Summer is finally here!

I know, one post every 5 months or so is not really keeping anyone up-to-date on the Pay family happenings, but it's all I seem to have time for.

We are nicely settled into our house since the move in March. Erick built a play structure and put together a sand box for the kids in our awesome back yard. We've also set up a kiddie pool for the hot days and a water table on the deck for the not quite as hot days.

I'm still working over at the University of Victoria, although my term is now scheduled to end in February. We'll see what happens at that point as I'm working through some possibilities for future employment.

We've gotten to know many of our neighbours and have gotten together with the one family that lives on our street. We are very excited that their kids are similar ages to ours at 5 and 2 years. There's also another family with an almost 2 year old who live just around the corner.

Keira had her second birthday in April and we celebrated by sharing a gigantic cupcake between the four of us.

Kian had his fourth birthday in June and we celebrated by having a bunch of our neighbours over for a BBQ.

Erick had his "29th" birthday again in the end of June and we celebrated by going to a friends birthday party!

Our perfect Victoria summer weather has finally arrived and we're looking forward to the next month or 2 of sunny, warm days, and refreshing cool evenings. We'll probably spend most weekends at one beach or another, biking, splashing in the kids pool in the back yard, or climbing around one of the nearby playgrounds!

March Madness!

So this is going to be quite the month for us.

I am making a brief trip to Manitoba for 3 nights.

We take possession of our new home (rental) in the middle of the month (hopefully).

Erick starts his new job.

We have to pack up all of our belongings and be out of our current place by the end of the month.

It's like taking on a second full time job for the month!

In spite of the craziness of it all, we're very excited about moving and about Erick's new job. Here's a picture of our soon to be new home.

Winter pictures

Over the holidays we drove out to Fernie to spend time with family. It was so much fun seeing the kids with their little cousin. We had so much fun we completely forgot to pull out the camera so we have very few pictures of the trip!

This is the kids with the horses Erick made for them for Christmas.

After we got back to Victoria it actually snowed out here! It doesn't take much for the city to shut down in snowy weather. Of course, it does get pretty slippery on the hills and there isn't a budget for snow removal.

We had to put duct tape around the kids wrists and around Keira's ankles to keep boots and mittens on.

The daycare also had Christmas parties in each of the kids classes. Kian's class put on a show. All of the kids sang songs and Kian just stood there playing with his antlers. It was pretty hilarious.

Last week Erick finished up the last of his MBA assignments - the defence. So now it feels like we can get on with real life.

Christmas 2011

I gotta say, I’m loving this holiday season without any snow so far! Just this past weekend we went for a long bike ride down the Galloping Goose Trail into downtown (almost) Victoria with the kids. It was a great day to be outside and we had plenty of fine company along the trail with many other people walking, jogging, and cycling. It’s looking like we won’t get any snow here at all this year, of course it’s only December so we’ll see what January brings.

Last year we did have snow a couple of times, but it didn’t stick around long. This year we’re off to Fernie to visit my brother Wren, his wife and their little one. My parents will join us there as well. I’m pretty sure there will be plenty of snow in Fernie, which will satisfy this year’s white Christmas urges!

This has been a long and challenging year. Erick has been swamped with his MBA studies, while I started a full time job (finally) in June. The kids are growing up fast (thank goodness!) and starting to play together, sometimes without fighting! I suspect that being in separate classrooms for daycare is helping on that front.

Erick will be starting a co-op job in January, so we’ll have to figure out how to juggle dropping off and picking up the kids for daycare. My work term has been extended until July 1st so I don’t have to start the year frantically looking for another job quite yet.

We are really looking forward to this next phase of life – no more school for either of us for awhile – as we start to settle into our new city and make it our home.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Robin

Happy 3rd Birthday Kian

So we don't really go big with the birthdays around here. But I did manage to whip up a cake and candles, wrap a gift, and bring cookies to daycare for Kian this year.

I can't believe Kian is 3 already! He's turning into a really interesting little person. I'm looking forward to when Keira hits 3.