HIt by a Bus...

That's exactly what I feel like this morning. Makes me reminisce and wonder how I was a mother to newborn babies. Uhg. Jett and Ella both woke up at 2:30am. Ella had a fever (prob. from her vaccinations done on thurs) and Jett, well who knows why he was awake. I'm guessing one was up first and I didn't hear them and they woke the the other up. This is the second time, since Jett was 10m old. That he's woken up in the night. He just never does. The girls don't either, unless they are sick, or if Ella had an accident. Ok getting off track a bit here. That happens when you are sleep deprived. So as I was saying they both were up at 2:30am.. so I had to take Jett up to Jayme so I could deal with Ella. I had to go dig thru our downstairs medicine cabinet for Tylenol, thank goodness we had a spare. Also had to root around in the messy basement for Jett's sippy cup as that is the only way I assume he'd go back to sleep with out a huge fight. But when I went downstairs, Keera's on her way up, crying. On the best of days it's a stretch to figure out what she's saying but add in the factors of middle of the night, and crying. Couldn't figure it out, but she seemed fine so I assume the others woke her. Get her tucked in and calmed down and back on the hunt for the sippy cup. Find it, Jay gets Jett back in bed, though he's not happy to be there. Ella talks us (me) in to sleeping in our bed. This RARELY happens but the cuddles are nice and she was so warm it was sleeping with a hot water bottle, I was toasty warm. Problem was everybody was pretty awake from all the commotion, and Jett was making it clear he did not want to be in bed. He banged on his door again at 3am and 3:30am then finally settled down. Last time I remember looking at the clock was at 4am. Then Jay's alarm goes off at 6:30am. I can't remember the last time he set his alarm... ahhhhhggggg. So of course that wakes Ella up and starts my day. Glad I don't have big plans today, just finishing up some baking, CLEANING, and working on my talk for Sunday.


It makes me appreciate the stage my kids are at, that they do sleep thru the night. Just one night of getting up in the middle of the night makes you remember how zombie like you feel when you are getting several times a night with babies! So glad I sleep trained them young'ish and that they are good sleepers!



as a side note, last night before I went to bed I was watching tv and then just started thinking about how good sleepers my kids are and how thankful I am for them sleeping thru the night, and how glad I was that they've never all gotten up in the night ect.(seriously!) then I thought, oh crap I gotta stop thinking this or i'm just asking for trouble. So yes I had a little chuckle to myself when I rolled over and saw the clock at 2:30am and heard at least 2 of my kids!

Cookie Contest

So the past 3 years our local radio station has a cookie contest.. and I've entered and won... 2x :). So the competitor in me needs to win again. Not so much for the prize ($100 gift card at Sobey's) but for the title. I'm surprised at how competitive I feel. ha ha

It's been fun trying to figure out what to make and how to 'present' them. I played around with a Rollo cookie, a chocolate thumb print cookie with a marscapone cheese filling, and a nanaimo bar cookie. But the winner (in my mind) is a Turtle Cookie I came up with. It's a chocolate chip cookie base with pecans, chocolate and caramel pieces. I topped them with homemade caramel and chocolate dipped pecans and a sprinkle of sea salt. Unfortunately Jayme (my chief taste tester) and I have been coming off a head cold and our taste buds aren't up 100% yet. From what I can tell, they taste pretty good.


**update**
So I didn't win this year :( didn't even place.. oh well, there's always next year.

Sorry Jett...

Sorry for traumatizing you buy zipping your unit in your jeans. Guess that's why little boys should not go commando.

...

So yes, not a good idea underwear on "poop day" exp. if I'm upstairs busy with something... oh well. I can hope for only one poop today...

Diaper Free Day!!

So days when we are home or going to be around for a little while, I do my best to remember to put Jett in big boy underwear. He loves wearing them, and usually will do 1-3hours no problem but then it's naps or we go out somewhere so I put a diaper on him and forget about it the rest of the day. Well today the only errand we had was an eye exam for both the girls. Jett had already stayed dry + peed in the potty all morning so I thought, eh, might as well try going out. I knew we wouldn't be gone too long. I brought a change of clothes just in case.. BUT he didn't need them! We were gone about 45min and dry no problem. I did put a diaper on right before naps, he slept 2.5h woke up, came downstairs for about 10min, the went to the washroom (he still had is diaper on.) this is the first time he's wanted to go pee, while wearing a diaper. So I take it off.. and DRY!! I was quite surprised. He sat on the pot and peed. It's now 7:30pm and he has been in undies all day and been dry! I guess we just run with it at this point. Though tomorrow might be interesting as it's probably "poop day" as he does every other day.

