Ingram Family

Update from Winter Wonderland

2010-03-05T14:34:00.009-04:00

Talked to my Dad in South Africa today on Skype for $0 ... realizing my phone bill won't have an extra $25 charge on it for the call .. priceless ...

Haha finally Dad has dragged me into the Skype world. I wasn't purposely avoiding it, just lazy. It'll be much nicer on the pocket book to chat for free and not to mention it throws in the webcam video to boot. It was nice to see everyone!

The update of my cross country ski trip .. Well I did it and that's all that matters. I really did start getting nervous the day before we left realizing that I had never biked, walked, ran or did anything physical for 20 kms. I quickly started to doubt myself. It was a nice trip though. I had such a good time and felt so proud for making it .. however I didn't look that great doing. I'm not sure I was all that graceful to watch .. but I made it. Huge heaving pack on my pack and all! And yes I did carry my own beer in ...

We also happened to have a lovely snow day that week, the only one we've had all year ... it's only taking me about 30 years to realize that as a Canadian I may as well just embrace the cold old white stuff .. dress for it and it's not that bad at all!

You know though, right now, we don't have one bit of snow. Usually down here we would still be looking at getting hit by atleast another snow storm or two in March but I have to say I don't see much snow in the forecast at all. I guess it will be skiing at Martock on man-made ski trails.

Let's see how quickly I can update and eventful two months

2010-02-05T09:33:00.007-04:00

Ok so we left off making cookies ....

Quick review of Christmas .. we lost power, for HOURS, so we packed up everything and had Christmas at mom's because atleast she had a generator .. something we will be buying for next winter .. everything turned out great, lots of food, lots of drinks, lots of family and lots of presents ... it was a wonderful Christmas (early Christmas that is)

Then came Christmas Eve, the packing, the airports, the planes, the airports, uhh the airplane food .. we survived it, the kids did better than I expected, however I suspect it will be a while before any of smokers that that many kids through Heathrow again. All good though.

Then we arrived to Dads, where I thought the heat the first day was going to kill us. Joshy's poor little face was so red I didn't know what to do, except throw him in the pool. I have posted a bunch of pics on facebook, also Caitlynn and Kelsey have theirs up as well.

Overall of the trip, Dad provided for us quite well, a chef, maids/nannies on staff. It was so nice to not have to do laundry for three weeks, that was a huge gift in itself. Arthur was an amazing Chef and really opened our eyes to cooking and eating more healthy. Since coming home we've been more organized with our shopping list and the weekly menu is created on Sunday. We have managed to make some good changes to our eating since being back. Ok enough about the cooking .. you have to understand though it was the kids favourite part of the day. They would look for Arthur all morning to find out what was for breakfast/brunch and then bug him about what was for supper. Another plus is he made Kelsey a seperate vegetarian meal every day. Totally spoiling her.

The heat was great, a nice change from our winter. The bars were fun. Sun City was amazing and requires a whole post in itself. It was so nice to be able to spend time with my Dad, but it was touching to be able to see him spend some time with the kids.

This trip requires personal conversation one on one to be able to story tell right.

A few pics for those who don't check into facebook so much.

I must get going though, I'm preparing for an audit on Monday (yay) and a cross country ski trip with Mike, Derek and JJ this weekend. We are skiing in 20 kms to a cabin in the woods, staying over night and skiing back out 20 more kms. I'm sure I'll make it .. but I doubt the last 5kms in either direction will be graceful .. actually maybe 7. Wish me luck!

See how fresh we look at the Halifax airport getting ready to take off .. we have no idea what is to come .. HAHA

Lots of pool time .. we all appreciated having the pool on the grounds for those intense heat days

Our chef making us some flambe pasta at dusk with some a beautiful view to eat and enjoy with

Another litte chef in the making. Each of the kids took their turn cooking with Arthur!

Dad begging me for another shot of Tequila in one of the outside bars we visited. In fact all the bars were open-air .. well that we went to anyway.

One bar Dad and I got soaked because he thought it would be a great idea to ride the quad into the bike pool .. imagine my surprise when I hit the water .. still a blast though!

Perhaps JJ and I have had one too many shots of Tequila, now we are starting to pose for our pictures .. and not well might I add.

Some long-lasting friendships made (that's my brother Bradley Jack with Joeye)

Joshy's new best friend was this dog we were scared to death of .. well at first anyway. Big loveable cuddly dogs though really once you get to know them.

A beautiful pic from Sun City. Behind Dad and Jo is the Tsunami wave pool .. it was intense. Ripped my bikini bottoms right off and I had to make a choice between saving my undies or my kid .. needless to say Joeye knows how to swim now .. haha I kid I kid

And the animals did some odd things wherever we went. The turles, the lions, the ostrich .. have you ever seen ostrich mate? Very very odd ...

Pics to follow next week of Mike and JJ carrying me out of the woods .. HAHA

Cookies, trees and packing ...

2009-12-08T11:51:00.003-04:00

We are trying to pull off an early Christmas this year since we are flying out Dec 24th for South Africa to visit my Dad for three weeks .. have I even mentioned that yet I wonder? I've been so busy trying to get ready that my head is absolutely spinning. Can't wait to get some time off work and just relax for a few days .. it'll be so nice!!!

Some pics to entertain you ... Christmas baking with Nanny and JJ's sister and girlfriend and also a pic or two of our tree hunt last night.

Caitlynn's three seconds of fame ...

2009-11-16T12:08:00.007-04:00

.... as she announces hockey night in Canada last Saturday night with her hockey team on CBC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tb_vYb2rWo

Also a few pics from Melanie's wedding .. I apologize now as you can see I am no photographer .. for some reason almost every picture I took of Melanie she was making some weird face ... anyhow lots more time to take pics of Melanie and Jimmy as I'm sure they will share many years of happiness ... Congrats to you both!

I know two posts in one day ...

2009-11-02T14:50:00.003-04:00

... you are about to witness how truly pathetic I am, get ready. Anyone who knows me well knows I am truly a Celebrity Smut Fan .. I love Perez Hilton. I know sad but true .. even sadder was the amount of excitement I felt when I realized Joshy was wearing the exact same Halloween outfit as Gwen Stefani's oldest son Kingston ... now see I used to think I was a super cool and down with it **I am making funny ghetto hand gestures** but now I know I truly am! I bought mine at Winners .. hmm I wonder where she got hers .. maybe Josh is wearing a designer costume .. haha okay okay I'm going too far I know!

The Party train is coming

2009-11-02T12:54:00.006-04:00

I can hear them coming. The clan (well most of the clan) will be gathering this weekend for Melanie's wedding. There were a few others parties in the last few weeks held in her honour. So very excited for her! Melanie can you even believe you will be married this time next week!

Halloween went somewhat smoothly. I've had a few sickies in the house so that's created a few obstacles since I am current the only healthy driver but we're managing. I'm mostly concerned that we'll all be better come the weekend!

I was just looking for an updated garage pic since the siding has gone up and I see I haven't taken any .. will have to do that soon before the snow covers it ... oh and also Mike's gorgeous new place in Bedford .. talk to you all soon .. see most of you this weekend!

Getting ready for a vacation ...

2009-10-15T11:02:00.010-03:00

That's right we're getting ready ... passports, needles, buying suitcases (teenage girls need lots of suitcases to go anywheres) ... we're all going the whole family, Mike and Emilee including .. we're off to South Africa. Dad has bought us all plane tickets and we're now into the thick of trying to get everyone's needles up to date and although the older girls had passports for when we went to Florida last year the babies never came. So that has taken up a chunk of time.

The garage building is still coming along. We are into the final stretch of it now. The siding just got delivered yesterday so any day I should have some new updated pictures with a completed garage.

For now I will leave you with last weekends photo shoot with Joeye. Amy was gone to Miramichi for Thanksgiving so we just stayed close to home while Daddy continued in construction mode. Joeye had me take like a hundred pictures of her.

Crazy schedule up ahead .. Henry's visit, needles, Melanie's wedding, more needles, Halloween .. start packing .. hopefully no more needles. This trip I'm not paying for is costing me a fortune.

Game on again and Nanny's birthday party!

2009-09-22T11:26:00.008-03:00

We are officially bank in the rink (Cait's hockey), back in the dance studio (Joeye's ballet/tap), back on the field (Kelsey's winter soccer, back in the pool (Joeye's swimming) and soon back in the gym (Kelsey's wrestling). Life is very busy and results in a lot of this.

JJ and the boys have also started the garage finally. They've been making good steady progress. I just can't wait until it's over so we can move on to upgrading the decks and adding a hot tub .. I mean really what am I ever going to do with a garage?

I'll actually have to take more pictures tonight .. they've actually finished the walls and put up the trusses. I'm actually supposed to be getting the shingles ordered instead of blogging.

Just some random pictures of Nanny's party .... and exactly what is Uncle Henry doing to Auntie Brenda ?? haha

A Ballerina in the making ...

2009-09-14T10:41:00.005-03:00

Joeye just started classes at the Maritime Dance Academy .. she is being proud of herself!

Summer lovin ...

2009-08-27T10:52:00.003-03:00

See you all next week!

My old camera

2009-08-04T12:43:00.010-03:00

still let's me take pictures I just can't preview what is being taken ...

Are we really all this busy ????

2009-07-29T15:23:00.002-03:00

but really who am I to be pointing this out. Honestly if it wasn't for Auntie Berta and Les posting on a regular basis what would we do. We would have to read the blogs of strangers .. how sad would that be.

I would love to post all of our pictures from camping this past weekend except we have none. Kelsey accidently broke our camera on her trip to Quebec and we just have not had the time to buy a new one .. actually not entirely true. I haven't been able to make the decision on buying a good camera or a half decent cheaper one I can let the kids use also. This last camera has lasted us a couple years so I really can't complain .. the year before that though Joeye broke two really expensive ones within 3 months. I cried. Anyway that's the real holdup. I want something not too expensive so I can still let the older girls use it without holding my breath the whole time they are gone, at the same time I still want it to take half decent pictures. Anyway I need to find the time for research ...

As I said camping at Dunromin last weekend with the crew. Me, JJ and the kids, each of our older girls brought a friend, well Kelsey brought two but they are twins, so they only count as one. Then Mom and Derek, Amy and Mitch, Mike and his dogs, JJ's brother Keith and his son Aidan and of course Henry and April and their fam! It was great .. even though it poured non-stop Friday .. Saturday was nicer and Sunday the day we left was sunny and hot .. of course! Still had a great time, can't wait to do it again next year. I bet if I go back in blog I can find the pics of the very first time me, mom, Kelsey, Cait, Melanie and JJ went, before the babies were even thoughts! So fun much fun.

This is where I would insert pictures .. so sad .. I am going to go look into a new camera right now, this is just pathetic!

Now that was a long break ....

2009-05-29T11:44:00.002-03:00

Getting back into a routine after Jamaica was painful. I booked my vacation right before my audits so I would have time to relax and gather myself before I head straight into a hectic work schedule ... what I didn't realize that was after one beautiful week in paradise, hitting home to reality was going to be like a bag of bricks in the face! Haha I'm surviving though .. almost summertime.

