Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Bring and Brag Fair

Tonight we went to S1's school for the annual "Bring and Brag Fair" - sort of like an extreme version of show and tell.



S1 showed off some of her favorite artwork from home and school (kindergarten to now.)


The little blurb that she wrote up for her display is as follows:

When I was in kindergarten we started art. I soon became very good. When I was in grade one, at Christmastime we made a Santa. Mrs. Ries said mine was the best. When I started drawing for fun, it was Christmas time in grade two. On Christmas day, the first present I opened was a doodle book, from my aunt. I also got a 130 piece art set from my Grandma to make more wonderful works of art!

It was a fun time with lots of interesting displays from very fancy to very simple. There were no prizes except for a random draw for the participants for a gift card so there was no pressure to have an elaborate display. The best part - we were there for an hour including set up and take down. Yay :)

Mother of the Year - that's me...

I am a cruel, unfeeling mother. Just ask my kids. Especially when I'm trying to get S2 to go to sleep on his own. I am not the queen of consistency and therefore I pay the price but I'm working on it. I put S2 down for a nap this morning. He was falling asleep in my arms but as soon as I put him down, he woke up crying. So I let him cry. Checked on him a couple of times and then he was quiet. I knew he was asleep so I waited a couple of minutes longer to make sure he was REALLY asleep. This is what I found:


Luckily the rails are close enough that his head won't fit through. Yoy. I did lay him down properly in the crib and now he's screaming again.

I think our main problem is that Paul and I have fits of nostalgia. We know S2 is our last baby and sometimes we just want to cuddle him. Then there are the times when we just want some peace and quiet without kids (hardy har har) so why can't he just go lay down like the rest of them? Probably when we're old and grey we'll have this parenting thing figured out (hardy har har again).

Guess I better go check on him so he doesn't feel abandoned. I don't want to be cruel and unfeeling.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Random pics


This is me in grade three. It's actually part of a double layout with the picture below but I couldn't get a decent shot of them together so that's what that's about.



This is my brother and sister in grades 6 and 5. Love my brother's glasses. Yikes. 'Nuf said about that.



M and S2 watching Edmonton beat the Capitals. (You can't really tell but Sam is wearing an Oilers jersey.) Too bad, Michael - Ovechkin wasn't much help that night.



S2 at bath time (obviously). Auntie V gave this bath time book to him for Christmas and he loves it! It came with a little washcloth that he mostly just sucks on but it's fun anyway :)


A reader already!


That's about it unless I find more pictures on my computer that I forgot about :)

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

A treat for me :)

This is the lovely phone I got for myself after Christmas. I accidentally dropped my other phone on the hardwood floor (in Sammy's room when he was sleeping no less) and my inside screen wouldn't work anymore. The phone itself worked but I couldn't see what number I was dialling or what I was texting. Rather difficult to relay my messages to Paul to bring home pop and chocolate for me on his way home from work.

Anyhoo, this phone is totally fun for me. It has an MP3 player so I can be cool and listen to music on the go. It also has a fitness section where I can track my workouts and calorie burning and such (yeah right). The most fun thing I discovered is that I can listen to the radio on my phone!! Yeah - the radio! My headphones act as an antenna. Uh huh. How cool is that? I think it's awesome! How fun for me :)

On to bigger and better (more interesting for you?) things. I know it's been a couple of weeks since my last post. I thought I might have more to say but, alas, not so much. We've just been plugging away in the tundra.

E has been doing great at school - she even gets to be exempt from one of her final exams! Her marks are so much better this year. I like high school much better than junior high. Only two more years and she graduates! Let's not talk about that.

M is finally back in the swing of things after being sick for most of December. He's back at hockey and loving it. We have a tournament at the end of the month down south. We're all very excited to go stay at a hotel for a couple of nights. We obviously don't get out much. Thank goodness for hockey :)

S1 is gliding through life with nary a care as always. She's doing great in school and still in the community choir and cheerleading. She's such a girl :)

S2 is growing way too fast. Now that he's crawling, he figures it must be time to pull himself up on everything. We waited forever for him to crawl and now I think he'll be walking before his first birthday in April. Where does the time go?

Paul is still working hard on the trains. When he's not on the trains he's helping at our friends woodpile business making sandbags or bags of wood (you know, the kind you buy for camping). Not easy work but it's good for a couple of extra bucks.

As for me: same old, same old. Trying to keep on top of the chaos without losing my mind. I have to remind myself every once in a while that I have FOUR kids (sometimes I forget). There is going to be some noise and pandemonium. Oh, when I say I forget that I have four kids, I'm not kidding. I have forgotten S2 in the car when we've gone into a restaurant and in the house when we're going out. He's all snug in his car seat and too quiet. He hasn't learned yet that he who yells the loudest, doesn't get forgotten.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Thoughts and Feelings

Someone mentioned that I hadn't enabled the comments so that he could make sure everyone knew that Guido (see below) is not a real person - only an alternate personality.

So I figured out how to enable comments (thought I had last night) and now you can let me know your every thought and feeling as well. Well, every kind and friendly thought and feeling ;)

Thursday, January 1, 2009

I forgot ....

Some major happenings happened over Christmas for our youngest:




(please keep in mind I'm no videographer...)

Now I know in the beginning it seems like I'm just mean (which I am) because I'm farther than 6 inches from him and I won't move any closer. Then he sees a Littlest Pet Shop kangaroo (courtesy of our second youngest) and decides he must have it. We'll all do most things with the right motivation, I think :)

He also accomplished something else...


Yep he pulled himself all the way up! He's been able to get on his kness for awhile but he actually got to his feet this time.

My life is over as I know it .... sigh.

This seemed like a good idea at the time...

I totally copied a friend of mine who sent me an email telling me about her new year's resolution to start a blog (great idea, C.N.!) so I figured I would be a good sheep and follow the trend. I know you're all (all 9 of you? maybe that's a hopeful wish) desperate to hear my every thought and feeling. Here they come. Ready?

This Christmas vacation has gone by in the blink of an eye. I was really fortunate to have family and friends for Christmas this year. Yep - you heard me. Fortunate. Happy. Blessed even. You heard right. Of course, they only stayed for Christmas Eve and Christmas night and some even stayed at a hotel so it wasn't a marathon of relatives all week. That may have made it easier. I don't know. Anyway, we were excited to have Christmas at our house because this is the first year we had room for everybody! Here's a few pictures...


"...the stockings were hung by the chimney with care..."

...then Santa came and filled them and dropped off his presents...

...then we ate!!!...

Now I'm assuming a good time was had by all. No-one seemed to leave the house screaming and crying anyway. Not even me :)

We had a really fun time on New Year's Eve at A's house. We played Scattergories which tested all our brains when they really didn't need to be tested. Ah well, we laughed anyway. We played Hand and Foot which is a card game that would take too long to explain. T and C were unable to cheat this time as they weren't partners. Not that they didn't try to be partners. We put the kibosh on that pretty quick :)

We did have one special visitor we weren't expecting...

He calls himself Guido...

That's it for now...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!