Still trying to plan a birthday celebration...

My birthday is on the 20th and Aaron is on the 24th so we usually/always celebrate at the same time. My butt does thank me for only having one cake! Ha Ha! So, usually we go to Jubilations but Aaron's decided he's not into Canadian Graffitti/50s music so we're trying to think outside the box and come up with something different. I'm voting for two-stepping lessons for Mom, Dad, Heather, Jeff, Aaron and I, not too sure if Aaron's parents would be into this or not. So, I've emailed a few companies to see what their schedules are like and came across an awesome deal for 1 1/2 hours of lessons and then 1 1/2 hours of practise for $9/person. That's awesome! The only downside is that it's only on Thursday nights so we'd have to find a sitter, our girl works Thursdays, and then Dad would have to take Friday off of work and half of Thursday to drive down here. But so far that's the best I can come up with, and I must say it's looking not too shabby. But if anyone else has a great idea for something different/fun to do I'm all ears!

This is what I was trying to send you Monica!

It's a pocket that you fill with candy and can print a message on the bottom part.

I know Dad is the third boy and Uncle Paul is the fourth but not sure of the other ones.

Auntie Anne and Grandpa Art

I came across these two pictures when I was looking for wedding pictures to show Monica and remembered that I just sent Mom home with the professional album last weekend...Murphy's Law, right?

Here's some wedding pictures for you Monica

The wedding party, Heather, April, Me, Aaron, John and Jason (Aaron's brother)


The closeup

The cake, designed by Dad, 1st layer is wedding cake made by my mom and the 2nd layer is part of Mom's wedding cake from her wedding many moons ago that is definitely well-travelled/preserved!

This is the head table, traditionally it's just the bridal party but with as much family as I had attend (maybe 12 people out of 150) I wanted my parents up front with me.  Balloons were the 'in' thing at the time, and we did about 250 balloons the day before the wedding and the morning of the wedding they had all fallen to the floor so there we were the day of the wedding blowing up balloons...priceless heh?

This is the church and also the only reason why we got married in a United church, because it looked cool and Aaron loves good wood.

Sometimes girls are so much more fun than boys!

Found another good one!

I found this one while cleaning up my picture files...I think this was in the November 2004 one. This is from Nannie's last visit out West.

We had a quiet weekend, we started off with some big tobogganing plans but ended up going down the big hill two times before packing it in....Aaron forgot to check the temperature and there was no wind so it really didn't feel too bad. It turns out that it was -19...maybe that's why the inflatable toboggans wouldn't keep any air, you think?

So, instead we hung out and watched movies with Auntie Heather...who knew that Coyote Ugly Special Edition would have so much T & A?

Alex is signed up for Preschool in September! He's been dying to go to school like Joey so he was absolutely thrilled...until...Mommy told him that he needed to be potty trained. Yep, we're still trying to master the art of holding the pee until we're at the toilet instead of enroute to the toilet. We've still got 5 months until our trip so I'm glad we're starting early, at least we've got half a chance! Although now that Alex has Hulk Pull-Ups I have a feeling they'll be hard to part with and they don't make Hulk Underoos.  Maybe Spiderman could be a good substitute or Ninja Turtles, I can only hope!

Yeah! It's Friday!

Due to the huge snowstorm we had Wednesday/Thursday we've cancelled our trip to Oyen to visit Aaron's grandma. It would have been nice to see her and maybe take the boys down to Empress to see the horses but the roads are too slippery so we'll just hang out around the city this weekend.
Auntie Heather also cancelled her road trip to Edmonton so she'll probably be making an appearance tomorrow to go tobogganing and hang out with us. We made sure we've got 3 toboggans so all the adults can join in the fun, although lately Joey's acting like Mr. Independance and wants to go solo, which is fine except he can't haul the toboggan back up the hill on his own.
The boys spent a good part of the day outside in the snow, mostly making tracks in the backyard and using their little sand shovels to throw snow at each other...it's a good thing they don't know about snowballs yet! I'm sure that'll come next year.
We're having the big debate over finishing our basement or not. It's turned into a major decision, because we're still waffling over 2 or 3+ kids. With 2 kids our house is big enough for the next 10 or so years but with 3 kids we'd have to either put Alex and Joey in bunkbeds in one bedroom (which would probably be a huge disaster) or move to a bigger house so then there's no point spending the time/effort/money into finishing off a house we're not going to be staying in. I think we'll probably start doing some basement work like wiring and that but will leave all major construction (like a bathroom) until we've made a more definite plan.
Until then Mom and Dad will just have to sleep in the corner of the basement with the camoflauge headboard compliments of Aaron's decorating.

