Saturday July 25, 2009

Today was a hot one. I really can't complain about it though, because I would rather deal with the summer heat than the dead cold of winter anyday. This morning I got up and went out yard saling. It was very disappointing...nothing great today. I did end up getting Catcher a spiderman backpack for school though. When I came home we decided to take the kids to the splash park to cool off. We called up Josh and Alex to see if they wanted to come and bring their kids. So they came along. The kids had a great time. I love splash parks. They came home cooled, drenched and happy. Grant then took the kids on a walk to Macs while I stayed home to work on editing some wedding photos and Tyson took his nap. Sounds like it was a very hot walk, good thing Grant bought them all Frosters. Afterwards the kids all played outside. Grant got pizza for dinner so we wouldn't have to heat the house up more than it already was. We were going to take the kids to a "movie in the park", but they were getting too tired, so we thought bed was a better choice (especially since we have church tomorrow). They were going to be doing a fun movie in the park on the big screen. They had activities before the film at 7pm. A bouncy castle, playing guitar hero on the big screen etc. The movie was going to be "E.T." at about 10pm which was a bit late for them on a Saturday night. I went over to Carrie's house at about 8 to hang out and watch a movie.

Friday July 24, 2009

Well today was another bit of a catch up day. Grant took our recycling to the recycling depot this morning and ran a few errands of his own. I cleaned out the garage for a good portion of the morning, while the kids played outside in the yard. Damian spent most of the day hanging out with his friend Noah. My friend Carrie came over for a few minutes to see if I wanted to go to the movies with her and her kids, so I took Damian along. We went to go see the movie G- Force. Damian sat with her boys and some friends they brought along a few rows up from us. Grant took the other kids to Mac's to buy Frosters while we were at the theatres, and they also stopped at the park. It's weird getting out of a movie at 5pm. It always feels like it should be later when you come out of a movie. When we got home, Damian went right back outside to play with his friends. I left at 6:30pm to go babysit for Josh and Alex. They were going out on a date to go see Harry Potter. The kids were so easy. Alex had put them to bed just before I came, and they stayed in their rooms and fell asleep pretty much right away. Gabrielle woke up for a bit crying, but not a big deal at all. I got to watch tv for once, yay! We don't have tv at home, just Dvd's. I prefer it that way or else I would get addicted to lots of shows and would just want to sit around watching tv. It was nice as a treat though. I watched "What not to wear" and "Style by Jury". I loved both shows. They are makeover shows, and it is always fun to see the transformation in people. It was fun :)

Thursday July 23 , 2009

Today was a mall day for us. We got up and headed over to "Once Upon A Child" first (my favourite second hand childrens store, they have the greatest stuff). I was like a kid in a candy store in there. We were doing part of our back to school shopping for this year. It seems like everyone hit a growth spurt at the same time, so a lot of clothing was needed. After spending about 1 and 1/2 hours there, we headed over to Market Mall to find all of the things we couldn't find at once upon a child. We stopped in the food court for lunch first. Grant treated us all to those spectacular milkshakes that they sell at the "Marble Slab Creamery". They make the best and creamiest milkshakes ever. (yikes, I'm drooling). Then we went off to my favourite childrens clothing stores (Old Navy, Childrens Place and Below the Belt) to hunt for more clothing for the kids. I also got myself a couple of pairs of jeans and 2 hoodies. (If I am wearing one thing when I am buried, I want it to be a hoodie, lol). We went to Toys R' Us last of all. (It was our meeting place, because we split up when I went to look for jeans for myself). I got the boys each a "popgun". They were these cool looking vintage wooden guns with a cork attached to a string that pops out and makes a popping noise. They were only $2.50 each and the boys LOVED them. We headed home at 5:00pm (7 hours later, WOW....all of the kids were so good) and had dinner. We gave Kaitlyn and McKenna a call to see how they were doing (they are still at Garth and Sarah's house). Poor Kaitlyn said she is suffering from a sunburn (lots of swimming), but said they were having fun. It was a fun and productive day. (Oh, and just so everyone knows, I don't usually take pictures of my kids with the shopping bags, but as we were going inside, I thought I should take a quick one to represent today)

