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! 

Eight

Eight years ago today I went to the hospital.  It's kind of weird walking into the hospital, not in pain, but knowing that that day, you would have a baby.  Inducing is a crazy thing.  They hooked me up to the IV about 6:00am as I needed a dose of antibiotics, then about 10:00am they added the oxytocin... the nurse said she started me and the lady next door and told me "The race is on"  RACE, you say?  Well the competitive side of me heard that and decided that I would SO beat that other lady...  and 4 (excruciating) hours later, the nurse delivered our little man!  Apparently the Dr was in the elevator on her way up!  (And the poor other lady... she was only delivering her baby when we were already having visitors!) 

We were so very excited to hear that we had a son, deep down I know we were hoping for a boy, but I don't think we had voiced it.  I had convinced my head that it would be a girl, and the pregnancy had been so like Jayme's that it seemed to make sense.

We called our family and friends and before supper time Brady's big sister had met him and many others too.  That first night Brady started a trend that he kept for quite a few months, he decided that sleeping was more fun while be held.  The nurses kept telling me to put him back in the bassinet, but when I did, he'd cry and fuss, so I held him.  I think that most of his first year of sleeping was while he was held, and even at that there was NOT enough sleep to go around!  "Sleeping like a baby" was a cliche that made no sense to us!  I think there were many comments made like : "good thing he's cute..."  And cute he was.  And still is.  Eight years later he still sleeps less than his sisters, he still wakes earlier and seems to have oodles of energy, especially in the mornings.  Like today, he was building lego at 6:30, playing basketball at 7:00 and asking for breakfast before 8:00.  Finally at 9:30 I made his requested birthday breakfast of bacon and eggs, and I think he ate 7 pieces of bacon :)

We love our boy so much and are so very proud of him, and I still can barely believe he's eight.

Winter Fun

A couple of weekend ago we went to my brother and sister-in-law's place just outside the city.  What a fun afternoon.  We pulled a sled behind their quad and had a blast!

Colie had fun too, even though she didn't want to go behind the quad.  She'd rather hitch a ride :)

Voyageurs

The kids have Festival de Voyageur Week at school this week and are encouraged to wear any "Voyageur" clothes.  Of course, besides toques, we had nothing!  So I crocheted a couple of "ceintures flechees" .  Boy were they excited!  And they turned out so great too!  Now they're set for the week!

Oldies

I haven't been taking  a lot of pictures lately, and I've been wanting to update the blog, but life is just kind of trucking along with the routineness of school, work, and just daily activities.  I should get my camera outside where the kids are playing hockey, building forts and constantly shoveling all the snow we've had.  OK, I'll put that on my to do list, but for now, here are a couple of cute old pics :)  I'm sure blessed to have these 3 amazing kids.

Christmas

Christmas flew by with a flurry this year.  We tried to slow it down, but for some reason, there was so much going on that the whole season seemed to slip away!  We still tried to do all the advent activities that we normally do, but school and life seemed to get in the way!  Don't get me wrong, it was a great time of year, but now that it's January and we're back into routine and it's cold and dark, Christmas seems like a distant memory.  Maybe a few pictures will remind me of the special season when we celebrate our Saviour's birth.

We did our traditional Chocolate Covered Pretzels

We made gingerbread houses, we tried to make 5 small ones, but ahh, it didn't really fly, next year, one big one again!  Live and learn

Our 3 excited little bunnies on Christmas morning :)  In their Christmas jammies

Colie's new dolly that eats and talks, she came complete with stroller and highchair

Super pumped big kids got a DS :)

It truly was a blessed day and time of year.  We spent a great day with my family on the 25th, then another amazing day with Mark's family on the 26th, there was so much food, laughter, and good memories.

FOUR

I should have been posting this 3 days ago, but I think I've needed a few days to adjust to the idea that my BABY is four.  I kind of feel like I need to breathe into a paper bag! Has it really been 4 years since our sweet Colie came and made our family whole?

She is really such a blessing in our home, she has brought us so much joy, love and laughter in her four years.  I think if you'd look up "sweetness" in the dictionary it should say Nicole.

Baby Coco: 3 weeks

First Birthday

Second birthday

Third Birthday

Here is the Birthday Girl!

The party snacks

The treat bags for her 5 party guests.