Happy Birthday Ethan!

Merry Christmas

These are some pictures that Ethan took on his new Little Tykes digital camera from my parents:

more pics

pics

No, we haven't kicked the poor kid out, I was just playing around with my moms camera.

fun day

We went to cut down our Chrsitmas tree yesterday. We got there later than we expected, so we didn't get to do all the activities, but we still had a lot of fun. I would add more pictures, but my computer isn't cooperating. We had a hard time finding a tree this year. Usually there a ALOT to chose from, I think that they were trying to clear out one area as much as they could before moving on to another part of the tree farm. We had to pick from the same area last year and there was a lot more to chose from then! We literally found a tree that was 'just good enough' right when they were about to close! We thought about not even getting one there. I'm sure that next year they will need to open another section. Gavin was very grumpy when we first got there but he was pretty good after he got to go on the pony rides. Why is it that kids never seem to get cold? They don't care whether they've got gloves or a hat on!
I thought that there was a resemblance between Ethan and Owen:

Love this grainy shot:
I love my brother:

I got to play around with my mom's camera, which was fun, but a bit confusing- so excuse my bad use of light...

the parade

This is our house decorated with our Christmas lights. You can't tell from the picture, but there are some blue ones there, too!


Gavin fell asleep on the way to the parade, which started after their bedtime. But Ethan fell asleep on the way home and Gavin was all smiles.
We went with Perry's parents and they brought these little chairs for the kids to sit on, they looked so cute!

We will be picking up my brother in a few hours. We are all going out to the tree farm to cut down a Christmas tree! Hopefully, we'll find some time to play Settlers tonight and get in the hot tub! Tomorrow, we are going to Sarnia for a family Christmas dinner.

the best picker

I told Ethan that Uncle Owen was going to come with us to cut down our Christmas tree on Saturday. Excitedly, he said, "Maybe Uncle Owen can pick out the perfect Christmas tree... cos he's the best picker! And maybe he can cut up our tree, too!"

ooops

I guess it's been a while! I didn't have a computer for over two weeks and then I've so busy and so tired that I haven't been on it much!
I can't believe it's already December! We usually have our Christmas tree by now, but this year we will be getting it a little late. We had our first snow yesterday, so hopefully it sticks around for Saturday. It's not the same going to cut down your Christmas tree with no snow! Last year, there was barely any snow but alot of mud... not as much fun :) We've had the house decorated for a couple of weeks, and we had put the Christmas lights up in October- so we just need our tree! I hope to finish my Christmas cards this week, I started them about a month ago, but they haven't been touched since! Most of our shopping done as well, I just need to go through what we have and figure out what we still need and then get everything wrapped. I actually love wrapping Christmas presents, so that will be fun- as long as I don't wait until the last minute!
Our friends, Robin and Marjorie, from California came down last night to stay with Perry's mom and dad. It was nice to see them again. The kids thought that their names were Roger and Margarine! lol

a new class, a sick boy, christmas...

I will be teaching this layout and more at the Westmount library in London this month, head on over the Sweet Dahlia Dreams blog at the right for details. I hope to hold another class in Chatham, but will probably wait until Christmas is done... we'll see how ambitious I get! :)
Gavin woke up sick today, poor little guy. He's just coughing away and laying on the couch. :(
Well, it's November! Which means I can start putting up Christmas decorations! I LOVE Christmas! We already have our lights up (not on, though) and the wreath is up on the front door. I'll probably decorate inside in the next week or so.
I don't think I've ever mentioned Unwrapped here. I love all the crafty ideas that Heather posts there. I'm actually trying to work on a few 'boards' like the ones she does. Check it out, very cool stuff!
Hoping to get back into some scrapbooking soon! I have been sooo tired lately, though. I feel like I have a newborn in the house, the kids have been waking me up several times every night and very early every morning. Hoping this will be short phase!
Have a great day!
ETA: Ethan keeps saying he'll take care of Gavin. He sits right beside him and tells him he loves him! Too cute!

