12.25.13

Merry Christmas! 
The kids (and Josh and I too!) got sufficiently spoiled  - and we still have one more gathering to go!  Unfortunately, because of either being sick with a stomach bug or head cold over the last 2 weeks, I have zero ambition and energy.  I hope 2014 brings lots of good health for this household!

12.18.13

Aaahhhhhhhhh!

12.17.13

Only a week until Christmas Eve!  How crazy is that?  We're still working away at our Christmas Countdown list - we went to see the Winter Wonderland at the Red River Ex (the kids were great for that part, but do not even get me started on their caveman-like behaviour in Swiss Chalet), and today we made "snowmen".  The weather this month hasn't really been favorable to making anything out of snow (a snow fort is on our list as well), so I made play snow (baking soda and conditioner, thank you Pinterest). The idea was to make snowmen with the play snow, but they thought it'd be way more fun to drive Wyatt's vehicles through it. Oh, and Paige thought it'd be fun to toss it all over the table too. And her pants. And the chair.  And floor.
While this is happening, I decided this would be a great time to paint my nails.  Which, as most women know, left me virtually useless for the next 30 minutes while my polish dried.  Josh was super appreciative of my play snow disaster zone that I could not possibly help clean up (okay, I did, just later on).
We had a good few weeks with Wyatt (okay, maybe it was only 2 weeks), and now he's back to being Captain Terrible again.  Some of today's precious moments were hearing him mutter, "Oh my GOD!" (UM NO.), pretending to use his hand as a gun to shoot Josh when he was told to stop screaming, the screaming, and this gem: "Mommy, you have 2 choices. Either help me get my jammies on, or I am going to scream bad names at you." Needless to say it was an early bedtime.  He was repeating an awful lot of garbage today (all new stuff, courtesy of "that kid" at school again) and I can't help but wonder if hearing stuff like that makes him feel badly, and then he reacts this way?  I'm probably reaching, but think about how you feel when you're surrounded with nasty people.  How great do you feel at the end of the day?  The good news is, we've already been told that "that kid" and "the other kid" (yes, I am being vague) will be separated next year - and Wyatt won't be in either of their classes.  I know there will always be "that kid", but this gives me some peace of mind for now.
Back to the Christmas fuzziness!  Wyatt's Christmas concert is Thursday! :D

12.14.13

Helping make waffles this morning.

Cold and flu season has hit.
Well, actually it hit about 2 months ago.  At the beginning of October, we dealt with the flu, strep, pink eye, a stomach bug and the run of the mill cold.  Since then, we've pretty much been taking turns having something.  Josh and Wyatt have both been suffering from a stomach bug this weekend again.  And something I've learned from this is that I cannot deal with vomiting.  I just can't.  It's not the actual vomit that bothers me (oddly enough). It's the unpredictable nature of throwing up that makes me all sweaty and panicky.  I've only thrown up once in the last 16 years, and that was during our last bought of stomach illness. But just thinking that I might get sick with this bug is enough to make me all edgy and anxious and searching Google for a priest that can come in and rid our house of this plague. 
Yes, I realize barf is trivial in comparison to what some people are dealing with right now. But I am taking a few minutes to feel sorry for myself and the fact that I won't be sleeping tonight - instead I'll be running into my son's room in a cold sweat every time he starts to cough (which is all the time, since he has a cold).
I've started the kids on Vitamin C, but feel free to comment with all and any suggestions for warding off illness.  I am not opposed to animal offerings (may I suggest we start with the dog who ate HALF A POUND of wrapped butter off my counter?!?). Joking.  Mostly.

12.12.13

Tonight our activity was to have the kids pick out a new ornament for the tree. Wyatt really wanted an Angry Birds one, but the only one I could find was a candy filled one - so each kid picked one of those, AND an ornament to use every year.  Wyatt found a Lightning McQueen one, and Paige was hemming and hawing between Minnie Mouse and a princess...until I found "MIKE!" from Monsters Inc. Unfortunately she dropped him while trying to hang the ornament, and his leg broke off - she was so sad. Glue gun to the rescue!  Right as rain...ish.
Earlier in the week our activity was to leave a gift for our mail lady. We chose to do a Tim's gift card, and some chocolates. We had several Christmas chocolate packs in the cupboard (just small ones, perfect for something like this), so I asked Wyatt to help me choose one.  He had a really hard time with this - "But I want to eat them all!"  Eventually he picked some Lindt ones when I assured him we could buy more if need be (guaranteed he's already forgotten all about them).  I left that in the mail box for her, and 2 days later, there was a very nice thank you card from her. I read it to Wyatt and he was delighted that she wrote - and that she liked it. :)

12.10.13

Tonight the kids wrote letters to Santa.  Paige's is eerily accurate (she actually coloured in the "naughty" checkbox first, and then the nice one as an afterthought). With some prompting, she asked for a purse (good, because I bought her one), a dolly (good, because I bought her one), and pjs (yup, those too).  Wyatt initially asked for a toy train, which totally threw me off because a)he's never called them "toy" trains before, and b)he's been asking for a specific street sweeper toy from the Wishbook.  I'm thinking the toy train thing was suggested to him for his school letter to Santa.  Anyway, his list includes the aforementioned street sweeper (good, because I bought it for him), and an Easy Bake Oven (yup, that too).
I'm done my Christmas shopping, no real surprise there.  I've been dragging my feet about wrapping the gifts though, I have 3 bins of Lego to deal with (2 for my niece and nephew), and they are difficult to wrap.  Even trying to find a gift bag that is wide enough has proven impossible! Might just slap a bow on it and hide it at the back of the pile.