What a crazy day!

Joey was his usual hyperactive self...but his brother...oh my...

well...let's just say he got into mischief today...

and we finally got a half decent snowstorm!

What an insane day! The boys were full of energy and very excited about all of the snow, so it's safe to assume that we did indeed spend most of our day bundled up and outside.  It was only -4 out so the kids played on and on and on and had to be bribed to come inside for lunch!... a sucker for an appetizer works quite well these days!

Pictures are in the mail tomorrow!

I had to print pictures before our trip to Oyen this weekend to visit Aaron's Grandma so I printed off some extras and will be mailing them tomorrow (Auntie Anne, Auntie Jen and Aunt Paula).

It's a short work week and Aaron has Friday, Saturday, Sunday off so we're heading to Oyen to visit Grandma Tarr. It's about a four hour drive through the badlands, past Drumheller (that's where all of the dinosaur bones are), close to the Saskatchewan border. There's not much in Oyen, just Grandma and Uncle Melvin. If we're lucky we'll go to Aaron's Auntie Glenda's house in Empress, she has a farm and horses to ride...the kids have never ridden a horse before and they're pretty much game to try anything.

Joey went for his haircut tonight, too late for this weekend's photo shoot but just in time for school pictures on Monday. That's just my luck that I got his pictures done and now he'll get school ones. They're his first school ones so I can't not buy them, especially the class one. We got a class picture with a nice thank you card from his class/teachers but about 6 or 7 kids missing. I'm glad he'll have that to add to his scrapbook.

What is the rule about saving school work? I've got 1 1/2 scrapbooks filled with his little projects, where do you draw the line? Mom teases me that Joey'll have a whole bookcase dedicated to his school stuff by the time he finishes elementary school. Ha Ha Mom!

Back to work tomorrow :(

Here's J's birthday card Mom, this is with the chalks and blender pens.  I also realized this morning that you left without taking any stamping gear with you...I may have to mail you a care package...

This is our picture from Jubilations night for Mom and H's birthdays.  What a fun night! I don't think we've ever had a bad time when we go there, although Aaron's decided he wants to try something different for our birthdays next month.  I have no idea what we'll do, I checked into drop-in dance classes but on the 24th it's cha cha night and I just can't picture the big guy doing the cha cha!  Not sure what else we could do besides dinner. 

We took the boys in for pictures this weekend and they were a hit! Joey's such a tease and Alex smiled when it suited him.  I thought if we started now we'd get some good ones for Easter, although we went for a whole new look...usually for Easter we do shirts,shorts and sandals but in these pictures the boys are wearing their leather Harley Davidson jackets (compliments of Nannie and Papa of course) and blue jeans.  The proofs looked good, can't wait to pick them up and show them off to everyone.  Who knows maybe it'll be early Easter cards this year..

Here are some old pictures for you Jen!

I'm not too sure who this is but I'm sure someone can fill us in.

Uncle David

I'm not sure who they are or if it's even from the MacAulay side and not Johnston side?!?

Everybody's favourite clan picture!I think this is most complete picture out there so far...

The groom-to-be many moons ago!

And that concludes the pictures that this MacAulay branch has. I love looking at all the pictures and seeing who looks like who.  Dad says that Joey takes after Grandpa Art a lot, I wish I'd known him then maybe I'd see the same similarities.

To date we still have no definite plans for our holidays, I think we'll be playing a lot by ear.  We fly into Halifax on Tuesday morning and will probably spend a couple days there doing some sightseeing then head to the Miramichi Thursday and then Monday we may go to PEI for a day and then I think we fly out on the Wednesday or Thursday evening.  I'm sure it'll be a very busy but fun holiday.  Aaron and I were married in a United church (I'm not sure why, Aaron's not baptised United) so we were thinking of having our marriage blessed at the church that Mom and Dad were married in, coincidentally our anniversary is August 13th and we will be in the neighbourhood.  We did our Catholic marriage prep. classes a year or two ago but just haven't made the arrangement to be blessed at a mass, I guess we'll see what happens....After partying Saturday night we may not be in the condition to go to church the next morning. LOL!

We had a great visit with Mom and Dad this weekend.  Friday night Aaron, Mom,Dad and I took a few spins around the living room trying to dust off our two-steppin moves and we all discovered that a few lessons couldn't hurt any of us! The class I tried to sign up for was full so we'll try again in the spring.  I'm not sure how much dancing we'll be doing though because we'll have Joey and Alex underfoot. 

