousin Shots

We were so busy last weekend Kale and Gracie didn't get much time to just lay on the floor and play, but they did get a few chances to get to know each other.







Gracie really likes to watch him play and gets a little frustrated that she can't follow him all over, but they were pretty good together.

This is Gracie hanging on to his sock, trying to get him to tow her along when he takes off next.



Kale is such a good little boy, he comes crawling over to her super fast, and then slows right down and gently touches her hand. How cute.



Oops, that was an eye, but he was still very gentle about it :)

It was great to let them play together. We'll be back again, soon.

Sickies

We're starting to feel a bit better here at the Malacko Sick Ward. I'm feeling much better and Gracie is napping better, so I think that's a good sign.

It's hard when babies are sick, because they can't tell you what's wrong or how they feel and you can't reassure them (except with a pat on the back and some cuddles).

Anyway, like I said, things are looking up. We'll take the weekend to relax and by Monday, we'll be 100 per cent.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. Kale's first birthday party on Saturday and his favourite new toy:

Back from Lethbridge

We spent the weekend in Lethbridge visiting family and celebrating birthdays, babies and new houses. We had a great time, but now we're home and we're all exhausted and sick.

Because of this, just a quick message.

Gracie has started to put herself to sleep, which is fantastic. Of course, she didn't start until we got home from Lethbridge. Oh well, I'll take it.

Brad's brother and sister-in-law, Broc and Steph, just moved into their beautiful new house Thursday and all ready had a birthday party for Kale and a surprise party for Broc on Saturday. It was a busy day, but really fun.

On Sunday, there was a baby shower for Tara, Brad's sister, who's due on April 1st.

And, since it's a long trip for Gracie, and we don't get to see my grandparents as much as we'd like, we stopped on the way down and on the way back for a little visit.

Great weekend, but now it's time to sleep and get everyone back to normal.

A day in the life

It seems like every blog I post could be titled, "so busy." Time is flying by and I honestly don't know what we're doing or what's new in our lives, but something (or perhaps, someone) is keeping us busy.

Miss Gracie will be six months old on the 19th. Can you believe that? I feel like I should still have a newborn. I just had a baby, I swear.

We try to get out for strollercise and salsababies classes and playdates, get groceries and run quick errands, I try to keep up with friends and family, and try to keep the house clean (although my standards have dropped significantly - is that a cat? nope, it's a dustball).

Every day Brad comes home and tells me about his day and I try to think of what we did.

"Nothing much, I guess." Seems like I was running all day....hmmm.

So, another day of nothing much is passing.

We started the day with a 7:15 wake up call. A smiley baby was waiting in the crib for me (luckily, it was my own - wouldn't that be a wake up call!)

I got her up, changed her, got her dressed and we headed for the kitchen. Gracie sat in her high chair licking her lips while I mixed up her cereal. After cereal, we introduced a new food -green beans, not a favourite, but she liked her applemush, so she got some nutrients.

An hour of playtime, a phone call from my mom, another diaper change, and it's time to get ready for SalsaBabies.
We're both dressed appropriately. We're both clean (for a few minutes), got everything we need in the car, Gracie's in her chair and ready to roll. Off to SalsaBabies.

Quick nap for Miss G enroute, strap a snugli on, change a diaper, transfer Gracie from the seat to the snugli, and dance and visit with the other babies and moms for an hour.

Another transfer, another nap (for her), back home for lunch.

While I'm feeding Gracie, the FedEx guy arrives with a parcel. Our doorbell doesn't work at the moment (okay, for the entire time we've lived here), but our dog is an excellent replacement. His barking makes Gracie cry, and suddenly there's milk spraying around like a sprinkler. We get ourselves organized, get to the door and sign for the package.

"Is that a cat?" he asks, pointing at one of my largest dustballs.

"No."

We're both fed, changed (me out of workout clothes, her in a new diaper), and ready for another hour of playtime.

Quick diaper change, some lullabies and snuggles and here we are at naptime. This is my time to run around and clean up, do some laundry, check emails, wrap presents, pack for the weekend, edit photos, figure out supper, book appointments, chug a cup of tea, etc. all the while hoping that she'll sleep just a few minutes longer so I can get one more thing checked off my list...

That's my nothing for the day, so far. It's 2 pm.

It sounds crazy, and it is sometimes, but I must be a little crazy, too because I kinda love it.

Olympic Cooldown

That's what my tv will be doing; cooling down now that it's not on and tuned to Olympic coverage all day, everyday.

I saw this interesting recap of the Olympics by the numbers on the Vancouver 2010 website:

26: Number of Canadian medals.

14.5: Medals won by Canadian women at 2010 Games (pairs figure skating makes up the half medal)

14: Gold medals won by Canada at 2010 games.

119: Winter Olympic medals won by Canada prior to Vancouver (7th overall in Winter Games history).

5: Storeys that aerialists soar in Olympic competition.

19.1: Weight, in kilograms, of the curling rocks used in Olympic competition.

7: Number of nations that made their Winter Games debut in Vancouver: Cayman Islands, Columbia, Ghana, Montenegro, Pakistan, Peru and Serbia.

17: Countries that sent one athlete to the Games.

50: Years since Canada beat Russia in the Olympic Games. That ended with Wednesday's 7-3 Canadian victory that bounced Russia from the finals and sent Canada to the semifinal against Slovakia.

972: Kilometres an ice surfacing machine had to be hauled on a flatbed truck from the Olympic Oval in Calgary to replace broken machines at the Richmond Olympic Oval in British Columbia.

3 million: Pairs of Olympic red mittens sold.

10 million: Amount of Own the Podium dollars allotted to Alpine Canada over the last five years.

5th: Highest finish for a Canadian alpine skier in 2010 Games.

11 million: The number of television viewers who tuned in during the last minute of the gold-medal curling match between Canada and Norway.

10.5 million: Number of Canadian viewers for Canada-Russia game.

9,143: Total number of metres American Bode Miller had to ski to win gold in the Super Combined (3,838 metres), silver in the super-G (2,200 metres) and bronze in the downhill (3,105 metres) on the Dave Murray Olympic course in Whistler, B.C.

36: Kilometres Norway's Marit Bjoergen had to ski to win a bronze and three gold medals at the 2010 Winter Games. Bjoergen won bronze in the 10 km freestyle, gold in the 15 km pursuit, the Individual Sprint Classic, and was a member of Norway's Olympic champion 4 x 5 km relay team.

And this quote, from the closing ceremonies sums things up perfectly:

“Athletes of the world, at your hands and through your determination and tenacity we have felt every imaginable emotion,” said John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC). “We have lived the agony and the ecstasy with you as if we ourselves were competing. Boys and girls you will never meet now know that it is possible to achieve greatness through the power of a dream.

“I believe we Canadians tonight are stronger, more united, more in love with our country, and more connected with each other than ever before. These Olympic Games have lifted us up. That quiet, humble national pride we were sometimes reluctant to acknowledge seemed to take to the streets as the most beautiful kind of patriotism broke out all across our country.

Wow! Fantastic competitions, fantastic venues, fantastic fans, fantastic job, Canada!