I've booked the cabins for Dunromin this summer. So very excited to go. We've decided to stay an extra night this year to allow for more time to go kayaking and enjoying to site .. we usually just run around and do all the fun touristy stuff! This year we'll have JJ's brother Keith joining us so it should be a good time.

Anyhow just wanted to throw a note up so everyone knows we're still breathing over here. I know my daddy checks this and I wanted to assure him everything here is good. No new pictures though, sorry, Kelsey broke my camera by accident on her trip to Quebec I'll have to pick up a new one real soon!

Love you all!

Jamaica '09

2009-04-15T10:17:00.008-03:00

What an amazing time we had! Lots of drinks, food and sun, what else could you ask for right? Well we also had two great friends .. thanks Amy and Mitch for coming with us and making it a memorable one, truly wouldn't have been the same without you .. then again atleast we wouldn't have witnesses to our drunkness I guess!

Within 5 minutes of getting to the lobby at the resort I realized I had lost my passport, being to panic and freak out for the next 15 minutes straight, then JJ tells me to calm down and not let in ruin our vacation, we would go to the Canadian Embassy and get it all straightened out in the morning. So I took his advice and calmed myself down, next thing I know JJ is freaking asking me to keep looking, if I've found it, this from the guy who not two seconds ago was telling me to chill. Next thing I know JJ is throwing me my passport .. it was actually his that was lost all along, not mine! HAHA!! I made a few calls and the wonderful staff at Couples managed to find his passport which I believe was either left on the bus or at customs at the airport. All was good again and we were ready to party!

I've already uploaded a bunch of pics on facebook but I'll throw a few on here for those who don't follow over there. I have so many more stories, our ATV tour where Amy broke her quad, the Couples Regatta, that's the pic with JJ and I and another couple with our hands raised .. haha we were so proud of ourselves. Amy and Mitch paddled their little hearts out! Soon I will get on and give more details. There's probably a story for every picture. Thanks again mom for watching my babies and keeping them safe, I would have been able to relax and enjoy myself if it wasn't for that.

All JJ's family is coming into town this week so I suspect you won't see any updates for atleast a week. Oh yeah and Easter went off without a hitch. It was just crazy trying to pull things together last minute where we just got in on Good Friday, luckily mom pulled off a magnificient Easter dinner and made everything just perfect!

Before and After

2009-04-01T09:17:00.004-03:00

Here are my before and after shots of my Turbojammin'

A total of 13 lbs lost in the end, and to be honest I've been very lazy the last two weeks. When we get home I plan to lose 10 lbs more for summer. We'll see how it goes. JJ wouldn't let me post his pictures on the site and to tell you the truth he has lost way more, his results are more dramatic and he put way more effort into it than I did .. I'm kinda glad he doesn't want me posting his pics because then it would just make mine look bad. The results are hugely dramatic, but they are there. I am able to wear clothes now that I bought before Joeye was born. I'm actually weigh less going back to Jamaica this time, although thinhgs just don't seem to be in the same place ... my ass is ginormous, but let's hope the next pounds come straight off my butt! (Don't ask I have no idea what is with that face I'm making .. geez I can't believe I'm posting my fatness on the internet, no shame)

Can't think of a title good enough for my Nanny Marsh ...

2009-03-26T11:04:00.003-03:00

Whenever I get together with my Nanny Marsh she always tells me stories of driving on the tractor with Grampy, or the time she took me strawberry picking and my butt turned all red or what seemed to be her absolutel favourite the time she changed my diaper and sat me on the newspaper and I walked around with print all over my bare butt. She always told me how special I was to her, how when my mom was pregnant for me she waited for me like a special Christmas present. She told me how leaving Miramichi was so hard for her because she knew she was going to have to walk away from me an not see me anymore. She told me how she cried for months once she left. Now I sit here myself, crying for days, because my Nanny has passed away and I know I have to walk away and let it go and that I am not going to see her anymore. No more funny emails in my inbox, no more good morning sunshines or hugs on my facebook page, no more late night chatting phone calls just to say I miss you. I miss her already. I went to visit her a few weeks ago, as you can see from my last post. I am so happy to have had that time to tell her how much she meant to me, how much I love her and that no matter what distance could never take anything away from the connection we had together. Even death can not take connection away. I will hold you close to my heart forever and always.

As I'm typing this they are preparing for her service in Timmins. I chose to not go to Timmins, whether a smart choice or not, because I couldn't deal with the pain in front of that many people. I was going to go up to support Dad but he couldn't change his flight back to Africa in order to stay for the service. I feel like funerals are for other people that are there, not for the person that has died, it is there for you to be comforted and to comfort others. I would be no good at comforting others right now and honestly I need to find comfort within myself, I need to come to terms with this on my own. I feel like a jerk for not going, like it makes it seem like she meant less to me because I haven't gone to her service, but that is not the case. I knew when I went up to visit her that I was making the choice between seeing her while she was still well or seeing her once she had passed and it really meant a lot more to me to see her and say what I was feeling and tell her how much she meant to me otherwise I knew I would regret it forever. Instead of paying my respect with all the family I got one last hug, one last kiss, one last I love you. That meant way more to me, and although I do have a side of guilt, I am happy with my choice.

After I got home from my adventure through Ontario, I hadn't heard from Nanny in a couple of days, hadn't seen any recent forward jokes so I fired off a quick email to her asking her how she was doing ... she will replied with a simple "I'm still here honey don't worry about me I'll be just fine"

These are my thoughts for Nanny today, since I could not bear to be at her service. I love you Nanny, you are in a much better place now, free of pain, rest in peace. You will be forever missed ... I will always hold you close to my heart.

Back from our trip .. update delayed

2009-03-12T09:37:00.003-03:00

As you know my Nanny Marsh hasn't been well, so Mike and I decided to go on a road trip to see her and we hauled JJ along with us. So first JJ and I got up Thursday at like 5 am and flew to Montreal (where Mike had been working on contract) then Mike picked us up at the airport and we went back to pack up and clean his place since he had finished up his contract there. Then we got in the car and drove to Sudbury, I don't remember how many hours this was exactly but it was definetly alot of them, I think it was like 9 hours or so. Once we got into Sudbury we spent that night visiting with Nanny, got a hotel that night, went back to visit with her again in the morning until about supper time and then hit the road again. So now it's Friday and we're on our way to Timmins, I think it took us about 5 hours to get them, mostly because we ran into a little weather and the creepiest gas station on earth. Nothing at all on a three hour stretch of highway, nothing, except this one creepy gas station and store with stuffed animals in it and stuff, it was a total horror movie scene, we booted it out of there quite quickly. So we spent the night in Timmins with my Bompy and visited with a few relatives. At lunch the next day we stopped to get a famous Timmins "Chez Nous" poutine and then off we were to Toronto, why Toronto you say .. because JJ's brother lives there and really what was a few extra hours anyways. So we didn't get into Toronto until about 11pm ... we had hit more weather and I think it was like a and 8-10 hour drive, I can't remember just a lot of driving once again. We stayed there and hung out with Keith until the wee hours of the morning, then got up at 10 am sharp and was off again .. this time for home. We left Toronto at 10 am Sunday morning and didn't get home until 4 pm Monday afternoon. We ran into a huge snow storm, or a weather bomb the radio kept saying, that took hours and hours to get through, the plow kept falling off the road. We made it home though. I'm happy that I went and got to spend that time with Nanny.

On another note .. Kelsey placed third at provincials for wrestling. Caits hockey team is off to Provincials for hockey in a few weeks and I have Turbo Jammed myself down 10 pounds so far .. it is ridiculously slow coming off though, but hopefully that means it will stay off.

JAMAICA IN 3 WEEKS ... I REALLY NEED THE VACATION!

It hasn't quite been a week ...

2009-02-18T09:40:00.006-04:00

.. but I'm flying out in the morning to meet up with Mike and then we are driving up to see Nanny Marsh who is quite sick right now. I haven't been able to get a hold of anyone to tell them I'm coming but oh well I guess it'll be a surprise.

Kelsey had another wrestling tournament last weekend and this time she took home the gold. She is now preparing for Regionals coming up in a couple of weeks and then hopefully off to provincials.

Cait has just started provincial playdowns for hockey and they won their first game last night

2-0. I think provincials are in Truro this year.

Joeye had her first ever Valentines party. She made one of those Valentine pocket holders and then gave out Princess Valentines to all her friends. It was very exciting for her. They even made cute little cookies (which I didn't eat but don't tell her that).

Not much of an update I know but Dad called me to tell me to expect threatning emails and phone calls if I didn't post!

As Amy told me this morning ... 42 DAYS TO JAMAICA

I can't believe I didn't post my favourite Florida picture .. Hey it's shrinking all my pics .. sorry for now I guess everyone will just have to squint.

This is just not as warm as Florida!

2009-02-13T09:58:00.004-04:00

Our vacation to Florida with the girls was amazing. The hotel I booked was fabulous, turned into be like a mini-resort, the kids were just amazed. It was really nice tobe able to spend some quality time with just the girls and let all the focus be on just them and what they wanted to do. Needless to say with girls we shopped for three full days! By the time JJ and I got back from our vacation we needed a vacation .. so with Amy and Mitch we booked a trip to Couples Negril in Jamaica April 2-9th. We've been planning on doing this since Amy and Mitch went to Jamaica last year and ever since JJ and I got married we said we'd love to go back! Last time we went to Sandals and this time we're going to try Couples. There was an amazing sale on and we just couldn't pass up the price. So that's where my focus is these days ... Turbojamming in preparation for Jamaica. JJ also has been working his butt off and for some reason it just seems to melt off him way faster than it does me. Now we've both seen some progress though so that's what matters. If I actually lost my 15 lb goal then I will post our before and after pictures ... but if not I just can't put you all through those nasty pictures without good ones at the end! The Turbo Jam videos really are a lot of fun though. I've been able to maintain doing the workouts 5-6 days per week for 3 weeks now and they reallly do seem to be making a difference, but of course it's not a magic pill. It's a lot of hard work for small results, well with the exception of JJ of course, honestly melts right off him .. just not fair.

What else has been going on .. hmm ... Kelsey won silver at a wrestling tournament last weekend, she has another tournament starting tomorrow. Cait has been playing the usual amounts of hockey and she made the volleyball team at school. Joeye got a great report card from preschool, her first one and Joshy well, he is just mischievious ... pulls his diaper off and pees on the floor daily ... it must be a boy thing!

I see things are really slowing down in blogland .. are we just all that busy really? I'm really going to try for weekly post ... if you don't see another post next Friday I'd like people to start sending me rude threatening emails.

So anybody else out there trying to lose wait for summer? It's a never ending battle isn't it?

We made it back - picture update

2009-01-10T13:09:00.005-04:00

More to come later .. I have two babies attacking me!

We're off to Florida

2009-01-04T18:57:00.009-04:00

For Christmas we gave Kelsey and Cait a trip to Orlando. The babies are staying with mom for the week and we plan to eat and ride rollercoasters all week.

I have to go finish packing though ... Here are some pictures of Christmas, our big pile of snow, Joshy trying to shovel, alot of work for a little guy ... it gives you a little glimpse into our holidays. I'll update when we get home!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Oh wait let me add their soccer picture from the summer

2008-11-27T09:29:00.002-04:00

I'm not hiding really ...

