In like a lion, out like a lamb?

Griffin is 1!!! He had a great birthday in February with his little buddies (finally, after it had to be postponed because I was quarantined~ thought I might have the mumps, but it wasn't!).  He had so much fun playing with balloons and eating cake.  Actually, he's not that in to cake, lol. 

Spring is finally coming!  Well technically it is here, according to the calendar, but really, I live in Fort McMurray, spring isn't here until I see GRASS!  The weather has finally warmed up (it's hovering around 4 C as a daily high) and it seems to get nicer and nicer every day. 



Finally warm enough for rubber boots and vests :)



February and March are horrible months for teachers.  Everyone is going stir crazy and just wants spring to come.  We had a good convention week, enjoyed a couple days at home with the kids before Chris and I headed to Edmonton for 2 nights and 3 days of alone (unless you count the 1000 other teachers at convention, lol) time.  We did some shopping, got some great deals such as an entire winter wardrobe for Owen (for next year) for $40, a dining room table for $150, and a few other odds and ends for the house.  Of course Ikea cost us twice what we had budgeted for, but that's the way it always is!  We got to have dinner alone at Red Lobster and saw The Kings Speech in a nice large, stadium seating theatre.  Oh the little things that can make a girl happy, lol. 

I guess new living room furniture also makes a girl happy ;)

March has been busy with report cards, swimming lessons, a funny little toddler and Chris settling into his new role as Vice Principal.  We are finding it a bit hard juggling his new repsonsibilities with life with 2 kids under 4. 
Owen is signed up for soccer!  So I am officially becoming a soccer mom in May.  Chris took an all day coaching clinic on Saturday, so he is now certified to coach soccer to children under 4, lol.  I laugh, but apparently it was quite intense, kid's soccer has outcomes!  Just what a teacher is looking for ;)
We decided not to enroll Owen for swimming lessons for the spring session as I swore I would never be that parent who over schedules her kids.  So, even though he is enjoying his lessons with Maguire and their teacher, Callie, they will be over mid April.  He can start up again in the fall.

Griffin gets funnier and smarter every day.  He isn't saying a whole lot yet, we have Mum, Dad, Chris (which is hilarious--even if Chris doesn't think so), Nenna (Brenda), car, up, what's this?, What's that?, but that's it.  He still manages to communicate what he wants though, every night at bathtime he heads to the stairs (or the gate if it's up) and says up!  If you don't respond right away he gets mad, lol.  He starts to climb the stairs and keeps looking back to make sure you are following. It's so cute!  He loves the dog and loves to give him hugs, cuddles and tease him by getting in his bed.  I think Buddy realizes there is an end in sight to the toddler years and just puts up with it.  He is also clapping now which does wonders for a girl's self esteem, lol.



mmm....my first Girl Guide cookie!

Owen has really become affectionate toward Griff.  He tells him he loves him all the time and hugs and kisses him.  They share pretty well and rarely fight (knock on wood).  Hope that lasts.  I asked Owen yesterday if Griff would be his best friend when he gets older and he said no, because Liam is his best friend.  lol, too funny.  He is all registered for ECDP for the fall!  He is getting excited to go to school :)

Spring break is coming!  16 days until my sister and her family come to visit and I get to meet my beautiful niece Julia!!!!! I am beyond EXCITED!

Beautiful girl :)

A friend of mine started a blog recently and called it "Moments Full of Grace" (a play on her little girl's name~ Grace), after reading it I thought I would share my current favorite moment full of grace.  Owen asks me to lay down with him when he goes to bed at night, lately, as he gets ready to drift off to sleep he will say "I love you Mommy" and stroke my hair and snuggle in.  That's my moment.  I love it, gives me goosebumps everytime I hear it ;)

Who needs to walk, when you can run?

I now fully believe I have named this blog appropriately.  Griffin has gone from taking a few steps to walk from mom to dad, to pretty much walking whereever he needs to go.  Actually, not just walking, he wants to run!  lol, it's so funny, he is just so fast!  Who knew such a chunky boy could move so fast?  Although I think his shins would like a break!

Owen is still growing like crazy, I think he gets a little taller every day.  His tantrums are starting to be fewer and farer between, I'm really hoping Griffin skips the tantrum stage, a mom can hope right????  Owen is getting such an imagination and I just love watching him play.  He makes everything talk, yesterday on the way home from daycare, his oreo thinsations were having a great conversation!  Also, anything that happens that is bad, seems to be Bubby's fault.  Poor Bubby.

