Christmas Finale...

I was having trouble with my computer, so I couldn't post pictures....but it is now fixed and I have some free time to blog.

Christmas came and went so fast this year. I thought that I was pretty well organized and keeping this a low key as I could, without missing Christmas altogether.

Thank goodness for 24 hour stores...I decided to finish up my christmas shopping last minute items at walmart and superstore at around 10:30pm. I didn't have to haul my kids with me...but surprisingly I was battling some people who were also out shopping that night. I also did some shopping on line and we're still waiting for those items to arrive (just a book for Spencer). Next year I'll have to order earlier. Oh, Megan was without Super Mario Bros. all the stores were sold out when I was ready to buy the game. Oops! She took it really well...I think that she is most excited that she knows that, YES, we were going to buy it for her. Hopefully by the end of January she'll have it.

Megan took part in her school Christmas play. The put on "Surfing Santa" it was really good. She is starting to get the acting bug and is hoping for more of a main roll next year. She was a good elf working in Santa's toy shop. One of the songs was a kinda of rocky/rap song and she one selected to show off some of her dance moves...she choose to do some "break" dancing. They were flicking the lights on and off, so it was hard to see her and it didn't record very good either, but it will be forever in grained in my memory. I bought some tickets for a pointsetta plant and actually won one. So that was very nice.

We successfully completed the Santa Shuffle. The Saturday that it happened was beautiful. We dressed for the weather and did a lap. I pushed Aaron in the stroller and Spencer pulled the other kids in our orange sled. We then enjoyed the refreshments after.


My sister and Brother in law came up for a visit the weekend before Christmas to drop off some gifts and spend sometime with us. That is the night we decorated our gingerbread house. Unfortunately there isn't much left of it now, but really who could resist??

On the 23 we went to the last night of entertainment at the legislature grounds. We walked through the grounds and saw the lights and went inside and heard a choir and enjoyed free hot chocolate. It was a bit chilly outside that night,but the gift shop and other buildings were opened up later and we wandered around there for a little while.

On Christmas Eve we had a "FUN"due lunch party (the fondue set was part of my Christmas present). We invited our neighbours over for our annual Christmas time get together. It was fun. Next time I'll be a bit more organized. I prepped all the food the night before. Spencer took the kids out that morning to go sledding...after picking up and organizing a little bit more, I looked at the clock and our party was starting in 15 minutes! Yikes! I quickly whipped up the cheese sauce and got the table set. It turned out pretty good. A relaxed atmosphere and a slow lunch. Very enjoyable.

Later on that night, we spent time with my husbands family and had a Christmas dinner and program. We sang songs and Megan did a dance and of course we re-enacted the Christmas story. Then headed home for a late night of preparing for Christmas Day.


Megan was our early riser at 5:30am....we held off the kids until around 6am. We open our stocking first and then went into the gifts. It took us about 2 hours this year to get through everything. The kids got some really nice gifts...a transformer, guitar, sled, books, puzzles, k'nex, origami, etc. Evan was really into Christmas this year so that was fun. The kids also gave some good gifts...Megan made another clay picture on one of her field trips and Evan painted Megan a little jewelry box. We also helped a member of our ward by giving out a Christmas dinner hamper. We are still trying to find a good balance of a Christ centered Christmas and the enjoyment of Santa. I now realize that it is a slow evolving process and will change over time as my family grows and changes.

Merry Christmas!

Enjoy your New Years Celebrations!

Warmth despite the cold

My new philosophy on living in Canada is this...you should own some pretty nice and warm clothing to help protect you from the elements.



Spencer surprised me with a new coat yesterday. It is everything that I wanted plus a lifetime guarantee.

It is an awesome coat and I look smashing in it! It is down filled and besides that now I have something to match my big sorel boots. Wink! Wink!

