Tricking or Treating 2007....

Scarlett ended up dumping us for her friends this year, she went out with Katherine instead. Martin took Kaleb and they had a great time.

Although I was surprised at our fast they came back, I guess they are older and can make it around the block faster now.

The pictures below arn't the greatest, we have a lighting problem in the house. but you can see how happy the kids were with their stash of candy

What happens when you try to get a picture of your child....

why is it that as soons as Scarlett see's the camera come out, she goes crazy.

Heres some pictures I got the other day .....

Pumpkins extravaganza 2007...

Last night we finally got around to carving the pumpkins. The kids have been bugging every night to do it

I put Martin in charge this year, for once he could scrap out the slimy pumpkin seeds with the kids

So he starts cutting off the top of the pumpkins, and next thing I know he's scraped out the insides. I reminded him that this is what the kids want to do, they are still kind of young to do any cutting, so he picks up a few hand fulls of goo and puts it back in the pumpkin

I was sure the kids would be annoyed that he had done everything already, but Kaleb took the lid off his pumpkin and said "Look Scarliee, its already done, COOL"

They both got a black marker and drew faces on their pumpkins, and then with some help used the pumpkin carving knife to cut out the pieces.

All told the carving took about 5 min, and with Martin doing most of the work, there was nothing to clean up. So now I'm rethinking my strategy of past years, where pumpkin guts ended up all over the counters , floors and in the kids hair

Here's the kids pumpkins....

Kaleb patiently waiting for Scarlett to finish with the carving knife..

This year Halloween seems to be never ending, both kids have gone to Halloween parties, our neice's birthday party had a halloween theme, then theres the daycare parties, school parades. I don't know why but this year I will be glad to see Halloween gone

We are so happy to announce the arrival of our neice.....

Clara Jane was born on September , 2007.

I spent the past Thanksgiving weekend in Ottawa with Derek, Michaela, Blake and Clara. I spent a lot of time just holding her, and rocking her to sleep. She is so cute, and is so alert. I felt like she was actually looking at me, and following my voice.

Blake is doing well being a big brother, he wants to hold her and play with her when she is lying on the floor.

I was so interested in the baby and playing with Blake, that I forget to even get a picture of the two of them together.

We went for a small walk in Gatineau on the Sunday, and then to brunch with Mic's parents. Thanksgiving dinner was with their friends Owen, Vanessa, Avril, Grant and their kids. Vanessa as always made a wonderful dinner, complete with Creme Brule for dessert

Our trip over Niagara Falls....

We spent two nights at the Great Wolf Lodge, what an amazing place. I had booked and cancelled a few times in the past as I just couldn't see spending 399.00 a night on a room, but it was worth every penny.

The lodge from the minute you walk in the door is designed for kids, here's a picture of story time which happens every night at 8:00 in the main lobby. The trees and animals in the display move and talk , tell stories and sing. The story reader also reads two stories, this time it was Robert Munsch which the kids absolutely loved. Such a great idea to help the kids slowly wind down from a day of swimming and water slides

My children are not hard to please at all, they were so excited to see that their room was separate from ours, and the fact that they had bunk beds was a huge hit with them.

As we were leaving the hotel my Mom decided to treat us to a trip over Niagara Falls by helicopter.

As you can see from the pictures, the kids thought it was amazing. I on the other hand was green the whole trip, and counting down the seconds until we landed back on solid earth. Despite being nauceous the whole time, I managed to get some really good pictures.

A couple pics of the kids looking at the falls the old fashioned way.

Scarlett's 6th Birthday.....

Scarlett's 6th Birthday party was at Zooz Indoor Playland.

All morning Saturday the kids must have asked me 100 times if it was time to go yet.

This is a pic of Scarlett sitting on the stairs patiently waiting to leave.

She had about 22 friends come to her party, and it was a lot of fun.

The kids had fun climbing on the rock climbing wall, going across the ropes over the crocodile river, and ride the
slide.

