Wigg Family

Exercise Blog?

2011-04-03T18:22:00.002-06:00

Ok, so the budget blog idea stunk. I don't want to post about the budgeting we are not doing very well. However, Preston did buy a RV...but his father and I convinced him to wait until next year, so I got the lucky job of "unbuying" it. SO, I guess we are still keeping our budget. Anyways, my friend is starting a group/contest for weight loss and I'm kind bummed I can't join. Why can't I? I have no weight to lose! HOWEVER, I am incredibly out of shape. I have flab everywhere and I have pathetic endurance levels, but that is not what the group is about. I thought about joining anyways. I guess I could lose a few pounds..but I'd gain it all back in muscle when I started working out. We'll see. I may have to find another way to motivate myself. My biggest obstacle will be sugar. I can't kick it. I've never been able to even go 24 hours. I wish they had diets camps for moms...kinda like detox. I need to be detoxed so I can start fresh. I'm so weak.
Enough Whining. We are all fine. We went out today after the big snow dump and Penny fell into a huge puddle, face first. She was fully soaked, and fully mad. Luckily it was right in front of the house. I'm still having fun sewing. I learned a new trick, which I am sure is basic for most sewer but it's so fun to learn new things and feel like you are getting better. I am still just making dresses for my girls...I hope to move on sometime to other items but I get overwhelmed by sewing easily, so I am learning a little at a time and perfecting those techniques first.
I'm excited.

Budget Blog?

2011-03-09T14:48:00.002-07:00

I can never think of things to blog about....maybe this can be my budget blog. I recently went to Costco and saw a Vitamix demo and fell in love. Now, I don't feel like I jump on the band wagon of all these fancy appliances(I never got a bread mexer becuase I think they are stupid) so I feel justified in wanting this awesome blender type machine. I came home and raved about it to Preston and he didn't care, so I borrowed one from a friend for 24 hours and made 5 different things to show Preston. I made juice, and I didn't have to have any liquid. I just blended up grapes, straberries, spinach, a carrot, and I left the core in the apple and blended that up too! It made a thick juice and Preston was unimpressed with the taste. However, my demo was not about the taste, but the ability of it to blend the crap out of it all! Then I made strawberry icecream with a whole tomato in it! The kids loved it. Then I made muffins...I will stick to my kitchen aid. It is not an excellent muffin mix blender. Then I made lemon ice. Just crushed a pile of icecubes and added a little lemon and sugar and everyone loved that Then I ground some quinoa and made a cake. Not bad. Some of you may think that that is what a blender is suppose to do. But I have had a string for crappy blenders that you have to shove spoons in to help it blend OR i have a magic bullet and I have to add a tonne of juice for my smoothies to blend. I still like my magic bullet, but I hate chunks and seeds and the bullet doesnt' always get it all.
What does any of this have to do with budgeting?
Well, a Vitamix is over 500 bucks...not in the family budget. So, I made a deal. If I can budget the crap out of my grocerys, clothes, and other fmaily expesnes, and get our Visa paid off, I can buy one. So, maybe a year....yah, our visa is that high. So, I used coupons off the cereal box this week...Yay!
Stay tuned for other budgeting skills that I hope to develop!

Christmas

2010-11-27T08:22:00.002-07:00

My boy is so big. He is 7 now, and I took him last night to Zellers midnight madness sale. It started at 6 and we were there in a line up at 5:45. It was a big mash of people at a starting line and at 6 pm, people ran. I didn`t really think there was a reason to. ANyways, we went there to get some luggage on for $30 for a set of 4...only to realize it was one of the hourly deals that didn`t go on sale till 8pm. SO, we shopped around for an hour and got bored and went to the Zellers restaurant and had some burgers and cake. It was fun to just hang out with him. He is still very much a child, asking me to spin him around in the basket with wheels we were using unstead of a cart. But also, you can talk with him. He asks good questons. While we waited for our food he told me how they are learning measurements in school and his apple juice box at the table was 200ml. He knew that 5 apple juice boxes made a litre. Then I started asking him how many people could have a 200ml drink from our 4L jug of milk at home and he got the answer. He is my little math whiz. ANyways, it was really nice to leave Penny at home, who takes all my time and energy, and just chat with my boy. Well, we went over to the luggage dept and 7:45 and the line was HUGE!!! We decided agaisnt it at that point because I was so done being at Zellers, and I wanted a larger suitcase anyways. We still got some good deals, just not what I went for.
We re almost done Christmas shopping. I am headed to Marks Work Wearhouse today to finish Prestons list. I think we had our own Black Friday shopping here this weekend. Some really big sales this weekend so I`m taking advantage.

October's gone.

2010-11-07T07:33:00.002-07:00

Well, we got through a nice October. The weather here was actually great. We had weather in the teens most days and I think the normal daytime high is 5-7degrees. So, we were thrilled to be able to go to the park a little more often than not. With 4 kids, it is nice to be able to go outdoors and let them run around. Kayla and CLayton are at the point that they can go to the park by themselves. I can't see them from it, but I know all the people that back onto the park, all the kids the frequent it, and it is on our street so they don't have to cross any roadways. It has been so handy to let them go and lots of other kids their age live in the street and go to the park on their own so they spend a lot of time with friends. I only got called down to the park once this year becuase Kayla likes to climb trees but can't always get down. I have now told her no tree climbing unless I am there..even then I hate it. Halloween was a blast. Our ward had a trunk-or-treat and it started out with a dance and some kids games. I thought it was great to dance around the gym with my kids. Especially Adeline, she loves a good beat and had fun...after she got used to the dark gym with the scary lights. There were so many trunks, and again, Kayla and Clayton went off on their own to trick or treat and I took Adeline from trunk to trunk while Preston sat with Penny and handed out Candy. Adleine was super confused at first, but it only took her about 5 or 6 cars till she was saying 'next one' and pulling me along. This weekend was yucky. Penny started to throw up at 1am and didn't stop till 4 am, then Adeline started up at 6am and tossed her cookies the rest of the morning. Kayla started up at 9 that night and luckly she would just barf on the towel I gave her and go back to sleep. Jordan also started that night, which surprised me becuase he is never around us, or rarely eating at home so I'm surprised he caught it. I thought I was getting sick last night, so I skipped dinner. I think I was just way over tired and yucky from cleaning up puke 18 times in 2 days. I ate some Froot Loops this AM and I feel fine. I am looking forward to making chocolates with my MIL this month, and doing some fun crafty stuff for Christmas. I 'll post it later.
I have a lot of friends who have started running marathons. I am kind of interested in the idea...only the 10k's. I don't care to try to run 22k's. I'd rather just try to beat my personal best in the 10ks everytime. However, I am having trouble getting out of the house on my own on a regular basis. Maybe I need to set a schedule. ALso, I need to get motivated. Preston and I have been taking the 200 sit up challenge, We are going to mexico in Feb and I am aiming for a 6 pack. Ok, maybe not a 6 pack, but the hottest bod on the boat(for a 30 year old woman with 4 kids and who has no time to herself-I'm being realistic)
ANyways, hopefully, I will update all the things I have mentioned here so you can see my progress. Thanks for listening!

MULTI GRAIN WAFFLES

2010-10-12T20:46:00.003-06:00

So I LOVE these waffles. Probably not because they are the best waffles in the world..but because they are healthy and don't taste it. And I'm really afraid that I will throw out my bag of corn flour when it is empty, and loose the recipe forever. So I am writing it here...for me and you. So, they are very soft waffles, not crispy..just incase you love crispy waffles. But they are so sweet and my whole family loves them and they are so much better for you than pancakes so I have made a gigantic mix of it so I can easily make them whenever I want.

1 1/2 C yogurt - I USE VANILLA YOGURT AND IT ADDS SOOO MUCH FLAVOUR. I guess you
could use any flavoured yogurt.
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla - I omit this ingredient becuase I use the vanilla yogurt.
1/4 C oil - of course you can use apple sauce
1/2 C corn flour
1/4 C whole wheat flour
1/4 C flax seed meal - I buy flaxseed and put it in my blender - healthier still!
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1 tsp. powder

I makes 8 waffles in my waffle iron. Now, I have made this recipe twice and it has turned out slighty different each time. First time, the waffles were really dark, this time they were light and more fragile. I guess you need to measure the yogurt properly for the right consistancy. Soooo yummy. I know most of you wont try it...but it is here, for when I throw out the flour bag and wonder where my recipe went.

My last baby

2010-09-29T21:02:00.002-06:00

So I am surprised at how I am reacting to Penny growing up. I in NO WAY want another child(which is good as Preston has been snipped) but I do notice I'm feeling mildly sad about it all being over. These past weeks, I thought I would have to stop breastfeeding Penny, she is 1 now, as she was STILL waking up 3 times a night, and sometimes she would whine for several hours even after I nursed her. So, I was reading a book and one example was a couple who had the same problem and had to stop breastfeeding to break that night time habit of waking and nursing. However, I noticed with Penny, that it seems to be going ok to try to give her some water, her soother and lay her back down without picking her up at all. last night, she woke up at 1:30 but she went back to sleep when I gave her her soother, and then she didn`t wake up till 7 sò I didn`t have to get up to feed her all night long. Hooray. Now, it has only been 3 nights where things have been going better but I am totally sold on Kamilles(my SIL) opinion that feeding a kid in the middle of the night can kick start their metabolism and wake them up more...I think that is what she said. Anyways, I am so glad I dont have to stop breastfeeding because I am not ready. I enjoy it so much and so does Penny. She is my clingiest, whiniest kid(in part my fault because I carry her everywhere)but she is opening up to people a bit and she is super cute and fun. I cant take her in the back yard though becuase she bolts for the garden and just starts stuffing her face with soil. At first, I let her do it, because I thought she would realize how gross it is and spit it out. But she just keeps eating it and stuffing more in, its crazy! So really, we can't play in the backyard. So, we go to the park where she puts rocks in her mouth. Atleast she spits those out though. As I've said before, I am constantly torn between wanting to get past a stage because it is so tough(like toddlers) and knowing I'm going to miss it because it is so fun and cute. I feel like a schitzo because I can't describe it. Like when I am at home..sometimes I want someone to take the kids away for the day so I can relax. Then, an hour later I'm bored and want to know what they are doing, or be able to do something for them. Am I the only one??

growing in Calgary

2010-07-22T17:51:00.002-06:00

SO we are learning a lot about growing plants in Calgary, especially produce. Actaully, that is all I am really interested in. I could care less about flowers. I'll put some out, but I don't really care what is what. Anyways, we tried green peppers this year. A couple times. Preston even bought a heat lamp and no luck. We were aware that they like a lot of heat and sunlight and we didn't get much here until the end of June. Even then, we have been below seasonal so not enough heat for peppers. Tomatos we love and had great success in Kitchener the year before but here we again don't get enough heat and humidity. We don't have a green house so we grew them in the front window where the sun shines and that seemed to help. I also covered some of them in plastic in the beginning stages to keep in the moisture. Anyways, my issue with planting them is it often tells you to put 4 or 5 seeds in and them after they have grown a few inches, to keep the two strongest and pull of the others. I know this is a very different situation, but what if Kate plus 8 found out she was pregnant with 6 babies and the doctors said 'ok, we are going to terminate 4 of them so pick the two strongest" I know they are only tomatoes, but look at my picture. If I had done what they told me, I wouldn't have that cute little tomato today. It was loved and nurtured and it still grew and though it wont be a lawyer or a doctor, it was still able to produce a cute little tomato:)
So, we also planted corn and onions and I learned a tip. Soak the seeds for 24 hours and themn plant - gives them a good head start. I didn't do that with the corn and it is not growing because we put it out in the field and left it hoping it would grow without watering it. We see our peas, beans and potatos and carrots growing and look forward to the harvest!

Tooth Update

2010-07-13T20:47:00.000-06:00

There was a raging infection under my tooth when they did some drilling...so I get to have a root canal. All they did was put a temp filling on it, and I hope I didn't experience any pain until they could fit me it. I mean, I hate the dentist as it is, so lets freeze my face twice and dig around in there twice. I guess it is my own fault though. If I actually went to the dentist regularly, it never would have gotten to this point. Poor Penny gets to spend the afternoon with Daddy tomorrow...I anticipate some crying.

