Is it wrong....(take 2)

That Kieran's most favourite song right now is Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name? And that sometimes I put it on in the car and peek into the back seat and see his huge grin and giggle! It's the best! (also, when we are in a store and Kieran or Bridget hears Bon Jovi they yell, "Bon Jovi!!!!" Yeah, a little brainwashing never hurt anyone, right? Oh wait....)

That Bridget requested a song from Buffy the Vampire Slayer for bedtime? I promise I don't let her watch it, we just listen to the music :)

That now that it's roll up time I can't pass a Tim Horton's without wanting a coffee? I've already won twice (out of 4) which is about my total for all of last year's roll up time.

That I still put Kieran down for a nap? I should probably stop that since he will have to go to school next year. Ok, ok, I'll stop in August :)

That Bridget can totally pull my strings? Spoiled. Completely, spoiled. Tonight she was pitching a fit about putting her boots on and after a bit she says pitifully to me, "Mommy, if you give me a hug I'll put my boots on." Dude, how can you say no to that?

That we told Kieran to eat 4 3/4 bites of supper (because, shockingly, he didn't like it. You know, because it wasn't hot dogs or pancakes...) and then he actually ate 7 bites because it was 4 plus THREE quarters? Please, don't call and educate him on fractions. Funny that he'll be eating less once he turns 5....

Hmm...can't think of anything involving Riley other than, Is it wrong that I want to strangle him one minute and hug him the next? Pretty much sums up our relationship, lol. Have I mentioned he's a lot like his Daddy?? :)

Speaking of Kevin, he's happy because he gets to demolish things. We're going to redo the family room/craft room area. We're going to take down the wall and open up the room and build a peninsula type desk/storage area. Hopefully have it so that I can work and kids can craft with me. Should be nice once it's done but we all know how long it takes us to accomplish things. We STILL don't have trim in most of the upstairs. Sigh. Someday. If anyone would like to recommend paint colours to brighten up my cave-like basement I'm all ears (er, eyes). Is it wrong that I assume this project won't be done until the fall? Nope, actually that sounds about right!

Is it wrong that I laugh at Kevin while he does his Wii workout? Anyone feel a YouTube video coming on? :)

I guess it's also wrong that I assume no one reads this because every now and then I find out someone else is reading. Makes me feel pressure to be fun and entertaining. Ah well, why start now? You were already reading when I was dull and boring. Really, my kids are entertaining enough for all of us!

Ok, back to the Wii workout. I think virtual, wii-land Kevin's back was sweating. Because that's such an attractive part of the real-life workout that they felt the need to simulate it on a video game... Blech.

Riley was in his first Judo tournament last week. If I knew how to get the video from my ipod to hear I would show you a match. Once Kevin reads this he'll probably figure it out :) I can show you a picture though. He came second in his group (of about 5-7 kids). He won 2 matches and lost 2, but did super well even in one that he lost! We were all pretty proud! He's going to be in a chess tournament in March too (seriously, I told you he was just like Daddy!).

I also took this shot at the tournament and it cracks me up for obvious reasons. Bridget can actually wink with both eyes. She is a freaky talented kid who can use scissors, hold a pencil the correct way, button buttons, zip zippers, cut her food all before she's 3! She's been getting herself dressed so long (tights, sleepers, you name it) that I can hardly remember having to do it for her! Ok, enough about my amazing kid, on to the funny picture...

Literally, LOL here!

(If my scrapbooking, or scrapbooking in general, makes you go BLECH, feel free to jump ship now!! If you like, look again at the picture above, pretend that's where I ended this heinously long blog post. Bye! :)).

Wow, just looking at what new layouts I have to show and I guess it's been awhile since I've posted here, so here we go...

Ok, this one's not a layout but worthy of mention since I handmade 20 of them (yup, made the flowers, handcut the leaves and the topper) for Kieran's preschool class. Took a bit longer than I thought it would but they're so darn cute!

LCOM is having a 'Big Brother' contest going on right now. Kind of a fun concept but I'm pretty sure I'll be evicted this week. I'm supposed to finish a mini album by Friday night and I'm not really feeling that happening, haha! Oh well, here are my layouts from week one and two. I kind of love them so it was worth it even for that.

