Laundry Helpers

Today I am attempting to get some of the laundry done. Attempting.

Here is Sweet Olivia "helping" me in the laundry room.And here is my darling boy Owen helping me fold. He was so cute and so proud of himself for being such a good helper.
With all these helpers I should get the laundry done sometime in the next... year or so... maybe.

how about that?

Here's the thing...

the laundry won't actually get DONE if I don't actually DO it.

Tragic isn't it?

New Bunk Beds

We got our boys bunk beds and we set them up today. I think they both really like them. They have a pretty small room but it seems a lot bigger now. We also put their lego table (that my husband made them) in their room. Hopefully that will help keep the small legos away from Olivia and out of choking hazard range.


It took forever for the boys to fall asleep tonight because they were so excited about their new bed. Aiden is on the top bunk and Owen is on the bottom bunk because Owen is the one who tends to fall out of bed. Of course the top bunk has safety rails so in theory everyone should be safe!

Now all we have to do is get the rest of the house in order.

Good luck.

Random Christmas Ramblings

So I brought Olivia for her one year shots a few days before Christmas. This was not the smartest move on my part. They told me that she MIGHT have a delayed reaction 5 - 10 days after the shots.

She is.

Wow. My poor daughter is miserable. And super clingy.

Fortunately it shouldn't last long. I hope.

There is no way I could possibly describe all the Christmas happenings at our house without boring you all to pieces so I shall just sum up:

*We are all very thankful for all the amazing stuff we got.
*Owen got cowboy boots and is thrilled with them.
*Aiden got a lot of lego and is very happy.
*Aiden and Owen alternate between playing very happily together and fighting like crazy. Which in turn drives me crazy.
*Olivia got a little people doll house which she is enjoying. But for the most part she really enjoyed the boxes the most.
*We got given several annoying loud toys that I hate. Thanks Grandma.
*Shadow spent a good portion of Christmas tearing apart wrapping paper and cardboard. Crazy cat.
*We were given some money and on boxing day we bought the boys bunk beds for $98! We have not put them together yet though. We are simply too exhausted.
*I was given a gift certificate for a clothing store and I bought lovely clothes that fit and I am very happy! But I will NEVER EVER EVER try to go clothing shopping for myself with my sons. EVER AGAIN.
*My house is a mess.
*We have lots of leftover food.
*We were given TONS of lovely things.
*I forgot a load of laundry in the washing machine on Christmas eve and when I found it yesterday it smelled like icky mold. Yummy.
*I talked to my friend Colleen on the phone on Christmas and it was a great relief to hear her sounding so upbeat after the tragedy she has endured this past year.

So all in all I would say it has been a lovely Christmas.

Now back to normal life.

My kids are loud.
Really loud.
And apparently incapable of being quiet.

Why? Why can't they just BE QUIET? Or play downstairs in the PLAY room where they could be as loud as they like without waking up their grumpy sister? Why?

I could use some cleaning angels about now

I WANT to tell you all about the fabulous Christmas we had here.

I WANT to sit and enjoy the new computer software my husband got me.

I WANT to lounge around and bask in the afterglow of my 32nd birthday.

But I can't.

My house is in complete chaos.

How is it possible for one holiday to create so much mess?

I am pretty sure it will take me HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS to clean up this disaster area.

I'm gonna need some more tea.

Christmas Angels

The most amazing thing happened to us tonight... while we were at the Christmas Eve service at church Christmas Angels visited our house!

We walked into our living room and there were dozens of presents waiting for us- presents that we had not expected and had NO idea where they came from! The boys thought Santa had come early... and for a minute I wondered about it too!

As it turns out our family was randomly selected from the pastor's in our district to receive this amazing Christmas blessing. My friends and my mom have been hiding this secret from us for months apparently.

So we get to have two Christmas present openings this year... one tonight and one tomorrow.

We got TONS of stuff...I covered our love seat with all the clothes we were given... full outfits for the boys and for Olivia, several pairs of handmade mittens and socks and hats.... loads of clothes.
And I covered our couch with all the other stuff we got... toys for the kids, books for Doug and I, DVD's, CD's, table clothes, towels, a new iron, games, a beautiful nativity set (which I have been wanting for ages!), toiletries, food stuff, just tons and tons of stuff.

It was amazing.

We feel so very blessed.

So to our Christmas Angels... thank-you for the wonderful surprise blessings this Christmas Eve!!!!

Uncle Phil and Aunt Erica are visiting

Uncle Phil and Aunt Erica are visiting us from Saskatoon today. They stayed over last night and the boys were SO excited to have them here.

Here is Uncle Phil playing with the boys.And here is Aunt Erica bonding with Olivia.
And the happy as-of-yet-childless couple...
Olivia giving a toy to Uncle Phil.
Uncle Phil bonding with Olivia.
We are really enjoying their visit.

