The sweet life

Update on Eve post.

2012-01-20T10:59:00.000-08:00

I have an official correction to make. Apparently Jackie is not Eve's favourite person in the family as I mistakenly reported in my previous post. When the question was put to Eve at supper the other night she looked around the table and then pointed to .......herself.

I apologize and hope to hold a higher standard of reporting in the future.

Really I should know better. When you think about it it, it a no brainer. I should have considered the following information:

Eve's favourite gender - female ( it is rare that we get to any music sung by a man while Eve is in the car. Her only exceptions are Cold Play Paradise because she likes the video, Micheal Jackson because he sounds like a girl, and Foster the People because Pumped up Kick's is catchy)

Eve's favourite number and age - 4.

That information alone should have been enough for me to get that answer right.

For the record - I think it is awesome that Eve loves herself so much and really really really hope she will be able to keep that feeling her. whole. life.

Eve is growing up!!!

2012-01-17T20:20:00.000-08:00

Today I registered Eve for kindergarten. Wait - that didn't do it justice. I'll try again.TODAY I REGISTERED EVE VANESSA RASMUSSEN, MY YOUNGEST CHILD, IN PUBLIC SCHOOL!!! Yes, that is better.

As you might have guessed, we both were REALLY excited about it. And why shouldn't we be? I have often felt that being the youngest must be hard. No matter how old you get, you are still the youngest. Eve may be hazy on some of the details, but she KNOWS that in turning 5 and starting school she is officially in the club that her big sisters are in - and for Miss" don't call me baby" that is super exciting. And it's everyday - so that is 2 days better than preschool. And how do I feel about my baby starting school? SO EXCITED - she will LOVE it!! She is my most adventurous child and I can't wait to watch her adventures. And I'll have every morning free. WIN WIN!

Eve is maybe a little too excited about her 5 birthday, which is still a little over 5 months away. If you ask her how old she is she will tell you that she is "almost five". It was so warm over Christmas, she kept saying, " It is warm, so it is spring and almost my birthday - and then I can go to school." Don't worry, we talk a lot about all the things that will happen before then. We talk about it so often that she can list them... Mom's birthday, Alice's birthday, Soccer, Then her birthday, then summer and the beach then School. She has already picked her birthday party theme " Who dunnit" ( though that may change - since her obsession with the Who Dunnit Backyardigans episode as recently been replaced with an undying love of Ruby Gloom (thanks to Netflicks)

Anyway - we are enjoying Eve. Five will be great but four and half is pretty awesome too. Four and a half is an age when sometimes she just seems so grown up to me and other times her little body still looks so small - too small for the unstoppable spirit that is in her. Here is a bit about her now:

1. Favourite person in the Family: Jackie. hands down. She loves wearing Jackie's old clothes and loves it when we tell her she looks like a little Jackie.

2. Favourite person in the world: her friend Chelsa. Can't wait to see what those too will get into as they get older.

2. Favourite game: Playing Barbies with Jackie. She asked Jackie so nicely today, "Do you want to play Barbies with me?" And Jackie is basically a barbie playing SAINT. She will go to heaven for being SUCH a patient sister.

3. New Skill: Skating and something I thought she would never learn: PLAYING IMAGINATION GAMES BY HERSELF!!!! Jackie has finally rubbed off on her.

4. New Interest: Chapter books. Once during Christmas my dad came up from the basement and said, "Eve's reading "Dress for Success" and I wasn't surprised at all. She has the bookshelf in her room and all the kids chapter books are stored there and she is always taking them ALL off the shelf to "read" them. Tonight she choose one for her bed time story and sat through three chapters. I think it is all about being grown up.

5. Favourite food: Toss up between Vanilla yogourt or Honey Nut Cheerios. Or maybe Nutella toast - no it couldn't be that, who would buy such an unhealthy item? Not me.

6.Worst part of her life: Chronic constipation. We are still battling this very rasmussen of problems. She is getting better at drinking her water and "special juice" but still basically births a baby each time she goes. Which is what I thought of she said the other day, " When I grow up I will be a mom, but I am scared to push a baby out". I read too much into her fears though. Yesterday she said, " Mom, when you had me did your stomach burst open?" The, "No, you came out my vagina, remember" answer calmed her fears, then confused her.

7. Things that always surprise me: How good she is at sports. Not that it should surprise me. It just that I learn things so differently than she does. She just knows how to move her body. So whether it's soccer, or dribbling a basketball or learning to skate - it just comes easy for her. Her Daddy's girl.

8.Favourite Christmas present this year: Playdough ice cream maker. ( not Andrew's favourite thing to clean up.

Anyway - we all love Eve!!! I am super lucky to be her mom. She is so much fun. And she gets to go to Kindergaten next year!! Woo woo!!

The B word

2012-01-09T21:39:00.002-08:00

Jackie has officially banned the b-word from our household lexicon. Some of you are probably thinking "was that necessary? Is that a word you use on a regular basis" . The answer is yes, we used to use it regularly - because this is not the b-word that rhymes with witch we are talking about ( I don't think Jackie knows that word). It is the b-word that rhymes with mud - as is BLOOD. Jackie does not like to see, think about or speak of blood. Sometimes she doesn't even like people to say the word "heart" because it makes her THINK of blood - so no crossing your heart and hoping to die please.

Anyway - on Friday I took the girls to see Puss in Boots at the cheap theatre. On the way home Eve started talking about her cut on her leg ( that she got from skating on Thurs) and the conversation turned well - bloody. Jackie began to feel upset. I told the girls to stop talking about it but Alice and Eve were slow to stop. I said, " Girls - stop talking about that, I'll turn on the radio so we can listen to music in stead.

And guess what was on the Radio - no not Leona Lewis, "I keep Bleeding", or U2

a "Sunday Bloody Sunday " something even worse. A commercial about donating blood, " Blood, It's in you to give". Jackie felt the universe was tormenting her and the rest of us had to laugh.

Later that night, I went with Eve to pick up a pizza for dinner. The dj on the radio said, " We'll play this song so you all can dance your butts off". I heard Eve laugh and say to herself, " Dance your butts off, that' s so funny. There would just be soo much blood". Clearly, she is much more comfortable with blood ( maybe a little too comfortable?)

On Saturday I took Jackie and Eve skating ( Alice was at a play date). This was out second time skating this year and I was impressed at how well they were doing. Eve is a maniac with the skating trainers and pushes herself so hard. The way she goes at it makes me want to put her in timbits hockey next year. When she is on the ice she is oblivious to anything else and what I hear most often is, " Mom, I don't need you" Which is great news for Jackie who has a different philosophy when it comes to learning to skate. Anyway, I felt bad when I took Eve's skates off and found that her skate was still rubbing her leg funny even with the extra socks I had put on her. Her cut had started bleeding again and she had bled through her socks and leggings. We couldn't talk about it on the way home in the car because it would upset Jackie. Quite frankly Eve thinks it is awesome that she has a cut so big that it requires three Dora band-aids.

Today I think Eve must have been looking at her band-aids. She and Jackie were eating a snack at the kitchen table while I was loading the dishwasher. She came up to me and whispered in my ear, "Mom, I'm thinking about blood". Then she smiled at me and looked at Jackie andwent back to her chair with an air of benevolent superiority. I am glad that she decided not to talk to Jackie about her thoughts of blood - but I have to say that having your 4 year old whisper in your ear that they are thinking about blood IS a little creepy....

Christmas 2011

2012-01-09T21:03:00.000-08:00

Another Christmas has come and gone. It was a great one where we ate a lot, played a lot, visited a lot, spent too much money and didn't take hardly any pictures. Without a bunch of good pictures it is hard for me to know where to start - so I'll start with the only pictures I have which are from the Christmas Eve Nativity Pageant. The pictures aren't of the best quality since they were taken by Andrew ( so he is not in any of them) with Sam's i-phone. I love the group shot because it shows Karen and Eve is their cute animal costumes. Thank goodness for Karen being an animal, so Eve could have fun being an animal and not sad about not being an angel. Elise (7) was Mary and she tried to get her brother Chase (3) to be Joseph but that didn't fly, so her dad (Sam) was Joseph, with Chase trying to be there with his Dad the whole time.
Here are Audrey and Jackie being the Angels of the Lord. We have a Christmas cd that quotes the angel of the Lord bible verses in one of the songs, so Jackie has that part memorized. Because of this she always wants to have that part, and so far has not had to fight for it. Eventually someone else will want to have it, but until then Jackie will continue to bring good tiding of great joy to us each Christmas Eve. Audrey was pretty adorable as well.
This was the first year that Alice has been a performer in the pageant. She has always been to shy and instead would be back stage working the lights (holding a big flashlight). This year she decided to be a wise man with her beloved aunt Anne and wasn't even embarrassed of me joining her. She did a great job and looked "kingly" in her outfit. Anne's outfit was exceptionally original this year - you can't really see in this picture but she basically has a birds nest on her head.

Christmas Eve we always have an ethnic dinner. This year we chose Greek food and it was SOOOO GOOD. It was better than Christmas dinner in my opinion. We had calimari, Garlic shrimp, souvlaki chicken, lemon garlic lamb chops, pita bread and tzatziki a salad and baklava for dessert. It was divine.

After dinner and the pageant we read an abridged version of the Best Christmas Pageant Ever, then we put out our stockings and put cookies and milk out for Santa and some food for the Reindeer and then the kids went to bed. Alice, who this year as been initiated into the world of adults by not believing in Santa, kept asking me things in a sly and secretive way like " are you going to put the stuff in our stockings before you go to bed or just as you wake up". Alice was careful to allow the rest of the kids to believe is Santa and really enjoyed being in the adult club. Not believing in the man in red did not seem to squelch Alice's Christmas excitement - I think she maybe slept a total of 2 hours tops.

After the kids went to bed we Anne, Andrew and I watched It's a wonderful like and cried in all the usual places. Anne would get texts from Greg and we knew that he and Nicole were watching it too. Family Traditions bring us together even when we are apart. "sniff sniff".

So that was Christmas Eve! I didn't get much sleep - due to my own excitement and Alice's late night antics. At 4:30 I decided to stop trying to get her to sleep and just take her upstairs and give her a book to read. I read the Hudson Family Book Club pick ( the Sisters Brothers) and she read Time at the Top and asked me what time it was every 15 minutes until 6:00 when we finally got to wake everyone up. Anne nearly had a heart attack when we woke her up.

So that was Christmas Eve - I'll write about Christmas day another time. Still can't believe the Christmas Break is over.

2nd Grade Trials update

2011-12-12T00:08:00.000-08:00

So Jackie got sick with croup the night her teeth got pulled out. Dentist stress induced croup. So we spent some time by the open door so she could start breathing normally. And Jackie's mouth some how kept bleeding until the morning of the next day.

Jackie looked like life was notwoth living for 24 hours, then finally was compelled to eat 2 bowls of mint chocolate chip ice cream and perked up. She coped in the morning by watching Ruby Gloom continuously, (thanks Netflicks) Eve was happy to have her home, even if she was more morose than the Misery character on that show. Jackie was back to her happy self by the evening - though still a little freaked out by the gaping holes in her gums.

And I don't have to worry that Eve is heartless - because the night of Jackie's appointment, when I told Eve that I did not have time to snuggle with her, ( something that normally results in her whining and crying) she simply said ," Because you need to snuggle a long time with Jackie, coz her had such a hard day". I said, "That's right, Evie." and then she just turned over and went to sleep.

2nd Grade Trials

2011-12-06T19:38:00.000-08:00

Last week Jackie had a dentist appointment to"check the eruption" of her adult teeth. The word "eruption" in that way always sounds funny - like my child's mouth is a volcano or something. But looking at her x-ray I thought it kind of looked like a natural disaster. So much many teeth coming in at crazy angles. I new the news would not be good and I was right: she needed 4 teeth extracted and a spacer put in on her bottom teeth - and it needed to happen as soon as possible. That's exactly what every 7 year old with a genetic fear of blood and dentists wants to hear. I knew it was going to be really bad when Jackie screamed when the Dentist was putting in the plastic plates that are just meant to make room for the spacer caps.

Needless to say, Jackie was extremely worried about the appointment - and how could she not be? She's had teeth extracted before and knows it is really not fun. She couldn't sleep so we decided on a plan of action : I would change her appointment date and not tell her when it was until it was time to go to the dentist. It worked well because she stopped thinking about it and was able to have a pretty normal week - but boy did I feel awful picking her up early from school this afternoon. She was so happy to see me,

" Why did you need to pick me up?". All I said was, " You don't really want to know". Then she figured it out right away. She also figured out that I had not changed her appointment, but realized that since she thought I was changing it, it worked to not change it - but I still felt duplicitous.

On Alice's advice, Eve and I picked her up a little early so we could have some time before we went to the dentist. We had a snack for her and asked her what she would like to do. She decided to go to the mall beside the school to buy Alice's Christmas present and while we were there I got her a new hairband and she got to see Santa (from a distance). It was a nice time and she managed to not cry in the car on the way to the Dentist, and even held it together as we were walking up the stairs. The kind dental assistant was her undoing, and the tears started coming - but she was fighting. All attempts at composure went out the window when the Dentist started putting the freezing in - we are talking full on screams. My baby was being tortured. I am not an over protective mom, but I did go up a couple of times to see if there was anything I could do. Eve however, was unfazed - she just looked at me a couple of times and said, " Jackie's crying loud isn't she?

The worst part was the freezing and she was pretty brave for the rest of it, - Eve and I only heard the occasional whimper. An hour and 15 minutes later, when she walked back into the waiting room she looked like she'd been through hell. Alice always looks bloodied from battle but triumphant or at least relieved that it's over - Jackie just looked beaten and sick. She got to pick 2 toys and Eve got to pick one, but really a small plastic camera and a ring are poor payment. The $900 it cost didn't make me feel that great either.

It was a rough day for her - but not the worst - her worst day is still the day she forgot her lunch and thought someone had called me to bring her one but no one had, Alice wasn't on the bus and no one told her where she was, and no one was home when she got home, because Alice was supposed to unlock the door and let the girls in while they waited 15 minutes for Andrew to get home ( I was facilitating a work shop) so she had to sit tired, hungry scared and alone in the garage....that is still her worst day. This one was her 2nd worst.

But on a bad day we must be grateful for small blessings. When the admin assistant at the school found out that she had to get her teeth pulled, she gave Jackie a necklace that has a little tooth shaped container on it that they give to the students who lose teeth at the school. When her front teeth were loose, Jackie was hoping they would fall out at school so she could get one of them, so that was such a nice thing. Also, this is the day when Jackie has her class's stuffed bat Pip to take care of, so that helped brighten her mood tonight.

Here is the thing - how can you not hate the dentist? People who say they like going to the dentist are crazy -- have they never had teeth pulled? Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for dentists - but I am very relieved that none of us have to go back till the summer time.

Dad's influence on the girls

2011-11-30T13:14:00.000-08:00

At Eve's preschool this morning:

Me: I like that kids hat. It is like an old fashioned airplane pilot.

Eve: That is funny, boys don't care about fashion!

I explained the difference between fashion and old fashioned, but had to agree with her, that her dad, the only boy in our house, does not care about fashion.

******

Yesterday we went and did our grocery shopping after picking the kids up from school. They were very helpful at the grocery store. The older lady behind us commented on how good they were and how much they were helping me. I said they were always good like that. She asked if they could have a treat, and I said they didn't need one because they had already had a cookie. Eve had heard the "T" word though and started giving the lady the "cute eyes" so they lady asked me again and I relented. I thought she must have candy canes in purse or something, but what she did was buy each if the kids one of those big tubes of smarties with a figurine on the top. The kids were SOOO excited and grateful. Alice said as we were walking out of the store:

" We better tell Dad as soon as he gets home that you didn't buy us these things, otherwise he'll be mad and think we are wasting $".

And that is what Alice did. Andrew WAS very glad that we hadn't paid for those overpriced candies.

********

I lost my i-pod shuffle again and spent an hour on Monday trying to find it. I was looking everywhere. The girls were watching a movie from the library (the Ballet Shoes with Emma Watson - it is a cute show). When the movie finished Jackie went to find me. I was in the office looking for the i-pod. She said,

"Mom, I just upstairs looking for you and I found all the lights on in every room and no one up there at ALL. Why did you leave all the lights on! I turned them all off."

I told Andrew how Jackie had taken over his role as the electricity police. He is glad that the house is in such capable hands and that someone is responsibly turning off the lights for me when he is not here.

Overheard

2011-11-23T10:57:00.000-08:00

This morning at breakfast:

Eve was crying because I told her that she could not wear all pink today because all her pink clothes were dirty.

Eve: But if i don't wear pink, Chelsa won't like me. She only likes pink!

Me: Eve, your friends like you for who you are, not what you wear. Besides, she wasn't wearing pink yesterday!

Alice and Jackie agreed with me that friends like you because of who you are not how you look.

Alice then said, : Everybody knows that until they get to high school and then they forget and think it is all about clothes.

Me: Will you forget that when you are in high school?

Alice: Me? No way.

I was thinking - can I get that in writing?

Update on the girls

2011-11-23T10:01:00.000-08:00

Here is a selection from some family pictures. It may not be the best picture seeing as I am sporting a double chin, Andrew has a red infected eye, Eve looks belligerent, Jackie has hair in her face, only Alice looks great, albeit uncharacteristically sweet. Anyway - I love any picture that has all these people in it. They are my favourite.

Here is section of an email I sent my family this week. Since it contains an update of all of us, I thought I would use it for the blog - that's just the way I roll.

Alice continues to be obsessed with basketball. It is her happy place. She was devastated last week because she did really poorly on a spelling test. Her teacher wrote on her sheet that it was not acceptable. Alice cried and cried and cried, and didn’t really recover until we were home and she was able to shoot some hoops. I am happy she has that “happy place” but I also suggested perhaps studying a little more? She did better this week so I guess I shouldn’t worry. Unfortunately in regards to spelling and attention to details in her school work she takes after me. I have told her if she figures out how to not make those kind of mistakes then she should let me know.

Jackie is doing well. She loves piano and creating things with recyclables so sometimes her bedroom looks like she’s a hoarder. I have heard her say that she hates garbage day because there is no recycling in the house and therefore nothing to do. She had so much fun at Elise birthday party this weekend, but agonized over what she was going to wear. She was crying for half an hour before we left the house. It was crazy, but once she finally decided what dress to wear ( she was supposed to dress like a movie star) and got over the fact that no matter what we did, her hair was still going to be short – I convinced her to wear it up) she was pleased with her look and super happy. And Andrew and I managed it all without losing it ourselves so that was a plus. She has since talked and talked about how fun the party was and how funny uncle Sam was, she especially liked the game where they all pretended to speak German.

Eve is getting bigger every day, but we have noticed that she enjoys more and more being the “baby” and getting helped with her clothes, the bathroom eating etc. She also enjoys playing baby with Jackie or Alice where one of them is the mom and the other the grandma. Andrew and I are concerned about her “baby” obsession and try to make her do things on her own, and when we do that she either cries or convinces Alice or Jackie to help her out. I think she would be better if there was another baby around, so Erin is you get tired of Charlie, send him over here!. Last week I suggested to the girls when they were all playing house together that instead of having Eve be the baby that she could be the mom in the game. Eve just started whining that she was too small to be the mom and needed a smaller kid to be the baby. The girls went from happily playing to arguing so next time I will either keep my mouth shut or suggest that Eve play the kitty in the game. A responsible Kitty that cleans up after herself. In other news, Eve has developed a love of eating her boogers. We have to fight to get her to eat supper, unless of course it is pizza, but green boogers from her nose are apparently delicious.

Andrew is starting basketball this week .....we will miss him.

Our weekend

2011-11-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

Eve: (with a happy face) When I grow up I'll be a mom! (face turns sad) But I'll have to live away from you and have babies in my tummy.

I'm glad she isn't moving away any time soon. She is my sweet little best friend, always wanting to read books or dance together or snuggle and watch a show.

Last Friday the girls and I celebrated the first snow fall of the year my all snuggling together on my bed and watching the Muppet's Christmas Carol (my favourite holiday movie).

Jackie: " This is the movie night I have been praying for since Halloween" (jackie was excited because Andrew let the girls eat the popcorn twists and drink pop they got while trick or treating).

We were all having a great time until the end of the movie, when Eve said she had a tummy ache. Just as Ebeneezer was sending the boy off to buy the prize turkey, Eve threw up all over me and Andrew's side of the bed! Yuck!!

