20 Random Facts

I'm sure you've all seen this on pinterest....

When I saw it I immediately wanted to get started...and thought it might be fun to get me motivated to blog more.  Although blogging about myself is hard and makes me a little nervous...I'm going to try to complete as much of the list as I can.  I won't be doing the 30 day part...that's just too much pressure.  haha!  It's just going to be something I do as I want and when I want...mixed in with other normal posts through out the year.

If you care to read...here I go!

(This is what a week in bed with 2 sick boys looks like!)

1. I love to be creative...whether I'm scrapbooking, painting furniture, making necklaces, taking pictures or doing some kind of pinterest project...I love it. 
2. I can't just sit and watch a movie at home.  I have to be working on something at the same time.  Of course it drives my hubby crazy, but I just can't seem to sit still otherwise and almost feel like I'm wasting time.
3.  The sound of a napkin ripping and sticking to something (like if you were to lick the napkin to make it wet....ugh...eee...can't handle it) gives me the heebie jeebies.  
4. I love vanilla ice-cream!  My hubby thinks that it's soooo boring, but it would probably be my first choice if given 50 flavours to choose from.  Really anything vanilla...cake...icing...etc.
5. I love music, but don't listen to a lot of it since any awake moments are spent listening and watching children's choices.  And when I have a moment of silence I savour it.
6. I'm not comfortable being in the spotlight and feel very content watching, listening and learning from others quietly from the sidelines.
7. Fast food makes me sick!  Even though I will eat it once in awhile I will always feel sick to my stomach a couple of hours later.  (thanks to my pregnancy with Maguire I have never been able to eat it again!)
8. I am surprisingly calm in stressful situations.  Which leads to #9....
9. I delivered my sister's baby (with her husband).  She went into labour before she could make it to the hospital and I just happened to be coming to pick up her daughter...but came just in time to be a part of the most scary situation I've ever been in.
10. I love to read...especially British humour!  I think I enjoy 'light reading' so that I can pick it up and put it down whenever I need to.
11. Cookies are my downfall...I've decided I can't even make them or I will eat the all!!!...any kind.
12. I like to think that I'm not a picky eater, but I just can't eat seafood.  I try and try, but I just can't seem to fall in love with it.  Anything else I'll eat.
13. Change scares me.  
14. I was "Frenchie" in our grade 12 musical theatre play.  I remember being so shocked when I got the role in Grease!...and my bestie played Sandy so we had a great time!!
15. If I ever decided to go back to work I don't know if I'd be able to choose what I would want to do.  I would love to do hairdressing, take my photography more seriously, maybe do occupational therapy, something with decorating and nutrition interests me...too many choices!  Now if only I would have known that 15 years ago when I was registering for College...I wouldn't have had to suffer through a year of Medical Reception.  haha!!
16. My dream vacation takes many forms...laying by a pool somewhere tropical or shopping my heart out!  Either sounds like the perfect holiday :)
17. I will always smell the dishwasher soap before putting it in the dispenser...it has such a clean fresh smell!  My favourite!!
18. I once ate fertilizer with my friend (yes...I was young) because we thought someone had spilt their little candies all over the trampoline.  We cried after thinking we were going to die, but my dad reassured us we would be fine.
19. I am a procrastinator and have a hard time making decisions.  I admire my sister who just gets things done...I am really trying to be more like that.
20. I believe that my 30's are turning out to be way better than my 20's.  Maybe it's because of all the life lessons I learned in those years, but I never imagined how much I would actually enjoy getting a bit older (except for the wrinkles!)...and don't get me wrong I don't want to keep getting older I just feel so much more comfortable with who I am.

Okay, that was hard!  haha!!  In the beginning I was struggling trying to think of things, but by the end I could have added a few more.

K :)

The Simple Things

I asked my hubby to take a quick picture of me with my boys right before we headed out the door to church last week.  Someone wasn't very cooperative, but this is totally what life is like.  Sometimes happy and fun...and then other times it's a little grumpy and difficult.

