New Years .....

There is so much coming up in 2010... It's time to make new years resolutions; to do new years cleaning; to do your 'yearly weight in'; to get ready for 2010, whatever the case maybe.

We all do different things when the clock rolls over to the next year. Last year I made a lot of different resolutions. I can honestly say a lot of them I didn't accomplish. But as I look back over the year a lot has happen to us:

We rang in 2009 at the Zoo with the kids. We had a lot of fun but it did keep us crazy busy since we all seemed to have our colds from that Christmas linger. At least this year we didn't run out of sick days by May, like we did in 2008. We did begin our packing up of the house we were in. We lived near Warden and Lawrence and we slowly packed up our house as we started to move. I also learned how to knit hats. The boys slowly enjoyed being my models for the early versions:



We had purchased a tent trailer the past August (2008) and we spent our summer living at Glen Rouge Campground. It was wonderful. After fighting with the Raccoons and any other random animal and dealing with some CRAZY neighbours it turned out to be a good summer. The boys celebrated their late birthdays that summer at the campsite and we had a lot of fun playing around and having a campfire.

I learned a lot about cooking with my crock pot, enjoying the outdoors and making meals work for everyone who came to visit. It was a crazy summer of cooking but we loved it. We also had some serious rain (which eventually was our factor on leaving so early) and it got the better of us, sometimes.

A Rain Day watching the Frog that came to visit:


lunch inside after the rain:



The Toronto Parks and Rec went on strike that year. This meant that that every parks and rec person were on strike. Normally not a big deal and it didn't seem to effect us. We were a little worried they wouldn't extend our reservation but we were able too. We stayed at the campsite from May 15th weekend until August 9th.

During that time Arnold was sent to the USA to do a conference for work. He had a lot of fun and got out of the first actual time at the campsite. He is feeling much more 'at home' at work than before and loves the new direction he seems to be working in. Arnold also started to do a great job at cycling into work. He was incredible. He would cycle in and back from work, only taking the GOBus 2 or 3 times the whole summer. That is 50KM's during the day (assuming I didn't ask him to stop for anything on the way home). And for those Americans reading 50kms is around 32 miles. He did it each day in about 1 hour or so. We only had one accident but it was enough to scare the crap out of me. He was hit by a car. He got up with a few scratches and cuts and went and reported the accident. We picked him up and I didn't let go of him for a LONG time. I didn't get any photos of him but here's one of his ouie and Q's ouie:



We did our first summer as a "soccer family" It was really cool Kyler did GREAT. He loved every minute of it. We are thinking about trying it again this summer but we aren't sure yet. Here's a shot of my Soccer Man!



August 1st we moved into the house I'm typing this message from. It's near Pharmacy and Nancy. We moved in and were able to unpack a lot of our things and have a great week of moving in. We then went and picked up Kyler, at the family reunion, after his week at Camp Heslop.

We moved into the new house and we had a great time getting settled. Wet met Kyler's new teacher in September and Kyler started JK the second week or so in Sept. I'm so proud of him. He has learned so much since starting school and helps to teach his brother every day. It is wonderful. This is Kyler on his first day of school:



We slowly moved through the year until we got to mid October. We had visits from family and friends from far and near to stay at the house and visit with us. It was wonderful to have them and to visit with everyone, esp Grandma Visser. The boys loved having her around.

In the middle of October we got news that our Land lord was getting married and we had to move. So we started our search all over again. It was very emotional as we didn't want to leave the area (we love the school Kyler is in) and we wanted to have so many things (3 bedrooms, whole house ect). Halloween came and went and we weren't close at all to a new house. But the boys were cute that year! It took Q about 2 homes to realize what we were doing then he was ALL over the trick-or-treating.



We had Arnold's birthday in Nov and celebrated it at my parents house. We had a very fun time hanging out with them and just relaxing and getting away from everything for a bit. By the end of November we had found a place. It's a few doors down from where we live now and we love it. It's nothing that we wanted but it works for us. This house is only 2 bedrooms, only the main level, and only half the garage but we love it more than anything. It will help us get our finances back on track (cheaper) and keeps Kyler in the same school. It also helps us with keeping our 'junk' down to a min. We have already brought a lot of things to my parents house and refilled their storage area again. I hate that it has happen but we have to put it somewhere and they are so sweet to let us do this.

And this brings us to Christmas. We went home for Christmas and I loved every minute of it. We have been so blessed by our family and friends this year it has been wonderful.

We are slowly getting ready for our move which happens in 2 days. The boys have been playing around in the new place today and slowly adjusting to the idea of moving there. I'm glad too because we have to get them moved over soon. My parents and our friends are coming to help us move on the 30th so we have to be ready.

In the next few days I do need to make my resolutions for 2010. Something to guide me a bit more this coming year. So far this past year I: read more; lost 20lbs; started doing meal plans every month; spent more time with the boys one on one; made it through starting a child in school; and had more time to spend with my family.