That started "The night of vomit" for Eve, who puked about 12 times. I stayed with her till 11:00, then Andrew took over until 3:00, then I stayed up with her until Alice woke up at 7:00. Needless to say, the weekend didn't go as we had planned, but we made it through and Alice still made her basketball game ( they won 40 to 0 - but turned off the scoreboard for the last quarter) and Jackie made it to her cooking birthday party and she and I went to most of the RS Creative Saturday - just no date for Andrew and I, no working out for me and a lot of extra laundry.

But really Eve was a trooper. She didn't complain at all. She would just say ," my tummy hurts" right before she would throw up, and she was good a aiming in the bucket. She watched hours and hours of backyardagains and laid on the couch all night.

The next morning at breakfast, I told the older girls how good Eve was.

Me: Eve threw up so many times, but she was so good, she never cried or complained.

Alice: Really, she didn't complain at all?

Me: Not at all, she was so brave.

Alice: Maybe she should be sick all the time then.

Me: Alice! that's not nice.

Alice: I'm just saying, that girl complains A LOT - so if being sick helps her not complain...

I could see her point, but the not complaining might have had something to so with the fact that she had a 24 hour dedicated attendant to get her things AND she got to watch her best friends, the Backyardigans all night.

I have to say, the Backyardigans has to be the best preschool show of all time. She has good taste at least. Sunday night, Andrew got sick. He also threw up a lot and tried not to complain. He stayed home from work yesterday. He didn't however, watch as much Backyardagains.

Halloween 2011!!

2011-11-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

" I know there will be Halloween in Heaven". That is what my sister Erin wrote and I concur. I LOVE HALLOWEEN. This year the kids got to go to a Primary Halloween party, a school Halloween family dance, a Halloween party at a friends house, Halloween parties at school and finished off with trick or treating last night. Their costumes got a lot of action.

Eve sitting with our jack-o-lanterns. We have never had so many - but we got them FOR FREE!!!! I may leave buying the pumpkins to the last day more often. I started getting carpel tunnel carving them all though. Each girl got to design a pumpkin and I designed the big one. Eve did the one with the spiky teeth, Alice's has moon eyes, and Jackie's is a self portrait of her teeth.
Jackie went as the Wicked Witch of the West, a.k.a Alphaba from the play Wicked. She was going to go green with facepaint, but decided against it each time she dressed up. The wtiches hat that came with Jackie's costume is the best one ever!
Alice went as herself in Wonderland. She initially wanted to be the old Alice from the Tim Burton movie, but opted for the more traditional look so she would be more recognizable. We got a huge blue dress at Value Village and cut it down to fit her.
Eve - continuing her desire to copy all things Jackie went as a little witch. She and Jackie had a lot of fun playing "witch school".
Jackie got tired first when we were trick-or-treating. Andrew came and walked her home a little earlier than the other girls. She still did pretty well candy wise. She had a feild trip to Heritage Park the next day and didn't want to be tired. Also - she just doesn't love candy as much as the other girls. Alice could go all night.
I thought that Eve would tire out before the big girls. I was wrong. She set the pace. Running up to the house and yelling, "1,2,4 Trick-or Treat" whether the other girls were there yet or not.
Alice got the most candy. People just gave her more I guess because she was older?
This is what my living room floor looks like right now. The great candy sort. Should I clean it up before they get home? I am thinking they should inventory it all to keep me honest. Then I can't steal any!

My favourite part of the night was walking in our back alley. Andrew took them out first in our cul de sac. Then they came back, dumped their bags and went with me out the back. The kids had flash lights and the alley was super dark and spooky. It was great fun.

And I met my 10 pound goal and won the biggest loser - so I get to pick where we go on our date this weekend. Where should it be? Now to keep it off - no small feet in a house full of candy. I didn't get pictures, but I went as miss Piggy this year and Andrew, as always, went as a Aikido guy with a sword.

2011-10-25T12:15:00.000-07:00

Eve said to me this morning, "Mom, I can't read" like she had just noticed, and was disappointed. "But, I can talk, so that's good".

She does however, like to pretend to read, and will spend a lot of time a church during the sacrament, "reading" her pictureless Book of Mormon. She is quite convincing.

In other news, we had the primary presentation on Sunday and the girls all did great. I only made a couple of mistakes conducting the music, and never once forgot to get the kids to stand up. Eve's favourite song in the presentation was "Praise to the Man". She loves the "fight him in vain" part.

Jackie and Alice were all cool and collected giving their parts. Eve's part was, " I am grateful Jesus created flowlers for me". No - that's not a typo, that is how she says flowers.

I had planned a fun singing time for after the presentation, because the kids had all worked so hard. We sang nothing but requests - but so many of the songs the kids wanted to sing were the ones we had in the presentation. I guess they still were not sick of them.

Biggest Loser Check in

2011-10-21T09:15:00.001-07:00

As of Wednesday's weigh in I am officially down 8 pounds since Andrew and I started our biggest loser competition a month ago. Things are looking pretty good to meet my goal of 10 pounds by Oct 30. Then again, the Halloween chocolate I got for free from SuperStore is now OPEN( I needed something to cheer Alice us with when she was practicing her piano and crying because it was so hard...) Maybe I should kick it up a notch.

Just think of how much I would lose if I did this every morning instead of the 60 minutes of walking? If only my sister Erin were here to train me. Then again, maybe we should just hook up some straps to our apple tree. Could be a fun Family Home Evening.

Way to go Erin!

Fun at the Lacombe Corn Maze

2011-10-19T09:54:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving weekend Andrew's Mom and Dad treated us all to a day at the Lacombe Corn Maze. We had never been before and it was a great time. I was surprised at how many things they had there in addition to the HUGE corn maze. They even had fire pits for our hot dog roast lunch.
This giant jumping pillow was the highlight for a lot of the cousins. I loved that anyone could got on it - no age or height restrictions!
This horse carosel was way eaiser to spin that a merry go round. Eve loved going fast! So fast that when Mason and Ethan walked by, the didn't want to get on - too fast for them!

This is Andrew reading the map. Yes, they give you a map and at first you think your won't want to use it...but then after wandering for a while you are glad to have it. I was especially glad I had a guy willing to use it ( it was really small and hard to read).
Doesn't he look at home in a farm setting!
The girls had so much fun with their cousins!
This is Eve as we entered the corn maze. She did not think that it looks like a good idea.
Here the girls are posing on hay bails. They are pretending to fall - but look - you can see that Jackie is about to be pushed by some strange toddler. She fell and hurt her leg, and this was after she got lost, and had a tether ball in the face knock out her tooth. Not the best day for her.
But she was able to rise above it all and strike a pose. Notice the wad of bloody kleenex in her mouth.

There was also trike go garts, a petting zoo, and cool water pump rubber duckie racing table and a couple of parks. We totally recommend going and I would love to go again!

First Day of School

2011-10-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

Here is Eve at her first real day of school. Words can not express how excited Eve was to finally be in school. She was excited to be able to buy new shoes when the girls were buying new shoes, and even though she didn't really need any, we bought her this new school outfit for her first. day. A few days into school I realized I should have been more clear when we bought it that her "new school outfit" was not the ONLY outfit she could wear to school. It certainly was the only one she wanted to wear to school. I washed that skirt a lot in September.

Eve's only complaint about preschool is that it is not long enough and it is not every day. I have a feeling that she will LOVE kindergarten next year.
Alice was excited to have her best friend in her class again and she got the grade 4 teacher she was hoping for, so she was really happy the first day. Her teacher has been amazing, and Alice has continued to love school and is getting more and more excited about French. She is thinking she might continue with it next year ( when she goes to middle school). We will see.

Jackie is in a megaclass with 2 teachers and 36 kids. She was disappointed at first, but then realized that she would get to have more of her friends in the class. So things are going well. She still misses her teacher from last year though. Mme Andrea was awesome. Her readingin English and French is coming along like magic, and by the end of September, she was finally used to getting up a 7:00. ( it took some time). Now she is happy most mornings, and we are in a nice routine.

Lady Jacqueline's Medieval Festival a.k.a Jackie's Birthday Party

2011-10-17T08:58:00.001-07:00

Jackie - or Jacqueline as she is starting to like being called, decided on a Medieval theme for her party this year. This allowed her and her friend to again have fun dressing up. Jackie's parties always involve dressing up. She was very adamant that this was a medieval party and NOT a princess party and she was NOT dressing up like a princess. She didn't opt to dress up as a peasant with the plaque either, but instead opted for Lady Jacqueline of Rasmussen Manor.

My friend Shaunie found a huge box from a 60 inch TV for us (she was so excited when she told me on the phone that at first I thought she must have won a 60 inch TV). Andrew and the girls turned it into a tower, but we ran out of grey spray paint, so we used what we had around: green and pink.
The weather was amazing, it felt like summer. We did jousting, sword fighting and court jester competition out side.
Here they all are dressed up. Alice and Chloe aren't in this picture because they were busy planning the treasure hunt with Andrew.
Here they are at the feast - which was pretty meager - only cake and candy really. We found enough metal goblets at Value Village for everyone to have one. The first activity was decorating the goblets and then we filled the goblets with candy instead of giving out treat bags. I also couldn't resist buying the candelabra. I think it was 5 dollars well spent because we are sure to use it again. Jackie was very careful when we were looking for things for her birthday party, that we only buy decorations and or costumes that we were sure to use again. She seriously questioned the 2 foam swords I bought, and was only appeased when I pointed out that we could use them as beach toys since they were made out of the same material as the pool noodles ( which we used for jousting).

The party was a great success - especially since I had great help. My sister Anne came to assist and she was AMAZING as usual, letting the kids chase her and helping me keep things running. This allowed Andrew hide in the basement and in the garage which was best for everyone!!! If he had been in charge there may have been a couple of kids that ended up in the stock!!

Since this party, less than a month ago, Jackie has cut her hair and lost her two front teeth. She already looks so much more grown up. We love you so much Jackie and we are so lucky to have you in our family.

Summer Catch-up Post #5 - Rasmussen Reunion

2011-10-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

These Summer posts are taking me a long time. Here it is the middle of Octover and I am only at the August long weekend. I'll have to pick up the pace. The answer is more photos, less writing.

This year the annual summer Rasmussen reunion was held in Airdrie, and included a day at Calaway Park, a hike at Big Hill Springs and lots of visiting. A big thank you to Stephanie and Seb for hosting. It was great time. Here we all are packed into their living room. Thanks Karen for taking the pictures.

I brought copies of this picture for everyone at thanksgiving and Nathan noticed that there were a couple of guys standing on their toes to look taller.
Look at these cure kids! All so happy except for poor Jay.

Jackie doesn't have a girl cousin her age on the Rasmussen side. Since the reunion was in Airdrie her favourite Hudson cousin Elise came along with us. The girls had so much fun together on the Big Hill Springs Hike.
Eve only has boy cousins her age as well, but she doesn't mind at all. She loves Mason and Ethan so much. Here she is with Mason.
Jaylin and Alice are inseparable. They even dressed identical when they were at Calaway park and people thought they were twins.
Other high lights from the weekend: we got a flat tire on the Deerfoot on our way to Airdrie on Saturday night. I was driving and it was a little scary but we found a safe place to pull over and the kids enjoyed finding special rocks in the ditch while Andrew changed the tire - he was just finishing putting in the last bolts when the AMA truck drove up. What a man. The girls and I now feel nostalgic every time we pass that spot.

Summer Catch-up Post #4 - Grecole Engagement Party

2011-09-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

I had to wear gloves and a hat on my early morning power walk today. Breaking out the winter gear put me back in the mood to relive summer - so here is another summer catch up post:

The Grecole Engagment Party!

We are super very lucky to have Nicole officially in the family thanks to her and Greg getting married. They got married in Ontario in August, ( which I will one day get around to posting about - but suffice it to say that the wedding was beautiful ). To accommodate all those friends and family that would not be at the wedding, my parents put on an engagement party in Calgary in July ( When Erin and Mary were here). It was quite a production and all worth it. It is always lovely to celebrate the love of two great people and Greg and Nicole are two great great people.
Here are all the Hudson's and Shabada's on the steps of the Royal Oak Chapel where the Engagement Party was held. I love this picture because: 1. Greg and Nicole look like the Hot super couple they are, 2. The grandkids look adorable, and 3. I am hidden up in the back so I can imagine that I am as skinny as I feel.
Being at the Royal Oak Chapel gave us the chance to see how the Temple construction was coming along. We can not express how excited we are to have a temple in Calgary! Completion is about a year away! You can see up to date pictures of the construction here.

Erin bought Alice her dress to match Ella's. I found the dresses for the other girls at Walmart. Karen and I did hair for two solid hours before the party. The girls were so excited about the whole thing. The loved decorating the gym, making matching hair bows and getting all dressed up. Jacqueline especially loved that Karen put blush on all the girls right before the party. She felt super fancy and grown up. The girls manned the guest book and handed out chocolates. They loved being a part of it all. Looks how adorable they are.

The boys looked adorable too but were somewhat harder to photograph - but they were a whole lot easier to get ready so it all works out. Sam and Karen were the MC's for the program ( and they were wonderful!) Their son Chase was not impressed however with having both his parents on stage. At the beginning of the program I lost Andrew and found out later that he spent the whole night outside with Chase. Some nephew uncle bonding time. I think Andrew preferred that to being inside but I think he missed out on a really great program. Check out my sisters blog here to see the number I liked the best
The kids loved staying out so late! After the party Andrew took the girls home and I stayed to help clean up. Good times.

Summer Reading

2011-09-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

So on average book club members read 36 books a year. Non book club members read about 5. My book club is starting up this weekend so I have been reviewing my recently read book to try to decide what to recommend to the book club. I don't know if I have read 36 books this year. But the summer has been good. Here are the books I have read.

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

Half Broke horses by Jeanette Walls

The House at Riverton by Kim Morton

The Forgotten Garden by Kim Morton

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Summer in the South by Cathy Holton

Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island with Alice - she ditched Harry Potter for Anne Shirley. It was fun reading together and she LOVED the books. We somehow have lost Anne of Windy Poplars so haven't started it yet.

I think my favourite was the Glass Castle and I wish we could do it for book club, but I think some of the ladies would have issues with some of the language. I didn't have issues with it. It was a memoir and if that is how the people talk, that is how the people talk, so I whole heartily will recommend it to people to read, but I don't think I would pick it as a book club book. Half Broke Horses was also amazing, but I think I liked it more because it felt like a prequel to the Glass Castle, since it was about the authors Grandmother. I think the book would be interesting on it's own, but I am not sure. The Kim Morton and Cathy Holton books were great summer reads with family intrigue, mystery and a little romance- so perfect for an afternoon at the beach but too cheesy for book club. All of them took place in the present and in the turn of the century to the 20's - so I got a lot of prohibition and flappers this summer. Water for Elephants was like that to.

Of course the Help was great and I know that others will be recommending it for book club. I think I will recommend Half Broke Horses or books I have read in previous years - The Year of Magical Thinking or The Zookeepers Wife.

Do you have any suggestions?

Enough with summer catch up posts

2011-09-14T12:31:00.001-07:00

Ok - if I keep posting only about summer I will never get caught up. Here is a quick post full of random things.

1. Eve is in preschool three mornings a week. She loves it but wishes it were everyday and that it was longer - like all day. Basically she wishes it was real school with the girls, but at least she has something. Her afternoons must be filled with errands or play dates or else she drives me crazy. She is one extroverted girl. I bought her a new outfit for her first day of school. She calls it her school clothes and wants to wear it every time she goes to school.

2. School has us all getting up early. The girls elementary school is starting 30 minutes earlier this year due to busing issues. They kids bus comes at 7:48. Last year it cam at 8:22, so it has been a bit of an adjustment. So far, we are all handling quite well, with the exception of Jackie, who probably got up at 6:30 most days last year. She mush be growing or something. Anyway, she is BEAR in the morning. A bear that refuses to eat. I even bought some nutella to entice her. She was so excited last night when she saw it. She was sure she would be super excited and happy to eat it this morning. Not so. I hope her pleasant personality wakes up by the time she is at school.

3. Piano has started. This is the first year for Jackie. So far she is loving it. I think Alice will end up practicing more this year just because of the sibling rivalry. Jackie's teacher ( my friend Shaunie) is super positive and Jackie just drinks it up. Shaunie told her yesterday that she thinks she was born to play the piano...now to acquire an actual piano...our keyboard just isn't cutting it lately.

4. Basketball started last night for Alice. She is in U10 which means mini girls, so no boys on her team this year. We bought her some real basketball shoes this year and she was so excited to try them out. She is sure they helped her play better. There is enough girls in her age category to make up two teams. Last night was the assessment - which is really a try out, since they are dividing the girls into two teams based on ability. Her good friend Chloe is playing this year, and she has never played before. I was wondering what was more important to Alice - playing on the A team or playing on Chloe's team. Is it better to be the younger less experienced player on a really good team, or a star player on a team that isn't as good. Would you rather play with people you don't know or your friends? What would you pick? For Alice is was not even a question. She was hoping for A team all the way. I don't know if she will make it though - there are some CRAZY tall 10 year olds out there - but she ran her heart out last night trying. No matter what happens, Alice will be happy to play.

4. I am enjoying having Eve in preschool so so so much. I have a contract for work hopefully starting up soon , but in the meantime I am trying to kick start my fitness and weight loss goals. I have been exercising in the mornings with Jenny and Shaunie and today I went to my first TOPS meeting. TOPS stands for Taking Off Pounds Sensibly and it is a non profit that is more than a little corny - seeing as they give you a collar thing to wear and you get pins to decorate it with as you lose weight. I am prepared to take the cheese if it will give me some extra motivation and accountability and I think that knowing I will be weighed every Wednesday will give me that. Also, I don't want to let all those cute old ladies down. My friend Andrea is joining as well -- so hopefully I will be thinner by Christmas....

Memories of Summer Post #3 - Eve's Birthday

2011-09-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

Eve has the best birthday in the world. June 25th. I defy you to come up with a better birthday. The weather is warm. School hasn't let out yet so everyone is around, and it is EXACTLY half way to Christmas. Yes, my little Eve gets presents every six months. Beat that.

This year we did things a little differently for her birthday. Usually we have a family party and friend party. This year, since the Hudson side was getting together in early July, we decided to wait and do one big party with friends and tons of cousins. She was totally on board for it since she wanted Dotty to be at her party. So for her birthday I took her and her sisters to Calaway park and we ran in to some friends and had a great time. Then we went home and she helped me make her birthday cake and then we had pizza and cake for dinner. She was have a great day, and loved being the " birthday girl". I was a little surprised when at bed time she ask, " Is my party going to start now?". She didn't like the answer I gave to that question and there were a few tears.

But the party day finally came a few weeks later. It was a bubble party so we had a lot of bubble stuff around. It was a little hectic with 3 friends, 2 sisters, and 8 cousins! Thank goodness my sister Erin was there to help. With that many kids you need more than one adult and we both agree that the adult can't just be any adult. For example, the adult should not be Andrew Rasmussen. My darling husband does not cope well with the chaos and had enough sense to hide in the basement until I asked him to help bbq the hot dogs. You also do not want to have a mom of some kid in your child's class stay around, one that you have never met before...they might not want to see all the goes on. No, you need a good friend who loves parties and Erin was a spectacular help.

We did bubble art - which didn't work out. We made some really huge bubbles that were really cool. We had some fun with water balloon. My favourite was the treasure hunt for the bubble wands that Erin and Jack put together. Of course, I only have pictures of the cake - we decided to do cupcakes this year, with bubble gum on the top. The bubble gum may not have been the best choice. A few chewed pieces ended up where they shouldn't have.
I like that Eve is right next to Jack. Next to Audrey and Dotty - the other four year old, he is by far her favourite Hudson cousin.

After the friends from the birthday left, the cousins spent hours filling water balloons. The filling of the water balloons was more fun that the water fight that followed I think. It was a long fun day and after it all Eve really felt like she'd had a party that was worth waiting for. Thanks everyone for coming.