2008-11-26T22:59:00.003-04:00

I can't believe the last thing I left on my page was a page of Grammy. It was so sad, so very sad, but I got to see my Nanny on my dads side, lots of aunts I wouldn't have gotten to see otherwise and I picked a little tree sappling to plant when I got home. Kelsey came, I saw a look in her eyes that brought me back to my first funeral and those thoughts of how could someone that I cared about possibly just be gone. It was truly heartbreaking.
Dad was down for a one week visit with the boys. It was nice to reconnect. We had some quality moments which I will always remember. Seemed like they swooped in and swooped back out again ... just when I was getting used to having them around. I only took a few pics of his visit but they are all hillarious ... dad braving our summer with a big winter jacket and hat .. again hillarious.
Let's see what else has happened, visits with Uncle Paul in Miramichi, Henry came up here ... haven't seen Melanie at all .. not to mention her blog has fallen off the side of the earth somewhere .. I will get to catch up with her Saturday at Caitlynn's hockey booster night!
I know months, events, holidays and all kinds of things have passed .. but honestly I'm happy with just getting to shower in the morning let alone post in my blog. Even though I'm not posting though I'm always creeping out your blogs and reading regularly!

Some bad news

2008-09-24T10:33:00.003-03:00

Grammy Sobey passed away this morning. Not much else to say really ... rest in peace Grammy, you will be missed by many.

The Eagle has landed

2008-09-23T14:25:00.002-03:00

(thanks Amy for clearing that up) Once I received news from Nanny Marsh that dad had arrived in Timmins I started running around saying the bird has landed and even though I knew it just didn't seem to sound right I couldn't put my finger on it. So as I mentioned, Dad is in Canada. I can now call him and it doesn't cost me like $50 for a 30 minute conversation.

Mike and JJ are still hitting hard at the basement. Poor guys have been working on it near non-top. They'll go all night until 2-3 am. I actually had to go out Saturday night and tell them to shut off the saw at like 2 am because I was worried they would wake the neighbours. We're almost done though. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. The floor is laid, the paint is on the wall, the light fixtures are up. They are now just putting up trim, baseboards, mouldings that sort of thing. Finishing touches, the problem is these touches are now so obvious with everything else done that they have no choice but to finish it.

Girls and boy are still doing great. Everybody is adjusting to school and preschool and well I think Josh is adjusting Nanny to a toddler. You can't turn your back on him for one second or he's standing on the table, or the island or using your laptop as a trampoline or your straightener to stir the toilet water with .. it's just awful. Not to mention it's only the beginning of it so I suspect I have another 6 months or a year of this to go.

I am keeping busy with work and extra contracts, not to mention cleaning my little heart out. It's sort of like when JJ goes out to sea and the night before he comes home I find myself scrubbing in between the tiles with a toothbrush .. except this time it's my Dad coming home and luckily for me the house is pretty new so it doesn't require a whole lot of intense scrubbing.

I just love Auntie Berta's new blog updater thing, just forced me into posting out of guilt though so I wasn't on the bottom of the list! Hope all is going for everyone in blogland!

Can I hear the school bus coming already?

2008-08-25T10:26:00.010-03:00

Can you even believe summer has almost completely passed us by?

The one good thing comes the end of soccer .. that was a schedule we were barely able to keep up with. In fact on a regular basis we had to call on Mike or Mom for drives because you can only be in so many places at once. I am scared of the day once they are all old enough to play, I might have to invest in a chauffeur. As for soccer Joeye did end up getting a medal she was so very proud of and as you can see from her biting her medal JJ has watched way too much olympics this summer ..

Mike and JJ have been working non-stop on the basement. My dad is coming to visit at the end of September and he's bringing his boys so I want to make sure I'm utilizing all the space in the house so we're all as comfortable as possible. This way it'll also add another futon and then everyone will have beds including the guests. I could have double bunked some of the girls but you know it's nice to give everyone a little space and the reality is the rec room needed to get done anyway! Now I just have to start picking out colours to paint. I'm a little stuck on which way to go. The main floor is all browns and beige with a slight flare of red, Kelsey's room is bright pink and bright yellow, Cait's is several shades of orange .. my question, should I keep the basement more natural so it goes with the flow of the rest of the house, or should I keep the rec room flowing with the girls rooms more funky and bright colours. In my mind the rec room is more as the kids own living room, where they can play their kids, chill with the friends that sort of thing which is making me lean more towards keep with their colours .. but what do you think?

I had a huge yardsale on the weekend, with mom's help of course and made over $350 selling the junk out of the basement that we had to get rid of to make room for JJ to work downstairs to finish the rec room. I would say it was a huge success. Now $350 really isn't that much, but when you consider most of everything was priced at either .25 cents or my big thing was fill a bag of baby clothing for $3 .. that was a huge seller. Kelsey was a little annoyed with me at times for what she thought was way too low pricing, but the thing was I was going to donate it all, I didn't want anything for it, I just wanted it gone ... and this way it'll pay for some of the flooring and it was less for me to drive over to the donation bin!

We still have a lot of stuff packed into the last few days we have. Nanny is down visiting as we speak. We have the cornboil coming up in a few weeks at Henry's and my Dad is coming for a visit. Dad has never met JJ, Joeye or Josh so this really should be a lot of fun! Not to mention I haven't seen him or the boys in ages either.

Should I even mention my excitement for Henry's Hurricane's?

It has been one very busy exhausting summer ...

some of us more pooped than others ...

Hope everyone is having a great summer! I'll add a few random pics of summer, maybe camping although I don't seem to have many of those .. some filler pics to make my post look bigger anyway.

Geez I almost forgot to tell you about Mike's 30th birthday party. What I can I say about it really, everyone came up, there were lots of drinks, lots of fun and 6 life size pictures of Mike ... can you believe I couldn't sell those at the yardsale?

The rest of the pictures

2008-07-30T09:12:00.006-03:00

End of July .. how crazy is that

2008-07-29T10:03:00.007-03:00

I can't believe how quickly time passes. I don't know if that's we always have such a jammed pack schedule or just that we're getting older. I actually had to review my last post to try and figure out last time I threw anything on the blog ... I can see I'm not getting any better at updating at all, so I'm guessing don't expect that to change anytime soon

We had a little bbq gathering and said our goodbyes to Uncle Dave. He set sail on the ship until a few weeks before Christmas. The kids and I got to spend a great day at the house with him, Auntie Paula and the boys. We hung out at the pool and had some ice cream and popsicle treats and then went off to Amy and Mitchs for food, drinks and a little Guitar Hero. We'll miss him ... if times keeps passing so quickly though I'm guessing it'll feel like he's home in no time at all.

Josh, mom and I had a lovely visit in Calgary. We got to spend lots of time with Les, Aaron and the boys and we had the chance to witness Heather's vows and take part in what turned out to be a lovely party. Les and Aaron also made a point to take us to Banff to do the touristy thing which was beautiful. Thanks for the hospitality guys it was greatly appreciated. Just a note, JJ still has no idea how much I spent on that Lulu Lemon sweater, is that even how it's spelled? Let's not tell him though .. that will be our little out west summer secret. Note #2 I don't think I'll ever drink another Breezer for as long as I live.

For the rest of the summer plans .. we currently have Emilee with us on a visit for a while, Natal Day and Buskers are coming up ... we also have our yearly camping trip planned for the Dunromin cottages. I love that place.

I'm going to try and get a few pics up but you know how Blogger can be sometimes ... you know it's got me wondering though, maybe it's not Blogger, maybe it's the user! I've added pics of our huge sandpile we moved by hand, awards Kelsey got at the end of the school year for Female athelete, volleyball MVP and academics, and just some random other pics we've taken so far this month!

MORE PICS COMING

Our soc hop pics

2008-07-02T09:16:00.003-03:00

Just had to post the pics of our soc hop because mom did such a wicked job on our poodle skirts and JJ just fit the part.

I'll have to post soon pics of the weekend as soon as I get them off the camera .. my boy turned one. I have to admit I'm a little sad that there will be no more babies running around. Then this morning Josh threw up all over me five minutes before I left the house. So yes definitely a little sad, but not sad enough to have any more ... hehe they are cute little buggers though eh?

Mish Mash Post

2008-06-16T10:30:00.013-03:00

NOTE -- I've been fighting with blogger for about three hours now trying to get the pictures loaded and then trying to format them, as you will note below - BLOGGER WON!!

Finally I have some pictures to post, however your going to get everything at once. We have lawn pics, Caits end of year play at school, Joeye playing soccer, Josh's baptism from the past weekend ..I think I might even have some of JJ and I at the 50's dance we were at this past weekend .. where we won first place might I add! Enjoy my post of pics!

PS - Really sorry to those who have dial up .. this page is going to take forever to load!

BAPTISM

50s Dance

JOEYEs Soccer

SODDING DAYS

RANDOMS

Why is life so crazy ?!?

2008-06-04T10:39:00.002-03:00

Almost every Thursday night I sit on the couch and realize the next day is Friday and wonder where the heck the week went! I am so busy at work that my weeks are actually passing faster than my weekends! I noticed Auntie Berta said time was passing quickly as well. Is this going on with everyone? Is it just that I'm getting older? I don't know what's going on but I wish I knew how to put the brakes on. I can't believe Joeye just turned 3, Joshua will be 1 at the end of the month, this is Kelsey's will be going to High School in September and Caitlynn will be starting her last year of elementary. Have I been sleeping or what? I guess it's just scary to sit back and think of how fast time is passing, and this is time I will never be able to get back ... my babies are growing up. How can that be? I can't even imagine how mom must feel watching her babies have babies ....

Onto other things. Mike has been up helping JJ in the yard. We finally have sod laid in the front! Mike, his friend Mike, JJ, Derek and Mitch basically killed themselves outside trying to get it done before the rain on Saturday, while Amy and I were slaving in the house trying to clean up for Joeye's party on Sunday. Although it was quite a hectic weekend trying to get everything done, it all worked out. I will definitely get some pics up of the grass .. I'm just so proud of it! It was so not fun sun tanning on the dirt. Although I'm scared to death every day I come home wondering whether or not Joeye has dug up a hole looking for her dirt for mudpies!

Joeye's goes to soccer for the first time on Saturday. She's very excited. I will have to remember to put up pics of her in her uniform .. truly the cutest darn thing I've ever seen. The other girls are doing great in it .. you'd never know they were beginners!

Joshy is doing good also. Walking all over the house .. there is just no stopping him now.

I hope everyone out there is doing well.

Oh wait I almost forgot. I should be thanking my husband for allowing me to go to see Sex in the City with Amy (loved it by the way!) and then out for a drink and some appetizers afterwards while he slaved laying the top for the grass I wanted. Love ya babe!

PS - I wish I had time to proofread this but I just don't so fill in the blanks where needed = )

A New Post !! - OLD POST THAT NEVER MADE IT

2008-05-07T09:42:00.002-03:00

I've tried to read through all the posts I missed, seems everyone is pretty busy this time of year.

Well in quick form update...

Hockey season is over. Caitlynn's team placed fourth in the league, their last tournament they picked up bronze medals and at her banquet each girl got a nice trophy and a sweater with all the girls name and numbers in each puck. It was pretty cute.