Good luck to those who are making resolutions, heck to those who are doing cleaning... or anything to prepare for 2010. May God bless you more and more.

We Made It!

That's right! We made it through our Christmas. It was wonderful. I loved it so much. We had a great time hanging out with family and enjoying the company of everyone who visited.

On the 24th Arnold and I arrived around 5pm or so. We did a few things around Sarnia first then went to the house. The kids were napping but it didn't last too long. Then we hung out with the kiddos for a bit and my sister and brother-in-law came with their youngest. We visited until about 6:30 or so then we started to get the kiddos ready to head out. We went to Aunt Sandra and Uncle Mikes house. Poor Sarah (their daughter who is going to school in Toronto) was so sick. She was so sweet and came down to visit for a bit but she was soooooo sick. I hope she is feeling better by now!

We play games, eat yummy food, and hang out. We always play this game that involves passing around a gift until the music stops then you unwrap 1 layer and move it onto the next person and repeat until the paper is gone. The kids LOVE this game. Just before this game we were eating and hanging out. Lisa was showing off her new skills of walking around. That and kissing people! She is so sweet. Here's a photo of Quinton trying to get Lisa to kiss him



When we got home the kids got into their Christmas pjs and we got to find out where Santa was on the NORAD tracking. I think we have done it since I was about 13 or 14. I LOVE it. So this year we tracked it and the kids had so much fun seeing everything.



We got the kids off to bed and then "Santa" came to visit the house. And man was he good to the kids this year. We were so surprised!

The next morning we got up (well the kids did) around 6am (after a VERY rough night) and wanted to see what Santa brought. I guess it hasn't really clicked in that Santa does stockings as well as their own gifts under the tree. Well this time the kids wanted to see the tree and went running into the room with the tree in it. Normally not a big deal but Nana and Papa were sleeping in there on their new bed and that woke them up with a start! We did stockings and eventually got everyone up and out of bed.

Here's a few photos of Christmas Morning:

Q trying on Uncle Jack's new jacket:



K and Q checking out Q's gift from Nana and Papa (singing tools from Handy Manny's Tool box)


Arnold being good while I tried to figure out the flash


My sister, Becca, and brother-in-law, James


Uncle Jack and Q hanging out and getting squish-tickles


While the kids were at my parents house they got to do a mini photo shoot of them in their Christmas outfits. Anyway... Here is Lisa's photos. We did it a few moments before they left but what a cutie!



Boxing day:

We spent it at home. My Uncle Dave and Aunt Karin came to visit for lunch. They were going to come the day before for supper but the weather was bad so they came for lunch and we had leftovers. It was a great meal.

Sunday:

We packed up our stuff and headed out around 10:30am. It was a good ride to Toronto. We stopped at McDonald's down the road from our house and played in the play place area. We would have stopped on the highway but the boys slept the whole time, thank goodness! We got home and Kyler had a mini meltdown! I knew things were going to be different but I didn't realize how much Kyler would need it. He got in the house and right away started to cry and went "I don't know where to put my coat!!" We had taken down the hooks last week while the boys were gone. We explained that he got top play around and throw his coat on the ground. that worked.

We did get some time to play at the new house today. My dad made some dividers for the drawers in the MBR and we put them in today. Also this gave the kids a chance to go and play around in the house and get used to it. This was Kylers first time in the house. It took him a bit to understand that there is no downstairs but he seemed excited to have Mommy and Daddy on the same level!

Well I have to get the kiddos off to bed soon so I should get moving. Tomorrow we are on our own while Arnold heads off to one of his 2 days of work.

I hope you had a VERY Merry Christmas!

Tracking Santa

This is something we have done for a while now. I remember having dial-up internet and checking then getting of the internet and calling my cousin and let her know where Santa was so she would go to sleep!

www.noradsanta.org

This is one of the coolest sites ever. From Dec 1st to the 25th you can play games, check out what's going on in the North Pole and get updates. The videos are so great. I love it. They are now on Facebook so I can start getting updates on there. There is about 1 million people who like it there.

Today they have started giving updates on where Santa is. If you go to their site (above) you can check out where he is and click on them. I can be honest, I started to learn things about these places from this site. Check the link, and click on a gift in the map. They give you photos from this place. It's so cool.

When you click on the video link they show you videos from the most recicent place he has been. Seriously the cutest thing ever!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nana and Papa are really enjoying the kids. They both managed to take some time off of work to have the kids over and Rebecca (my sister) and I are so grateful!