We got a new ride!  We realized that we could get pretty much our van, with all the add ons I originally wanted (but couldn't afford on mat leave) for the same monthly payment we were paying, so off Chris went and came home with this:

Basically the same van we had, but red, lol.  It has remote start, remote sliding doors and gate, sirius satellite, bluetooth, all the goods :)  It will be a nice comfortable ride for all when we drive home for the summer this July!  Oh, and the best part, dvd screens in the middle and back rows, whoo hoo :)

In other news, the back door is still not fixed,  the construction company is saying next Tuesday or Wednesday, Tuesday is a month to the day from Christmas, that's Fort Mac for you! 

It has been crazy cold here, I'm thinking about starting a count down for spring, but that might just make me depressed :(

Griffin is a model

A local photographer was looking for some babies for her portfolio, a free photo shoot for my little man?  Sure!  Here are the shots she sent.  I love love love them :)  If only someone in our house had remembered to feed the child some lunch, then she really would have got some great smiles!  Check out her site: Retrospect Photography.  Hmmm...her blog isn't working, so here is her business website: http://www.retrospectsphotography.net/

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Our year in photos :)

 January- 34 weeks Pregnant

 Welcome Griffin Bruce Edward Organ- February 9, 2010

 March- doing some bed time reading.

 April- A visit home to New Brunswick and then our final snow storm of the winter

                                                                Happy Mother's Day- May

 Mommy and Griffin in June

Celebrated Canada Day in Fort McMurray then off to the Maritimes--July

August in New Brunswick

 September, the boys started to play together and Griff learned to sit up!

 October- mom and dad went on a mini vacation and saw the Oilers play the Flames at the Saddledome

 November- our first family portraits

 December- Owen turns 3 and Mommy makes her first fondant cake :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR, ALL THE BEST IN 2011 :)

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Merry Christmas from the Griswalds (caution-PG for language!)

The Organs are the new Griswalds ;)  Our Christmas morning began at 6:30 with Griffin as the first one up.  Owen must have forgotten about Santa or he has simply inherited my lack of morning happiness.  He opened his presents kind of in a daze, I think he was overwhelmed.  After everything was opened he immediately wanted to play with the Disney Cars race track Uncle Ryan, Aunt Justine and Rylie sent him.  Unfortunately the toy builder at Disney, or what ever Chinese factory they used, decided quality control wasn't necessary.  They basically jammed the thing together and it was un-usable.  Also, the little r/c cars were not working.  So what does Chris do?  He gets mad.  Throws a tantrum that could rival Owen's, or possibly the famous rant of Clark Griswald.  If you don't know it, have no idea who Clark Griswald is, or basically have lived under a rock for the last 21 years at Christmas time, this is it:  Clark: Hey! If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Frank Shirley, my boss, right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is! Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where's the Tylenol?--http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097958/quotes

So in Clark Griswald style, Chris got mad, decided to go to the Mac's for overpriced batteries to try and fix the cars, slammed the baby gate, broke the baby gate, left a large hole in the wall where the baby gate once resided.  To which I so elegantly yelled "you broke the fucking gate!" to which Owen repeated "daddy, you broke the fucking gate!"  Nice eh?  Classy!  Then we all cried.

Chris came home from getting $12 batteries (that's $3 a battery!) and the stupid cars still didn't work.  So he gave up.  Race track is back in the box until we figure out how to send it back to Disney.  At this point, (and we totally appreciate the thought Justine, Owen loved all of it, but....) I would not be recommending shopping the disney store online.  The track which they paid a lot of money for was junk and the lightening mcqueen personalized blanket they sent him (and paid for the personalization) was not personalized.  Also, they ship UPS, so if you have received from UPS, you know they charge you a brokerage fee.  Annoying.
Chris had a nap, we all went to church and things were better.  Kellie, Jeremy, Mollie and Henry doodle joined us for a wonderful Turkey dinner and then we headed over to Joella and John's to play.  They live 8 houses down the street.  When we left I set the alarm because, well, it's Christmas and when is a better time to break into someone's house? Well apparently I hit the panic button on our alarm and moments after we get to Joella's house the police arrived. They called our house number, our cells, Joella's cell (which rang on the counter, Chris picked it up and handed it to her, but missed the call and she didn't know the number so didn't call it back, it was the RCMP) and after an hour of trying to get us, they had to break down the door to search the house. So we came home to the cops at our house and a broken down door :( Luckily our insurance will cover it and it is only going to cost us $500 deductible.   UGH, so Merry Christmas to us. The kids loved all there presents, dinner was fantastic, but it was a really shitty day! lol