I've attached a short cut below to the rest of the pictures.


http://picasaweb.google.com/evans.kmsk/ScarletttSBirthdayPartyZ00z















http://picasaweb.google.com/evans.kmsk/ScarletttSBirthdayPartyZ00z

Scarlett turns 6 today....

Wow, my girl is 6 today.

What a difference a year can make, Scarlett has changed so much over the past 12 months.

She is such an independent girl, she knows what she wants and will do anything (good or bad ) to make sure she gets her way.

Scarlett has a fiery temper just like her dad, its hard to know what will happen if she's in a bad mood or is tired. A simple discussion can turn into a fight, or hearing her tell us we are ruining her life.

She is doing very well in school, she is extending on all subjects and can't wait to start grade one in the fall. She is looking forward to starting french immersion (although it might because of the pizza lunches she's knows you get there).

She spends a lot of time drawing and writing notes to her friends. She is also very addicted to her dad's MP3 player and has become an avid country music fan. Whenever she goes in anyone else's car she wants them to put on her favorite country music station. Right now her favorite songs are "Travelling Soldier" by the Dixie Chicks, 1,2,3 like a bird I see by Tim McGraw. Although Martin has also been known to add a few hip hop and rock songs on to the player also.

She is a very strong swimmer now, and is looking forward to starting lessons again soon.

Her best friends right now are Catherine, Victoria, Kate and Beth. She claims to have a boyfriend named James, but won't really talk about him.

She is still very protective of her brother, although I notice that she doesn't necessarily want him included when she has friends over as much anymore.

Pics of our trips to the zoo.....

we got a zoo pass this year, and I hope to make it there many times.

This past week we went and saw the new dinosaur exhibit which was amazing. The kids loved seeing the dinosaurs move and roar. They were surprised at the actual size of the T-Rex.

As usual they love the kids zone, and want to spend time there.

We are making another trip next week just to spend time at the splash park.

http://picasaweb.google.com/evans.kmsk/OurDayAtTheZooMay2007

Kaleb's 4th birthday.......

My baby boy is 4, and isn't a baby anymore. Sometime in the last few months he went from a toddler to a big boy.

Ever so often I look at him, and wonder what happened. He's a big boy, so tall no more baby chubbiness. He still has his light brown hair, but its definitely darker than this time last year, I wonder if it will go blond during the summer again. But I don't think it will, it seems to be getting darker as the months go by.

Kaleb is very loving towards me , he wants to snuggle buggle every morning before we start out day, and won't go to sleep until we've snuggled and talked about our day.

He is very good now at telling stories, he will go on and on about things he's done, or what happened at school. Of course every time you ask him what they had for lunch, his answer is always dirt and worms.

He seems to have matured a bit lately also, he is following directions much better. If I want him to get dressed I don't have to say get pants, get a shirt , get underwear, I can just say get dressed.

He will be moving up into the raptor room soon at daycare, which is kind of a sad thing for me, since the kids started at the daycare one of them has always been a twiddle-bug, so mommy has to come to terms with the fact that both kids are growing up.

Hot wheels are his favorite thing to play with, Aunt Kerri gave him a box for Christmas that was full of them, and he takes the time to set them all up. Its funny to watch him and Scarlett playing together, she will get out the little ponies and somehow hot wheels and ponies go together.

Kaleb and Scarlett are still the best of friends, they are both very protective of each other. If Kaleb gets a treat he has to make sure Scarlett is getting one also. He always includes her in everything he does, and wants to be with her no matter what she is doing.

Bed time is not one of his strong suits, unlike Scarlett Kaleb dosen't seem to need much sleep. It is a struggle to get him to stay in his bed at night, he does the 5 reason why I have to get up every night. We are starting to let him stay up longer than Scarlett, just because he really is not tired. So while Scarlett is in bed snoring away, he is playing with his trucks or reading a book.

A mamma's boy for sure, Kaleb is my guy, he dosen't want daddy if he's hurt or angry. Martin says I baby him, which is probably true, he is so different from his sister and I figure while he wants and needs me I better enjoy it.

