Christmas Cards

Merry Christmas! To all my family and friends who read this blog!
I've wanted to post these pictures for a while but they were on our Christmas cards this year and I didn't want to spoil the surprise. WHAT? You didn't get a card this year? Well, let me explain.
I ordered cards from Shutterfly, with these beautiful images on them, and my cards haven't come! (yet?) Not sure. So this is our virtual card for this year and if they arrive, I will send out New Years cards. The envelopes are all addressed and the return labels all printed, all I needed was these babies to pop inside!
Ah well, maybe next year I should order in November instead of pushing the limit!
I took a bunch of pictures over Christmas... will post more soon!

That's How We Roll

I was washing dishes after supper one night last week and I looked outside to see my lovely children having a blast :) I just had to grab the camera.

The STUD

The SASS

The PRINCESS

Yup, that's how we roll!
What a goofy bunch.

First Day of School

Well another first day has come and gone. I always thoroughly enjoy our summers and by the end I'm usually heard to say that these kids need to be back in school (and they do) But each year, I send them off and have my annual first day of school cry. They are so precious and it really is so hard to let them go. Nicole reminded me that next year I will be all alone... GASP! Will I even be able to breathe? Let's not think about that just now, I have 364 more days to NOT think about that. Jayme started grade 5 this year and Brady is in grade 3. Brady is worried about how hard grade 3 will be; I told him at bedtime tonight that I think he is the smartest boy in grade 3, when he disagreed, I told him that at least he is the handsomest! Jayme's teacher assured us that there will be a minimum of 40 minutes of homework each night... YIKES!
I kept super busy today and didn't even have a minute to sit, so I barely noticed that they were gone, we celebrated the first day with a supper out a McDonalds. Can hardly believe that we're back already, but ready or not here it is!

Summer Part 3 - Friends

Oh such wonderful memories :)
We certainly did NOT take enough pictures, here are a small smattering :)
Hopefully more to come.

Coco and Maddie

Coco and Cate

Beautiful Cousin Abbey

Jeannie and Trevor

Jean and me

Dino and Shannon's Anniversary... can you guess which year they are celebrating??

So sweet, he picked her some barley!

Summer Part 3 - Tubing

WE HAD AN AMAZING SUMMER....

• there were more hot and sunny days than anything else.
• we spent more days at the lake than at home
• my Dad bought a new-to-us watercraft and tube
• Mark had 3 weeks of holidays at the lake
• we had an amazing visit with our "Eastern" family
• we were able to spend much quality time with friends
• we are so blessed to have a place at Manhattan
• we were enriched spiritually through the services
  

I could go on and on.... don't we look happy??!!

Summer Part 1 - Park

We went to St.Vital park with some friends in late June to have a bonfire supper. We roasted wieners and marshmallows and the kids played. What a special time with great friends.

The "little girls" preferred playing on the play structure,

while the boys and Jayme preferred playing with the fire...

Summer - Part 2: Earings

Colie was so excited to finally get her ears pierced. She has been asking for quite a while so we decided to take the plunge. We asked Jayme if she wanted in on the action, and after many talks and some research, she decided she wanted to as well. I was so excited to get both girls done together. So while Brady had a special breakfast out with Papa, I took the girls to the mall. We went to Claire's where there were 2 trained staff available to pierce their 2 ears at once. Jayme went first and did great, she was nervous and focused, and glad when it was over. One small tear pooled out of her eye and it was over. She picked diamonds for her studs. Colie went next, she wasn't nervous at all, she hopped up on the chair, didn't even want to hold my hand while she had it done. She was all smiles until they finally did the deed... then she cried, but only until they showed her herself in the mirror and she realized how beautiful she looked with the sparkly pink diamond flowers and then she was all smiles again. I was so proud of them and they were so diligent with letting me clean them. Such pretty girls :)

Spring Sports

Spring has been busy for us again with Spring Sports. Last year we had soccer 5 nights a week, but thankfully Jayme picked a different sport. She wasn't so keen on playing no matter the weather, rain or shine, warm or cold as she played last year. So she and her friend picked an indoor sport: basketball. And since she doesn't get her height from her mother, she did really well! It was fun to learn a new sport, and to watch it. And how cute is she in her uniform???

Brady stayed with soccer this year and did well again. His Daddy needed to remind him to stay focused, but when he did, he excelled.
And Coco? Well we'll call this "princess scootering" We didn't put her in anything yet this year. She would rather dress up in her princess clothes, or play with her dollies. She was quite happy watching her brother and sister. I plan on putting her in ballet this fall, that should just up her alley :)

Dining Room

We've also been busy inside the house. We've been keeping our eyes open for a few things to finish off the dining room (and living room and sunroom... postings to come) If you remember, I have already posted some pictures of the "after" dining room. I had a list of a few things that I had still wanted to do and it's all come together now!
Here is this room on the day we moved in...