Wednesday July 22, 2009

This morning I woke up and wanted to clean up a bit before my sisters came over....well, it must've got me very motivated. I got a lot done in a short amount of time. I had a ton of energy and motivation for some reason. Charity and her kids came over around 11am, and then Chelsea and her kids and Shawna and Michael (my cousin) came over at about 11:30. We lotioned all of the kids and packed them in the vans. We went to the splash park in Airdrie. It was the perfrect day for it, because at 11:30am it was already 26 degrees. The kids had a blast playing in the water, and I kept surprisingly cool by keeping my feet in the water and chatting with my sisters. It was nice to catch up. After being in the water for quite a while, we went to the park right behind the splash park and got out our picnic. We had muffins, watermelon, cantelope, chips, juice and cookies. We found a shady spot and just chatted while the kids had fun playing in the park. Chelsea and them came over for a little bit longer at my house while Charity went home to do a quick clean before they went over to her house. The kids spent the rest of the day playing outside with neighbourhood kids, while I went back to my cleaning frenzy. I got a lot done, and am just sitting down to catch up on my blog and relaxing with some ice cream. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera, so no pics. Maybe I'll snag one from my sisters at a later time.

Tuesday July 21, 2009

This morning we got up and got ready to go to Calaway Park once again. This time we were going with Alex (Grant's sister) and her kids. The kids were happy to have their cousins come with them. They all did really well, and had a fun time. Tyson wasn't feeling very well. He was fine in the morning, then in the car he was looking sleepy. I thought it was just because it was his naptime, but he was pretty much in and out of sleep the whole time we were at the park. We were going to stop at the mall for a bit after we were done at Calaway Park, but decided not to. Tyson started burning up with a fever, and Catcher was having a minor asthma attack. We needed to get home to give him his puffer for some relief. Tyson went to bed right when we got home. Damian went out to play with his friend Julian. Maiya watched cartoons with Catcher. I cleaned a little and edited a few more wedding pics. Grant had a nap and then went out to get the kids McDonalds for dinner. Poor little Maiya started up with a fever just before dinner. I'm not sure if they are really sick or if it is something just passing through. Catcher spent the afternoon sleeping yesterday and was fine today, so I wonder if this is the same sort of thing?! It was a fun and exhausting day. A short entry because I REALLY need to go to sleep.

Monday July 20, 2009

Today was my errands day. Catching up on laundry, editing pictures from the wedding, printing and delivering photos people have ordered, and hanging out with the kids. In the afternoon I took the kids to a park, just to get them out today for a bit and then came home for ice cream to cool them off. I tell you though...Damian makes a new friend wherever he goes. It seems like wherever we are, he is playing with someone new. Today he met a boy about 10 years old and his older brother about 13 and they hit it off right away and went off to play. Well, not much else happened (unless you want me to begin speaking about Tyson and his crazy toddler antics....for example, pouring a bottle of pop into our sugar can. Yeah, that was messy!!!)

Sunday July 19, 2009

So yesterday I had a wedding shoot. I left at 7am to go to the South of Calgary to meet up with the bride for her "Bride Getting Ready" shots. It's always my favourite part. Watching all of the behind the scenes of the preparation for a wedding. The bride was gorgeous, and I Loved her dress. So beautiful. They were very hospitable offering me breakfast and being accomodating. After, we headed over to a church for the actual wedding. I hate downtown Calgary. I had no idea I would need to pay for parking to go inside a church for a wedding. I didn't bring any money with me. So I didn't buy a parking ticket obviously. It ended up that we were inside the church for 20 minutes in total, and by the time I got out to my van....guess who had a blue ticket waving from her windshield. It was $5.00 for the parking, but since I didn't have the money, I got slapped with a $65 ticket. Sheesh!!! Oh well. The actual wedding ceremonies are always my very least favourite part of a wedding. The churches are always dark, and it is pretty boring (but obviously the whole reason for the day). I made my way over to the reception hall back in the Southwest. We went to a park to take some shots. It just so happens that a golf tournament was happening that day, so it was pretty busy. It was very hot as well. +31. There were beautiful arches though. So nice! Then we made our way to the reception. I was entirely exhausted by this point, but they had a nice reception dinner, speeches, dance etc. It was a nice day, but I was so ready to go home afterwards. I came home and got Grant and I subs. I was hungry. Grant spent the day doing things with the kids. He went to Chuck E Cheese with them, and the mall. They each got a shirt (except Maiya got a bathing suit). It sounds like they had a fun day together as well. It's weird not having Kaitlyn and McKenna around the house. I hope they are having a lot of fun with their cousins.

