We're Moving!

It finally happened at the end of June - we sold. We said that we would give our place till the end of June to sell and I think that the sale went thru June 25th- if it had fallen thru like our previous deals we would have been finished but it didn't!! We refused to go looking for houses until everything on our place went thru - it sold on a Friday and we went looking Saturday morning. There were only two houses in our area that we could see - one we were hoping would work out but it would have required too much money to do what needed to be done so we went off to the second one. Actually at the second one the lady wouldn't let us in b/c she didn't know we had an appointment and asked us to come back on Sunday(not a good move, just do a five minute tidy and let people in or they may never come back) so we went off to the third. I wasn't sure of it at first b/c I could see that behind the house was stores and since one of our biggest problems about selling our place was that you could see IGA right behind us I wasn't interested in more stores - I wanted green space ideally or at least other houses. Anyways, while waiting for the other realtor to let us in we walked to the backyard and LOVED it. There were tall trees on the other side of the fence so you couldn't see the buildings right behind (plus they are apartments, so houses), we loved the size of the yard - the biggest one we had seen in our area since looking in September. It had a trampoline and a play centre. The outside of the house looked nice - except for the roof that looked ready to leak at any moment so we weren't sure what to expect on the inside. We were pleasantly surprised when we walked in - the people had updated the main floor wonderfully - it didn't look 21 years old. It had a family room, living room, dining room, bathroom and laundry room on the main floor and then three bedrooms and a games room upstairs. One of the houses we had put an offer on back in Feb. had a games room upstairs and we loved that idea but hadn't seen a house like that since. So we knew that the house had had an offer on Wed. and that they had two or three more people coming to see it later that day so we wrote an offer on it right away and it was ACCEPTED!! We were so excited as houses in our area were starting to go in one day, have bidding wars and go above asking price.

That brings us up to today. We have been busy decluttering and packing over the last few weeks and tomorrow morning we get the keys!!!! We CANNOT wait!! Tomorrow we are cleaning the carpets upstairs and painting Callia's room. The boys room is a Canucks room with a very well done hockey mural on it so it's going to be left. We'll paint the rest of the house as needed but the colours are perfectly fine for right now.

I am so excited to have a yard for the kids to play in and for a quiet dead end street for them to ride their bikes on. I am most excited that their toys will not have a permanent home in my kitchen but in the toy room upstairs - I know that they'll spill over into the rest of the house but at least my kitchen isn't their permanent home. I'm looking forward to having an extra eating area (however, it may be bare for quite awhile). I'm looking forward to having friends over and the kids playing on a different floor. I'm looking forward to making our own decisions regarding our home and not having strata telling us what we can and cannot do. I'm just looking forward to more space!

However, there are some things I'm a little sad about. The biggest one is not being able to walk to school. I think it's great to be able to walk to school - gets energy out, fresh air, good for the old environment, nice to chat with moms waiting at the door but there was not one house within walking distance for sale. Weird, since that was something we prayed about so I guess it wasn't meant to be. I am happy that when it is pouring rain I can just dump them off at the curb and we don't all have to get soaking wet and on snow days we'll just stay home! On sunny days we may park at our old complex and walk with our friends. I'm also sad about leaving some of our neighbours. Who am I going to call up when I'm half way done a recipe and have run out of something? Who will the kids play with when they go outside? We've had tonnes of good memories in our home - all of our kids have been born here (not literally here but you get my point), we've made so many memories. I get little sad when I think that Christian and Callia won't even remember this place - oh well, we'll make lots of new memories in the new house.

Anyways, that's the reason I haven't written on this blog - been busy packing either for holidays or for moving. Gotta run and get ready for the day!

Busy, Busy!

