Wednesday May 27, 2009

So I guess this has become my weekly journal rather than daily, haha! I guess my ambitions were running faster than reality for me. Life gets busy, but I think it's important for me to keep writing things down. Even the seemingly mundane things, I think I will appreciate them in years to come.
So lots has happened in a week. Maiya turned 4 officially on the 20th, and I turned 31 on the 21st. My friend Carrie took me out for lunch for my birthday and Rose also joined us. We went to Mr. Mikes. The food there was great and I got free dessert because it was my b-day. Grant took me out to dinner at my favourite restaurant in the evening (East Side Marios). I love it there. I never seem to get tired of it, and I usually order the exact same thing every time. Alex babysat for us while we went. On the Friday Grant and I went over to Carrie and Tyler Adams house for a couples games night with friends. It was fun, and the food was yummy as usual (gee, I seem to focus on food a lot). On the Saturday I went yard saling in the morning. There was a big community yard sale. So fun. I bought Damian a great bike (he was growing out of his other bike) and a pair of sandals and a magna doodle (love those). It was fun. Carrie and Sue came by on my b-day to give me a gift basket for my b-day. I got a new watch from them and a bunch of yummy treats. I have the best friends ever. Sunday was a nice day at church. It was also gorgeous outside, so we had a BBQ at Josh and Alex's house afterwards. Such a nice day for it. It was fun. We all sat outside in camp chairs and the kids played in the sandbox and stuff. Monday we had Grant around during the day, so we went for a walk to the park and then I went out for a photoshoot of the Kyle family in the afternoon.
Grant started training for his new job as the Store Manager of Town Shoes. He has 8 weeks of training ahead of him I went to Nose Creek Park and met up with Carrie to let the kids play for a while. When Grant got home at night I left to go grocery shopping. We watched "The Day the Earth Stood still" together. Today I went to the park in the morning with Sue, Carrie, Valene and all of our kids. We had a picnic there and let the kids play while we chatted. So fun, and what a great day for it. Afterwards we went home and my visiting teachers stopped by. It was too nice outside to be indoors, so we sat in the yard in the camp chairs and watched the kids play while we chatted. I always get such great visiting teachers. Well, the kids should be getting home soon, but I thought I should catch up on my blog a bit here.

Monday May 18, 2009

This was a very busy,but fun long weekend. On Saturday morning we got the kids all ready in their matching yellow shirts (this was so it would be easier to keep track of them, and it worked out well. You could see them from a mile away). It was funny how much outside attention the yellow shirts brought though. When we were at the gate showing our passes, the lady said "Aww, look at the adorable family in the yellow shirts. You guys look like sunshine" hahahaha!!! Also while we were walking around the park, people kept stopping me to ask me if "all of those kids in the yellow shirts were mine" lol. It was a gorgeous day outside for the grand opening. Bright, sunny and +26. I guess everyone else thought so too, because it was packed!! Grant played some of the games with the kids (they are only allowed to do this once or twice a season because it gets expensive and I hate having a million stuffies strewn throughout the house). They enjoyed them. It was a fun time, we look forward to going back many times this summer. When we got home Grant got McDonalds for dinner. It was nice to not have to cook. McKenna went to her friend, Isabella's house to play until bedtime. We also witnessed a fire. The kids called me from outside saying they saw a fire. I thought maybe it was a bonfire, but then I went out and the sky was filled with huge black clouds of smoke. Grant, Kaitlyn and Damian went to go check things out. They said that one house completely burned down, they saw the roof cave and the car that had been inside the garage melt, it went on to brn half of another house down as well as touching one house behind it. No one got hurt, but those poor people. What a horrible thing. I heard it started because of a BBQ and a propane tank that got knocked over. How horrible.
Sunday was another nice day. It was beautiful weather, nursery was smaller and therefore much less stressful, and we had Maiya's b-day party. She turns this week. We had a family party on Sunday at Nose Creek Park. It was beautiful out (though windy). We just let the kids play at the park, had some desserts, let her open her presents from everyone and just chatted. Caleb and Meg brought Sammie (their puppy) and the kids had a blast with him (except for Catcher who avoids dogs at all costs). Maiya had a very fun day. Damian ended up sleeping over at Draytons house and we took Reese to sleep over at our house. Caleb came back to play videogames and Meg and I went and attempted doing a quick shoot with Tyson and Sammie, but it turned horrible out. It was extremely strong winds and it dropped dramatically in temperature. I didn't end up getting much of a shot in. Oh well. That brings us to today!! I woke up to SNOW!!!! How dumb is that?? Yesterday like +22 and this morning 0 degrees! Sheesh! It was definitely not a day for playing outside. We had a slow start to our day. I ended up taking Reese home at noon and bringing Damian back home. We had a bit of a catch up day again for cleaning. They all helped out. McKenna went to Isabella's house again to play. We just had an in house day today. Well I am tired and am excited to just sit back and relax (that's what night times are for right?!)

