As 2013 closes...

I get to have a moment of reflection.  I see all these post on Facebook about how their past year has been.  Sometimes I can smile and laugh with those memories.  And sometimes I tear up as I remember those memories right along with them.

And at other times I learn more about their lives.  While most of my friends on Facebook aren't people I've ever met in real life I'm connected to them.

So here is my moment of reflection:

In 2013 we completed a tough year.  We had my Mother and Father In Law visit along with my two Brother In Laws.  They came to be with us during our rough time.

We buried our son at the end of January. 

Slowly we moved on with our lives. 

We celebrated Kyler's 8th Birthday and then Quinton's 6th Birthday.

We kept as busy as we could.  The boys with school and swimming lessons and friends.  Arnold worked and I volunteered at school.

In April I was offered a new job at church.  I worked there and volunteered at school. It was so nice to have something to do that really gave back to my family.

During the summer we had a full house.  My nieces from Cambridge came to spent most of the summer with us.  It was a great experience!  We had so much fun! The kids did day camps; church camps; zoo camps.; then another camp in Sarnia.  and back again fro some fun after the long weekend.  It was great.

At the beginning of the summer Quinton and Arnold went to Alberta to have some fun.  They both enjoyed their time with family and checking things out.

At the end of August my dad started radiation treatment for his cancer.  And while he did that we also found out that my Mother In Law was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Our lives have been caught up in learning more about cancer and living each day to the fullest.

We also moved my parents into a new house.  It was kind of hard.  It was the house I had known, and had a lot of our family memories. While their move was only around the block it's a change for all of us. 

September brought some new fun.  Kyler was in grade 3 and Quinton was in grade 1!  What a change to do full day school.  Jack was a big help getting the kids off to school when I went to work.  I also began working every day as a lunch room supervisor!

Shortly before the end of September I got to go to a wine weekend with some incredible girls!  We has a blast!!  While we were there Arnold got to speak to our real estate agent. When I returned we began our hunt for our house.

We found a house, purchased a house and moved in all in less than a month!  It was a crazy month for us.  We tired to close on my birthday but it didn't quite work out that way.

Our new house took up a lot of our time.  We tore out the carpet upstairs and put down new flooring, including the subfloor and click laminate. I painted the room.  This is all after demoing a wall that was between the two rooms.  It was a lot of work.  We also tore up the basement floor and the ceiling.

We finally moved in, with the help of a lot of people from church and Arnold's work, one of the last few weekend in November.

On November 28th we went out and got our Christmas tree.  This is the way we remember Otis's Birthday :)  So far it's working!  We enjoyed getting the tree and bringing it home and setting it up.  I'm so proud of it.

The boys and I started celebrating Christmas right from the beginning of December.  I finished working in the church office and was now back to school full time.  Arnold was lucky enough to take a few days to work from home and get some things done at the new house so his hours were a bit all over the place. 

Just after school ended we had the blackout from the ice storm.  While spending some time at Arnolds work the first day to keep warm we ended up in Sarnia.  Arnold "worked from home" the Tuesday then had the rest of the week off.  Arnold and Jack headed back to Sarnia on the Saturday and our power went on shortly afterwards.  The little dudes and I came back to Toronto on the Sunday to a nice warm house!

And now... as the year ends I'm taking a moment or two to reflect on how this year has gone.  And while it didn't start out as a happy year I'm glad that this year is over and a new one begins.  While tomorrow may just be another day it is the first day in a new year.  I pray that God will grant us a year that we will remember; a year that we can spend praising Him; and most of all a year where we make incredible memories with our family.

Happy New Year Readers!  Enjoy these last few moments of 2013 and bring in 2014 with a smile!

6 more days!

That's right!!  6 more days!

This mornings board at school was our nice reminder that there is only 6 more days of school left!!!  Which for teachers (who weren't counting today) it was really 5 days!  One whole hand!

Last night was our Christmas concerts at school.  Actually, one was in the afternoon.  But they were great.

Our week has been busy!