Bad Night

2010-07-12T10:11:00.002-06:00

So I went to bed last night with a sore tooth. I have about 8 cavities that need to be filled and I was waiting till Prestons benefits kick in, which could be now but he is not on top of it so we are not sure. SO one of my cavities started to really hurt yesterday so I took some Ibuprofin. I've never waited for a cavity to hurt and now I know why. It is a very uncomfortable pain. All I want these days is a good night sleep because Penny sleeps horribly and still wakes up every few hours. Last night she slept 6 hours stright...and I was awake for all of it! The pain subsided around 3:30 and I got a few hours sleep. Of course, I am kid of like "Heavenly father, why are you doing this too me?? All I pray for is a good night sleep and when the baby cooperates, my body doesn't??" ANyways, as I am grumping around the house this morning, I remembered that in my pure exhuastion last night, I decided to quickly do all the dishes and clean the kitchen even though I was tempted to leave it all...which I often do. THank goodness I did because on top of being cranky and in pain, I could have an even more disasterous house than I already have. SO, I guess I should be greatful to my heavenly father instead of questioning him as he perpared me a little for this miserable day:) AND I know it will pass and some day, I will get some sleep! Off to the dentist, benefits or not.

Stampede Week!

2010-07-09T20:50:00.002-06:00

It is Stampede Week and I have torn all the ads about pancake breakfasts out of the paper. Tomorrow morning we are going to hit up an Anglican church in town...should be fun. On the topic of food, Preston said we should go on a no sugar diet. I don`t like the generalness of what he wants to do. I`d rather be more specific like No pop or chocolate bars or donuts and no sugar after 6pm or something. SO far, I have had no real sugar today and I am CRAVING IT!! Seriously, if I find any, I will cave. I totally notice the addiction in me becuase I feel really unsatisfied right now.

I stink at this.

2010-07-04T09:03:00.002-06:00

I always find my way onto the computer, but only for minutes at a time, so I never fell like I have enough time to blog a proper blog. Adeline is whining right now and Penny is stuck in her highchair so we will see how this goes:) We are having a good summer so far. I took the big kids on a bike ride last night and it was nice to bike around the community with them at a normal speed. I am so excited for Penny to turn one so she can ride in the trailer. I think I will start 3 weeks early and bike the kids to school in September. I would think that I would have to go to a sports store to find a helmet that will fit her tiny little head properly... I can't imagine Walmart will have what we need. Maybe they will, I haven't looked yet. I had a dream last night that I was holding a newborn and bawling my head off because I was done having babies. I feel my family is complete, but I know I am going to miss this little baby stage so much. I always feel so torn. I am exhausted, Penny doesn't sleep well, and I really want her to grow up so I can watch her less cloesly, but at the same time I want her to stay little. One of the tough things about having a baby right now is our garden which we are very excited about. We are growing peas, carrots, lettuce(we ate some last night and it was great!) onions, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries and raspberries. However, our backyard has so many mosquitoes right now and I saw 3 perched on Pennys head when I was trying to pull weeds yesterday so that ended abruptly.
Preston starts his shirt work MOnday. He has been at this new job for a month as a maintenance electrician, and he has learned enough to start shift. It means he will now work 4 days on, 4 off, 4 nights on 4 off. They are 12 hour shifts rotated between 4 electricians. He is very excited about this job. It was the longest interview process he has ever had to endure, and as long as the plant is there, he hopes to be there...mee too! I am tired of moving and uncertainty.
I am so envious of my friend Kristen who hates running and has been doing it for a while now and getting results.(shout out Kris!!) WHy am I so lazy? I saw this hot bodied woman crossing the street the other day and I told Preston to stop looking becuase I will never have her body and he said I totally have the right build to have her body...I just have to workout. Well, maybe with a boob job:) SO, I went on that bike ride last night and we will see with Prestons shift work if I can use the days he has off productively. And we just booked a cruise for Feb so I am hopng that a goal to have a hot bod by then might help motivate me.
My SIL has just decided to home school her children and I applaude her for trying it out..because I never would:) I like my kids going off to school and giving me a break! In all honesty, I would do it if I had to, but Clayton was sad the school was ending before it ended, so as long as the system is working for us, I am sticking with it. However, I am making an effort this summer to to some teaching. See if I could do it if I had to. I have some work books that I am hoping to make them do a couple of pages every day or two and I have some great I ideas for field trips. I also liked her idea of using everyday situations for learning...like baking. They can help and I can teach them the rules of a recipe and do some math with the measurements. What I want to see is me not saying "forget it! Go outside and play!" So, good luck to me:)
Thats really it with us. The kids got their report cards. CLayton is about a B average student who excels in math, but his teachers say of he focuses, he has a lot of brains. Focus will be a tough one. Kayla is now consistant in everything kindergarten, except for a few social things like distracting others and not paying attention...sounds like focusing is a family problem:) Adeline is almost 2 and can throw some wicked tantrums...it's hard not to laugh and Penny is crawling now. Boo.

Olympic Torch

2010-01-23T08:22:00.002-07:00

We were able to go see the Olympic Torch realy in Okotoks. It was within waling distance from our house so I took the babies out to see it. I only did it because the weather was nice. I don't really have much interest in the Olympics. I rarely watch them, all though I try sometimes because I feel bad if I don't for some reason. I keep up on how many medals Canada has won, but that is it. I'm glad I went the the realy though, it made me feel patriotic or something:) ANd it was convenient, it was half way to the kids school, so I just finished the walk and picked them up afterward.

2010

2010-01-09T08:36:00.002-07:00

I never blog when I actually have something to say, and then when I sit down to blog, I feel like I'm trying to come up with some thing to say. Lets start from the top. Preston registered for school. He is doing some PLC courses to gain more programming skills. He loves to troubleshoot stuff, and this will help him. He'll be going to school Monday and Wednesday evenings. Me, I get to spend more time alone with my lovely children:) It will be a little hard to have him away more evenings a week. Somedays, he works into the evenings, so I'm afraid he will never be home now. RIght now I am tring to do flylady. I'm sucking at it. I've been on day 2 for 3 weeks - shine my sink and put on my shoes. I can't get past it. I think I will have to modify her program to fit my lifestyle. I am also trying to start up a business with my dad. Well, it's my business but he is my sounding board and my technical assistance. It's hard to explain right now. It has to do with hair clips and such, but it is hopefully different from all the hair clip makers/sellers out there. I just renewed Prestons business licence so now I can get a membership to the warehouse I need to get my cheap supplies. We will see...
Clayton LOVES school and I'm so glad becuase it's easy to get him up and out the door. He just got his first birthday party invitation of the year. The party is an hour long. 1 hour. There is no point in me going back home....so I will shop close by. Oh, that is another one of my goals. To only shop once a week. So far I have done well. I don`t like to make do, so I go to the store regularly. I am going to simplify by only going once. I`ve done it for 2 weeks now. WOo hoo.
Kayla is a challenge. She is constatnly asking to have a friend over. CONSTANTLY. She is stubborn and says Ì`m NOT going to school` but she always does. ANd she always says `no`to me. I can hardly wait for her teenage years:) She has her moments though where she is sweet. She gives lots of hugs and kisses and sometimes she will try to clean for me or Preston `to make us happy` but only if SHE wants to. She gave her first talk in church on Sunday and spoke very well.
Adeline is adorable and fun and exhausting. She climbs everything and falls down stairs. She loves to eat play dough and watch crazy christmas light videos on the computer. Penny smiles like crazy these days but it is very obvious she loves her mommy. Preston thinks she doesn`t like him. I think he tries to make her cry so he doesn`t have to hold her. Well, I am going to attempt toboganning today. It`s hard with all four cause Adeline needs me to go down with her, and Penny needs to just sit in the cold stroller. But it`s worth Clayton and Kaylas smiles:)

2009-11-12T19:42:00.002-07:00

My littlest cutie. She unfortunately had full blown baby acne on her blessing day. Of course, now it's all cleared up. She has been sleeping pretty good at night. However, in the day she always wakes up when I try to put her down. I don't have much else to say about her becuase all she does is eat, sleep, poop and cry right now.
Preston took his test a few days ago to confirm the vasectomy worked and we didn't get a call back so ew assume there were no stragglers. However, I am terrified of getting pregnant again. I have heard so many stories of oops and we already had our oops. I need to get over it realize what will be, will be...

Baby Penny

2009-10-03T10:18:00.003-06:00

So we had our baby, as I'm sure most of you know from Facebook. Here is our story....assuming the kids are kind enough to let me get through it. Sunday night I went to bed and woke up around Midnight and was having a few random strong contractions. So I wandered around the house for a couple of hours wondering what was happening. I finally woke Preston up around 2:30 and told him I thought I was in labour. Now, if this were my first baby, I probably would have waited. There was no rhythm to the contractions and there were strong ones and weak ones. But, since my last labour went fast, I was worried about it going too fast and I was having some really strong contractions that I had to breath through, but again they were very random. Finally I said lets go. I don't think Preston was thrilled becuase I forsaw a long wait at the hospital, but he knew he didn't have a choice. Anyways, we got there and I was 4-5cm so they put me in a room and put me on antibiotics becuase I was positive for strep B this time. It was good we went early becuase if you don't get the antibiotics atleast 4 hours before you deliver, they want to keep you and the baby for 48 hours! Anyways, the contractions slowed and seemed to have stopped for an hour. Frusterating, but good to let the antibiotics do their thing. After 4 hours, they broke my water. It didn't feel like things were progressing after that. I was still having the odd strong contraction every 15 minutes and some 'fake' contractions the nurse called it. I had her 1 1/2 hours after they broke my water. I never really had regular contractions. I had 2 contractions that were 6 minutes apart and then I felt with the next one like I could push. She said I was 10 cm so I started to push..and she came out. Pretty lame labour but I'm not complaining:) ANyways, when she was born, they put her on my and she wasn't crying. She was a good colour but she started to turn purple pretty quickly becuase she had a lot of fluid in her lungs and couldn't breathe so they took her over to the table and sucked out the fluid and put her on oxygen for a minute. Because of that, they had to do a few extra tests on her while we were in the hospital. They also had trouble controling my bleeding afterwards so they put me on oxytocin and then shoved some sort of medicine up my butt to help my uterus contract. They pushed on my stomach so hard to help get the clots out...it was worse than the labour. The rest of my hospital stay was pretty uneventful. I went home the next day to a brand new house with movers here and everything everywhere so I started bawling when I got here. Then an hour later, the RS showed up to help unpack stuff. it was pretty overwhelming. Anyways, we are 3 weeks old now and she slept 4 hours straight last night...so we are getting a little more sleep.

Here we are

2009-09-02T19:39:00.002-06:00

So we are in Calgary and it has been a really interesting week. I have been sleeping worse than I have in a long time. I'm trying not to count the little hours I am sleeping every night anymore....it doesn't help things. I bought us a house. It is in Okotoks. Preston hasn't seen it yet. I am nervous for that incase he hates it. He has seen photos, but it is never the same. We have certainly learned that. I spend a lot of time on the phone between lawyers, agents, moving companies and utilities etc. I hate the phone. I also spend a lot fo time driving. The kids started school last week in Okotoks and we are living in North Calgary for the next few weeks. 3 hours of driving a day! I hate that too. Tomorrow we are going to hang out at Kamilles in Okotoks so then I will only have to drive 1.5 hours. The kids have been keeping me busy too. Even though we are at grandmas, I am trying to do most of the child tending myself and without Preston it is getting tiring. I need someone to complain too. And I am 37 weeks this week! I hope I go early this time. Like next week, when my mom is here (she is driving my van out here)and Preston gets here. Two grandmas and a daddy all in the same house....I'd get lots of rest:) Shows over...kids have to go to bed. More later.

