Kids!

Jackson is on his last week of GRADE ONE!!!  He has really enjoyed going to school in LaCombe (Terrace Ridge).  In fact, after his first week of going to school here I asked him what he thought of it, and he said he liked it even better than in Burlington.  Ha!  I think that might have a lot to do with the fact that he's the new-kid, and therefore quite popular.  I was worried it might go the other way around, but I am grateful  for his teachers' efforts (Miss McAskall and Mrs Homer) and that the kids in his class have been good to him.  It also might have to do with the fact that school is almost at an end and they are doing some pretty darn fun things.  His first day (almost a couple months ago) they went swimming and he got to go on the rope swing, AND he will have had three field trips within the last two weeks of school, one of them being bowling.  I am glad it has been a positive experience for him.  Yesterday we were driving to the splash park and we drove past a bunch of pretty run-down houses and Jackson says, "Mom, these look like good houses to live in."  Hmmmm.... why do you think that?  "They just look pretty nice and we need to find a house, so these are pretty nice."  Haha!  I think someone likes it here.  And has no taste in homes.

Jackson also has quite the desire to play the piano.  It is killing me that he's not in any lessons right now and all of our piano books are packed away!  Granny gave the kids some jobs to do to make some extra money and then I decided to take the kids garage-sale-ing.  Well, Jackson found a little keyboard that was $15 bucks and knew that was exactly what he wanted.  I asked him if he really wanted to spend all his hard-earned money on that one item, and he didn't even blink.  The lady overheard and gave it to him for $10.  How kind of her.  He likes to stay up at night playing it in his room and thinks I can't hear it.  But sometimes I let it happen because I love how much he loves playing it.

Here are some pics from Jackson's field trip to Sunny Brooks Farm in Red Deer today.  He just got a hair cut yesterday.  Finally convinced him to get it short.  Thank goodness.



Noah.  Minecraft.  The end.

Fine I'll add more.  Noah LOVES playing Minecraft.  They all do.  It is even in Zoe's vocabulary.  If I didn't chime in and MAKE them turn it off, they would play it all day.  In fact, they often sneak downstairs while I am busy and start playing.  I know when it is quiet that they are playing.  Sometimes it's so nice to have the peace that I don't make them turn it off as hurriedly as I should if I were being a good Mom.  They are obsessed!  And when I DO go in there to tell them it's time to get off, I get bombarded with, "Mom, look what I built..... and then the blah-blee-blah is in here... and here's my roller coaster... and I made a pet pig ...  and look at my blow up this with TNT ...and watch me do this...."  It's actually quite fascinating what they can come up with.  I guess it's a lot like virtual LEGOs. I will say, I DO love hearing Noah get excited about things.  He is a hand-gesturer.  So that on top of his cute little speech impediment, it's all just pretty darn adorable.

I know I talk a lot about the other kids and music, but Noah has some musicality of his own.  The other day I heard someone playing piano, and I immediately thought it was Jackson because he plays the same songs over and over.  Well.  Jackson was at school, so I peeked in and low and behold, it was Noah!  No notes.  Just figuring it out by ear.  My semi-tone-deaf child has an ear for music!

Now that it's getting nicer outside I make the kids play in the backyard.  With Noah not being in Kindergarten (they didn't have room, and thus he gets to stay home with me), he and Ellie have become the best of friends.  They often play with their stuffies, usually puppies, and swing out on Granny's swing.  There is also a dog named Zoe next door and Noah is in love with her.  Yesterday, he came from outside and told us that Zoe ate his sandwich.  Well, Zoe was clearly sitting in the kitchen with me.  "You know, Zoe the dog!  Can I have some fruit?  I think she'll like that, too."  ACK!  Sorry neighbours.  I watched him out the window and he went right up to that gate, just chatting away.  I often love observing Noah.  He is such a carefree little boy and just does his thing.  Sometimes I catch him talking to himself.  Or some imaginary friend.  Or maybe it's just two pieces of food fighting.  He's got quite an imagination.


