Re: Precious Moments (Ruth)

Hi Ruth!! The precious moments you had asked about in your comment was a limited edition that we purchased through the precious moments website. Mine is packed up right now but I will update this post in the next couple days with the number to help you find it, perhaps on ebay? Have a wonderful Christmas and blessed new year. =)

Craft Update

I'm still organizing my craft area in the master bedroom. I keep getting distracted with things. I'll start sorting through supplies and then get ideas of something I want to make and the Crafter Monster takes over and the room gets messy with supplies and then eventually I have to put them all back, get things organized again.... and at that point... I don't want to move furniture LOL Hopefully as the binge of Christmas presents is coming to an end and Daniel has some time off coming up I'll FINALLY get it finished.

So ...... I made this little poster that is just above my scrapbook area. It's 12" x 24" and made with paper stuff. I printed the letter onto cardstock with the cheriliney font, traced them onto the cardstock, cut it out, embossed the total front so they are all shiny and a couple glittery (I ran out of the normal stuff and the other powder I had was glittery ;p). After adhesing them on, I went around with a white gellie marker and outlined the letter. I used my martha stewart border and edge punch to do the flower part and tacked it onto the wall with little ladybug push pins. The flowers I bought at the dollar store and adorned them with a little bling.

Wow... so are you still here after that explanation?? Click on it to see it clearer... or better yet come for a visit to admire my work... wink wink Shauna!!! =P


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The next thing I wanted to share was a going away gift for Mrs. Pearl. She has been Melody's EA for many years and has helped her SO much with her autism and we are so sad to see her leave but wish her well at her new job and as she acclimates to a new city.

Melody and I talked about Mrs. Pearl and the things she loved about her and the things she would miss. So! I made this little accordian folder for her. Melody gave it to her and they shared a big tearfilled hug as Melody read the little tags to her.

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These are the teacher presents this year!! They are bookmarks that I had fun making. They turned out so well and below is the little packages they go into.

I'll be posting more pics of things later on (mostly after Christmas) once people get their handmade gifts. Love ya guys!! DeeDee =)

New Pics Of The Kiddos And I =)

Got the kids pictures done at Sears on Monday. My inlaws got the picture cd so thought I would share a couple of pictures of the kids and I. Look at how grown up my little girl is!!! I can't believe she is 8!!! (((hugs to you all)))

Pics Of Aizen ~ Just For You Shauna!!!! =D

Here you go Shauna, the long awaited pictures of your future son in law. Make sure Katelyn sees how cute he is getting. These were taken this morning and I just adore his little hat!!!

(((hugs girl)))

Started Melody's Halloween Costume

I have finally gotten around to getting Melody's halloween costume started. She wants to be a flower this year and I'm going to be a gardener for her class party!! hehe

So, here's the plan... she has green jeans and a green shirt for her stem. I bought some purple fleece and she picked out a red with different coloured bubbles on it. I'm going to sew them as petals and then attach them on the collar of the shirt.

I have the pattern on the fleece and am going to go watch a show with Daniel and start cutting out the petals. Tomorrow night (got a super busy day tomorrow) I'll start pinning and sewing everything together. Thursday afterschool I'll get some pictures of her in it. I'll share those here.

Keep crafty !!!

Pics To Follow When It's Done

So Aizen has decided that he likes getting into everything he shouldn't in our room. So, I've been working on our room and packing away Ruby's things until he is old enough to not want to take everything apart. I'll be keeping the bins in our closet so whenever I want to see her things I can just pull them out.

With that in mind, I'm reorganizing the entire room. Moving the bed, making a nice big craft nook, oh it's going to totally rock!!! I'll post pics when it's all finished.

Oh and I got the New Moon movie companion on Sunday and it's (said in a sing song voice) .... Awesome!!!! I can't wait to see the movie, I'm super excited that it comes out in just over a month.

Later taters!!!

Wheeeee!!! The Fabric Store!!!

/does a happy dance !!!!

Got to go to the fabric store tonight and I'm pretty stoked with the fabric I got to buy.

