Happy Valentines Day!

Kiara was a busy girl this past week.....






also a MESSY little worker!

she loved adding lots of details to her cards.

is she the only one who takes a week to make cards? i thought we made them as simple as possible....


our HAPPY valentine's day began earlier than expected. poor Aidan went to bed with a stomach ache....you can guess how that story ends. it was not how Kristian and i wanted to begin our day, nor as early as we wanted. it was also most definitely not in Aidan's top plans either. at least he got to enjoy a fabulous and fun day with his Dad yesterday. in full health.


this has been a brutal year! someone commented once that they seem to have a healthy year, but it is followed by an unhealthy one. so far, i think that is turning out to be our story too. December 2008 to March 2009 was the last time we had one illness after another. by March i just threw my hands up in the air and gave up! i'm at that same point now too. i can only remind myself that the kids are just developing their immune systems. as babies and toddlers, they did stay quite healthy. especially in comparison!!


we have a trip booked to Maui in a few months time. i'm praying we stay healthy for that.


in the grand scheme of things....we do have it good. it isn't not fun at the moment. but flus and cold do end. others are not so lucky. in some aspects, it is good to have normal problems and hurdles. sometimes it is a challenge to keep life in perspective.

with love

note to self:
must take photos of my ever-growing and never stopping kids! yikes!

we've been driving from place to place, appointment to appointment, etc. after 2 weeks of this kind of routine, we are tired of it. although i am thankful that not one of the places was to visit the pediatrician or doctor. we are surrounded by colds, flus and virus'. last year we caught every bug going around and then some. we are more than thankful for the break from illness this winter.

i thought i'd share one of my highlights of the month:



i taught a layout class at a local scrapbook store in January. it sold out in a few weeks and was still being requested up until the day of the class. the class for February has been expanded to two classes. not sure where we are at for enrollment, but it was nearly full last i checked. the first of the two classes is this Saturday morning. it is a bit of a fussy layout, but the part for making roses is actually relaxing. once the first one is made! fortunately the students will need to make a minimum of 6, so they should be experienced by the time they are done. i thought i'd share a photo of them here. i also love the strip of negative ribbon. is that not the coolest treat?!






i don't have any other "heart" photos for Valentines day, so i figured this would do.

somewhere a lover of printed music is probably cringing in pain...the flowers were made from old music books. i made sure the lovers of dictionaries are also writhing in pain too. cut and glued those pages up too! just to annoy a third group, i also grunged up a photo. yes, i crinkled the one edge on purpose. hard to see in the photo, but it is there. all in the name of art. somewhere i am sure i hear a young child cheering.

i hope you enjoyed your day of valentines. my family showed their love to me by letting me scrapbook to my little hearts' content today. love that crew! tomorrow we hope to have lots of fun together....so hopefully no one will mind when the camera tags along too.

happy valentines day!

today is bittersweet.

we will be attending a funeral for a woman who was a great encouragement to us. she has been battling a lymphatic cancer for years. her twin sister passed away many years ago with the same condition. not an easy road, but she did so well. it was a shock because it seemed as if she was improving. heartbreaking.

later on, Kristian and I will enjoy a night out with dinner and a movie with friends. it has been a long time since we have done that together!

the kids will enjoy their day as well with grandparents and babysitters! yup. spoiled for sure!!

yesterday they had a part day too. check out Aidan's loot....



i have been working full-time this week, so the kids have been at a dayhome all week. thanks, Serena!! they love going there. but yesterday, she had a flu bug come and "visit" so we had to make some other arrangements. i am so thankful to work under a principal who totally understands the inconvenience of being parents! she allowed both of them to come to school and join the early education classes.

Kiara has been eager to go to school for over a year now. she is not happy when we take Aidan to school and then leave. she was THRILLED to join a playschool class! her behaviour was impressive. given that she is only two, we were all expecting that she would need more guidance and direction. everyone was surprised that she was eager and able to participate in all aspects of the classroom routines. and i am included! i could tell she was tired by lunchtime, but she managed to hold herself together and fell asleep just ten minutes into our drive home.


i hope that you enjoy your valentines day!

and love is....

yummy heart shaped cookies with icing and pink sprinkles and extra special smarties...

don't these look yummy? they certainly were!!

both kids now love to help me bake. and we have the world's smallest kitchen. and only room for one step stool. it makes the experience even the more interesting!

Aidan is a quick learner and loves to be a part of every part of the process. the first few cookies were really well done as he was very careful.
i think he got a little tired or anxious toward the end...the last couple of cookies had a dollop of icing plopped on top, a pile of sprinkles and the smartie squished into the mess. and i didn't get a picture of these last two cookies.
this might be one of the reasons.

check out that icing she's wearing!

the cookie making roles were very defined (as usual):

mommy is the cookie roller

Aidan is the cookie decorator

Kiara is the cookie eater

one day we'll mix up the roles and see what plays out....

one of the hilights of the day was helping my friend Ingrid celebrate her 40th birthday. she had a terrific party. and some especially yummy food.

i also made a trip to my favourite store and picked up a copy of computer tricks for scrapbookers 2 by Jessica Sprague. Thanks Jan! i'm so excited for some good reading for my trip. (yeah, like i'll be able to wait that long to read it!)

they were pretty busy this afternoon. next time i want to see if they are getting 'cogsmo' by cosmo cricket (say that 5 times fast!) i hadn't looked at their website for a long time, and was checking it last night. i showed Aidan today...and he seemed excited about it too! haha then i gave him a cookie!!