a break

I've been taking a bit of a break from scrapping and spending a lot less time online. Just enjoying housework and cooking and all that stuff (and I never thought I'd say that...lol) I even have been enjoying laundry, which is my arch enemy and always makes me feel hopeless, haha. I found this new stuff that's not really new called Super Washing Soda. Finally, since moving into this house over a year ago our laundry smells clean after I wash it. I think we have hard water, so our clothes never had that awesome clean laundry smell. But now they do and I can't find enough things to wash! I just hope it says this exciting (yah right!).
We are getting cement poured today for our new hot tub. Can't wait to get it in!

our new niece

We had a fun surprise last night! Jeff and Ashley drove 3 hrs and showed up at Bible study at our house! I was so happy to finally get to see Brenna! She is 2 weeks old and so adorable :)

new layout

Ethan and Gavin

come running into the livingroom.
Gavin: Ethan pushed me.
Me: What do you say?
Gavin: Sorry
Me: Not you, Ethan what do you say to your brother?
Gavin: Thank you
Me: What? (laughing)
Then they both run off.

our trip to the corn maize

We took a drive out to the corn maize yesterday. We have never been before and it was a lot of fun! We did the maize first. Gavin got tired after about 5 minutes and we had to carry him the rest, which we should have expected, but didn't. The had a 'corn' box (instead of sand), a corn launcher, a huge slide, chickens, rabbits, and lots of other stuff. The kids had a really good time.

it's been a while...

I just haven't had the desire/time to update lately (sorry, Mom!). I've got a few things to share, first of all- I got an exciting email this morning!!! I've been submitting my scrapbook pages to different sites and magazines, etc for a few months now and I am finally going to get published! It is an online magazine called Ready, Set, Create! I sent in three layouts and and she loved them all and is going to use all three, possibly in two seperate issues. She also told me to send in some holiday work! I'm really excited and I just made this for my online galleries :)
I held a scrapbooking class at our house about two weeks ago and we had to keep the dog outside while everyone was here. Well, we have a creek behind our house and there are always critters coming into our yard. Our dog found one. A stinky one. She was sprayed by a skunk. I brought her in the house after the class, but I didn't notice it right away. While I cleaning up I started to smell it, but I didn't realise that it was coming from Desi! So, she stayed in her crate all night and in the morning I was a little sick so I couldn't smell. Perry came home and told me that the house stunk like a skunk, so we finally checked the dog and the back of her neck was sprayed. By the time we got a recipe to get rid of it (4c peroxide, 1/2c baking soda, couple drops dish washing det.) it was too late to do it, we didn't want her going to bed soaking wet. Even though I felt awful about it had to leave her outside for the night. The next morning we poured the stuff on her. Let it sit for 3 hrs, then rinsed it. She was so good about, but she was shivering like crazy. This is what she looked like after the peroxide was put on but before we rinsed it off:


This is what she normally looks like:

We also bought a hot tub last week! It's not installed yet, hopefully soon. I can't wait!!!

first full day

Today Ethan goes to school for a full day with all the kids from his class. And he has to go tomorrow as well. He seems to love it so far, he's always excited to go. I will probably be taking Gavin to the drop-in daycare at the Y because I really need to finish painting the dining room, before the tape decides it wants to stick forever!
Gavin had a swimming lesson yesterday, he didn't want to listen to anything he was supposed to, except for jumping in and going under the water. Ethan has a lesson tonight.
On Monday, we started going to a play group. Most of the moms had babies and kind of stuck together. There were only a couple older kids. The boys seemed to enjoy it.
The weather has really cooled off, we are wearing housecoats right now!
I'm holding a scrapbooking class at our house this Monday night, so I'm prepping for that and trying to put kits together.
Perry is getting busy with the Walmart grand opening next week.
We are getting to together with some friends on the weekend to play some games. I'm really excited, I love playing games!
Not much else going on- I don't know if we could handle much else so that's a good thing!

busy

What a busy week! We seem to have so much to do, and I am trying to paint the dining room on top of it. Ethan didn't tell us too much about his first day of school and did not let me get one good picture of him! He said some of the other kids had cookies and pudding for lunch. He got to play with the tools that he had seen and he used the bathroom. I think that was all he said! The teacher told me that he wanted to go outside, but it was too hot. He also told the teacher that he had a lot of fun. So, it seemed like a good day for him. Last night he had his first swimming lesson. He did really well, but we coud tell that he didn't trust the lifegaurds yet. He didn't want to go in without his life jacket. At the beginning of summer we had trouble getting him in a pool at all, so I guess it was pretty good that he'd go in with his life jacket on. He swam a few lengths, too! Gavin was a little terror for the whole thing, Perry had to leave the room with him.
Have a great weekend!

school!

