Merry Christmas!

First of all Chris, Carson, Caleb and I would like to wish all of our family and friends a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. I struggled a bit with a fancy card this year as I didn't have a photo I liked of all of us so I thought I would update my blog (finally!) and include a bit of an update on our family and what we are up to. What a fun year we've had! Our boys have gone from little kids to big boys overnight and watching them grow up is scary, challenging and awesome! I'll maybe back up to the summer so I don't bore you with a whole years worth of info.
  As usual we took on a project or two this summer and worked a bit harder than we played but at least we enjoyed the scenery! We took down our rotten deck at the lake and replaced it all by ourselves with new boards that we won't fall through! We tried to work one day of the weekend and play the other with a new sea doo that the boys really enjoyed. Our cottage is a special place to us and we love spending time together and also with school friends and even a week of VBS at the church in Falcon Lake. A highlight was hanging out on the beach with 3 of the boys that would be in Carson's class in the fall. That stands out to me as a special moment as we always want our kids to have fun and friends that last. Even Caleb would not start kindergarten alone as we made new friends with boys his age that would also be at school with him. It definitely made the fall something to look forward to and not be scared of.
 Caleb flew into kindergarten with confidence and everyday when he comes home he declares that his day was "awesome". It's so fun to hear his perception of life and fun through a five year old's eyes and when he comes off the bus he is brimming with stories. He was really confused at the beginning of the year as to why his teacher would speak only french to him when he didn't understand it. It was not logical to him and I can see why. He quickly adjusted to this new language and is slowly learning in the "sponge-like" environment that kindergarten in immersion is. At his winter concert the other day we were so proud to hear him sing in french and finally share the stage with his brother after dragging him to sit and stay still in the audience for the last few years. It hit me then that time was flying!
Carson also went confidently into grade three and we quickly realized that he had a great teacher and a great group of peers. That is always a big relief and we were happy to see him fall into routine and enjoy school so much. His fluency in french is so great at only 8 years old. Then in October Carson was thrilled to start his first year of hockey and we had so much fun buying the equipment and sharing in his excitement. He plays once a week at a 3 on 3 setting and there is a lot of skill training involved. It's been the perfect program for him to start out with and he loves going. He also is in his last year of the Music for Young Children program and he will be doing his grade 1 piano exam in the spring. Unfortunately piano is not his passion and it's a bit of a struggle to get him to practice but we are determined to see it to the end of this year and I am sure it will pay off in the future.

Helping on the new deck at the lake

Carson at his piano recital in the spring

 I continue to be at home with the boys and have been enjoying my few hours in the morning to myself. They go by so fast!! I do all of my errands in the morning as I find Caleb is ready to chill when he comes home from school at noon. Otherwise I get to see friends and enjoy breakfast and coffee with other moms which helps to keep you sane as well! I also share the landlord duties with Chris as much as possible and work hard to find appropriate tenants, chase rent and address concerns. Of course cleaning always seems to be a part of my duties too. The job continues to take a lot of Chris's time too as there are lots of issues that do not fall under my talent umbrella. It amazes me all the time how much Chris knows about handyman type things and just the other day pulled a big huge plastic hairclip out of a clogged toilet at a rental. Oh brother...not always a fun job. We definitely feel that investing in real estate is the way to go but it sure comes with it's challenges. Autotown Kia on the other hand is a totally different type of business and it continues to thrive and grow as the Kia brand becomes more popular and makes it's mark in the auto industry.
 Before I wrap this up I want to shamelessly solicit one more venture of ours and that is the 2 properties that we have in Orlando, Florida. We rent them out through a property management company and we want to let all of our family and friends know that it is a wonderful opportunity for you to take a great vacation and save a lot of money. We bought a 6 bedroom house in the spring and then bought a 3 bedroom condo in the fall that we completely renovated. We went on an awesome trip with my mom in November to finish up the condo and enjoy the house (it was our first time there). We were also able to purchase annual passes to Disney as Florida residents and we were thrilled to take advantage of that! I pretty much feel like a Disney expert so I would be happy to help you with all your Disney adventures as our properties are both only 2 miles from the gates! The house can sleep 12-14 people so it's a great choice for your extended family with a pool and spa and a games room. The queen bed and bath downstairs is perfect for grandparents and the 2 king size suites upstairs are great for multiple families. Split between a few families the 150 dollar price a night in low season is a no brainer. Also the clubhouse in the gated area of Windsor Hills is beautiful with waterslides and a movie theatre. The condo is great if you want to get away with just your own family. It sleeps 7-8 and is gorgeous with tile, hardwood, granite and stainless steel. Every single item in there is brand new and chosen by Chris and I! There is also a clubhouse in the community of Windsor Palms and it has a huge pool and theatre as well. I could go on and on but I will let you explore with the links I will give you and if you need more info feel free to email me or pass it on to family and friends planning to go to Florida. And of course we would love to extend a discount to our family and friends when you want to go! The website to see info and pictures of our vacation home is villadirect.com and on the left hand side there is a turquoise search engine ("Go to a specific home")where you can punch in the names of our homes to be taken directly to their sites. The house is called seascape and the condo is called casual palms (we need to work on that name...) Well, once again I hope that the holiday season is a wonderful time of family and friends and that 2013 is a great year!

