Christmas in Winnipeg

On the 27th, we went to Winnipeg to celebrate Christmas with my mom. My older brother, Trevor, and his son, Noah, flew out from Montreal to join us.

We stayed the night at the Canad Inns on Pembina Hwy and a had a great time enjoying their pool. Here are a few of my favourite pictures that we took there:



(I'm not sure why Cameron wears a shirt in the water. Trevor asked me if it was a religious thing. Not to my knowledge...)



This little girl looks so good in a bathing suit! (Although Trevor felt the need to tease her about her thighs-- he said I should put her in speed-skating!)



This little boy is so adorable-- love him!



We had such a blast going down the waterslide! Jonah and I must have gone down it together at least a dozen times!

Merry Christmas!

Our kids were up this morning before 8am-- we were done opening gifts by 8:10am!



How awesome to see the happy expressions on Austin's, Jonah's and Sage's faces when they opened their gifts!







Wishing you a merry Christmas filled with wonderful moments and things!

Mouseless

Our computer mouse died last night (or was broken by a certain seven-year old!)

I couldn't believe how many times I went to use the computer, only to remember that I couldn't!

First thing this morning, we went to pick up a new one.

When we were leaving the store, Jonah, who's 4, said: "Mom, did we get a pet?"

(I guess he heard me tell the lady I wanted to buy a mouse!)

Christmas concerts

Austin had his school concert last night. I knew it would be hard to take pictures of him and his class on stage, so I tried to get most of his class to pose in the foyer.



Here's a picture of him as they were getting on stage.



It was the best one I got. He was in the last row with four or five rows of kids in front of him.

So the school concert is done. Now I'm looking forward to his church concert on Sunday morning.

The cheetah

In the middle of October, Jonah started pretending to be a cheetah. He’d run or bear crawl around the house and make a “ming” sound with his “paws” together in front of him.



He’d talk about being a cheetah or about cheetahs in general a lot. If I called him “Jonah”, he’d say: “Um, Mom, I’m a cheetah” & want me to address him as such.

A week or so before Halloween, I told
Jonah that I had a cheetah head that he could wear. “A cheetah head?” he asked.

When I explained that it had cheetah ears, he said (rather indignantly while touching his own ears): “Mom, I have cheetah ears.”

Then, on Halloween, he suddenly wanted to wear the cheetah head. And wear it. And wear it. He wore it to bed that night and for the rest of the week. He wore it to church and the whole week after that.



And for the month or so following
that, he’s hardly taken it off.



Since it’s made of polar fleece, it
has doubled as a toque, which has been
good on cold days. And I guess inside, well, it’s just lots of fun to wear…

I’ve really enjoyed watching Jonah play this way and make believe—he’s definitely the cutest little cheetah I’ve ever seen.

Putting up the tree

We put up the tree this morning. Other than some frustration with the lights, it went pretty smoothly. A few things got broken but I had crazy glue on hand, so it was all good.

I also had my camera on hand...

Step #1: assemble the tree.



Step #2: put on the lights.



Step #3: put on the ribbon & ornaments.



Step #4: pose as a group in front of the finished tree.

Fire!

Okay, well stinky smoke anyway...

Maybe I wasn't meant to have a dishwasher...

Cameron finally got it hooked up and running last week, so today, I loaded it up and ran it after lunch.

A little while later, Cameron smelled smoke. He ran to the kitchen and opened the dishwasher. After some searching, he found my son's favourite sippy-- melted with a huge hole in it! I guess it had flipped out of its spot and landed on the heating element during the power dry cycle.



Jonah's pretty sad about his favourite "dinosaur sippy cup" but I promised that we'd buy him a new one at Walmart tomorrow.

I just feel bad because I was mad that Cameron didn't go back to work after lunch-- now it turns out it was a good thing he was here!

Good day

Without a doubt, my favourite day of the week is Sunday.

We start with church in the morning, followed by R.O.X., which is one of my favourite hours of the week.

Sometimes, we invite others over for lunch. Other times, we just spend the day in a lazy way.

