10.31.12

Happy Halloween!

10.27.12

Today the fossil museum was offering a few Halloween festivities. My sister in law wanted to take her kids, and invited us along. Since it fell during Paige's nap time, my mother in law took Wyatt (Josh had already been at 2 firecalls since 4am, a third came during supper). He didn't really enjoy it, he told me there was "scary stuff" there that he didn't like. My sister in law snapped a quick picture before he left though.

After Paige woke up, I tried on a Snow White dress that was handed down to Paige. She was not impressed.

10.23.12

Just over 2 months until Christmas!!

I've been trying to finish up my Christmas shopping this week.  I get a LOT of flack, every single year, from people who think I am annoyingly early with my shopping.  I get it.  I love Christmas shopping though.  I love picking out that perfect gift for someone, even if it does stress me out at times.  On my side of the family, we make lists.  I love lists.  You can't go wrong with a list.  I often stray from the list, but at least that gives me a very good idea of the type of things someone is looking for.
My in laws, on the other hand, never do lists.  And my in laws are VERY hard to shop for.  Josh is hopeless when it comes to helping me choose gifts, so this is a point of contention every single year.  This year, he came up with a great idea for his dad with no prompting.  It was wonderful.
Anyway, besides my love of Christmas shopping, I start early to ease the financial burden.  If I start in October and buy one gift a week, as long as we stick to our budget, by the time Christmas has come, we haven't had to go into debt over presents. 
And with Christmas shopping comes my Christmas Budget Spreadsheet!  Probably the most exciting part of it all. ;)  I should find a way to make a bar graph when I am done shopping too.
This year, for the kids, we are trying to stick to this guideline:

Something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read. Wyatt was pretty clear on what he wants (a red combine, which I have already purchased).  Paige answered me by blowing me a kiss and shaking her head no.  I took that to mean she wanted a mixer to go with her toy kitchen.
I'm having trouble with this, as my instinct is to buy anything I think the kids might like.  But thankfully, the logical part of me knows that a)I don't really want to go broke and b)they already have an excess of "things".  Hopefully by limiting the gifts, it will make the ones they get that much more special.
Next week's post: Planning Paige's 2nd birthday (KIDDING. Settle down).

10.17.12

COME ON!  Look at my tiny little hipster!  He's so funny - he loooooves wearing his "skinny pants" and it drives Josh batty.  To be fair, they have a nice roomy waist, and they are made from the softest fabric ever.
I've been training for a new position at work.  The training itself is going fine, I feel like I have a pretty good grip on what's going on.  The issue is that I'm still needed in my current position pretty much 8 hours a day, so I am getting a little overwhelmed trying to make sure I cover all the bases and don't leave anyone hanging.
Our anniversary is coming up next week (9 years!), so we're heading to Grand Forks for a little cross-border shopping to celebrate (totally Josh's idea).  We'll spend our actual anniversary at an appreciation dinner at the fire hall (totally my idea).

10.14.12

So, in my quest to have perfect photos of my children, I thought I'd attempt some of my own because the kids didn't really co-operate the first time.  Although the one I posted earlier was cute, neither of them was smiling.
Well.
See this photo up here?  Where they are both kind of smiling?  It was the first AND ONLY smiling photo I got out of...oh, I'm not even going to admit how many I tried.  Wyatt was cranky, but would entertain me and give me a few smiles.  After this photo, Paige screamed the whole time.  We tried up by the old boat launch at the beach, on the boardwalk, at Maple Leaf School and the Land Titles Office (why so many places?  Clearly I am a sucker for punishment).  She just did not want to stay still.  I guess we'll just try again next May and hope that when she's 2, she'll be easily bribed to stay in one spot.

10.12.12

Our 2012 family pics.  Not too bad for trying to get a 1 year old and 4 year old to look at the camera at the same time. :)

10.10.12

Helping Josh finish the basement bathroom.