Memories of Summer Post #2

2011-09-06T13:47:00.000-07:00

So Alice was invited to a Medieval themed birthday party this summer. We had fun getting her ready for it. I altered an old Halloween costume of mine to fit her and I especially liked doing her hair for it. I really should have taken a picture of the back. We even wrapped the present in fabric to be true to the medieval theme. Her friend Robin lives just around the corner so she even got to walk to the party - exactly what a medieval girl would have done. Eve got to follow Alice, dressed exactly as she is in the picture below: Sun Hat, PJ, necklace, microphone.
Since it is September, Jackie has been thinking of almost nothing but her birthday party coming up. Shewas inspired by Robin's party and wants to do a Medieval theme or a Medieval Fantasy theme. I like these ideas better than the "grown up" theme she was toying with this summer. ( A party where the kids all dress in the clothes they would where if they were grown ups going to work and then do what adults do at a party, which as far as Jackie is concerned means eating fancy food and " playing that card game, you know the one where there is money in the middle of the table...) The medieval theme will be much better, but as we have talked about it, I realize that what we are really planning is Jackie's 4th princess party. Here are her birthday party themes:

Age 2 - Under the Sea Nemo party - I LOVED THAT ONE -
Age 3 - Royal Party - basically a princess party but we couldn't call it that because no little boy wants to go to a princess party. Logan came as a king.
Age 4 - Fairy Tale party - Basically another princess party. Logan came as a Knight.
Age 5 - Dress - up Party - I was trying to mix it up but all the little girls just wore princess dresses. So this one ended up being a party with 10 princesses and Logan dressed like a skeleton.
Age 6 - Halloween Themed party - I was so proud that Jackie resisted the urge to dress as a princess, instead wearing a red devil costume. A sparkly red devil costume.

So now we are back to princess. Medieval princess. I'll have to do something with the plaque to keep it educational....

And it looks like we

Summer Catch Up Post #1

2011-08-30T07:56:00.000-07:00

WE CAN'T BELIEVE SUMMER IS OVER! School starts the day after tomorrow for Alice and Jackie and Eve gets to go to an introductory preschool day TOMORROW. It was such a bummer yesterday when Andrew had to go to work for the first time. Summer has just been so much fun. I love my little family and love having so much time to spend together. Now's a great time to start posting about what we did this summer.

The first week of summer, Andrew went off to Helamen's Encampment, a church sponsored camp for all the scouts in Alberta. It was huge and he was gone for a week. While he was gone, we had the Romeril kids over during the day, since Jenny was a girl's camp. We had a great time with the Romerils. We went to parks, had a picnic, went to the beach and did crafts. The kids played tons of pretend games and I believe that Jackie and Logan got married at least twice over the course of the three days.

One of our projects that week was making a pinata. All the kids were excited about making the pinata until they saw how messy it was. Chloe and Jackie enjoyed mixing up the glue and preparing strips and let the sloppy gluing to Alice and I. It was really hot that week, so even though we didn't start it until Tuesday night, it was ready to paint by Thursday night. Alice and Jackie started painting it while I was mowing the lawn. Eve asked if she could help. I told she could but she had to wear her painting clothes so as not to stain her regular clothes.

When I got around to mowing the back yard, I could hear the kids painting in the kitchen. They were working so nicely together and having so much fun. When my mowing took me to that side of the yard I looked in and realized that Eve kneeling on the kitchen table, happily painting the pinata stark naked. Her little bum was right in front of the window. She couldn't find her painting clothes and didn't want to stain her clothes or miss out or take the time to go and get my help.

I told her that I never mind if her underwear gets paint on it and told her to get her panties back on while I found her painting clothes. Once the kids were done painting, I cleaned that kitchen table...yes I did!

Then On Friday we brought the pinata over to Grandma and Grandpa's house and used it to welcome the Wrights who had just arrived for their visit. Here are some pictures. I actually remembered my camera and remembered to use it:
You can tell that it is always a party when all the cousins get together.

All the kids had a couple of swings at the pinata. I learned that the pinata doesn't last as long when the kids are older - the last time I made one was for Jackie's two year old party and they were not strong enough to break. The big kids did a great job. Final blows when to Jack and Max.

WICKED!

2011-07-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

Alice, Jackie and I went to see Wicked last night with Grandparents, aunts and cousins. WE LOVED IT!! We have never seen it before, though we have been listening to the music in the car to study. It really is a great show. I was sitting next to Alice and got to listen to her repeat all the phrases she thought were funny. Jackie said," There were some parts that were scary and it was just like a ride at Calaway Park were at first I am thinking, "why did I come" and by the end of the number I can't stop clapping".
We all agree that there is nothing more exciting than a live musical. We all wish we could see it again. Jackie said, "To bad there is no rewind on my brain, because if there was I would totally hit rewind right now and watch it all again".
The kids also thought it was pretty cool to stay out till almost midnight!

Alice's New Room

2011-07-04T15:38:00.000-07:00

These pictures were taken the first day Alice slept in her new room. It has been nothing but great as far as she is concerned. She totally loves being downstairs, especially now that it is hot out. Her bedroom is always cool. She also likes having her own bathroom - I must remind myself to teach her to clean it....It is of course to bad that I do not have a before picture - the head board used to be cream and tan striped and the walls were a sand colour. This make-over was super cheap. I only bought one can of paint and the Monet picture from Value Village. She got my old dresser. We re-upholstered the headboard and made a pillow case from fabric that I had bought last year for the play room. The duvet cover is our old brown one, reversed to show the cream side. We just need to put up a shelf and finish her bulletin board that we are making out of an old frame I picked up from a garage sale while we were living in Edmonton. So fun.

2011-07-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

We had a great Canada day celebration! We started out making red and white hair accessories.Then we painted our nails

The girls painted flags and I painted the girls.

Eve's face says Eve loves Canada.
Me: Eve, it's Canada Day today
Eve: Yeah! Canada Day! Are we going to go to Canada then?
Clearly we have some work to do on the geography front, and also the flag painting front.
After I took the girls and the girls took their flags and we went downtown to Prince's Island Park to take in the celebration. We saw a funny magic show, got some balloon animals and had snow cones. The highlight for the girls was, as always, riding the train. It was a great day! We love our country!

I wasn't brave enough to take the girls to the fireworks - I figure it is still a bit late for them, so I taped some that were on TV and they watched them today...maybe next year they'll get the real deal.

Pre-school field trip

2011-07-03T15:05:00.001-07:00

Our last day unit of preschool was north American Animals. I decided to take them to the zoo. It was a great time. I LOVE THESE KIDS!!! Here they are at the otters. Notice, Chelsa has a flower in her hair.

Here they are having snacks at the grizzly bear. Chelsa still has her flower.

I believe this is the stork - Chelsa still has her flower.

Here they are enjoying a post zoo snack - and this is where I noticed - no flower in Chelsa's hair. She must have lost it at the park, but we were quite a ways from that when I realized, with just a little time to get home. Terry volunteered to run back and try to find it. I went to wear I could see Terry at the park and the girls eating their snack - but that part is a bit big for a 4 year old to search. We had to let the flower go. Hopefully, there is a peacock that found it and is wearing it now.

Another first

2011-06-23T20:31:00.000-07:00

I am not very good at recording the "firsts"of childhood, especially when it comes to Eve. She's number 3 and it's a cliche, but really I wasn't very good at it with Alice or Jackie, I just felt more guilt over it then. Now, I have made peace and so rather than feeling guilty over all the dates I have forgotten and not recorded I instead:

1. focus on giving sooo much love now that they will not require a report of all their significant dates to prove that I love them.

2. Tell them funny stories of what they did when they were babies, over and over, untill they become the stuff legends

3. Encourage them to keep their own journal, even before they can write (delegation: a life saver) and

4. When all else fails, make something up! The Lord blessed me with creativity for a reason , right?

But completely out of character, I am going to record a milestone that Eve reached today. Are you excited? Of course you are!

It is hereby recorded, that on this, the 23 day of June, 2011 that Eve Rasmussen, 2 days shy of her 4th birthday, demonstrated the ability to relentlessly tease a sibling. Yes, today she successfully teased her older sister until she cried. ( without the tears, it doesn't really count)

The tormented sister: a very tired Jackie

The method of teasing: a classic yet effective copy cat. A strategy that is really elegant in it's simplicity.

A yes, this is the first of my children to successfully complete the difficult feat of teasing an older sibling without the experience of teasing a younger sibling, yet even without that valuable experience she still managed to dethrone Jackie, who was in kindergarten when she finally found success with the phras: "I will call up all your friends and tell them not to come to your birthday party".(Obviously, Alice made it hard on Jackie. She had to work for months before she found success, You don't come up with a phrase like that on your first try. )

I didn't hear the whole conversation, but what I heard went something like this:

Jackie: That's annoying

Eve: That's annoying

Jackie: Eve stop it

Eve: Eve stop it

Jackie: Eve, this is so dumb

Eve: Eve, this is so dumb

And, BLAMMO - Jackie burst into tears. (it is fun to say blammo - go ahead and say it out loud - blammo - SEE!)

What was my response? Like any good mother, I gave Jackie a hug and told Eve that she should be nice and not try to be annoying on purpose to upset Jackie. I had to smile at the look of utter satisfaction on Eve's face though. She definitely got what she wanted and I had to say,

"My baby's all grown up and teasing her sister, (sniff sniff)."

So that's the story. Sorry, no pictures. But what would you like, a picture of Jackie crying? Or Eve looking smug?

And now that I think of it, I do not remember ever successfully teasing my older sister. I remember getting teased and then hitting her and then getting in trouble ( that happened a lot). However, I do remember relentlessly teasing my youngest brother with the " you're adopted, we found you on our doorstep when you were a baby". It used to get him every time. Children can be so cruel. Let's hope that Eve sticks with being a copy cat.

My daughter - myself

2011-06-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

Alice made brownies for her Dad and her Grandpa today. They are in the oven baking as we speak. She asked me to put them in the oven for her. When I walked into the kitchen I found Eve, sitting on the table beside the bowl - completely "brown handed". Before I could say anything she guiltily said,

Mom, This is really bad for me, but I LOVE it".

Don't I know how that goes. Anyway, I put the batter in the pan and ( because I know how it is) I gave Eve the spoon to lick and put the pan in the oven. Eve, having finished the spoon, asked for the bowl. She was already covered in chocolate and had dropped a bunch of chocolate on the floor. I didn't know how much she had eaten before I got there ( there was a little less brownie batter that usual) so I said, " No, honey, you've had enough, and look at all the chocolate you dropped on the floor. What a mess".

I put the bowl in the sink and filled it with water and got a rag to clean the floor and turned around to find Eve in downward facing dog, licking the floor.

I should have known really. You all saw that coming, didn't you?

Dear Diary

2011-06-17T07:47:00.000-07:00

Here is Alice's journal entry from last night, ( She said I could read it - I didn't ask her about posting it - so keep this one under your hat). All words are exactly as written. Though, I warn you, she is reading a "My Dear Dumb Diary" book and it seems to have influenced her writing style.

June 16th, 2011

Dear Journal,
Sorry I have not written to you in a long time I just did not have time to with homework and suff. So anyway, today I had my PAT that stands for provinchal achivement test or whatever and it was not soo hard, but my hand allmost went "kabowicie" and so ya. Robin cam over and together (with Jackie) we made red, watermelon wham gum. I had 3 pizise of pizza for dinner. Oh, I'm sleeping downstairs now!!! It is very exiting. Well I'm tirde and it is time for bed. Good night.

Yes, last night was Alice first official night in her new bedroom. I would have liked a little more written about the awesomeness of the room considering all the work Karen, Andrew and I put into painting it and redoing her head board, but I guess we will console ourselves with the three exclamation marks. That, and how excited she was when she first saw it after school yesterday. The look of contentment on her face as she snuggled into her queen size bed last night was also a payoff. I could tell she felt VERY grown up. Last year, she swore she would never move downstairs, and this morning she asked Andrew if he could build a little kitchen downstairs for her, so she wouldn't have to come upstairs at all.

If the summer gets really hot, we will all come down there to join her.

Also, if you are planning to come to our house for a visit, Alice has agreed to vacate her room when guest's come, so please come and visit. Then you too can wake up in a green room.

Update on the kids

2011-06-10T08:33:00.000-07:00

Remember when I used to blog more than once a month? It was so long ago, I can hardly remember? Not sure what is up with my creativity lately,but it is a shame, because life keeps rolling on and I should be recording things. The kids have a PD day today and so we are all still in our PJs - they are trying to catchup on some TV watching that they " just never have time for" - a good time to post something.
Eve:

Is taking swimming lessons for the first time. Words can not express how excited she was to "be big now". She likes it as long as she has Miss Kayla. When the boy substitute is there, it takes some getting used to.
She plays on a soccer team and just as I thought, she LOVES it. I am the assistant coach for her team. It is really the highlight of my week. U4 soccer is the BEST!!!At this age they just play 3 on 3 and they don't have positions, but she has figured out that the other team can't score if she tends goals, so if she can 't get the ball from the kid that has a breakaway she will high tail it to the goal and looks all ferocious as she kicks the ball away.
She has finished her preschool and misses it. And keeps asking about going again.
She can almost do the monkey bars by herself, which both impresses me and freaks me out in equal proportions.
Her talking is getting more and more clear, but she still pronounces flower, "flowler". I should probably help her learn to say it right, but it is so cute.
She used to cry when the girls left for school, but now just says every morning, " Mom, now it is just me and you!" She is getting kind of stuck on me. We do a lot of book reading, dancing, puzzles, bike riding, library going and talking about what we will do next. This girls seems to like living by a schedule. If we don't get to do something I have said we will do, she will remind me about it over and over. "Mom, we didn't pull weeds yesterday like you said we would do". As if the weeds weren't reminders enough.
She is obsessed with this "Meet the letters" DVD we got from the library. She always wants to watch it and wants to watch it with me. If I leave during the show to get something, she says things like:" but if you leave you will miss the S that is coming." And when I come back she fills me in on the letters I missed. I am glad that she is so excited about learning her letters, but wonder when she will realize that this DVD is DEAD BORING.

News from Jackie:

She is growing out her bangs and we all think it makes her look older, though once she grows them out and cuts them again, we will all think that her bangs make her look older. Basically any change in hairstyle results in us noticing how grown up she is getting. I have to remind myself she is only 6.
She has decided that she prefers to be called "Jacqueline" and has learned to spell it. This is of course a hard switch for everyone.
She loves her swimming lessons and is getting better at swimming, though I'm sure it would be easier if she gained a little weight. She is a sinker.
She is doing soccer, and likes it way better then basketball because a) it is outside and you get to run in the spring air and never get hot ( we live in the north) and b) she doesn't worry all the time about the ball hitting her in the head. So far no goals, but she has had some pretty decent breakaways and kicks on goal and has some great coaches.
She finally, FINALLY got to take home her classes stuffed penguin for the weekend. She was the last kid to take it home, which meant she had to wait 18 agonizing weeks, but it was worth it. She showed that penguin a good time.
Always the socialite, she is petitioning me to throw a welcome to summer party with all of her class because they all won't be in her class next year ( there are 5 grade 1 classes at her school)
She is going to be moving into Alice's room in the next few weeks, as soon as we can get it all painted. She really wants her own room and even considered moving downstairs, but cried as she thought of how far she would be to Eve. She has been telling Eve all different ways they can still be close even when she is sleeping in a different room. She asked if we could cut a cubby hole for secret messages.

Alice:

Is obsessed with riding her bike, it warms my heart that the bike I was excited to buy her 2 years ago is finally getting used.
She is writing her provincial achievement tests at school, and thinks it is great because they are pretty easy and because of them they don't have any homework
She did her first talk in primary the other week even though she (of course) really didn't want to. She did a great job and was super glad when it was over.
Helped me find a great dress for the Grecole wedding. She is a great little shopper. Luvky is the mother that has daughters.
She can now make chocolate chip cookies, corn meal muffins and waffles all by herself. Her new found baking ability is a terrific help. She is giving the girls breakfast while I type this.
Is loving soccer, even though she also hasn't scored this year. I love watching her play and practice. Her best friend Chloe is on the team and the two of them look so happy all the time to be playing together.
Thinks her swimming lessons are so boring, but at least she is learning how to do a handstand in the water, the only thing that prevented her from passing swimmer three last time.
Is the proud owner of her own deodorant ( my little girls is growing up and getting sticky, sniff, sniff). She was not embarrassed at all, just excited. She totally does not feel the way I did about the whole maturing thing. A while back we were at Value Village trying on some shoes. There were these slip on high heels that completely fit her. I said we could buy them for the dress up clothes. She was all, "Can't I wear them to church?" I was surprised she would want to and told her when I was her age and didn't ever want to look any older than I (tragically) already did. She just said to me, "Mom, I am practically an adult already".
Has discovered the joy of brushing her hair. I told her that if she didn't get better at brushing the knots out of her hair she would have to cut it. She has since upgraded to a brush that actually works and can frequently be seen brushing and admiring her hair in the mirror. I am glad that her hair looks better, but am not sure how I feel about the new found vanity about the beautifully brushed hair.
Has decided to move downstairs to the guest bedroom. The thought that Jackie might just move down into that room, instead of waiting for her to do it was just the incentive she needed. Let the decorating begin.
Can't wait for school to be done and for fun cousins to arrive. I'm totally with her on that.

One more months of magic

2011-05-25T09:02:00.000-07:00

So there is one more month of school and one more month till Eve turns 4. Can't wait for those things. This month should fly by - it always does, but as it ends so will our magical schedule and morning routine.

My kids go to a school with a French immersion program that requires them to take a bus. A great big yellow school bus that was VERY exciting for each of them when they first started. They still like it just fine. What is great is that we are the last stop before the bus takes them to school. THeir school starts at 8:43, so they don't have to be at the bus stop until 8:24. This allows us ALL to sleep in until 7:35 ( sometimes 7:45). What is even more lovely ( for me) is that the kids are leaving for the bus stop the same time Andrew is leaving for work ( Highschool starts around 9), so on most days, Andrew takes them to the bus stop.

In the afternoon, my kids are the last off the bus ( not the greatest for them ) which means they get off the bus at 4:07. The is exactly when Andrew gets home (except during basketball season when he is coaching and so busy that we miss him, then slowly forget what it is like to have him around till we are all blissfully reunited in March.) This schedule has been lovely! It has meant that if Eve is sleeping, we don't need to wake her up. It has provided the girls with some quality Daddy /Daughter time everyday and meant that the girls do not miss the bus - and now they are well trained, even when dad is not around. It has also meant on the days that I am working ( even out of town) that Andrew can totally handle on the drop off and pick ups of a single parent no problem.

Sadly - next year, because of budget issues, busing will be shared with a middle school. That means our school will start at 8:09 instead of 8:43, and will end at 2:39, instead of 3:13, throwing out beautiful routine into chaos. We are sad, but not contemplating changing schools are some are (it is only 34 minutes earlier for heaven sake) With my luck, Andrew will decide to go to work earlier, so it will just mean we all start are day earlier. The kids will like being done earlier I think.

Anyway, we will be grateful for our late morning start for the rest of the year.

LOOOOONG Weekend!

2011-05-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

The kids had a PD day on Friday and since it was Victoria Day on Monday, we had a four day weekend. It was great - these are the highlights

Friday: Andrew quietly got up early and went to his lecture at the University. I have no idea when the kids got up, all I know is they left me sleep in til 9:00. BLISS

We went to let's play with the our friends the Romerils. It was a great time. I love when the kids are all happy and it is always fun to talk to Jenny. And we only got in trouble for eating the food we brought in instead of buying it there AFTER the kids had eaten. My kids were having so much fun that even after the Romeril's left they still wanted to play, which allowed me to finish the book club book. Perfect.

Friday nights - Andrew was out at Grad and so we had a kids movie night. 8 kids. Tons of popcorn. So much giggling. great.

Saturday: It was SUNNY! We spent the morning cleaning up the yard. Alice was an especially good weeder. Then the kids went to a friends house and Andrew and I got to have a date IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY. It was great. We went to lunch and went shopping and found a 7 dollar bike for Eve at Goodwill, and some other little things for the kids. Meanwhile the kids were having the time of their life jumping on a trampoline and riding bikes in Fish creek part.

Saturday night I had book club. We discussed Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. I serious love books like that.

Sunday we went to Sam and Karen's for a BBQ for my Dad's birthday. We ate way to much, but that was Karen's fault. The food was too good. I am a psychology nerd.