Poor little Ryker woke up with a fever on Friday and has been really sick.  I hate when the kids are sick because they seem so helpless.  I miss having Ryker's bubbly self bouncing around the house...instead he's moping around barely able to walk.  I slept with him last night cause he was having a hard time between all his coughing, stuffy noise and just all the aches and pains.  I am exhausted this morning, but when they're not feeling good I love having them close.  I love the snuggles and cuddles and the power you have as a mother to comfort them.  

Here's hoping he has a better day today and will start feeling better...and can I add that I hope NO ONE else gets sick.....

K :)

The Simple Things

My boys are OBSESSED with Skylanders.

Maguire is so animated whenever he talks about it that you'd think all he does all day is play...trust me he doesn't.  But they sure do have fun playing with their dad!!  hehe!!  Boys and video games...I'm not sure this girl will ever understand it.

Maguire even takes "the map" to school in his backpack just so he can show everyone.  Oh my.  And the ugly creatures have been known to come grocery shopping, on car rides and to the swimming pool with us.  Seriously.

As a parent it's so fun to see what obsessions and interests my kids develop...even if I don't quite understand it myself!

K :)

The Simple Things

One of my little blessings this year has been the one on one time I get to spend with both of my children.  When I switched Ryker from the morning class to the afternoon...instead of having alone time I have been able to spend quality time with my kids and I LOVE it!!  Some days are just normal days at home, but then sometimes we make something ordinary...special.

On this particular day it had been snowing and was cold outside, so after we dropped Maguire off at school, Ryker and I sat at the kitchen table drinking hot chocolate together!  It wasn't anything crazy, didn't take me all day and night to get ready, I didn't spend a fortune buying it and yet this 30 minutes talking and laughing together is priceless!!!

I quickly snapped a couple of pictures of my cute date and hadn't checked my settings to notice that he was over exposed!  Oops!!!  It's not always about a perfect picture...sometimes just capturing the moment however it may be is what is most important.  I say it ALL the time, but I just don't want to forget these precious moments with my children....  

When they're all grown and have families of their own I want to be able to look back in the family photo albums and remember how cherished these years were....

K :)

The Simple Things

Oh to be little again...and have no cares and worries!

The one thing I miss is just being able to stay in my room and sleep, read, listen to music...do whatever without being interrupted.  Of course there are so many reasons I would never want to go back to those days either, but life was so much simpler and carefree then.

Maguire is such an imaginative little boy.  There isn't a moment when something isn't being transformed into a robot or machine...or he's being "plunged" down a tube (yes this is really how he plays...he loves Mario brothers a little too much!).  It just amazes me how kids can just create and play for hours.  As a little girl I loved playing with my dolls and barbies...I could play for hours.  Life changes so quickly, now it's hard to join in and play with the boys cause "I just don't do it right"...according to them. haha!

Childhood is just soooo magical.

K :)

The birthday party!

The tree this year was my FAVORITE!!!

When I picked the colour scheme this year (yellow and grey) I was kind of excited, but then as I was looking at things to do it seemed like all it was was gold and silver...haha!!  I thought it was kind of funny, but it turned out really cute no matter what!  Ryker was beyond excited...but so was Maguire...not sure who loved it more actually.  haha!

Cody and I spend Saturday night decorating the birthday tree and getting everything ready for Ryker's birthday.  We stayed with tradition and had a small party with cousins...and decorated gingerbread houses!  I think the adults almost love that part more than the kids.  My sister takes it quite seriously...hehe!!

We always start with cake and presents...I know a little backwards, but the rest of the night is spent decorating the gingerbread houses and with school the next day it makes for a short party.  Ryker picked his cake (chocolate mudslide cake) and I also made cupcakes.  I really need to just buy the cake next time.  I am not a baker and I just really struggle with it.  The cake turned out great, but if I leave that stress to someone else it will just make the party that much better!  Remind me next year....

