Stupid weather!

Sunday night we got a snowstorm with high winds and lost power at about 9:30am Monday morning. We waited and waited for it to come back on, but decided if it wasn't on by the time Kaylee woke up from her nap, we'd head over to my ILs house since they had power. We got over there around 3:30 and after having supper (McD's thanks to Barry's uncle who was visiting from Ottawa) I called some of our neighbors to see if the power was on yet but no one would answer their phone. Barry got frustrated so he and my FIL drove to the house 15 minutes away to see if the power was on and it was, so they drove back and Barry, Kaylee and I drove home. Kristen decided to stay the night there anyway. Turns out the power only came on right before Barry went over to check, so if he had've gotten there any earlier, he would've seen we didn't have power and would've stayed overnight at the ILs...that wouldn't be fun. LOL Anyway, the winds were strong until early afternoon so the power company couldn't start trying to fix things until then. Over 30,000 customers in Nova Scotia were without power. Good thing their website was wrong on their estimation as to when our area would be fixed - tonight at 11:30pm! The winds gusted to hurricane force at times - 120km/h, I could feel the house shaking - and knocked down a big tree in my neighbors back yard. I was so sad when I saw that as it had been there a long time and was so pretty in the summer with all the leaves on it and birds having nests in there. :(

And now we're supposed to get a storm on Christmas Eve too...wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have plans to go somewhere both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! Stupid weather! :(

I have only done one layout since the last time I blogged...no excuses, besides being addicted to the games on Webkinz.com so I can buy more furniture and stuff for my pets rooms. LOL

Polar Express Day

Yesterday was Polar Express Day at Kristen's school. Wednesday they watched the movie, and Thursday they got to wear their pj's to school, bring a stuffie with them, have a red ticket that got punched (guess she didn't have gold paper to print on :)) and have a snack with refreshments as well as do some activities having to do with the movie such as a crossword, word search and coloring page. Kristen also brought home a packet of hot chocolate. :)

I found the funniest site...30 second movies re-enacted by bunnies. Some are so hilarious!!

Here are some new layouts...the first one is of Kristen's Christmas concert like I promised I'd do. I think it turned out pretty good!

That's it from me today! I'm off to add those missing beads to the tree. Barry brought them home from his parents house last night as they were able to find a few packs at the WalMart in the city on Wednesday.

Yes, more shopping...

So yesterday Kaylee and I went to WalMart to get some new camcorder discs. That's ALL I was going for as I didn't need to get anything else...well, I ended up spending $65. LOL I got Kaylee a white long sleeved shirt to go underneath some cute dresses she has, a DVD for Barry, the discs, another Be-Bratz since they were still $5, and some new beads for the tree. They only had 2 packs which I thought would be enough, but it wasn't. :( I need to get at least one more, but the 2 packs I bought were the only 2 they had left and I'm not going into the city to find another pack, so I asked my MIL when they go into the city at the end of the week to pick me up a pack. Hopefully they can! I do like them better than the single red strand of beads I had on the tree before. Kaylee has gotten so used to going somewhere every day lately, now she asks "Where we going Mommy?" as soon as we drop Kristen off at school. LOL

My baby brother turns 28 today (happy birthday Joe!) and I had to laugh...this morning Kristen looks at the calendar and says "Guess what Mommy! Joey is almost 30!" LOL Not a good thing to say when someone is a whole 2 years away from the big 3-0!

Here's a layout I did yesterday! I'll be doing Kristen's Christmas concert layout next. :)

SANTA!! I know him! I KNOW him!

Yesterday DH was working again so I took the girls to the local pharmacy and picked up the Sea Otter Webkinz. We went to Tim Hortons first so I could grab a mug for Barry but they didn't have any. After that I asked them if they wanted to go to the mall since there was nothing else to do, and of course they said yes. Now normally I wouldn't be going to the mall on a Saturday in December because of the crowds, but this mall is different ... ever since the WalMart left, a lot of the stores have gone and it's not that busy any time of the year.

This was Santa's first day and since we were there, I thought it'd be fun for the girls to go talk to him, since we've never gone to visit a mall Santa before. (we have our own personal Santa who comes and visits us during my ILs Flying Club's annual Christmas party) As he had just sat down a few minutes before, there was no one in line so the girls each took their turn going up, sitting on his lap and talking to him. Kaylee even gave him a hug goodbye :) Sadly though, there was no photographer there to take a picture of them. I really need to get a small point 'n shoot camera to keep in my purse!

