Keeping up with the Heimsoth's

Pirates

2012-02-07T18:37:00.001-08:00

Arr....it looks like I may have myself a couple of pirates here.

Waiting for Summer.

2012-02-05T20:56:00.000-08:00

I was just going through some old pictures on our computer and found these that I took with my phone outside of Starbucks one windy day last summer.

These pictures make me long for summer to come even if this winter hasn't been too cold.

Almost every time we go into the city both David and Jaclyn ask to make two different stops. One is Starbucks and the other is Toys R Us.

We don't always say yes, but it certainly makes there day when they can go to either of them. And since I have a soft spot for Starbucks, that one has a bit more chance of happening.

I love my little Starbucks junkies!

Hockey Hair No More

2012-02-02T18:01:00.000-08:00

For the last month I have been wanting to cut David's hair. For one reason or another it never seemed to fit into the days, so his hair cut kept getting put off. So Yesterday I decided I just needed to force it into the schedule no matter how many of us were sick and what else we were doing. So David finally had his hair cut. He was happy to have it done and even wanted me to take some pictures of his hair so we could have a set of before and after shots for him.

I always find that when David gets a new hair cut he looks so much older.

Also, much less like a hockey player in the 80's...which is a good thing.

Now to see if I can keep it a little more consistent.

Stickers

2012-01-31T18:51:00.001-08:00

This is what happens when you have stickers a camera and two silly girls playing together.

My poor sick kids

2012-01-27T11:43:00.001-08:00

Well I am now on day 8 of staying home with two sick kids. David has missed this whole week of school and Jaclyn and I have had to cancelled two different outings.

Last week it started with Jaclyn having the flu and David having a cold. They have now shared with each other and Jaclyn is now fighting a cold as she tries to heal from her flu and David has the flu on top of his cold. It's been a long week here at our house.

I have now lost track of how many boxes of Kleenex we have gone through and how many loads of laundry have been done this week. I also feel like a broken record with every ten minutes I am saying "cover your mouth when you cough" or "go blow your nose" and "remember to wash your hands".

I am hoping and praying that we are at the end of this sickness and that we can all get back to our normal routine soon. If you are the praying type please pray that my kids return to their normal health soon.

Here is a list I am thankful for this week: Netflix, Tylenol, my iPad, cozy blankets, apple juice, tea and most of all my husband. Chris comes home from work and helps me with the laundry, cooking, cleaning and the kids. In fact Chris is so wonderful that he lets me sleep at night and he gets up with them when they wake up from coughing. I am blessed.

Here are some pictures I took of the kids on the couch this week.

Family

2012-01-23T09:15:00.001-08:00

Here is a glimpse into our last year.

We having been trying to sell our house and after over seven months it is now sold. Praise God! We are now getting ready to move onto a smaller house which will suit our family and needs much better.

I have also been struggling with health issues which has been hard on me as well as my family. God blessed me more than I could ever imagined when he gave me Chris as a husband and David and Jaclyn as my children.

Chris is the most supportive man I have ever met, he works hard at his job and then comes home and helps me with the kids and housework. He also has me rest as often as he can.

David loves school and has been learning a lot and we are very pleased with is teacher, she really loves her class and it shows in her teaching. When he comes home he is excited to play with his sister and to tell me all about his day. David is also learning to read and is getting excited about the idea of reading by himself.

Jaclyn loves to have "girls days" with me while our boys are at work and school. We will play together. Then though out the day she will will want to play by herself while I rest. She's awesome! She has such an amazing imagination and is always pretending to be a character from a book or movie.

I sure do love my family they are a blessing to me everyday. They can always make me smile and I love spending my days with all of them.

Bedroom Campout

2012-01-05T12:21:00.001-08:00

This afternoon I set up a kids bed tent for the kids in David's room. So far they have played "camping" and are now watching a movie in their tent. They are even planning on having a Campout tonight together for bedtime.
I loved playing "camping" when I was a kid and it makes me smile seeing them play similar games to what I played with my brothers and friends at their age.
It's all amazing to me how quiet my day has been and how there has been no fighting between them today.
I am currently enjoying some quiet time all by myself. Now for a cup of tea.
Here are some pictures I just took of them.

MyMemories Digital Scrapbook Suite Review and Giveaway!!

2012-01-02T18:25:00.000-08:00

I have recently been given the opportunity to review this wonderful digital scrapbooking software called MyMemories. I have only just begun to explore the options that this scrapbook software has. I have already spent hours working with this program and I look forward to spending many more hours as I work with my families pictures and memories.

I found this product so easy to use and have already been telling some of my friends and family about MyMemories Suite Digital Software. One of the things that I have appreciated about this product is how simple it is to use and make beautiful pages of memories. If I was ever stuck I could always go to the MyMemoriesSuite's YouTube site.

Here is a sample of what I have been doing with MyMemoriesSuite.

With the holidays over now many of you will have lots of pictures and memories that you want to have organized so that you can look at them for years to come.

So Here is the Great News!

How would you like to win your own MyMemories Suite Digital Scrapbooking Software?

Thanks to the generous people at MyMemories, I am giving away a copy of this fabulous digital scrapbooking software to one of you, and here is how...

For your 1st Entry:

Tell me what memories you would use MyMemories Digital Software for.

Extra Entries:

2. Follow Keeping Up With The Heimsoth's Blog

3. Follow MyMemories Blog.

4. Like MyMemories Facebook page.

Contest Closes on January 14, 2012

*Contest Closed. Winner will be contacted by email.*

*Remember*

To leave your email with every entry in the comment section. As well as to comment for every entry.

More Great News!

I also have a $10 off code to share for MyMemories located on the side bar.
When you are ready to pay for your order put in the code below and save $10.

$10 OFF CODE: STMMMS88473

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Thanks again to MyMemories for giving me this product to review and for giving me one to giveaway!

David's Christmas Concert

2011-12-31T10:47:00.001-08:00

During the last week of school before Christmas break David was in his first school Christmas concert. He was so excited and the weeks following up to the concert he would walk around the house singing his class song. I loved hearing him practice his song in French. It is wonderful to see how happy David is being in school and how much he loves learning French.

A good start

2011-12-22T20:33:00.000-08:00

This is how my kids spent one of their first days of Christmas holidays together. It seemed that every time I turned around they were doing something else.

This was their first activity. They were building a ladder out of books so that superheros could climb up to the T.V.

Then David decided that we needed a wreath in our house so he made one.

Here is our new spiderman Christmas wreath.

Then they made a fort.

So they decided to at least pretend to sleep for a few seconds before they moved onto the next thing...

After that it was time for a train ride. They loved taking turns and yelling out "choo-choo, chugga, choo-choo".

I surprised the kids by making a special dinner for the kids. We called it the "Tent Restaurant" and Chris served them grilled cheese and nachos. They both thought it was wonderful.

All in all I think that today was a good day for them. At bedtime tonight they both said they were excited to see what they could make/create tomorrow.

Comics

2011-12-08T19:32:00.000-08:00

How many of you have read comics as children or have grown up with them in your house? Or how many of you have spouses who have read comics as kids (or now)?

I grew up in a house full of boys. All of whom have been quite into comics at one point or other. Because of this close proximity, I picked up quite a bit of knowledge about the comic universe and a lot of the main story lines, and would even read a few comics when they were lying around. I might not have been jumping into the conversations, but as any other sister of a comic book fan will admit, you get a bit of a heart for that world.

I can remember the debates: Which superhero was the best; What villain was the worst; and of course Which was better, DC or Marvel? You may be asking yourself what DC and Marvel are? Lucky for you, I can give you a quick lesson.

DC is the comic line that writes about Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash and Wonder Woman.

Marvel writes about Iron man, Thor, Hulk, Black Panther, Spider man, X-Man and Captain America.

Over the last year we have been introducing the kids to superheros. It started with Batman and Superman, then moved to Green Lantern and the Flash. I guess you could say we started with DC. This was the comics that my brothers were more into, but there isn't much out there that is not too dark for little kids.

Then over the last couple of months we have introduced the kids to The Avengers. They are part of the Marvel comics and more of what my husband was into when he was young. It also is a bit lighter for some of the stories.

We found the carton series of The Avengers on Netflix and have been going through the shows with the kids. Its amazing to me how much my kids love superheroes. I know that when I was a kid I, along with my brothers, loved reading about them and watching different shows with superheroes in it. I guess I never really realized how much of a classic Superheros really are until now.

I realized how strange this might sound when I was having a conversation about the Avengers at Best Buy and the people that worked there were giving each other strange looks as my 3 year old daughter was talking about Thor and Iron Man...it was funny.

Smile

2011-11-27T09:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took out the camera and took some fun pictures of my children. It is one of the ways where you can tell how are kids have different personalities. These days, when I take out the camera to take pictures, Jaclyn will make lots of faces and want me to take pictures of her all afternoon. She will then want to look at every picture taken and then try again. David however, has a different reaction. For him it is almost like pulling teeth to get a pictures of him with him looking up at me and not hiding his face. A full out smile looking at the camera is only possible when he is in the right mood, no matter how much you might try to talk him into it. This time I managed to get a few pictures of David looking at the camera.

Kindergarten

2011-11-24T12:23:00.000-08:00

This post is a little late but I still wanted to post about David's first day of kindergarten.

As some of you may already know I was planning on homeschooling our kids. We were thinking that because of Chris' work schedule with homeschooling he would be able to have a larger part in their life, this along with other reasons we were all ready to start the school chapter of our lives with homeschooling.

However over the last year my health has not been the best and both Chris and I decided that instead of homeschooling it would be best for David and Jaclyn to go to school. The kids and I were away on a trip for most of September and so we were a bit late for getting into a school when we got home. Luckly the school was up for working with us and we enrolled David into kindergarten at a French immersion school. He was a little sad to be away from me at first, but then he heard he would be in class with his best friend in town he started to get excited. Because of David's late enrollment it took him a little while to get as comfortable with school as his classmates were.

He now loves school and looks forward to going most days (sometimes he wants to stay home because he thinks that he might miss something happening at home).

David really loves his teacher and looks forward to playing with his friends. His favorite time of day is, not surprissingly, recess. He has also been teaching the rest of us French, he is doing really well now that he has adjusted to his new schedule.

Here is David on his first day of kindergarten.

I still can't believe he is old enough to go to school. Crazy how fast time has gone.

First Craft of the Season

2011-11-20T18:23:00.000-08:00

Both David and Jalcyn love being crafty. To them this could mean anything from coloring to creating with different materials or even make fun pictures with stickers. They just really enjoy being creative. This afternoon after they were warmed up from playing in the snow they wanted to do a craft. So I pulled out some of our craft supplies and let them create this years first winter craft.

Snow Day!

2011-11-20T17:51:00.000-08:00

Winter is now upon us and it looks like it is here to stay. I have a love hate relationship with the winter months. I love how the ground and trees look after a fresh snow fall and I love how excited my children get when they see the beautiful snow outside our window. As much as I love the winter months the winter months do not like me. I get so cold that I feel chilled to the bone all the time which can hurt. As my husband pointed out this afternoon, I spend most days walking around the house with a blanket wrapped around me just trying to stay warm.

Today Chris took the kids outside to play in the snow. They had lots of fun playing together. Jaclyn has been talking about making snow-angels for at least a month now and David has been looking forward to building a snow fort in our backyard.

Clothes

2011-11-03T20:43:00.000-07:00

Jaclyn loves clothes and picking out exactly (right down to the socks and underwear) what she is going to wear everyday.

Here she is modeling one of her many outfits.

Toothless Princess

2011-10-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

When Jaclyn started to get her teeth 3 years ago, we noticed that she had an extra tooth overlapping two of her front teeth. After the "three in one" as we started to call them came through, I brought her to the dentist to see what we could do to help her. I was told then by that dentist and then by two others over the last three years that she was too young to have her teeth removed or we should wait until she is older (6 or so) until we remove any teeth.

Over this time I have lost track of her fat lips due to her teeth sticking out in the front. Then last Christmas she broke off a part of the extra tooth and I was still told to wait.