TallyScrapper is also having a contest right now. A Survivor contest. Hmm....I think scrappers watch too much reality tv... Anywhoo, I'm on team Boston Rob (one of the very few survivors I actually know of...the other team is team Russell and I have no idea who that guy is...). Here is my week one layout following the requirements of negative space, using recycled packaging, staples, the colours brown and blue and a picture with more than one person. Phew, got 'em all :)

This one is a layout I did back when Tally had their online crop a few weeks ago. Love it! It is a scraplift Sarah, one of the DT members.

Finally, this is my last layout as part of the Stuck?! Sketches team. I had a lot of fun working with their sketches each month! A great site for all you scrappy gals to check out!

I am done. Let the celebration begin. I'll catch up with you in a few week with another quick (hahahaha) blog post!

P.S. The colour on that last layout is really wonky. I apologize, though I plan to do nothing about it :)

Family Fun

We took the boys cross country skiing yesterday. It was such a beautiful day out! And, I think if we had left after half an hour we would all have said we had fun. However, since it costs close to $50 for us all to go we stayed longer. The boys get tired and frustrated when they fall down and have a hard time getting up. Thank goodness Kevin was there to help. I'm badly balance enough on my own that I can't stand up and also help a kid up. I just do some verbal coaching and then we both end up frustrated, lol. They were troopers though. Mostly, they just want to go down hills. It was fun for Kevin and me, but we end up going pretty slow with the boys. We did do a couple of quick runs around a field while the boys played in the snow. All in all, a pretty fun afternoon. Bridget had some quality time with Grammie, Bampie and Uncle Scott :) There was another family there with an almost three year old. Yikes! It was hard enough with the boys. Kieran did really well for his first time out and Riley did better than last time, but after an hour or so I think they are just DONE!

On Friday Kieran's class went skating. Kevin came along and we took Bridget too who did amazing for her second time on skates. Especially considering she wasn't at all a fan the first time! Then she got to go back to school for circle time and snack time. She LOVED every minute of it.

Big girl!

Hot chocolate and marshmallows, please :)

Cute Bridget things:

Last week at Mom and Dad's Bridget has pistachios for the first time. A few days later she was drawing something on a white board and I asked what it was. She says, "a pistachio."

You know...I can kind of see it :)

One night she asked me for an 'Amanda' song. We were reading a Robert Munsch with an Amanda character at the time and they thought it was cute because it's Mommy's name too. I told her I didn't know an Amanda song (yes, I know there is one, but I don't know it. Maybe that's wrong, but whatever...). So, I sang 'Amanda the Spider', you know...Itsy Bitsy's cousin :) She asks for it almost every day now, lol.

One more cute Bridget thing (man that girl's on a roll!). She was saying a prayer with me the other day, getting me to repeat after her. This was how it went:

Dear God,

Help us and protect us.

Protect Daddy and Ozzy Paws and Kieran and Riley.

We love God and we love Bampie and Gammie

And ladybugs and ponies.

Amen

Couldn't you just eat her up?

And a cute Riley thing that he said seconds ago..."I am completely and impressively bored." Being six is hard you know?

Riley lost his second tooth the other night. Like, literally, in the night at 2:30. Who does that? The tooth fairy was already done her run so she came the next night :)

Last week I got pretty sick with a cold/flu something. On Thursday I was achey and feverish and sinus headachey. It wasn't good. And it was such a beautiful day that I felt bad keeping kids in. They seemed to love all the tv though, lol. While watching a show Kieran spontaneously came over to give me a hug and said, "My brain made me do that." Sigh, love him!

I know this blog is random and long. I mostly do it to record my life, cute kid things, some scrap stuff. I go back to it and smile. If others read it bonus for them (I mean, just think about how much this blog enriches your life!). I should blog more often, but things get in the way...feeding my kids, cleaning the house, watching How I Met Your Mother. Important things, essential things :)

I do have a new layout. It was for a challenge over at TallyScrapper (omword, I just thought I lost this blog post...excuse me while my heart rate returns to normal!). The challenge was to use some misting on your layout. I love how it turned out! And...my finger is still a little blue from the process, lol!