We also went to the book store where Kristen got a book of 4 fairy stories called the Rainbow Magic Collection Vol.1 (she's getting one of the singular books, Holly the Christmas Fairy, from a book order at school) and Kaylee got the Hummingbird Webkinz. I know, I know...I'm a sucker for stuffies. LOL I don't really like the humming bird, I'd rather have gotten the pig, but Kaylee said she wanted it...

I love buying books for Kristen. She is such a great reader and is reading at a grade 2/3 level already! Just like her mommy did :) She can read a Junie B. Jones book in 1 day! She got her report card on Thursday and got 8 A's and 2 B's! Her strong points are reading and math. She needs to work a bit on her writing, which isn't surprising seeing as she is a leftie like me. Kaylee is turning out to be a leftie too! I am so proud of my little girl!

Here's a layout I did yesterday! It's hard to remember a time when Kaylee was so little...she was only 2 weeks old when this pic was taken.

Christmas concert

Tuesday was Kristen's Christmas concert. This year they had an Island Christmas theme. It was really cute...the entrance was decorated with grass and tiki's, with a wooden chime hanging in the middle. Really festive! It was almost a disaster...I bought some DVDs for the camcorder in November and stuck one in about 45 minutes before we had to leave...it didn't work. turns out the camcorder only takes -RW ones, not +RW ones like I bought. Also, I had the camcorder charging for about an hour and a half when I realized it was just turned on, not charging. Eeek! There was only a half an hour before we had to go! So I charged it as long as I could, and stuck in last Christmas' DVD. There was only 12 minutes left on it, so I had to be frugal with what I taped and how long I had the camera on for. After the concert, the battery was almost dead and there was 3 minutes left on the DVD, but I did record both songs, just not the finale. I couldn't see her anyway, so it wasn't a big deal. I called WalMart the next day to see if I could exchange the DVDs and because the package was already opened, I wasn't allowed to. :( So, I'm using them to back up the digi stuff I have piled up right now. They don't hold a lot (1.22GB) so it's going to take the whole package of 10 to back up everything! Here are some pics of Kristen and her concert :)

Yesterday my ILs took Kaylee for the day. After I dropped Kristen off at school, I took Kaylee to the ILs then went to get groceries. They went shopping and took Kaylee to McD's for lunch, which she loved. She got another baby doll (like she needs any more) and a My Little Pony from her Happy Meal. I spent $233 on groceries and they gave me a free bouquet of red & white carnations. :) When I picked up Kristen from school she looked sad and I asked what was wrong. She said her tummy hurt and was hurting for the rest of the day. She kept going to the bathroom but not doing anything so I was thinking it was because she had to go #2 and it just wasn't happening so that's why her tummy hurt...nope, that wasn't it. Right before bed she went to the bathroom and said she wanted me to come with her so I did. *CAUTION...TMI AHEAD* While on the toilet she threw up like 4 times, right on the mat in front of her. It was everywhere! But, being a mom, it didn't gross me out one bit. If it were Barry up there, that would be another story. LOL After that she said she felt much better, but this morning she said she wasn't hungry and she still felt a bit icky so I decided to keep her home from school. She started feeling better right around the time she'd have to be at school, but I had already called the school and said she wasn't coming, plus we are supposed to get a LOT of wind and rain today, so I said what the heck...she wasn't missing much anyway. What's one day?

Here are a few layouts I've done in the past few days! The first one I don't care for a whole lot, but it serves it's purpose.

I took a really cool picture of our tree the other day and just had to scrap it!

He's KILLING me!

Seriously...Barry comes home last night and says "I got you a Christmas present today so don't go online and check the bank account to see where I got it from". For one, I didn't know he was going to buy me something so I am really surprised, and two, I am a peeker, so it's KILLING me not to go check and see where he got it from and how much he spent! I'm really going to try not to though as he seemed pretty proud of himself. Wouldn't want to spoil it! He hasn't bought me something for Christmas in a few years now, as he doesn't usually do the shopping!

Here's a few layouts I made with some of SSD's daily Cookie Exchange templates. I've had these pics for a while and just never got around to scrapping them.

