And Then There Was Snow

So our mild winter has suddenly turned...less mild. We got freezing rain on Wednesday night that sent everything into a tailspin Thursday. Buses weren't running, and everything was slick. We ended up having to give Lucy and Tyler a ride to school and work that morning...and then make the same trip again on the way home. We decided to skip the drive to Taekwondo that night, and voted for a night in. The boys and I spent the day inside, avoiding the rain. But when everyone came home, we decided it was about time to clean up the driveway. The rain had turned into snow in the afternoon so there was a light dusting on everything.

Tyler quickly shovelled away the snow, to reveal a 1-inch layer of ice covering the sidewalk and driveway...with no way to penetrate. Max ran into the garage and came out with what turned out to be a great idea. A hammer. So Max, Lucy and I grabbed hammers and chipped away at our driveway, while Tyler and Logan shovelled it away. It was a fun time outside. We came inside for a picnic of French Fries and Chili while we watched Captain America. It was a great day.



Lucy always struggles when things are out of the ordinary, and didn't really want to go to stay at school when I dropped her off, but fortunately, she came home exclaiming it was a GREAT day. There were only 7 kids in her class that day and then spent a lot of time cleaning house and having fun. As I cleaned out her backpack that night, I discovered these little flowers that she had made...one for each of us. I think I find little treasures like this almost every day. I wonder what her teacher thinks of her daily family projects...

On Friday, the rain and ice turned to major snow. It was slick again, but buses were running this time. Eventually, the boys and I ventured out to the church so I could practice on the organ. It's still taking a lot of practice, and I don't feel like it sounds very good...but it works. I keep hoping that one day I can add the pedals, but I'm still struggling just to play the songs on the organ without making mistakes...and at the right tempo. Fortunately, our chorister conducts a little slow, so I can get by.

When it was time for Lucy to come home, I left Logan and Max playing in the house while I ran to the bus stop to meet her. It was crazy windy and snowing still and the sidewalks were covered in snow...not something I wanted to deal with with the two boys. Unfortunately, her bus was about 20 minutes late...so I had to stand out there for a while. Fortunately, the boys were fine and entertained themselves with colouring and tractors and making a big mess of the basement. But it was a harmless mess.

I went back out again to pick Tyler up from his bus stop too. The kids had spent some time outside in the backyard playing in the snow, but it quickly became too cold. We've hit a cold spell this weekend and it's taking my bones some time to get used to -10 or lower...

We ate dinner and played Hide & Seek all evening. Tyler introduced the kids to Sardines, and it's become their new favourite version of Hide & Seek. It's fun to try and squish the whole family under a bed, or in a closet. Logan is still getting the hang of hide and seek. He loves the counting, but isn't very quiet when he's hiding. Which is especially annoying in sardines, since he gives everyone else away.

And Max's spots are often too difficult to add more people to.

Now, today is Saturday, and I love saturdays. They are so beautiful. No alarm clock, no plans, plus freezing cold temperatures and snow that discourage us from leaving the house for any reason. So we have spent the whole day at home as a family.

We slept in to a glorious 8:20am, and then had waffles and ice-cream for breakfast. Yum-o.

Logan cuddled with Tyler in bed for a few minutes, and Tyler called him "a beast". Logan responded by saying, "Beast, tasty chechup." I'm assuming he means he tastes good with ketchup...so we've been pretending to eat him all day!

Finally took down the Christmas tree. The decorations have been gone for a while, but I needed Tyler's help to put the tree down, so our living room has just been decorated with a pine tree for a week. The room looks far too empty now, and makes me realize how desperately we need curtains and something on the walls.

We did a few odd chores and then Tyler and I worked out. This is the first time he did it with me, and I kicked his butt! Toot my own horn a bit!

Then it was leftovers for lunch and a discussion on how to save money to hopefully go to Mexico in March. The kids keep volunteering their piggy banks and tooth-fairy money, because they don't realize that that money comes from us to begin with...not really adding to the bottom line.

We played games all afternoon while Logan slept. Our new game, Snap, and Headbandz. It ended up becoming a speed game to see who could guess what card was on their head before Logan revealed what it was. The kids version has too many pictures that are recognizable by him! Hangaburgers, Fresh Fries, Chechup (ketchup), Apple, etc. It was fun.


