Other stuff

Some things that I've been meaning to write down so I remember them!

* Rhett saying "excuse me mom" when I'm talking or doing something and then when I acknowledge him the first thing he says is "I said excuse me mom...." and then continues on with what he needs or wants. Melts me every time.
* Both kids can beat me in Mario Cart without me letting them
* Brock can turn the TV on and off - it is driving his sibs crazy!
* Brock has recently discovered the garbage - putting things in and taking things out and apparently he sent home half a pig magnet with Auntie Lishie when she was here visiting
* We moved Rhett into a bigger booster chair to help with the whole big kid thing - he loves the new chair and still refuses to tell me when he needs to pee unless we're out in public
* Rhett gave Auntie Lishie a new name : Auntie (fill in the color) shirt - he called her Auntie Pink Shirt etc and it stuck for the weekend. Pretty funny.
* Went swimming with the kids : Zane loved it, Rhett braved the water and waded even though he informed me he was only going to sit and watch and Brock screamed like I was torturing him when I dipped his toes in. He clung to me the whole hour and cried for almost the whole time.
* I think Brock has enough shoes right now to wear a different pair every day for 10 days
* Brock can get down off the couch and big chair by himself....won't be long until he can get himself up too
* Zane came out wearing his sweat pants the other day and announced that wearing them made him feel lazy and that he was just going to be lazy all day. I thought that was a good idea so we all wore sweats all day and it was a good lazy day.

I think that's all for now....

Picture Catch Up

So we're going from newest to oldest pictures because there's a lot and I'm too sick right now to take the time to move them all around.
Hope you enjoy!


Zane blowing the candles out a the end of his weekend celebration. I've said it before and I'm saying it again - birthdays around here kind of turn into an event between friend parties, grandparents and aunties and the actual day! This cake was on his actual birthday and we had the Paynes and the Pratts come over to celebrate. It was a blast! We made homemade pizza with Payne's and after the Pratts showed up we had Oreo ice cream cake with lots of toppings. Yum!

I just love this kid! Can't believe he's 7!

Brock saw the basket ball Zane got for his birthday, picked it up and took off with it. I was impressed that he could handle it!

Silly ball is getting away from him! He was determined though and walked around with it for quite awhile.

The triumphant reveal. He has been bugging me ever since to go and shoot some hoops...hopefully the weather holds and we can do that over Easter break.


Examining his new hockey card collection from us. And Rhett being excited for him and explaining to Papa what it is.

Blowing candles out at his friend party. I did Oreo cake again but I froze it in the silicone cupcake sheets - brilliant! The kids LOVED them - some even ate 2. I'm never going back to real cake again for a kid's party - so tired of throwing it away. Anyways, he was thrilled that we managed to get all 7 candles into the little cup cake and did a great job at blowing them!

I totally stole this idea from Rhonda. And it worked...mostly. Some of the kids were more interested in eating the marsh mellows than actually building with them but we did end up with some fun structures.

Home made lava lamps. I googled kids easy science experiments and found tons of fun stuff. These are water, food coloring, vegetable oil and salt. When you pour salt in it forms globs with the oil and falls and moves like a lava lamp. The kids LOVED this one and they all got to take theirs home with them. I found the pitchers at Dollar-rama. One mom wrinkled her nose but the rest thought they were great.
My Rhett-man showing off his balloon blown up by a pop bottle. He just melts my heart!

Zane and a couple of his school friends showing off their pop bottle balloons. Another hit!

We made volcano lava in my big bread bowl but I was too busy keeping that one under control to get pictures. I think that was probably their favorite one!

A recent family home evening : a bowling tournament on the WII. And I don't remember why Brock doesn't have any clothes on but he was happy as long as one of us had him!


Zane showing off his mad curve skills. He learned them from Cliff - I can't make it curve to save my life.

Rhett's a great bowler - even when daddy is trying to psyche him out!

One of my absolute faves of this little boy!

And another. Watch out girls....he's a heart breaker. I can see I'm going to have to get a big stick to beat them off. Sigh. Why do they grow so fast?