Kaylee and I went to Zellers after dropping Kristen off at school this morning. It was -10 at that point and everyone was dropping their kids off at the same time so there were tons of cars there. We have to park in a parking lot across the street from the school then walk our kids over and wait for them to go inside before we leave. I was parked at the top so I had to wait for everyone to leave behind me before I could get out. About 5 minutes later, we were on the road. LOL Horton Hears a Who came out today so I got that for $19.99 and I also grabbed that "learn to dress" doll for $7.49. It's not really a learn to dress doll..more like a "how to snap, zip, button, unbuckle & tie doll". It has a cute little voice that sings songs about buckling her shoe, zipping, and tying her shoe. (She didn't get the blond doll pictured, she got the brunette)

Yesterday was our first snow day. We were only supposed to get rain overnight but it turned out to be snow and a lot of the water from the day before froze so it was pretty slick outside. it's supposed to rain tomorrow and be +12 out, so hopefully it'll be warm enough to not only melt the snow, but to melt all the ice as well. *fingers crossed*

I'm off to get the camcorder and try to remember how to work the thing so we can use it to record Kristen at her concert tonight! Arrivederci!

And even MORE shopping

Yesterday Barry was working so I decided to take the girls to WalMart for something to do. I said they could get 1 toy since they were really wanting to open a Christmas gift, which wasn't going to happen. I said they could get a toy, if they want to buy it themselves out of their own money, since we don't have much right now. Of course they said yes. LOL Kristen ended up getting 2 Bratz...a Jade Xtreme Sportz one and a Cloe Be-Bratz which comes with a real working mouse (it's optical and has a scroll wheel!), mouse pad, and this USB key thing to play with your e-pet online (she got a pink cat with hers). They were only $4.94 so I got one more for my niece's birthday party in January. Kaylee got a Sleeping Beauty play cell phone and Night at the Museum DVD. I got myself the boxed set of Christmas Classics movies, and Barry Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull for Christmas.

We left for the store as soon as we could because I didn't want to have to deal with the Christmas rush that comes closer to noon. There weren't too many people there and when I went to check out, there was a cashier that had no one there, so I didn't have to wait at all! We got there at 9 and got home at 10! What a quick trip!

Here's a layout I did last night that I've been meaning to scrap for a while now. Kristen joined Sparks last year. She liked it and all, but we didn't sign her up this year because she wanted to spend more time outside playing. Plus we didn't have the $70 sign up fee anyway. We'll see if we can sign her up for something next year when we live in my hometown. She'll be ready for Brownies then and I'm pretty sure they have Brownies there.

Now I'm going to finish watching Ernest Saves Christmas and scrap a bit while Kaylee is napping. Barry and Kristen just went to my BILs so Barry could help him run some cable or something. Then they're going to the ILs for supper (nachos and wings) so it'll just be Kaylee and I for supper. Tata! :)

More shopping...

Yesterday I had to go to the mall to pick up my last gift...at least, my last scheduled gift. (more on that further down) J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard came out yesterday so I had to grab that for Barry. It's sort of a Brothers Grimm type of bedtime stories book for witches and wizards. :) I also had to go to the Dollar Store to get Kristen a grass skirt and lei for her Christmas concert on Tuesday. I'm kinda sad that she isn't able to dress up all Christmasy and pretty for her concert. Instead, because they are doing the 12 Days of Christmas New Zealand style, they have to wear light colored pants and a bright colored shirt, along with optional grass skirt and lei. It's going to be cute, but still...I'll have to change the photos to black & white so I can use a Christmas kit with it. LOL While we were at the mall, I decided to get Kaylee's hair trimmed a bit since her last hair cut was in February. She kept asking the girl if she was done like 5 times. LOL Now she goes to everyone saying "I got a haircut!" then puts her wrist out and twists her foot in her "aren't I pretty" pose. She got an inch off...no one would notice! LOL

Anyway, I decided to go to Zellers today because I saw in their flyer yesterday that they have a "learn to dress" doll on sale for 50% off. Got there and turns out the sale doesn't start until tomorrow. :( Ugh! Oh well, I got a really cute sweater for Kristen for 30% off. It's made of that fuzzy fleecy material. Looks really comfy! I hope it doesn't shrink much when I wash it, otherwise, it'll then be Kaylee's new sweater. LOL They had one the same but different colors that I shoulda got for Kaylee but didn't. Tomorrow it won't be on sale though and I'm not willing to fork over $15 just so they can match. LOL It'd be so cute though wouldn't it?

