the news i've been waiting all day for!!

ANOTHER HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO SARA AND CAMERON

ON THE BIRTH OF THEIR NEW BUNDLE OF BOY!!!

WELCOME DEXTER THOMAS!

born dec 29th, 8:10pm

6lbs, 9oz

arrived 3 weeks early

YAY! THIS NEWS HAS MADE MY NEW YEAR'S EVE SO MUCH BETTER!

can't wait to meet little dex and i will take some newborn pics to show off!

OH MY! :(

i can't believe what my kids just did. i think i'm still in shock. hallie brought her chocolate milk from supper down to the basement after she was done eating, which she isn't allowed to do. her and kai were playing down there and hallie came up, mentioning something about pouring her milk all over the toys. then she said she was kidding, ha ha. then a few minutes later kai came upstairs with a similar story. this time i went to check.

OH MY GOD! they poured hallie's chocolate milk ALL over the basement... every single toy we own (ok not all but MOST), the carpet, the couch, the stuffed animals, dolls, EVERYTHING! :( they haven't done anything like this before. i am SO SO SO mad. i sent them to their rooms (something that doesn't happen often around here) while i cooled off and so i could attempt cleaning it.

what a mess. i am still so angry about it and it was at least 45 min ago.

for punishment, i put away ALL of the toys that were covered in milk. all into garbage bags (3 bags full) except for emmy's - her toys don't need to go away since she is innocent LOL. i told the kids they can't play with them because they have disrespected them. i also cancelled our new year's eve "party" (just our own familiy anyway since the other family is sick) and they are so so sad. they appologized. hallie said it was kai mostly which i believe. i dont' know if i should give in and still have our special evening tonight or not. i don't feel like it anymore and they don't deserve it. ugh....

i needed to vent.

on top of the day i am having, this was just the icing on the cake....

i'm still wondering what happened with sara..... i want some baby news!!!

some words now...

to go along with the pics... we had a great christmas! christmas eve was spent with my parents at our house, opening all gifts except santa gifts. we were all spoiled rotten! christmas day we spent at home together, opening the new toys and getting a bit organized for our guests arriving later in the day. it was supposed to be kipp's parents, his sister and her 2 kids, but they were sick so just his parents came. it was nice to see them again, and we also got some boxing day shopping done! i ventured to the children's place, we all went to future shop (i am posting this from my new, much faster computer! yay!!), i made it to a furniture place that i don't remember the name of, but i bought us some new couches for the new house!

yesterday i ventured to IKEA and bought a ton of furniture and stuff for the new house -- it made sense to buy it all at once for delivery purposes. they charge $49 for delivery but then $1 per piece over 8 pieces, so it made sense to get it all at the same time. we got ourselves a new bedroom set (we have had our bed for a few years, but it was second hand when we got it and has some issues LOL!) and we never did have a dresser or proper night stands or anything. we got a new kitchen table and chairs because our current one is tiny and won't fit our family! and what else.... oh, a new TV stand (which i didn't think we needed, but kipp insisted... ugh!!) and some odds and ends for decor... redid the kids' bedrooms (which wasn't needed but this was MY thing to get that wasn't needed i guess LOL -- well i guess we needed a few things since we are going from 2 kids rooms to 3 rooms...)

soooooooooooooo.... more news.... we are going to disneyland!!!!!!!!!!!!! my parents have tons of airmiles (they really know how to rack them up, considering we all used up their balance 3 yrs ago to go to disneyland!) so i've managed to convince them to take us to disneyland! it's going to be our family plus my parents. my sister and her fiance were going to come, but my sister is there right now anyway so she doesn't need to go again so soon and her fiance wasn't interested. so i can't wait!! i've been totally pumping the kids up... we have been watching movie clips of the rides on youtube.com and i've ordered a picture book of the park on ebay for them... we have a vacation planning video made by disney that they ask to watch every day. it's going to be awesome, i can't wait to see their excitement! (not to mention, i am a huge ride fanatic and i love love love disneyland!) offer me a vacation anywhere in the world, or disneyland, and i'll choose disney any day!! THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!!! we still have to scrounge (sp?) up some cash for food, taxes on the flights, park passes, SHOPPING!!!, etc. so wish us luck with that one ;)

ok off to bed, it's 12:30am and if you haven't noticed, i start rambling when it gets late!