Monday, was cold and drizzly. We played board games then me and the girls went shopping. Jackie got a swimsuit, Alice got some shorts, and I, miraculously got a dress for Greg's wedding. Alice was particularly excited about the idea of finding a dress for me. She was a great little shopping assistant. Getting me different sizes, giving her opinion. The dress I ended up buying she liked right away. This is what was said in the dressing room:
Alice: Mom - that dress makes you look good, way skinnier.
Eve: Yeah, but when you take it off, you'll be fat again.
Makes me want to wear it everywhere.

Then Eve and I went to her soccer game. It was a cold and windy and wet but she is hardcore and we got home early enough to snuggle all together and watch a movie. Then when the kids were in bed I was able to finish reading Cinderella Ate My Daughter, which I will have to post about sometime. Also a great book.

Anyway, the whole weekend just felt like summer. We all can't wait for those days when we can sleep in till 8 or 9 everyday, and decide that morning what we want to do that day. One more month!

Glowing on Easter Sunday

2011-05-16T12:11:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from Easter Sunday. We had to be at Church an hour early to practice with choir, so I didn't have time to take pictures at home. These are taken outside the church after choir practice. It was a bright sunny day and consequently the girls look like glowy angels. Really - that's what they are, right?

I want to always remember Eve and Easter 2011. Here is a picture of her dancing. Her dress is yellow with purple polka dots - not that you can tell from this picture. You can't even really tell it is Eve - since you can't even see her face. It could be Jackie 2 years ago ( back when the dress was new). This is the best we could do considering she had eaten a lot of chocolate that morning and wasn't about to stand still. What was special about Eve this year is that she is three and an active sunbeam. This was the first year she got to sing in church with all the primary kids. For the past year, she has cried whenever the primary kids sing, wanting to be up there so badly. Do you think when this picture was taken before church that sh was excited about being a big girl and singing in church? The answer to that question is "NO - she wasn't" because I had completely forgotten it was her first time. You see in December I was called to be the primary chorister. I have never served in primary before so it feels really new for me. Easter was only the second time that the primary has sung in church with me conducting. I was a little nervous - and in my nervousness I completely forgot to prepare Eve for her debut.

I paid the price for that oversight. Eve cried when I went up to the stand to invite all the kids up to the stand. She didn't go up with all the other kids. When I realized this I went and got her (remember Andrew sits on the stand on Sunday). I did get her to go up and stand with the other kids. She was find during the first verse of Easter Hosanna. Things went downhill in the second verse when her friend Chelsa moved to stand beside her. I am not sure if she liked this or not, all I know is that she felt compelled to tell me about. All through the was trying to get may attention. Saying " Mom! Mommy!!! Mommy!!!" progressively louder. She doesn't like being ignored - I mean , who does, but what could I do? I couldn't answer her, I was conducting and singing ( and completely messing up the words because I was so flustered).

Many people came up to me and said the primary did a great job. They assured me that they didn't hear Eve at all - I am sure the Lord will overlook their dishonesty since it came from a nice place. (Yup - pretty sure they were lying - but I won't hold it against them). There were some honest people that admitted to hearing her but said, " Oh, the sunbeams always make the performance". I agree with them. I just like it better when it is someone else's sunbeam, but this Easter Sunday, mine was shining like the sun.

Here are Jackie, Jessica, and Alice on Easter Morning. We had an Easter egg hunt at Stephanies on Saturday and took Jessie home with us for a sleep over. We would gladly keep that girl forever. She is the greates. My girls were in heaven. To my surprise Alice ( 9) and Jessie ( almost 10) swore they heard the Easter bunny hopping around the house and that is what woke them up. The three girls slept in the guest bedroom downstairs and Jessie read them scary stories. I was grateful to have Jessie there to hold the poster with the words on it for the primary kids - since I was so distracted by Eve's antics that I totally messed up the words. When I took Jessie home that night, the kids had been together for 34 hours. They of course acted like they had hardly had any time to play. 34 hours is not long enough to play with your cousin.

It was a great Easter. Good family time and the opportunity to strenthen our testimony of the savior. Jackie especially got to strengthen her testamony. She gave her first unassisted talk in primary that she completly thought of and planned herself. She was so excited but freaked out during sacrament - sure she wouldn't be able to do it. She cried all the way through the primary song - but still sang, bless her heart. We said a prayer and asked the Lord to help her. By the time primary came around, she was a cool as a cucumber and did a great job. Andrew gave a talk too, even though he was ill, but to tell you the truth there was a little too much going on on our bench for me to really focus on it. Maybe next year I will hear the spoken parts of the Easter program!

Jackie's photoshoot

2011-05-12T12:45:00.000-07:00

Here are Jackie's pictures from the party. At first, Alice didn't want Jackie to come so there would be more room to invite her friends. I said that would be o.k. if that is what she wanted that we both knew that Jackie would be really really sad and that Alice would have to live with that. Alice was prepared for that and said she would tell Jackie. When she did, Jackie immediately started crying and was so upset she literally couln't speak. Alice lasted less than 30 seconds before she changed her mind. Alice realized she wouldn't enjoy making her sister miserable and Jackie was quick to forgive and happy to come along. Potential sister problem averted. With Jackie's invitation secured, the girls were free to plan and work together for the party. We only had to leave one sad sister at home, and we both knew that Eve would get over it way faster than Jackie would. And really, if you count how much time Jackie and Alice spend playing happily together, Jackie is one of Alice's best friends. Someday they will both realize how lucky they are to have each other.
Jackie wanted to look like a Russian or Spanish dancer in her pictures. She carried it off pretty good.
This one is my favourite. So cool and confident. She is growing up! As soon as Alice has her birthday, I feel like all my girls have had their birthday. I have to remind myself that she is only six and a half and won't be 7 until the end of September.

Best Friends

2011-05-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

Alice, looking so serious in the above picture, has some really great friends. Since we had a photo shoot party we have some cute pictures of each of them.
Chloe and Alice - Friends since they were 3. Chloe's mom Jenny is my best friend. Chloe's dad Jeff is Andrew's best friend. Chloe's brother Logan is Jackie's "boyfriend"and Chloe's little sister Chelsa is Eve's best friend. It is safe to say Chloe and Alice will be friends forever! A few weeks ago we were at the Romerils for dinner. Alice and Chloe were in Chloe's room. I went in to call the girls for dinner. When I opened the door Alice and Chloe both jumped. They told me they had been telling secrets. It is great to have a friend to tell secrets too. I love to listen to them talk and giggle together. Everything is so fun when you can share it with a friend. This year, they playing soccer together too.
Gracie - Alice's best friend at school. With 4 grade three classes in Alice's school, Alice's friends change from year to year, and I am really not that good at organizing play dates with them. We have so many other friends that live close by. Last year we didn't even invite any school friends to her party, but Alice begged for Gracie to be invited and I am glad we did ( even though it meant that Jackie and Alice had to share a seatbelt). Gracie provided delightful glimpses into Alice grade three world. Like me, she is pretty sure that Alice likes Jake and Jake likes Alice unlike me she does not realize that Alice would probably die before admitting that even to herself. She liked hearing the story of Jake yelling to Alice 'I love you" as they left the bus stop the first week of kindergarten

Alice and Emma have been friends since they were 3. Emma is Alice's first friend to get braces and only friend with teenage siblings. She is wise to the world and has introduced Alice to the wonders of Edo and contributed to Alice's hatred of MacDonalds. Emma went without candy and chocolate for a whole year to earn 250 dollars. She finished her "candy deal" around Easter, then two days later she got her braces on and was told she couldn't eat hard candy or chewy candy. She figured she might as well go back on the candy deal and get some money out of it. Alice doesn't think 250 dollars is worth no halloween candy, but she is impressed with Emma's fortitude and gave Emma all the potato ships she got from the trunk or treat.
Alice and Robin were in the same kindergarten class. Robin transferred to an English school, but they have stayed in touch because Robin is so sweet and lives JUST AROUND THE CORNER! It is magic having a friend in walking distance. I was worried that Robin might not like the model party since she is shy but her mother assured me she had a terrific time.
Alice and Jessica. Jessica is 11 months older than Alice as such she is the cool older cousin. Alice loves the month they are the same age. Alice wants to grow her hair as long as Jessie's and she loves that they both speak french. Jessica is terrific fun and after a full days play date complete with a sleepover, she is still sad when it is time to go. She is lucky to have such great cousins close by.

Back for a birthday

2011-05-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

Nothing like a birthday to get me back to posting on my blog again. Our dear Alice turned 9 last week. Alice had to write a paragraph about one of her parents for school last week. She chose me and one of the things she said about me was " My mom loves birthdays and parties". Yup! We started talking birthday in March. We threw around lots of ideas about the things she loves : basketball, swimming, artist, Egypt. She weighed the options. Then I mentioned a model photo shoot party. That immediately became a front runner. She was so excited when her aunt Karen said she would totally do the fashion photo shoot for her. I was a little worried about how it all would go, It was such a girly party, and sometime Alice is not very girly. But them sometimes she is. For example, if you ask her she will tell you that she really doesn't like pink. Yet she bought a hot pink dress for Easter this year. She didn't like the dress until she tried it on, then she really liked how it looked on her. She doesn't like pink, but pink likes her. Anyway, Alice was super excited for the party planning. She had the invitations completed by the beginning of April. She did them all by herself on the computer.

One of Alice's pertinent questions, "For a photo shoot party, what should we do for a cake?" For her rock star party the cake was shaped like guitar. Alice started cooking up ideas that were way beyond my abilities. I should never have let her watch "Cake Boss". I convinced her that we could just make it a fancy girly cake. She thought that was fine, so it was decided :Chocolate wiht pink icing, four layers, with each layer getting smaller like a wedding cake.
So this was the cake I made while she was at a play date on Friday night. Jackie and Eve helped. They were so excited for her to see it. When Alice saw it, she said ,"That will work", which was not the reaction Jackie was hoping for. I asked if that was what she was picturing in her head. She said, " Well, in my head, it looked more like a wedding cake, and I know that isn't really reasonable, it's just the picture in my head that I can't get rid of. But this cake looks good". Don't you just love a 9 year old? (Oh, and don't let your kids watch cake boss. Just don't.) Anyway, the cake tasted good and traveled well. Here they are blowing out the candles at Sam and Karen's. Doesn't Sam and Karen place look like a trendy New York hotel that models would stay at?
The guest list had to be very exclusive, as everyone needed to fit in the van. As it was, Jackie and Alice had to share a seat belt and Andrew stayed home with a very sad Eve. Jessie joined us in Airdrie since she lives close by. Jackie didn't make it into the group shot because she was crying about a hair issue, then crying about not being able to stop crying and missing the pictures. But aren't these girls so pretty. Alice is SOOO lucky to have such great friends. They are all so nice and so good and so fun. And they all loved the party and totally worked it for the camera.
The girls decorated picture frames at the beginning of the party,then we put on Tangled and watched that ( and quoted it) as I did their nails and my friend Jenny did everyone's hair. Each girl got to pick her hair style and then we drove to Airdrie for the photo shoot. The girls had their lootbags to play with and snacks for the long drive. We applied make-up in Airdrie right before the picture. Here are Jackie and Alice putting on lip gloss.

There were so many cute picture. I will put some up in another post.

Spring

2011-03-12T08:24:00.001-08:00

I changed my blog template to a cheesy spring farm picture. I see my computer screen lately more than outside, so this is what I am imagining the weather is outside.

Alice just reminded me that it is daylight savings this weekend. That means spring is around the corner right? If I am "springing ahead" in my sleep patterns, I better seen some signs of spring! But since I live in the Frozen North, this might be as good as it gets.

2011-03-12T08:12:00.001-08:00

So I realize I haven't posted in over a month. When you don't post for that long, you need to post something really great - funny, insightful, hart warming - you know, to make up for the long absence. Something that shows that you weren't posting because you were too busy out thoughtfully living life to sit down for 15 minutes at your desk to record something. If that is what you are hoping ( and I'm sure that is what my 4 readers are hoping for !)SORRY.

I have not been out thoughtfully living life. I have been stuck to my computer, frantically trying to develop staffing training courses for the good old Government of Alberta, my former employer. The upside of that is that:

1. I haven't had to go outside often so the weather hasn't bothered me as much as it might have. In fact, with my space heater in my office I can make it as hot as Hawaii - even that erupting volcano in Hawaii.

2. I will eventually get paid for this stuff.

The downside is:

1. My house is messy

2. My muscles are atrophying

3. I have dreams ( ok - nightmares) about things going wrong during the pilot of this course. Last time it included trying to entertain several children while facilitating the course. Where could that have come from? Maybe from trying to simultaneously entertain Eve while working? hmmmm.

A few more weeks, and it will all be over.....hopefully. I know my family will be happy about that. Our bank account will be happy about that. Let's hope the client will be happy too.

Another mom lesson

2011-02-03T09:20:00.000-08:00

I am writing the materials for a staffing course right now. As I think about ways we can teach people to listen for potential red flags when they are checking references, I am reminded of a lesson I learned a few weeks ago. My teachers: Eve and Chelsa. Aren't they adorable decked out in Jackie's dresses?

It was the end of preschool and some of the children's mothers had come to pick them up. We had been playing in the basement. I went upstairs with the kids whose mom's were here and was helping get their coats on and giving them their crafts etc. Eve and Chelsa were left downstairs alone. They were in the middle of their tea party. A little later, they came upstairs, holding hands:

Eve: Mom, we need to show you something.

Me: I am helping MaryBelle and Terry get there things together.

Eve: Mom, we need to show to something.

Chelsa: yeah.

Me: In a minute Eve. Chelsa should start getting ready too, because her mom will be here soon.

Eve and Chelsa -together - yelling: We have to show you something!

Me: Eve, in a minute, I am doing this first.

Eve: WE NEED TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING RIGHT NOW!

Me:( exasperated) OK, lets go. What do you want to show me?

What was it? They had turned on the sink in the playroom wet bar full blast and it was flooding everywhere. EVERYWHERE

Eve: See, we need to show you this!

Oh boy did they ever. I didn't even know the water was still hooked up to that sink and I certainly never would have thought it was capable of so much water pressure.

So what did I learn?

When you three year old says she needs to show you something, you don't need to go and look right away ( that is craziness), but remember to ask:

" WHAT DO YOU NEED TO SHOW ME?"

Really, it's all about asking the right questions.

Oh - and I also learned that the wet/dry vac we got at Christmas totally works.

BIRTHDAYS!!!!!

2011-01-28T10:16:00.000-08:00

Now that it is February I can start blogging about January. Seriously, I am always behind, so I will just embrace it.

January is the birthday month for 2 of my favourite people. I love these people so I try to make a big deal for their birthday's even though they come WAY TO CLOSE TO CHRISTMAS. That's not their fault after all.

This year on January 12, my sexy best friend and eternal companion turned 35. I get until March 15th to tease him about being SOOOO old. Then on March 15th I will decide (as I do every year) that his age is actually young and hip (yes, I turn 35 in March - crazy).

Here were are partying like it's 1999, back when we were engaged (11 years ago). Isn't he cute?

Here are some things I love about him:

He can always be counted on to do what he thinks is right- he really can - I love that.
He is a hard worker - he never puts anything off - he gets it done - I really need to get me some of that.
He is super handy (and looks awesome in a tool belt). We have an awesome basement and drive super old cars because of him (for his birthday he got jack stands that he used to change the muffler)
He is super fun to hang out with and tells such funny jokes that I laugh even when he is kicking my butt at whatever game we are playing. ( all hail the Lord of Katan)
He gives really good back rubs - a skills he has learned over time - one of the most important things to know when you are married to me, really.
He supports me in all I try to do.
He loves me and always wants to spend time with me.
He is a super dad. this year he has made a point of spending one on one time with each of his daughters when he comes home - for Eve, that means horsie rides and dancing. This is them on Christmas Eve. Andrew is dressed as a sheep and Eve is his shepherd. (Our Christmas Eve Nativity might not be as reverent as yours...)

Happy birthday Honey - I love you. You make my life great everyday. I am learning more and more everyday how lucky I am to be married to you. Thank you for sharing your life with me.

Next on January 23rd, it is Jenny birthday. I will say it here - I am sooooo lucky to have a friend like Jenny. She is great. She moved into our ward a few months before we did. There were not a lot of young people in the ward back then, and so she prayed that the Lord would send her friends. I am so lucky the Lord picked me to be here friend, because I am sure that her faith was one of the reasons we felt so good about buying our townhouse. Thanks for praying us here Jenny!

Here are things that are so great about Jenny:

She is super fun and up for anything! Book club, early morning work outs, outings with the kids - she even gets on board with super fun ideas like a 2 week cleanse.
She is always willing to have people over to her house and throws some great parties.
She is the best person to work out with -even the most horrendous workouts are fun when she is around.
She is always willing to help out - she is the kind of friend you can call when you are in Edmonton at a meeting and get a call from your kids school that your daughter hurt her head and is crying - and she will totally work out a way to pick up your crying daughter. ( True story)
She is someone so kind that your crying daughter will calm down right away when you tell her on the phone that Jenny is coming to get her.
She is a great mom and is raising some delightful children that are best friends to my kids, and perhaps a future son in law.
She has great faith and a strong testimony and is a good influence on me, especially when i feel complainy (that happens about once a month I think for me.....ya know)
She is the kind of friend that you can go out for dinner with and talk for HOURS. And come home to a husband who asks what you have been doing? How does dinner last 5 hours? (how does it not?)
She is trendy and cool, and really so pretty and always notices things about people. If you just got a new hair cut and no one has said anything about it, go find Jenny. She will notice.

This year for Jenny's birthday we went out for breakfast. ON A SCHOOL DAY!!!! I can't tell you what a delight that was. I felt like I was skipping school. I love you Jenny - thanks for being so great.

Christmas Catch Up Post #5 - Family Book Club

2011-01-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

There are so many fun things to post about when I am taking a "break" from writing staffing training participant materials!

Hence Christmas catch-up post #5 - Family Book Club. This year marked the second Annual Family Book Club. Last year we read and discussed Manhood for Amateurs , by Michael Chabon, one of Greg's favourite authours. I enjoyed the book and it was fun to talk about it with the fam, but the book club was not well attended - just really Greg, my Mom and Dad and I. Anne were you there, I don't remember - apparently I was talking too much to notice. I fear I may have dominated the conversation a little ( so unlike me, I never do that a book club, right?).

Anyway, it was something that we liked enough to want to do again. But this year was a little different. Enter Nicole - my brother Greg's better half. She took family book club to a whole new level this year. Greg is one lucky guy.

Nicole emailed everyone in October and said she was working on a special Christmas present for Greg with his new favourite author George Saunders . She had been emailing him and wanted to surprise Greg with a family book club on one of his books. We all jumped on board, and decided on In Persuasion Nation, a book of short stories.

About a week later I opened my email and there wass a message from Greg about family book club and should we do a George Saunders book? Immediatly following was a frantic message from Nicole to not let Greg in on it, followed by tons messages about whether we should come clean and what we should do. Drama! We decided to throw Greg off the trail, so I sent a whiny email about how he picks all the books and how he needs to read more female authours blah blah blah. We ended up picking an Alice Munro book for a decoy. The stage was set.

Through out the run up to Christmas, Nicole kindly sent out many reminder emails ( necessary when working with last minute Hudson's) and let us know what was going on with the "George Saunders Gift". She had emailed him back and forth and he was such a great guy, and so excited for our family book club and had sent Greg a package full of signed copies and different editions of his books for Greg.

So exciting right!

I confess I was really excited for him to open it. Greg has always loved giving Christmas presents that make my mother cry Christmas morning. We all were excited for Greg to get a present that for sure would make him cry. I'm sure it was one of the reasons that every adult in the house was up before the kids (Nah - that would have happened anyway - big kids get up before little kids - when little kids go to bed at 11:00 )

The gift did not disapoint. Not only were there signed copies of books in editions that Greg didn't have yet, there was a letter from George to Greg saying that he would love to read one of Greg's stories and give him feedback on it. Can you believe it. Greg was crying. Heck, we all were. He looked at Nicole and said " How did you do this!". It was great. so so great.

Here is Greg surrounded by the books. I still can't believe Nicole could pull that off. And isn't it wonderful that George Saunders would send such a great package to someone he had never met? Doesn't that just make you want to believe in Christmas giving? Nicole said he wouldn't let her pay for shipping or anything. What a great guy - made me like his writing even better.