Friday May 15, 2009

Sheesh, I stink at doing this everyday. Oh well, I guess some is better than none. Soon Wednesday I went to the public library with the kids to finally get a library card. I have been living here for 3 years, and just decided to get one. I took Catcher, Maiya and Tyson with me. They enjoyed sitting in the kids section and looking through all sorts of books. I let them pick 2 of their own each to bring home to read. We picked up a bunch of fun books, including "Morris the Moose" books, which totally reminds me of my Dad. He always got a kick out of those books. Later on, Kaitlyn and McKenna went to activity days at the church. They were doing baby blankets as a service project. Charity called me up at the last second and invited me to go to the movies with her. We went to see "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past". So that was fun! I got a call while we were driving, from a guy who wants me to do promotional photos for his band. I still have to work out details. We seem to keep missing eachother. On Thursday Damian got to do In Line Skating at school which he was very excited about. I didn't realize Grant had the day off, and had planned a picnic with some friends. It ended up being a yucky day for it weather-wise. Grant went grocery shopping while I took the kids over to Sue's house. It was cold, and rainy so we just hung out along with Carrie. Carrie and I were so tired, but as usual I love hanging out with Sue and Carrie. They are a ton of fun, and great friends. The kids had a great time playing at Sues. They loved all of their toys. When we left, Catcher said "Can we go back one day?..they have awesome toys". Well, I am tired while I am writing this, so I will move on to today. It was gorgeous outside in the morning. I went outside with Maiya to take a few photos of her (here's one sample):

It was then that I realized how gorgeous it was outside, and decided to take the kids on a walk to Mac's (convenience store). Grant left for work, and we headed over to Alex's house. We picked up Ethan so he could walk with us. We got a bunch of frosters and went back to Alex's house and visited for a bit. They were in the process of getting ready to go down to visit Garth and Sarah. We left when we started feeling tiny raindrops. I really didn't want to get caught in the rain on the way home with the kids. After school, Charity came over. We visited for about an hour. The kids played outside for quite a while. I went out shopping for a few things for tomorrow when we go to Calaway Park. The kids are so excited. Hopefully the weather is nice!

Tuesday May 12, 2009

I was tired ALL day today. Just completely groggy. Kaitlyn got up early to go to floor hockey, which meant I was up earlier than usual as well. McKenna also needed to leave earlier to do some PAT test or something (forget what it's called, but all of the third graders in Alberta do it). McKenna also got to do inline skating at school today. So she was excited for that. Grant and I took the kids to wal mart today, just to get out of the house together. We bought a yellow shirt for each of our kids. We wanted to get them for when we go to Calaway Park this year. I prefer my kids to be easily identified in such a large setting. We are going to go this weekend if the weather is good. It is the Grand opening. The kids are very excited about that. Grant and Tyson napped when we got home. The grey weather totally killed me today. I am a person who does not take naps, but I was needing one today. Finally I decided to just let Catcher and Maiya play video games while I went down for a nap while Tyson was down....alas, the world seems to need me when I actually try to take one. I laid down and was instantly falling asleep when I hear Maiya calling from the livingroom "Mom, MOM...where are you???" then running down the hall saying it loudly. I was like "Sshh...Maiya, I am in here. I'm trying to take a short nap and Tyson is sleeping, so you need to be quiet". She left. I then proceeded to fall asleep...5 minutes later, Catcher comes running in..."Mom ,I need....". I can't even remember what he wanted, but I was like..."Just wait until I get a little nap". Fell asleep again....phone rings. Aaahh!!!! The phone proceeded to ring 2 more times apart from that.. and when that was done, Tyson woke up. Maybe this is why naps leave me more tired than I was before. Sheesh! Grant left for work and the kids came home after that. Kaitlyn came home asking if she was allowed to have a boyfriend. A boy in her class is interested in her, and was hoping to ask her out. Yikes! Am I ready for this? I said no, not until she is older. I did say that she was welcome to hang out with this boy with her friends and things though. She asked about "making out" with boys...Aaaahhhh!!! I said "No. This is not the right time for that. She needs to mature more. When did my baby grow to this point already?? It's like a blink of an eye! Before I know it, she will be off and married. Well, I am just going to put my feet up and relax. I'm going to watch the movie "Taken". Though it looks like an intense movie, so I don't know how relaxing that will be. It looks interesting though.