hope you all had a great christmas and are doing well! leave me a note so i know you were here!

and sara - any baby yet?!???

pics pics pics

hallie at her playschool christmas concert!

hallie performing... (and that is miss. ella - steve staios' daughter beside her... hehe)



hallie decorating a gingerbread house at kai's christmas concert day at school... because kai wasn't interested...
kai is wearing emmy's sleephugger bag, that used to be his a couple of yrs ago ;)
hallie gathers her siblings up and says, "mom, quick, take a picture!" so cute!

emerson holding my cell phone, like a pro!

kai performing at his christmas concert at playschool!
emerson, cooking us some supper!

kai playing with LEGO, a favorite of his new toys

christmas pics part 2

i took a pic of myself... ha!

the kids enjoying emmy's new toy... they all seem to like it!
emerson with her piggy bank...

emerson on christmas morning, checking out some santa gifts!

a funny pic of em in her crib...


emerson casually sitting on some gifts...

christmas pictures!

it's been a while, but here are some pictures from christmas!

kai playing his new harmonica from santa

hallie with her harmonica
kipp looking surprised?!
kai's face seeing the gifts santa left him on christmas morning!
kai checking out his santa gifts...
the kids, peeking at the plate of cookies and apple juice they left for santa... only crumbs left!

emerson loves her new toy from grandma and grandpa!

grandpa and emmy on christmas eve
hallie's present from santa -- the barbie she has been asking for since the movie came out...


kai with his new clothes from grandma and grandpa... he actually held them up to himself and was all excited about them... who would've thought?!

hallie's beautiful new dollhouse from grandma and grandpa! it's so cute, she loves it!!
hallie setting the furniture up in her dollhouse... i should mention this is also emerson's dollhouse too... they have to share ;)



emerson tearing apart some wrapping paper! she was thrilled with all of the mess to play in!

grandma and kai, with his new truck




emerson on grandma's walker, each kid has always loved riding up there!

kai opening his new toy story RC car!
hallie with grandpa in the background

merry christmas!!

merry christmas everyone!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

i am pleased to announce that dear friends stevie & ryan welcomed their baby girl, Ryleigh Noelle, on december 21st! 7lbs, 7oz (same as my kai was!) this is baby girl #3 for them and i can't wait to meet her!!! she looks so gorgeous in the pictures! i'm suddenly having a bit of baby itch ;)

we're alive!

sorry i have kept you all in suspense re: emerson! she is alive and well -- doing much better than earlier this week!

we were at the ER the last time i posted, then we saw her ped the next day. she's just finishing her meds up today and she's much better. still coughing up a lung at times, but otherwise she is good to go! thanks for all of the notes from you all :)

so we have had a busy week! thursday morning was kai's christmas concert and party at playschool. i have some pictures and video that i'll post asap... might not be until after christmas though... and friday afternoon was hallie's concert and party. they both had a lot of fun! thursday evening we had auntie kara for a MESSY supper and visiting (and lots of silliness!)after! friday evening we had auntie lindsey visiting after supper and she stayed to help me wrap presents and we watched a chick flick, and pigged out! (or at least i did!! oops!) it was so nice to see them both again, we don't get to see each other often enough! the kids LOVED having someone other than mom read them their bedtime stories too!

today, saturday, i spent the ENTIRE day out -- i took the girls and we were at future shop, and IKEA. took us all day.... yikes! tonight after the kids were in bed, i made a run to the west end and i managed to drop off some christmas cards and i got groceries at the GRANGE safeway, to take advantage of their air miles deal!! woo hoo! 400 air miles when you spend $150. i was only $25 away from 600 air miles but i wasn't sure what else to buy!??

it was a day full of spending money which makes me cringe, but it was a lot of fun too ;) -- says me, the shop-a-holic!! LOL

oooooooooo my www.bookcloseouts.com order arrived today, YAY!! i have one more order coming hopefully soon. we also received another ebay package but i didn't get the 1 package i NEEDED by christmas, so i'll have to mail grandma's gift after christmas. i hope she doesn't mind.

ok i should get some sleep... it's 1:18am and i don't think i'm getting my thoughts out properly.... i need to upload some pics but i can't tonight... soon though!

emerson update...