Now, it's a picnic dinner again and Star Wars Episode 1.


It's been a great weekend. I love times like this. Tomorrow is church and although I love it, I'm not looking forward to venturing out in the cold. Guess I better get used to the fact that winter is here. Winter is not my favourite season. I don't like the extra effort it takes to go anywhere...snowpants, mittens, hats, coats, boots, times 3 children is time consuming. Plus shovelling, brushing off vehicles. But, when there is nothing else to do, it is a good excuse to do nothing.

Happily Ever After...

Yesterday was our final saturday of holidays. It's hard and exciting to think about getting back to schedule on Monday. It's been really great having all the kids at home and letting them just 'be'. Playing, sleeping in, shopping, hanging out. It's been great. But times and seasons, right? We have been staying up way too late and getting up way too late, and it's time to go back to normal.

But, since normal doesn't have to start till Monday, we might as well make the most of Saturday and Sunday. So saturday, we started the day with everyone lounging in mom and dad's bed. That's a great family tradition that just kind of started one day, and I hope it sticks around for a very long time. Crowding into mom and dad's bed on Saturday mornings. I'm sure the crowding will be more significant as the kids start to grow...but then again, they'll be wise enough to lay still. Right now it feels like a lot of knees and elbows.

Then, we had a waffle breakfast and played in jammies. Friday night, we had read a curious george story about boats and at the end it showed how to make a boat out of paper, so Tyler promised to help the kids do that. Saturday morning is perfect for paper science projects with dad. It turned into a real science experiment! The paper boat looked awesome, and floated, but soon the water took it's toll on the boat and it became a soggy mess. So next, they tried wax paper, which held up to the water better, but was more difficult to fold, and they decided to up the anti by seeing how many coins their boat could hold. The wax paper boat was water resistant, but not very strong. So lastly, they moved on to tin foil. Difficult to work with and fold, but once it was ready it was a completely water resistant and strong boat. It held all the spare change we could find. Plus a magnet!

Lucy and I got haircuts earlier in the week and today we both had a chance to shower and blow-dry them ourselves. Let's be clear, I've been showering and blow-drying every day, but today, Lucy did too. So we took a haircut picture together. Cuties!

We made quesadillas and played connect four while Logan napped. Then, the moment we had all been waiting for?...Lucy, Max, Tyler and I were all going to the Disney Live, 3 Classic Fairy Tales show at the K-Rock centre. We all got dressed up and headed out while Logan stayed home to hang with one of his favourite baby-sitters, Maddie. He was in heaven, and so were we.

Max was my date, and Lucy was Tyler's. But we switched it around a bit too. Max wanted a chance to be Lucy's date too. That's how we roll.

The show was amazing. We had floor seats, but soon discovered that floor seats were not that great. It was hard for little ones to see past all the parents, so after the show began, we quickly shuffled into some empty seats in the risers and had a perfect view of the show for the entire 90 minutes. I'm glad we moved.


The show started with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald, and they each introduced 3 classic fairy tales. Snow White, Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast. They were shortened, synopsis type versions of the stories, but still so fun and magical. We had a great time.



Favorite moment: Watching Lucy watch the show. She clapped her little hands together when Cinderella emerged in her beautiful blue ball gown, ready for the ball.

After the show finished, we took a few minutes to stop at a book store to get Lucy her newest Fairy book. She is devouring these books like they're going out of style! I'm not sure we can keep up! In fact, I know we can't. She reads a new book every 2-3 days and they're $7 each...so the next three are reserved at the library for us to pick up when she's done the two we bought tonight.

Max also got a few Star Wars early reader books that he's really excited about. He spent a few minutes with dad at bedtime practicing his reading. I was thinking in the shower today about how I want to still write. And I love writing children's books. With Lucy reading all these fairy books I keep thinking there must be some type of untapped genre...but when it comes to girls, there really isn't. I'd love Max to be as excited about reading as Lucy is right now. I don't know if it's a gender thing, but I'm sure he could get excited if it was the right topic. So that's my new goal. Try and come up with a storyline that would interest my son. And it's got to compete with Star Wars...so a pretty difficult goal. But I'll give it a whirl.

