More Randomness.

On Sunday evening, we drove Tyler to the train station so he could head out to Toronto for 2 days. Apparently this will be the trend for us in the next little while. In the month of November, he will be sleeping away from home 17 nights. See you in December Tyler...

He's heading to Montreal, Banff, Ottawa, and Toronto. Business travel is not as glamourous as one might think. But at least he gets to see our families when he's in Alberta.

The kids enjoyed going to the train station and seeing dad off. Well, Lucy and Max did. Logan was not impressed when Tyler got on the train without him. He's not impressed when Tyler does anything without him. We sent a goodbye picture to Dad.

While he was gone, and the kids were at school on Monday, Logan was my super helper. We cleaned the house, got groceries, and made buns for dinner. We made a mess making the buns so he helped clean up. How long do you think I can milk this?

Tyler and I were fasting all day for a friend in our branch who was undergoing surgery. It is so much easier to fast for someone else. Every time I got hungry I would think, I can't give up...Greg's in surgery RIGHT NOW.

The kids had Taekwondo again on Monday evening, and then we came home, had some crackers and practiced talks and songs for the Primary presentation. We said goodnight and I watched some mindless TV for a bit...hoping I would be tired enough when I got into bed to fall asleep quickly. I don't sleep well when Tyler's not here. He may be a blanket hog, and a tornado turner, but at least I sleep with peace-of-mind.

On Tuesday the kids and I decorated the driveway for Tyler's welcome-home. It was cool outside but still pleasant. He didn't get home until after 11pm, but said it was an awesome way to be welcomed home. It was a good thing he saw it, because it rained over night and washed our artwork away.


The kids and I also painted Terra-cotta pots to look like pumpkins. I was so paranoid about getting paint on anything (tables, chairs, walls), that I ended up with a LOT of paint on myself. Oh well. Logan was not impressed with everyone else painting and not him, so we carefully set him up too.

Now Tyler is home again and things are complete. People are at work, school, and home...exactly where they're supposed to be.

Today, Max, Logan and I played hide-and-seek. I nearly busted a gut when I came out and saw Max like this. So clever.

We started to run out of hiding places though.


It's been a fun few days. Taekwondo again tonight. District Party on Saturday evening. No school on Monday (we'll probably head to the local library), and Grandma comes in a week. We're all getting pretty excited for visitors. Plus, our Primary Presentation has been moved from this Sunday to next, so Grandma will be here to watch the kids. Hip-Hooray for that!

Alright, that's the end of my randomness...again.

Hodgepodge

We recently updated our iPhones with the new OS. Exciting, I know. But what this means is there's new things to play with. My brother uses our iTunes account. Yes, we know you do. The reason we know you do, is whenever we update our phones, suddenly we have apps that we didn't purchase. One such app, is Fat Face. It's funny. So I tried it. This is my fat family:



The kids had Taekwondo on Thursday. They got their DoBach's. Look how cute these ninjas look.

Logan wanted to try on a Dobach too...so we let him. Then he walked around saying, "Hiyah!"

My kid's are hilarious. Sometimes they drive me crazy. But mostly they're hilarious. While eating a fantastic stir-fry dinner, the kids were commenting on the size of Logan's bites verses their own. Max claimed that his mouth was the biggest. Lucy argued that she was the biggest person, therefore, the biggest mouth. So they decided to measure. The easiest way to measure, is not to get something big and see who can fit it in their mouth, or even...measure. Just stretch that mouth open wide and compare.

The next day, I had some laundry out. Folded, ready to be put away. The boys and I had been playing in the tent and having a camping adventure. Then they discovered the laundry. This is what boys do with clean laundry:

Thank goodness it was clean. Underwear makes the best wrestling masks. And dad's socks are perfect gloves.

