how 'bout a few pictures...

Finally I got these to upload. Since I overloaded with words the other day I'll overload with pictures today!

She's really into pulling the "funny face" at the camera lately. Does only a mother think it's cute?


Driving a car. Her dream come true.


I got a picture with both of them!


My little bald boy!


The bubble mower. Best $15 I spent at Costco...wait, that's not right cause i've got some sweet things a costco in my time.


Making the fire, it was a weak one.


mmmm, hot dog.


oh, just me and James not looking.


He loves to play with any kind of ball.


She didn't know I was taking this so she didn't pull the face.

bitter sweet

It hit me this week. ummmm, we're moving in 3 weeks! Yikes! Lots to do. Here's the story.

Derek has applied to a bunch of school divisions from Edmonton all the way to the Raymond area. We have no sign of a job yet. NOT gonna stress about this. I am not sick of Edmonton. I still really love it. I love the friends we have here. We love our ward. I love that they have babysitting at the gym. Really good shopping so close. Love the nice big parks. I do NOT enjoy the weather. (but it is getting better right now, and frankly we live in Alberta, weather sucks, that's just the way it is.) And I do NOT enjoy how expensive the cost of living is right now. Hence, for the last reason alone, we are outta here. Down to Raymond for the summer.

We found a sweet place to live. I'll tell ya about it. 6 bedroom, 4 bathrooms, fully furnished, big landscaped backyard with hot tub, occasional free babysitting, boat in the garage, Sunday dinners...well, you get the picture. We're moving in with my parents. It's pretty much against everything I stand for....but, come on, A YARD! I am in NEED to get out of this apartment. I am never living in an apartment again. 6 years in this teensy place, I TOTALLY paid my dues.

The packing is started. I hate packing. We never move. I hate moving. I don't know how to do it. Suddenly, when it's time to move, I get this constant stress in the back of my head all day and night. And whenever I am sitting, I feel guilty, like I should go pack a box or clean a cupboard, not blog. And the nice weather is so not helping my pack motivation. I'd way rather go play. Oh well, everything always seems to get done somehow.

So in September I have no idea where we will be. I honestly don't care where we go. (well, I care, and that is why I refused to let Derek apply anywhere north of here.) All I ask is more than 900 sq. feet of living space, no multiple flights of stairs to drag kids and groceries up, walls I am allowed to paint and a fenced yard to name a few. I really don't think that is too much to ask.

Derek had this last week off before he starts his LAST couple of classes. YAY! We had big plans to take in all the fun things we wanted to do one more time. We made it to a few, but instead we decided to work a little. I did a couple night shifts. I was so spent after. Seriously...spent. I couldn't sleep during the day. I used to pride myself on how good I was at sleeping anyplace, anytime, anywhere. I was totally disappointed in myself. Derek worked too. During the day. He remained sane all week. James decided sleeping through the night would be a good idea when dad was a charge. But I'm ok with it, because he is keeping up the habit! But i don't want to talk about, I probably just jinxed it anyway. And I dare say the plague of sickness that has been here since January just might be lifting

We did go for the free rides at Galaxyland. Alli can ride anything she is tall enough for (all 4 rides that is) with an adult for free too! She was out of control excited. We love taking her there.

Also, a hot dog roast at Hawelak Park was a must before we left. I LOVE that place. It's nothing special. But we have spent so much time there with family and friends playing and eating. I love being there in the summer. So Brooke and Brett joined us for probably our only trip there this summer...tear...

We wanted to make it to the zoo (but it rained) and swimming (but we didn't) But when it wasn't raining we hit up all the local playgrounds and yes, the mall of course. Oh mall, I will miss you! (don't worry, I'll visit you again before we leave)

I'm so excited for a ridiculously fun summer with family, but so sad to leave our life here. But so ready to MOVE ON in life!