Operator?

So I asked Ella to go downstairs and get the phone so I could call Jayme. I guess she figured she knew the # so she tried calling him.. She comes upstairs and says Mom there is someone on the phone.. I thought maybe she hit re-dial or something.. I get on the phone and I hear "Mama this is the operator, your daughter was playing with the phone" I was like "oh my gosh, so sorry", and she was totally fine with it. I get off the phone and sternly tell Ella "that was the operator, she was mad, you can't play with the phone".. she goes around the corner, and I hear a sheepish voice... "is she coming here?" I say no, your not in that kind of trouble.. but I think she got the message!

A Yummy Surprise!

Some friends popped by and dropped off this crazy yummy cupcakes... don't they look scrumptious? Well they are/ were!! Such a nice surprise on a cold night. And perfect timing for my nightly shows! (nothing like watching Biggest Loser chowing on a calorie laddened cupcake :) )

Thanks guys!!

Dresser Make Over

So we've been keeping our eye's out for dressers for the girls. We looked at new, but they are pricey, even for a basic one. So finally found a great on Kijiji; a 5 peice set for $80. Jay had to drive to Vermilion (30min) but I think it was worth it. It was a tall 4 drawer dresser, a long 9 drawer dresser, 2 night tables and a large mirro (have yet to do the mirror).

I was lazy and didn't want to tackly sanding everything so got a bondable primer and did 2 coats of it and then a white gloss spray paint over top. I accented with a dark pink, which I love! Hardware always seems to be the expensive part of a 'makeover' so I opted to spray the existing hardware, and I think this is my favorite part of the makeover, love how they turned out! Not sure how long they will last, might have needed a primer first, guess we'll see..

So in all, here is the break down:

dressers $80

primer $28

Brushes $6

spray paint $12

pink craft paint $0.94

Total for all pieces: $126.94 cheaper than even 1 dresser new! and way cuter than I could have bought!

I have a close up of the detail on top of the dresser. Not the work of a perfectionist, the work of a productionist :). Also a close up of the hardware. ( I have a hard time moving text and pictures around on blogger so sorry they are kinda all over the place, but I was losing patience!)

Knitting

So a friend of mine got the bug in my ear about knitting.. and since then i've been thinking, "ya, I want to knit!" being impatient, I thought ohhh you tube might have something. (Youtube has a video on EVERYTHING) and I found a really great video, made it so easy! So been working on it tonight. I got one piece done, it's about 12-14" wide and 1.5" tall, and I'm going to roll it in to a flower accessory. Next piece is a scarf. Maybe for the girls or maybe a short accessory type one for me.

Here's a pic; notice the strategic planning to hide my double chin from the laptop camera :)

BOO!!!

This year our Branch (Church) thru a Trunk or Treat (same concept of Halloween but we had it at the Church building and the kids went room to room getting candy). The kids had a blast. It was a fun night.

This year at our house we had Ella the green dragon (totally her choice), Keera a cute pink butterfly and Jett the pirate, the cutest pirate ever if I do say so! It was fun to be around for Halloween this year as the last 2 we've been away on holidays (Jayme and I).

Little Man

Found this suit while shopping in the states.. $13 can you belive it??!!! Wish they had others in his size, but they didn't. He's growing up so fast!

Before November

So I guess I should get a token October post in before it's November--ALREADY!

Time has flown by that's for sure. Ella is doing great at school, really loving it. We had parent teacher interviews last week. She is struggling in a few areas, we walked away thinking, Yikes didn't know you could 'fail' Kindergarten. She totally isn't but just defiantly has been a transition for her. And as the teacher pointed out, they've only been in school for 20 days so far.

Keera is really loving to color these days. She's actually a better color'er that Ella, I think it has to do with the patience thing. She also started speech therapy at the end of September. She has mild to moderate speech problems but the therapist thought a 6m course of therapy would get her back on track. She really enjoys going and does quite well. We've done "h" sounds and "F" sounds so far, she has the H down pat, but we're still working on the F sounds. I think she quite enjoys the time with out Ella, as she gets to 'be the boss' though Jett holds his own and does his fair share of being the "pesky younger brother".