Kelsey's wrestling season is also over. We went to PEI for Nationals last weekend and she walked away with a bronze. She has had an amazing year! Volleyball's last event is tonight .. a parent/daughter volleyball match and some pizza. JJ's volleyball skills far outweigh mine so I think we'll send him in to kick some 14 year old butts ... LOL

And now .. soccer has started! All three girls will be playing this year so it should be a riot. Joeye has been practicing kicking the ball .. not with an actual ball or anything just with air but she's very excited needless to say. I'm sure for once she'd like Kelsey and Cait to be watching her instead of her always being the spectator cheering.

The boy is good. Not old enough to join anything but certainly could give any two year old a run for size! He's crawling like a mad man, cruising around the furniture, standing on his own and I suspect any day will be running around the house. He had some odd obsession with the dishwasher though, this I'm hoping he grows out of.

Time sure flies

2008-03-19T10:07:00.006-03:00

Wow it looks like the updating of the blogs lately is really taking a hit eh? Not that I should be one to be pointing the finger, of course Les and Auntie Berta are always there .. you can always count on an update from them. Thanks guys! Is it that we're all so crazy busy and hectic these days? Or are we all just hibernating from the cold?

Way to go Team Crocket on surpassing your goal I see .. expect my pledge to be coming soon, don't worry I haven't forgotten you. It's a great cause and you're certainly braver than I am for doing a 10k run, you certainly deserve everyone's support.

The kids have been busy as always. Cait's hockey season is nearly over. We have our final provincial playdown game tonight to decide if we go on to Provincials and we have two more local tournaments yet. Kelsey just won Gold this past weekend at Atlantics in Newfoundland for wrestling. We have only one event left, Nationals in PEI in May. Kelsey has won gold at every wrestling event this year for the weight class/age group. Amazing eh?

The babies are doing great. Joeye is talking up a storm these days and has recently taken up lying "Weally mommy it was my fwiend that coloured my hand, I will give her a time out for you okay?" What do you do when they are so darn cute you can't bring yourself to punish them?

Josh has been moving and scooting around like crazy .. crawling, cruising, babbling and constantly at the stairs. He is such a big boy the doctor can't very get over the size of him.

Personal update ... When we got home from Nfld our computer started to smoke so JJ ran out and bought the girls each their own laptops and set up the wireless internet. They are in heaven. Our deep freeze also stopped working sometime on our trip and well that problem has yet to be dealt with, the smell alone could kill you! Before we left for Nfld our van was broken into right on the street while we were in enjoying the dinner theatre, they decided to steal my work bag, which contained receipts for my grants, entries that weren't yet posted in my accounting system and a bank book. This happened two days before we were to leave for PEI for Caits hockey tournament so we had to rush and get the sliding door window fixed .. very helpful man at the auto repairs shop helped us out. Then just before we left for Nfld I got a call from the bank that someone was forging the stolen cheques and trying to put them through our account at work. I almost passed out. Luckily I was covered because I reported it to the police, reported it to the bank, and to our executive director .. but still. This is a new, small charitable organization just trying to get on their feet, the last think they needed was having 10K withdrawn from their account. The bank returned almost all the funds immediately so luckily it's all worked out .. but crazy drama surrounding me these days!

Happy Birthday Les I know it's just around the corner, Kelsey's is always a great reminder for me. Happy Easter everyone. Some random pics and videos for all who don't visit facebook these days!

PS -the videos wouldn't upload but I'll try again tomorrow .. they were hillarious!

No video yet ...

2008-02-15T08:34:00.004-04:00

But here are the couple of pics Cait took of mom being surprised and then of us all having supper at Jack's!

Time sure flies

2008-02-13T09:23:00.002-04:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted! I try and add pics to facebook every now and then so people at the very least know I'm still alive!

I had a big surprise party for mom for the 50th. It went off pretty well I think. I had ordered 50 flamingos for the lawn and instead got 24 penguins .. but it was still a cute display. I have Emilee flown in from Red Lake as a surprise for mom to have all her kids and grandkids with her and I definitely got a reaction from her. She was shocked to say the least. We have several videos of this floating around and I'll be sure to get a copy up soon. Lots of food and friends were there and I think a good time was had by all!

As usual the kids continue with all their sports and tournaments. Everyone is doing great. Joeye is growing up a storm as always and Josh is trying to throw in a new twist by crawling, only crawling mainly backwards so far but he 's starting to creep forward just a little.

There was so much drama surrounding getting Emilee here that it would take three pages for me to type it all but really in the end all that matters is that she made it and we were all together!

Hope everyone is well out there and I promise to get pics up soon. I think Kelsey may have already put some up on her facebook. The video is priceless though!

Wishing everyone a happy holidays

2007-12-26T23:49:00.001-04:00

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, it certainly looks like Auntie Brenda did ...

Here I am ....

2007-11-02T23:29:00.000-03:00

I was going to pull out my book of excuses .. but really I have four kids, I think that says it all. I have to say as much as I love having babies and would love to have fields of them .. we just couldn't handle it. So that's it .. I have to say, I think four is the limit. Although I love to sit back and watch them all together.

For a quick update ...

I've finally gotten around to getting the night out pictures up of all of us dressed up as the Village People. People actually recognized us so we didn't do too bad .. it was a nice change from having to explain that JJ was the dick and I was his hand.

Caits hockey is on full force. We have more practices, games and camps than we know what to do with. The team this year is a little more competitive and I'm happy to announce Cait finally got her first goal. The ref even let her keep the puck. Needless to say she's enjoying playing forward more than she enjoyed playing defence.

Kelsey has made the volleyball team and JJ is coaching this year. Adding this on top of Kelsey's very full wrestling schedule already has been somewhat challenging. She has a camp and a tournament this weekend. I think we're staying on top of it but I can out of town schedules between Kelsey and Cait will no doubt overlap ... good thing we have two vehicles.

Joeye is doing great. Luckily not old enough to join sports yet. She is on the other hand mastering pottie time. We haven't had an accident in forever. It is great not having to change her diaper but she now uses the pottie as an excuse to visit every public washroom in the city.

Joshy is good. Sleeping well. Eating lots. Pooping tons and really that's all he does .. with the occasional outburst of giggles. He's only four months old though. If Joeye keeps chasing after him like she does I figure he should be up and running on his feet within months.

JJ and I are still on maternity leave mind you with the busy schedule we have it's not much of a vacation. The house is more work than I anticipated and I think any day now the kids are going to take over .. there is more of them than us.

I would love to update on everything else, the weekend suppers, the baby shower, and our night out but honestly I have four kids .. have I mentioned that part yet .. so I have bottles to sterilize and floors to wash and wrestling camp at 8 am sharp .. ahh and I should try and sleep at some point.

Oh yeah the weight loss challenge .. geez in the end Kelsey won. She was the black horse of the competition. Since we used percentage of weight loss and she's so much smaller than the rest of us, well she took the pot of cash. It did however help me to get active and so far I'm down 10 lbs or so. Geez I wish I had time to write about the jogging with the deer, some other time though!

Hope everyone out there is well ... big hugs and kisses.

I am so bad at updating ...

2007-09-10T12:48:00.000-03:00

and don't expect it to get better anytime soon. What I'm going to do is just post a bunch of pictures and hopefully you can get some idea of what's up.

The corn boil was a success. I love being able to just hang with the clan. I also made a quick stop to see my great grandmother on my dad's side, it was nice to be able to spend some time with her, I wish I would have had longer. Hope everyone out there is well. I'm always thinking of you!

a little laugh

2007-08-10T22:56:00.000-03:00

I'm going through all the pics from last weekend when all was up to see the boy and the new house and I run into all these pictures of the girls ...

Then I start wondering who was behind the camera and I run into this picture

PS - Pics of the "see the baby/house" party to follow soon!

Happy Anniversary to my Honey

2007-07-26T11:49:00.000-03:00

To think just three short years ago I was sitting on a beach with a nice slushy drink in my hand .. today I sit with a little wee boy on my lap covered in seedy breastmilk poo .. ahh the life .. I couldn't have asked for anything better!

We're doing okay

2007-07-16T11:32:00.000-03:00

You know it's funny how quickly we forget that one tiny little baby can turn everything upside down. Not to mention we decided that this very busy time in our lives was the perfect time to start potty training .. yes yes we love to punish ourselves. Actually Joeye is doing better than expected considering she's as contrary and stuborn as her father, actually he admits the contrary part is his but insists the stuborness comes from me ... I don't know 'bout that! The little guy gets his weewee snipped on Friday and they make the parents go here .. which seems cruel to me, but I'm just going to keep my eyes closed I mean they can't force me to watch right? I can't even hold my babies for needles I'm not quite sure how I'm going to survive this. They do freeze them and everything here so atleast I know he won't be in any pain, but he's most definitely going to cry because he hates having his diaper off (so not like his Dad, hehe).

I got a couple pics of the house I thought I'd throw up also since I've been so slack doing that too. Let's hope this is the start to getting back on track!

Ensuite bath vanity that I designed, so very proud of myself, our jacuzzi tub in the ensuite as well, we also have a shower stall and our bedroom with new king bed with a Joeye in it ...

Main bath upstairs, deep tub and shower, which you can't see from my angle of course.

Top of the stairs looking down

The new chaise in front of the windows, looking out the front of the house ...

From the living room looking into the dining room, you can see the corner of my new red couch to match the colour in the entry way and the new leather coffee table type storage thingy we bought ...

Looking down the hall into the kitchen ..

Don't mind the disaster type look, we're still working at unpacking and cleaning up ... but notice my nice new stainless steel appliances and the island is still missing it's stools .. we're working on that too ...

Next post I'll get the girls rooms, the entry ways and maybe some of the outside ....

Joshua Joseph David Ingram

2007-07-01T20:25:00.000-03:00

June 30, 2007 - 9lbs 12 1/2 oz ... and no epidural might I add

Quick update

2007-06-28T10:38:00.001-03:00

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I am indeed still pregnant. JJ stops and squishes my belly like a tomatoe and tells me I'm ripe now and that it's time to let him out. It seems as though the doctor agrees with him also. As of yesterday they've started to notice protein in my urine. Not totally uncommon at the end of the pregnancy and since my blood pressure really hasn't been too bad we are not going to be alarmed. However with my ridiculously swollen shrek feet and the protein meaning my kidneys are no longer enjoying this pregnancy I am scheduled to see the doc to do a stretch and sweep on Friday morning. The doc seems convinced that will have the boy sliding out quickly. From what she can tell he is engaged and ready to come, he just needs a little natural coaxing.

I am trying to hold him in for you Auntie Brenda for a birthday buddy but it's not looking good! I'll try and keep my legs crossed 'till Sunday!

It's official

2007-06-22T10:20:00.000-03:00

It survived Joeye and even this time I thought I would be able to save it, especially since I was so close to the end but sadly .. my belly button piercing has ripped. That's right my belly button has broken. Now if anything atleast the whole thing ripped off and now it just kinda looks like two little swollen bumps that if I'm really lucky will just go back to looking atleast somewhat normal like I've never been pierced in the first place .. otherwise I'll be having some belly button reconstruction surgery done .. and geez while I'm there I may as well get some bigger boobs too! Atleast I haven't gotten any stretch marks though .. although I don't know how that's possible considering how big I've gotten.