Monday May 11, 2009

Today I had the pleasure of having my sister, Chelsea, and her kids as well as my cousin Jennie, come down for a bit today. Jennie has come down from Ontario for the summer. We took the kids to the park for a couple of hours. It was such a gorgeous day outside. Lots of swinging, throwing rocks in the pond, walking around and just overall enjoying what the day had to offer. We got to see quite a few ducks as well. I love how beautiful the Mallards are, but they are definitely camera shy. Everytime I got my camera out to take a quick shot they would immediately swim away so quickly, that it wasn't much of a shot. Teagan (Chelsea's little girl of about 10 months) is growing so fast. Everytime I see her, she's changed. Parker (her son, nearly 3) is quite a little man. Everything he said just seemed to make me laugh. It's not so much that what he was saying was funny...it just sounded funny coming out of such a little kid. He also likes to talk with a deep voice, which I think is hilarious. Grant went to work in the afternoon. He will begin training for his new job on the 26th of this month. I hope it all works out for the best. The kids came home from school and played outside for a bit. We headed over to the church at 6pm to play basketball with the Adams' family and the Kyle family. It was a blast. Although I really stink at basketball, it is my all time favourite sport to play. The older kids had fun playing bump with us and then a half court game. The younger kids played on the other side of the gym with some of the cars from the nursery, and the small basketball net etc. So fun! I went home after that and got the kids ready for bed, then worked on building a facebook fan page for my photography. Just working on getting my name out there and starting the business up again for the spring.

A special mothers day post

A small tribute to my Mom. 10 things that remind me of my mom while growing up at home (in no particular order):

~ ABBA (She would always have ABBA records playing when I was younger, and the coolest dance moves. So fun!!!)














Hugga Bunch (This was one of my most memorable b-day parties with a Hugga Bunch theme. My Mom has always been awesome with themed b-day parties. I remember thinking the Hugga Bunch place cards were the best thing ever)








Crayons. I still to this day think that my Mom is the best at colouring with crayons. She would always colour with us when we were little. Outlining the picture in dark lines of whatever colour she was using and then lightly and neatly colouring in the inside. Loved her colouring.










Those wedding pom poms. I remember my Mom opening up a ton of these wedding pom poms back in the day, and we would sometimes help her. My Mom decorated for a lot of weddings and events. I always thought it was fun helping her set things up.










Harmonicas. My Mom always loved to play her harmonica. She enjoys music and also tried learning the piano. She would often try to play the songs we would sing together for family home evening. While we would laugh sometimes at her attempts to play when she didn't know the song very well (which made us all go off key, or she would say "wait, let me try again.." leaving us singing the same song forever) but I found it very comforting and a fond memory.






Richard Simmons - Sweatin' to the Oldies!!! This totally brings me back to the days where my Mom would be doing her exercises in the livingroom. We would all enjoy joining in on some exercise sessions with Richard Simmons. We all thought he was hilarious, and the songs were fun. Hahaha!! Gotta love his stripey speedos!!

Granola! This was my all time favourite breakfast food growing up. I always loved when my Mom made it for us. It smelled so good in the house and was WAYYY better than porridge (which was the breakfast we mainly grew up on). My Mom made the best granola ever!
















Anne of Green Gables. This was one of my Mom's favourite movies and books I think. I remember watching this movie often when I was younger. I think I was in love with Gilbert Blythe back then. It's been a long time since I've seen Anne of Green Gables. Maybe I should watch it again!










Country Items. Especially country animals like cows, chickens, pigs. Tons of antique things like old fashioned irons, sewing machine, barrels etc. adorned our house.
















