Sooooo tired

What do you do when you are tired AND hungry? Well.....you sleep eat.

Just a few more of the winter fun around here. Didn't get any of Hayley. She was a wee bit cranky today after a big sleepover.

Hayley's concert

Pretty self explainatory. Hayley's concert. So sweet. The little guy with the glasses is Dawson, her good friend. They ride the bus together, she chases him at recess....Hayley is going to be interesting. She makes friends with the boys much easier than with girls. She's a flirt. At piano lessons she giggles at everything this one boy says and so he purposly does stupid stuff to make her laugh. We have a true blond on our hands. Anyhow, she also read a little poem and did very well. I didn't get a good picture of it since I dropped my camera at Kananaskis this year. Broke the zoom and sometimes it just doesn't want to take pictures. Mom C.....sound familiar??

Christmas is upon us.....

...and with that come the joyous Christmas concerts for the little ones. More pictures and a little video at the end of blog. This one was on Sunday so I guess we shouldn't have gone but we did since there is no gospel meeting. Hayley has a Christmas piano recital and Abby has a preschool Christmas dinner on the same evening, so to make it fair we are going to neither. We are going to go to the teddybear toss hockey game instead. When the oilkings score the first goal everyone throws teddy bears on the ice and it goes to Santa's anonymous. We going with 3 other families. Glen and Jess will be there too but they got free tickets from Glens work so we won't get to sit together.

I guess the tupperware drawer is more fun than the bucket of toys in the living room and the full basement full of toys. Maybe I should dump all the toys in these bottom two drawers?

Chelsea LOVES ceasar salad. Worries me a bit that she'll choke on the lettuce, but it's one way to get greens in her. This is Kylie's bowl she stole. Her pieces are much smaller.

Chelsea also loves being able to eat at the table with the big girls. Our table in now all filled up for supper. It's great! She doesn't even try to escape.

Abby and Kylie just finished and both passed swimming lessons. Only had my camera there for Kylies lessons. She did so great. She's much more risky and adventurous than the other girls.

Chelsea is FINALLY!!!!!! getting used to other people a little bit. She walked around Clymont hall by herself even though there was a crowd and she sat on santas knee with no fuss. I think it might have something to do with the donut in her hand?!

Our shy sweet princess who is either biting her lip or crossing her arms like this :) She's the strong silent type. Until she's angry. Then....WATCH OUT!

Here's our gorgeous oldest. She's the boss of the tribe. A bit munipulative and sneaky about it too. I think she's going to be a real beauty. Watch out boys!!!! In fact, at the Christmas concert she was chasing her friend Dawson all over. Poor boy.

Here's Kylie. Love that crinkle nose smile of hers. It says "I'm trouble but I love life!" She loves everything and everyone and isn't afraid of anything or anyone either. Kylie will have the first broken bone of the 4. Kylie asked santa for a TV!!?????

And I will leave you with a precious little song. The other video is of Kylie and Abby making fun of me as I was singing "Happy holidays......happy holidays....happy holiday Toooooo youuuuu!"

Stephen Scott

Hey there handsome!!!

Steve with his old baby. The van. I think he is getting past his loss though now that he has a truck with heated seats.

Steve's current job. Building an ATB financial. We had a laugh over the fact he just grabbed the first tool he saw lying around and posed for the picture on the left. He's not actually doing anything!!! The guy he's with below is one of the guys in the office. A project manager I believe.

The handsome model.

So a lady came by Steve's work to take pictures for their updated website. Doesn't he look good???? I think he looks so handsome. He has a meeting in Jasper in 6 weeks and the kids and I even get to come along!!! I'm so excited! The guys will be in a meeting all day on Friday, but I can just wander around town with the girls if the weather is nice or we can hang out in the pool. Then Saturday and Sunday are ours to do whatever we want. Will have to find out if there is a meeting there.

I am having the first stay at home day I've had for more than a month and it feels sooooooo good. I am cleaning the house (it was terrible!!!!), doing a little Christmas baking, etc.....no swimming, piano, preschool.....BLISS!!

