Just pictures of life lately

On Friday, Kylie had a birthday party to go to. It was an hour away so we wondered what to do for 3 hours until we were to meet back there for supper. Turns out there is this place called Jurassic forest about 5 minutes away so we went there with the Ott family. It was really interesting. The dinosaurs moved and roared....basically just a footpath with all kinds of signs telling not only about dinosaurs but also the type of flowers and birds and insects that live in the area. The kids enjoyed it anyhow. Perfect weather!!

I'm not sure why Cheslea's flower on her dress looks like it's glowing!!! Need more practice with my camera.

Now this was intereting. Chelsea refused to step foot in the sand. When I put her in it, she freaked out that her feet were dirty so she sat and wiped them off.....

Then freaked out that her hands were dirty. She kep saying "dirty! dirty!"

Hmm......do I DARE get in this stuff???!! Florida beaches will be fun with a child who hates the sand!

Abby and Benjamin both start kindergarten this year but will be in different schools.

A picnic outside

The birthday party!

Kylie: She can never just be a princess.....

soccer pictures. I didn't get any good ones of Hayley so will have to take my camera back to the field. The kids play in 3 different corners so I spend my time running back and forth for an hour and a half!!

Well that's all. We have a very very busy week coming up. Abby has a fieldtrip, Chelsea sees the dental hygenist, Kylie has a doctor's appointment, piano, soccer......it's never ending. I'm not sure actually how I am going to time manage some of these things this week so it could be interesting. I might actually just cancel a few things to make life easier. Thank goodness Monday is a holiday. I feel like I need to get away somewhere but HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA as if that'll happen any time soon. :( Oh well. One day.

Random events in our life lately

Here's our Kylie girl. She has been so sick lately. About a month or so ago I noticed that she wasn't eating and she was sleeping A LOT! But then I figured she must be due for a growth spurt so maybe that was all it was. But then she would run these fevers and they'd come and go but then Chelsea got one so I figured she just had a bug. Then she started peeing her pants ALL the time. I was getting very angry and frustrated. Then she started getting a tummy ache and people suggested it might be an infection. Yes I'm a dumb mother. Should've known. She has a terrible bladder infection!!! Poor thing. She has 4 days left of meds and still has terrible tummy aches although she isn't peeing her pants anymore so dr. says finish the meds....she may need a stronger one though if there is any bacteria left in her urine.

This kid is so tough that I would have no clue how much it actually hurts. Well....tough pain-wise. Have a bug land anywhere near her and she'll either beat it beyond recognition or she'll scream and carry on like she's being slaughtered!!

Here is my Chelsea. She's 100% trouble. But she loves her mom so much I just gotta excuse her. She THINKS she wants to potty train but I'M not ready so she waits. She'll pull off her diaper or lift up her shirt and pull on her pants saying 'pee' or 'poo' but then I sit her on and nothing. But this is okay. I hate the potty training stage and we are waiting until after she's 2. Maybe she'll train herself. I love that she is starting to talk. Although....the other night a said "night-night time..." and she said NO! Hmmm....

Check out the rolls!!! Mommy's girl for sure....although she looks like her dad!

This is my Abs. She loves her computer games. Sigh....however she also is learning to love the outdoors so that's great! She just finished her Kindergarten readiness class and is almost done preschool :(:( I love watching her. In the kindergarten readiness class they are partnered up (teacher's choice) for center time. She is not shy at all but actually interacts when she doesn't know I'm watching. She is going to be just fine at school. Thankful we put her in preschool as she was so shy and timid at the beginning of the year. Not anymore!!!

This is studly Steve. I love him so much. He's such a good man. Big decisions coming up in his future but we'll talk about those only if they happen.

And this is my big girl!!!! I'm not sure what is going on here but hope it's not playing meeting in that outfit. This kid is obsessed with peace signs. I think maybe her real mom was a hippy??!! She fell down the stairs the other day. She screamed a horrible scream and I told her it wasn't going to get her out of cleaning her room and to get right back upstairs. Well for the next 3 hours she wouldn't walk on it. I tried to make her.....she wouldn't. So finally I looked at it and it had this extra lump on it and ended up quite swollen. Took her to emerg. The doctor was soooo nasty. Told her to not be so dramatic, it was only a sprain and to get walking on it. She tried playing soccer 3 days later and did okay but now the bruising is coming out and she was teary tonight as I put her to bed saying it hurt so badly. Sigh.....oh well. It'll heal.

Okay now to me. I found out this week I am severly anemic!! I have no idea why. I went in for bloodwork to make sure my liver could handle these strong pills I am taking for my toenail fungus. Dr. called me back and told me to get on iron pills!!! I am at a 5. Low levels are about 25?? Hmm....I suppose that's maybe contributing to the fact I feel sluggish and tired. Couldn't be running after 4 kids right? :) So we'll do that. Found out today that the pills for my toes are $400 a month!!!!!!! Thank goodness for insurance. I only pay $90. Still.....I have to take them for a year. That's $1000 to have pretty toes again. ARGH!!!!

