Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

We are not able to make it to Edmonton for Christmas this year so from our family to yours...

Merry Christmas

The Fam

winter in Chilliwack (1 degree and wetttttt)

Liam's first Gingerbread house...he didn't even eat one candy!

In Canmore

Faster Grandpa!!!

Love from: Matt, Monique, Liam and Torr

p.s. if you're looking for Torr in these photos he is asleep in most of them usually in Matt's jacket or his cozy bed. sorry he will resurface again soon. :)

It's all about the boys...

So the last few weeks we have been on a whirlwind of journeys and each time people ask me how our trip was I keep getting them mixed up. It's gotten to the point that Liam has decided to answer the question of "Liam, how was your trip where did you go?" with "I went to Africa to ride elephants." Really we didn't go to Africa but we've been away from home so much we may as well have gone there.


Here is the recap of our latest adventures:


Matt had a week off in November so while the Canadian dollar was awesome we booked a little trip over the border to Tulalip, Washington to do a little shopping at the Seattle Premium outlets. That particular outlet is great with big name stores and quite the good deals. Liam and Torr were great shoppers even though I can imagine in their minds this trip was B-O-R-I-N-G!! Liam did love the hotel - sleeping in a double bed to himself and of course the swimming pool.

Breakfast in bed anyone?

Then a week later we headed off to Canmore to spend some time skiing and enjoying Grandma and Grandpa's place since who knows when we'll be able to get there next. Once again an adventure with the highways closing the day we were leaving due to severe weather conditions. So we found ourselves on day 1 sleeping overnight in Sicamous and finally arriving in Canmore the next evening but Matt had white knuckles driving all the way there though. We had a great visit cross country skiing with the kids, a fun afternoon at Norquay where I skiied for the first time since grade 9, our friend, Chauntille, from Chilliwack now a resident of Red Deer came for a few days and of course Hugh and Lynda came to spend a few days with us which made Liam and Torr's vacation that much more special!


We're home now and the boys are doing excellent.


Torr is now 3 months old and just started giggling yesterday. He has turned into a little chubby dumpling and has his own little personality...quieter than his is comedian brother but cute as a button.

Torr during one of his favorite times of the day!

Umm excuse me isn't this my private time!

Liam is in his 'Terrific Twos'...I"ll keep referring to these times as that even though I'd have to say the Terrible twos do strike every second day. He's a great kid - totally funny, very smart and has a mind of his own which doesn't always agree with Matt and I but that's part of growing up I guess. :)

Favorite Olympian...I sure hope so!

I know, I know I'm adorable!!

So that's a quick update before the holidays begin but I promise I will take tons of photos over the next few weeks.


We hope all of you have a fantastic and safe holidays!!


Love,

Matt, Mo, Liam and Torr

Liam the comedian, Torr the quiet Giant and other great stories!

So young Torr is now 2 months old and is getting cuter and cuter everyday. He nows weighs a healthy 13 lbs 3 oz which puts him, according to the public health nurse, in the 92 nd percentile for weight. Matt keeps blaming his weight gain on the "Creem-o" I apparently produce. haha He got his immunizations the other day and had the same reaction as Liam which was a 2 second cry and then fell asleep. Maybe these boys see pain as therapeutic and soothing? Who knows?

Torr apparently grows bubble beards in the bath tub too. Robertson male trait I guess.

Lucky for me my dad has been visiting for the last week and a half. He has given me a lot time to myself as he has single handedly taken care of the boys. He even sends me to the gym every morning!! I love my dad!!! Liam is loving having Kung Kung here to play cars and trucks with everyday!! And of course I definitely see a bond between my dad and Torr since Torr will automatically look at dad as he hears his voice and simply gives me the "come on woman just feed me" act.

KungKung and Torr

It seems that as Liam gets older into his 2's he seems to be getting funnier and funnier each day. I am trying to figure out who gave him these personality traits...Matt? no. Me? no way. Will Ferrell? pretty much a yes!

Liam is a Pete Repeat these days copying anything you say, anything he hears on the radio and anything you do he wants to do it to.

Example 1: Matt brought the harmonica done from the shelf and of course Liam wants to play it/slobber into it. The weird thing is it sounds good, bizarre, and he keeps calling it the Hanukkah which makes me laugh as the sentence is "Dad where's Hanukkah?" at which point Matt goes into a lengthy explaination about the Jewish holiday. Yep the everyday conversations in the Robertson household. However, the harmonica saga continues as we joined Matt's collegue Ken H. and his family a few weekends ago and Ken's two kids are excellent musicians so Liam found Sam's "Hanukkah" and proceeded to play it and Sam helped out with the piano accompliment. It was a pretty awesome sight to see.

