Skating..

We took the kids skating for the first time tonight, and it was the first time in a loooong time for skating for mom and dad too! everyone did soo good! Keera took off amazing, I think her toe pics helped but she was loving it and fell lots but got up again no problem. She was off on her own just cruising around the rink, so proud of her.

Ella reall was excited to go, but we got her boy skates (just a fit issue) so she was trying to push off from her toes, and well that doesn't work! She managed to stay upright while holding the skate assist bar, but really was all over the place. She has such a great attitude though, she just kept at it. I think we will exchange her skates for figure skates, to giver her a helping hand. Jett also went, he was more hesitant, but wanted to go on the ice a few times, and tryed with the skate assiste, and was able to move a bit. I think he was really scared to fall, and now reading tonight, it's best to teach them how to fall, even do games like ring around the rosie (where they all fall down) so it's not a big deal. We kept it positive and every did great. We went home and washed the evening down with some good old hot chocolate!!

Why Hello There Stranger

...is probably what you are thinking..

Yes we are here, and alive.. just busy.. with what I don't know. And also I had a monkey on my back.. I do annual birthparents update, usually due end of March, but I was late, then we moved, then the postal strike, then I was lazy, then lazy a bit more. But FINALLY got them done and in the mail so I can blog guilt free (instead of thinking, I SHOULD be working on the update.) That is sort of like my sewing right now. My Mom's Christmas present in 2009 (yes 2009) was a quilt for her place in AZ. As of today, Aug 11th, 2011 it is still not done and I have such guilt about it! Uhg. I do better with small to med. projects. It really would take maybe 1/2 a day if I sat down and just did it. But that time frame translated in to 'with kids' = like a cajillion years. So needless to say I have a bunch of think i'd like to get sewing but I have guilt every time I go to sew something other than the quilt. I've made the odd thing, but they are just sit down get'er done projects (= less than 1hr).

Anyways.. so the summer has been good, really pretty busy and has gone really fast which is good as I was quite scarred the beginning of the summer, having 3 kids all day, everyday. But it's been good. Despite no yard, despite rain really almost everyday (REALLY!). We've been busy with swim lessons, company, going to visit family, camping etc. Now we are down to the last 3 weeks (3 weeks today actually!!) and I think yikes we haven't done a bunch of stuff I thought we would!

But truth betold, I am already anticipating all the stuff I can do when the kids go back to school (snicker snicker). Tues and Thurs afternoons, from 12:45m-2:45pm I will be KID FREE, 1st time in well.. ever! It will be crazy. You know what else is crazy? I'm already feeling like "ekk, am I really ready for Ella to be gone all day, everyday.. really that means her teachers/friends will be spending more time with her than her parents (well me!) It's kinda a scary thought! Yes she drives me crazy and gets in to tons of stuff and drives me crazy (did I say that already?) It's scary as a parent to 'let go' and not be there for them, to watch over and feel comfort in that you are right there, or will be back in a couple hours. There is so much that goes on at school and even I can remember back to those scary/sad times that you have at school and to think she'll have those and I won't be there. Well is kinda sad and scary for ME! aHHH the joys of parent hood.

So plans for the fall? Painting the girls bunk bed, "the quilt", maybe trying to get in some exercise routine (that is a whoooooole other post)

Well just wanted to stop by and let you all know what was up with us.. so now you know. Peace out.

Birthday Day

So today was the day... the day I turned (gulp) 38. Sounds soooo old to me (lets face it, it's getting up there!) So Ella did not have any school today due to kindergarten orientations for the next years (keera went yesterday) and I thought - uhg what am I going to do all day with the kids, and me, that is sorta fun.. Well I decided to just do lots of fun things with them to a) keep them busy, b) keep them happy c) get us out of the house d)keep them busy e)make the day go faster f) lessen the chance of fighting .. and well it worked!

So the day started at 5:15am (ha ha NOT planned) Ella and Keera were up this early, and I was NOT HAPPY! so we put Keera in Jay's closet and Ella back in her room and got a bit more sleep (and have decided to try Keera and Jett sharing a room). So first stop was Kidz Quarterz, in Sherwood park, basically a "Lets Play" place but 1/2 the price. Surprisingly we were the only ones there at 10am but then some more kids trickled in so they were able to have some fun times playing. We were there for about 1.5hrs and the off the door with a .05cent candy as bribery to leave.

We were going to go to Ikea for cheap hot dogs for lunch but then I thought, hey why don't we go surprise Daddy and have lunch with him! So we did and it was fun! We walked to Whyte ave and had lunch at subway where the kids got cute penguin bags with their meals. It was a little healthier than I had planned but I guess you gotta sacrifice sometimes. We got to tour Dad's office and meet some of his co-workers and boss. I ironically dressed Jett the same as Jay in a bright orange shirt (not that I dressed Jay, he did do that by himself this morning).

