Early Morning Mistakes and other fun stuff.

Ever heard of Clear Care? If you're a contact wearer, and you shop at Costco, then my guess is that you have seen and/or tried the stuff. WONDERFUL product. I love the way it cleans my contacts and it is the only solution that I've tried so far that seems to make my contacts feel brand new every time I wear them.

HOWEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I learned that this product is NOT an all-in one cleaning solution... in fact, it contains Hydrogen Peroxide...

and if you're wondering what happens when you aren't fully functioning at 6:30 AM and you accidentally decide to rinse your contact off with it before putting it in your eye...

don't ask me, I would never do something as silly as that.

I don't think that I've ever actually REALLY screamed in my life until the moment that contact hit my eye... scared Brody so bad that he started crying too. I'm glad it doesn't permanently damage the eyes, but my eye looked like this (actually worse at first) for about a week.

Moral of the story? Don't forget to read the warnings that are printed in RED on the bottle.

I FINALLY made it up to Edmonton to visit both of my amazing sisters last week. I know 5 hours really isn't that far away, but it seems like it is difficult to actually make it up there. I'm lucky that my sisters seem to make it down to Lethbridge often to let me see them and their kiddos, but

there is so much fun stuff to do in Edmonton, I just knew it was about time I make the trip. We had SO much fun. The boys did so great on the drive up, and the roads were perfectly clear the whole way there. My only note for another year would be to not even attempt to stop at the Balzac Cross-Iron Mall on Family Day - It was insane.

Because Deanna ended up having the flu right before I came up, I stayed at Kim's house. Man were Brody and Zach hilarious together. They always seem to learn some funny things from each other, and half the time are laughing uncontrollably, and the other half of the time fighting over the same toys. They are so much alike. I wish they could spend more time together.

Kim and I decided to try out the John Janzen Nature centre. It is targeted to kids probably 5 and

under, and has a beehive play centre, a big slide, a 'river' that you can make beaver dams in using fake sticks, leaves and rocks, 3-d flower puzzles, and a lot more in a separate area about all sorts of animals. The boys probably played there for 2 hours, and were still having a fun time when we made them leave. The best part about the centre was that there were hardly any people there. It was quiet and relaxing for us to watch them play. It was so great to run into my old roommate, Jenna, and her family and kids there. For a while we were the only people in the centre. It was great to see you Jenna!! Reading your blog just isn't quite as fun as seeing you in person! Wish we could have visited longer. I see from Jenna's Blog that she has much better pictures of the John Janzen Centre than I do, if you want to see what it actually looks like there (hope you don't mind me linking up Jenna).

Here's Brody and Zach walking up to the Nature Centre... they decided to hold hands :)

Here's Blake playing on the ground while the older boys ran around. Connor slept almost the whole time, which was awesome.

The next day we decided to venture to the Mall to do some clothes shopping (as I'm STILL not fitting back into my skirts since having Connor - however, several of those said skirts are from my high school days, so maybe it is time to let them go anyways.) Did I find any new skirts? No - but Kim was more successful. We took the boys to Galaxy Land before we headed home, as they are still free for the rides. Brody LOVE LOVE LOVED the train ride, and keeps asking to "ride the train again, Mommy?". I should clarify that I forgot to bring my camera to Edmonton, so all of my pictures were taken with my cell phone - sorry for the quality.

Auntie Kim took the boys on a balloon ride too.

On the way home from the Mall, I practically killed myself driving because my windshield wiper fluid would not spray, and I could not see a thing (ever happened to anyone else before?) I was on the main highway, and seriously couldn't slow down or pull over safely either. Anyways, this eventually led to me discovering that I could change a fuse in my own car, all by myself!! (well, sort of - Kevin was on the phone helping me a bit). I am seriously in the dark about how to fix or take care of vehicles at all, so I was totally impressed that I could figure out what was causing the problem and fix it without spending lots of money. I am so thankful to have such an amazing handy husband, and for my brother-in-law, Mark, for sitting in the cold trying to help me figure it out.