The Christmas Spirit

So we signed up as a family group to run in the Santa Shuffle on Dec. 5. Of course the night before was our big snow storm and the race was cancelled (we didn't find this out until we actually drove very cautiously to the race location, with kids all bundled up and getting excited). So we went sledding instead, since we were prepared for the snow and cold. That also freed up our morning.

(The race has been re-scheduled for the 19th of December). I bought santa hats and reindeer antlers for us to race with.

On that same day we went to a children's christmas party put on by Spencer's work. It was good. They had various crafts, snacks/drinks to munch on, a place to go fishing, and of course Santa stopped by and gave each child a gift. The kids had a good time.

This year Evan insisted that this would be the year that he would not be afraid of Santa and even sit on his lap. But he quickly changed his mind when he actually saw Santa! He was glued to my side...but he loved the blue bamboo racing car that he received.

Megan played it cool and enjoyed seeing Santa, even though she knew that this isn't the "real" Santa....cause he is too busy this time of year to leave the North Pole. Beside Spencer told me later that Megan said that the Santa had a beard that was just painted white....yes Megan, you're right.

She got a disappearing painting board...

Aaron receive a little hammer like toy and moves and makes sounds, he loves it since he is at the stage of grabbing things....

We left the children's christmas party and headed straight to our ward christmas party....(are you thinking that it was a looong day too? It was!)

We got there early and helped in the kitchen and setting up. We brought a salad. We had turkey, potatoes, stuffing, buns, a few salads and a few veggies and desserts. Santa also came to visit us here. Evan was much more willing to go up to Santa and receive whatever treat that Santa was handing out.

There was a program...the primary children, RS and Priesthood all participated my singing various songs through out. Then on our way out the kids were handed treat bags! It turned out to be a really nice party.

So that has been our longest day so far...I'll post more of our Christmas celebrations later.

Burr.....

It is freezing out! Edmonton apparently set a world record on Sunday out at the international airport...it was a balmy -54 degrees Celsius! Yikes. But I bundled the kids up and we made it to church yesterday, but as I drove pass a mall marquis sign that said the time and temperature....it said 9:04am -33 degrees.

I told Spencer my new rule; if it is below 30 degrees with or without windchill I'm not going out (or taking my kids anywhere).

But just this morning it was minus 31, so Megan reminded me of my new rule and said that she wasn't going to go to school...but I said too bad and I hauled them both to school. In my defense it did warm up to around minus 24 today. That and memories of what it is like to have both kids at home all day flooded my mind. They were glad to go; besides this is their last week of school before Christmas holidays. It's pretty much a party anyways.

The last of my birthday presents...

We'll my birthday was way back in October. Spencer and the kids threw me a nice party. I hinted to Spencer for sometime that because my other watch (timex ironman) had finally died that I would enjoy a new one....a "fancy" one. You know the type...one that you can wear with nice clothes...so Spencer bought me one...but alas, I just wasn't happy with it. It was "fancy" just like I wanted, but it just wasn't me....

I need a watch with a bit of substance, something that makes a statement....so I saw this one at the store "watch it" and fell in love with it...I love knowing the time again!

She is beautiful, ain't she? (this time I'm not talking about me!) She is a "fossil" with a leather strap(this isn't sounding so good?...). The watch face is removable thanks to the snaps, so either can be replaced when needed with ease.

I'm lovin' it!

A Pain in the Arm....

Instead of having a pain in the neck....(sometimes I do get those, but a nice massage or acupuncture takes care of that)...we all have a pain in the arm.

We went and got the H1N1 flu shots today. I would have taken a picture of my kids....but I was having to use all my energy and force to hold them down as the shot was administered. Megan promised me that she would go first and that she would remember what it was like last year....a lot of crying and then when she actually got the shot...she said..."oh, that didn't even hurt". Go figure!

I went first...I was preparing myself...taking a big breath in....but by the time I did that and was trying to keep an eye on the kids...it was over with...I didn't even notice that the nurse had jabbed me. Awesome!

