18 Things You Don't Know About Hank and Gus...

I have been slowly adding to this list for some time now...for so long that some of these things are no longer true!  But let's just pretend.

1. Hank wakes up at 5:47am on the dot every.day.  I know this because he immediately wakes me up as well.

2.  Hank's favorite color of all time is green.  He will choose it over any other color under any circumstances. He states that it is "the best."

3.  Gus loves stuffed animals.  He lurrrves them.  If he should find a large one in a room he melts into it, giving it as much loving as he can.

4.  Hank and Gus can scream "mine!" "mine!" back and forth while fighting over something for up to an hour.  It goes like this:

Hank: "Mine!"
Gus: "Mine!"
Hank: "Mine!"
Gus:  "Mine!"

5. Hank loves washing machines more than any toy, action figure or movie franchise.  He loves them in real life.  He loves them on YouTube.  He builds them out of bakeware.  He pretends shoe boxes are washing machines.  He tells jokes and stories about washing machines.  He is familiar with terms like "high efficiency model."

6.  Gus hates cheese.  Loves bacon.

7.  Hank is into Johnny Cash. Favorite song :  A Boy Named Sue. 2nd favorite song:  Folsom Prison Blues.

8.  Oral hygiene and Gus go together.  He is always asking for his toothbrush and will sometimes carry it around with him for the morning. 

9.  One day, Hank told me that he wants two daddies to build houses with. And that Mommy can stay home with his brother and feed him breakfast.  I'm not sure if this means Hank is a modern day child who is comfortable with gay marriage, or if he is a chauvinist pig. 

10. Hank must say these three things to anyone leaving the house or he freaks out:  Bye.  Ciao. Te Amo. No, we are not living in Milan. 

Hank and the sundae he got after his 4 year check up...

11.  When Hank was a baby he received a stuffed dog as a gift.  "Jingle" as he is known quickly became his touchstone and is never far away. Except for when mom and dad forget him on a trip.  Which is how we ended up with two Jingles.  When Gus was born, Hank gifted his 2nd Jingle to Gus. Now they both walk around the house with their husky pups making puppy noises.  It's pretty cute. 

The Kelly boys and a Jingle

12.  If you ask Gus where his "bee boo" is and he will slyly raise his shirt as if he is an Abercrombie model showing off his abs. 

13.  The other day, Matt asked Hank what he wanted for breakfast and he thought for a moment before saying, "nothing springs to mind."

14.  Hank can ski from the top of Bryce Mountain all by himself, without stopping and without help.

15.  Gus likes to dress himself.  He is terrible at it! 

16.  Hank might be a vampire.  The shrieks that emit from his body when the sun shines in his eyes are out of this world.  

Wearing shades at the dentist...

17.  Gus likes to play "see food" with every bite.

18.  Gus fell asleep at the table today.  Make that on the table.

As I'm sure you have all either experienced or heard...this winter has sucked!  It has been much colder than usual around here and we have had 11 snow days in total. Just when we thought it was over we got another 8 inches of snow last Monday.  So we are eager to welcome Spring and even more eager to blow this popsicle stand and head down to the Dominican tomorrow for a week with our friends the Heravi's.  Bring on the sunshine, the heat, the humidity and the rrrrrrrrrum punch!

I'll be back in a week and I'll be a new woman.

Bye!  Ciao! Te Amo!

Snapshots - Hank and Gus at 18 months

Couldn't resist putting these two shots up of Hank and Gus taken at 18 months, in the same yellow t-shirt no less.  I suppose you aren't supposed to compare siblings to each other but it's hard not to.  Looks like Hank had more hair and more heft than Gus at this age, but Gus carries all of his weight in his cheeks. They are both little cuties if you ask me, and only get cuter everyday.  

Hope you all have a great weekend! 

Gus the Goose

Hank the Tank

What a winter!

As I write this, I'm looking out my back window at the snow coming down for the 2nd time in two days.  I've lost track of how many "snow" days we've had this winter - I think this week may get us to a total of 5, a whole week of school missed! It's nothing compared to the winters we have in Canada, but you would never know it!  The world stops.  Over and over and over again. 

Poor Gus - can hardly move in that snowsuit!

Our first snow man!

The StayPuff Marshmallow Man

Luckily, we are fans of the white stuff and actually got a fair amount this time (we seem to have a lot of false alarms for some reason).  So today was spent out playing in the snow, making snowmen, throwing snowballs etc.  Matt and I somehow managed to take care of both kids all day - but we both collapsed on the couch as soon as they went down.  Man, those kids are exhausting!  At any given moment, Gus is scaling new heights, climbing on anything and everything he can. I can't tell you how many times I've walked into a room and found him standing in the middle of a table! His head is constantly covered in bruises from knocking it on the undersides of tables while climbing, or from tumbling down a flight of stairs, as he did last weekend.  Hank is a touch less adventurous, but much more vocal so he wears us out in a different way.  Did I mention that he is also currently obsessed with pee, pooh, and penises?  A delight!

