Our sweet little Paxton is TWO!

Two very short years ago, our sweet little Paxton Robert David was born. I can't begin to describe the special changes he's brought into our lives. But I can say that he has brought me more joy and a depth of love that I didn't know could exist. To say I'm thankful for him doesn't even begin to scrape the surface.

His little personality is blossoming fast and furious these days. And to say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree would be a complete lie! This little one is soo much like his "dada." He loves anything that involves a ball, but especially "hit-ball" (football) "putt putt hoolllee" (putting and whacking his golf club) "ik-ball" (basketball) and of course "a-hock" (hockey). I feel like I've had to learn a new language just to keep up with his jabber. HE knows exactly what he's talking about, and everything has a very distinct name, it just usually doesn't sound anything like what he's trying to say! A couple of my other favourite words that he's made are "ignaa" (balloon -obviously!) "isicle" (bicycle) and "a-cock" (motorcycle- this makes me laugh out loud everytime as he shouts it from the back seat of the car).

Here's a couple favourite photos of our new two year old from a night of "putt putt hole!"

We had a special little birthday party for him while Grandad was out visiting. I think times like these make it the hardest living away from family. We sure missed all the other grandparents, aunties and uncles... but having Grandad make a special trip out sure made the whole week feel very special :) We also invited some special friends and Pax had a great time. He even devoured his cupcake this year... and a "moo-cook" (I got it in my head I had to make farm animal cookies- thankfully Paxton's excitement over them made the endless hours of icing them worth it!)

Paxton enjoyed his time with "granda" so much. It was a wonderful visit and this mama was very thankful for all the special time he spent with Pax! There was endless "ackle" (tackling), soccer playing, book reading and even a special Pax and Grandad date to the swimming pool. 

AND of course we had to make a quick stop at the Harley dealer in Langley. Not sure who was more excited about the "a-cock" Grandad or Pax?!

For Paxton's actual birthday, the first thing I asked him that morning was what special thing he'd like to do that day. He responded instantly with "moo." So we went down to our favourite little eco dairy and went and said hello to all the animals. Hands down Paxton's favourites are the "moos" (no amount of convincing will change them from a "moo" to a cow) but he sure loves all of them, and is quite taken with the goats and how they did a "yucky."

To finish off his special day he wanted to go "putt putt hole" with Dada. So once Rob was home from work we took him up to the putting green, had some indian food (Pax LOVES it!) and a moo-cook for dessert. I think pretty much the perfect day for this two year old :)

february has come and gone... and now someone is 30!!

We spent the last very rainy and gloomy week with Gigi. She came and although she didn't bring any sunshine she sure helped me out a lot, and I think we made the most of the dreary days! 

We spent a morning at metro town where I got to pick out a very cute birthday outfit (it's just around the corner!) and we made the drive down to Bellingham so I could get some groceries, have a target stop and poke around at Joann's for some fun fabrics. 

Paxton fell asleep in the car, so we took a little drive to let him nap away... found some beautiful trees and a cute little boat house (and I had to scoop up that cute little flower pot from Trader Joes!).

While Gigi was here it was our good friend Tara's birthday, so Gigi helped Paxton and I bake her a cake! Paxton may not have been too interested in his first birthday cake, but he was sure loving Tara's!!

Gigi also bathed Pax almost every night, he loved, loved, loved the bubbles! I think it's safe to say that they both had lots of fun together!

And then there was a special  (30th!!!) birthday! We started celebrating a little early so that we could have an afternoon and dinner sans babe. Gigi was excited to babysit! So after I put Pax down for his nap on sunday,  Rob and I took off to White Rock for an afternoon of shopping, GOLF TOWN (of course!) and a super yummy meal at Cactus Club. It was a much needed date!!

 Gigi flew home early in the morning on the 27th and Paxton and I, ok, who are we kidding, I, spent most of the day making 60 mini cupcakes to take to Rob's class. I love decorating them, so it really was no hardship, and I think they turned out super cute! Paxton made himself right at home in Daddy's chair :)

I can never think of something fun for Rob for his birthday, either he has it, is watching it on ebay for a better deal or could find it SOMEWHERE on a deal. I can't keep up with that kind of pressure! So I decided to take his "mancave" into my own hands and make it look a little more finished. Here's a few of my touches...

I found some "manly" pillows at homesense, a fun yellow tray for a pop of colour, and a beautiful globe. Then I dug thru all the boxes of memorabilia and found some great old photos of Rob playing hockey, a fishing one, some others that I knew he'd find special and of course a pair of vintage skates from Granny and Grumpa's. I wasn't quite sure if he'd be as excited about it as me, in the end, it was a good choice cause he loved it :)

To finish off his Birthday we spent the evening with our dear friends the Lockington's, celebrating with a yummy sushi meal and of course Tara made Rob's fav, homemade apple pie!!! 

I seriously can not believe how fast the month went by, now I can hardly wait another moment my sis   & Brodie have their baby!

good times in seattle...

We got away for the weekend! One of the best parts about living on the west coast is how close we are to so many amazing cities! We'd been talking about heading down to Seattle because monday was a holiday for Rob. Last minute we were able to get someone to watch Dreyfus, so Friday after Rob got home, we threw a few things together and jumped in the car. Now, we were both a wee bit leery of taking Paxton back to a hotel. Portland this summer was a sleepless nightmare, but we decided it was worth the risk. And Paxton came through! He was awesome. Didn't sleep as well as he does at home, but it was very manageable. And he was amazing all weekend. We did some shopping, went out for dinner, took him to a crazy overloaded multicultural play area in the mall (which was chaos to say the least) and he just went along with it all. And was happy about it :)

Paxton loved the long hallways and the big windows.

I wish we had a full week of days to explore Seattle. I even managed to find myself a photo-worthy green door :) It seems like there are just too many fun neighbourhoods to investigate.

I've been itching to take some family photos, so we dragged the camera along and the sun even made an appearance. I'm sure we looked a little ridiculous smiling at a camera with no one behind it, but hey, it worked! Here's some of my fav's from the day :)

Back to the rain today...

Life has been right full these last few days. Grandpa was here visiting for 5 days, and I think he'd say Paxton did a great job keeping him busy! Well, Paxton's mama too... as she is always up for Grandpa to help with a project while he's here...

Check out my beautiful new wallpaper in my salon!

I'm in love! And the cheery yellow makes working so much more enjoyable!

While Dad was here we went and picked up Paxton's Christmas present that Grandpa and Baba had sent to pic-it-up. Soon as we got it home Paxton needed to help Grandpa set it up ;)

 I find it pretty hysterical that Paxton thinks he needs to copy everything Grandpa does! Especially if it involves "fixing" something. Of course once the wagon was set up, we needed to take it out on it's maiden voyage...

Grandpa babysat one afternoon while both Rob and I were at work, so you can probably guess what they did!!
We've been having the most incredible weather, so thankful for days that look like this:

...and I've been having fun playing with the camera on my phone... are we surprised? learned some new little tricks that make taking photos like this, or "selfies" in the IG world a whole lot easier.

After looking at those soulful eyes I can hardly believe this next sentence. Grandpa had the pleasure of being here on the very day that Paxton decided to throw his first AND second, EVER temper tantrums! and wow was he committed! He's had the occasional little fit before when something he wants was taken away, but these were on a whole new level. Fortunately the horrendous sleep he had the night before leaves me something to blame! Yesterday he was back to his "smiley guy", happy-go-lucky self. Whew!

I'm hoping that once I have a good chunk of time (ummm or a little chunk of time) that I can recap Paxton's first year. I have so many photos and memories that I want to remember....