I was starting to get really tired of hearing I had to wait until she was older while at the same time having my daughter tell me that her teeth were hurting her.

So in August I requested again to see a pediatric dentist. They called back when I was away and then within 24 hours of calling them back I had her in. After taking a look, we were told that she needed to have them removed immediately (and should have had them removed earlier) because of the teeth basically dying from being too close together. So she was soon booked in for the removal of her "three in one". Actually she was booked for the next morning!

After waiting three years to get a straight answer of when we would remover her "sick teeth" as she called them. I waited a total of three days from my phone call to the removal.

Three cheers for pediatric specialist!!

Here are some pictures I took of Jaclyn while we waited for her mini surgery.

She was a real trooper through the whole experience.

Here are some pictures of her now that her "sick teeth" are gone.

My toothless princess!

Hair

2011-10-26T19:12:00.000-07:00

October is coming to a very quick end and there has been a lot going on around here, if only I had the time to write about them. I have all these blog posts that I have planned, but none written. However, I don't have access to a computer very often, so I will be trying to put some more posts up in the next little while when my husband is home.

For now I wanted to post this picture of me that Chris took tonight. Over the years, do to time or finances, Chris has been willing to do some extra things such as cut my hair. He has done it a few times now, and this evening he dyed my hair for the first time. Unfortunately, I did not take a before photo. But before the dye, I had a lot of blond highlights throughout my hair, but I had roots that were over three inches so it was time for a change. This time I went for something a bit more simple (and less frightening for my husband, who was already nervous doing one color) so now my hair is all fairly close to my natural color and is all in the same color family.

Stumbling Into Grace: Confessions of a Sometimes Spiritually Clumsy Woman - Book Review

2011-10-16T12:10:00.000-07:00

Stumbling Into Grace: Confessions of a Sometimes Spiritually Clumsy Woman a book review.

When I received the book Stumbling Into Grace by Lisa Harper I picked up the book and read this on the back of the book.

“So, today I’ve been thinking about...things that bind us. The thought flitted around my mind and then landed for a while, likely because I was wearing a pair of too-tight jeans.”

This made me smile; actually it made me laugh out loud. After reading that one paragraph I was intrigued even more and was really excited to read this book and discover how Lisa uses her life experiences and her interactions with Christ’s love as a “part diary, part devotional.”

Throughout this book, as you read it, Lisa will have you laughing out loud, bring tears to your eyes, and smiling like a little school girl, but most of all it will show you how God’s grace is all around us and in our daily lives.

Each chapter of this book is broken up into five parts. The first part is where Lisa tells a part of her story, where she uses humour, uncertainty, trust and sometimes a little sadness to tell how Jesus has shown Himself to her throughout her life.
The section after that, has a specific focus on scripture relating to the life of Jesus called: Jesus and ________ (this part changes with every chapter).
After that, we get into a great section, which is one of my favourite parts, where she looks deeper into the passage. I love to jump into the background and find out more about passages so I really appreciate how she takes the scriptures and gives them more meaning and depth.
The final section is called Hope for Our Ongoing Stories, where she helps to apply the bible passage to our everyday lives. Then at the end of each chapter there is a section where you can either do a personal devotion time with questions or a group devotion. So as you can imagine from this list Lisa Harper manages to pack a lot into each chapter.

I enjoyed every part of this book, I found that I learned a lot about myself as I looked at my life in some of the same ways I read about Lisa’s life and saw how God has given me Grace so many times even if I felt like I didn’t deserve it. It's as if I was taken on this journey while reading this book and Jesus showed me once again how much He loves me and gives me grace and wants to have a deeper relationship with me.

I really loved this book and would recommend it to woman of all ages who are looking for a fresh look on the grace that Jesus gives us everyday. Throughout this book Lisa will use her life as an example of how we as woman can be stumbling through our everyday lives and how Jesus is waiting for us around every corner.

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Thomas Nelson Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for review.

I am not required to give a positive opinion but I am required to give my honest opinion.

Wedding Bliss

2011-09-21T12:58:00.000-07:00

Nine years ago I met a wonderful woman who later became my sister-in-law. I have gotten to know her through the years and have been blessed to call her my sister. Tara is an amazing woman and real woman of God. We have been praying for the man that she would share her life with.

This last weekend we were blessed to spend the weekend with Tara and Ben as they were married.

Flower girl.

Ring bearer.

Love them!

We were there too.

We all had a wonderful time at the wedding. Both David and Jaclyn loved being involved with their aunt and (new) uncles wedding.

Congratulations Tara and Ben we love you both and look forward to watching your love continue to grow over the years to come.

Cupcake Creations

2011-09-05T17:29:00.000-07:00

This last week David asked me if we could make cupcakes. We didn't have a lot on our schedule and I was having a "good" health day, so the children and I gathered all the supplies we needed and then had fun making a mess in our kitchen.

This is what happens when mom gets a call as we are setting up.

"Look mom, they are all separated!"

Tasting chocolate chips....yummy

The best part of making cupcakes

is licking the batter

yummy!!

Me and my little chefs

They even managed to pull dad away from his office for a snack

Final cupcake creation. David called it our "cupcake family".

Craft Time

2011-08-22T13:50:00.000-07:00

My kids love doing crafts. They get so excited every time there is another craft that I bring out. This time it was painting their own Dinosaur banks. David had gotten one for his birthday and we found another for Jaclyn to have one too.

Both of them have their own plans for how they go about doing crafts, and they each had very specific idea's for how they wanted their banks to look.

David was going for some sort of superhero/dinosaur mix. His dinosaur ended up wearing a superhero costume.

Jaclyn's was a bit more free form "let's get as many colours together as possible" approach, but they all had to be in the "right" places. She was not impressed about suggestions to put some colours in spots that she did not want them.

This was the results of their creativity, as well as lots of fun. It was a fun morning project.

Do you like to Doodle?

2011-08-21T20:48:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share some pictures I took this last week of my kids and their drawings. We have these little magna-doodles that we picked up last summer. Both of them love to draw over and over again and this is a wonderful way for them to draw and erase as needed.

Jaclyn and her picture of a "funny man face"

David and his picture of Superman.

It has been amazing to see them really get into it and they have even surprised us with their skills.

Friends

2011-08-18T18:39:00.000-07:00

Here are two picture I took this afternoon of David and Jaclyn with some of their best friends Cole and Riley. The four kids were laying on my bed as they watched "Mater Tales".

This afternoon after the movie Jaclyn took my camera to take some pictures of her own.

These are the clearest pictures I found on my camera.

Her boys playing Lego.

Jaclyn sitting with her boys.(David took this one)

Weekend at a Cabin

2011-07-24T19:29:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago the kids and I escaped for three days with a friend and her daughter to her family cabin. It was a wonderful little getaway! Both David and Jaclyn had a great time.

The first thing David said while we were there was "Wow, this is wonderful, we will have so much fun here, its perfect".

Before we arrived at the cabin we decided to go to the beach. As we were starting to get ourselves organized at the beach I asked the kids if they wanted to stay for a long time and play in the sand or just a few minutes? David looked up at me and said "Maybe just a few minutes, we want to get to the cabin". Naomi and I laughed, so we stayed for only a few minutes. However I was able to get enough pictures of us there so at least it seem like we were there for longer then 10 minutes.

Before we got to the cabin, when we talked about the trip, Jaclyn and David weren't sure as to what exactly a cabin was (having never been to one) but they sure were excited to go.

As you can imagine, having now experienced the fun of a cabin, they have already asked me more than a few times when we can go back up.

Do you have a small business?? Do you need advertisement or Money??

2011-07-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

If you are living in Canada and already have a small business or are wanting to start up your own business like Etsy, a bakery, photography or coffee shop then here is a way you can get free advertising and money to start-up or expand!

Grand Prize: One Grand Prize of $15,000 cash + 6 months of free advertising on CentrSource.

Secondary Prize: $5,000 cash + 3 months of free advertising on CentrSource.

There are over $40,000 in prizes to be won.

Weekly Draw for an iPad 2: Everyone who votes gets the chance to win an iPad2. (you don't have to have a business to vote)

It's really simple to enter. All you have to do is enter you business information and what you offer and then have your friends and family vote for you!

Remember the contest Ends July 31, 2011.

I have a 5 year old!!

2011-07-20T09:05:00.000-07:00

Five years ago yesterday I gave birth to our son David.

On that hot day five years ago our lives forever were changed, with the birth of David.

Now both Chris and I new that our lives were about to change after all I was pregnant for 42 weeks.

Even though we thought we were ready to become parents, while as ready as we could be for new parents. Nothing could have prepared us for such an amazing adventure like being David's parents.

Some of the things that I have noticed about David over the last five years are that he is curious about everything, he cares about other peoples feeling, he wants to be the best big brother to Jaclyn. He is also loving, sensitive, funny and creative. He loves to use his imagination and often becomes Batman, Buzz Lightyear, Spiderman, Green lantern or any other superhero at anytime. He still likes to cuddle!

He also doesn't like surprises, he would much rather know what the surprise is and act surprised then actually be surprised.

9 days old

5 years old

Happy Birthday David!!

I am happy that God chose me to be your mom, I am blessed everyday by you and I look forward to many more birthdays with you and watching you learn more about the world around you and discovering life!

Best Friends!

2011-06-29T12:18:00.000-07:00

Book Review: Principal of the path

2011-06-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

Guest Post by my husband Chris

The Principal of the Path By Andy Stanley
Why is it that smart people with admirable life goals often end up far from where they intended to be? Why is it that so many people start out with a clear mental picture of where they want to be relationally, financially, and professionally and yet years later find themselves far from theyr desired destination? Why do our expectations about our own future often go unmet?

It is these questions that Andy Stanley focuses on in his book Principles of the Path that we received to review from Thomas Nelson Publishing.

I have appreciated other books from Andy Stanley in the past and was quite excited to have a chance to review this book. Overall, this book was good in premise, but not quite there in fallow through. The thought that began this book, to illustrate and explain how the results that we get in life are most often a product of a series of discisions and ways of doing things that make a path to those results. This is certainly a very important realization, and as a pastor I have met and had discusions with many people that need to better understand that fact. As simple as it is, it is amazing how all of us can decieve ourselves in seperating the many smaller choices and paths we put ourselves on from the results we get ourselves into, and often that leads to a lot of complaining, both to others and to God.

The problem arrises in that instead of developing this idea into a fully rounded book and working it all through, it was kept at the basic level of development and surrounded by personal stories and other re-iterations of the same idea.

Now, this by no means should be taken as a reason to not read the book, or to have one on your shelf for when you find that person who trully needs to hear that basic truths of this book, it just means that you need to keep your expectations in check, and to be ready to do a lot of the work yourself in bringing it to a fully developed point, which might be twice as good in the long run.

So pick up a copy, and start thinking about the paths we are on, and where it might go.

I give this book a 3.5 out of 5

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Thomas Nelson Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for review.

I am not required to give a positive opinion but I am required to give my honest opinion.

Where is Bambi's Mom

2011-05-31T18:24:00.000-07:00

As I wrote in my last post I have a broken ankle and have been spending a LOT of time on my couch with my children. We have played, read books and watched a lot more movies then usual.

I should start by telling you that David is at the age where he wants to understand what happens to people in general and to movie characters and why things are going on in the show?

So as I sit, I find that I am constantly explaining what is happening in the cartoon and a lot of the back story and motivations until he feels that he has had enough of an understanding. (Perhaps he will become an actor some day, asking the director: What is my motivation?)

I love that he is so curious and wants to understand what is happening in the world around him. When I answer his or Jaclyn's questions I try and answer it as honest and truthfully as I can. I believe in being honest with them.

When we watch movies now, even if he has seen the movie before, he wants to know why the characters are acting a certain way. We have talked about the movie Cars and why Chick Hicks isn't nice to the other cars, we have talked about the prince from Beauty and the Beast and how he wasn't kind and was turned into the Beast.

I could go on in what we have covered in the past few months but right now I want to tell you about yesterday's conversation.

We were watching the beloved Disney classic Bambi.

