Aaron is one step closer

to being accepted by the Calgary Police Service! He got his first acceptance in the mail today with the info for the next round of testing. Jan 27th he'll write 2 tests and from there he'll find out if he goes on to the polygraph/interviewing sessions.

Pictures were fairly successful, Heather picked up a couple of cute shirts for the boys to wear - coordinating but not matching - and Aaron and I just wore whatever made us look good for the camera, ha ha! The kids played it up for the camera just a bit and we got a great family pic, one of the boys, individuals of the boys and a shot of Aaron and I. We blew the budget but figured we only do it once a year as a whole family so why not splurge?

I sent out my 2nd Annual Cookie Exchange Evites today and then I realized that it's next Thursday and Christmas is only 27 days away. WTF? Where did the time go? Now I have to be sure to get the house decorated this weekend and prepped for a cookie night and a baby shower in the next 10 days...can't wait for Christmas to come and go so we can just relax. As if..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSEPH!

We're all celebrated out, we've had 3 seperate birthday celebrations and tonight before bed, Joseph said 'no birthday tomorrow?' I think he was kind of scared to ask - he loves the attention and excitement but finds it very overwhelming as well.


It's picture day tomorrow. Why is it so hard to pick out clothes to wear for the family picture? Should we wear matching outfits or just coordinating outfits or maybe just whatever looks good on each of us? Decisions, decisions...
Aaron is currently rebelling and planning on wearing his faded and torn but trendy jeans.
I guess it'll be a big surprise for everyone (me included unfortunately).
Once we get the pics back I'll be able to send out the holiday cards, we usually don't wait so long but Alex was recouping from a huge scrape on his nose from Halloween night. Gotta look hot for the pictures, LOL!

Abracadabra is the word of the day!

Here is Joseph with Magic (the bird)

Joseph opening gifts

The birthday cake - which Joseph actually didn't like - he wanted a monster instead of a bunny rabbit

1/2 of our party goers

Joseph in his magician's outfit
What an awesome birthday party! Deano the magician was great with the kids and even impressed some of the adults with his talents. I think we'll definitely invite him back in a few years!
Joseph was totally overloaded with awesome gifts, remote control truck/car, lots of board games, moon sand, playdough, stickers, some cool clothes and even a telescope (not as big as Nannie's but Joseph knew what it was)and so much more. The hit of the party was of course the gross little skull that's eyeballs pop out of his head when you squeeze it - all the adults were asking for a turn with it.
Even in minus 30 weather, Aaron barbecqued hot dogs for us all and considering we had over 30 guests we all seemed to find a spot without being really crowded.
Thanks everyone for helping make the party such a success!

No babies today - woo hoo!

Don't get me wrong, I love the babies but when they're not here at the same time it's amazing how liberating it is to be able to play with toys with small parts and not worry, feed the kids grapes without cutting them into a bazillion pieces and not have to change any diapers. Woo hoo!
Today has been very productive, as the kids were playing playdough - I cleaned out the fridge. As they coloured their pictures - I cut up some fruit and veggies to go with our lunch. As they had their snack - I got the main floor bathroom tidied up. It was totally a win-win situation and as I was just upstairs folding laundry and the kids are playing in Joseph's room, it's a treat for them and gives me some time to fold and still watch them. Some days are just too perfect!
Tonight's Bunco night, I haven't won anything in a long time so I think I've overdo. I've got a busy weekend ahead, Saturday is the first aid/CPR class and then at night Aaron and I will decorate and food prep for the party Sunday morning. Joseph's finally gotten over the fact that he's having a magician and not a Power Ranger - maybe next year...could you just picture Aaron dressed up in his Power Ranger suit - ha ha! I'm not sure if that's laughter or screaming I hear from you guys - LOL!

I haven't figured out how to link other TT's yet but here's mine

Thirteen Past Times From My Childhood


1 Jem and the Hologram dolls
2 Cabbage Patch Kids – I still have Abrona Melissa (who names these poor dolls?)
3 Popples
4 Operation
5War (the card game)
6 Indian Leg Wrestling (is that not politically correct anymore?)
7 Barbies, Barbies and more Barbies, I had an inflatable Barbie Bed with an electronic keyboard and the official Barbie carrying case (Mom still has these too)
8 Perfection
9 Skateboarding
10 Brownies/Girl Guides
11 Lessons – swimming, skating, and there was even a few jazzercise classes too
12 Lip-syncing at Mrs. Healey’s house
13 Talking on the phone…a lot!

