Happy Birthday Uncle Chad

Just a quick post to say Happy Birthday to Uncle Chad and give everyone a chance to see the kids in action.

Horsing Around

Boys will be boys!!!

After relocating half of their room, Grace's room and part of the living room into the spare bedroom,

the boys started doing their favourite thing in a mass of stuff, blankets, pillows and teddy bears.

Yes it was time for their daily wrestling match.


Here are a few photos of them carrying on in good ole boy fashion. Evelyn

Special Visitors

Do any of these faces look familiar? We are excited to announce that we have some special visitors coming to visit the Kingston Kotzer Kidds in June and July. Shortly after our return from England, we will be hosting Clay's parents and Grandma Kotzer, my Mom and Grandma and Grandpa Englot. Finally in July, Connie and Greg will be joining us for about at week. We are planning a camping trip for their visit. Thank you Air Canada for a great seat sale. We are so excited that our families can visit us and that our Grandparents can see Fiona before she is a whole year old and the rest of the gang too.

Easter, A Wedding and Other Stuff

Hi Everyone,

We had a really great Easter. Of course, we went to church, a lot, decorated eggs, and did an Easter Egg hunt. Yay, tonnes of chocolate!!! We also had a wedding on Saturday and had a few visitors throughout...Spencer, Craig and Rhonda, and Jamie and Kevin. All in all, it was a great relaxing weekend. Here are a tonne of photos to check out since our last post. Evelyn

Playtrium and the Pool

Friday was a big fun day for the kids. It wasn't any special day, ie no birthdays, but we just did a few fun things. In the morning we went to the Playtrium with the Strawson and Eberts gals. Then in the evening we got some pool time in at the base gym. Nothing tires the kids out like a 1 1/2 hour swim before bed. They needed it as it had been a bad week for sleep for Riley, Brodie and Grace. Their colds kept them up a lot through the night. Our plan worked and we actually had everyone sleep through the night...almost. Here are some pics from the pool and the Playtrium.

Fiona is growing so quickly. I got some photos of her in an outfit that Grandma and Grandpa K. gave her. I am sad to say she is almost grown out of it. Here are some pics of her. Enjoy, Evelyn

Fiona and Preston: 2-Month Photo

Fiona hit the two month mark two days ago. She is doing great. She went from being our fussiest baby to being our happiest baby in a two week period. She smiles a lot now and has even started cooing a bit. She also loves to watch her brothers and sisters running by her. She is quite entertained by them so she likes to sit in her bouncy chair for quite sometime before complaining. Over the past two weeks, she has become such a content baby and has even started sleeping better. Generally, she only gets up once per night, goes to sleep immediately following nursing and then sleeps until around 7 am. Needless to say, I have been feeling a lot more rested and have start to go to the gym again in the morning before Clay goes to work.

Fiona had her two month check up yesterday. He doctor said she is doing wonderfully for her age and is easily surpassing the two month milestones. She is very strong and is also growing very well. She now weighs 12 lbs 3 oz and is 23 1/2 inches long. As for the shots, she really hated those. I don't know if she was super hungry and tired during her shots, but Mommy cuddles would not console her after being jabbed. She was a little off for the rest of the evening but she still had a pretty good night last night.

In other huge news, Clay is officially done writing up his thesis. It turned out to be over 200 pages, which he couriered away to his external reviewer today and sent copies to the internal (to RMC) reviewers this morning. So, he is quite relieved and excited and shocked. It has been a long, tireless effort, but we are all very happy. He will defend his work on the 4th of April. So, he has to put his presentation together, but there isn't very much left for him to do at this point. So, he is planning on getting a little extra french training under his belt.

As for the boys, they had their last swimming lesson last Thursday. After being tested, Riley, who loves the water and is very confident, has completed his "Sea Salamander" level and is moving up to "Sun Fish." As a bonus, he and the rest of his class got to go down the waterslide. It was his first time going down a waterslide, which he gave the thumbs up to on his way up for a second try at it. Brodie did well in his lessons too. Brodie can be quite fearful of the water, so the lessons helped his confidence improve immensely. There were some items under his "Sea Turtle" category that he wasn't able to complete so he will try and complete them again on the next lessons before moving up to Sea Salamanders.

And finally, Grace!!! For those who don't know, we have nicknamed her "Grace all over the place". She is really quick and doesn't stop for anyone or anything, no matter how high we hide it. She is very rough and now apparently, she is the boss around here. Her brothers are always getting an earful from her. Before, they could play dumb and pretend the didn't know what she meant, but her speaking is quite improved so there is no pretending not to know what she is saying. She orders them to get dress, where to sit, what to play and takes away their toys. She is very lucky because we have always told them to be gentle with her and so they let her get away with it. I wonder how long that will last.

That's about it. Enjoy the photos and videos. Evelyn

Penguin Run

Yesterday was a big snow melting day. The kids, Grandpa and I headed outside with the intention of building the best snow fort ever. Instead, we built up an already-existing snow mound in the backyard and started training for the 2010 Olympic bobsled team. Originally, the all of the kids went down the hill on the little sled; however, the boys got a little creative and found it was more fun to pretend they were penguins and slide down head first.

Finally an Update

Well, it's hard to believe, but we are almost at the end of another good holiday with Grandma and Grandpa Stajniak. We have been having a wonderful time and they have been helping us out so that Clay can get some extra work time in on completing his masters. The kids have been really enjoying their "Farm" Grandma and Grandpa, especially Grace, who likes to order Grandpa around. We're not sure if she just likes him a lot or if she realizes that he is the biggest sucker in the house and gives her everything she asks for. Anyways, they can't get over how tough she is. She takes a lot of bumps and falls without crying, so they are not sure if we have 2 boys and 2 girls or 3 boys and 1 girl.

Over the past week and a bit, we have done a little shopping, gone to swimming lessons with the boys, went skating at market square and done a few household projects. Grandma and Grandpa had a great time playing hide-and-seek with Riley, Brodie and Grace. Grace plays this game way better than the boys and she goes dead silent when she is hiding, while they giggle and squirm around in their hiding spots and are easily caught. It's so cute to watch her sneak around all stealthy on her tip toes.

Finally some good news on Grace and eating meat. She has fallen in love with pepperoni. She eats it non-stop when we cut it up into cubes and put it in front of her. We have tried other meats with her but she continues to hate everything else. So, we've stopped trying to introduce other meats. Why push our luck?

As for Fiona, she has become such a happy baby. She is very content to sit in her bouncy chair and watch everyone else. She is such a smiley baby too. It's amazing how much she has changed since my parents arrival.

Finally, a funny Clay story to end this post. After almost another whole semester of masters, Clay attended the post-grad mess dinner on Thursday night. He had a really great time and cut loose to say the least. He wasn't in rough shape however one more beer may have pushed him into that territory. He was pretty gassed up though, which was evident when he tried to get undressed and jump into bed. Clay, who does not like to waste time, likes to undo a few buttons and pull his whole shirt over his head so he can neatly hang it up on a hanger. This method of undressing normally works well for Clay except that this time his suspenders were securely fastening his shirt onto his shoulders. I mentioned to him that it may be easier if he took his suspenders off and his response was, "Who put them there anyway?" He didn't take my advice and as a result, it took him ten minutes to wrestle his shirt off. It took about ten minutes to get it on the hanger too. I would have killed to have the video camera on hand at that time.

So, that's about it. Until next time, enjoy the photos.