So two mornings ago I woke up and decided to check our freezer b/c our fridge had been making a funny noise. I discovered that our freezer had defrosted and everything was thawed. So, I got dressed and by 7:10am I was barb bqueing 16 chicken thighs. After that I bbqed 12 pork chops and made taco meat out of 1 lb of beef. Oh, I also cleaned everything out of the freezer, got myself and four kids ready for school and out the door by 8:30. I got home from dropping two kids off and made a curry out of stewing beef and stuck that in the crock pot. By 10 am all the meat was cooked, packed up and put away in our downstairs freezer. Thankfully the Sears dude came out and was gone by just after 10am. Then me and the two kids went to a local farm to pick up a yummy strawberry pie for my mom's bday (thankfully hubby was able to pick up my mom's present, since the appliance man delayed me). At the farm I asked if the strawberries would be around till next week - nope, I asked if they would at least be here till the weekend and they said, "we hope but not sure" - so I ended up buying 15 lbs of strawberries. I went to a store and bought stuff to make jam and a pie and then went to pick up Aiden fr. kindergarten. Came home fed three kids and a half hour later walked back to get Ethan. Phew! The afternoon was supposed to be spent cleaning the house since we had a home inspection the next day but instead I was cutting up strawberries and the kids were mushing them. I made jam, washed a lot to freeze and stuck some in the fridge just to eat - I think the pies are not going to happen. Went out for dinner with my family - YUM! and then they all came back for a game and pie. When they left I tidied up and cleaned the kitchen.
Day two - of busy,busy. B/c I bought those stinken strawberries, which really are stinken but very yummy I had to clean everything else by noon. So, with Callia down for a morning nap and the boys either watching a movie or playing computer games I cleaned. All I could think about was whether or not this deal goes thru on the house this is the LAST time I have to clean my place for someone coming to look at my home! By noon, the house was cleaned, the kids were dressed (so was I), picnic lunch packed and we were on our way to the zoo. Ahhh, the insanity was over. We had great time at the zoo - there for about three hours. Came home read, played outside, Rich got dinner together (not too hard since all the meat is precooked) and life was good. Oh, after dinner I then went out to Costco to shop and on the way home from that found out that our house sold!!!! YIPPEEEEE
Now, today we get to go and look at houses and there is no more "IF we sell our place" it is sold. We can go and buy whatever we love. So, fingers crossed and more importantly a lot of prayer later we are hoping to find the perfect house for us!! Exciting!!

It is finished!

Well, it's all done folks -I have officially finished nursing my last bambino. Out of the last 7years and 8 months I have been nursing for four years and almost 2months and I am now done. It's not something I've totally loved doing - it was so hard with the first babe and for the first few days hard with each of the others - I never fully knew if any of them were getting enough, or when they were done (newborn stage) but they somehow all did get enough. Sometimes it was inconvenient, sometimes painful and sometimes never ending. BUT those are four years I would never do differently - the "drunk" look each one gives when completely satisfied, touching my cheek with their little hands, looking up at me and smiling as milk dribbled out of their mouths, holding my fingers, knowing this was what was best for the babies and really best for me made it all so worth it. As I think of having no more babies I often think but "oh, when I have grandkids I'll have a baby to cuddle, spoil, change, walk, sooth but I'll never ever nurse again - it really is finished. Callia was the best nurser - she never went thru a "didn't want to nurse stage" - she loved it right to the end. In fact she was the longest nurser at almost 14 months - she was hard to ween, she threw tantrums in the afternoon when it was time to nurse, she was miserable until I did nurse her again but over this past week we've gone from two feeds to one to now none and she is now fine - no tantrums, she gladly accepts her sippy cup. I already miss the cuddles b/c with busy mornings it's much easier to give her the cup then to sit and cuddle her. But we'll cuddle at other times. She was so funny with her nursing over the last couple of months - she would try to sit up, and she would lay in any position possible and hey unlike Ethan she never bit me! At 12 months I was sad thinking about nursing ending, even though I didn't love it but at 14 months I'm fine with it. I looking forward to dumping the nursing bras (maybe I'll keep one), buying something new and being able to get away for a night or two with a baby!! YAHOO!