on the sad, yet happy, note....Kristian has been sick for the last couple of days. he's starting to feel better so that is good...not fun seeing him not at his best. the good part is that he has been too sick to go to work, so we've been happy to have him at home. it sounds terrible, but everyone has been so happy to see daddy all day, even if he isn't himself.

and just 3 more sleeps until our trip. i'm praying for excellent health for everyone. thankfully the kids have already had what Kris has, but i'm praying that nothing else comes our way. or Sarah's way. good health, good weather and good times...that's what we want!

love is...

rockin' with the kids!

actually i love watching them rock. these headphones are as big as they are....

just love mornings like this.
still not sure why Kiara is the only one in real clothes

already on this morning in particular.

busy busy day for us. and no pictures to prove it! or perhaps that does prove it....hmmmm

Aidan was thrilled with the valentine party at playschool. until this week we have been having huge difficulties with getting him out the door in the mornings. today he was ready and waiting at the door for us. he was sooo excited about the party Mrs. O had planned. they were sure busy little people today. they made bags to hold all their valentines, iced and decorated their own cookies.

for me the craziest part was when they handed out their valentines. picture 10 three year olds who think they know what they're doing. yes. and this was with 3 adults supervising them!

at swimming i was told that Aidan was ready for the next level. that caught me off guard. (since i couldn't seem to ever get out of level 1 when i was a kid!) and i was thrilled until i tried to register him in the next level. i called 2 pools today and both were completely full. i did sweat over this situation for awhile and then realized that we could always just spend the next 8 weeks splashing around at various pools in the city. now that is a unique idea! lol we can always get in on the next set. January to May is when i have the kids registered in stuff....too cold or wet or muddy to enjoy being outdoors for long and nothing else is going on (like halloween or Christmas). it can get kind of hectic for me though, so maybe this will be a nice break. the part i'm also mourning is that both of the kids have an incredible swim instructor. we will so miss her in the next few weeks.

i think i've mentioned that Aidan is a water boy. never really minded getting wet.

Kiara enjoys the water....but can be a drama queen when she gets dunked. the look on her face after i've plunged her under the water always makes me giggle. today she wanted to stand and jump into the water (usually they get in from a sitting position). so maybe there is hope for her yet!

Aidan is really excited about our airplane trip coming up. he keeps telling me how fun it will be, but we had better hold on really tight. yup! 5 more sleeps

snow days

are still here....

Kiara is not always liking the snow....it gets in her boots, gloves and heaven forbid if she should land on her backside and get a cold bum! and other times she seems to enjoy the cold stuff. i remember Aidan not liking snow at this age either. but now is a different story with him. he actually doesn't mind playing outside---even by himself.

he has helped shovel the snow on occasion. one day we came home from somewhere and he was totally cranky. not an unusual scenario. i sent him back outside (watching him from the kitchen window!) and listening to his tirade. after about 10 minutes of standing out there feeling sorry for himself he grabbed his shovel and cleared the snow off the back deck. when i figured the steam had been vented i asked if he was ready to come back inside. his reply? "in a few minutes, mom. i'm going to finish this first." and he did! and he did an amazing job.

hopefully Kiara will be more willing to join in the fun next winter. that itself should be interesting! did someone say snow fights?

just before winter began (ironically) basic grey came out with a line of festive and wintery patterned paper i loved. well i love most of their stuff (not all, but close!) at nearly the same time i had taken a class by Cari to make a transparent album. it was so much fun and between the class and the paper....i was inspired! and i've been adding to the "winter album" file for a few months. the only problem was the photos. lots of challenges to find the right weather, right lighting and happy children all at the same time. well it all finally came together and here it is!

go here to see the pages in detail.

as often is the case with me, i see things i'd have done differently. so i guess i'll have to put together another one! hopefully i'll find the right paper to start the inspiration to create. as if that is a problem!

so a couple of busy days for us here. took Aidan to gymnastics today and Kiara tagged along. i will have to put her in her own class in the spring. she loves it as well. and she tries to do lots of the stuff the "big kids" are doing. amazingly she accomplishes alot of the routines. he has the best coach this time. i liked the last coach, but this one is amazing with the kids.

Aidan has his valentine party tomorrow at playschool. he wrote his name on 21 valentine cards this week. he was so proud! probably not as proud as i am though. he wants Christmas to come back....so that there can be lights on houses again. i'm sure it has nothing to do with the presents... i think Valentines and Easter might help him get over missing Christmas. chocolate treats seem to be top of the fun list right now.

grandma sent both kids a valentine with a tim horton money card. Aidan was happy to order and pay for his own timbits yesterday. so Kiara gets to buy next time. it's so cute to see those little chests puff out when they get to do something and have nearly full control.

now if the blue bullet slide at wem would be open again...Aidan's little life would be complete!

i just remembered a cute story. Aidan loves stickers. he had some out yesterday. and then he was asking me where Jesus went, because he had a sticker for him. okay. had he seen Jesus recently? what was Jesus doing? what did he look like? well....the Jesus he was talking about was a figurine from the nativity scene. and it wasn't the baby. it was the dad. who actually looks more like the pictures most kids know to be Jesus. now isn't that interesting and cute at the same time?! it is moments like that when i am in awe of this stage of life.

and thanks to everyone who likes this blog. so glad. keep coming back and bring your friends!