Rhythm and Blues Legend: Liam 'Bum Crack' Robertson

Liam's first harmonica recital

Example 2: Some days while driving and listening to hip hop in the car I catch Liam singing the last word of each line in a song (lalala day, lalalala play, etc.). So in Sean Kingston's song Beautiful Girl there is a line where he says something to effect of 'you have me suicidal' which I obviously don't want Liam singing out the words about being suicidal however I could hear him singing that part only to realize he thought the lyrics were saying "shoes and sandals". It makes the song sound way better that way anyways thinking he's singing about sneakers and flip flops. :)

Any requests? I'm hear for another 5 minutes.

Hope that updates you for a another few weeks!

Later,

Mo, Matt, Liam and Torr

Another crazy Halloween!

I know the past two Halloweens Liam has had some pretty awesome costumes (Pillsbury Doughboy and then the Dalai Lama)...however I'll be honest I slacked this year buying both boys their costumes...yikes thought I could sew at least Torr's no such luck I"d rather sleep a little more then try to sew during nap time.

Nonetheless the boys had a great time on Halloween night. We went trick or treating with our neighbours and Samantha really showed Liam the ropes of going door to door for candy. Too bad he thinks you can trick or treat everyday now. :)

Hangin' out with Scooby Doo/Sam.

Liam and his BFF Codie

hmmm guess who I am...

We also had an overnight visit from my friends, Sarah and Lyndi, as they were on route back to Edmonton. Liam had a hard time distinguishing Sarah from Lyndi but really all that mattered to him was that they played cars with him. haha

Lyndi and Torr

Torr is getting bigger everyday he has his two month appointment this Thursday so I"ll update the blog then and let you know what this big eater now weighs.

Sarah and Lyndi loving the Torr

Until then...

The Robertsons

Dreams do come true!!!

I know these postings are a little scattered these days but hey we're a house of two kids now so I leave that as our excuse. :)

We've had a great few weeks. Here's our recap...

Last Saturday, we went into Vancouver aboard the SkyTrain, Liam's Life Dream up to this point in his 2 years and 2 months of life, and met up with friends of ours from Edmonton and Vancouver (Mel, her son Nate, Nancy, Samantha and her two kids Morgan and Griffin). We had a great time eating some pizza and then off to walk around Robson (more my want not anyone else's). It was great to see Mel as our kids are only a few weeks apart and Nate's definitely a cutie!! We spent time with Cam and Carmen as well which made Liam's day and then headed home on the SkyTrain. All in all great day.

We know we're cute!!

Thursday, Liam went on his first field trip. We went with the Family Place Resource Center to the Greendale Farm where we were treated to a tractor ride, picked out pumpkins, went to a petting zoo, drank hot chocolate and even had a story and this was all done by 11:30 am. haha
We fulfilled Liam's 2nd dream of riding on a tractor and we even got on tv. How did they know I wanted to be interviewed other than the fact I tried to get my kids into every shot that the camera went. hahaha true story.

hmm that hot chocolate tastes good!!

Finally, on Friday my neighbour Andy, who is a on call firefighter, fullfilled dream #3 of visiting the Firehall. It was awesome to go in there and get a personal tour of the hall and get to ride in all the fire engines. Needless to say Liam loves our neighbour and occasionally calls him dad since we spend so much time next door.

I want to be a firefighter when I grow up!

Trying on Andy's fire gear!

Getting a little help from my buddy Andy!

That's all folks!!

The Robertsons

The Great Pumpkin Patch and other fantastic October moments

All the family has now left and we are on our own. Yikes! The last few days have been alittle stressful because Matt is not only working office hours he is also working in Emerg. so he works evenings. Thought it was going to be crazy but really it has been quite nice especially when both boys cooperate...ie Liam plays by himself as I feed Torr or Torr decides that he is simply going to watch Liam play instead of fussing about. :) Kidding Torr is not a fusser at all, he actually is quite patient allowing me to deal with Liam even when he is extremely hungry...I take that as a good character trait...patience. He is now 4 weeks old and heading in for a doctor's appt. next week so I'll give you his official weight then but he no longer a skinny boy he's really fattened up and even has the double chin now. :)

Good old squishy face.

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner as Hugh and Lynda were still here and we were joined by Cam, Carmen, Andy, Brendalyn, Scott and Jess. Full house but that's what family holidays are all about!!

Maybe this leaf will help me fly!