Happy Father's Day

2007-06-18T09:40:00.000-03:00

To all the men in my life .. my Dad, my hubby, Mr H, all of my wonderful Uncles of course ... hope you're having an easy day with your feet up and a beer in your hand while you watch your wife mow the lawn ... My husband sadly will be cleaning our old place for our March out .. which by the way I've heard nothing but horror stories about.

PS - Yes I'm still pregnant .. I know I can't believe it either!

Why oh why did I decide to do this to myself ...

2007-06-13T10:24:00.000-03:00

So we have a couch, and with some work eventually a fridge, the dishwasher is looking like possibly making an appearance in three weeks, the range is somewhere between Scarborough and Halifax and has been en route for two weeks now .. geez is the range walking? .. the mattresses don't even have an arrival date, although we do have boxsprings for everyone .. not very comfy to sleep on though and do you have any idea how long it takes and excessively large pregnant person to get out of an air mattress in the middle of the night to go pee .. atleast tomorrow we will have phone, internet and cable again .. I think Kelsey is going through withdrawals ... and our mud pit .. what in the world was I thinking not having the landscaping done ... as it is the sod is looking more and more like just a dream ... oh well the family can forego the usual end of summer cornboil for a mud wrestling tournament this year I guess ... mom promises to deliver a piece of grass for me to atleast stick my toes in.

Gotta run, more moving, packing, cleaning, sweating, swelling, waddling, growing and hopefully soon labouring .. is this thing ever going to get out of me?

We're IN

2007-06-11T10:38:00.001-03:00

I know there should be pics up by now but I have to tell you honestly we're so busy my head is just spinning and I really don't expect it to let up any time soon. The house is great though, just really full of boxes right now and JJ has the basement torn apartment getting the girls rooms ready. The house in Shearwater is about 80% packed up and we are going to finish it off today and start cleaning because march out is next Monday! Luckily the Boy has not tried making an early appearance because I'm not sure I would have had enough time to stop and labour .. although I am definitely ready to have him out at this point. Kelsey is in her new school and enjoying it just fine ... pheww glad that one went smoothly and Cait will start on Monday.

I will get pics up soon .. promise .. even some of my Shrek feet as Kelsey calls them.

Happy Birthday Joeye

2007-05-31T11:13:00.000-03:00

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. Joeye has been arguing with me all week that it is her birfday not my birfday .. I've given up and told her she could have mine too. I think I'm old enough now anyway! The papers are signed this afternoon and tomorrow we should have keys .. YAY!!!!!

She used to be so tiny and cute .. and quiet .. well not really quiet but atleast she didn't move so much!

Just keeps growing and growing

2007-05-25T15:45:00.000-03:00

Seriously .. is this a bad joke or something .. how much bigger can I actually get before I explode. Here's JJ being funny thinking he can hide his big head behind my belly and pic of Joeye in her new rubber boots getting ready for our move out to the new house and mud. Closing looks to be on May 31st .. guess who's definitely getting jipped out of a birthday gift .. well then again I guess the house could count as a gift, but he better at least get it a bow!

Can you believe blogger won't let me add the pics .. sorry.

We could be closing ...

2007-05-17T10:05:00.000-03:00

as early as next week, for sure by the week after .. which will be my own birthday. I'm guessing JJ is going to give it to me as a birthday gift .. well guess what I've been carrying around for eight months that he's going to get as his!

JJ's been laying the hardwood floors for six days now. I'm sure this has ended up being a bigger job than he expected. I guess laying about 1800 sq ft of hardwood is a big job .. but what do I know. I know that he's been leaving by 8am and not coming back until after midnight every day. Luckily Derek has been helping him and another good friend has also been there giving them a hand. The guy that's installing our hardwood stairs at the same time also showed him a few tips that I think helped him out. Today should be his last day though. He's working on transition pieces, trim and clean up!

The cabinets are in, the plumbing .. although that is another story in itself. Last minute I had to run out and pick up a new vessel sink because they couldn't wait for the one I had coming in on order .. oh well in the end it may have worked out better to have the new old. The old one was more for looks that practicality and although at first it would have been real pretty .. I can see that keeping it clean was going to become a real pain fast.

I have a pic of the deck outside and a side one of me to show you how alarmingly big I seem to be getting lately. So far I've put on 19 lbs which is a bit less than I did for Joeye so it does give me a glimmer of hope that I won't remain this large forever .. although we'll have to wait and see. Please try not to mind my hair .. I can't explain what is going on in this instance but normally I look pretty cleaned up, or atleast I like to believe I do.

I will update soon with pics from the inside!

I think it's time for another update

2007-05-04T10:17:00.000-03:00

The house is coming along great. I don't have any current pictures loaded but here is one from Easter Weekend so I'm sure you can imagine how much we've progressed since then. I think they start painting this week and then the floors start going in I think ... so still on track. Let's hope the house gets here before the baby that's all I'm hoping for!

JJ is finally in refit .. or well I should say the boat is finally in refit so we took one final drive to pick up all his stuff ... and now it's full steam ahead with the moving list.

Cait has officially finished off the hockey year with a little trophy ... ahh now we can rest until the summer season begins.

Kelsey has also finished off the wrestling year, although she will continue training through the summer and she's also looking at a wrestling camp in Wolfville for a week. I do have a bunch of pictures but they aren't uploaded yet into my photobucket. You can go check them out in her facebook profile though.

Joeye and Papa having some fun .. Papa even more than Joeye I think ...

and the girls totally posin'

The house and the kiddies

2007-04-13T16:21:00.000-03:00

.. as they looked last weekend.

Joeye and her purse and her cart (which she drags everywhere)

.

Kelsey verifying the workmanship of the house

Crawling around the foundation

Joeye upset because her feet keep getting stuck in the mud, notice I'm not saying the grass

getting over it

Cait in her room

and the far away views, notice in the background Kelsey having to carry Joeye around because she was freaking about the mud

Joeye confused as too why we won't let her have any more candy

I'm still here ...

2007-04-13T14:03:00.000-03:00

We had our 2nd 3D ultrasound yesterday. All of the "the boys" parts are still there .. nothing has fallen off, JJ was able to let out a sigh of relief. No it's not a dream there really will be another male in the house.

So may I present .. the boy .. with a little more fat and from what we can tell JJ's nose

and here he is playing shy, saying enough pictures already

and here is one with his eye open which I thought was super creepy looking but everyone else thought it looked cool so I figured I'd share with everyone.

Happy Birthdays Everywhere

2007-03-20T11:00:00.000-03:00

Just wanted to throw out a Happy Birthday to Kelsey and Leslie today ..

We are just so busy all the time with flooring and cabinet appointments and Wrestling and Hockey tournaments that we just don't seem to have time for anything else lately. Kelsey has joined the local Wrestling club since the season is over at school until next year and where she's changing schools we're not even sure it will be available to her. The club is at a more serious level also so Kelsey is now practicing four times a week .. thank goodness hockey season is over until camp starts in July. I'm not even sure how we will fit in Kelsey's practices 4 times a week and Caits 5 times a week starting in September .. if you add those up they make more than 7 days per week which means JJ and I will have to split, not to mention we'll each have a baby with us now .. AHH my life is scary!

How is going good. As of last weekend we had rocks where the driveway should be and the spot has been cleared for our house and the digging truck bulldozer machine thing is on the lot. We had flooring and cabinets almost completely narrowed down .. now we are on to bath stuff, paint colours and light fixtures. You know sometimes I think to myself that resale may have been easier .. especially with my hormones raging and JJ trying to quit smoking. If I have one more breakdown in Home Depot I'm sure they'll take me away to the looney bin.

Ok off I go to start researching colours for the kids upstairs full bath. Any suggestions for a kid friendly neutral type colour .. I just don't even know what to pick anymore!

PS - Sorry I'm not taking the time to proof-read this .. hopefully you'll get the jist of what I'm saying.

Hey they're not stuck after all

2007-03-07T10:50:00.000-04:00

It seems as though I had a slot in my computer that read memory cards .. who knew? Here is Joeye, Cait and Kels .. wrestling, playing hockey .. at the lot .. ahh you guys are smart, I'm sure you can figure them out. Ohhh and I don't know why I look so weird in the picture of me .. my hair looks all puffy. Anyhoo enjoy the new pics!

I hate change

2007-03-06T11:17:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted in forever because Blogger refused to let me log in unless I updated and created a new google account. I hate changing to new programs because there always seems to be kinks to work out. I had no choice though. I hate that they forced my hand in this one! I think it's mostly just that I hate being told what to do, especially by a computer! Haha.

I have tons of pictures but they are all stuck in Henry's camera and I can't seem to get them out. I have pictures of the kids at the lot of the new house, they've dug up a few holes for testing purposes (so JJ tells me) but that's about it .. no real progress as of yet. The pics of the kids playing in the trees are still cute though.

Kelsey got gold for the Regional wrestling championships and she got silver for the Provincials ... to tell you the truth I think she was more excited about having her name in the local newspaper! We will now be considering going to Nationals at the end of April. Kelsey will also be joining the local amateur wrestling club and they talked about setting goals like the Canada Games and whatnot in 2009 but that was just too much for my brain to take in. Watching your baby either get her head beat off the mat or watching her beat the other girls head off the mat is slightly traumatizing. Luckily (for me) she's been winning more than she's losing. It takes every ounce of willpower I have to not go get out on the mat and save her .. now of course she'd kill me and that certainly helps the willpower just a little also.

Cait is doing great. Hockey season is almost coming to a close .. ahh thank goodness. Cait's hockey runs us anywhere from 3 to 5 times a week with dry land traning, practices and games .. but she loves it. Not to mention my baby turned 10 on Sunday. She thinks she's quite grown up now that she's in the double digits and all.

Joeye is doing good as always. Talking up a storm, the girl is never quiet for more than a minute at a time. She pokes my belly and says poke poke .. she hugs and kisses what she thinks is her baby brother but every now and then when I ask her where her brother is she pulls up her own shirt so I'm not entirely sure she's getting it yet. I'm sure once he comes out she'll be trying to stuff him back in.

The baby is doing well and kicking up a storm. Trying to live up to his baby Tito name as JJ says and already training for the UFC! I will post some belly pictures soon but I think I look the exact same. I'm little lighter this time the doc tells me although everybody swears I look bigger.

Hope everyone out there is doing well.

Time for a new update

2007-02-19T11:53:00.000-04:00

Is it me or do I start every post with some lame excuse as to why I haven't posted in so long and then I go on to point the finger to those who are actually worst than me? Well if it wasn't for Les and Auntie Berta posting regularly I swear the rest of us would have nothing else to read online every day .. so thanks guys!

I really have been busy though, trust me this time I have a good excuse. We did decide to buy the house closer to mom's with more land. I realize when I say outside the city I might be giving you a false picture. It is like 15 minutes from the downtown core and it does have it's own grocery stores, Walmart all the take out joints and Timmies like 7 minutes away. We also timed the drive going in both directions during rush hour traffic and in town was took longer even though it was a shorter distance. Not to mention all the perks that come with being closer to my mommy (hehe). JJ painted this beautiful picture in my head of sitting in my jacuzzi with a fire pit going and running around naked in the backyard .. it was great. Please keep in mind I'm not pregnant in that picture and it doesn't look so crazy, well still a little crazy I guess but I'm running around much faster since I don't have to carry around as much weight ... LOL.