Kinda fun, right? I'm loving the blue and yellow too! Those alphas are so cute!

I'm also taking part in a fun challenge over at LCOM. They are having a Big Brother Contest :) Tanya always has the best contests! I think it's going to be a lot of fun and I'm going to do my best to stay in it! I can surely do a layout a week, right? Hope I don't get 'evicted' too soon, heehee.

Sigh, back to the essentials. Kids are calling (ie...whining). Must go find some sort of entertainment so they aren't 'impressively bored' all day.

P.S. You should all go check out my friend Meagan's wine blog. She is an attention seeker and needs people to comment for her life to be complete. Plus, she is very entertaining. Oh, and you'll learn a new word, so you get booze and education! Fun, fun. Check her out at Saturday Shiraz!

Stuck?! Sketches Feb. 1st Reveal

It's my last month on the Stuck?! team. It's been fun working with all the awesome sketches over the last few months! Look forward to a new team next month. Can't wait to see what they have in store! Thanks, Sara, for everything :)

Here is the Feb. 1st sketch:

And here's my take on it. Featuring another awesome picture by Lynette!

This paper has so much sparkle in real life. Too bad it doesn't show up as well in a photo. You'll just have to come visit and see it for yourself :)

I've been (virtually) hanging out over at TallyScrapper. The site too me some getting used to but it was worth it. The girls are really fun and friendly and there are some fun challenges. Right now they have a cyber crop going on with tons of challenges, games and, of course, prizes. All you scrappy gals should go check it out! I hope to have many layouts to show from it in the near future :)

In funny Riley news, this afternoon he was talking about saving money to buy a Lego set he wants. He said, "I've been waiting 10 years for this!" (For those of you who don't know, Riley is 6 :)).

Kevin and I just finished our EA Sports Active workouts on the Wii. I swear that chick is trying to kill me! But now it's time for How I Met Your Mother. We're almost done Season 4 and then I'll be seeking out Season 5. I swear all the shows we normally watch have been forgotten, lol. What is happening on House or Grey's Anatomy?? Ah well, I'll catch up on those in a few years...

'A Good Day' or 'How Cute Are My Kids??'

It's been a nice day. I took Riley out of school early for an orthodontist appointment. Man, that stuff starts young...orthodontists, opthamologists! So many years of appointments left! At least we got to play hooky and have lunch together and run a few errands. It was fun! So nice to spend some one on one time with Riley. Thanks to Mom for looking after the other 2!

While we were out at Michael's Riley picked up some stickers of mythological creatures...a dragon, a hydra, a griffin, etc. When we got home he made a little book titled, 'Hawe to fight ferse thing' (traslation: 'How to Fight Fierce Things'). It's actually really good. He put a sticker of each creature on a page and then describes how you should best fight that particular beast. Apparently to fight dragons you need a bow and arrow. Then, "go to a very fare plac and shot!" LOL! I love it! To fight a Griffin you need, "a banch of sords. You hid and throw." Finally, to fight a troll you, "need a sord. He swings down lowe you jamp and swing." So creative! Then, get this, he says he wants to send it to someone. I think, "that's so cute." I asked him who he wanted to send it to he said, "someone who will make a lot of copies, then I want to put them in a store." Heehee. My 6 year old is looking to get published already! Awesome! He is too amazing. He later told Kevin that he wanted to have a fighting store where he would sell Nerf weapons, fake creatures and copies of his book. Don't worry, I'll let you know when the grand opening is. Save up, a fake dragon can't be cheap ;)

Yesterday I did preschool duty for Kieran's class. He always loves it when I go and then ends up being whiny and clingy by the end. But we had fun, despite that he never wants to paint or do arts and crafts with me, haha. It's all playing in the sand and blocks. Boys! I guess we did do a little play-doh. Today, randomly while I was reading him a story he reached over, rubbed my cheek and said, "I like when you're on duty." This is the next day! He is so sweet :) I guess it's worth it.

