Climb Ev'ry Mountain!!!!!

Self Proclaimed "King of the Hill"Despite the freezing rain & cold temperatures last night, today was actually pretty nice. We got a little bit of snow today & it was a bit windy but sunny & nice. We decided to take the girls for a ride in their sleds & let them play on some huge snowbanks down the road.

Sweetie & Lovey, sharing a snow pizza
Lovey's new pose, that's my girl!!!!

They enjoyed the ride, especially when we were energetic & ran a bit so they could go "FAST!!!!!!!!". When we go to the spot we had in mind, Sweetie started the waterworks and her highpitched braindrill of a scream because it wasn't the "mountain" she thought we were going to. (there's another one in the woods that they like to play on). I pointed out that her sisters were already headed towards the mountain without her & she quickly gave up the drama & chased after them instead.

They climbed and slid and attacked Murray with snowballs and had snow snacks and had a grand ol' time on this mountain for almost an hour. By the time we got home, we'd been gone almost 2 hours so we all got lots of fresh air which he hadn't done much this week.

"do you want a sled????" NOPE! I'm going on my BELLy!

On the way home I was worried they might start to get cold & then get whiny so I suggested they walk with us to keep warm instead of sitting & riding in the sleds. To my relief they went for it. It made the walk home quite a bit longer but they didn't care. Honey was poking along and Lovey & Sweetie were walking with me when Sweetie decides to spice things up a little. We're not going to walk home. Nope. We're going to surf home! I walked, pulling the sled behind me as she tried to remain upright. She did better than I would have! It was a little tricky to keep her balance as the sled started off with a bit of a jerk, but most of the time she kept her position and rode along with only occasional wipeouts. Lovey wanted to give it a try as well and surprised me by giving Sweetie a run for her money.

Another adventure for the family log!

another nature shot, I love sparkly iced up trees. I'll have to work on this one...

Attention KMart Shoppers!

Ahhhh Saturday!!! the day where Daddy stays home and plays allllllll day!!! This morning he got to sleep in a bit (anything to help him get rid of this cold!) and then after breakfast & then giving himself a haircut (turned out ok, he's getting pretty good with those clippers and saving lots on grooming expenses LOL), the girls pinned him down to play "grocery store".

Grammie & Grandad got them each a shopping cart for Christmas and each came with 400 food items. (give or take a few) They set these up around the room & go shopping with their carts & then when the 'cashier' announces that the store is closing, they take their items to the counter to "pay them".

The cashier was able to sneak in a few sets in between customers!

More OJ! STAT!

Ugh! this cold is determined to have its own way but I'm still fighting it. I was pretty wiped today though so I'm aiming to turn on the mattress warmer & crawl in there soon. If you don't have a mattress warmer, you are missing out! They are THE best in the winter, especially if you don't really heat the rest of your house and your hands & toes are numb by the time you do go to bed. It's like crawling in to a nice warm bubble....

Since I wasn't feeling overly peppy today, I was pretty glad it was Wednesday and that we were going out. I was so psyched for this that I managed to arrive there before ten am (time which it normally starts) and my usual arrival is at least 10:15-10:30. I brought my camera so I could use some pics of them at play for my entry today. That didn't really work out as I got sidetracked with another photography project instead. We're doing a "Who's Who" so I went around getting mugshots of all the moms. Lots of people come but from week to week it changes and it's hard to keep all the names straight and all you end up remembering is "that's Bobbie's mom". I managed to get a picture of everyone there today but only one shot of my own kids. Where are my priorities?!?!?

Since I know one of the moms visits the blog fairly regularly... CG, here you are!

We started new gymnastics lessons last week & we have that in the morning so Thursday will automatically be off to a good start. Boo & Tulip (lives down the road, born 1 day before our girls) are both in the class with us so that's an added bonus!! As you allllllll know Coupon Kelly loves a bargain but this one required more effort than any other deal I've gotten. There is a gymnastics facility that is no more than 5 minutes from my place. There are very few activities that take place this close to us, just about everything else is a 20 minute drive in to the city (which, around here is considered to be quite a hike!) So I was really keen to sign the kidsup at this place. When I tried in the fall, I could NOT touch base with the guy, he's insanely busy but it was frustrating to know that $6/kid/week lessons were available if I could JUST make contact!! After a couple of weeks I gave up & signed them up in another class at more than double price (thank goodness for cash gifts from great-grandparents !). After Christmas I was determined to not let that happen again. I started phoning & when that didn't yield any results, I took it up to the next level & went to the gym! I pretended to take the kids to their open gym time over lunch hour and nabbed him as he was walking by. Once I was able to speak to him we had no trouble setting it up. So as you see, it pays to stalk! The kids love it there & I love that it's less driving & gas & of course, saving over 50% is the icing on the cake!!!!!! : ))))

Fun & Games!

Life in the fast lane is never dull : ))) We had a pretty good day with only minor blow ups so I can't complain.

They did all their jobs this morning quite willingly which was nice. (eat breakfast, brush teeth, get dressed, make beds. nothing too arduous or unreasonable... yet) and then they played all sorts of crazy pretend stuff while I cleaned up the kitchen & got myself ready for the day (brushed my teeth, made my bed blah blah blah).