I took Ethan to meet his teacher yesterday! He was so excited. We dropped Gavin off at the babysitters at 8:30 and then we went to the grocery store to pick up some juice boxes, then we went to Tim Horton's (a donut shop). He had some timbits (donut holes) and some chocolate milk. We only were at the school for about 10 min. He saw some tools that he really wanted to play with when we first walked in. At the end the teacher asked if he had any questions and all he said was, "can I play with those tools, now?"
Today is crazy! Perry usually has Wed. off, but because of the holiday had to work it. He got home at 9am and we left right away to go to Gavin's first swimming lesson. He is the oldest there and he has no fear so he is the most advanced. He is 2 1/2 yrs and most of the other kids are less than a year old, so he's not really in their 'category'. They don't have an in between lesson though. After Christmas, he'll be able to go into the next level and that should be more suited to him. Ethan starts lessons tomorrow. After swimming, we called Perry's friend Greame who invited us to go swimmming at his house. So we went over there for about an hour and a half. Then we were really rushed- we had to get Ethan home, fed and off to school in about 20 minutes! We made it just as the teacher was coming out to get the kids. I wish we would have been earlier, but that's the way it goes. We have to pick him up in about half an hour. I haven't gotten any good pictures yet, so hopefully we'll do that when we get him. When we get home, we are going to have an early supper and then he have to go get Ethan's speech checked. I'm not really worried about it now, but earlier this summer he was doing some wierd things with his words! They also asked us if we'd be willing to volunteer him for some trial testing of gross motor skills. Then bedtimes for the kiddies! And relaxing time for us!
This last picture is Ethan before going to meet his teacher, he was sooo excited!

pheonix

That was the dogs name! He was microchipped, the owners came to meet me at the vet to take him home. They live one street over and apparently he was missing for about 4 hrs before we found him. I was glad to have found the owners, but I actually really miss him. He was so cute and sweet! They were really happy and grateful to have him back and his tail was just wagging away when they got there! When I got home, Perry actually said, 'it's kind of bitter sweet, eh?' I was kind of surprised to hear that. He said that we might have been able to keep him, if we hadn't found the owners! I think he liked that he was so small.
Today, I've got Gavin in underwear- so, we'll see how that goes.
Happy Thursday!

we found

a little tiny chihuahua in our yard last night! I looked out the window at 6pm and saw him climbing on our porch. Desi was outside, and she likes to chase squirrels, birds and cats, so I freaked. I yelled to Perry to let Desi in, who was right at the door. So, he opened the door and let her in and we all went out to try and catch this little dog. Perry's mom came over right about then for supper, and we were supposed to have Bible Study at 7. So for about 20 min, we tried chasing the dog. He was very scared. Finally, the kids cornered him and I went and grabbed him. He bit me a few times- if you can call it a bite! So, I catch him and we're like 'what now?' We decided to take the dog in the front door and let Desi back out in the yard. We put the Chihuahua in Desi's crate. We went to a few of the neighbours and asked if they knew where it came from. Nobody did. One of the neighbour's daughters said that she would take it if we couldn't find his home. We called the radio station and they aired it, but we haven't heard anything. We didn't have a little collar, so we used a shoelace with some foam beads on it (for cushion) and Desi's leash. When we took him outside, he tried to run away at first, but seemed pretty good after. We brought her in the house and she slept in our shower- we didn't want Desi to know he was still here and also wanted to keep him confined. So, we set up a towel, a newspaper, some food and water. Surprisingly, he actually ate the food. We didn't hear a peep from him all night. He is so adorable, I would love to keep him, but I'm not sure how Desi would react to that. I suppose they would get used to each other eventually. I'm pretty sure Perry doesn't want another dog- although he does seem to think this ones pretty cute. He was calling him 'Cheeko'! I would guess that he weighs no more than 4 lbs! Today, we will probably get him scanned to see if he has a microchip. Then, I don't know.