And here we are after our Family Book Club on New Years Day. The only thing missing from this picture is Sam and Karen who couldn't make it due to health concerns (we missed you) and my sister Erin's skyped in head (We are so hip and technologically advanced.) It was a great time. The high light for me was seeing Greg whisper to Nicole how much he was LOVING talking about George Saunders with his fam, and how IN LOVE they looked. (sigh)

Greg sent Mr. Saunders one of his stories yesterday along with this picture. Greg kindly forwarded his response:
"Greg--
Thanks for this, and what a beautiful family - the kindness is obvious from the photo. Got up this morning, looked at that - and I feel happy and hopeful for human nature. Seriously. You are a lucky man.

I will get on the story soon(ish). Am in Chicago where the Goodman Theater is doing a version of "CommComm." Give my best to all those shining people you have,
G"

Isn't that the coolest!

And the best ending to all this is that Nicole's present to Greg wasn't the last present opened at Christmas and wasn't the only present that made us all cry. After he opened his present from Nicole, she opened her present from him..... a letter.....a ring.....a proposal!!!

I actually missed it, because at Greg's request I took my noisy kids downstairs when she was opening her present. Andrew called me upstairs. He had tears in his eyes as he told me they were engaged! Yeah!

I mean a girl like that you need to lock down. And really, George Saunders foreshadowed it all (as good authours will do) when he referred to Nicole in his letter to Greg as his wife.

He also thinks Greg's last name is Shabada!

The Pajama Saga

2011-01-19T10:15:00.000-08:00

Here are some cute pictures of Christmas morning courtesy of my fabulous soon to be sister in law. They show my family is cute new pj's. We get to open one present Christmas Eve and it is always pajamas. I am super indecisive and never really know what to get my kids for Christmas, so my Christmas shopping usually starts with buying them pajamas.

I bought the kids some pajamas on sale at Gymboree back in November. They were having an amazing sale. As I paid for them I confessed to the store clerk that I would probably return them. I am the most indecisive Christmas shopper ever and it was only November after all. Lots of time to rethink and find a better deal. So, Did I return them? You bet I did. All except for Evie's (I can buy for a 3 year old - warm red night gown with a kitty - a no brainer really).

A week later Alice said that what she really wanted was an old fashioned nightgown. I had got her a red nightgown that she would have liked, but they had an old fashioned red nightgown at Gymboree that I had almost bought but changed my mind, deciding it was too expensive. When I went back it was on sale, so I bought it. I was sure that the Christmas shopping angels were smiling on me. Jackie had said she wanted satin pajama pants, which I couldn't find, so I had gotten her cotton ones, but I was worried that when she saw both her sisters in pretty red nightgowns she would be sad, so to be safe I picked up a nightgown for her too (they were the only ones left - so really what choice did I have - buy now and return is my motto).

So at this point I had one pair of PJ's for Eve and Alice, and two pairs for Jackie. I turned to Andrew for assistance, and we picked the nightgown. Really it is great fun to have matching pjs - right? The pants set he thought was too Christmasy and she wouldn't like it after Christmas, wise counsel. So we shipped off the red nightgown to be wrapped. (We had a service auction in our Relief Society and I won 10 gifts wrapped by a very stylish lady in our ward. It was a super prize - our Christmas presents never looked so good!). I returned the other set and bought some fuzzy red striped socks so all was well.

On the 23rd, after we came home from the Nativity at Heritage park, Jackie said very seriously over her hot chocolate. " Mom, if you got me a nightgown for Christmas Eve, you totally got it wrong and I know that I will just hate it".

Urghhh!

She still had her heart set on satin pj pants. I had to brake the bad news to her that I had looked everywhere in Calgary and online - and they weren't anywhere, not even at Value Village where we had purchased Alice's PJ's in the summer. I told her they were a summer style and everything in the stores now was warm for winter. Something she should clearly understand after being outside for 2 hours waiting to watch the nativity. I told her to be patient, we would try to find her some in the summer time.

That night I could not sleep. I just kept worrying about the PJ's. Once I start worrying I can't stop. The worry just spreads. By the time morning came, I was sure Alice wouldn't like her PJ either or they wouldn't fit, and I had only a few hours to try one last time.

Now - let me take a minute to explain something. My kids really aren't that hard to please. Christmas morning they always LOVE everything they open. Christmas and birthdays and the odd Garage sale in the summer are really the only time they get toys. I am not some crazy lady obsessed with giving my children the perfect Christmas. We teach our kids that Christmas is about Christ and about giving. When I was having a conversation about Christmas with Eve a few days earlier I said, " See, at Christmas we celebrate Jesus being born, and at Easter we celebrate Jesus coming alive again after he died." She said, " Oh, what did Jesus do at Halloween". Really, we have our perspective right - so why was I up all night on the Eve of Christmas Eve worrying about Jackie's reaction to her PJs.

Jackie may not be spoiled, but she is emotional, with a capital E. Christmas morning if you don't like something - no big deal, there is always something else you get that you will like. And you can always return or exchange that thing that wasn't perfect. But Christmas Eve is different. You get one shot. And not only is there only one present, but it is a present that no matter what, you want to use it right away. No one wants to get in their old worn out jammies when all their cousins and sisters and parents are wearing new jammies. And that is what is so awful about getting it wrong - not only might Jackie cry and I might feel bad, but I wouldn't be able to take the offending pair of PJ's back. It would be with us FOREVER. Each time she would be forced to wear it, we would both be reminded of the Christmas Eve disappointment. You think I am over reacting - tell that to the Beauty and the Beast night gown of 2007. I know of what I speak. And even if she does come to like it - like she did of the scarf her Grandma Rasmussen gave her at Thanksgiving, ( which she loves by the way now - thanks Mum!) That doesn't make the emotions of Christmas Eve any easier to deal with.

Now, you can tell me that Jackie has got to learn to manage her emotions and be grateful for any new thing she gets and that the disappointment is a teaching opportunity. Some kids don't have any new PJ's after all. I agree with you. But is that a lesson that I have to teach on Christmas Eve to a six year old? I sure didn't want to...so I resolved on that sleepless night to give it one more shot.

I left at around 6 in the morning on the 24th. Crazy I know, but stores are open at that time for crazy people like me. I went to Supertore first. It was surprisingly busy. I also went to Walmart, the Zellers by our house, the mall, Sears. I bought several pairs of pj along the way (most of which I have returned). Cute flannel ones from Zellers for 10 dollars each were the best option. I was sure the girls would like them so much that I bought a pair for Alice too, just in case. I felt better, but I wasn't giving up - it was still early in the morning after all. I went to Winners, no luck. Then as a last resort I went to another Zellers. It was now around10:30. I was starving, tired and losing hope.

But guess what was there on a rack of summer clearance? One pair of pink and purple plaid satin pj pants in a size 6 for 7 dollars. Seven dollars! Well seven dollars, a sleepless night, all morning and a shopping miracle. I may have almost cried when I found them and I for sure said a prayer of thanks. Then I went home and carefully unwrapped her other pjs and wrapped the perfect pants in their place. Jackie, who had been told that she wouldn't like her original present, but not to worry she had a back up that she would like better, was SOOOO surprised when she opened the present and saw THE PERFECT PAJAMA PANTS. She took off to change before everyone had a chance to see them.

And what of the back up pjs. I let the girls keep the 10 dollar ones because they were so cute and warm and it has been soooo cold. The beautiful red nightgown I got for Jackie found a home with her cousin Elise, who had got a beautiful pink housecoat for a present and was disappointed to not have new pjs. (Though Elise's disappointment is much more pleasant that Jackie's would have been).

Andrew said last night how he loved his long johns I gave him. They are just perfect to sleep in. However, they would not have been perfect to open presents in Christmas morning at my parents house. He borrowed a pair of my Dad's, since he was counting on new ones and didn't pack any. I told him he looked so good - like a real Dad. Andrew said, " Of course you would think that. I look like YOUR dad". I think I might get him some like that next year.

So that is the Pajama Saga of 2010. If you've braved your way through this long post, you've learned a number of things. 1. You learned why it is impossible for me to ever get my Christmas shopping done early. 2. Why I always let my kids pick out their own clothes. I CAN'T TAKE THE STRESS! 3. Zellers, which for the most part provides an unpleasent shopping experience, sometimes can come through. 4. There is nothing really wrong with trying to get someone you love the perfect gift. The payoff is great. Jackie and I are both very happy when she gets in her PJ's at night.

This is a long post, feel free to tell me how many typos you find. I don't feel like looking for them.

Christmas Eve

2011-01-18T14:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve is my favourite. Here are some pretty cute kids in their Christmas jammies (my brother Greg is sooo cute). Here they are putting the cookies and milk out for Santa and some celery and carrots for the reindeer.

Greg asked me a few days before Christmas where Alice was regarding her belief in Santa Clause. We'd had a couple of talks about it and as far as I knew she was totally a non-believer. A Santa Atheist if you will. I had to talk to her so she wouldn't ruin it for her sisters. A few days before Christmas I had another talk with her about the kind of tests her NY cousins were conducting regarding their Santa faith: were their parents going to look tired in the morning, what colour was the wrapping paper etc). She thought those were good tests, and then said she wasn't sure about the no Santa thing... she a lightened a bit - a Santa agnostic.

Christmas Eve she had the equivalent of a deathbed conversion - and was all for Santa. Really there is no pay off for not believing in Santa. I love Santa.

2nd Annual Christmas Family Skate

2011-01-18T13:19:00.000-08:00

For the second year in a row we went to the Olympic Oval after Christmas for a family skate. It is cheaper than the Hudson family Bonspeal (curling) that we used to do - and lets face it, I may not be the best skater, but I am better at skating than I am at curling. The oval is great because it is indoors so the kids aren't too busy getting cold to learn how to skate. Really, the only thing they need to whine about is their feet hurting (why do skates have to hurt to much?). The Oval also has these nifty red skate aids that work way better than the chairs I used to push around the ice. The kids love them.

This year Mary, Karen and my Dad were sick and Anne was away at a Basketball tournament. Sam and Greg went out for lunch instead and Andrew didn't come because his foot hurt from playing basketball ( really - none of the guys go in for skating - the Canadian hockey gene is not dominant in our family) That left me, my mom, Cory and Deanna to deal with the 7 kids. That doesn't seem like too bad odds, but since they all needed help to skate we felt pretty out numbered. After a couple of laps Alice remembered how to skate and became her happy independent self. When we were able to acquire enough skate aids for Jackie and all the three year olds things got better. By the time Sam got there we had everything under control.

The skate aids were so fun for the 3 year olds. Each were so different. Eve would just lock her feet in and slide, asking to go faster and faster. Audrey would glide some of the time, and the other half of the time she would try to skate. And Dotty would talk the whole time and move her feet constantly. I don't think she ever got the glide down - so it was really tiring for her - until she realized she could stand on the lower bar of the skate aid. She loved that. It was so great Deanna was there. We love visiting with her and the kids all love her. She's the best aunt ever. And you can see from this photo, that skating with the kids is a bit hard on the back, so we appreciated her help.

Thank goodness I remembered to bring snacks this year and a water bottle. I am not sure if eating in the oval is allowed, but we didn't see any signs and weren't asking any questions. With so many little kids, the gold fish and muffins were sooooo necessary. Eve here is proudly talking about how she can walk by herself in her skates with out falling over. She kept asking to push the skate aid by herself like Jackie did, but couldn't quite get it. Next year. Sadly, I don't have any good pictures of Jackie or Elise skating, probably because I didn't see them very much. I took a couple of laps with Jackie but she kept getting annoyed at me for telling her to watch where she was going. Jackie liked pushing the skate aid really fast, and felt that she could do that better if she watched her feet. I am amazed she didn't run into anyone. The only picture I have of Alice is the first one on this post. She had a shaky start, but soon remember how to do it and loved it just like she did last year. We really need to skate more often.

Props go out to Uncle Cory, who grew up in California and really doesn't know how to skate, yet valiantly tried in skates that were two sizes too small. That's a Dad that loves his little girl! Though, since he was watching the kids this year, he wasn't filming - so no super cool video skating montage this year. We'll all have to make do with this blog posting.

Rasmussens come to play

2011-01-18T08:28:00.001-08:00

We had the Raymond Rasmussens come visit after Christmas. It was so fun. My kids were in heaven. Alice and Jackie played with Jaylin non stop and Eve followed Ethan (4)around like his shadow. Sometimes I think he tried to hide from her, but he was always such a great sport when she found him. They were busy busy busy all the time. She loved it. Andrew got to "play" with his brother Cory. Play : Go to a movie, play basketball, and play the computer. I got to play with Cara, Taya, Jordan and Megan. We played a lot of Blockus 3D, Sequence, and of course the old standby Settlers of Catan.

The real highlight was going sledding. It was super cold, but that didn't seem to dissuade anyone. I guess big hills are hard to find in Raymond. When Eve got cold we turned the van on for her to warm up in. Cara and Taya went to warm up too. Cory took that opportunity to put Ethan on Jackie's shovel sled by himself. Cara saw and was banging on the window for him to stop, but conveniently he didn't hear her. I was a bit freaked out, but Ethan went down all by himself and had a great time. One of the reasons kids need their Dad's I guess. It was a great time, with no major injuries. It was too bad that the Durands couldn't join us - they were sick with strep throat. We will have to do it again next year.

Megan was hard core. We practically had to drag her off the hill.

You can tell that it was cold. Alice and Jaylin had so much fun together. I hardly saw them. Jackie is carrying her shovel sled that Santa gave her. That is was Cory sent Ethan down on.

It is always such a treat for me when Andrew is there. In the winter he is so often busy with basketball that I usually I take the kids sledding without him. I confess - I have become a wimp and Eve is even more brave than I am. So nice to just watch and help carry sleds than freak myself out hurtling uncontrollably down the hill clutching my baby.

Megan and Jordan know how to stay warm in the winter. Dress warm and then keep running up the hill. They hardly ever paused.

Jordan on the shovel sled

Taya, Cara and Cory. Poor Cory didn't have his boots and was forced to go sledding in his dress shoes! Thanks so much for coming guys. We had so much fun. Definately something we should do every year.

Catching up

2011-01-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

OK - so I haven't posted in soooo long. It bothers me whenever I sign in to read other people's blogs. The longer I wait to post, the more I want my post to be great, so I put it off. I don't have that kind of time right? Really it's the same way I am with my journal.

Or maybe it is because it is January. Freezing, cold, desolate, January. No more fun Christmas shopping. In fact, no room in the budget for any shopping. No more fun Christmas treats. No room in the diet for any treats at all. No more holiday sleeping in and lazing around. January is all work work work. I have often felt bad for January, I mean wouldn't we all love it more if we just moved Christmas to the end of January.

Anyway - Christmas 2010 was great. And now that the weather is improving ( it was -12 degrees this morning - we are in the teens!)and my first deadline for my project is past, I'll actually start posting about it.

The picture above is one that Andrew took before Christmas when he did a fire with the girls. Doesn't it look cozy? It was. Doesn't our tree look crooked? It was - and probably will next year too.

We tried to recreate the coziness last night, minus the tree of course, with a Family Home Evening fire. I have been watching the BBC Mini Series Cranford and it made me want to have a 1800's night. However, since we had this Christmas fire, we have been blessed with such a lot of a lot Fun January weather ( snow, cold, wind, snow, cold...you get the picture). Our chimney was blocked with snow. Smoke went everywhere. My whole house smells like a campfire.

On a side note - we need to change the batteries in our smoke alarms.

Happy January everyone.

Certified

2010-12-13T09:45:00.000-08:00

So last year one of my new years resolutions was to get my professional designation as a Human Resource Consultant. I had been putting it off for years and decided that I would look and feel more qualified at work if I had more letters after my name. It was 10 years since I graduated with my BA, so it was time to see if my brain could still study for and pass tests.

I wrote my Knowledge Exam in May, then waited for 2 months to hear if I passed. If I failed, rewriting it would cost another $250 dollars. I wanted to pass, and thought I'd done well, but was worried. I was relieved when I did. Then I had a month to decide whether I would do the second test in October. It was more expensive - $500 this time, plus $160 for the study guide. It seemed like a lot of money (especially if I failed). I am grateful for Andrew's support. He doesn't like to spend money but he recognized the investment and encouraged me. So in October I took the test. I realize I am quite a geek, because studying for the test and taking it was fun for me. It was even fun talking with the other HR people before the test. I felt camaraderie that quite frankly I rarely feel when I am working on job descriptions alone in my basement. I really liked University and would love to go back.

Then began 2 months of waiting to see if I had wasted our money or not. Last week I found out I passed. I was so relieved and happy. Then a very typical thing happened. I felt two things:

1. Why didn't I do this years ago, and

2. This isn't such a big deal after all.

It reminded me of my brother Greg when he got into the journalism program at Ryerson. Talk to him before he applied and he would tell you how hard it was to get into, how he didn't think he would be accepted, how prestigious it was. Talk to him after he was accepted, and he would tell you that it couldn't be that hard to get in, if they took him, they probably take everyone. Now, getting my CHRP designation is not nearly as cool as getting accepted to Ryerson, but it is funny how we deal with success. I think it is easier for me to be proud of other people than for myself. I felt super proud of Andrew when he graduated from University and got his first job so quickly. I didn't feel that way about me when I graduated though, or when I got my first job. I just felt lucky - and worried my employer would change their mind.

Anyway, after a short period of relief and excitement, I felt a little let down, and even a little worried that I wouldn't make back the money invested quickly enough. However, today I sent in a proposal my Mom and I put together for a project with my former employer, (as usual, my Mom did the lion share of the work). I have to say, I did feel glad when I saw my name with those four extra letters after it. I looked more qualified. Let's cross our fingers they think so too.

Christmas Baking

2010-12-09T08:48:00.000-08:00

Christmas is just a little over two weeks away. I know I should really do some Christmas baking. I have even received some baking from a friend this week and it really brought some Christmas cheer to our place ( especially to Jackie who had left the brownie she bought at the bake sale at school). But somehow, I just keep remembering the fun we had making Halloween sugar cookies, and I haven't been able to work up the nerve.

Maybe on the weekend.

Tired Dad

2010-12-08T10:41:00.000-08:00

So Basketball has been going for three weeks now. This means that Andrew has added coaching the JV girls team to his already busy schedule of teaching, bishopric and fatherhood. Plus the extra Christmas events added in too. Let's just say that he is TIRED, and with good reason. Some days, the kids don't get to see him at all. Last Wednesday Eve was sad, and I asked her what was the matter. She said, "I lost Daddy and I miss him".

We appreciate all he does to support our family and serve in the church. I am lucky that he is a worker. He's a good provider and dad. He makes a point of spending a little one on one time with each of his girls when he comes home at night. We are all looking forward to December 17th, when school is out for Christmas break, and he can get some much needed RnR.

Right now, we will just be happy that snuggles don't take a lot of energy. I love you Honey.

A lesson learned

2010-11-23T10:09:00.001-08:00

Jackie:" But it is so hard to not lick metal when there is nothing else to do on the bus"
She is home this morning, recuperating her injured tongue. A lesson everyone must learn. Hopefully only once.

Hello Winter

2010-11-23T09:40:00.000-08:00

Last Week: The arrival of winter

Last week it snowed. I MEAN IT SNOWED!!!!! I felt good because I was prepared. I had all the mitts and hats found. But I hadn't planned on the crazy amount of snow we got and the super cold temperatures. I think it is nice when we get to ease into winter. I had neglected to find the snow pants. When I tried, I discovered that Alice's are lost. A whole pair of snow pants! A mitt I understand. A scarf, I've been there, but snow pants? And the sad part is, they might be somewhere in the house. I might have just stored them somewhere. Where, I don't know, because I have literally torn all storage areas apart. But as soon as we buy new ones, they will appear.

Alice's snow boots are too small.
"Thank goodness" she says, "because I would never wear those ugly boots anyway".

'You picked them out", I say. " Like 2 years ago, cmon, I would NEVER wear something like that now".

Her ski jacket was too small too. She has her long brown coat, but that doesn't work for -20. She was cold so she wore her only turtle neck over other shirts three days in a row!! I decided I had to get her a new coat, and possibly a new turtleneck. She found a coat she loved at Zellers, but it was the wrong size. So last Thursday I went from Zellers to Zellers in search of the perfect jacket. It was nowhere. I began to believe that we had all just imagined it. The coat she wanted was purple and black. By the third store I had completely forgotten what it looked like. I ended up getting her one that was purple and turquoise, which she was thankfully OK with. And some new boots that look like snow boarding boots. Which look awesome, but are a little stiff. She has borrowed snow pants that are too small. But she is warm, and that is good because is had been colder than -20 ALL WEEK. This morning it was like -39 with the wind chill. I know what you guys who live south of us are thinking, but don't be too jealous.

