Getting into routine

Now that the kids are back to school I am working hard at trying to get them into routine and helping out around the house. We have assigned them small chores to do every day and of course they are responsible for cleaning their rooms. I am trying to get them to be reponsible enough to put their shoes away, empty their book bags and their dishes in the sink, little things that help alot and show they have respect for their home and their family. We'll keep trying to get them to see the logic in all of that.

GETTING CONNECTED

A couple of weeks ago while we were away for dance competition our oldest son stayed behind with his friend and parents. This was the first time that we have ever left him so you can just imagine how often I called to check in with him. We knew that we would end up with a huge long distance bill so we were prepared and purchased prepaid and what a phone cards savings it made! Needless to say our son was fine and having a great time and by the end of the weekend I was comfortable with the fact that he wasn't with us. I guess they do have to grow up and at some point I will have to let go.

Our family and friends all live long distance from us and phone cards are a great way for us to keep in touch with them in an efficient and cheap way. If you are looking for the right prepaid phone card then you should check out THERICHCOM.COM which is the ultimate phone card center where you will find cheap prepaid phone cards and international calling cards. Don't let the cost of long distance charges keep you from your family and friends. It is as easy as 1-2-3!

PICTURE OF MY NIECE!

Cailyn Ava Taylor was born March 27th weighing 6lbs 6 ozs. A new baby sister for Brookly.

AT THE MALL AGAIN....(exhausted)

So once I picked the kids up at school we headed back into the mall. We returned Blake's Leap Frog Click Start computer for his new V-Smile pocket which seems to be more of a challenge for him. He is such a smart kid already and gets bored with things that are to easy. He seems very content with this game system and he can take this along with him in the van when we travel. Trinity finally decided on which new glasses she wanted so we bought the frames tonight and will have her eyes examined the first week of March. The great news for us is that here where we live we don't have to pay for children's eye exams up to the age of 9 or 10. Great...looks like we will be saving $70 there and I may as well take advantage and have the other children's eyes checked as well. So all in all it has been a busy day and I am going to sit down and watch a movie with the kids before sending them off to bed. Sounds like they started without me....(times like this I wish I had my laptop...only a couple days left to wait :0) Yay me~

EASY TO BED...:0)

Last night as I was tucking in my children it hit me once again at how well they go to bed without complaining. They now the bedtime routine and get their teeth brushed and hop into bed. Most nights they are allowed to watch one tv show before getting tucked in. It is so nice to be able to put the kids to bed without the fighting and they drift off to sleep with pleasant happy thoughts to get them through until morning! The last thing I want to do to end the day is fight with my children....I am blessed with these four amazing children and thank God everyday for them :0)

***THE WEEKEND IS HERE...

Finally the weekend is here which hopefully puts and end to the busy life that we have been dealing with this week. Well at least put an end to it for now! No plans for the weekend. My husband is off this weekend and we are just hanging out around the house. Without a doubt before the weekend is over we will pull out one of our new movies and have a family movie night...get curled up on the couch and enjoy some hot buttered popcorn. That sounds like my kind of weekend!

BREAKING CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS..

This is going to be a difficult Christmas for me this year. With my husbands job transfer this past summer it moved us 5 hours away from our family and with him working in retail and managing a store it doesn't allow him much time off to travel until after boxing day. So this year will be the first year that I break all the family traditions in 30 years and will not be home for Christmas at all until the 27th or 28th. We will be there until after the New Year to visit with family and friends but it won't be that same. This is something I knew I would have to face at some point but it's still hard. I have been busy thinking up new family traditions to pass along to our kids and hopefully someday we will be back home with our family. Dreams to come true, we just have to believe it will happen. Merry Christmas everyone!

FAMILY PHOTOS

Today was the day to get out there and get some nice updated family pictures taken for our annual Christams letter to our family and friends. It was a clear, sunny day but a bit on the chilly side but we hung in there, braved the cold and got the picture taken. As soon as we took the last picture of the kids it started to snow...BRRRRR!

TURNING 3

Oh where does the time go? On November 1st my baby will turn 3 years old. With the other 3 kids in school it has given me some time to spend with Blake one on one and he is really enjoy his time with mommy. This picture was taken on one of our outings to Walmart. We stopped into the portrait studio to get his birthday pictures taken. Some of our other days we go for walks, play at the playground and sneak in a little lunch at McDonalds. It is so hard to believe that before I know it he will be heading off to school and with the changes in the age cut off for our province, he will be going to school a year earlier than he would have.

I thank God for everyday I have with my children. They are a great blessing and I am proud to be their Mommy and to have them as my children. God Bless my family :0)

A RAINY DAY

With the miserable weather yesterday we just spent the afternoon inside the house. Kohl and Blake got creative with their building blocks and built tall, monstrous towers. This kept them entertained for most of the afternoon but when it came time to clean up the mess they were to tired....(as they always are). We worked together and got the job done just in time for supper then they were off to bed early. Despite the weather our day turned out to be a pretty good one and everyone seemed to get along just fine.

GET ME THE TYLENOL....!

Drums, yes this is the new thing here at our house. The kids have been asking for drums for quite some time but no way was I about to spend money for more noise in the house. I mean really don't the kids make enough of it already?LOL To be honest it's not all that bad and I really haven't needed any Tylenol yet and the kids are having a blast beating away at them and with the sound of the drums I know where the kids can be found. So where did the drums come from...My husband brought them home on Saturday after taking two loads of junk to the dump! He not usually a garbage picker but he knew how much the kids wanted a set and hey the price was right and they were in pretty good shape. The two younger boys just take turns banging them and thinking they are making music and Jay our 11 year old has turned his sisters dance floor (work in progress) into his comedy hour stage. What a character he is... I was able to get a few video clips of him on the weekend and I'm sure he will appreciate them when he gets older. But I guess like they say" some people's junk is someone else's treasure"!

