No-mo-nablopomo!

It is over, I am so excited that I am posting now!

Just a quick one because I have so much work to do later.....decorate the house, go to a pampering girls night out party, renovate the blog, watch Dave set up the tree....I just might not get the chance to post till after midnight. Tomorrow is a skidooing day for Dave and also decorate the tree evening with family and a big fat roasted ham and scalloped potato's,mmmm.

Check back tomorrow for the new December look.

Fire and Ice

Another frosty day, the kind that requires the vehicle being plugged in overnight or she runs like a slug or doesn't even start at all.
Enough complaining though, Dave says I whine too much and that got me to thinking.
With the new month approaching I am going to give myself a challenge.
Inspired by Nicole over at Deliajude(click) I am really going to work on finding joy in everything I do. Well most things anyway, I do not find wiping snot a joyous occasion, but I guess I should just be thankful that I have cute little button noses to wipe. I love those little noses!
I am also so excited to make up a new banner and change things around on here, make the blog a little more festive anyway.


Ethan was so mad he couldn't fit in the Barbie car. He tried so hard, yelled and smacked, but could not get more than his little arm in. It was too funny to watch.

On another note.....I got the poop out of the carpet, oh yea! Pink solution(click) is magical!! I am such a believer now, thank you Leslie! It cleans everything and is earth friendly! I am now a one solution kinda girl!

Nap time with the babies.

This afternoon after real naps, had by all....to capitalize on cozy cuddles, we went over to my parents for...fresh bread, coffee and tea, mmmmm, yes I really love this part of winter.


Emily and Phil came back home with the kids and I for dinner, hot chocolate, marshmallows and of course to cuddle by the fire place....I love fires crackling and popping on a cold winters night.
I have so much to be thankful for, I really have so much joy in my life. Dave is right, I just need to change my perspective a little. I am going to find a way to like winter!

Poop-scapades.

Warning-this post is not for the weak stomached, "TT", you might want to just look at the pictures.

What a day! Poop, poop, poop! It was everywhere!
It all started (poop#1 of the day)when Kaitlyn decided she wanted to be naked today. I bribed her into using the washroom to do her business--with the promise of her halloween treat bucket. Well with that off she marched, stood by her little potty and did her thing...three times in a row. She was so excited for that candy! She begs for it daily and it has been at least a week since she last saw it, so it was a huge treat. Well that was the controlled out of diaper poop of the day. Not hard to clean, antibacterial wipes did the job while they bathed.

While I made then a post bath snack Kaitlyn disappeared to her room and soon Ethan emerged on the scene....with a poop( poop #2 for me to deal with) in diaper though. Easy-shmeazy.
Off we went to change him next.
As I finished wiping him up he took off crawling. I figured that since he had done his number 2 of the day that he was fine and I would let him air out for a few minutes while I ran to see what a rather quiet Kaitlyn was up too.

I found her in the living room trying to clean up a puddle of her pee with about 200 wipes, the whole package spewed every where...ok a bit of an exaggeration, probably 50 wipes.
She is so helpful and thoughtful!
I ran for a towel and dried her off and the floor.

Now off to find the quiet Ethan.
And what a sight awaited me. He was covered in poop(#3). He had pooped while sitting on the floor then crawled around in it, it was so gross! I ran another bath and he was in and out and into a diaper really quick.

Where was that Kaitlyn now?
This time I found her on the couch with more wipes and she says, "poop, wipe." I reply, "yes wipes are for cleaning poop, now lets get dressed!"
We went to her room, I grabbed clothes and she took off. I ran after her and wrestled her into them----none matched, at this point I didn't care, she got what was on the top of the pile.
I noticed a poop smell but figured it was just the lingering of the past poops.
Off we went to shop with my sister and then to the mall to kill time by playing on all the mini rides, chat with Santa....this was a big deal for Kaitlyn, she "loves" him and to grab a few groceries.


