Another Spring Update...

So good news- (a bit late) Chris and I did get a chance to celebrate our 10th anniversary and we did it up Vegas style with an spontaneous trip to the city of lights at the end of April. It worked out because of the Easter weekend and we left our kids for the first time and we had a wonderful time! It was our first time to Vegas and even though it was just a quick trip we had so much fun and made the best of it - we stayed at Treasure Island and saw 2 shows- Mystere by cirque de soleil and Penn and Teller, which we happened to see on Chris's Bday! We can't wait to go back! After that my sister in law and I hosted our big shower for my sister in law Jill from Vancouver. It was very busy and stressful but it turned out beautifully and we ended up having 70 ladies! Then her fiance Dave also come to Winnipeg for a few days and we enjoyed spending time with him and they came out to a few of the boys soccer games which was nice. Immediately following that busy week we enjoyed my neice's 2nd birthday and then a fun Mother's Day in Steinbach enjoying our family at the Run for Mom. Carson really had fun doing the kids race and we had a great day spending time with my cousins from Iowa and the rest of my extended family. After that Chris's grandma passed away at 91 years of age and we had a whirlwind week of company staying with us and the viewing and funeral and then of course all the soccer games thrown in that mix. It was nice again to spend time with Chris's family but man were we tired at the end of the week. That must have been why I was struck down with a migraine last Friday and as bad as it was it was a chance to breathe and just stay home. Thank goodness we had nothing on the calendar and were able to rest until Carson's piano recital on Sunday. This past week we have enjoyed beautiful weather which makes it much more enjoyable on the soccer field and I am working on little projects around the house to get organized for lake life. We have no plans yet to spend any time at the lake as Chris is still working very hard at work and then after that at the place we are renovating. I am eager to get in the cottage and see how things look after the long cold winter...it's been awhile! It will take a bit to get organized there and clean and open it up so that's on the backburner for right now. We also have some of the landscaping being put back together at our house so I have men in my yard again! We anticipate a few more busy weeks as my cousins from Cali come to visit next week and we get a chance to bond with their 5 and 6 year old daughters for the first time. The boys will love it! Here are some pics of the last few weeks...

