Gavan turns 2!

Gavan's birthday is November 21st. We celebrated it a day early this year because we had travel plans on his birthday.

He is just a wonderful boy. My angel baby. He is so gentle, so kind, so thoughtful and above all SWEET!

We all love him so much and are so happy to get to celebrate his milestone together!

Its been so fun to see how he has grown and developed. He has really started to talk alot in the past couple of months. And he has learned alot by listening and imitating Myla. Its not uncommon for this to happen:

Myla: "Papa, can I play with this pen for a little bit?"

Papa: "Sure Myla"

Gavan: "Papa, play pen little bit?"

Papa: " Oh Gavan, of course!"

We did birthday cupcakes instead of a cake this year. Here is Gavan trying to blow out the candles.

Success!

We are so fortunate that Grandma Sharp could be in town from Salt Lake City to join in on the fun! She is the best grandma and great-grandma!

This monster truck was an absolute HIT! I should record video of how cool and noisy it is. "4x4 system ENGAGED!" followed by loud rock music and LOTS of flashing lights. He takes it to bed with him!

Gavan was so dear - after he opened each present, we would tell him who is was from and he would thank them:

"Dee doo, Gama!!"

"Dee doo, Myla!"

What a sweet wonderful boy - he brings so much happiness and fun to our family!

6 Year Anniversary

September 27 marked six years that I have been blessed to have Nick as my husband! We had to delay our celebration until Oct 3, but good things come to those who wait :) These pictures are from right before we went out. I was checking my make-up in the mirror and in came Nick with the camera.

We went out to a delicious dinner, got some fantastic ice cream and then enjoyed a laugh-filled movie together. Typical date-fare I suppose but it seemed like it been a long time since we had been out - just the two of us.

I had so much fun with him - and I always do. I could not ask for a better partner!! I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about how wonderful he is!

Nick - I love you more than I can express. You are the BE$T! Thank you for six wonderful years and two beautiful children.

The Elk Hunt

We had a great visit from Nick's parents this month. Nick had an elk tag and his father came down for the hunt. His Mom and the kids and I joined them for a couple of days of camping up by Green's Peak. Here is what we did:

Who knew that canoeing in the grass was just as much fun as the real thing?? Not me! But these two figured it out.

To bring a touch of civilization to the elk hunt, we brought along a croquet set.

Check out this cool tree that was near our campsite! Someone had taken a chainsaw to it, cut a front door and window and hollowed out the inside! It was a magical little house for the kids to play in.

Myla inside the tree - she thinks its Fab-U-Lous!

Peek-a-boo!

There were little horny toads running around and Myla declared this one her new best friend! She was pretty sad when its Mommy called it home for dinner and she couldn't play with it anymore. We had to have several horny toad hunts to find a replacement friend for her.
Sweet Gavan gently holding the toad

My huntin' husband :)

Myla would NOT stop frowning when we were trying to take her picture with Papa. So what do you do with a frown?

You turn it upside down!!

It worked :)

All of us.

It was a lot of fun - and it was SO COOL up there! We were grateful for our jackets, that's for sure.

Also, throughout the whole area, there were lots of cows grazing. Occasionally, they would make their way into the field near our campsite. At one point, before us lady-folk arrived, the guys had to chase them away from the camp and one calf ran into the quad that someone was riding and got knocked down. Oops!

Anyways, one of the days we were up there with the kids, the cows were out in the field. Here is a pic of the field: I didn't have the camera when the cows were there so all I could do was photograph the field.

Why am I showing you a picture of a field that looks like a lot of the landscape in northern AZ?

Because, this field, filled with cows, inspired a strange story from my 3 1/2 year old daughter.

We were having a lot of imaginative play around the campsite - Myla wanted to be called "Curly" and she had a dog named Curly and a cat named Curly and she lived in a pink and purple house. Well, at one point, "Curly" had to warn me to not go into the "Grinscot"

"What's the Grinscot?", I asked.

She pointed to the field full of grazing cattle, pictured above.

"Why can't I go into the Grinscot?", I asked.

"Because", Curly said gravely, "My family went there and got hurt and their blood and bones are all eaten up!!"
"Really", I said, not really knowing what to else to say to that.