The downside to having both boys potty trained

is that when Mommy makes a sticky mess in the van there's no back up diaper wipes in the good ole diaper bag! I was so doing so good on the new eating/exercising regime that I rewarded myself with a Cherry Blossom. Why? I have no idea - I never eat them or crave them but tonight I seen one when I was shopping with the boys and I let them pick out a treat (X men trading cards) so I figured I'd get a treat too. Well upon biting into it, it completely exploded and there was gooey sticky syrup everywhere and what did I have to clean it up with? Tissues! Well, by the end of it all I had about 10 tissues stuck to my coat, van upholstery, my hair and probably my chin too.
I miss having the diaper wipes back up for sticky situations like this!

A Very Successful Dayhome Meeting

Well, maybe not successful but worthwhile. We had 20 ladies come tonight which is probably a new record and I seen a lot of familiar faces and some new ones.
For once there were no horror stories of unfit dayhome providers or parents. Phew! That totally brings me down.
Our hostess for the evening is closing her dayhome after 18 years and she had some stuff to sell so Joseph is the proud owner of a marble set thingy from Discovery Toys and I bought Alex some costumes -Batman, Superman and a ninja of some sort. He's really into dressup and roleplaying, thankfully it's just the boy characters and he has no interest in being a princess. Oops, my bad. Maybe Rosie.O. is going to think I'm being a homophobe. (I'm not, I just don't want him to have gender confusion issues later on in life) I still can't believe how she spoke to Kelly Ripa! Well, I can believe it actually, there's something to be said as to standing up for your beliefs/rights but I think she's totally gone overboard. It's another Tom Cruise/Brooke Shields attack - at least he apologized for his stupidity.
Wow! I totally went off topic there.
So, the dayhome meeting was good. We're having an accountant come to the next one to show us some of our writeoffs and such. I seem to have a good handle on what I can write off, Revenue Canada has a whole booklet about it so it seems idiot proof to me but I know some of the ladies may need to have it spelled out for them. Saturday is our CPR/First Aid class. There are 20 of us taking it together which means that 19 of us (me excluded) do not currently hold a valid certificate in CPR/First Aid. Now as primary caregivers for these children 10 out of 24 hours in a day, wouldn't you feel more comfortable as a parent/caregiver having these skills? I'm not sure if money was the leading reason but when we told the ladies it was free with a food bank donation the response was huge!

Lovin' the online Christmas shopping!

I've never tried the Toys R Us online catalogue before but it totally rocked! Aaron and I ordered everything last Wednesday night and it all arrived this morning to my doorstep, actually the hottie delivery guy even brought it into the hallway for me (too bad for him one of the kidlets just had a dirty bum changed)
So, I think we've got almost all of the big stuff done and just need to buy stocking stuffers for everyone. What's that I hear in the back of my head?!? HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! I can avoid most of the big crowds once again!
There must be some country wide cold going around because I seem to read about sick kids everywhere. Tonight Alex and I had the pleasure of visiting the Urgent Care in Okotoks which was about a 90 minute adventure compared to the super huge wait at any city clinic. I was concerned about some redness in his eyes which is apparently a virus which he now has drops for (wish me luck with that), and some chest congestion, although he sounded clear. His coughing fits are so bad that he can't breathe and his lips turn blue. It hasn't happened since he was a baby and if he was in pain he would just hold his breath until he has blue in the face and then he'd start wailing. That was super scary too...I swear, kids need to come with a manual somedays!
I should finish this post up quickly before it misses the Monday mark, haha!

UFC Fight Night at the Beck's

Auntie Kathryn, Uncle Jeff (looking very serious...) Papa and Joseph playing UNO at the table
Who was more surprised? Aaron - that I jumped on him or me - that he wasn't expecting it and almost dropped me - ha ha. Definitely not a flattering picture of me, but funny enough to share it with everyone.
About one month to go until Jonathan's Dec 23rdish arrival...

Aaron was definitely up to no good here! Surprise Mom! Aaron thought you'd like to practise rocking a baby before Jonathan comes.

