The very silly baby party.

I.CAN'T.BELIEVE.IT!  I seriously cannot believe that my baby, my little sweet boy is almost 1-year-old!  It is such a bittersweet event to know that this is the last time that I will ever celebrate a 1st Birthday with my own child...But I am just so excited to see what the next year brings for my little guy.  I may have gone a little overboard but I was just so excited to make this such a memorable event!

Here is the invite that I designed for his Hungry Little Caterpillar Party:

Here is the little guy's very own smash cake.

His Hungry Caterpillar cakepops...mmmm....so tasty complete with my swiss buttercream frosting.

 

Fresh Homemade strawberry lemonade.

 The infamous dessert bar. The good news is that I was so exhausted from baking all day yesterday and half of today that I only ate one lemon bar and one cookie and no hot dog so I only gained 10 pounds from looking at it instead of the 20 that would have happened had I ate it all.  Thank goodness for the young guys at Trevor's work to eat the remainders tomorrow before I loose my restraint and eat it all.

Weary of this so called smashcake...

That is seriously the extent of his smashcake mess and most of it was mine because I was trying to tear it into chunks to show him it was tasty.  What the heck...All 3 of my kids failed to make a smashcake mess!

I love my little 1-year-old so much.  He is the craziest, silliest little boy around.  He always has a big cheesy grin on his little face 24/7.  I am so glad that he decided to make an entrance into my life when I thought I was done having children because he enriches my life in so many ways.  I have not gone a day without smiling at least 50 times because he is so happy and has such a great way about him.  Thank-you for being in my life my sweetheart, Happy Birthday Brighton Quinn South!  Mama loves you so much!

That babys' got moves

Every once and a while we have some pre bedtime dancing, just because it is so much fun and we all love it!  I am well aware I look like a fool but the kids seem to love that I don't take myself so seriously (well they love it for now but I am sure they won't feel that way when I do it in front of their friends). Maybe one day I will let you see the radness of my moves but not today. This video proves that babies are just the best!

 

Life has been insanely crazy lately!

Brighton has not slept more than 10 minutes the last 2.5 weeks. Then Saturday the nasty rash below pops up. Apparently the poor guy has been suffering with joint pains and aches and general soreness with a disease called slapped cheek. He now has an itchy rash and a high fever on top of it and it can last months. Nice.

Sterling and Mama went to 5 hours of Myelo clinic today. He now has to get his legs serial casted once a week for the next 6 weeks because his feet aren't in proper alignment. If this doesn't work he will have to get a tension release surgery on his feet. He also has a 13 hour bladder surgery on the horizon. I'm just counting my lucky stars that this is only his 4th surgery and not his 30th like tons of Spina Bifida kids. The neurosurgeon covering his usual one was extremely surprised he hasn't had a shunt revision yet. So lucky and blessed for how great his health is considering all his trials and afflictions. His favourite part was getting x-rays and was above excited to see what his bones looked like!

We also had an epic accident of sorts: He was pretending to be an airplane full speed down the hall and would stop 1 inch from ramming my shins. I kept telling him up stop. He finally is going so fast and not looking that I just know my shin is going to break if I don't stop him. I put my foot out so the chair will hit the bottom of my show instead. Out of no where the chair flips epically upside down in 1 foot of room landing on his face. I unfortunately grew up around 4 brothers where accidents are hilarious and burst out laughing at the huge amount of ridiculous that it looked like seeing him fly through the air. I pull him up and he has a bloody nose and mouth and the first thing he says without even crying "That was not funny Mama! You shouldn't be laughing cause it's not nice". Yup, I am totally that person that laughs at inappropriate moments and will continue to do so.

Lastly, my motivation to write blog posts has somewhat waned since the weather has changed. We have pretty much spent all extra time playing outside or going for walks. Which means that posts are probably going to be pretty spotty for a long while. Sorry folks but I'm going to enjoy this warm weather while it is short lived.

We're back...

After my self-imposed blog and Utah vacation to visit my parents we are back with our infrequent blog posts.  Hopefully they will get their grandparent butts in gear and move back like they have claimed in a year so they can continue to spoil my children!  I need someone to do the job.

Not much news of late but we did bring back a little friend from my brother Ryan and my sister-in-law Kaylee...Her name is Lilly.