St. Patricks Day, and any holiday really. My Mom liked to make sure that every holiday was decorated nice and fun for us. Lots of fun cut outs. The style of cut outs in this photo are exactly what I remember. My Mom always made sure there was lots of green including green food on this holiday. Every holiday was a fun, well decorated party :)














These are pretty random thoughts, but definitely things that I like to remember about my Mom from when I was growing up, and I thought she might be interested to read some of the small (yet big) memories I have of her. There are many more that I could list, like special notes under my pillow, notes in my lunches sometimes, making barbie houses out of cardboard boxes and fabric etc., yard sales, flea market trips..and I could go on and on. I have an awesome Mom and I hope she knows how much I love her and appreciate all of the things she did for me and my brothers and sisters growing up.

Sunday May 10, 2009

Wow, I am sooo bad at doing this everyday. I get too busy, but hey...at least it's something. Lots of things going on this week. I can't even remember everything that went on this week. Some of the things that this week included was me going to a bookclub. My sister has a book club. We just read "The Hiding Place". It was a woman's account of life in concentration camps. It was a very good read. Next on the list is "Persuasion" by Jane Austen. Kaitlyn has joined floor hockey and has been going every Tuesday and Thursday. I had a photoshoot on Wednesday. It was fun. I got to do it during a sunset. So nice. I have been working on my new website this week. It is still not finished, but it is close. I love it so much more than my other one. It is sagerstudios.com.
The kids had Friday off of school this week. Poor kids, I made them clean the house with me for the whole morning. It needed to be done though. They played outside for most of the afternoon. Grant and I went to the Adams house on Friday night for a games night. It was fun. Kaitlyn got to co-babysit again with Leah Moore (a 12 year old from our ward). Saturday morning I went out garage saling. I got a kids basketball net, a little doll table and chairs set, some books. McKenna and Damian had friends over in the morning. Grant took Damian and McKenna to gymnastics in the afternoon. They are really improving. After gymnastics, we went to Alex and Josh's house for a barbecue. Yummy!! I watched her kids while they went out on a date after that. That brings us to today. Mothers Day! The kids already gave me my mothers day gift last week (typical of Grant. He just can't wait, haha). Grant had gone through all of my makeup and wrote everything down and then went to get backups of all of my makeup. He also got me salon grade shampoo and conditioner, a series of books and some chocolates. I am spoiled :)
Nursery went really well at church today with the split classes again. The kids all made me cute cards with handprints on them. Grant made me some homemade pizza and breadsticks for dinner. So yummy!! What an awesome family I have :)

Monday May 4, 2009

So I missed a few days again, oops. Where's my comittment here?? It was a gorgeous weekend. Saturday I woke up and went yard saling. How awesome! Spring is for sure here when there are a bunch of yard sales. I went to quite a few too. I got some comics for Grant, and a couple of games for his PSP handheld game system. I got Maiya a bunch of clothes for a decent price, and I got a fun looking toolkit full of tons of play doh accessories for $1.00 that I got for the nursery. Kaitlyn, McKenna and Maiya all wanted to go with me. So they came along. Loved it! Like mother like daughters, haha! Grant went to the movies at night with Caleb, Shawna and Tyler. They went to go see the "Wolverine" movie. Meg came and hung out with me, and brought Sammie (her puppy) along with her. He is just the cutest thing. We were going to go take some photos that I had in mind, but Grant had accidentally taken my keys with him to the movies in his pocket, so we just walked in the dog walk area and took a few shots. On Sunday we got ready for church. I changed the way that the nursery was going. This week I split it back into the 2 sides. It was soooo much easier and way less stress. After church we went to Nose Creek Park to have a picnic with the Sherlocks. We had bought some KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) the night before and brought that, potato salad, macaroni salad, and juice. Alex made some cupcakes for dessert. It was such a nice day for a picnic. The kids especially enjoyed themselves. They love hanging out with their cousins. We stayed there for quite a while and then came home and had family home evening. We just sang a few songs, and Kaitlyn read us a story from "The Friend".