Brrrrr its so cold here today......

-34c with the windchill.

Poor Kaleb was crying that his fingers hurt, I was putting him in van which is in garage and didn't think to put his gloves on.

So I ended up getting their hats and gloves out of their school bags, it was that cold.

We are so ready for winter to be over. With these cold temps the kids are not getting outside while at daycare, so they are all going stir crazy.

Last week Christine (Kaleb's teacher) said that they took them outside for 10min, just because they were all out of control, and needed to get rid of some energy. They had them run around the perimeter of the yard just to burn off some energy.

You can see the toil it is taking on both teachers and the kids, everyone is tired of winter, and praying for the warmer weather to come.

The 5 grandkids....

Alexis 4, Braedon 1, Scarlett 5, Blake 2, Kaleb 3

Very hard to get 5 kids to sit and actually look at the camera at the same time.

Pics of the kids and their great Grandparents from Christmas Day...

My grandparents live in an old age home about a 1/2 hour from us. My granfather is on an alzheimers floor, and has no memory of any of us, but is still happy to have us visit him.

I will give him a hug and kiss and say Hi Papa. He will sit back look at me and say "I don't know you do I" "Yes Papa, its Kimberly I'm your oldest grandchild" "No, I don't think so, I never seen you before"

Very sad to see, but its also conforting knowing that he while he can't remember us that he is still happy to see us.

I try to take the kids every couple weeks, I tend to grab donuts or something to keep the kids busy, and we only stay about 20 min but you can see how happy it makes him to visit.

My grandmother lives on another floor, where she can go and see him anytime she wants. She too is slowly losing her memory, and it is getting hard to go and see her with the kids but I still try.

Best friends at the park....

It was such a nice winter day, so I decided to take the kids to the park, before winter really hits.

We stopped along the way and took some pics.

Victoria and Scarlett have been best friends since birth, they go to the same daycare, are in the same Kindgerten class.

Kaleb and Jessica by default spend a lot of time together but I think they too will be friends for life.

Kaleb trying to kiss Jessica was such a sweet surprise, and Jessica's acting coy was so adorable.

We all had such a good time, it was fun to go to the park again.

Just so you know, I'm working backwords on this (m)

I have our wedding pics ready to add. Plus the kids birth pics and such.

So as you visit the site , go through the archives and you might find something new.

What a treat today...

January 12 2007, not quite the way I wanted to start the new year...

I went to my new Gym, to pay for my membership, and when I was leaving the parking lot I was t-boned on the driver side.

It happened so quickly, yet so slowly when I close my eyes I can see the truck starting to swerve and then the car smashing into me.

My first thoughts were, okay my legs work, my arms work, get me the hell out of here.

I practically threw myself out of the passenger side, I just wanted to get away from the van, the car that hit me must have broken its radiator because the hissing and smoke coming out of it had me convinced it could blow at any second.

I went to the hospital to get some xrays and thanfully nothing was broken.

One good samaritan ran over to me right after it happened and brough me a blanket to sit on, so I wouldn't be sitting in the snow and ice on the side of the road. This woman gave me a hug and held my hand, she was cuing and rocking me like you would a child. And I was so thankful, I couldn't stop shaking, knowing that it could have been so much worse.

I am so thankful that I walked away from the accident.

I have minor back and neck pain, but physio will take care of that. I am just so happy that the kids were not in the car, the majority of the impact was at Scarlett's seat, and I am so glad she wasn't in the van.

Scarlett's goes to Kate's house for a sleep over...

If you had asked me if I thought she could do it, I would have said yes. I would have told you that she would go and never look back, but I guess I was wrong.

We didn't have to go and pick her up, but according to Andrea she definetly was not a happy camper.

She woke up quite a few times during the night, wanting to go home and see her mommy. But in the end she did stay.

A couple days after I asked her if she wanted to do it again, and she said that Kate could come to her house, but no way was she going back there. LOL

So my tough and rough tomboy does have a soft mommy's girl side.