‘Com’on, Bubba. You have to open your mouth!’

It was a gorgeous morning, and although it started off fairly chilly, the sun came out and warmed us up by the end.

Today we had lunch with the Cochrane crew before heading out to the airport. Lucky for us, the flight wasn’t full and the Westjet associate gave us our own row of seats – yippee! Inevitably, a man came and asked if he could sit with us. After convincing the first guy to sit in the empty row behind us, another guy came along and asked if he could join our row. Seriously – who wants to sit next to a baby on a plane? Ugh. Oh well. We made it home safely and Bradley was at the airport waiting for us when we arrived. Unfortunately, when we arrived home with an extremely tired little girl, we were locked out of our house – but that’s another story…

Then moved on to the quad for a little ride…

This afternoon Rozi and I headed out to the Edge farm to let the kiddos play in the leaves while us mamas snapped a few (okay, more like 300) photos. After four years of scorching Septembers in Kuwait, the crisp fall air and bright yellow leaves have never seemed more wonderful.

Today Gracen got this strand of beads when we got off the merry-go-round we rode at Chinook. She pretty much loves them. She takes them on and off once and a while, but she’s had them on for the majority of the afternoon/evening. I can’t help but think that she looks a bit like a mardi gras girl in this photo – topless with beads on. This may be cute at one, but let’s hope this is as far as it ever goes…

Tonight Kinslee climbed into this basket and guess who climbed in right on top of her? Yup, that would be our Grae. Luckily her cousin is so patient with her. :)

A couple of days ago Gracen Belle officially turned 13 months old. Here’s what she’s up to as we enter toddlerhood…

We got our ice cream and sat on the park benches out front of the store to eat it. Of course this little doodlebug doesn’t have ice cream yet, but she was perfectly happy to crawl around on the sidewalk and explore.

We were cruising down the aisles when Gracen spontaneously leaned over and gave her cousin Kinslee a little squeeze.

Then we found an empty little bouncy castle and Grae bobbed around to her heart’s content.

This afternoon we celebrated Josh’s life with a beautiful 2 hour service and lunch afterwards. We laughed, we cried, and we danced to some of his original tracks. Since I was in charge of the technology, Auntie Rozi kept Grae fed and happy throughout the entire thing.

Tonight when we arrived in Edmonton, we went to my Aunt’s house for dinner. My Gido had just been released from a hospital in Edmonton earlier that day, so lucky for us, Gracen got to meet her Great Gido for the very first time.

This afternoon we headed towards Edmonton for my stepbrother’s service. We were about half way there when Gracen started patting the front of her diaper and saying “po-po” (poo poo).

This morning I bundled up the girls, put the handsome Magger on his leash, an headed outside for a walk around the neighbourhood with my crew. Sadly, today is our last day with Magnum because he is going to a new home this afternoon. It will be terribly sad to say goodbye to him, but he couldn’t be going to a better home. Between running a business and having 3 kids under the age of 5, my brother and sister-in-law just don’t have enough time for him. His new owner is a retired K9 unit trainer who loves dogs so much that he will not take a vacation without taking his dog along, so we know that he will be very happy there.