Kylie and Abby have been getting along so well lately. I love it. There is something to be said for having your kids close together. The giggle all day long. Right now they are reading comics and Chelsea is sleeping so it is blessedly peaceful.

Will leave you with a few pictures and then I better go do some dishes and vacuum.

This was the best picture I could get before specials. Hayley's hair is wonky, Chelsea is about to cry, Abby is leaving the seat, and Kylie's doing her squinty eye thing. Oh well.

Abby and Kylie with a major case of giggles.

My little butterfly after her bath. When I sit to take her picture she runs at me full force so it's hard to get a picture.

Winter has Struck!!!

It is BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR so cold here. For the Canadians and Australians, it has been about -32 at night. Americans you'll have to convert, but just think "really stinkin cold!!!!" The cold makes me cranky. My hubby is getting sick of it. The floor in our house gets freezing cold and the bedrooms upstairs get none of the fireplace heat. COLD COLD COLD. I HATE being COLD! The I got feeling sorry for the dogs and the cat because they are freezing so my dear hubby thought he'd do something about it, and he traded some hours of work with Dan (our heating and airconditioning expert) and I now have his guy here putting our old furnace into the garage and venting the house so the heat from the fireplace goes up to the bedrooms. YAE FOR HEAT!!!! As for the ice cold spot on the kitchen floor, I fixed that solution with a rug. Back to good mood!

Yes, as you can see, Kylie is now taller than Abby. Although, her legs are short so she can still have Abby's old pants. It all works out.

Can't wait until we're done swimming. It takes forever to bundle everyone up and then trudge out on bad roads to get to lessons. I think they'll both pass. The teacher at half-way report told me Kylie's a little fish and she has no worries. Abby swims amazing. You would not believe this is the kid who wouldn't put her face in the water last year. She swims lengths under water now. WOOHOO!!!

Steve worked 72 hours last week. Whew! Now this week he is having some early days so that's great. Hope he gets some sleep now. Oops. Chelsea is awake so I better go. I also need to make cookies for the bake sale at Abby's school.

Love you all,

Jen and family.

I am tired

Beyond tired actually. I would like to go back to bed for the entire day, but alas....it is not meant to be. Perhaps an afternoon nap is in order? Pretty sure with a new bed and a new back I'd feel a lot more refreshed. I slept on the hump in the middle last night and it was a wee bit better. The kids are awake. Well better go get the week over with and hope that this weekend I'll actually have my husband home with me. Feels like it has been MONTHS! Happy Tuesday.

Love,
a very tired Jen

Just another day in crazy town

Hi. How are you? What's new? I hope you're having a good November. We are so far, in spite of the business of life. The little people have been doctoring a little bit. Hayley has a home sleep study on December 9th to rule out sleep apnea as part of her snoring issues. Her teacher has also informed me that Hayley pees way more than the average student so guess we'll try to figure that out too. Abby has this intense sore throat that has her crying all day and night and not eating. She even cries when she drinks water. She had a 2-3 day fever that went away but didn't take care of the sore throat. I was thinking strep....the doctor thinks hand, foot, mouth disease??? We'll see who's right when the swab comes back. In the meantime we will be sleepless. Oh yes and lice came back to live with Hayley and Abby so this week we have been trying to comb lice out of a fever ridden child while doing 40 loads of laundry and disinfecting furniture....it has been exhausting to say the least.

So I went out for my usual Monday night coffee and finally found some really cool big tea cups. Love them. I've been looking for big mugs for a long time so that was exciting to finally find some neat ones.

And that's it. Nothing else is happening around here. We continue to do all the things we normally do....school, swimming, piano etc..etc... we're not bored anyhow.

Steve works hard at work. Or....plays hard :) It would seem that when I call him he's just discovered some new game on his computer. But I know it's hard work organizing his sub trades and making sure he knows what the plans say and it must be kind of boring when there's nothing to do but supervise.

