MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry christmas to our family and friends. you might be wondering how we can post tofay with it being the actual day of christmas, but we have nothing going on. thats right, we are actually very lucky to have no gatherings and events on this normally crazy holiday.

the kids were up EARLY this morning after little sleep. and they are certainly showing it now. they love their presents and while they nap, thats when things really get going around here. the toys need to be taken out of their insane wrapping. god forbid that the toys move at all in their boxes....

there are dinos,houses,hannahs and lola all over the house. and more trucks than i can count. the kids will have a ball later playing with everything.

and even some of the kids toys will work well for Jason and I. i bet i can kick his butt at dancing to "its a small world"
thanks to auntie tara and uncle dave. we'll call you in a couple days to thank you for the great gifts. and bubyb sandy and grandpa lenny, we'll call you as soon as we pick up the package at the post office......

well i have to go, this house won't fill itself with toys, and we need to be ready since tonight is a quiet movie and chinese night.... thats right, we are having chinese on christmas. for those of you tsking me, my mother has already sone that for all of you.

lots of love from all of us to all of you......

xoxoxo

reindeer food

so it didn't take me long to find what i wanted(thank you google) i thought some of you might like to do this too.

MAGIC REINDDER FOOD

Ingredients:

1/2 cup regular oats (such as Quaker Oats).
1 Tbsp. clear decorative sugar crystals, 1 Tbsp. red or green decorative sugar crystals, or 1 tsp. glitter.

Instructions:

1.Mix oats and sugar (or glitter) together in a small zip-top bag.
2.On Christmas Eve, let your kids sprinkle their Magic Reindeer food on the lawn to help entice Santa's reindeer. They can then go to sleep, confident in the knowledge that Santa's sleigh will most certainly find its way to their house and that Santa's reindeer will receive a nice reward for their efforts.

wow

you know, when i had kids i never thought that for christmas i would be wrapping up two bags of CHEWRIFFIC dog treats and have them under the tree with the rest of the family's gifts.
just goes to show you, prioritites in life can change in an instant, and if your kids want the puppies to unwrap their "gifts" with them than you will make it happen.

oh yeah, i have to get a receipe for reindeer food too. Haley heard there was such a thing that you can make on TV and now shw thinks the reindeer will be hungry delivering gifts too.....

how time flies

you'll notice at the side of the blog that the photo of the family has been changed. that means all your cards should have been received and we are hung up on your fridges or some other location in your homes.

we hope you enjoy them, believe me, it is ALOT of work to get them, mostly on the part of our photographer.
the kids have grown so much this last year, and if you still have our card from lst year, you may or may not notice it for yourselves....

only a year ago haley was in kindergarten just getting the hang of going to school and learning new things. she was making new friends and becoming a big girl. this year she has grown, is learning to read, and telling us all about science and math and other things that are important to her. and is getting to be very mature with her younger siblings(most of the time). she is maturing everyday and showing us how quickly time flies.

this time last year sarah was just a toddler and just starting to talk. never did i think that in one short year she would be in her first year of JK telling me of all the things she is learning. she is independant and head strong, but loving and caring. she has many friends at school and has become a friend to her sister as well.

matthew was just our baby. he wasn't walking, talking or performing any major feats. of course he has changed the most this year. how could he not. he is talking more and more everyday, he not only walks, but runs, and loves to climb on anything that he can. he is loving and totally in awe of his older sister and what they are doing. if you ever want to find him, ask the girls where they are and matty will be close behind them.

as i said before, the kids have grown in many ways over the last year. height and weight might not be at the top of the list, but you know what they say.


big things come in little packages!

just an update

this just in.........the snow is finally starting to arrive and it is COLD.........that is all

can you feel it yet?

christmas is really close now! you know with it being DECEMBER 1st and all! around here it's kind of hard to tell since we have no snow, and the weather hasn't dipped below -10 here during the day yet either. i'm not complaining, i'm just saying, for some it might not feel christmasy for them yet. it will for us after tonight though. we inflate the santa in the front yard, and turn on our new twiggy lights in the front garden. and the house will be decked out in santas,snowmen and a some other holiday favorites.

and right now, every time we leave the house matthew says "bye santa" while he is just flopped onto the ground, i can't wait to see his face when the whole thing is up at night. we might have to pry his little fingers away from the window, just to get him to come and eat or sleep or bathe......

we are putting up the "gift tree" soon and the presents are all wrapped already so it will be fun holding the kids back for another month before they can touch anything. at least they can open up their hanukkah gifts in two weeks. that should hopefully satisfy them a little longer.

oh yeah, and since it is officially december now, we can start by doing our favorite holiday activities, looking at the lights, getting a real tree for upstairs, giving the kids their advent chocolate every morning (did you know they make cars,hannah montana, and tinkerbell ones now...just in case thats what you like)and enjoying the time we have to do all those fun activities and more

don't let teh scrooges out there ruin your spirit with their bad parking, mean tempers and sneaky line cutting..... they might be getting coal on the 25th.

see you soon!

kids

ok here was another cutie thing that was said in our house today.... again by sarah ( oh, the other two are cute too.....)

