Arnold's New Years Eve Quiz

Arnold's New Year Eve Quiz

 

 

 

 



1. What’s your favourite game?  -  Splinter Cell
2. What’s favourite book you read? -  Enders Game
3. What would you love to do outside - Cycling
4. Best dessert? - Frozen Raspberry macadamia Pie (minus the crust)
5. What are you good at?  - Sleeping
6. Who is the most important person in your family to you? - My Wife
7. If you could change one thing in your family what would you change? - Nothing....

8. What does your family do for fun? - Go Grocery Shopping
9. What will you do when you grow up? -  Program
10. What's your favourite colour? - burgundy/translucent red
11. What's your favourite movie? -  No Favourite but recent was "Now You See Me"
12. What is your most cherished item? - My wedding Band
13. What is your favourite thing to do at work? -  collaborate
14. What is one thing you want to do this year?  - Move a Basement Wall/Build a Garage

15. What is one thing you want to do for yourself this year?  - Build a garage
16. What is one thing you want to do with your family this year?  -  Going on a "real" family Vacation
17. What is one thing you want to do with the house this year?  - put on heater vents or/and baseboards
18. What is one thing you want to do at work this year?  - Get a particular project through (completed)
19.  What is one more thing you want to do this year?  - Putting 5000 Km on my bike.

Quinton's New Years Eve Quiz

Quinton's New Years Eve Quiz

 



1. What’s your favourite game?  - Battlefield
2. What’s favourite book you read? -  The Bible
3. What would you love to do outside? - Go tobogganing
4. Best dessert? - Chocolate Cake
5. What are you good at?  -  Art
6. Who is the most important person in your family to you? - (God) Kyler because he is my brother and he looks out for me

      7.  If you could change one thing in your family what would you change? - That we could have
           our own room.
      8.  What does your family do for fun? - Doing stuff with the youth group
      9.  What will you do when you grow up? - Build Forts for my kids
     10. What's your favourite colour? - the rainbow
     11. What's your favourite movie? - Lego Chima
     12. What is your most cherished toy? - My Dino I got for Christmas
     13. What is your favourite subject at school?  - Art
     14. What is one thing you want to do this year?  - Go to the trampoline place we did with the
            youth group (Skyzone)

Kyler's New Years Eve Quiz

                                                 Kyler's New Years Eve Quiz!
 
 


 
 
 

What’s your favourite game?  - Minecraft

What’s favourite book you read? -  Jay the Ninja of Lightning

What would you love to do outside? - Play with my boomerang

Best dessert? - cake

What are you good at?  - helping people out

Who is the most important person in your family to you? - Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Devos, because they are starting to get older

 

 

 

 

 

If you could change one thing in your family what would you change? - That we had a bigger house

What does your family do for fun? - Go out places (restaurants)

What will you do when you grow up? - be a police man

What's your favourite colour? - orange and black
What's your favourite movie? - Dragon Riders of Burk
What is your most cherished toy? - My toy Enderman and Creeper
What is your favourite subject at school?  - Free time
What is one thing you want to do this year?  - Go to laser quest

Kyler, Age 8

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!

September is Here Again!

That's right ladies and gents, September is here again!

We are gearing up for some "Down time".  That's right.  After our crazy summer we are excited to have some down time for our family.

This does mean going back to school, getting into routine, bringing a few new things into our family, and kicking out some old. 

I thought I would try to make a "plan" for each month.  I see you all out there rolling your eyes... me and my plans right?

Well so far this month our plan includes:
survival!

And maybe:
get into our routine
Arnold and I will both be gone 1 weekend out of the month
eat healthier (ie not eating out all the time)
stick to a budget and pay off some more of our CC's


Personal goals for everyone:

Arnold:
bike to work every day

Kyler:
eat healthy and grow strong

Quinton:
go to the park and tie my shoes

Miranda:
walk and lose weight


Today we are getting ready for the month.  I'm working on my grocery list and getting our calendar ready to go!  Quin is learning how to tie his shoes as I'm typing this out.  Hopefully it works out!

