Baking, Broken Fridge and Break Dancing!

We did our bake-a-thon on Saturday as planned. We didn't get as much done as I had hoped. The kids were home as well as Bentley so it was a bit difficult to keep them busy. Amy wouldn't go for a nap because she was so curious about what we were doing. I think part of the problem was that I kept giving her bits of chocolate and candy cane. How can I resist when she looks up and says "peas?" We got two kinds of cookies done, breton brittle and peppermint bark done. I still need to make some yummy lemon bars. Bentley made some chex mix tonight and it was good! Jake and I also made rice krispy squares with the red and green holiday rice krispies. I have to remember to pack one in his lunch or I'm in big trouble!

A couple of weeks ago the fridge was acting up. Frozen veggies and fruit on the bottom and warm milk on the top. Plus, in the freezer the ice maker wasn't working and all the ice melted inside. Since the bottom half was still very cold, it froze all the water in to a lovely ice sculpture inside the door (picture a frozen waterfall). Mr. Fix it guy should be coming this week to change the circuit board. We can't believe that a four year old fridge would break down like that already! Thank goodness we have a 20 year old Kenmore fridge in the garage to use in the meantime that is still kicking...hmmm what's wrong with that picture? Oh, well...one step closer to the fridge I really want....just need to save a bunch of money to buy it!

The last week or so has been busy with work and the baking session and the birthday party on Sunday that Jake went to. He went and learned how to break dance. All the kids put on a little demo for the parents at the end of the party. Looks like fun and could burn off some serious pent up 6 year old boy energy! He got a cd with the breakdance music on it as a party gift. Very cool.

I gathered up some donations to give to the school Christmas Bazaar. The idea is for the kids to go "shopping" at lunch time and buy gifts for their family members from all of the donated items from all the families. The money raised went to the food bank. So, what did Jake pick out? A nice blue truck and a Rescue Hero... I wonder who those are for? What a kid....

Bentley is off for a few days, so we get a bit of a break from the early morning routine. It's exhausting. It's so nice when we don't have to get the kids up at 5:45 am to get out the door on time. This week is the last week before the two week Christmas break.....only 10 days until Christmas Eve!!

I love this Christmasy time of year!

There's always so much to do. We've got the lights on the house, the decorations up, my poinsettia arrived and my cards are all waiting to be addressed. I've got a baking day planned with mom and Kristin soon. I've done some shortbread already and some lemon squares, but we have the rest to do...gotta have Breton Brittle and Candy Cane Brittle! I'll post some pictures when we make it. I am going to pack it up as gifts for the neighbors as well as keep some for us to enjoy!

I decided that I want a real tree this year. I like the smell of them and we are going to try and plant it in our yard somewhere and see if it lives! I'm thinking it won't, but we'll at least give it a try. I even have plans to do a popcorn and cranberry garland for the tree. I've never done it before but I think it might be fun. I also want to make gingerbread men to hang on the tree as ornaments....I think I am secretly hoping the kids will nibble on them and I can see the cute little teeth marks they leave behind when they think they are being sneaky:)

Jake has been practicing at school for the annual Christmas concert. It's on the 15th this year. His class is singing "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree". Can't wait to see that! He's been singing it for the last week or so.

We have a couple of Christmas parties and a birthday party this month to attend. I still have a bunch of shopping to do for both the party and Christmas. I am usually much more organized by this time, but I guess being back at work full time and having two kids instead of one make things a bit busier. I'm not stressing about it though. It always works out somehow!

Christmas cards, Coloring and Cold weather

My TinyPrints Christmas Card order arrived today! The box was on the front porch when I got home. Getting presents is fun! Even if it's not really a present and I knew what it was and had to pay for it...it's still fun! I love ordering from this company. I created and ordered the cards online and they arrived in 6 days! Sure it costs more than buying a box of Christmas cards from Walmart, but I love the personalized look to them. I realized today that the card I chose has a background called coastal breeze...I thought they were snowflakes. I think it's actually cotton blowing in the wind. Oh well..nobody will know...lol. I should be sending them out in the next couple weeks.