We came home to a happy Logan and decided to play Disney Trivial Pursuit for a bit before bedtime. Logan screamed and fought almost the entire time and spent most of the game in a time-out, but it was a good idea in theory. Terrible twos are hitting us hard with this one. I'm hoping it's just because things have been so out of sorts for 3 weeks. Maybe when we're back on track, he'll do better. Either way, he was the subject of my fasting today.

Today has been spent doing the usual church thing. Lucy gave a talk in Primary, and we enjoyed Testimony Meeting. The only troublesome part of the day was when an older sister in our branch was coming up on the stand after the meeting to talk to me about choir (I was playing postlude on the organ) and she tripped and fell, breaking her femur. Craziness! Fortunately, our branch president is an orthopaedic surgeon and accompanied her to the hospital in the ambulance. He'll be in surgery with her this afternoon. We're praying all is well for her.

Now, we're lounging and waiting for our beautiful roast chicken dinner. Talking about it makes me hungry, so we'll end there!

Lucy's Talk:

In this month’s Friend magazine, our Prophet, President Monson, tells a story about listening to the Holy Ghost. Because he listened he was able to help someone by giving them a Priesthood blessing. He says:

“Our Lord and Savior said, “Come, follow me” (Luke 18:22). When we accept His invitation and walk in His footsteps, He will direct our paths.

Before we came to earth, Satan didn’t want anyone to have a choice. He wanted to force us to come to earth and do what he wanted us to do. But Heavenly Father knew it was important for us to make our own choices. With each right choice we make, we grow closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. They want us to make good choices so we can return to live with Them again.

When we make good choices, then Jesus Christ can help us continue to make good choices through the Holy Ghost.

I am glad that Heavenly Father trusts me that I can make good choices and has given me the gift of agency. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

And we're home

Today is our first full day at home. We slept in till after 9am. It was beautiful. Thank goodness for our own beds!

The day has been spent sort of unpacking, laundry, and playing with toys. Plus, we went to Walmart so I could get some groceries to feed this family with, and so the kids could look at stuff to spend their gift-cards on. No luck.

Max also got his Star Wars Trouble game that I forgot here at home...nice work mom. Oh well, he was excited about an additional Christmas present. Lucy also exchanged the Belle Barbie she got for a Rapunzle one. Super long hair...super stoked.

Logan has been quite content to be at home and play with his stuff. He LOVES his tractor set he got from Grandma and Papa. When we left to go to the store I said, "Guess where we're going bud?" and he replied, "Grandma and Papa's house?" Nope. I wonder if he understands the airplane horror we just went through to get home, or if it was just a torture chamber that we kept him in all day...the proximity to Grandma's and Papa's isn't real to him. He'll look forward to seeing them in the computer again though.

I can't believe we did more shopping the day after we got home. Crazies. Now we relax.

January 4th - Going Home

Today was home day. It was long. It was tough. But now we're home. We got up, loaded up and actually hit the road to the airport exactly when I said I wanted to...that is a first. But on the way to the airport I checked flight-tracker and discovered our plane was delayed 30 minutes...so we were extra early.

once our bags were checked and we had our boarding passes, we decided to waste time in the "Who's Who at the Zoo" store. It's a favourite. AND because Grandma and Papa were there, the kids all walked away with more gifts. Max got a lightsaber that actually lights up and makes real lightsaber sounds (seriously, awesome), Lucy got a stuffed Panda. It was hard to choose between the Panda and the Puppy, but she decided on the Panda, since she doesn't have one of those yet. How many stuffed animals can one girl love? The answer is a lot. But usually only one at a time. Logan got a bus, and Luke got a Thomas the train, but as soon as they were out of the store and out of their packages, each was more interested in the others toy, so there was a trade. So Logan walked away with Thomas.

We said our goodbyes and headed through security, which was fairly quick. We still had about 35 minutes before boarding, so we decided to get the kids something to eat. Hello Chili's. Quesadillas and dry ribs at 10:30am? Sure, why not?

Logan had been grumpy almost from the moment he woke up, so my hopes for an easy flight were quickly disappearing. And I was right. It was hit and miss the whole ride. The first 30 minutes while we boarded, got our seats and waited for take-off were the worst. Seriously, you know when you get on a flight and there's that family with a kid who just won't stop crying or screaming? Yup, that was us. Nice. Sorry Air Canada.

He took turns between Tyler and I throughout the flight. We usually traded off just before we lost our patience with him...and him with us. Naptime was a welcome respite!