Here's some reality for you (below). Noah with his head in the clouds, Ellie being bored, and Zoe not being within touching distance of me.  Nap time!



Ellie.  Oh Ellie.  Oh Ellie oh Ellie oh Ellie.  These days she is obsessed with her age (and Minecraft.  Just because I said Noah loves it doesn't mean she doesn't love it just as much!  Maybe more).  She is constantly talking about when she is five, and is she five yet, and since she ate all her dinner she must be five now because she is growing so big.  I remember Jackson going through a phase like this.  All day, every day for a year he talked about his birthday party.  Ellie is definitely following in those footsteps.  She actually IS growing up quite quickly right before my eyes.  I sometimes don't realize how quickly she is picking up on things, but she most certainly is!  The other day, I got out a big roll of banner paper for the kids to colour on, and Ellie wanted to do the whole alphabet.  Well, she's never done that before.  She's only ever worked on those cute little work books that have you trace out the letter.  Well, she did pretty good and knew most of them!  Surprise?  When did this happen?  I'm really proud of her!  And she is quite proud of herself.  "See Mom?  I'm getting so big.  I must be five."

Ellie is also STILL constantly singing.  All she has to do is listen to half a song once and she miraculously knows all the lyrics.  Which forces me to be especially careful when we are listening to the radio!  Yikes.  Ellie was helping me write a song the other day, and it was so cute to see how interested she was in being involved.  She sat at the piano, and I had my guitar.  She'd take her turn at the piano and sing something random while tickling the keys, and then I would work on my song.  Well, after singing some lyrics over and over a few times, she pretty much had it down.  Except she kept wanting to change it into a "church" song.  "And Jesus doesn't make mistakes...."  when I was going for a love song.  Ha!  It was really cute.

Although Zoe is her most hated personage on the planet, lately she has occasionally given me glimpses of hope that they might maybe be friends one day.  A couple weeks ago, she was making faces on the glass door and Zoe was dying laughing.  Well, Ellie liked that attention, so she kept doing it.  And Zoe laughed even harder.  They.  Were.  PLAYING!  Well, you can imagine my excitement.  I stroked that girl more than I ever have, "ELLIE!  You are playing SO WELL with Zoe!  What a NICE sister you are!"  I think she liked that attention, and since then has been a much more patient and kind sister.  Let's hope she can keep it up.

Ellie has followed in Noah's speech impediment ways and also cannot say her "r's."  It's pretty cute.  The best is when she and Noah disagree on how to pronounce something.  "No, it's WAINbows!"  "No, it's Wain-BOWS!"  "That's what I said!"  I never chime in, because it's just way too cute listening to them battle it out.


Zoe.  Oh my heck.  As the baby of our little fam, she can do no wrong.  She is the weirdest, silliest, cutest little curly-haired girl on the planet.  Weird, being emphasized first.  It's like God compiled a zillion personalities into this little angel and they're all trying to get out through her hair.  Although, not all of them are angelic.  When that girl needs sleep, the whole world knows about it.  Otherwise, she is just straight up cute.  I am not sure how I got so lucky.  (Not a word of a lie, each and every time we leave the house, someone will comment on her hair.  People pay lots of money to have hair like that ...which is the comment that is usually made.  But I'm the one who has to brush it out every morning.  That part?  Not so pretty.  But worth it.  And if I don't then I'd likely get comments on the homeless-looking state of my child).  Zoe is all about making silly faces.  And by silly, I mean just plain weird.  Think of the nastiest faces that Joe and I could possibly make, then combine them together and times it by 100 and that's Zoe.  She knows just how funny she is, too.  What little girl that age KNOWS?  Well.  She does.  She is also quite the singer.  I am no longer a soloist at bedtime.  She pipes right in with every word.  Her favs are, "I Love to See the Temple," "Rainbows," "Roack-a-bye," and "Sunshine" (or "shunshine" as she calls it).  She doesn't just sing it.  She makes the most animated faces as she sings.  "...A place of the love and BOOTY!"  Cracks me up.  She will often request a new song in the middle of another in hopes that if she distracts me with enough songs, we will never get to the prayers, and hence, never get to bedtime.  Clever girl.  It works.  She totally charms me into making her bedtime routine as long as possible.  I honestly love it.  Spending that one on one time in the rocking chair with her is my favourite.