Now onto today. This morning after we got up and sent the older kids off to school, we decided to go to Costco to go pick up some things in bulk. I was so excited, but let me tell you...I did not see much of a price difference. Everything seemed to be on par with Superstore (which is our grocery store of choice). We didn't end up getting anything. I got a few groceries that we were needing when we got home, but I am going to do the actual grocery shopping tomorrow. Grant went off to the gym again. He is enjoying it. I spent the afternoon outside with the kids. It was so nice out. I just sat there and read my book while Catcher, Maiya and Tyson rode their bikes and played on the slide etc. Damian brought home a small evergreen tree today that he is supposed to plant and take care of. He was so happy about it. Our neighbour, Mrs. Goody (an elderly english woman) gave Damian a big pot to put it in and some soil. I am so happy that we have such a good neighbour. She is always so helpful and nice to my kids. At about 6:30pm the kids all came inside for baths and dinner. I pretty much left the house to itself this weekend, so there was (and still is) a lot of cleaning ahead of me. I did a bunch tonight, but I think I will go read a bit and then head off to bed.

Friday May 1, 2009

Yesterday I forgot to write in my blog. I will give a little recap of yesterday. I went into slight phanic mode in the morning because I was still in my housecoat, just showered, house messy when I get a call from my visiting teachers reminding me that they are coming. Aaahh!! Needless to say I rushed around trying to get myself decent and the house in less chaos, haha! I have 2 new visiting teachers. Vanessa Olsen and Charissa Sabey. It was nice to meet them. I don't know them that well, other than their children from the nursery. After they left, I got Catcher, Maiya and Tyson ready to go to Chuck E Cheeses. We went with Carrie and Sue and the kids. The kids had fun as usual. We are becoming regulars at that place. We went out for lunch together afterwards and to check out Old Navy. It was fun :) we got home just in time for the kids to be coming home. Kaitlyns final school concert was cancelled because of a pipe needing to be fixed. The schoolyard was flooding. They rescheduled for Tuesday. When Grant got home, I went out and got us some subs and we just chatted and watched Dr. Who for the night. It was nice and relaxing.
Now on to today. Today was a pretty laid back day. It was really nice outside (well, nicer than it has been lately). The kids played outside a lot today, and rode bikes and stuff. Tyson is loving being outside so much. Not much happened today that was significant enough to really note. I will add a quick snapshot from today when we were outside.

Tuesday April 29, 2009

This morning came all too early. I just wanted to stay snuggled under the covers. I was sooo comfy. Alas, I had to get up to get the kids ready for school. Grant went off to the gym today again in the morning. I'm glad he's enjoying it. I loaded up the van with all of our recycling. We haven't made a trip to the recycle depot in a while so there was a lot to load. It was nice to free up some garage space (only to be filled in a week, haha). I spent some time outside with the kids today. Still a little chilly, but definitely a whole lot warmer than it has been, and really sunny! Tyson is especially enjoying the outdoors since I pretty much kept him in all winter except for going to the van (and he probably doesn''t remember spring and summer last year very well, he was too little). Grant bought me a new lens today for my camera (YAY!!). It was the Tamron 28-75mm 2.8. I am very excited to try it out! He also got a family seasons pass to Calaway Park. So we will use that a lot in the summer! The kids are very excited about it. Grant left in the afternoon for a meeting. He had 2 previous interviews with a place called "Town Shoes" and they emailed him saying they had a position for him. So he went to meet with them and they said he could have the Store Manager position there. I am very happy for him. I know he will do well, and I just hope it will be good for our future. Kaitlyn joined the floor hockey team at school today. She starts tomorrow! I love floor hockey, and street hockey (but not ice hockey, I stink at skating). Well that's about all I have to say about today!

Tuesday April 28, 2009

Today the kids were soooo excited to discover we had a fish. haha! You can see how desperate they are for a pet. Tyson was pretty fascinated by it. I didn't really want a pet, but I guess fish are really low maintenance. Though I kind of wonder how long he will survive. Today I got in the shower while Tyson was having a nap and Catcher and Maiya were playing videogames to keep them occupied. When I was finished my bath, Maiya came to me with the little bag of fishfood and said "Mommy, I fed the fish". I was like, "Oh no". It's a Beta and they only eat 3 pellets a day. I went to check the fish and it wasn't on the shelf above the counter anymore. Catcher told me Maiya climbed onto the shelf and brought the fishbowl down. She then brought it over to the tv to sit with them and dumped half the bag of fishfood in the water. Grant had to go get a net from the store (since it didn't come with one last night) so he could clean it out.
Grant went to the gym again today. He's going to be in much better shape than me soon. Today was my friend Sues b-day. So Carrie and I made up a basket of stuff for her and some cupcakes to celebrate. Then we took her out for lunch. She wanted to go to McDonalds (she had her kids and Carrie had one of hers, so they got to play in the playplace there). It was fun going out together, and I think it made her day. Damian got to go swimming with his class today which was fun for him...and GUESS WHAT?? It snowed AGAIN!! Sheesh!

