a lil' bit of me

Brody has been saying "mamamamamamama" indiscriminately for a little while now, at no one in particular. Yesterday, every time I came into his view he said it. Just now, I was in his room, I gave him a milk, and he was Poppy. As I was changing him in the dark room (which I don't recommend) he said so perfectly and clearly: "mama". My prince.

Hard to believe we are going into 2007. Time really does fly by. We have had all the babies we are going to have (unless by 'Divine Intervention', Ben is growing out of the toddler age. He'll be 4 in a week and a half. My princess will turn 8 this year. 8!!!!

I wonder what changes this year will bring. Happy ones, sad ones, exciting ones, hard to deal with ones...
I am looking forward to getting back into my exercise routine, the dojo has been down nearly 2 weeks, and I have made up for that by eating all the extra holiday sweets that have made it into my house.

I am thankful for many things: my family, their health, my home, great friends and being able to laugh with my husband.

Happy New Year guys, I hope everyone has a super awesome time bringing in 2007!!!

nope not the game -
I am so tired, and cannot sleep.
argh.
my mind won't shut off...too many thoughts/scenarios/things that need to be done.
Better go Ben just sauntered past me and went into our bed - little scammer.

Becka brushed her teeth before bed. It got a little squishy! I am telling them to go to bed now, cuz I am sooo tired. Have a good night!

A- Available or single? No. (who came up with the options?)

B- Best Friend? my man


C- Cake or pie? Cake - absolutely cake

D- Drink of choice? peppermint mocha right now

E- Essential item I use every day. My laptop

F- Favorite color: depends

G- Gummy Bears or Gummy Worms? I hate all things gummy

H- Hometown? planet earth

I- Indulgence: chocolate, clothes

J- January or February? January

K- Kids and names: my blog readers already know this

L- Life is incomplete without? family and friends

M- Marriage date: December 12

N- Number of siblings: 2 brothers

O- Oranges or apples? Christmas oranges

P- Phobias or fears? spiders, I hate to be thirsty

Q- Favorite quote? um, "life is like a box of chocolates" (forest gump)

R- Reasons to smile: J-man is starting walk (Thats a good answer Crazy girl, I will leave it)

S- Season: Summer

T- Tag 3 or 4 people. Rose, Heidi, Jewels, Liz

U- Unknown fact about me: I LOVE to sing. Loud.

V- Vegetable you don’t like: zucchini, brussel sprouts

W- Worst habit: blogging

X- X-Rays: mouth

Y- Your favorite food? I like lots

Z- Zodiac - no zodiac. its evil. (snicker)

ben got a pack of two sponge bob watches, and instantly offered the other one to his sister. What a kind heart.

coffee, and cookies.

I love her excitement in this picture

(well, his big brothers toy anyway)

what the roll of wrap looks like when your 7 year old has been wrapping gifts for you!!

pretty girl

She loves to be with her baby brother. She is such a little mom to him. Here they are playing in Ben's room. One of Brody's fave things to do.


This picture really grasps Ben's personality. I came into the kitchen today, and he was wearing nothing but underwear and his helmet - while coloring. Nothing strange going on here. It all makes sense to him.


Here is a prime example of Ben's personality. His "I'm scared face". Such a little ham he is. I can't wait to see his personality evolve as he gets older.


My sweet little bear. He is going into the "get into EVERYTHING" stage. The stage where you don't ever really relax unless he's in bed. He is such a doll. He is doing this new thing, whenever I say, "No", he puffs up his little chest and snorts in defiance. It's so super cute. (For now anyways :)

i just don't have anything blog worthy to post...

*big dramatic SIGH*

there is a 55 year old man named Bill, and he has two coins, they equal 30 cents. One of the coins is not a nickel, what two coins does he have????

AAAAAAaaaaaaaa...

the EXACT opposite of

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzz...

cant sleep. darn it anyways.
anyone guess why I did that title???
10 points to the winner.

i finished baking my cookies for the exchange i am in. i was so creative, i thought i would wow the group by baking 9 dozen chocolate chip cookies. i'm good, hey??

had breakfast with tammy and family this morn, was good to get together again. Put our kids together, and man it seemed like a group. Things have changed from the early years of hanging out.

i bought one more box of cadoo. i am almost done my list. ran into jen today, she was buying stuff for baking as well. how'd that go jen?

i need to do more tidying, but definitely don't feel like it. what the heck else is new though.

i have absolutely NOTHING else to say. i think i may be at a loss for words.!?

is selling at superstore for $6.97.
I bought 3.

i totally cried.

dessert won tonight. I skipped class tonight to meet with sisters 1 & 2, smiley, and jarsgirl. (I did hit this mornings class though :) Was not a dessert worth eating. Brownie's that are really cake tick me off.
Was fun to get together though. Then Jenn and I headed for a latenight shop to Walmart. I think I love Walmart.
Then I did an even later night food shop, and left Safeway at 11:30!! There was no one there at all.
Well it's WAY too late, so off to bed I go.
10 days left - wowzers.
BTW I got my yellow belt!!! Yay.