I caught Rhett and Jake Payne making an awesome train track during piano lessons one day. They were being quiet so I went to investigate!

Brock showing off his faux hawk doo before heading to church in Barnwell at the end of February when we went to visit our new nephew.... and everyone else of course!

Nephew Cohen. I need to steal some pictures from Rikki 'cause every time they were around I was busy trying to keep Brock from mauling him!

Cliff and Brock hangin' with cousin Paxton. We managed a quick stop in at Lishie and Jay's...long enough for a quick hold and hi and bye!

Ready to leave for Taber...and trying to get Brock to leave his hat on. It was a losing battle! But he's so stinkin' cute in it! And of course since the Olympics were on at the time Cliff had to wear his team Canada jersey on the drive home!

Brock playing peek-a-boo under his high chair. I thought he was stuck but he was having a great time!

Alone in the chair with the TV remote. Life is good. And yes his shirt says DUDE.

I LOVE this killer little smile. He definitely lives up to his shirt!

So that's it for pictures right now!

March in a nutshell....or bigger

This blog may be long...and it's going to be picture-less. Pictures are on my list for tomorrow....

So let's see. It seems like the month has been filled with teases of spring...lots of mud, lots of puddles, lots of dead grass dragged into my house - but also lots of sunshine and promises of longer days. Brock is DYING to be outside with the big boys but can't seem to walk in anything but his Robeez shoes. We're working on that.

Brock is getting more and more independent every day. He loves to pull pop bottles out of the boxes in the hallway and walks around with them until his mean mommy snags them and puts them back in the fridge. Thinks wrestling with the big boys and daddy is great. Is very vocal. Has cut 2 molars and is taking FOREVER to cut the next two. His mobility has increased tons and he can navigate our little step pretty good now. He's usually bright and sunshiny and keeps me hopping all day!

Rhett is a big kid. That's been our mission this month - to convince him of that. And it's working - sort of. We're still having potty issues and after talking with some great friends I felt that part of the problem was that he viewed himself as a little kid instead of a big kid. So we've been working on pointing out all the big kid things that he does and can do. We're slowly seeing a trickle effect and I'm hoping that one day he'll decide that being potty trained is a good thing. The poor child has huge feet and is forever tripping over them - it breaks my heart. But he just keeps getting up and goes. He loves to play with Zane, but is just as happy to see him leave in the morning so he can do what he wants! My Rhett-man makes me smile and laugh every day.

Zane turned 7 on the 22nd! How in the world did that happen? As I watch him grow up I'm getting glimpses of the man he'll be one day and it makes me happy and sad all at the same time. Zane loves school and his kind heart and fun personality has helped him make lots of great friends. He has read 100 books this year and got to choose a book to bring home and keep. He chose a story that we've checked out of the library before because he knew it was one of Rhett's favorites. Seriously, can a son melt a mom's heart any quicker? He's getting soooo tall, and loves so many different things - sports, reading, playing, video games....he's always busy doing something. We had a great birthday weekend for him....Friday we had his friend's party and did some science experiments and building and cake and presents and outside play. It was a hit and he was thrilled! My mom was able to come up on the Tuesday before his birthday and then dad and Kinsey and Alisha and cousin Paxton showed up Friday night. It was a packed house filled with lots of laughs and fun. Sunday morning we did Birthday Waffles - whip cream, strawberries, carmel sauce, chocolate sauce, raspberry syrup....yes, it was a diabetic coma waiting to happen. I've got lots of pictures and will try to get them up soon!
I can't believe that he's already 7! He's such a joy and treasure to us and I can't wait to see what this year brings for him!