Springy spring spring

Here I am! Still grumpy...lol! I had my wisdom teeth (all 4) out 2 days ago and I am recovering not too badly. The main thing now is the fact that I can't really eat so I have a migraine to top it off. Yesterday I kept throwing up everything I tried to eat which just made it all worse. So I feel weak and my whole head is throbbing including my mouth. I am trying to follow the rules to avoid any infection and I have been enjoying the resting bit so I think that will speed up the recovery. All 4 at once is crazy but I am glad it's done! The pain is similar to the pain I had at Christmas when they were infected so it was a no brainer to get them out so that didn't happen again!
The boys are pretty good...they have had pretty much their first colds of the season in the last 2 weeks so the fevers and coughing and sniffling always puts your parenting skills to the test. But I felt I couldn't complain because they had been very healthy all through winter. Carson had it on spring break so he missed no school and we just scaled down our plans and chilled out. Not such a bad thing and Carson liked the break.
Chris is always busy with projects like remodelling our ensuite bathroom and building a deck before spring comes when we have other priorities. At least some of the projects are here at home and the boys can wave to him out the window-haha! Actually Caleb enjoys going out and helping him or else he just opens the door and yells out,"Looks good Daddy! " PS-Chris did hire someone for the deck but he sucked and he had to fire him and so Chris had no choice but to take it over... We did take a wonderful break in Fargo with our family and had a great time swimming, shopping eating and spending quality time with family. The boys absolutely adore Meaghen and Dylan and had so much fun with them. We did a ton of shopping on that trip and keep our lists going for the next time. It makes sense with the way the dollar it is to buy all our big things in the States and we have fun doing it! We will need a plasma tv soon for some remodelling we are doing in our living room. Yikes-always living in dissarray is hard! I have been selling all of my baby things over the last 2 months which has been quite the project. I have made close to 1000 dollars and am almost cleaned out now. I have 1 more sale coming up in a community club where I rented a table to sell my stuff. It has been very sad and emotional for me to get rid of this stuff but it was necessary and I think I did well. It pays off to always take such good care of your things. One afternoon a nice lady came over and left with 4 garbage bags full of clothes and I had 150 bucks in my pocket. Not bad for not even leaving the house! I also sold all my toys in 1 shot to a girl opening a store with used stuff. I got about 400 dollars from her. It's actually been fun meeting all these people! Next project will be to work on the yard and get the landscaping repaired from the renos on the fall. We are surrounded by mud here which is very tough with the dog and sad that the kids can't just go outside. The annual flood issues have begun on or road as the trucks go up and down constantly with sand bags. We are always grateful that our house does not sit right on the river as most houses on our street do. The flood forecast changes daily as the ice seems to be breaking up quite nicely and flowing down the river. Tomorrow we look forward to seeing our friends from Kenora that we met in Cancun as they come to the city for the second time in a month. We enjoyed our weekend immensely a few weeks ago when we were able to watch all of their girls hockey games. My goodness did Carson love that! And they were right close to our house. Tomorrow they are on the other side of the city which may be a bit much for me but we will join them at the movie theatre to celebrate their daughter's 9th birthday. The boys just adore them and we are happy they include us. Actually they live jsut past our cottage so we will hopefully spend time with them this summer. Last weekend we spent some time with Oma and had a visit at Adam and Tanya's. We always enjoy that and Oma made us buns! (na na na boo boo) Looking at the pics from their trip has inspired me to begin planning our next Orlando trip-I think we're hooked! I'd like to go again in November so I have been checking things out and looking at cruises. I need some kind of hobby right? In May we have lots going on and some things to look forward to like our 10th wedding anniversary. But we will be so busy I don't even know if we can celebrate. We have someone moving out and have a full renovation to complete in a month. It weighs heavy on us and we are not looking forward to it but it has to be done. So always something going on around here but nothing too major that gets me very excited to blog! Cheers to spring and some better moods! Here's some pics also of Caleb's 4th birthday which I didn't mention. Mommy's baby is no baby! He likes to answer all the time, "Well, that's cuz I'm 4 now..." He's gotten a lot taller and I just got his hair all cut off the other day. I'll have to put a picture, it's so cute and it was just time for a change. Anyways enjoy the pics. (PS-the pics aren't great, it is soooo hard to get my pics downloaded from my new camera...it's the main reason I haven't been blogging. It's just so slow and frustrating!)

Ta Da!!

Yes, I am here...I may be a little grumpy but I am here. I haven't felt like explaining the "grumpy" so that's why I haven't blogged. Plus I was having issues with getting pics to my computer and without a pic or 2 what's the point of blogging, right? Since before Christmas we have had a lot of construction going on here with lots of workers in and on the outside of our house and it's just made us grumpy but we are fine and trucking along. I guess I am just the type of person that goes "lalala"with my fingers in my ears and pretends it isn't happening which means I also don't blog about it!
We got through Christmas without injury which was nice because everyone I would talk to always said how much sickness they had over the holidays. But we coasted through and had basically 2 days without men and mud in our house which was a welcome break! We also took off on New Years Eve to Grand Forks ( in a massive blizzard) and escaped the disaster that had become our house, to hide under the duvet in the hotel and snuggle as a family. I got a few groceries from Walmart and I was happy! (Did you know Captain Crunch is like 1/4 of the price in the States? Thanks to the Penner's for my Captain Crunch addiction-yes sometimes things are just for mommy...)
Having Carson at home was nice but a bit tough as we were completely housebound while the workers were here. We were never comfortable leaving them alone in our house so I never even went grocery shopping during the day for like 5 weeks. Carson loved being a homebody and his love for the NHL intensified. Yikes. His return to school has had it's challenges over the last while as we struggle with friendships and dealing with life through a 6 year old's eyes. The loss of innocence as they hit grade 1 and are out of your control all day has been new to us and is hard to navigate. On the plus side we have grown closer as we shower more love and snuggles on our big boy and I am glad we were reminded of how important that is. He is learning so much in school and his french amazes me. Full full sentences and such an extensive vocabulary! It's really cool to hear.
My baby turns 4 this week and he is growing like mad. He is generally in a size 5 which is sometimes funny cuz he still has a toddler tummy and his pants like to slide down! He is a little model as you can see from some pics my friend just took of him and we are constantly laughing at his little phrases. Our fave is "oh-that was totally awesome". But it's the way he says it that's so funny. Just so much expression. He likes to build forts and play with cars and dinosaurs. He can beat his brother up like you wouldn't believe but wail when Carson lets him have it. Let's just say they know how to push each other's buttons. It's cute to watch him learn about hockey too and in a way pretend he likes it as much as his brother! "You want a NHL birthday right Caleb?" Carson says. He loves preschool and I enjoy that bit of time to run and get groceries and I have even gotten to enjoy going out for breakfast with friends! We seem to somehow get through these long winter days together and I love this time I have with him.
Right now we are working on our ensuite bathroom. It is gutted and the remodel will begin shortly. Chris has done everything himself so far of course but we will have someone do the tiling. More men in the house...We are excited to update some stuff in the house but not looking forward to the drywall repairs and repainting. It's just so hard to find companies you can trust and that will show up and do a good job. We are pushing now so that we can enjoy our cottage this spring and summer and it helps to have something to look forward to. We went there to check on it as we have had some weird breaks from the cold lately and we took advantage of that to drive out there. I will post some pics from that. Anyway, that's about it for now!