Liam was so happy to receive a Bubble Lawnmower from our neighbours for his birthday. He has tried to get Matt to go out everyday to mow the lawn but the perfect opportunity finally came. Except he wanted to mow towards Matt as Matt was actually mowing the lawn making the situation quite danger. So Matt turned the mower off and raced Liam's mower around the front lawn then sprinted away to finish patches of lawn. Needless to say a lawn that would take 5 minutes to do turned into 30! haha

Hurry up will yeah Dad!!

My lawnmower's better than yours!

Finally as we get ready for Halloween we did a trip to the Wisbey Farm Pumpkin Patch to pick out some pumpkins. I'd never been to a patch before so it was pretty neat to see ho pumpkins are actually grown. Liam was delighted to go there and we even weighed him on the pumpkin scale...35 lbs! Yikes he's a big boy.

The Great Pumpkin Patch

Well that's the update for now. Talk to you soon.

The Robertsons

I'm almost 2 weeks old!

Hi everyone I'm Torr. I will be two weeks old tomorrow morning I thought I would show you some photos of my first few weeks at home.

Me chillin' out with my dad and big brother Liam.

I have a very nice big brother named Liam who likes to give me lots of wet kisses and is always trying to poke me...is that normal?



My KungKung and PauPau have been here for a week and a half to help my mom and dad with the kids. I don't think I"m too much work all I do is feed every 3 hours and instead of spitting up I just rocket poo out of my bum. You'd think they would be more appreciative. My grandparents play a lot with Liam and they like to watch him when he goes to soccer lessons.

Me sleeping again...

We've had lots of visitors so far.

My Uncle Andy, Uncle Cam and Auntie Brendalynn came out to visit for a few hours. It was nice because they held me for the entire time they came to visit.

Auntie B and me

Then my Uncle Michael, Auntie Teresa with my two cousins, Matthew and Christopher, came from Burnaby for the morning. Christopher and I watched as Matthew and Liam ate frozen yogurt and played with balloons. They're so lucky!

Matthew and Liam eating their yogurts.

My mom and dad's friends, Tanya and Brent, came through on their way home from their wedding that we missed because I was born on the same weekend. oppps.

Mom and dad tried to send us home with Tanya and Brent. :)

Well my weeks have been filled with going on lots of errands with my mom and dad...we even went out to dinner with Sheila and Har but I slept the entire time. I am looking forward to meeting my Grandma and Grandpa this week and eating some Thnksgiving turkey. yipee.

That's all for now. Talk to you soon.

Love,

Torr Robertson

Suddenly there were four!!!

On Sunday, September 16 at 5:32 am we welcomed to the world (trumpets please)

Torr Patrick Robertson.

We are now so blessed to have two healthy little boys in our lives...a little crazy for me as mom having so much testerone in the house but I can deal with it. :)



It was a crazy intense labour again entering the hospital at 1 am and finding out I was only 2 cm dilated and the contractions were already 5 minutes apart. But in a span of four hours we went from 2 cm to 10 cm and crazy crazy contractions (for those that have had babies intense labours are not fun) to pushing out this wonderful new baby boy.

Here's his stats:

Weight: 7 lbs even
Length: 20.5 inches

Everyone is doing well and we even get to enjoy the company of my mom and dad for the next few weeks. Liam is loving having KungKung and PauPau to play with and of course I am happy to have the extra sets of hands!

We'll continue to update you all on the crazy life of the Robertsons as a family of four!!

Love,

Matt, Monique, Liam and Torr

No baby yet just a little tired...

So my last post was a while ago...who has time to go on the computer when Liam is napping I am definitely napping. So the computer time has taken a back seat.


However, I really should update eveyone on what we are up to...

The biggest news...Liam turned two last weekend!! Happy Cake Liam (Liam's version of Happy Birthday Cake)!!
Yep that little long bean pole at birth has now turned into a solid two year old tyrant. Kidding he's an awesome boy with lots of personality and quite the cutie (that's what people tell me). We had a few friends over to celebrate unfortunately right before the party started we had a huge down pour and needed to bring festivities inside which seem to suit everyone just fine. Liam had a great day and I am still in shock that he's been in our lives now for 2 years!! He's a superstar!

Hmm a boy obsessed with cars how unusual?

Getting a little help from my friends.

So you tell me not to play with anything hot and then you want me to do what with these candles?

Baby Update: I am at 36 weeks this week so I guess I best start packing my hospital bag since really I had Liam at 38 weeks and I'd like to think this one will come in close time as well. Could simply be wishful thinking since this baby is a major kicker and I am sleeping like Matt. For anyone that knows Matt's sleeping habits you'll know I am not sleeping through the night that's for sure.

Hopefully another one of these cuties in a few weeks!!