Anyways, that was just graphic and outta left-field. I guess the cows and camping somehow got to Myla!

I haven't heard anymore gruesome stories since we've been home, thankfully!

On our last night up there, we sat around the campfire listening to the elk. Nick had his calls so he would bugle (I think that's what its called) and the elk would call back. Gavan - my little almost-two-year-old, would imitate the sound - and he did pretty darn good!!

Unbelievably, this was our first family campout of the, um, summer? Is it still summer since its still over 100 degrees?? It was very nice to get outdoors - the kids LOVED it, we took about a million rides on the quad with them. It was great! Now I remember why we bought our camper! We just need more time to use it :)

This just made me laugh :)

This is what I get from my daughter when we say "Smile for the picture!" 

Guh! 

Its A Hard Knock Life, For Nick

This past weekend, Nick had the opportunity to go deep sea fishing. He has a great time when he goes, seasickness aside. Actually, he wasn't too sick this time! Maybe he's getting used to it.

They went from southern CA down to Mexico and made quite the haul of dorado and tuna. There were 5 men on the boat and at one point, they EACH had a fish on their line! It was a very exciting and super-fun trip for him. The fishing was great this time. I think they caught a total of 26 fish. Lucky guy!

His laundry was a little smelly - and it took two washes to get MOST of the fish smell out of them. He cleaned some of the fish, as you can tell from the pics.

We're glad to have him home, and the fish too!

Stickered

I am a canvas for my children's art :) 

 

We're back in the land of the living!

Well, we've been back in the pink since Sunday - thank you everyone for letting us complain about being sick! :) It's over and we're glad!

We've had a fun week of feeling healthy. We got to go to Fry's on Monday and Costco on Tuesday. Myla and Gavan really like fruit snacks and we picked up some of the Kirkland brand ones while we were there. We got to get pizza with a bunch of friends on Wednesday too and I got some much needed grown-up talk time! Thanks guys :)

So, today, I'm upstairs playing on my laptop while Myla is watching an Elmo video. She says to me, "Mom, go downstairs and get me some fruit snacks." So polite, huh? Well, I told her that if she went down and got a packet and brought it upstairs, I would open it for her so she could eat them while she watched her video. It took a few more times of her asking and she realized that I wasn't going to get them. 

So she paused her movie (she knows what a few buttons do) and headed on down. 

Then, she came up into the loft carrying the ENTIRE box of fruit snacks! And she says to me, "Mom, um, I'm really hungry for fruit snacks so we can have the box up here with us!" 

Brilliant, huh? :) She's thinking ahead! She ate three packets of them right in a row. Or so I thought. She stood up from the couch, and there, nestled next to the armrest, is a pile of about 2.5 packets worth of fruit snacks. Guess we weren't as hungry as we thought :)

Summer Sickness

Wow - some of you have already listened to me complain (thanks for listening!) but we have been sick over here! Gavan was sick all of last week and Myla and I have been sick all of this week.

And I can tell you that I am sick and tired of being sick! I'm kind of stir-crazy, thinking now I have a serious case of cabin fever. For some reason, my one trip out of the house this week, which was to the doctor and Wal-Mart to fill my prescription when I almost passed out three times, just was not enough to keep me sane. 

We've unfortunately watched nothing but TV for going on two weeks solid so I think we've all gone goofy.

Nick has been lucky and has thus far not gotten our rotten bug. Which, is some tough virus. Antibiotics did nothing! Oh well. Like I told someone, I guess it was our turn to be sick because I honestly can't remember the last time I felt this bad for this long!

Today is actually really looking up so here's hoping it'll be over SOON!

Also - we all have a new and profound appreciation for painkillers & fever reducers :) Special thanks to advil & children's motrin for pullin' us through :)

Cousin Fashion Show

Hee, hee... So Madeline & Jackson, two of my awesome neices & nephews from New Jersey, are in town passing some time with us this summer. We were to Grandma & Grandpa's house for Sunday dinner and some good ol' play time. Well, Madeline is quite the event organizer, so while we watched the D-backs lose in the final inning to the Dodgers, she put together a little fashion show for us to enjoy afterwards. The highlights are below :)

This is Madeline - she must be stressed out pre-show.