The boys at the cabin

So, besides the weather this year being a series of polar vortexes (known simply as "winter" in Canada)  and snow storms, it has been a great but busy time! We've done a lot of traveling, heading to Chicago early in January for Whitney and Ryan's engagement party, and then to Park City for MLK weekend for an awesome 40th birthday celebration of a friend of Matt's from college.  Throw in a trip or two to NY for work and we have been run off our feet.  We were happy for February to arrive knowing that we had no plans to travel for the entire month!  What a concept!

We've been heading out to the cabin every weekend and really enjoying this bonafide winter we are having this year.  It has snowed every time we've been out which makes everything beautiful and more fun for the kids.  Hank continues his ski education, while Matt and I still haven't done one run!  One day...

Hank celebrated his birthday in Bryce with a small group of friends

Receiving his favorite gift - a very loud airplane from Auntie Alice and Uncle Brian.
He is beside himself. 

I'm wrapping up my Animal Planet project in a month and looking forward to going back to having only one job.   Also on the list of things to look forward to - our spring break trip to the Dominican. Bring on the sunshine!

I leave you with some cute shots of the Goose Man.

Happy 4th Birthday Hank!

My little baby is turns 4 today!  It doesn't seem possible, but if I've learned anything since becoming a parent it's that time is a funny thing.  The past 4 years have been the longest and the shortest of my life at the same time. Having Hank has been a wild ride; he's teaching us as much (probably more) about ourselves as we are teaching him. 

This year has seen Hank grow from being a curious toddler to a precocious preschooler.  He loves school, other kids and his little brother.  He also really loves anything mechanical, including watching videos of washing machines on you tube.    He is confident, defiant, sweet and silly.  We can't wait to see how his unique personality continues to develop in the years to come. 

More on his birthday celebration next week, along with an update on our whirlwind of January. Mwah! 

To Hell You Ride!

At least that's how it started...

We are back from a week long glorious vacation to Telluride, also known as "to hell you ride", and for good reason apparently.  The trip started out on the wrong foot with one of the top 5 worst travel days we've collectively experienced. Highlights include:

- barely making our flight to Denver

- flight to Telluride cancelled 

- argument at rental car counter over car

- lost one of 6 bags; caused hour long delay and argument at baggage counter

- blinding snow squalls on 7.5 hour drive over mountain passes

- accident in Eisenhower tunnel shutting down highway

- herd of deer crossing dark highway in front of our minivan

- almost driven off road by car trying to avoids an obstacle in his lane 

- getting caught behind a snow plow traveling at 15 miles an hour for the last 5 miles of the journey

Alas, we arrived in one piece and are happy to report that it was well worth the effort.  Telluride is awesome.  Beautiful beyond words.  Wonderful weather.  Great snow.  Amazing house.  Great restaurants.  We woke up everyday to incredible views of the mountains, walked ten feet to the slopes outside our door to ski 6 days in a row (unheard of and only made possible by a wonderful babysitter and Nana who watched Gus during the day).  Hank attended ski school every day and loved it.  He learned all about pizza wedges and french fries and will be skiing down the hills faster than us in no time.  My parents came up from Arizona on Christmas Eve to celebrate with us and we had a lovely time with them. 

A Christmas break to remember for sure. 

Our trip home was luckily much less eventful. We spent our 6th anniversary (also known as New Year's Eve) with some good friends over a good dinner and then headed up to the cabin to finish out the week.  All in all, a great break from our crazy schedules and a much needed recharging of our batteries.  

We'll need all the energy we can muster for January.  We travel to Chicago next weekend with the kids to celebrate Whitney and Ryan's engagement with the whole fam (and we'll get to squeeze in a visit with the Auntie Alice and Uncle Brian).  The following weekend sees Matt and I back on the slopes in Park City with some London-based friends to celebrate a 40th birthday.  Not too shabby!

Wishing you all a happy new year! If you have time to kill, click here for our entire Christmas album. I've included some highlights below.

A cool customer...

A funny little elf...

Not bad view over lunch

Santa found us in Colorado...

Our little angel in the school pageant

The view from the living room...

Happy Gus on Christmas morning

Writing the letter to Santa with Nana

Getting creative with our undergarments. 

Checking out the frozen lake at Bryce - thank you polar vortex! 

Jingle Quack!

The presents are wrapped, the cards are sent, the out of office message is on, and the packing is done (well, half done).  We are off to Telluride tomorrow on a ski vacation that we have been looking forward to since July.  The last couple of weeks have been manic but all worth it when I think of the down time we are about to enjoy in the snowy Colorado mountains.

Bring on the wine, good food, and most of all the powdah!

I leave you with Hank sweetly singing his rendition of a Christmas classic....hope you all have a very merry Christmas! 

Santa baby?

A few pics from our visit to Santa this Saturday.  Santa came all the way from the North Pole to Hank's school book fair.  It all started out just fine with Hank and Gus enjoying story time with the school librarian.  Once their big moment came with Mr. C, Gus has second thoughts.  Hank managed to get in his request for a "fixed zube tube" (the worlds most annoying toy which had recently broken much to my relief) and a silver bell (inspired by the polar express) in spite of his brother's protests.