Monday April 27, 2009

Spring, Oh Spring...wherefore art thou spring?? In case you haven't noticed, I would really appreciate a REAL spring right about now. Amidst it all though, the tulips are still making their way through the wintery ground. That is a welcome sight indeed. Grant was gone all day and night today. He left at 9am to go to the airport. All airport employees had to go to a meeting there for the day. Grant said for the most part it was boring, but at one point they all received a $5 card to go use at one of the places in the airport to check out customer service. Grant used his at the book shop there. He also said they had Beta fishes at the meeting that they gave to the people there. Grant said he picked a white one.He named him Lionel Richie, haha! I have yet to see it since he has not come home yet.(I will post a photo of it to this post tomorrow) I am not up for pets, no matter how easy a fish seems, so I told him as long as he kept it clean and fed then it was fine. At least they weren't giving away birds or something, hahaha!! After the meeting he had an hour to grab something to eat and then he started his "real" shift, and will probably be home at 2am. What a long day for him. Catcher has not been feeling great today. He has quite the nasty cough, and runny nose. I blame it on the "up and down" weather. Maiya, Tyson and I went outside for a bit today to ride bikes. It was sunny and warm enough, then about 30 mins into our play, it got cold and started snowing again. Good grief!! Carrie came over just as we were finishing dinner. We had to put a basket together. She came just in time to see Tyson smeared with onion dip all over his hair. We had some veggies with dip, and I guess he thought it would make great hair gel. Such a messy little guy. Needless to say, a bath was in order. He seems to absolutely NEED a bath everyday!!! Well, I spent the rest of my evening going through photo files and such. Now it's time for bed, YAY!!!

Sunday April 26, 2009

Today was a LONG day at church. I went in to set up the nursery and whoever was last to put away all of the toys left it in a huge unorganized mess. It took me forever to get everything together again. A lot of the people who were supposed to be in nursery were not there, therefore leaving me, Morgan and Bro Miller to comtend with 23 kids under the age of 3. It was choas! Hopefully we will be getting more helpers soon. I got to leave nursery halfway through to attend a joint meeting. It was a nice break, but sitting down actually made me realize I was tired and I got so sleepy. After church I went home and got things ready to have the Siakaluk Family over for dinner. Always fun company to have. It was funny because it was pretty warm throughout the day and I made subs, salad, veggies and dip to feel more springish...and then partway through our meal it started snowing again!!! How crappy is that?? It is going to be May this week and it is SNOWING!! It was nice having Valene and Derek and the kids come over. My kids had fun playing with them, and as usual we love Derek and Valene and their antics and humour :)

Saturday April 25, 2009

Today was quite the busy day. I got to sleep in a little. The kids spent part of the morning relaxing and playing videogames etc. Their favourite game right now is a spiderman game for our PS3. It's a new game. I had an appointment at the eye doctors today just to check and make sure that all of the infection is gone, and yay it is :) I also have 16/20 vision which is even better than 20/20. Yay again :)
I got home just in time for Grant to take Damian and McKenna to their gymnastics class. It's fun watching the new things they learn. Maiya is feeling a lot better today. The swelling is starting to go down, and I'm pretty sure her nose isn't broken. It was a very weird day, weatherwise. It was sunny, then grey, then snowy and hailing, then raining, then sunny again and then hail...and on and on. Crazy! I picked up the babysitter at 6pm because Grant and I were going on a double date with Carrie and Tyler. Kaitlyn was very excited, because we now let her co-babysit. She gets to be second in command. I think it makes her feel older, and she probably loves the treats and movies :) We then picked up Carrie and Tyler and headed over to Shamrock lanes to go bowling. Let's just say that I REALLY stunk at bowling. I had fun anyways. Then we went to Calgary and had dinner together at East Side Marios. I just can't get enough of their food. Especially the garlic bread and caesar salad. YUM!! After that we headed back into Airdrie and stopped at Dairy Queen for some dessert. It was such a fun night!!!

