my blog

ava’s baptism photoshoot.

In our Church, we get baptized when you are 8 years old. So Ava has been looking forward to this day for a long time. We went on a special date together and picked out a beautiful white dress, and a couple weeks before the big day we had the opportunity to go and take some pictures. She looked so angelic and beautiful. I am grateful for her and the choices she is making to take this big step and be baptized.

We went to one of my favorite places, a local conservation park about 1/2 hour from here. We discovered it last summer and we’ve been back a few times since, it’s so peaceful and beautiful there, it was the most perfect place to take her pictures.

Her baptism invites are coming soon!

surprise. i’m 30.

The night before my birthday, Darren had arranged a surprise party for me (with the help of some of my friends) And I had a blast! Just so you know, Darren is really bad at lying, me, I’m awesome at it. But he gets very, very nervous. So lets just start with that.

The afternoon of the party, I headed to the States to do a little shopping, Darren told me to be back by 7. Hmmm. Okay. He’s never asked me to be back by any certain time before, but I thought whatever, no problem.

I got home at 7:00 and he told me I could shower and get ready if I wanted. I kept asking where we were going. He just kept saying, don’t worry about it. So I put on a bit more of a fancy outfit (I’d rather be overdressed than underdressed) and he said, maybe you should dress a little more comfortably. Sigh. I kept asking where are we going, you have to give me a bit more details so I know how to prepare for the night. So he tells me we’re going to a movie. Fine.

The babysitter arrives, and just as we’re about to leave and my friend Jeanette calls. She needs me to come over right away, she can’t get the blade into my Cricut machine and has a project that she has to get done immediately. I tell her we’re just heading out to the movies, but we can stop by her house on the way. So we head out to Jeanette's house and pull into the driveway. I tell him I’m just going to run it, but he turns the car off and says he’s coming in with me.

ding, ding, ding. Warning bells. Darren ALWAYS waits in the car.

So I go to the front door, Jeanette answers and tells me the cricut is downstairs, I walk down to the basement it’s pitch black and SURPRISE! All my friends jump out and everyone is wearing PINK! Even the boys! The basement is decked out in pink, the food is pink, it’s a pink bubblegum-pony-princess-cotton candy fiesta!

MMMmmmm… pink fake cake my favorite!!

Darren had planned a dance party (I LOVE to dance!) and we played old 90’s dance songs and rocked out to Just Dance on the Wii.

Here’s the party planner himself. He even wore pink for me! (Sorry his eyes were a bit crazy, so I fashioned him some shades)

The only picture of me the whole night! Blurry but wonderful! Of course afterwards Darren said he should have bought me a pink shirt to wear too!

Such an awesome fun night! I love parties, especially when they’re all about me! ♥ Turning 30 wasn’t all that bad…

Now onto more important things, like my 30 before 30 list. Did she finish? Did she flake out? Everyone wants to know how I did. Well, I unfortunately I didn’t finish it. Sad.

With working the Census, there just wasn’t enough time to get all these things done, but I’m not giving up yet. I’m challenging myself to finish before the New Year and I’m getting pretty close.

(Pink is completed, black is still left to do)

30 before 30

1. Donate blood (I went, but chickened out)

2. Blog every day for a week

3. Make a quilt (got some great ideas for this)

4. Take portraits of each of my children (half way there!)

5. Paint my bathroom (picked the color, bought the paint, now I just need to find the time)

6. Pay for someone’s food behind me in the drive-thru

7. Watch Gone with the Wind

8. Loose 20 pounds

9. Order a photo book (got it all set and ready to go and then never got around to ordering it)

10. Pay off my credit card

11. Have a nice picture of Darren and I taken (was waiting until I lost more weight)

12. Stop drinking Coke

13. Post Finn’s birth story (I did a slide show to go with it, that’s why it’s taking so long)

14. Take each of my kids on a Mommy/child date

15. Host a dinner party (planning one this summer)

16. Actually eat fries under the bridge, under the bridge

17. Send someone a gift in the mail

18. Try a new fruit

19. Go swimming at night

20. Eat a cupcake from a cupcake store

21. Skinny dip

22. Watch every episode of Road to Avonlea

23. Scrapbook a page (I will be doing LOTS more of this very soon, I’ll tell you why later)

24. Read a classic novel (I think I need to pick a different classic, I kept falling asleep reading the Scarlet Letter)

25. Make a trifle

26. Buy an antique (I had it in my hand, but the store was closing and he wouldn’t let me buy it. True story. Crazy hey!)

27. Not watch TV for a whole week (almost impossible, since the TV is on 24/7 in my house)

28. Take a Zumba class (I want to!!)

29. Have a cosmetic face peel (big $$$)

30. Play in the rain

art walk.

We live in a pretty awesome location in our town. We are walking distance to a lot of really great places. The library, schools, parks, the water and some funky downtown stores that are just bursting with character and charm.

This year we headed down to art walk, they block off a whole street and local artists come to display and sell their art. There wasn’t a whole lot of interest in the art stuff from the kids, but I packed along some bread to take to the water (which is a stones throw away) to feed the ducks.