Amy is coloring with Jake now. She loves using crayons and is even holding it properly with her little hand. Here's some pictures:

They also have a giant pad of paper that I throw down on the living room floor with a couple of mason jars full of crayons and they color for about 30 minutes together. Pretty cute.

It's gotten cold....as far as cold goes on the coast. It was 1 degree on the way home from work today according to my car dash thermometer. It even snowed at the higher levels today making a very pretty view for the drive home. It's supposed to snow a little tomorrow as well, but then be sunny on Sunday. I guess I'll have to put up the Christmas lights that day. We might not get another day without rain before Christmas! Speaking of Christmas, I am going out with mom and Kristin tomorrow for the first Christmas-y event of the season. We are going for dinner and then to Glenda's Christmas Cottage. It smells so good in there...like mulled spices, and cider and cranberries. They have ornaments and decorations and unique gifts and things there. I'm hoping to find something for each of the kids as a keepsake. I can't wait!!

Kelly

Milestone, Matinee and Messes

Friday night Bentley and I went out for our 9th anniversary. Yep...count 'em...9 whole years. Wasn't too exciting...but we got out! Jake and Amy stayed at Grandma's house over night.

Then on Saturday, Bentley took Jake to the movies. They saw Megamind in 3D! They came home sporting some pretty stylin' 3D glasses. I really missed out! I guess that means I get to go next time! I actually enjoyed having the house to myself. Amy slept for over two hours while they were gone so I drank tea and made my Christmas photo cards and ordered them. Should be delivered soon....actually they should have arrive yesterday. I better check on that.

Sunday we just hung around the house while Bentley worked. Did mountains of laundry, cleaned a couple toilets and ignored the rest of the mess! I guess it was one of my "lazy" days. I have lazy days and then I have "shakedown" days where I go crazy dusting, cleaning, organizing and purging...there's a balance there somewhere and it all works out in the end I say...

Monday night we checked out the new SUPER walmart in Chilliwack. Pretty nice. We get one here soon too..except it's on the other side of town. I bet it'll be faster to drive to Chilliwack....

Yesterday we had a couple of minor blueberry juice disasters..let's just say carpet, Amy's favorite blanket, Jake's white school shirt and my kitchen chair were all involved in the fiasco. I said "what did I do to deserve this?" and Jake said "that's Karma mom!". Well I don't know where he came up with that one but I couldn't stop laughing. Later there was another mishap involving a freshly washed Amy, clean jammies and a jar of vaseline...do I need to say any more? It was a bad, messy night. The highlight was having chocolate cake and sparkling apple cider for our actual anniversary yesterday. Happy 9 year milestone to us!

Ahhh...must keep up with this better

Well, since I haven't posted anything in such a long time, I thought I'd just list some of the thoughts/questions that have been on my mind lately.....here we go:
1. Why did my six year old eat his eraser at school last week?
2. Should we have another baby?
3. Why do I have to ship Christmas presents to New Zealand every year for my sister's family?..they should be here!
4. Why can't fall last longer?
5. Why must I eat Halloween candy for weeks before the actual event?
6. Why do we have so much stuff? Must go through all closets and purge...soon.
7. How can I make our house more welcoming? I love comfortable, welcoming houses that smell good:)
8. Why haven't I printed more pictures? I'm so afraid of losing all my digital photos!
9. Must get a hobby...
10. Must make more effort to stay busy with the kids this winter.

Here's a couple of pictures....