We love Animal Kingdom but have not yet attempted the roller coaster behind us!

This is the pool at the 6 bed house - the boys love it!

Meeting your favorite characters is a Disney must

This is the rock n' roller coaster - Carson and mommy's very first coaster ever.  No, the girl in the yellow is not part of our family...

The holiday lights and music at Hollywood studios is awesome!

This is in front of the 6 bedroom house "seascape"

Mommy and Minnie Mouse - love it!

Click this link to take a look at our vacation homes.  Under search engine for specific home type in seascape and also casual palms to view pics.  villadirect.com

April 2012

I better get a post in quick before the calendar turns over to May!  I was eager to share our wonderful trip to Florida but exactly what I knew would happen, happened.  Chris insisted his phone took better pictures so we took lots of great pics on his phone and now I do not have them downloaded to the computer yet.  Hopefully that is an easy task!  Plus since we moved our computer downstairs I have not been on it very much and instead do a quick lookup on the Ipad.  Which is maybe just as well as I am wasting less time and also we need to upgrade as our computer is not a happy one.  We have had a bunch of viruses and stuff and I fear it will blow up at some point.  Oh, electronics...
Anyways, we haven't been too busy since our return just before Easter but keeping busy with routine non the less.  The weather has bounced around making it tough to plan any projects for the weekend.  We are however mostly done with Caleb's room so we have some normalcy back.  I have yet to put away books and toys and kind of dread that task so therefore I am posting! 

For now I will just comment on our great trip to Orlando that we took at Spring Break with my mom and my sister.  What fun to travel with family and have memories together!  We got along great and appreciated their laid back attitude and willingness to do anything as well as their help with the boys.  Going through Grand Forks is easy peasy and we loved it.  Carson was thrilled to have a friend from his class on our flight and the 2 played the same NHL 12 game on their Ipads while he sat behind us on the plane!  3 quick hours later we were landing in Sanford and like 20 minutes later were on our way in a spacious and comfortable mini van perfect for the 6 of us.  Soon we were pulling up to our condo in Windsor Palms and were a bit disappointed to find all the furniture moved around to accommodate carpet washing.  We set it up and were happy with the cleanliness and as it turned out the condo suited us very well.  It wasn't super modern but it was a great set up for the 6 of us.  Shopping at Walmart for our groceries was fun as we piled on the chips and cheap booze! LOL  It was nice to have milk, fruit, cereal and coffee for our weeks stay but we did not cook!  Our first day was spent running some errands and having meetings for the new house that we bought in Florida and at 5 in the afternoon we had an appointment to see it for the first time.  There was a family there so the arrangements were a bit tricky but we at least got to see our place before we signed anything.  In the evening we had a blast playing mini golf .  We were quite casual and enjoyed some shopping, swimming, tanning and generally relaxing and enjoying the heat.  The big highlight was a Jets game in Tampa and before the game we had a great time at Clearwater Beach, a half hour outside of Tampa.  It was crazy busy on the beach and everywhere as spring break was definitely upon us.  We got to the game early and enjoyed all the festivities including the practice where we gathered with many other fans by the glass and cheered.  We had great 5th row seats and even had a text from home saying they had seen mom and Stacey on TV.  We were trying to avoid crowds when we picked our Universal Studios days but that was almost impossible considering it was Easter week but we had a great time at Universal one day and Islands of Adventure the other day.  It was like 33- 34 and blue sky both days!  We also enjoyed walking around Downtown Disney and the outlet malls.  It was a great trip and I would be happy to help you plan your trip to Florida if you want to check out our new place!