And as for us...we've managed to sneak in a couple of nights off by ourselves with our friends and even a couple of dates. As well as birthday parties for friends, parent teacher interviews, YM's, seminary experiences....etc. It's been an action packed month and I can't believe it's drawing to a close already. We're gearing up a for a great and busy spring break as we become parents to 6 for 10 days. Yep, 6. Our wonderful friends Jas and Rebecca Payne are like family to us and are leaving on a cruise. We're moving into their house with their 3 kids 11, 7 and 4 for 10 days. It's going to be busy, hectic, and probably stressful but really fun. Our kids get along great and it's just one big party when we're all together. I'm trying to do some planning of things like conference activities and Easter - Rebecca and I have had our heads together planning and I think it's going to be great. I'm praying for lots of sunshine! I'll try to keep you posted on the chaos of life with 6!

Kitchen update...

So remember way back at the beginning of the month when our dishwasher flooded the kitchen? We're not under water or construction anymore! We were pretty sure that the floor was going to have to come out and Cliff wanted to put tile in and I was not happy or budging on that. Thankfully, after a couple of days of drying out, our wood settled back in and is almost perfectly smooth again. For the few imperfections left it's not worth fixing. And after a few different parts, a couple of holes drilled in the back of my cabinet, and some frustrating moments, the dishwasher is working again, the mess is cleaned up, and I'm happy to say that I am spoiled again.

It's a good thing.

It's been awhile....

since I've blogged. Mostly I've just been too tired, too busy or too something.

BUT

I just lived through a whole week without my computer - and not by choice - ahhhh - I felt so disconnected and lost. But I'm back and I've got some great stuff to share....but not tonight.

I just wanted you all to know that I didn't leave blogger land forever and ever.

You know it's going to be a long morning when...

You walk into your kitchen at 6:50 am and find it submerged in water. Yep. Sometime between 4:45 and then a hose burst on our dishwasher and flooded my kitchen....and seeped through to our bedroom closet. (Our room shares the back wall of the kitchen.)

Almost every towel in the house, 2 1/2 rolls of paper towel, 2 rounds with the shop vac (our closet floor), one box of salt (again our closet) and 4 hours later the mess is mostly taken care of. I say mostly because our room is still destroyed - everything that was in the closet is either on our bed or strewn around and we have 2 fans drying out the carpet. The salt helps to draw the water out and will have to be vacuumed up soon. And the jury is still out on the kitchen floor. It's a hardwood laminate if that makes sense and we're not sure yet if we're going to have to rip it out or if we got it cleaned up in time. Sigh.

And I have laundry EVERYWHERE that is ready to be folded....and I usually do that on my bed. Big flat service that Brock can't reach. Feeling a tad disorganized and behind as that was not what I had planned to do with my morning.

So back to hand washing for now. Cliff thinks he can fix the problem fairly easily - just needs the time to do it. This coming weekend is Red Deer's Home and Garden Show and Cliff is in charge of Trail's booth and display and all that good stuff so it is a busy week for him during and after work and all weekend.

It could have been a lot worse....had it been leaking all night our entire bedroom floor would have been soaked and some stuff seriously damaged or destroyed! I'll take 4 hours of clean up over the mess that any day!

Angel for me

I need a quick minute to thank my Heavenly Father for sending me my friend Rebecca. There are so many things about this friend that I LOVE. But last night she topped them all.
Knowing how sleep deprived I am - really it's getting a little scary - and having been there before herself - my WONDERFUL friend pulled me aside last night and told me she wanted to take my kids one afternoon a week so that I could sleep for 3 HOURS with no interruptions. And this isn't just a one time deal. She wants to do it EVERY week.

Right now there aren't many things that could top that gift. And I have to be honest....for the smallest part of a second I considered refusing her....telling her not to put herself out for my benefit and that I would continue to manage somehow. And then I told my stupid self to shut up and let the smart self recognize the gift that my Heavenly Father was giving me : An answer to my prayers. Not in a way that I envisioned - Brock sleeping through the night - but in a way that will allow someone close to me to serve me and give me a way to cope better with the stresses of my life. So I burst into tears, gave her a huge hug and started counting the days until Thursday afternoon!

Living away from our families is hard. But the Lord has blessed us with friends who can fill those roles our family would if they were close. We are truly blessed and thankful for that. Thank you to all of you that fit that role.