I'm making Melody's halloween costume this year. She wants to be a flower and I bought 2 different kinds of fleece. One is a red colour with different colour big polkadots and we found a matching purple fleece that matches one of the polka dots. She'll be wearing green pants and a green shirt. I'm going to make 2 layers of flower petals, then sew them all onto a collar that will go around her neck and fastened with velcro. I'm also going to make her a little hat if she wants me to. I'll start cutting those petals out in the next few days and making it look super cute.

I also got fabric for 2 of my christmas presents. So now I just have to sew those up, I also got to buy matching thread .... yes I get excited about matching thread LOL

Melody's Ortho Appointment

Melody had her first orthodontist appointment today. She did really well and we did as much as we could to reduce her anxiety. The staff there were fantastic and very helpful. We'll be waiting until the rest of her baby teeth have fallen out before we proceed with her braces and possible head gear. We'll be going every 6 months to monitor progress and see how bad her overbite is and that the crowding doesn't get any worse.

I had a hard time in there and had to take some clonazepan. I can't handle the little suctiony thing they use, it sounds just like Ruby's breathing machine. I wanted to bolt so many times and not deal with it. It was so hard and I had to just deal with it and put my acting into practice and fake that it wasn't bothering me. I wish I could get over this hurdle and just function and be okay with it. All in time I'm sure.

I'm Planning Christmas Already

Have you started planning Christmas yet? NO?? Why not!?!?!?!?!?! I have to since it's going to be a homemade (for the most part) Christmas again this year. I'll post pics of things when they are done but won't say who they are for b/c I don't want them to know. /giggle

Has It Been Over A Month ?!?!?!?!?!?!!

Has it really been over a month since I last blogged. oops!! my bad for not keeping up. It's been a fun and busy summer for us. School is only a few weeks away. Let's see where should I start....

Melody passed her Swimmer 2!!!! a few weeks ago. For you old schoolers that would be our orange badge. I'm so proud of her, she has worked so hard and had to work up her endurance for doing 5-10 meters of front crawl. I can't wait until winter to put her into swimmer 3 and see how she does with that.

Daniel and I went down to Sick Kids Hospital a few weeks ago and dropped off 2 bins of hats for the PICU, bereavement and cancer ward of the hospital there. I have prayed over each of the hats as they were made and I hope it can be a small blessing to the children and families that will be receiving them.

Aizen is a diaper houdini!! That kid does NOT like wearing a diaper. He is so often yelling for me and there he is, half naked, wondering what to do. He has also become my adrenaline junkie/daredevil/let's give mommy all her grey hairs while she is still in her 30's!!!!

Not much to report for Daniel and I. Same old, same old.... playing LOTRO, crocheting hats, getting addicted to new reality shows and loving times with our kidlets.Well, I need to go do that sleep thing. If I forget to post, please send me an email... nudge, nudge Shauna!! (((hugs to you all)))

Flowers For Ruby's Grave

Melody picked out these flowers for her sister's grave while we were on vacation. We visited Ruby everyday that we were in Muskoka. It was hard to go and see her knowing that she was only buried a few feet down from her footer stone. I cried a few times and shared about our vacation with her when there. Click on the image to make it bigger to see the prettiness of the flowers Melody picked out.

I'm Sucked In

So, for a while I've been debating on whether to read the Twilight series or not. On Sunday, while at chapters I decided to get Tee Shack for the trip up to Muskoka (we were all getting a book for our time up there in case it rains). Daniel let me know that they were having a buy 3, get the 4th book free. As he was saying that I saw the Twilight display, and thought ... why not!!

I got the first 2 books (Twilight and New Moon) because they were the only ones in paperback. I just can't get into a novel that is hardbound. You just can't snuggle up with it while getting into a comfie position on the couch or a big armchair.

Oh my!!! I am SO addicted. It's only Thursday and I finished new moon last night...... =D Twilight was done in one day and a very late night. LOL

So if you like vampires, werewolves, suspense and a bit of romance, I'd totally recommend this book series.

Super Sweet Pic Of Ai Ai

This is a picture my father in law took of Aizen when we were over there celebrating Melody's birthday in May. I just love the angle and it's such a sweet picture of my super inquizative little guy.

Happy Canada Day!!

HAPPY
BIRTHDAY
CANADA!!!!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Canada Day!!! We are having a great holiday so far and our dinner is just waiting to be grilled up. We have beef, pork, chicken and veggie kabobs ... as well as oatmeal burgers and regular burgers. We've got a veggie plate ready to be eaten and we're just waiting on our friends Jeff and Sarah to arrive for some fun. Perhaps they will bring their ferret Dexter!!