Here's a layout for you! I didn't really want to scrap a wedding photo with this wedding kit, so I chose to scrap one about me starting to dye my hair to cover my greys. LOL Kaylee took the picture of me. Good isn't it? It's not too often I like pictures of myself...

Tomorrow Barry is working some extra hours so I think I'll take the girls to WalMart. I want to see if they have a different "learn to dress" doll and maybe grab a Bratz doll for Kristen since they probably won't be on the shelves too much longer. I'd love to take them to McD's for lunch, but I don't want to stay in the business park too long because it'll be getting really busy then. The WalMart is 24 hour so we'll probably go as soon as we get up and get ready.

Awww...so cute!

When I was at the pharmacy exchanging some hair dye (I bought two that were the same color and you remember what the first one turn out like LOL) so I went with a different color. Anyway, while I was there we looked at the Webkinz and oh my gosh, I saw the cutest little brown cow so I just had to buy it! I'm giving it to myself in my stocking for Christmas...I'm going to name her Nellie. :) There was a few more that I'd love to buy for the girls, but don't have the money right now, plus they just got one each on the weekend and are getting one each for Christmas too!

We're going to have to do some shopping soon...not the fun kind though. We have to buy some stuff to fix up the house before we sell it. Barry used some of his vacation pay so we could afford to get some paint, baseboard, door trim and some flooring for the basement. If there's anything left after that, we're going to buy a small desk so Kristen can use our Dell desktop computer and a new barbecue. We put ours out to the curb last night because it's toast, and some person came and took the top off! When my ILs came to bring our Christmas presents, my FIL said they probably only took the top because they couldn't get the bottom off too. I guess you can get some money for it or something? Good riddance to it anyway...that thing has been passed down from Barry's grandfather, to my FIL then to us so it's about time it went to the dump!

I was planning on trying to blog and post a layout every day this month, but I guess that wouldn't have worked seeing as I missed a day already. LOL I will try as hard as I can though! I did get a page done yesterday, just forgot to blog. I bought Dani Mogstad's Holiday Spirit kit specifically for the ornament frames in it. LOL It has nice colors in it though, and since the girls Christmas pj's are red this year, I'll definitely be using this kit again. Too bad I didn't realize I would need it so soon and missed out on the Black Friday sale! With the exchange rate, it cost me $10! Ugh!

Snow snow snow

We got over a foot of it through the night! Barry took a few hours outside shoveling off everything this morning and Kristen had fun playing in the snow with her friends. Kaylee on the other hand, hated it. She'd get all bundled up, go outside and as soon as she stepped into the snow, she'd start crying. LOL

I decided that I should decorate for Christmas today, what with all the snow and everything. It took a few hours to get it all done and put away, especially with the girls underfoot wanting to play with all the ornaments. Now to wrap the presents so it doesn't look so bare under there! I took some pics of the girls helping me decorate it but something happened to the SD card and they were all lost. :( I'll have to remake the scene tomorrow to get some fake pics. LOL

I really like that garland underneath the TV! Last year our entertainment stand was different, but this year because there is 2 sides and I don't have 2 separate pieces of garland and lights, I put it under the TV. It's interfering with the TV sensor though, so I don't know what we're going to do about that. Maybe prop the TV up with some wood or something. All I know is, it's staying there!

New dye job

The last time I dyed my hair was 2 days after my last lice treatment (a month and a half ago) and because it was only 2 days, the roots ended up lighter than the rest of my hair. I got tired of it and decided to dye my hair today…the color was Clairol Nice ‘n Easy Natural Dark Brown, and this is how it came out (picture by Kaylee  )



It’s a little bit darker than “dark brown” don’t you think? LOL I know it’ll get lighter as I wash it so eventually it’ll get to where I want. I think I’ll try Medium Brown once I use up the 2 other packages of dye I have. I’m still looking for that perfect color that I can continue to use as I get more and more greys. Ugh.

Here are some layouts I’ve done since the last post. Still hanging on to 2 more for Misty since the kits won’t be out until this weekend. The first one is a template that can be found on La’s CT blog!