Anyone who has seen this movie remember the scene when Bambi's mother dies. Well shortly after that scene David and I had a conversation that went like this:

David: Mom where is Bambi's mom?

Me: She's dead.

David: Who killed her?

Me: The hunter's that we talked about earlier in the movie.

David: Oh..

Silence as he process this discovery.

David: Where is Bambi's mom's body?

Me: The hunters probably took it.

Silence again

David: I think I know what they are doing with the body!

Me: Oh...and what is that?

David: They are going to cut up Bambi's mom's body and make deer soup with it!

Me: (trying not to laugh) Why do you think that?

David: I don't know, it just makes sense.

Me: (trying not to laugh again)

I find it fascinating at how my sons brain works and it's conversations like this that I am able to get a glimpse of how he process and thinks about different life matters. Even if its a conversation about the death of a beloved Disney character like Bambi's mom.

Broken

2011-05-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

I love walks and about a week and a half ago my friend and I were planning on going for an evening walk, it was so beautiful out and I had just put my kids to bed and we were planning to meet somewhere in the middle of our houses.

Sounds like a great idea right??

Well it was a wonderful idea. Unfortunately, as I was leaving my house, I fell. I rolled my ankle and heard a loud cracking sound. I tried to move and get up but I couldn't use my ankle and was in a lot of pain. Not having many options, I then called for Chris to come out and help me, and thankfully I was not far from my front door.

After Chris helped me into the house, he then found my friend and told her that I was not going to be meeting her that night and then found someone to sit at our house with the children while he took me to the ER.

Once I finally saw the doctor there he told me it was just a bad sprain but I should stay off it for a week or so. I wasn't able to put any weight on it for the first 6 days and then I was able to put a little bit of weight on it but it still hurt more then I think it should have for a sprain.

So last Tuesday (7days after my fall) I went to a sports clinic and had them look at it. I was told that I had cracked the top of my ankle and torn some ligaments or tendons in it as well. They casted my leg and sent me home with instructions not to put ANY wight on it for about two weeks when I am able to go back in and see how I am healing.

So here I sit with my leg in a cast all because I had a strange fall that cracked my ankle.

My husband is awesome and I am very blessed to have him! As much as he has in his week to get done with work he has been able to keep up with all of his normal schedule as well as do most of what I do during the week. He has been cooking, cleaning, laundry and so much more.

I have had different issues in the past with walking when I was younger (I have had 4 knee operations) but I have been very lucky that I have been able to walk normally almost everyday since I had children.

Its amazing how we can take for granted being able to move on our own and doing things for ourselves and those around us. I am accustom to making my own tea, cleaning my house, cooking and caring for the daily needs of my family. As I have been sitting around these past few weeks I have been learning again at how important it is to thank God that I am able to walk on a daily basis and how there are many around our country and world who have to rely on others to care for them everyday.

I will be able to walk without crutches in a few weeks and my life will go back to "my normal" fairly soon. As I think about it, my prayer and hope is that I remember those around me, those in my country and around the world who are still dependent on others and when I have the opportunity, to help and support them. I also pray that God gives them continued patience in their circumstances and the help that they need.

It is amazing what God can teach when you see things from a new point of view.

Laptops and Tea

2011-05-15T18:02:00.000-07:00

About a month ago now, my husbands computer died a sad death which left him without a computer for work. I being the wonderful wife that I am gave him my laptop to use for the meantime while we save for a new computer. Unfortunately this means that I have limited access to a computer. I still have me iPod touch, which allows me to access email/facebook. However it does mean that it is harder for me to blog. I am planning on sitting down somewhat regularly (most likely weekly) to blog about what has been happening around here.

As some of you know I have a love for tea! My favorite place to get tea is at Starbucks....yummy!

I find that the day goes better with a cup of tea. My love for tea is somewhat rubbing off on my children. Both of my children on a weekly or at least by-weekly basis ask if they can have tea with me. So we drink tea together, actually I drink tea they drink "milk tea".

Here are my two little "tea" drinkers enjoying morning tea with me.

Over the last few months whenever we go to town to do some shopping Jaclyn will say to us "guys, I need my Starbucks".

The funny thing about that line is that I rarely go to Starbucks these days. I do however have Starbucks mugs at home that she sees regularly and when she see the Starbucks sign she wants it too. Funny kid!

Let the games begin...

2011-04-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

All over the world, there is one game that is more loved and appreciated, and it is that time of year again...soccer (at least it is that time here).

David and Jaclyn both love the idea of soccer (AKA: running around and kicking things) and this year is their first year in an organized soccer program.

They both LOVED it!!

Even before we got to the first practice, David was so excited that he saw the whole day as prep for this momentous occasion. For nearly the entire day today David would say things like: "mom, I need to rest so that I have energy for soccer tonight" and "I think its time for a quiet time so that I have energy to run at soccer tonight". He would also take almost any opportunity to check and see if it was time for soccer yet, and how much more time he would have to wait before he could go?

I think he was a little excited!!

When they got there, even before things began, Jaclyn was off, having seen a ball she began to kick it, even if it was part of another teams practice... something that needs to be developed is perhaps some rules for soccer. They began with some basic warm up and drills, which confused our kids as to why we were not kicking balls yet, but they did learn many skills such as running through a huge group of kids aware enough not to run smack into someone. Then they started kicking and it was great fun and craziness all rolled into one for a while, until they called it in for snack.

Result = fun was had by all

I think we will all be looking forward to the next practice for soccer (football)

Sleeping Masks

2011-04-20T09:56:00.000-07:00

For many years now I have been sleeping with a sleeping mask. I have always been someone who sleeps better in a dark room. I can remember when I was a little girl and then as a teenager I would hide my eyes just so I could sleep. One day when I was a teen my dad brought me home a sleeping mask that he got on a trip he took (I think it was one of those masks that they offer you on airplanes or something).

That was when I first discovered my love of the sleeping mask!

Shortly after we were married Chris found me a wonderful sleeping mask that I absolutely love. It is so comfortable and it makes sleeping much more enjoyable for me. Chris also has a mask now.

Both of my children are similar to me in the sense that they also like to sleep in the dark. I have made them both room darkening curtains and they will still sleep hiding under their covers. Then about a month ago both David and Jaclyn told me at different times that they are unable to sleep because they don't have sleeping masks.

Then this morning David asked again for a sleeping mask. I pulled out some of my extra fabric pieces and I made two sleeping masks for the kids, Davids is striped on one side and trains on the other. Jaclyn's is pink on one side and butterflies on the other, this way they are reversible.

Spring where are you??

2011-04-16T07:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the kids and I went for a lovely walk outside with their wagon. It was actually really nice outside, in fact the weather here has been getting a little warmer everyday.

My whole family has been happy that Spring is here and we have been talking about riding bikes, walks, picnics as well as playing sports outside now that the weather is clearing up.

Then this morning the kids woke up to this:

backyard

front yard

When David saw the snow this morning he said: "Why does the snow keep coming back, I thought it was Spring?"

Jaclyn said: "Why, more snow?"

As I am writing this my children are down the hall playing with Transformers and a mini ball pit. Just a few moments ago I heard David tell Jaclyn: "we should play in our rooms and wait for the snow to go away again".

I just hope that we aren't waiting for that long.

What kind of weather did you wake up too?

I'm all Ears

2011-04-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took Jaclyn into the doctors for the second time in two weeks. When I first took her to see the doctor two weeks ago she had a double ear infection, so she was put on antibiotics. Then six days after she finished her antibiotics (yesterday) I had her back into the doctors to have her checked out again. Again she has a double ear infection.

This is her third set of ear infections in the last four months, and her fifth or six in her three years of life.

Our doctor told me that because she has had 5 or 6 ear infections that it is now time to look into some deeper issues in her ears. They are now sending us to see a Ears/Nose/Throat doctor.

I am now starting to wonder the allergy she had to milk when she was an infant is effecting her ears now. My husband and I are talking about changing Jaclyn's diet and taking her off of milk for the next little while to see if that helps. We are also deciding if we should take her off of cheese and yogurt as well. Unfortunately yogurt and cheese are some of her favorite foods and I am not sure how that one will go.

I feel so bad for my little girl and the pain that she has been in, I just want to help her.

Have any of you had children with chronic ear infections? If so what did you end up doing?

Review: Wubbzy's Egg-Cellent Easter DVD

2011-04-04T20:25:00.000-07:00

Press Release:

Beverly Hills, CA – Easter has never been more “egg-citing”! Wubbzy and his friends Walden, Widget and Daizy – from the Emmy Award^®-winning Nick Jr.^® preschool TV series, “Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!,” will give preschoolers and families even more to celebrate this Easter with a brand-new, special seasonal DVD. “Everybunny” will be chirping with laughter when “Wubbzy’s Egg-Cellent Easter,” the latest release in the best-selling DVD series from Anchor Bay Entertainment, sprouts up in stores from coast-to-coast, Tuesday, March 1, 2011.

“We’re delighted to bring this adorable and festive new ‘Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!’ title to preschoolers across the country, just in time for the holiday,” said Erin Carter, Executive Director of Brand Marketing, Anchor Bay Entertainment. “The charming new release is the perfect answer for families on the ‘hunt’ for affordable Easter gifts and is a great way for them to celebrate spring together – the Wubbzy-way – with relatable age-appropriate life lessons and lots of heartfelt humor.”

All the kooky action of Easter in Wuzzleburg comes to life in six “egg-ceptional” episodes featured on the debut DVD. In “Wubbzy’s Egg-Cellent Easter,” Wubbzy and his pals celebrate the first day of spring with a game of kickity-kick ball and discover new ways to decorate eggs for the annual Easter Egg Hunt. And when the holiday is suddenly cancelled, it’s up to Wubbzy to save the day!

For even more Easter cheer, “Wubbzy’s Egg-Cellent Easter” includes holiday-themed coloring sheets and activity pages.

“Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!” has been a hit with young viewers and their families since its 2006 TV premiere on Nickelodeon^®, and the show currently airs daily on Nick Jr. Wubbzy is a fun, lovable, curious little guy who just likes to play, play, play with his friends in the eye-popping town of Wuzzleburg. The top-rated series supports preschool social skills – sharing, listening, compromising, helping and appreciating others, self-awareness and the use of humor as a coping skill.

Although their world is more fanciful and imaginative than our own, Wubbzy, Widget, Walden and Daizy, deal with the same social and developmental issues faced by preschoolers. They learn how they fit into a group, how to understand their own feelings and those of others, how to get along with one another and the value of friendship and community.

“Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!” is produced by Bolder Media, Inc. in association with Starz Media’s Film Roman Animation Studio. It is a worldwide hit that is broadcast in 60+ countries. Susan Miller (co-producer of Ella Enchanted) and Fred Seibert (executive producer of “The FairlyOdd Parents”) are the executive producers of the show created by Emmy^® Award winner Bob Boyle (producer of “The FairlyOdd Parents”).

My Review:

I was asked to do a guest review for my friend Tara @ tarasviewoftheworld. Thanks Tara for thinking of us! We received our copy of Wubbzy's Egg-Cellent Easter a few days ago and it has certainly been a hit at our house. Both my 4 year old and my 3 year old love to watch it and they both really get into the show. It is a great video that can easily engage kids and even has some good lessons in it concerning the value of doing work yourself, finding joy in what you have instead of obsessing about what you don't and all sorts of other worthwhile ideas.

One of my favorite parts was the episode involving the Easter bunny, where he was unable to deliver Easter eggs because he had eaten only candy, and they talk about not eating too much junk food and enjoying fruits and veggies, and exercise. It was not over the top cheesy but actually got the kids talking about what foods they should be eating. I even heard my son tell my daughter later that she shouldn't ask for a cookie because she needs to eat more fruit...which was both funny and good to hear.

My family also liked the fact that it was not overdone in terms of energy level and voice levels. My husband even mentioned that he appreciated the fact that the main characters didn't shout all the time, and the show did not hype the kids up so a point that they were bouncing off the walls.

If you are looking for a new video for your kids this Easter, I think this would be a great addition that would work for pretty much everyone, and "spring" into a new season.

