December's already here!

Boy does time ever fly fast when you're having fun! Sorry for the delay in getting to this, but we've been busy!

First I'd just like to say that, I finally got the opportunity to meet Katherine's mom, Grandma, brother and Olga. They are all wonderful and it's great to be able to be a part of it! I'm very grateful that they were able to make the trek out to see us!

The boys were here this weekend! We put up the Christmas lights and our tree! Katherine made cinnamon decorations with the boys, which they absolutely loved! It was a great Craft that they got to do together and then the boys were so proud to be able to hang them on our tree!


Zachary doesn't look overly pleased in this picture but it's really only because he's watching a movie...

Lexi has been quite busy taking care of her little sister! She's an amazing dog though! She's patient and gentle with Maya and she'll even heard Maya over if Maya's not listening. It's been a real blessing having Lexi around for Maya... Keeps Maya occupied too :-)

Maya is full of beans these days! She's gaining more and more confidence every day! We finally got to take her stitches out and on Wednesday we'll tape her ears for the first time! She's by far the most loving puppy that I have ever met! All she wants to do is cuddle, chase Lexi and sleep :-) Lately though she's been able to stay awake longer than 5 minutes at a time.

What a face!!!!

That's all that I've got for now. The boys are coming back again this weekend so, we'll finish decorating and hopefully have a wonderful relaxing time!

Stay Tuned!

Maya's home!!! (yes that's a cup on her head)

On Tuesday November 11th, I picked-up Maya from the breeder! I actually got her right from the vet where her ear were being operated. She was a little groggy when I got her but she was adorable! I fell instantly in love with her! As for the cup on her head, we decided to go ahead with having her ears cropped although I'm not sure that I'd do it again if I ever get another Doberman... It's a pretty tough thing to have to put them through, but we did it because it is part of the Doberman look.

Sitting in the vet's waiting room, I was soooo excited about finally being able to bring her home!! We met the puppies when they were 2 or 3 days old and then I met Maya 3 weeks ago at the breeders. Since then, I've been counting the days and Tuesday finally came!

It took Maya a day to figure out how to go up stairs, which is still amazingly cute to watch. Now she just has to figure out how to get down.

Maya has been home since Tuesday afternoon and there hasn't been one accident inside the house... yet. She appears to be very smart and is probably the most cuddly thing I have ever met. She really is so, so, so, so sweet! I hope that you get a chance to meet her!

As you can see from the picture above, Maya and Lexi had a tough time adjusting to each other. It was a total circus that first night... To be honest, I knew that Lexi was going to be a good sister, but I didn't really know just how good!

It's a really tough life!

Lexi has it easy... for now!

Halloween - 2008!

This past Friday, we celebrated Katherine's favorite day of the year: Halloween!! I picked the boys up from school in Lasalle at 3pm as soon as their classes ended and rushed straight home, while Katherine started carving the pumpkins!

We were very lucky with the weather this year. It was a nice warm night, we had enough candy for roughly 200 - 250 kids.

The kids started knocking on our door at around 6pm. By 7pm our candy supply (200 kids worth) was gone! We turned off all the lights and hid in the basement and even though the house was still dark, kids kept knocking until 8 - 8:30pm!!! 

On Sunday Katherine organized a little craft for the boys to do. Katherine baked cupcakes and the boys iced them with the green grass (icing), dirt (crushed Oreo cookies) and worms (worms)....

The event was a great success!! The boys loved it and we all enjoyed the fruits of the boys and Katherine's work. 

Catching-up

First I must apologize for the delay in completing this post! A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks and although I've had a lot to write about, I haven't really taken the time to do so... 

I've started a new tattoo. A cover-up really; I had a pit bull tattooed on my left shoulder when I was 18. This summer, I had Zachary & Joshua's name tattooed underneath. Problem is that the font didn't really turn out as nice as I was hoping so, I've decided to cover them all up. Don't worry, their names are going back on.... Just not sure on what part of my body. You'll see from these pictures, I'm going with a specific theme. The goalie is actually a picture taken off of the Internet, but I'm telling people that it's actually a picture of me ;-) 

I'm actually about halfway through the tattoo, but I'd like to save everything for it's completion... Plus I have to figure out how to reduce picture sizes on the iMac so that I can publish them on the web.

This past weekend, Katherine and I had our time with Zach and Josh. It was honestly one of the nicest weekends that we've spent together yet! The boys were so good and they listened well. We can't wait until Halloween! In the middle is Zach being a clown in the shower, to the right is Josh pretending to be happy that he's clean :-)

                         They're getting sooooo big!!!

That's all for now! 

Stay tuned...

Park National De La Jacques Cartier

As you can see behind us, the Park is surrounded by beautiful mountains. If you enjoy walking, hiking or biking; this is the place to visit. I have been to a lot of campsites and this (in my opinion) is the most beautiful. at about 350m above sea level, the air is clean and it's truly a relaxing place to camp. I highly reccomend visiting this park. Even if you're not a walker, hiker or biker, go and enjoy you will come back relaxed.