JUST FOR LAUGHS!...

THE AGE THAT I WISH TO GO BACK TO...

Oh wow! I don't even have to stop to think about this one...I came across this "the age that I wish to go back to..." at First Love Diary. I thought it was rather interesting and something that I find myself thinking about quite often.



For me I wish I could go all the way back to when I was 15 years old. This is the year that it felt like I had lost my mom. We had a small incident that broke the trust that I had for her. I couldn't believe it when she stood there and lied right to my face in front of my father and others just so that my father wouldn't get angry with her. I'm not going to go into all the details but it took away my teen years (so it felt) It was like I had gone from 15 years to adult over night. I didn't know who to turn to or who I could trust anymore. I felt very alone during my teen years with dealing with teenage issues all on my own. I have spoken to my mom about this just recently and we have put it behind us. Although we will never get those years back, at least I feel I can talk to and trust her once again.



But if it meant going through all that to end up where I am today then it was worth it. My mom is still around and there for me when I need her and I am happily married to Matt and have four amazing children and I wouldn't change it for the world. Going through those years has made me the strong, caring and loving person I am today, so with all that said, if it meant loosing what I have now then no I guess I wouldn't wish to go back...

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Instructions:

Title: The Age That I Wish To Go Back To

Requirement: Write about the one age that you wish to go back to and why?

1st -Tag Mode: 5 blogger - You leave their blog and post link and add to the list below.

2nd - Let the blogger you want to tag know they been tagged by comment in their blog or etc.





The Age that they Wish to Go Back to:

Amidrin wish to go back to age 22 to correct back some mistakes in life.

Michelle wish to go back to age 19 to not break off with her First Love.

Carrie wish to go back to age 15 to be able to trust my mom again.

3 DAYS OFF!

The kids are excited to have an extra day off school this weekend. A nice little break for them but filled with lots of excitement and birthday parties! I am sure they will enjoy their extra time home but will be looking forward to going back on Monday.

HUBBY IS OUT OF TOWN

My husband has gone away on business meetings for a few days and will be back later tomorrow night. I have been keeping busy with the four children and getting myself caught up into more renovating projects...don't worry nothing to complicated just adding an extra bar to hang clothes in our bedroom closet and trying to figure out what to do in the dinning room closet. Things are almost put back together so hopefully Matt won't come home to a mess. Well at least not my mess!

ICE CREAM????

I just love Ice Cream! What is your favorite kind and when do you like to have it? I love any kind of ice cream the has peanut butter flavor in it and I usually have it at night after the kids are in bed and I finally have some time to sit and relax! With four kids in the house, oh yes and don't forget my hubby we usually have a good variety of flavors in the freezer!

With daddy out of town for a few days at meetings he bought them each their favorite kind of ice cream so when they missed him it was his way of cheering them up!

DOWN ON THE DOCKS!

Living here in Cape Breton has brought us many new and exciting memories, not to mention the beautiful scenery. We live in North Sydney, the gateway to Newfoundland as it's called with the ferry terminal pretty much at our back door. We live right near the water where we can see the ferries come and go. This has brought great excitement for Blake our 2 1/2 year old son, He just loves watching ferry boats, He could probably tell you the ferries schedualed runs....We spent some time on Friday at the play park which is right beside the terminal and we were lucky enough to catch one ferry leaving and another one ready to dock

4 OUT OF 5 AIN'T BAD....

Since school got back underway, I have been taking advantage of just having the one at home. Most day we walk to meet my hubby at work on his lunch hour, since it take us just over an hour to get there we always get a drive home and Blake gets to enjoy lunch with daddy. So far this week we've walked down to meet him 3 times , the view is so beautiful along the water, the ferry is usually leaving. I'm undecided about today, I will have to make up my mind as we will have to leave in the next 45 minutes. I was thinking of changing our root for todays walk if we go. I thought I would get my husband to meet us at the playpark beside the ferry terminal so that Blake can enjoy the park before it gets to cold. He has been so good on all our walks that this will be a great way to reward him. Not once did he bug me to stop at the park on all our walks. I really love having this time with Blake, he is great company!

MALE BONDING

My husband and our 11 year old son have been butting heads for quite some time. Jay is getting to very difficult and confusing years and it's hard to see that him and his father don't have a very healthy relationship lately. This has been really hard for me to see over the years but nothing I did or suggested would help these two.
We have just recently moved and even though it's a lot further from family I feel this was the best move that we have made not only for our family as a whole but for Jay. The kids have adjusted so well and have made lots of new friends and with that said Jay and my husband Matt have become friends themselves. It is so nice to see and Jay is becoming a very responsible young man. I am so proud of him!
My husband just recently did a post on his own blog talking about his experience with Jay and how things have changed, I invite you to stop by his site at 1 Males Perspective and check out his very touching post.

BAKING COOKIES

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!

This afternoon I took the time with my 2 1/2 year old son and we baked some cookies. He had such a great time and he rolled the cookie dough into balls all by himself. He was so proud. So the cookies are baked but unfortunately there aren't any cookies left. Between him and the other 3 kids coming home from school they finished them off. Looks like we will have to bake some more cookies tomorrow!