I tried to find a house that looked atleast similar in structure and this is it, only difference being that we are going with a different colour on the outside, ours is a smokey grey.

One of the best selling features for me was the corner jacuzzie tub in the ensuite .. with the four kids running around I'm expecting to need a bath and a hiding place every now and then.

Needless to say we are very excited about the house and the arrival of The Boy (aka Baby Tito) ... and with a closing date of June 14 and a due date of July 1st, looks like we can expect a very busy summer. Oh and anyone thinking about visiting us we will be charging an admission price of one piece of sod per person, looks like not much landscaping is actually included in the price. What better way to work off the baby pounds though right?

... now let's see where did I put that box of donuts?

It's time to let everyone in on our little secret

2007-02-07T22:07:00.000-04:00

Not about the house but about our 3D ultrasound. The babes doesn't have much fatty tissue yet since we're still only early on.

but what was apparent were parts the babe wanted to show the world

For those who can't make out the last two pics as Cait would say "those are pictures of his winky"

Haha that's right ... BOY it is, can you believe it .. I guess just having the Calgary water in the house was enough since I didn't drink it, geez that seems to be pretty potent stuff!

A little question

2007-01-29T11:59:00.000-04:00

I know I should be updating but we are just up to our eyebrows in MLS listings and house plans ...

Question - Which is better .. an older home, in the city with no lot or a brand new home over by mom's with 1-3 acres?? HELP .. This house stuff is driving me insane!

Ok Leslie I'll bite ....

2007-01-17T10:35:00.000-04:00

1. If you had to choose one vice in exclusion of all others, what would it be?

Reading blogs ... not just the family blogs but all blogs, pregnancy blogs, celebrity blogs, trainwreck blogs, family blogs, book club blogs, parenting blogs, random blogs .. I'm addicted I just can't stop!

2. If you could change one specific thing about the world, what would it be?

I would end all childrens suffering, from abuse to hunger to pedophiles ... children do not deserve to be affected by things and people they can't control. A story I heard on the news about sexual abuse to a baby from the time she was born until she was six months old until it was finally reported, this story has made me stop and realize what an ugly world this has become and it haunts me to this day.

3. Name the cartoon character you identify with the most.

Ahh an easy one ... Jessica Rabbit .. please have you guys seen my boobs lately, enough said!

4. If you could live one day of your life over again, which one would it be?

The night I was in labour with Joeye. My pains were about five minutes apart and I sat downstairs eating left over chinese food Mom and Nanny brough me earlier that day .. if I had a do-over I would not eat the rice. To this day JJ laughs at me for being in labour and running around the halls of the maternity ward with one of those open shirt thingys looking for a place to barf!

5. If you could go back in history and spend a day with one person, who would it be?

My Grampy Sobey. His death was unexpected to me and I never had the chance to go see him and say goodbye. My last memory is of him sticking a quarter and a caramel in my pocket.

6. What is one thing that you lost, sold or threw away that you wish you had back?

Please the apple does not fall far from the three and my mom taught me to thrown away nothing! Even if I did try and throw something out mom would take it from me and bring it to her house, so even if I did regret trying to throw something away I could go to mom's and pick it up again. Dr Phil says we need counselling for this one and we'll look into it when we run out of storage.

7. What is your one most important contribution to this world?

I would have to say my kids .. I'm sure everybody is saying their kids, but really that's the best work I've done. Yeah definitely my girls, but enough already when should I stop contributing .. JJ says (because of my raging hormones) he feels I've done my fair share it's time to let others contribute.

8. What is your one hidden talent that nearly no one knows about?

I can touch my nose with my tongue .. my Auntie Bee and Uncle Dave taught me to do that!

9. What is your most cherished possession?

Wow that's a hard one. I would say my husband, my rock but JJ would kill me for saying I owned him .. so my next cherished possession would have to be my pictures. They tell my life story. My old ones, my more recent ones. I sit down and look at them over and over again and laugh, sometimes cry.

10. What one person influenced your life the most when growing up?

Wow so many people have influenced my life. My whole family has played a role in who I am today from the fear of Uncle Paul to Auntie Brenda's cool Pat Benetar look .. from the role of Uncle Dave as my father figure to my mom doing what she had to for her kids .. (what are you trying to get me crying today .. not hard to tell I'm pregnant eh) ... the person who influenced my life the most was Kelsey. I was so young when I had her and she showed me so much about myself, but she taught me unconditional love.

11. What word describes you better than any other?

Obsessive .. about everything. I have to think and re-think, make several lists about my lists, over analyze to death and ridiculous over-excessive research. It drives JJ nuts. It has it's good points though .. I saved us tons of cash on our van purchase, but I think I'm driving him crazy with this house thing!

That was hard and some parts a major crying fest, I need to go get a grip but in the meantime, so what's the idea I tag other people? Okay how about the people that aren't posting lately, so that way we'll know they are still alive ... Henry, Melanie and Mom!

That's all folks ....

2007-01-02T22:01:00.000-04:00

Seems like 2006 has gone by in a flash. Is it me or what, but it seems like the older I get the faster the years pass me by in a blink of an eye? I remember being like 8 or 9 thinking about how long a year would last and now I can't seem to believe how quickly it goes by!

A quick review of the holiday season in pictures .. sadly there are no pictures of New Years Eve at Amy's because I was too lazy to get off my fat @ss and get my camera, sad I know but I am still in that super exhausted stage .. atleast most of the morning sickness seems to be over, now if only I could get rid of this nasty cough!

Joeye enjoying her first candy cane

Decorating our tree

Christmas dinner at mom's

Thank you Nanny Cauley for my new hat

and daddy for the quad

and Nanna for our matching pj's

it was a little slow going and groggy in the morning for all of us

Mitch getting a little love

and from Amy too

Last but not least .. JJ's very famous turkey that he is so very proud of. I'm not sure whether or not I posted it last year but JJ was in charge of Christmas dinner and well ruined Christmas by trying to feed us frozen turkey! Well he has now redeemed himself .. our meal was excellent, I would even say "mom quality"!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! My new year's resolution will be to post atleast once a month ... I'm am so envious of the rest of the family and their regular posting .. I try I really do, I just suck that's all!

Another one

2006-12-19T12:25:00.000-04:00

joins the blogging circle ...

Adelard and Heidi

Go give em a hello

and Congrats to Heather and Jeff on all the blue

The busy season is obviously here ....

2006-12-04T11:12:00.000-04:00

but it's not only Christmas keeping me busy .... I've spent a lot of time clinging to the "porcelain god". How do I always forget how this feels? I guess if I didn't forget how this felt I would have stopped after Kelsey!

All is well on the home front. Cait's hockey keeps us extremely busy as always. The Christmas concerts for school and band are starting this week. Kelsey is also going to her very first semi-formal which she is quite excited about. JJ and Cait have been putting up Christmas lights and huge blow up characters on our lawn in hopes to win the neighbourhood Christmas Lights Contest .. mind you neither one of them know what they actually win. It's all in fun though right?

So very happy about the news that we'll be stealing back our much loved Uncle Dave and family ... we have missed you.

Now a few pics to keep you updated ... let's hope next time is not so long in between posts. It is nice to see that atleast most of the family tries to update regularly .. I figure Leslie must update in her sleep, otherwise, where else is she finding the time?

Joeye and Nanny at the parade

The girls trying to touch their Rudolf noses with their tongues

Mammy and Joeye colouring

Joeye showing off her fancy new Roots outfit Mammy bought her

and more of Jojo the dancing clown

You love me ... you really love me

2006-11-09T11:18:00.000-04:00

Geez I guess announcing a fourth must be breaking some kind of family record or something isn't it?

I know, it's huge news .. trust me we are still trying to let it sink in ourselves. Even though we've been trying for a fourth .. when it actually happens and that stick shows positive, your heart still skips a beat!

To respond to a few comments ..

Yes Henry that was $100 in diapers I believe and all sorts of shapes and sizes will do just fine. Let's cross our fingers Joeye will be easy to train and we'll only have the one in diapers .. high expectations I know, but it all starts with hope!

Uncle Paul we actually don't need a bus yet, we still have two seats left .. although JJ does keep making jokes about buying one and painting it .. wouldn't that help it to look sporty eh? You can't take the boy out of the man!

Amy sorry to diappoint but I'm trying to stay away from the McDonalds. The morning sickness has been killing me and I've been trying to eat through the nausea .. not a good idea I must say. I think I gained 8 lbs last week from eating a box of pizza pops every day for breakfast. But honestly if they didn't want me to eat all four at a sitting they maybe they should have sold them individually!

Bee I wouldn't hold your breath on Melanie having one anytime soon by the sounds of it .. I think she is going to be way too busy anyway making food for those fancy parties of hers .. so when is the next one I am feeling a little hungry .. do you have any pizza pops on the menu?

Hey where are Heather's preggo pics? Am I the only exhibitionist (sp?) of the family?

Auntie Berta .. the boobs are JJ's favorite part .. they don't yell back, haha!

Auntie Brenda .. if all goes as scheduled the little bundle will indead arrive on your birthday ... July 1st, as Leslie said, very Canadian of me, eh!

And the famous water .. sadly no, I forgot to drink it! I know how pathetic. What is meant to be will be. I'm hoping for another girl, I just hate stepping on lego!

Thanks everyone for all the well wishes!!

What can I say really .... but

2006-11-07T10:13:00.000-04:00

We are expecting a new set of little feet to arrive in July

A quick costume update

2006-11-02T10:22:00.000-04:00

I have so much to say as always and no time to say it, but I wanted to show everyone the pics of the girls on Halloween. Thanks Auntie Brenda for the Geisha costumes .. they got a lot of use this season.

JJ, Amy and I getting ready for a night out. I know we really need to grow out of this .. but I doubt we ever will!

The Heffalump

and running away

My Geisha and Goth Princess (honestly where does Caity come up with these ideas???)

Trying to steal the loot before the tricker treaters even had a chance to arrive

Here mom really I was getting it for you

Our pumpkin carving

and celebrating our loot at the end of the night

oh wait .. something totally unrelated .. spaghetti face

The official word has just come in .....

2006-10-11T12:48:00.001-03:00

JJ has been promoted to PO2 .. yay .. congrats babe.

Here's a pic of JJ in his uniform, yeah I know he looks like he's been rolling around in soot, but he's actually playing the part of "the blown-up guy" on the boat for one of those crazy exercises he does.

As for everything else .. well it's keeping me so busy that I can barely keep up .. and now added to our schedule Cait's hockey, one practice and two games a week .. where will we find the time?

The Corn Boil

2006-09-27T21:02:00.000-03:00

A post of pics because I'm just way too busy for sentences these days ...

Mom taking a picture of Kelsey and Joeye next to the blueberry in Oxford on the way (hehe .. good pic mom, can you see the blueberry?)

