Monthly Review ~ Februrary

I was hoping to start one of these every month but January was just a bit insane for this.

Lets see.. Our February went something like this:

We had our service for our son, Otis, on Feb 1st.  It was hard to do but so wonderful to have so many friends and family around.  Arnold's family came from Alberta, and some of our friends came from Toronto, and our family came from everywhere.  We are so blessed to have support from so many people.

Arnold's parents and brother left on Sunday and we headed back to Toronto on the Monday.  The little boy who I did daycare for, his grandfather passed away.  So we went to the visitation to show our support to his mom and dad, and meet their sweet little girl!

That week I tried hard to "jump" back into things.  I wanted to get life as normal as we could.  Not only did we have a short week but we went right into Chinese New Year at school. 

We found out a few things about Kyler and school.  He had a grade 8 bullying him at school and Kyler fought back... by punching him.  So we had to address this.  As well as anything going on since losing Otis.  We decided to seek some help and were able to get into a "Crisis Event Therapy" waiting list.  (We just got the call a few days ago booking K in for a session with them March 6th).

I helped out in Quinton's class as much as possible.  Q's teacher, Mr. B., had jury duty and we had subs all week.  Different ones almost each time and was hard on the kids to not have a regular person.  I was there every day for most of Feb.  I would help with the subs, and what needed to be done, and help with the work that needed to get done.  It was an adventure.  Even more so as February is one of the "busiest" months for a teacher.  There is Groundhog Day, Chinese New Year, 100's Day of School, Valentine's Day and finally a bit of calm!

On Family Day Weekend Arnold had asked for a day to himself.  So we made sure to buy everything he wanted and try to have a day off for him.  But plans changed when the boys attitudes got bad.  Instead of going to visit our friends the boys had nap times.  VERY much needed for them. 

We did get to do something fun.  We built a ladder for the boys bunk bed.  They have never had one (and we have had this bunk bed since before Q was born) so this was a new request.  We got the wood, measured it out and went to work.  The boys had alot of fun:

The boys were back to school on the Tuesday and back into the swing of things.  We had Church Photos, a friend's birthday and some serious clothing shopping that weekend.  And Sunday was a nice church day and some relaxing.

In all this time we have also had eye appointments for me and the little boys (and my brother); dentist appointments for the Visser family; a blood pressure appointment for me; a doctors appointment for Arnold; and a hospital visit.  It's been a busy month! 

I've really enjoyed being our "family".  Slowly, I am learning to enjoy my family the way it is.  With my 2 incredible, helpful, amazing boys here on earth to drive me crazy and knowing we have 2 wonderful babies in heaven watching over us.

Every month things will get easier, become more adventurous and begin to thrill me more.  For now, it's learning our new norm.

Welcome September!

I'm excited for this month. Not only do our lives change with Kyler going into grade 1 but Quinton will also be going to school this year, entering JK.

Both boys are set as far as clothing goes. They are excited to wear their new underwear and their new clothes all the time. Today, Kyler pulled out a long sleeve orange shirt he picked out for school and wore it for about 1 hour until he realize it was "too hot" to wear today. Silly boy!

We also found some great lunch bags that Nana is sending to us. I've now got to come up with some good lunches for us to feed the boys.

Also this year means changes at home. Not only will both boys be going to school but mama is home "alone" for *so long*. HA! ok I put that one in there for some friends of mine. Everyone I talk to that finds out both boys are going to school this year keep asking me "what will you do with ALL that time!". HAHAHAHA ok... seriously? Right now all I plan on doing is exercising and that's it. I realized when Kyler went to school that "all that time" isn't really a lot. For Q and I we could get to the library at 9am, hit up the grocery store by 9:45am and be home and put most of it away by 11am. Then we have to pick up Kyler! At least we would have all afternoon to do things. This year it changes. I have to drop both boys off by 8:40am (I don't leave the school until closer to 9am) and then pick up Q at 11am, and then walk back and pick up K at 3:10pm. It's not too much time but I'm sure I will be a pro at a few things.

Like I said, for now my goal is to exercise.

Ever since finishing my Tri last weekend I took a break. A few days off was nice but by Tuesday I was itching to get back out there. I called the doctor and arranged for a sooner appointment to make sure I could get back out there and do some more working out. See, about 1 month ago I hurt my elbow. Badly. I have *no* idea what I did to it but it hurts. Now it hurts doing just about anything. Taking the wet clothes out of the washer into the dryer, pulling down a bowl to make breakfast, or stirring the juice. It's painful. And lets be real, a girl can only complain for so long then no one cares right? So for now I squint in pain or try not to let it show but it hurts. Thankfully I can get into see the dr on Friday. I'm hoping she can help me feel better soon!

Also this month I've started a "family day". I'm thinking the last Saturday of the month will be our family day. We will go and do something in the city. Something we haven't done or something the boys love doing. This month it's the 24th. We are going to go to the beach or mini golfing! or maybe both!

I'm also going to try and get caught up on some of my new foods! I'm so behind but I'm hoping with "all that time" I can get it done as well!

That's it for now! Have a fantastic first day of September!

Happy Fathers Day!

Yesterday we had a great Fathers Day.

We got up and did gifts:























Then headed to church. When we got home we biked out to the park and had a picnic and chilled out.























What a blast

Happy Monday! I mean Tuesday!

That's right, today is our first day of the week so it kinda feels like a Monday. The only person in this house who seems to know it's a Tuesday is Quinton. He is super excited about gymnastics today and would *never* forget it's a Tuesday! Kyler on the other hand started to do his climb up to the top of the fridge before we realized it was a Tuesday, and therefore snack day. So no need for the peaches stored up there!

We all had to do double looks at the calendars to figure out just what was going on. No Library day for Kyler at school BUT because yesterday the public library was closed we are heading over there AFTER gymnastics to get some new books and movies!

Yesterday was a wonderful Family Day. Did you get some time with your family? We all got to "sleep in" until 7:30am since the boys were outside so late! We had our own breakfasts and chatted with Uncle Chris in Alberta for a while online. It was so wonderful to be able to talk to some of our family on family day! We got a mini update on the girls out west and how they are doing. It was really nice!

We all headed outside to do some work. I worked out in the garage and the boys worked on cleaning the snow off the driveway, walkway, porch, and anywhere else they felt they needed to remove snow. It also involved a few impromptu snowball fights!

We came inside and the boys watched a movie while they had their hot chocolate and then ended up turning the movie off and playing around the house. We had lunch and then nap time! My favourite time of day!

During all this I managed to wash every sheet that has been used in our house in the past while and get them all back on the beds by night time!

After nap Kyler was up first (a surprise) and we printed off some photos for his scrapbook and he helped Daddy make the dough for the pizza! We eventually got our pizza ready and we had stations all over.

One station was rolling it out,






another one was putting fork holes in the pizza,








then back to where you rolled it out for putting the sauce on.








Once the sauce was on you went back to the fork hole part and put the toppings on! As usual the boys picked pepperoni










Everytime Quinton put one down he would lick his thumbs... good thing I didn't eat that pizza!






Then cheese












And then they were done:




I didn't get one of it finished but lets just say the kids loved them! As did Arnold and I with our pizza!

We watched Jack and the beanstalk while eating our supper. Once it was over the boys got ready for bed and Daddy made strawberry milkshakes. They were wonderful! What a perfect way to end the day!