Housing Dilemna....

We've almost done it - our place is almost sold. We have an accepted offer on the place and the subjects are removed on Sunday -only three more days - whooowhoo! Of course we've been down this road once b/f and it didn't pan out but I think this time it will b/c there is NOTHING out there that we want to buy. On Monday I went out with our realtor and every house I really wanted to see had sold but not taken off the MLS yet...errrrr. There are NO houses in our area, in our price range. They are either under our price limit, which is a good thing, but not such a good thing b/c they are too small for our family of six. Or they are HUGE and we need to rent out a basement suit in order to pay for the mortgage. I don't want much, just a nice house maybe around 2000-2400sq. feet, nice yard, close to our school, close to the bus for Rich but there are NONE!
On the positive side to all of this, and what gives me hope, is that I talked to our mortgage dude and the interest rates have come down so much since even Feb. that having to buy the HUGE house (which is actually the normal size for today) isn't quite as daunting. I wonder if people out there buy houses with the suites as just "extra" income to buy the "extras" or if they actually need the suites to pay their mortgage? We would need the suite to pay the mortgage - is that wise? With the "helper" though we would be paying less of our mortgage than we do now in the townhouse. Anyways, unless what I REALLY want - nice size house and no need to rely on renters - comes on the market ASAP then we're going for the needed rental - which I think I've found the house I want in that market! If the deal on our house goes thru we have to be outta hear by June 28th - which is why we are in a bit of a hurry to find something, plus in our area houses are flying off the market.
Anyways, what do you think out there in blogger land - do you think most people "NEED" the rental income to afford their mortgage or do you think they use it for EXTRAS?

Cone wars

We went to a park on the May long weekend and Rich introduced the boys to Pine cone wars - something he did as a kid. They made up two teams and they had to get to each other's tree to score points. I'm not sure if they had to get there without getting hit or what. All I know is that the boys had so much fun throwing pine cones at each other. There were a few tears (pine cones can hurt) but not many. It's fun to be able to do things with the kids that you did as a child. What is something you did as a kid that you can't wait to do with you kidlets?

Scaredy Cat...

I had to help her on the way down but not on the way up.

Callia is a funny little thing - when she becomes scared or doesn't want to do something she cries and shakes. Well this one weekend we went to the park and we tried her on the slide - she cried and shook. We tried her on her own and with Ethan - didn't matter she hated it. A few weeks later we went to another park and I tried her on the slide - not quite as much crying or shaking so I kept sticking her on it and by the end of it she was okay with it. The next day Rich took her and she only cried when he tried to take her off the slide - funny girl. The next weekend we took her to a diff. park and she went on the slide -however, not only did she go down the slide she had decided that she should be able to climb up it and she did. Our little monkey, who can't walk yet, walked herself up the slide at least a dozen times by herself without my help!! She has had some other funny fears the boys never had - grass and pea gravel - she has gotten over both since we're outside so much and around it.

A picture every year!

When Ethan was a baby I read somewhere that you should take a picture of your child every year wearing something of yours - this way you can see how much they are growing each year. So, b/c we had a boy first we decided that he would wear Rich's Liverpool jersey every year. For Callia we decided that she too would wear the Liverpool jersey every year but she would also get to have her picture with my wedding dress and/or veil since I don't have any meaning full shirts. Guess we could have gone with the bra? HA! So here are some of the shots we took with her and my dress - I think some could be really cute with some photoshop touch ups but I'm not in the mood right now to do that - maybe in a future post.

One!