"daddy, you forgot your blueberry at home today!" translation: blueberry=blackberry.

how sweet they are!

poor boy

good thing christmas is coming up, matthew has been walking around the house for the last hour with high heeled princess shoes on, carrying a purse..........

in camoflauge pyjamas none the less.

holiday pictures!!!

as you all know this is the time of year that we take our yearly family photos that we use for the cards we send to family and friends.

i picked them up last week.

there is one with the 5 of us in it, but i am waitin guntil the cards go out, so that it will be a surprise. the others were extras that i had him take. i needed an update of the 3 kids anyway. none had been taken since matty was 4 months old!

school updates

just a quick note to let you all know. Haley and Sarah had their first parent teacher interviews of the year this morning. it was proven today that they are officially my children.
of course i knew that already. in technical terms of course.

no, what i mean is that sitting there at the meeting, i finally understood what my parents were hearing about me all those years. my kids are very social. VERY social. in Sarah's case that is a great thing. i mean the whole purpose of junior kindergarten is to develop social attitudes. she is "one popular little girl" according to her teacher.

now Haley is also very social but in her case she is a little too social. it's great to have lots of friends, i admit. recess would be very sad if she was lonely. no Haley doesn't wait for recess to come along to talk talk talk, she does it at all times.

my teachers used to say the same thing about me. i was the social butterfly. i even had a teacher ask me how i could hear what my friends were saying to me, because i was talking at the same time.
let's face it, anyone who knows me to this day will tell you i talk alot, i always have. and it appears that out of all the things my children could have inherited from me, they seem to be inheriting the worst ones........they do look a lot like me though, and let's face it, i am the cute parent!

new season, new blog

well the Holiday season is officially upon us, so i decided to make up the blog to reflect that. now i know that there is over a month to go before Christmas, but there are surprisingly very few winter songs that are not christmas related, so all the songs have a festive feel to them. and in honor of the fact that the blog would not exist if I had no children, all the songs are disney based too.

here's to hoping your shopping is coming along nicely (i know mine is) and that everyone remembers what the holiday season is really about......... no matter which holiday you celebrate!

oh, and remember, there is nothing more festive then one of the really yummy drinks at starbucks this time of year.......peppermint latte or caramel apple spice anyone???

childhood memories in the making

i know it will be a little long to watch, but i couldn't resist posting these short videos of the kids. everyone will remember doing this as a kid. and hopefully happy memories will return to you....

enjoy

big boy bed!!

thats right, Matty is officially a big boy now.

we made his crib into a day bed yesterday, my little man is growing up so fast.
he didn't like it much at first, but i am happy to say that he stayed in his bed the whole time, no rumming around was involved(at least not much).

my poor little guy did fall out twice last night, but that was a bad mommy fault. i needed to pick up a new side rail for the bed. i did it this morning, and he is happily napping as i type in his now-safe bed.

here are a few pictures of the proud little man.


btw, i have some cute video of the kids from this past weekend, and as soon as i can get Jason to upload the video, i can post it for all to see!

husbands....

can i just say that i think everyone should get a husband, or an equilavent there of.
since Jason is working soooooooo late most nights, that leaves me home alone with the kids ALOT! since i am a stay at home mom, i realize that that is bound to happen, but none the less, it can still make you veryyyyyy tired when it happens in the evenings too.

anyway, on to why husbands are great.
last night Jason surprised me with a night out without the kids. we were able to go to costco and have no one asking for many samples, we were able to walk through the mall, with no one asking for treats.... with all the asking for food , you would think that i have huge children, but we all know that to be untrue. but i digress from the original though of the day. anyway after we walked alone, we went out for a great dinner of sushi(veggie only for me) and enjoyed the relaxing night.
now the service took forever, but at least the food was yummy, and maybe the restaurant somehow knew that we were childless and wanted to savour the time out as much as possible....... i doubt it, but one can hope.



oh yeah, and everyone should have a younger brother or sister too. they are the ones who come over , even at the last minute, and make the nights out a possibility in the first place!
Thanks Bear!!!!!

happy halloween!!!!

ok, so i know it is already November 1st, but come on, halloween pooped me out too much to post last night.



the kids had a great time going door to door. and the haul this year was great. for kids and mommies alike ;) there are quite a few pictures to show, but i think they are all cute, so i couldn't help myself.


it's amazing how quickly it passes. i have already taken down the decorations, and we are going to take away the pumpkins and the inflatble montrosity that we have in the front yard later this evening


enjoy.......

