This was Aug 23

2009-09-02T19:38:00.000-06:00

o most of you have heard by now that we are moving back to Calgary...well, Okotoks. Close enough. We are leaving next week. Adleine is already there and I will have been an entire week without her by the time I get there with the other kids. We miss her so much, but at the same time it has been sooo relaxing. I didn't relize how much time I have to give her everyday and how hard she is on my 36 week pregnant body. Preston will be driving out with Jordan on Sept 5th to join us. Jordan will be joining us for a bit hoping to get a good job. He's been struggling here to find one. You may have heard rumors as to why we are leaving. The common one, that my parents are passing around, is taht I hate everyone here:) Let me clarify. If you ask Preston, he will say we aer moving back because of PST, preperty taxes, and his hourly wage. I will tell you, it is becuase he misses his family nad his best friend. It is probably a little bit of both. Preston didn't really make the decision for us to go at this time though. He kept talking about how he wanted to go back 'at some point' and I said 'lets go now' I don't want to keep uprooting the kids now that they are in school. I an very torn between my desire to stay here in a town I like, around my family, and being in Calgary with all the kids cousins and stuff. That is where my family gets confused that I hate everyone. I wont lie, that it is a perk, that in Calgary I have a mother-in-law who can babysit when I need her to, cousins for the kids to play with, and family gatherings are geared more towards the kids, not shutting up the kids:) My siblings just haven't reached that part of their lives yet....but it is not my reason for moving! Anyways, that's the story. My only fear is having this baby on the airplane:)

I wonder....

2009-08-01T16:58:00.002-06:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I am going to manage 4 kids. I mean, I try not to think of it really, but when I do I just try and tell myself that lots of people do it and make it through. Then I wonder. Do they have help? What do they let go of? Do they neglect certain things? Are they really good at listening to their kids scram when they can't tend to them? I'm not good at any of those things. I try and stay relaxed and say the kids will be fine but I end up getting them or I sit there exhuasted stareing at the mess so frsuterated that it is there and not having the energy to clean it up. I can't mentally let it go it just sits there in my head bugging me until I do it...which may not be for a while so that is a long time to hold on to frusteration. Some people are just so relaxed...or smart enough not to have 4 kids in 6 years. I know I`ll get through it, but as I get more tired in this pregnacy, the 3 I have have really taken their toll on me. I hired someone last week to mow the lawn and a lady to clean the house. I mean, we are also showing the home right now which is a huge added pressure. I guess if i didn`t feel the need to keep the house clean, I would feel much more relaxed. I just need someone I can get to do silly little things that sit there in my head. Right now, I`m thinking I should go to the store tonight to get a few things. Do I need toÉ No. I can totally do without those items....but i want them. I`m such a head case.

June

2009-06-17T19:24:00.002-06:00

Well, I love to post pics of Adeline becuase she is so darn cute, but I often forget the others are cute too...well, to me anyways:)
And they have had some milestones recently too. Kayla can pump herself on a swing. A big 'yay' for me because I don't like standing there pushing her. Adeline likes to play in the sand/gravel, so I need to be right beside her making sure she is not eating it. She can also swim very well and will do sommersaults under the water. Clayton is not as confident to do that yet, but he has other strengths. He's been playing t-ball and though he is not that good, he is always there to back his teammates up. He will be playing 3rd base and a ball will be hit down the 1st base line, and he'll run for it anyways. Sometimes the other kids aren;t paying attention and he will actually be the first one to it! I don't think we will do t-ball next summer though. A lot of down time and the kids get antsy. They need to keep running at this age. Maybe soccer next year.
I am so glad that my mom has a pool and we have a hottub. The kids and Preston have been able to spend a lot of time together since being in Ontario. It's sometimes hard to create daddy/child activites...that they both enjoy(Preston struggles with getting down and playing kids games and stuff) but they all enjoy swimming. The would hop through the snow to get to the hottub in the winter(I refused) But they ahve been able to play and spend time together a lot. I went in the hottub with them tonight with Adeline(who also love the water) but they were splashing and having fun and I was just getting grouchy, so I got out. So, I'm glad the kids and Preston have their 'bond' and I am happy to leave them alone with it.
I'm still pregnant and hating it:) Not the baby, just the pregnancy. However, I am not having any problems...just bigger, uglier veins in my legs than last time. People keep telling me I am not gaining as much with this one though and I'm beginning to wonder just how fat I looked with Adeline. 14 more weeks. Adeline went to sleep tonight without too much screaming so hopefully we are on our way to happier evenings. I need to do what I can to free my arms for this new baby, so going to bed on her own is becoming more important.
I got rid of my 3 callings at church...for a new one. I am the enrichement councellor! Yay fun! I love planning activites. I'm not always excellent with frilly details, but I'll have help. I'm just happy to be out of primary...sorry kids:)

Baby names

2009-06-07T15:51:00.002-06:00

Preston read bits of my blog for the first time yesterday and he saw some of your ideas on "P" names. So, he wanted to post the ones he likes and get some comments. Not that he really cares what peoples opinions are, but he would have fun reading your HONEST opinions. We haven't names her yet, and we have 16 weeks to go, so please, be brutal

Petra - is his number one so far. I don't like it.

Pepper - we both thought it was 'cute' but would be an exellent name to make fun of...and reminds me of a little dog. Lori and Debbie hate it.

Piper - help me make Preston realize it is not a boys name.

Thanks!

Too much

2009-06-05T12:55:00.002-06:00

I am taking a class right now with CLayton at the hospital to help me be a more organized mom and help him better relate socially in school. I guess he has the odd outburst. I've never thought of him as a trouble kid, and his teacher says she has no problem handling him, she is just worried he will have toruble making friends as the years go on. So, we are taking a class, which I am finding a tad frusterating...since Preston is not. SO I come home all 'enlightened' on how to have a successful home and well adjusted children, and Preston ruins it with his dominant "I'm the parent, your the child' attitude. So, I have to tell him everthing I learn, hoping he is listening, and then correct him when he starts barking at them or teasing them?? ANyways, so I just made routine charts. I have to admit I am a bit of a nag, no help from the kids, so this hopefully will eliminate me from the situation. Our first chart is BEDTIME. I laminated it and it has 4 velcro stickies for toilet, teeth, washing hands and face and pyjamas. They get to move them to the "Done" velcro strip which is followed by a little red arrow that shows them they are ready for snack. So far, they have done great. They like to be independant but they get distracted if I just leave it to them. Hopefully they will feel like they have a goal now...and I can stop yelling. I also have a 3 strike chart for Kayla because she is a really mouthy, disobedient pain in the butt these days. So, 3 strikes and it's early bed. She has 1 today...so far. I'd like to make a 'clean room' chart. Preston likes to ask them to clean their rooms and then leave but a messy room is hard for them to process. They need to do it one task at a time so I want to make a velcro strip with 'pick up garbage' 'dirty clothes in hamper' 'make bed' 'toys on shelf' 'clean clotehs in drawers' for them to work with. We'll see how this all turns out as the weeks go on. We're taking the kids swimming today at my moms and then heading to Lobsterfest for a buffet of lobster(roastbeef for me) A night out!!

ADDY

2009-05-30T06:43:00.002-06:00

My baby girl is 9 months old now. SHe loves has jam toast and yogurt for breakfast every morning. She loves cheese and tolerates chunks of brocolli and cauliflour on her tray at supper. SHe pretty much eats whatever I feed her. She will always open hoer mouth, even if she is getting full, but she starts to gag on the food when she doesn't want it anymore. Why she doesn't just refuse it, I don't know. We are working on getting her to go to sleep on her own, but she keeps throwing up. So, I'm torn between making sure she is full before bed, or that she can cry it out without throwing up. She has also had a snotty nose for 3 weeks so she may have some congestion that is gaging her when she gets too mad. She is not crawling yet but lvoes to try to move. The slower the better, we are not ready for a moving baby. Her and Preston have a good time together. She is very easy to play with. She is a very happy baby, a little high maintenance, as in she likes to be with us a lot, but easy to soothe and make laugh. Thats my girl.
We've been coming up with names for the next girl. Preston really wants it to start with a 'P' so the kids first initials can make 'PACK' which was the name of our electrical company in Calgary. He likes Petra...I want to scream. So I came up with Pacey. WHat do you think?

Pictures

2009-05-13T19:18:00.003-06:00

I think the backsplash is the worst, but not as easy to replace as the paint. There is still some work that needs to be done on the backsplash, and I guess I could stain the grout a different colour. Preston picked the backsplash, so happily, I don't have to blame myself:)

Kitchen

2009-05-13T14:19:00.002-06:00

So, we have this brand, new kitchen. We put it together all ourselves. Cabinets, then floor, then paint, then backsplash, then appliances. However, I've never really been a fan. It took me till today to realize its the colours.....way too much brown. Beige walls, beigeish countertops, brown cabinets, brown flooring, brown/beige backspalsh. I should love the kitchen...but I don't. So, when Preston is at work next week I am going to have some people over to paint with me, possibly green. It is the cheapest thing that can be changed, so I'm doing it. I like it when I finally realize something and I can do something about it. I'm not telling Preston though becuase he will say no. Too much still to do and he wont want to think about it. I'm a little nervous. Let me get some pics.

New Things

2009-05-04T07:27:00.002-06:00

-We just started t-ball season, which will take up 4 days a week. The kids each have 2 games a week. I am Kaylas coach and the other parents were quite content to sit back and watch which is not at all what I explained I wanted to happen when we started Saturday. I need help. Luckly though, Adeline was being a grump and some lady took her. However, I am very lucky I can trust Claytin becuase I couldn't keep track of him and run a team of 4 year olds at the same time. I told the parents I am only coaching because no one else offered and I would like an assistant. Maybe I'll get an offer to help Tuesday night. I can atleast leave the other 2 kid with Preston Tuesday. Claytons first game is tonight and I am not the coach. Yay.
-They are also in swim lessons. I make a point of only having them in one activity at a time, so I kinda screwed that one up. However, I do think that swimming is an important life skill, so I wouldn't have given it up...especially since summer is coming.
-Adeline is eating finger food now. She has done well so far with toast, cheerios and rice krispies, and cake:) Anything dry and bread like really. I gave her some banana and she had trouble picking it up and then choked on a couple of pieces. I guess we will still stick to the little hand held food bag when I give her fruit. WHat do you call those things anyways?
-we planted our vegetable garden yesterday. We have tomatos, onions, peas and carrots. And maybe cucumbers if I can stop killing them. We are not excellent gardeners so a small garden is good for now. My Aunt said she has planted a recession garden which takes up her whole backyard. I would love that but I just can't maintain it right now, and I don't think the kids would be too happy if we took away their play area.
-Preston keeps talking about moving back to Alberta next year and it kinda makes me frown. We have had a beautiful spring so far as I haev watch Alberta have some cold snaps..and snow. I never realized how important the weather is to my attitude and happiness. I love being able to be outside but I hate the cold. Picky, I know.
-I go for my 20 week apt. today and I hope he gives me my ultrasound req. so I can ook it asap. I want to know what I am having sooo bad. Preston wants to be there for the ultrasound but I kinda don't him there. He is sooo rooting for a boy, and I know he will be dissapointed if it is a girl, even if he tries to hide it. Hopefully, all the Fridays are booked up, then I can go alone. We are planning to have a garage sale and I want to know of there are some girl/boy things I can get rid of.
Adeline pooped, so that is my update!

Pretty me?