I guess I will also need to learn how to take better pictures! I still haven't figured out all the neat options on my camera. There is a "night" mode, but it doesn't seem to do what I think it should. These pictures were taken at dusk behind the school. Jake wanted to throw the leaves...Amy helped out:)

Kelly

summer plans and too much stuff

i realized tonight that we haven't really done much in the last few weeks. summer is getting away from us so quickly. jake has splashed around in his little pool in the yard, he's played with a friend here or there, he went to a birthday party, and we all went to a bbq. we've gone on a few daytrips as well. We went to Bellingham and shopped a bit, we went for drive through Stanley park, and we took a drive up to the lake. every year the same thing happens, we have such great plans to pack as much fun into the summer as we can, but then we only do about half of it. i really want to take Jake camping this year, go to the lake a few times, and maybe take him on a hike. i also want to do the waterslides, Playland and Dinotown (last year for dinotown!). We'll go to the agrifair, the PNE and our favorite...the Lynden Fair....can't wait!!

i'm also looking forward to doing a "toy and clothing purge" in the next few weeks. i'm amazed at how much "stuff" we've accumulated in less than a year. it really is quite an eye opener to see all the things that we've purchased or been given, and realize that we don't even need it. one toy that was purchased after much begging from one brown eyed boy, is now broken or missing a part. another toy was "gummed" and chewed to death by a 15 month old cutie pie...not worth giving away. so many things that brought a few days or even only moments of joy..now lay haphazardly in boxes or baskets or corners of closets...forgotten and discarded. ahh consumerism...i give in way too often!! we'll see how many boxes of stuff i gather up from all the rooms of the house. hopefully it'll teach me a lesson about not buying what we don't need!

Kelly

A 6th birthday and some "just because they're cute" pictures

jake had a great time at his party on saturday. i didn't intend for it to have a theme really, but it ended up being sort of a sports inspired theme....all initiated by a few packages of half price napkins. they were printed with soccer balls, footballs and baseballs....so a theme was born. i then decided, after fruitlessly searching through four different stores, that i would make a pinata instead of buying one. i couldn't find one that fit my newfound theme and really didn't want to spend 20 dollars on something that was going to be smashed to bits anyway. have you seen those cute little monkeys and dinosaurs that they use as pinatas? i had a mildly disturbing image of ten 5 year olds beating the poor monkey senseless all for the sake of a few lollipops...needless to say, i created my own pinata. now it certainly wasn't a work of art, but the kids didn't care and it served it's purpose. even i took a swing at it and couldn't break it open. it eventually broke free from it's string so we just tore into it a flung candy like there was no tomorrow! the kids went wild and the end result was the same...good times. the cake was made by me with a little help from betty crocker and duncan hines...oh yeah..i like to cheat a little. i figured i'd keep the sports theme going and make the cake into a baseball. it was already round and white, so i just added the red stitching...and voila! baseball cake! very tasty.

The kids...dallas, jake, maddie, karson, luke, hayley, chelsea, aiden and emily:)

opening the presents

awesome star wars book

a little pin the tail on the donkey...or should i say stick the tail on the donkey:)

6 candles!

pinata...ain't it a grand masterpiece? hey it was free:)

karson was the winner of the game.

and that's how we do it...nice and simple. and thank you to the weather for not being to hot and not raining on us!

here's a few cute pictures just because they are too cute not to be shared....

APD family fun day at mill lake

our mr. jakers

Jaden and his little pouty face

chelsea and amy having some girl time....

hayley, amy and chelsea going for a ride...

oh...you don't like it when someone throws grass clippings at you? me neither!

amy doll...sweetest little face...

NZ Division visits...so far

The cousins are coming! The cousins are coming! We hear these words spoken excitedly every year by Jake as he waits for Karson, Luke and Hayley to arrive for their visit. Everyone arrived on Wednesday and here's a few pictures of the fun we've had so far since they got here:

Playing in front of the house waiting anxiously for them to arrive:)

Watching out for his little sister....

The little playhouse Grandma bought for the girls

Go Karson! Go!

Jason and Jaden

Luke and Jake shooting the rocket

Mommy and Amy playing with the wagon...she just had to stand up in it:)

Checkers!

Amy wanted to wear mommy's necklace...

She loved walking up and down the path at Grandmas:)

More pictures to come...stay tuned for our trip to the Zoo and Jake's 6th birthday party! Oh..and some pictures that have Hayley in them! Was she napping during this or what?

Kelly

Summer!