So... from our family to yours... WELCOME TO SEPTEMBER!!  I hope you have a wonderful month!

What a Summer!

I'm sure this is a crazy post to be putting up but I feel like our summer is over!  I don't mean like our summer is actually over but it sure feels like it.

Our summer has been a world wind of adventure.

It started the day school was over!  Arnold and Quinton headed to Edmonton/Calgary and went to visit family.  It's a tradition for our family to go and visit Alberta family.  When the boys "Graduate" they get to go.  Since there is a graduation ceremony for the kids from SK to grade 1 our boys get excited to go to Alberta.

While the big and little boy were in Alberta I was in Sarnia with Kyler!  We had a great few days there.  Between playing in the pool, having friends over for Canada Day, going to church and visiting our vacation was packed full.

We came home in time for Kyler to get his first tooth pulled from the dentist and for me to work for a few days.

Kyler and I picked up Arnold and Quinton and our fun began!

We had 2 days as our family of 4 and then the fun arrived!

Amber and Lisa arrived and we started the fun.  We did our first week at Forward Baptist Church for Kingdom Rock!  It was so much fun.  It was a half-day day camp.  We got there at 9am and then we were home around noon.  The kids had a lot of fun.  And cute t-shirts to prove it!

That weekend we chilled out and played at home.  Sunday brought us into a new week.

A New week of fun!

We started the Zoo camp.  Zoo Camp was for everyone!  All 4 of them headed out at 8:25am and I picked them up at 3:30pm.  We had a lot of fun.  Every day the kids came home with something new they had learned and were excited to start it all over again.  They had a great time and really enjoyed the Pandas.

That Saturday morning Aunt B came and picked up the girls.  So started our week alone.  While it was alone things got crazy!  We didn't really get any downtime but hey, that happens, right?

We headed to Sarnia on Friday.  Kyler, Quinton and I went to get Arnold from work.  Since he works late Monday to Thursday he gets to leave half day Fridays.  We were on the road and very little traffic!  It was great.  We stopped in Cambridge and picked up the girls early and then we were *so* quick that we even stopped and dropped off the coats that needed to be repaired at the Columbia headquarters in London. 

The 6 of us arrived in Sarnia in time to see the moving truck moving out the last of my grandparents things from my parents house.  While on the way home my mom had texted me and told me they were thinking of moving. 

I went into high gear that week.  I worked on the basement on Saturday and Sunday and we got the rooms cleaned up, took 4 trips to Goodwill and even got some taping done to paint a few areas in the house.  Monday I finished up the rest and got some painters out to work on the house.  The Student Painters came out and did our house and I got a "break" on Friday.

During this week the kids were at Temple Baptist Day Camp.  This year was so much fun for the 4 of them.  I dropped them off around 8:50am or so and picked them up around 4-4:30pm.  They had a blast!  While we did have to visit the lost and found table at least 3 of the 5 days it was still a great time by all.  I really loved hearing the things they had learned and how much fun they had.

By Friday we had a great pool night.  The kids played in the pool ALL NIGHT!  Finally, after doing glow in the dark time, I kicked them off to bed around 10:15pm or so.

Saturday morning Becca started her trip down to Sarnia.  The plan was to do some shopping for the kids.  You know... Back to school shopping :)  Becca ended up having a tire blow on her van and no spares.  We had to send backup (ie Arnold and Dad).  They went out and fixed her up.  All in all it took about 3 hours more than expected. 

Mom had to go to work by then so Arnold, Kyler, Quinton, Becca, Amber, Lisa, and myself hit the malls.  We went to Children's place, payless, Wal-Mart, Bonnie Togs, and home again.  Lots of crazy times.  We got almost everything.  I have to say the "Do you really need that?  If you buy it Auntie M is getting rid of the SAME out fit you have at home" works :)  Got to love carrying the money from mom and dad :)

We got home and showed our treasures off to Nana and Papa.  Then Aunt B and Arnold headed out to get our vans fixed.  Ours was there but Beccas needed a new tire for it. 