Well, I’m off to watch True Blood…Eve is chomping at the bit to talk to me about it. LOL

Getting to know the girls

I made some small videos of the girls "introducing" themselves. They are just so cute!

Happy Birthday sweetie!

Today is Barry's 34th birthday and I made him a cake! Well, my mom make the cake part a while ago and gave it to me frozen last week, so I thawed it out and used the icing she gave me. I don’t have any cake decorating tools here nor have I ever decorated a cake (I always make cupcakes) so I didn’t know what I was doing. LOL I made a makeshift piping bag using a Ziploc bag and cut off the tip of it so I could put the words on. I think it turned out pretty good, especially for my first cake. It’s not perfect though I know.

I got him Mario Kart & an extra wheel for the Wii, my MIL gave him some jeans & the Journey to the Center of the Earth DVD and my mom gave him a nice hoodie sweatshirt. They both fit him great! He’s wearing them today

Kaylee had a bit of sickness yesterday. She had a few bouts of throwing up and ended up sleeping with me the whole night. She seems fine today except she has a bit of a fever. Sounds exactly like what Kristen had in the beginning of the week. I’m sure she’ll be fine by tomorrow.

Is anyone else in the Christmas mood already? We are watching Christmas movies already and I can’t wait until the end of the month to put our tree up! This year, because the new entertainment stand isn’t in the corner where the tree would be blocking the view for whoever is sitting on the couch, I can put our tree right in the front window!

Not again!

We went through having lice back in September (realized the day my grandfather died) and took a week to get rid of them all off of me, Kaylee and mainly Kristen. Fast forward a month and a half…after the girls bath last night I was combing Kristen’s hair and I though I should check for lice since it’s been a while…what do I find? A live adult louse! ARRRGH! I went and got the NitFree comb and started combing through her hair right away and ended up finding about 25 nits (eggs). While I was combing, Kristen got a nosebleed. She hates the sight of blood and started freaking out and hyperventilating. I told her that I’d go through her head again in the morning and if I found more then she’d be staying home from school, but when I combed this morning I didn’t find anything. I went through mine last night and Kaylee’s this morning and didn’t find anything on us either, so hopefully I nipped it in the bud!

We're back!

So our Halloween went pretty well! We got up there around 4 and after we had supper (homemade pizza YUM) we all got ready to go Trick or Treating. I didn’t get the best pictures, but they did the trick. After we did some houses around my mom’s street, we packed up and headed out to visit my grandmother then my brother and SIL. The girls didn’t go to bed until 9pm! They still woke up at 6:30 the next morning though. Ugh.

We went shopping on Saturday and I got this cute little Christmas countdown figurine from Hallmark and Shrek the Halls on DVD (which isn’t supposed to be out until tomorrow so I guess WalMart goofed up).

Luckily for me, the girls didn’t wake up until 6am on Sunday. That is the adjusted DST time, so it would’ve been 7 if the time didn’t change….my girls never wake up that late! Normally they are up by 5:45! Later that morning it start snowing…

At one point it was snowing so hard, my mom asked me if I was sure I wanted to go home that day. LOL Funny though, when we left, we weren’t even to the exit to go to the city and there was nothing on the ground, everything was dry, I guess the snow just stuck around that one small area or something!

Kristen was pretty tired when we got home. She didn’t want to sleep and she didn’t have a fever but she said she was tired. She ended up throwing up a few times before bed and this morning she still didn’t feel well so I kept her home. She’s slightly warm but nothing major and hasn’t gotten sick at all today. She won’t eat anything and has been laying in bed/on the couch all day. Tomorrow is only a half day so it won’t be too bad if she needs to miss another day of school.

So that was my weekend…overall pretty fun with just a few downsides

I did my Halloween layout last night…couldn’t wait!

Halloween

Halloween was fun this year…Kristen was supposed to be a Power Ranger but we borrowed a few outfits from our friend to see which one Kaylee would fit into and Kristen fit into one of them and loved it so much that she begged me to let her wear it. So, Kaylee was Snow White and Kristen was a fairy…Sprilla? Friend of Tinkerbell I think. Anyway, here are a few photos of my little princesses.

Happy Halloween!