This birthday boy was so sweet and let his brother and cousins help unwrap presents.  I think everything he got was "his favourite!"  He was just so happy with everything!  He's so easy to please :)

I just love this boy!!!  And love the traditions we have to celebrate his special day.  My hubby teases me that one day he'll be grown and married and I'll still be decorating a birthday tree and gingerbread houses!!  hehe!!

K :)

Happy Birthday!!

6 years ago we were arriving at the hospital...soooo extremely excited and nervous.  We were meeting our Birth Mother (who was getting induced) and her Mom and Sister.  I remember seeing her and giving her a big hug!  She went up to get things started with her sister and Cody and I stayed downstairs with her Mom.  We got to visit with her until we needed to go upstairs.  Poor Cody spent most of the day in the waiting room while we were all upstairs taking care of our Birth Mom.  I remember being so nervous...but our Birth Mom was giving me the most incredible gift I would be blessed with.  She wasn't only placing her baby with us, but she was letting me be a part of his birth!!  It not only prepared me for moments when I would get to tell Ryker all about his special birth, but also prepared me for other events that would take place later in my life.  She is amazing and we love her so very much.  We feel so blessed that she can be a part of not only Ryker's life, but ours!  And every year on Ryker's birthday we think of her and hope and pray that she knows how much we love and appreciate her!!  This difficult time in her life was one of the greatest blessings in ours.  She is strong, loving and selfless...and I want to be more like her.

It's easy to get caught up in comparing your children's characteristics to yourself or others...and when we talk about Ryker, Cody and I always comment on not only how much we think he looks like his Birth Mom, but also how friendly and loving he is towards others.  He gets his musical talents from her and love for life from her.  I really could go on and on....

But somehow today...this boy is turning 6!!!!  Oh how we love you Ryker!!!  You make life soooo much fun and entertaining...you easily brighten our days and make us laugh!  You are so sweet to others and so kind to your brother.  You are the peacemaker in our home...always making sure Maguire is happy and sharing whatever you have with him.  There isn't a day that goes by that you don't sing or dance or stand on your head.  You always love to help us with whatever we are doing and you LOVE school!!  You are getting to be such a big boy...and I just can't handle it!!!  You Ryker, will always be my baby!!!  

We love you!!!

xo

the simple things

after the day we've had i'm so thankful that these two will let me take pictures of them...even when they really don't want me to!!  hehe!!

it took me 30 minutes to round these two up after church...and that was with the help of 4 youth!  yup...my children decided they were going to do their own thing and took off on me just as we were headed to the door to leave.  i couldn't find them anywhere and i was getting so frustrated walking around the crowded church.

seriously.  it just seemed like one thing after another today.

so when they sit and hug and look all cute...i take all i can get.

K :)

it's all in the details

i am someone who loves the little details.  And if they're creative handmade things it's even better.

a few months ago i got to photograph a wedding with my bestie and i just had so much fun photographing the little thoughtful details that the bride spent so much time making perfect.  this simple little jar of flowers was just right!


And a couple more pictures of the details...

(I'm having a few difficulties uploading some of my pictures...so you're only getting a few!)

this is the kind of reception i wish i could have had almost 13 years ago...wow!  that seems like a long time ago, but poor me getting married before pinterest was around!!!  hehe!


i can remember not really caring about the details way back then, i was just excited to get married!  and now...it's just fun to dream about all the creative things i would have loved to do.


K :)


and p.s.  can i just say...i know i'm way off on my seasons, but there are so many things i have wanted to blog about and am just finding the time now!!  hehe!

The World According To Me

Even before Ryker started school the amount of artwork...coloring...crafty things was adding up!...And I just didn't know what to do with it all.  I bought these storage boxes from Ikea so that at least I had somewhere to keep it all, but once school started Ryker was bringing home paintings by the armful and the box quickly started overflowing.  