Jett is still made about cars, trucks and trains. LOVES them. He has one in his hand 90% of the time. He play on his own quite contently if he has some cars. He often likes to "tow" things with the cars/trucks. Today it was a bun. He is really starting to talk more too, can get his point across with out much problem. He's also gone from calling me "ma" to Mommie, which I love. He does the same with Jay.. "da-deee".

We just got back from Calgary for thanksgiving and then we went to Jayme's parents where Jayme stayed with his Dad and the kids while I had a girls weekend with Jayme's Mom and Sisters. We drove to Salt Lake where his one sister Alisynn lives. We shopped, shopped, ate Mexican food, and shopped some more. It was a ton of fun! We also went to Temple Square and they had a miniature display of the Salt Lake Temple, and the interior! It was neat to see it in that perspective, and I'm sure answers some questions for those that have not been in a Temple, what they generally look like inside. They had a beautiful video to accompany it that generally explains what happens in each room. Defiantly worth the visit. I 'borrowed' this picture off my SIL's blog (thanks KD)

Jayme has been working as a supervisor since September. It's a temporary spot but we really hope it turns in to permanent (covering for a supervisor that has a ton of vacation days accumulated). This means that he goes to work about 7-8am (instead of 4:30-5am) and can take Ella to the bus stop in the mornings she goes to school (huge help!) sometimes he is home for lunch (never happened before) and is home for supper more than before, but sometimes does work a bit later. (but doesn't have the later nights like he would before). He is really enjoying it, as am I.

I'm just plugging away with the usual. Laundry, dishes, meals, cleaning ect. I'm still sitting about 58lbs lost.. haven't lost anything for a month (thanks to thanksgiving, girls weekend, and a lull in my motivation these days.) I"m trying to convince myself that I'm back in the game, and making a push to lose so more weight before Christmas. It is such a BATTLE. uhg. but I don't want to let go now.. got. to. keep. going.

Sorry there are not many pictures (I love blogs with pictures) but someone (Ella) dumped/spilt water on our laptop and it's in dry out mode till tomorrow. (it's where all our recent pics are).

Branch CampOut

So we had our second anual branch campout, It was alot of fun. Not as many families came, but in my opinion all the right families were there :). The kids had SO much fun, just running around with everyone. As usual, my camera was the last thing on my mind, but I did snap a few pics on our way home.

To School We Go....

Yes, I finally have a school aged child. Kinda hard for me to belive that my little Ella-Bella is off to kindergarden "all ready" though there have been many times in the past few years that I thought this day couldn't get here fast enough! Here are some shots of Ella's 1st day.


Ella coloring a picture for her teacher...


Ella all dressed in her back to school clothes...



Walking to the bus stop with Mom....


Waiting at the bus stop...



Here's the bus!!!! So excited to get on, she sat on the very front seat with the biggest smile on her face!

Gibb Family Reunion

Jay doing the waterslide


My handsome little man!

Me and KD, the only sister in law brave enough to go down with me (this year :) )

Park Times

Keera and Jett playing ring around the rosie

Summer Times

The girls all pretty'ed up (notice Keera's curly hair that has just happened this summer!)



Ella bella... not sure where we were going with her all cuted up...hmmm anyways..





Heading to Church..rare shot of all 3 clean and put together.

We took the side off Jett's crib to transition him to a 'big boy bed' and this was at nap time a few days later, we knew he was up playing for a while, then it was quiet, but saw his light was on so I snuck in and this is what I found, him curled up on his rocking chair...soooo cute!!! He was out!

Summer Camping at Old McDonald Farm

Kids enjoying .25cent ride on the very old 'ride' (not sure what to call it)



We rented this bike g-cart for an hour. Jayme was done after 5min, it was alot of peddling to get us around, but fun! We had to go fast so the 'sketto's didn't get us, lol.


Miss Ella, snacking on... fresh baby carrots mmmm

Smilie Mr. Jett, who quite likes posing for the camera

Dinner (or waiting for it) they had concrete picnic tables, first time we'd seen that.