It's starting to feel like summer

Full house in the Wutzke house hold!  We had another International student move in with us. So the 2 kids are sharing a room again. Katie (her English name) is from Hong Kong, she is 20 and trying to get out of high school this year. She is... different. We will make it through.

Well we have a big 1 year old boy!!! I can't believe that the year has gone so fast. We had as much family over as were able to come. It ended up being just my side that could come, we missed everyone else, but fun was had by all... except maybe the birthday boy. Turns out he had the measles for his birthday. He was kind of a sad little boy, but he was a trooper. Since we call Sylas Mr. B. 

I decided to to make a Bee cake. It turned out ok.

Here is the big boy not looking so good, and not interested in eating cake at all!!!

Summer is finally and we are loving it!! We are enjoying the backyard in our new house. It is nice to have a nice big enclosed area for the kids to play. The following will be a run of photos of our fun times in the backyard.

Naomi with her very first sparkler. She loved it!

Playing with bubbles

Just looking so handsome.

Just as cute as can be.

We also love to go out to the park. We don't do that anymore without daddy since I was helping Naomi and Sylas toppled over and down the stairs. But we enjoy it anyway (when daddy comes).

 

 

Sometimes I have a hard time NOT taking pictures of the kids.  Here are some photos to remind you what Sylas looked like before his haircut. I like his haircut, he looks so cute, but I kinda miss his mop on top, and the curls on top.

 Playing with his "boombox" musicbox

 
The other week we went on an excursion to the Zoo with some friends. We always love going and looking at the animals. We stopped for some snacks at the park in the Zoo, and we all know how much Naomi loves the park. I was impressed with how well I kept her in one area. But alas I got talking and then realized, "Where is Naomi?" I run around looking all over for her, and finally find her up top in this jungle gym. I was scarred, but she was having a ball.

Showing me how much she loves me.

I came home the other day after shopping alone (what a wonderful treat) to find Naomi asleep on the couch like this.

She was breathing pretty deeply, with the low oxygen.

More pictures of the cutie-man

He can walk, he just won't unless we force him too

Finally an updated photo of our  little family. We took this picture to send to my mom for mothers day.

We took some for Chiho to send to her mom as well.

She is pretty much family now.

Just for fun

 Sorry it's pretty much photos. But I love to take photos of the kids. Believe it or not, this is just a small sampling of the photos taken.

Hello folks. This is the Wutzkes. We are alive. Life never sits still for us here.

We have been a pretty busy around her as of late. 

For those who are unaware... we moved... again! So the house we were living in went into foreclosure. Yeah, we were less than impressed. I mean where was our rent money going? GRRRRR!

So we found out about the foreclosure and we had till the end of this month (March) to move out. We just found it easier to get it over with quick. We found a place and moved in, in a 3 week period (at the end of February). It was hectic and crazy, but we got it done and we really like our new house. It has an unfinished basement that we have made into our master suite so the kids could have their own rooms (for our sanity). Our exchange student was so sad to hear that we had to move. She said she even kissed her bedroom door goodbye. She is so funny. But she loves this new house! There is just so much more space. Now to secure a job here in Strathmore for Aric next year, and we won't have to move again for awhile.

Ok onto other things. The little mam has 2 teeth and is so cute when he smiles, which is pretty much all the time. And he walks!! Not on his own but with his little man walker. He just trucks all over the house. He has finally learned to turn around when her runs into a wall.

Naomi is just as cute as ever. She loves doing anything with her hands. We made moon dust a while back and she loves to play with it.  All it is is 8 cups of flour mixed with 1 cup of baby oil. She loves it!!

So here are a few photos of the kids .

The Gnomes playing with moon dust the first time.

 The second time we played with moon dust, mommy got smarter and put a plastic diaper holder over top so the diaper doesn't get goopy.

Chiho even got in on the action and had a lot of fun.

 Enjoying our first bath together.

Glad they were getting along.

 

Still having fun. Glad it was hit, cause it makes bath time  much easier to tackle when you kill 2 birds with one stone.

 

We put on our first teenage birthday party for Chiho. They had a blast. She had 4 friends over for a sleep over. Wow teenagers are giggly. Silly.

I made her a special Japanese flag cake. I had to make the flag on the inside and the outside. Here is the cake before icing.

 

And after the icing. Chiho loved it.

Enjoying a smoothie at Nana and Papa's house

This kid gets into everything

I mean everything. I open the fridge for anything and he b-lines it to explore.

 

We were at uncle BJ's house and had some potentially messy lunch so mommy got the idea to to use a garbage bag. It worked like a charm.

 

Enjoying his own yummy food.

 

Peek-a-boo in Chiho's bed.

 

Naomi loves to help mommy bake. She always grabs the beater attachment and uses it as a telescope. So cute. "The clock is getting bigger!"  "Oh no, the clock is shrinking". What an imagination.

 

Last weekend we had some good friends visiting from Edmonton, we took the kids to the Royal Tyrrell Museum. Naomi had an absolute ball.  She was so well behaved too.