I'll post some pictures later after our day of fun!!!

Here is a post about why we celebrate Canada Day.

He's 2 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grade 3 Here We Come!!!!

Melody passed grade 2 with flying colours. Straight A's and B's!!!!! I'm so proud of my little girl. She has had to overcome some major obstacles this year with her asperger's but she is doing SO well academically.

So, come September she will be with Mrs. Elworthy again. I wonder if she will be in a split 2/3 class again. I adore her teacher and can't wait for her to start her new year after a wonderful fun filled summer.

Tomorrow is her last day of school and she has a half day. Melody is both sad and happy at the same time.

WAY TO GO MELODY!!!!!!!

LOVE this website!!!

For the past month I have been gathering ideas to keep Melody entertained for the summer. Nothing is worse than hearing the "I'm booooooored!!" (sorry mom I must have driven you nuts as a child hehe) I was directed to this site from one of cmf mama's and it has wonderful ideas for children as well as other stuff. I've gotten so many great ideas to keep the kids entertained throughout the summer. =)

So go check out How Stuff Works !!!

Ahhhh The Kitchen Is Organized!!

Ahhh my day is so much better now. Dad came over and helped get the kitchen hutch downstairs, anchored it to the wall and now it has my little herbs on the top, baking ingredients and pots and stuff on the bottom. Dad is going to make me a pot rack and then I will have even more room for baking stuff to go in the bottom. Oh! and I forgot that I have little baking stuff in the drawer, like spoons, measuring cups etc.

Once I get some batteries in the camera I will take some pics of it. I can't wait for Sarah (my newest buddy!!) to come over later today so we can do some cooking for the kids and our men!!

So what have you been up to today? Anything new and interesting?

Happy day my friends. ((((hugs))))

Ahhh Getting My Reorganizing Fix

Anyone else ever feel the need to move furniture around and try to make things working better in your house? I sure do!! It's one of the things that I am always doing, moving furniture, boxes, you name it so that it works in a more functional way for me.

Atm it's the kitchen. I simply (still) don't have enough room for everything and it's driving me batty. So the once homeschool hutch turned diaper change area turned craft nook turned homeschool nook v.2, is now coming back into the kitchen to be used to hold pots, baking ingredients, bento stuff and whatever else I decide I want to put in it.

Anyone else doing any reorganizing? I'd love to hear about it!!

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY MELODY!!!!

It's my baby's birthday!!! Well, she's not so much a baby anymore, she's 8 YEARS OLD!!!! Whooooo hooooo!!! Here are some pictures over the years.


2001 ~ 1 day old in her isolette at the Special Care Nursery (NICU for all my american friends)


2002 ~ 1 year old:


2003 ~ 2 years old:


2004 ~ 3 years old:


2005 ~ 4 years old:


2006 ~ 5 years old:


2007 ~ 6 years old and ready to drive!!:


2008 ~ 7 years old:


2009 ~ almost 8 in this picture:

I hope you had a great birthday weekend and I can't wait to see how much bigger you look when you turn 9 next year. Speaking of tall!!! This child is up to my shoulder at only 8 years old!!!!! She's so going to tower over me in the next few years. LOL

Mmmm A Herb Garden

I started my herb garden today. In a few weeks, I will have lemon basil, dill, chives and sage in the plastic egg carton that is now filled with soil. I can't wait to track the daily progress of these and use them in some yummy recipes!! Yummy!!!

Lotro Screenshots

I was going through some screen shots on LOTRO (lord of the rings online) that Daniel and I play, so I thought I would share some of my favourite ones. I play a elven level 60 champ named Meridee who is in the kinship Auth Daug Noss on Landroval. I lubs my kin.

OH MY!!!!!!

Aizen got caught red handed eating out of the green bin today! He has started his coffee addiction early... that's right he has coffee grinds on his mouth and my mom caught him and Of Course!! had to get pictures of it. I love the look on his face in the 2nd picture, isn't he adorable?