Here is yesterdays update:

Christmas Camp Heslop Wednesday

Quinton was the first to wake up this morning, he was in a great mood and already you could tell that he had turned the corner with the hives. We played inside most of the day, to play meaning to make the Christmas cinnamon buns. No one really wanted to help with the flour mixture, so I got that done pretty fast. It was waiting to punch down the dough that had all the volunteers. I lined everyone up and took their pictures showing us their best fist and then off then went punching down the dough. They all thought it was pretty funny that the dough had to take a rest after being punched. When I was all set up and ready for them to do the fun part of putting on the sugar cinnamon and butter, I called in for help. Uncle Jack, to the rescue. He is a pro at making buns and took control of the process while I took lots of pictures. In no time at all we had the buns all ready and starting their second raise, when Kyler started asking when he could eat the buns. This waiting stuff is really hard.

Using the heat of the oven to hurry the raising process along, I made an oven lunch for the kids. They ate lunch while Uncle Jack and I finished making the rest of the buns. After lunch they began a game, which they invented over the past few days. It is called Santa Comes. One of the kid’s fakes they are a sleep and then “Santa” comes into the room and hides a present. The sleeper awakes and has to search for their gift. While they were at this, I started to clean up the sun room for the long awaited sofa to come. This action immediately drew them like magnets to a clean space to dance, run and roll in. Before you knew it there was a concert and dance recital of sorts happening. Who ever wore the Santa hat had to play the piano and the other person or persons had to dance. It seemed like if you could keep your dance on the angle rug you were very good at dancing. Quinton and I stayed clear of the activity and we became the audience. Quinton discovered that hiding and jumping out at the dancer was apparently a hysterically funny thing to do.

Before you knew it, the buns were ready for first samples and so we all went to the kitchen for our first feast. After the buns were tasted we all got into our winter clothes and headed to the part to go on the swings. I taught Amber and Kyler that I could sing The Little Drummer Boy while ruppa pum pumming on their buns (giving them a push). We were not home long when the truck from Forever Furniture drove up to our house. We all trouped into the living room and watched them unload the sofa and carry it to the house, and then ran to the window door between the sunroom and kitchen to watch it being assembled and put into place. This last action took a long time as the audience took a stool and placed it in front of the door so they could sit and watch. When the sofa was finally rolled over they all clapped. The delivery men were smiling ear to ear.

We all went in and tried out the sofa, which I declared was too hard for my poor bum. The only solution was a good old fashion jumping session. So my very obedient grandchildren took a great deal of pride in jumping all over the sofa and then asking me to try it out and see if it was softer. They had to really do a lot of jumping before I was satisfied that could sit on it comfortably.

The afternoon was quickly getting away from us and I still had some baking to finish, so the kids watched the Muppet Christmas carol and Quinton had his afternoon sleep on the lazy boy chair. We didn’t even try to wake him up when it was supper time. After supper we arranged the coffee table and started a Heslop family tradition by opening the puzzle. Everyone wanted to help so we gave the kids the job of looking for the flat edged pieces. When Quinton woke up he showed us how good he was at puzzles by taking apart the pieces that Papa was putting together and re arranging them in very interesting colour combinations. He is very talented at this.

Then it was off to the live nativity. It was as beautiful as ever and just like we had planned the carol sing began minutes after we arrived. After the songs ended, Kyler, Quinton and Amber took turns going up and petting the donkey. Then we loaded back into the car and drove around looking at all the beautiful lights. Kyler fell asleep about five minutes from home. Once back at home we had hot chocolate with marshmallows and Marshmallow seeds ( the dried mini marshmallows that are in the hot chocolate mix), plus more buns. Then it was time to brush our teeth and off to bed. Papa did the story time tonight. They were fast asleep in no time at all.

Highlights

Kyler singing in the bathroom: We wish you a merry Christmas and I go poop. – We are certainly in the celebrating mood here.

Amber running in to the sunroom so excited she almost couldn’t get out the words to tell me Snowball had climbed on the dining room table and was eating the leftovers from lunch.

Quinton calling Snowball the BAD puppy for the rest of the day.

Sofa Bed – well it arrived but didn’t have the special mattress that we ordered in it. They are delivering that in the morning.

Quinton saying “Santa lights, Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas” in such a low voice we thought he would rupture a vocal cord.

Merry Christmas Everyone who reads this. I have enjoyed doing this blog for the last little while and I hope you have enjoyed reading it as well. I'm going to try and update sometime between Christmas and New Years but with moving and everything who knows when I can.

And my last thing......

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Jesus
Happy Birthday to you!

The Boys Week Before Christmas

The boys are at Nana and Papa's house this week. They are having a blast. Arnold and I have been moving our things to the new house and packing up this one and getting ready for the crazyness to begin next week.

Today I got a phone call from Nana asking where the boys boots were. After figuring that out I'm sure they went out to play. And then I got a call from Nana a little while later and she told me I missed it. I guess Kyler was singing his version of "We wish you a merry Christmas" in the bathroom. It went something like this:

We wish you a merry Christmas
we wish you a merry Christmas
we wish you a merry Christmas
I have to go poop

we wish you a merry Christmas
we wish you a merry Christmas
we wish you a merry Christmas
I am pooping!

