Jamie's 6th birthday

and the biggest chocolate cake we could find!

Little Finlay

Finlay is almost 9 months old.

halloween 2011

Halloween was great fun this year. As always our neighbourhood gets very involved in all the fun.  Dads are out with the kids trick or treating and many mums are at home handing out the candy.  Finlay helped for a while then fell asleep. He was wearing two costumes! First a green dragon then a tiger.

Cameron was Boba Fett from Star Wars.

Jamie was a rather disturbing skeleton who he said is called Skellie.

jenni and finlay

big cousins rock!

friends at the park

Finlay chilling out

he loves his play mat

Finlay Michael Elliott

Grant keeps reminding me that I should post to this blog as well as facebook. I really don't remember to post very often. So here is our update...

Finlay Michael Elliott was born on Sunday 5th June at 1.42pm. He was 8lbs and 20.75 inches. Everyone thinks he looks like Jamie as a baby. He has sandy coloured hair and blue eyes. He's very good natured. It was a fast delivery - only an hour and half in the hospital before Finlay arrived. He was 12 days early but we were happy that he arrived early!

Here is a photo of Cameron and Jamie showing Finlay the best moves on Angry Birds - using Granny's phone.

This is me in the hospital a few minutes after Finlay was born.

Grant has his first cuddle with little Finlay.

And now Finlay is at home..a champion napper. He's in a lovely chair that Leigh sent for him..a rocking chair and buzzing chair all in one..perfect!
We've had a professional photographer take some photos of Finlay and now we're just waiting to see the pictures - can't wait!

Today was a big day for our family. My brother, John, and his wife Stefanie had a baby girl called Alice. Cameron and Jamie are so excited to be big cousins. They love being big brothers and now they are excited to to have another younger member of the family in Canada too.

Jamie's birthday

First a party at home with all his school friends and a few of our helpful neighbours....plus a huge chocolate cake!

Then a visit to the Bahamas to see Mark, Lisa and Emily. The boys love Emily!

Another chocolate cake in the Bahamas and more candles...lucky boy!

A fantastic day at the beach!

Boys skate during Caps game at Verizon center

ski boys

A moment Grant has been waiting for....his first trip down the mountain with both boys skiing on their own. Cameron and Jamie complete their first green run with their dad before going again, and again...and again!

cameron and bear

Bear has taken up a new spot on the sofa...and he likes watching Cameron too!

a day in DC

We took the boys to the National Botanic Gardens just beside the Capitol building. We also went to the Museum of the American Indian. Cameron and Jamie loved both places and we'll have to go back to the museum when we have more time. After studying Native Americans during Thanksgiving they were really interested in seeing more about the way people used to live....so educational!

This is Granny Tina and the boys.

merry christmas

what a wonderful christmas! this is 7am and we just got downstairs to see the tree and the presents...boys were so happy!

checking out the police station

Reston police station has a wonderful open house every year. Yesterday we went to check out all their cool cars and bikes. Cameron also met a police dog who sniffs out explosives.

The boys loved climbing on the police boat.
Cameron got to climb into the fire truck then hold the hose at the front of the truck.
Jamie in prisoner transport!
Jamie and Cameron loved the police dirt bikes.

fun run for halloween

We took the boys to Reston Town Centre for a fun run this past weekend. Because it is almost halloween the kids had to wear their halloween costumes for the run. So I ended up with a Clone Trooper and Wolverine in my car!  The boys had a great time.

And Cameron met his friend from school and they ran together.

the first tooth is out!

Cameron has had two wobbly front teeth for weeks. This morning at breakfast I suggested to him that one of them was so wobbly he could just pull it out - so he did and got quite a surprise when it popped out! He rushed to the mirror to check out his gap.

He's very excited today about the tooth fairy coming this evening.

Mind the gap!
Jamie is feeling a bit left out. He doesn't get a visit from the tooth fairy and he doesn't have a wobbly tooth. Sometimes it's not easy being the little brother.

back to school

The first day of school today for Cameron and Jamie. We had to keep them busy this morning because they were so excited but when we left for school Cameron was ready to see his classroom and get started as a Kindergarten student.

Jamie is disappointed they are at separate schools but he said he had a great day and made a new friend.

This is Cameron walking into his school.

And this is Cameron joining the line of kids walking to the classroom. So grown up!

And this is Jamie, the night before school started....fast asleep at dinnertime!

ready for Mini-MItes

Cameron and Jamie are all ready for Mini-Mites which starts on Thursday. Last week, Granny Tina and I took them to practice skating. This is the first time Jamie has been in full hockey kit and he loved it. He especially loved his new compression shorts with cup (!) commonly known as his willy protector.

This is Jamie in his hockey gear.
And this is Cameron in hockey gear with Granny.

star wars boys

Cameron and Jamie have been taking care of our neighbour's house while they were on vacation. They brought back light sabres for Cameron and Jamie and they love them!

Star Wars is their favourite pretend game at the moment.

jamie faces

another classic Jamie face, this time with my sunglasses.

....yesterday we went to the pool in the afternoon, weather was lovely and pool was quiet. Cameron did a proper dive from the springboard for the first time. Jamie is able to swim to the bottom of the deep end to pick up toys from the bottom of the pool...the summer at the pool has really improved their swimming.