A New Niece!

This past weekend, we welcomed baby Sarah Lynn Mantel to our family. This is a new cousin for Megan and Ethan. We're looking forward to meeting her when we go out to Ontario later this month!

Anniversary Weekend

This past weekend, Jason and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary. We celebrated by having my mom pick up Megan and Ethan so we could have a kid free weekend. As part of our celebration, we went out for supper and a movie on Friday and went on a cookout horseback ride on Saturday. Here are some pictures from our ride.

Chief Mountain

A deer spotted on the way

Jason on his horse Wrangler



The cookout site

Jason's self-portrait

Me on my horse Norman

A view of the path we rode along

Jason's horse Wrangler

More Micah Pictures

Here are some more pictures from our trip to meet Micah.

Megan and "Gloria"

At the baby shower

Ethan and Micah

The cousins.

Meeting Micah

This past Monday, the kids and I took a trip up to Edmonton with my mom to meet Micah and attend his baby shower. We had a great time meeting Micah and even Ethan seemed to enjoy the baby shower (especially as it was held somewhere that he could freely roam without problem).

Ethan enjoying a chocolate chip cookie at the baby shower.

Exploring Micah's bouncy chair at Uncle Ryan and Auntie Pam's earlier in the evening.

Cleaning Auntie Pam's floors the next day.

Micah talking to Megan.




Megan holding Micah.



I'll post more pictures as soon as I get copies of the ones my mom took.

Going to the Dentist

Last week, Megan had her first trip to the dentist for a checkup. She had no problems letting the hygenist clean her teeth like a grownup. That's right, Megan got her teeth polished and scaled just like you or I would. I'm so proud of her! Ethan enjoyed wandering around while Megan got her teeth cleaned and got a ride on the chair also. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera with me so I have no pictures. I'll try to remember it for her next appointment.

Haircuts

Yesterday, we took the kids to Beaners (a great place for kids cuts) and got both kids' hair cut. Beaners is a great place to take kids for haircuts as it is designed to cater to kids, even squirmy ones like Ethan. As it was Ethan's first haircut, we received a certificate for his first haircut as well as some of his hair. Here are some of the best pictures from the kids getting their haircut.

Megan enjoyed getting sparkles and ribbons in her hair after her trim.

Megan's choice of seat for her cut.

Farming

This past weekend we went out to the Olfert family farm near Swift Current to help with seeding. The kids had a great time out at the farm with Grandma and Grandpa O. Megan got the chance to help feed some lambs at Art & Wanda's. She really enjoyed doing it and would love the opportunity to do it again. Megan also enjoyed playing with 3rd cousins Bianca and Sofia. Ethan "helped" Grandpa with the sprayer by "checking" to make sure he was doing things right. There were so many pictures to choose from for this blog, I had to make a slide show.

Random Pictures

Here are a couple random pictures of things that have happened around our house recently.

Ethan cuddling with some stuffed animals in a laundry basket.

Enjoying some chocolate chip pancakes.

Montana Trip

As many of our friends and family know, we recently drove down to Bozeman, Montana for a friend's wedding. We took many pictures on the way there and the way back. I have posted the highlights on Facebook. Here is the link to the album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=114516&id=605405644&l=185a6a1abf

Walking!!

The weekend before last, Ethan finally decided to start walking. Here is some video of his efforts.

Mommy's Little "Helper"

I think this video is self-explanatory.

Skiing with Grandpa

This past weekend, we went out to Panorama for the annual ski trip with my family. This year we decided to introduce Megan to skiing. Grandpa was the preferred person to teach this in Megan's opinion. Here is a picture and video of Megan and Grandpa skiing.

Megan's Past 3 years

I've been working on a slideshow of our lives for the past 3 years since Megan's birth. I've finally gotten it finished and I hope you enjoy this tribute to our little girl.

Birthday Party

This year we had a joint birthday party for both Megan and Ethan. I have put together a slideshow of the highlights from the party. Enjoy!

Christmas with the Mantels

As many of you know, this year we spent Christmas with Jason's family in Ontario. We were fortunate to fly out before the airports were closed due to snow. I have finally put together a slideshow of some of the Christmas Day highlights.

Playing with Cousins

While we were out visiting Jason's family over Christmas, Megan and Ethan had many opportunities to play with their cousins Jeremy and Jorja. Here are a few of the best pictures.

Hiding in the tub Grandma uses as a toy box.

Megan "riding" Jeremy the lion.

Megan and Jeremy playing "Tackle".

Ethan and Jorja playing.

Megan and Jeremy "racing" on their hands and knees.

Olfert Christmas

This year, we did something different for Christmas with my family. As we couldn't get together at my parents, we had my parents over to open gifts with the kids at our house. Here are some shots of the kids with their gifts.

Megan and her new Read-A-Story system.

Grandma O admiring her new pictures of our family.

Ethan and his John Deere toys.

Megan and her toddler Cinderella doll (aka "Cindy")

Megan showing off the tiara and earrings that came with Cindy.

Updates

Dear Friends and blog readers,

I'm sorry I haven't updated in the last month, but as December was a busy month for us as we have been spending about the last 3 weeks with Jason's family, I haven't been able to blog about Christmas yet. I promise that I will be updating our blog soon after we get home and resettled. We've enjoyed our visit out in Ontario and have had some interesting times that I'll try to blog about once we're home.

Jocelyn

Calgary Christmas

Since we're going out to Ontario this year for Christmas, we decided we would have a bit of a Christmas at our house first. Here's a little video of Megan decorating the tree. I hope to post a slideshow of her decorating as soon as I figure out how.

Trouble!!!

We recently went to visit my parent in Drumheller. While we were "hanging out" during the day, Ethan decided to check out the newspapers that were laying out. Apparently, he found them really fun to take apart!!

Ethan at 9 months

Last Tuesday, we took Ethan to the doctor for his 9 month checkup. Here are his most recent "stats":

Height: 76 cm

Weight: 19 lbs 15 oz.

Halloween

I know it's been almost a week and a half since Halloween, but I'm finally getting around to blogging about Halloween this year. Originally, we thought that Megan would be Pooh and Ethan would be Eeyore, but Ethan outgrew the Eeyore top before Halloween so here's who he went as instead:

"I'm ready to go trick or treating, Mom!!"

"Is it time to go yet?"

This year, we went trick or treating at the mall as well as around our neighborhood and collected lots of candy. We'll see if Ethan will want to be Pooh next year and maybe Megan will be Minnie Mouse.

New Adventures

Since we got the Jolly Jumper, Ethan has figured out how to do a few things. Such as:

Climb stairs

and pull himself up to stand.

Suffice to say, things have gotten alot more interesting at our house lately.

Jumping

We recently borrowed a Jolly Jumper in a frame from my brother and sister-in-law in Okotoks. I thought it would be a good thing to get as Ethan seemed to like jumping. He has proved that this was a good move. He really enjoys spending time in the Jolly Jumper.

I can Sit!!!!

Well, the day has come that I doubted would actually happen! Ethan can now sit on his own and is able to get into a sitting position from laying on the floor without assistance. Here are a couple pictures of him sitting up on the living room floor.

"Look Mom! No supports, no Bumbo!"

"Yes, what would you like?"

Adventures in Crawling

Now that Ethan's crawling (sort of) he likes to get into all kinds of interesting places. This is one that I couldn't resist taking a picture of.