All of us headed out that night.  It worked out well as my parents listed their house on the Sunday night.

We had a few days to chill and just veg in front of the TV or elsewhere.  I think the kids really needed it.  This is the first summer things have seemed so hard core.  It was great for me as I really needed to get work done and having them in camps during the day was fantastic.

Monday evening (after we had a great lunch with friends) Aunt B brought the girls back over for the week.

This week they are doing Swim Camp.  So far it's been a bust but hey!  Tuesday they showed up and the pool had no chlorine in it.  It was horrible.  Wednesday it still wasn't fixed.  So I had to sign a waver saying the kids could go on the bus and go elsewhere for their lessons.  No big deal for me.  Wednesday was ok since they were all out at the Toronto Island.  They had a great time. 

Lisa and I are chilling.  See, she is too little to go!  So instead she has hung out with Uncle Jack one day, then a babysitter (Anna) the next.  And today we are going to the movies.  If only Auntie M could read the right movie theater we would be set.  hopefully I've got it right now.

Sunday morning everyone comes here and we do our family day at the zoo.  We are pretty excited.

Oh and this week... my parents sold their house and bought a new one!  Their closing date for both houses is August 30th.  Our last day on the houseboat!  Was an exciting week!

Because of the sale being so quick it means that Arnold and I are not getting our week alone with no kids.  I have to work (I need the hours as I'm not working the last week in August).  So I'm going into work on Monday and Tuesday.  Thankfully there is no bulletin to be done so I'm just going to be getting those little pesky things done that need to get done.  Hopefully it helps get the office in order. 

Right now (which means things ALWAYS change) I'm thinking of heading out on  Tuesday around noon or so.  I'm hoping it gives me light traffic.  I'll head to Sarnia and start packing.  I'll pack Tuesday night, Wednesday and Thursday.  I'm aiming to come home on Thursday night and have a half a day with Arnold and no kids.  Then we will pick them up in Cambridge on Saturday, as planned.

This is where our family of 6/7 ends.  Amber and Lisa get to hang out with their grandparents for a week and our boys are doing the Boys and Girls Day camp at the end of the road.  I'm really excited for them.  Their adventure is going to the movies!! 

During the week I'm going to be working at church (hopefully getting 4 bulletins done in one week) and then, if time allows, decluttering my house!

Becca, Amber, and Lisa arrive on Thursday night!  Arnold, Kyler, Quinton and I will be taking Lisa up to the boat and Becca will come on Saturday with Amber and Jack.  Mom and Dad will be arriving then as well.  We are out on the boat for a bit.  Mom and Dad need to come back on the Wednesday.  We have the boat until Friday.  Then we all head down and help them finish moving.

I believe we are going to stay in Sarnia that weekend and "camp" in their new big backyard!  Finally we get to camp AND use the tent we got 2 Christmases ago!!  (I'm excited for this!)

We will head back to Toronto on Monday and Tuesday... School starts.

See how our summer seems a bit crazy?

May Bucket List

A few years ago a friend inspired me to make a "Bucket List" for the summer.  Things I really wanted to do for myself, the boys, my husband and my family in general.  Things I knew I would enjoy.  I came up with a "great" list.  By that I mean it always changed.  I added, removed and changed things.  It was wonderful for me to have.