On Wednesday evening we made apple pies. It's a tradition at this time of year to make apple pies. This is the first time I did it WITHOUT my mother-in-law. It wasn't the same. And I did call her once to check something. We don't have all the fancy do-dad's, either. No pastry cloth. No apple corer/peeler/slicer. No 15-man assembly line. But the pies turned out great. We limited ourselves to 6 this time. Tyler made it his Young Men's activity too...so we had a little help.

Next Saturday is our District Hoe-Down. There's a homemade pie contest. I think I'm going to enter. Because these are the best pies I'VE ever tasted.

This week has been cool and rainy. We discovered a new after-school park. The spider park. Not really made for Logan, although he had fun. Plus we played Hide-And-Seek behind the bushes.


What else? Queen of pout:

Tyler cleaned out the garage yesterday while Lucy and I went for haircuts. Now we can park in the garage. Hooray! It makes me nervous, but hey. Now I just have to clean the basement from all the stuff that came in from the garage! We also started hanging pictures on the wall. Our house is slowly looking like a home.

We had some friends over Friday night for a games night. It was a blast. Lots of laughing.

This weekend was district conference as well, which we loved. I got my new temple recommend. And I got to lead the primary choir for conference. They did great. Good little singers.

And this was my drive home from my temple interview. I love the fall. Someone was having a bon-fire, so it smelt all roasty-toasty as well.

There you have it. My hodgepodge.

He's so handsome.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving has come and gone. And yet I still feel it lingering...maybe's it the dishes that keep reminding me. Isn't it amazing that it takes a week to plan, a whole day to cook, another whole day to clean up afterwards, and yet only 20 minutes to eat it? Huh.

Whilst in the middle of my Thanksgiving prep, we got a ring-a-ding at the door. More neighbourhood kids asking to play? Nope, salesperson. Somebody foreign who is selling artwork. It was nice stuff. His timing was VERY poor. We have NOTHING on our walls at this point. NOTHING. Our house echoes. We want art...but haven't decided what. We invited him in to take a look at what he had and to hold it up to our walls to see if we fell in love with anything.

We liked. We weren't twitterpated.

We have one REALLY large wall in our living room that is a vast expanse of nothingness. He told us his friend had large art in the car and that he could call him so we could take a look. OK. (As I'm frantically trying to make Thanksgiving dinner while viewing expensive-ish art).

We didn't like any of the big stuff...but these guys were sales people. 10% off if you buy two. We have framers who will give you 50% off on framing. It's only $150 and you need SOME art, no? How about I give you $120.

In all of our viewing, they asked us what "Thanksgiving" was. Is it a holiday where people just eat? It may appear that way. We tried to explain peace, and pilgrims, and harvest. I don't know if they got it.

We opted out of art. Just not sure what way we're going and didn't want to make a $100+ decision that would solidify that without more thought. Sorry guys.

But thanksgiving dinner turned out great. I made this!

We went around the table to say what we were thankful for. Real Original. It went like this:

Mom: Eager Children (that's a positive spin on it)
Lucy: Family
Max: This dinner, and Mom
Dad: Healthy Family
Logan: A bun (this is the theme for Logan)
Mom: Sunny Kingston
Lucy: Our House
Max: Soft Grass
Tyler: A Good Job
Logan: Buddy! (That's Max)
Mom: My Best Friend
Tyler: (he jumped in here out of turn), My Best Friend who is also the love of my life. (I don't know if it's corny to say he teared up here, but it was sweet...so mind your business)
Lucy: Thanksgiving dinner
Max: Water
Tyler: Kid's who make good choices
Logan: Daddy.

We have a lot to be grateful for. It was fun to push ourselves to think of more than just one thing each. Yesterday in sacrament meeting, a friend of ours gave a talk on Thanksgiving, and he made the comment, "What if tomorrow you woke up with only the things that you had remembered to say thank you for in your prayers the night before." It was a good point, and I've determined to be more grateful in my prayers. More Specifically grateful.