We didn't land until nearly 6pm Ottawa time, so I got to see the sunset from the airplane, over the clouds. It was pretty amazing.

And, I got to watch the new Footloose moving on the way home, intermittently. It was...ok.

We got home to cold and snow and ice. Seriously, our car was COVERED in about 6 inches of ice. And we didn't have a brush in the car. So Tyler used his subway card to scrape the windshield. We also had way more stuff to pack into the trunk of our little car, so it took some unpacking and some serious doing to get it all in there comfortably.

We stopped at Pizza Pizza to pick up some food for the ride home. About 45 minutes out of Kingston, Logan was done with our travel day...I think he was done before it started though. Screaming and crying and kicking from the backseat for 40 minutes...nice.

We got home to our beautiful, but freezing cold house. And, there was a surprise! Santa had left a gift and a note under our Christmas tree!

Disney Trivial Pursuit. The kids had had so much fun playing it at Grandma Bourn's so they're super stoked to own it too.
It took us a few minutes to find pjs out of all the suitcases and get kids settled and warm in their beds. Plus, Tyler had to run to a gas-station to get some milk. Tomorrow will be a day to unpack and relax. Seriously, sitting all day is exhausting.

January 3rd - Last Day

Today, we spent our time doing last minute things and saying goodbye. It was fun and not fun. The plan was for Tyler and I to take a quick trip downtown this morning to exchange the climbing harness I bought him for Christmas at MEC. The kids were going to play with my mom for a bit. Then Alison texted me to say that Trevor was going to drop Cy and Jilli off to play for a bit that morning, so they'd get a final goodbye too. It was really sweet.

When we got back to the house, they had created a great game of pirates. Girls against the boys. They had signs on each station and had made swords out of zoob. Seriously, my kids have great cousins.



Then we headed to Cochrane to go to open gymnastics at the Rec Center, because the kids had requested it. Emma and Ashley met us there. And on our way out, we passed by one of our neighbours, Aus. He has a daughter Lucy's age that was in her preschool and kindergarten class. Lucy had been asking us all week if we would have time to see Ava, and our time with quickly running out. So while waiting at a stop-light on the highway, we yelled from truck to truck and invited them to come to gymnastics too...they came! It was great.

After gymnastics, the boys dropped Lucy and I off for haircuts and they went home for Logan's nap. Then, Tyler came back to pick us up. Lucy and I love our little girlie dates. It was fun.

I decided to take a picture of our crazy yellow field and blue sky. I don't see this in Ontario, and I miss the view. We had lasagna for dinner with everyone (including Tammy and the girls) and had a chance to just play for a while. I spent most of my evening packing suitcases. We definitely have a lot more stuff going home then we had coming. I got it all to fit though...so hopefully it's not overweight.

Tomorrow, we get up and go to the airport. It's home time. It's going to be a long day of travel, so I hope the kids are up for it. I always have big plans to get them to bed at a decent time, and it never happens. I'm looking forward to being home and in routine again...but I'm not looking forward to leaving my people. Especially since I don't know when the next trip is. Alison says she's going to try and come out in February, so at least we have that to look forward to.

January 2nd - Zoolights

Well, our 2am bedtime did not mix well with Logan's choice to have a lousy night. Up multiple times between 5:30am and 7:30am, when I finally consigned myself to be up. Sharing a bedroom with him is definitely getting old and I am looking forward to being home for that reason. Also, living out of a suitcase is getting old too. Especially suitcases between 2 different houses. It's hard to keep track of what's clean and what's dirty, and making sure we have enough clothes at each house to last us. A dresser is looking really good about now.

But on to other things. The kids had a great time with their sleepover, but you can tell people are a bit tired today. The kids chose a movie to watch this morning while they ate breakfast. I think it's going to be a mostly quiet day. Alison came home sick too, so that doesn't look good either.

After Logan's nap, we headed out to the zoo to get some time looking at the animals before it gets too dark, and then to enjoy zoo-lights. Pretty much everyone was coming, so we were excited about that.

There were signs everywhere at the zoo advertising the new Penguin exhibit that will be coming soon. Lucy was pretty excited about those.