Another Kieran thing...he wanted me to sing him Do, A Deer at bedtime. While I'm singing he says, "this is a good song because it has a deer in it." Umm...ok, I guess so :)

Bridget got glasses last week and Kieran got new ones. I tried to get decent pictures on the day, and the next morning even, but the kids weren't so cooperative, but it'll give you a good laugh :)

Here are my little artists at work one snow day last week :)

Bridget has been asking for so many weird things at bedtime. She'll call asking for lip balm. The other day she told Kevin it was ok because, "Mommy lets me share her lip balm." :) Tonight she wanted Kieran's hippo stuffie. It was already in his bed so we had to do a trade for her fish stuffie. Oh, the many jobs of a parent :) Kieran actually got up not that long ago to go to the bathroom. Apparently he took off his pj pants and his underwear and put them back on in the reverse order. He may wonder tomorrow when his underwear are on the outside :) As he was stumbling back to bed he told Kevin he wanted his hippo back. He was ok with it when we told him he'd have to wait, haha.

Here's a new layout...it's been awhile :) I'm having so much fun scrapping pics that Lynette Mason took for us last fall. She also took the one that is my blog header now. It's my fave and I need to get it blown up big!

I finished one of Kiearn tonight too but I have to wait for the light to take a picture :)

Ok, off to devote my full attention to How I Met Your Mother. We are so, so addicted. We're watching Season 4 right now. Gotta love having tv on DVD.

A beautiful Sunday

So, I did something today that I wouldn't normally do. I know some of you will be shocked by this, if you know me well enough that is. I took part in a winter activity. One that wasn't just sliding in my front yard with my warm, cozy house close by. Riley and I went cross country skiing for the first time with a friend of mine and her daughter, who is the same age as Riley. It was the perfect winter day for it, sunny and warm.

Still, if you know me, you know winter and I are the best of friends. I am all too happy to bid him good-bye in the (hopefully early) spring and reluctant to greet him upon his return. I get cold easily and stay cold forever. But, with kids, I am forced into that unpleasant winter more often than I would like to take part in sliding and snowball fights and, now, cross country skiing.

Now...I've done downhill skiing a couple of times when I was younger and it is so not for me. I have no idea what possesses a person to strap slippery sticks onto their feet and hurtle themselves down a steep hill. So, so, so not for me. I'm hardly a thrill seeker! But I thought, "I can handle cross country." And, since I haven't been running lately (see above if you've already forgotten my dislike of winter... I'm thinking I'm a seasonal runner :)) I figured it would be good to get out and be active. I don't mind being out too much on the warmer winter days. So glad we did too because we really had a great time! Yes, I am as surprised as you are :)

There were a couple of hairy spots going up some hills (that were far from 'beginner' in my opinion!). Poor Riley kept falling and sliding back down and really, I couldn't do much to help since I would just end up in the same position! All I could do was try to talk him through it. Of course, when he fell and was struggling to get up, skiing was the worst idea ever but when he got to the top of the hill and was on the way down it was the best! That kid is SO black and white...super negative or super positive. Sadly, it's usually super negative when it comes to what he's able to accomplish and what he considers fun. We can take him sliding one day and he has a BLAST but if we suggest it a couple of days later he will swear up and down he had no fun the last time and it was the most BORING (I strongly dislike this word as I hear it at least 20 times a day from Riley!) thing ever! It's a very frustrating trait that he has and I'm hoping he grows out of it soon! He can't be a moody teenager at 6! For the most part though, I think he had a great time and I'm super proud of both of us for getting out there and trying something new. At least he got to see his mom struggle up hills too :)

What would a blog post be without pictures? :)

All squinty looking into the sun. Don't you just love how you can see the shadow of me taking the picture :) At least it's not over our rosy-cheeked faces!

It's been a good weekend. I spent a good part of yesterday scrapbooking which I hadn't done in forever! I had a great time hanging out with the LCOM girls and can't wait to do it again. You'll see some pictures of layouts soon :)

Well, I must get back to critiquing the Golden Globes. All I have to say is, "What is up with the return of shoulder pads???" Some things need to just stay in the 80s. Ok, a lot of things need to stay in the 80s since I am also deeply disturbed by teenage boys in skinny jeans.