Visitor Update: We just came back from spending a week in Vancouver with Matt's mom and dad. Their friends the Pitfield's so generously let us stay in their home for the week which really made this mini vacation possible. We had a blast being Vancouver tourists for the week from spending the morning at Granville Island, where Liam showed off his dancing skills when the Ukelele man came out to play. We went to the park everyday, spent everyday seeing at least one uncle and auntie which made Liam's day...although he seems to think Uncle Andy was still in Ghana and was quite upset when Andy tried to explain he was back in Van. Who knows what goes through that little man's brain. Brendalyn and her mom, Lynn brought us out to thier cabin in Indian Arm which was awesome. I even got a chance to swim in the ocean for a good chunk of time which was quite refreshing since being prego makes my body temp about a gazillion degrees hotter. On Saturday, we all met up to go on a Sasquatch Tour with the Chehalis First Nations Band. It was a definite highlight as the First Nations culture and stories are so amazing. If you're ever in our neck of the woods I highly recommend this boat tour. Thanks Hugh and Lynda for a great visit!!!

Guess what I"m a big kid now!!

Love,

Liam, Mo and Matt

Our visit to the Vancouver Aquarium

Hi everyone,

Well a lot has happened since our last post. Let's see...

Last week, my brother Miles came for a 7 day visit and of course the temperatures hit well into the high 30's, yes we had a day of 39 degrees. We were lucky enough to be able to head out to the lake every afternoon and soak in the cool water of Cultus Lake. I will post some photos when I scam them off Miles' blog. :)

Umm what else I am officially huge as a whale now as I am into third trimester. I am at 30 weeks as we speak and well if things go as they did last time in 8 more weeks will have a new little one at our house. We'll see as I am busily trying to get ready for the new baby, Liam's 2nd birthday coming up, and all around summer craziness.

Here fishy fishy!!

Oh yeah, today Karen, Sam, Liam and I decided to head into Vancouver as the forecast placed the temps in the low 20's so perfect weather to head into the city. Karen and I are trying to hit all the spots of entertainment for the under 3 crowd before they move to Naniamo in Sept. We left early this morning and got to the aquarium in good time only to see massive amounts of people. Don't people work on Mondays but of course it is also summer time. I forgot.

hmmmm jellyfish!

Sam and Liam were very entertained by the beautiful fish, wonderful dolphin show and of course snacking on fresh fruit (who knew kids would love apples, blueberries and peaches so much). On the way home we had a quick stop for lunch then on the road home to the 'Wack. We hoped the two would fall asleep but no luck but now Liam is snoozing away and I get to write this post --> so it all worked out.

Baby Beluga and my apple = priceless

I am glad the temps are back to a summertime 'normal' and I am going to go get some juice and relax for a little while. Have a great day!!!

Mo, Liam and Matt

Up close and personal with Moby Dick.

After hoping and wishing for a dishwasher ever since we moved into our house in Chilliwack it finally happened this past July long weekend. My parents came through with a nice surprise phonecall letting us know that they wanted to buy us a dishwasher after knowing our current financial woes and I'm sure my repeated complaining about the amount of dishes I wash everyday which probably hinders my ability to spend more time with Liam. Probably not that true but hey it worked and we now are living in modern day bliss!! Thanks Mom and Dad!!

However, Matt and I first decided simply to remove a few cabinets and install the dishwasher. After talking to our friend, Ryan, who would be helping us with this home reno the reality sank in it probably wouldn't work unless we just torn down the existing cabinets and started anew. So one afternoon Matt and Ryan headed to Abbotsford to do an 'innocent' trip to Home Depot and low and behold Matt came home with all new bottom cabinets for both sides of our kitchen. For those that have been here before they would be aware of the ugly pink countertop and very space inefficient cabinet placed next to the refridgerator. Here are some before photos:

Main counter with 1970's pink countertop along side the flory wall paper that I have innocently ripped off in sections throughout the kitchen

Cabinet the previous owners installed that probably worked for space for two people but the space around the cabinet just made for a headache for us.

So on Saturday the demolition began while Karen, Ryan's wife, Samuel, Liam and I all headed out for the morning.

Matt working out some post-graduation stress!

We were nicely surprised by the progress of these two by the time we arrived home and by Monday the kitchen was transformed. There are some finishing touches like putting on all the cabinets dooors, adding some more electrical outlets, and adding the kickplates but all in all what a wonderful reno. Simply said we have a new kitchen. So see for yourself:

The black box of greatness (diswasher works likes a dream)

What a difference a new countertop makes to a room, most people didn't even know we had tile flooring in this kitchen until they saw it against the grey of the counter.

Our kitchen reno continues as I ripped down all the wallpaper and we have purchsed paint to give this room a true makeover. So until next time...

Matt, Monique and Liam