Yesterday, I invited my 13 year old friends, Carley and Annika over for lunch. We had pizza, pop and brownies. While Sage and Cameron slept, Austin and Jonah played computer and Carley, Annika and I made some Christmas tree ornaments out of patterned paper:

After the ornaments, we made Christmas tags. Then we had grilled cheese sandwiches and chips for supper (a healthy day, I know!)

After I took them home, Austin and I watched Amazing Race. I read and chatted on the phone with a friend until 10pm and then finished off my day watching Studio 60.

At church in the morning,Cameron fixed the boys' remote control truck. It got this cool picture of it. (I took it on the portrait setting on my camera.)

LOOONG weekend

It's a long weekend for us this weekend.

Austin had a three day school week this week and is now enjoying day 2 of his 4 day long weekend.

Actually, he's had three long weekends this month already.

But, it's good.

He and Jonah play together well. They like to watch TV (so I rented them a Scooby Doo video), play computer, chase each other around and play.

And once in a while, I can even get a good picture of them (in their Christmas sweaters!)

SSD

It was Super Scrap Day (SSD) at My Scrap Shoppe this past Saturday in Winkler. Such a great way to spend a day: scrapbooking from 9am to 9pm.



I love being a part of the design team for MSS and it was fun to spend time with a couple of my fellow design team members: Anita & Jen. And with MSS's owner, Marcy. She did a great job organizing the day!

My friend Susan was able to come and join us after lunch, which was really good!



I got quite a few layouts done, which was wonderful (never sure how much I'm going to accomplish at a crop!) Here are three of them:

Favourites, part one

This season, I have five favourite TV shows, which are conveniently aired on two different evenings.

So I basically watch TV two evenings a week.

My favourite show right now is Grey's Anatomy. I started watching it mid-second season, but have borrowed the first season from my friend Susan. I'd still like to watch the complete second season sometime but it's 28 episodes long!

On Thursday nights, I also like to watch CSI. The original one set in Las Vegas.

Then ER. I've been watching this one for almost eight years-- I got into while I was pregnant with Austin and they aired repeats in the afternoons. (Hey, better than soaps, right?)

On Sunday nights, I like to watch Amazing Race. Actually, Austin and I like to watch this one together.

Then, at ten, I am really liking a new show this year: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It's very good.

That's my top five. What are yours?

This weekend

I got to spend this weekend doing two of my favourite things: scrapbooking and hanging out with friends.

Tracy (with Mary's help) had planned a scrapbooking overnighter at the Pembina Valley Bible Camp.

Marlo and I drove there & back together. It was Marlo's first scrapbooking overnighter (my second!) and she suggested maybe bringing some games along. I told her not to bother-- no one would play them.

"You mean, we actually scrapbook the entire time?"

Yup.

And that's exactly what we did. From 6:30pm Friday to 2:30 am Saturday morning (4am for Marlo!) and then from 8:15am to 4:30pm Saturday. Breaking only to eat and visit the washroom!

It was such a great time!

I'm such a copycat!

Anita created a slide show on her blog.

So of course, I had to make one, too. (Check out the sidebar!)

It's of some of my favourite scrapbooking layouts from 2006.

Hope you like it!

Halloween 2006

Our Halloween this year was a snowy one! (It snowed Monday all day, so there was quite a bit of the white stuff!)

Of course, this didn’t deter our trick or treaters this year.

Austin dressed up like a spy for school. Jonah was a cheetah (he slept with the head on last night and he’s still wearing it this morning) and Sage was a horse.

A Christmas gift update

I went to Walmart to look at the Lego that Austin does want for Christmas.

The bad news: it's a $80 set.

The good news: I bid on a set on ebay last night and won and paid less than $38!

Fall pictures

My friend and fellow Design Team member at MSS, Anita, takes the most wonderful Fall pictures of her kids. When I was scrapbooking at her house last weekend and drooling over her photos, I realized that I hadn't taken very many fall shots of my kids yet.

It was a nice day out yesterday, so before we had to pick up Austin from school, I took Sage, Jonah and my camera outside and took a bunch of pictures. These were my two favourites:

Ooops!

A Christmas present related story:

Okay, I picked up some Batman lego for my oldest son yesterday at Walmart and forgot to hide it!