Then we were off again, off to a movie!! We went to south common and saw Rio, and kids bird movie. It was really cute! I was trying to be frugal Frannie and had planned on using gift certificates we got at Christmas for the kids and then it would just cost for me... but alas.. I went to the wrong theater.. and so there was no way in heck the kids would accept "opps can't go because it's going to cost an arm and a leg" so $60 unplanned dollars later... but the movie was really cute and the kids did amazing watching it (ie- no running all over the place, sat still the whole time) I'm sure it has NOTHING to do with the fact they each had a full size bag of candy to much on.

So by this time it's about 3pm... hmmm Dad's not home till 5..heck we still have 2 hours to kill... where should we go... IKEA!! (free child care!!) We tried going 2 weekends ago, but it was full and the kids were quite disappointed, but they were able to get in this time! They were quite excited, and I enjoyed window shopping at Ikea for an hour by myself.

By this time Mom was pooped out so we headed home. Jayme brought supper home.. yummie donairs.. I was looking forward to it all day!

After super our family tradition on someones b-day is to go to DQ, so off we went. I had my favorite; a Georgia Mud Fudge Blizzard and the kids had dipped cones (well Ella just wanted hers plain.. strange girl) and Jay had a peanut buster parfait.

And to end the evening.. I am off to have a massage!! Sorry no pics people, I know you are disappointed, but it's for your own health.

Happy Birthday to me!!!

End of May

So Keera ended the day looking pretty ruff today.. not sure why, nothing particularly crazy happened. But still, pretty ruff looking and ready for a bath!



I was in the kitchen getting supper organized and when I can't be outside to supervise the kids, I close the garage door and they can still ride their bikes ect, when I went to check on them, this is what I found.. Keera trying to make a break for it on Daddies quad. She quite likes the quad and managed to get his heavy helmet on all by her self!

Jett felt his bike needed a few repairs and took to it himself. So cute! He was quite impressed with himself. I started worry a bit when the hammer came out...

Where is Ella you ask? As usually she is the front runner for "getting in to things" she was inside upstairs quietly watching tv. Yes, it is true!

The Kids

Jayme snapped off a couple pics of the kids before we headed off to Church today. It was amazing to get a good picture of the three of them together!! The girls wanted and let me do their hair with the flat iron today. Keera wanted hers straight like Mommies (I had straightened mine today) and Ella wanted "curls" the best we could do with the new do is a cute flip, which she liked. she also like my jewelry. She choose to wear the pink tights, green dress and red necklace, much to my dismay (really I didn't care, she got dressed by herself, good enough for me!!)

Front of House

So when I posted the pics of our new house.. I didn't include one of the outside... but here it is!

Kite Night

So last night at Ella's school they had "kite night" where families could come and make kites. Jay went with the girls, Jett and I were waiting at the walk in clinic (he has a congested cough) so they made a kite and Ella was quite excited to fly it today. Surprisingly it worked really well. She ran up and down the street flying it! (love all the dirt we are surrounded with.. I'm praying for a dry summer, sorry!)

New Digs (for Jayme)

Jayme is really loving his job and I am just so proud of him! He has amazing work ethic and commitment to the company and it is paying off for him. He has had a pretty big learning curve but already has things pretty well mastered and is above schedule on his assignments to date! I am so grateful for a hardworking husband and someone who takes pride in his work. He is a good provider and has stretched out of his comfort zone to provide a better home life for his family. Having him home every night at a pretty consistent time has been one the biggest ++'s in my mind. It saves my sanity each day knowing when he'll be home (to 'save' me, lol). Also to have him off Sundays is so wonderful as well, I know it will do nothing but benefit the family. The weekends go so fast now, we were use to having him for 4-5 days off at a time, but it's a small sacrifice for all the positives. Thank you Jayme for being a great provider, love you XOXO

Here is a pic of his office, and his dual computer screen's that he's quite proud of!

Go-Greem

... that's what Jett calls ice cream. Yesterday we were cleaning the garage and the kids were riding up and down the sidewalk. Then we heard the sound... the sound of a "go-greem" truck. The kids were sooooo excited, so of course we had to buy some. It was a tuff decision but they all ended up choosing the same thing, a rug-rats themed ice cream, so $10.50 later for 4 ice creams, we took a break and enjoyed the surprise treat. We had limited seating but the scaffolding worked great. I'm sure it will be a familiar sound this summer... the go-greem truck.