2009-04-19T12:36:00.002-06:00

I woudln't post this on facebook becuase too many people read it. I just shaved my legs today for the first time in 8 months! Yup, the last time was before Adeline was born, and then I could never find a good reason to. Well, I got to a point where I was just curius to see how long it would grow. And I have sensitive skin and my legs are always itchy for days afterwards so I don't really like to shave anyways. Well, it's spring and it has been warm and I didn't want to wr nylons or boots to church so it had to be done.
In other news, it's been so warm so we have been outside this weekend getting sunburnt. I see myelf hanging out at my moms a lot when it is nice out. The kids loveb to ride their bikes and I hate our busy street. Also, garage sale season is here and I have a nice little list of things I want which means I have to get out there!
Adeline is over the chicken pox but now she is so clingy. I need to get her going to sleep on her own, I can't keep rocking her to sleep. SHe is really not all that co-operative when I do it anyways. I need to be tough.
I need to make a ceasar salad. We are having a birthday party for my nana and Preston today.
Bye

2009-04-16T17:21:00.000-06:00

Random Stuff

2009-03-25T13:48:00.002-06:00

-Kayla came into my room this morning and said "where's daddy" so I said 'he's at work. WHy?" She said "Because I dreamed he died. There was a volcano and he was working there with the other daddys." I told her that daddy was not working at a volcano.
-I never want to grout again...we are STILL fixing it. I do feel better though becasue I found out the guy sold me the wrong product(non-sanded grout) so it was a lot harder to work with. I could have handled it better, but I will still blame him for all the miersy I've been put through with scraping it all out and starting over. I'm not even a fan of the colour we have. It is showing up a lot lighter than the box says, I wanted a bigger contrast.
-I want to be more spontaneous. I drove past an African restaurant today. It qwas small but it looked nice inside. I kinda want to go there on our date night this weekend...we'll probably end up at Boston Pizza.
-Clayton got the chicken pox this week. I feel kinda dumb because I said I had always refused the vaccinations for my kids becuase it was a yearly thing...which it was not. So, I was feeling dumb putting us through this until Preston made me realize the vaccine is only 75% effective, which means that people can still get it if they are exposed enough(my logic, correct me if I'm wrong) Now, Clayton will be almost 100% immune for a few days of discomfort. I expect Kayla and Adeline will break out next week.
-Preston is working in Mississauga again. I liked him working intown. He got to get up an hour later and home an hour earlier and I didn't have to make his lunch if I didn't want to. However, he gets paid for his traveltime so our family income has gone up for the moment...definate bonus.
-It's really hard to make kids be grateful. I've taken my kids to funworks a few times now They get to run around and crawl and climb. But no matter how many times I tell them how lucky they are to be there they bug me to play those dumb token games that cost a fortune. I warned them last time "NO GAMES" and Clayton still got upset with me. How can I teach them.
- My MIL is visiting this week. Even though she says she is just here to spend time with us, I still feel like we should do something. Really, how much fun is sitting around the house. We have filled the first day though with videogames, battleship and books. The kids really enjoy her company...and I enjoy some freedom.
I like writing like this. I think I'll do it more.

SIck Sick Sick

2009-02-23T19:13:00.002-07:00

February has been a horrible month for our family as far as health goes. CLayton got Strep throat. Even after a round of anitbiotics his throat started to hurt again so I ran him in for another round. Then I got the worst cold ever. I was so lucky that I got my cold on a Saturday so taht when I felt like the biggest bag of dirt ever on Sunday, my mom could take them to church. She even kept them for the whole day and I stayed in bed all day, which I NEVER do so I must have felt really bad. Of course, I found out a few days later that I was pregnant so I'm sure the icky feelings were doubled up ontop of eachother. Kayla last weekend had a fever for 5 days. I thought it would never end. The wierd thing is, is that was all she got. She didn't get sick or eat poorly, she was just tired and had a few naps here and there. SOme days she even had some energy. After that she developed a small cold and cough. Adeline has been the biggest pain though. She had a cold and fever for 3 days and now she refuses to take her bottle. She is only 6 months, she needs her formula but she flat out refuses..probably more so now that I have tried to force it on her so many times. So we are going to the doctor tomorrow to have her weighed, get his opinion, stuff like that. She eats very well though so I give her cereal everytime she refuses her bottle and I mix it with lots of formula. We're also thrying the sippy cup...kinda hard when she is not so co-ordinated. Preston has managed to maintain is good health through all of this, which is good becuase he is still keeping busy. He put the backsplash up this past weekend and is doing the flooring next weekend. I get a massage tomorrow which I am sooo looking forward too. Now, I am going to make Prestons lunch for tomorrow and try to sneak a bottle into my sleeping babys mouth(unfortunately she is too smart for that too most of the time...but I'm trying anyways)

Coming to terms

2009-02-16T05:43:00.002-07:00

O.K., I have stopped whining. That last post was like 2 days after I found out, soI was still pretty surprised. I now realize I will be pretty happy to have another one. However, I still hate being pregnant! But I do count my blessings that I have healthy pregnancies so again, stopping whining. I feel pretty good. Just tired all the time and my appetite has changed, but nothing too much. Were trying to frantically finish this reno before Adeline starts crawling. We don't want too much sawdust and nails on the ground for her to eat:) I am very happy with the kitchen, much easier to cook in and more pleasant for sure. I'll take pics when it is all done. Today is family day, but Preston is working...he is getting paid double time so why not? I think we will go to my moms and hang. Good times.

Pregnant....again

2009-02-08T19:32:00.002-07:00

No, I'm not excited. This was totally unplanned. I started the pill 3 weeks ago and I got a huge cold over this past weekend. At the end of it, I started to feel tired and nauseaus so I took a test. It was positive. The doctor confirmed it the next day. I have no idea how far along I am but I have an ultrasound tomorrow. Yes, we did think we were done. Preston has a vasectomy scheduled, so we had certainly planned to be done. Anyways, so here we are. I HATE being pregnant. I thought I didn't want to be pregnant with Adeline, I can't imagine how insane I am going to go being pregnant with this one. Anyways, yay.

who wants to blog?

2009-01-16T08:25:00.001-07:00

I don't. I am trying to finish the Twilight series and Preston is ripping out the kitchen tomorrow. I have my hands full. I ordered the granite today, CLayton has strep throat, I'm cleaning up from Kaylas birthday party last night and y furnace broke down the AM.(the filter was soooooo dirty) Busy Busy

December

2008-12-16T11:56:00.002-07:00

Well, we've gotten through all our appointments. Kayla had 4 cavities filled and was braver than me in that dentist chair. We've ordered our kitchen cabinets and set a date to have the carpet installed. It is nice to see some big progress on the house.
I had Claytons post-assessment meeting and they don't see a problem with him. Which means I get to go back to the school and say 'whats your problem?'
So, things are getting under way. We leave for Calgary tomorrow which is very exicitng. My dad thinks I am crazy for flying with 3 young kids alone. I think Adeline could cause me some grief, but the other two should be a breeze. I'm being optimistic. I'm very excited to have a nice break in Calgary where we are not dealing with renos or school or anything. I got Adeline a Bumbo yesterday. I had my other two before the Bumbo fad so this is my first experience with it. She enjoys it enough so I think it was worth it. I also gave her a little cereal yesterday. I know, she's too young but she was grumpy and it shut her up for a while:)
I have a horrible cough right now that is keeping me up at night so I am sooo tired. Maybe that is why this post is starting to sound lame.

Appointments.

2008-12-01T09:16:00.002-07:00

This is my week of appointments. Today I am going to the dentist to get a cleaning. I have 4 cavities that they will be fixing this month. Better than Prestons 7 and Kaylas 4. Luckly, Clayton has none. He would have a fit if he had to get them filled. Kayla got two filled already and was a superstar during the whole thing. Yay for benefits. We've spent $3000 at the dentist this past month already...making up for when we didn't have benefits.
ALso, a guy is in our upstairs measuring for carpet right now. We are going to new carpet installed while we are in Calgary. We have Clayons appointment this week for his testing or whatever. As I ay attention to him more, I do see some small things like how eashe gets distracted when I ask him to do something. I have to ask him to put his shoes on 4 times becuase he will stop along the way to the front hall and pick something up r start talking or something. And he does have a lot of energy, maybe too much. I'm probably makg things up now so I feel like I'm not oblivious to my sons 'problems'. Also I have the parent teacher interview Friday, which I am excited about. I want to finally have a good talk with his teacher. We are also getting cabinets mesurements on Friday and they will start making our cabinets for the kitchen. I find this reno thing exciting, but also tiring. I will be glad when it is done. Right now the kitchen table is on the living room:)
Adeline is growing well. She is such an excellent sleeper. I can't rub it i enough because she is the first good sleeper I have had. 11 hours straight, each and every night. I am so lucky. She's not perfect. She's got a temper and expresses it dring the day but who cares when you are getting enough sleep:)
Kayla had a dance recital this weekend. It was very cute to watch them do their jazz number. Clayton spends his weekends helping do the reno. Hloves to be part of it all with the boys. It's hard to convince him that there is only so much a5 yr old can do. I am in a production called a night in Bethlehem with the church. I am a guide and had to practice this weekend. I get to guide people from Jerusalem to Bethlehem on the night of the Saviours birth. I have many lines to learn. She said I can ad lib but that is not a strength of mine. I am better at knowing my lines reallywell first. Preston works and watchs 24. He doesn't have much going on except the reno. We areboth really excited to the break that our trip to Calgary will hopefully be.

Tough Day

2008-11-19T11:15:00.002-07:00

Well, I've had better days. Today I have to stop breastfeeding and I am dissapointed. I know there are some brightsides to it,but I know I will miss this time with Adeline. I had to start a new medication yesterday to help curb my anxiety. Yes, I am a worrier and with the move, the baby, the renovation the sale of the house and the zero money until the house changes hands(like ZERO - not even available credit - ZERO!!!)and now this thing with Clayton at school and trying to mak changes to our day to day life, I guess I'm not handling it well. Well, I think I handle stress fine. I don't really know what stress is suppose to feel like, but I guess mybody does and it says TOO MUCH!! It tells me by making it hard for me to swallow, a lost appetite and a constant reminder that something is wrong...so the pills. They are a hard transition too becuase they take som getting used to. So, after talking with my doctor, we decided that Adleine has gotten some good boob food and it's better for her to go onformula. It's hard not to feel like a failure or that I will be judged for making this decision but with everything going on, I think it will be better. I'm looking at the positive side. Preston will be happy becuase I can go on the pill again. He wont be happy though because he will realise I can more easily leave the baby with him and ask him to feed her. With the many many things going on right now, passing her to Preston will free me up to do those things, like bringing more routines and structure to our home.
I have a meeting with Clayton at the hospital on Dec 4th and they will just go through our peronal history and stuff. I honstly think they will find nothing significantly wrong with him and they will just tell us a few things that we can be doing at home to help him more at school. I do not see a troubled child. However, now that they have identified him at school, I am afraid of him getting labeled. My dad is a teacher and he had a few strong opinions about it and his fear of Clayton getting labeled. Well, I go to Claytons school today at 2:30 to see him. ALl the parents get a 15 minute observation so hopefully I will see the behaviour she is talking about. Anyways. Next post will be happy:)

House

2008-11-08T05:55:00.005-07:00

So this house is soooo ugly (this post isn't helping my resolve to stop whining in my blog) nd we are planning on doing many renovations. We tiled the bathroom last weekend and this weekend, we are installing the toilet and sink, with the help of a plumber, and tiling the landry room. It's hard to picture this ugly house, so I took some pictures. You can see I tried to paint the kitchen cablinets, and then we just decided we are going to gut it and smash out the wall to the silly little room beside it and make it a little bigger. Along the back of this house, there are 3 rooms. nd they are all tiny so we will have to smash out some walls somewhere. Today our 'guy' will tell us which one isn't load bearing. This room is the dumbest. It is tiny with a fireplace and a huge set of doors. I lady with the same model house says it is suppose to be the family room. It fits a love seat. Thats really it. So we are going to make it our nook and have it open to the kitchen.

As you can see, I did no cleaning for these photos.
Then there is the livingroom. So long and silly, I don't know what to do with this room. Prestons tv will have to go in the basement. It is too big for the room.

I'll have to post more later, but these are he rooms that hurt methe most. I am not a good at design, so I'm nervous about making the wrong decision. Hopefully, but February, I can post beautiful pics of our new home.

People read my blog?

2008-11-08T05:50:00.002-07:00

I was under the impression no one read my blog but I've had 2 new commenters the last few days! Which means, I have to stop whining so much:) So, here is a picture of my beautiful children. They were incredibly loud and mean to eachother yesterday, but look how cte they are when they smile?