We finished the evening off by tidying the kitchen and baking pumpkin pie. Then we played "What Time Is It Mr. Wolf" and "Colored Eggs". We had a quick Skype with Grandma Janielee and then it was tubs and into bed.

It was so nice to have a day off. It was beautifully sunny and warm and we're loving that summer seems to be extending into the fall. The leaves are changing colours now and everything is vibrant. I took some pictures from my car today while waiting in a construction line-up.

Even the bushes in front of my house are fiery red now. I love it. Fall is definitely my favourite season. And I'm grateful for a beautiful fall in Ontario.

Thanksgiving - the early hours

Happy Thanksgiving!

So far, this holiday Monday has not disappointed. Tyler and I were up LATE last night skyping with my family. They were all at my parent's for Thanksgiving dinner. 22 people! I tried not to think about it too much. We skyped until nearly 1am. It was great to get turkey tips from my dad. Catch up with my sisters. And laugh with my brother and his wife. Good times.

Logan was crying in the night which disrupted my already shortened sleep, but we lounged in bed this morning, so that made up for it.

I like being a bit slow and getting ready at our own pace and hanging out, because we have no where to be. Our hanging out was interrupted by a knock at the door though. Owen and Nick from down the street were coming to ask Max to play. That's pretty much awesome to me. They're 8 and 10. They ride the bus with my kids and are really nice boys. So they (including Lucy) headed down the street to the sandbox at the end of our road to play. They were out all morning.

Logan and I headed to the mall to get an Electric Roaster and some milk from Zellers. Actually, I went to get one from Sears that was advertised yesterday for $49.99, and then this morning it was $69.99. Nice Sears. I see how you roll. I decided to check Zellers since I was there, and I had to get a shopping cart anyway. I can't carry an Electric Roaster and Logan at the same time. Go figure. And Sears doesn't have carts. Everything you buy at Sears is big. Why wouldn't they have carts?

Got the cart from Zellers, checked out their Roaster...$39.99. Booyah Sears. Take that!

We went to a few stores to check things out. It's nice being at the mall with just one kid. Especially when the mall is SUPER quiet. Just me and a few old people. Nice.

Came home. Cleaned my kitchen. Made lunch (grill cheese!), cleaned my kitchen. Cleaned the turkey and got it set in the Roaster. Cleaned the kitchen. Made dough for buns. Cleaned the kitchen. I'm sensing a pattern here.

Now the potatoes are peeled a chopped (thanks to my hard-working muscle). Buns are in the oven. Turkey is roasting. Veggies, stuffing and gravy will come later.

Max and Tyler went for a drive to check out a van that was for sale. We saw it on the side of the road on the way to church yesterday. It's a pretty good deal. We'll see. I could be the owner of a Pontiac Montana again. I'm ok with that. It has an automatic sliding door. That is heaven to me. Heaven. Simple things people.

Now we're chilling while the stuff cooks, Logan sleeps, and Tyler takes the van back.

Thanksgiving!

Saturday

There's a song I know. It goes something like this:

Saturday is a special day, it's a day we get ready for Sunday
We clean the house, and we shop at the store
So we don't have to work until Monday...

Saturday IS a special day. It's the only day of the week (that isn't the Sabbath) that everyone is around. So it is definitely the Get The Work Done day.

On this particular Saturday, we set out to exchange our living room rug which was warped from the day we got it, to Lowes and to check out some paint supplies that I'm fixin' to get for a little project I want to do. We had to pick up our chair that finally came in at Pier One (both things that required us renting a van from Lowes). We had to get Halloween costumes figured out. (Max is now the owner of 4 halloween costumes...he will only be keeping one). And it was a special one day sale at Old Navy on vests, so we had to hit them up for a vest for Tyler, Lucy, and I.

We also planned to clean the house, write talks for Lucy and Max, make a BBQ dinner, play, and anything else we could cram in.

We started the day with a cuddle in mom and dad's bed. The cuddle started with Logan and Mom and Dad. It was soon joined by Lucy...and after a little prodding, Max joined us as well. We stayed there playing kissing games, tickling games, and eye-spy for an hour.

