Shopping at Ikea

 We decided to head out to IKEA one afternoon and, of course, Sloanie fell asleep in the car on the way there.  She so sleepy, in fact, that she didn't wake up when Paul took her out of her carseat and stayed sleeping even as we nagivated the craziness looking for a shopping cart.

We debated leaving but having spent 15 mins circling the parking lot for a spot, we decided to tough it out!

We fought for a cart, loaded it with comfy pillow and voila...instant crib on wheels!!

 

We didn't stay long however as Paul hates IKEA on the weekends.  On this particular excursion, I found Paul wedged in a corner of the kids furniture with a glazed look on his face muttering "there are just so many people" over and over.

Needless to say, we got a new carpet and then got the hell on outta there LOL.

Bathing Beauties

Bath time always means a ton of giggles and a whole lotta fun!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope you had a Happy Heart's Day!

Does this smile make your heart melt??

Glamour Shots

Little Tots wanted to test out a new potential photographer for our daycare class photos.  They chose a few of the kids from the daycare for a free photo session to test her out.  Luckily, Sloanie was one of them!

She was chosen because she is always super happy and smiley.  But Paul taught her to wink the week before the session so most of her photos consisted of her squinting LOL.

There were just a few of the ones we've seen so far.

This last one is my favourite.

When Daddy's away....

...the mice will watch movies and eat popcorn in his bed!

A Christmas Miracle!!!

After our family dinner on Boxing Day, we took the kids downstairs so they could play with their new toys and SLOANIE WALKED!!!!!!!

Yep...that little monkey just stood up and took off!

As you can see, she was just as proud of herself as we were.

It must have been the jeggings that Aunt Aly bought her.  

Have jeggings, will travel!!!!!!

Merry Christmas

 Ok...let's try this Christmas post again.  I was sure that I did it and then when I checked the blog today (Apr 2), I noticed there were no pictures.  

We had Etherington Xmas early this year (Dec 18) because Auntie Gail was visiting from Victoria.

 This is Sloanie's "what you talkin' 'bout, Willis?" face.  Makes me laugh every time!

 Sloanie had a great time playing on the giant pillow pet that Paul picked out for Beej.

 Seriously...it was huge!  You can actually fold it in half to make it a pillow.  The best part was the looks he got when he was carrying it through the store.

 Of course, we all had to get in on the action.

 She is such a litle cutie.

 My sweet little ginger :)

 Photographic evidence that Uncle Mark holds babies...sometimes lol.

 We had our family Christmas on the 25th and the girls had a blast opening gifts that "Santa" brought them.  Skylar still believes in Santa but this may be the last Xmas for that.  Let's hope I'm wrong.

 Paul has taught Sloanie how to wink so this is the face that she gives me everytime she seems the camera LOL.

 This was the first year that Sloane actually opened gifts and got excited about what was inside!  I love this age...Christmas is so magical for kids.

 On Boxing Day, we headed over to Aly and Tom's where we met up with Nana and Jody.  Sloane fell asleep in the car on the way over and didn't even stir when we laid her down on the kitchen floor.

 In fact, she stayed sleeping on the floor for about 45 mins!

 But once she woke up, she was her usual smiley self.  And enjoyed some Christmas giggles with Aunt Aly...

 ...Daddy...

 ....Nana...

....and Kyan!!

The birthday celebrations just keep on comin'

With Sloane's birthday just two days before Skylar's, we decided to combine the celebrations and have one big birthday bash.

 

Sloane's not walking yet but she does love to dance and she enjoyed the dance freeze tag game.

Each birthday princess got their own personalized cake.  Being the oldest, I let Skylar choose the flavour of her cake and, of course, she picked chocolate.

Again, she wasn't sure about the candles but I'm okay with a baby who doesn't like the fire!

And with this party, so ends the marathon birthday celebrations...well, until next weekend when Nana and Jody come down and we do it all again!

And the parties continue!

Little Tots Manor celebrates all birthdays on one day at the end of each month.  It just so happened that Sloane's actual birthday was the day before.  November is a busy birthday month as we also celebrate all kids with December birthdays as well.

Alethea, the cook, makes them mini cakes with cream cheese icing and they all get in a circle while we sing Happy Birthday.  It's pretty cute!

Sloane's teachers are amazing and they made her a wooden growth chart!

It was so sweet of them and it's now displayed proudly in her bedroom.

Rather then get loot bags for each child (which is ridiculous since they are too small to appreciate them), the tradition at Little Tots is that the birthday girl/boy buys a book for the classroom.  They open the book and then share it with the class.

I chose Pride and Prejuidice for babies!!!  It even has Mr. Darcy in it.

 

Birthday Presents!

After cupcakes and singing, Sloanie got to open up her birthday presents.  She was much too small last year at Christmas to get into the opening of gifts so it was really cute to see her excitement.

After some help from Daddy to get started, she ripped away with gusto.  I always attack a present so I loved that she takes after her mom in the gift opening department.

Skylar picked out all of her gifts and judging by Sloane's immediate interest, she did a fab job!

And while Aunt Aly may be upset that she didn't get to buy Sloane her first 'cash-o', I'm sure that won't stop her from playing with it more than the kids :)

First Cupcake!

We had a little mini celebration for Sloanie on her actual birthday, complete with her very first cupcake experience.  At first, she wasn't sure what to make of the candle and was a bit apprehensive about it.

But after some initial investigation..

...and a taste of the sweet stuff...

...she was smitten!

Poor cupcake...it didn't stand a chance.

Happy Birthday Sloanie Bear!

Here's to many more cupcakes XO

I'm 1 Today - Hurray!!!!!!!!

It's hard to believe that a year has already passed since our gorgeous little ray of sunshine was born.

I was able to get Sloane to sit for a little birthday photo shoot in the morning before school.

It's not difficult to convince her to sit for pictures. 

Our little ham always loves to yuk it up for a photoshoot LOL.

Thank you for bringing our entire family so much joy with your infectious smile and all of your giggles.

We love you so much, Sloanie Bear!

XOXOXOXO