Here's the example.  This is from June 2011

*Strawberry picking (it's happening soon!  The berries are ready tomorrow!)
*Jam making
*Exit interviews at school and Keli Program
*finish up our swimming lessons
*play dates with the girls across the road
*play dates with the new mommies and their babies
*Mini golf - the boys have wanted to do this since last year but I'm hoping this will happen during the summer
*Do Canada Day Parade
*Alberta Trip
*move downstairs
*zoo days (at least once a week)
*Bike rides at night
*go to the Toronto Islands at least once a month
*Camping (already planed for the long weekend and then again in August.  maybe we will try for one in July?)
*make sure the garden survives this summer!
*train for the tri and keep it up this summer
*boys soccer camp (in july - paid for and ready to go!)
*Get K more steady on 2 wheels for his bike
*Get Q ok with being in the water in Nana and Papa's pool
*have a "movie night" with the boys outside



While I'm still not sure what will be on my Summer Bucket List (which I would start next month) I know what I want to do this month.  (As you can tell I *love* lists, more than any person should be they are so fantastic!!  Really truly, the best thing ever)


My May Bucket List:

*continue working out every week day (every single day if possible)
*get up to date on my meals and my Marriage Mondays
*take the boys to the park every weekend we are home
*Complete the mothers day and maybe the fathers day gifts at school
*Do something fun for our anniversary
*Take the boys out for dinner
*Get Healthy! (all of us)
*work in my gardens and get some things planted
*Go for a bike ride with the kids
*Watch Kyler compete in his first track and field race
*Organize the boys room and get their summer stuff out!!!
*Have a movie night with the girls from youth group!
*Play catch with Kyler
*Scrapbook at least 2 pages!
*Lose 5 pounds (fingers crossed!)

So far that's it.  Here's to getting my bucket list done!!

Victory... in small doses

Today was... well a victory.  A small victory but one none the less.

Today I made it to church, without my parents supporting me and sneaking me in at last minute and out before the service was over. 

Today I made it to church in one piece.

I faced alot of people.  Not that I was afraid of them but more worried about what their reactions would be.  I had a wonderful friend come and sit and chat with me while we were waiting for church to start.  It was nice to know that a bunch of people weren't going to come up and give me the "How aarrreeee you, really?" thing (which I got later).

Then once church was over I had to do something hard.  I know it sounds funny but once church has started the odds that people are going to come up to you and how are things are going is slim to nil.  But after church it's a free-for-all feeling.  I had to go into the fellowship hall.  Not that there is anything wrong but I got the collective "all eyes on who enters in now and go, oh yeah.. awe poor girl" and get those sad looks.  Not fun.

We made some quick stops on the way home and I made lunch (ie microwave what we got from M&M's).  The boys went out to shovel and play.  Mainly shovel around the back wall in case everything melts and our basement floods we want to try and narrow out the chances it's coming from there (good thing the wood is still under everything in the basement).

Arnold and I did some grocery shopping and when I told Arnold to get into a line he got into the express 1-16 items line... which he didn't notice until we were like 2 people away... then I got the "talk" from the cashier, to which I responded... yes I know.  my husband picked the line!  And she was quiet.

We got home and had the boys come in and one had an accident in his pants/snow pants/socks/boots (for any mothers reading... think JUST WASHED snow pants ect).  And the other one came in with a rip in his snow pants and them all soaking wet from playing (but means no putting them in the dryer until sewed up so that the rip doesn't happen more!).

While I fixed the pants and did the laundry Arnold got dinner ready.  Microwaved our Chinese Food for Chinese New Year.  We ate and watched an episode of the boys newest tv show (home improvement).  Then Arnold headed out (Jack had left before for a meeting at work - congrats to my brother.  1 year ago he went to this meeting to "meet" everyone and now he is going for his 1 year!!).

I had the boys clean up, do reading homework (for both), clean out lunch bags (EWWW), and help them sign valentines for everyone they know (or so it feels like).  I guess 4 boxes of 16 that were on sale last year wasn't enough... to bad!

FINALLY it was bed time!  I even got 2 more loads of laundry done, cleaned up and did 20 minutes on the treadmill...

Victory is mine!  In small doses.

Onto the next week!

New Years Party Part 2

First of all

HAPPY NEW YEARS!

I hope that your New Year Eve was wonderful!  We had fun.  So to add to my photos from before here's kinda how it went:

We started at 5pm with the boys (see the balloon).  Q got to pop it (we used a fondue fork) and then we got started on our hunt!  Arnold delivered the gifts beforehand and we went on our walk to check them all out!