Aunt Erica helped me wrap presents last night while Doug and Phil watched some sort of sporting event on TV. Shadow tried to destroy the wrapping paper as we wrapped... crazy cat.

TOMORROW IS CHRISTMAS DAY!!!! YAHOOOO!!! It is also my 32nd birthday tomorrow.

32 is how old my mom was when she had me.

When I was younger 32 seemed very old. Now... not so much. It's all about perspective.

Yesterday at church we were given some gifts "to the Pastor and his family" from "the church family"... they were great. The boys and Doug got cool new t-shirts. Owen is especially pleased with his because it has a dinosaur on it. They also got some finger puppets of "the Pirates who don't do Anything" from Veggie Tales. Olivia got some super adorable clothes. Doug got a t-shirt and a new "cool" toque... which he looks pretty funny in. Perhaps I shall try and post a picture of it soon. And I got the best gift of all- a gift certificate to go clothes shopping!!! YAY!!! We have a wonderful church family and I have wonderful friends.

Right now Olivia is taking her nap and the boys went to play in the snow with Phil & Erica and Doug... the house is blissfully quiet.

I really love silence.

My goal for today is to take a shower and keep the house from looking like a bomb went off. I just REALLY want to wake up to a clean house tomorrow morning. There is just something so wrong about waking up to a messy house on your birthday.

Erica and Phil have both commented that they think the boys have grown-up a lot this past year. Especially Aiden. That is very encouraging to hear. I mean, I think so but I am biased and I see them every day. So to hear it from someone else, who doesn't see them all the time, is nice.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas Eve...

Oh how I love Christmas!

He-who-shall-remain-nameless

There are certain things that I assume. Wrongly.

I assume that when my daughter pukes all over me and most of the living room that I can rely on a certain other grown-up that I live with to instinctively KNOW what needs to be done. I will clean the baby up. I will clean myself up. I will calm the screaming infant down. I will change the child into new, non-puked on clothing. I will change the child's diaper. I will rock the screaming, puking infant to sleep.

I assumed... wrongly... that SOMEONE would wipe up the puke on the floor.

Nope.

Apparently SOMEONE decided to throw some tea towels over the puke on the carpet and "let it dry out".

It would seem that I am the only one in my household who knows that DRIED ON puke is a million times harder to clean out of already compromised carpet than it would be to simply wipe clean while it is still "fresh".

So gross.

Sweet as a rose

She looks so innocent doesn't she?
But don't be fooled. My sweet princess puked all over me and all over our carpet. 4 times. It was seriously disgusting.

On the up side I think whatever it was that made her sick is gone. She seems just fine now.

If only I could get the stench of puke out of my carpet all would be well and maybe MY stomach would stop churning.

Beautiful

Here is Daddy and Olivia spending some quality time together...
Olivia is rather obsessed with sticking her tongue out right now. She is so funny.

She got her one year old shots this past week and she is rather miserable at times... but tylenol helps. I sure hope she feels great on Christmas day!

Olivia and the Pumpkin Pie

I love pumpkin pie. Love it. It is one of my favourite part of the holidays. My mom and I will usually buy a pie from the grocery store (I don't make pumpkin pie from scratch... way too much work) and share it for several days prior to Christmas.

The other night we shared some with Olivia.


She really enjoyed it... especially the whipped cream! Isn't she the most adorable little girl? Even with whipped cream and pumpkin pie all over her face!

Christmas Present from Aiden

This is my sweet 5 year old son Aiden.This is the wonderful Christmas present he made for us in his kindergarten class.
And this is the adorable card he made.
AND HE WROTE IN IT ALL BY HIMSELF!!!!
I LOVE it.

LOVE it.

Someone be proud of me.

I worked SO hard today.

Seriously.

I wrapped presents (not done yet though). I cleaned the ENTIRE main floor of my home- including the floors. I put away the six tonnes of clean laundry I had sitting in baskets in the hallway. I did several loads of new laundry. I picked up all the dirty clothes off everyones floor to restock my laundry room floor (wouldn't want to let the store of dirty clothes get too low... I might think I had free time). I vacuumed. I scrubbed. I cleaned my toilet. I disinfected the area around my toilet because my boys apparently lack the ability to AIM consistently. I even hand-washed 3 shirts.

I am completely and utterly exhausted.

My mom came over to watch the kids while I was on my whirlwind of cleaning. I never could have accomplished even a fraction of what I did if I had to watch the kids too.

I find it SO frustrating to try and clean whilst getting interrupted every fifteen seconds and having to do a million things at once. I am really not that good of a multi-tasker when it comes to cleaning.

I may not be able to move tomorrow morning. Every single part of my body is sore and tired. You'd think I had run a marathon or something. Which, if you know me at all, is as likely as the sky turning to silver and the snow turning an lovely shade of pink. Highly unlikely.

My only wish is that it would STAY clean for just a little while. Wouldn't that be lovely?

