August is nearly over:(

Declan's very first close up look at a fire truck! He's been obsessed ever since.

We went to our friend Beckhem's 4Th birthday party at the Ft. Langley fire hall. Poor Lilah was the only girl there but she was right in there with the rest of them!

Everyone got to take turns spraying the fire hose. She loved it!

Decs' is really good with the little chicks. He loves holding them and chasing them around.

Farrah and Lilah holding the 2 day old chicks! Always a highlight around the farm.

This poor chick is hanging on for dear life!

This past weekend Aaron and I and some friends went to Vancouver for a couple of nights away from the kiddies! We ended up zip lining on Grouse Mountain! It was really fun and what made it even more fun was the group we were with... a bunch of yahoos;) (the men anyway)

Here we are doing "the starfish" position to try and slow ourselves down. It doesn't really work all that well and when you hit the spring at the bottom you hit hard. You have to brace your body for the impact. It was fun to race each other though.

Aaron's coming in nice and slow:) Actually on this run you hit the spring and go backwards over the water.

We went for dinner at Joey Tomatoes! Such good food. Travis and Colleen, our travel buddies:)

Aaron and I.

Sweet Declan, always ready with a smile and a tongue hanging out of his mouth. He did say "cheese" for this picture.

Ahhh! Now that we've been having some good summer weather the kids and I are really enjoying it! I've been watching my niece Cali for the last two weeks (4 days a week) and having a third child in between the ages my two is definitely a lot busier! It makes the day fly by and since we can be outside I can get my tan on:) I will be watching her until my sis-in-law Julie goes on mat leave, probably in Oct?

Declan will be 18 months this month and wow has he recently grown up! He's trying so hard to repeat words and talk. So far he mostly repeats sounds and voice pitches:) He does say "Lilah" but it sounds more like "ila". He absolutely LOVES the outdoors and just cries at the front door, kinda like a sad puppy. For shoes he says "shhhh". He also loves to pick berries and since we are surrounded by blueberries and blackberries he's picking all the time. Unfortunately he doesn't know how to pick the ripe ones yet.

In spring Aaron and his mom planted a vegetable garden and I am reaping the benefits now! I love going out there and picking what I want to have with my dinner. So far I've used lettuce, carrots, beets, beans, peas, potatoes, tomatoes (which are just starting:) We also planted an herb garden and from that I've used cilantro, basil, thyme, chives, rosemary, spinach, and sage. I just love it! Can't wait for corn on the cob and more tomatoes than I know what to do with!

Lilah starts preschool in Sept and she is beyond excited! I am too actually. I couldn't put her in last year because my vehicle wasn't available for me on those days so she is very ready now for some structured school time:) I am afraid she might need an interpreter though because I sometimes can't even understand her! Her r's and st's sounds aren't so good but I know she'll grow out of it eventually! Anyway I guess thats all for now! Just want to enjoy the rest of my summer. And in fall 2 new babies will be added to the family and I can't wait! Its been a while since I got to hold a newborn and I need to get my baby fix on;)

Camping and other stuff

My big boy! 17 months old and just as cute and hilarious as ever! I think this is my favorite age besides 6 months and 4 years old;)

Out on the boat! Lilah loves it.

Declan had a good time too, but he's very serious.

At Hayward lake.

Cooling off with a popsicle.

8 years together:)

Story time before bed. Lilah is a very good story teller! We went camping on the July long weekend and the weather did not cooperate:( We were cold but we made the best of it.

Watching and waiting. They made a squirrel trap with peanuts and a plastic bin. They actually caught one squirrel but it got away. It was pretty fun!

Pretty sure we had the fire going the whole time we were awake otherwise we would have froze.

Cowboy Declan!

Just hanging out:)

Warming up by the fire after dipping our feet in the lake. We had one sunny evening so we took advantage.

Squirrel watching.

They were so cute reading their books together:)

Flower:)

This is Flower, Lilah's new kitten.

She is such a good little kitty:) And Lilah and Declan are really enjoying her.

This was taken on Father's Day at the Mission car show!

Lilah's costume for her dance recital! They were so cute as little dutch girls and pinocchio dancing to "I Got No Strings".

a trip to "the BIG city"!

Aaron had been telling Lilah he was going to take her to the BIG city and we would ride the skytrain and do all sorts of fun things so we headed off, just the three of us!In daddy's car on the way!

Waiting for the skytrain. She's pretty excited!

Here it comes!

Very first ride on a skytrain! She loved it!

Lilah thought it was so cool that she could stand up and hold onto the bar as we were moving!

Stopping for a big slice at Uncle Fatih's before we had to take more skytrain to the seabus.

The view from the very dirty window of the seabus. This was the best view of the BIG city for Lilah.

We took the seabus to North Vancouver so we could take a city bus to the bottom of Grouse mountain.

On the gondola up to the top of the mountain. It costs a pretty penny but I guess it was worth it?!

Amazing view from up there!

Having a little snack at the "Altitude Bistro" on Grouse mountain. All Lilah wanted was ice cream and that's what she got!

We saw two grizzley bears in the habitat they have up there.

They were nice and close to the fence so I got a few good pics of the bears.

Playing on the snow. Brrr, I was freezing so Aaron gave me his sweater. He said he was fine and that it was warm, he's crazy;)

Going down the mountain on the gondola. We saw a white wolf sleeping down below us as we were descending.

We went for a short walk in the actual BIG city. And found this water fountain. Lilah would probably liked to have jumped into the water!

As we were taking the skytrain back to our car we saw this really great park, so we got off and played there a bit.

Feeding a very friendly squirrel some dried cranberries!

She crashed on the way home big time! So sweet:)