Myla in a kicky brown number

Gavan checking out the lighting effects at the after-party

Myla at the after-party

This week

So let's see - here are a couple of updates about what's going on at Casa Cournoyer:

Gavan is really working hard on jumping. He's been doing it for awhile but he's been stuck in the phase of having his feet stay stuck to the floor even though he's putting a lot of effort into it... But he actually caught air a couple of days ago! I tried to get a pic of it but wasn't successful. So yeah Gavan :) And, I'm realizing that he isn't much of a baby anymore. He'll be 2 in November. We saw our friend's 6 month old a couple of weeks ago and at times like that, it becomes apparent that he isn't so little!

Myla refused to nap today. She has never been good about napping but the last couple of times I've brought her in the house after she fell asleep in the car, she has woken up. To my dismay... It can be kind of exhausting when I don't get some kind of little break from them. But that's mommyhood! She has also started to tell stories. Not lies, but little tales. Its really cute. I wish I could remember some of the stuff she's come up with - I'll start paying more attention and will entertain you with some of them :)

We wrapped up two sessions of swim lessons this week too. Gavy made great progress and so did Myla, especially after the second session.

We had Enrichment last night and it was fun - fun projects to work on - we accomplished alot! So, its nice to cross that one off the list for a little while.

I guess that's all for now. Maybe I'll actually post something interesting next time! Good job if you read all the way to the end :)

Myla Rockin' Out!

Here's a little home movie of Myla - she loves music and dancing :)

Enjoy!

p.s. you need your speakers on!

Holey Incredible Birthday!

Yesterday, the 26th, was my 32nd birthday. And it was a wonderful one!

It started bright and early at 6AM thanks to the dear sisters that I serve with in RS. They got themselves out of bed super-early to come and surprise me with a delicious breakfast treat. It was a great way to start the day :) Thankfully, I was already awake, which is normally unheard-of at that time, due to Gavan getting up at 5:30.

Then, the kids and I had a nice day of shopping, swim lessons and time around the house. I got a few phone calls from friends and my far-away brother in New Jersey.

My parents, brother and his wife came over for dinner and cake that night.

Mom & Dad

Fun with tissue


Here is where the incredible part is: Nick got me a Mac Book for my birthday!!!!

I was COMPLETELY SURPRISED and BLOWN AWAY!!! I'm so excited to get familiar with it. I told Nick that the kids are going to be watching alot of cartoons this week so I can play with it. He's fine with that :)

After the family party, some of the darling girls on my street and in our neighborhood (Sarah, Cindy and Maddie) , surprised me at about 9 pm with more birthday singing and a present! It was totally cool!!

So here is the holey part of my birthday:

These are the feet of my dear husband. His socks did NOT look like this when he started the day. He came home early and kicked off his shoes and sat down to talk with me. Then his phone rang, like it always does, and he went outside to take the call, like he always does. And he didn't put his shoes back on. He paced outside, on the phone, like he always does, for 30-40 minutes. So when my family was over for the party, he put his feet up on the ottoman. My sister-in-law Becky took one look and just started laughing. Then I looked and saw what had happened and started lauging too. It brought me to the edge of tears :) Thanks Nick! I love you :) Not only for the great laugh but for the wonderful birthday. It couldn't have been any better!

Sting for Myla

Well, we were sitting out front Sunday evening, waiting for bedtime to get a little closer and the kids were having a pretty good time exploring the vegetation in the yard.
The rosemary bush is especially fun because it smells so good and its easy to pull branches off.

That's what they were doing when myla screamed and came running.
At first I thought she had cut her hand running it down the branch but her finger started to puff up.

This is where I started to worry because the last time Nick got stung by a wasp, he puffed up in every way possible. His face made him look like a neanderthal!! It was pretty scary for him, and me. So I certainly didn't want myla to go through that.
We got some benadryl in her and watched.
It only got as bad as in this picture thankfully. And poor Myla was exceptionally tough through it This is the picture she drew of the bug that stung her: