this, that, and the other stuff...a big catchup blog

I don't even really know where to start. I've missed so many things in my blog lately. Life has been a bit chaotic and hectic at the Martyn household...so we might just need to start fresh after this one.

Mother's Day this year was my first ever! It was so special. My boys spoiled me with a trip to Whistler to stay one night at the Four Seasons. We had an amazing time. We ate great food, we sipped hot chocolate on our patio, Kingston slept in his very own room walk-in closet (hey, the kid is far too nosy to sleep in the same room as anyone!). It was just a fantastic night away to celebrate my first Mother's Day, and my last Mother's Day with just one baby...

sneak peak of our mother's day brunch decor

Yes, that's right...in case you missed my earlier Facebook post...baby Martyn #2 is on his/her way! We shared the news with our family by hosting Mother's Day brunch and Kingston rocked a cute little t-shirt to spread the good word. Our initial due date was December 19, 2011 (hence the shirt date); however, after ultrasound measurements were confirmed our due date was changed to January 8, 2012! We're so excited and ready to be a family of FOUR. It's amazing how fast life goes. In just over 18 months, our family size will have doubled. Amazing, really!

Following our amazing Mother's Day extravaganza, we've been just really pushing to complete projects around the house, get organized for summer, prepare for another c-section, gear up for my sister's wedding, etc. It's been a whirlwind of a few months but it's been mostly good!

I promise to be more diligent in my blogging this summer. I hope you find time to keep updated on our life. We hope to spend time with all of our friends and family this summer and feel blessed to have each and every one of you in our lives.

Today is my last day having my cousins during the week...I'm off to spend some fun quality time with them. Happy Thursday everyone...stat tomorrow!

believe

i am a huge fan of our vancouver canucks. i believe in them and i'm still a huge fan. watching game 7 turn into a loss was absolutely heart breaking. the boys in blue should be held up high for the tough season they put in. we, like other teams, suffered many injuries, took a lot of criticism, had good runs, and a few bad runs. what was most impressive about last night was watching the true hockey fans inside rogers arena standing waving their white towels to show their support to the canucks and congratulate the boston bruins on a well-deserved win.

what was not-so-impressive was watching the riots take place downtown vancouver. i watched the news in complete disbelief. we displayed such a great sense of community when the olympics were in vancouver, but when the canucks make it all the way to the stanley cup final and lose in game 7 the city exploded. it was embarrassing to know that this footage would be broadcasted around the world. our great reputation from hosting an amazing olympic games would now be destroyed.

this is not a true sense of who canadians are. this was meant to be a family event. somewhere to bring your family down in support of the canucks. instead it turned into a war zone where people defied the police, they ignored instructions to get out of the area, and they completely destroyed the beautiful city where i love to spend my time. what a joke! the poor businesses, banks, buildings, and innocent bystanders who suffered all of this destruction.

what really did show a good sense of community and support was the actions of the emergency response teams. surrey and abbotsford both deployed their extra forces to assist the vancouver police/rcmp with their efforts. the police worked their asses off trying to gain control. there was a lot of questioning regarding their loss of control, but what people forget to realize is there were well over 100,000 people downtown. and what....300 police officers?? good luck.

the groups on facebook have all started to pop up with photos of the losers who participated in these riots. i personally hope that each and every one of those hooligans gets what they deserve. i hope if anyone can identify someone in these photos that they report it to the vpd. they need a swift kick in the ass and should be held accountable for their participation in these horrendous riots. and those that felt it necessary to stay downtown and take pictures and videos, completely ignore police instruction to go home...i'm sorry, but if you were injured you asked for some of it.

i still believe in my team, i love watching hockey, i am so proud to be canadian. this is not the way we behave in this country and i hope that the reflection on our country has not been altered by this behaviour.

congratulations to the vancouver canucks on their fantastic season. we're already gearing up for 2011/2012 and look forward to another awesome playoff run next year!

i believe!

the days have definitely changed

Last night we had great plans to enjoy the hockey game with some of our bestest friends. While waiting for Cameron to get off work, I prepared my portion of our dinner and gathered our stuff to take over. Cameron got home right on time (hockey is really the only thing that really gets him to rush home), we watched the first period, then raced up the road to our friends place to cook dinner and watch the rest of the game.

Three years ago, this usually meant we'd make dinner, kick our feet up, enjoy a beer or two, and do nothing but laugh, talk, and relax. Last night, I would say it was anything but relaxing. It's amazing how life has changed for us 4 in the last few years. Gone are the days of doing what we want, we now spend our evenings catching a few minutes here and there of the hockey game. The rest of our time is spent chasing our children around...and they're busy, busy little bees! An almost two year old who is potty training, an almost one year old who is learning to walk, and a 5 month old who is a rolling machine ...that's a lot of chasing.

It's nice to know that we can all find humour in it all and still enjoy the great company but man alive do children change your life! I know none of us would change it for the world....so if you don't find a way to laugh about it all, you won't get to soak up all these moments and find some enjoyment.

Overall it was a great night. I love their two babies like they're my own and I always love seeing them. Oh, and I just went through my diaper bag and discovered that some 5-cent candies were snuck in there by my sweet friend! Jackpot! You're the best C!!

Today is a cloudy rainy day...which is a perfect day for catching up on some housework. On that note...the laundry is calling my name....

Enjoy your day everyone!

 

life is busy!

I can't believe I haven't posted since mother's day! Life has been so hectic and crazy for me that I've totally been sidetracked and have forgotten about my blog, my twitter, and half of my facebook. Actually, it's been quite nice in some ways.

I can say that we have enjoyed every ounce of sunshine that we've been blessed with. Those days are very limited so I took full advantage of them. We camped (in cabins), we played at the park, we took many walks, and we ticked our toes in the fresh cut grass....helllloooo allergies! Kingston absolutely loves being outside. He loves the sun, he loves the rain, he loves the fresh air. There's nothing about the outdoors he doesn't love...well, except the feeling of the grass on his head. Otherwise, he's in love with the outdoors. I'm so happy he is an outdoor lover because this means our summer ahead (should we get some decent weather) will be full of days outside!!

I've registered him for his first swimming lessons in July. I'm so excited. He loves to swim. He loves the pools so much!! I would love to get him a kiddie pool for the patio as I'm sure he will spend many days in it.

Kingston is finally learning how to walk. He doesn't do it regularly, but he has taken steps here and there and is getting super brave with reaching for the next walking-brace, whether that be furniture, electronics, walls, etc. He's becoming more daring every day. He's also fully embraced the REAL crawl. He did the army crawl for months and months and has now learned that his shirts won't pull his face down if he stays up on his knees. Such a monkey...

I could ramble on and on...but just know that life has been good lately. Work is picking up, Kingston is thriving, I'm so far behind on my housework, we're soaking up family time as much as possible, and we're such a happy little trio!

Kingston turns ONE in just 12 days. Yikes! Where has the year gone?? Seriously...it's disappeared!! I remember being pregnant with him like it was yesterday. And now I'm up to my eyeballs in birthday party planning and I am more in love with him every single day!

Okay, game time is on in 20 minutes so I better get things together here. Happy Monday everyone! I will post more about our adventures later...when it's rainy and no playoff hockey to be watched.

Happy birthday Morgan! Wish we were celebrating with you! Love and miss all of you Arn's!