The first day of summer has arrived! But where's the sun?? I used to really dislike summer....the heat, the sweating, the stickyness, but now I look forward to it every year. I usually look forward to each season as it approaches. Summer means more to me now that I have kids. I suppose it's because there's more time in the day to do things. There's a different smell in the air and it brings back memories of my own childhood. Spending days in our bathing suits or sundresses, eating ice cream and giant freezies, fresh juicy watermelon, and drinking lemonade! The smell of sunscreen and the beach. Running barefoot in the grass all day and trying to keep it from getting in the Mr. Turtle pool as we jumped in and out of it and ran through the sprinkler for hours on end.


I hope to re-create a part of my childhood for my own kids. Or, at least create some memories for them that they will remember when they are parents themselves someday. It really is the little things that we remember most isn't it? I love the anticipation of the new season approaching. I always look at it as an opportunity to make a change. A change for the better. To do more fun activities, visit more with family and friends, learn some new things (like gardening and how to put together a swing set!!) I can't wait to see what the next few months brings!


Here's a few pictures from last summer to get us in the mood!




Waterslides!



Dinotown! Rowing with Grandma!

Sliding! Backyard pool.

Mmmm...Lime snowcone at the Agrifair.



Sweet baby girl...:)



Awww I love sleeping babies in the summertime...




Fresh, hot buttered corn at the Lynden Fair!


Slurpee at the PNE!



Ferris Wheel at Dusk...Playland 2009.

Waiting in line for a ride at Playland:)




Fisgard Lighthouse....one of my new favorite places to visit.





Beacon Hill Park Petting Zoo, Victoria, BC




Summer Sunset....

Kelly

The 5 year old way...

I think it's so funny how a five year old thinks. I bought a little pool for the kids to play in in our yard. I set it up and filled it. It was on a bit of a slope, which I couldn't tell until the water was in it. So of course, the water was deeper on one side than the other. Well, Jake just couldn't have that! So he kept getting the hose, turning it on and trying to fill the "shallow" end of the pool. I didn't even bother trying to explain it to him. I started to, but then realized he thought he was being smart by topping up the water on the one side, so I let him carry on.

A little while later, a jet flew over. He said "I'm going to splash it!". So, he scooped up the water and flung it up into the air. It came down all over him and he just wiped the water out of his eyes, blinked at me and said "did I hit it?" Again, I didn't have the heart to explain it to him that there was no possible way the water would reach that high. He looked so proud of himself for getting that water so high in the air I just said "yes Jake, you soaked that plane!" He looked pretty happy about that.

Later on, I was having a power nap on the couch (not planned) and when I woke up I realized I had fallen asleep with my feet crossed over each other on the ottoman. I couldn't even bend one of my ankles it hurt so bad! Jake just walked over to me, bent down and said "Here mommy, I'll kiss it better. Where does it hurt?". So cute...what a little man....:)

Amy was in the pool too today. She loved it. She kept trying to climb the slide. She has no fear. She even climbed the ladder without much help. She's so strong and determined! We are amazed at how smart she is too. She knows how to put her shoes on already, and can even get one arm into a coat! She's so cute...she's just a doll.

We're looking forward to Jennifer, KC and the kids visit in a week or so. Jake loves to see his cousins!!

K

50 years, Yard Work, and parents' day off!

I had a little BBQ for Bentley a couple weeks ago for his birthday. He turned 50! We had some food in the backyard and had a few friends and family over. I am realizing now how small my family is, and how far away all of Bentley's family is! We wish we could have spent it together, but he got a phone call and happy birthday wishes from everyone....very nice! I'll be planning a little party for Jake's 6th birthday next!