Today my parents had the pleasure of furniture shopping with me for Alex.  What a nightmare!  We were too early so there was nothing open but then we finally found some nice stuff but one store only had the mirror and floor model nightstand and sent us to the big store on the other side of the city just to find out that they only had one nightstand and it was damaged so we came home empty handed.  Aaron might go look Friday on his day off and see if the nightstand at the first store's any good and then go back to the other to get the matching dresser and mirror.   I'm just about convinced that my kids are indeed spoiled. Aaron and I still have mis-matched furniture from when we were kids!  I think that's the next big purchase...I've decided to hold off on the front loading washer until mine actually croaks...it washes fine, the only problem is that it's on the second floor by the bedrooms and right above the living room so sometimes it's a little loud.

More pictures for Jen

Grandpa Art and I think Dad said the baby is Melanie

Dad, Auntie Anne and Auntie Betty I think

Here's Auntie Brenda

Aunt Betty and Heather

Grandpa Art and Auntie Anne, must be her First Communion

If it weren't for bad luck...

Well as many people know last year I had my debit card copied and that was a huge fiasco! It was right before a long weekend and both Aaron and my debit cards had to be destroyed/replaced which isn't easy with banking hours and a full dayhome let me tell you! Whomever copied it spent my limit and then tried to withdraw the cash limit which flagged my account so CIBC froze everything. It sucked!

This morning Aaron discovered his credit card had charges on it which shouldn't have been there so he called Visa and sure enough his card's been duplicated, so once again, his card had to be destroyed and now he's Visa-less for a couple weeks until he gets a new one. The weird thing is that Aaron hasn't used his Visa in months so we're not sure how someone could have copied it?!

What a comedian Alex is!

Alex is going through a huge terrible two's phase right now but at the same time can be so funny! Aaron was late for dinner tonight so it was just me and the boys and Alex kept playing with his dinner so he got trouble a few times. And just as Mommy's about to lose it he shows me his latest masterpiece: an egg noodle wrapped perfectly around his finger on the same finger I've got a bandaid on and then he says look Mommy I've got owwie like you, kiss it better Mommy, kiss it, kiss it...it was pretty funny!  Alex certainly has good imagination!

On another note, houses in our neighbourhood are selling like crazy! One of the dayhome moms across the street from us sold her house the day after it was listed and she was asking $339,900! Her house is even smaller than ours.  Talking to another neighbour apparently she knows of three houses in our neighbourhood that have sold within 24 hours of being listed and sold for more than the asking price.  It's kind of tempting to sell and make some serious money but then I think about  how much we'd end up spending to buy or build a new house and that kind of kicks that idea right out of my mind!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's a new technique I learned, you put Future floor wax in your waterpen and pick up pearlex and brush it on to highlight stuff like butterfly wings.

This is a card with the 'water' in the middle, it's actually hair gel with colour added to it and easy to do.  

The other technique we learned tonight is embossing wine glasses. I didn't realize you could do that but apparently you can, and it actually looks pretty cool.

So, Aaron and I celebrated Valentine's Day seperately, but after spending the day with a whole bunch of sugar-high tots I needed to get away! I'm sure we'll have a date night soon enough in lieu of tonight.  It looks like the Urgent Care doctor was right and Joey just had a cold in his eye, with the help of some drops his eyes are just about normal now, I think with a good night's sleep he'll be back to school tomorrow, just in time to have two days off for Teacher's Convention and then the holiday on Monday.  Looks like I'm staying put this weekend and Mom and Dad are going to drive down and the spend the weekend with us. Aaron has to work so we'll have to entertain ourselves during the day, if we actually get some snow I think Nannie and Papa would like to see the boys try out their toboggans.  Joey could out-toboggan any of us! It's got to be that endless supply of kid-energy, and poor Alex tries to keep up to big brother but his legs are still quite a bit shorter so he has to run twice as fast.

Happy Birthday Uncle Paul & Matt

Uncle Paul & Auntie Cheryl at Alex's birthday luau

Uncle Paul in the mustang

And yes I had to do a blast from the past picture!

Happy Birthday guys, it is a day early but I'm not sure if I'll get the chance tomorrow or not...better early than late right?

We're already planning next year's vacation!