(I know, I know, what was I thinking? It was crazy busy with coming home from Walmart, going to pick up Austin at school, coming home again and then rushing off to skating.)

So, while I was out last night, he looked in the bag it was in and saw it!

This morning he said to me: "Mom, why didn't you hide the Lego?"

I felt so bad.

Until he told me I didn't get him the right one.

Oh.

So, I guess it was good he saw it and told me-- much better than having a disappointed kid on Christmas morning!

A little stressed

I'm feeling a little stressed right now.

Trying to get everything done around the house. Laundry, cleaning, organizing, dishes, baking, etc.

But also trying to carve out some me time, to do the stuff I like to do. Scrapbooking, reading, watching TV, getting together with friends, chatting on the phone.

And added to that, my responsibilities with R.O.X. that are much more than I wanted for this year-- and seem to be increasing.

So, I just need to take a deep breath and pray that everything that needs to get done will get done.

And that no blood will get shed.

Kind of cute!

Yesterday, Sage was sitting in the bathroom, trying to be a big girl. I was sitting with her and we were singing songs to make the time pass a little faster (she's not quick!)

And she sang a song from Sunday School about "God made the world, God made the world, God made the animals..." and then she said: "God made the chickens" and it wasn't totally clear, so I said: "Kittens or chickens?"

And she said: "Chickens!"

And I said: "Chickens? Yummy!"

And she said: "No, Mom, chickens don't say yummy. Chickens say bawk, bawk!"

Isn't that cute? Did I mention that she's two and one month? Anyway, I thought it was very cute.

The day before, same place, same purpose, I asked her: "Sage, do you love mommy?"

And she said: "Yes."

And I said: "How much do you love mommy?"

And she said: "Two."

(Which, because of her age, I took to understand that her reply meant "with all that she is.")

Love that girl!

I love to read

Ever since I was a little kid, reading has always been one of my favourite things to do.

I remember my dad coming into my room and threatening to turn off my light while I read in bed. “Just to the end of this chapter,” I’d request. But then, it was so hard to not start the next one!

Now, as an adult, I still love to read. But it has to be fiction. I have a hard time reading non-fiction (and I don’t like to read newspapers, either!)

But give me a good fiction book where I can totally sink into the story line and I’m happy. If I had to pick a favourite genre, it would probably be Christian Adult Fiction. My favourite authors include Francine Rivers, Karen Kingsbury, Angela Hunt and Dee Henderson. My favourite books are the ones that both entertain me, but also inspire me to be a better person in some aspect of my life or personality.

I also like to read Chick Lit books. Ones where I can just enjoy the story line and relax.

I also like to read scrapbooking magazines and idea books, which include most of the journaling that other scrapbookers include on their pages.

I’m thinking this will still be something that I will be saying when I’m old and gray: "I love to read."

Ali's Challenges

Ali Edwards has started an ezine newsletter in which she offers challenges each week.

The first challenge was to make a mini-album of your five favourite things right now. Instead of a mini book, I made a 12x12 layout:

favourite five

The second challenge was to document a month in the life of everyone in your household. Here's the layout I did for that one:

this month...

The third layout challenged us to explore our photographic process. Here's the layout I made for that one:

photography

I wanted to post the images here of the layout, but blogger seemed to be having a bit of trouble this morning, sorry.

I've been enjoying these challenges-- especially as I'd like my kids to get an idea of what I was like while they were growing up-- not only as a mom but also as a person.

Something fun

I got this from Jen's blog:

YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet and current street name)
Coco Nelson

YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather or grandmother on your mom's side, your favorite candy)Antoinette Skor

YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of first name, first two or three letters of your middle name) L-Nic

YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
green panther

YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)Nicole Winnipeg

YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 2 letters of mom's maiden name and first 3 letters of the town you grew up in) penle biwin

SUPERHERO NAME: (your favorite color, favorite drink) green milk

Priceless

Austin came home from school with a bunch of papers in his backpack.

Every Monday, the kids in his class write down what they did over the weekend. So he had a few of these pages.