{Lily log rolling down the hill}

Grey was so adorable, he loved feeding the ducks. He would grab a chunk of bread and call out “here ducky, ducky” and throw it to them.

We stopped to get some slurpies on the way home.

But the best surprise of the whole day was waiting for me when I got home… a chocolate basket from my sister in Australia, for my 30th birthday! (Out in the hot sun I might add… who leaves a chocolate basket outside on a hot summer day?!)

Thanks Amanda! It was SOOO yummy!!

hunter’s 9th birthday

ETA: The piranha plant head is a tomato container from the dollar store. I just cut it in half and glued it together with white felt around the edges and white stickers. Hope that helps.

Finally, finally HOORAY!! Our computer has been giving us such grief lately, and when it decides to have a temper tantrum it just shuts off, and won’t turn back on until it’s ready. Weird I know. So it’s been very difficult to edit pictures and do blog posts with such a temperamental piece of equipment. But so far so good, it’s been kind to me this morning and I managed to finally get Hunter’s birthday pictures edited and ready to blog about.

His theme was Super Mario and I had a blast making the details for this. From the table décor to the cake I must say it’s been one of my favorites to date! (but don’t I always say that…)

                              dark mint chocolate Mario mustaches

             paper boxes with bricks I printed from the internet and glued to the sides.

                                golden coins for Mario to gather

My piranha plant. He’s got red hot tamales in his mouth like the fire balls he shoots. I made this all by myself, and was very proud of how it turned out.

                            little boo ghosts floating around the ceiling.

I made these adorable perler bead characters from the Mario game. They took hours to make, but I really loved the way they looked.

                             we drank 7-up, like Mario having 7 lives

   I cut green AstroTurf to use as placemats, like the green grass in the Mario game.

                        I baked 143 baby cupcakes for Hunter’s cake.

                                        and made an 8-bit Mario

                        someone liked the blue ones best!

Hunter's best friend Ammon and his family came over to help us celebrate.

 

We can hardly believe our oldest is 9, how fast the time is going. Before we know it, this one will be 9 too!

finn {8 months}

(This picture seriously makes me squeal! I just want to squish him so hard and kiss him until he cries. Sigh. I love this little boy)

Finn at 8 months

• wears size 5 diapers (him and Grey are almost in the same size)
• wears 18-24 month clothes
• he has 4 teeth now, including one very cute vampire tooth
• he can sit on his own, but still refuses to roll over
• he scoots around somehow, not sure how he’s doing it, but is a little bit mobile
• he eats 3 jars of food a day, one for lunch and two for supper
• he loves crackers and cookies (baby ones of course… are Oreos baby cookies?)
• he’s starting to babble a lot, and scream with delight
• his hair gets all curly and sticks out on the sides when you are sweaty or just out of the bath
• he loves to laugh when Grey is doing something silly. I can tell those two are going to have a great bond (when Grey isn’t trying to kill him)
• he doesn’t cry very often, so when he does, we know he is really sad or hurt
• he has a really sweet nature and disposition about him. He is very sensitive and tender hearted. I love that we are starting to see his little personality.

Finn’s little vampire tooth. I’ve only known of one other baby to cut a side tooth before the front two. I think it’s positively adorable!

newborn - 8 months

out of the office.

So I’ve been pretty busy this week, and today on Mother’s Day my task list is a mile long and growing by the second. The reason? Well, I got a job.

Different of course from my other job of being a laundry machine operator, janitor, chauffeur, housekeeper, computer operator, cook, daycare staff, facilities manager, a psychologist, a teacher and a nurse. I said, hey self, you don’t have enough to do in a day, lets add Census worker to your resume.

So, I’ve been hired as a Crew Supervisor in charge of recruiting for the 2011 Census. I head off to Windsor tomorrow (about 2 hours from here) for my training which includes staying overnight, by myself. I don’t recall anytime in the last 10 years ever being all by myself.

I’m kind of scared, and excited.

I’ll probably just sleep when I’m not in training. (See list above as to my exhausted state of mind)

To prepare for this condensed training class (i.e.. the guy who was doing the job quit, and me, who was hired as an Enumerator, the person that knocks on your door and makes sure you have your Census form filled out, got promoted before I even started and since everyone else is trained, I’m on the fast track to learning.)

I was overnighted some reading materials that I have to get through before the training starts (15+ hours of reading) and still manage to run a household and not have anxiety attacks that Finn will feel abandoned and starve to death while I’m gone. (I’m still breastfeeding people!!)

So, now you know. I’m excited about doing this. Who doesn’t like to be challenged with new tasks, other than figuring out how to divide a smartie the kids found in the couch cushion 4 ways.

I’m not offering any pictures with this post, but I’ll let you know, I’ve updated my 365 blog and there is at least 6 news pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Happy Mother’s Day and I’ll see you when I get back! ♥

yogi bear {movie night}

This was one of the quickest movie night preparations I have ever done, and quite possibly one of the sweetest. A picnic basket filled with some goodies to eat, and you’re ready for a Jellystone adventure.

In our basket we had crunchy French bread.

Bear Paw cookies.