clarifying in case your not sure. Jason and i went out as pirates. Haley was Hannah montana, sarah was minnie mouse, and matty was a monkey.
they helped clean out their own pumpkins, and matty had the most fun of them all!!

we hope you had a great halloween, and remember not to eat all the candy at once, or you'll have an upset tummy :(

things we do when we think no one is looking,...

this was just to good to pass up showing!

pumpkin time!

ok so not the carving of the pumpkin time....yet. it's too early and they might rot, and then what fun would they be then??

no no, we went and picked the kids pumpkins this afternoon. there is a little farmer's place we go to every year. it never takes us long, so the kids can't get tired looking for the perfect one. let's face it, the perfect one at their ages is the first one.


except for sarah this year, she was determined to get a small pumpkin because as she puts it "i am small". any one who has seen her will atest to that fact, so it took us a little longer this year to pick the bad boys of fall, but we finally got it done, and even matty had fun running down the greenhouse looking around.

so here they are picking them out, and later this week after we carve them out (anyone have a minnie mouse stencil for pumkpins out there???), i will post the kids proudly showing off their halloween staples.

and of course i will have pictures of the kids and Jason and i in costume, maybe even a few pictures of the decorated living room

wish me luck today

well, today is only Thursday and the kids are already finished school for the week. that means that for the next two days(really four but those last two, Jason is home) i have to entertain the kids enough to stop them from arguing every minute of the day.

you see, Haley thinks it is hysterical to tell Sarah no about things that are so trivial just to watch Sarah go crazy in a tantrum until i come and in and say Haley leave your sister alone. and i you think she is a victim in this, then your wrong. you see, Sarah thinks it is funny to do the exact same thing to Matty that Haley does to her.. the cycle goes on and on and on.

and no, one would think that Matty is Innocent, but he too is guilty of driving his mommy batty (Halloween coming and all, i thought the term was appropriate) he gets his jollys climbing on things he shouldn't, following his sisters around the house until they get annoyed and come to me, and the best part, chasing the dogs around until they finally just run away and stay hidden until he goes for a nap.

Jason doesn't always see that in them since he is at work all day, and when he comes home it's like a novelty so they behave at least for a little while.

as i said, please wish me luck, and if the candy rings and easy bake cookies that the kids make late today turn out, well i will just have to post the pictures to show off their skills :)

they have arrived

the pictures of the girls that i had taken a few weeks ago have finally arrived!!

this is just a quick post to share them with friends and family. i have some other poses of them too, but we don't want to overcrowd the blog, now do we.

i think considering that they gave each other haircuts 1 hour prior to the appointment, then photos look great. but then again, i am biased as they are mine!

life

at what point does it get sad that our children have better social lives then we do??

i think i am nearing that point quite rapidly in life. as i write this, the kids have just come home from school, are eating dinner, and we have to be out the door in one hour to make it to swimming on time.
if this were the only day of the week, it would be nothing, but on mondays and tuesdays we have soccer and/or dance. that makes three days a week we are out for the kids.

then just in the last week, we have been to or invited to 6 birthday parties. they are even getting more parties then i am. lets not forget the playdates that are popping up, and those are just at random with only a day or so's notice.

i remenber when my social life was like that. plans made on the fly, friends with birthday parties you couldn't miss.
it has all ended for us in this house, Jason and I are now slaves to the busy bees that are our children, and you know what, i am so tired at the end of the day, but it is all worth it to see them when i pick them up from a friend's, or when they wake up in the morning and i inform them of their evening activities.

i guess we'll get a life when they grow up and have kids of thei own, i'm only 28, i still have time when that happens. unless of course the grandkids come soon after, then i will be right there all over again.

besides who wants to spend their time with an old man anyways :)

SNOW!

ok, so the fact that i posted a couple days ago is not lost on me at all, but i thought that you would all like to see what we went to bed seeing last night. we were supposed to expect about 5 cm of the white stuff, and we got it all.

nice huh?

these were just taking at the beginnning of the evening, but this morning there was much more of it, but at least by this afternoon, alot of it had melted, and it looks like the rest might be gone by tomorrow night too.

so in case you think it's cold where you are, just be thankful that there is no snow in your yard.