We made it home in time for Great Grandpa to come and fix a few things. He is the Red-Green in the family, Mr. Fix-it. Glue, elastic bands, electrical tape, solder, shoe polish....he can find the most amazing use for these things. He got to work gluing my poor new birthday tea pot back together....I never got to use it even once. Kaitlyn pulled the box off the table when I was prepping to wash it. So sad.

I could still smell poop, ugh, maybe I should change the diaper genie or take out the garbage, maybe the smell penetrated the walls.

The rest of the afternoon and early evening went really smooth---well almost, we had fun having cuddles, see-sawing, and playing with daddy. I could still smell poop. What is up with that?! I was sitting with Kaitlyn and Ethan was standing at my knees as we waited for daddy to get out of the bathroom. I look over my knee at him and realize that he has managed to wiggle out of his pants and diaper and is standing in poop(#4). How the heck did he do that with me right there?! I haul him off to get cleaned up, again.

I decided that I needed to get some deep cleaning done--floors properly washed, they were only spot washed and get the house decluttered so we can finally start to decorate for Christmas.
I could still smell poop.
Dave took the kids to Wal Mart for a bit so I could get more done quickly.
I rushed around cleaning like crazy while they where out and went into Kaitlyn's room to change her sheets.
And I found where the mystery poop smell(#5) was coming from. Oh, what a mess.
About a two foot by 1 foot rectangle of ground in mashed chunky dried poop on her beautiful Debbie Travis cream soft shag carpet. What a nightmare! There was a neat little pile of wipes and I could see that my precious little sweetpea had tried to clean it up herself, I wanted to cry.
I got out the pink solution and got to work.
Things Kaitlyn had said earlier in the day came back to me, and made much better sense. I need to really listen between the lines!
Now I sit here by the fire making excuses not to do any more work, but I never got the floors washed before they got home. So I must get at it.

I realized today that the Nablopomo craze is nearly over, I can hardly wait! I sure hope I win something, anything for that matter. I suck at winning things though, so this may have just been a typing exercise for me.
Ok, ok, I better go do the floors.
Good night!

Oh bother, another blustery day

This post starts with yesterday morning. I am playing catch up now.
As I left the house to dust off the truck I looked down and realized I must be in some sort of denial. Bare feet in summer shoes. I went back and put socks and boots on. Wishful thinking I guess.
So winter is totally here and it is mighty cold out. Have I mentioned I am not a big cold winter fan. Well here are a few reasons.

I hate cleaning off the vehicle, having to start it and let it warm up, I hate the fact that our truck does not have heated seats....and they are leather so it is brutal!
Who would sell a truck in Canada with leather interior and not make the seats heated?! Of course you don't think of it when you buy in the summer, but let me tell you I sure think of it every day now!
I also hate driving amongst a bunch of idiots who think their vehicles are capable of a lot more than they really are. On the way to gymnastics we had three close calls. We nearly t-boned a school bus that turned in front of us last minute and couldn't find traction. Even in the summer it wound have been close. As it was I had to skid into the next lane. Not even a block further on we nearly t- boned a car and a few minutes later had to stop for a semi who turned and had trouble. Hello folks, it is winter, icy, and you have to think before you turn! Wait if it looks risky!

Thank you Phil for taking time out of your homeschooling to come help me. It was great!

Blustery, on the way home from gymnastics at 11:00 am, it looked like dusk. I also hate it when the sun does not shine. I miss the sun!

I must say that one of the things I really enjoy about winter is going over to my moms for tea and fresh bread with butter melting on it. Yum! Notice the new home of the apple painting. Happy birthday mom!

Oh the messes. I must find a way to store the kids craft stuff close by but out of reach. I am getting so tired of cleaning up everything they pull down, two hundred times a day.