Kelsey in a "tennis pose"

Amanda and Rob being very social (hanging out in the truck ... I think Mitch scared them)

Jen and Paul having what I hope is a good time

JJ and Mitch having the usual fun, and glow

Uncle Paul and Auntie Cheryl .. all over each other all night long, crazy buggers

Mike and Lisa .. who I'm still apologizing too, even though it was Henry's idea Mike I swear, really I do

Miramichi's famous Cloudy

Now for some reason I have only limited pictures of the rest of the family that was there

Derek playing tennis .. with Joeye giving us a "moon" with her pants up

Mom's arm and sadly a lot of Caits food

Me sharing the "love" on the drive home

April on the patio taking a picture of me taking a picture of her ... and Bee underneath somewhere down there .. oh and Nanny is up on the patio too even though it is hard to see her

Amy bending over doing I don't know what .. and the back of Megs head

and every picture of Henry was fuzzy .. every single one .. weird eh .. so this is all I have (of our last camping trip)

Maddy and Kelsey playing on the swings .. well half of them anyway

KK roasting something on the fire amongst all the other kids

Oh wait the corn

A race car driver, a hockey player and a hoops star ...

2006-09-07T20:50:00.002-03:00

I think someone has been influencing my girls ....

The end of catching up

2006-09-07T20:40:00.000-03:00

Feels like I've been playing catch up with all my post since the summer started. Here are a few pics from our last camping trip in the valley with Henry and April and the girls. I think I speak for all of us when I say it was a great time.

Finally school is back in and we are all registered and back to our usual programs. I've decided on an ethics class, which already has my head spinning and Kelsey and I signed up for a weekly yoga class to try and keep me calm. JJ has started taking a french course and he also got Cait going for hockey this year. Joeye will be back in the pool again this year but instead of paying someone to sing The Wheels on the Bus, we've opted to sing it ourselves! The girls however are in private lessons instead of the usual class setting and let's not forget voilin .. and the list of extra curriculars just goes on and on.

So as usual we are off to hectic start. Hope everyone is well, I missed you all the second I saw you driving away!

The Party Pictures

2006-08-28T11:28:00.000-03:00

Thought I would continue with our holiday photos so that maybe at some point I could update on more current stuff. Oh and as for the pink sport sandals .. I didn't change until the reception, but that many nights of partying, dancing and walking in heels and I just couldn't do it anymore!

So without further due ... the party pictures

Amy and Leslie (another stagette picture, but such a nice one I had to post it)

(see Auntie Brenda no glass in her hand at all!)

Mitch dancing in the cage at the Opera House ... alone .. maybe I should post the grog pictures first

Les and Aaron enjoying their Grog

Jen and Paul enjoying their Grog

JJ helping Mitch finish his Grog

Derek drinking his Grog and having the most fun from what I can see

Les with a suspicious "up to no good" look

and last but not least .. the only Bus picture I have .. whoever has more bus pictures should post them .. Bee you should have some good Bus pictures with the cops so cough em up!

That's all my partying pictures .. next post .. our last camping trip with Henry and the girls

Why haven't we updated ????

2006-08-21T21:05:00.000-03:00

Honestly I think it's that so much stuff happened that we don't even know where to begin .. atleast I know that's what it is for me. Oh yeah and most of my pictures that turned out happened to be of the stripper!

I believe your speech Auntie Brenda had the effect you were hoping for. As promised I didn't show anyone what you wrote before hand, to the point that I had to get up and show Amy where it was so she could read it once the speeches began. The second she saw it she instantly saw the part where you wrote "Amy you can stop crying now" and began balling her eyes out before ever even saying a word. Poor thing, two or three times she had to stop reading because she was crying. I think your speech was a great opener because it pretty much opened the flood gates and I believe we spent the entire time crying through the rest of the speeches ... Henry included. Actually I think Henry's speech even had the guys crying at the end of it!

Ahh so where to begin ... first I will post what half decent wedding pictures I have.

Girls going to the hair shop, bright and early after a late night of drinking ... actually late night #2

The bride getting her "hair did"

Striking a pose

Taking a breather

Taking the vows

Sealing with a kiss

Making it official

My beautiful baby

Eating some cake

My beautiful baby cutting up a rug with daddy

The bride and groom dance

Father and daughter dance

All three of my beautiful babies in this one ...

Henry surprises April with a garter of his own

And the party begins

and friends were made

2006-08-17T22:52:00.000-03:00

even Nanny made a new friend

PS - Happy Birthday Bee

*** I will post my wedding pics and a more serious update when we get back from camping on Sunday ***

Happy Birthday Mike

2006-08-08T23:18:00.000-03:00

As I try and sit here and make a poster of a big giant .. nevemind you don't need to know about this. This is post is really to say

Happy Birthday Bro

Quick update

2006-08-02T13:20:00.000-03:00

Getting ready for April's bachelorette party has kept me way busier than I expected. What I really want to do is post the hillarious pictures of us getting the stuff ready the other night, but I can't, because then she'd know what we've got planned and I'd never get her there. Just remember keep an open mind and it's all in the name of FUN!!!! (Geez I'm glad nobody can see me laughing as I type this)

We are so excited for our "Out-Westers" to be arriving .. the MacBecks shall we call them .. or the BeckAulays? Needless to say JJ and I broke down, ok who am I kidding, JJ took an extra couple of days off and started cleaning the basement to try and impress our visitors .. but I've decided to just tell them that there's nothing in the dungeon and they have to close their eyes if they go down there!

JJ and I are actually taking the kids camping this weekend as their grading "celebration". So each of them are bringing a friend and we've rented them their own cottage. We will have a full day of Upper Clements Park rides and water fun and then the Wildlife Park. It should be nice and relaxing before the chaos.

Thank you so much Jeremy for taking the time out of your day to think of me and paint that beautiful picture. It means so much to me. I plan to have printed and framed right away.

Now I will leave you all with a picture of Jojo of course ... tell me who this reminds you of ... bent over with nothing but crack?

Another fun weekend and the Wine Diet

2006-07-24T10:22:00.000-03:00

When I got to Henry's I got on the talking scale and it told me basically that I had gained 7 lbs since JJ came home .... when I left Henry's I got on the talking scale and I was down 9 lbs altogether from the day before. I'm thinking one or two more visits to Henry's and I should be back in my bikini before the wedding! I can't really blame the wine, but mostly have to blame April for pouring it down my throat! Okay okay I can't really blame April either, but I just can't think of anyone else to blame and really I thought I was smart enough to not do that to myself. Then again there were three others just like pounding them back just as quickly ... I will say we were doing it to relieve stress .. yeah yeah that's what it is! And now onto the pictures (thankfully I am behind the camera most of time).

Nanny and Joeye enjoying a relaxing rock in the chair .. pre wine party

The boys starting to find their groove

April and I helping mom and Nanny do wedding stuff .. haha .. good thing we brought mom

Ok Henry how much wine did you have

The gang having a blast

Happy Birthday Joeye

2006-07-18T09:04:00.000-03:00

Finally JJ is home and we were able to celebrate Joeye's 1st birthday with a little party.

Woohoo .. getting ready for my party

Look at my pretty dress ... don't worry you will get to see it again at the wedding

I can even do a little dance in it

Mommy and Daddy got me a cool cake

and just when everyone thought I would make a mess of it, I decided to show off my new trick called "using a spoon"

of course then I got a little dirty

I even shared with Daddy a little

After all was said and done Daddy and I put together all my new toys

A picture is worth a thousand words ....

2006-07-08T19:57:00.000-03:00

Had a great trip in St John's. It was really nice for JJ and I to have some time alone before he comes home and I have to share him with everybody. We did a lot of eating and drinking and dancing. Friday night we even hit George Street again .. second night in a row .. but this time we stayed and had our fair share. We spent the whole night slurping jello shooters and dancing our asses off like the good old days ... Now usually if I'm going to post some bad, funny looking pictures I try and make sure that it's not me but when I downloaded this one I thought it was priceless ... this was about 3 a.m. when we finally crawled in, which I guess would make it Saturday morning and no longer Friday night. I believe we started our night with drinks at Mexi's with our supper at about 6 p.m. and this was the finished product. Let's just say I was thankful that I was not the one going back to sea that morning .. luckily I took the short route home on the plane. Poor JJ .. why do we always seem to get into the shooters the night before you head back to sea?

Supper earlier in the day ... but here is our first drinks .. looking pretty together still eh?

Now we've had our drinks with supper and nearly finished off a big bottle of wine while we got ready .. still rather together but starting to look a little glossy in the eyes .. ohh and clearly enough drinks to think we are good enough at the self-portraits.

After crawling back to our hotel room, which by the way was at the top of a very steep hill ... by now there has been some Jello, vodka and lime, several other blends made in little cups ... oh and the worst picture would be one of my feet to show you all the blisters I got from dancing in very high heels all night long ... actually I'm not sure even a picture of my feet would be this bad.

A Great Family Weekend

2006-07-03T23:27:00.000-03:00

Have to say I had a great time with the gang at Uncle Paul's this weekend. It's also always nice for the girls to be able to get together and have fun (read trouble)too ..

The shower went off without a hitch. Now that the shower is done I guess I'll be focusing on my visit to St John's and then JJ finally coming home. It'll be nice to see an end to this nightmare. After JJ gets home then we get to focus on the upcoming wedding and all of the visitors coming. So very very excited.

Advance notice the bachelorette party for April will be held the Thursday before the wedding. We are waiting for the out-westers so they don't miss out on all the fun .. so make sure everyone comes with a clean thong to wear outside their jeans!!

April waiting for all the fun to begin

April opening Nanny's picture of the plates she bought her

The sisters chatting up a storm

April reading my poem .. which I can provide copies of on request ....

Thank you to Myra for getting the lovely cake

Fun was had by all

Am I the worst poster ever or what?

2006-06-23T21:20:00.000-03:00

Sadly I think the only person worst than me at posting these days seems to be Auntie Brenda .. sorry Auntie Brenda but you know it's true .. and then again actually even she posted lately so I guess that makes me the worst poster!

As I've previously mentioned Joeye is now walking and this seems to be keeping me completely busy ... I swear I should've glued her feet to the floor .. I know I keep saying that but it's true. She is so cute though ...

Kelsey had a field trip to a local swimming place this week that I helped out with. They kept counting me as one of the kids when they were counting heads .. which I guess is flattering in one way that I must look young and at the same time it makes me rethink my whole wardrobe style ... Also has anyone else noticed that girls seem to be developping younger and younger these days?

Cait finished up her babysitting of a friends ginea pigs. It was more of a trial to see how she would do taking care of something other than fish. She did really well actually but she was quite sad to see them go. It was actually a little heart wrenching to watch her give them back, they had become such a huge part of her little world.

I would love to say I'll update more often but I expect for things to get even busier if anything with the upcoming wedding shower and my trip to St John's .. not to mention my man will soon be home ... ahh I can almost feel the relief. I hope everyone is doing well out there and we should all be hanging out with a couple of beers real soon.

Sadly trying to catch up ...

2006-06-13T00:17:00.000-03:00

I've been busy though. Three kids .. no wait .. three girls, doesn't that say it all? Not to mention one of them has just figured out she can walk ... honestly you have no idea how much toilet paper I'm going through these days .. why do kids have this fascination with ripping all the toilet paper off the roll?

So what else is knew .. nothing really. The kids are good, JJ is good .. I am good. I'm 30 but I'm good. Turning 30 really wasn't a big thing. I'm at a good place in my life. I'm actually more looking forward to being 60 .. JJ and I have agreed that by the time we were 60 we would let ourselves go .. you know eat carbs and not exercise .. ahh what a wonderful life that will be!

