Some Pics

This past weekend our friend Carlee had rented a camera and space as part of her Art Therapy Masters application and asked we wanted to bring the kids in to get some fun, candid pictures done. Here are the results...

Ring around the rosy

Kai trying to make a break for it

Love this pic

The rare family shot

Even more rare shot of the 2 of us

This kid is a little monkey

He loves being tossed in the air

Dancing away

Busted - He is clearly trying to tackle her

Kira dancing

Just hanging out

Kai stole her barbies

He really likes her barbies...

Always happy to flash his belly

"look at my silly tights"

Thanks Carlee! 

We are heading to visit with my sister and some friends over the holidays, it should be fun. Hopefully we will have a white Christmas in Ontario...there is already a lot of snow in Montreal. The kids seem to be enjoying it so far, even if it is too cold for them (ok, me) to be out for long. 

Merry Christmas all!

Merry Christmas!

The kids met Papa Noel at Jon's company Christmas party this past weekend, we couldn't get both of them on there at the same time unfortunately, Kai was a little freaked out.

Kira is looking at Grandma and not the photographer 

Kai is just trying to get the heck away from the scary man in red

Kai turned 2 this past Sunday, pictures to come soonish

Phew, I am so glad that November is coming to a close as it has not been the kindest of months for our little family. It started out just fine, we had some of Jon's new co-workers come over for a dinner and drinks, then our high school friend Carlee came to visit; but, after that the cold/flu season hit us hard and poor Kai got the worst of it. 2 rounds of gastro (per kid) plus 1 round for the husband, an ear infection for Kai, and then an allergic reaction to his antibiotics. The poor little guy spent about 8 days at home sick this month. Fortunately (knock on wood) he seems to be healthy now and back to his mischievous self.

Grandma Rose is here visiting us until Dec 12 and the kids are so excited to have her undivided attention. I am excited to have an opportunity to go out for a movie with the husband one night! There isn't too much else happening right now as we have spent most of the month indoors getting healthy, but here are a few pics and hopefully we will have more stories next time.

Sick little guy, just wanted some cuddles from Mommy

Kira blowing the candles out on my birthday cake

For some reason he thought this would be a good stroller, of course he got stuck! I decided it'd be great to get a picture of it before getting him out of there. 

Kira and Grandma building a gingerbread house.

I took Kira to a drop-in craft place and she decided to make her own puzzle. She had a lot of fun there and loves doing arts and crafts.

Doing some painting with Auntie Carlee. Kira loves when she comes to visit because she always brings a fun art project

The week in pictures...

"practicing" trick or treating

"Mommy, I want to watch it cook"

Lazy Thursday morning, watching cartoons while Daddy snoozes

Greatest.toy.ever.

She made her own pizza....and then this "silly" face

Just for you, Grandpa Charlie

Suddenly, Kai loves the swings, it only took 22 months

Me: "Kai, say cheese!"
Kai: turns body, angles head, puts hand on mouth, gazes off into distance and then "Cheese!"

Showing off her new toque from Grandma Rose

Waiting for someone to come play with him

My fearless heroes
Kira has the halloween bucket on her head and Kai has her hairband on his head. I love this picture.

Fall colours, can't get enough of them.

She is trying to help Kai get his mittens on

New sweater from Grandma Rose

The matching shirts, this time with Daddy + Kai. As you can see, Kai is a mini-Jon, right down to the hair

Kira helped me rake the leaves in the yard, she had a blast jumping in the massive leaf pile. This was her "new bed"

Since it was her bed, it seemed only right to give her a nice leafy pillow. Heh.

This time it was a couch for her, note discarded rake beside her. She buried it not long after that...

Seriously, he really, really loves the swings now. Thanks Liz! :P

We have arrived in Montreal and are now settled into our new place. We are renting a place in N.D.G/Westmount area. We were fortunate enough to secure a $7/day daycare spot for Kai so we ended up moving to a nice area that was close to his daycare and close to Kira's school but still close to the Metro so that Jon could easily commute to work each day.