For more Easter fun with your family you can go to http://www.wubbzy.com/ and print off some coloring sheets or even some great craft ideas.

You can also go here for your chance to win a original piece of artwork from the Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! creator Bob Boyle.

Relaxation

2011-03-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

What Relaxes you??

I know that some people relax when they can get out with friends, some its watching a movie or TV and others its sitting in a quiet place alone. I could go on and on but I think most of you have already thought about what relaxes you.

For me if I am feeling a little stressed or just need to think about something or even if I have had a busy week and just want to have a break. There are two things that relax me, first its sitting and having tea with my best friend my husband and the other is to clean....yes that right clean!

I really enjoy cleaning and organizing our house. My husband finds it a little weird that I get energized when I clean. Just last week he came into our sons room where I was sorting through clothes that were to small and organizing his dresser. When Chris came in the room he started to laugh and said "you know that you are not normal and that most people avoid cleaning the way you do and here you are getting energized by it".

He does laugh sometimes and even try and convince me that we should watch a movie together instead of cleaning something. Then there are other times when he will tell me how wonderful it is that I am willing to clean out old closets and toss things that we don't need or use anymore.

I remember before we had children we lived in this great little townhouse. I would re-organize a whole room while Chris was at work. Now I am not just meaning I would move furniture but I would find a new place to put everything in that room. I lost tract of how many times I re-organized our kitchen. There were times when Chris would come home from work and look at me and say "did you have a good day and where can I find a cup?" Chris has always been very patient with me as I re-organize and clean out our house.

One other thing that I enjoyed doing is Spring Cleaning, only in our house instead of being once or twice a year it is more like once every 6-8 weeks.

I always seem to be looking for a better way to use the space we have therefor some things that are not being used that are broken (that I am never going to fix) I will donate to someone/somewhere where else.

All this to say that I think its about that time again. My over sized bookshelf in my living/dinning room is looking a little cluttered and I think I will make myself a cup of tea and put on some music and start cleaning!

sick kids = singing kids

2011-03-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

This morning the kids and I stayed home from church because they are still a little sick. This past week both kids were sick, Jaclyn had a cold and an ear infection. David had a cold (with me watching for changes and signs of pneumonia), on top of that we are dealing with their asthma.

It has been a long week for all of us, I am glad that they are both starting to feel better. I am looking forward to spring coming soon and being past the cold season.

Anyways, because the kids are starting to feel better they are wanting to do more then just hang out on the couch or bed and watch movies or read books. This morning they wanted to make videos for their Gramma and Grandad. So here are the videos that my kids have requested that I put on my blog for their grandparents.

David Singing ABC's

Jaclyn Singing ABC's

During the time it took me to upload the videos and publish this post both of the kids have curled up beside me to watch another movie. At least they have a little more energy everyday!

Busy Weekend, Anniversay Weekend

2011-03-21T19:43:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was a busy one for our family. I went away for two nights to a ladies retreat with some of the woman in my church. It was a wonderful time and I got to know some of the woman better and I am blessed to have these beautiful ladies in my life.

While I was gone Chris stayed home with our children. When I left David had a bit of a fever but seemed to be on the mend and Jaclyn wasn't sick. Chris had big plans for his weekend with the kids, he was going to build them another castle out of a card board box, build puzzles and mostly just play lots.

This weekend while I was gone Chris ended up having two sick and cranky kids who constantly asked for me and if I was coming home soon, they even woke up in the middle on the night asking for me. My wonderful husband never complained to me about how hard in was or how tired he was when I got home he just gave me a hug and asked me how my weekend was?

Chris is an Amazing dad and David and Jaclyn are blessed to have him as their father.

This last weekend was also our Anniversary. I am sure some people would read this and think "didn't she just say that she was away all weekend". So yes, I was away this year for our anniversary. However, I do believe that we have only ever spend two actual anniversaries together where we are either in the same house or even Province. For the first few years Chris worked over our anniversary weekend. If I remember correctly Chris worked an overtime shift last year (we needed the money) and I was sleeping by the time he got home. Don't get me wrong, we always make some time during the month of March to spend time together and celebrate it is just not usually on the actual day.

Last Saturday 6 years ago I married my best friend. When Chris and I were married he was already my best friend and I loved him more then I could have described to anyone and today just over six years later he is still my best friend and I love him ever more!

Over the time the we have been married we have lived in eight houses, a few Provinces, we have two amazing children and thousands of wonderful memories together. Like all couples we have had our ups and downs as we have certainly learned more about each other along the way. It has been a busy six years but it has also been a wonderful six years and I am glad that I was able to share every season and change in our lives with my best friend, my husband!

Crescent Beach 2004

My Diva

2011-03-17T19:24:00.000-07:00

A little while ago I was talking to my girlfriend on the phone and while we talking Jaclyn changed her outfit twice. My friend asked me if I would document a day in the life of Jaclyn and her many different outfits.

So today I had my camera ready for her and here are the outfits from today.

This is the First outfit of the day

The Second

The Third (notice the socks)

The Fourth

The Fifth and final outfit of the day

I love my little diva!!

Birthday Princess

2011-03-12T21:20:00.000-08:00

My beautiful daughter turned 3 this week.

Every year for my children's birthdays I ask them what type of theme they want for there party, this typically means what kind of cake they want. This year Jaclyn asked for a Mickey Mouse theme, and there were a few things in particular that she requested.

Our Birthday Girl

These are Minnie Mouse ears that I made. We had either Mickey or Minnie ears for all the kids who came. She had seen mouse ears in a picture and decided that she really wanted them, and we found a pretty easy way to do them.

Of course, there always has to be present openings, which is always a bit of a stretch for her, since she would much rather just check out the first thing she gets than to continue on.

One of the biggest highlights for the kids was Mickey and Minnie cake pops, which was certainly a departure from the regular cakes I do.

These are the Mickey & Minnie Cake pops.

Basically, it is cake on a stick dipped in chocolate

I think they turned out pretty good.

Happy Birthday to our lovely daughter.

Review: Couples Who Pray

2011-03-12T15:21:00.000-08:00

Couples who pray
By Squire Rushnell and Louis Duart

My Review:

Finding a quality book dealing with prayer can be a difficult thing. It seems as if everyone has seen an over-crowded market and said ‘me too’. That being said, prayer is one of those areas that seem to be a perennial difficulty in the lives of Christians. We all know that prayer is important, but actually having a prayer life that is real and growing, and finding ways to share that with your spouse...well that doesn’t always happen. As a matter of fact, it seems to happen to a statistically small portion of people.

My husband and I were looking for a devotional to go through together, and from the brief write-up, we thought this would be perfect. A time to spend some quality time in prayer together, being directed to pray for things or in ways that we might not naturally think of.

Unfortunately, this was not what this book was about. This book has much more to do with couples who have decided to pray together and their stories than it does about any sort of guidance in going through prayer for 40 days. Luckily, after getting over our initial disappointment at the misunderstanding, I did find the book contain some good parts. Even just getting this kind of a challenge out can be important, because many couples have kept their own devotional and prayer lives separate, continuing habits developed while single, and the move to shared times of prayer can be a huge way to purposefully be open with each other and each person’s desire for God.

That being said, I found the sheer amount of stories and name dropping to be fairly overdone, and I think, a bit of a cover for the lack of depth to the book itself. The authors do not even get to the actual details of taking the 40 day prayer challenge until Chapter 3 (out of 10), and when they do, they go through it so quick you wonder if you missed something

After quickly sketching out taking the challenge, they give 10 tips in helping, some being a little odd (at least in my opinion)

1. More prayer, more power. Simply talk to God. The more you pray, the more it will come to you.

OK, not to quibble, but shouldn’t it be ‘the more prayer, the more God’. This is not a magical formula to get power from a genie, this is talking to God, and the foremost benefit would be that relationship growing.

2. Make time to pray.

3. Have an attitude of gratitude and vulnerability.

4. Confess and request forgiveness.

5. Pray out loud with your spouse.

6. Keep it short. The author’s point here is to not feel that you have to go on forever, but that could have been done in a way that did not suggest the best way is to keep it short enough to be a twitter...

7. Use everyday language.

8. Pray for your marriage.

9. Pray for others and for self.

10. Expect God to answer your prayers. OK, this is one of those ones that really needs to be unpacked if you are going to say it. Because it can easily be implied that you have to force a belief in place for God to do something through your prayer, this can be a slippery argument that can tend to hurt people easily...unfortunately, they don’t take much time to make it clear

After this,the book deals with some general ideas about issues faced in marriage and how prayer together can help them, which could be very helpful for people who are in the trenches in one of these issues and could give them that added push to start praying together.

Rating: 2 out of 5

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thomas Nelson Publishers has provided you with a complimentary copy of this book for me to review.

I am not required to give a positive opinion but I am required to give my honest opinion.

Soft Kitty

2011-02-26T22:43:00.000-08:00

Here is Jaclyn singing Soft Kitty a song from the tv show

The Big Bang Theory.

Self Portraits

2011-02-23T08:43:00.000-08:00

The last time I uploaded the pictures from my camera I found some self portraits that Jaclyn took.

A Princess and Her Heart!!

2011-02-18T19:18:00.000-08:00

I want to start off today by telling you that February is Heart Month which is an awareness of all heart disease and defects. As a part of Heart Month I would like to tell you about some friends of ours who’s daughter has a heart condition called a congenital heart defect. This amazing little girl is only 5 years old.

Wikipedia: A congenital heart defect (CHD) is a defect in the structure of the heart and great vessels which is present at birth. Many types of heart defects exist, most of which either obstruct blood flow in the heart or vessels near it, or cause blood to flow through the heart in an abnormal pattern. Other defects, such as long QT syndrome, affect the heart's rhythm. Heart defects are among the most common birth defects and are the leading cause of birth defect-related deaths. Approximately 9 people in 1000 are born with a congenital heart defect.^[2] Many defects don't need treatment, but some complex congenital heart defects require medication or surgery.

There is a test that can be done in the hospital after you have a baby with the Pulse Oximeter which can help detect most CHD's. This test which is non-invasive and non-painful can save lives.

Lydia was diagnosed first diagnosis when she was 21 months old and she had her first open-heart surgery when she was 23 months old. Three weeks after Lydia and her parents got home her little brother was born. For a time all was “normal” for this family until when Lydia was 3 ½ they found out that she had pulmonary hypertension which is high blood pressure in her lungs. In November 2009 they found out that she needed a new heart and was listed for transplant in April 2010. On Thanksgiving Day last year (Oct 11, 2010) Lydia was playing in the back yard with her cousins when she collapsed and had slurred speech and was unable to walk. Once her parents reached her in the yard they began to make plans to get her to the hospital. She was later transferred to one of the leading hospital in Canada that deals with hearts. On October 29^th 2010 she had her heart hooked up to a Berlin heart/LVAD. During this time in hospital this family of five now (Lydia now has a little brother and sister) picked up and moved to a different province. With the help from Lydia’s Grandma and other family members and friends they were able to have someone with Lydia every day.

On December 11^th 2010 Lydia was given the most precious gift that she could ever be given, a second chance at life with a New Heart!!

In the days before Lydia received her new heart she was sick with an infection that the doctors where trying to discover where it was coming from. When Lydia was in her heart transplant surgery the doctors discovered where the infection was when they opened her up, they discovered that the cannulas (big tubes going into her stomach from her Berlin heart pump) were infected and full of puss. My friends were told that the infection inside of Lydia would have taken her life in two days and the only way that they would have been able to save her was buy giving her a New Heart. God perfect timing!!

Now I want to take a moment and say how much I respect the family who chose to give their child’s heart away to give another child a second chance at life. When you are in a situation where you know that your child is not going to live for one reason or another and to still make that choice to give a part of your child to someone else is a brave and heroic thing to do and I want to say a THANK YOU on behalf of Lydia’s family and those who know and have been touched by Lydia’s life.

A couple of weeks ago Lydia and her family came HOME!! Lydia is doing well in her recovery and as a family they are taking it one step at a time. I can only imagine how wonderful it would feel to be at home as a family after living in hospitals and temporary housing for almost four months.

