Rhianna-isms!

We were shopping in Zellers, and decided to let the kids wander about the toy area. They were having a blast, and all of a sudden Rhianna says, "Mummy! Look, it's CinderWhale!". It was a Little Mermaid doll... she knows it's a Disney Princess, so I guess CinderWhale seemed quite appropriate. Heh.

Then the following morning I was putting makeup on while Rhianna was sitting on the toilet doing her business. She was having some trouble going, so, trying to get her to eat a bigger variety of food, I said, "You need to eat more fruit, Rhianna." She seemed good with that, so she said, "Can you go get me some fruit now Mummy?" I laughed and explained that she didn't need to eat in right this second, just in general.

I left to go into my bedroom and I hear Rhianna call after me... "Mummy? When can we go to General?!"

HAHAHA! I love that child.

Big heart!

Two nights ago I slept on the couch because my husband and daughter were both hacking like mad and I couldn't sleep.

Before Tiernan went to sleep he had asked if he could borrow my flowers he made me for Mother's Day so he would have only good dreams. Of course I said yes!

I awoke at 6:30am to a smiley Tiernan climbing onto the couch to lie down next to me, with the paper flowers in hand. He wanted to make sure I was having good dreams.

We cuddled together on the couch until 7am.

He is the best. I love him and his big heart! Hard to believe my baby boy will be 5 years old on Monday! Time has flown by so fast. It feels like it was only yesterday that I was sitting on the couch with an adorable little baby boy wrapped in a red blanket. I was rocking him, kissing him, and singing to him until he fell asleep. The only way he would fall alseep. How could that have been almost 5 years ago?

Being a mother is the most amazing feeling in the world!

My Mother's Day!

Our little family has a Mother's Day tradition which involves me sleeping in and being woken up by the kids, their cards and crafty gifts, and breakfast in bed! The kids make up the menu, and I eat whatever they decide to make. This Mother's Day was no exception!

Now that the boys are in school they make the most amazing gifts for me. They bring them home from school, telling me to close my eyes while they go find a top-secret hiding place!



Avery made me a cute little cat card in which he wrote that he loved me and wished me a Happy Mother's Day all in French. He also made me these little paper flowers that are actually coupons.. one for doing the dishes, one for vacuuming, and one for taking out the trash. And he made sure to inform me that Madame (his teacher) said he didn't have to do them for more than one day each. HAHA! I love that boy!



Tiernan made me paper flowers, too, but of a different sort. These ones were in a vase, and around them was the sweetest poem, ever, He told me to keep them beside my bed, and they will give me sweet dreams. Awwww.



Rhianna made me a necklace with her Daddy, and a cute little card. She was very proud when I put that necklace on. :-)

My breakfast in bed had quite the ecclectic menu!



Smiley faced pancakes, Asian pear slices, watermelon, York Peppermint Patties....



chips and dip (hahaha!) and....



a Mimosa! Made with sparkling apple juice! :-)

It was delicious, and a wonderful way to spend my Saturday morning! Oh, and let's not forget the Dr Scholls foot spa and the real flowers that the kids gave me! Ohhhh heavenly! I am so spoiled!

Sunday was the actual 'Mother's Day', and on that day I woke up to the most beautiful card from my husband, and a message telling me to hollar, and I would get another special breakfast in bed.. and sure enough.... I hollared and Kyle brought me...

Ben and Jerry's chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream! It was very sweet!

The rest of the day was spent out in Pinawa with my own Mum! My Dad took us all for brunch, and we had a very nice day.



Full circle! :-D

I love that boy!

The boys are often given free passes and coupons for different events from their school. Apparently Tiernan's class was given free passes to the Shrine Circus last week. Only my son refused his because "Circuses do not always treat their animals properly, and because animals are only used for entertainment in a circus."

I do believe his teacher argued with him, but I am insanely proud of him for standing up for himself.

Big hearts.

Tiernan - "Mummy? I love you every day and every night and everything in between!"

Me - "Tiernan, you have such a big little heart!"

Tiernan - "My heart is big? How do you know?"

Me - "Because you are a very loving wee boy!"

Tiernan - "You mean cause I hug and kiss lots?"

Me - "Exactly! The more you hug and kiss, the bigger your heart grows."

Tiernan - "Ooooohhh... so then you must have the biggest heart of all!"

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

Happy 2006 Everyone!

Resolutions. We have all made them at one time or another. Whether it's to eat healthier, to be a calmer person, to start saving money, or to learn Japanese... you know you've at least said one of them. Some people are successful at it (go you!) and some suck (and the majority of the time I fall into this category!), but at least we all see something about ourselves that we can try to improve. The world is a better place when we realise our own faults instead of always pointing fingers at everyone else.

This year I've got a long list of resolutions. I actually haven't written them out yet, and quite frankly I'm not worried that January first has come and passed already. I just know what I want to accomplish this year. Some of them are as follows:

1) To make sure I'm getting all the nutrients that I need now that I've gone veg.
2) To live a healthier lifestyle - mind, body and soul.
3) To read as many books as I possibly can. Don't know if I can manage 52 in a year (one per week!), but I will try my hardest.
4) To maintain a routine when it comes to the kids and the house.
5) To finally organize our horribly filled to the brim basement!
6) To make a list of things I want to do in my lifetime.
7) To get this house ready so we can move within a couple of years.
8) To try many new recipes, and experiment with my own.
9) To have more patience with others.

