picture dump.

these are a bunch of pictures from my phone that haven't made it to the blog yet.

the boys love reading with grandma.

this is what the dresser looked like after holden helped me put away laundry :)

holden and chase digging a hole for 30 minutes.

molly and holden taking care of tad.

this was chet's first real school project he had to do - on poster paper and all!

i planned on taking a better picture of it when he brought it back home after presenting it to his class, but that was a big mistake. because it did not survive it's short stay in kindergarten as well as i had hoped.

washing dad's bike. (for money, of course).

tad's first bike ride.

he thoroughly enjoyed being pulled in the bike trailer, and looked adorable in that big yellow helmet too!

growing boys.

we measured chet and holden a couple days ago.

since august, chet has grown 1.5 inches.

and holden has grown 3 inches.

chetty could really use a growth spurt soon, before his little brother passes him!
some days chet has such a big appetite that we are certain a growth spurt is coming... but nothing yet.

holden starts a music class today.

i am exited to see his little personality participating in a class like that.

this is a cute video of holden singing a couple songs.

(excuse the messy bedhead)

holden like to sing, play instruments, and bob his head to the beat when we are driving in the car :)

tad is growing too.
he is 7.5 months now but, at 7 months, he weighed in at 15lbs on the dot.
he goes to physio about once a month because he isn't hitting all the milestones that he is expected to (i.e. rolling, sitting, reaching, etc).
we aren't necessarily worried about this.
we just figure it can't hurt to get some tips on helping him.. so to physio we go!
tad may not be rolling yet, but he is the smiliest baby we have had. and that is so much fun!

this is a picture of tad's first time sitting up in the shopping cart (from a few weeks ago).
of course, since tad was sitting in the cart, EVERYONE wanted to sit in the cart.
good thing i have such big muscles to push around my (just about) 100 lbs of children ;)

and here he is being my sit-up buddy.

parents in town.

my parents came up to calgary for a little visit.

we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them, as per usual.

on saturday, we went on a bike ride/walk in fish creek park to get an ice cream at annie's.

that was holden's first big 2-wheeler bike ride! he did so great.

here are a couple cute pictures from that outing:

banff.

we have wanted to make a day trip to banff for years now.

but, despite the fact that it is only an hour away (and other people travel from all over the world to see this place) we have just never managed to get ourselves there.

this weekend we finally did it!

 we spent saturday in the lovely little town of banff.

we spent a couple hours on banff ave - looking in all the neat stores, buying tasty, overpriced treats, and eating lunch at a little creperie.

then we went to bow falls - walked the path along the shore, tossed rocks in the water, and even saw a huge elk crossing the river.

and our final stop was the hot springs. 

the hot springs were really busy and the locker room made me feel like i would never be clean again.. but our kids enjoyed themselves.

tad was the smallest, but splashiest, person in the pool.

it's impossible to capture how cute that town is and how pretty the rockies are. you'll just have to trust me that they are top notch!