What a weekend!

Hello all,

so much has been going on around here, it has been hard to keep up! I though I'd take a quick moment to share the adventures we had this past weekend. For my birthday gift, my mom took Nola overnight and Doug and I were able to get away. Although I missed my little girl, it was AMAZING! I felt like a teenager again :) We went for dinner and then walked around downtown. We held hands and laughed and Dougie even gave me a piggy-back ride - it was perfect. We did a house swap with my mom - she came and stayed in Coalhurst with Nola and we went out to her house with the Dogs. It was so wonderful!!

On Saturday, Dougie helped his buddy roof his house and my mom and I did some serious shopping! We spent the day downtown looking in neat shops. I love my mom so much!! Saturday evening, Dougies sister, Dori, came down and we went river rafting! It was soooooo cool! We did a run called Moonlight Madness and it was just that. We started in the River around 11:30pm and finished around 2:45am. It was so beautiful - it was a full moon and the sky was so clear! I want to do that over and over again!

On Sunday, we spend a quiet day at home. It was scorching hot, so we set up Nola's pool and we had a pool party, just the three of us! Nola was so sweet splashing in the water - she makes my heart grow. It was so great to have a family day :)

Here are some photos of Nola in the pool. She so sweet!!

The attack of Mr. Bear.

For some reason, every animal toy we have is named 'Mr. ____' There is Mr. Duck, Mr. Lion and Mr. Bear. Anywho, Mr. Bear is the perfect size for Nola. She can pick him up, give him a hug and his arms, legs and nose are the perfect fit for Nola's little mouth.

This video is hilarious to me. Doug and I were sitting down, eating some breakfast and she was just attacking the crap out of Mr. Bear. She was diving into him, growling and sucking the little stuffed life out of him. Although the video is only a minute or so long, she did this over and over for probably 15 minutes. Needless to say, he was soaked by the end.

DISCLAIMER: No animals were harmed in the making of this video.

I love to suck

I can't get enough of this little girl.

She is teething, so she loves to suck, gnaw and chew on anything she can. Grandma Sedrovic bought her this new teething toy and she was going to town on it. But by the end, she was done. Haha, she's too stinkin' cute.

Get that soother!!!

Nola is at that age where she is starting to firgure things out - like how to get her soother back into her mouth after pulling it out. To be perfectly honest, when she masters this skill, it will be a bitter-sweet day for me. I am not a huge fan of the 'I pull out my soother, Mommy puts it back' game, however with each milestone she reaches I realize that she is growing up and will only continue to. I guess she can't stay my swaddled little baby forever, right?

All in all, I am so proud of her and every little bit of growth I see. I love my Nola Mae.

Nola's first camping trip.

Dougie took some extra holidays over the Canada Day long weekend, so we packed up and headed out to the family cabin at Moyie Lake, BC. I must clarify, our cabin really is just a cabin - not a house on the lake. It's basically an insulated box with a wood stove, a bed, some couches and a coleman stove for cookin meals. No running water, however thanks to a long extension cord, we do get electricity from our neighbors :)

We got out to the cabin on Wednesday, June 30. It was a relatively decent day, so we walked Nola down to the beach (unfortunately we forgot our camera, so I'll do my best to describe her reaction). Moyie is a super cold lake - even on the hottest of days, it still takes your breath away to jump in! Last year, Doug went wake-boarding and after only being in and out of the water for about 20 minutes, his lips were blue! Anywho, I walked into the water up to my shins and I would dunk Nola's feet in the water. With every dunk, she tucked her legs up into herself like a turtle and would let out a pathetic like whelp! Haha, it was pretty funny. Needless to say, we are cruel parents, and we dunked her in about half a dozen times. Finally, she really started to cry, so we decided we'd better stop. Unfortunately, the weather was crummy the rest of our trip, so we didn't make it back to the beach.

While at the cabin, we spent most of our time just chillin'. Nola was GREAT!! She spent lots o her time hanging out on the deck in her

<--- pop-a-tot. That thing is a work of art!! Oh my, I'm in love with it! It's kind of like a camping exersaucer. Anywho, Nola loved it too and she spent tons of time in there, chatting with Mr. Duck and eating her hands.

On Canada Day, Dougie, Nola and I went into Cranbrook to spend the day with my cousin Jodi and her husband and son, Gabe. Poor Jodi, she was in her 10th month of her pregnancy (she was due on June28th) and we spent the day out in the sun at the spray park. She was having contractions all day long and at 9:30am the next day, July 2, she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Isaac! We were so happy to be around for the special arrival! Now Jodi deserves mother of the year, because Isaac is one BIG boy. He tipped the scales at 10 lbs 1 oz!! Holy Moses!! And she did it without drugs! Kudos to you Jodes, you're a better woman than I.

I love this picture because you can really see how big Isaac is! Him and Nola are 4 months apart!! I actually just weighed Nola and she's now a whopping 11 lbs 11 oz! She starting to get chunky!! So here they are, Nola and Isaac, 4 months apart and 1 lbs 10 oz difference.

Jodes, bless your soul.

On Saturday morning, our friends Clint and Nickie come out for the weekend. It was great to see them! Unfortunately, the weather was pretty crummy, so we didn't do much of anything. On Saturday night, we cooked up a butt-load of meat and stuffed ourselves stupid. Even Nola was trying to sneak a piece of Uncle Clint's steak.

Nola did great sleep-wise for all but Saturday night. I'm not too sure what her issue was, but she freakin' screamed and it really sucked. BUT, other than that, our camping trip was a complete success!!

Yay for family holidays!