This family I have been talking about is a part of our church here and everyone in the church and the community have been following this little girl’s story and now recovery. It has been a real blessing to see how one little girl’s life has already been such a witness to those around her in what God is capable of doing.

I have to tell you that Lydia is one of the strongest people I know and she is only 5 years old!

When we moved to this town and were starting to get to know some of the people here one of the first families we started to get to know was Lydia’s family. Lydia has two younger siblings and David and Jaclyn were happy to find some friends that just happened to be brother and sister as well that they liked to play with. David immediately liked Lydia and after she went to the hospital there wasn’t a day that went by that we didn’t pray for her to get a new heart. Than after she got a new heart David waited and waited for her to come home to play again. I think he may be a little smitten.

Then last Sunday our church wore pink to celebrate the new heart and second chance at life that Lydia was given. As a family we went out and looked for some kind of pink clothes for everyone to wear, we found a shirt for Chris, Jaclyn and I had something pink but unfortunately we were unable to find anything pink for David. At first David was sad, but then he came up with a plan all on his own about what he would where instead of pink. He then asked if he could buy Lydia a pink (real) rose and a chocolate rose. He was really cute about how much planning he put into Sunday. He started calling last Sunday “Lydia’s Sunday”.

I wanted to share a picture of David and Lydia

My "Hobby"

2011-02-06T17:46:00.000-08:00

I haven't been able to sit at my computer much lately, and because of that I haven't been as active blogging lately. To make up for this, I thought I would share with you some of the things I have been doing these past few weeks.

Many of you know that I love to work in my kitchen. This love, along with having two children, has led me into making a lot of cakes.

It all started a few years ago with making a cake for my son's second birthday. Then it was all the children's birthdays. Pretty soon I was making cakes for holidays, seasonally, and more often than not, just to try new ideas and techniques. This brought me to the point where I was asked to do my first wedding cake this summer, which was certainly raising the stakes but it was also a lot of fun.

Since we have moved, it soon got out that I like to make cakes. It wasn't too long until someone asked if I sold any of my cakes. (It is amazing how things move forward without you expecting it at times!)

I have to admit that I have been playing around with the idea of starting a small business out of my home making and selling cakes, so this hasn't been completely out of the blue, but still...

So, now I am starting to sell cakes, but I still haven't had a chance to write up a business plan or even make business cards yet. I am also still working out a lot of crucial details such as how much I want to add into our already busy schedules or even how much I should be charging.

All that aside, here are some the cakes I have made this last little while.

If you want to see some of the other cakes I have done over the years. I have another blog called HobbyCakes where I have posted some pictures of some of the other cakes I have done.

Buzz Lightyear and Woody

2011-02-02T20:14:00.000-08:00

Here are my children all dressed up and ready for bed last night.

I know that I have posted pictures of my kids in these pj's before but I just think that this picture with David wearing his cowboy hat and Jaclyn's hair all crazy was really fun that I had to share!

Alphabet Cookies

2011-01-29T21:18:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the alphabet cookies we made this week.

quiet time

2011-01-25T13:45:00.000-08:00

For the past few weeks both my kids have decided that naps weren't needed anymore. We play all morning and by the time lunch is over both David and Jaclyn will need a down time. Most days it means sitting on the couch and watching a movie while cuddling with a blanket other days it means reading a pile of books.

Today they chose to watch a princess movie together.

I think this is great picture because of how similar there positions are.

One of those days

2011-01-25T07:20:00.000-08:00

Do you ever have one of those days where you know you should be getting stuff done but don't want too?

Well today is one of those days for me. As I sit here this morning I know that I have approximately 5 or 6 loads of laundry to do. I also have three cakes to design and write a list of what I need to make said three cakes.

I also should vacuum my house and finish the dishes....sigh.

As I write out my list of all the things I should be doing all I can think about is what I want to be doing.

If you ask me today is a perfect day to sit on the couch with a warm blanket and read a book!

Baptizing Toys

2011-01-22T19:59:00.000-08:00

Tonight when David was having his bath he started to line up some of his bath toys. When I asked him what he was doing he responded with "I'm baptizing them". I asked him if he had heard about baptizing lately and he told me that he remembered it from family camp with our church (four months ago) and he thought his toys were ready to be baptized like Jesus talks about in the Bible.

Last September when we were at family camp I remember talking to David a little bit about what baptism was but it hasn't come up in conversation since then. So tonight when he brought up baptizing his toys he really surprised me. I think its kinda cool how my kid thinks about conversations and processes them long after the conversation is over.

He also remembers things like "maybe we can go to Toys R Us next time we are in town". Then he reminds me the next time we are in town even if it has been 1-2 weeks.

Just Like Mom

2011-01-15T19:25:00.000-08:00

As I sit here getting ready to have my evening cup of tea I was looking through the photos I took this past week and came across these pictures of my kids having tea.

For those of you who know me you will know that I love a good cup of hot tea. I will drink almost any type of tea but my favorite is chai. In the past (and present) the kids like to take my mug after I have finished my tea and drink the last drops. On this day however I made them each there own cup of chai (well, a kids chai anyways: 85% milk and 15% chai.) They loved it!!

I have blogged about my kids and tea a few different times over the years once here and then again here and again here. But since this was their first actual cup of tea, it deserved its own post.

Both Chris and I are also big fans of Starbucks and most of the time when the kids see a Starbucks they ask if we are going there to get "mommy her tea". Sometimes we get the kids a cookie or a special "milk tea" (chocolate milk) there which they both love especially if it is in a Starbucks cup!

This afternoon we were out running some errands and I asked Jaclyn is there was anything else she wanted to see at the store we were at and her response was "no mommy, I need my Starbucks now". I just had to laugh, because she said it so seriously.

You could say that the kids growing up with me having a cup of tea around is starting to rub off on them.

Jaclyn, Barbies and Princess movies

2011-01-14T15:07:00.000-08:00

Jaclyn was getting ready to watch her princess movie with her Barbies but she wouldn't let me turn on the movie until she had them set up just the way she wanted.

Life with my little girl is always fun and always girly!!

Octopus Cookies

2011-01-13T12:26:00.000-08:00

Do you ever wake up thinking today would be a good day for something fun and different?

I do and today was one of those days. I decided today we would make Octopus Cookies!

Both David and Jaclyn were really excited to make them and so they both helped me in the kitchen with the mixing and the measuring and of course putting the eyes on (with some taste testing of course)

Here are a few of the finished product

I am going to go and cuddle with my kids now as we eat our octopus cookies and watch a movie.

Dog-pile!

2011-01-12T10:46:00.000-08:00

Over the past few months the kids have started this new thing where they will dog-pile one another or
anyone else who happens to be on the floor.

For example, when David is sitting on the floor reading a book, doing a puzzle or even playing with toys, Jaclyn will come up and lay on top of his back and pretend to sleep. Sometimes David does the same type of thing to Jaclyn but more often then not it is Jaclyn who "sleeps" on David.

The morning this was taken, David had just put together a large puzzle on the floor. After it was done, Jaclyn said to him "lay down so we can see who's bigger" and of course he agreed. Then as soon as he laid down she jumped down on him and pretended to sleep on him, sneaky little girl. I managed to get a picture of this interaction and then they both started to act even sillier because I was taking pictures!

The kids are so funny sometimes I just have to laugh!

Ice Cream Maker

2011-01-11T18:59:00.000-08:00

One of the things that we got for Christmas was an Cuisinart Frozen Yogurt-Sorbet & Ice Cream Maker. All four of us were excited about getting it for different reasons. The kids now think that we can make ice cream anytime which means they can have ice cream cones all the time. They also wanted to learn how ice cream was made. Chris and I were looking forward to experimenting with different recipes and hopefully perfect a gelato recipe and blizzards (because who doesn't want a ice cream blizzard in the summer)

We made a lemon sorbet! It was really easy to make. The machine comes with a recipe book and most (if not all) of the recipes are really simple. As well as the machine is easy to put together, just one piece to fit into the middle and then a lid! Once all the ingredients were in the machine we turned it on and put the timer on for 25 minutes and waited. The kids stood on chairs almost the whole time watching it get thicker and turn into ice. David called me over many times to see how it changed and was starting to look like ice cream!

I didn't manage to get any pictures of the kids watching the us make our first batch of sorbet, however I did manage to get a picture of their first bite of it.

As you can see David thought it was sour but still really enjoyed it.

Jaclyn's facial impression was priceless. This was the first and only bit she ate of the sorbet it was just to sour for her.

I along with the rest of my family are looking forward to trying many new ice treat recipes. In fact today we bought some vanilla bean to make a vanilla bean gelato recipe that Chris found.....yummy!

Toilet Tales

2011-01-04T17:43:00.000-08:00

My oh so dependent daughter tonight had a bit of a fall.....into the toilet.

This evening when she was getting ready for her bath she striped down and sat on the toilet to pee.

Something I have always felt as a good practice for my kids to do before bath time, after all who wants to have a bath with pee.

OK back to my story, after Jaclyn was done peeing I asked her if she wanted some help off the toilet and into the bath. Her response was "I do it myself". Somehow, while getting off the toilet, her one foot slipped and she was in the toilet up to her chest.I have no idea how she managed it, even after watching it happen...

I should also tell you that within seconds I picked her up and put her into the bath. Once in the bath she said to me "mommy, I fell in the toilet, I have pee on me I need to wash it off".

So maybe the whole no pee in the bathtub plan didn't quite work this time...oh well.

Happy New Year!!

2011-01-02T20:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon David and I were reading a book about holidays, when it came to New Years he asked if that was the holiday we were just having.

Earlier that morning we had changed over our calendar and we had talked about starting a new year now.

He was even more curious why in the book they were wearing party hats and hanging a banner for

New Years and we hadn't done any yet today, it was 2pm in the afternoon.

So I looked at him and then to Chris and said well then we better get ready for our New Years party. We pulled out some paper and started making party hats and then we made a banner, blew up some balloons. Then we made a pudding pie (because you can't have a party without dessert), and of course, both had to change into "party outfits." Then, after we were all ready, the party began.

We played some fun music and danced around for quite a while until the kids started to get tired, so we had snacks in the living room and finished off our party with pudding pie and tacos. Both David and Jaclyn told us multiple times that this was the best New Years day party ever!!

We even managed to get a picture of Chris and I together

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Christmas Morning

2010-12-29T21:55:00.000-08:00

This is a few days late however I still wanted to share a little about our Christmas morning this year.

Because the kids and I got sick the week of Christmas our morning started around 8:30am with the kids waking up and then we went to the living room.

Opening stockings

David was really excited for Jaclyn to open the gift that he picked out for her. It was a Toy Story Barbie!

David checking out the Toy Story 3 Lego that Jaclyn got him.

Jaclyn was so sick that we had to stop opening gifts for awhile so that she could just cuddle and both the kids rested for a bit before starting up again.

Here is Jaclyn at then end of the morning half sleeping on the couch watching their new Tinkerbell movie.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T18:38:00.000-08:00

My kids showing off there new Christmas pajamas.

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!!

my sick little girl

2010-12-23T21:48:00.000-08:00

My little girl has had a long week. On Monday I saw the signs of a cold coming on and then by Tuesday it was full blown. On Tuesday evening after I put Jaclyn to bed she woke up within 30 minutes of falling asleep. She was crying and having a hard time breathing.

Over the next two hours she slept very little and was coughing and wheezing.

Jaclyn has had asthma for some time and when she is sick it acts up even more. At one point after I had settled her and she was sleeping again. I was sitting in her room with my hand on her chest praying over her when I felt her stop breathing three different times. I have never seen her do this before so I called my husband (who was at a meeting) and told him I needed to take Jaclyn into the hospital to find out why she was having difficulty breathing. He came straight home and my girlfriend arrived at the same time to sit with David.

After getting to the hospital we waited for about an hour and a half before we saw the doctor and by then her breathing had started to settle back to normal. After seeing the doctor we found out that she needed a stronger inhaler to add to the first inhaler that she was already on. Her asthma gets really bad when she is sick and right now with her cold her asthma is bad. I guess I should get use to with two kids with asthma.