Megan was next...but Evan was fussing so much about wanting to sit on my lap, that I grabbed him and had to do the immunization hold on him then another nurse who wasn't busy came over to try to help...he was screaming bloody murder, but the nurse went as quick as she could and then he cried a few more tears, but turned his attention to his new Bumble Bee transformer that I had purchased just for the occasion. Wink, Wink, nudge, nudge....a parents best defense....the BRIBE!

His Bumble Bee isn't even this cool....it is a level one transformer, very simple.

Well listening to Evan didn't help Megan in the bravery department....tears were there and the begging of no....she even said to the nurse, "can this be the shot that doesn't hurt"?...I might have been able to run with that line of thinking...but the nurse answered too quickly, so Megan knew that it was going to hurt...forget everything that she had learned last year...I held her too, and she ended up doing just fine....less tears and persuading this time round. She was bribed with a new...Rainbow Magic book. In the end she said that this time it hurt worse than last time...she described what it felt like...like you using the alcohol hand cleaner, on your hand that has a cut...she was going for the stinging effect, it think.

We sat and waited our 15 minutes with no problems. Megan was happy to read, the baby had finally fallen asleep in his stroller and Evan was frustrated and still crying...but not because of the shot....rather the challenge of transforming his new transformer toy, he just couldn't get it figured out quite right! Sigh!

Oh, there were no line-ups where we went we just walked right in...fill in our forms and continued on....total time 35 minutes! Nice.

We will be monitoring ourselves for the next few days...and getting over our sore arms....but we are going to be enjoying the rest of the flu season, as long as we don't get hit by another type of illness or flu...

The start of a happy day....

Wouldn't we all be a little bit happier if we woke up to this every morning?....

Let Christmas Begin....

Sorry for no pictures on my last post....I'll take some when my house is clean....so it could take awhile.

I'm so looking forward to this Christmas...since my last one was awash...because I was just getting into my 3rd pregnancy and was sick...so we did very little.

We are going to make up for it this year...I'm packing the calendar with as many activities that I can.

Our first activity was going to see the city light up the 60 foot tree downtown.

This is always the perfect time....the weather was awesome, we bundled the kids up and headed downtown. We made crazy hats, went on a wagon ride (Evan would only go with me....so Spencer stayed with Aaron. Evan had to sit on my lap and as soon as we started...he realized that he loved it and started to fuss and cry about wanting to sit by himself...so with only a block left to go I gave up my seat and was crouching down in front of the seat so Evan could sit!Argh!

Then we wandered around the farmers market tents that they had set up and enjoyed hot chocolate and mini doughnuts. We listened to some caroling and then saw the fire works and tree lighting. It ended at 5:30pm. Perfect! Thanks to it getting dark early now, we could enjoy the fireworks without having to stay up until midnight.

This is Megan speechless, from the exciting fireworks display and tree lighting.

Basement

Well....after literally doing renovation since we bought our place....we are coming to a close! Our home has been almost totally redone from top to bottom and outside. Painting, new carpet and lino, redone upstairs bath, baseboards and window trim, close organizers, new front and back doors and a finished basement....oh, yeah we gutted the kitchen and restocked it with new cabinets and appliances...our place looks like a million bucks....(too bad it isn't worth a million bucks!); we also sodded our backyard, added a garden spot and put in a few paving blocks....



We have put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears and pulled a lot of late night and neglated kids along the way, not to mention the cost. But it has been worth it for us. We have learned alot...thanks for the help (my dad has shown Spencer the ropes of basement finishing, cabinet installation, not to mention all the trouble shooting that he has done for us via the phone). My brother helped us paint when we first took possession of our home and it has since been repainted by my brother-in-law. Another Brother-in-law helped with the electrical in the basement.



After all of the reno's are home is livable for us and enjoyable. One of the most important things that I have learned is that I don't ever want to do this much again...for any house in the future that I will live in!



The only things left are the last of the touchs up that never seem to get done. Oh well....