Wow - our baby is one. Well, she was one last week. On one hand it is sad - our baby is growing up, on the other hand I'm looking forward to the big kid stuff with no naps, diapers etc (long way to go yet). We celebrated by having my parents, nana, brother and niece over for dinner and cake. Callia wasn't that impressed with the cake but I thought it was b/c it was late. She loved her toys - the day b/f she had received a toy from a friend and when Christian tried to play with it she scooted over to him and screamed. On Sunday we went to Rich's sister and her and I made dinner for everyone since her daughter turned 10 a couple days after Callia's bday. We tried Callia again with cake and she wasn't that into it - thus we don't have any really good mucky face pictures. At this party she received all clothes - she was most interested in trying to put on her new shoes. Her brothers were so interested in helping her open presents and playing with her new toys - Christian even volunteered to try on her new clothes! Here is what she has done over the past month:

-weighs in at 17lbs 6 ounces 28 1/2 inches long

-pulling herself up

-does a bridge - stands on her legs and is bent over with hands on the floor

-now hates pancakes

-loves her swing outside

-no teeth

-naps one or two times a day

-loves milk, not formula

-says "what's this" - not clear, kind of in a breathy voice (she tooted and said it, then Rich went to put her to bed for her nap and he let one rip and she said it again)

-loves to push cars around, stick the soother into her baby's mouth, read books, draw with the doodle board thingy

-goes from lying to sitting to standing

-throw your food onto the floor when you're all done

-use the sign for more

Callia you have given us an amazing year. You are easy going (except for when you seem to be teething), loving, and gentle yet boisterous when your brothers get you going. The amazing thing is that though we have completed your milestone year we have many more to celebrate with you. You have completed our family. You are so loved by me, your daddy and brothers. I'm excited to see all the new things you're going to do over the next year. I pray that you grow up loving God with all of your heart!

The four stooges at one

ethan

callia

christian

aiden

I think that Callia has a mix of all three boys in her though looking at these pics. I think that they all look completely different.

Product Review

Everyone is doing product reviews so I thought that I would add my two cents. B/f we had Callia we decided that we needed to get a high chair that attaches to a chair instead of the big bulky one we've had for the boys. I did a little looking online and thought that the Safety first one with the removable tray insert would be great. It's dish washer safe, etc. So we asked for it and received it for a gift. Well, let me tell you the removable tray drives me crazy. You can't just wipe it down b/c it is forever getting crumbs under the removable part so I always have to take it a part to rinse it fully down. For the last couple of days I've left the removable part off and just used the tray - much easier. I wish we had gone for the other brand (don't remember what it was) b/c it had a comfier looking seat. So I say, the size is great but skip the removable tray and go for the brand with more comfort. I'll add a pic. when blogger lets me.

Hmmmm

Yesterday the boys and I were walking home from swimming lessons when we there was almost a collision b/w two bikers and a couple of ladies. The ladies had just crossed the road and were on the sidewalk when two young teen boys came whipping by on their bikes - the boys mad no effort to move around the ladies and almost ran them over. I thought "what freaks". Then I heard a bike bell behind me and turned and a biker went by us and then said thank-you. When I turned I saw that it was a teenage boy who had down syndrome. I thought isn't it ironic the boys who are "normal" were rude, dangerous and had no common sense yet the boy who has the disability was polite and most importantly safe on his bike. Just made me think of how we view people b/c they are "normal" or how we view them b/c they have a disability - sometimes "normal" doesn't count for much.

Tired

I am SO tired of cleaning the house for showings. Even when the house seems tidy, it's not good enough for people to come thru for their TWO minute look so I still end up taking an hour or so to "tidy" more and clean more. I'm thinking of quitting!:) We went thru one place that had undies on the floor (not sure if they were clean or not), crumbs, garbage etc. and you know we would have bought it if one, we had our place sold and two if we had actually liked the layout and location. I suppose having a clean and tidy house helps and in reality I could NEVER leave my house dirty or untidy when I knew people were coming thru. But I'm tired of keeping it clean with four kids and having the cleaning taking time away from doing other things. Well, that's my gripe for the day. If this takes much longer maybe our undies will end up on the floor too, even if people are coming thru.