The snow is pretty, and everyday last week the kids went sledding on the drive way.
It would be cheaper to live in Australia.

My Cuties

2010-11-13T08:40:00.000-08:00

Karen took some pictures for us the other day. They are so great as always. We just need to photoshop Andrew in - or we'll just include a picture of the baseboards he was putting in at the time we were taking them. They make me happy whenever I see them.

Alice put on mascara without my knowledge. It looked so good, I didn't have the heart to make her take it off.

Aren't Eve and Jackie starting to look so much alike.

I love how grown up Eve looks, and still how little.

I love these faces.

Predictions.

2010-11-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

Alice excitedly came out of the bathroom one morning and said,

" I FINALLY know what I will be when I grow up. I was sitting on the toilet, going poo, and thinking that I really am interested in how the human body works, but I DON'T want to be doctor - too much blood. GROSS.

Then I thought I would be a scientist, but then I thoughtthere might be explosions and I don't want that. Too dangerous.

SO - I am going to a physics teacher. "

She looked so relieved. I believe this life decision has been weighing on her. She used to want to be an artist but then realized that she would only get paid when she sold a painting, and that didn't sound very practical. We have since taught her that physics doesn't have much to do with the human body, so she wants to be a bio teacher. Andrew suggested bio chemistry because that is what he did. There is a lot of her dad in her, so I wouldn't rule it out.

Also - just to keep you updated :

Jackie informed this morning that when she is older she is going to cut her hair short and dye it black. Mary - does that sound good?

Alice is going to dye her hair blond - Erin?

Eve is going to wear lots of makeup all the time. Which is exactly what she does already. Thanks Audrey?

Halloween 2010

2010-11-02T09:10:00.000-07:00

Halloween has finally come and gone. It was a good one, though we aren't converted to the trunk or treat idea. It was fun to see all the ward members out dressed up in costume ( Eve Andrew - yes he is wearing his snuggy), but it wasn't the same as going house to house. I actually felt bad on Sunday night for not taking my kids out. Not because they were missing out - they had plenty of candy and after the Halloween family dance at school on Thursday, Halloween parties at school of Friday, and the trunk or treat on Saturday, we had all had enough of getting into our costumes. But we get so few kids in our our cul-de-sac, I felt like I was letting the neighbours down. One has already said they were sad to not have my kids come to their house. We got all of 5 kids at our place. I should have just taken them out to the houses in the cul-de-sac.

Eve went as a "Bad Butterfly). It is hard to get a good picture of her, since she asks to see the picture while I am taking it. Here she is putting the finishing touches on her makeup. The lipstick she is wearing is all her. Also - in true preschooler fashion, she went as a twinkling star to the preschool party and as a bad unicorn for the trunk or treat.

Jackie decided to be a china girl after visiting the Chinese cultural centre in September. Alice did her make up - I only did the eye liner. Her hair is sprayed black - but I was trying to conserve the hair dye - since this is the first Halloween event. She also went as a red devil for her school party.

Alice the living dead rock star. Her costume was a Avril Levigne meets Hannah Montana Meets Kiss only a little dead. We used pick gel on her hair to make streaks. It didn't work that well - it was too stiff. We should have made a Mohawk instead.

As usual, all costumes brought to you by Value Village ( with the exception of Andrew's snuggy). I wonder what the original owner of my cat sweater was thinking when they purchased it. It is so ugly.

Primary Romances

2010-10-26T14:41:00.000-07:00

We had our primary presentation on Sunday. My parents and my sister Anne came to watch. Anne and I had fun watching all the kids. I wished Alice's part was at the beginning so I didn't have to watch her look so nervous for so long - but then after she did her part I got to watch her look all giggly and irreverent, so I guess it was ok afterall.

After church at lunch I was telling the girls some of the things Anne thought of the kids she saw.

Me: Jackie, Anne thinks that if it doesn't work out with Logan, you should totally marry Blake.

Jackie's eyes got red. She was starting to cry.

Me: Jackie, what is the matter?

Andrew: Don't worry Jackie, I am sure everything will work out with Logan.

Jackie (wiping her eyes): yeah, good.

Her love for Logan is real - how silly of us to think anything different. It is a good thing, since in telling this story afterward I learned that Blake has already proposed to another little girl in the primary - though she has just moved to another ward, so we will see how long that lasts. Also, it should be noted that Whitney, Blake's 5 year old sister is VERY in love with Logan, so Jackie has competition. So far, Logan's heart belongs to Jackie though. Let's hope that his feelings lasts at least as long as Jackie's, or her heart will be broken.

We started talking about who Alice should go for ( of course she didn't like this conversation too much, be she was a good sport). I mentioned a kid, and she said, 'No, he's Emma's".

Is the entire primary paired off? No - apparently Emma's sisters just thinks she should marry Ted. Chloe is going to marry Jeff. Alice on the other hand is pretty sure she won't marry anyone from the ward. That's a long way off afterall.

Our Sweet little Evie - I mean Evil

2010-10-25T07:54:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday was Creative Saturday in our Relief Society. I almost wasn't going to sign up, but at the last minute decided it would be fun - and it was. I made chocolate cake balls in the morning and hair bows in the afternoon. Fun conversation with the ladies and my girls were very pleased with the results. The best thing about the day of course - no Evie.

Andrew was excited to give me a day off and looking forward to a relaxing day at home with the kids. I knew he would be tired when I got home, so we made plans for me to take the girls swimming as soon as I got home.

I called before I left the church, so he would know I was coming home. I came home to three happy children outside in there coats with their swimming bag outside already. I thought," Dad's a little anxious to get them going". They came inside to sample my cake balls while I was getting my swimsuit. It became apparent to me that Andrew was not in the best mood.

We were on the road soon enough and I asked the girls how the day went. They said,"

Girls: Fine

Me: Really? Dad seems like he is in a bit of a mood.

Jackie: Oh yeah - Dad's in a bad mood. He was all like this ,

Alice hits Jackie's arm.

Jackie: What was that for?

Alice: I don't want you making fun of Dad for being in a bad mood.

Jackie: I wasn't going to make fun of Dad, I was just going to show that he was in a bad mood because of Evie.

Alice: Oh, yeah that's kinda true.

And I wasn't surprised - seeing as I must have said three different times to the ladies, "It is so nice to not have Evie". Now let me be clear - WE LOVE EVIE. She is hilarious. She is clever. She is fast. She likes to have fun, and she .......likes to have her own way. Her persistence is exhausting. I tell myself over and over that she will be delightful when she is able to run her own life, (as I myself am delightful). As I give her timeout after timeout for hitting her friends or whining relentlessly, or when I carry her screaming kicking body out of sacrament meeting because she doesn't like the snack I brought, I remind myself that in a few years I will look at pictures of her three year old self and miss her littleness. I will use blog postings like this one and pictures like the one below - to remind me..

In the meantime, I will enjoy her great qualities - how she loves to tell you that she is , " so big, so strong and so fast". I will enjoy teaching her things she feels like learning and will thoroughly enjoy when she has decided to be a puppy all day, even when she has decided that she wants to be a bad puppy. And when the whining and the tantrums come I will endeavor to be patient and remind myself that:

1. She will not always be like this

2. She is the child I deserve.

But I also will be patient with my husband - who from all accounts was a perfect child and does not deserve our little Evil, I mean Evie.

A Haunted Birthday

2010-10-16T15:39:00.000-07:00

Jackie is SIX. Finally. It always seems to her that her birthday takes FOREVER to get here. It seems like that a little to me as well. In my head, she has been six for a while. This was a monumental birthday - the first time in three year that Jackie didn't dress up like a princess. (yes!) A Haunted Halloween birthday was so much more fun. And as a bonus, we were the first house on our block to decorate for Halloween.

Jackie LOVES planning parties and loves making friends - consquently the guest list continues to grow. With cousins, church friends, kindergarden friends and grade one friends, and sisters - there were 11 guests and 15 kids there I think. But I agree with Jackie - all the kids are so fun. I think she has great taste in friends - then again, maybe all six year olds are great.

Jackie was the planner of the party and decided on crafts and activities. Alice was a super big help and planned the whole treasure hunt by herself , and even ran it, once I started it out. Andrew's only job was to keep Eve happy, a near impossible task for anyone, and really someone needs to be assigned to keep him happy when there are 15 kids running around.. Next year I will make it even more clear to him that he DOES NOT NEED TO BE THERE. He made it through, but just barely I think.

6 is a big year, with grade one and learning to read etc. Jackie has adapted pretty well so far. She continues to be happy and fun, proclaiming that "this is the best day ever", until she is tired and sad and then " her life is ruined". She is still a bit of a drama queen. She prefers drawing to coloring, and story games to board games. She loves to teach Eve things and to walk home from the bus stop with just Alice. She is learning to play basketball, still loves climbing the doorframes all the time, and can't resist beautiful dresses. She is a sweetheart and we all love her. Especially her Dad, who as a middle child, is always worrying about Jackie.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-10-16T15:02:00.000-07:00

Lat weekend was Thanksgiving and so like all thanksgivings, we were out at Andrew's parents farm out in by Rocky Mountain House. It is always so fun to get together with family and even more magical for my city kids out at the farm. This year the weather was AMAZING ( last year it felt like Christmas).

Here are some of the highlights :

1.Jackie's favourite moment: Friday night was clear and warm, so I took the girls outside to read their bed time stories. We turned off all the lights, and the stars we so beautiful. My kids have never seen stars like that, because in the winter it is usually too cold to hang out looking at the stars, and in the summer, they are never awake late enough. When Andrew turned off the last light, Jackie gasped. " Ohh Alice, it is just exactly like space".

2.Alice's favourite moment: Saturday afternoon was a hayride. The kids were in heaven. They would jump off and Grandpa would speed up, they'd run to catch up and help each other up. On again, off again. Over and over and over again. Everyone was covered in hay. I couldn't get over how grown up Alice and Jackie are now, Alice was 4 the last time we did this.

Grandpa on the tractor.
Alice soaking it all in.

3. Eve's favourite part: Opening presents. Yes, we do Christmas exchanges at thanksgiving with the Rasmussen side, because Andrew's parents go to Australia in November and stay there till spring. Eve was so excited to open presents. Even the socks she got thrilled her. Jackie, on the other hand, had scarf envy ( she liked Alice's more than the one she got) and cried and cried. I love that. She has since come around and has proudly worn her scarf to school several times.

4. Andrew's favourite part: Not sure. Either him winning his own snuggy back in the white elephant gift exchange (no one really wanted it - such a surprise) or the slide show presentation his parents did of their tour if Cheetsaneetsah (no idea how to spell that ) from their Mexico trip.

5. My favourite part: Sunday night Alice, Jackie and Jaylin got to sleep in the camper all by themselves. They were so excited and felt so grown up. And that meant of Monday I got to sleep in until 8:30 - instead of getting up with them before 7 to help them be quiet. Yeah! And my other favourite part was the food of course. It is what thanksgiving is really about -- turkey and be thankful for turkey.

There were so many other great things - painting with the cousins, making hairclips for the girls, watching Eve Mason and Ethan jump on the trampoline over and over and over. Really, it was a blessed weekend. We are lucky. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving as well.

Birthday Catch up

2010-09-29T16:53:00.000-07:00

So yesterday, at 3:50 in the morning, Jackie turned 6. Seems like she's been six forever, but actually it has only been a day. Last weekend was her Halloween themed party, and it was A BLAST ( can you tell how excited I was to not have to plan another princess party). I am planning a post with pictures from all the excitement, but realized I could not in good conscience post about it until I had posted about Eve's 3rd birthday (and first ever friend) birthday party way back on June 25th. So here is a belated birthday post for my baby girl ( don't tell her I called her that - she hates it).

At first she wanted a green party, then a red party, then a yellow party - so of course we settled on a rainbow party. My camera died half way through, so these are the only pictures we have. The face painting was the biggest hit with everyone and Eve absolutely loved the parachute we borrowed. There were tons of kids there, well - because I am the nursery leader and I love all her little friends, and then you can't leave out older siblings, and then the moms come to help out, and you get the picture. It was insanity when the presents were being opened, but all in all, it was worth it, because Eve really knew that THIS was HER party. FINALLY.

And really, life begins a three.

Art Walk 2010

2010-09-19T23:07:00.000-07:00

Since Alice was little (like she's so big now) she has wanted to be an Artist. When I learned that this weeked was Alberta Art Days, I figured we should check it out. We looked through the activities and decided to do the Art Walk downtown.

So as our NY cousins say, "we took the train into the city."and had a great time. We felt a little like tourists. Since it was Art Days, we tried to artsy up our photos.

Jackie was the main one pushing for the train. This is her on the way there. On the way back she looked a little different. A lot less clean, and a little more tired.

Me: Jackie, when you get home you will have to wash your face. You have hot chocolate all around you mouth, and mustard on your cheek.

Jackie: The mustard tells a story.

Me: oh yeah?

Jackie: A story of a gigantic hot dog, and how I shoved it into my mouth, chomp.

Below is a picture with the hot chocolate. This is Jackie's favorite effect. She loves saturated colour. (She also kind of loved that her hot chocolate looked like coffee - We got it an Tim Hortons, where all her teacher like to get coffee).

You may have noticed that my kids are sporting winter hats and warm coats. It was freezing. But luckily it wasn't raining, which it has been doing most of September. And we haven't seen any snow yet - though Grandma and Grandpa on the North of town did. Some days I worry about global waming more than others.

This is my favourite picture of Alice. So pretty and so grown up looking.

We saw 4 small galleries, 2 unique jewelery stores, and caught some live jazz. We got to walk past some artist's studios, but we didn't get to see anyone working. We did get to talk to a gallery owner and learn about some different media and she told us a little about the artists that did the pieces in her gallery. The kids loved picking out there favourite pieces and seeing how much they cost.

Jackie was determined to see the Chinese Cultural Centre, even though it was a bit of a walk. Alice was dying for hot chocolate, which was harder to find than I thought it would be. We didn't find any on the way, but we did find a hot dog and then a tiny cup cake bakery tucked away in a basement. We needed energy for our long art journey.

Jackie: Alice, do you know what my favourite kind of arts and crafts are?

Alice: What?

Jackie: Ones made out of food!

We did eventually make it to the Chinese Cultural Centre. I am ashamed that we have lived here so long and never been there. The roof alone was Alice's favourite thing she saw that day. The display on early immigrants to Canada from China was fascinating and the gift store was a real hit. The girls each got some inexpensive,but very legit looking fans. Jackie posing outside the cultural center. She as already asked if we can go back there.

Alice has been constantly opening and closing her fan since she got it. I learned she even was playing with it in primary today. Doesn't this effect make her eyes look cool?

Anyway, It was a lovely afternoon for me. I find Art energizing. I am excited to do more interesting projects with the girls. We got an excellent book from the library with some very cool ideas in it which we are going to use for " Home art school". I am making plans to do more virtual and in person art walking with her, since she still wants to be an artist.

Jackie, on the other hand, might want to be an artist or a chef.

I just enjoy her being a kid. This is a picture from Heritage park this summer.

Eve didn't come with us, instead she got to spend some quality time with Andrew. She did like modifying pictures. I like this one.

She likes this one.

PRESCHOOL!!!

2010-09-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

So Eve is three - time for Preschool. She is excited to learn everything - letter, games, crafts - everything except the potty - an important prerequisite. The first week of school, we were at the Chiropractor and he asked Eve why she wasn't in school with her sisters. She answered, " Because I can't do the potty". That wasn't the answer he expected.

Anyway, we have decided to do a joy school with her. Two of my good friends and I have gotten together and do preschool 3 afternoons a week. I have Wednesdays. Yesterday was the first lesson for me. It was super fun. Like nursery, with more letters and numbers and less church. I am so glad she isn't missing out on anything and I'm excited to watch her learn and play with her friends. And I must confess, that 2 free afternoons a week isn't to bad either. And thanks to Aunt Karen, she isn't even missing out on Preschool pictures. Aren't these adorable?

Eve and her BFF Chelsa. Chelsa is in the joy school along with Terry, a four year old boy who Eve has played with since she was a baby. They all giggle a lot when they are together.

I love this picture. I'm all " I love you so much , you are wonderful" and she's all, " Whatever".

And accurate picture of our relationship. I can't help it - she's my baby and she's so big!

2010-09-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

Jackie is always climbing the door frame. She showed off her mad climbing skills when our friends Chloe and Logan were over.

Logan: Jackie how do you do that?

Me: She's a monkey

Jackie: Logan, you are going to marry a monkey!

( The wedding is apparently still on)

******
One time Jackie was up on the wall and she jumped down just as Eve was running through the door. Jackie landed squarely on her head. It was scary , kinda funny and of course, very upsetting for the girls involved.

Alice said so sympathetically: Let the crying parade begin.

*********
Alice: I don't know why Jackie has such a hard time with blood. I mean, red IS her favourite colour after all.

It's that time of year again...

2010-09-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

It's back to school, and the best thing about that, is back to school clothes. Here is our annual back to school fashion show and photo shoot. All I can say is that I am blessed ( or cursed) with three girls that LOVE to shop and try on clothes. Even Eve, though so far we have been able to convince her that nothing she finds in the store is half as cute as the clothes she buys from the tote in the basement. All of Eve's looks are 100% Hand me downs. Jackie's are a mix, and lucky Alice gets everything new.

Funny story: Alice begged for a faux leather Jacket. I bought it for her but kept the tag on. Later she begged for a new back pack. I told her she could get one, but she would have take back the jacket. She was fine with that. Jackie cried. And why was she crying, "because I was really looking forward to growing in to that jacket. It is so nice". Bless her heart that she didn't think to just beg for one her size.

And now, for this years looks.

This is Alice's favourite outfit and the one she will be wearing tomorrow, complete with the lacy scarf. She is a girl who dreads getting up in front of people, but loves to make a splash with her clothes. I used to wear a scarf or too, back in the day, so I understand who great they feel. I just hope she doesn't choke on the playground.

Alice loves this all black ensemble. She feels like the rock star - which is what she is planning on being for Halloween.

This is the first year that Alice has agreed to buy jeans. She is sacrificing a bit of comfort for style. I knew it had to happen sooner or later and I am glad. She looks so grown up in her skinny jeans.

This one is my favourite. When she tried it on I was scared to say anything. I just asked her what she thought, and she said she loved it, and then stared at herself int he mirror forever.

Last minute addition. I love that shirts are so long now. And this season for Alice, purple is the new turquoise.

Jackie is a natural model. This outfit is from the basement store. After only wearing skirts for the first 4 years of her life, then swearing off skirts for her 5th year, she has made peace with them again. I love her in brown.

Jackie: This shirt says cup cakes rock, and so it totally goes with these black jeans, because they TOTALLY ROCK!

I love Jackie's cute little legs in leggings.

And these little jeans are the first pants in Jackie's life to fit her little bum. What's even better is they have silver sequins down the side and came with a sparkly sash for a belt. Paired with a hot pink top with a Kitty on it with gold and silver accents and you just know that this is Jackie's heaven sent perfect outfit for that important first day of grade 1.

Maybe I should get a pair of pants that fit Eve - but who would grow in to them when she was done with them?

Hope everyone has a great first day tomorrow!

Calaway Park

2010-08-31T00:58:00.000-07:00

Last week we got to take a break from the renovations long enough to go to Calaway Park with some good friends. We didn't make it there last year, so the kids were super excited to go. It was a beautiful summer day and the kids had so much fun. I was just glad I was able to keep it together on all the rides I had to go one. Jackie and Elijah waiting in line. Jackie is tall enough to go on more rides than she is brave enough to go on - which was fine by me, since she mostly needs an adult to ride with.

Eve was to young to remember the Calaway park, so this was her first time. She kept forgetting the name and calling it, "the big girl park".

Hannah, Alice, Jackie, Elijah and Eve in the Berry Go Round. We went so fast - and we were joking about throwing up the whole time. When we got out, we found out that while we were joking about puke, the people in the berry next to us were living it. Yuk!