Friday April 24, 2009

Today was pretty much a lazy day. I did clean, but only half-heartedly. I don`t really have much to say today. The kids have half days every Friday so they were home early today and they all helped clean up the house and their rooms. I made some rice krispie squares for them as a reward. Poor little Maiya got taken to the emergency room this evening because she stood on the side of the tub and then slipped and fell and smashed her face. Grant picked her up right away. She bled everywhere. Poor Maiya. Grant was pretty broken up about it too. I had to remain the calm one. Kaitlyn and Damian were so worried for her. They cried for about a half hour after she left. McKenna was more like me, the strong silent type. She looked upset, but didn't cry. It wasn't until the other 2 had finally calmed down that she felt it was okay to cry. We all had some ice cream together and watched a movie to take their minds off of it. Grant brought Maiya home, and we are still hoping it is not broken. They couldn't tell because her nose was so swollen, but we were told to check it when the swelling goes down to see if it's broken. I'm hoping that this is not the case. After I cuddled her for a while I left to go to the church for Heritage Night. I had to do a little segment on photography. I was not ready at all. I was feeling so tired, didn't have a chance to change into anything other than the scrubs I'd been wearing cleaning all day. I lost my notes that I was going to bring, so I fumbled a lot. I basically just answered questions and gave basic ideas. It was a nice night regardless though and I got some great ideas from some of the other women presenting things about preserving your history :) Grant and Caleb hung out and played videogames and ordered pizza. Alas, the only photo I have that I can add for today is a photo of something I was selling. I didn't take any other photos otherwise. We are selling our Wii and other stuff right now. Trying to declutter and simplify our lives while at the same time making some money to pay down debt. I should see if I can get a photo of Maiya and her nose to put here tomorrow.

Thursday April 23, 2009

This morning started out fairly early. I usually wake up at 6:45am to greet Natasha (Kaitlyn's friend who I watch before and after school), but this morning she came at about 7:15am. This could've been a 1/2 hour extra of sleep, but Tyson decided it was time to wake up. Booooo!!!
McKenna was supposed to go on a swimming trip with her class today, but it was just too cold (they walk to the rec centre) so it was cancelled. I just can't believe that on Monday and Tuesday it was +20 and then yesterday and today have been snowy, and -7 or so. Yuck! To fight off the winter blues, my friend Sue and I went to Chuck E Cheese with the kids. (Just Catcher, Maiya and Tyson of my kids since the others were in school). Sue had never been before and neither had her kids. So that made it even more fun. It was a great time and all of the kids were well behaved. We went over to the food court at the mall and had lunch together as well.
Grant ended up switching his shift, so he was home during the day. He went and did the grocery shopping and went to the gym while we were out. We are trying very hard to eat a lot healthier in our family, and I am really impressed with the effect it's had on my kids. One of Damian's favourite snacks (for the moment) is oatmeal. Imagine that, the stuff I despised growing up that we ate every morning for breakfast. After school I had a full house. All 6 of my kids, Abby (who I watch after school everyday) Natasha and her brother (their Mom had parent/teacher interviews). Kaitlyn and Natasha had their last choir practice of the year today. They each received a pin for being in the choir for the school year. They were so proud. Well, Grant will get home tonight at 9pm or so. It will be nice to just relax and hang out.

Wednesday April 22, 2009

Yikes. What happened to my daily journal?? It seemed like while the kids were out of school last week for spring break, I just didn't get a chance to do this. I will recap a little of what went on last week during their break. So we had LOTS of kids in our house over spring break. The kids had a "friend" day where they were able to invite one friend each over. I had 10 kids in the house that day. Not to mention Kaitlyns friend Natasha stayed with us over the break during the days. McKenna went to her friend Isabella's quite a bit that week. Kaitlyn had a sleepover with her friend Natasha. Grant took all of the kids to chuck e cheese. I took Kaitlyn and McKenna to go see the movie "17 Again". Lots of outdoor play and parks. Tons of sorting and spring cleaning for me. Meg came over one day while Grant and Caleb went to the movies, to show us her new puppy, Samson (Sammie). He is a little golden retriever/lab. Such a cutie. The kids LOVED him. Even the kids who are usually nervous of animals (McKenna and Catcher) warmed up to him a bit. Now they want a dog, but there's no way I am ready for a pet at this point. On Sunday we had the Adam's family over for dinner. That is pretty much all of the hilights I can remember for now. Oh and yesterday Grant got a gym membership. He wants to work on his health and physique :)

Today has been a fairly slow day for me to get going. It has gone from some gorgeous temperatures (+20) down to a chilly +2 today. Yuck!! I knew I shouldn't hold my breath for full fledged spring in Alberta just yet.