Treasure Box

Aiden blew out of his shoes this week so while the kids were at my parents Rich and I went shopping for shoes. We went to our local Walmart and we picked up a nice pair of shoes. We did a bit more shopping when we walked past more shoes .....Star Wars shoes. As soon as I saw them I knew Aiden would love them but I would have walked away from them. You see, I'm really not into licensed stuff - I don't buy shoes, shirts, pants or bedding with characters on them. Never really liked them. I do buy them undies, socks, backpacks and lunchboxes with them on but nothing they wear. They haven't been completely deprived since other people have bought them shirts (and they always end up being their favourites). But Rich convinced me that we should buy him the shoes (plus he has a cool pair of Next shoes -they're just hard to get on)- so we did. Even if they aren't the most stylish - it was worth the look on Aiden's face - he was so excited to have star wars shoes and now he is carrying the box around with him - it contains his treasures. So cute!! Christian received handymedown Cars shoes so he's pretty pumped. Poor Ethan - hopefully he doesn't need counselling when he gets older b/c we didn't buy him fancy shoes!:)

11months

Tried to do a nice little photo shoot for 11months but Callia was all monkey for it.

Wow - this is my second to last post about my baby girl -well as far as a monthly update goes. Our first year is coming to a close and I'm a little sad about that. A couple of nights this week Callia has woken up in the middle of the night and nothing has worked to get her back to sleep except feeding her - my first reaction is AHHH, SLEEP but then I look at her and think AHHHH she's growing up and is my last baby this is it - take the moment to ENJOY her (even if it is 4 in the morning). Here is Callia at 11 months:

-still nursing, won't touch formula but next month we're bringing on the cow's milk

-eating everything (everything one can without any teeth)

-can go from laying on her tummy to sitting, so we lowered her crib

-pulls herself up on us but not on furniture

-crawls up to us, puts her head down which means she wants to go upside down (her favourite

-loves her mama best (even daddy says so)

-shakes her head no and means it

-was afraid of the bath for a bit - maybe b/c I started to sit her up in it and just dump water over her head? but since I've began laying her down to wash and then sitting up to play she likes it)

-loves the pool, books, music and ball

I think that's about it. Until next month. (sniff)

Yummmo!

I received a new crock pot for Christmas and have been using it almost every week since and I'm loving it. A month ago I tried a recipe for "pull a part pork" and it was okay but this month I tried a new recipe and it is AMAZING!! It is so tasty and saucy and tender and just plain great. The boys gobbled it up where as with the first recipe they complained (well, the buns we used the first time were way too crusty too). B/c this recipe is so fantastic I thought I would share it with you all. The only difference is I only used 1lb of meat but the full amount of sauce. If I was to do the 2lbs of meat I would probably double the sauce b/c we liked it really saucy. Here it is:
lean pork roast, cubed 2 lbs
tomato sauce 7.5 ounces
ketchup 1/2 c
chopped onion 1 c
white vinegar 1/3 c
brown sugar, packed 1/3c
prepared mustard 1 tsp.
Worcestershire sauce 1 tsp.
chili powder 1 tsp.
salt 1/4 tsp.
molasses (not blackstrap) 2 tbsp.
water 2/3c

hamburger buns

Combine first 12 ingredients in 3.5 quart slow cooker. Cover. cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.
Remove pork and shred it. You can then add as much sauce as you like to the pork or put it on the buns. The sauce is good for dipping homemade fries into too.