Anyhow. My sweet sweet husband bought me a lovely card for mother's day and a CAMERA!!!! A nice Nikon SLR and I am so excited to learn how to use it. Lots of pictures coming up!!

I can't believe it is almost time for preps. I can't wait for convention and it seems to come at the right time every year.

Well thanks for reading. Stop by again soon. We'll have tea. Even if it's just cyber tea time.

Love you all

Jen and family

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

We have had an extremely busy easter. Pretty sure that's why I feel so crummy. Just a sore throat but I feel so sluggish with it. Steve and Dan got a hotel room for the day to watch some of the hockey playoffs. They like to do that once a year at this time. I was going to take the kids swimming there in the afternoon but after getting gas, standing in line to get our car registration for half an hour and then venturing to wal-mart looking for a birthday present, I was done in. Was suppose to go grocery shopping but I've put that off until Monday. Will still have the kids all home but at least easter will be over and hopefully the grocery store won't be as nuts.

Interesting story about my car registration but will get to that later. First things first. So we started our long weekend on Thursday. I dropped Hayley off at Howden's and grabbed Ashley. Took the 3 middle girls and Chelsea to swimming lessons. Then we had to run to get pizza for supper and to the $ store to try and find a few things, got a car wash etc....it was a big job with two 4 year olds, a 3 year old and a 1 year old. Then I get home and realize I have no eggs to make Abby's cake so I load them all up again and off we go to the grocery store. I spent the rest of the afternoon decorating cookies, and making Abby's cake. Then we had company for supper for Abby's birthday (yes my second baby is almost 5!!!!!!!!) and Mia and Wyatt stayed for the night.

My left over cookies. They were a TON of work. Should've decorated them the night before.

Abby and her flower pot cake. HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY PRINCESS!!! Not as great as Hayley's but I ran out of icing and the pots were kinda hard to make. The cookies were heavy too and started to tip so we had to take pictures fast. Poor Abby. I lost the candles!!! Oh well.

The next day we spent the entire day outside. Steve got some easter eggs and hid them all over the backyard and they had lots of fun together.

I am soooo happy that chelsea is comfortable walking around the yard by herself. Unless of course the dogs hang around her for too long. If they don't leave when she screams NO then she cries. She got stuck here. No way to get up through the snow :)

Waiting for Steve to hide eggs. Mia says "I'm so bored. Why aren't we doing easter things?" So we had to have an egg hunt.

Looking for eggs.

Glen and Jessica came later afternoon and we decided that since we were too tired to think about supper, we'd just go out. Supper was lovely until......

on the way home Steve did a half-hearted stop at a stop sign and got caught!!!! Thank goodness the guy was nice and Chelsea was smiling at him! He changed the ticket from 250$ (failure to stop at a stop sign) to 115$ (failure to stop before entering a primary highway) and gave us an extra month to pay. He also didn't care that my registration seemed to have disappeared from the glove box. I had found out on a previous occasion (I have a registration ghost thief in my van) that the fine for that is 2000$ and they can refuse to let you drive your car home even!!! This guy just said "Oh whatever. I have the info anyways and I see you need to renew it next month anyhow." Whew! Still.....an expensive supper.

Now I think it is all catching up to me and I am TOTALLY exhausted. I'm so thankful the weather is nice and the kids love to be outside.

So Jess picked me up one of these weighted hoola hoops and it is just about killing me. The bumps on the inside bruise you entire abdomen. I cringe when I do my 4-5 minutes a day. However, if I lose 2 inches in a month with it, it will be worth it. Plus I enjoy hoola hooping so it's an easy way to get a bit of exercise. Another interesting fact....the most bruise feeling pain is in the area where I often have such an intestinal blockage that I feel a lump. Well the next day I had bad diarrhea. Don't know if Jess just spread her disease when she was here (the bad tummy cramps. Thank you) or if the hoola hoop worked something loose!!! It's very very tender in that area anyhow.

Well I am going to sign off. Have my signature post-blog tea and think about supper. Love you all and thank you for joining me for a few moments.

Love Jen

A pictoral journey

Okay so lets be honest here. When we look at people's blogs we are looking to see pictures right? The words are just spots on a page, and if a picture tells a thousand words.....well here is my wordy blog for this week. Steve dug a path through the snow for the girls. Not sure why but anyhow, they enjoyed it. Here they are making 'toilets' in the snow.

Kylie thought this was a good idea. If she fell backwards the landing would have been okay. If she went towards the play house it could have been broken bones. She successfully made it to the other side.

So I went to exchange some stuff for Steve and I had to call him and ask him a question. Turns out I woke him up. Kylie was asleep on his lap, and as I was talking to him he goes "I can't find Chelsea"!! So he's calling her and she's not responding....the older 2 are in the tub, and finally he discovers that she has fallen asleep behind our bedroom door!! She shuts the door of whatever room she is in and she probably couldn't get out and when no one responded to her banging on the door (you all know how soundly Steve sleeps) she gave up and went to sleep. This was all at 6:30!!!!!! Some tired kids I guess. I tease Steve about his parenting skills. 2 kids in the bath and 1 missing and 1 sleeping while he sleeps!!!

