Seriously...

Ok, here's the excuse of the month as to why I have been not only so neglecful with the blogging, but also with the photo taking in general. Just checked the camera and we only took about 8 shots ALL MONTH of the boys. Oops. Promise to make up for it next month of course with oodles of Xmas festivities....

So, the big news of the month was that I became a business owner - AGAIN! I bought the license to Momcafe Vancouver and the North Shore and am SO EXCITED about this opportunity. This will definitely challenge my admitteded weaknesses as I have little to know experience in sales and advertising and revenue reporting etc. but it feels way better to know its my own sales and advertising and revenue and not someone else's I am working on! Check me out at http://www.momcafenetwork.com

Winter came early to the Shore! It takes about 3 hours for me to fully outfit the boys in their snow gear only to have them come in after 10 minutes because they are cold, but alas, I will get faster at it!

Halloween!

Halloween 2010 starring....Hannah Montana! Ballerina Princess! Monkey 1 and Monkey 2! Buzz Lightyear! Little Chicken! and the cutest little wee Bumblebee you have ever seen!

Griffin actually sort of "got" the concept this year...but the end of the first cul-de-sac he would say "house, knock, treat" and would get heaps of candy because he is so darn cute!!

My 2 Burthday - By Griffin

I had lotts of fun on my burthday. I maid shure to get up xtra urly - 6am - so I wood not miss any fun. Doo-doo and I had a bulloon partie in the morning with Mimi!

Then mummy and daddy tuk me to Crash Crawlys - it wuz fun! I started on the babie slides but it wuz too eazy for me so I mooved on to the big boy stuf!!

I tuk daddy with me into the maize - he thought it smelld like pee!

Oops. Face plant.

I tryed to go on the quad bikes, but they said i wuz too littl still. Doo-doo and Meely went ryding and had fun. I settld for a car ryde with Barney, sigh.

I tuk mummy into the maize too. Hur knees hurt, but she wuz brave!

I liked the scary hal-o-wean train, but I was a littl scared to drive at furst. Then I wuz very brave and rode all by myself - choo choo!

My frend Chubbins (Baby Eli) came tu my partie too!!

A fun day!

I lik sushi! Yum! I put lots in my mowth and make mummy mad - hee!

I luv my choo choo cake! Thank u Mimi!!

Prezent time! I liked the boxes best!

Mummy and me tuk some fun piktures!

Sea u on my 3 burthday!! Luv Griffin xxxoooo

Griffin at 2

My sweet little treasure bear is turning two today. Queue the tissues for me as my little baby turns into a little boy. And what a little boy he is turning out to be:

- The biggest daredevil - he has already chalked up numerous scars and pretty much can't get through a day without some new bump or bruise (or in one terrible case a lost fingernail in the door!!), but oh is he tough!
- A huge lover of Nina. And who is Nina you ask? Not my future daughter-in-law, but Thomas the Train! Guess he is still having some issues pronouncing his name!
- A slang talker! Speaking of mis-pronounced names - Jasper, aka "Ah-Doo-Doo" to Griffin is actually being called "Jas-puh" on occasion, but mostly still plain old "Doo-doo"
- A LOUD communicator! Griffin's favorite way to communicate these days is to yell, and yell LOUDLY, we aren't sure if its from his ear troubles, or he's just figuring out all the ways to drive his parents nuts on a daily basis.
- A big talker! Griffin is picking up words and phrases like a sponge, he is especially fond of "Dare-go" (translation: "There you go" accompanied by a hug), and "Where's doo-doo?" (accompanied by a shoulder shrug)
- A dancer! Oh how Griffin loves to dance! Jay-z, Coldplay, Neon Trees, Baa-Baa-Black Sheep - you name it and he will rock it!
- A scholar! Griffin has taken to "baby-school" and daycare like a superstar - in fact his teachers say that he walks around like he owns the place most of the time. he has also mastered his numbers up to 18, and when done to song can pretty much recite his entire alphabet!
- A swimmer! Griff swims like a fish and we are thinking will soon pass his big brother in the lesson levels - poor Doo-doo!
- And lucky for me, mama is still his number one favorite person, although he might be battling with Doo Doo over who gets to marry me : )

October Round Up

Ok, this is truly getting out of hand...nary a post for the entire month of October and a quick check of the camera shows nary a photo has been taken either so Thanksgiving 2010 at the cabin goes undocumented on film, but good times were had by all the boys with quad and bike riding and a yummy turkey cooked over an open flame in the "bell" for an entire day - so deelish

A little pre-halloween face-painting fun - MEOW!