Alice, Jackie and Hannah went on the log ride by themselves for the first time. What big girls we have! And I didn't have to get wet. Thanks Christy, Hannah and Elijah for a great day! It completed our summer and now we are ready for school (well at least I am).

Cousin Camp!!

2010-08-31T00:25:00.000-07:00

July was magic. I mean, summer is always magic when you are a kid. No school, ward weather, long days. But it is especially magic for my kids because my sisters come to visit - and that means COUSINS. Who would want to go to summer camp when you can go to cousin camp. This year " Cousin Camp" was great - full of outings to the beach, the wave pool, Drumheller and of course the cabin at Shoeswap lake.

Deanna, Ella, Alice, Max and Jack - Jumping of the dock. This summer we didn't get as much time out at the lake, but the weather was superb, and ever minute was full of fun. The girls cried when we left.

Eve and Dotty at Bowness park. Dot is a delight to have around. The girls got a long great most of the time, which is great considering they are very different: Eve excels with her body, Dot with her voice and mind. This means that when they didn't get along Eve was seen running away with a toy and Dotty was screaming after her. Next year when they are four there should be less drama.

Jackie, Max, Alice and Ella outside our motel in Golden. They closed the highway due to an accident on the way out to the cabin, so we got to stay the night in a cheap motel. It had a pool with a water slide so no one was complaining. We had three rooms all in a row. They kids loved having their cousins next door.We had a spa set up in our room for a while, with nail polish and face masks and make-up. This picture was a slightly less girly moment.

Other highlights of cousin camp: The games: mousetrap, mousetrap, mousetrap, with a little wink murder mixed in. And of course Grandma and Grandpa's new basement and old dress up clothes provide plenty of scope for the imagination. The clothing store with Jack the mafia boss in the back was fun for everyone, everyone found something to buy (They even sold maternity clothes for Erin). Most of the pretend games were no adult allowed games,: but from what I could see were full of grave peril, with Ella often being tied up and needing to escape and dive roll. Last Sunday Jackie and her cousin Elise had a falling out. Jackie was crying and the reason was the Elise didn't want to keep playing her game. Elise said, " I WAS" going to play her game, but I don't want to be tied up". Clearly Jackie was missing Ella. She could play with her forEVER. Erin and Mary - thanks for coming to visit. Hopefully, we will be able to come and visit you for a change soon.

How Andrew spent his Summer

2010-08-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

Today is Andrew's first day back at work. It is always great having him home for the summer. Other years, it has taken us a couple a weeks to get used to being together so much, while Andrew figures out what to do with all his free time. This year, there were no such issues - because all of his free time was spent renovating the basement. Now, with summer pretty much over, I can show you some of his work. Here is a picture of the basement pre-renovations... It is an old photo from Jackie's party. For some reason, I didn't take a lot of pictures downstairs. Something to do with the lighting (or lack thereof), the olive green and gold shag, the brown panelling. The whole basement was a tribute to the year Andrew and I were born - 1976.

Here is the room, nearing the end. New lighting, new drywall, new paint, This was taken right after Andrew and I did the Knock down ceiling. It was a messy job. ( No, I am not pregnant, just wearing an old, very unflatering pregnancy shirt )

This is the entertainment room now -ready for Andrew's UFC party. You can't really see the french doors very well, but they will be great once they have handles, and they separate the entertainment room from the toy room.

The TV we got at Christmas, finally has a decent home.

That's the room. We love it! We had 8 adults watching the UFC fight over the weekend and it was great. Could hear every kick and grunt with the surround sound.It was so much fun. We'll be planning more of them I am sure, and some girls movie nights as well .

So come on over and watch something with us! And while you are at it, complement Andrew on all his hard work. He is amazing. I have the best husband ever!

Hello Summer

2010-06-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

June is such a crazy blur of activities and then finally school finishes and suddenly it's summer. Summer! IT IS SUMMER! We are all totally ready for it over here.

June really was a whirlwind. I don't know how I started the month thinking that I would have all this extra time to go to exercise classes and and organize my house. Looking back I don't know what kind of drugs I was one. Most of June I felt was just running to keep up - but it was great. Since I didn't hardly post all month, I will spend some time this week catching up.

May and June are soccer season. Alice at first didn't want to play, but changed her mind at the last minute and was she ever glad she did. She loved it and I loved watching her. Alice has a very expressive face and whenever she was on the field she was either looking very determined, or smiling like crazy. It was great. She is sad it is over and excited for U10 next year, where there are try out and different tiers and they actually keep score ( which of course she does anyway)

This was taken at a game they won, where Alice got a bunch of goals. Did I mention she likes winning? This year she played on a all girls team and since it was U8, she was one of the older girls - which was very empowering for her I think. She was one of the top scorers on the team. I was never a sports girl at that age, I have deduced this from the fact that my key soccer memories include: 1. We had orange slices for snack 2. We played on a field that had lots of clover and once I found 4 leaf clover ( it may have been during a game), 3.My coach had the last name fullolove , (don't you wish that was your name?) and 4. I wanted to play defence because then I wouldn't have to run all the time. (pretty sure Alice wouldn't have wanted me on her team). So it is interesting for me to watch how much Alice likes it. I loved watching her get more aggressive going after the ball. For a girl like Alice, who tends to be a little shy and unassertive - I think it is great.
It again drove home the lesson that really, we get good at the things we like to do. When we like to do it, we work harder at it and get better. Then we like to do things we feel competent doing. It is a circle. Maybe I could have been a sports girl - if I'd have liked doing it. But then I wouldn't have found that 4 leaf clover....

For the most part, the other girls liked going to soccer too. Jackie wished she would have said yes to playing after the first week of watching Alice, but by then it was too late, so had to just focus on going all the way across the monkey bars at the park each game. ( Her technique was very spastic, and there were times when I was sure her pants were going to come all the way off, but she made it several time)Eve, of course, was dying to play and would practice with a ball of her own. Sometimes she would get a little far away from the field chasing the ball. Once a 5 year old boy was sure she was lost and was trying to ask her what her mother's name was. Eve didn't quite understand this line of questioning, she was sure it was a ploy for her ball and she was not going to let him have it without a fight. ( Eve doesn't have the same hang ups as Alice regarding assertiveness).

Those are some memories from soccer this year. A lot of the other memories involved huddling for warmth. I remember my mother saying that soccer is the coldest thing parents do. After this spring I agree with her. Here's to hoping that next year is warmer. With three girls in soccer -I may be at soccer every night of the week.

Playing with the Evie Doll

2010-06-22T09:56:00.000-07:00

Alice will tell you that she is getting too old for dolls and that she doesn't like playing with them anymore. She says this to feel cooler than her sisters, and also because she and Jackie try to spend as much time as possible playing with the Evie doll. They dress her up, give her accessories, put on makeup and then parade her around.

She is usually quite into it at first. The girls always come up with some story about a distressed princess and Eve does her best to play along.

But eventually Eve tires of the game, always before her sisters do. Last Sunday I overheard this after Alice and Jackie had given her a series of outfits. I believe she had been an angel, a princess and a unicorn.

Eve: (calmly)I tired. I need clothes.

Alice: Let's take off the princess dress. Do you want to be a butterfly now?

Eve: (definitively) No. I need clothes.

Alice: How about a beautiful fairy? You can have WINGS!

Eve: ( becoming annoyed)No. I just need clothes.

Alice: How about a lady bug?

Eve: (Down right mad) I ONLY A GIRL. GIRLS NEED CLOTHES!!! I .... NEED...MY. CLOTHES!!!!!

Apparently a well stocked dress up clothes is a blessing and a curse.

Focus for June

2010-06-07T08:34:00.000-07:00

Check out this blog by my friends sister. She picks a different profession each month and then focuses on that. I love the idea, and she is funny and smart so her blog is always great reading. I have thought about trying this, though I know I lack the organization and self discipline to pick my professions in January and do them for a month. Instead, I like to pick a focus or a goal. For February and March I picked interior decorating - which was expensive, but my kids rooms look better and the new couches continue to give me joy. For April I was a student, studying for my CHRP exam. May -well for May I was a Human Resource Consultant and a Mom - too busy with work, soccer, Alice's birthday and baptism to do anything extra (extra = laundry ). June is looking better and so I have a picked a profession I care about it. Personal Trainer and Nutritionist. Yes, I am a walking cliche - I would like to lose weight before the summer. Also - Eve turns 3 on June 25th. My baby is three so I think it is high time I loose the "baby weight".

I started by attempting a 2 week cleanse - that ended up being a 12 day cleanse - but close enough. For 12 days I didn't have any junk food, sugar, gluten, dairy, artificial sweeteners, corn or red meat. That was the idea anyway. I did pretty well - I didn't cheat on the sugar at all, but I can count my other little cheats on one hand. I felt pretty good and I think the increase in protein, fruits and vegetables is something I will definitely continue. It didn't solve all my problems however. I was hoping the no sugar would help me sleep better - but sadly that wasn't the case. I did lose some weight, especially in the first week, the second week I relied a little to heavily on nuts and avocados so the weight lose wasn't great. The good news is that when I ate the foods I had been avoiding yesterday I felt just fine. So no really sensitivities - if you don't count high blood sugar (but I knew that already!).

So for the rest of June I will try to have protein at every meal, I will emphasize fruits and vegetable's, limit bread and only have sugar on the weekends. For exercise I am doing weights twice a week and will go for a run a least twice a week. Last week went well from an exercise perspective, but this week is busy for me and Andrew, so it will be hard to fit it. I may actually have to go to the gym at 6 in the morning. Doesn't sound that hard- but is is. It it will be worth it, right?

Overheard

2010-05-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

Jackie: Look Mom, I'm all pinked out! ( she was wearing pink and drinking from a pink cup with a pink straw)
********************************************************
Getting Eve dressed to go to Andrew's basketball game last night
Me: Eve, that is a shirt, not a dress, so you have to wear leggings or pants with that.

Eve: (small frustrated growl.) I want those pants.

She puts the pants on . As she finishes, I get out socks.

Eve: Socks! you've got to be kidding me.
*******************************************************

Andrew's basketball game was at the soccer centre. I guess since outdoor soccer has started, there were a lot of empty indoor fields. The girls were have a good time playing in them - but it was late and they were tired, so they were having a bit of trouble getting along.

Me: You guys are playing great. I notice that their is always a kid super happy ( the one with the ball) and a girl we is OK ( the girl who just had the ball) and the other girl is crying (because she thinks she'll never get the ball again. You guys are actually doing a really good job of taking turns. You just need to.

Alice cut in...

Alice: We need to play together. There is no I in team and we can be a team and do passing and work together an all have fun. Come on guys it will be great.

Her speech was more inspirational than mine. I was just going to tell them to be patient and they would get their turn...

Stopped in her tracks

2010-05-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

Evie: I a big girl. I don't need a nap. Naps are for babies.

2010-05-18T13:42:00.000-07:00

Alice's baptism was on Saturday. It was an exciting day for us. Andrew took her to the church early to get dressed. When I arrived, this is how she looked - like an angel. I was quite moved. ( my baby is so grown up!)

It was a large baptism - 8 kids were baptized. I was lucky enough to give a talk, and it was just so precious to see all 8 of them sitting with their dad's paying so much attention. I loved watching Alice's eyes and seeing her being touched by the spirit. It was wonderful to have so many people there. With 8 kids, the chapel was packed, but the baptism was so well organized that it took just over an hour.

Alice normally doesn't like being the center of attention, so I was a little nervous for her, but I shouldn't have been. She loved every minute of it - in all honestly, I think the hardest part of the whole thing was having to have an interview with the bishop ( her friend's dad) and then having to sit up on the stand at church on Sunday (beside her own dad). In her journal she wrote that the water was really warm and she just felt so good after, she wishes she could be baptized everyday.

After the baptism we had a family dinner at our house. Having cousins come to play is HEAVEN. We are just so blessed to have such a great big, loving supporting family. Thanks so much to all you who came and made the day so special for her (and for Andrew and me, too). Thank you especially to Mum Rasmussen, who cleaned my kitchen before the dinner and help get everything ready, and to Grandpa Rasmussen - who helped Andrew take off all the old panelling from the basement and wired and set up new liting in the t.v. - yeah - that's right - the dark basement has light!

I wanted to get a group shot of all the people who were there - but I am me, and of course forgot. So you will have to make due with this one, of Alice, wearing the beautiful dress Karen made, eating the much anticipated nanaimo squares she requested for the family dinner. Yes - the nanaimo squares made it into her journal as well. She was really excited about them.

90s

2010-05-11T21:42:00.000-07:00

Remember - 10 years ago when we were in College and did and 80's party.

I just saw on facebook that some of my young second cousins were at a 90's dance. Yes, a dance were you dress up like I did in highschool.

I had to look at the pictures to see how they did. A lot of it I thought was a little to 80s - but there was one picture of a girl with a long floral skirt and doc boots.

It made me happy in a way a didn't expect.

8 is Great!

2010-05-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

Alice turned 8 this past week. As always - it was a full week of celebrations! Starting with a special birthday meal on Wednesday and a extra chocolaty cake made lovingly by her sisters!We had her birthday party on Saturday. I think it was my favourite birthday party yet. Partly because of the fun theme - a chef party. But mostly because I think that 8 year old girls may be the most delightful things on this planet!

Alice and Jackie helped make chef's hats out of tissue paper and cardboard, and I sewed aprons out of dollar store tea towels and discount ribbon. ( the night before of course - but Andrew was out at a guys movie night, so no one was around to witness my last procrastinated sewing).

The girls worked in teams making their own cakes out of mixes. They did everything themselves - I only checked that the measurements were right. The girls were all so excited to be doing it all on their own, and they worked together so well, taking turns cracking eggs etc. It was neat to see them realize they could do it all themselves - realize for the first time that the directions were on the box and they they could read. They made a couple chocolate cakes, a lemon cake and a cherry cake.

When the cakes were in the oven, the girls went downstairs to watch the Princess and the Frog ( which worked for the theme, since the main character is trying to open a restaurant) while I cleaned up the splattered cake batter from the table and the floor. I also made the icing)

Then it was decorating time! The one on top is Alice's, the one below is Jackie's. I got the cake pans for a dollar fifty at the dollar store. How would I do birthdays without stuff from china!

They all had so much fun decorating the cakes and were so excited to take their's home that no one really noticed that they didn't eat any cake at the party - though my kids probably sampled enough icing to make up for it.

Anyway - It was a delightful time. 8 is my new favourite age. It is just magic. Still young enough to be happy to wear a paper chef's hat, and get excited about pretty much everything, and grown up enough to make cakes on their own, keep track of all their things and help clean up. It is a mother's dream come true. The theme was really fun as well, I can't count how many times I heard " Bon Appetit" and as a procrastinator, it was great to not have to have any food prepared before the party began. I honestly had a truly great time, after it was done, I had energy enough to go on a really long run. When I got back, my three girls were all happily playing with Alice's new toys that she had gotten out of the packages on her own. We finished up the day with a little extreme uno she got as a gift.

Now we have a week to gear up for the main event of turning 8. Alice's baptism is next week. She is very excited and we are glad that we will have lots of family and friends around to share that day with us.

Alice - we love you!

2010-05-02T15:36:00.000-07:00

The answers! - all three of you have been waiting with baited breath.

1. - Jackie said " It is so sad that Eve is growing up so fast. I remember when she was just a little baby in a crib, and now she is in a bunk bed, and talking and soon she'll be starting preschool.

2. Eve said " See, I don't need you". She loves doing things by herself - no surprise there I guess.

3. Sadly, it is my oldest who is scared of her light. It is fine when she is reading by it, but when she turns it off and tries to sleep, she starts imagining it is really alive. It spent a couple of nights in the hall, but Andrew convinced her to tough it out.

4. "I just really love winning" was said this week by Alice. I admit - it could have been said by me, I also enjoy winning. Alice is really liking being able to read. It has opened some new games up to her. She is enjoying learning how to play ticket to ride - a train destination game.

The winner was Sam! Uncle knows best I guess.

Who said it....

2010-04-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

It is time for a game of who said it:

1. " It is so sad that Eve is growing up so fast. I remember when she was just a little baby in a crib, and now she is in a bunk bed, and talking and soon she'll be starting preschool. It all just goes so fast.

a) me
b)Andrew
c) Alice
b) Jackie

2. " See, I don't need you". ( hint - this is this person's favourite phrase so far this week
a)Andrew
b)Eve
c)Jackie
d) Alice

3. "I'm scared of my light"
a) Andrew
b) Eve
c) Jackie
e) Alice

4. "I just really love winning"
a)me
b)Alice
d) Jackie
e) Eve

Let me know your answers and what imaginary prize you would like if you are a winner. Yes, the winner will get an imaginary prize!

An FHE Moment

2010-04-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

Andrew : So do you know what that scripture means? It means that if Mommy and Daddy don't teach you the Gospel by the time you are 8 - it is not your fault. It is...

Eve: ( cutting in) It is my fault. Alice - it is my fault.

Andrew: It is mom's and my responsibility to teach you the Gospel by the time you are 8. Otherwise the mistakes you make are our fault.

Eve: No daddy - it is my fault. ( coming right up to his face and looking in his eye) - IT IS MY FAULT.

She was adamant and she said it over and over. We're not sure what she thinks fault means - but she totally wants it.

Nature vs. Nurture

2010-04-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

I love when my children demonstrate their personalities - and it is totally them - not something that I have taught them. Here is an example I ran across while I was cleaning Alice's room. It is a plan she made for a craft.

Here is the finished craft. There were some slight variations from the original plan, but Alice was happy with it.Now I ask you - nature or nurture? Well, all I can say is that in my entire life, I have never made a plan for a craft - even when a plan would really be a good idea. I certainly have never made a plan of something just for fun. She didn't learn this from me and I'm the one that does crafts with her.

No, this is just how her mind works. She has inherited this kind of careful planning from her dad. Lucky thing - she'll be naturally organized.

Her creative spelling ability on the other hand - that I can take credit for.

And still more Eve

2010-04-14T07:56:00.000-07:00

Eve says cute things everyday- I know I should be posting more about my other children - but you are only 2 for so long.

this was last night:

Me: Oh Eve, you are a adorable
Eve: (yelling) I not badorable, I Evie Banessa!

And this morning

Me: do you want a drink of water
Eve: no, water will pill
Me: Watch my mouth - S...S...S...Spill
Eve: no - P...P....P....PILL !!!

Humble like a little child.

Green update

2010-04-13T07:56:00.000-07:00

Eve was at the counter helping me make bread yesterday. I went to go help Jackie with something and when I came back she had the green food coloring bottle and was completely dripping in green food colouring.

Me: Eve - what happened.
Eve: This bottle peed on me.

Her legs are still green - but she doesn't mind that. The chair she was standing may not feel the same way though.

How bout a green one?

2010-04-12T08:26:00.000-07:00

Eve's favourite colour is green. Isn't that great? Not pink or purple or sparkly - but green. It is probably her favourite because she cares so much about the environment, or because it reminds her of her mothers beautiful eyes - or because of her green blankie. Whatever the reason - you ask Eve what colour something should be and she'll answer green. Actually, "How bout a green one," is my favourite Eveism. I hear it a lot. Here are some recent examples:

Me: Eve, do you want to help me make a cake?

Eve: Yeah, how bout a green one?

Me: What kind of birthday party do you want,

Eve: How about a green one?

Eve: (Looking sad)This lamp is broken. You need buy a new one. ( then suddenly looks happy) How bout a green one?

Me: Eve do you want a chocolate?

Eve: Yeah, how bout a green one?

Me: They are just chocolate - so they aren't green, they are brown.

Eve: I like green. You like brown

Me: I know, do you want a chocolate anyway - ( I gave her one)

Eve: I like green - she gave it back. ( 10 seconds later she reconsidered)

And this is my favourite:

Eve: You can't wear that - you too big

Me: Yes, my butt is too big for that

Eve: You need a new one. How bout a green one?

If this green obsession continues, when she grows up she will either a) join greenpeace, b) move to Ireland, or c) try out for a green alien role of Star Trek.

Eve talking about her new room

2010-04-09T10:37:00.000-07:00

Eve talking about her new room - first she said she was sharing with Audrey. Then she said she was sharing with Chelsa. Maybe they can all be room mates in college!

Spring Break Projects

2010-04-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, we moved the girls rooms around during spring break. As with all the project I undertake - they are not completed, but the rooms look so much better that I will blog about them before they are done. The trunth is, I may never finish them.