Owen's Christmas Concert

Last night was my son Owen's pre-kindergarten Christmas concert. No matter how hard I tried I could NOT convince him to dress up so he was the only kid there in a dirty t-shirt and jeans. Oh well. He almost refused to go up on stage at all (he refused last year) but I was so proud of him- he went up on stage and stayed there the whole time. That was a HUGE deal for him. The poor child was so scared he literally messed his pants. Half the time he looked like he was going to burst out crying. But he didn't . I'm so proud of him.Owen is the boy in the back row with his head hanging down, beside the little girl in the pink dress. Notice all the other kids singing and doing actions? Not Owen. He didn't sing a single note the entire concert. But he did STAY on stage.


Aiden was a complete terror during the concert. He ran to the front and sat down at the feet of Mrs. Armstrong (in the off-white suit) because she was his teacher's assistant last year... and he adores her. But of course he couldn't sit still so I ended up sitting on the floor with him so he wouldn't distract the kids on stage.This is the whole class posing for pictures after the concert. There are only 3 girls in the class, now that Owen's friend Kylie has moved away. I think the teacher, Miss. Hauser (in the brown dress) is very brave to spend every day with all those boys!
Olivia was SO good- especially considering she got her 1 year old shots yesterday afternoon. She wandered around with Grandma following closely behind. She got a lot of smiles.


And here is my sweet Owen AFTER the concert was over. Oh he was so relieved to be off that stage!


His teacher took time to tell him she was proud of him and I really appreciated that. Encouragement does wonders!
After the concert was done Aiden put his neck-warmer on and pretended to be a ninja and ran around like a crazy kid... luckily several of the other kids were running around too so he had plenty of play-mates.All in all I think it went very well.

The Long Walk to School

Each morning I walk one or both of my sons to school. We only live a couple blocks from the school. The walk should take about 4 minutes. But I have noticed that my boys can make this short walk last a VERY long time.

First we stop to look at the pretty frost on the trees.Then we have to climb up every pile of snow that we see. Owen will then chant "I'm the king of the castle and mommy's the dirty rascal".

Then we practice our balance.
Then we jump. We jump a lot.

Then we tromp through the "high" snow making as many footprints as possible.Oh look... we can SEE the schools doors... almost there...

Now we make more footprints in the "school snow" and spend some time looking at the trees.We avoid all the cleared sidewalks at all cost. We MUST walk in as much snow as possible.

And we arrive finally at the right side of the school. Of course we have to take one final look around outside at the snow covered play ground.And then mommy walks home by herself in the quiet again admiring the beautiful frost covered trees.

The walk home takes considerably less time.

Supreme Dictator

On Sunday we had the kid's Christmas concert at church. It was very cute. My boys barely participated... Owen stood completely still without singing a single note for one whole song. Aiden stayed on the stage throwing "baby Jesus" up in the air but also not singing. It was actually pretty funny to watch. I was proud of them for participating at all.
My mom gave Olivia the cutest little Santa-type Christmas dress. She wore it on Sunday and I thought she looked adorable... as usual :)

Owen isn't feeling too well this week. He is rather whiny and has a stuffy nose still from his brutal cold last week. Sunday night he coughed so hard that he threw up all over his bed- and didn't even wake up. Poor kid. Asthma really sucks.
Olivia is feeling much better now though which I am grateful for. She is still pretty clingy but has stopped crying constantly now. Oh the wonders of prescription medications. I hope that she never gets another ear infection in her life!

After church we had to wait around for Doug to have a meeting. Owen spent a good portion of this time hiding under a table in the back of the sanctuary. I thought he looked very handsome in an outfit he picked out for himself from Wal-Mart (I love Wal-Mart). He even wore a little tie. He actually likes to get dressed up sometimes.
Olivia is walking so well now. And climbing. Lots of climbing.
Aiden hates getting dressed up. Everything "itches" him. Part of his sensory issues. So I try to find soft fabrics for him to wear. He was super mad at me for making him try this outfit on but I promised him it wouldn't itch. It is all cotton, no tags, etc. He finally tried it on after much stress and found it was actually comfy. Sheesh. But I was very proud of him for participating so well in the concert.

My husband gave me a beautiful outfit for my birthday and I wore it (a little early) on Sunday. I figured all the kids looked so cute I might as well try and look presentable. And then during the very last few minutes we were at church I managed to split a seam in my brand new pants. I really hate being fat.

Anyway, as soon as I got home I changed into my jammies because I was so distraught that I had broke my pants. Doug had wanted to try and get a couple nice pictures of us all in our fancy duds but he had to make do with me in jammies and the kids looking spiffed up.Today I have been trying to convince Owen to help me make the cards he insists I make for the kids in his class. I keep telling him that they are HIS friends so HE has to colour Sponge Bob or whatever in them. He is very stressed about this.

I told him we could skip the cards but he also is not ok with that idea.

Apparently he is trying out for the role of supreme dictator of the universe and doing a mighty fine job if I do say so myself.