Bentley and I finally have a weekend off together coming up! Since he works Sunday to Thursday and I work Monday to Friday, we only ever get Saturday off together. Well, I took Friday and Monday off and he took Sunday and Monday off so we will have a four day weekend together for the first time in a long time....not counting my maternity leave of course. So we tossed around a bunch of different ideas about what we were going to do on our long weekend. Daytrip to Bellingham? Overnight in Seatttle? Maybe Vancouver? What did we decide? You guessed it...yard work. It has to be done. Bentley has got a good start on it. He and our neighbor shoveled about 10 yards of topsoil into the yard today. Bentley then smoothed it out with a board and then rolled over it with a heavy roller that he rented. Then he seeded it! Hopefully we will have a nice lawn where a stinky pond used to be! I can't wait to see how the grass grows. This weekend we will just have to seed a couple of other small areas, move some trees and plants, and plot out where we are going to build a patio. Who knew owning a house was this much work? Once it's all done it won't be so bad. The majority of the work will be done, and it'll all be minor maintenance after that. We're also going to be getting a swing set for the kids. Bentley doesn't think we should, and I do....I wonder who'll win that one...:)

So our Mr. Jakers is almost done Kindergarten. Only one more month to go! He got a visit from a firetruck today at school. He just thought that was the coolest! He got to sit inside the truck and learned all about fire safety. We now have to plan out an escape route! He just loves school. I am glad for that. It makes it so much easier when they are eager to go and are excited about learning. He is quite a challenge right now though. I think this age is harder than any age so far....terrible twos/threes was nothing compared to this!! Temper tantrums and defiance all day long....how many time outs can one kid get in day? The neighbors must think we're awful....Pretty soon he'll have no toys left either...lol. Everytime he behaves inappropriately, we take something away. It is exhausting...but hopefully will be worth it in the long run.

Amy is walking...and practically running sometimes too. My favorite thing to watch her do is carry something while she's walking. I love it when she carries her sippy cup around under her arm...just keeping it close in case she needs a sip! She is just the cutest little thing....and very loud! She is always screaming and can say quite a few words. She is proving to be a real girly-girl. She tries to put her own shoes and socks on, she likes to brush her hair and she looooves to talk on the phone. She puts it to her ear and says "Ello?, Hi! Hi! Bye Bye!" We just love both of them to bits!

Time flies!

I can't believe how fast Amy's first year went. She is pretty much walking now. She still crawls a little if it's easier to get where she's going, but she's walking most of the time. She can even walk while holding a large item in her hands...which I think is just adorable! She can also get into a standing position now without using a piece of furniture to pull up with. She just puts her hands down on the floor and pushes herself up. She has 6 teeth and her hair is starting to get curly at the ends. It's actually looking a bit like a mullet right now, but I don't want to start cutting it yet. I think I'll let it get longer first and then tame it from there. She's just the cutest little thing! We love her to bits! She says "Hi!" when you walk into the room and says "Hello?" if the phone rings (or even if you're just holding the phone, for that matter). She says bye bye, night night, mama, dada, brother, baby, puppy (and will make a barking sound if you ask her what a puppy says). We think she's the smartest baby alive!! Ha ha...of course we do.

Jake is student of the month at school. He was a very good listener at school the last few weeks. We are so proud of him. I'm amazed at how fast the school year has gone. Jake did really well on his second term report card and his teacher says he's doing great! I can't believe that in two months, Kindergarten will be over forever! (sniff sniff). He loves to play outside and can't wait to go knock on the neighbors' doors to see who can play. We've had to limit this a little as I think he was forgetting he has his own home. I guess everyone else just has cooler stuff than us!

The backyard pond is now just a big disgusting hole. The previous owner came and removed all the water and equipment for us. We have a guy coming with an excavator next week to fill in the hole and level the yard out. We'll have to let it settle and then we'll plant some grass. I want to get a swing set out there for the kids and just make it more kid friendly. Hopefully Jake will want to play at home more often. I'm still not giving in on the video game issue. I don't think a 5/6 year old needs to sit and play video games. He has one racing game for his Wii and the sports games that came with it, but he's only allowed to play once in a while and for no more than an hour. I just think he can find better things to do! Now if we could just get Daddy off the couch a little more often...we'd be good. I must admit though, I do enjoy my tv time...but there's a big world out there beyond the couch!

Jake has stopped going to TaeKwonDo. It was too expensive and he wasn't really excited to go anymore. He liked it, but not enough to make it worth $110/month. We'll start swimming soon and play outside this summer a lot and see what he wants to try in the fall.