Today was church. Not a very eventful day. Just went to church, came home and relaxed with the kids. Made tacos and salad for dinner, and had a small family home evening. Not much else to say. I have been so tired lately (must be because I am trying to cram alot of things into our very short Alberta summer).

Friday July 17, 2009

This morning I said Goodbye to my eldest girls. They left at 9am with Sarah and their cousins to go visit in Stirling for 2 weeks. I will miss them, but I hope they have a ton of fun and get to know their cousins a lot better. I watched Alex's kids for a bit while she went to the dentist this morning, and then we left to go meet my Mom, Shawna, my cousin Michael, My cousin Crystal and her kids, and my Aunt Debbie at Calaway Park. It was finally a pretty hot day. This July hasn't really felt like summer, but today did. Of course, along with that came exhaustion. I was tired by the end of it all. The kids had fun though, and that is what summer is for. I was more than ready to go home afterwards though. I've been so tired this week. We came home and I made frzen pizzas for dinner (nice n' easy) and the kids are now in the bath (Tyson decided to play in the charcoal left over in our little charcoal pit, ewww so dirty.) This is a pretty short entry, I think I will be going to bed not long after the kids. I have a wedding photoshoot tomorrow which is all day and will be tiring. Especially since it's supposed to be +30 tomorrow. Hopefully I do a great job. I will try to post a sample in my next posting.

Thursday July 16, 2009

So yesterday was Grants b-day (I didn't get a photo of him on his b-day, so I will just insert a photo of him anyways). He turned 33. I made him some cupcakes (we're not really big cake people). Alex and Josh offered to babysit so that we could go out for Grants b-day. We ended up dropping them off in the morning, and Grant and I went to Calaway Park by ourselves. So for once we were going on the "Big People" rides. It was a different experience going without children. We had fun. I felt a little old though because at the end of it all, I had a headache and felt a little queasy and tired. I got Grant some lunch at the mall before we went to Calaway Park (better than buying amusement park food at amusement park prices). We came back home around 3pm to pick up the kids. Then we came home and the kids played while I was doing laundry and getting things packed for the girls trip to Stirling. Grant and I watched the movie "Push" at night, but we were so exhausted that I ended up only watching about 15 minutes of it and I fell asleep. So I can't really say whether it was a good movie or not. Today I went grocery shopping in the morning before Sarah and the girls came. Sarah (my sister in law) and her 4 girls came up to Airdrie to come pick up Kaitlyn and McKenna. They will be visiting with Sarah's family for 2 weeks. I think it will be fun and a great growing experience for them. We went over to Alex and Josh's house for a BBQ so all of the family could hang out. It was fun, and without fail it rained. It seems everytime Alex and I try to have a picnic or BBQ, it rains or is extremely windy or cold. The cousins had a lot of fun being together though. After the BBQ, we came home to get the kids ready for bed. After they were all settled, Sarah and Alex and I went out to Dairy Queen for some ice cream and to just hang out and chat. It was a great time to hang out. Sarah and I came home and hung out for a little bit before bed as Keira wasn't feeling well. They are sleeping over, and leaving for Stirling in the morning.

Tuesday July 14, 2009

Today we needed to get out of the house. It was another grey, rainy spring day in JULY!!!! These sorts of days make me so tired, and the kids get bored. We lazed around all morning, not doing much of anything exciting. Around noon, we went to Chuck E Cheese. The Sherlock family came with us. The kids had lots of fun. It was pretty crazy!! I guess everyone else had the same idea as us. Rain + bored kids = Chuck E Cheese. I really have no idea why we get almost "0" summer here. It's very sad. It seems like when it is a nice day, you have to squeeze in all of the fun outdoor things so you don't miss a second of it. After Chuck E Cheese, we stopped by the Petland to look at the pets. The kids love doing that. Kaitlyn and McKenna went over to Alex's house to play for a bit after that. They love going over there. Alex is just so nice to my kids. I did a bit of grocery shopping, the kids played outside for a bit (it got nicer around dinnertime), and that was pretty much our day. I was so tired the whole day. I think I need to go to bed early tonight. Grant is going to see the midnight showing of "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" with Caleb tonight. I would love to go see it too, but can't tonight. Who would want to babysit at midnight??, lol.