Tuesday April 14, 2009

Another day of spring cleaning and organizing around here. I've been going through everyones dressers and closets sorting through their clothes, toys, books, movies. Every inch is being covered, so this will probably be going on for a little while. I actually am a huge lover of organizing things. I actually find it kinda fun to sort things. The kids have this week off of school for spring break. Kaitlyn's friend Natasha who I watch during the week came today. Her and Kaitlyn spent the day entertaining themselves with Archie comics, sewing things together (they were attempting to make their own skirts and wristbands), playing UNO with the other kids and I and making up dance routines to music. We had my nephew Ethan over to play today for a while. He just loves doing things with Damian. They have a lot of fun together. McKenna went to Isabella's house today again, and Damian played at his friend Noahs house. Natasha ended up sleeping over tonight. Hopefully her and Kaitlyn don't get sick of eachother since she will be here everyday this week, haha!! Those 2 girls are so funny together. They wanted a snack after dinner......mashed potatoes, lol. Such an interesting request for a snack. Oh, and one fun little tidbit to add...I came into the livingroom today to find Maiya laughing so hard. Tyson was running around in his diaper and Maiya had put a USB cord in the back of his diaper to make him into a dog. She thought it was soooo funny (and I was laughing too).

Monday April 13, 2009

This morning we left the house at about 9:30am. The Adam's family invited us to go to Drumheller for the day with them. In the 3 years of living in Alberta, I have never been to the Royal Tyrell Museum. It is about an hours drive from here (Airdrie). I drove with Carrie and her kids so we could chat, and Tyler drove with Grant and my kids. The "Badlands" were just awesome. I did not get any good pictures of it really, but it was quite a sight. We all arrived at the museum at the same time despite taking different routes. It was a very cool museum. My favourite spots in the museum were the see through floor in the sealife area?? and also the ball room. You could put soft balls in these suction tubes and shoot them at eachother when they came out the other end :)
I think it's amazing how people can take these bones and know how to put them together to make a dinosaur (I guess fossils give clues as to how to go about it). After we were done in the museum we went outside to go eat our lunches. It was soooooo windy. We had to eat in our cars so everything wouldn't blow away and we wouldn't be so cold. After that we attempted going on a hike, but it was just so windy and everyone was in shorts, so it was cut pretty short. It was a fun time! So many cool photo ops, but I didn't really get any great photos .
We went back home so Grant could get ready for work, and spent some time straightening up the house (always cleaning). McKenna went to her friend Isabella's house for a couple of hours. I'm going to spend the rest of my night working on life plans. Never a dull moment here. :)

Sunday April 12, 2009

Well today was Easter Sunday. It was an "interesting" day to say the least. The kids woke up to their Easter baskets set out on the table. Poor Tyson choked on his Easter grass this morning. He was eating one of his marshmallow bunnies and ate it along with a piece of stringy easter grass. The Easter grass got stuck partway down his throat and he gagged, then vomitted right in my hand. We got it out and he was fine. Then McKenna got a sliver from her Easter basket. Catcher slept in and when he came up we discovered Tyson digging into Catchers easter basket eating the marshmallow bunnies and Damian had opened Catchers small gift (a handheld videogame) and McKenna was "testing it out". What a morning, lol. Then we got ready for church. I had pink eye, so I couldn't do my calling as nursery leader. Grant took over for me today so I wouldn't give any of the kids pink eye. It was fun going to classes for a day though. After church we came home and relaxed a bit. I was preparing Easter dinner while Grant had a nap. Another incident to add to our Easter. I called everyone for dinner. The potatoes and vegetables were done. I went to cut up the ham, and only the first 3 pieces were warmed through (the rest was freezing cold, I had cooked it from frozen) So I was only able to give them a small piece of ham and had to pu it back in the oven. My Mom, Dad, Grandma, Shawna, Daniel and Joshua stopped by for a few minutes on their way back from Charity`s house. It was nice to see them. They dropped off some treats for the kids. Now it`s just chill time. I am tired, yawn!