I got her home that night and we started right away on the secondary inhaler which helped with her breathing almost immediately.

Unfortunately, this isn't the end of the story, because since Tuesday night, she has had a fever that has been getting worse over the last few days. Last night her fever got as high as 103.2 F. I managed to get her fever down to somewhere between 100 F and 101 F with a cool bath. Today when I was getting her ready for another bath she had a rash on her lower back and hips so I again took her into the doctor to get her checked out. It turns out that she now has a ear infection that is the cause of her high fevers. So now she is on a medication that should help her feel better soon.

Hopefully Jaclyn will be able feel better now that she is on the right medications and be able to enjoy Christmas in two days.

Toilet Training Up-Date

2010-12-21T19:22:00.000-08:00

Well as I wrote in a previous post call Last Diaper I was starting down the path of potty training my daughter. I thought now was a good time to give an update on how it is going.

On the day that I started her training she was a little grumpy to start, which I thought was because she was just not in the mood to go on the toilet. It turned out that she was getting one of her two year molars. I was however not going to put her back in diapers. For one thing I like the idea of once they are in underwear then they don't go back into diapers and second I had No more diapers, so she had to wear underwear.

By the end of that first day I had done two loads of laundry and Jaclyn had not once gone on the toilet.

This in fact went on for the first 10 days of her toilet training.

One thing I do in the initial stages of toilet training is I set up a toilet station in my living room. I find that I am able to get them comfortable on the toilet while watching a movie or reading books and then relax enough to go. That just wasn't the case for Jaclyn. She would sit on her toilet for an entire movie and then get up without doing anything.

I would remind her to tell me when she has to go pee and I would take her again. But NO, what she would do is come into the kitchen after sitting on the toilet for over an hour (I should say that it was her choice not to get up off her toilet for a break during the movie, I always offered) and tell me that she was peeing. Yes not that she had to go pee but that she was in the process of peeing. So I would clean up my daughter, my floor and get ready for another load of laundry. Did I mention that this was on going for the first 10 days, not once did she go on the toilet.

There were points where I was really frustrated with how stubborn she was being. When I would talk to my mom about how Jaclyn was acting my mom would just laugh and say "she sounds just like you". Then my husband would say things like she does have control over her body. When she is ready she will be ready.

While I am HAPPY to say that she woke up one day and when I said "OK Jaclyn, its time to go on the toilet" she didn't argue instead she went right away and has been every day for the last 13 days. She has been accident free throughout the days and most of the nights.

Yes, I understand that most parents who read this will just shake their heads at me and say 10 days in nothing. But for me when my son was so easy this drove me crazy.

Yay for no more diapers!!

Spiderman and Cat-Woman

2010-12-21T09:17:00.000-08:00

Tassimo Canada Home Brewing System - Review

2010-12-15T19:34:00.000-08:00

I grew up in the city and have spent the last 10 plus years going to coffee shops on a regular basis. I became accustomed to the luxury of going to almost any coffee shop the I wanted and ordering myself a cappuccino, latte, chai or just about any other speciality drink I wanted. Well, recently my family moved to a small town that doesn't have any of the coffee shops that I have had with in minutes of our home in the past. Don't get me wrong, I love living in a small town, I just wish it had a Starbucks.

So imagine my excitement when I was given the chance to review a Tassimo Canada!

I was delighted that I would be able to make all the drinks that I love right here in the comfort of my home.

I was so excited to get my Tassimo Canada that I had my husband check the post office almost every day, just to see if it was here. The day before I received my Tassimo, I was at the store and I looked at some of the options that I could make with my new Tassimo Canada. I was delighted to see that there were so many different options available to chose from STARBUCKS^®, NABOB, MAXWELL HOUSE, TWININGS and that's just to name a few. I knew that I would be getting some to test out with my Tassimo to try but I wanted some options so I bought the hot chocolate, latte and chai mixes.

I was very excited the next day when I stopped at the post office and was able to pick up my Tassimo Canada!

When we got home to open the box I am not sure as to who was more excited me or my son. My son was excited that we had a special machine that could make him and his sister hot chocolate, I was excited for pretty much every other drink!

I was first impressed with how small the Tassimo Canada was, it fits perfectly on my counter and I was also impressed with how easy it was to set up. The initial cleaning and set up instructions were clear and the Tassimo Canada came with two water filters.

After setting up my new Tassimo machine my family waited patiently for me to start making our new drinks to try. My children chose the hot chocolate, my husband had the latte and I had a cappuccino. We were all pleased with how quickly the drinks were made and how tasty they were.

That evening my husband and I made the chai and were both happy with the beverage of choice that evening.

I also had some friends over to test out my new Tassimo Canada and together we tried a few different variations and our favorite was the chai with a splash of eggnog.....so yummy!!

If you are still looking for a gift for the someone on your Christmas list who likes speciality drinks from coffee shops or you are looking to spoil yourself this holiday season I would recommend that you buy a

Tassimo Canada. This is a great Home Brewing System that I know my family will continue to enjoy for a long time. In fact my husband is trying to figure out how he can convince me to let him take it to his office at work.

David's Top 5 Favorite Things about Christmas

2010-12-14T22:42:00.000-08:00

I know that I am biased, but I have some amazing kids. Sometimes they really surprise me in the conversations that we have for instance the other day I was talking to David about Christmas, and during this conversation I asked him what his favorite thing about Christmas was. After a moment of thinking it through he just started listing things in order and gave me his top 5 favorite things about Christmas.

Here is David's top 5 Favorite Things about Christmas:

1. Decorations
2. Christmas Music
3. Making/writing Christmas cards
4. Giving Presents
5. Getting Presents

I am proud of my son that on his top 5 list for Christmas that getting presents is number 5!!

Book Review - Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room

2010-12-13T11:25:00.000-08:00

I was recently sent a copy of Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room, written by Nancy Guthrie to review.

Book Summary:

How many Christmas mornings have you found your family gathered around the tree with presents beautifully wrapped and a scrumptious feast on the table - but with hearts that have not been prepared to truly take in the wonder of God's becoming human? Not this year.

Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room, a family Advent devotional from Bible teacher and mom Nancy Guthrie, is designed to bring your family together during a season that is often too much about programs and presents and simply not enough about Jesus. Along with devotions for every day in December, this resource includes popular Christmas carols and discussion questions that will draw your elementary through high school age kids into the conversation, transforming this time together from a dry lecture into a treasured family experience.

My Review:

I really appreciated how in this book, each devotional portion is shorter. This is so that when I am reading it with my young children they are able to keep focused, and I believe that the same would go for families with older kids. There is also scripture throughout each devotional, which is something that I find very important. I find I am able to read a devotional all the way through when there are Bible verses through out and not just someones opinion. There are also some great discussion questions to get your families conversation started.

For those families that are wanting to keep the conversation going there is a section called: More from the Bible - This section gives a deeper look into other sections that relate to the devotional that was just read.

Throughout this book there are sections where you are able to write out discussions and prayer request that as a family you can look back at and see how God in working in your life.

Another bonus with this book that I appreciated was the music that was brought in.There are some classic Christmas hymns that are written throughout, with Nancy giving the history of where the that particular hymn comes from and how it relates to the devotional.

I also appreciated how this Christmas Advent devotional goes through all 31 days of December and not just the first 25 until Christmas day. Recognizing that the birth is not the end of the story is something that needs to be developed as I work through the meaning of Christmas with my children.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and I am excited to go through it as a family during the Christmas season.

---------------------------------

Tyndale House Publishers has provided you with a complimentary copy of this book for me to review.

I am not required to give a positive opinion but I am required to give my honest opinion.

Funny misunderstandings

2010-12-08T11:01:00.000-08:00

A conversation today at our house:

Me: Your Grandad and Grandma said they miss you

Jaclyn: Ohhh...I miss them too

Me: Well, maybe we should call them and let them know?

Jaclyn: (Yelling) Oh Grandad...Grandma !! I miss you

Me: (Laughing) Um, I meant on the phone

Jaclyn: Oh...OK

I love my kids.

Girls being girls

2010-12-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

This morning Jaclyn and I painted our toes together while the boys were out.

Dance With Me

2010-12-07T09:12:00.000-08:00

Last week we had our family Christmas photos taken and during one of our breaks the kids started to dance together. Our friends who were also our photographers managed to take these great pictures of the kids as they were dancing.

Apparently dancing was hard work and Jaclyn was tired by the end of there dance and needed a little rest.

Mereadesso Twitter Party !!

2010-12-05T20:53:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share with all my readers about this great Twitter party that is happening this Tuesday December 7th between 7pm & 9pm. (EST)

My friends Tara and Shannon are hosting their first ever Twitter Party.

There will be $2,000 worth of premium skincare products to be won.

Keep reading for details. Open to Canada and the USA

Here is some information for those of you who are wondering what Mereadesso products are about.

When a former cosmetics executive grew weary of her own beauty regime, things could have gotten ugly. Instead, they got ridiculously good-looking.

Putting her degrees in chemistry and botany to good use, cosmetic aficionado Linda Stephenson developed a single-step skincare solution teeming with minerals, antioxidants, vitamins, enzymes and botanical extracts that were globally sourced for their purity and effectiveness.

Mereadesso Woman was born. And Linda rendered the beauty regime she helped create obsolete. Oops!

Join them for their 1st ever twitter party with $2,000 worth of skincare product prizes on Tuesday, December 7th between 7pm - 9pm (EST), sponsored by Mereadesso Woman!
See the bottom of this post for the details!

Beauty need not be an ugly process.

One ingredient will not solve all your beauty needs and a cabinet full of skin products gets both cumbersome and confusing. That's why every bottle of Mereadesso is laden with countless minerals, vitamins and extracts to battle fine lines and wrinkles, even out skin tone and improve elasticity. Our formulas also eliminate the need to segregate by skin type, zone, time of day and, believe it or not, even gender:

The Mereadesso Woman line of skincare products is designed for the woman who understands that there is no one "magic ingredient" to solve her needs. She also does not have the time or desire to use 16 different products to achieve her goals.

Finally, it is possible to find the combination of ingredients that addresses all the needs of your skin. There are no toners, serums, day/night or 3am creams, or different formulas for different "skin types" in the Mereadesso Woman line, nor will there ever be. There is no confusion of what product to use, where or at what time.

Simplicity, ease, and effectiveness. One step, one product, for every woman.

Mereadesso has been featured in Elle Canada (July 2010), SavvyMom.ca (Lotion Emotion), and the Toronto Star (May 2010) to name a few and loved by such Celebrities like Tonya Lee Williams from The Young & The Restless.

Mereadesso Woman Twitter Party Details:

Date: Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

Time: 7 pm - 9 pm EST

Where - Twitter Hashtag: #Mereadesso (make sure you spell it right, ME -- READ -- ESSO)

Prizes: $2,000 worth of Mereadesso Skincare Product

Host: @shasherslife (Shannon Jacobson-Mischuk, Founder of Shasher's Life, 38 year old avid user of this product and Mom of 4)

Co-Host: @tarasview (Tara Robertson, Founder of Tara's View of the World, Mom of 3 who turns 35 on Christmas Day and is also an avid user of this product)

Moderator: @mychaos (Tammi Roy, Founder of My Organized Chaos, Mom of 3)

Get a head start on your holiday wish list by entering to win the pre-party prize - a travel size package of Beautiful Body Balm, Face + Neck Cleanser & the exotic Face + Neck Toning Jel a $60 value from Mereadesso!

Enter to win the pre-party prize by:

* Filling out the Linky below to RSVP

* Tweeting out the details of the #Mereadesso party before the party

* Be sure to follow @shasherslife, @tarasview, @mychaos and of course Mereadesso's own Linda Stephenson on @Beautytruths throughout the evening for updates, prize information and contest details.

* Visit Mereadesso Woman's website or follow them on Facebook to familiarize yourself with this great company.
Hint Hint: Some of the questions asked during the twitter party will be found on these two sites... you may want to bookmark them!