Well I am freezing cold because I let the fire die out so this is all for now. I'll maybe write next month. I am getting anxious for a hot holiday and it hasn't even snowed yet! I think I'm in for a looonnnggggg winter!

Until next time,

The 6 of us.

Let it snow let it snow let it snow....

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is sooooo delightful (or something like that. I forget the words.) It is snowing!!! 2 days after Steve got the rink all set up so it was perfect timing. The kids are excited to go skating and tobogganing. We have the fireplace on pretty well all day and night now because we LOVE the coziness of the fire and well....we're cheap and it keeps the furnace off.

I'm most excited for Christmas time! Almost have my shopping all done. Just Kylie and Chelsea left now. We listen to Christmas carols in the van (yes I will be sick of them I'm sure by NOVEMBER 25th). We're having Glen and Jess and kids over for a cozy day of eating and game playing. Will see if grandma wants to join us for an early meal.

Look at how Chelsea fell asleep. She really is sound asleep. Snoring and everything. My little baby is getting better in some ways and worse in others when it comes to her attachement issues. She is now getting a wee bit shy with her daddy which is not good!!! However, I can put her on the floor in a crowd of people, and as long as nobody touches her she's fine. At least I don't have to hold her all the time. She's learning a few signs like milk, and when I say "p.u. you stink." she pinches her nose. Cute. Love all my girls to bits.

Here are the preschool pictures I ordered of Abby. I was looking at Abby's baby pictures as I work on her pregnancy - kindergarten scrapbook and her and Chelsea are identical!! I am learning they are also very very similar in personality. So this should be interesting. We have 2 fairly easy going kids and 2 very shy and sensitive kids! Hmm.... Abby starts swimming lessons tomorrow. This will be the 3rd time we've done this level. The first time Abby wouldn't put her face in the water, and the second time the teacher didn't get through the list of stuff to do in time and so failed everyone. I was not impressed. So we're back to the trileisure center and we'll see how it goes. Kylie starts next Monday. Only 1 more week until the most insanely busy month of the year. Sigh....

I didn't order very many of these. They were way too expensive. Hayley's school picture proofs should come in a few weeks.

I think Steve is a little more stressed about his job than he lets on. He dreams about it every night so it must be on his subconscious somewhere. He even asks me questions when he's half asleep like I'm one of the guys on site. It's so funny. I just give some answer that sounds like I AM one of the guys. Heehee. Oh well.....he loves that the project is something other than relacing windows!!! This is what he wants to do all the time I think. Brand new commercial construction. It'll be an interesting winter. As long as there are trades on site he'll be outside. Otherwise he's in his little tin shack trying to keep warm.

Well I think everyone is waking up so I better go! Happy days everyone. Keep warm.

Just me....

....rambling about nothing. I actually have one small complaint these days and I promise to never complain about it ever again. Just need to spit it out. My husband has a great job, great boss, works hard so I can enjoy every moment with my rugrats. The issue? We never see him and we hate that. He leaves at 6:30 and gets home at 7 (at the earliest). Gotta admit it's not good for me or the kids and we miss rarely seeing him. That being said....he works so hard for us and he's a wonderful husband and father so we manage.

Nothing else is new. This next month is filled with school, swimming, piano, go to bed and do it all over again the next day type days. Chelsea has spent the last week refusing to eat anything but her bottles, bread, and crackers. She also cried unless I'm holding her. She's either sick or going through a really annoying stage. Oh well. Can you believe she's 13 months old?!!! Me either!! In 3 years I will be all alone at home 2 days a week. Hmm....then I will wish for days that are extremely busy I'm sure.

My supper is ready so I guess this is going to be a short one.

Love you all. Have very happy days.

Love Steve, Jen, and their babies.

KANANASKIS 2010!!!

We just got home from the best 5 days of my entire year. I DREAD getting back into real life. Last year, it was cold and we had at least a foot of snow on the ground. The winter came so quick that the leaves didn't even change color so it was a pretty sad outdoor experience. This year, the fall came and went a few weeks early so there wasn't too much in the form of pretty colors, but the weather was GORGEOUS!!!! I will take you on a pictoral journey though our long weekend.