emmy's breathing got a lot faster as the day went on, so i tried calling her ped but he wasn't answering his cell. so i called health link to find out the # of resps/min that is normal and they said to bring her in right away.... ugh!

so off to the ER we went around 6pm. we are home now, it's 9:45pm. it was a relatively short ER trip including an ER visit from santa and elves, and a puppy mascot??? and a beautiful harpist (sp?)

they believe she has the dreaded RSV (of course she got it, she gets EVERYTHING!) and sent her home on steroids by g-tube and we are to go back if she gets worse. they weren't sure on admitting her or not -- it was like they asked ME my thoughts??? "how worried are you? do you think she should stay?" um NO, i don't want her in the hospital for christmas!
so i just hope she pulls through the next few days. we go back to have her checked tomorrow afternoon.................

her resps were at 70/min and her O2 90% so not too bad.... they did 3 chest x-rays (she loves those... NOT) and they came back fine. i'll update tomorrow................ please get better before christmas emerson!!!

sick :(

my baby is sick, again.... or still? she had the bronchiolitis, had antibiotics for a week and 3 days of liquid oral steroids.... then seemed not better but not worse. i waited a week or so and then took her back to the doctor. she was then given 2 additional weeks of antibiotics... which i got filled the next day and then i forgot about them because she seemed back to herself, no wheeze, nothing... just relatively healthy. i didn't want to give the meds if she was ok. i had her seen by our family doc when i was there for my own appt and her chest was clear, doctor said to not give the antibiotics beacuse she seemed better. good, i knew it! i threw the meds out.

oops... she is sick again, 1 week later. this time worse than before. horrible wheezing and her ventalin is doing nothing. i just called the doctor and he said she needs to be seen.... ugh! soooooo i'll update tomorrow... hopefully with better news! sheesh emerson!!!!

shopping!!!

i've actually had time to do some shopping this week! thursday morning, while kai was at playschool, i took the 3 girls and we shopped! i got quite a bit accomplished, including a few stocking stuffers when hallie wasn't looking! then last night i went shopping (it was a girls night out, combined with shopping!! what could be better?! LOL) i got more accomplished, but still not all. and best of all, we sat around after the stores closed eating and chatting for a couple hours. FUN! and............. i quit my job........ long story....

more shopping to be done today -- must stop typing, emerson keeps pressing the keys........

museum again!

we've managed to make it to the museum weekly (we might have missed one week? can't remember) since we have bought our pass! the kids love going, and it's a fun day for everyone. emerson even gets out of the stroller and cruises around now which she is thrilled about! this week we went with Juanita and her kiddos, who also love going :)

this room houses buildings all made from LEGO! very impressive!
emerson was right in there with the big kids!

hallie is so great with emmy, showing her around... makes my heart melt!

cutie

just some random cute pics of emerson.... drinking from her big girl cup, then throwing it... then crawling away...

skating!

i bought the kids skates last week, finally! they have been so excited to go skating, so this weekend kipp and his brother (who is visiting from vancouver) took them skating on the lake a couple of blocks over. emerson and i joined them an hour or so into it, but without skates ;) being on that ice though, i sure got the ringette itch! i *might* put hallie in ringette next year, and i *might* coach ;) we'll see....

the beautiful view of the lake and people enjoying it this afternoon! there are 2 areas that people clear to skate on, and they also flood it (i thought that was weird?? flood a lake?? ok!) to make it smooth. there is also a little path around it that is shoveled, and a few paths to get down there without going through the deep snow... and even some chairs placed around it to put skates on and off! it's a great setup, and all just done by people who wanted to do it!

kai did quite well, considering it was his first time. although he did spend a fair amount of time on his bum!
hey wow, another pic of me. kipp had the camera for a little bit!
hallie tried pulling emerson...
hallie was great! i'm so proud of her! she had fun and did quite well too!

so cute! and cold!

i love rosy cheeks!
the ice was neat looking... dark... not like the ice i'm used to skating on!


the kids were enjoying being pulled in the sled by their daddy or uncle derek!

kipp...
uncle derek pulling emerson! she had fun!

kai had his tongue out a lot! LOL!

the kids LOVE uncle derek! we haven't seen him in so long, i told him the next visit HAS to be sooner!! hopefully next time we can see cousin paige too!

they are a funny bunch....