Only Kyler!



I thought I would share the daily e'mails I get from Nana this week. So far here are the updates:

Christmas Camp Heslop Sunday
Sunday, December 20



The ride back to Sarnia was very uneventful. First we were all excited to see the Christmas Lights, but as soon as we hit the highway, it got dark. Quinton fell asleep and the other two campers asked for the special surprise I had for them. I fixed them up with a DVD player and two sets of ear phones and they were so quiet until about 20 minutes before we came into Sarnia .

Quinton woke up just in time to see the Christmas light on Michigan road. There are so many displays this year. Kyler wants to go back again and show his mom. Amber said she had never seen so many lights. This is definitely worth a return trip on Tuesday evening.

Almost immediately on arriving at Papa’s house, the campers headed to the basement to play “balls” Three short cues and three step stools later they were all set. They have this funny insistence on setting up the balls in the triangle and doing a regulation break. That’s where any resemblance to pool is lost and the game of “balls” begins. It is every camper for himself, any style and any end of the stick. Some games last a few minutes, others a few seconds.

When their interest was lost on the game they proceeded to play with the doll house, remote control cars, and Thomas the trains. We have already made plans to go in the hot tub tomorrow and to play with the play doh. Juice and cookies was the called for snack and afterwards we headed upstairs to get on their pjs. Downstairs again for a game of jumping on the sofa, where Nana took a million pictures, until Kyler thought it would be funny to get everyone to only show their bums to the camera.

It is 9:45 p.m. right now and the stories have been read, teeth brushed and the campers are talking and laughing in their bedroom. I believe it could be another half an hour until they settle down to sleep.

Quinton – he had more meds at bedtime. Nothing has changed really, unless you think the rash area becoming more pronounced after jumping around on the sofa. He is in excellent humour.

Mondays:

Christmas Camp Heslop Monday

We spent the day at home just getting rested up and playing. Our day started early at three with Quinton waking up and not wanting to go back to sleep. He stayed in bed with Papa and Nana for half an hour then we headed downstairs and snuggled under the blankets. Two DVD’s later, a first breakfast and playing with the puppies, we headed back up stairs to wake up Papa. Papa took the next shift while Nana had a quick nap. By 8 we were all up and eating breakfast.

The basement has proven to be the ideal playroom. Everyone headed down there after breakfast to play balls, play doh, riding toys, Thomas the train and the doll house. We came up around noon and went into the hot tub for a while. It was cold out and the water felt hot. The thing is about half an hour later we all wanted to go in because the water only felt warm. Finally we were all dressed in our clothes and had lunch. Peanutbutter is the staple food around here. Quinton had hit the end of his energy run and asked Papa to hold him. A few minutes later he was asleep. Amber and Kyler really didn’t want to have a “break without toys” but they did and slept for an hour.

I went to the mall and got my hair done, when I got home supper was ready and we sat down for dinner. Amber and Kyler took turns telling us “tall tales” of when they were babies. Quinton showed everyone how he could cry like a baby. After supper, I got ready to go over to the store to teach a class and when I went down to say good bye to the kids, I found them playing play doh with Uncle Jack. They had a busy evening with popcorn and the movie Night at the Museum part two.

We have brushed our teeth, had two stories read and had a ten minute visiting time. It is now ten and the room is quiet, man that is a whole hour earlier then last night.

Highlights

Amber being so excited that she could keep the 7 inches I cut off the bottoms of her pj bottoms. She was so happy to be able to run in her pj’s but made me understand that she did not want the sleeves fixed because she liked it long.

Kyler telling Amber that his nipples were to small to feed a baby. (this came with a conversation about feeding babies milk)

Quinton being so pleased with himself every time he got a ball in the pocket of the pool table.

Uncle Jack getting an A- in finance this year.

Forever Furniture really losing our sofa bed, but promising us the floor model for the holidays if they cannot get the one we ordered to our house on the 24th.

Tuesdays:

Christmas Camp Heslop Tuesday

This day just went from good to great, without a lot of help. We began the morning being very lazy and stayed in our PJ’s. The basement was the preferred venue with the pool table being converted into a very large brio train station. We had a few issues with only one battery operated train, but we worked it out. The play doh is getting old and we are really down to just two colours, so we added that to our to do list for this afternoon.

One at a time I took a grandchild up stairs to get dressed in their Christmas outfits and took their pictures. Quinton was the last one as we wanted the benedril to take effect, there were a few hives on his face, but nothing I cannot photoshop out. By the time we were finished with the pictures it was time for lunch. After lunch we were treated to a piano recital and old fashion sing along featuring songs they had learned in school. We got ready to go out for our afternoon of fun and only a few streets away we remembered the Bulk Barn bag. We went back home and picked it up.