The coffee grinds are starbucks as well. hehe

They're Home

My mom and brother were finally able to get back into their apartment tonight. Daniel drove them down and I assume they are settling in. I can't remember if I blogged about it but there was a fire at their apt. building in mid March and they have been with us since.

The kidlets have enjoyed having them here and Melody had a hard time falling asleep, she misses them so much already. It will be a big shock to Aizen tomorrow when he finds out they aren't here.

I hope things go well for them and little details get sorted out and stuff. I hope they can get back to normal life easily again and that they will come and see us again soon.

Love ya mom and Phil =)

Future Starbucks Junkie

Aizen loves to carry around empty cups and bottles. He will have a full out fit if he sees a starbucks cup and you don't give it to him right away. So, here he is with his washed out cup, happy as a clam, look at that content little face!! I see a future starbucks junkie in the future, he's already addicted to the oatmeal raisin cookies. /giggle

My mom took this picture of melody and I think it's just stunning, she's such a pretty little girl!!

The Twirly Skirt !!!! and Happy Mama's Day =)

It's a bit late but HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!!

Here is the twirly skirt I mentioned in a previous entry. She is SO happy and has been spinning in it for days. =D

And yes Shauna!! I can make Katelyn one, just send me her waist size and how far it is from her waist to the middle of her calf. You pay the shipping, I'll do the sewing?? =)

Now I'm On A Sewing Binge

I am learning that I go in cycles with my interests. I get really focused on one thing and do it in excess until I am tired of doing it, move onto the next one and then the cycle repeats itself. After awhile I come back to the original one and right now it is sewing.

In the past couple of days I have made a twirly skirt for Melody (I will get a picture of her in it soon, just finished it last night) and 3 grocery bags. I still need to get pictures of those ones as well. I'm not allowed to buy any more cute fabric until my current stash is gone..... whah!!!! cry!!! booo!!!!! /giggle

I am learning all kinds of new things as I sew my bags and I am getting better with my sewing. I put a new little list on my side bar of the things I want to get accomplished craft wise this year.

So, what have you been up to that is crafty?

Spring Skirt For Melody

I am using up my scraps of fabric and made a strip fabric style skirt for Melody. You pretty much sew up scraps side by side, then add a bottom, top and stick an elastic in it. Super easy.

Took a couple hours because I don't have a serger and had to using the pinking sheers and iron all of the seams. Boy, I sure do dislike using the iron, but it's totally worth it to see the results and how great the seams look when the skirt is finished.

I'll be making some more skirts and am having fun working through my stash of fabric. I have some other projects on the list and I'll get to those when the kidlets give me some time to get sewing.

Happy day my friends!!

Baking Binge!!

I've been on a baking binge the last 2 days. Yesterday I made some yummy oatmeal banana muffins and applesauce cake. YUMMY!!!!! Today I made peanut butter cookies, coconut muffins and oatmeal coconut cookies.

Half of them are in the freezer for another day and our family is enjoying the rest. Melody is mad because she only gets one treat a day and wants to eat them ALL!!! /giggle Aizen loves muffins and had saucer eyes when I handed him a whole one. He quickly shoved it into his mouth and started singing. He shortly realized he couldn't put it all in his mouth so he took it out and started taking bites. Simply adorable.

Happy Birthday Sweet Ruby

Today would have been Ruby's 4th birthday. It's hard to believe that this is the 3rd birthday without her. I wonder what my little girl would be like. What would she look like? Would she have long beautiful brown hair like her sister? Would she be into dance, athletic, artistic, smart? Who would she continue to look like? Would she know her abc's or 123's yet? Would she have ever talked?

I'm sad thinking about another birthday without her, I just want my baby girl back. It sucks that I cannot have her here with us. She is spending another birthday in Jesus' arms instead of mine.

I'll post later today and tell you how her day went but until then....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET RUBY!!!!!!!

We Found J-Town!!!!!!!

I am in Bento HEAVEN!!!!! Daniel has a customer at Harknett who tipped us on a little place called J-Town that is near us, super cute little Japanese shops, man, did I have fun. We went today to check it out and primarily to see if they had a good price on sushi rice (and they do!!!) and for bento boxes. Everything we bought at the stores was only $40.00 !!!! We got a lot, whooo hoooo!!!!! I even recognized a few kanji symbols on the packaging.