A random fact, she loves water, but hates bath time!  She poops every single time.  It's like she knows, if Mom puts me in there, it's bound to come out---like she has no control!  Well, she IS a baby I guess.  She hates the sight of her poop and will scream bloody murder.  This started about four or so months ago when she did her first poop in the tub.  I made a really big deal about it.  "NO NO ZOE!  Big mess!  We don't make big messes in the tub!"  Well, she mimicked me, and it was cute (and I even got her babblings on camera) but I didn't think anything got through.  Well, her body certainly didn't get the message, but her brain knows that it's a big NO NO.  So, now she just doesn't ever want to go in the tub because she knows it's coming!  Sometimes I even wait until after changing a stinky diaper thinking that I am safe.  I am never safe!  On the plus side, we have never had a cleaner tub!

Thanks to Zoe's cousins, Annie and Kwyncee, her favourite movie (if a 22 month old can HAVE a favourite movie) is... drumroll... you guessed it.  "Frozen."  She is constantly requesting to watch, "Let it Go," while she sings along while raising her own hands in the air as though she is helping Elsa make snow crystals.  It's pretty darn cute.  Just the other day, I randomly sang, "I think it's crazy, we finish each other's..." and Zoe chimed in, "san-wish-es."  Haha!  Joe has these dreams that they will be a singing-sister duo.  He even showed me this clip of these two amazing sisters singing their own original work.  I would only allow it if they let me be their back up singer.

Shoes.  Who needs toys when you have shoes.  Not her shoes.  Just everyone else's.  Living at the Burnhams she always has a slew at the front door to choose from.  Then everyone has to scour the house to find their shoes before leaving.  Maybe that's her way of saying that she loves them so much she doesn't want them to go!

Here are some pics of Zoe eating someone else's cereal (a common occurrence) with her very-real morning hair in piggies from the night before, and her in the backyard, which she would live in if I let her.

Father's Day/Anniversary

Father's Day was last Sunday.  I always fret about things that involve getting something for Joe because generally he will only be satisfied with a gadget of sorts.  And right now that's just money we don't have.  AND even if we DID have it, I would still not know what to get for him.  He tells me kindly that I just need to pay attention and listen, but I am either spacing out and being a total "guy," or spacing and don't have a memory.  Likely both.  We were in GOLF TOWN, his fav store, a couple weeks ago and I was keeping my eyes peeled for things he would like, but I quickly gave up because there are a MILLION things in that store.  AND I am pretty sure he has everything.  Also, I think Father's Day and Mother's Day are not really "gift" days.  I like getting gifts.  But I think those days are more about being sentimental and treating each other extra kindly.  So, I decided to be cheap and go the sentimental route.  Also, there was a sale at The Gap, so I got him some shirts.  He hates when I buy clothes for him, but I like it, otherwise he would wear golf shirts everyday and I think those are kind of ugly.  Especially his puke-green one.  But it was free!  I don't care.  Throw that thing away!

I had the kids fill out a questionnaire about him, and some of their answers are pretty darn cute:

1.  My Dad's name is... Joe (they all got that one).
2. He is ... 33 years old (Noah did a backwards 33).
3. He is as big as... 43(Ellie), a giant(Noah), a hat(Jackson.  Not sure where he got that one from).
4. He has... short hair(Noah and Ellie), brown hair(Jackson), and... blue eyes(Noah spelled it "bloe").
5. His favourite food is... Nachos(Ellie), Frot, or "fruit"(Noah), salads(Jackson.  I think Ellie might be most correct).
6. His favourite colour is... blue(Ellie), black(Noah), green(Jackson.  Ellie is correct again.  I think).
7. He likes to go to... Costco(Ellie and Noah), go swimming(Jackson.  I think swimming might be Jackson's fav thing to do!  And I'm not sure anyone "likes" to go to Costco.  Ha!  You can tell what we do as a family all the time).
8. For fun he likes to... go to the park and spin me around(Ellie), do tricks(Noah), play with us (Jax).
9. My favourite thing to do with my Dad is... make macaroni(Ellie), play with him(Noah and Jackson).
10. I love my Dad because... he loves me(Ellie), he's cool(Noah), he's the specialist one in our family(Jackson).