Halloween and other stuff

Sick, Sick, Sick....first of all we've been sick....3 out of 5 family members. Evan being hit the hardest....we are praying for a full recovery by the end of this week. Spencer and the baby so far unaffected....knock on wood!

We are trying to get the flu shot....but due to illness and crazy long lines haven't even ventured out! Hopefully with the changes that are coming at the clinics (namely those in high risk groups being given the priority) we should get it this week. (We're crossing our fingers) But for now we are limiting our contact with others and each other and washing our hands and taking vitamins like crazy.

On to happier news...we carved our pumpkins on Monday for FHE. I bought only three knowing that I would get a chance to carve atleast one for Evan. After much internet surfing we picked our designs. I drew on the pattern and then we set out to cleaning and cutting our pumpkins. I ended up carving Evans and Megan's pumpkins. Next year I'm going to buy pumpkin carving knives so the kids are do their own, maybe even those Mr. Potato Head like pieces that you just stick into the pumpkin....they look great for kids to be able to decorate their own pumpkin...also painting is a good option.

I just love the smell of a lit pumpkin.....so good! We kept our pumpkins inside all week....not such a good choice as they were all starting to go soft and moldy...I guess that just adds to the scary effect.

The picture is a little blurry...but that is Spencer, Evan and Megan's (Miss Mario) pumpkins.

So yesterday the weather was great for trick-or-treating....no snow. We layed up the kids and sent them out with Spencer. Evan only did the houses that were closest to us, then he was done. Megan and Spencer then went back out for about 2 more hours....I stayed back with the 2 boys to hand out candy (the jumbo freezies and tootie roll mix was a hit!)

The Mario Brothers and their Papa!

The mother load. We'll be saying good bye to most of this candy. I'll give Megan and Evan a nice sized bowl and then saving some for our "movie" nights at home!

A family secret

I'll let you in on a little family secret. Megan and Evan are crazy about the Wii that they got and playing Mario Cart and Super Mario Galaxy. If you would like to know what our family would look like Mario style and our new "cute" nicknames for each other, here it is....

Megan (my ring leader) is of course Mario

Evan is Mario's brother....Luigi

Aaron is baby Mario....

I have the privilege of being Rosalina....

Last but not least Spencer is.....Waluigi

I know you can definitely see the resemblance....

My favorite thing so far (hopefully it won't last forever or get too annoying) is that Megan's friends at school call her Miss Mario, and if you ask Evan what his name is he'll answer Luigi (he gets some weird looks), and he says "I love you Rosalina"or "Roselina where are you?" and he asks where Waluigi is all day long.

I'll give you one guess as to what they will be for Halloween this year......

Happy Birthday

It was my birthday....Spencer and the kids helped me celebrate in style. I got some lovely gifts...Evan colored a picture that he was particularly proud of, Megan spent many hours making me a book, Spencer got me some new shoes, a watch and a yoga headstander. To top it off they decorated the house with balloons and streamers and we all wore lei's while I opened the gifts. I decided to change things up with a new cake request. For years probably 8 years I've requested the skor dessert cake, but finally got sick of it. So Spencer bought me a Chinese cake....a light cake with fruit chunks in the middle and fancy fruit on the top with a whipcream type icing. Yummy! I turned the big 31 this year, but two things will always make me feel better....#1 I'll always be younger than my sister Jen and #2 I'll always be younger than Spencer!

New Recipe

I've put up a new recipe on the side. We are trying to eat less meat....so this salad is a new favorite. It would be perfect for a ward potluck or picnic. Instead of brown basmati rice I used Quinoa (a new favorite ancient grain; that is super healthy). The original recipe I think would feed more like 6 people and I would cut down on the amount of juice from the mandarin oranges.

Enjoy!

Back in Business

Our van was in the shop getting repaired....and I accidentally forgot the camera inside...so we have been without pictures to download and put up....here's what's been happening over the last month....

