Christmas Photos

I took some Christmas photos of the kids last Sunday. the candy canes were the bribe for taking a cute photo with everyone smiling but I think I like it better than the more posed one. Eric's joy, Jack's intense licking, Julie already biting pieces as fast as she can. (She had that thing all gone about 30 seconds later!)

Christmasy Goodness

Okay, I had plans for a posher looking mantle. But it hasn't happened. And really that's fine. Figuring out how to decorate a whole new house for the holidays is a lot of work I'm discovering. Once you've been in a house for a few years you have special places for things. But this year I'm creating the special places -and some of them aren't totally awesome yet. But anywho, here's where it's at. I plan on making some canvases modge podged with scrapbook paper to hang by the wreath. I even bought the canvases a couple of weeks ago when Michael's had a sale. Now just to make them! Once I get hangers for the stockings they will adorn the space as well obviously. I love my little nativities, they make me happy and joyful at this time of year.

Taking these photos reminded me how much I enjoy photographing details. I can't wait to have enough money saved up for a true macro lens. That would be soooo fun!

And of course, the Christmas season means that the beloved Santa train makes an appearance. (Along with a cow and random other Fisher Price little people from the Airport, Noah's Ark and Happy Birthday sets -really everyone should be able to share in the joy of the holidays!) Lavonne's family gave this to us when Jack was about 2 and Eric six months. After Christmas I pack it away in a box with the Christmas things so that it remains a special toy. Jack (at almost 7) was ecstatic when I brought it out on Monday. I love that, the little details that = Christmas for them. It also strikes me in these photos just how big and grown up Julie looks. sniff sniff. How she's crossing her one leg over the other and balancing on her hand, such a big kid pose. And just that she is entertaining herself. She was chattering away while playing -telling Santa and the elves what to do, making train whistle sounds.

Mischief

Tonight I sent the boys upstairs to get undressed for bath time. My final admonishment to them was to put their clothes in their laundry basket. I was delayed in going upstairs to run the bath, and probably a good 6-7 minutes passed, all the while shrieks of laughter were coming from upstairs. Upon arriving to the door of their room I discovered the ceiling fan running full speed and Jack is flinging clothing into it. With wild excitement in his eyes Eric proclaimed, "Mom, we throw the pants up, and the fan FLINGS them around the room and we get them in the laundry hamper!" From the amount of ceiling stipple that was knocked off and now on the floor one could surmise that there'd been more than a few attempts to perfect their technique. Seriously how do boys come up with this stuff? I blame Darrel and his genetic imprinting. :)

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Misheard Lyrics Religious Personages
On the way to church on Sunday Julie started chatting about the "Holy Goat". And then proceeded to declare, "No, not a goat, it a puppy! A pretty pretty puppy."

Okey dokey then. Clearly we receive a parenting fail this week in the category of basic religious training. :)

Home Matters

Okay, here's some of the things we've been doing at our house:

A couple weeks back I found some stools for the kitchen island on Kijiji. When I went to pick them up I spied these leather couches that were also for sale. They were a pretty good deal and I knew they would look great so I snatched them up. The rug is supposed to be for Julie's room but it still has that new plastic-y smell and we are worried that it kills brain cells if we shut her bedroom door at night, so for now it has a home in the family room. Darrel and I both love the fireplace in this house. It wasn't something that was on our wish list but now that we have it we are really enjoying it. In the almost three months we've been in this house we have done nothing with the mantel. I have scads of Christmas mantle ideas tagged on pintrest, pretty excited to have a mantle to actually decorate.

Since we moved in we've been in the process of building an island in the kitchen. Last weekend we put a temporary particle board countertop on it and realized that at 4 feet by 8 feet it was just too big in the space. It fit but it looked like we'd parked a boat in our kitchen. Soooo, after a stroke of  5 am brilliance from Darrel we took the back half of the island, the narrower set of cupboards, and put them on the end wall in the dining room.

As it turns out they fit that wall to the cm, it's a little bit crazy. Sometimes even without planning Darrel and I end up rocking the project/reno world. :)  There's no counter top on it yet, that piece on the left is actually the cover panel that is waiting to be installed.  I'm pretty excited about it, now I have an additional holiday decorating space!!! A mantle and a side board. Be still my heart.

When Karly was visiting we were doing some pintrest browsing and found these ultra cool vinyl rub ons for the laundry room. An acquaintance from university days has her own vinyl lettering company has her own company so I asked her to make a set for me (and one for Karly, it makes me smile to think of our matchy matchy laundry rooms!) This afternoon I got out Darrel's level and set up where I was going to put them. I waited until Darrel got home from a Home Depot run to rub them onto the wall -and a good thing. He reminded me that one of the projects on my list was to build pedestals for the washer and dryer so that you can fit a laundry basket underneath. Which would have put my awesome sign behind the dryer. Not so awesome. Good thing I have him to keep me on track sometimes!