Boy Style

So since we've been potty training Jett, he started out sitting, moved to 'frog style' and now is experimenting with standing, he's just tall enough if he lifts the seat. So today after lunch he went pee, then he keep standing at the potty, facing me (back to the toilet) saying "poo-poo" "poo-poo" I kept saying yes, go poo, that's fine. But I didn't realize he was doing 'boy style' pooing, with the seat up and his but to the bowl, pooping in. Thank goodness it went in the toilet!!

Pics of the New Pad

Had to throw in a pic of the kids :)

on the main floor looking to go downstairs

Looking from the ensuite to the master

Master ensuite, shower, tub and toilet

Master ensuite, tub and dual sinks

One of my favorite things.. my OWN closet!!!

Masterbed..room

windows in master bedroom, with bamboo shades

Jett's room, I did his curtains (sun was really brite so pic didn't turn out as well)

Upstairs bonus room, and stairs to the main floor

girls room ( i love how the curtains turned out, just three $5 panels from walmart!)

Other side of bonus room and hall to master

bonus room and the girls

Jett being grumpy on the stairs to upstairs

Kitchen and kitchen nook

from the great room looking to the front entry

Great room area

Fun Night!

So I woke up at 2am to all the kids up, TV on, comp. on, lights on, just happy as can be. I was not happy, at all. Who know's how long they had been up. So get them all back in bed. 4am, same thing!! + lights on downstairs. So in reality they probably did not go back to sleep. Get them all back in bed, with STRICT instruction to stay there.. (ya right) 4:30am after a quick doze by me.. I hear something again, not so many lights on this time, actually only the girls, with the door close, open it and Jett's in there too, and the room is a DISASTER.. So not a happy Mom.. get Ella down in her bed, Jett in his and put Keera in my closet, as obviously they were not going to sleep together.. Finally they went to sleep. Actually Keera slept till 8:20am, Ella 8:35am and Jett was up when Keera got up so not sure when he was up. (they usually up 6-6:30 these days, which I'm not crazy about either)

So that was the exciting night at the Gibb household last night. If our neighbors where up I'm sure they wonder about the hours we keep!

Potty Trained!!!!

I think I can say it now, with out jinxing things.. but Jett is potty trained!! We started more seriously a few weeks before we moved (dumb I know but he was just seeming ready) and besides the day we moved in (where he peeed on our brand new hardwood and our basement floor) he has not had any accidents! + he has been dry this whole time during naps too! (naps in his undies, night time with a pull up) we've noticed he's alot more dry in the morning as well. I can't believe we are done with diapers. Kinda sad, but defiantly happy about it!!
He's so cute the way he "goes" he likes to stand/squat on the toilet seat and pee, sorta frog like. He's just barely tall enough now and is starting to stand and pee, so cute!

Test

Test

It's been Awhile

Let me explain... blogger does not work for some reason on our laptop, all I can do is read blogs, it won't let me post or comment, which is frustrating (I know it's some JavaScript problem but no clue how to fix it!)! So how am I posting this... well our laptops network quite/stopped/broke last night, so now I am FORCED to use this desktop. Which is ok I guess, as it means I can do a blog post!

So... what do I post about.. hmm it could be about us moving, trying to sell our house (we'll know next tues if the deal goes thru, but i've heard about a handful of peoples deals falling thru on the last day i'm so scared and every time I talk/tell people about it i feel i'm jinxing things- eeeek), house hunting in Edm (Beaumont actually), how much house we canNOT afford, and how depressing that is (re-doing our budget, we really need to do a cheaper morg. not that ours is high right now, but we always accumulate debt each year, and then use our tax return to pay it off, and every year this is so frustrating to me! We need to find a way to NOT get in debt (cheaper morg, less shopping, more accountable to our budget, maybe me working?) each year and then we could have a nice little chunk each year for extras. It seems like Jayme makes good money, but when do the budget it just doesn't stretch that far, and we have no car payments or loan payments! Everything is basically normal or standard for that. Every 2 weeks we only have $200 for 'everything else' ie car repairs, date nights, clothes, trips, extras, school trips/fee's, dentist overages, vehicle registrations, all that stuff that pops up. Uhg. I'm probably disclosing too much but what ever, this is what i'm stressed about and need to vent, lol!

So I got back from Hawaii a week ago tomorrow, and it was amazing, great weather, only 2 days of rain but I had burnt my face so bad it was fine to give it a rest. I had a blast hanging out with Andrea and Dad + Shelley. It was quite relaxing and nice to have a detour from my daily routine. Jayme did AWESOME back at home. So impressed. He never sounded stressed or mad when he called (we talked everyday) and never complained or said "I'm never doing this again" it was nice as I would have stressed if he was stressed. (Thanks sweetie) He showed the house 10times! Which meant packing up the kids (almost always during naps) and keeping the house tidy! He actually got TWO offers while I was a way. One was a really lowball, and they didn't like our counter of only 900 below asking. So it was dead after that, but the other one is good so far.. FINGERS CROSSED!