All year I collected and collected...not being able to through any of it away...hehe!  I was using paintings as wrapping paper, Ryker created his own little art gallery behind the door in his room (which has spread down the wall), we have taped pictures to the fridge and even other areas...but there was just too much of it and I knew that before anything went in the garbage I wanted to do something special with it.  

Finally I found my answer!!!

I have always LOVED paislee press...and Liz's style (her work is gorgeous!), so when she shared this book that she made I knew that's what I was going to do.

I chose to take pictures of all his artwork (I included church and school), combined it with pictures of his creations I had taken throughout the year and added pictures from the disk of pictures his class gave us at the end of the year of different activities from school to compile his art book.

I then threw away the pile of artwork I had saved all year...YES...that's right I threw it away (okay...I kept a couple of favourite pieces that I really love, but it's probably under 10 items!) and it felt so good to get that all cleaned up and organized.  There is NO WAY that we needed 14 of those big boxes (one for each year of his school from preschool all the way up to grade 12) and then times that by 2 since I have 2 children....  Where would I even put something like that???  This way I can still remember all these perfect little creations without the mess!

It took many hours (2 hours just to take all the pictures!!!), but 100 pages later and we now have this collection of Ryker's artwork!  

It is a true keepsake.  I can't even begin to describe how much I love it!  I have always had a special love for children's art...I love they way they see the world around them and how they express that through art.  There are no rules to children's art and their imagination is unique.  They aren't afraid to make mistakes or add colors that aren't technically correct.  I just love it!

The book is created through Shutterfly so it's easy to just upload your pictures (I did not edit my pictures to make them all pretty...I just cropped them after uploading to make them fit the space I put them in (adjusted the size that way...make sense??).  I needed to keep it as quick and simple as I could and then I added any information to different pages.  I tried to keep that simple as well.  A lot of the artwork from school was written on with information that Ryker had given them while he was creating the piece, so there wasn't always a need for a big write up or explanation.  I also tried to choose layouts that would hold a lot of pictures...I tried to cut down the number of pages in the book to keep the cost down.  You can always find sales, but even with a sale the book still cost me quite a bit. 

On the last page I included a picture of Ryker on his last day of school with a write up about him.

Done!

I thought I had taken a picture of the back cover...it's sooooo cute!!  There's a picture of Ryker wearing one of his many headbands he created.  I guess I forgot that one.  Oops!

K :)

The Simple Things

What I've been working away on....

Doing a major purge of my room since let's face it...I haven't been spending much time in here.  I want to though.  It's probably my favorite room in my house.  But I only say that because I love working on projects and love that when my room is clean there is nothing like spending time being creative.  Nothing!

Lately my creative time has been spent browsing the internet...pinterest...facebook...blogs.  I can really waste my time on these sites, but I love them!  hehe!!  Like look at this "Favorite Things Gift Giving Guide Blog Hop!!"  How fun is that???

Focus...

Gotta get back to cleaning and organizing my space.

K :)

The Simple Things

Yesterday as I was cleaning up I looked out the window to see my neighbours daughter watering her plants.  She loves her yard more than anything and takes amazing care of it.  I have watched my neighbour the past 10 years that we have lived across the street as she has planted each tree and each flower...hauled countless wheel barrels full of dirt and built her own fence...deck...you name it.  This lady is amazing.

She has the cutest little puppy that my boys LOVE!  When Coco is outside my kids are always asking to play with her.  On this particular June day Ryker insisted I take a picture of them with Coco...as we watched the boys play my neighbour told me that she was given a month to live.  She has struggled for years with a rare form of cancer and knew that when it came back she would not have long to live.

She is a fighter.  She is still holding on and even though she is now living in the hospital she is still fighting.  

I'm so thankful for her example.  For the blessing of good neighbours.  And even more thankful for the knowledge I have of this life...that it is not the end.