Here we are around Christmas...
And here we are today...
I found some art, I've been looking for a piece for over the couch and I bought this but it was too small for the large wall over the couch, but fits perfectly in the alcove.
I refinished an old buffet that was going to be left in my friend's mom's house after they moved her into an apartment. In my excitement to refinish this piece I forgot the before picture... my friend has one on her camera and I'll post it once she gets it to me.
And we bought this table and chairs last weekend... it was worth the wait, we got exactly what we wanted at a great deal!

Front Yard

Well we've been super busy now that the snow is gone and our world has once again expanded to fully include the outdoors. Often in spring I am blown away about how different winter life is and spring/summer/fall life. We are blessed to have different seasons (more blessed in some than others, in my opinion) But the difference is SO drastic that it almost is like we move to another place for a few months of the year, with our different wardrobe, then move back to the place where we can enjoy being outside again, where we can walk out of the house in seconds rather than minutes, where we can jump in a drive our cars with out the necessary "warm up".

And this year, it is our first spring and summer in the house so we are experiencing a totally new spring! So exciting!

Now, I've never really been a "yard" person. I've had so much to do inside the house that I always left the outside to Mark. He mows the grass and shovels the snow and that's been the extent of our yard work. But when we moved into our new place, our yard was like a garden... beautiful grass, beautiful flower beds, a perennial garden and a vegetable garden. OVERWHELMING!! To say the least. We put a new shed up on the vegetable patch, but I decided to still plant some peppers and tomatoes, and those seem to be doing ok. I've decided to leave the backyard as is for this year as I wanted to see what was coming up, when and where. Next year that bed will get it's own attention as I make it "ours" instead of Granny's.
So this year it was the front bed's turn. This is what we did... We (and I mean Mark) took down a tall overgrown cedar tree (including the stump) that was on the right side. And we donated some little globe cedars that we plunked throughout the middle, to Papa and Nana's house, and this left us with a blank canvas. We were blessed to already have the edging in place so it was just a matter of working with what I had. I had a knowledgeable friend come over and help me make a plan, she helped me shop and she even helped me plant all the new "friends" in our front bed. It looks Ah-mazing! I don't have a before picture, but here is the after...
And a close up of some of the happy new friends....


So it's simple, clean and organized. I've realized that that's the way I like it :)

Pink

Of course Coco couldn't be left out of the hair streaking...
Boy do I love this kid. She is caught between being the "baby" and sometimes wanting to be a "big girl". Some days she really plays the baby card, not wanting to clean up, or to take responsibility for her actions, and other days she wants to go and do all the things Jayme and Brady are doing. But on any given day, so is ready for a snuggle or hug and kiss, she truly is sweetness and has so much love to give and we are blessed to have her.
Here she is on a "big girl" day...

Ten

Double digits... that's big.  To say that Jayme has been excited to turn 10 would be the understatement of the year.  She has carried around her 10th Birthday Extravaganza party planning clipboard (I'm not kidding)  She had her guest list on this clipboard, the food list, a sample drawing of the invitation, a detailed, to the minute plan of what to do at the party (ie: introduce friends: 5 minutes, open presents: 10 minutes etc)  and, get this, a contract that she had Brady sign saying he wouldn't bug her friends when they came over for the party.  She had 8 girls come for the Chocolate Fondue party, where we played games, ate fruit dipped in chocolate and went outside for a bonfire, then she had 3 of the girls stay for a sleepover.  Our first non-family sleepover ever!  I dyed a streak of pink or purple colour into each girls hair, they watched Tangled while munching popcorn and eating treats and believe it or not, they actually slept!  And as per the Clipboard, crepes were on the menu for this morning, banana and Nutella, strawberries and whip cream and cinnamon and brown sugar.  It really went so well, and I'm so glad because with all the thought put into this event, she sure would have been disappointed if anything had gone wrong.  I even told her this evening that everything went so well, I'd allow her to have sleepovers again!

Here are a few pictures...

The fondue

The girls and Brady enjoying the fondue

Our very beautiful 10 year old :)

Playing the animal game

Watching Tangled

(Look close, you can see the pink streaks!)

Such good memories were made, and my little girl is growing up... bittersweet.

Haircut

Nicole wanted her hair cut and I've been having such a hard time keeping it neat, I decided that we should try it.  I think it looks so cute!

This is not the official "before" shot, but it sure shows how scraggly her hair often was!