The kids seem to be adjusting well. It was pretty tough for them the first few weeks, especially for Kira who was missing her friends a lot. For Kai, it took him about a week to adjust to his new daycare as he was used to having his sister stay with him all day. He would cry when we left and run to us when we picked him up. The 5th day he stayed all day on his own and hasn't looked back since. He is at a great daycare where they provide him with fun activities, outdoor time, and a hot lunch and snacks each day. It is music to my ears to hear them say that we are not to pack him a lunch or snacks and that he has to eat what is prepared for him. Once less lunch to make, woohoo!

Kira and I spent the first week here looking for a place to live and trying to get her a certificate to attend the English School Board Montreal schools. Anyone that talked to me in the last few weeks we were living in Vancouver would know how much stress and anxiety I had trying to obtain the necessary documents required by the School Board for Kira to get her certificate, it wasn't pretty. Thankfully, she was approved and started school that next week. She is in Pre-K and goes 5 days a week from 0800 - 1420, after school she stays for the after school program and plays with her new friends. She actually gave me instructions to not pick her up until after 1600! Last week she started taking the school bus to school each morning. She LOVES the bus and eagerly jumps out of bed each morning in anticipation of her short ride to school. She is so much happier now and really seems to have adjusted to Montreal. She is also already counting to 15 in French and learning other French words; she sings songs in French and teaches me words too ("cause you can't speak French, Mommy.") 

Jon seems to be enjoying his new job, which is good since we moved over here for it. He takes Kai to daycare each morning on the Metro (or the "hoo-hoo tunnel" as Kai calls it) and because his work is right in the Metro station he doesn't have to worry about traffic or weather delaying his commute home.

I am currently not working, though am seeking some sort of part-time work. Later this month I am starting French school, the goal of this school is to make you fully bilingual within 12 months. It will be intense for sure, but it seems impossible to find a job without at least basic conversational French. It is a great opportunity to learn a language and the cost is crazy low, so why not, right? 

Here are some pictures of the family

Daddy + Kai begin their walk to the train

Skylanders!

This kid is a riot. Don't you just love the boots?

On her first day of school! She has to wear white/navy blue to school each day

She picked the strawberry costume for halloween. 

Montreal-bound for the Fall

The summer of 2012 has turned out to be a pretty crazy time. Jon's company shut down just before the Canada-day long weekend and he, amongst many others, found himself suddenly unemployed. Following Radical's closure a bunch more Vancouver studios shut down and the job prospects in our beautiful city were beginning to disappear.

Jon received interest from several companies from Vancouver, California, Toronto, and Montreal; and after much discussion, we made the decision to move the family East to Montreal where the video game industry seems to be going strong. Just 1 month after being laid off, Jon had found a new job and we were given just over 30 days to up and move our lives. Needless to say, August has been chaos. We have decided to rent out our house here in Vancouver in the hopes that we can return to live here one day. We were fortunate to find renters very quickly, as well as a good property manager. The rest of this month has been spent taking care of the "little things" around the house that have been on our to-do list, as well as purging toys, clothes, furniture, and gearing up to say farewell to family and friends.

The good thing about Montreal is that Kira will be able to start pre-kindergarten when we arrive. She is very excited to go to a "big school" and learn French. That will be our first task after we move into our new rental out there, then I will have to find a new daycare for Kai, and after that I'll  be going to French classes so that I can learn the language. Finally, a LaBonte from our family will speak French!

Here are some pics that we've snapped of the kids, there are more to come, but probably not until we are settled in Montreal.

Father and Son nap time

Upside down on the monkey bars

Kira + my dental hygienist pose for a pic (on my phone!) while I suffer with the flouride rinse.

Priceless

This kid LOVES to paint

So, obviously, a lot has happened in the last week. A lot is still happening and we will update everything once we have a better idea of what the future holds for us. Thanks to everyone for the messages, Jon seems to be doing well, and is very much enjoying his "summer break" thus far.

Kira finishing her first year of preschool!

Cheese!

Lots of friends over for dinner. Our table never looked so huge

"go, go, go, STOP!"

Kira had a blast on this ride, we were visiting Grandma + Grandpa on the Island

Driving the train

Kai hanging out with Grandma in the ocean

Sliding on a soaking wet slide in the pouring rain. Gotta love it.

Hanging out with Isabel