Among them, I found one that talked about the Terry Fox run that I participated in a few weeks ago. It said: "My mom won a race. My mom was happy. My mom told me. My dad took pictures. I like mom."

Awwwwwwwwwwww!

Isn't that the sweetest thing?

I asked him if I could keep it. He said yes.

I thought: "I want to keep this forever, but how will I remember to what it was pertaining?"

Then it hit me-- make it a part of a scrapbooking layout.

So I did:



And look, he even drew me at the bottom with Cameron taking my picture-- and my hands are up!

I think this is really cool

Watch: free hugs campaign

Look what I did!

We moved Sage into a "big girl bed" this week.

I have been waiting for two years for this moment!

I finally got to decorate her room "girl".

So, I bought bedding at IKEA in spring and the walls looked a little bare, so I did this:

I was actually inspired by Vicki Boutin's layout in the October CK. I used Wallies, IKEA stickers and MM flower stamps and paint. There are also a few glow-in-the-dark stars, too.

I made the fairy princess out of cardstock, rhinestone brads, wire and KI paper. The head and hands were from a birthday card that Sage got in the mail from her Uncle Chris & Auntie Cheryl. When she saw the card, she said: "That's me!"

So now she thinks she's flying on her wall!

Custom scrapbook

On Saturday, a woman from my church came over and commissioned me to make a scrapbook for her sister.

So exciting!

I love scrapbooking. When I started over 3 years ago, something just clicked. It was like: "This is the thing I've been waiting my whole life to find."

Then, I thought, how great it would be to make some money doing what I love. So I started lpdesigns. I've been selling my cards in three local businesses, I've had a few of orders for cards & invitations and I've created two scrapbooks for our church when pastors have left.

And now I have this order.

I'm hoping this will lead to more. It's so great to be able to do something I really love to do and get paid for it.

Ready for kindergarten?

For her birthday, Sage received a Dora backpack from her friend, Annika.

She was absolutely over the moon!

She puts it on with her jacket and says: "Go ride on Daddy's schoolbus."

I guess she figures she's ready for school.

Sorry, hon, another 3 years to go!

Sage is two!

Yesterday, my baby girl turned two!

And despite the fact that I wasn't feeling well (& was still quite sore from the Terry Fox Run on Sunday), I still managed to host a party for her and take some pictures.

She is such a cutie. I caught her singing "Happy Birthday" to herself (or to other people) during the day and also managed to get it on video.

I did it!!

I did it! I can’t believe it!

I actually ran the Terry Fox Run.

10 km.

I was so tempted to just do five, but I didn’t. I did the whole thing.

Running when I could. Walking when I needed to.

So unbelievable.

I’d hoped to run it in less than 1 hour 20 minutes and I actually did: 1 hour 17 min.

I’m so pleased that I stuck with it and met one of my goals for the year.

Thanks to everyone who supported and sponsored me!

Bad Blogger

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Things got kind of crazy over the weekend and probably won't return to normal for a while...

On Saturday, my best friend, Val's, son was rushed to the Children's hospital in Winnipeg. He has been diagnosed with pre-t cell leukemia. Please pray for him. For healing. For his family. For peace.

On a related note, I'm participating in the Terry Fox Run, to raise money for cancer research. If you would like to support me by pledging online, please click here.

Thanks so much!

Pies

Cameron picked apples from our tree yesterday morning and suggested I make some pies with them. I thought: "Sure, I can make some pies this morning."

Well, by 4:15pm, I was done.

I had to wash my floor because it was so sticky and clean my oven.

But I baked 8 pies and one platz (I hope I spelled that right! It's a pie made in a cookie sheet.)

But when I don't want to eat sugar, baking pies is probably not the best idea...

Corn & Apple Festival

It's the Morden Corn & Apple Festival this weekend. We live just over a block away from the festivities, so we usually head downtown for all three days of the festival. I never had anything like this growing up, and it's so cool to see my kids get excited about it. So, of course, I bring my camera along...

Cameron is on the Corn & Apple committee and is in charge of the shuttle bus. We walked a block and a half to catch the shuttle, which drives around the town.



Today, at the festival, we ate some free corn,



went to the petting zoo,

the boys went on the pony rides,

and all three kids went on the mid-way rides.