Don't know what to do

Okay - so I really think I'm a little crazy. We put Christian into a preschool this year b/c he really wanted to go to school. The preschool I sent E and A to didn't work with A going to kindergarten so C wasn't going to go until one opened up on the school property of where E and A go to school. He has been going there all year - he enjoys it but we've always said that we would look into getting him into the preschool his brothers went to for four year old preschool. Well, I phoned them last week and of course they are all full. For A they squeezed him into the morning four year old even though he never went to three year old but for C I was way to late and the waiting list for 4 year old is way to long. So I decided to look into a local preschool here that has had great reviews from friends - it does all the same stuff E and A's did - Christmas Concert, graduation, Bible teaching, mom's tea, dad's bbq etc. When I think back to hearing E and mostly A singing and praying things they learned in preschool I love that they had that teaching for one year. I phoned them up today thinking that they would be full for AM but I thought I would give it a shot. I was so shocked when they said that they still have four spots left. So I jumped at the chance and said that I would come in tomorrow to pay the deposit. The crazy part is that now I feel unsettled about taking him out of the old one - is it mostly b/c I feel bad for his present preschool teacher - she has just started up and I don't want to discourage her, is it b/c I'll have to rush to get to the new preschool (or any one that isn't on the school grounds) or is it a check in my spirit? ERRRR! I asked Christian and he doesn't care b/c all the boys in his class this year are going into kindergarten next year so it'll be all new boys. So what to do????? Here is a list of pros and cons.

Current

-right at school
-teacher knows Christian
-only have one teacher (so when he threw up the poor thing was left standing
by himself in the bathroom)
-strong emphasis on Halloween, no Christian teaching
-probably won't have "grad" etc
-closed for all pro d days
-no indoor gym or preschool playground
-classes not age specific (which is a pos.
and neg)

New
-have to drive to it (neg)
-teachers don't know Christian
- has multiple teachers
-taught the Bible
-has lots of extras (grad, concert, teas, bbq)
-won't miss fri and mon b/c of pro days
-indoor gym and preschool playground

See told you I'm crazy. B/f the new preschool said yes I was really hoping and praying he would be able to go to it. I think I'm mostly feeling bad about potentially hurting the current teacher. Oh why do I have to over think EVERYTHING!!!! What do you think?

New Ways to clean...

Way back in June 2008 I posted that I would no longer use cleaning supplies like fantastic but instead I would try to use environmentally friendly stuff. So in Jan. my cleaning supplies finally ran out (you may be thinking that either my house is a sty or I had a lot to use up). Not having much extra time on my hands I did a quick search online for cleaning alternatives and vinegar and water kept popping up. Since I had to clean the house that day, didn't want to buy anything and had lots of vinegar I decided to give it a whirl. I've been using a vinegar water mix for a couple of weeks now and it seems to be working???? Who really knows, I can't see the germs, bacteria that may be festering on my counter tops and toilets but hey it looks clean. If anyone has any environmentally cleaning products let me know. I have to say it feels good squiring water and vinegar instead of chemicals.

10 months

Callia is changing way too quickly. This month she:
-bum scoots around the house
-goes to the edge of the stairs and gives and big grin when I say no
-she is eating everything we eat - she has eaten a jam sandwich, curry, chili, rice, melon, cheese etc.
-she weighs in at 16lbs 6oz
-has the best funny face that she usually makes while eating
-has a new cry/scream when she isn't getting the attention she wants
-loves buttons and jewelry
-often scoots to the car bin and looks thru them
-has had a couple of fights with Christian
-"helps" when getting dressed
-dances to music
-says - dadda, mamma, hi ya (of course none of these mean anything)
-waves bye when going up to sleep
-only chewed on two pieces of lego so far
Though she still has no teeth - which makes her eating skills quite amazing. I saw my cousin's newborn just last week and it really made me realize how big Callia is. (sniff) I'm now at the point where I could hold a newborn for somebody and love it since my baby is growing up so quickly. Callia is so good and easy going. We all love her to bits!

Errrrrr!