We tried on halloween costumes from last year to be sure they wouldn't fit the bigger kids anymore, and to be sure new ones were necessary. Fortunately, Logan the Beast is big enough to wear Max's costume from last year. Lucy wants to be a butterfly this year, and Max say he wants to be a Transformer. We started with Bumblebee from Walmart. We noticed some different ones at Loblaws. So I picked up a Bumblebee and Optimus Prime for him to choose from (because he was at school when I bought them). We discovered they were too big, so those were not an option. We settled on Bumblebee from Walmart.

Out the door. Off to Lowes. I love that hardware stores have fun shopping carts for kids. Thank you Lowes and Home Depot. It really does make a big difference. My kids were entertained for an hour with that shopping cart while Tyler and I did our thing. I got paint chips GALORE!

Pier One and Old Navy. check, check. Tyler drove our new stuff home in the rental van while the kids and I went to Walmart. We only had the van for an hour. So he got to haul a chair and rug into our house by himself. Wrap up the old rug, and haul it back.

The kids and I got an awesome set of butterfly wings for Lucy which she is very excited about. Max discovered a Cobra Ninja costume at Walmart and has now decided that THAT is what he wants to be. It's half the price of the Bumblebee costume, so I was all for it. Hence, 4 costumes. We were all exhausted and hungry, so we opted to go to McD's for lunch while we waited for Tyler to get back with his rental van.

Then it was home. The kids REALLY wanted to set up our tent, so we pitched it in the basement. We sat in the tent to write Lucy and Max's talks on Prayer. Lucy's is for primary tomorrow, and Max's is for the Primary Presentation in a few weeks.



Wii. BBQ dinner. Haircuts for all 3 boys. Showers...a little "To Infinity and Beyond!" off of mom and dad's bed and then it was scriptures, prayers, and bed.

Sunday is a special day...it's the day we recover from SATURDAY! Hallelujah for a day of rest!

Lucy's Talk

Good Morning. The Primary Theme for October is:

Prayer is a reverent communication between Heavenly Father and me.

When we pray to Heavenly Father we need to be reverent in our actions and our words.

We sit, stand or kneel quietly. We bow our heads, close our eyes, and fold our arms. And we speak clearly for everyone to hear.
Even when we are not the person saying the prayer, it is important that we are also reverent. We close our eyes and bow our heads.

But reverence is not just folding our arms and bowing our heads.

We also need to be reverent in the way we speak to our Heavenly Father. We use words like thee, thou, and thine, because they show respect. We thank Him for our many blessings and ask Him reverently for things that we need.

There is a primary song that says:
Reverence is more than just quietly sitting;
It’s thinking of Father above.
A feeling I get when I think of His blessing;
I’m reverent for reverence is love.

We need to think carefully about the words that are being said. We can think about Jesus and all that He has done.

When we are reverent we can feel the Holy Ghost guiding us and giving us answers to our prayers.

We are reverent because reverence is love.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Conversations with a 4-year-old

Thursdays are busy at this house.

Yesterday was particularly so.

Scratch that...every day this week has seemed particularly busy. 5 people living in one house...all with different things to do. Well, Logan pretty much does what everyone else does, but his sleep needs factor in.

On Mondays and Thursdays the kids have Taekwondo. We are still in the process of deciding what we want them to do. The last Martial Arts place lost out, because they were just not in the budget. We were driving to the park one day and saw a kid riding his bike wearing a Dobak with "Horizons Taekwondo" written on the back. We figured it must be close because he was riding his bike, so we googled it. Super close. We checked them out and they are ridiculously affordable in comparison to everyone else in the city.

We called and spoke to the Master's husband. He said she is the cheapest because she does it because she loves it...not because she's trying to make money. This works for us.

