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.