I decided to take a picture of our family with these penguin statues. All smiles! Then someone walking by offered to take a picture with all of us in it. Less smiles. My kids are pretty good about photo-op #1...but when mom joins the picture, they're done, so it's pretty difficult to get a decent photo with ALL of us in it. I'm pretty sure they like me...


And the dinosaur park was closed, probably due to ice, but Logan LOVED posing to take a picture with this dinosaur at the entrance. At one point he reach out and said, "Touch it?" as he touched the horn. That created this look of glee that I managed to catch in the photo.

We were the first to arrive, so we headed to the hippo house to wait for everyone else. I was really looking forward to seeing Logan interact with the animals. It got dark quickly and we didn't get to see very many animals at all, but the hippos never disappoint.


We even went into the TransAlta Rainforest with the Gorillas. It was totally dark in there and you couldn't see any animals except the bats, who are usually sleeping. They were full of activity. The darkness of the building made it kind of creepy.

Then it was time to enjoy zoo-lights. They've really done a great job this year. Lights and music that were timed together; a kids slide; and a play area with hay, snowman bowling, and ice-cube block stacking (styrofoam, but it looked like they were creating an igloo).



After the zoo, we headed to A&W for a bite to eat and to say goodbye to Janeen, because she was heading back to Utah the next morning. After a late night last night, and a busy day today, Max just couldn't make it all the way to A&W.

These late nights are worrying me. Who knows what travelling will be like on Wednesday!

January 1st - Happy New Year

Today is Sunday, so our celebrating of New Years Day is limited to home stuff...and church stuff. But after a busy Saturday/New Years Eve, that's about perfect.

We went to church in Cochrane again, and loved seeing everyone there. It was nice to go this week with the whole family too. Logan's been a bit grumpy, so Sacrament meeting was a challenge, but we made it. Two of the Young Men that Tyler taught were giving farewell talks today, so it was awesome for us to be able to be there. Plus there was a baby blessing, so the chapel was packed.

Logan also had the treat of having Grandma as his nursery teacher today. Worked perfectly for a visiting Sunday. Lucy and Max both enjoyed going to primary in Cochrane and seeing all their friends there. And I got to go to Sunday School with my husband! Tyler 'thought' he left his wallet at the movie theatre last night, so he made a trip back during Priesthood to go check. It has his driver's license in it, which we need for ID to get on the plane in 3 days...so it's kind of a big deal. Luckily, it was there.

After church we headed in to Calgary to my parents house. The kids were planning to have a cousin sleepover with Emma tonight at my mom's. We stopped by the Calgary Temple grounds to check it out on the way to my parents. They have stone mostly up the sides and it's really starting to look like a temple.

We spent the afternoon snacking on New Years goodies and playing games. Mike & Tammy and their kids and Trevor & Becca and their kids arrived around 4:00, and we've all been having a grand old time hanging out.

Mike brought out his iPhone with songs and themes from different movies and tv-shows (mostly from the 80s) and we all had fun seeing who could guess the name of the show or movie the song was from. My favourite? "Twistin' the Night Away" and "Cupid" from Innerspace. I love that movie and I totally forgot about it. Tyler hasn't even seen it, so now I have to see if I can find it. We used to watch it ALL the time...on VHS of course. Martin Short, Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan. It's a good one. Watch it, if you haven't.

So the sleepover ended up including Ashley as well, and we tried to get all the kids settled into their room about 8:45pm. It was LOOOOOOONG after 11pm before kids finally started sleeping. Way too exciting. At one point, Mike went up there to settle things down and the kids asked for a drink. So he came up with the great plan that he was going to 'sneak' the kids downstairs for a drink and they had to be in quiet stealth mode so none of the adults heard (we were wise to their game). All the kids were up for it, except Lucy. She kept saying, "I don't think that's a good idea." "My mom's not going to like this." "Just bring me my water bottle back, I'll wait here." Haha. It does me proud to know that she will do the right thing, even when I'm not around...and even when her Uncle is goading her on. Way to stand strong Lucy!

We finished the late night with adults playing cards until too late, and then chatting even later. Mike and Tammy finally went home about 2:00am. Just after Callum vomited in this carseat. Poor guy! The other kids finally settled down when my mom went up there and took Ashley into her bedroom to sleep. Grandpa got the couch.

Our plan is for the zoo and zoo-lights tomorrow, with EVERYONE. I guess it's technically today. Should be fun!