*** Here's a special code you can use until December 10th to receive FREE SHIPPING on any orders made through Mereadesso's online shop. It's another thank you for joining this wonderful twitter party - TWP710 ***

If you have any questions, feel free to contact my friend Tara at taradawnrobertson {at} hotmail [dot] com

PS. Don't forget to enter the Mereadesso Share & Win Contest:
Enter to win a $2500 Sears Travel Voucher from Mereadesso Woman HERE!! (open to Canada only)

Holiday Gift Giveaway Hop!!!

2010-11-30T20:37:00.000-08:00

The Wonderful Simply Stacie, My Wee View, Little Yayas and Stockpiling Moms is hosting a Holiday Gift Giveaway hop and I wanted to get involved with it too! There are over 200 blogs participating in this draw so you will have many chances to win!!

So I am giving away a $25 dollar gift card for Best Buy!!

For your 1st entry all you have to do is Follow this Blog (via Goggle Friend Connect on the right side)

Extra Entries

Follow me on Twitter

Tweet about this Giveaway

Blog about this Giveaway

*Remember to leave a comment telling me what you did and your email.
*Winner will be chosen by Random.org

This giveaway is Closed!
Winner has been contacted and will have 48 hours to respond.
Winner chosen by Random.org

----------------------------------------------------

Last Diaper

2010-11-28T18:24:00.000-08:00

Well its only a few months later then I had initially planned but at least it's happening.

Tonight Jaclyn is wearing her last diaper.

I start toilet training in the morning!

Saying goodbye to this stage for me is a sad and happy time.

Sad because it means that my children are no longer babies.

Happy because it means I don't have to change anymore diapers! And because my children are learning to have more independence (this is also a little sad).

It's times like this when my children are going through another development stage that I am thankful that I take so many pictures of them. I love going back and remembering what they were like as younger children/babies and seeing how far they have come. It makes me more excited to see what kind of a people they will be when they grow up.

Now back to toilet training, I have to tell you that I am super excited that we are starting this tomorrow.

Both Jaclyn, mommy and daddy are ready to be done with diapers!

David is also excited for Jaclyn to be out of diapers and wearing underwear.

I think that David has felt like Jaclyn was left behind because she was still in diapers when the rest of us wear underwear.

For instance tonight when I took David into the bathroom for his night pee, he said to me "mommy, I'm glad that Jaclyn will be wearing underwear tomorrow and not diapers, because then she can be just like you and me and daddy"

And then earlier when David was saying goodnight to Jaclyn he told her "Jackie, when you have to go pee or poo on the toilet you tell me and I will help you in the bathroom and call mommy for you, OK". Jaclyn responded with "OK David, thanks"

I have a feeling that toilet training Jaclyn is going to be a bit of a family ordeal.

snow, snow, snow!

2010-11-25T07:54:00.000-08:00

This is what I woke up to this morning and it is still snowing

View from my front window

My front entry way

My backyard

I know that it is cold and it means that we all have to wear more layers of clothes and that the roads are not always the best for traveling but I love snow.

I love the way that it looks and how it brightens up the trees! I also love that sometime I get snowed in, its a great reason to stay home and play with my kids or catch up on some reading with a cozy blanket and cup of hot tea!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2010-11-22T13:52:00.000-08:00

I just love Christmas!!

I start to play Christmas music on November 1st and then we decorate our house sometime in the last two weeks of November.

Both of my kids love Christmas as well and they start to ask when we can decorate our house even before they hear Christmas music, and even more after they have seen the first snow fall. David has asked us everyday for the last few weeks if today is the day that we will decorate for Christmas.

I am happy that are kids have had such good memories with Christmas and that they get excited about doing things like putting up decorations. This afternoon, after what seemed like the longest wait for my kids, we brought out the decorations. David got home from school and we decorated our tree and our house together as a family.

My little girl after the tree was up.

Our Tree

I asked David if I could take his picture with the tree and this is the pose he gave me.

The kids watching a Winnie the Pooh Christmas movie after decorating.

This week I should be able to finish up my Christmas shopping and start on my Christmas baking. It is amazing how putting up a tree and decorations really feels like the Christmas season has fully come.

Book Review: Then sings my soul

2010-11-19T19:38:00.000-08:00

Is there a festive season of the year that is complete without one of your favorite hymns? Not only do hymns connect you to great memories, but they also reveal the faith of those who lived throughout history. As Robert Morgan explored the stories behind some of the best-loved hymns, he found fascinating accounts of tribulations, triumphs, struggles, and hope - ordinary people who connected with God in amazing ways, sharing their experiences through song. Taken of the back of the cover of Then Sings My Soul

A lot of people sing songs without paying attention to the words. I have always been someone who likes to know the words of the song I am listening to or singing. The book Then Sings My Soul by Robert J. Morgan takes singing a song one step further by telling the stories of how and why a song was written and who the author was who wrote the music. This book covers 150 Christmas, Easter and many other favorite hymns.

The layout of this book is where one side has the song lyrics and music and the following page(s) tells the story. Personally I love the way the this book is written, when I am reading a story I can go to the song and read the words as well which makes the story almost more personal for me. When I was growing up I heard a lot of older hymns and I have really enjoyed reading the history of the songs.

For instance, the song Great is thy faithfulness by Thomas Chisholm was given new depth of meaning after hearing of the life of the author. Having had a life of up's and downs which included sickness, job issues and other troubles, Chisholm discovered faith at age 27, and through the next years began to discover the truths of the bible in scripture. This was written after reading through lamentations, and though it is not in any way part of a hugely dramatic event, it showed the steady work and faith of someone growing in their faith through many up's and downs.

Although this book is not incredible, it certainly helps to bring added meaning to many songs that we sing, and I would recommend it to any who have a desire to think about what we sing in Church.

I am a member of Thomas Nelson Publishers Book Sneeze program. Thomas Nelson provided me with a free copy if this book in exchange for my review of this book and I am not required to provide a favorable review.

Potlucks

2010-11-10T14:24:00.000-08:00

I love it when our church gets together for potlucks! Just last week we had one of the life groups in our church over for a potluck. It was wonderful getting to know some of the people in our church a little bit better and sharing a meal together.

There were six kids here that were older then David and Jaclyn and they loved having older children wanting to play with them and in their bedrooms.

At the end of the night, when most of the families were getting ready to go home, our kids were a bit overwhelmed and over tired. To give them a bit of a mellow time we ended up setting the kids up on our bed to have a little quiet time while watching Little Bear. They were so cute we had to take some pictures.

My New Hair!

2010-11-05T18:21:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I went and had my hair cut and colored. I haven't colored my hair since before Jaclyn was born and for the last year Chris has been cutting my hair.

So as you can imagine I was a little nervous about how my hair would turn out.

Before

After

What do you think?

bed time

2010-11-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

My family was asking about Jaclyn's hair and how curly it is now. I thought that this was a good picture to show some of her curl.

I took this picture after the kids decided one night at bedtime that they were going to sleep in our bed.

I just love the faces they make while they are "sleeping"

Woody is that you?

2010-10-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

Somehow I don't think that the creators of Toy Story thought that Woody the cowboy doll would be dressed in a diaper, baby bonnet and baby bib wrapped in a pink blanket.

And yet here he is...

Jaclyn and her baby Woody doll.

a girl and her hair

2010-10-23T16:20:00.000-07:00

Jaclyn wakes up every morning with an idea about what she wants done with her hair. She will come up to me and say "pretty hair". Our conversation will then go something like this:

Mom (me): How would you like your hair done?

Jaclyn: umm....with a pony.

Mom (me): one or two?

Jaclyn: two, then its beautiful!

Mom (me): OK.

She will then run to the bathroom and stand on her step stool and wait for me to style her hair. Then she will declare "I am so beautiful".

There are times that her hair has clips and ponytails or just hair clips. One thing that is always the same is that she announces to the whole house (or whoever is listening) that she is beautiful and waits for someone else to complement her.

One thing this girl has is lots of self confidence.

I told her I wanted a picture of her hair and these are some of the faces that she gave me.

Ice Cream shop

2010-10-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

As I didn't have Internet for a good portion of the summer I am going to be writing about some of the adventures that our family had this summer.

My birthday was in August and my kids really wanted to do something for me to celebrate as a family. Chris managed to convince them that a birthday party or cake would not be the best idea this year. So instead we went to this cute little ice cream shop that is only open for a few months of the year. It's really cute!

One other thing I should say is that I was really sick for my birthday. The day before I went to the doctor and found out that I had as the doctor put it "bad strep throat and tonsillitis". I felt horrible and all I wanted to do was sleep but my kids really wanted to do something for me so we went out for ice cream. My kids had a great time and really enjoyed the whole day. Through out the day both my kids would randomly say happy birthday or they would sing the happy birthday song to me.

I sure love my kids they can make me smile even when I felt so gross.

Bathroom Playtime

2010-10-07T19:58:00.000-07:00

This is how my husband found our kids yesterday afternoon. I love how anywhere can be a great play area when you use your imagination!

They played in the bathtub for almost an hour, it was very quiet around here during that time.

Cozy Circle Time

2010-10-05T15:14:00.000-07:00

This summer we stayed at a house that had one of those circle chairs that you sink into. Both of my kids thought that it was a really cool chair. Here are some pictures that I took one of the times that they weren't fighting over who got to sit in the chair that time.

All cozy watching Veggie Tales together.

David's First Day of School

2010-09-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

I know I am a couple of weeks late, but I still don't have Internet at my house. Soon....very soon I will again.

I can't believe how fast my kids are growing up. It feels like David was just a baby and now he is in school.

Now I know its only pre-school but its still school and its still time that he is away from me during the day.

Both Chris and I have always wanted to have our kids in a French program at school. Chris was in French immersion for nine years of his schooling and sees the benefits as an adult with learning and understanding other languages and we wanted to give our kids a chance to learn a second language and what better time to learn then in school. In fact we have enrolled David in a full French school.

He loves school so much!

His favorite class so far is craft time and he really likes to play with his friends in his class.

I tried to take some pictures of David on his first day of school and these are the only ones he would let me take. As soon as I pulled out my camera he said "Mom, what are you doing with the camera? I have to go to school and I don't have time for you to take my picture, they are going to be waiting for me. Let's go!"

So I quickly took three pictures and then we were in the car on the way to school.

Here is David holding his lunch kit that he picked out by himself.

Batman is his new favorite superhero. If you ask him what Batman does he will tell you that Batman saves people from bad guys.

summer crazyness

2010-08-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

Wow, so I have had a really busy summer and have not been around a computer very much.

Oh, how I have missed blogging, I really do enjoy it, sometime I even dream about what I want to write about....I know kinda silly. Anyways our life is calming down a little bit now and I will be able to write more and post more pictures of my kids again. But first I want to share a little about what our little family has been up too.

Here is just a few of the things that we have been up to these last few months; visiting family and friends, packing, traveling, new job (for my husband), moving and now we are in the middle of getting settled in our new town! All of these things I will be blogging about at a later date.

Mostly this post is to say that I am still around, I have just been really busy. I will try over the next few days and weeks to share some of our family summer adventures.

David's Four Birthday

2010-07-24T10:27:00.000-07:00

Wow I can't believe that my little boy is 4 years old now! This year we had a Toy Story pool party.

I thought I would post a few pictures of our weekend, now that I found my camera.

Here is the cake that Chris and I made.

David and his birthday buddy Jenna swimming together.

Starbucks before the movie.

We took David and Jaclyn to see their first movie in the theater.

We saw Toy Story 3 and both the kids did amazing!

David received a pair of Woody pajamas for his birthday and let Jaclyn wear his Buzz Lightyear pajamas.

I think that both David and Jaclyn had a fun weekend!

lost my camera again.....

2010-07-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been here for awhile, I have been away with my family. And since I have been away my computer has started to call it quits, which is making it hard for me to do much on my computer.

Sigh......I wish I had the money to buy a new computer.