Honey requested that we play cousin C's boardgame that is now ours, Franklin Goes to School. This is supposedly for preschool to age 8. You have to spin the spinner to move your character, then you get a question card, if you get your question right, you get to move one additional bonus space. If you land on a report card space, then you have more questions........ well. We each had one turn before that got to be too much to keep track of for them and they lost interest and moved on to musical instruments. Honey used the tinkertoy drum, Sweetie got out Murray's old ukelele and Lovey was on keyboard.



Eventually the band died down & they moved on to watching some tv while I worked on some CD's & then got lunch ready. Sweetie ploughed through an entire grilled ham & cheese before I could blink! This was after she pounded 3/4 of a kiwi into her too. She was hungry! and took care of another half a sandwich before she was content. It's hard to believe that the littlest one is the biggest eater.

After lunch I disregarded their protests and took them outside where they played for over an hour so I don't know what all the fuss was about! Lovey tried to tell me she was cold and she might have had me there had she not added that she needed to go inside to watch tv! Here's what she thought of staying outside! LOL

someone's rather optimistic about spring's arrival!

Am I the only one that didn't know people do this to babies?!?!?!

I just heard about this method on the radio and I'm just about speechless. What the...?

Christmas Club

my little trainee from long ago! currently manager of customer care so I must have done a good job.

Too early to be thinking about Christmas? No way! it's always time to think about SHOPPING! With this in mind, my banking buddies have formed this little group so we can all get together once a month & hang out. Each time, everyone (except the hostess) puts $10 into the club bank account and then in November, we're all going on a shopping trip somewhere for a weekend. The funds we've squirrelled away throughout the year will cover the costs of the hotel & some meals, maybe some gas to get there (depending on what the freaking pumps say by next November!). So you see, it's a genius plan that will enable us to have a great weekend & our only expense at that time will be the actual Christmas shopping & the rest will seem 'free' since we'll have our kitty to spend on the expenses.

What?!?!? Weekend's over already???//

Ma!!!!!! are ya coming MA???

yes, apparently it is Sunday evening & Monday is fast approaching. The girls' colds continue and last night 2 of them were running temps of 102º and it seemed like every few minutes, someone was awake and crying or hollering " I SNEEEEEEEEEZED!" immediately after the wettest gooeyiest greenest expulsion of snot ever heard. Needless to say we were incredibly relieved when no one really fussed to get up until almost 8:30. There wasn't much hope of getting everyone out the door on time for church this morning & with them having fevers we thought it best for them to miss Sunday school this week. I went on my own instead. I really wanted to hear my cousin play violin in the service today. Every time he plays he seems so serious and so grown up & I always remember when they brought him to Aunt Brenda's when he was just a newborn & I got to hold him for the first time. *sigh* you know you're getting old when you can say stuff like THAT!

apparently not fast enough to make the 2 second timer..


getting better but still not quite there...

Yesterday I also had an outing by myself so I've had quite a lot of freedom this week! LOL Nicolle & I were teaching other moms how to be sneaky chefs & we cooked some "deceptively delicious" food for everyone to try. She & I have similarly themed cookbooks & she had the idea to invite moms from church & playgroup for this get together. I decided that was too much work for her alone & told her I'd handle one of the dishes. Everything was a hit! I'm not going to tell you what we made or what we added or Mandy & my dad will never eat at my house again ; P We sent samples downstairs to the kids who had come that day & they scarfed everything down without batting an eye. Little did they know how many secret ingredients were in there!



aha! made it but not in the frame! this is soooooo complicated!
Ta da! Here we are!

After the cooking session, I ran around and got several errands done so that was nice to get out of the way. By the time I got home & unloaded the car it was after 3pm and it didn't seem worthwhile to wage the "get the kids dressed to go outside" battle that can take anywhere from 20-45 minutes so Murray went for a run instead and I got supper ready. We seem to have a tag team marriage lately! He gets home & I'm off doing something else, I get back, he does his thing etc. Hard to have any squabbles when you're never in the same room long enough! : )

I loooooooooooooove my Sweetie!

This afternoon I suggested we go outside & all go for a walk or that we could pull the kids on their sleds. Honey didn't want to go, then she decided she would, then she changed her mind. Lovey was all for it but then realized Honey wasn't going so then she wanted to stay home with her. Sweetie was all for it though & got her duds on without too many hysterics and I tried to use the remote control to take our picture together but didn't stop down enough & only some parts of the pictures are in focus. Gotta work on that as the only way to prove I was around when they were growing up is to set the timer on the camera! Otherwise I'd never be on this blog at all!

Ooh! forgot to mention! On Friday I picked up my proofs from Shooter Shelley and now I have to narrow it down & figure out what to get printed. This is a tricky time of year for expenditures as I have to readjust to Murray's deductions changing every January and it feels like a huge pay cut every year! Why can't they even that out over 12 months like everything else? For half the year we manage fine & then the first half, we're back to beans & wieners. Not sure how I'm going to work in a big print order but the pictures are already a few months old and we haven't given out a family photo in quite awhile so many people's frames are overdue for an update! Not to mention our own. I don't think we have a family photo larger than a 4x6 anywhere in here ourselves. That ain't right!!!!!!!