Intelligent?

2008-11-07T06:13:00.002-07:00

So, the human race is suppose to be the most intelligent, right? Thn why are we so stupid and lazy? I wonder why we make fun or scoff at smokers and then go have a Big Mac. You might not, but I do, and I think a lot of other people do to. Poor diet is just as unhealthy as smoking. We do a lot of other dumb things like not exercising even though it is PROVEN to do our bodies good. Or we don't drink enough water because we don't like the taste. It just makes me wonder how smart we really are if we do such harm to our bodies. The crappy thing is I don't want to change. I still want to eat fatty foods...they are YUMMY!! I guess I'll change with my first heart attack. That is something e humans also do is wait for tragity to say I'll be better. We had an experience with CLayton this week, his teacher told us he was going to go for testing because he is loud during quiet time and likes the toys to be put in the spot they belong (huh?) Anyways, for years I've been telling Preston we need more structure in our home. WHere are they going to learn it? We need to all eat at the table at dinner and not leave t until we are done. We need to read our scriptures and make the kids listen. Well, I've been ignored for years and NOW that we've been presented with a problem, he pipes up and says we need to have the tv off more. HELLO...COMMON SENSE??!!
ANyways..dumb humans. When will we learn.

Nursing issues

2008-11-05T11:00:00.002-07:00

Adeline is a great baby. She sleeps well and smiles a lot. She isn't fussy in the evenings anymore but she still likes to be held a bit. However, overthe past few weeks I've been unhappy with her eating habits. It started with her pulling off or not staying on very well for the first few minutes. I thought maybe she developed a bad latch. Anyways, I would spray milk everywhere when she pulled/fell off. Now, over the past several days. She will sck for 10 seconds and pull off and yell at me. The other day, she hadn't eaten in 41/2 hours so I knew she was hungry but she did the same thing. She wasn't overly grumpy though so it made me question whether she was even hungry but it had ben over 4 hours. She should have been. I had to get Kayla from school so I didn't have a lot of time to waste. She was getting a litle grumy so I threw some formula into a bottle and she sucked 2 ounces back quick. That made me realize she has a problem with me. SO, now I have to figure it out. Huh.

Life

2008-10-21T05:58:00.002-06:00

There,I finally put a picture on of Adeline. See her perfect head? I love that it is cute and round. I stare at her all the time. I thought I'd have gotten over it by now...but I haven't. I am so greatful to her for being a good sleeper. Im thinking back to Clayton who woke every 2 hours, and then struggled to go back to sleep and I would cry and even want to throw him out the window. This girl sleeps 8 hours every night before waking and is getting happier in the day time everyday. Easy baby and I am greatful as my other two are a handful right now. They don't keep me busy all the time, but when I ask them to do something I get ignored. Well, Clayton is best at ignoring, which I prefer to Kaylas refusal. I never wanted to be a nag, but they make me one. Part of it is my fault. I need to make sure they are listening before I talk. Tv off. I guess then if they don't jump up and respond, they go to their room? I am not confident in y discipline techniques,I either need to change it, or not feel so bad when I send them to their room for not getting ontop of their chores. Uggghhhh.
Anywas, Our House in Calgary is c/s. It c/s in less that 24 hours. We priced it real agressively. Our realtor told us 75 houses were on the market last month in Chaparral and only 4 sold....very sad. However, we will still make money on the house so it was o.k. to price it so low. I;m crossing my fingers that everything goes through. We are starting to get going on this house. I'm trying to get painting done as often as I can, Preston has started to pull up the floor in the bathroom and laundry so we can lay tile. He is going to try it on his own...he's never done tile before. The kitchen re-design will be the hardest and most expensive. It's kind of exciting becuase we've never done a reno before and we want to do it and make money on it if we sell in the spring. I think I'll take pictures,before and after. Hmmm...I'm gonna do it now.

6 weeks

2008-10-08T11:44:00.002-06:00

Wow, we are at 6 weeks. Adeline had her chedck up today and she has gained about 2lbs since birth making her 9lbs1oz. She is healthy and a good sleeper and I couldn't ask for much more. I remember only 3 weeks ago I was thinking how nice it will be whe she is 2, and less work. Right now it is round the clock and I have no time for myself. I've discovered over the past week that I really do like the baby stage. I want to look at her all the time becuase she is just sooooo cute. And she's only gonna get big and smelly like the other two:) People are always telling me how small she is and it kinda drives me nuts. I don't know why. She does look small, mostly becyase she has a small head(which runs in my hubbys family) and it makes her look small. But also, I need to realize that people aren't used to seeing month old babies everyday and ofccourse they think she looks small. I know though that she is gaining well so for now I will just smile when they say it. I am o.k. too. Unfortunately, I am not completely healed so Preston is going to be disappointed tonight:) I'm excited to start exercising. I am 8 lbs from my pre pregnancy weight, not that it is a target for me because I wasn't exactly in shape before I got pregnant. I'd like to loose a little but then gain some muscle. I've never been good at working out but I was so miserable being fat and pregnant this time that I think I might be more determined.
I went to Bulk Barn last week and bought a whole pile of different grains and I'm excpted to use them in recipes. I realize that it is easy to make healthy some diskes we eat regularly This week I worked with wild rice and added them to meatballs and taco meat. I'm going to make some couscous stuffed peppers and some chicken millet patties. I also cooked up some Quinoa, maybe I'll dump it into meatloaf or some thanksgiving stuffing. So many ideas and so healthy. I bought some purple sweeties (potatoes) too and they were very healty and sweeter and yummier than sweet potatoes(I don't like sweet potatoes. Unfortunately, I still crave sugar, but atleast I'm making my meals healthier so it makes the sugar a little more o.k. to eat.
Well, Kayla is just wraping up her jazz class. SHe likes to dance and has lots of energy and these classes are doing her well. Clayton still enjoys Happy Hoops (basketball) and looks forward to getting better everytime. He says he wants to be like daddy and play basketball. I honestly think he will end up exceling at an independant sport like karate, which he also likes, but we will just have to see where his interests go.

Baby Story

2008-09-10T08:42:00.002-06:00

So, yes I had my baby. Adeline May Wigg was born Aug. 27 at 9:31pm. That day I went shopping becuase we had just gotten possession of our new house in Kitchener. My dad took the kids to McDonalds because this was something I really needed to get done. I was overdue and was moving into a new house so anything that I could get done before baby was best. I brought thr groceries in, my dad came back with the kids and while I was standing in the doorway, my water broke. My water had never broken before labour before so I was alittle nervous. I guess because Kayla came so quickly after my water broke I was afraid I would launch into labour or something. ANyways, I calmed down and called Preston and told him to start driving home. He works in Mississauga and has an hour drive. Luckly, my dad was here so he drove me to the hospital. Of course, since we were at the new house, I did not have a change of clothes or even a towel so I just got to walk in soaking wet while he parked the car and brought the kids in. My mom met us at the hospital too with my hospital bag and he and my dad switched the kids so she could take them home. They checked me and I was only 3 or 4 cm and my contractions were about 8 min apart and not strong at all. So, I was not in labour. They got me a room though and when Preston got there we just kinda hung out for a few hours. Labour still hadn't started at 6pm (4 hours after my water broke) and we started talking about inducing, which I really hated the idea of so we said lets wait an hour. Luckily, in an hour, labour started. I laboured for about 1.5 hours, spent part of it in the shower this time, and when I got to 7 or 8 cm she was still very posterior(way up there) so I thought this could suck, or require a lot of pushing. Luckly, it didn't and 15 minutes later she squirmed her way down and I was ready to push. The first push, I felt her crown. Yes, I actually felt the 'ring of fire' this time. The second push her head was out. Third push and she was here. The said I'm a good pusher. REally, I don't know how you can't be when you don't have any drugs and you have al that pain. You just want to get rid of it. It probably helps that she has a nice small head and was 7lbs 2 oz. I got 3 stitches and she was awake ALL NIGHT LONG. Now, she is 2 weeks old and stubborn as heck when it i time to go to bed at night. I'll have to put pics up later:)

Hmmm....

2008-08-15T16:24:00.002-06:00

Well, finally all the mortgage stuff has gone through. We can sign the documents tomorrow hopefully and then it moves onto the lawyers. We are hoping for an Aug. 22nd closing but there is a possibility that they wont be able to get it done that quickly. We really are pushing them. I feel like I am on the phone all day. Real estate agent, mortgage broker, lawyer. Wehn I'm done with them, then it is the utility companies. I am getting so tired and overwhelmed. I guess phone work isn't that hard, and we aren't rushed to move in so I don't have too much work to do except talk on the phone all day.
But it still stinks. Preston is working 12 hour days right now and Saturdays so he is barely around either. It is just crazy busy and I'm ready for it to be all over. It's nice that this baby is still inside but it may be helpful for Preston to have a reason to have a couple days off...and I'd rather have her out of me.
Anyways, we are just doing our thing. The kids are in swimming lessons right now and loving it. I think it will put Clayton in Karate and Kayla in dance for September. Thats if we can afford it. I'm a little worried about carrying 2 houses even though 1 is being covered by renters. So much going on. Ugh.

I want a tv

2008-08-09T19:12:00.002-06:00

I would rather be rlaxing and watching tv right now but Preston is in one room watching football, and my mom is in the other room and I just don't feel like socializing right now. So I'm here, doing some one way socializing:) I don't think I could get any more impatient and grumpy for this baby to come out. I am sooo not ready for her, but I still want her out. I'm tired of not being able to breathe when I lie down because there is just no room left in there for air. I also HATE all the kicks in the gut, especially near the top/ribs...so uncomfortable. I have to groan everytime I bend down and let air out so I can actually bend. Right now, I feel like I have to pee again, as she is kicking me in the bladder, again. Yup, this can be done.
Anyways, we did buy a house. It is on the west side of Kitchener. I am exicted now, but I had really wanted to stay where we were becuase I hate too much change and Clayton liked his school. I know I am worrying for nothing becuase he will adjust fine. I just have to drive Kayla to pre-school Tues/Thurs. and it wont be close anymore. It was a great deal as the house had been on the market for 90 days and it is a fixer-upper. The lady was getting impatient(we were told after) so she took our crummy offer...which is great for us! Really, it just needs a lot of paint and a new roof. Most of it is just cosmetic so thats great. It is worth atleast $60,000. more than we paid for it and we are really hoping that it does pay off in the end. This is just a temp. home for us (temp could potentially be 2-3 years)atleast that is how we see it. A lot of our things are still in Calgary so we went garage saling today to get some cheap dishes and stuff. Got a pretty good haul:)
Anyways, still getting kicked and now my back is sore from trying to sit up straight so I'm gonna go walk around the house. I'm just a bundle of joy, aren't I?

HOuse Hunting

2008-08-01T05:26:00.002-06:00

o.k., suddenly on Tuesday we decided to start looking for a house. We realized we can't live here anymore. Too many different agendas. Last night we put in an offer on a house. We lowballed, but not too much so we will see if they even consider it. I am sooo impatient. The owners are camping and didn't check in with their realtor last night, which stinks. We have another property in mind that I like the location better It is really close to where we are right now and I can still walk to EVERYTHING so if this one we bidded on doesn't work out, we will bid on that one. I hope one of them works out becuase I find this whole process soooooo stressful and since we have decided to move out of my moms place, I have been so excited to just MOVE! Slept poorly last night and now I just sit and wait......(to hear from my realtor)

Mrs. Negative

2008-07-25T15:18:00.002-06:00

I feel like I've been saying a lot of negative things lately. Well, it's not gonna change! I'm kidding, but I have been kinda down in the dumps. I can't tell if it is pregnancy or my living situation but my patients is thin, if even there. I'm not even smiley and polite to cashiers anymore. I am very blunt, and pretty snarky to my family. And if you are a telemarketer or a door to door salesman...watch out. I will tell you how I feel about your product! This is me, and I don't see it changing by tomorrow. Some people like pregnancy, but I don't...and I think it is getting to me. I'm quite sure this is the last. And I can't believe I am doing it in my family's house. It's crowded, smelly, and I have to compete to be the top snarky brat. It's too much. But Tuesday we are in the apartment, so a little more privacy. I'm curious to see how gross the kitchen gets when I'm not in it anymore. I'm better than yesterday. I was reading a book off and on, and I think it was getting to me. It's about a girl whos goal is to be better than her rich 'I don't need to do anything - everything gets given to me' friend. She stalks her and even has a baby just to ahve something first(and then she pays no attention to her child. I though I was enjoying the book, but I was so depressed at the end of the day, I decided I wouldn't read it at all today and I feel much better. So, I will toss it. Well, my happy blog. Just wanted to let anyone know that if I say something rude, it can't be helped. It's a part of me for now....