At the mall we went to see Santa, we were a few minutes early so there was 10 minutes of standing in line. The kids were entertained outside of Please Mum by a live model in the window. It was a young boy and he was actually quite good. He would only move when adults were not looking at him, so it made the grandchildren laugh a great deal. It was almost ten minutes into this show that we discovered he wasn’t suppose to be in the window and was removed by one of the sales people.

Santa was very good and talked to all three of the kids, they got their picture taken as a group with Santa and got a candy cane. The next stop was Toys R Us where we picked up three new containers of Play Dou and two more trains that use batteries for the train set downstairs.

Our last stop was Bulk Barn and it was so funny. Kyler walked down the first aisle and kept breathing in sharply every time he looked into a new barrel. I was waiting for him to exhale at the end or pass out. We all got something and filled the Bulk Barn bag so that it was so heavy that Kyler took it upon himself to carry it. Once home they were excited to use their new trains, so Papa was forced to go directly downstairs and put in the batteries. We played a good hour or so making the tracks twist around so the trains could travel all over the pool table. Amber was the first to take a break from the trains, the call of the confetti play doh was so strong. They were all happy to have new soft play doh to shape things with. Aunt Sandra came over with a big box of Christmas videos so we are all set for the rest of our holiday.

Before supper everyone came up stairs and got to choose two things from the candy and then settled down to watch Franklin ’s Christmas. Quinton came into the kitchen and said he was too hot and he hurt. He had a raging case of the hives all over his face. We drugged him up, loosened his clothes and he wanted to go back to the movie. When it was supper time, he didn’t want to leave the chair and was almost asleep so we left him.

After supper, we tiptoed past Quinton and went outside to the hot tub. The best fun was putting on the jets and making lots of bubbles.

After the hot tub they changed into their pj’s had another snack. Quinton woke up by then, but was not in a good mood. At one point he broke into a horrible cry and I came running to find out that he had boogers and needed a nose blow.

After three more Christmas shows we went up stairs to get ready for bed. There was lots of laughing and playing until I decided that it was almost ten and they had to sleep. I stood on guard at the end of the bed and that is all it took for them to drift off to sleep.

Highlights

Amber telling us the dog was hurting her bum. I went to see what the matter was and found out that every time she sat on the lazy boy Snowball invited himself up and squished between Amber and Kyler.

Kyler’s reaction to the bulk food store was the best.

Quinton’s imitation of a baby where he fake cries and crawls after the other two who are trying to get away from him.

Sofa Bed – has been found, they shipped it from where ever it was to the store today and it will be delivered tomorrow afternoon.

Arnold and I wait up nightly for these messages. It's great to know they are having fun. I'll try to post their next few days of updates when I can :)

Freecycle Christmas Giving

Have you ever heard of Freecycle? It's something that Arnold and I like. Basically before you throw things out you list them on Freecycle in your area. Arnolds on it for Toronto and we have been blessed with some things from Freecycle (bikes, tools, desks, ect) and we sometimes put things out for freecycle (if it's something we have found after the CD comes though first).

This time we put up some things from our cleaning up on Sunday and Monday. On Monday afternoon Arnold put this listing on Freecycle:

OFFER: Christmas Tree, light stings, a few decorations

Moving for Jan 1st, done with the Christmas tree (sad I know), have a few non-led strings of lights, most working. Also some decorations that just don't fit with the rest of the ones we have.

porch pick-up not a problem.

We got this back from someone:

Hi there,

Is our tree live or artificial? seeking a live one if possible, so wanted to ask.
Thanks and much luck with your move!
Karen

Arnold:

yes, live tree, you are welcome to it,
let me know when you want to come by and I'll make sure the lights and decorations are out for you too

Karen:

oh my goodness!
I am absolutely weak with happiness.
I must explain how I travel though, although I believe we are very close to each other.
I am at XXXXXX and XXXXXXXXX, at XXX (a street about 2 blocks from our house).
While I am not in a wheel chair, I do experience a couple of disabilities, traveling only with wheel trans. It means my waiting for a return driver, perhaps 45 minutes. I do not mind waiting on your porch that long for a tree having a live one means so much to me, but want to be sure you are comfortable with that. hoping they will not argue about my carrying it, but am willing to try. with notice I can set a ride for late tomorrow afternoon?
Thanks,
Karen

Arnold:

Well I am in the process of moving, so I have my van empty... if you are
comfortable with the arrangement, I can swing by your house with the tree
and decorations and leave them on your curb, this would save you a round
trip.

would that suit you well? if so, I will drop them by your place some time
this evening.

Karen:

Oh mercy!
That would be beyond kind if you are sure?
Glad we are indeed so close, and i am beyond thankful.
will give you my number, and if you want let me know when you are on the way. I can at least say think you for this.
Karen

Arnold and I were getting such a giggle out of this! I put all of the stuff in the add in the car as Arnold put the christmas tree on the top. We drove, seriously, 2 blocks and dropped it off to this woman. Arnold unloaded everything and put it by the door. He tried knocking and ringing the bell a few times and we got nothing. So we headed out.