We had a quietish Friday night and Aaron and I watched DaVinci code. I liked it, it was exactly like the book and Indiana Jones-ish enough to hold Aaron's attention. Minus the pit of snakes of course.

Saturday evening was fight night so we had Mom, Dad, Heather, Jeff, Kathryn and Jeff over and had some fun. Kathryn and I finished cutting her wedding invites, Nannie played UNO with the boys, H kind of floated around and visited with everyone and the guys watched the fights.

I've finally made the switch to beta Blogger so hopefully everything stays the same.

Thirteen Reasons Why I'm Starting a New Diet/Exercise Regime 1 To feel good about myself 2 to finally lose the jelly belly and stop blaming my overeating during pregnancy 3 have more energy to keep up with my family 4 look hot in trendy clothes 5 look fab in my bridesmaid dress for Kathryn’s wedding 6 to be able to wear a bikini as opposed to a tankini 7 so I live longer 8 to feel the burn from exercise 9 to work on my strippercize moves, haha 10 to fit into some of my old clothes which are still cool 11 to get back into good health in case we plan baby #3 12 to enjoy some quiet time in the morning 13 to finally be able to say to Aaron “do you want to touch that? Feel that bicep!” (which he does to me constantly, LOL) Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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Pampered Chef night

I'm off to Kalyna's for a Pampered Chef party tonight. I'm still not sure how come I've never been to one before, I've been to probably about 12 Partylites, 1 Stampin Up, 2 Norwexes and I think that's about it...I'm never done the Tupperware or s e x party before.
I've bought a few PC items already which I've already come to love, the rice cooker which is great once you get the right recipe and the large micro-cooker, no spills and so easy to clean up.
What's your favourite Pampered Chef item?
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Apparently blogger was having issues and I couldn't post this before the party but it saved it so I'll just add on to it.
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The party was a success, it's nice for the dayhome mom's to get to know each other and make new friends. I've made one new friend, Jamie, whom I'll be adding to the cookie exchange list. I haven't figured out if that means that we need to make 13 dozen or not?! I'll figure it out, don't you guys worry about a thing. LOL! Although it was totally weird tonight walking over to Kalyna's and listening to Jenn and Christina gab about PC stuff, for once in my life I couldn't really add my two cents in. I knew nothing about this "seasoning" they kept talking about - I thought it was similar to Emeril's "essence" , but it turns out they meant more like seasoning a wok or cast iron pan. Duh, what was I thinking?

This really shouldn't be so hard!?

What is the weirdest thing about you?
Describe your most embarrassing moment.
If you were going to be in People magazine, what inside info about you would be next to your picture?
What is the most daring and dangerous thing you have ever done? Describe the circumstances.
How are you competitive in your everyday life?

I'm sure a lot of you Canadians have seen these and recognize them as questions on the application for Deal or No Deal. Aaron's going to apply. I'm not that brave, although generally I have better luck than he does. Aaron's having a bit of difficulty in coming up with answers for these, not even 'oh they'll pick me for sure' ones but just plain old honest to goodness truthful ones. Why is it that the easiest questions are the hardest to answer?

On another note, tonight is yet another painful to watch but even worse to be a part of skating lesson with the boys. Joseph was born to skate - Alex, not so much. Lucky me - I get to be his partner, LOL!

A very successful Sunday

We've had an awesome day so far! We started off with some tobogganing this morning with the boys and let me tell you, tobogganing with 3 year old legs is waaaaay more fun than with two year old legs that get too tired to walk up the big hill after the first ride down. We also managed to book a magician for Joseph's birthday party (even on the short notice) and I got a great haircut and a fab new purse today...does it really get any better than this?!

Hey look! It's Grizzly Adams and Grizzly Adams Jr.

I finally got started on my Christmas shopping!