Carson's Room

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Vegas Baby!

Is that the title I used last time? Oh well, still a good one! Just settling back into mommy routine as the one thing I like best about Vegas is that you are definitely in adult mode when you are there. Although we were silly kids sometimes too! It was a whirlwind weekend and we had a great time despite the weather that did put a bit of a damper on things. I suffered through the entire winter (not the worst one I suppose) and then when I finally go away to the desert it is literally 20 degrees warmer at home. Seriously? 28 in Winnipeg middle march? Still makes no sense. It was less than 8 degrees in Vegas and the wind was COLD! Luckily I had some warmer clothes since I had seen the forecast but the jacket I had been wearing for the last 6 months would have been awesome. We stayed at the Mirage and it was very nice with a perfect spot on the strip. We did lots of walking, eating and we went to a Cirque show. Oh yeah, and shopping too! Here's a few pics and if you want to know the "crazy" details give me a call! lol
PS- Chris is at a Kia conference so we went before that for a vacation and his partner and his wife came with us.
Here's some pics as well as the ones I told you about before.

My Baby is 5!

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Ok- I need to backtrack a bit here. We are now in March and I am really excited about that so I will quickly go back a bit and then look forward to spring! So far the new year has been pretty good, we had a few bumps in January with some crazy cold temps and some bad tenants but we have worked hard and overcome those obstacles and we have also been blessed to enjoy a lot of great weather as well. I don't think I have ever taken the kids tobaganning and skating this much before. How great to be outside sliding for several hours, that would be unheard of normally in Winnipeg in winter. The boys have enjoyed it as well. Carson is a great skater now and will soon end his lessons and move on to soccer I guess! Now there's a sign of spring! February really went quite quickly. Chris was gone a few days twice in the month on business and that was a bit of a challenge but I kept myself busy with mom things and as I always say, planning your kids bday is a huge undertaking. Not sure why but it is. So Caleb turned 5 on the 19th and we did several special things. On the thursday before we had an awesome party at McDonald's of all places! It was really quite simple as I got there early and put my stuff on a table or 2 and then preordered the happy meals for 11 kids and then the kids just played on the structure and had a great time. It was simple because parents could easily grab a coffee and stick around and bring their little ones as well. I made these great little teddy cars instead of cake and Caleb and I were so proud of them as we were able to make them together. When we got home from there we made marshmallow pops for the next day at school where I volunteered. We had so much fun. It's so cool when kids are so excited about their one special day! One time when he opened a gift from his friend he just screamed "HOW DID YOU KNOW THIS WAS JUST WHAT I WANTED!!!!" Everyone was laughing like crazy! I also got his pictures done at my friends who did them last year and they look so good!
So anyway, we are now in March and are excited to have 2 holidays this month...one to Vegas and one to Florida so I will cross off the first on the calendar today and the countdown begins. Here are some pics of the last few weeks including a trip to the lake where the boys discovered what it was like to walk on the lake! Also stay posted for pics of Carson's room which Chris (and I ) have been working hard at every spare moment including the last few weekends. It is almost done but we are waiting for the Jets border to come in the mail. Also, we went to see the Stanley Cup the other day at a special thing Chris was invited to and they took professional pictures but unfortunately I am not able to access them yet so when I can I will post those too...it was neat. Take care!