Tomorrow is the parade in the morning and I'm sure we'll walk downtown after Sage's nap (we all love the free corn, petting zoo, pony rides, etc.) In the evening, I'll be helping out at our church booth, selling caramel apple cheesecake.

Aren't these adorable?

I bought a brown floral skirt for Sage at Old Navy a week ago and wanted to find some shoes for her to wear with it. We went to several stores in the mall, but could not find a lot of brown.

Then we went to Children's Place and found these.

Sage was in heaven when we tried on shoes. We tried on the size eight, which were a little small and she cried when I took them off. When we tried on the nine, I figured they fit well, but didn't dare try to take them off. So I pulled the tag off and paid for them at the till, saying: "I guess we'll be buying these."

She's been wearing them around the house and insists on wearing them instead of her sandals when we go out.

She's very cute, this little girl of mine.

Home Alone

I'm actually alone in my house right now.

This never happens.

This evening, I took my kids to my MIL's so I could go help make cheesecakes at my church for our mission project to the Congo (we'll sell them at the Corn and Apple Festival this weekend.) And we were done at 8:15, but Cameron was at the farm, so he said he'd bring the kids home. I totally didn't expect to be done so early, so I actually feel a little guilty for not going to pick up my kids, but I really didn't want to waste gas driving out there.

And okay, I'll admit it, a little alone time is quite nice.

So I guess I'll just enjoy it while it lasts.

Keeping it real

Anita, my friend and fellow Design Team member at My Scrap Shoppe, posted a challenge recently to be real on a layout.

I'd like to think that I don't lie on my pages. I know I used actual photos of my kids and document the events in our life truthfully.

But I don't always show the "not so great" stuff.

The times I get angry, or impatient, or fed up.

It's a lot easier to write about how much I love my kids (which I do!) and the cute things they do (and let's face it, they are adorable!)

But I don't always include the "real."

So I took Anita up on her challenge and made the following page.



It's called "Today."

And here's the journaling:

"I was too tired to get up early and go for a run, so I stayed in bed… I hurt Austin accidentally, but was too stubborn to apologize right away… I tickled, laughed & played hide & seek… I visited with a friend and got to be helpful…I got impatient and frustrated with my kids when they wouldn’t obey… I organized my space & finished up a few projects I’d been putting off… I had the opportunity to help my husband, but then got disappointed & mad when I felt my help wasn’t appreciated… I let my kids watch TV so I could get some things done in peace… I baked some muffins because we were out of baking, but I ate some, even though I’m trying to lose weight…I spent time colouring & reading with my kids before bedtime, staying up with Austin an extra hour, even though I was quite tired… I stayed up later than I should to finish the novel I was reading…I ended my day in prayer, ever thankful for God’s love, mercy & grace… "

So, there it is...

The good. The bad. The real.

Bad Mommy

I had signed up for the reading program for my boys at the library this summer and noticed last week that it was coming to a close. What registered in my head was that Tues. and Wed. were the last days to redeem the "money" they got and to count their minutes. So yesterday (Wed.) we walked to the library in the morning and Austin runs in and comes out in tears, saying he can't buy anything. I went in and sure enough, everything is taken down! The librarian said that yesterday was the last day and they've put everything away. I started to cry, I felt so bad. I'd convinced my son to save his money until the end so he could get a good prize. So both Austin and I were crying outside the library and I was apologizing for getting the date wrong. I still feel really bad.

I did take them to the dollar store so they could get a reward for all the reading they'd done. But it wasn't the same.

Anyway, next year I'll know better, hopefully.

Happy Birthday, Jonah!

We celebrated Jonah's fourth birthday on the weekend.

It was actually a weekend long celebration, with supper at Cam's mom's on Friday night with the cousins.

And then my mom came out on Saturday and spent the night.

Then on Sunday, Jonah officially turned four. We invited Sonya and her family to join us for mini-golfing and supper, which included an orange cat cake for dessert.



After supper, we took the kids outside to play with one of the birthday presents Jonah got: a bubble blower. (The other present was a lizard shovel.) The kids got along well and had a good time.