The project: Turning Alice's and Jackie 's room into Jackie and Eve's room.

New additions: A big dresser from Kijiji for forty dollars. It is big enough for both of them, which means there is room for more than just beds and dressers.

Old made new: We brought a bookshelf and a toy box up from the basement. I love finally having all the kids books in one place. All of Eve's beloved stuffies fit in the old toy box - and she can stand on it to look outside.

Side effects: Jackie has taken on the role as the perfect older sister - and Eve is letting her!

Still to do:

Buy a curtain rod and hang curtains ( we will be using the curtains Mum Rasmussen made for Eve's room when she was born - I still love them and they should match OK)
Paint the bookshelf white and toy box white - Though I am dreaming about wallpapering the inside of the bookshelf with some cool retro wallpaper like this:

Maybe my fantastic sister-in-law Karen will run out of Stuff to do and take it on!

2010-04-01T13:02:00.000-07:00

We went to the zoo, a.k.a by Evie as the ZOOM on Tuesday. Clearly, we haven't been there in a while, and so didn't know they had moving dinosaurs now. Alice and Jackie loved them, and loved being a little freaked out. Eve was a little freaked out too, and would completely turn her body as far away from them as she could while sitting in her stroller, but she was too proud to admit it.

Alice: Eve, do you like the dinosaurs?

Eve: I like fishies!

Alice: are your scared of the dinosaurs?

Eve: I like fishies!
Jackie: I think Eve is scared of the dinosaurs.

Eve: I no scared, I LIKE FISHIES.

We went and saw the fishies.

We had a great time at the zoom. I felt like I was out with three big kids. Eve hardly rode in the stroller at all, and kept up nicely.

Incidently, the dinosaurs put us in the mood to see "How to Train Your Dragon" that night. Alice, Jackie and I loved it. We left Eve at home with Andrew, since there weren't going to be fishes in the movie.

The great room switch

2010-04-01T12:29:00.001-07:00

The first item on Alice's agenda this Spring break was getting her own room. So Monday, the first official day of the break, we had the great bed switch. Jackie moved up to the top bunk in her room, Eve moved in with Jackie on the bottom bunk and Alice got her own room, with her old bed that has been in the basement.

She has big plans for the decorating of her room. Her colors - for better or for worse - are black and white with bright purple accents. We ordered a duvet cover from Target and my mom is bringing it up tomorrow - so we will see how it looks. I'm sure Alice will love it - not sure about the rest of us.

Decorating tastes aside, my favourite part of her room is this Ikea desk I found on Kijiji for $40. Alice wasn't too in to the desk, until she realized she could do crafts on it. Once she figured that out, she immediately began stocking it with craft supplies and the girls have been busy there everyday. It is the new cool hangout. Alice had me hang a magnet board beside the desk so she could sketch out her plan for her craft and pin it up to refer to while she is making her craft. She is a planner.

It took Eve a day to come to terms with the loss of her room, but she has adjusted. She now feels pretty grown up to be bunking with Jackie, though her early morning escapades to check on Jackie by climbing the latter to the top bunk have resulted in a couple of big falls, but luckily no lasting injury. Hopefully we can teach her not to climb it ( or she will learn how to climb it without falling).

One thing I realized last night as I was letting the girls stay up to finish Fantastic Mr. Fox (which I liked more than they did I think). I can no longer put Eve to bed earlier than the rest of the girls. Confession: there have been days when I would do all the bed time rituals, and tuck the kids into bed. Then I would close the door to Eve's room, and Jackie, Alice and I would tip toe down the hall and stay up for another hour or so. Our bed time conspiracies are over.

Operation big girl - close call

2010-03-25T07:52:00.000-07:00

Day 9 without Eve's pacifier. Yesterday she finally had a nap without it. Progress.

I must confess that on day 7 I almost caved. It had been 1 week without her pacifier, and sleep had been elusive for both of us, especially for me, since due to her cough, I had spend the majority of nights rocking her. I felt like I had a newborn again. That night I tried to go to bed at 8:00 - but my internal clock wouldn't cooperate, so I got up and spent some time with my husband her I don't see that often. Later that night, as I began to drift off to sleep, Eve cired out. She wasn't really awake, just really loud and incoherent and definately on her way to waking the other girls up again. I quieted her by rocking her, then put her back in her bed. Then as soon as I was almost asleep, she would cry out again. We did this for an hou and it was torture. I told Andrew, "I can't take this anymore, I don't care about the sousou addiction - I need sleep". There was no response from him, he was asleep ( see - everyone gets to sleep except me!). I could feel the volcano of frustration gaining pressure inside me, threatening to erupt. But what form would the eruption take - violence, tears, screaming. I didn't want to find out. Eve's wailing began to get even louder - my whole body cringed and I cracked. I went directly for the pacifier on the top shelf of the bathroom. "Just try and stop me" I said to my sleeping husband, "this is the only answer, I can't take it anymore". I walked into Eve's room, she was still crying. The sousou felt cold in my hand - like a revolver that is to shoot a silver bullet - the silver bullet of sleep.

Just as I got near Eve's bed, she stopped wailing. She is quiet. I am shaking. I whisper" Do you need your sousou". No response. She is asleep.

She slept for the rest of the night.
That is as close as they come.

Living room facelift.

2010-03-24T13:08:00.000-07:00

After waiting all day, the new couches and chair came Friday at 6:30. I still can't really believe we bought them. I smile every time I walk past the living room. The pictures from the phone don't do them justice.

Jackie, 5 years, said as the furniture was being brought in : " Oh, this is such a happy day!"

Elise, 5 years, said when she saw them Saturday morning: "That's a lot better than what was here before."

When the new set was all in place, Alice pointed to our old wing back chair, and said : "Please tell me that we are putting this down stairs. It does not match the new set at all."

We all want to keep the new furniture looking nice so the girls have come up with some new rules:

No eating on or near the couches
No drinking on or near the couches ( except for water)
No doing crafts on or near the couches
No leaving Eve alone in the kitchen with crafts supplies since she may walk into the living room.
No writing with pens on or near the couches
No playing with scissors on or near the couches
No playing with knives or swords on or near the couches
No bleeding on or near the couches
No spitting or throwing up on or near the couches
No potty training Eve on or near the couches

I am proud of their very extensive list, and a little concerned that they came up with playing with knives - is this something they would do around the old couches?

They are serious about these rules. Jackie said to me yesterday, " Mom, did you forget about our no eating rule? I found a cheerio on the floor in the living room".

I had to confess, that I had allowed the baby of one of my friend to eat dry cheerios in the living room, but promised to not make a habit out of it.

So, we would love for you all to come and visit our new couches - if you agree to abide by the rules. Especially no bleeding!

Overheard

2010-03-23T10:06:00.001-07:00

Jackie: "My lips were made for kissing"

We'll have to watch that one.

Help me pick my head shot!

2010-03-22T13:04:00.000-07:00

Last week my uber talented sister in law of sugarsnaps photography took some head shots of me for the Capability Connections website. Although I found the whole process rather awkward, Karen made it pretty painless, and almost every picture was better than the one that is currently on the web site - so that is great. Now, I just have to pick. Want to help? Leave a comment telling me which one you like best, and which one makes me look like the smart, savvy consultant you would to trust your business to. ( because I always look like this when I am writing job descriptions in my basement office. I never just wear pajamas). Considering the low readership of my blog, your pick is very likely to be the winner.

#2
#3

Kindergarden hipster

2010-03-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

We got jackie's summer hat early this year. I couldn't resist it. She loves it and wore it to shool everyday for two weeks. Though when she is wearing it, she is always performing something, then trying to pass the hat around for donations.

She also get's in touch with her new age side, and practises meditating.Alice has a hat like that too. It looks cute on her as well, but she does not let it influence her personality like Jackie does. I need to find one for Eve, since she is always stealing Jackie's.

Rock Prodigee

2010-03-22T11:22:00.000-07:00

Our camera is broken. It is a tragedy! I had one great year with it. Not sure if we can fix it - Andrew is looking into it ( since the camera was in his possession when it stopped working. ) In the meantime, I will post the last few pictures, and videos from it.

This was taken a month ago. Eve wore these glasses all day. She was in a rock star state of mind. Completely feeling the music.

Sousou intervention

2010-03-18T14:23:00.000-07:00

Last week I finished one big project and complete most of the work for the other project. I was ready to go back to being a good mom, instead of a stressed out, working all the time - barely surviving mom. So what does a good mom do? Take their kids swimming( check) play games with their kids, ( check) make muffins ( mmm check), clean and organize her house ( right -getting to it and help their kids grow up. In this case - it was time to help Eve give up her pacifyer - known affectionately as her sousou.

The history of sousous addictions in our family is ironic. Both Jackie and Eve refused their sousou early on. They also refused bottles. I continually tried to introduce the pacifyer, hoping it was a "gateway drug" to being bottle fed. It was not. I was never successful in getting them to take a bottle, I was successful in getting both of them completely addicted to what the english refer to as a dummy.

For a while we were all happy with the pacifyer. We had something to offer whent he kids were upset. Something to stop them from screaming in church, or in the car, or in the grocery store. But eventually - they get too old for it. Eventually, it drives us crazy. Eventually, we wonder why we ever gave them that thing in the first place. Then, it is time to get them to give it up.

With Jackie, we tried taking her sousou away twice, unsuccessfully. Each time she cried, literally all night and into the next day and we decided she just wasn't ready for it. Then we heard of the sousou fairy, a lesser known fairly that will take a child's pacifyers and leave a grown up toy. We tried it with Jackie. Each time she would cry for her sousou, she would hold the pollypocket that the sousou fairy brought her. It helped, and she has been sousou clean for three years now.

Now it is Eve's turn. She is turning three is June and is completely addicted to her sousou. So much so, that she will ask for naps, just so she can have her sousou fix. The whole family was involved in her sousou intervention. Alice helped pick out the sousou fairy toy. Jackie and Alice decorated bags to put her sousous in. We had a ceremony where she thanked her sousou, and we told her the story of the sousou fairy - how she has the power to take all the love and comfort a baby gets from their pacifyer and puts it in to the big kid toy she leaves. The left over love and comfort she sends to someone who is sad or scared to help them. Alice and Jackie helped Eve put her sousous in the bags they had made. They then offered them to the sousou fairy and brought back a toy. ( Though, they were a little excited, and actually forgot to take the pacifyers out - for a second Eve thought she'd get the toy and the sousous - but we promptly put them back in the bag, and gave them to Andrew - with the direction to put them where I couldn't find them)

That was Tuesday night. When it was time for bed, the trouble started. Where Jackie cried for her sousou and held her pollypocket close to her. Eve - more a women of action - screamed for her sousou and threw her toy at my head (her aim was good). There was a moment when she was pleading " I no big girl, I a baby, I need sousous". It made me want to cry, and Alice and Jackie felt that way too.

She did manage to get to sleep, watching tv with me. Then in the middle of the night, by a cruel twist of fate -she woke up coughing that dry, barking croupy cough. She was having trouble breathing. We went for a nighttime stroll to breath the cold air. I couldn't believe my baby was sick, and I had no sousou to give her. If it were not for the ornate sousou fairy ceremony, and for all the effort Jackie and Alice put in, and for the fact that I had absolutely no idea where the sousous were and wasn't going to wake up my stressed out husband to ask him, we might have had a relapse. But we made it through the night, and we made it through the next day. We celebrated when we made it 24 hours with out a pacifyer. She fell asleep in my arms again last night, completely exhausted. Now we are almost through day 2. She still has croup, but has been a real trouper. She has only asked for her sousou a couple of times today, and though she hasn't been able to nap, she is pretty happy. Though, I must confess, that I am offering almost limitless supplies of her other drugs of choice: warm milk in a sippy cup and cozy blankie snuggles. I am also being a little to liberal with the very unhealthy corn pops (which she calls pop corn).

Anyway - that's the sousou story. My baby is one step closer to big kid hood. Next stop, potty training. No - next stop, sharing a room with Jackie. I cringe just thinking about potty training.

I am now married to a High Priest

2010-03-08T11:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, my honey was called into the Bishopric and was made a high priest. The calling was not unexpected - I felt a strong impression awhile ago that that would happen, so I feel very ready for it- but I hadn't considered the high priest part. It means we have to get new home teachers, we are supposed to go to high priest parties, anyway it makes me feel a little bit old. It will be different.

When the Stake president met with us to extend Andrew the call he asked how long he had been Elder's Quorum President ( almost 2 years) and how that was for our family. I had to answer honestly - I loved it. And I did - here's why.
1. Those of you who know Andrew know that he is a bit more introverted than I am. As elder's quorum president, he always wanted to go to every church function, and wanted to have people over for dinner and have parties. Fantastic! ( I felt a little silly after saying this to the stake president - but it was true - I loved it. And we really did have some great elder's quorum parties.
2. Andrew often came home from elder's quorum visits very grateful to see us. It would leave a special feeling in our home ( that one was easier to say to the Pres. Carter)
3. Lastly, in regards to leadership callings, my philosophy is -Better him than me!! ( I didn't say out loud - but it is true. I have a strong testimony of how important my role is as his wife in helping him serve, and I would choose that any day over a calling like that for me. I even will iron the occasional shirt for him. (ok - maybe twice a year.- wrinkle free is my friend ).

So how will this new calling be for us? More of a stretch for Andrew. I can't even imagine how much there will be to learn and do. I think he will enjoy serving with Bishop Vance and Bro. Mysyk though and will probably learn a lot from them ( as I plan to learn from Sis Mysyk and Sister Vance, some of my favourite women in our ward.) I think the hardest part for me will be not sitting with him in church - not because the kids are hard to wrangle, but because I must confess that I still sometimes get butterflies those rare times when we get to sit beside one another and he puts his arm around my shoulders(puke alert). Now I will just have to gaze at his handsomeness from afar (more puke - sorry). I am looking forward to hearing him speak more and bare his testimony - I love that. Aside from that, it will be more time away for Andrew. Probably 2 nights a week and and a lot of Sunday. But really, I am lucky in the time department. Most mornings he takes the kids to the bus. When basketball season ends, he is home in time to pick Alice up from the bus in the afternoon. He is home all spring break and all summer - so we will manage. I remember a lesson an older couple taught in our ward a few years ago ( Collette and Rex Wood). Sister Wood shared that she was given a priesthood blessing by a general authority as a young mother, that said if she would focus on her interests she would never feel lonely as her husband served in his priesthood callings. Many years later, they saw that same general authority again, and Bro Wood said her him, " You blessed her too good, she has never even missed me once!" Now, I am sure that I will miss him, but I do have quite a stack of books to read, so I think I will be just fine.

Thanks to all those who came to his ordination and setting apart yesterday. It meant a lot to us. Thanks to all our friends and ward members who have expressed their confidence in him. And for the record, I am very grateful to have a husband who is willing to serve the Lord. He is the greatest blessing the Lord has given me. I love him a lot, so I will try my best to support him in this. ( OK, that's enough puke)

So that's our biggest news this week. Keep us all in your prayers. Take care.

Eve's getting cheeky

2010-02-24T12:44:00.000-08:00

Me: You can go play, but first we need to change your diaper, you stink.
Eve: no Mommy, that's you.

as if...

Sink or swim

2010-02-13T17:23:00.000-08:00

Eve, before going down the slide: Don't catch me.Don't catch me.

Silly me, I kept catching her. She kept getting more and more angry. I would let her go all the way under the water before grabbing her, but still, she would be offended. She wanted to do it herself. The whole concept of drowning escaped her.

It took some aggressive persuasion, but she finally agreed to a life jacket. It was way to big for her, but I didn't have to catch her. Anyway, If I could manage to take her swimming more than once a month, I am sure she would be swimming independently by now. She is a water baby.

Incidental, some of the mom's I know would never go swimming with three kids by themselves. Those moms also have never had to yell at a lifeguard to grab their 2 year old before she jumped in the deep end. I did that today. Eve didn't like it. I think having to watch the big kids swimming lessons the past few weeks without being able to swim herself made her a little desperate. She was so excited to be in the water, that I decided we could stay longer than usual. It sure tired her out. It always does. That is just one of the benefits of swimming that keeps me coming back, even with three kids.

Though really, I should say that Alice, at 7 totally swims by herself now, so I don't even watch her, and Jackie has grown tall enough to touch the bottom, even at the deep end of the kids pool at the Y, so she didn't use her floaty. Her swimming is coming right along as well. And in hr wet suit swimsuit, she looked like a surfer girl. Before I know it, I'll be able to swim laps. Swim laps, then sit in the hot tub.

Overheard

2010-02-07T13:45:00.000-08:00

Me: Why is the floor all wet?
Alice: Eve spilled a cup of water
Eve: No, Chelsa did it?
We all laughed - since Chelsa wasn't here. Eve thought for a bit then said,
Eve: Not me, Not Chelsa, Terry did it. (Terry was over yesterday)
Me: are you blaming Terry for something you did?
Eve: Yup.

*********
Alice (after I did her hair for church): This ponytail is as tight as Professor McGonagal's bun.

We are in the middle of Harry Potter, and the Prisoner of Azkaban. She is really into it.

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Jackie: I am so tired of reading the scripture EVERY NIGHT. Why do we have to do it every night.

I am getting a lot of eye rolling from Jackie and Alice lately. I makes me smile, because I think it is good practice for me for when they are teenagers. She mostly enjoys reading the scriptures, she just wishes she would get to read more picture books. We are working on that.

2010-02-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

At two and a half, Eve is turning into quite a little scallywag. She tells me all the time that Jackie is her best friend. Doesn't that just melt your heart? Unfortunately that translates into Eve having it in for Jackie. She steals toys, draws on her pictures, and basically plays the annoying toddler role to a tee. Jackie puts up with it pretty well, but she will be happy when Eve grows up a bit more.

And she is growing up. A couple of week ago she climbed out of her crib (something she could have done a long time ago, but whenever I saw her try, I would tell her firmly - and a little loudly maybe- that doing that WAS NOT SAFE! My goal was to convince her that climbing out of the crib was as dangerous as playing in traffic. I wanted her in that crib. It worked for a while, but no more (yes I will make sure she doesn’t start playing in traffic). Anyway, she is in the toddler bed now, and the crib is disassembled. She only spent a couple of nights on the floor, and now she falls a sleep nicely in the bed. I think she is feeling pretty empowered by her big girl bed, since she told her babysitter that she was “bigger than Alice, and bigger than Jackie, but Mommy and Daddy were really big.” You can tell that our “big girl” propaganda machine is working overtime lately. I just realized that she will be three in 4 and a half months. My mom always said “Life begins at three” (life: swimming lessons, dancing lessons, pre-school), but not if you are still in diapers.

Alice and Jackie are in swimming lessons right now (on separate days – you have to register BEFORE the day it starts to get that!) Each time we go Eve says, “My turn to swim?” and cries that it is "no fair" that it is Alice’s or Jackie’s turn again. We always say when she has panties she can take lessons. Same goes for dancing. (Though last week she got to dance a long with Alice class, because it was parent observation day. She did pretty well. )

Anyway, in the next few weeks, expect to see a post about her giving her sousou to the sousou fairy. And in the spring, expect that exciting potty training post. My guess is that like the move from the crib to the toddler bed, the transition will be easier than I expect. She does want to be a big girl after all – and she doesn’t always realize that she will always be my baby.

Dad's a Star

2010-02-03T12:57:00.000-08:00

Alice: Is dad ever going to be in the Olympics?
Me: no
Alice: Right, because it is in Vancouver

*******
Jackie ( on the way to watch their Dad's JV team play): I hope this game will be on TV!

Dad's a star to them! Though on a side note, Andrew's team did win a tournament over the weekend. The girls have been having fun playing with his gold medal.

Punished by Rewards

2010-01-20T20:02:00.000-08:00

Jackie: What are you reading?

Me: A book about how it is not good to give kids rewards and prizes for doing things right.

Jackie: That's crazy, prizes are great.

Alice: I think you should stop reading that. ( Alice really likes her piano practicing chart. It has been very effective)

Jackie: What's the book called?

Me: Punished by rewards.

Jackie: That's not right. If you are getting a reward, that is a good thing, not a bad. Punishments are bad, so if you get something bad, it isn't a reward. It just doesn't make sense. (I can see her thinking hard.) Unless someone hit you on the head with your own trophy.

Gotta love the way her mind works.