Liv just came up to me and asked,

"am I wearing too many colour's?"

January 1998 I finally wasn't irritated with "the new guy" at p&B, it was a cold late night, and I was down at tim hortons reading my Oprah book. Fern came in with a friend, and ordered his coffee and left. About a half hour later he came back alone, and we sat and talked from midnight to 5 am, at the coffee shop. First booth when you walk in.
That's where it all started.
We became fast friends, always hanging out, in groups mostly. Then we started hanging out alone. No intentions of anything. Far from it actually. We would often drive down across the line, and just talk for hours. We loved the white mocha.
Then one day, on one of our many day trips, we had hiked down a trail, and found a fast moving creek, beautiful clear water, and huge rocks. We sat, took our shoes off, and dangled our feet in the cold water. We were sitting beside each other, not saying a word, I can still remember the sounds. So loud with the water rushing. We both turned at the same time, and kissed. It was July 21 1998.
From there we flew into a whirlwind relationship, always together, if not together, on the phone. I fell in love fast.
He purposed to me on the very same rock that we had our first kiss on, and had a picnic all set up at the waterfall, with fake scented rose petals that filled the whole area with this pretty scent.
December 12 1998 we became husband and wife. So young. Too young. We flew through milestones, that should be enjoyed for longer. Dating, engagement, newly wed, new parents etc.
May 1999 our princess came into the world (you do the math ;) we were catapulted into parenting.
We had rough times! I am convinced that because of the way we started, it was harder for us. We set boundaries early on. To do with arguing, and other things, and we have stuck by them! No leaving the house when one is mad, or if we don't agree on something, we take no action on it.
We were advised "you will NEVER make it", had a friend say we were making a mistake, but oh were they wrong!
We are here 8 years later, so strong, so much more in love, so committed, and so proud of our little family.
Marriage can be so hard, but is fulfilling, and so worth the effort it takes to stick it out through the hard times.

I love you babe, Happy Anniversary!

"here's where the trouble starts, the more you drink, the better you think you are"

okay, that made me laugh while cleaning.

Goerge Canyon (super funny video)

These are in backwards, but I don't feel like fixing them. They each, minus Brody, did a house. Was fun.

I just had a nice bath, am wearing cozy new jammies that I bought tonight, our tree is up, and I am loving it.
I wish I had turned the flash off, cuz it looks so bright, and not the effect that I am seeing right now:





My entry way. My family doesn't appreciate the french.





This is a close up





My new jams, that came with these super cozy slipper/socks

Today was great. It started out with my karate class, then an hour later Liv had hers, then half an hour later I had my yellow belt test, then as soon as that was over Liv tested for her green belt. Six hours at the dojo today! Boy I must have good kids...

So about my very first grading. It was challenging! Not the actual part I had to do alone, but the physical fitness part. Holy. He said, "at these gradings, we like to push you all to the point where you wanna quit, but persevere". The thought of "what in Carnation's sake am I doing in karate???" came across my mind way more than once! I watched the higher belts and thought, "I am never gonna be able to do that stuff", and I think that is one of the things I love the most. I have NEVER been challenged like this in my life!!

Liv did excellent, as always I am very proud of all she has accomplished.


This picture was from today, our first time grading together!

Well here I am, have just blog surfed, on all of your sites, not a heck of a lot new. I can't believe it's December 1st today. My kids are dying to break out their chocolate calendars. I am thankful that school is back on, what a week, with no piano/karate or cardio for any of us. Lots of scrabble playing, tons of playing Sorry, Liv's new game. Some mindless things I have done this week:

1- I manged to do quite a few scrapbook pages, and looking at the completed pages once they are in my album, I realized that I had just done a complete repeat page with like 8 pictures that I had already done. Seriously, what an idiot. That is not even the first time I have done that...

2- I thought I would some online Christmas shopping, and came across the game Scrabble on sale. I thought, "what a great game for Liv". She really excels in her reading and writing, so I debated on whether or not to get Scrabble Junior or regular. The junior version starts at age 5 & up, and so I decided that it would probably be tooo simple, and so ordered the regular version. Acouple hours later Fern tells me that we already have Scrabble. Hmm. Nice. So we brought it out, and she loves it. So now I can cross Christina off my Christmas list, we will give it to her, and maybe it will help with her English. Maybe she will feel better to leave comments once in a while if she practises using new words...

I normally like to do the tree on the first weekend of December, but this is going to be one of those crazy years. My little bear is in that lovely stage of getting into EVERYTHING! I feel like I say "Brody, no...." soooo often. The blinds, the DVD shelf, the TV... So I am in no rush this year. Maybe we'll be like Heidi's family and put it up like on Christmas Eve.

I will leave this post with a picture or two of Christmases past...



Decorating the tree with brand knew Brody.



Santa Liv and Uncle Jamie



2 Christmases ago.