On the other hand, something is wrong with our Kylie. She is falling asleep around 6:30, sleeping until 7, and then having a nap in the day. The other day she had 13 hours of sleep, laid down after BREAKFAST and fell back to sleep!!! She hasn't eaten much for 3 days either and has swollen glands in her neck. I am thinking growth spurt? But then in the back of my mind because of the lymph nodes, I get thinking mono!! Oh well....if it lasts a lot longer we'll run her in.

Back to pictures...

Abby has gone from hating the outdoors to loving it (thank goodness). She will even go out and play by herself out there. My child is growing lots of confidence. YAE! Finally! I was worried she'd be like me forever!

Here is Hayley and I playing a duet and then her playing a solo. She just learned her part yesterday. I was amazed. She is in a program called music for young children. Very much a focus on parent teaching. We both get extremely frustrated with each other so it might be private lessons next year. Right now it is an hour a week group lesson. She's only been playing for 8 months so I'm proud of what she has accomplished. Maybe 1 more year of this program. We'll see if we survive the last 6 weeks.

So that is all. Steve is upstairs putting kids to bed. I need to clean up supper dishes and have some tea.

Love you all,

Steve, Jen, Hayley, Abby, Kylie, and Chelsea.

HAPPY DAYS!

Today is happy birthday to my big girl Hayley!!! I can hardly believe it's been 7 years since our first born entered the world. It was a GORGEOUS day the day she was born. It was 25 degrees outside and everyone was out enjoying the sunshine. Quite a contrast to today when it's only 0 out!!! Hayley was born at 8:45 in the morning. That night, there was a huge blizzard so Steve skipped school and hung out at the hospital with baby Hayley and me. Lets hope that this year, there is the opposite effect. I will take 25 degree weather tomorrow please!!!

It is also Steve and I's anniversary. It has been a glorious 9 years. I apologize to all women out there who missed out but I'm pretty sure there is no husband as wonderful as mine :) I'm pretty lucky to have snagged him.

It's been wonderful having mom and dad here. Unfortunately it is spring break and so I have all 4 at home all the time and it's this time they chose to be difficult but what can you do. They've had fun with grandpa and grandma so thats good.

No other news so I will leave you with a few pictures.

I was so proud of this cake. My first attempt at a nice cake. A tea party for my little lady.

The girls and their snow bunny.

A great picture of grandma and our mommy's girl!

Chelsea's way of playing uno.

Congrats!

Today is my husband's anniversary. No not OUR marriage. His other one. The work one. He has been at his job for 10 years now!!! Can you believe it??? He got a Ball watch from his boss to commemorate the occasion. So now, Steve should always be 'on the ball' hahahahahahaha. Funny enough, that is where the expression came from.

For you history buffs:

From Wikipedia - In 1891 there was a collision between Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway trains at Kipton, Ohio, which occurred because an engineer's watch had stopped. The railroad officials commissioned Webb C. Ball as their Chief Time Inspector, in order to establish precision standards and a reliable timepiece inspection system for railroad chronometers.

So....to be 'on the ball' would be to be on accurate Ball time.

The last 10 years have flown and the company have grown exponentially. Will be interesting to see where the next 10 take him.

What else to share.....my friend Charlene and I joined curves for two months. We got a groupon. We figured instead of eating out on our Monday nights out we would excersize instead. We shall see if we see any results from it. Its a fun night out anyhow.

This country is the perfect example of why global warming is a spoof!!! -35, -34, -32.....these are the temps we are seeing BEFORE the windchill. So it's more like -45, -44, -42....I am starting to get cranky. Plus, I think the city of Edmonton has misplaced it's sanding trucks. I was out last night, and could almost see my reflection in the street, and didn't see 1 single sanding truck! Anyhow, I live here and it's always cold in the winter so I will jsut deal with it.

Interesting question this week. Why is everyone I meet, including strangers, telling me they hope I'm done having kids?? Are my kids that bad? That ugly? Who cares if I want more? That's noone elses business is it? Plus....makes me want to have 3 more to spite them (even though we are DONE for those wondering.) Just found it odd (extremely irritating) that this week I've had so many people make weird comments like that to me. May I share the verse in psalms:

Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: etc.....

My children make me happy. If I want to be extra happy....I will be :):) Plus....remember now people.....I am still in my youth. For another 10 months anyhow.....

Our house appraisal went through. WOOHOO!!! So that's a relief. Now we can renew our mortgage on the house and know that even if one day we sell we will still make money on it. I can't tell you how excited we are that our monthly payment is actually dropping!!!!

Okay so my life is busy but really uneventful so I will let you go back to doing something interesting. Wish I had pictures to show you but I haven't taken any for several months. Guess I better get back on that.

Love Steve, Jen, and their litter of little people