My neighbour works at Gymboree and passed along some 30% off coupons for this weekend...they sure didn't go to waste!
My bill was a couple hundred dollars but at least it made a small dent in my shopping list. I think Aaron and I have decided to do most of our toy buying online through Toys R Us - great idea Nat - and then that just leaves our parents/siblings/friends. Although we already know what we're buying our friends and Jason so it's really just our parents, Heather and Jeff...hmmm...burping pads in a variety of shapes and sizes...just kidding...
Aaron's on his way back from hunting today, they got their moose on the first day and that's all they were really after so it's off to be processed and Aaron's done for another year. I think because they're not sausage making it's a much much shorter process than other years - in any case the boys and I will be happy to have Daddy home again. It was a novel thing to have the whole bed to myself and to be able to just have cereal for supper if we wanted but when the boys are missing Daddy, the novelty wears off reallllly fast!

The joys of having boys!

The boys helped me clean out the games cupboard in the playroom today and we found 5 jars of unopened slime from last Christmas...I must have been saving them for a rainy day or too scared of the potential mess.
It turned out to be rather fun after all.
Enjoy the video!

Mirror Mirror on the Wall...

This is Alex's latest past time. I couldn't figure it out at first because he just kept running back and forth into the playroom and checking himself out in the mirror so I had to sit and watch. What he's trying to do is curl his tongue, so when he thinks he's got it he goes to check it out in the mirror...close but not quite...

It's a borrrrrrring one this week folks!

Thirteen Things I Like To Do 1. Play with my kids. 2. Spend time with my husband. 3. Read books, any genre. 4. Watch ER on Thursday. 5. Visit friends and family. 6. Look through catalogues. 7. Make cards. 8. Have a bubble bath. 9. Personal hygiene - waxing, tanning, facials 10. Write my blog. 11. Read my friends/family blogs. 12. Plan parties. 13. Go for a walk. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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Can't wait for Lesley & Katie's Ladies Night Extravaganza!

Featuring row 13 tickets to see Christina Aguilera! Can I get a ooh-ooh?! Yeah, we like it "Dirty". We got the word today that we got the tickets which Aaron is picking up for my birthday present. Yippee! ... Now to just lose a few pounds before March 15th so I can wear something a little trendier to fit in with the rest of the fans...

What a great day! New baby, new concert, does it get any better than this?

Babies, Babies, Babies!

That seems to be the going topic these days. I'm so excited for everyone! Heather and Jeff will be the first proud new parents, followed by Monica and JJ and by the sounds of it Henry and April may not be that far behind.

It doesn't quite make me want to jump on the bandwagon yet, although looking through the baby pics and clothes almost did.

So, this poses a question : will you try and find out if you're having a boy or girl?

Obviously we know that Heather is carrying around Jonathan Robert Angus Kloklunky but for the other guys would you want to know if you'll finally be having a boy?

Monica did you share your special Alberta boy water with April?!? That would be hilarious if it worked!

I see that Halifax now offers 4-D ultrasounds with the optional gender determination.

Aaron and I totally wanted to know for each pregnancy, Joseph was a surprise by default but we knew for Alex.

And one last question...if you have a girl Monica, what do you think about Alexe for a possible name?

It's definitely a working weekend!

We had lots of company yesterday! The Carriere's came over for a short visit and then Heather and Jeff came over and had pizza with us. It was a nice break from all of the playroom organizing/toy washing...Heather and I went through the boys old baby clothes and we handed over probably the equivalent of 1 1/2 garbage bags crammed full of stuff. Going through all the boys stuff makes me feel like we should think about filling them one more time - we're still on the fence but know we'd wait for Alex to be in Kindergarten first or at least until Kathryn's wedding, I have to make sure I can fit my dress, ha ha!
After all the baby clothes yesterday I was definitely feeling a little nostalgic. There was a lot of 'OMG, I forgot about that outfit and OMG, I remember when he used to fit that and OMG, were they really that tiny?' So, I was going through the baby albums this morning and made two new widgets of pics of the boys baby pics.
Unfortunately Mom was totally right, the second child gets less pictures than the first. With Joseph we took lots of pictures about nothing, pics of him just sitting around which is okay if we only took one shot but oh no, we took 4 or 5 of him just sitting... and this is before digital cameras so of course we had to get doubles of everything blindly, just in case one shot was a great one...what were we thinking?!? What I did notice though was that Alex's pictures are more posed and planned out. I would pose him sitting on his soccer ball or dress him up in his cute outfits or at least make sure I had his attention. So, he's only got 1 album compared to Joseph's 3 albums but quality versus quantity is definitely in play!
Enjoy the baby pics!