What is a bento box you ask? Bento is like a lunch box that has a few different boxes stacked on top of one another that you put your yummy food in. It is typically served cold and you can do all kinds of combos, the more creative the better. I was reading on a blog that it is quite popular for moms to be a bit competitive on how kawaii they can make the bentos look. They often have little characters or scenes made out of food. Just google bento and you'll see some very cute things.

Melody wanted a bento box for use in grade 3 and for her birthday. Well we found the cutest little 3 tiered bento box for her lunch and a single click one for her snack.

I also found some super kawaii (cute in japanese) rice molds. One that you can make 2 triangular ones and the others are of 2 little boys and a bear. I am squealing with excitement at how much fun this is going to be!!!!

We also went to the little grocery store there and picked up a few items. We got sushi vinegar, a bamboo sushi mat, rice crackers with nori snacks and I got a red bean paste rice ball. That may sound super odd to you but it was DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!

So here are the pictures of what I got in terms of bento box stuff.

The yellow one is the 3 tiered bento box, the small pink and white clicky, and the rice molds:


Rice molds:

The close up of the bear and boy rice molds:

One of the containers has a divider that you can take in and out. So, those are the 3 boxes with lids. It is all held together on the side with a little clip system. Typically bento boxes are held together with a fabric elastic around them, but Melody will be 8 when she starts grade 3 and this seemed to be the best idea for her.

The snack bento clicky.

Can't wait to start posting pictures of bento stuff we make on the weekends. Sinora!!!

What's Happening On Your Monday?

We have had a chill day so far. We've been doing some reading, computer games, car races, egg tossing (plastic ones), cleaning up of rooms, toy area picker uppage, some cooking, ball tossing, and lots of other things.

I need to do laundry, get the dishwasher loaded and vacuuming of the kiddos rooms. Anyone wanna come and get the laundry done for me, I have no energy to get that done today. /giggle

So, what's happening on your Monday? Anything fun? Interesting?

Happy Easter

Another year has come around and I am reminded of my daughter not being with us again. Easter is hard for us. Ruby was born Easter weekend of 2005 and there is always that reminder now that she will never spend another Easter with us. She is a very lucky girl and gets to spend her Easters with her Saviour, the reason why we celebrate Easter.

I want to encourage you to really think about why you celebrate Easter this year. Are you chasin the bunny with eggs in hopes of chocolate or are you thinking of our Saviour who came to this earth and died a horrific death so that you could spend eternity with Him? It was an amazing sacrifice for Him to be seperated from Abba and live through constant persecution to become a sacrifice for my life and sins. I don't think that I could do it.

If you don't know Christ and want to spend eternity with Him, it's so very simple. All you need to do is pray and accept Christ into your heart, get yourself hooked up with a good church, read your bible and strive to live a good life that honours God. It may be hard at first and you may have to give up some things that you really love, but I tell you it's worth it. Think of the alternative, a life without Christ in hell. I don't what hell will be like but I know it's not with Christ so I tell you it's going to suck no matter what it is. Life is not easy as a Christian and you are constantly tempted and it's not an easy life, but it's so worth it, I promise you.

Have a Happy Easter and try to think about the sacrifice God made by having Jesus come here to die for us. If you really think about it you will realize just how amazing it was. Love you guys. =)

What Part Of Spring Are You?

I really enjoy doing the quizzes on blogthings.com and this one I felt was appropriate since I have about 2 cm of snow in my backyard..... lol.... it was spring.... last week haha. Take it and let me know what one you are. =)

So this is what part of spring I am:


You Are Blooming Flowers

You are an optimistic person by nature. In even the darkest times, you are hopeful about the future.You feel truly blessed in life and can sometimes be overwhelmed with emotions.You have an artist's eye. You are always looking for beauty in the mundane.You have a good sense of aesthetics, especially when it comes to shapes and color.

Sealing Ribbon Edge Video

So here is the post I promised about sealing the "V" edge on the ribbon, enjoy!!

Melody's Newest Bow

Here is the newest bow to Melody's collection. It has 5 layers and it matches a shirt that nana bought her. It was a lot of fun to make and I think that I have found a way to seal the edges when doing a "V" cut on it so that it doesn't look funky. I'll be experimenting and post my results later on today and I'm thinking of doing a little video to show you. =)