We took Max and Lucy. They have two class levels for their age group. Active Start (ages 3-5) and FUNdamentals (ages 5-10). We took him to both. The Active Start class has a lot of 3 year olds. Their attention span is limited, but their energy is high. He had fun. So did Lucy. She's twice the size of all the other kids. FUNdamentals has mostly 8 and 9 year olds. My kids are quite a bit smaller than the others. They've obviously been doing Taekwondo for a bit. Some of them are a bit too rambunctious and don't listen well. I went last night to observe and was nervous about my kids being involved with those bigger kids. Fortunately, Lucy and Max are always paired together because they're relatively the same size and skill level. They did good. We signed them up for FUNdamentals.

They started the class playing dodge-ball. If they got hit, they had to do a somersault.


After doing two 45-minute classes in a row last night, they were exhausted. Hopefully next week is better when they only have to do one.

I loved watching them practice their kicking and punching and sparring. It comes quite naturally to Max as he is a human jumping bean and has been kicking and punching for a long time. But for Lucy, it is completely against her nature to do anything that even remotely resembles physical violence, so this will be a stretch for her. At one point they got to punch one of the instructors in the chest after doing some kicks and her face was pure glee...like, "I can't believe I'm allowed to do this!"


It was also completely awesome and hilarious to see them counting in Korean. Hanah! Dool! Set!

The class goes until the middle of December and then we'll reevaluate then.

On the way home from TaeKwondo, we're chatting away and all of a sudden Max says:

Max: "Maybe I should wear stilts all the time."

pause

Me: "Why?" (don't laugh mom)

Max: "Because I fall over a lot."

Tyler and I glance at each other.

Me: "I fail to see how that will help."

Max: "Well, if I see something I want to see, and then I turn my head to keep looking at it, but I keep walking forward, then I usually trip and fall down. But if I don't look, then I'll miss the thing I wanted to see."

Me: "Uh-huh?" (I'm still trying to figure out the stilts part of this equation).

Max: "If I wore stilts, I would be taller and I wouldn't miss things all the time."

I think we convinced him that stilts probably wouldn't make life easier, but he nearly had us convinced!

We stopped on the way home from Taekwondo to vote. It was the Ontario Provincial election. Our electoral site was the Fire Hall - which the kids were excited to be inside.

I don't feel I have lived in Ontario to accurately determine who I should vote for. I'm not sure what my Ontario needs are yet, and who will best meet them...but I voted anyway. I explained to the kids that there are men and woman who fight and many lose their lives so we can have the freedom to choose our own government. Going to vote is a way to say thank you. And I am thankful. So even though I'm uncertain who to vote for...not voting seems worse.

Max and Tyler went and voted first, and then Max came with me. When I opened the ballot and paused to read all the names he got frustrated and said, "No Mom! It's this one!" and pointed out who Tyler had obviously voted for. Haha. The rules of voting will be explained to him before it's his turn to vote.

So it was an extra busy Thursday. But we still had time for the kids to have a bath in the BIG tub and to read a few stories before bed.

The weekend is almost upon us, and I am THANKFUL! Thankful for the break. Thankful for the sunshine. And Thankful for the season.

Happy Thanksgiving!

General Conference Weekend

This weekend is a monumental event in our home. It's akin to Thanksgiving and Christmas. There is a lot of planning and preparing that goes into meal planning and activities for this weekend. Basically the plan is this:

Don't plan to do anything else except watch General Conference.

To execute that plan, meals must be well thought out, so as to not require mom having to be in the kitchen while conference is on...but also ensuring everyone is fed, so there is little to no whining during conference as well. Plus treats. And bingo....with jujubes and gummie bears.

The weather has turned cool and rainy this weekend, so staying inside, cuddled together to watch has been perfect.

Conference is almost done. One more session. And i've loved it.

It's been a bit different this year as this is our first General Conference outside of Alberta. The time zone change makes a difference. Conference is at noon and 4pm, instead of the usual 10 and 2pm. And the Priesthood and General Relief Society sessions were from 8-10pm.