Dad tried to get a nice picture with his 2 boys, but Zach kept falling down the hill.... ok, ok. I pushed him... a few times :-)

We also decided that it would be a good time to celebrate Joshua's 5th birthday! What a beautiful boy he's turned out to be!

As any camping weekend with 2 boys goes, it started off with the destruction of the forest!


Zach and Josh had a wonderful time playing for hours with a tree that they pulled out of the woods. Dad had a hard time with this as someone was surely going to get hit in the eye, head or groin. That someone was as always probably going to yours truly so, after a few close calls, I had them throw it back in the woods. Wouldn't you know it though.... Even though that tree is dead, it somehow always made it's way back to the campsite by itself!

Saturday after a wonderful breakfast we decided to take a 2km hike in the woods. Unfortunatley, there was a lot of crying and whining: sore legs, too tired, bored etc... I would have thought that Katherine would have been able to keep up (hahahaha!!). Actually, as usual Katherine was responsible for all of the fun and plans on our little trip. Without her, there would not have been a weekend. She really is tremendous with the boys and they love her! We're very lucky to have her in our lives!!

Here is a picture of the boys and the pinata that Katherine picked-up. It was a great hit (get it!!!)

And of course, what birthday would be complete without the cake!!! Nice job decorating Katherine... Although it kind of looks like a 5 and 6 year old did it ;-)

As usual, the festivities ended with dad having spaghetti on his head. I knew that there was some there, but I had no idea just how much!!! As you can see from Zachary's expression, he's quite pleased with the situation!

It was a wonderful weekend! One of the ones you wish would never end!

Happy Birthday Joshua!!!!

Our Trip to Hamilton!

Hi!!

Katherine gave me the idea of posting a blog so, I'm giving it a shot. It's an easy way of letting you know what's going on without the hassle of actually having to pick-up the phone and speak with you! (hahaha! kidding!)

Anyway, last week Katherine and I decided to hop on the train and visit the beautiful city of Hamilton, Ontario. For those who haven't been, I seriously recommend staying as far away from there as possible ;-)
We arrived at the train station in Dorval at some god awful hour (not exactly sure why Katherine booked the train so early?!?! ok, ok, I booked the trip :-p ). We sat down in the lounge and as I opened my free bottle of bubbly water we heard the announcement that all passengers with Via1 tickets should head to area "E" those with regular Via tickets head to area "D" and that the train will be arriving shortly. So, I finished-up my water and we headed over to our spot. Katherine and I laugh and make jokes while waiting for the train for a few minutes until the train comes down the track. Wow-wow-wee-wa it's 5min early!!!
The train comes to a stop and Katherine and I let the old people get on ahead of us because that's what polite young people hoping to see old people fall down do (joke!!!). However, before we can get on the train the attendant lifts the stairs so that we can't get on. I signal to her that we'd appreciate maybe getting on too. I only thought that it would be fair to get service in exchange for the currency we gave them. Our lovely Via JERK points at us and makes a face like we're not good enough to be on a train, never mind in the VIA1 car and says: "you're... getting on... here?" Katherine and I respond: "yes!" Asshole Via employee responds: "weird, I was only expecting 4 passengers and they've already gotten on so, I don't understand but ok, go sit down"
Katherine and I place our bags, sit in our pre-assigned seats and the train gets going. You're thinking that all is well right? NOPE, think again!!! BITCH via woman comes along and asks to see our tickets. Not a problem, easy as pie; I pull them out of my back pocket and hand them over. Then our lovely SHEMALE gets mad saying that we're on the wrong train! Her train is going to Ottawa!!!! We've gotten on the wrong bloody train! Then to make things worse, our lovely AIRLINE ATTENDANT WANNA-BE Via attendant starts giving us hell because we "didn't ask to see where the train was headed", like this is our fault! To make matters worse, she starts handing out breakfast pastries and coffee but totally ignores Katherine and I, like we're diseased or something. After a few agonising minutes, Via (our "friend" ignoring us has nothing to do with it) arranges to make a special stop for us in *Coteaux and our lovely Via attendant let's us know that at least we'll know what to ask next time.... I thought that she was very nice for making us feel worse than we already did. Thank you Via!! Anyway, we quietly get off the train headed to Ottawa and we watch as the train leaves, the Engineer, conductor and passengers all laughing at us and giving us the finger (that's not true, they weren't laughing at all).
If nothing else, Katherine and I as usual laughed about the whole thing (A LOT) and now have a great story to tell.
Thank you Dan for having us last weekend! Katherine and I still drool thinking about Anil's curry.

*Coteaux: Somewhere west of Montreal and North of Hell.