And most importantly....

10) To try my hardest to spend as much one-on-one time with each of my kids! This past couple of months has been very difficult, and I find that the kids are the ones who feel the brunt of it. They don't understand what it means when I say, "I can't play the Madagascar game, I'm still working on some stuff needed to settle Grandma's affairs." They don't understand that the reason Mummy and Daddy are stressed out is because we just have a whole lot going on.. not because they've been naughty or we aren't proud of them. Their worlds have changed a lot, too, in the past couple of years.. we need to be there for them now more than ever.

And so, this year I will succeed with my resolutions! I will make sure of it. I plan to keep all of them, but if for some reason I can only keep one, it will be number 10! My kids always come first!

I hope that 2006 brings a lot of good times, and great memories for each and every one of you. May you have no problems sticking to your own resolutions!

This picture was taken this morning when Rhianna and I went tobogganing... some of that mother-daughter time I'm trying to have more of. We had a lot of fun, and I got some great pictures of the Princess. To see the rest check out my flickr site. They are in the January folder on the left hand side. There are also a whole lot of pictures from December (including Christmas) if you haven't seen them already, too. ENJOY!

Long December.

Normally December is my favourite time of year. The excitement, the family & friends, the good cheer, the laughter, the love, the food, the gift exchanging. All of it! I'm one of those people who annoys some by being 100% Christmas all the time. I send out Christmas cards to absolutely everyone. I spend oodles of time baking delicious treats for my neighbours. My tree goes up long before the month of December even starts. I have parties and get togethers and sing carols for weeks on end.

This month was a bit different. December started out well meaning.. Avery's 6th birthday on the 2nd, followed by his party with friends to see 'The Chronicles of Narnia' in the theatre on the 10th. There was promise of family and friends being around. Our brother-in-law and his family were coming in and planned on spending Christmas Eve at our place. How exciting! The cousins together for Christmas! Wow.

But on the 10th, right after we returned home from seeing 'Narnia', two police officers showed up at our door. Luckily the kids were all asleep because they came bearing terrible news... my mother-in-law had passed away in a fire that day.

The days that have passed since then have been very difficult. So much is going on and it doesn't seem to be ending any time soon. Kyle is executor of his mother's will and partly because of the fire, there are a whole lot of details and paper work to be organized. It's been a stressful time for all of us, and I am very proud of my husband for the way he's been dealing with it all on top of his own grief. He's an amazing man, and a strong one, too. He handles everything in a very respectable manner, and does everything he can to ensure things are done properly. These past couple of years have not been easy on him, but he manages to come out okay. I admire that about him.

The past few weeks have been very long and I think both Kyle and I are really looking forward to the year 2006. Let's hope the stress levels go down, and that we do not lose any more loved ones.

There have been some good things about this month, however. First and foremost... our family and friends have completely showered us with love and support. We are so fortunate to have these people (YOU!) in our lives. We honestly could not have gotten through this month without each and every one of you (and you know who you are!).

Our Christmas was a nice one, even if it was slightly shadowed by the month's events. We tried to put the loss aside for the kids' sake, and had a nice few days right around Christmas. This has been hard on Avery, Tiernan and Rhianna and it was very important that we try to "forget" about everything for a short while.

Let's hope that 2006 is a wonderful one for each and every one of us. Deal? Deal!

It's moments like these that make me feel like the luckiest woman in the world.

Out of the mouth of babes!

Last week my parents came over for a visit, and with them they brought Robin's eggs. My kids love those little doughnut holes, especially Miss Thang. All three kids always pick chocolate as their first choice (don't all kids?), and as we all know, it's the messies!. Rhianna was cuddling up on her Pa's lap, just as it shows in this picture...




She was talking about everything from the "Teletubby" ornament on our tree (it's actually a Snowbaby!), to what she wants for Christmas, and about the sweatshirt my Dad was wearing. We got that shirt for him last Christmas. It has a picture of the our three monkeys on it, and he wears it fairly often. The kids love pointing themselves out and seeing how much they've changed.

So there's Rhianna, my Dad, his white shirt and her chocolate doughnut. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Yup. That's right. She got chocolate on her Pa's shirt. She was a little panicked until she remembered something....

That's when she said to my Dad, "S'okay, Pa. We get you a new one!"

Dad couldn't even stiffel his laughter!

Oh dear. Way to go Miss Rhi! Now Pa knows what we got him for Christmas this year! Hahaha.

She's lucky she's such a cutie!

(Besides... she wasn't the first to spill the beans! When Tiernan gave my parents his school picture he announced that it was going to go on my Dad's shirt. Ahhhhh! I tried to play it off as nothing, but once two kids spill the beans it's a little harder to hide the fact. At least my Dad doesn't know what the picture looks like!)