So after a bit of trial and error this is what I came up with. Awesome eh?! Sandra (my friend -who's business is called Vinyl Blurbs, and you can find it on facebook) says in her little letter that goes out with your order to watch out because decorating with vinyl lettering is addicting! I already agree! I am scheming of all the little decor things I want to do with vinyl lettering.

And finally, the little people had a fun game of Hide and Go Seek tonight after supper. They are pretty cute these three!
Jack counting:

At various points they all hid in this cupboard. (See what I mean about that row of cabinets fitting on that wall. Crazy eh?!

And there you have it. Busy times here at our house.

And finally, on this Remembrance Day I am extremely grateful for those of my grandparents generation who fought for freedom and liberty. Particularly I am grateful to my Mother's father who decided to move his family to Canada after WWII. I love this country and I am filled with profound gratitude for the sacrifices they made in order for their posterity to live here.

Staying Organized

 

I broke down this year and bought one of those Mom sized calendar systems at Costco. Best Thing Ever! I've often had a family calendar but it was never big enough, and it didn't have the snazzy stickers. I love having enough room to write EVERYTHING on it, down to the extreme minutia of our lives. Take for instance library day. Last year I often forgot library day for kindergarten, and then poor Jack was the kid who couldn't pick out a new book because he didn't bring last week's book back. But no more! Now it's on the calendar, so I don't forget.   I'm sure Eric would have been happy had we forgotten all about immunization night on the 21st, but now he and Julie are all caught up, (those 18 month shots were only eight months late for Julie!) What do you use to keep organized?

Conference Weekend

Lots of good stuff going on around here this weekend. First, I bought a kitchenaid mixer on Friday. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeek! I've been wanting one for a long while now and The Bay had them on sale for 50% off this weekend. Crazy, I know! So a girl from work and I went on our break and each bought one. We didn't think it through too much, and ended up walking about 6 blocks with the big heavy boxes...not the smartest move, but perhaps then we worked off the baking we were planning for the weekend! My first thing I made was banana bread. It was so heavenly having a heavy duty mixer to do this. Loved it!

It was conference this weekend. In between Sunday afternoon sessions the boys played moon sand. It's a little like having a beach in your dining room and sand gets everywhere, but truth be told it's easier to cleanup than playdough. For those who are still waiting for new house pictures, check out the dining room walls. That's all I got for now though. sorry. Waiting for a day when tons of boxes are out of rooms, then I'll go around and photograph everything.

To go along with Conference: conference words. The kids listen for particular words and when they hear them they can pick a candy out of a jar. Of course we pick oft used words, like temple, Jesus and prayer. Let's just say our kids have had enough sugar to last them beyond Halloween. :) A little crazy, but they actually caught a lot, so if it worked then great!

Fall

Poor, sad neglected little blog, it's been over two months since I posted! In the craziness of me starting back at work full time, moving to a new house, setting up the new house, and generally just adjusting to our busy lives, my blog has been one of those things that has fallen by the way side. :(

But, here's to new beginnings and getting back to routine. Tonight friends of ours came over to visit and we went to a park to take their family pictures. I wanted to get a few of our kids at the same time. It was a bit of a gong show, eight kids running everywhere. By the time we finished up our friends' photos, my kids (Julie in particular) were kinda dirty since it had rained a couple of hours earlier. But I managed to get a few cute shots. The photo of Jack kind of amazes me, he looks so old and grown up. sniff sniff. I want my kids to get older, but I don't. I think they should all stay around 7. A little more independent, a little sassy, but generally still loving and cute and innocent. I definitely want to remember this stage of our family. Julie is getting a little less challenging and things are fun around here, for the most part. hehehe

Long Lake

We went to Long Lake a couple of weekends ago. These pics of the kids at the beach warm my heart, I have such fond beach memories from growing up in the Okanagan. It makes me happy to see my kids having similar experiences.

That's Jack and Darrel out there in that fishing boat. They actually caught something! Very exciting!!

It also happened to be Alberta Parks day and there was a water bomber demo happening. Pretty cool. Notice the clouds? Yup, it wasn't the warmest day of the summer but we went anyway and  had a great time.

This Girl

Street Performers Festival

One of the fantastic things about my new work location is that it is right across the street from Churchill Square in downtown Edmonton. Throughout the summer there are all sorts of festivals and fun things happening. This afternoon Darrel and I met for lunch and checked out the street performers festival. This guy on the stilts was pretty entertaining. I was impressed even before he flipped one leg back, and hopped on one stilt. Darrel and I made sure we contributed when the hat was passed, he worked hard!

