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If you wanna check out free or cheap stuff in surrey, check out www.surreyreuses.com, I think its great that junk/good stuff gets re-used. Gary and I have a compost, we use cloth diapers, we have energy saving lights, and we recycle but I'm sure there's a lot more we could be doing. Ideas?

I love digital cameras!!

Gary is gone to a basketball game, so Kai and I decided to take some pictures!

Football? Basketball? Soccer? Baseball? What'll it be?! Probably whatever he can get in his mouth at this point! Does it taste good buddy?

Kai loves blankets...he always tries to eat as much of it as he can.

His cute pudgy feet.

Our little guy is now sitting on his own!!! He is just over 5 months now and I still can't believe I have a son. I think he's so cute, feel free to agree:)

On a side note, I love fun smelling liquid soap. Having a kid makes you wash your hands a lot and you really get to appreciate the soap. Mmmmmmmmm....

Oh, another joke that my sister Trisha told me yesterday which is kinda fun cuz its a Chemistry one!
So, Oxygen and Hydrogen are sitting in a bar and in comes gold. Oxygen says, `A u, come join us!'

Hunger

I think men and women feel hunger differently. I think I feel it like a baby feels it. If I'm hungry, I need to eat right then and there. It almost starts to hurt. Gary thinks I'm exaggerating and tells me not to think about it if we are in the car or something. I think I'm like most girls, so guys, if you are with a girl and she says she's hungry, get her some food and don't just say `Don't think about it'! Otherwise, following the hunger comes irritability! If I'm alone on this one, sorry to the other girls for lumping you in the category.
Maybe its just that Gary and I feel hunger differently. We def. eat differently. He will eat 3 chips at a time, or a huge fork full for every bite. I will eat one chip at a time or a small little bite to savour each one. However, I think he enjoys good food better than I do. Maybe?
I had Mr. Noodles the other day for the first time in years (don't worry, they weren't in our house Gary!) and it was just good because it brought back so many memories of camping as a kid. Do you have that with smells too? I think one of my favourite smells is diesel. It reminds me of playing outside as a kid while my dad was using a chainsaw or carrying us around on the tractor. He used to put us in the front bucket (whatever its called) and raise it up so we could get the best blackberries in the summer (and also the guarantee that no dogs peed on those ones!)

Happy Snow day?

So, no fun pictures today. What's new here?
1. Gary has been home for 2 days because of the snow. I think the snow is beautiful. I miss my walks with Kai though. Sunny days with warm weather would be great. Skirts. Flip flops. Sunglasses. Ahhhhhh
2. Kai is heavy. We have many stairs. That is my work out. Also, my biceps are monstrous due to hours of him jumping in my arms (he just stands on my lap and jumps, jumps, jumps).
3. I made a spinach, strawberry salad tonight. I really like fruit, especially when its already cut up and ready to be devoured.
4. I love our care group from church. We meet every Thursday and there are 2 other new babies in the group too which is nice. There's 6 couples and we are currently doing a study on marriage. Good times. Although, I miss `The Office' on these nights and tonight, I forgot to tape it.
5. Kai is on a crazy schedule of eating every 2 1/2 hours for the past 3 days (okay, not at night but during the day). Must be another growth spurt. Like he needs another one. I had a dream last night that this giant that was like 8 feet tall claimed he was Kai's father and I thought that made sense. Should I not be writing about weird stuff like that? Probably not. Oops. I'm tired.
6. Gary just went through some boxes of his in the basement. We found a story he wrote and illustrated in grade seven. It's about a mouse named Brent that loves basketball and scores the winning basket in the most important game of the season. It is very cute and it was nice for me to see that side of him...just a glimpse into what he was like as a kid.
7. We bought a mini football for Kai for just 50cents at Toys R Us. Kai likes to suck on it but Gary and I have really enjoyed tossing it around the house! I think its some good practice for the off season. Hope to play again in May.
8. I wish we knew our neighbours better. We have the conversations that you have with people when you are both in the back yard at the same time (lots of snow hey? how was your commute? oh look at how big your son is now!). Guess these things take time.
9. Gary should be home in a few minutes (they had a game tonight). So far, they are 3-0, lets see what happened tonight!
10. Here's a joke. This was my sister Jantina's favourite joke when she was 3 years old, she would tell it over and over and over....
Q. How do you catch a squirrel?
A. Climb up a tree and act like a nut.

Bon nuit. Lala salama (`sleep peacefully' in swahili...I still use some swahili with Gary. I'll have to teach Kai). Good night.

Happy Sunday To All

So I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. Gary is heading back to work tomorrow but don't worry, he filled up on football this weekend in case he doesn't get to see much this week. Boy, was I was glad to hear that the playoffs leading to the Superbowl last all month:) Oh boy, what's next? I don't know...NBA finals? Baseball? Golf? Is there ever a break?
So, I think I should explain the last picture. Kai and I decided to make some abstract art. Unfortunately it was so abstract that I am going to start all over but Kai really enjoyed it, especially washing off in the sink afterwards. Check out his rolly polly thighs...he's def. a big boy:)
On a side note, I played some online games today. Might not sound cool to all of you...just a little Frogger and Pacman which really took me back to the days of our first computer when I was 12. Quite fun I tell ya.
Enjoy the back to work/school/whatever this week! Oh, and I love my husband.