Grrrrrrrr

so i have just finished sorting out the mitts, and hats and what nots for the winter ahead, and i cannot believe how many missing gloves there are in my house. where have they all gone since the spring. it's almost like they heard that we are expecting a nasty winter so they took off on an extended vacation to california or something. lucky.

so now i have to buy more gloves, but don't worry, we have lots of scarves. like 8. who needs 8 scarves, no one ever loses those right? and i even have an abundance of hats for the kids. none for myself, why set a good example for my kids. if my ears fall off, i can just tell them thats what happens when you don't listen to mommy.

and somehow these items have all gotten dirty in the closet, so i have to wash them all. at least the laundry room smells like downy and cheer.

here are a couple ictures of sarah in the previously mentioned new hat set that she got today, i tried to get some of matty in his but that was a wash.

winter's a creepin'

ok, so today i had to break down and buy some new mitts and hats for the kids. and why do you ask was that needed to be done today??

well, because it is now supposed to snow tomorrow. thats right.... SNOW!
i still have to run out and buy haley a new snowsuit since she has outgrown hers from last year, and we all know that i can't buy her a new hat and mitts and boots until i buy her the suit, since everything has to match.

sarah was so excited to wear her new mitts and hat, mommy was not so excited to have to put them on her. now matthew on the other hand, hated wearing the hat(that's my boy) and showed me that i am in for a very long winter of off, on, off, on......

well i should get going, i have to bury myself into the closet to pull out the old winter coats and find the matches to mittens i know are in there, and get everything ready forthe next 6 months.... summer we hardly saw you and your already gone.

the visit better be longer next time.

movies and costumes

so this morning we went to buy sarah her costume for halloween. she is going to be minnie mouse, and i have to admit that she looks pretty stinkin' cute in it!
no one will see her though until we go trick or treating....

i do have one little comment to make though, who in the world thought it made sense to make the shoes that match the costume, high heeled?!?!?! i mean come on, she is three, and the smallest size is 2, that means that a two year old is expected to wear these shoes while walking several blocks at night carrying a heavy load of junk around. needless to say we did not buy the shoes, and we are paying the price of it, since sarah has not stopped asking us to go back to the store and buy them, she simply thinks that we forgot, and no matter what we tell her, she will continue to think that we "forgot"

on a fun note.... Jason has finally agreed to wear a costume this year with me while we take the kids out. i am too giddy about, and can't wait to post the pictures of the whole family dressed up together.


as for the movie part of the post, we are going to sit down and watch monsters vs aliens tonight...... after the kids go to bed. lol!

happy october everyone!

i know i seem to be posting at the speed of light lately, but i couln't pass up the chance to say buh-bye to september, and hello to october.

Halloween will soon be upon us, and this weekend the decorations are going up. since we decided to do a mini party at our place in a few weeks, the interior will also be highly decoarated too. i am soooooooo excited.

i can't wait to post the pics of the kids in thier costumes. Haley and sarah are getting antsy to wear them. haley especially since she knows it is in the house. matty could care less, but i'm sure when the candy and chips get here, he might be a little more enthused.

fall has arrived and it is chilly here, if it's chilly where you are, bundle up and get ready for colder days to come.

some of you already know this but

last weekend was beautiful here so we took the kids to kenora for the night to go swimming in a beach that isn't craawling with some sort of algae problem.(the biggest lake here has an unsafe algae level, or something like that)


it was really nice to watch the kids play on the beach and explore the things around them. Matthew found out that a beach is somewhere where he can throw wet sand in his hair reapeatedly, and mommy just has to dunk his head in the lake to clean it out




and the girls realized that snacks lef ton the sand are no longer ymmuy. we went through a few rice krispie squares to prove that point.


although the pool at the hotel as pathetic to say the least, the view of the lake while we ate breakfast was great, so great in fact that the kids barely ate, because they were to busy looking at the boats and birds flying by.


here are a few more pictures of the beach

they grow so fast.

i just picked up sarah from school and asked her how her day was, my answer.......
"i don't have to tell you since i am a big girl now"

and to think that i wouldn't be hearing that for another 13 years or so.

i can never find the time

why oh why is that when i finally find 5 minutes of peace in the hosue, someone finds me, and that is when they decide that all bets are off?

the kdis hace been fairly peaceful all morning, but for a few biting incidents from Matty and the occasional "NO" or "LEAVE ME ALONE" from the girls, so i decided it would be a good time to post something on here. silly me, what was i thinking, i swear the kids have a radar that just sends them right to me. so here i type with two girls that clearly have nothing better to do then yyell at each other.

i guess the toy dump we call the playroom can just clean itself, or the clothes that i left on the table can just magically attach themselves to the kids, since they feel the need to yell at each other instead of doing their chores.

i always look at them at night and think, what in the world are you going to do for me tomorrow??

see the cuteness, but in reality they are plotting their next moves......

welcome to our blog

i have always wanted to do something like this so that family members and friends can stay close to us and know what is going on in our lives. that is if they want to know!

the school year is in full swing and the girls are off to a great start. i have a hard time convincing sarah that school is only 5 days a week, without her getting upset about it.
well, that is my first post ever, and there will be many more, and lots of pictures to share with those we love.

take care

here is my beautiful ballerina and my athletic superstar!!

when matty starts doing some activities, i'll post pics of him then.