After about 1 and a half hours of cleaning at the new house we came home to this message:

FreecycleTO received: Live christmas tree!
and. i. am. appreciative!
The most wonderful beautiful magical marvelous Christmas tree in the history of Christmas trees is in my house!
I really do not have enough words, thank you seems far too simple. I know this may seem like a lot of writing, but you have no idea what it personally means for me to have a live tree where ever I call home. A person finished their celebrating in time to share this with me, giving this tree a few more weeks of life and love.
We truly never know how the things we save from the landfill can transform the lives of those who receive them. No matter how many no shows or people deciding at the last minute not to take something, in the end why we are here prevails I believe.
May I manage to give away enough things some day to help someone find half the joy this tree is giving me, and I haven't even touched the ornaments yet!
Late too with my thanks for Holiday Mugs to share with others too, my computer is not behaving so my writing is a mess.

happy happy whatever you celebrate everyone!!!
Karen

We were so happy to give such a wonderful sounding woman a little cheer this year. We got another e'mail from Karen:

Hi!!!
its the most wonderful tree, and I love the decorations too.

Thanks more than you can possibly know for passing these treasures on to me!

Happy everything,

Karen

And even a phone call thanking us for everything.

What a wonderful night of giving away our Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Comment Answers

I'm actually not sure what the sq foot is in the new house... it's small if that helps :) We will have the upstairs of the house and part of the garage. We are really excited about this :)

Hope you enjoy the snacks ladies!


I'll be right back :)

A childless week(ish)

My parents, bless their souls, have taken my two boys and my oldest niece on this side, for a week. We dropped off one VERY excited Kyler and one very sick Quinton on Sunday afternoon after stopping for a visit and quick supper in Cambridge. Nana, Papa, and Uncle Jack came and picked everyone up at my sisters place and then we headed out. We got home around 6:30pm and got straight to work.

I took the camera, Arnold was armed with the measuring tape and paper and pen and we went over and measured some things in the new house. We did alot of measuring and picture taking and we are ready to start moving. We came home and started the sad state of packing up Christmas in our house. We got ALOT done which helps. By 10pm we had:
-undressed and delighted the tree
-tossed the tree outside
-took off the christmas lights and greenery outside
-took the lights and greenery down inside and packedup
-labled the decorations and packed them up in new boxes
-put away some of the breakable decorations
-took all the lights down from every room
-brought up all the Christmas boxes for packing up.

Arnold headed off to bed around 10pm or so and I finished waiting for a few things to upload (ie a video of the boys singing) and made my 'to-do' list for the week.

This morning was kinda nice. I was, however, awoken at 3am (I think the neighbour got home), a bit tired. I layed in bed until 8am reading about 3 or 4 chapters in a book and then I made my way upstairs doing things as I went.

So far today I have:
-did laundry (on load 4)
-packed up PM nativity, and other breakables into a box
-made 3 bags of garbage or recycle
-cleaned the carpet areas
-fed the fish (that was hard hehe)
-packed up another 2 boxes of Christmas things
-brought up 1 load of stuff to go to my parents house and made the 'move to parents house' table
-brought 6 loads up the stairs and out to the car for moving to the new house
-emptied the boys bedroom (minus things stuck down) of things
-cleaned out the bathroom of empty bottles or things we don't use/need anymore
-made breakfast (which was to die for! It was sooo good)
-did the dishes, twice
-did some online banking.

Now if I could only keep going! I have managed to get Arnold to list some stuff on freecycle for us so hopefully it will go soon (but not soon enough.. I want to add in the tree skirt, it's time to get a new one).

Today the rest of my plans are:

-pack up the rest of the boys room
-move van load over to new house and start setting up a few things
-begin to empty the toy room of things that can be brought to new house
-begin to empty our room of things that can go to the new house
-list the couch and chairs and ottoman online.

Hopefully I can get that done. Oh and finish making supper.

Wish me luck! hopefully I can get back into the blogging thing again once we get Christmas under our belts! Or before if you are lucky!

Christmas Snacks!

So who doesn't like Christmas snacks? I know I've talked about cookies and I think I've told you about the white chocolate popcorn that is to die for that my mom makes, but there's more! I know! how can there be more? But there is!

A week ago at the Winter Concert I found out that Mr Brown, K's teacher, is a choco-o-holic. I then discovered that I should make something or buy something chocolate. Since you never know who likes what (and for future reference I dislike chocolate with cherries in them) I thought I should make something for him. I was in walmart when this thought came to me so I went over and picked something up that I thought I could handel making:



Easy right? chex Mix (their chocolate mix) some coloured melting chocolates (this was discovered after mixing some white chocolate chips and some foodcolouring and watching it become a powder like substance... not working!) and a cookie sheet. I'll admit, I've done it once already to make sure it would work.

