Best Easter Weekend ever

We had a horrible week. I was in the hospital for 5 days with an intestinal blockage, had surgery and am now home recovering. It was horrible. The darkest days of my life and needless to say, I am happy to be home. I'll end with the details and move on to happier things... like Easter. I was at home. My parents came to Calgary last week, Darren's parents moved into our house to watch the kids while my mom and Darren rotated hospital shifts. Friday was my first day home and Darren decided we should make suishi... the girls love this and we're probably going to go broke because of it. It's a costly meal for 5. Our at home version was more fun and just as yummy.



Grandpa and Grandma Byram were here for Easter weekend and the egg colouring/Easter Bunny festivities. Grandma Debbie is still here because I can't lift Connor for 6 weeks.





Holding Connor - but no lifting for 6 weeks. We are now on the hunt for a live-in nanny.




The girls in their Easter dresses - fun fun fun.

Wedding Photos

Here are some more wedding pictures - as per Adrianne's request. I tried to get ones that showed off the dress. I'm disappointed at myself for not taking more pictures.... hello, it was a wedding.

Big Days!

He may weight as much as a two year old - but our Baby Connor is now 9 months old. He's on the go - crawling at the speed of light, standing up whenever possible, he knows his name and will follow simple directions like "up" and "come here" and also has added clapping to his list of talents. I have also been betrayed - he now officially prefers his dad. My efforts to turn him into a mama's boy have gone totally unrewarded. I'll just have to settle for being the star during the day and loosing my title when dad's around. I love this boy! (side note - another mom at the mall asked me how old my baby was - when I said 9 months, she gasped, and asked how much does he weigh? 24 pounds I said (even though that was weeks ago). Her 20 month old didn't weight that much. She was shocked.




A 7 year-old is in the house folks. Cala had a birthday this week and what celebrating we did. She took treats to her class at school then, after school we had a party at the bowling alley. The kids had a great time bowling for about 20 minutes, at which point Darren and I turned into wranglers. We made it through the game - all 12 kids and CC ended up winning - much to the disappointment of the 2 boys at the party. Cala had a cake with a dog on it, got too many presents and got to wear a new summer outfit to her party even though - summer is clearly a long time away. Her favourite gift - horseback riding lessons - starting on Saturday!

Back in business!

Who would have known that the non blogger in the family would figure out the picture downloading problem. Whew. I did want to blog - but without pictures.. seriously, who wants to hear what I have to say.

This picture was taken just a few weeks ago. We were in Idaho for Kristen and Scoot's wedding and it was wonderful. The girls were excited about going to a wedding and I had to ban CC from talking about it. She was soooo focused on throwing petals at Kristen she couldn't do anything else. She asked numerous questions about her wedding and finally told us she was getting married in June and wanted to know when we would take her wedding dress shopping. Now we just say, "When you're finished dental school, then you can get married."

Cala had fun carrying presents whit her cousins... but after a while they just ran around chasing each other. I think most of the guests actually carried in their own presents. She asked no questions about her wedding but did want to know if she could open any of the presents.

Connor was only at the wedding for 20 minutes during the picture taking session. His shoes kept falling off and he wanted to put everything in his mouth. I even took the babysitter with us to the reception so I wouldn't have to deal with him and piture taking at the same time. It was not much of a party for him... but, he didn't care.

The girls and I stayed in Idaho another 2 weeks and had fun with family. We also went to Provo to take Kristen and Scott their gifts and shop. Aunt Alison kept Connor. Grandma D. and the 3 Taylors tore up the malls. with the strength of the Canadian dollar... how could I not!

Well, it's great to be up and running again. We have a fun week ahead of us... Cala has a b-day! I'll keep you posted.

Lame Blogger

I know. It's been too long. I seriously can't figure out the why my photos aren't downloading. Not having photos makes me not want to blog. Who wants to play the help desk? I choose an image from my computer and it uploads for 5 seconds and then just stops.

Also, we've been gone for the last 2 weeks. Kristen (youngest sister) got married and we stayed after to play. Oh, and the pictures are amazing. too bad no one can see them.

Home from the Holiday

We are back from our lovely January Holiday to California. We lucked out and got the one week in CA that was warm and sunny - no rain and missed one of the many weeks in Calgary when it was cold, snowy and miserable. The girls were great on the trip and Darren and I decided we could travel the world with those two - they are so good. However, baby Connor - not so much fun. He was good but, who wants to take a 7 month old who naps 3 times a day and goes to bed at 7 pm on a vacation. He only napped in his stroller and we paid for it an night - he would get up at least 3 times. But, that's how life is now and considering the extreme lack of sleep he endured very well. We had a blast at Disneyland, Sea World and shopping. Darren really scored in the shopping department and I'm regretting a number of things I didn't get - we just needed more time. We also got to see a lot of family, laughed a lot and spent everyday outside! Now it's catch up time. I have lots of photos but they will not upload - I'll work on it.

Raising the Bar

Darren reached two milestones in his law career over the weekend. First, we travelled to Vancouver, BC were he was sworn in as a member of the Bar in that province. We took all the kids with us - we thought it would be good for them to get a little insight into what their Dad actually does for work. Darren wore his legal robes to the ceremony - just like all the other lawyers. The girls were saying - dad's wearing a dress today. They sat very patiently through the ceremony and when it was time to clap - Chelsea joined in and started cheering - "Dad won! He won!" It was a very formal ceremony - he had to bow to the judge whom they call "My Lord" here in Canada, take an oath and sign something. (I'm sure this has a name but you'll have to google if you really want to know it) Then we went back to the hotel so Darren and the girls could change out of their dresses. Darren was checking his email and found out that back in Calgary - he's been invited to be a partner at the law firm he works for. Even Darren was excited. Vancouver was great - it's good to be home to get ready for Christmas. We'd been home about and hour when Cala started asking - "What are we going to do fun today." Ummmm - we did it.