I actually don’t like Halloween a whole lot and can’t wait until it’s over. LOL The girls and I are headed off to my parents house for the weekend so the girls can trick or treat with my 3 nephews tonight. They are SO excited!

Oh! Check out the cute matching pj’s I got for the girls for Christmas Eve! They came with a matching hair band (Kaylee is wearing it) a matching stocking and a gift box. all for $14.97 each at Zellers and the pj’s feel SO comfortable!

I have put them in matching pj’s since Kaylee’s 1st Christmas, so this is the 4th time. Check out the layouts I’ve made about them below!I thought this year would be hard because Kaylee is size 2 (sometimes 3) and Kristen is size 6, but the range on these was 2-6x so I grabbed them right up!

That’s it for me! Have a great weekend! Remember to set your clocks back an hour Saturday night! Won’t that be fun…losing an hour sleep when your kids already wake up at 5:30 each morning. LOL

Christmas card

So the girls went to get their portraits done on Friday and Barry picked the prints up yesterday when he took the girls to the park. They weren’t the “perfect” poses, but they were okay. So that night I “scanned” them (took a picture of each of the pictures LOL) and made my Christmas card. I used my Pampers points to get 25 free Shutterfly photo cards and all I had to pay was $6.99 for shipping! I’ll be scrapping these photos very soon for sure.

Why won't they listen??

Man oh man…I am so frustrated right now. The girls have 2 main rules when they play outside. Kaylee (3) has to stay in our yard and Kristen (6) can only go up or down the street to such & such a point. Well, the girls wanted to go outside and play today and for once Kristen wasn’t grounded to just our yard so I said okay, you can take your bike, but stay around here. They were in and out all morning, Kaylee doesn’t keep her jacket or shoes on, Kristen trades sneakers with her 8 year old friend and borrows her 5 year old friend’s (a boy) sneakers, their friends leave their junk all over our yard (juice packs, pencils, sunglasses, helmets, socks, etc.), and by the time nap time comes for Kaylee I can’t find either of them…I go walking down the road past the point Kristen is allowed to be, and what do I see? Kristen on her friends bike, her 8 year old friend is on Kristen’s bike (she isn’t allowed to let other kids on her bike), Kaylee is on Kristen’s scooter with NO helmet on & no shoes or jacket on! WTF? Holy crap they are both grounded!! Kristen is grounded for a week because she knows the rules and she should’ve known to make Kaylee go home. Kaylee is grounded for the weekend because I asked her at least 5 times to put her shoes and jacket on and stay in the yard (I do that more than 5 times every day). While I was putting Kristen’s bike back in the shed she came out back and said “now I really want to live with Jessica!” She has mentioned a few times that she wants to live at her house because they pretty much have no rules at all and the kids can do whatever the heck they want. I just told her to get in the house and if she doesn’t, I’ll add another week So now Kaylee is taking her nap and Kristen is taking one too, just because she tired herself out from all the crying. Ugh…at some point I’m just going to have to keep them inside forever. LOL

Here are a few layouts I did since yesterday.

Today Barry had to work so I didn’t get to sleep in…well tomorrow I am gonna because I am darn tired of waking up too early! Kaylee wakes up at 5:40am on average, every stinkin’ day! I do lay in bed until 7 most mornings, but I don’t go back to sleep once I wake up because the girls are noisy and keep coming into my room. Last week Barry got to sleep in 2 mornings because it was a long weekend, so I think I deserve to sleep in tomorrow instead of him, no? Anyway, I doubt I’ll be blogging tomorrow, so I’ll see y’all next week!

Thanksgiving

We had a great time at my parents house this weekend! It really helped that it was pretty nice weather. On Sunday DH & I took Kaylee to Victoria Park (a really huge beautiful park with swimming pools, large playground, waterfalls and walking trails). Kristen didn’t want to go because my oldest nephew was at my parents and she didn’t want to go without him. LOL Here are just a few of the pics we took while we were there (click to get a larger version)

We had a wonderful turkey dinner with 2 kinds of stuffing and 2 kinds of pie (lemon meringue & butterscotch - the pumpkin pie was eaten the night before LOL). The girls even ate a good share of the food which was awesome! They are normally picky and don’t eat a lot. That night DH and I went to visit my brother and SIL and just hung out for a few hours. I can’t wait to do it more often!