Look Who is Back!!

Eddie!! Oh how we love Eddie!!!
Actually he came back on Friday, he comes back the day after Thanksgiving. Not sure where he is going to hide for the next 25 days, he is already running out of good hiding spots. I'm sure he will figure it out though. Hailey is really getting into it this year and cant wait to find him when she wakes up. Welcome home Eddie.....

Merry Christmas!!

I realize its only November but I can still say Merry Christmas if I want. I am getting so excited!! We are going to have a full house this Christmas and I just cant wait. We will have a grand total of 12 people, Nate, Kristi and their 3 cuties and Richard and Eva (Grandma and Grandpa). We have a lot of things planned, this Christmas will be one to remember!! We started decorating the house on Thanksgiving and finished the inside today. We had a little family photo shoot this afternoon, everyone was in good spirits so it went pretty well. Don't you just love our new train?

"Foto Friday"

What a fun week!! I am typing this post with a very full tummy and with no intentions of getting on the treadmill. We had such a lovely Thanksgiving, we had a friend over and we all had a great time. Ill do a separate thanksgiving post though. This week I also took on a new boy with Autism, I'm very excited to work with him. He is a very sweet boy but has behaviour problems as well (Note to self: check his pockets for colored pencils after drawing or you will have to clean off a whole wall of blue crayon.)
So here goes:
Friday- For some reason Masie, Taylor and I got up early and had breakfast together. I love none rush days, we maybe should start getting up earlier so we can do this more (scratch that idea, that's just silly). Saturday- Out of the blue I find myself pulling out all the kitchen cupboards to clean and organise, whats that about?? But it does look nice.

Sunday- Here is Masie and Taylor's chocolate money, I'm so glad I don't have to pay the $100.

Monday- I love this picture of Masie with her new Apes book, I love it when the kids have time off from school and we can just hang out together.

Tuesday- Masie made me this lovely bracelets, its a perfect fit and I wanted to take a picture so I could keep it forever.

Wednesday- Give a girl an oven and she will cook!!! I feel like such a house wife lately, I cook and bake all the time. The best part is I'm really enjoying it (did I just say that?), things actually come out like they are supposed to. This is my very yummy banana bread.

Thursday- Charlie Browns Christmas Tree!! Isn't it really cool, we put up our tree this morning while watching the Thanksgiving day parade. It looks so nice in our living room right now.

100 bars of Chocolate

Saturday we finally got out to sell the chocolate, they did sell quite a few bars to daycare parents but the rest were done in 90 minutes, 100 bars in 90 minutes!! Wow.
Masie had her best friend go with her and Taylor took her little sister.

"OMG Who Did This?"

These were the exact words that came out of my mouth when I checked on the kids yesterday while they were coloring!!! I saw a bunch of hair on the table and I couldn't believe it, Hailey started to laugh and said "I cut my hair". It was hard not to laugh but I did the right thing and she was it BIG trouble. It could have been a lot worse, you cant really see it. I'm so glad she did it there and not at the front. Little DEVIL!!!!

A Chilled Out Morning at the Zoo

Today I decided instead of lunch in the house and relaxing time I would treat the kids to a picnic at the zoo. Don't be fooled by the hats and gloves, they were just excited to have new things. It was not hat a scarf weather but, whatever:)

Masie had money so she bought an Apes magazine which she can not put down, she was so funny. She was being really grown up today, we walked around to the park and me and her sat on the bench chatting while the little ones played, it was really lovely. Mason is just a little love bunny, I couldn't imagine my days without him. He has been apart of our everyday now for over two years and we love him to bits.

Taylor looking after the boys for me.

Hailey just LOVES her new spongebob hat, she cant wait for school next week so she can show her teachers.

As you can see from this picture with the leaves that are still green, the sky is blue and the sun is shinning, it is NOT hat and scarf weather. In fact if certain people were here from England or Kalispell they would be in shorts!!!

"Foto Friday"

This week seemed to have zoomed past, its been a pretty good week I guess. Nothing too exciting has happened but here goes.

Friday- The girls were having movie night and when I went in to tell them goodnight and time for bed I saw this. Masie was having a sleep over in Hailey and Taylor's room so I got her sorted out and they were out for the night. Saturday- Happy girls! Me and the girls had a great time shopping in the mall together and then snuggling up in the evening doing hair and watching a movie.

Sunday- The girls wanted to save their crystals so they are now in these test tubes and in their rooms, well until I throw them out of course. (They will never know, trust me.)

Monday- Remember the chocolates from last year? Well if not, the school sends out forms for you to sign that your child can sell chocolates. Both Masie and Taylor wanted to do it and so we now have 100 bars of chocolate sitting in my kitchen. We will be going out this weekend to see if we can sell them, they have already sold about 20 bars between them from daycare parents so they are on their way. Bottom line is I do not have $100 to buy chocolate so they better get a wiggle on.

Tuesday- So I tell Hailey we are leaving to pick the kids up from school, I said get your coat on so we can leave. This is what she choose to wear, a rain coat and a cowboy hat (Think its time for a new hat here Nanny and Grandad!!) To add to the Haileyness she has a disgustingly dirty face from making dry mud pies with Mason and daymen.Wednesday- This is my lovely little pre-school class. I'm very happy with our new routine and the kids that are the same age. We have so much fun doing pre-school, mornings are my favourite.