SAHM money making schemes

2008-07-17T05:56:00.002-06:00

Every stay at home mom would would love to find a way to bring a small income in from home. That is why I am suckered into buying a thousand useless items from Pampered Chef, candle parties, scrabooking stuffs from friends. (I'm not complaining really, I find those parties a great opportunity to get together and chat and take a load off) Well, my husband wants me to find a way to make money from home. I've found a couple ways to start out, but I find I am embarassed to talk about it because these are not new ideas. SAHMs have been trying to make money selling crummy little homemade items for years. What makes me think I will be successful. Well, my first thought was Ebay. I could give it a try and it would cost me no money. Preston has acquired some electrical items that are worth money and I have some kitchen items. So far, going great. We sold our first item and I'm shipping it out today. My concern is that we sold it for $50 plus shipping (we will make a little on the shipping too) which is fine becuase the item cost us no money, but it is still way under it's market value. How do people keep acquiring stuff for so cheap that they can afford to sell it on Ebay. I'd have to get free stuff all the time! I can see what fuels theft with things like Ebay around.
Anyways, I don't see this lasting. So, my next idea is teacher gifts and other small treats. Yah, original, I know. But I got some awesome ideas from Jen Sellars (in my ward) and we are going to do it together. I've started making samples and we will take pics and make a pamphlet and maybe from there just start advertising locally, taking sample gift baskets to corporations and going from there. Unfortunately there is a small start up cost becuase you have to buy the cutel little cello bags(so many different shapes and sizes) and ribbon and the expensive Callebaut chocolate. We'll make chocolate covered marshmellows, licorice and pretzels...and wrapping is everything. Jen does this sooo much and she is very good at it. I'm willing and not afriad to market so hopefully we will make a good team. and if it doesn't work, we ddin't put too much money into it, we've got presents for the people we visit teach for months and some yummy treats to eat ourselves! Anyways, that has consumed my last several days. I'll keep you posted.

Buttermilk Cornbread

2008-07-09T08:52:00.002-06:00

So I had a request for the buttermilk cornbread recipe. It is a simple cornbread recipe, nothing special, but it's nice to find a good standard recipe which I feel this one is. I've made it twice in the past 2 days and it keeps getting eaten so it must be good. Next, I am going to progress to the mexican cornbread, which I've had before and love, but have never tried. You put chilis and corn in it or something. If you have a recipe, let me know.

1/4 lb butter - this is the dumbest measurement ever. I like cups or ml. but pounds? I think it is about 1/2 cup but you may actually know.
Anyways, melt it in a pot and stir in
2/3 C sugar
2 eggs
1 C buttermilk (combined with 1/2 tsp bk soda)
1 C flour
1/2 tsp salt

pour into pan 8x8 or 9x9 and bake 30 minutes(ish)at 375.

Yum.

Fried chicken

2008-07-07T06:43:00.002-06:00

I made fried check for the first time last night. It was actually pretty good. When I say 'fried chicken' I mean a pot full of oil and the the chicken fried in it. I would do it again. I didn't like the flour rolled ones as much, but I just sprinkled a lot of pepper, salt, garilc and even cayenne on the chicken and put it in the oil for 10-15 minutes. Dark meat. Quite good. Try it. Now that the kitchen is cleaner, I will try more recipes. I also made buttermilk cornbread. It was a good recipe too. If you want them let me know. I've made cornbread that is really gritty...this one was good!

Don't ask about the future!

2008-07-07T06:30:00.002-06:00

Yes we are still at my moms house. We have nooooo idea what we are doing. Our plan originally was to be here so that when everyone moves out, we will buy the house and renovate and make it our own. Why? It is the perfect house in the perfect location. I think I've already explained before how we can walk everywhere as it is all 2 minutes away. and it is on a very safe, quiet cul de sac so they can run out on the road with minimal chances of harm. (What I hate about our current lcation in Calgary is all the kids play on the road, but it is a 2 way street and cars are always coming one way or the other...not half as safe) I'm sure we could find a comparable property somewhere in the city but it would defeat our other purpose....saving money. This house is rundown and would potentially be cheap to buy off my nana. Another house in a location like this would be $400,000 which is not bad to you Albertans but expensive here, and we want the smallest mortgage possible. So, we are really torn right now. My nana wont talk about it so we don't even know what to expect in the future so we could be sitting here for...well, we don't know. So, there is a house on the market a block away (it is hard to find houses for sale in this area)that I am going to look at today. it is $279,000. with 4 bedrooms and it is right across the street from the school. Busier street, yes but with all the same amenities close by. I don't know. For now, we spent the whole weekend cleaning. We emptied the cupboards and scoured them....I wish we would have taken a before pic, you would have been grossed out. And we re-arranged the living room and in the process we able to get a lot of cobwebs and dustbunnies. So, atleast I feel a little better about living here. We had a home inspection done and she knows there are some leaks in the house in the basement becuase it smells like mould, and we get a fair bit of bugs because the windows are 50 yrs old and have breaches. One thing at a time. For now, the fam. enjoys the pool. SO we have that going for us.

Swimming Everyday

2008-07-07T06:24:00.002-06:00

My family (minus me) has been swimming everyday. It's funny because I never pegged Preston as much of a swimmer, but his problem, I have discovered, is we've never had a pool in our backyard. So, he is just too lazy to pack up and go to the beach or go to some pool. But, when it is sitting in the backyard and you can just pull your pants down and and jump right in, he'll go 3 times a day. It is great because the kids usually go with him and having them in the pool that often is really building their confidence. Clayton can tough in the shallow end so he often goes in now without a life jacket and attempts to swim. he can paddle and keep is feet of the ground now for 5-10 seconds so it really is good for him. Kayla still can't reach but she enjoys paddling around in her life jacket. Both are much more comfortable putting their heads underwater too. They are in lessons right now but I figure by the end of the summer I can relax a little more while they are in the pool because they will be little swimmers!

Rain rain

2008-06-16T11:07:00.003-06:00

This is what I miss about the east, the nice warm rain storms. I was only here 6 weeks and my kids finally got to play in one. I spent 8 years in Calgary and they don't come. The problem with Calgary si when it rains, there is usually a cold front so it a cold gloomy rain. Most of the summer rains in Ontario are accompanied by hot humid 30degree weather. It was right before dinner, but I was still happy to let them run outside. They then had dinner in their underwear.

I took a stand

2008-06-12T05:52:00.003-06:00

SO, I was outside with my kids watching the garbage truck and as it came around to ourhouse, I could see the guy doing the picking up was talking on the phone. He was swinging the garbage into the truck with one hand. He came to our house and we had one bag of garbage that was a little heavier than the others and he picked it up, I guess he couldn't manage it while he was chatting on the phone so he threw it back on the curb and got back on the truck. I was standing 10 feet away from him. He didn't look at me, just kept talking on the phone and went on. So, I went into the house and called the city to confirm the weight limit. Then Jordan(my brother) and I took a scale outside to weigh it. We were completely within the limit, if only by 5 pounds. So I threw the bag into the truck and tried to chase down the garbage truck. By then I couldn't find it. So I called the city again and asked for a driver route. O.K. , just so you know, this is usually where i give up and sit at home and fume. But, my kids had been ROTTEN this morning and I was ready for a fight. Well, the drivers don't have routes...or some dumb explanation like that so I asked her what I was suppose to do with this incredibly smelly bag of garbage. She gave me the address OUTSIDE THE CITY that I can drop it off to. At which point I said "I'd like to file a formal complaint" Well, I don't know if I got anywhere, but I was proud that I actually stood up and did something. Today, I will be taking the bag over to my grandpas to get picked up. It's his garbage day.

Read the Label

2008-06-10T08:23:00.003-06:00

My little rant. My kids love Nutella, which I think is pretty good and I even let Clayton have it for breakfast a few mornings. The first ingredient is Hazelnuts(followed by sugar of course) so I'm just glad it is semi-healthy and he thinks he is having chocolate for breakfast.
Anyways, today i was at Zellars and I decided I would try a different brand becuase it was cheaper and the bottle was bigger. Good deal.
I don't know why but I didn't read it and when I tasted it, it was very sugary. Sugar is the first ingredient and hazelnuts is number 8! Which means I am just feeding him a jar of sugared crap. Yes, I tend to rush when I am shopping and my kids were running all over the store so i wasn't very relaxed. But, it makde me realize sometimes that few extra dollars is worth it, and there is often a reason for it.
Besides that, I have been sweating like a pig in Ontario. I don't like the heat in the first place. Add the humidity and I am miserable. I don't have maternity clothes that are suited for this kind of weather, so even in my capris, I walk around all day feeling like I wet my pants. SO, I bought a flowy dress. I will still ahve to put a t-shirt under it, but atleast I will have a little bit better air circulation:)
I almost bought a classic moo moo. It looked sooo comfortable, but, as comfortable as I am in almost any piece of clothing(most of you have seen some horrendous outfits on my frame)these were just horrible. I couldn't pull it off on my best day. I still want one, but I can't figure out a way to not look 60 and have everyone stare at my. I guess I'll just suffer in the heat...not silently either:)

Garage Sale

2008-06-06T04:56:00.002-06:00

So, I have a friend (Hi Deb) who invited me over to pick through her little girl clothes as she is having her last baby....a boy. I came home with an over stuffed bag of what I am thinking is $1000.00 worth of clothing and footwear. and it is all wonderful condition and great quality. I totally scored! However, I opened my big mouth and said she should sell her clothes becuase she would make a fortune. So, we are organizing a garage sale. Yesterday I made cute little cards to invite the rest of my street to participate so we can have a big sale. Kayla and I delivered them in the grossly humid heat and then I came home and made little cards specifically to hand out to people I know that will need little girl clothes. Then I went over to Deb's last night to help her organize the clothes for sale. Holy crap does she have a lot. I'm guessing she will make $500.00 or more but I don't want to get too confident. I think we labeled them all well. T-shirts $1.00, Brandname 'special' t-shirt are $3. Childrens place jeans are $5. and she's got piles of those. Dresses are all priced individually $2-$8. Either way I am excited and I hope it turns out. I will advertise on line and make bold signs to put at the end of some streets. I haven't heard back from anyone on the street yet...I'm trying not to get nervous about that.

Grumpy Grumpy

2008-05-31T19:17:00.002-06:00

I've found I've been extra grumpy lately. I'd like to blameit on pregnancy but I think it is the whole combintion of things. We're living at my moms with other people who make their own messes and live their own lives and it is starting to drive me nuts! I think Preston has a hard time understanding becuase he is at work all day and just chills here in the evening. I have to function...I'm used to having my own house and cleaning up after my own family, and now I have to worry about 4 single adults. It is very different. Besides that, prenancy is getting less convenient. I seem to have a lot of veins that are sticking out this time around and I don't like it! My legs get sore and everything gets tired. I don't like not bei able to function at full capacity and I get grumpy when I can't get things done. Of course, I have been trying to do some interesting things like building gardens mowing the lawn and building brick walls:)
Thats really all I have to complain about, I just find I've been loosing my temper easily and I get really annoyed by people. I hope it passes. I don't like being aggitated all the time.
Lets look for the positive...Clayton loves school, Kayla is adorable and I enjoy playing Go Fish with her everyday. She mixes up the 6 and 9 sometimes but it is so cute playing with her.
Well, I just wanted to babble while I had the time. Maybe I'll make more sense of this post later.

here's some pics from Ontario

2008-05-14T15:00:00.005-06:00

My mom does cottoncandy and popcorn for public events. It's a major perk of living with Nana:)

Kayla loves her Salvation Army finds.