Monday July 13, 2009

Okay, so consistency apparently is not a strong suit of mine. We have been having a blast this summer. Lots going on all of the time it seems. I'm not even going to attempt recalling it all here. I will, however, tell you all about this past weekend. It was very eventful. It all started on Thursday night with a phone call from Grant. He called me using a police officers cell phone. Yah, I know...creepy. Then he tells me I need to come pick him up at the side of the road in Calgary. It turns out that he was pulled over by a cop because his stickers on his plates were old (he thought they were good until October of this year, but it turns out that they expired last October). As he was being pulled over his tire popped and he had a flat tire now at the side of the road. So in a matter of minutes we had a tire to replace, a ticket to pay and some stickers to buy. They always say bad things come in 3's, LOL! So I got the kids out of the bath and drove down to Calgary to give him his spare tire (which happened to be sitting in our garage for some reason). I didn't think we would be able to make it to my Mom's for the weekend..but Grant didn't want us to miss out, so he drove on that little donut tire (the spare) for the weekend.
We went to my parents place on Friday morning. As soon as we got there, my Mom said we should hit the beach before it gets crowded. It was such a gorgeous day. So sunny and warm. We played there for a long time (it was a man made body of water with a nicely combed sandy beach surrounding it). They bought the kids each a beach toy and we brought our lunch there. My cousin Michael is visiting from Ontario, so he came with us as well as Aunt Shawna (my sister) and my Grandma McVeity. I loved being there. I miss the water in Ontario, and this was so nice.
After that we all got packed up and went home. Poor Kaitlyn was SO burnt on her back. I put sunscreen all over all of the kids, but for some reason her back still got really burnt. Michael and Shawna also got burnt pretty good (but they were trying to get a tan). My Dad barbecued us up some dinner (delicious!!) Perfect meal for the type of day we were having. After dinner we decided to take the kids to the splash park near my Mom's house to let them use up a bit more energy. The kids had a blast, and I was having such fun watching them be so happy. After we were all done at the splash park, my Mom took us to a park near her house to play. We were there until 8:30pm. You would think that after such a crazy fun and draining day, they would all come home and be exhausted and want to sleep. Nope! We layed out a bunch of sleeping bags on my parents livingroom floor, and all of the kids layed on those and we put a movie on for them. They were still awake at 11pm, but fell asleep just after that. Such a fun day! In the morning we all got up and got ready to go to a stampede pancake breakfast in Okotoks. We got there early because my cousin Jennie was in a band that would be playing there, so we wanted to get good seats. They had lots to do there. There was a big bouncy castle, mini putt, a fishing game (candy prizes) A clown walking around talking to the kids and making balloon animals, a petting zoo, a horse drawn hayride, face painting, a live band, a magic show, and of course a pancake breakfast. And all of it was free. The band was good and fun to listen to. The magic show (put on by a clown named "Doo Doo") was fun for the kids. Damian got called up to be a helper, he was so happy about that. He got his very own magic wand to keep for helping out. It was a great time. Afterwards, we headed back to my parents house to have some lunch and hang out for a bit. At 2:30pm we decided it was time to leave. We needed to get home and prepare for Sunday. I was so glad we were able to go visit family this weekend, and that they made it such fun for us to be there.
On Sunday, we went to church. It's our second Sunday in our new ward. Oh yeah, I didn't write about that yet. Our ward was split because it was way too huge. So I am still in Airdrie 2nd Ward, but the ward itself has changed dramatically. A lot of the young families that were in our ward are now in the new branch. We also got some of the people from first ward to add to our group. It will be fun getting to know them all. I went from a nursery of 35 kids, to a nursery with about 10. It is so much easier. Grant got called as the Sunday School President. I know he will do well at it. I had a nice time in church and met a few new people. After church we came home and I made some chocolate cheesecake brownies. We went over to the Adams home for a dessert night, and the kids had a lot of fun playing there and especially on their big trampoline in their backyard. Even some of the adults got in on the action. Morgan Kyle was jumping around on it while Grant was sitting down on it holding onto his knees. It was hilarious. Grant looked like a mexican jumping bean being tossed all over the place. Unfortunately this morning, he woke up with a very sore neck from it. It was a fun night with great friends. Today I mainly cleaned house, and the kids helped. It was rainy outside so Damian had a friend over to play. Grant worked at Chilis tonight, and he has the rest of the week off. Hopefully we can do some fun things this week together. Kaitlyn got to go swimming at the rec centre with her friend Alex. Not much happened today. Just a lot of catching up. Hopefully this week is pleasant. So far July has felt more like spring. It's been raining a lot. We didn't get much rain in June, so I guess it is just making up for that. I will try my best to post more :)