If you are from around Edmonton and you haven't yet tried out the Cafe O' Play, it is definitely worth a visit. We met up with Deanna here on Thursday morning, and the kids LOVED it. I love that this picture has someone vacuuming in the background... seriously, it was a clean place for your kids to play. Deanna treated us to a smoothie and a piece of white chocolate zucchini bread, which was so good. I love the idea of this place, and would love to see one start up in Lethbridge for us to enjoy more often. Brody spent 90% of the time driving the cars around the track.

I wish I had some pictures of it, but we also took the boys to a community gymnastics class on Thursday night. Brody was totally loving the tumbling and rolling and jumping. I am so wishing that Stirling had something like that he could do to help him get all of his wiggles out. Thanks, Kim, for letting us join you.

I've never gone away with the boys without Kevin before, so we decided to send him a picture one morning to let him know how much we missed him. Try as I might, I could NOT get the boys to smile in the same picture.

Mom and Dad also came up for Keira's birthday towards the end of the week. They rented a party room at a bowling alley, and we were able to celebrate with her and enjoy some delicious "purse" cake made by Deanna! SO cute.

Thanks so much for a fun trip Deanna and Kim!! I really enjoyed the visit, and had so much fun with you both! Thanks to Mom, as well, for helping us out on the way back down to Lethbridge.

Also, thanks to Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Orvil for not minding our surprise visit and for helping us out. Got to love children that get car-sick...

Slowly Losing My Sanity to Potty Training

I kinda feel like there's not a whole lot to blog about lately, but life is going really well. We've had a fairly slow, relaxing January, and I just get to enjoy hanging out with my boys and having fun!

One of the most exciting things that have happened recently is that Grant and Connie received a mission call to serve at Martin's Cove in Wyoming. They are SO excited, and we all enjoy listening to Grant tell us how he is somehow going to figure out how to take his gator quad down there to use... We're a little skeptical that he will be able to change the rules on that one, but I guess we'll see. They will be there for 6 months and leave this April. It will definitely be very different around without grandma and grandpa! We will miss them a lot, but plans are already in the works for us to drive down there for a visit sometime while they are serving. Here is them opening their mission call! I thought I was recording it as a video... but obviously the picture below is not a video. Sad I didn't record it.

We are so impressed with the example they are setting by leaving there busy lives behind here to serve the Lord. All of the grandchildren will be able to write to them and pray for them while they are there.

Here are some pictures of the boys that I've taken recently. Brody love getting his picture taken. Connor's still not so sure about it.

Here is Connor at 3 mo. old on the rag quilt I just finished making for him. I couldn't get a picture of him without him opening his eyes extra big. As soon as he saw the camera they would get super wide. He's growing up so fast and starting to chunk up a bit.

I tried to get one of him smiling, because he smiles all the time, but he seemed to have a problem smiling while his eyes were open so wide. This was the only shot I got where he didn't have giant eyes, and he's sort of half smiling.

This is Brody's favourite pass-time in the whole world.... He lives a breathes for the chance to spend some time on the iPhone. I've got a few pre-school games and kids apps that he already knows how to navigate in and out of. We are recently trying to use this love for the iPhone as an incentive to get Brody to use his potty.

Yes, you heard correctly! We are potty training Brody!!!

... only it is taking the longest time ever, and we are seeing sides of him that I'd prefer not to know existed. Although he is very talented at going on the potty, he is very stubborn, and does not like sitting on the potty. However, we MAKE him sit on the potty, and then he usually does a great job. Our only accidents usually occur first thing in the morning as he's getting out of bed. Go figure, when he was in a diaper, he would always wake up with a dry diaper. Now that he is in big kid underwear, he seems to have to pee as soon as he starts moving in the morning. Thank goodness for mattress covers and washing machines.