This was what we woke up too every morning. Nothing like the sun rising on the mountains out your patio door. What a view.

When we got there, Steve had to do a minor toilet repair and Chelsea thought she'd help out. It was too funny to not take a video.

She also thought she'd help unpack our food!

Anyhow, we left on Friday after Steve's breakfast meeting (which means we left about lunch time) and we got there at 4ish. This hotel has the best customer service. They greet you at the door, escort you to the desk and say "Mr. Campbell is here to check in." Then they ask Mr. Campbell if he needs any help with his bags, and they give the kids all a bag with 3 different games and some fun stuff in it. Steve is also the pro at asking for free stuff so he asked if they had any breakfast vouchers. They are allowed to give you 2 so we got free breakfast 2 days out of 4. The breakfast is anything you could ever want. They have an omlette station, hot and cold cereal, toast, bacon, sausage, eggs, french toast, fruit....YUM! Steve and I usually bring breakfast and lunch since meals are pricey. Our suppers are about 50$ and that is with all our kids eating free since they are 6 and under.

Here's Kylie excited to get her bag. Yes that is nasty carpet :)

The resort was built for the 1988 winter olympics and the main lodge hasn't been renovated so it's pretty dated, but that's okay. We usually stay in Mount Kidd which is the newest building, but for our size of family and late booking, this was all they had left. The hotel has 400 some rooms and they were at 90% capacity! That being said, it never felt crowded. The pool was never busy, and any time we went to the new indoor play area we were the only ones there. Here are some photos of our loft suite.

Our kids don't have TV at home....can ya tell? They could've stayed here the whole time!!

On Saturday Steve surprised me by booking me an hour long massage!! That was amazing! While I did that he took the kids to the new playroom. Then we made candy indian corn, did the pool thing, went for a short walk, had supper and went to a magic show!

Indian corn... which consists of 3 rice crispy squares mushed together, candy, and fruit-by-the-foot for the ears.

At the play area you can play with the magnetic wall....

color a picture....

Play in the playhouse (or attempt to break your neck...)...

Play games....

or watch a kids movie on the HUGE TV

On Sunday we had a little study, then we attempted to hike a new trail that nearly killed me. It was uphill both ways FOR SURE and rough terrain...I don't know how the kids managed to do it. Guess they aren't lugging around as much weight as their old mom! We did get a nice family picture though as seen at the top of this blog entry (excuse Kylie. She was a disaster.) We also did more of the pool thing, carved pumpkins, and played in the playroom, etc... Then....THE BEST 3 COURSE THANKSGIVING DINNER EVER!!! I was sooooo full I felt sick the rest of the night!!

The kids really did enjoy it even though their faces are saying "we're totally bored."

Can you tell that Kylie found the candy jar? Her cheeks are FULL!

My little pumpkin patch kids. At night they light these up and you get free hot chocolate while you stand outside looking at all the cool pumpkin designs.

Our view on the easy trail.

This is about all the wildlife we saw until we left and then we saw some deer and some mountain sheep with babies.

On Monday night we brought our supper to the playroom (we didn't think anyone would mind as by Monday everyone had gone home and there were only 40 of the 400 some rooms occupied) and had movie night. An awesome ending to a perfect holiday. Now.....when can I go back???!! I hear they have Santa coming for Christmas bringing presents, and sleigh rides and skating and tobogganing......sigh....all I want for Christmas....another holiday please.

Now the next blog might be a bit slow coming as I adjust to real life once again. Meeting here tomorrow night. Busy busy.

Love The Campbells.

ps. PLEASE COME JOIN US HERE SOME YEAR!! WE'D LOVE YOU TO EXPERIENCE OUR THANKSGIVING TRADITION! THIS WAS OUR 7TH YEAR! although I think we missed 1 year in there somewhere.