Zoe's love was a scribbled piece of paper.  I love these kinds of things.  I think next year I should come up with better questions.  I got this straight from Pinterest.  We also did a "Grandpa" one for Joe's Dad and one of the questions was: When Grandpa was a little boy, he... (and Noah filled out) "pooped in his diaper."  Haha!  Joe's Dad got a real kick out of that.  I was a super slacker with my Dad this year.  Usually I am pretty good at planning ahead and mailing a card or something, but it's been a bit of a whirlwind since living with the Burnhams and I am generally in a state of stress these days.  Not because of the Burnhams, but because of the unknown future.  I definitely need to have more faith in the Lord and MUCH less fear.  But what can I say?  I'm an anxious human being living in unknown territory!  Anywho, I at least Face-timed my Dad and had a good visit and each of the kids talked to him too.  I hope he appreciated it more than a card!

I feel like I need to start planning for Joe's birthday NOW because it is just over a month away, and I stress and stress over things like this.  I want to get him something he will love and I want to do memorable things, but man.  Joe is just hard to get presents for.  I don't know one gift that I've gotten him that he's just LOVED.  The gifts that I spend a lot of time on, he is grateful for, but I can tell he would rather be golfing or BBQing something.  Golf and BBQ is the answer to everything.  Maybe that's what we will do.  Joe if you are reading this, we are NOT going golfing or BBQing anything for your birthday.

It was our ten year anniversary a couple weeks ago and three days before it, Joe said I was in charge of the plans.  WHAT?  No way.  It's his turn this year.  Nope.  No, it's mine.  ACK!  I need time to figure things like this out!  I was a stress case for three solid days and finally I came up with a plan.  I wanted to go into Edmonton and go to dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, "The Cactus Club" (haven't been there for TWO years), then the driving range, and then go to the temple parking lot and read our patriarchal blessings to each other.  Before we got married, we did just that and had a really great spiritual experience that basically told me, "this is the man I'm going to marry."  So, I thought that would be special and sweet.  Maybe we would even kiss!  Well, I told Joe my plan and he was not keen on the gas money since we were just in Edmonton the day before at the temple.  I hate unemployment.  So we did plan B, which was find the only nice restaurant in Red Deer (Earl's) and realize that they do NOT do Wing Wednesday there because it's owned privately there (what?), and do a movie.  I hope Joe knows that just because he CHANGED the plans this year doesn't mean he is getting out of planning next year's anniversary.  Besides, our real anniversary gift to each other was our trip to DR and Virginia.  And Joe one-upped me, as always, and got me a gift on top of it all (no wonder he didn't want to think about gas money).  He bought me a 10 year anniversary ring.  And in good taste, I decided on another ring.  Haha!  What a nice wife I am.  In all fairness, I want to wear this ring everyday until I die, so I want to love it. I almost loved it enough to keep it because it was picked out by him.  Almost.  But I didn't.  I also wanted it to be simple. Joe's ring choice was beautiful, but I think too flashy for me.  And my ring choice was half the price, so I think Joe was okay with the exchange!  Ha!  I did feel bad returning it.  But I guess not bad enough.  His gesture was very romantic and sweet.  I actually just picked up the ring in the mail today.  Weeeeeeeeeeee!  I absolutely love it!!  Thank you Joe!!  (Probably should have lotioned my granny-hands before taking this pic).



Not much else to report.  I feel like I haven't done a report on my kids in a while.  But now is not the time to start.  Those things take me hours.  So this is my update for now.

Happy Happy Happy Happy!