Enjoying the museum with mommy.

Then we took the kids to the Telus Spark science center. Wow she had a ball, playing in the water station and playing on the slides. We will have to take her there again I think.

 So that's it for now folks. We hope you are having a great year, and that you have a great Easter this weekend.

Happy New Year!!!!

Well I didn't send out a family photo and Christmas card yet again this year! But are we really surprised? I'm not! 

2012 Was a great year all in all for us. Besides Aric going though H-E-double hockey sticks at work in the last school year, we are happy with where the year took us.

Sylas joined our family and has brought complete joy into our lives. He is such a treat and really is generally a very happy kid. He is growing like a weed, seriously! He is now 8.5 months old and weights about 23-24lbs to my best guess. He is a rock!!! Thankfully he is starting to move so I don't have to carry him around the house as much now. During out Christmas in Hillspring with my WHOLE family, he decided that not only was it time to sit up by himself finally, but that he wants to stand too. So he is pulling himself on all sorts of furniture. I'm going to make the prediction that he will walk before he is one. We just can't keep him still and sitting. Tonight he crawled up the entire flight of stairs from the main floor to the top floor, by himself. Aric just stood behind him and kept a had available in case he fell for stumbled.

Naomi is a gem... most of the time. I'm mean, come on people she is 2, and we all know what 2 year olds are like. So I decide to see only the good right now. She surprises us every day with what she is picking up from us or the TV. Potty training? Well no. She is actually very scared of her bodily functions. The few times that we force her to sit on the potty. she is wines and bawls until we can't take it anymore. It is quite entertaining! It is amazing how much she has grown up. Day to day I do not see the changes until I catch a glimpse of a photo if her from just after Sylas was born. WOW!!! She is turning into a little girl so quickly.

We made a pretty big move to the bustling metropolis of Strathmore AB. We are loving it! It's definitely  a different pace from Edmonton. We sure miss our friends up there in the frozen north country. Aric is absolutely loving his job here. He feels appreciated finally in the efforts and ideas he brings. I'm enjoying being closer to family. I miss you Chelsea, but it has been nice to be able to spend time with a couple of my brothers. It's nice to be pretty much around the corner from BJ and Kyle. And Naomi has enjoyed getting to know her cousins Audrey, McCoy and Eliza.

My parents came from their mission in November!!!! I'm really enjoying having the chance to spend time with them. They stayed with us for a little while before Christmas and we got to prep for the craziness that was Christmas with the Harker clan at the Great Canadian Barn Dance B&B in Hillspring. Over all it was great. With 12 kids ages 5.5 and under, it could have really bad. But over all the kids were very well behaved. We enjoyed a "sleigh ride" on Christmas Eve. Man was it cold. But quite of few us braved the cold and had a memorable experience. Then it was back to the B&B for a roasting marshmallows over the fire in the back. It was quite warm by the fire.

We have an exchange student that most people are aware of. She is such a delight. Chiho if from Tokyo Japan and enjoys our crazy family dynamic I think. She sure had fun with my whole fam damily at Christmas. I think she realized that I am not the only crazy Canadian.

Well that catches you up pretty much. Now for the real show. On with the pictures!


Naomi helping decorate the Christmas tree.

Now it's Chihos turn



At the Airport when we went and met up with my parents during they over from Calgary to Lethbridge. The grandkids who where there got to go for a ride in the elevator with Nana and Papa.

Tuckered out while waiting to go to Edmonton for my sisters daughters baby blessing.



I love this photo!! HE sure loves his daddy.



Just looking so handsome



Helping "clean up" after baking



Story time with Papa.




Mmmmm... helping mommy and Nana make pulla!



Nice smile Mr. B

How does she sleep like this?

I think I have a mommy wanna be

We went to see Santa Naomi just went right up and snuggle into his neck. It was so cute. Completely different from last year. And Sylas was surprisingly happy to be a strange mans lap too! This was the best photo we could get. Neither of them looked at the camera at the same time

Enjoying some yummy Cora's breakfast after Santa. SOOOOO GOOOOD!!

MR.B got many noise toys for Christmas... thanks everyone! He enjoys them though (not as much Naomi though I think).

Getting ready to go for a walk with mommy, daddy and Naomi.

I don't have snow pants for him, so I heated up a rice bag and placed it in between blanket layer under his legs. He was so cozy he nodded of to sleep. Naomi loved "holding" him.

At Christmas, the kids attended a "Nana Party" they wore animal mask (Naomi is the bunny if you didn't realize), they played pin the button on the ginger bread man, broke a pinata,  and had stories. It was really cute. Naomi still talks about it now and then. We mention any kind of party, and she jumps "Nana party?"

Ok this next set of photos will be the end. I just had to add the sequence here because it was so funny. She woke up her nap looking like this and I kept asking her where her fork was. Can you find it? She never found it on her own, but the photos show her looking pretty hard.

So that's it. I finally updated it. I plan to try to keep up to date a little better this year. Cross your fingers. We hope that this year will has been great so far for everyone and that the rest of year continues in the same way. We love you all.