First was mag lights.  But somehow I didn't get a picture uploaded..

Second was airplanes:

After that was glowing glasses for us to see a bit better!

Then we had bubbles.  When it's freezing out you can get the bubbles to freeze!  So we did try but no luck:

We got home and Arnold had some time to read a book with the boys.  They are so cute.  Each of them began reading parts they remembered (for Q) or actually read some pages (for K)

Kyler popped 6 o'clock's balloon and we began our fondue:

And I just couldn't resist sharing this photo:

Quinton popped the 7 o'clock one and we began some Wii Games.  Everyone one a trophy:

Quinton didn't want to play wii but instead he won for the best hair!  Seriously it was GREAT :)

Kyler popped 8 o'clock and we had our meat fondue.  It was so good.  We also got to put on our "fat pants" AKA PJ's and we put on our new socks:

We had dinner and it went a bit longer than expected, and Q wasn't up for 9 o'clock (which was going for a walk) so we hung out at home.  But Uncle Jack did get to pop and K read it upside down for us:

Kyler popped our next balloon and we had dessert!  The chocolate was SOOO good!

After our dessert we ended up getting 11pm a bit earlier.  We got the bed ready for the boys (the couch) and we hung out until midnight:

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

New Years Eve PARTY!

Hey Readers,

Things have been a bit crazy here.  I've wanted a bit of time to recover from losing Otis, then end of the year at school, Christmas, and now I'm hoping for a fantastic new year.

I did some "pinterest" checking about things to do to celebrate new years.  I wanted something good to do for our family.  So I came up with some plans.

First off, I decorated our tree.  Today we "undecorated" the tree from Christmas things and tonight, while
the boys were napping I redecorated it with a New Years Theme:

It's all decorated with necklaces, noise makers, horns, "2013" glasses, hats, and balloons.

I am so excited for the kids to see the tree :)

There are balloons starting at 5pm and they look like this:

One side has "5pm" on it along with a hint about what we will be doing during that hour, and then on the other side is clock.  Kyler can read the clock (or is learning) and Quinton can read the time written out.  The kids pop the balloons and then find out what we are doing.  Each balloon has a little write up of what we will be doing.  For example... 5pm is a "the fun begins!  Head out on a hunt and see what joys you can find"

The kids will then head out on a hunt around the neighbourhood.  They start at our house with a clue and continue on to the next 4 houses we know.  Each house will have a bag with a treat and a balloon:

We got them new flashlights

They will get little airplanes

Glow in the dark glasses!

Bubbles, but they will freeze when it's below 0 :)

When they get back they will do 6pm (Fondue begins - cheese and bread) and we will talk about their goals for 2013:

Then at 7pm we are doing some Wii games/board games with the kids.  They are really into it now.  And we have a little container with some trophies in it for them, as well as the container will be our families time capsule

8pm we will be doing the Meat Fondue.  Arnold is VERY excited for this part.  The kids will be encouraged to put on their "fat pants" (ie pjs) and new socks:

9pm is time to walk around the neighbourhood and see the lights.  They will be given some glow sticks to go out and walk around:

10pm we will have dessert fondue (fruit and chocolate and marshmallow dip) and make some noise makers:

11pm is movie time!  I could only think of one movie that is a new years theme in it.  It's WTP Seasons Greetings.  We will watch it and the boys get to have their own bowls and fill them with goodies (goodies are still packed away)

11:45pm we will be undecorating the tree.  Getting some hats, noise makers, necklaces, and the poppers :)

Then once the movie is over we send the kiddos to bed, and us too!

Thank goodness for my waffle maker!  I've made a batch and put them in the freezer for quick breakfast on the 1st!

Anyway I hope I have given you some hope and maybe some ideas for next year.

Happy New Years!  May this coming year be better than the last. May God grant us the wisdom to use the experiences from 2012 to make us better people in 2013.