There is a song by Farrell Williams called, "Happy" on the radio these days.  It is kind of the best Summer song right now.  Especially to dance to.  His whole music video is just of random people in random places dancing.  Well, this weekend we had a "Welcome Home Maren and Jenny" and "Happy Birthday Barb" party where 11 of my closest friends got together and we had a slumber party.  Sans kids.  Yes.  I am 33 and still having slumber parties.  We stayed up until 2:30am having a lip-sync off and dancing in Sarah's basement.  We could do that because we didn't have any kids or responsibilities to wake up to the next morning.  I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard.  Yes I do.  It was in December when I last saw all of these amazing ladies!  The last song of the night we danced to was, "Happy"and then we decided that it would be a great idea to make a music video the following day of ourselves dancing to the song (inspired by some music videos we watched earlier in the evening that we've made over the past years).  I cannot tell you how much fun that was.  We spent the whole next day filming.  At first, I just filmed takes outside but then I thought it would be a fun idea to take our music video to the mall since we had plans to go there anyway.  I am not going to lie.  As embarrassing as it was dancing through a mall of strangers, there was something completely liberating about doing something that makes you nervous.  I got to dance through a Food Court and gave random people high-fives, and even made a few people clap with me.  I am sure I made a few people's stories that day; "Yeah, ....there was some weird, crazy girl dancing through the Food Court today.  She wasn't very good...."  I also had the music from Sarah's iPhone down my shirt, ...so no one else could really hear the music but me.  Ha!  Yes.  Crazy.  But we all did something embarrassing and we did it together and it was SOOOOOOOOOOO fun!  I think I need to dance more.  Dancing makes me happy.  I'm not awesome at it, but I love it.  Makes me want to take another dance class.  Maybe contemporary this time, ...if they even offer contemporary for beginners.  And then I wouldn't be as sore as I am right now.  Even my neck is tight.  I guess whipping your hair around will do that.  Pretty sure the abs are from too much laughing though.  Weekends like this are bitter sweet because we pack them full of fun, and then 24 hours later it's over and we all have to go back to real life.  Real life is fine.  Even great.  I love my husband and kids.  But sometimes it's nice to be 16 again.  Weekends like this refuel me and make me feel like a human being again instead of a cook and clean who wears sweatpants all day and hasn't left the house in a while.  But at the end of those weekends when everyone has to say goodbye (we are all spread out now so these times don't happen as often anymore), it is plain rough.  I love my friends.  This group of girls is just irreplaceable.  I hate that we don't all live in the same city like we used to, but random weekends like this every once in a while will just have to do.  Kelli had the idea of sending our music video into the TV show, "Ellen" to say, "this is what us crazy Moms do for fun!"  Maybe she will send us all on a trip?  Now THAT would be fun.  We've been talking about Europe for quite some time now.....  Ellen.  Make it happen for us!  I would also take Mexico.

 (L-R: Tanya Butler,  Kelli Gordon, Cassie Bayly, Jenny, Moi, Jordana Fitzner, Amelia Low, Barb Butler, Alysha Sladek.  Missing: Sarah---she was taking the pic---Tarilyn who came just for Saturday, and Andrea Barnes who wasn't able to come).  I don't think we have enough food.
 
And the three Musketeers, as my Mom always calls us.  It honestly feels so good to be so close to my sissies again.  Once all the girls left on Saturday evening after some more food, visiting and laughing, just the three of us were left over.  And we laughed even more.  I swear, the later it gets the funnier things are.  We were being so silly and weird and morbid and it was all gut-wrenchingly hilarious.  Promise.  But likely only to us.  I think I have been so blessed to have the two funniest girls I know as my own blood and best friends.  I hope one day their cleverness and wit rub off on me one day.  Silly, I can do.  Weird, I can do better.  But they are masters.  I have the proof from the lip-sync off we did.  That will be fun to watch in five or ten years.  Love you guys.  And I mean, ALL you ladies!

Everything Is Awesome!