I will have to show off my Martha Stewart talents once more .. okay maybe that's pushing it just a little .. Cait needed a costume for an army ant for a school play and this is what I did .. all on my own I might add ..

No really who's impressed .. well anyone who knew me would be!

Let's see anything else on the home front .. miss Jojo is walking up a storm. I so should have glued her feet to the ground when I had the chance. Anyone intersted in seeing her new tricks can check out the video page. I haved uploaded several videos for all to see.

Now I'm off to plan my visit to St John's, Newfoundland .. I will be meeting JJ as an early anniversary present to ourselves .. and also a couple of night "sans" children before he gets home ... and you know what that means .. finally a couple of hours of uninterrupted sleep!

Another birthday ...

2006-06-10T20:29:00.000-03:00

Today is JJ's birthday. I am going to post some corny pictures I'm sure I'll get in trouble for .. but he still has another 30 days away so I'm sure he'll calm down by then! Haha! Sorry to anybody who seems to find themselves in these pictures with him.
This would be Cait's artistry

Again Cait's idea

Amy and JJ getting their groove on

My hubby feeling manly by his big red truck .. which should have been gone by now

Mike and JJ feeling the love ... and the liquor by this point

Happy Bithday Babe

... now before you go getting mad at all the crazy pictures I posted .. please remember I do still have the one of you with the makeup and the wig!

She tried to steal my birthday!

2006-06-01T00:11:00.000-03:00

I remember last year being in labour the whole day of my birthday and just scared to death I wouldn't be able to hold her in long enough for her to have her own birthday. Obviously I didn't realize her birthday being the day after wasn't going to make a big difference and in the end she would still steal my cake. I guess it's a good thing she's so darn cute!

Happy Birthday Joeye

(shh though we're not actually telling her or celebrating it until JJ gets home .. he didn't want to miss her first birthay and I couldn't take that away from him .. and it's not like she'll know. Although I did buy her a bubble machine, but there will be no wrapping paper or balloons .. maybe a cupcake though!)

2006-05-29T13:56:00.000-03:00

Hey Les this may be as close as you to getting a video .. I am so slack!

Go check out Joeye and Bouncing Tiger on our "Family Videos" page .. it's hillarious!

Happy Birthday Amy

2006-05-28T12:03:00.000-03:00

Mitch's surprise party went off without a hitch .. only problem is we're all still craving Mexi's!!!

Amy had a lot of friends, alot of food and alot of fun.

Happy Birthday Amy

ahh we did have a good one though didn't we ...

Hey this ride is great

2006-05-28T12:00:00.000-03:00

Long Weekend Visit

2006-05-23T09:10:00.000-03:00

Had a great time over the long weekend with the family. It's always nice to visit Uncle Paul and Auntie Cheryl because they feed us. Uncle Paul was even nice enough to send us home with some spaghetti sauce ...

we were loving Uncle Paul's spaghetti ....

until Amy called to tell us it was full of moose meat

We're coming to get you Uncle Paul!

atleast there was nothing funny in our ice cream

To my Ma for Mothers Day

2006-05-14T11:20:00.000-03:00

Mom,

I think the world of you
and would gladly share
my most precious
treasures with you
I'm sending the girls
for two weeks!

Happy Mother's Day

and for my Nan (my ma's ma)

May all the love
you give to others
come back to you
on this special day

Happy Mothers Day!!!

Picture Update

2006-05-11T22:26:00.000-03:00

Just as it should be

2006-04-30T23:05:00.000-03:00

For two very short weeks in my universe all the planets were alligned and everything was just as it should be ... sorry for my "picture only" update, just give me a couple of days and I'll be back in to the groove of things in no time.

From Joeye

2006-04-15T01:17:00.000-03:00

Mommy took my bottles away today

I was a little worried at first but I'm doing better now

Can you see my new teeth .. I have four of them now

Mommy made me wear these stupid bunny ears, but she thinks they make me look real cute

HAPPY EASTER EVERYBUNNY

While I have been killing myself chasing three kids ...

2006-04-12T13:35:00.000-03:00

My darling husband has found the time to have a little fun with his friends. Just kidding babe. Actually normally JJ would try and fit hockey in at the very least two nights a week and I think since he's been gone he's gotte to play three times ... he is so going to kick my butt for posting this but oh well, hopefully he'll forget by the time he gets home! This was a game at his last port in Norway!

JJ, atleast it sure looks like JJ behind the helmet!

I'm pretty sure JJ is number 14, if not, well actually let's just pretend it is otherwise these pictures are pointless.

I wonder how long before he sees this and figures out I've posted all the pics he sent me ... haha!

The weekend is gone!

2006-04-11T23:51:00.000-03:00

Thanks to Henry and April my weekend passed quickly, in a good way. I'm just trying to move time along as quickly as possible. It was a nice visit with everyone. We certainly don't get together not nearly enough. I just love watching the kids play and having such a great time together. Henry of course helped in the fun by setting up and Easter egg hunt for them .. oh by the way Henry, thanks for the chocolate and gum for the ride home, it really helped while we were all locked in the van together .. did I mention the Moirs chocolate factory had a big sale on up here and I bought your kids a 5 pound box of caramel and chocolate for their ride back home next week when you come to visit me? I bet you forgot you'd be making that same trip very soon yourself and if anything, only two of mine got to eat chocolate .. haha .. payback!

I think my exam went fine. It's always hard to say until that final mark is posted. I would hate to jinx myself, so we'll just leave it at that!

Here are a few pics of the weekend. I would write more but my cleaning days are numbered and I have a lot of getting ready to do. I have almost four months worth of leg hair growth to get rid of by this weekend!

Baby Joeye getting ready for our trip

and torturing her sister

and trying to pull down April's curtains

and trying to rip down April's Easter Bunny

I don't know what she's trying to do here, but I'm sure I'll be trying to stop her from doing it

and some pics of the girls outside in Henry's new yard

Joeye's Date

2006-04-07T12:30:00.000-03:00

Just thought I'd get a quick post up before I'm off to Henry's for the weekend. We are leaving right after my exam Saturday morning (everyone cross their fingers for me)then I will finally be done for a little while and get a nice break!

Here are a few pics of Joeye and her friend Dylan. I'm not sure if everybody knows Tracey, Amy's roommmate from Saint John when she was in school, but this is her son Dylan. I think he's about 12 weeks younger than Joeye, then again he was a little early. Well Tracey if you're reading perhaps you could comment on the exact numbers. Anyway usually Joeye pokes at him a little but for some reason she was more interested in his toys this time. I have to say, he is probably one of the cutest babies I have seen in my entire life. He has the cutest little dimples ever! See for yourself. I'm almost going to post an old pic of him that I have because it is just so darn cute. It was actually Tracey's shower that Amy and I had our Martha Stewart moment and made the diaper cake ... very very very proud us!

The oldies, a few months back .. He is so cute he makes me want a blue one!

I'll update after my weekend of girl chasing ...

We caught another one....

2006-04-05T11:36:00.000-03:00

Geez I never even noticed Amanda had joined us I just saw the link on Auntie Berta's blog .. wow I must have been sleeping. So here she is ... Amanda's Blog. Now I think we are still waiting for Bee, Uncle Dave, Auntie Paula and the boys .. hmm Candice maybe??? You know this really is saving me a lot of money in stamps ... ok let's be serious I never wrote anyway, but I did think about it, and it's the thought that counts! Actually I sent Leslie tarts in the mail the other day, so very proud of myself! I know in comparison to some it's not all that impressive .. but for me, this was a huge step.

Incase anyone was wondering

2006-04-04T13:54:00.000-03:00

Mitch is still around .. this post is mostly for JJ, I know he was a little worried, haha. Needless to say, one of Mitch's biggest fans celebrated with chocolate cake!

Everyone cross your fingers that he makes it to the wedding .. it would be so sad if Amy didn't have a date! Just kidding .. kinda.

Autographs and Pictures

2006-04-04T13:28:00.000-03:00

The Juno fanfare was full of long lineups, quick pictures and autographs. What can you do though, there were so many people (mostly little kids, screaming little kids) there to see the celebrities, so they were forced to "moo"ve us through like cattle. Here are some highlights in photos ...

Cait and "Theory of a Dead Man", who she thought was just so cool

Kelsey and Skye Sweetnum (I think that's her name)

and of course the man of the hour Kalan Porter

Last but not least .. Joeye just hanging around and enjoying the show ..

but eventually just too much excitement, you can see she's still wearing her name tag so everybody would autograph her name right ...

My camera died ... well I actually I killed it

2006-03-31T23:44:00.000-04:00

Joeye grabbed onto the cord as I was transferring pictures and in the words of Henry, my camera "went boom". Some part, apparently very important, fell inside the camera and seems to be lost forever. Now of course me being the handy man I think I am, which I am sooo not, decided to unscrew the camera and put it all back together. Well sadly I don't think the camera was meant to be pulled apart in half like that. It wouldn't be so bad, I could take my time shopping for a new one except I have to be at the Juno fanfare at 9 a.m. with the kids to get autographs and take pictures, well how am I suppose to take pictures without a camera. We stood in line for these fanfare bracelets from 3:00 until 7:30, I am plan to get my time worth and get my picture taken with Mr.Kalan Porter. So needless to say five minutes before the Future Shop closed I was out with a fist full of money trying to pick a camera in five minutes. I did get one and it certainly looks better than my old broken one, but well all the parts are still sticking together on the new one. My old one was also four years old, so it was time to move on .. I just wish I didn't have to move on so quickly. So now I'm up trying to figure out how to take pictures so that I'm ready for morning. How awful would it be to run into technical difficulties, especially after spending, oh wait I can't tell you how much I spent because I know JJ definitely reads this blog ... wish me luck!

We snagged another

2006-03-31T11:20:00.000-04:00

So we add another to the family ring, everyone take a looksy and say hi Jeremy .. It's nice to see you. I haven't heard head or tails of you in a while. I will say again, I hope you weren't trying to keep this private .. but you know the family rule, if not read below to Melanie's welcome post! So where are you Amanda .. I know you must be lurking out there somewhere, Auntie Bee, Uncle Paul, Uncle Dave ... we're waiting for you!

Also just wanted to add a good ol' congrats to all out there still on the crazy soup diet! A lot of will power, good for you! You'll have to all post your results, maybe that would motivate me, but then again these days the only thing that seems to motivate me is a Rolo McFlurry!

Someone else has joined us!

2006-03-29T00:56:00.000-04:00

Hey just a quick not to point out Melanie's blog has been added to my links. Not sure if everyone picked up on it that she had joined us so I thought I'd point it out. Way to go Melanie with the dieting, you obviously have way more will power than me. Oh and anybody who is thinking of joining Mom, Auntie Brenda and Leslie that I know of for sure, on this crazy diet of theirs, don't do it. I only kept it up for mornings and lunch time of day 1 and 2 and the side effects have been nasty. I swear I lost a pound or two but it was only from the excessive amount of "clenching" that I had to do to get through a three hour lecture tonight of Stats! Good luck to everyone trying it though ... I suck!

Oh and the link to Melanie's Blog nice to see you joining us in the crazy family ring we have going. I hope you weren't trying to keep it private, then again you should know better by now .. nothing is private in this family!