Christian Bale...the music is playing...get off the stage. Dude, he's still talking....

Fave 10 of 2010

I meant to do this last year (as in yesterday :)), but hey, life gets busy. So, here are my favourite layouts of 2010, in no particular order (though I think the 'get messy, be happy, make art is my number one fave of the year).

Doing this made me realize 2 things: 1. I REALLY need to scrap the boys more often! Anyone have recommendations for great boy papers. I think it's more because I lack good boy product. Let's face it, there's lots of pretty flowers and bling to be had but boy stuff isn't nearly as fun. 2. Most of my best work was done early on in the year. Not sure why. Maybe I was more inspired, had more time...not sure, but it's an observation.

As I was looking through all my pictures I realized how much has happened this year. Kieran got glasses, we said GOOD-BYE to diapers (woohoo!) and the crib, Riley learned to ride a two-wheeler and started grade 1, Bridget grew enough hair to put in pigtails :) (how could she have had so little hair only a year ago!), we (and by we, I mean Kevin) grew a small garden and ate some of our own potatoes (now that we know more this year it may be more successful this year), we caught and (tried) to raise tadpoles (not sure where we went wrong but I'd like to try again, even though that feels cruel, lol), we went on our first 'official' family vacation to New Hampshire (no diapers, high chairs, baby food!), we added a puppy to our craziness! (luckily, he is such a good dog and rolls with whatever we do), Riley started Judo and lost his first tooth, I started running and accomplished a few races, including a 5 miler. It was a crazy, loud, hectic, BUSY, awesomely fun year with our amazing little (and large extended) family! Here's hoping for more of the same in 2011. Happy New Year to all!!

Cute conversations

On the way home from Grammie and Grampie's house tonight the kids were looking out the window and counting stars. I said something to Riley about how when you start counting stars it's hard because as you count more and more come out. He says...

"I count 4."

Ok...maybe it's not so hard. Then he asks Kieran how many he sees. Kieran says, "I saw a bunch when we turned the corner." Riley asks, "How many?"

Pause.

"42."

LOL! It was too cute. They were counting stars the whole way home.

It's no secret that Kieran is our pickiest eater. It's pretty much a family joke. Tonight the kids were eating supper (quickly so they could keep watching Spy Kids :)). Kieran was actually eating supper and Bridget keeps telling us all, "Kieran LIKES it. Kieran LIKES it!!" It was too funny :)

I wish I could just tape them all the time. They are just too cute.

On an unrelated note, perhaps I live under a rock, but how come no one told us how funny 'How I Met Your Mother' is?? We've been watching reruns and I'm hooked! Watching it now as I type :)

We've been having fun on vacation. With all the snow yesterday we spent a couple of hours outside building giant snowmen and snow forts, having snowball fights and sliding down our hill. Oz loved it too! I haven't cleaned the house much but we've been having lots of fun :)

Another big thing we did today was put the boys' bunk beds together! They've had them for awhile but we were waiting until, well, I guess until they were big enough that if Riley falls off the top bunk it's ok. Writing that, it seems wrong, because it's not REALLY ok if anyone falls off the top bunk and I certainly don't want him to fall off the top bunk. The instructions said the kid had to be 6 to sleep in the top bunk. Maybe they pushed some 5 year olds off the top and they broke limbs, but the 6 year olds were ok. I dunno. Whatever the instructions say must be right, right??? Anyway, they're in bed and no crashes yet. They both seem to love it. I told Kieran his was like the Batcave :) He said I could be Batgirl and he could be Robin. I think Riley has him programmed to be Robin. I told him he could be Batman in his own Batcave :)

Looking at our Christmas morning pics, there aren't any fabulous ones, lol. Mostly kids ripping into presents, the standard, you know.

Finally, I leave you with a warning...

Hands off the gingerbread house!! :) I think I should have set up these little guys BEFORE Daddy and the kids ate half the candy off it, lol!