Griffin broke with the Nielsen boys family tradition and breezed through is first haircut. Just plopped in into "nina" an away we went!

October graced us with some unbelieveably gorgeous weather which we took full advantage of with lots of missions to parks, playgrounds and Granville Island

Poor treasure bear had his second surgery in a year for his ears...luckily not the hellish 4 hour delay of last year, just a mildly painful 1.5 hour delay this year, fingers crossed that he won't need another!

We Outta Be in Pictures - Sept 2010

We had a fantastic outdoor shoot in early September with Sacha Mullen...Griffin was less than cooperative but Jasper was a star and she managed to capture some great shots!!

Grumpy Pants Blog Posting

Ok, maybe not the best idea to post a waaayyyyyyy overdue blog whilst in a very grumpy mood - too tired, PMSy, feeling sicky, and two grumpy kids makes for a grumpy mama and perhaps some caustic comments but I will do my best. Alas, the "babysitter" is turned on so maybe I will get a few minutes to get the past 4 weeks captured.....

So, back to mid-August and the second mini heat wave of the summer of 2010 happened to coincide with my mama's getaway weekend to Parksville with my lovely "Victoria" crew. Thanks to Helmar, we had two beautiful ocean view rooms at the new Parksville Beach Club Resort (shwanky!!). Such bliss to chat and drink and laugh (and eat and drink some more) and even have a 9pm dip in the still warm ocean - and best of all, a good nights sleep! Unfortunately it was only one night and back to reality the next day - hopefully once Griffie is fully weaned i'll be able to handle more than one night away without the bxxbs going all double-D!!

Jasper and Aaron managed to get away for one night of camping north of Squamish at Paradise Valley. Griff and I joined them for the day with plans to return home to NV to sleep. Griff + tent = no sleep for anyone. Alas, the boys had tons of fun and unfortunately for Aaron the campers in the next spot brought their small baby who proceeded to wail all night long - le sigh.

Our annual pilgrimage to the zoo - hilite was definitely the bike/jalopy we cruised around in - too bad there were no gears and basically no brakes, made things interesting on the hills!!

The boys and I had a lovely week in the Okanagan, save for the hell-a-cious drive on the way up (2 hour delay as HWY 1 was shut down eastbound!) thank god for DVD players is all I can say! The boys had so much fun with cousins and Mimi/Papa C - the weather didn't cooperate for the most part, but we did log some good beach/lake time and had a great visit to the miniature rail museum in Osoyoos which was AMAZING. Griffin continues to prove to be the family daredevil and decided after one assisted trip down the zip-line that it was time for him to launch on his own...we caught some video footage of him which is too big to post here - SO CUTE!. We capped off the week with a few nights at the cabin so the boys could get in touch with their country side - a little fishin and frog catchin, and best of all QUAD RIDES on their new mini ATV - so so so spoiled by Mimi and Papa!!

Today is officially Aaron's bday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY - but we celebrated a few days early by taking off sans kids for a night at the Tulalip Resort/Casino. Awesome room, awesome food, A lovely massage at the spa for Aaron, a not so awesome experience at the "penny" slots (personal dislike for gambling plus the smoke - yuck!), and some good times at the Premium Outlets!

And a final note about a BIG personal accomplishment for moi - I officially launched my Fifthgear Solutions website after many months of procrastination and then a week of pedal to the medal work! I am proud of it, and am so excited to be working again!
http://www.fifthgearsolutions.com