 Some updated photos of the kids...I don't go very long without updating these but I just love my kids so much that I can't help but constantly take photos of them.  I have a serious dislike of taking photos of people (actually dislike is too mild a word for it...I HATE taking photos of people) and would much prefer my subjects to be of the nature or element kind but I do make an exception and have actually grown to like taking photos of my kids (but it only extends as far as my kids....sorry everyone else).

Sterling is getting so old and he is turning into such a handsome little man.  Loving it.

I can't believe how much they are starting to look alike.  It is crazy considering they looked like polar opposites when they were born!

Here is happiest little boy around.  You can't come into a room without eliciting a huge grin from his chubby little cheeks.  I am enamoured and completely in love with him.

 

4th Annual Hope Classic

It's that time of year again friends!  It is time to register for the 4th annual Calgary  Hope Classic run, walk and wheel.  

4.5 years ago I was lucky enough to go to the Hope Classic in Edmonton as we did not have a run in Calgary.  It was such a great run and just so much fun that I decided that it was time to have that same run in Calgary.  So 4 years ago I proposed to the Spina Bifida and Hyrdocephalus Association of Southern Alberta (where there are photos from previous runs) that we do that same here.  I was able to be a huge part of getting this run started in the first and second year so it is really close to my heart.  Please come and support our association if you live in or around Calgary!  It is a great value for $20 you get a swag bag, to be a participant and and huge free BBQ after, tons of door prizes, face painters -  all while supporting people like Sterling with so much spirit and personality.

June 1, 2013 at 10:15am

South Glenmore Park in Calgary, Alberta

Sign up below:

http://www.events.runningroom.com/site/?raceId=9098

Winter fun and more!

We just got a huge typical Calgary snow dump recently.  So I sent out my husband and the two older ones while I was making dinner in order to get some well needed quiet and the kids got some exercise.

We got this gigantic chocolate bar after Christmas on clearance for $5...THe kids have been working on it for a couple months and we still have more than half left.

 Emy always falls asleep in odd places.  Got to love this crazy little girl.  She outright refuses to nap unless it is on her own terms.  If she is tired, she usually just says "I'm tired, I'm going to sleep" and walks upstairs right to bed.  What a contradiction for this stubborn little thing that is always at odds with everyone.

 I love my chubby boy.  I never had a chubby baby so it is kind of fun!

 The little man in action sans pants.  No pants are allowed anymore or else his rare temper will come out to play.  Apparently, crawling is some serious business.

 Sterling is so crazy big in his Stander.  I can't believe he is going to start school soon.

Skiing Days are Over

We just finished Sterling's last sit-ski lesson this last Saturday.  He is pretty upset about it because he loves it so much and he counted down to Saturday all week long.  I can't say that I miss having to get up at 5:30am, driving 2 hours to get to the hill, getting all geared up, waiting in the gondola line, taking a 20 minute gondola, sitting around two hours in the lodge while he has his lessons, getting back on the gondola, getting all the gear off, driving the 2 hours home and getting there at 2:30pm.  It was a 9 hour ordeal for a 2 hour lesson.  It always seemed worth it as soon as he was about to ski and we got to see that huge grin on his face. 

I kept having these nagging feelings that I really needed to put Sterling into sit-skiing the whole last year and that it was going to be a very important part of his life.  I finally realized a couple days ago why I kept feeling this way.  I asked him, "What does it feel like to be skiing and going really fast?" He replied to me "I feels really good, Mama.  It makes alright that I was born with Spina Bifida and can't walk".  It made me feel so good to be his Mama and that I have done something so good for him when I seem to fail my children in so many other ways.  I love my kids and they make it so easy to be loved.

It was costume and scavenger hunt day during his last lesson.  I made him a quick viking costume that would work with his ski gear.  Here is my little viking including helmet, beard and furry vest: 

 Sterling with his instructor Jenny (He is completely in love with her):

 Everyone that was involved with the Saturday AM skiing program.  I am so grateful that there are just such good people (The Rocky Mountain Adaptive Sports Centre and Sunshine Village) out there willing to be involved and help these kids to be able to have programs to help get them active and just have some winter fun!

Guess we will have to find something to keep him busy and happy until next ski program in January 2014!