And for taste testing!



The first thing you do is spread them out on the cookie sheet (should be flat) and add a suprise ingrediant that no one knows about! Can you guess what it is?




A closer photo incase you can't guess.




anyone? It's so good. They are my favourite thing at Bulk Barn!




That's right! White chocolate mint bells! SOOO good. I thought I would just throw them in there for some more colouring!




Next we put some melting chocolates into a bowl. Seriously this is one of my favourite things. It doesn't take long at all. Just about 30 seconds to a minute thirty and you are good to go. Please if you do this stir every 30 seconds or it's bad! Trust me




Melted version, sorry so fuzzy, it's hard to get a good shot, fast and with 1 hand!




Sprinkle on tray. The frist few gobs came out REALLY big but hey, it just adds to it. Then you could just kinda fling the spoon around to get the light lines. Try to keep the 'flinging' on the tray.




Pan #2. In all reailty I could have used 3 pans at least for the one bag but this worked ok as well.




Drizzle. It's so pretty!




Take another shot. Again so festive right? I'm sure you could do it with orange and black for halloween to add a twist, or some 'pastaly' colours for Easter.




And another photo... just because it's so good. Around now I took the trays and shook them a bit and tried to get a bit more chocolate on the pieces. If it didn't work the spoon was ok to go into my mouth, and I'm sure if you make it, you will have to 'taste test' some as well.




Last one, I promise.




I waited for the chocolate to cool then put into the 'festive' plastic bags from Ziplock.




As you can see each tray made their own bag. I had done it already in red so we have 2 bags of red and 2 bags of green. The major problem here is that they are seriously FILLED up!




I figured out, about a day later, that this was WAY too much to eat for one person, I mean, family, so I had my husband mix them up. We ended up with 7 bags of the mix. SOOO good. The teachers and everyone at the school loved them!

Something I love Game:

My something I love today is more of a moment. I LOVE that moment when the house is quiet. I can hear the fish tank running but nothing else. I'm slowly learning to love that sound. IT's wonderful. That and the fact that when there is no other sound in the house it means the kids are asleep. Something I need them to do.

Blessed:

Today I know I'm blessed by God. I'm blessed because no matter how much I freaked out and worried I know God is with me and helping me. He helped us to find and figure out everything we need. Including this:



This is our new house. We move on the 30th of this month. We are renting the upper half of the house and so far no one is in the basement. It's less space than we have ever had before (including our first house in Toronto) but we need to get on our feet again and save up some money. This should help us!


p.s. God provided for us again last night. Thank you to those people, you know who you are.

David Ramsey... the good old DR

I love the DR program. I'm working on it and we are doing wonderful. We are slowly getting to where we need to be and doing great. One of the things he talked about this week are setting goals for the new year:

Career,
Financial,
Physical,
Intellectual,
Spiritual and
Family goals

He says having a timeline is a good idea. For those of you who followed our last blog I wrote a bit about having goals each year and did I accomplish them. Not really but we got some of them done. This year we are going to work on it a bit more. Arnold and I are going to sit down and see where we are and where we want to be in our goals. What about you? Where do you want to be?

Something I love Game:

Sorry no photos today mainly because you know what they look like but I LOVE my kids. They are so sweet and today was just perfect! We booked it out of the house early this morning and headed to school. Kyler delivered his christmas gifts to the Principal, Sectaries and his teachers. They were so surprised (at least the ones in the office) and were so grateful. I love how my kids reacted. Kyler even told the Secretaries "thank you for EVERYTHING!" It was so cute.

Blessings:

I am blessed so much by the people we know. Last night was our last Christmas Dinner with the Ladies Bible Study. We did it at Jaime's house and had so much fun. When we left I got a few cards and such from friends thanking us for hosting and being so great with them. I was so surprised. Everyone knows we do this because God blessed us and we want to bless others. We were blessed with some gifts. Some just for us but mostly for our family and it was wonderful. Thank you to everyone for letting us bless you :)

What a weekend!

This weekend was one of our crazy ones. Next weekend is a crazy one as well

Friday night was Arnold's work Christmas Party. He went by himself since we couldn't find a sitter and with the crazy weekend it was good for us to have 1 parent home.

Saturday we did some shopping in the morning then came home and Nana and Papa came with Amber. After lunch Nana, Amber, Kyler and myself went to the nutcracker. I wanted to post photos but I haven't gotten any from my mom yet :)

That night after the nutcracker I changed and headed out to the Youth Groups Christmas party. It was so much fun.

Sunday Arnold and I took Amber to church early and then Nana and Papa met up with us. We went out for lunch afterwards and then headed back to the house to load up their van with stuff we needed back at their house. We got the boys to sleep and Arnold and I packed up some more boxes and then I got changed and the babysitter came and we headed out to the choir concert.

It was crazy!

Anyway we had SOOO much fun.