Christmas Fun

It certainly is a busy time of year and it seems as though we have something up most nights which makes for a messed up schedule for the boys. But my boys are like never tired and even when it's late Carson is more concerned to catch NHL on t.v. than to go to bed so as cute as that is, it has been a pain to get him to fall asleep when he has visions of hockey pucks dancing in his head. You should have seen him the other day at Canadian Tire, I thought he was going to have a heart attack he was so excited to see all of the hockey paraphernalia. Not too tough to buy him Christmas presents but Caleb on the other hand is a lot harder. Not sure if you have this problem but I give all my ideas or things on his list to the family members who ask me what to get and then I have no more ideas left! Don't forget Caleb has everything that Carson has already gotten like hot wheels and stuff and seriously can I fit any more toys in my house? So anyway, just as I think I am finished shopping I realize I have 1 small thing for Caleb and that's it. That simply will not do so I guess I better get back out there!! I promised my fam that I would put up pics from our wonderful gathering a week and a half ago. We always have such a great time and I am so happy at how excited the boys get to go to Uncle Harv and Aunt Bettie's. Special memories! This year it was so great to have a few new additions and we all enjoyed admiring Isaiah and his adorableness and Luke's beautiful girlfriend Natalie. Unfortunately we (ok just me) bombarded her with a million questions. But seriously she lives on an island that looks like paradise and since that is my weakness I had fun getting to know her. Thanks for putting up with me Luke and Natalie! And Carson and Dylan have such a good time together. I love the pic of the 4 of them all huddled together (around a video game of course) they looked like such buddies! I wish we did nights like that more often because we do all enjoy spending time together-I do anyway!
Last night we had Carson's christmas concert and it was fun to see him in an environment where he spends like 80 % of his little life right now. I got a decent video of it despite how far back we were and I will attempt to post it. No can do...

Well, I think our family is in denial that our magical trip is over and we are desperately trying to hold onto the memories. Believe me the extreme cold and the buckets and buckets of snow that we've had just throws you right into reality but when we look at our pictures or youtube the rides we went on, it transports you right into the magic again. It really was magical and everything they say it is and more - and it's not at all cheesy. We had a whirlwind of a vacation without even taking time to swim in the many awesome pools at our resort! We just went to the parks for 4 1/2 solid days from open to close! At the Magic Kingdom the fire works don't even start till 10 pm and we were there when the park opened at 9 am! The Dining plan we had was awesome and we never went hungry and really enjoyed the food even though everything was over the counter. They are so organized at Disney which was one of the things that amazed me the most about it all and it helped us to have a better trip too as we tried really hard to be organized as well. We used the fast passes alot and didn't really wait in lines for the popular rides. We ticked everything off our lists and exhausted each park which is quite the feat with a 3 and 6 year old! We dragged them on everything and only left out the biggest coasters. Each park was unique and we loved them all - the kids loved the autographs and character greetings. We loved watching their eyes light up! I loved the rides and really tried to take it all in and not miss anything! The resort was great with a food court that worked really well for us and the disney buses were perfect which made getting around so easy. It's the way to go when you stay on Disney property. All in all we had a great time together as a family and can't wait to go back!