So I have been typing this forever and my pictures won't upload the WHOLE time. I feel bad, I need pictures. Does anyone actually read when I go on and on? I wrote A TON here and no pictures. Sorry, I'll try again later. My internet has been like a SNAIL this week, what is up?

farewell

bye bye to sadie, susie and ryan. we will miss them soooooo much. i'm pretty sure i'm in denial that they are actually gone.



happy birthday to brett yesterday. thanks for having a birthday party!



we told alli it was brett's birthday and she just had to call him to say happy birthday. then she was out of control excited waiting for brett to come over. i'm pretty sure the cake might have had something to do with the excitement. after eating the icing off of 2 pieces of cake, she was our entertainment for the night.



poor little james. on wednesday night he suddenly got really sick. he had a horrible croup cough that turned into not breathing very well. after a midnight phone call to dr. grandpa, i took james to emerg. when my dad said to take him in, then i KNEW he really needed yo go in. since i was sure it was croup and he just needed some medicine i wasn't to stressed and derek just stayed home with alli and he went to bed. the good thing about a baby who can't breathe is you get seen right away. we were only in the waiting room for 5 minutes before we got a room. since everybody could hear his stridor breathing and barking cough across the hallway they gave him a quick nebulizer treatment first and then after the dr. came in he got the oral medicine. i felt so bad for my poor little guy. we had to stay around for a little while after to make sure it was working. he still wasn't breathing that great but they let me go home anyway. (i was so tired so i dropped the whole i'm a pediatric nurse thing and they trusted me to go, phew.) he was still not very happy on thursday, his chest was still tight and wheezing. alli had minor symptoms of the same, so we all tried to sleep! i was slightly out of it from being up till 4 am.



so everything is fine now. the kids just have a cough you can hear around the block and the snotty noses are in full force. please oh please let this be the end of sickness for the year around here!



and speaking of loud. i'm dying laughing right now. we live on the second floor of our building. our neighbor on the 4th floor has been going to town with the kareokee for the last couple hours. the best part is, i can only hear one voice. he just might be at it ruining some classic songs all by himself!

where is spring?

ummmm, remember last saturday?



what happened?


and here's james. just add another bruise to that same spot on his head.



he looks like he peed his pants, we're training him now too, hehe. but he really just got a hold of alli's sippy cup.

i hate april. it's such a terrible month. you get a random teaser nice day, but really, it's edmonton, it's still winter, it WILL snow just as much in april as it did every other month since october AND it will be -18 with the windchill. i was too depressed to take pictures of the madness but alysha took some.

swimming!

tomorrow is the last day of swimming lessons at the ymca for the kids. so sad. they really loved them and as lame-o as it sounds, it gave us something to do on friday nights! alli and james loved them of course. last week alli didn't want to do anything the class was doing. she wanted to "bob" the whole time (duck her head under) which is funny because she pretty much hated doing that every week before. james is a little frog swimming. none of the other kids showed up in his class last week and his lesson is right after alli's so his teacher let us all just stay in and play. james has no fear (what a surprise) and was pretty much jumping off the edge.





i know this looks evil, but it was about half a second about he loves it.


i had a tiny turtle...




i'll just mention this quickly because i don't want to jinx it, but the potty training is going really really good. only a #2 accident on sunday while distracted by a movie. other than that she been sooooooo good for a week now! but i may not sleep tonight because she refused the pull ups even though she has been dry in the morning pretty much all week.

ok, so boring post. but aren't they always?

this is what happens...

when i leave the bowl of spaghetti in reach while i deal with this on this potty





so i decided once he started to just let him have at it.




i laughed outloud when i saw this picture. he was in heaven the whole time.




so yes, i am finally officially potty training. it's past due time. i've just been doing it off and on for the last few months and she is ready, but like i have said before, i'm not sure i am. i have no idea what to do or if what i am doing is right. therefore, if any of you have seen me this week you know i'm slightly a MESS about it. so give me any tips all you moms who are laughing at me right now. it's going ok, but i'm such a stress case.

around here

here's the rundown as of lately...

went to raymond AGAIN for a couple days because Derek had spring break.

he did this



and this



james did this (his eye)
suprisingly this wound did not come from falling down the stairs (which he did 4 times)
but he did learn to crawl down them before we left. i'm so glad we have no stairs here!





alli finally got to wear her new easter dress from grandma, but wasn't in a posing mood



james is walking everywhere and looks like this. the picture does NO justice for the many, MANY brusies on his head. i think i'll try to take a picture again tomorrow of them to show him what a terror he was (and probably still will be) when he's older. he doesn't stay still ever.
when i walked into the gym this morning, the ladies gasped and were so worried if i was in some sort of freak accident. no no, just an accumulation of a child with no fear. i just saw the picture and as bad as it sounds, it looks WAY worse in person. the baldness of his head doesn't help hide any either. i counted 7.



and that's about it!