I don't have any photos for you at this time of our weekend but I will soon I promise.

Something I Love Game:

Along with things on my tree I Love me "My first Christmas" ball. It's so pretty and it's by far one of my favourite things on my tree:





Blessed:

I'm so blessed by everything going on this season. I have been blessed by random people. But today I wanted to post about how Quinton Blessed others. Just by saying Merry Christmas. Today we headed to the Bulk Barn to get some things for snacks (I'll post those later) and we were leaving and an older couple was leaning against the wall taking a break walking and Quinton, with no prompting, said "Merry Christmas!" And I swear the woman was in tears. She kept telling me how wonderful it was to have a little boy say "Merry Christmas" as most people forget the reason for the season. I couldn't help but giggle inside. My Mom and I had just talked about it this weekend. Anyway that's my share for today.

Visiting Santa

Yesterday was a different day for us. After not having school on Wednesday due to there being no power, heat or phones it was werid to have even more time 'off' with Kyler.

In the morning we slowly got ready to get moving, got dressed and generally took our time until about 10am. Then we starte to head out. We went to a mall close by that Auntie Jaime works at. The kids love visiting with her anywhere so they were very excited to go. We worked our way there by doing a bit of stuff first.

We started with going to Shoppers Drug Mart and using their post office. We had to get a few more things mailed out (since Arnold seems to forget to take them to work alot). That took just over a half hour. the line up was crazy. However Kyler did keep almost everyone entertained by showing off what he was going to do for his class song. He sang "Suzie Snowflake" with actions to the people around us. Then Quinton and Kyler talked about everything going on around them and that gave alot of people some giggles for the day.

When we finally had everything ready to be mailed off the boys got to put something in the mail box each. Then Kyler got so upset thinking that they couldn't get it out of that tiny hole anymore. So the Canada Post ladies gave them a quick tour of the inside, showing them that the box could be open on the other side and that only people who worked there could give those letters to Santa!

After we texted Jaime and let her know that we were at the mall. We got to have a tour of her office and meet everyone there and then head back down and walk around a bit waiting for Santa.

The boys got to see him just before he came up to his bench. So Kyler and Quinton ran up and gave him a huge hug. We had them go up in line and I was allowed to take a photo behind the bars:










Once we visited with Santa we hit up a place for lunch, then some quick groceries then home.

We got home in time to get changed and off to Kylers school for his production (see the below post with the links to videos).

It was a great day with the kids.

Something I Love Game:

What I love right now, aside from our tree, is some of the things on it, mainly from Hallmark. I LOVE Hallmark. A friend of mine can vouch for it as I spent over 200.00 for gifts this year. I took some photos of one of my current favourites. This is Quinton's First Christmas one:










I love the looks both of them got once I could check them out. Sometimes I prefer one look to the other so I posted both.

Blessed:

I am blessed by my friends. I'm not sure if I have posted the friends one before but I truely am. They are so wonderful to us. A few this year have given us "Christ directed" gifts and I love that. Also a few have let us use their discounts and get things a bit cheaper than we would be able to afford (anything from individual stores to Costcos). And a few have just offered to help us out at a moments notice, or even just to pray for us. What a blessing that is. Thank you.

Slacker!

I can't believe I missed yesterday. Our day was crazy so I guess it makes up for it.

To put you on a bit of a better slant today here are the videos from yesterdays adventures:

Heres the links and password to K's production (he is in a red sweater and generally in the back row).

The first one is a little weird. It repeats again so only need to watch it once.

Oh Canada:

http://vimeo.com/8111603

Chicken Soup with Rice and Suzie Snowflake:

http://vimeo.com/8116931

Password for both is : december

Enjoy! I'll post more later (photos and such) of our adventures yesterday. Today we have to do some last minute shopping

New Christmas Clothes

As I said yesterday we got new Christmas clothes. After some killer deals, a lot of store, and missing nap time we finally got some great clothes.

The boys ended up with matching clothes. They both got a pair of grey cords, 2 dress shirts, a really nice sweater (I want one in my size) and some socks, shoes and Kyler got a tie.

I love the clothes they ended up with. Our experience was crazy bit it worked!

Today we did a mini-fashion show. We got moving after our snowman fun and went to school only to find out that the school was closed due to no power, phones, or heat! So we put on a fashion show with the camera and here is our results. Enjoy the photo overload:






































































































Something I love Game:

I LOVE snow. Seriously the way it make the world look when it just falls, no one has walked in the snow and how perfect it looks. It's wonderful. I love love love snow. Anyway this mornings post was just the beginning it looks like. I snaped a few more photos in the daylight, after our return from school being cancelled.



















Blessed:

I know being blessed is something people take for granted. Today I realized that aside from our crummy living situation right now I have been blessed by having a good landlord. Our LL has been great at making sure things are ok and helping us when he can. Hopefully our next landlords will be like that as well