It's also been different because we've been away from family. We've always watched sessions at either of our parent's houses. Eaten lots of food. And visited with family. Someone at my mom's house always makes cinnamon buns.

So this session, we decided to invite friends over to watch with us. We had the Larocque family (our age with 3 children the same ages as our children) for the Saturday afternoon session and dinner. The missionaries also joined us for dinner. It was fun, noisy, and heart-warming. Today we have Sandy Cunningham from our branch coming over to watch the afternoon session. His family has already moved back to Alberta, but he is still here finishing up school.

I have to admit I did find the change in session times actually quite nice. There wasn't a rush in the morning to get ready, eat breakfast and get settled in for conference by 10am. I was able to prepare dinner for both days in that time, plus make treats.

Yesterday we had Roasted Tomato Soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. And waffles, bacon, hash browns and juice for lunch.


Today it's cheese and crackers, etc, for lunch, and Chicken Broccoli casserole for dinner. Plus, the kid's and I made Darn Tasties. The plan was for cinnamon buns, since it is a tradition, but I didn't realize until this morning that I didn't have any yeast. It was fun to have a kitchen-full of helpers in the cookie making process. Logan was especially excited to help...and taste.

Lucy really wanted me to take a picture of her in her apron.

It also worked out well for a 2pm nap that was guilt-free. I wasn't sleeping through a talk, but instead just taking some much needed rest. What is it about conference that makes me so tired? Plus the wonderful soothing voices of the prophets and apostles. Sunday afternoon is hard to stay awake, even for the most faithful.

We've also had the chance to Skype with our families, which has also been nice.

Oh, and we've made houses out of cardboard boxes.

As I was sitting listening to Sister Barbara Thompson's talk about Personal Revelation, I had the following thought come to my mind: (she was talking about praying with Faith...and I thought about Joseph Smith's First Vision) Maybe sometimes I don't receive an answer to my prayers because I am not yet ready (or faithful enough) to do what the Lord will require of me in answer to my prayer. Joseph received that remarkable vision because he prayed in faith...meaning he prayed with full intent to do whatever he received as an answer. Not because he fathomed what the answer would be...but that he was willing. Maybe sometimes I"m not there yet, and that's why the answers are slow to come. Or the Lord needs time to help me get to a place where I AM willing.

I was interested to hear Elder Hales state that same thought, nearly word for word, the next day. It's moments like that that affirm to me that this is the correct church. The collective mind of saints is a testimony to me.

I have enjoyed so many of the speakers. I really enjoyed Tad R. Callister's talk today on the truth of the Book of Mormon. i struggled through Elder Neil Anderson's talk yesterday on Multiplying and Replenishing, because this is something that is close to my heart and my mind at all times. My heart is willing...but my body and mind are still resistant. There is some fasting that needs to happen in that area.

I have appreciated the moments my children have paused their playing to stop and listen. Even if it is with a jujube incentive. Or when they have sung along to the hymns that they know. They especially enjoyed the Primary Choir that sang yesterday and recognized each of those songs, so they sang out loud and proud.

The next session will start in just a short time and then it will be over for six months. I feel great anticipation for conference, and then it seems to go by so quickly. I look forward to hearing from our prophet again. I was disappointed to hear that Elder Holland spoke at Priesthood session...I'll have to go back and listen to that talk later. I loved Sister Dalton's talk to the Father's of Daughters.

I appreciate technology that makes listening to conference from thousands of miles away so possible. I was intrigued by Elder Bednar's talk about the Spirit of Elijah and how the youth of today are responsible and need to get involved. That our understanding of technology is the very thing that qualifies us for the work. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

I have a testimony of Jesus Christ; this gospel; the Book of Mormon; Eternal Families; Joseph Smith; and Personal Revelation. I am grateful for the Gift of the Holy Ghost. As a mother, it is my lifeline.