Christmas card crafts on the go. Prepped anyway. I was not going to post a photo of the finished product but then I thought about how Kaitlyn puts things together. I was actually inspired by the kids show Diego, the one where they do the penguin rescue, guess watching those shows have been good for us. So I figured I could come up with a simple craft that Kaitlyn could glue and would be quick. Now that I look at all the little parts I wonder what I was on when I thought that! So the reason I posted a photo of my test card is....when you get your card it may look nothing like this, but this is how it should look.

Paintings completed and off to the store they went today. Check them out here(click) for a better shot. Kaitlyn got in on the action, a little. She was really upset I wouldn't let her go nuts on it so we had to get her stuff out.

Ethan got in on it too which freaked me out a little since it was acrylic paint and doesn't wash out. Sure enough I ended up scrubbing wet paint out of little clothes desperate to save them before the paint set. Next time we will stick to the Crayola paints!

Oh, and did I mention how much I hate scraping the ice off the windshied and having it fog up. I will stop now...........

..............because, it can also be really pretty and quite marvelous!

Makes me thankful that I have a nice cosy little house with a fireplace to snuggle up in front of and an awesome little family to share it with on these cold nights.

A grey cup and birthday rolled into one

First of all I want to say, I don't think I will be sleeping well tonight. The Riders won the cup, oh, yah!
Now the reason I wont be sleeping is that we live one house in off Albert Street---the main drag. And why would this be an issue? Well because Rider fans are insane! They are the loudest, have the most spirit and are incredibly loyal. They have been waiting for so many years for this. This is their third cup ever and the last one was when I was 9! Sooooo, they are all out cruising, honking, screaming, waving flags and pom-poms and hanging out their windows. Don't get me wrong, Rider fans rock, it is just the location of my house that doesn't. I think I really want to move!

Today Dave worked on getting our Christmas decorations put up outside. The kids and I went out to chill with him and Ethan and I didn't last long. We returned to the warmth of the house and watched from the window. Yup I sure enjoy winter from this perspective.



Tea mom? I was trying so hard to get cleaned up around the house. It had fallen to shambles, piles in every room, some eye-ball high. There was not a place you could look and see a surface, and this is the state that I welcomed company into yesterday. I warned them but they came anyway. I am sure the mess is burned deep in their memory and they will forever associate mounds of junk with my name, but hey, that was the way it was.
Sorry Aunt Deb, Steph and Erika, wish I could have had it clean for you! I wasn't kidding when I said that when I paint the house falls apart. So today I whipped around cleaning like a mad woman and was able to pull off a presentable house for my mom's birthday and a grey cup googling gang.
It felt really good to get stuff caught up, now I must once again face off with the laundry giant, sigh, ugh!

Craft of the day was a foam snowman. Notice the brown line in the photo above. Kaitlyn wrote his name on his belly, it says "Bob."

During the festivities of the night my little sister went around collecting money. "Any coins or change will help put one of these in your country" she said.

Happy birthday mom!
And the last pic is----blurry, I know, I had it on fireworks setting instead of night so it caught all my movement-I am not a steady shooter! It is supposed to be a photo of the front of our house, what is done so far. There is still a lot to be added so I will save taking a non blurry shot for when it is truly done.
I am so excited to start decorating inside though, I love Christmas!

Go Riders!

I have so much to post about yet so little time. Projects, cleaning, a sick child, grey cup preparations, a full house of people and a birthday party round out this day. I shall try to get it all posted tonight, no promises though!

Victorian Tea Party

I am totally swamped with painting projects today so this is a quick post just to share our tea party photos.

Thank you Auntie Em for the invite, it was so much fun to get dressed up, though we really struggled with the whole era thing. I ended up altering my dress only hours before the tea and rushing around last minute searching through dress up trunks and boxes for accessories. In the end it just came down to a really fun time!

My mom served the tea at the party, thanks mom!

And of course the mess left in the wake off tea toting toddlers. There where prizes won---not by us and squares and cake and cookies where devoured. Mmmmm, we love tea parties!