1st day of JK. We loves school and I love that he brings a new book home everynight that we read together. he is becoming such a good reader.

This is my brother Jordan playing MarioKart with Clayton. There are alot of video games played at this house.

ok....

2008-05-14T14:46:00.002-06:00

Yes, I suck at blogging. I guess I figure no one is going to look at it now that facebook is around. Anyways, we have made some big changes, or are trying to atleast. Since my last blog, we have gotten pregnant. I keep wondering why. It's silly. Sometimes you're like 'yay baby' like I was with my first two, and this time I'm like 'ehhh, baby, o.k.' I know I will love it as much as the other two when it comes, for now I'm just kinda wierd about it. As far as we know, it is a girl and we are naming her Adeline. I always have problem-free pregnancies (besides the sugar cravings and the small bouts of crying) but this time I have vericose veins and I'm afraid they will stay. I got medical stockings but i really hate them and they aren't really painful. However, I can feel the blood rushing to the one leg when I get up in the morning.

So, besides baby, we are in Ontario right now attemping to live out here. We just decided that unless there is a really good reason to be in Calgary, it's kind of an undesirable place to be. We loved the friends and family we have there but it is so big and busy and expensive and it was really feeling like a rat race. Partially our fault because we got a little caught up in it too. So, we are trying to sell our house and simplify. We don't need a big, beautiful new house in a brand new area that we are paying too much for. I was always overwhelmed by our mortgage. Anyways, if we can get it sold, we will be in a modest home with a tiny mortgage and no car payments or anything, which I think is much simplified. There is something to be said about the feeling of being free of debt rather that being riddled with it. We are staying at my moms house right now and I LOVE it. Not so much the part where I am living with my brothers and sisters, but the house and the area. We walk to school, mall, community centre, park and live on a quiet, safe culdesac. More worry free living! We would love to buy out this house and it looks like we may have the opportunity in a year or two. For now, we are going to move into the back part of the house (it has a granny suite) and see where life takes us. We have actually just considered renting out our house in Calgary becuase the market is so tough right now we are afraid it may not sell. So many things to think about.
Anyways, since we've been here, Clayton has started JK (they have Junior Kindergarten everday out here in the school system) and they are both in Gymnastics and a craft class. When you're not in your own place, it's nice to keep a little busy outside the house:)
We've all been getting along really well, whcih I am surprised about becuase Preston always feared his ability to get along with my mom but he hasn't said a thing and is pretty happy. So, we will see what the future brings...

Hawaii

2007-11-11T19:24:00.000-07:00

So we went to Hawaii for 2 weeks...without the kdis. It just about killed me. I was fine the first 10 days but the last 3 I really just wanted to go home. We went to the Polynesian Culture Centre which I loved! We went there twice so we could see all the pavillions. The neatest place ever. We went to the North Shore and watched Surfing and that was cool but the waves were too big for us to even attempt to go into the water...we were scared. The best thing for shrimp lovers are the shrimp trucks. They are ugly rustly old busses that serve the best shrimp. I hate shrimp and I even found it slightly tollerable so it had to be good. Preston made us go back for round two. With our lazy days we spent it on our balcony watching season 1 of heros. ti was nice just to lounge sometimes. We stayed on the west side of the island which is not very touristy and there were many people loving on the beach. I found that interesting becuas eyou could tell that these people had been there so long becuase their 'residences' were so built up. I'm sure that is a huge tension with the tax payers, but it's a small, very expensive island....
We also got to watch a brush fire on the mountain beside our resort one night. It was neat to watch but days of wrok for the firemen trying to keep it away from us and the nearby condos. All in all, I would recommend Hawaii and I basically told you the best parts about it.

Picture perfect Hawaii.

We spent a lot of time at the resort pool. It was really nice and never to busy. Except the last day when a big group of Narcotic recovery people came for a conference at our resort...that was an interesting crowd.

Beating the waves on the north shore. We didn't even go in the water, that's how afraid of the waves we were.

Hair

2007-11-11T19:20:00.000-07:00

So, I cut my hair short for the first time ever. I love it! Preston hates it. Sure you can't see all my beautiful ( I call them tangles and frizz) curls but I like maintenance free mom hair. That means no scraggly hair in my face while I'm bending over a poopy bum...my kids poopy bum. We'll see how long I keep it around. I find it hard not to want to have a hair cut my hubby likes...isn't that sad?
My new hair

August

2007-11-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

Here are our exchange students, Hiromi and Satomi and Kayla all ready for a party.

Lets see, it's been 3 months since August actually happened so this'll be tough. We did have a couple more exchange students. They were so much harder than the other ones becuase they were 11 yr. old girls and spoke zero english. So, I would tell them something, they would nod their heads and then do the exact opposite. They loved my kids and were very friendly, but I was happy to see them go. Preston and I took a very short trip to Ontario for 2 days to check out some houses. At that point we were thinking of moving to Ontario becuase housing was much cheaper out there and we thought we could live mortgage free and have less financial strain. However, Calgarys market wouldn't allow us to sell our house and we took it off the market the next month. It seems we are going to stick around a while and just learn to budget. We also started trying for baby number 3 this month...we are still not pregnant. I think we took for granted that the first 2 were conceived so quickly and we haven't been trying hard enough this time around:)
We took a trip to Edmonton at the end of the month and had a blast. We stayed at the Fantasy Land Hotel in The West Ed. mall. Fun, but we spent WAY too much money becuase we were in the mall. We went on rides, bought late night icecream...all things we wouldn't have done if we were in a normal hotel NOT attached to a mall.
That was August.

SUmmer Activities

2007-07-10T12:53:00.000-06:00

So we ahve our exchange students now. Their names are Peter and Chris and they are from Taiwan. (I don't know their real names, they gave themselves Canadian names) They are great boys. They are easy to get along with. Although, one of them has never made any food for himself in his life. I asked him to cut the tomato for his sandwich and he said he didn't know how. Anyways, I got the cheque from the Board of Education today and there will deifantley be some surplus from houseing these boys. We took Clayton and Kayla go karting this past weekend and they loved it to death. They are go karts with a kids seat besdis the adult seat and Preston and I took turns having a different child beside us. Kayla was so cute becuase she squealed and smiled the whole time and CLayton would go "woooohoooo" with me as we went over the killy parts. It was a great family activity. I am heading out to the Stampede tonight with an old friend from YSA. I didn't even know she was in Calgary, but I am going to hand out with some singles tonight....wierd.
Our house hasn't had any bites yet, I'm still trying to pack more stuff up and get ugly furniture out of the house too. As clean as I've kept it, ugly furnitre doesn't really help.
Thats us!

SLacker...thats me

2007-06-30T17:04:00.000-06:00

It's been two weeks since my last post. I thought I was better than this! Anyways, as some of you already know, we are moving. Our house is up for sale right now. If everything goes as planned wea re moving to....Brantford, ON. We can live there mortgage free and have room to make some other real estate investments, which Preston has been itching to do. His idea to move, not mine. This is not 100% though so don't go telling everyone I am moving ot Ontario. We need to sell our house and the market is full of houses like ours. Like I said, as long as everything goes right, we will be movin gto Ontario.
As far as the rest of our lives, it's just playing and cleaning. We get our sxchange students on Monday so we are planning for that right now. It's going to be a busy month!
I think thats it.

Preschool Graduation

2007-06-14T15:02:00.000-06:00

Yes, there is such a thing. Clayton graduated from pre-school today with a certificate and a lot of new songs under his belt. He was pretty happy about it. It was short and sweet. He will go again next year to the same place, even though there are some closer to us now. He really likes his teacher and so do I.
We are developing our bsement right now too for our students in July. It's going pretty smoothly and pretty cheaply...which I appreicate. We aren't going to fully develop it right now. Just the bedrooms. My neighbour is chinese and she just brought me over some chinese pie (although I'm sure that's not what they call it) It was super yummy...and it had tofu and shrimp in it...two things I realy avoid but all chopped up it was wonderful. I'm going to get her to eacdh me how to make the dough so I can make my own version and make you all try it. It was delish.
My biggest trial this week will be Claytons attitude. He gets mad when I ask him to come inside or away from something he is enjoying and yells "You're not nice to me" or "I don't like you" A few times now I've even gotten the 'H' word (I hate you) The first time my response was to tell him how nice I really am and that not all mommies take their kids to the zoo, park, swimming, Let's Play and McDonalds, but I felt like I was trying to convince him and myself that I am a good mom, and it didn't feel too good, so now he just gets crap for it. I need to learn not to let my 3 year old talk back to me! I don't have to take it! I'm the mommy! I need to toughen up. Tell me your mean mommy stories....

Hair Cut

2007-06-05T19:32:00.000-06:00

So I cut Kaylas hair today. I thought it would be pretty easy to cut straight across, but when you are cutting that short, it's not so easy to make it straight with the under layers and all. I actually like her with longer hair but It was really hard to keep it nice when it was long. Especially with these hot summer days. It just ends up all scraggly and dirty so I chopped it on a whim. Preston liked her little pony tails but we'll get over it.

The Beach

2007-06-03T09:48:00.000-06:00

This week the weather has been beautiful so we have done so many outdoor activities. We went to the zoo one day with Kamille and Kyndal and Elliette and had a great time with the animals. LIke it said, it was beautiful so we had a picnic near the butterfly sanctuary while the kids followed the peacocks. The following two days we went to two different beaches. CHaparral and Auburn bay. The kids love the water. I am lucky though that they aren't afraid of it, nore are they too brave. They are pretty easy to watch. SAturday was so darn hot I didn't want to be outside. Now, when I say it was hot, it was 29 degrees. I know half of you are laughing but I hate the heat and the direct sunlight. Preston would love to move to Arizona some day but if I can't bear 29 degrees of hot sun, I would die on Arizona. So, SAturday afternoon we attempted to stay inside. With our new street there are kids riding bikes all the time and everytime Clayton sees one he wants to go outside too...whic is all the time. We sould have gotten a house with smaller windows:) I also scored garage saling at the Chaparral community sale. I got a free queen size bed (which we need for our Taiwanese exchange students in July) and chairs for the kids, and bikes and a kids size vacuum that works, and so much more. We even got a futon that exactly matches the one we have right now! I've been bugging Preston for a livingroom set becuase all we have is the futon in the livingroom..but he kees saying no. So when I found a matching futon for $30.00 he agreed. I'm surprisingly happy with 2 futons in my livingroom. CHaparral is great for garage sales. Not so much garbage like some places.

The past week...

2007-05-25T20:10:00.000-06:00

This week has been ehuasting. For some reason I have been incredibly tired all week. And not just the tired like 'oh, I'm tired becuase I have young kids' It's the kind of tired like I'm waiting to get sick or something. It's wierd..and my neck and back have been sore every day to, so I'm not sure if I should exercise myself back to health, or rest. I'm just waiting for it to pass. It's been a super busy week. I went to the cannery for the first time on Tuesday and it was lots of fun. I got to can potatos, onions, apples, and lots of other stuff. Then I went and fianlly bought a Coleman stove and some butane. I am trying to prepare a food storage. I am working on water right now cause I guess that is pretty important. Wednesday I had an Ultimate frisbee game...in the rain. Luckly, I wasn't feeling well so I left after 15 minutes. It was a good game to be sick for:) Thursday was my card swap and the party turned out nicely. Lots of ladies showed up and there were some awesome cards. I thought I went too extreme last month so I went simple this month and I had the simplest card...I need to find a happy meduim.
Tonight is finally a relax night....after a long day of Swimming lessons, Gymtastics(which was great by the way Jacquie - very empty and we had the run pf the place) I just ordered some chicken and Preston and I are going to watch some Greys Anatomy. Saturday is some great garage saling in McKenzie Towne. I'm hunting for Action figures becuase CLayton seems to be interested in those and we have zero. I never know when to get them the next stage of toys. Kayla is into little dolls and furniture and houses.
Thats us. Here's some random pics.