clothes

So, Ethan has had this thing with his clothes this summer that has really been driving me crazy! At the beginning of summer he was ok with wearing shorts- like most other kids are! Well, not too much later he decides that he only likes pants- and sweaters and socks! Hellooo- it's over 90 degrees kid. So everyday I had to fight with him not to wear this stuff. Now it's almost September and I've got him to the point that he will chose a t-shirt everyday. But he still wants pants and socks. Even if I convince him to wear shorts, he still wants socks and shoes. I guess he'll be glad for fall!

hero

On Friday, we all went to the beach with my Grandma, my Mom and my Aunt Cathy. We ate lunch first, after we were done Ethan threw the extra bread to the seagulls. My mom siad that there was one with fishing line caught around it's foot and a bobber hanging from it. I didn't see it. We went swimming and the kids played at the park. They had lots of fun with Aunt Cathy in the water and playing frisbee with her. I should have taken a little video of Gavin's frisbee throwing skills, they need a little improvement to say the least. Well, this seagull with the bobber comes back. The people next to us were trying to get it. It flew a little ways away. Perry follows it, the mom next to us goes to get scissors and some kids are following it as well. The idea was to get close to it and just cut the line. Perry got close enough to step on the line, it was probably at least 3 feet long. Another man got in on the action, too, and helped Perry hold the bird down. The hook was stuck in the birds body, right were the foot connects to the body. They cut the line and then Perry tried to see if the hook would come out. It had started to heal over already. He tried a bit to get it out, but didn't want to hurt the bird too much, and there wasn't much to grip. Perry snapped the hook so that there wouldn't be a big piece hanging out. Then, the other man's wife got his tackle box and they got some pliers. Finally, Perry got the hook out. The bird was bleeding somewhat, but he flew off right after. Hopefully, he's got a better chance now. We're sure that that bobber would have gotten stuck somewhere and he wouldn't have been able to get away.
Here are some pics from that day.

new layout

Really being inspired by Emily lately.

funny

Ethan- "Can I have some more oatmeal?"
Me- "I only have this kind, and Gavin just tried it and said it was yucky."
Ethan- "But I will like it."
Me- "OK."
5 or 6 mins later, he takes a bite.
Ethan- "OH Mooommmy! I DON'T like it!"
May not be so funny if you weren't there, but the way he said it was hilarious! I just wanted to record it somewhere.
Not too much going on here. Just getting over a cold. I haven't been sleeping well at all the last few nights, I can't seem to fall asleep.
I can't believe that Ethan will be going to school in less than 3 weeks. Crazy.

busy morning

Wow! It's only 10am and this is what we have already done:
-been up for 5 hrs
-eaten breakfast
-spent an hour in the garden
-showered and changed
-played with playdough
-scrapbooked (the boys each made pages)
-I did a Deck of Me card(it has only been, oh, 6 months maybe since I did my last one), pictured above- pretty plain but one of my faves
-ate snacks
and now the kids are 'relaxing' watching Diego. I think that I'm getting sick, hoping the kids will let me get a good nap in later.
I have been lovin' Emily Falconbridge's blog and work lately. If you haven't already I seriously suggest checking her out, link is at the right.

nothing much

Not too much going on here. We got Gavin back on Wednesday. We had a nice afternoon at the beach. Gavin just loves the water. There were fairly big waves and he was the only kids that wanted to go out very far. He didn't care how hard they hit him or how fast they came, he just loved it! I think he's going to be a thrill seeker when he gets older! I guess we'll have lots of fun at Cedar Point! We found out the next day that a teenage girl drowned there a few hours later. Crazy.
Yesterday, I got a bit of gardening done. We are taking out some gardens, we have way too many. The kids are going to go to the Y today. Not sure what's going on this afternoon, hopefully something fun.
Have a good weekend.

guests

This post is from yesterday, but I couldn't get it posted... My coolio brother was here last week for 4 days. We had alot of fun! Played lots of Settlers, went to the beach, went shopping. Fun stuff. I miss seeing him all the time. :( I think he's coming again next week so that'll be cool.
This week we traded Gavin for our niece Abby. We have been having lots of fun with her, too. We were going to go to the zoo today. Plans changed. We talked to Gavin last night, he cried. Abby talked to her parents, she cried. We miss Gavin, especially Perry (he says it all the time!). So we are meeting in Grand Bend and switching back. 3 days early. Can't wait to see Gavin, though. We are going to spend the afternoon at the beach.