Busy weekend ahead

Nothing terribly exciting mind you, but busy nonetheless. Jacquie and I hit IKEA last night and I picked up a new table for the playroom, 6 kiddie stools and 2 new highchairs which in theory should take up less room than the 1 I have currently. Aaron is working this weekend and then has a hockey game tonight with Phil so today I can have to rip apart the room and revamp it without worrying about the in progress mess. So, my boys and I are off to wallyworld to get some pictures printed for the bulletin board and pick up some more rubbermaid boxes to store stuff in. Then I've got to tackle the basement and all of the toys downstairs,it's time to switch toys in the playroom anyways...
Hope everyone has a fun weekend!

Too cute not too share!

Kathryn just sent this to me, apparently some parents in Anchorage built this for their 4 year old boys and woke up to see this. Hilarious!

Do you like it dirty?!?

Well, Kathryn and I do and hopefully if Aaron can swing it we'll be going to see Christina Aguilera in concert this March. Yeah for "Dirty" the song (not the dirty girl image). It's not a for sure thing but Aaron heard on the radio that she was coming so he put his name on the list at work for the concert tickets, center line, row 13, you can't beat it! Apparently they don't think there'll be a huge demand for the tickets amongst the funeral directors so we think it's a go. Yeah! I heard her concerts are amazing, right up there with Cher and Madonna.

Last night was my first official maid of honour doing her duties night and what did I do?...I spilled my wine all over the fancy wedding invite paper. I could have died from embarrassment, good thing it was only Kathryn (btb) and her mom Liz. Thankfully we only lost about 4 pieces of paper, but still, it was not how I wanted the evening to start out! We got all of the RSVP, maps, dance invites, invitations, and hotel cards all cut so now we just need the envelopements cut out - they're like a huge envelope thingy that holds all the vitals in one nice neat package. Very elegant just a bit time consuming but it's just another reason to see the girls more often...without the kids...

Thirteen Jobs I've Had 1. Calaway Park – I was the mini-donut girl … only pseudo-embarrassing 2. Leon’s – I worked at the front desk doing the paperwork and financing stuff 3. Waitress – I lived in a camp in Banff and served for the officers … and I shared a cabin with about 12 other young women, no, there weren’t any drunken pillow fights but there was definitely a lot of fun. I think all women need to experience sharing 2 public toilets and 2 public showers with their peers, for those of us not well-endowed it’s almost humbling…but at least I was skinny at the time with some nice legs! 4. Cashier/Weekend Supervisor at Petro Canada – it had some perks. I met Aaron (my husband) there - you know you’re a redneck when… 5. Librarian – One of my fave jobs! I love to read books, any age group, any style and this library was in an elementary school. Talk about dream job. 6. School Assistant – I was kind of a jack of all trades person in this role, I worked with various grade levels and also worked on Early Literacy and was the one and only School Technician for the lab full of Mac’s which I originally knew nothing about. I learned very fast! 7. Salesperson – Reitman’s – I’m sure Heather’s busting a gut laughing because I mentioned it. I think it only lasted about 5 months and I totally sucked at it. Picture it – a man came in to buy his wife something for Christmas and I sold him a long sleeved turtle neck sweater and then a matching shell to wear with it (versus the sleeveless top and shell). It gets better! I was also working there after Christmas when his wife came in to return it and she was really vocal about “what the heck was running through this poor salesgirl head when she sold him this?” 8. Cashier – at another gas station – this one was way more relaxed than Petro and was actually pretty fun 9. Nanny – for an autistic boy for a few years. 10. Dayhome provider – that’s my current occupation and I’m lovin’ it! 11. Babysitter – I’m sure everyone’s done this at some point in their teenage years. 12. ESL Assistant – I almost forgot about that one, that was a toughy. I didn’t realize how complex the English language was until then. 13. Forever Friend! I just made that one up, ha ha. I take my job as a friend very seriously and am always in it for the long haul. I can remember my friends from across the country and eventually I’m sure I’ll come across them again. Right, Nat?! Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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The hardships of Halloween

A grumpy Joseph (late night/early morning syndrome) and an Alexander with a scratched up nose - he fell on some frosty snow last night.

At least there were only minor issues!

Where's everyone else's Halloween pics?