Well, we didn't win the $7500, unfortunately the overly-excited lady in front of me won. Picture Julia Roberts at the polo game in Pretty Woman, that's how hyper this lady was.  So, we wandered thru the show anyways and picked out what we coulda, shoulda won and came across the houseboat, it was hard to miss though! We did the tour of the houseboat and took the brochure home and discovered that it looks like a good holiday for 2007or 2008.  The price isn't too bad either, only $3480 for mid-season which is mid-June to mid-July for & nights.  Apparently you have to book about 9 months in advance so I guess we'll be deciding in the fall if we're to go next summer. At least we'll have time to get the boys into swimming lessons.

We came home from the show to find Joey all pink and puffy around his eyes, so Mommy took him to the Urgent Care for a 4 hour visit. The doctor diagnosed Joey as having a cold in his eye which could be the onset to pinkeye. The doctor wouldn't give me a prescription because he doesn't have the virus...yet.  So it'll be another big long wait if he wakes up with crusty eyes tomorrow morning.  Hopefully the polysporin drops will make it all go away!  Then I had to phone all of the parents and forewarn them that Joey may or may not have pinkeye.  Just what they want to hear at 8 o'clock Sunday night...I hope Monday's better!

The last time we were in the Miramichi

It's been a while hasn't it? 

Why am I going to the Outdoor Sportsman and Boating show you ask?

Well, it all started Sunday night when Aaron gave me a few contest entries to fill out and send in. Maybe I should look at what I'm entering first, if I had then I would've put Aaron's name down and not mine. So, I'm one of thirty lucky people qualified to win the $7500 shopping spree at the Outdoor Show. I think Aaron's probably more excited than I am! I've got H lined up to watch the Rugrats for an hour so we can go, wait for the draw, hopefully do a little power shopping (I'm sure Aaron'll have a list ready) and then head home. It would be nice to win, I'm sure we could get some accessories for camping or for the trailer, although a hot tub would be nice, somehow I doubt the hot tub guys will be at this show though, maybe a downpayment on a quad for up at the cottage.

I'd have to say after a really bad Monday, my Wednesday turned out to be not too shabby. Michelle brought Connor and baby Elliot over for a visit which is always a nice distraction for all of the kids to have their old pal Connor to come for a playdate. And the adult conversation for Mommy is always welcome!

Turns out Danny has pinkeye so I was minus one Danny yesterday and today which was a nice break to have one less child today.

Guess it's back to the same ole, same ole tomorrow!

I could live without Mondays!

What a crazy day! It probably all started at about 1 or 2 this morning when Joey woke me up and started talking about Auntie Heather's visit today and that she'd bring him big and little marshmallows and a whole bunch of other stuff that didn't really make a lot of sense at the time of morning. So, after getting up with Joey off and on all night I decided to let him skip school and sleep in, really, I was doing everyone a favour by keeping him home,except myself that is. Joey was a bit of a nightmare today, totally overtired, over-sensitive and just out of it altogether. Well it turns out that Danny had a rough night too and skipped school so I had him for the whole day and he wasn't very successful with the pottying today so you just knew he wasn't quite himself. Alex was his charming (bullying) self today and Zeke dumped glue in his hair from our Valentine's Day craft, Alex ate some more crayons, Aislynn sat in Danny's 'wet spot'...and the list just seems to get longer and longer the more I think about.

Thank goodness Auntie came over to rescue me! She ran out and bought dinner so I could save my lasagna for tomorrow's dinner and helped get the kids to bed nice and early so we could just sit back and relax. Now that Heather's headed home I'm starting to take a closer look at Aaron's taxes. Not as easy as I thought, I always do our taxes but this will be my first year doing his with his vehicle allowance/expenses...It can't be that hard to figure out can it?

Thanks for calling Auntie Jen! Does that make you feel old? Just kidding! I forgot to get your email address so don't be surprised if I call you again this week.

The Wallpaper Border...finally!

Well, I'm glad I've finally gotten that crossed off my list of things to do!  I've only done wallpapering once before and that was with Mom's direct supervision, so today was a potential disaster but turned out okay.  I was a little nervous but managed on my own, Aaron's job was to entertain my little helpers.  I got the first piece up with no difficulty and then I cut the next piece, soaked it and stuck it to the wall and then realized that the ends didn't match and I had actually put it on the wrong end of the first piece...DUH!  But I just peeled it off, repositioned and it's all good!

We went to the Carriere's last night and the kids ran around until 11:15 then we headed home to find a sick puppy at home:(  I'd brought a few garbage bags full of clothes for Easton and some other stuff for Cindy and I think Lyla thought we were going away for the weekend and left her behind.  After a day with the windows open my house smells normal again. Yeah!  Just in time to start smelling like poopy diapers again tomorrow...I don't care what the Diaper Genie's claim is, they don't really hide all odors!