 

This building is the new (well relatively new) Art Gallery of Alberta. The design looks so amazing eh? I remember my good friend Lily worked there about 12 years or so ago as an intern one summer. I visited her once during that time period and her office was in the basement of a dark cavern like building -certainly not anything as bright and open as this. There was a bit of a kerfuffle when they were planning the tear down and rebuilding. (why spend the money, is it necessary etc.) But now I think it's really a signature building for the city and I love it. I'm so lucky to work so close, I definitely need to make a point of taking my lunch break there more often.

And finally, this mime guy, who I think of as "Glitter Elvis". He was pretty cool. He moved and posed like a wind up musical toy. Yay for summers and festivals!

A New Favourite

I somehow stumbled across this blog tonight Vintage Revivals. Definitely a new fav, especially as we are moving and we're going to have to put our own touches on a new home. (And not spend tons of money doing it.)

Julie's Birthday

Julie turned two last Thursday. We had a great little birthday party at home for her. She didn't quite get the blowing out the candles thing (she was very skeptical of the whole thing -come to think of it all of our kids have been at their 2nd birthday). However, after we sang Happy Birthday and a couple of rounds of the primary song "You've had a birthday shout hooray!" she was getting into the party idea. We gave her an inflatable pool that also has a slide. We're waiting for the weather to improve to try  it out, hopefully the sunshine comes back soon! Although we went outside after supper and all three kids had a hoot running and diving down the slide into the pool without any water. Just goes to show you that kids will always make their own fun if adults don't interfere. :)

Julie truly is delightful. Definitely hitting the twos in stride but also the sweetest little thing. We all adore her!

A Very Productive Day

A good Saturday today: the right balance of fun/work/play. Here's what this Saturday looked like at our house:

We got up and went garage sale shopping right after breakfast as it was the Bon Accord town-wide garage sale. Items purchased:

• Two fishing rods -$3
• One snowsuit for a little lady -$15 (Love having this done in advance!)
• One golf putting game/practice thingey -$5 (Jack was in heaven this afternoon!)
• Two Usborne Books for kid crafting -$5

After that we came home and tidied and hung out for a bit. I visited the new shop of my friend Gayle. She has a children's boutique and sells dress up clothes. For the past year her business has been home based but today was the opening day of her brand new shop. Yay Gayle!

Made lunch, tacos, yummy!

Darrel and Julie had a nap. I submitted all the pre-school graduation photos for printing and browsed facebook. The boys watched TV.

Once everyone was awake we went outside and did some yardwork. Darrel cut down some of the trees behind the back fence that have succumbed to that weird disease. I weeded the front flower bed. Apparently it was really cold last night. Some of my plants had been damaged by frost. Egads -it's June, come on summer!

Darrel and the boys then went to the driving range. Julie and I ran to the drugstore. When we got home she and I did supper prep, picked rhubbarb and made a cake. Julie took out all the forks and "set the table". (She loves to do that!) Also threw in a load of laundry. I have about 8 sitting down there. No word of a lie. Ugh. (anybody want to come to my house and fold?)

The boys all returned home and Darrel BBQ'd steak for supper. Tinfoil potatoes and carrots, corn on the cob, and steak. Talk about a summer time meal. (Even if the weather was not summery).

Kids all had a bath after supper. Then story time. Julie went to bed. Then dessert time for the rest of us (that cake was calling our name.) Lest you feel bad for Julie, you should know that she conned her way into a package of skittles at the drugstore when she and I went earlier. And she mooches candy and sweets all the day long. :) Couple of more stories for the boys, then off to bed.

Darrel and I worked on designing a photo frame that he is going to cut out with his CNC. Super excited about it.Then prepared the lesson we are teaching together (on marriage and family relations no less!)  Then I did RS stuff (newsletter, new VT routes cut out so they can be distributed, Birthday list for June) while Darrel watched a movie and now it's 11pm and I'm ready for bed (after maybe one little game on facebook).

Day 27: A Lifetime Ago

Day 27: A Lifetime Ago, originally uploaded by Kirsten in Canada.

Load Day 18: 100 Percent

Load Day 18: 100 Percent, originally uploaded by Kirsten in Canada.

Load Day 16: The Bests

Load Day 16: The Bests, originally uploaded by Kirsten in Canada.

Load Day 15: Busy

Load Day 15: Busy, originally uploaded by Kirsten in Canada.

Load Day 14: Life is Good

Load Day 14: Life is Good, originally uploaded by Kirsten in Canada.