Megan started grade 2 and Evan is in preschool. Yahoo.... so I'm officially the chauffeur and I've volunteered to be the recycle lady at Evan's preschool. I'm not currently as involved in Megan's school this year....but hope to pick that back up once Aaron is a little older. Being involved in your children's education by volunteering in any aspect and going to the PTA meetings makes a huge difference.

We took a weekend in Banff so Spencer could run the Melissa's Road Race. He did very well, inspite of the lack of training for the 22K run (1/2 marathon). His time was 1 hour 50 minutes. Way to go! I also did well as I juggled 3 kids outside in the wind while waiting for Spencer to finish. After the race we wandered around the townsite and looked in the stores. We purchased fudge (Megan waited the whole trip just for that). We also went on a hike and let the kids jump on the hotel beds! (just kidding). I love going to the mountains. It was a nice getaway. Next year I told Spencer that we would run the 10K together and have someone watch the kids for the weekend for us.

This is what happens when you leave the camera out....the kids get quite for a moment and then you discover what they have been up to....and check the memory for the candid photos that they took. Does this happen to anyone else?
One day I'll learn. But some of the pic's are pretty funny.

This little guy or should I say "big" guy is now over 2 months old. He is healthy and strong and has such an easy going temperament, a nice change in our house hold. He has just recently started to use his abs to sit up.

Happy Thanksgiving! May your turkey be large and moist, may your sweet potatoes be sweet and may there be a vast variety of desserts and may you not gain a pound! This is one of my favorite times of the year. I love to bundle up and snuggle under sweaters and blankets to stay warm. It is always easier to layer up if your cold....but you can only get so naked to cool you down in the summer months. The kids are back in school, the beautiful fall colors, thanksgiving time, my birthday, Halloween.....it's a wonderful time of year. Enjoy!

Anniversary

Today is the day that Spencer and I got married 9 years ago. Time as sure gone by fast. Spencer and I occasionally have reminisced about all the experiences that we have had and all the things that have happened. Nine years, 3 kids, 2 plus years of additional schooling, 3 jobs, 7 cities to call home....multiple church callings.....the list could go on. The blessings have and continue to be many. Spencer is my best friend, a wonderful husband, an involved father and a hard worker. We make quite the team. Happy Anniversary Spencer...I Love you (and all your funny faces)!

Saying good-bye to an old friend

This happened about a month ago now, but here is the post now anyway.

The first car that Spencer and I bought finally gave up the ghost, so to speak, but it left us under bad circumstances. Spencer had a small fender bender one day on his way to work. All the damage was done to our little car. The front grill was bend and one of the front headlights was broken, but the car was still drivable (it didn't look pretty but it worked).

Unfortunatley the cost of the repairs was more then the the insurance company was willing to pay for (since it was such an old car), so they wrote it off and our car got towed away.

Here is a little history on our beloved car:

We bought it in the spring of 2000

It was a (1990) Toyota Corolla that was 10 years old when we bought it

I had a fender bender that was repaired and better than new

We replaced the cam-shaft, and muffler (a few times)

We could fill it up for about $20 when we first bought it, now days it cost us around $40 and up

We were having some problems with the electrical and our tail lights not to mention that our radio didn't work, the drivers seatbelt was cracked, and the inside door handle was broken.
We drove it back and forth to Indiana twice!

In the end it was Spencer's ride. He took it to work and church, He changed the oil....and once a year he washed it and vacuumed it out. She only had about 235,000Km.

We miss not having our second vehicle (which was actually our first). But we are looking on the brightside of things...our insurance premiums have gone down, registration, and no more paying for the high price of gas. So currently we are saving a bit of money. When the time comes to get another car, it will be another Toyota.....something.

Tasty Summer Fun

This is a homemade ice cream sandwich. If you have never tried one, you should try making them sometime. Super easy, if you don't make the cookies from scratch....you just buy soft chewy cookies and add the ice-cream and then roll in the sprinkles. The kids gave them two thumbs up! It was a good FHE treat idea.

