Sunday, May 31, 2009

Flashback

In celebration of my 28 years on this planet I thought that I would share with the world a little montage of '99 vs. '09. Some of my readers are going to be featured in this montage, but no hating allowed. Just face up to the truth and recognize that most of us are like a fine glass of wine- we just keep getting better with age!

Party Like it's 1999....























Like Fine Wine.. 2009...

















Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Hit 'em While Their Down

For those of you who know our family well you are probably already aware that the past few weeks have been challenging (to put it mildly.) I don't like to use our blog as a public forum to bitch about our problems or to delve too deeply into our personal life. Needless to say, I feel like a poser to only write about fluff and put up pics of our cutie baby, when there has been a lot of stuff in the last month. So here it is.. this is my 'sometimes life circumstances suck' post.

A few weeks ago Ben returned home from work an hour early and announced that he had been 'laid off." I am not going to go into detail but I will say that we were shell-shocked and not pleased with the reasons and manner in which it happened. We found out the hard way that honesty and integrity are not always rewarded in the workplace.

At the moment we are trying to think of this situation in a positive light. We have been able to spend lots of time together as a family while Lily is still small. We have also had time for reflection about what we feel are the most important priorities for our family. Not to mention it does not hurt too bad that the weather is warming up and a summer hiatus does not have to be all negative. We trust that God has our future in His hands and we rest in that.


They say that when it rains it pours and that seems to be the case in our situation. Last week our cat(who is anti-baby) decided to take a swipe at Lily's face while she was watching Sesame Street. When we ran over to see what had happened our baby girl had a fairly decent scratch along her eyelid and just underneath her eye. If she hadn't shut her eye (out of instinct) we would have a one-eyed daughter right now. Poor thing would have had to go through life with me popping a glass eye ball in and out of her head! Our cat's days are numbered and I currently have an adoption ad for her on Used Victoria.

Ben decided that since Lily graced us with her bloody face last week he should surprise us with a bloody mess this week! This morning at 8AM our doorbell rang and to my 'delight' I found Ben laying in the back of his car with a giant bloody rag sopping up the blood oozing from the back of his head. Ben has a tendency to pass out easily especially after a difficult workout. While walking back to his car after a workout session he felt light-headed and woke up on his back in the gym parking lot. After being chewed out by the doctor for not eating before his workout Ben had the pleasure of receiving a stitch to the gash at the back of his head. Do you have any idea how much our heads bleed? A lot. Turns out Ben might have a mild concussion and is currently nursing the headache of the century at home. I am supposed to wake him and make sure he is coherent if he tries to nap more than an hour. Poor guy :(

So in a nutshell this is some of the stuff that has been happening lately. I promise that this will not be a common type of post (at least I hope not!) but I felt like some honest sharing was needed interspersed with our cutie baby pics.

Blessings to our readers!

Saturday, May 23, 2009

How I Spent My Saturday

Chilling in the sunshine with a tasty beverage.


Did a little weeding. I can't help it if some of the soil 'accidentally' ended up in my mouth.


Crustiest baby ever with two of my favorite things- nothing beats blankie and baby
in the fur coat.

Sleepy Head

A couple of post-nap pics for your viewing pleasure.



Bug off Mom, I am trying to get my beauty sleep.


This is stressing me out, is it really necessary to wake up? It has only been 3 hours.


Fine, I am up. But that just means you have to take care of this diaper.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

A Day In the Life

It's a tough life but somebody has got to take care of business.


Showing my Mom a few tricks in the kitchen.
I find that Rice Krispies greatly enhance most dinner entrees.


Having a dance party with my cousin Anders. He has some smooth moves.


Taking an impromptu nap with my BFF Danica. Being me is exhausting.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Heart Breaker

Lily is especially fond of hugging and kissing her three-year-old friend, Colby. She squeals with delight when he comes near. I know this video might make some of her other boyfriends (Coley) jealous, but they need to know exactly what type of woman she really is.




Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Bonfire Baby

Don't worry we didn't toast our baby on the bonfire, just had a few marshmallows. Over the weekend we had the pleasure of indulging in some pyro fun with our friends the Lindoffs. Here are a couple of the pics from the night (early evening if you want to get technical, Lil has to be in bed by 8).


Daddy and Lil hanging out. Hmm.. Ben looks like he needs a marshmallow to make him feel more cheerful.

The lovely Lindoffs enjoying a dog.


Two Pyros at work.


Enjoying a snack. It is the only way she will stay in her stroller lately.


The flames. Enough said.


Bella after the Bonfire. I just had to include this shot because she is looking so enormous lately. This cat is crying out for help (and more food). Maybe you can be her lucky new owner?

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Busy Girl

This is a small sampling of what life is currently like with our energetic daughter.
Happy Mother's Day!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Almost a Dual Citizen

Our bags were packed, the hotwire hotel booked and our appointment made at the US Embassy in Vancouver. Then things fell through... Gahhh. I have been sorting through mind blowing amounts of paperwork in an attempt to make Lily both a Canadian and a US citizen. I am American, Ben is Canadian (sort of), how hard can it be? Very hard!

Apparently you need to show the good people at the US consulate a Live Record of Birth. Umm.. so that is somehow different then a good old fashioned birth certificate? Yes, it seems that it is. Do the people at the consulate really have to look at my grades from high school to determine if I am American? Bizarre, but true.

So finding out that we were missing mandatory documents slightly delayed our plans. Lily was going to officially become a US citizen on her 1st Birthday, stay in a 5 star hotel and hang out in the big city. Oh boo. Staying at home and eating pizza will work too.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

It's Her Party

Today we celebrated Lily Joy's 1st Birthday!
We had an awesome Lady Bug themed party with lots of friends and family. Fortunately, there were only a couple of tears from the Birthday Girl near the end of the party. In true G Family style, we will be celebrating Lily's birthday for the next week. Her actual day is on May 6th, so she is still technically our little baby until the day she actually turns 1 (and starts walking)!