On Monday we dropped off our teacher gifts!  Mr C (Q's teacher) got a "book of gift cards".  Ms. G (K's teacher) got a jar of gumballs and a GC.  Then the office staff and those I work with 1 on 1 got my "exploding box" gifts.

Tuesday was preparing for our concert.  It meant for a super duper busy day!

Wednesday got crazy.  A fun morning to get the concert ready and to get the kids excited.  Then lunch and onto the concert.  We had our concert from 1:30 until about 2:30pm.  Everyone was gone by 3pm.  Which is nice.  I even got my first "teacher gifts" :)  I loved it!

On Wednesday night. it was my boys turn.  The parent council did a great job with our baskets so I spent most of my time doing the raffle.  A friend of mine one the VIP seating.  It was big cushy seats at the front with no one in front of you.  It was great :)  I loved it!  Her hubby couldn't make it so I did.  We got front row seating, and they waited on you!  There was a bottle of water and a juice box to start.  Then you got a tray of grapes, cheese and cracker.  After the next group you got carrots/cucumber and dip in a cup.  And last was a tray with cookies on it!  It was all so great!  The kids did a wonderful job serving.

Then to add to the fun I won a basket!!  The boy basket.  I seriously bought 2 tickets and they were the ones in there :)  I'm so excited for it.

The boys sang so well.  You could hear Q over EVERYONE!  It was so funny.  And Kyler did a great job.  He did a little "saying of favourite things" during the first song in the microphone and the second song was a dance.  He loved it and did a wonderful job!

Then today... the "6 more days" of school left was so fun!  We all had a wonderful day, even with the wind-chill.  They called indoor recess for the classes.  So no one played outside in the morning.  All the kids came in ASAP and then we only went out for 10 minutes at lunch.  I swear it took more time getting the kids ready than it did to play outside!  We did play "What time is it Mr. Wolf?"  with them to have them run around a little then it was time to go inside.  We did a train to walk around and "pick up" everyone around the area then back to the gate and in the classroom.  I read the kids a book and then they were off to gym.  Great timing!

All in all a great day!

Here's hoping tomorrow is just as fun!  Then we are on our last week of school.

Happy Christmas!!

What a crazy few months this has been for us!  We have done so much in such a short period of time.  Here's a uber quick update:

Arnold - has been amazing and has bought our family a house, ripped up the flooring and a diving wall, redone the wall and ceiling, redone a new flooring, dealt with plumbing and a few other random things (the joys of owning a home!!)  He is doing ok at work.  We just had his kids Christmas party this past weekend.  All in all he is keeping busy

Kyler - Is really enjoying grade 3.  He loves Fridays when he gets gumballs if he was a good kid that week.  We got his report card and there are a few things for him to work on but generally doing ok.  His favourite thing is to watch mindcraft youtube videos right now. 

Quinton - loves loves loves mindcraft.  He is our little builder man.  He has spent hours building and destroying things on mindcraft.  He is doing well in school and loves playing with others.  Right now he is working on his printing.  We hope it gets better as time goes on.

Me - I'm doing ok.  Keeping super busy but it's going ok.  I'm down to one job now (only working at TDSB instead of at Forward as well) but enjoying it a lot!  I'm getting extra hours and slowly working on getting our house unpacked.

So for the general gist:

We started "looking" at home around the last weekend in September.  We got a phone number of someone who would be selling a house the Thursday before the long weekend.  Went to look at that house on the long weekend, put an offer in on the Monday (I believe) and had everything settled by that Friday.  It was such a short period.  We closed on the house October 22nd and began working on the house.   The carpet needed to come out, and the tiling in the basement, as well as the ceiling in the basement.  We had to put in new flooring (right down to the subfloor) upstairs, and put in some new carpet in the basement.

So far it's going ok.  It's "odd" owning a home but I'm loving it!

I'll do more of a home post soon but for now that's where we are!  Tonight we started our first day of advent with the boys and their lego advent calendar that daddy rushed out to get this morning.  Mama's been slacking on these things.

I'm excited to see how December goes for our Christmas time, as well as our first Christmas time in our new home!

I think next year we may stay in Toronto and celebrate here!!

Anyway... happy Christmas!!  I'll be back again soon, I promise :)