Some of the things that we have done in this summer are having lots of play dates with cousins and friends, swimming (I am happy to say that both my kids now like the pool and don't try and climb/claw me while swimming, they actually really enjoy swimming now), playing at the park and we celebrated David's fourth birthday with a Toy Story theme. All in all the kids are having a nice summer.

As soon as I find my camera I will post some pictures of our summer.

busy - busy

2010-07-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

So I have been really busy for the last week. Chris and I are in the middle of looking into some changes for our little family but at the moment I am not able to share the details, all I can do is ask the if you pray that you could pray for guidance for Chris and I in our current decisions.

The kids are doing well, David is turning four this week and we are having a Toy Story Party for him and he is really excited. Jaclyn in learning how to count and today counted up to twenty. She is constantly amazing me with how much she is learning.

The kids and I are having a great time swimming and visiting with family and friends.

This week I am getting ready for a birthday party. I am going to make a Toy Story cake, I have an idea in my mind I am just hoping that I can get it out on the cake. I will post pictures after the party.

sick kids + vacation = tired mommy

2010-07-05T20:06:00.000-07:00

The kids and I are currently on holidays visiting some of our family. Unfortunately both of my kids have developed a bit of a tummy bug that is mostly coming out in diarrhea . They are both having a hard time eating much of anything, in fact I am at the point where if they ask for something even if that is all they have eaten for the last two days I will give it to them, just so they eat.

Today the only thing that Jaclyn would eat was milk and yogurt tubes. And David has had milk and buns.

Poor kids. It sucks being sick on vacation.

Today turned out to be a nice day here and some of my family came over for a visit, David and Jaclyn were really excited to play with their cousins. Unfortunately they were both having a hard time. Jaclyn ended up sleeping most of the afternoon and David was able to go swimming with the rest of the kids but was still overly emotional due to feeling sick. I even had to put them to bed before everyone left because they were so tired.

Hopefully a good nights sleep will do them and me some good and they will be up for more vacation fun tomorrow.

Funny Kids

2010-07-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

This morning I was checking something on my computer in the living room. The kids playing together in the other room when it got really quiet. This is how I found them when I walked into the kitchen.

Apparently it was time for a pretend picnic.

I love these two!!

camping

2010-07-02T21:14:00.000-07:00

I want to go camping this summer, actually we all want to go camping!

Unfortunately most of our summer is booked already between work, pre-planned visits with family/friends and other day trips. Hopefully we will be able to squeeze in at least overnight trip before the weather gets to cold. David asks at least once a week when we are going camping.

I took this picture last year on a trip we took through the mountains.

I love our mountains, so beautiful

Happy Canada Day!!!

2010-07-01T16:52:00.000-07:00

Happy Canada Day Everyone!!

Since the weather is cold and wet here today my kids and I decided that today would be a good day for play-doh. They really love creating with play-doh!

What did you do for Canada Day??

Always Loved!

2010-06-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

I don't know where to begin.........I guess I should start at the beginning.

On Saturday I got a call saying that my Grandmother was not doing well, her health was failing.

Chris and I started to talk about the possibilities that I go out to be with the rest of my family. That night we decided to wait until we had more information.

On Sunday (Father's Day) we spent the morning as a family with the kids "helping" me make Chris breakfast and then we spent some time together. We also decided to stay home from church that day because we needed to get things done around our house and I was waiting on a call.

In the afternoon I got a call saying that things didn't look good for my Grandma. I hung up the phone and Chris and I decided that as soon as we could get everything packed and in the car we would leave to be with my family. I called my mom and told her the we would be leaving with in the hour. We managed to get everything packed and leaving just over an hour later.

Just over half way through our trip our car started to act up, it started to shutter and then it would stall (we have an automatic). It was also having trouble gaining speed at different points. At one point we were gaining speed to get up a hill when we were pulled over by an RCMP officer.

So on top of everything else we were dealing with now we got pulled over, it turned out to be a good thing.

Anyways, we stopped and the RCMP officer heard our car making funny noises. He told us that he wouldn't give us a ticket but he would escort us to the next town and see what he could do for us. It turned out that he had only been out of depo for six months and that before he was a mechanic. He listened to our car and said that he thought it was more then bad gas (which is what we thought) he also told us that driving the rest of the way would be risky for our car. Unfortunately we didn't have the money to get a hotel that night, in fact we were stretching ourselves just to get me and the kids out there in the first place. So after Chris talked to him about the best way to drive our car the rest we were back on the road to finish our trip.

We arrived at my parents house at 4:30am. We were all tired and Chris and I were tense with our car acting up. The kids did amazing on the drive, they fell asleep later then normal but they still slept for a good portion of the trip. We knew by now that Chris would not be able to drive our car all the way home again on Monday afternoon with out getting it into a shop to get fixed. My wonderful parents lent us one of their vehicles for Chris to drive home and I will be getting our car into the shop soon to have it fixed. I have the best parents!!

An hour after arriving here my wonderful Grandmother took her last breath here on earth.
There is a part of me that is really sad that I will not be able to sit with my grandmother who has been a huge part of my life. I am sad that I will not be able to hear her voice or see her smile or give her one more hug.
I have so many memories of my Grandmother as a little girl, I remember having sleepovers at her house.
I am very happy that my children have both spent time with her and that I have pictures of them together.
I still remember calling her before David had his eye surgery and talking about what it was like as a mother with your child going through that kind of surgery, she had two children go through the same surgery. She was an amazing mother to my dad and his siblings. She always had more then enough love for all her grandchildren and great-grandchildren!
Most of all what I will remember about my Grandma is that she was a woman who loved God, her husband, children (both the ones she birthed and the ones that married into the family), her grandchildren and her great grandchildren.
I will always Love her and be Thankful for the lessons that she taught me in life
and for having a wonderful relationship with her.

Grandma and David

Grandma and Jaclyn

Grandma and my nephew Colby

I love you Grandma and you will always be missed!

Blankets and Toy Bins

2010-06-19T17:10:00.000-07:00

Jaclyn made this make shift chair today with blankets and a toy bin.

Here she is all cozy watching Winnie the Pooh.

Lost but Found!!

2010-06-18T19:37:00.000-07:00

So last week I lost our camera which was really sad because I love taking pictures and it seems like everyday since my kids have done something that was really cute and I wanted to take their picture.

This evening I FOUND our camera, I am so excited because I will be able to take pictures again!!

I didn't take any pictures tonight but I am planning on taking some tomorrow :)

Update on my Knee

2010-06-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

Between prayer and staying in bed all day on Monday I am up and walking around again. I am still a little sore and stiff but other then that I am doing really good.

Thank you to all who were praying for me, I really appreciate it!

I am now trying to finish up everything around our house before the end of the month.

On a side note, I misplaced my camera over the last week while packing.

Gotta love it when you put something in a "safe" place and you can't remember where that place is!

Knee's

2010-06-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

I have struggled most of my life with my knees. When I was 11 years old I was at the grocery store with my dad when I fell. I was walking and all of a sudden my knee gave way and I was on the ground. That was the beginning for me. From that day on I started the process of being extra careful with my knees. I wasn't able to play sports because I had to be careful. When I was young I didn't fully grasp what that meant for me.

I can remember times when I would be coming out of my room and I would feel my knee give way on me, I would say "my knee fell", it was the only way I could describe what I was feeling.

When I was in grade eleven I was sitting on the floor with my friends during lunch break, when the bell went for us to go back to class I was getting up when I fell over. Some of my friends helped me to the bench and the my mother was called to get me.

I couldn't put any pressure on my leg, I couldn't walk! My mom brought me to the emergency and the next thing I remember is having surgery. It turned out that I had dislocated my knee cap so bad that it was on the side of my leg when I stood up, and in doing this I also tore almost everything in my leg that was attached to my knee cap. It was one of the most painful things I have ever been through and I am just grateful that I had it fixed right away. I ended up spending most of my summer that year in a full leg straight cast. During my time in that cast I fell again only this time doing the same damage on my other leg. I was back in for more surgery on my other leg just over six months after my first surgery.

Since those first two surgeries I have had two more to clean out some of the extra tissue (bone growths) on both my knee's. I have seen lots of surgeons and been through hours of physio therapy and had dozens of ex-rays on my knee's. At one point Chris and I had to move because the house we were living in was making it very difficult to walk. I also talked with doctors almost five years ago about the possibility of having more surgery to fix some of my current issues and to help with the pain I live in daily. We decided with my doctors to put off these surgeries until I was done having children and then look at how my knee's were doing then.

About two years ago shortly after Jaclyn was born I tore some cartilage in my left knee. I have talked to a doctor about having it repaired but I was uncomfortable have surgery when Jaclyn was so little, I was also dealing with my thyroid at the time. I have managed to keep from having surgery and would like to avoid it as long as I can. However that may not be that long. Over the last two years my torn cartilage has been in a place that doesn't cause my daily pain but when it moves I am in A LOT of pain. Thankfully this only happens every couple of months, when it does I am in bed or on the couch until it moves again and then I can go on with my daily life.

As some people may already know we are getting ready to move and I am in the process of packing our house up. Last night Chris and I made some really good progress on our packing and at the end of the night my knee did it again, it locked up and my torn cartilage moved on me. Chris helped me get into bed and I have been sitting here ever since. I am having difficult time standing up on my own right now as I am unable to put very much pressure on my leg. The worst part is that in the past when this has happened the kids and I spend a week on the couch watching movies and reading while my knee fixes itself for the short term. This time I don't have time to sit on the couch for a week. I have so much to do in getting ready for our move in two weeks that stopping does not seem like an option. You could say that I am a little frustrated and concerned right now!

If you are the praying type, please pray that God heals my knee's and that I am able to walk again. Also that we are able to get everything done in time for the end of the month. Thanks!!

Just like Daddy

2010-06-11T08:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday David and I had a conversation that went like this:

David: Mom

Me: Yes David

David: I am going to pray to Jesus and ask him if I can have a beard like Daddy when I grow up!

Me: Sounds like a good idea

David: Yeah, because Jesus can do anything, even give me a beard

Me: Your right David, Jesus can do anything!

David: Yup, so I am going to be just like Daddy!

Shattered: Struck Down But Not Destroyed - Book Review

2010-06-09T14:41:00.000-07:00

I recently read Shattered: Struck Down But Not Destroyed by Frank Pastore.

Here is the write up on the back of the book:
"Cincinnati Reds pitcher Frank Pastore stepped onto the mound in Dodger Stadium to throw another fastball - something he'd done thousands of times since childhood. But this time was different. The batter connected and the ball came rocketing back to the mound, shattering not only Frank's pitching elbow - but also his dream of getting "rich and famous" through Major League Baseball.
As he waled to the training room, Frank found himself asking a God he didn't believe in, "Why is this happening to me?"
There was no answer - at least not then.
It was this injury that sent Frank, a lifelong atheist, on a journey that would change not only his mind but also his whole life - as a husband, father, friend, and troubled son.
We all know the pain of shattered dreams. We've all wondered how to pick up the broken pieces after a crisis. We've all wondered, "Where is God?" when life hurts so bad.
This is a story of how the fragments of broken dreams can be reassembles into even bigger and better things. A story of how, when life's disasters and difficulties knock us down, they don't have to destroy us.
This is a story that shows how all of us can come to know we're in God's good hands.
Even when we're shattered."

My Review:
I thought that Shattered: Struck Down But Not Destroyed to be well written and enjoyable read. I found myself feeling different emotions well reading at points I was sad, happy, curious and wanted to read more and find out how God had worked in his life. Frank Pastore was very open and honest about his life as an atheist and then about his life as a christian. With so many books out there that talk about how becoming a christian is easy and then your life after-wards will be a walk in the park it was nice to read a story about someone who has struggled both before coming to Christ and then again after. Most people feel that once they make that step to become a christian that their life will be easy every step of the way. Frank talks about how he has had to learn how to be forgiven, to forgive others and how to communicate in a why that honors God.
Even though I have not had the same life as Frank Pastore I was able to relate to aspects of his life and his struggles. His honesty about how God has taught him how to be the man that God wants him to be was encouraging and I will be recommending this book.

Tyndale House Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my review of this book and I am not required to provide a favorable review.