Hospital Visit

Today me, Kai, Maria, Annika and my dad (who Kai will call opie because my dad thinks that opa sounds too old) went to the Lions Gate hospital's chemo center. The center is where my mom had spent many, many hours receiving her treatment. We went and brought some cheer having the kids smile and my dad hand out chocolates. I was nervous that it would be awkward or I would be upset but it went really well. My dad is such a good talker:)

Happy New Year!

So, ya. It's been awesome having Gary home. Why? Well, we've been getting some yummy meals again (great pork chops last night and a sausage/celeriac/apple concoction tonight) and all the little fix-it jobs are getting done (not that I couldn't do it of course:)). Most importantly, we've been able to have lots of Louise and Gary time. On the 30th we went on our 3rd date since Kai was born; we went and saw `Blood Diamonds' which is a very powerful movie, I'd def. recommend it. Big thanks to my sis Maria for babysitting little Kaiser.
On the 31st, wow, were we wild! We went and shared a dessert at Red Robins and then rented a bunch of episodes of `The Office'. We laughed a lot and stayed up until midnight! Go us. Boy, times have changed but I wouldn't have had it any other way:)
I went for a `run' today, oh boy, I don't know if I can call it that. I ran to Extra Foods to get carrots and then ran back quite awkwardly with a couple pounds of carrots in my hands. I have never been so out of shape in my life but I don't want to turn into one of `those' people that complains about it all the time so I won't mention it again (by the way, i'm not thinking of anyone in particular when I say `those' people so don't be offended!).
I weighed Kai today, he's 19.5 lbs. He's pretty much sitting on his own now and I'm trying to teach him to crawl by leaving fun toys just out of his reach, how mean am I?! I don't think he's anywhere near crawling as he can't get his big belly off the ground:) Oh he's so cute.
Gary and I are getting a bunch more black and white photos to put on our office wall, I think it'll look pretty nifty.
Gary has been watching football like crazy. Although, that game yesterday (was it the Fiesta Bowl?) with Boise vs. OU was pretty fantastic in the last few minutes and overtime. I was upstairs reading and heard Gary giggling, yes giggling, like crazy. I came down to see what was going on and he was watching football, so I watched the end of that game with him. Who giggles like that when their excited?
Okay, this has been a lot of writing and not many pictures (I know some people only look at the pictures) so I better end of here. Have a great night/week/year everyone! Love, the Chapmans. Oh ya, I should attach our Christmas card that Gary made...here it is:

Stuff I've looked at the past couple days

1. My dad's crazy red eyes. Why were they red? He took his Seadoo from Crescent Beach to Victoria and back. It was pretty stormy and he was without a GPS but don't worry, he just followed a ferry back. His goal is to take it up to Alaska. Oh boy. Does this mean getting his pilot's liscence is on the side burner? I hope so!

2. The calendar. We took out our new calendar and I flipped through the past year to see what we were up to and whether we were really as busy as I thought, yup, we were. Last year at this time I was 9 weeks pregnant. Crazy stuff.

3. Our computer room. Gary and I went nuts yesterday (or was it plum crazy? That's a saying isn't it? You'll see that my pun makes sense in a second) and put up moulding/chair rail/whatever you call it and painted the wall `Spiced Plum'. We wanted to make the first room you see in our house a little more fun and organized. Now, we just have to put up all the black and white photos. I was very impressed with Gary's knowledge of the mitre box and saw:) I was also impressed with our team work; go Team Chapman!


4. The scale. Wow...so, not going on my daily walks and not going to the gym in the past week and oh ya, eating TONS of chocolate really adds up. It adds up to about 5 lbs. Gary and I may be signing up for a 1/2 marathon and full one for him...may being the operative word. Not sure. Do we have time to train? Do I have any energy to spare? I went for a simple 4km last week and it wiped me out for 2 days...feeding our `little' guy really takes a lot out of me.

5. Lotsa friends. So many of our friends have been out here from Thailand, Ontario, and Walnut Grove(:)) so it was fun to catch up and hang out. Mexico next Christmas? Oh ya, a friend of mine was up from California and she got to meet the lovely Mr. Kai, great to see her again too.

6. Gary wanted me to add that I've looked at us hugging in the mirror. Good old hugs, can't get enough. You know when I was single, I didn't realize how long I would go without any physical contact whatsoever. I used to make my little sisters hug me. Yes, make them. It's important to have some physical contact if you ask me.

Christmas Day

Here are some pictures of Kai opening his presents, playing with his new favourite toy while being held by uncle Todd, and his new big boy `car' which is supposed to be one year and up but you know, he's advanced and all....

Mommy and Kai

Here's a fun shot that Gary took on Christmas Eve

Also, here's our cute little thumbsucker...it's so nice that he can soothe himself (most of the time) in his crib.