12.08.13

Not much to update, but here's a couple pictures.  We've been continuing with our "Barkley Christmas Countdown", but the last few activities have involved donating/giving, so no pictures.  Today's "to-do" was making snowflakes.  Kind of a useless activity for kids (at least a 2 1/2 year old and a 5 year old who struggles with fine motor skills, including using scissors...). They still had a good time with it, even though Paige's use of the (SAFETY) scissors kept Josh on the edge of his seat. ;)

12.04.13

I'm having a hard time keeping track of the days while I've been off this week. I'm going to go in for a bit tomorrow just to try to stay in the swing of things.
And Friday I get to volunteer in Wyatt's class!  Very exciting.  I hope. ;)
Tonight we made FOAM gingerbread men.  Hello!  Way better idea than the real ones!  No mess, no eating dough, no Paige jamming her fingers into every single cookie on the sheet waiting to go into the oven.
Our elf has been up to some mischief again...much easier this year with a pre-made list.  Wyatt is not easily fooled though, when I did the cookie set up on the 2nd day, he said, "But YOU and the elf did that, right?"

Was trying to show Wyatt how the flash works on the camera.  Of course it didn't go off.

Gingerbread people!

Making some hot chocolate.

A Grumpy Cat masterpiece.

12.03.13

Last night we made gingerbread cookies.  That was a lesson in futility. Wyatt was a good help, Paige was...um...well, Paige was Paige.  They had fun decorating them though.

Unfortunately, a migraine hit just as I started decorating the cookies.  I got about a dozen done, and apparently threw out the ones that weren't decorated.  It was one of the worst migraines I've ever had, and took a lot of meds to even take the edge off.  Of course, around 11:30, Josh reminded me that we hadn't done anything with the Elf.  I set him up quickly (had to get up to get an ice pack anyway) and took the picture this morning.  Thankfully, I had made a list of 25 ideas for the Elf, so I didn't have to conjure up something mid-migraine.

12.01.13

It's December! The countdown is on.
Instead of a chocolate advent calendar, this year we (I) created a list of 25 things to do during the month.  Some are fun things, like checking out the Christmas lights display at the Red River Ex, and then some are more to focus on giving, like bringing treats to the animals at the Humane Society. I'm really looking forward to it!
Today our Elf on the Shelf returned (he brought breakfast again!) and we decorated the tree.  I'm still getting used to my new camera, and all of my pictures with Wyatt were blurred or his eyes were closed. :/

11.24.13

The last few weeks have been very...trying.  Wyatt has hit the terrible twos - but at age 5. I'm sure there's a catchy slogan for it that doesn't involve the "f' word, but I'm coming up with nothing. Sundays (the evenings in particular) seem to be the worst.  I keep thinking that we need to plan activities during this time so that we're not sitting at home waiting for a bomb to go off, but we live in Morden.  Exactly what activity am I going to do with my children after 6pm on a Sunday night?  It's pitch black, and already we're dealing with windchills of up to -35.  There's only so much to do inside our house.
Paige hasn't exactly been a walk in the park, but she seems easier to talk down off the ledge.
And that's what's new over here. :/
Well, that and I bought myself a new camera - a Canon Rebel T3.  I have a lot of learning to do with it, as I've never used a DSLR before.  I was playing around yesterday and this afternoon while the kids were happy and not plotting new ways to drive me to an early grave.

Never mind Josh's back end appearance, he was setting up a race track for the kids.  Regardless, I'm still a huge fan of this camera and can't wait to get some great pictures at Christmas. :)

11.03.13

Whoops!  Poor, neglected blog.
Really, not much is going on.  Paige is doing great at daycare.  Wyatt seems to really enjoy school and daycare, but has had the usual run ins with not so nice kids.  Nothing that really seems to hold him back though, even though we've gone through pink eye, the flu and a stomach bug, he was still begging to go to school every day.

The kids dressed up for Halloween!  Wyatt was so excited to be a construction worker.

The kids and their Barkley cousins.

Giggles at Grandpa and Grandma S.'s workplace in between family pictures.

A 2nd attempt at family pictures with TLP Photography. I actually like it!

Monkey.

Just celebrated 10 years with this guy at the end of October!

Handsome guy.

9.16.13

Yesterday we decided to try out a corn maze near Winnipeg (A Maze'n Corn). It was great weather for it, nice and cool but the sun was out and the sky was clear. Paige wasn't really into it. Wyatt loved it - especially being able to choose which way to go! We even went for a hay ride afterwards. 

Wyatt's request for supper was to have a wiener roast, so we did. It was short lived because the flies are insane. Safe to say that fall is underway though, looking forward to the cooler temperatures!

09.08.13

We've had a very busy week! Wyatt turned 5 (FIVE!) on Wednesday and started kindergarten on Friday! He was so so so excited about his birthday this year. I had the day off, so the kids and I had doughnuts for breakfast. Wyatt was actually disappointed as the day went on that no one was coming over. "I just want to be with people I love." he said. When I pointed out that Paige and I were spending the day with him, I got a, "Not you. Other people." Kids. :P

Kindergarten seemed to go fine. This week will be the real test, as it was staggered entrance on Friday so only a third of the class was there. Plus both kids start at the public daycare tomorrow (eek).

For Wyatt's party (with the people he loves), everyone went mini golfing (Paige and I stayed back while she napped). Afterwards we had a BBQ and cake. Wyatt only had a few requests for his birthday: a Co-op cake, Cheezies, cauliflower and mini golfing. I was a bit disappointed to not be able to decorate a cake for him, but I will admit it was one less thing to stress about. 

Opening presents was amusing this year - he was over the moon thrilled about Every. Single. Gift. Even a tractor he already has ("Now I have two!!!!"). I thought it was adorable. ;)