I don't get it. We've had our place up for sale since Sept. We weren't really planning on it -it just kinda happened. We had said that we would wait for Callia to be a year but we didn't. Wished we had. She is now almost one and our place is still up for sale. We had an offer this weekend and we accepted it. They wanted possession by April 2 so we moved fast -found a house we loved - it was the perfect size, layout and location so we put an offer on it. The catch was that it was out of our price range by about 40 grand however, it needed a lot of work done to it - about that much probably so we thought we would put in a one time offer. Our realtor didn't really hold out much hope - I felt (for some reason) that it would work out and guess what, it did. On Mon (today is Wed) we wrote the offer and it was accepted. EVerything was to be completed by next week - our house would be completed in one week and the offer on the other house would be completed in 9 days and we would move in at the beg. of April. Which was perfect timing since Callia would be turning one and we could have a big fam. party (finally) at our house. HOwver, it is not going to happen. The people who wanted to buy our place lied about their finances and last night everything fell thru. IT sucks!! We thought this was the right thing b/c of how everything was coming together - the timing seemed perfect - our financing was way better then expected but I guess it wasn't the right thing. I am so tired of not knowing what's going on. I'm so tired of waiting for someone to offer us something. I am tired of wondering if there will be the perfect house out there for us. Most of all I'm so disappointed that we have spent almost all of Callia's first year having this unknown hanging around our necks. On the whole it hasn't made a diff. to how much time we've spent with her but there have been days when I've had to clean like mad and ignore her and the other kids. Anyways, I"ll stop now. Nothing much more to say except that I don't get it and that I'm tired of it all.

A Deal for you!

This past week I thought I would play around with my camera a bit and ended up reformatting the card - not once but twice. I'm not the quickest at times! I wasn't too upset b/c there had been no major events on the card - only day to day stuff - which is still important when you have a babe around. I thought I would try to download a program to get the pictures off of the card - I found one and downloaded a free demo. It worked. It was finding most of the pictures, however, when I went to try to save the pictures onto our computer it was no longer free - the demo was over and I would have to pay 45 or so to buy the program. Well, I thought that I would phone London Drugs to see which way was cheaper - for a one time deal London Drugs would have been cheaper unless they found a thousand pics on my card -though they said they didn't think they would find anything since it had been reformatted, not just deleted. Anyways, I thought I would do a search this time for a completely free program and I found one. It is called MJM Data recovery. It took some playing around b/f it would find complete pictures but once I got it right this program was amazing. It was finding every single picture from Christmas until present day and then it went backwards. I finally stopped it b/c it was taking hours and it had found my pictures that I hadn't saved!!!!! when I stopped it, the program was only 60% done and it had found I think over 700 pictures. London drugs would have cost me tonnes if they had found that many. Anyways, if you ever delete your memory card download this program it works like a charm. the recovered pics. were the same size as usual and even had all the data (time taken, camera, etc) encoded in them.

9months

Callia received the above dress fr. my cousin when she was just born. It is 0-3 months so in the first picture Callia is about 3 or 4 weeks old - and the dress was slightly HUGE on her - I thought that I would try it on her again a couple of weeks ago and that is the second picture. I think the dress fits her better at nine months! It is a little short when standing (not too bad though) and is fine when sitting. I'm glad she was able to wear it again!!

So Miss Callia hasn't changed too much since last month. She isn't crawling but she does manage to push herself around a little bit - she has quite the stretch when reaching for something she really wants. She has no teeth yet she manages to eat pancakes at breakfast (don't worry, no syrup). She hasn't been weighed since b/f Christmas but will be weighed later this week for the next part of the flu shot so I'll up date that then. She LOVES to be upside down. She LOVES to do her funny face. She LOVES yogurt and fruit. She LOVES any type of finger food. She LOVES her mama best!;) She LOVES to play with balls, cars and dolls. She would LOVE to get into the boys lego already - it won't be a good scene in our house when she starts to move b/c we have TONNES of lego. That about sums her up for this month. Oh - she's not eating anymore at 10:30 - kinda nice to be able to go to bed early if I want to - of course that hasn't happened yet.

WEEEE!