And a jar full of gummy bears.

I bought the basket at the second hand store for a dollar. Love it.

And the “table cloth” checkered fabric from Fabric Land for a dollar too.

Ava took the scraps and made herself a sweet head scarf.

Hunter was home sick that day, but still managed to stay awake for the movie.

And Grey, well he was just being Grey.

After he scattered 387 gummy bears all over the carpet, I decided to play a fun game with them. I told the kids if they could cross the whole carpet with their eyes closed and not step on one single gummy bear I would give them a dollar.

Guess who won?

Nobody. Apparently I’m raising a bunch of cheaters.

Eyes closed. Pffft. Yah right.

easter 2011.

Traditionally you know how it goes, Easter Bunny hides eggs, children seek, copious amounts of chocolate are consumed, and you don’t really get to see a lot, just the back of their heads as they run away searching for more.

Grey wouldn’t even let us take off his other shoe, he was too excited about finding eggs.

Snacking while you work is permitted.

Finn was wondering where his candy was? (You see he was discarded by the front door, still buckled into his car seat while everyone else was having fun)

I was there too!

After the excitement wore down, I found Hunter lying at the top of the stairs devouring his new book the Easter Bunny brought him.

Ava with her bunny, Mrs. Cotton Tail.

Lily with her bunny, Sparkles.

For dinner I cooked my very first ham on the bone, and other than the thermometer crapping out halfway through, I think it was cooked. (nobody died, so I assume all is well) For the table I found these adorable egg shaped dinner plates and I made carrot utensil holders to go with.

See the knife and fork are the carrot leaves. Cute hey!

And for dessert, since I knew everybody would be full of Easter candy, I made mini birds nest cupcakes that fit perfectly into my egg holder. (thanks for the idea Nic)

And that was Easter. I love seeing my family together and it makes me so happy that I can share my pictures with the rest of my family that is so far away. Hope you had a wonderful weekend. ♥

finn {7 months}

Finn @ 7 months

• weighs (weighed on Thursday)
• wearing size 4 diapers and 12-18 month clothes.
• he loves to eat food and can polish off a whole jar in one sitting.
• he still can’t roll over, and really doesn’t try to.
• he has 2 teeth on the bottom, and loves to bite Mommy. I’m not so in love with his new chompers.

• he can sit on his own for a short period of time.
• he drools all the time. I’m constantly changing his soaking wet clothes.
• he loves to do this thing with his toys where he opens his mouth up really wide and rubs the toy across his lips over and over again. It is so adorable!

And if we’re still wondering who Finn looks like the most…

Grey on the left, Finn on the right.

30 b4 30 update, again.

So I figured I would do a quick 30 before 30 update with my allotted 15 minutes of computer time I’ve generously been given by the children today. I don’t even know if anyone cares about this anymore, I’m not sure I even care about this… (just kidding!!)

So without further ado, here’s my list, strikethrough is completed, and the pink is the excuse explanation to it’s completion.

30 before 30

1. Donate blood (try not to pass out when I think about it)

2. Blog every day for a week

3. Make a quilt (err… or just finish a quilt. Anyone of the 5 I have started will do)

4. Take portraits of each of my children (scheduled for tomorrow!)

5. Paint my bathroom (I cannot decide on a color. Any suggestions?)

6. Pay for someone’s food behind me in the drive-thru

7. Watch Gone with the Wind

8. Loose 20 pounds (does this count from when I was pregnant with Finn? Cause if it does, check.)

9. Order a photo book (all put together, ready to send off to be printed)

10. Pay off my credit card (1 more month!)

11. Have a nice picture of Darren and I taken (maybe when #8 happens)

12. Stop drinking Coke

13. Post Finn’s birth story (does it need pictures to go with? cause if not, it’s ready to go)

14. Take each of my kids on a Mommy/child date

15. Host a dinner party (I have to clean my house for this one, who decided this was a good task!?)

16. Actually eat fries under the bridge, under the bridge (not conducive to #8)

17. Send someone a gift in the mail

18. Try a new fruit

19. Go swimming at night (waiting for our pool to be opened, usually end of May)

20. Eat a cupcake from a cupcake store

21. Skinny dip (see pool opening above)

22. Watch every episode of Road to Avonlea (4 more left!)

23. Scrapbook a page (blow dust off scrapbooking supplies, and print off pictures)

24. Read a classic novel (I chose the Scarlett Letter, and I fell asleep on page 1… oh boy.)

25. Make a trifle (I need to buy a trifle bowl to do this! Mine got lost in our move, 4 years ago)

26. Buy an antique (actually find an antique I can afford…)

27. Not watch TV for a whole week (umm.. how about after May sweeps)

28. Take a Zumba class (planned for 2 weeks from now)

29. Have a cosmetic face peel (booked)

30. Play in the rain (maybe when it’s not so flippin’ cold outside)

Now, just so you know, I’m not at all worried that I only have 44 days left to complete this. What I more concerned about is the actual turning 30 part. Now that scares the flippin’ bejeebers out of me.

 

Don’t forget to check out my picture a day blog! I usually update daily.

PICTURE A DAY!