I thought he would have figured out how to transition into telling us BEFORE he has to use the potty, but it seems that after 3 weeks of having pretty good success when we put him on, he has no desire to actually SIT on the potty, so he won't tell us if he has to go because he knows we will ask him to sit and try. Incentives don't work, constantly asking him doesn't seem to work, practicing doesn't seem to work... so I'm not sure where we're going wrong. Any ideas or advice would be so greatly appreciated, because I usually feel like I'm about to lose my sanity at least once a day.

So, I just bought a membership at this gym in Stirling. I think it is so great when people take the risk to start up a business in a small community. I have really wanted to exercise more, and have a hard time finding the motivation, so I'm trying out the gym idea in hopes that having to pay a bit of money will be more of an incentive to use it. I absolutely love the gym already. It's not too busy, really clean, and all of the equipment is in excellent condition. I can use it at whatever time of day I want, and that works wonderful for me, because Kevin's schedule is one that makes it difficult to go during the times I normally would go. Now that I'm exercising more, I feel great! I don't think I've lost much yet, but I feel more energetic and just that great feeling you have when you are active. My goal is to lose another 10 lbs. to make it back to the weight I was when I got married. Wish me luck!

(Also... have you tried Zumba? I LOVE it, and go every week since it started in Stirling. I'm awful at it, but I love it. Dancing is pure fun to me, and it makes exercising seem like it's not actually exercise. I'm hooked).

I've started up at directing the choirs again now for the Stirling School Elementary. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I started again. I love those kids. I love hearing their progress, and I love the feeling that I am helping them to learn to love music, and to understand how to sing. We were able to sing O Canada at a Hurricanes Hockey Game last week in Lethbridge. Only 16 of the kids could come, but they sang so well. I was proud to be in front of them. They were so well behaved, and they seemed to have a lot of fun. I'm so grateful for all of the parents who also came to support us. I know it makes a big difference to the kids to have their parents there to watch them perform. Even though it is just O Canada, I remember being older than them, doing the same thing, and being so nervous. I hope it's an experience they can remember as they grow older.

Kevin and I sang in church last Sunday. I try to act nonchalant when Kevin says yes to singing places with me, because I know that if I make a big deal out of it, he would stop saying yes. However, if I actually voiced my opinion to him on the matter, it would be this. I LOVE, and I mean L-O-V-E singing with my husband. I hate to admit it, cause it is kind of my thing, but he is a better singer than I am, and he still seems to be improving at it. Does he get razzed for singing? Yes, but he still does it every once in a while with me. He tries to act like he is only doing it because he doesn't like saying no to people, but I hope he realizes how important it is for him to set an example for other young men (and old men) that you can be a macho guy and still sing well. I know very few men who are willing to look past their own pride to sing in front of their friends, but he has been able to do that on several occasions now. I love him for it. I appreciate it. I look forward to hopefully doing it again with him in the future.

Amazing Family Pictures by Patti

Well, a few days before Christmas, I STILL hadn't figured out what to get my in-laws for Christmas, and the only thing that they told me they wanted was a new family photo from us for their wall... so feeling bad about not doing it sooner, I called up my talented sister-in-law to see if she would be willing to snap some shots of us really quick one afternoon when I could convince Kevin to take off half an hour early to get them done.

So, we picked a time, and of coarse, Kevin was late getting home from work, so we had half the time we had planned for, which ended up being maybe 5 minutes before Patti had to leave. Nice. I know... We really owe her one.

But ---- SHE WORKED MAGIC!!!

Out of maybe 15 shots she took, these were some of my favourites (including the new blog photo).

AND there were more I could have put on here that she edited too.

I couldn't be more happy!

Did I mention that she had them edited and back to me the next day?!?

Seriously Patti, thank you!

Wish we all would have been looking at the camera on this one.

I think Grant and Connie enjoyed their new picture, and we were even able to get one up on our wall already too.