Time for bed...5am comes early and I have a bad headache that only sleep can cure...:)

First Day Back to Work!

So we survived the first day of me going back to work and the kids going to daycare. Everything went really well! The only problem was that I forgot my lunch and had to drive back home and get it. Luckily I had left a few "spare" minutes "just in case" and turned out that I needed them! Got the kids to the sitter only a couple of minutes late and got to work on time!!

Amy did great. She didn't cry when I left her and she didn't cry much all day. She even took both of her naps without fussing. Phew! She's the best!! Jake loves it there, so he was no problem. He's very sweet. He's always trying to get Amy to laugh and cheer her up. He's the best big brother ever!

Work was good. It was like I never left. I had my desk all set back up in about an hour and just started working again. It was pretty good.

Bentley picked the kids up from the sitter, came home and made a delicious chicken teriyaki dinner and we all piled into the car to get Jake to Tae Kwon Do by 6:00. We stopped for ice cream on the way home to reward ourselves for the successful first day we had. Once we got home I bathed the kids, Bentley did all the dishes and we were able to relax! I think this is going to work out just fine. Let's just hope it keeps going this smoothly...ahh who am I kidding? I'm sure all our days won't be like this!!

Anybody out there?

So, I'm not sure if anyone actually reads my blog. That's ok. It's nice to have a place to write stuff and then in the future take a look back at what I wrote. I go back to work exactly one week from today. I'm amazed at how fast the last 13 months went. My little baby is 11 months old today and will soon be a toddler!! She's still so small and baby-like it's hard to believe she's not really a baby any more. We have to do a couple more visits at daycare this week to make sure she feels comfortable there. I really hope she doesn't get upset and cry all day!! Jake was much easier to start at daycare. He never went through any separation anxiety. Amy seems to have that a little. She cries whenever anyone other than a handful of people hold her. I'll have to start looking for a daycare here in our community. It will be much easier to drop them off close to home and have someone walk Jake to school instead of driving 10 minutes each way. There should be a lot of stay-at-home moms in the neighborhood that can take the kids. I don't like change.......

Something Funny

I was reading Jake a book earlier and on each page there was a different animal and a caption that said "Run, said the Elephant" or "Run, said the Gorilla". It's supposed to help him learn the word "run" and "said" etc...well he decided that he wanted to read it to me instead, so I let him go through each page. He gets to the page with the Cheetah on it and he yells "Run, Cheeto run!". I couldn't stop laughing!!! Then he couldn't stop laughing..he really didn't realize what he said. It was too funny. Maybe in the back of his mind he knew that if a Cheeto laid around too long, I would eat it!! Ha ha ha...

Cutting Hair

Does anyone else cut their kids hair at home? It seems to be a major battle every time we try this. I've always found it easier to cut Jake's hair myself. We just shave it and it's neat and tidy and easy to do. That is, if he lets us do it!! He practically has a meltdown at the mention of the words "let's go cut your hair". Early on I discovered that part of his fear was that he though his ears were going to get cut off. After I told him he could hold his ears down so they wouldn't get in the way, he was ok with it. Then he started saying that it was hurting him. Little did I know that the shaver I was using was actually pulling on his hair (although daddy uses it and it doesn't pull his hair...hmmmm). So we bought a new trimmer for him for Christmas thinking he would be excited about it being new and not pulling at his hair, but no. Still freaks out at the thought of it. I've bribed him with popsicles, candy, suckers, extra long baths and even let him have the whole bag of mini marshmallows while I was cutting and still...he cries and screams. I wouldn't mind his hair getting long except that it seems to be very thick and it gets super bushy looking. His face appears smaller and smaller as the weeks go by....well sort of...ha ha ha. I don't really want to start taking him to a barber because I figure he'll do the same thing there. Maybe I'll give it a try and see what happens! I guess we have to pick our battles wisely and this one just isn't really worth fighting!! Maybe when he starts to look like a girl, he'll be a little more willing.

Valentine's Day

Here's daddy with his valentine's day present. Jake decorated it and wrote daddy's name....


Opening the present....




Hooray...a metal sign for the garage!!