I also made slush. It is pretty sweet stuff and the flavors that I picked aren't my kids favorites, but I like it. It is way better than a slurpee, 'cause it has the fizziness of the pop.

It's a Boy!

After 9 long months the newest member of our family has arrived! He came 4 days early....on Tuesday July 28 at 5:35 am. The labour and delivery went good as to be expected. He was the fastest one yet....he joined the world after only 3.5 hours of labour. The doctor said that he came out sunnyside up....(face up)! He weighed 9lbs 5 oz and was 21 1/4 inches long and his name is Aaron Tyler Ord.

I left the hospital that night at around 9pm. Spencer has been a great help and my mom came to lend a hand for a week too. We had some meals dropped off from the sisters in our ward -- that was a huge help too! The adjustment has been going pretty good. Megan is a fanastic helper and is growing into the role of the oldest sibling very well. She knows that the baby is very demanding on mom's time and energy levels and has had a ton of patience with Evan as well. Evan and Megan both love to hold the baby. Evan still thinks the baby is so funny. He has probably had the hardest adjustment...he is a bit louder and missing his mom. I'll often feed the baby downstairs at around 9pm and watch a little TV and Evan pulls out a blanket and plops down on the floor and falls asleep close to me.

I must say that the more kids I have the more relaxed I am and that I am enjoying my buddy a lot. There is something to be said about slowing down and enjoying being a parent. This kid so far (knock on wood)...has been really good. He doesn't fuss much, he is eating like a champ, and sleeping 3-4.5 hours a night.

The next challenge will be in a few more weeks, when school starts up again....and we have to drop Megan off at school fairly early in the morning. Then by middle of September Evan starts Pre-school (he is so excited!)

Oh...What do U do in the Summertime?.....

Cross your fingers that I'm just days away from delivery. The weather has been stifling hot, thanks to Spencer for buying me an A/C for our bedroom, so at least we can sleep at night. Sorry kids...they come frequently to our room to enjoy the cool temperature, but must sleep with their fans on; which they do pretty good at. I've heard many times over that we live in Canada so we don't need A/C in our homes....since it doesn't get that hot....I don't like those people and fully disagree with that statement.

Here are a few highlights that we have done so far this summer. We weren't planning on doing too much, since we are waiting for the arrival of our new family member. We have spent our time so far close to home and having a slower summer. We have enjoyed playing at various parks, the kids favorite has a wading pool and playground, I love to just sit a watch for the most part. We have also joined the Library summer reading program and Megan has already won a prize....a shirt, book and bag. We have also gone to the movies....Evan can't quite sit still for the whole movie, it doesn't matter which one we go to....but he enjoys the popcorn and climbing around....thank goodness for the dollar theatre and children's movies that hardly anyone goes to see anymore....so he can goof off and not bother too many people.

Feeding the geese, seagulls and ducks at Rundle Park.

Attending the street performers festival downtown Edmonton. The kids got their faces painted, Megan with a butterfly(which lasted for 2 days) and of course Evan with Thomas the Tank Engine. They also got balloon animals, Megan a parrot and Evan and monkey in a tree.


We actually saw some street performers too, these guys were called the Chair Men, and they basically stacked all those lovely plastic lawn chairs that everyone has in their backyard. They played musical chairs with some kids from the audience and launched various food objects with a sling shot, and they juggled fire.

Megan went to a week long science camp at the University of Alberta. It was an all girls class called Elle Jr. , they made all sorts of things, the bath bomb was probably her favorite.

We stay cool in the pool....swimming at the ACT pool is a favorite family activity.



Enjoying the comforts of A/C by going bowling. We had the whole place to ourselves!



Having a wiener roast at Rundle Park. Evan this time loved to play with the marshmallow and not so much eating it. This from a boy who can't stand to have his hands dirty when we are sitting at the table at home and eating?!....go figure. I also learned that I'm never quite prepared as I ought to be...I forgot the wet wipes, but we made do with water and a napkin.