Thursday- Today was Masie and Taylor's Thanks giving lunch at school, parents were invited to join them. After a big discussion of going back and forth as both girls wanted me, (sorry Chris but I'm just cooler than you) I was picked to go with Taylor. Unfortunately Taylor woke up really poorly, she was throwing up and had a really bad tummy. It was such a shame but she had to stay home (she is still real bad so she is going to the doctor tomorrow). So I went with Masie and we had a nice time, we sat and just chatted and it was really special to have that one to one, although we were surrounded by 200 people I felt like we were all alone.

Peanut Butter Sandwich

Masie came home yesterday and told me a great thing she did at school, she was so excited to tell me and was giggling the whole time.

She had a partner (Kaden) and Masie was blind folded,she had to tell Kaden how to make a peanut butter sandwich with out looking. He had to do exactly as she said. She goes:

1. Take 2 slices on bread out of the bag
2. Spread the peanut Butter on one side
3. Place the other slice on top of the peanut butter
4. Put it on a plate.

She takes off her blind fold and starts laughing and said : "Kaden why are your hands covered in Peanut Butter?" He said " You never told me to use a knife". She said she laughed so hard, her telling the story had me in stitches laughing.

Star of the Week

Each student in Mrs Tade's class gets a whole week dedicated to them, this week Taylor was the chosen one. She was unbelievably happy and excited. She picked out her pictures and we sat together and made her poster. She was very happy with it and couldn't wait to go to school on Monday. They take time to get to know her and what she likes and doesn't like. I told her she had to use her big voice so people could hear her and her teacher said she did just that. She was asked where her favourite place to visit was and she answered "London". They asked her what her favourite snack was and she answered "dried fruit", this is all the information I got. Doesn't she look proud of herselfMasie and Hailey felt left out and wanted to make a poster too, I think they all turned out perfectly and everyone is happy.

Science Sunday

We bought this really cool science experiment and finally got to play around with it this weekend. Its purpose was to make soft crystals but it had several other experiments before that. It held all the girls attention for well over an hour and the results were great. They really got into it and was excited to see the findings.

Kitchen: Before and After

This last week Chris has been fixing up our kitchen, it so needed doing. Basically the oven we had only worked successfully if you like burnt food, and we had this stove top which was OK but the right hand rings didn't get very hot. So we decided to get a new oven and stove top as one. While we were at it we thought why not do the counter tops too, oh and the sink.
Excuse the pictures, I couldn't get good ones as Chris said he was going to start on Monday and then Friday afternoon when I came in from playing with the kids I found this. In the second picture take a look at the sink, this is the only picture of our old sink but trust me its awful. After a long hard week of not having a kitchen and having to go to the doctors because all the dust made my skin crazy, we now have this:

I am very happy with the finish result. I also used my oven for the very first time, we had a friend over for dinner who is on TDY here I wanted to give him a nice home cooked meal. BUT, I haven't used an oven in years. So I call the person everyone calls in a crisis, my best friend (My Mum). We decided on a meat pie with mash potatoes and Broccoli and of course Ahh bisto, all of which was made from scratch (including the pastry, thanks Kristi) and it was a complete success. Shame on me for not taking a picture but I felt a little weird in front of company taking a picture of the dinner. Thank you Mum you are the B.E.S.T, love you!!!!

H.a.i.l.e.y and a Secret Handshake

Hailey is SO clever!! She has learnt how to spell her name, her teachers couldn't believe it when we showed them. I have taught her for awhile now but she never has picked it up and when I ask her "how do you spell your name" she usually answers "Yellow" or "poo" so I was really impressed when she finally caught on. (these clips really make me laugh, Hailey has such a great personality).

Masie and Taylor have been working on their secret handshake and asked me to record it:)

"Foto Friday"

Yes I realize its almost Saturday but here it is, better late than never. Last night I was extremely tired and just could not do it. I seem to have been busy all day and even in relaxing time I was pre occupied with "kid" stuff. Lets get to the fun stuff shall we before something else comes up:)



Friday- This was a great time, I went to Taylor's Library time and helped them all choose a book that they could keep forever. I got my own little group and it was really fun, I enjoyed it and the kids were laughing the whole time. After we chose their books I read them all to them and it was so much fun, Taylor really joined in and was comfortable me being my silly self and entertaining the group. Saturday- The girls finally did their Santa letters and put them in the mail box, they were excited to see how long it would take for an elf to come and pick them up, to their disgust it took longer than they anticipated.

Sunday- We have some what of a kitchen now, Sunday we had a stove and no sink but at least I was able to cook some yummy fajitas. I can not wait to have a fully functioning kitchen again. Its looking really great, Chris has worked none stop over the last week and I'm so proud of him, he has done a wonderful job.

Monday- I went into the school with Mason and Daymen while the girls were in class and took a picture of all the stars on the wall. A note came home last week and we had to put the veterans down that were in our family. I put my Dad down too as he served in the British Army for over 20 years, it was great to see him up there.

Tuesday- Dust was flying around the house from all the home improvements, there was stuff everywhere and large tools in the backyard. This wasn't too much of a problem until I went and picked up the school kids and my numbers went from 3 to 7. Entertaining 7 kids in that situation was making me panic so I took them all out front to play until parents came to take them home.

Wednesday- Chris was invited into the school to speak in Masie and Taylor's class. He did a great job and the girls were really happy to have him there. (Such a handsome husband I have)

Thursday- What a happy bunch of kids. Daymen is the little boy we are watching until he gets a space at pre-school, he is a happy little guy and its no secret that he has a huge crush on Taylor. You can see them holding hands in this picture.

So my 7th Foto Friday!!! These posts are going to be so fun to look back on in years to come. I cant wait for my Foto Friday when all six cousins are together!!!