Valentine's are officially done!

This is the soot technique where you hold glossy paper in a candle flame until it's sooty then you stamp off the soot and spray with Krylon.  Super easy if you use a really cheap candle, Partylite candles don't work for this.

Well I've got cards done for Aaron, Joey's class, my dayhome kids, the boys' friends, Joey and Alex.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, once you get going it seems to go by fast. 

Aaron's out helping Deb buy a new computer right now.  He was supposed to help his friend move some stuff from his soon-to-be ex's house and that was a disaster.  I guess the trailer Mark has won't fit on Aaron's truck so Aaron has offered to help him move every night this week after they're done work.  What a nice guy, eh?  So, the kids and I will be flying solo this week, so I'll be abiding by the strict 7 o'clock bedtime so Mommy can have some quiet time...what's that?

TGIF!

We had a very long but good week and were happy to see Happy Hour tonight! Aaron's family came over for dinner and to play Sequence. I think that's our new favourite game, it's shorter than Canasta and you don't need to keep track of all your rows of cards...less chance of the kids running off with them, etc.

We've got a nice relaxing weekend planned, I think Aaron's shopping with Deb tomorrow for a new computer and possible digital camera and then we're off to the Carriere's for dinner and I think we're going to play Scene It! That was our X-mas gift for them this year and once again, it beats playing Canasta with all of our kids running around, with the exception of little Mackenzie who's not crawling yet, I'm sure it won't be too long though!

Sunday has no plans except for possibly putting up the wallpaper border in the playroom that I mentioned weeks ago. Aaron (the liar) told me that we didn't have a ladder for me to be able to reach so when I asked Brian if all the ladders were still at the cottage he said I gave Aaron one already why does he need another? I was not too impressed, I guess Aaron reallllllly doesn't want me to put up the border. Tough luck for Aaron though because the 12" jungle animal border is kind of the whole basis of the theme, sandy yellow walls, jungle leaf print curtains, Madagascar posters...come on Aaron...get with the decorating program and get over it! The border is something that can eventually come down in a few years when we re-decorate and I'm sure by then it'll be a Superhero room, a dream come true for Aaron!

The Crazy Lady made yet another appearance at the Parent seminar!

Although I must admit she was well behaved and didn't try to monopolize the spotlight with her concerns about not teaching the kids manners...Puh-lease! Tonight's topic was about Advocating For Your Child which Andrea and I didn't really think applied that much to us but it turns out that it prompted us to think about a lot of things that neither of us had. I'm glad I went but wish Aaron had gone as well, it was a lot to take in at one seminar so they're thinking of hosting another one in a couple months.

Today was a fairly uneventful day, I'm just really glad that it's Friday tomorrow! We're expecting the Beck Sr's to come over tomorrow night for dinner and a visit with the boys. Hopefully the kids run around a whole bunch and stay up late so maybe, just maybe they'll sleep in until 8 Saturday morning. That would be an awesome way to start the weekend!

Looks like Auntie Kathryn may be attached to an Uncle Jeff in the near future, she was out engagement ring browsing with Jeff's co-worker today so I'm thinking maybe Jeff is ready to take the plunge. He's being transferred to Lethbridge in the next few months and he's taking Katie (can I call you Katie too? hee hee) with him...so I think maybe an engagement is in the near forecast. Just don't go and get married in Vegas this weekend, okay?

Oh and Heather I found out that Andrea's super fantastic no-mess black eyeliner is RIMMEL. That'll have to go right up there with the purple can Salon Selectives hairspray!

Joey has a secret life!

Well today I had to get my annual blood work done so I planned it so I could pick up Joey from school which has never happened yet. I was in for the shock of my life! There's my Joey riding a bike! Very steady, very fast, he's obviously had a lot of practise. Joey's had a tricycle and then graduated to a 2 wheeler with training wheels and all he kept telling Aaron and I was 'can't do it, you push' so of course we would. Well the joke was on us apparently! Veronique (teacher) was shocked when I asked her how long he's been riding it for and she said since the first day of school. My boy certainly knows how to play Mommy and Daddy for the fools!

I was pretty excited to see Joey in action at school with his friends, it's nice to see he's making good friends now versus 'having' to play with others.

I can see he'll be just like his Daddy, where at all the parties everyone wants to hang out with Aaron, sit with him, stand beside him...I've come to realize I'm not the life of the party, it's actually Aaron. But I'm so okay with that, remember the Christmas party...I was forced to talk about my hot Doogie Howser dentist...not pretty...