K

the simple things

One of our favorite things to do as a family is go swimming.  Honestly it's more of the thing my hubby does with the boys, but it's always appreciated when I join in too!  When we were at the cabin last I actually brought my camera down to the pool with us to snap a few quick pictures of something we love to do together.  These moments often get left out since I ruined my camera once by taking it near the water...I just don't ever think about bringing it with me now.  But oh how I would have missed out capturing this cute boy sitting near the edge of the pool waiting patiently for us to jump in.  He LOVES swimming and I love capturing these special family moments!

K :)

A Little Chocolate

The Easter Bunny made his appearance last week and the amount of chocolate consumed was ridiculous.  Maguire's lips were constantly covered with the yummy goodness...so this momma had to step in and hide the chocolate.  hehe!

We spent Easter weekend at the cabin and loved playing in the sunshine.  It is spring there...so bike rides, walks and playing outside and at the park took up most of our days.  Cody hates that there are always projects to work on, but I keep reminding him that if we want to be able to come and enjoy the cabin during the summer months we need to get everything done now.  We managed to get all the blinds done which has been on our list for a long time...and I even spent an afternoon shortening some of the blinds upstairs.  I should have asked Cody how he would do it before I started cause the first one took me forever.  He came upstairs as I was starting the second one and made a comment like "why didn't you do it this way....??" and man was that sooooo much quicker!  Everything is coming together and hopefully the next time we go I can get some pictures to share.  I love love love it there!!

It's been super busy around here...but when isn't it??  hehe!!  These boys keep me hopping every minute of the day and with school and other activies there doesn't seem to be much time for anything else.  We had a kindergarten meeting this past week and I honestly started thinking to myself "do I have to send him to school??"  It's making me sad that Ryker will be in school every morning...how is that even possible.  My kids are soooo ready to grow up and move onto the next stage of their little lives, but I am not.  Seriously.  I'm going to have two mornings a week next year with no kids!!!  WHAT!!???  What will I do with myself???  I'm not so great with change, and this is almost too much for me to handle...haha!!

I've been contemplating my goals for this year...and thinking about my word...BALANCE.  I feel like I'm on the right track with everything.  Sometimes life pulls me in one direction and leaves no time for other important things, but thinking about balance in my life helps.  I had a situation this past week where I was literally needed in two places at once...and so of course I had a breakdown over it, but after some tears and a chat with my bestie I realized that the choice of where I really needed to be was more important.  Sometimes it really helps to have friends to talk to and complain to :)  My progress might be small sometimes, but I'm doing what I can to move in the right direction.  Life just sometimes takes over and I get sidetracked.  It happens!  Maybe I need to pull that chocolate out...hehe!!

K :)

 

the simple things

Lego is my supper prep life saver!  

I pull it out into the kitchen and the kids just build away leaving me time to get supper ready.  I hate all the little pieces that get spread all over the house, but it's soooo worth it!  The boys will sit forever building away!  And I must say that I love to see the creative things...usually "machines" or "robots" that are built!

K :)

The Simple Things

Quick little snap shots usually include these two...together...doing something.  Someone asked me the other day if my children get along.  Well...for the most part they are typical siblings.  They fight, they play...but they really really do love each other.  Cody and I love to listen to them interact together which is usually a hilarious conversation about nothing.  And they are always super excited to see each other when we pick Ryker up from school.  They love to be silly together and make each other laugh (I'm afraid we have 2 class clowns!).  But like I said they are typical siblings and the wrestling matches that occur around here are quite the scene...haha!!

On this particular day you will notice Maguire eating one of our favorite snacks.  We love the alphabet pretzels (from Superstore) and use them for all kinds of fun activities...spelling, tic tac toe, finding the letters in our names...etc. etc. etc.  They are fun!!

K :)

the simple things

this past week we made leaps and bounds with potty training!  he decided that he was ready so we've gone with it.  but before he made this choice, i had bought a new box of diapers since he would only wear 'mickey mouse' diapers and changing him was a wrestling match if it was anything else.  can i add that he is freakishly strong for 2 1/2???  seriously.  or maybe i'm just really weak...haha!  this week i need to buckle down.

k :)