Settled In

2007-05-16T13:08:00.000-06:00

I feel like I haven't come to my blog in a while becuase I've been wrapped up in Facebook. I'm such a crowd follower. Anyways, we have settled into our house very nicely. I have convinced Preston to stay in this house and not move us again so now I have to make sure I budget. That means bye bye cleaning lady....so sad. I love our street. We have some great neighbours and we live in the middle of a quiet street (well it will be quiet when the construction vehicles go away) so everyone gets together and chats in the street in the evening. It's fun. I liked the parks better in McKenzie Towne and New Brighton. They were bigger, more toddler friendly. They have lame little parks here. I gues they figure since they gave us a lake we didn't need any good parks....or maybe I haven't found them yet.
So we have planned our life out right now. I plan to get pregnant in August. My mom told me to remind her not to visit that month:) Then go back to work in December for 4 months to get my hours top collect EI for another whole year. We are milking the system. Why not? I'm just trying to decide where to work. I want a good pay cheque so I can get good EI but I also want to work somewhere fun, like Michaels or The Childrens Place. ANy ideas? I have no degress or anything. Just a lot of office work under my belt. Well, that is our update. If you visit our house it wont look like everyone elses new place. I don't have the perfect living room set, or lovely pictures and matching curtains and certainly no blinds. I'm not that organized. You will see a futon in my livingroom and a lot of missing furniture where there should be some. I have zero desire to shop right now....it's soooo hard to shop for furntiture and I suck at it.

Here's our house

2007-05-06T16:32:00.000-06:00

So I got pics. of the house up on here. I didn't bother to clean or get stuff out of the way. I ove my kitchen. A lot of cupboard space, everything is hidden which is great. I also love the master bath. The tob and shower are seperate which is great when I want to take a shower and the kids want to take a bath. Besides that, the house is a house. Most of my pics are on facebook so take a look there. We met a whole ton of neighbours today. Our street is littered with kids, mostly a year or 3 older than Clayton but he still had a blast playing with them all. I don't realize how much I seclude myself from non-mormom people sometimes. Not that I do it on purpose but it's easy to do. Anyways, I just realized how different it can be socializing with non-members when you haven't done it in a while. Different topics come up. The sad part is that it was so obviously different from my other day to day conversations that it makes me realize I need to build some better relationships with my non-mormon neightbours. Keep me out in the real world. I don't know if this is making any sense to you...it was just wierd when your done talking about your kids where conversations go.
Anyways, our neighbours all seem great. Very excited. Trying to convice Preston to stay in this house...maybe even I'll start watchng 1 child to make a few bucks. We'll see..it's not my favourite option. But neither is moving out of this house and neighbourhood. Lots of kids, a school and a perfect house. Love it.
ANyways, we are going to take a Sunday stroll before I make tacos for supper. I don't know why I make them so much. The kids never eat them.

I survived Ultimate Frisbee

2007-05-03T07:55:00.000-06:00

I went to my first Ultimate Frisbee practice last night and I was thrilled with my performance. Not that I was the star of the team or anything. But I ran it out and even caught the frisbee! I felt nausea for the first 5 mintues but I got past it. My only problem was when I got home I was exhausted but couldn't sleep. Now I know why Preston can't go right to bed after basketball. Preston bought a72 inch tv a couple days ago...ridiculous. It was supposed to be delivered today but last night I finally talked him down to a smaller one (62 inches but half the price!) He said as long as I delt with it...so I ran out to Best Buy as fast as I could.
Still unpacking. I realized I don't really want to take pictures until the boxes are out of the house. So you will have to wait.

I'm still here

2007-04-30T18:13:00.000-06:00

Forpeople that actually read my blog...I'm still here. We've been out of our house and in my in-laws for a couple days and we just took possession of our new house today so it's been a wild week. I kept wondering if I would cry when we left our house as it was our first and where we have had both our children.. Not as emotional as I thought. Though I had a wierd feeling when we had to stop by to drop off keys and they had new furniture on the porch. They even threw out the curtain panels from the living room within hours of moving in. So we snagged them fromthe alley....they are very versitile panels. ANyways, everything has gone as smoothly as it can so far and the new house is beautiful. Next week I'll have pics.

I love my family!

2007-04-21T16:51:00.000-06:00

I had a whole day to myself today! Preston took the kids to his parents and I got to do some packing. I also took a minute to rent Stranger Than Fiction while I folded laundry and I had 2 whole meals without interruption. However, having the whole day to myself made me realize that life is nothing without them. (I hope no single, childless people are reading this) Even though I had lots to do, I found myself bored. I'm always torn. When they are around, I am frusterated I'm not getting anything done. But an hour after they leave I want them back! I have no idea what I did with my time when I was single and I keep thinking that when I get alone time I will just love it. But I realize I love my family more and I guess that is a good thing:)

New JOb

2007-04-19T18:58:00.000-06:00

I told you I would have some new news. Preston got a new job! Hooray! Why am I excited? Well, if you talk to me at all, you will know that we run a business together and I am way to involved. This means no more payroll, paperwork or any other misery to take me away from my other job (raising 2 crazy kids). The downside is I no longer have an excuse to have cleaning ladies come because I should have the time now to clean myself. We just decided that we started the business at a bad time in our lives. We still want more kids and I can't do both and it's just WAY simpler. SO yay!

Imaginary Friend

2007-04-19T18:50:00.000-06:00

So Clayton has some imaginary friends. I may have mentioned this to some of you and I was worried but I did the good mom thing and researched it to find that it is quite normal. Infact it shows great creativity and smarts, so I guess I should be thrilled he has imaginary friends. His best friends name is Blun. He Also has an Ugo, Slack and Thacker. Today I left his 'friends' outside by accident so I had to let them in out of the rain. He tried to tell me I left them at Walmart but there was no way I was going back to pick them up:)
Anyways, it's fun to watch him play with Blun. I just get a little tired of hearing about him. But I am trying to listen as they say if their 'friend' has concerns like he is afraid of the dark, it is usually a sign that the child is more afraid of it himself. Anyways, swimming lessons starts tomorrow and I'm excited to see if Clayton does o.k. on his own while I'm with Kayla.
ALso, I've been exercising. I have to say that on here so you all ask me periodically how I'm doing. Which will make me feel guilty that I am slacking off and I will get at it.
Tomorrow is our walk through. I'm very excited to get this all over with. So stressful!!

So not creative

2007-04-13T13:34:00.000-06:00

Just so you know. I'm not good with titles. So you will often see titles that says 'this week' or 'weekend' I just don't have that creativity gene that you all seem to be blessed with.

Anyways. It was easter this past weekend and my mom came to visit. All we did all weekend was shop and sew. We made some window treatments for the new house. Actually we made a lot of them...all for under $100.00! My mom is the best bargain shopper ever. We made me a super cheap, yet super stylish bed cover too. I have to say I walked into the Bay and I was ready to give up after 5 minutes but my mom kept digging....and we scored. Same with Fabric Land. I always prep myself for a visit to that store because I usually walk out frusterated. Anyways a weekend well used. I had a small family dinner at Kamilles(SIL) house on Sunday and my mom left early Monday. I had to take her to the airport at 5 am but I went back to Prestons parents house and went to sleep till 8:30!!! Preston brought the kids up at 11am so I had the whole morning to myself....and they were even clothed properly when they got there:)

These are just some silly pics. Clayton gave me a whopper of a bruise (yes, my legs are that white) when he kicked my leg instead of jumping over it. Just goes to show what kind of damage a 3 yr. old can do. I just joined an Ultimate Frisbee team. I'm terrified!! I am soo out of shape but I have been asked a couple years in a row and I finally said yes. I'm very excited for the extra motvation it will give me to get back into shape. But like I said...I'm terrified! I'm no good at sports and I'm afraid they will all yell at me when I don't catch the frisbee.

Thats us in a nutshell. We are making a lot of interesting decisions right now about where we are going to live and work in the near future so stay tuned becuase I'm sure I'll have some fun posts to come!

Birthday Clown

2007-04-11T12:52:00.000-06:00

I finally got my camera back so I can tell you about the party that CLayton went to last week. It was a 4 yr old birthday party and they got a clown becuase the weather stunk. Best idea ever. Look at the pictures...the kids are mesmorized! They just laughed and laughed and loved it. Again, best idea ever. Wouldn't recommend it for a younger crowd (Kayla was there and was watching but just didn't get the jokes the way the 3 and 4 yr olds did) I totally want to do it for CLaytons birthday...I'm such a copy cat. Anyways her name is Button. She walked in and made a horrible first impression on me cause she didnt act the way I thought clowns acted...but she was totally great. Get a clown!

darn that soother

2007-04-11T07:49:00.000-06:00

So I think I wrote previously that we took Kaylas soother away. I lied. We gave it back because she moved into a big girl bed and was having a tough transition. However, a couple days ago, Preston threw Kaylas last soother in a construction bin and I have been cursing him ever since. Kayla has never been much if a cryer but she woke up yesterday at 5:45 and then didn't nap, and THEN screamed herself to sleep for an hour and a half! It was horrible. I have one of those kid proof door handles on the door so she just stood there trying to open the door. I finally relaxed after she fell asleep and then she woke up 3 times in the night and woke up at 6:20 this morning. I know she is still tired so I closed the door and let her scream for 15 minutes. SHe is taking a nap today whether she wants it or not. I will never to this cold turkey again!

Back Track

2007-04-04T20:17:00.000-06:00

So I am excited to get some cute pics. on here so I'm going to back track a little bit. Gymnastics just ended for Kayla a couple weeks ago and I am kicking myself for not signing her up again....she loved it! SHe asks about it all the time and I feel bad. But swimming starts in a few weeks for both kids...should be almost as fun.

Clayton is a bit afraid of getting water in his face and he certainly wont put his head under the water so we will see how the lessons go. After all, we are moving into a lake community...the kids have to know how to swim!

The cold snap that we have had has made us resort to some silly indoor activities. Yes the kids are sitting naked in buckets of soapy water...in the house. I make a car wash for Clayton every once and a while and he cleans his cars with a toothbrush and rinses them and drys them. They decided to wash themselves this time. It made a big wattery mess, but they had fun. I realize though I have to draw a line. Today they went into the bathroom together and took the potty bucket from the potty and scooped water out of the big toilet and dumped it on the floor. Unfortunately, I didn't catch on until the big toilet was empty.

This past weekend all we did was pack ...oh and we went to a surprise party. When we came home the babysitter was asleep on the couch and Kayla was screaming on the stairs. Heavy sleeper. I guess you have to be a mom to care:)

Happy Easter everyone!

Here We Are

2007-03-17T08:15:00.000-06:00

So we created a blog. Now I have to find something to say. Lets start with complaining....I'm good at it. We just recently found out that our house will not be ready in time for us to move directly into it when we move out of this house so we will be homeless for a week or two. We will be crashing at Prestons parents house during that time...we haven't told them yet.
Right now we are having a fun time betting (not really) on the NCAA tournament. Prestons mom prints off the schdule every year and we all guess from the first to the last round who is going to win every game. It's only the first round, but Preston and I are both loosing equally. Go Oregon! Um, we took Kaylas soother away from her this weekend....yes, she still used one to sleep. SO far she is doing great with minimal whining. Next it's potty training. I've told lots of you, but Clayton is super lippy right now. I say to him "your being rude" and he says "no, your being rude" and he always shoots back at me what I just said to him. He even said to me the other day when he was mad "I'm going to shoot you" So, that is our challenge of the week (hopefully it only lasts that long) Besides that he is a really fun kid who loves to play cars and playdoh. His favourite thing to do right now is run around the house and pretend to be a car and crash into us. He's a true boy.
Well, thats the end of my first blog entry. I promise it will get better. For now, I'm excited to get some pics on here.