Oh and have I mentioned yet that possession on our house is April 29th.. so once the deal is firm, we'll have 5.5 weeks to find a house and move. Fun!

News....

So the Gibb family has some news.....Jayme has accepted a job offer in Edmonton.. so we are moving. It's a really great opportunity for him, he will be a Corod Training Specialist.. basically training guys how to do what he's been doing for 15 years. It's a mostly office job (M-F 9am-5pm) he'll have weekends off (great for Church). There might be some traveling, and in the years to come would be more international. With Jayme being at the head office in Edm. there will be lots more opportunities for career growth. I"m excited to live in a city with a Temple as well!

I am so not looking forward the selling the house process (keeping it clean, if anyone knows me, this will be a HUGE challenge.) I also hope it doesn't take along time to sell (like our Calgary house, uhg). Jayme starts March 14th.. so he will then travel back and forth. It will be hard to have him gone during the week, but I look at it as it's only 5 days..
We are looking at the south east area of Edm. and not ruling out Sherwood park, Beaumount, Leduc.. It will be exciting to look for a new house, though I do love my house right now!!

I'm really sad to leave my friends here, I take a while to establish good friendships.. and now i'm starting over again. I truly hope to keep in touch with all my friends here! And now they have a place to stay/visit while in Edmonton! I feel so settled here in Lloyd, and I love the size of it, no traffic etc. I love love love our Branch.. so many good people :( - not sure how I'll fair in a ward.. guess we'll see.

So this news is bitter-sweet. Very excited to be closer to family (only 2.5h to Calgary) - but sad to leave so many wonderful people :(

Family Trip

So in December you can buy a gift certificate for the fantasy land Hotel for $149 and book a theme room with it (regular $300-$350) so I bought one this year and we went this past Mon+Tues. I've been quite excited to go! I had hopes it would just be a fun time with the kids and a fun bonding time. It was!
We left about 10am and got to the Hotel/mall about 12:15 and went swimming right away. It was nice because it was a Monday afternoon so not crazy busy. The water park is pretty big, they only had about 1/2 the slides working, and the special kid slide area was totally closed, but still fun. Keera and Jett did not like the waves at first. When the waves first started up, they both went running to the 'shore' away from the waves. It took alot of coaxing to get them even to sit at the very edge and feel the water/waves. Ella, well she is another story, she is our little fish. She loved it. Ella and Daddy and Ella and I went on a few slides. Her and I did this one, that was totally enclosed and quite twisty.. I was honestly kinda scared to do it, as it makes me a bit clausterphobic, but I was brave. I was also nervous for Ella as they would not let us go together, but she really wanted to go. So I went first and it was a bit freaky! I could not fully sit up (too tall) and I didn't want to lie down so I kinda did this weird half sit/half lie down thing. Ella did awsome and we did it again!
I did the big 'toilet' slide. A slide that spits u in to this big toilet type thing and then dumps you in to this deep pool. I probably looked crazy going on it as I go all disoriented and was flayling all over the place and went in to the water shoulders first.
Jayme went on some slides, dispite his broken foot, but did ok. He had fun frolicking with Ella in the waves. We had fun and had lots of smiles and laughs.
We had a very expensive snack there and finished up around 3:30 and then went to check in to our room. The kids were crazy excited to see the room, we had the African room. It was pretty cool. After that we took the kids to build-a-bear and they each built a bear. Then we went for dinner at "Jungle Jim's" which was very kid friendlyso that was fun. Their menu's were maskes and they got cool cups and even got to pick a 'prize' from the treasure chest. We went back to the room and hung out and settle the kids to bed. Keera and Jett were no problem. Miss Ella was another story. But eventually we all got to sleep - though we had to do a bit of bed shuffling, lol! (Ella in bed with me, Keera to the top bunk and Jay on the bottom bunk!)


It was an early morning of 6:15am .. so the kids played in the tub for a while- LOVE it!

We had a great (included) breakfast at the Euro Cafe- really a great buffet breakfast! The kids loved all the fruit and the mini-fruit loop cerels!
We then went to Toy's R Us to spend the gift cards the kids got from Uncle Wes at Christmas.
Jett got 2 big metal trucks, Thomas Train sleeping bag, and The Car's movie. Keera got a tinker bell blanket, strawberry shortcake case+ dolls and a tinker bell paint set. Ella got (big surprize here) 2 sparkly bigger bouncy balls, a pink zuzie pet and a tunnel thing for her zuzies. The kids also got a barbie movie and a scoobiedo movie. They spent the gift cards + their birday $$. They were happy campers.
Drive home was good, Kept them quiet with Cheeto's and the new movies.