This weekend was "awesome" in the words of "The LEGO Movie" because, for one, we bought the movie and watched it.  Like all weekend long.  In fact we are watching it again right now as I am typing on Joe's laptop.  However, the number one reason why this weekend was so awesome is because of a cute little boy named Noah who turned six (I wrote this on May 25th and just posted it).  I was feeling bad because he hasn't had much of a chance to make friends here yet, but then I remembered, this is Noah here, not Jackson.  Noah is not going to be upset if it is just a small family party.  So, that's what we did.  When I asked Noah what he wanted for his birthday all he asked for was an "Emmett" cake (from the movie) and a teddy bear.  A teddy bear?  Oh my heck.  So cute.  That is my tender boy.  Done.  When he opened up his gift from Christie and one from Granny (both teddies), he exclaimed with his hands in the air, "Oh!  That's all I ever wanted!"  It was seriously adorable.  No wonder Noah is the most quoted boy in our family.  To make it more exciting and special for Noah, I sent him on a treasure hunt to find all of his presents (thanks for the idea Nicole).  Noah snuggled his teddies all day, and we turned on the sprinklers because it was just THAT nice of a day.  The pics I posted of sprinkler time are from the day before, because I managed to capture way cuter pics for some reason the day before.  So happy it's May and we can finally do that.  Love the pics of the two birthday boys together.  
Dear heavens Noah, not sure a boy can get cuter.  We had such a fun weekend with you.  I'm just glad you had absolutely no expectations so that a little teddy bear and a LEGO cake were enough to satisfy you.  The best was I let you open a gift early BEFORE your party.  It was the outfit you are wearing in these pictures.  Who knew a boy could be so ecstatic about a shirt.  Not just any shirt.  A MINECRAFT shirt.  You were through the roof.  Thank you for being easily impressed.  Made my life a little easier as I stressed about making your party perfect.  It's just who you are.  You were happy to just play with your bears while your cousins and siblings played with your other toys.  You just did not care one smidge.  You don't get easily upset by things, oh but when you do, it's the cutest.  You stomp and try to keep a straight angry-face.  It's pretty adorable.  And if I manage to squeak out a laugh, you get even more fired up.  Or you try not to laugh.  It is seriously the best.

I think you kind of fool everyone with how smart you truly are because you have this adorable speech impediment where your "r's" sounds like "w's."  And here you are reading at a grade one level.  You were that boy who would jump off couches (sometimes still do) and were just this defiant, rough and tumble little toddler.  And here you've grown into this intelligent, sweet and sensitive little boy.  Occasionally in the clouds, but I am still going to go with intelligent.  Being here in LaCombe, they allowed Jackson to continue grade one, however, since Kindergarten isn't mandatory and their class is full you get to stay home with me and the girls.  I thought this would be just terrible!  But you seem to prefer it.  You are a home-body.  And shockingly, you and Ellie have become the best of friends.  You do everything together and you no longer team up with Jackson against Ellie.  She is now, finally, your friend.  Your sensitivity knows on bounds and you are also very smitten with not just Zoe, but all babies.  Nicole and Bobby have been sharing Granny's house with us for several weeks and Annie is around Zoe's age.  Ellie hates her as much as she hates Zoe, but you are tender towards her (and Kwyncee) and watch over them as you would your own siblings.  We have also discovered throughout this past year that you are quite an anxious little boy.  If we are on a walk or out running errands and someone goes the least bit in the wrong direction, you are the first to let everyone know how distraught you are about it.  With you around, no one in our family will ever get lost.  You even have random nightmares, ...and they are always about you losing me.  SAD!  I remember you having night terrors as a baby and wondered how the heck a baby can be scared.  Perhaps it is just in the blood?  Maybe you are as paranoid as me!  You poor boy.  I hope you grow out of it and learn to relax.  I am still learning at 33.

I asked Dad what he wanted to add to this and he said you are the shepherd of the family (like I said), and that you have a special spark.  You truly do.  You have the sweetest little spirit.  We love you so much Noah and you make us very proud with the good choices you make and just by who you are.  Happy birthday little guy!