Hey there - wow- I can't believe I have a minute to sit down and blog. The house is clean, the youngest are sleeping, Aiden has a friend over and Ethan's at school. The laundry is going, the dishwasher is emptied and dinner is figured out -phew! One thing that has taken up some of my time is our family Christmas gift. We've never bought ourselves a "family" gift b/f but Rich received money fr. work as a recognition for being with his company for 10 years and so with it we bought a Wii. Let me tell you we have so much fun on it! If you're going go to have a gaming system in your house the wii is a great one to have. It gets ya moving, kids and adults can play the same games, it something "active" they can do in the house, and it's fun when people are over (big or little). I received the Wii fit fr. Rich for Christmas so we've been having fun trying to beat each other's top scores. I don't think I'll lose a ton of weight on it but it can get your heart going if you do certain exercises on it and I figure moving a bit is better then just laying on the couch watching TV. I think boys are really geared for playing video games - it's just in them - so I"m glad we have one that gets them running and jumping (our neighbours my disagree a bit!).

Doing something right...

Every parent has those moments where they wonder if the values they want to instil in their children are actually sticking (at least I do) and then every once in a while your child does something that makes you go "Yes, they're getting it" (at least mine do). I had one of those moments tonite. Before Christmas I was feeling a little blah about our kids going to public school and only being exposed to Santa stuff (among other less favourable stuff) - not that I'm opposed to Santa but he's not the true meaning of Christmas. So all of December we talked about the real meaning of Christmas every night at dinner (diff. aspects each night) to counteract everything at school. Well, we had one of those moments (phew, something is sticking) when Ethan handed me some art he had done at school. I asked him about it and he said he had to draw something about Christmas and he - now wait, this is it - drew the manger scene - Mary, Joseph, Jesus, animals and the star. He could have drawn Santa or a tree or reindeer but he chose to draw the nativity - he was the only kid - kinda cool I think.

It's come and gone!

Callia was having loads of fun sucking on the baby's soother and then trying to stick it back into the baby's mouth.

Callia loves bling - she is always looking at necklaces, earings, watches so she received a beautiful neclace and locket from her nana and grandad

We gave Callia these little paints for small hands for when she is a bit older - we let her suck on them until we noticed that she had turned orange! oops, guess the paint comes out when you let a baby suck on the end of the container!

playing Ethan's fav. game - pictionary

The kids in their snow fort.

I can't believe that our Christmas break is all over as of tomorrow. It is my most favourite time of year. I love Christmas Eve and Christmas day - I love the food, I love seeing the family, and I love the presents (mostly reactions to what I've given) but I absolutely LOVE the week following Christmas. It is so relaxing, Rich is off, the kids have new toys and the schedule is free. This year was no exception. We were out every night from the week b/f Christmas to Boxing Day so life was very busy. But starting on Boxing Day when our plans were cancelled b/c of the snow life settled down. We were still out every night or had people over but the days were quiet. We stayed in sweats or the boys stayed in pjs practically all day. We went to Chuck E Cheese one day and had a blast. We had some friends over, we went to friends for New Years, we went ice skating, bowling, movies and the boys had a sleep over at their grandma and poppas (YIPEE). They also played outside in the snow.

That was the best part about Christmas Eve -the snow. My family came over early since it was snowing so hard so we had lots of time to go out. The snow was up to my knees. I don't really remember too many white Christmases so this was a special one. Callia was also so much fun. Her being 8months for her first Christmas was a lot diff. than the boys who were either 2 months or 4 months for their first. She liked the wrapping paper and boxes - she took everything in and was such an angel. Christian couldn't wait for Christmas to happen and he kept asking for hot wheels - he was SO excited when my parents bought him a hot wheels race track and santa brought him a hot wheels Trick Tracks. Aiden and Ethan were pretty excited too. Ethan kept mentioning that some kids at his school don't believe in Santa and think it's their parents. He never asked us directly if he is real or not - if he does we'll tell him - right now we're lying by omission not out right lying to his face (is there a diff?). We had two yummy dinners one on CE and one on CD - it was great being with Rich's fam. Anyways, tomorrow it's back to the grind of regular life - no more pjs till noon or later - no more being holed up in the house (and enjoying it) until it's time to do something fun. No more sleeping in till 9:30 (the eldest two). Hope you all had a great Christmas break!