rainy day!

today was a rainy day.... we don't really like rainy days but we made the best of it! the kids did some finger painting which nearly gave their dad a heart attack! (we do this kind of thing when he's at work usually LOL!) and then we dug out a train set that had been put away for quite a few months. it's like having a new toy! this was one of my best garage sale purchases a couple of years back. it was $3 for the whole track & train that makes noise and drives around, forward and backward! AND the batteries last forever! we replaced them today after using the same batteries for over 2 years, with the kids leaving the trian on for literally hours on end sometimes!

it's supposed to be a rainy week.... we'll have to think of more creative ideas!

emerson's doctor visit

emmy had a checkup this week and kipp & i took her. would you believe it, it was kipp's first time ever at a doctor appointment of ANY kid, and first time meeting their pediatrician. i think everyone must assume i'm single! LOL! anyway, it was a "routine" visit (she goes monthly) and the doctor was worried about her one lung... she was breathing a bit fast, a slight wheeze, and he heard something. he sent her for x-rays... (i think she aspirated while we were camping but i also thought she might just have the cold we all had)

the x-ray people were not on the ball... they had to do the torurous chest x-rays twice. not fun for my baby who already can't breathe, and crying for extended periods (ok anything more than a few seconds) makes her turn purple! :( but good news, the x-rays looked fine. yay. her ped is gone for 2 weeks so he wanted to be sure. i love that he is so thorough!

then i asked about her eye... it has always been watery and gunky since she was born. sometimes both eyes but usually just the right eye... and this past little while it has been super gunky. we've been through pink eye a few times before and this wasn't the same, so i had been ignoring it. but then, a few times she woke up from naps and her eye was stuck shut LOL (See pic below!) so the doctor said it's viral, but gave us something for it because it has gone on so long. i just think this pic is funny! then he silver nitrated her g-tube site and she's good to go for another week! she gets the silver nitrate weekly lately............ her site has been gross :(

eye is stuck shut right after her nap. i went to get a warm cloth to help it open, and in the meantime kai tells me, "mommy, emmy's eye is open now!" so when i get back into the room, kai has peeled it open himself... what a kid.... ?!?!!???

sister bonding

last night i went to taste of edmonton with my sister. we don't hang out much, don't see each other much, we've never been overly close... but we had a fun evening together! maybe now that we're "growing up" we will have less fights, more fun together. we walked around and ate some yummy food, then we had a helluva time trying to get my van out of the parking lot. someone parked stupidly and we had called to get them towed out of our way, when a nice man ended up helping drive my van out for me. i tried, but couldn't do it! i feel kinda lame! afterwards we went to see a nice chick flick "just my luck" and it was cute. i was too full to enjoy any popcorn though :( we took a bunch of pics with mel's camera cell phone while we were downtown. they were all GOOFY and i can't post them here, however i'll leave you with this one shot ;)

SISTERS

not sure if i mentioned...

i can't remember if i mentioned, but a week ago they dug our hole for our house! woo hoo! it's finally REAL! it's happening! 5 months construction which brings us to posession on dec 19th. lovely time to move.... ah well! we've been busy choosing stuff for the house... appliances, flooring, next is cupboards, paint color(s), counters.... so much fun!

today we went to the beach. it wasn't looking too nice but we went anyway and the kids didn't care that it was cold! they still swam! but then we eventually got rained out. the kids & i went over to juanita's to play for a bit and then home to relax. my babysitting gig was cancelled tonight, so i took the opportunity to get some errends done. cinnamon baby was having a customer appriciation sale so i stopped by to say hi to miss amanda :) i'm so proud of her... it is the store's 1 year anniversary and i remember this time last year when it was opening and how exciting it all was. they're doing awesome!

the big group of us moms... minus me (taking the pic) and kelly and her kids were sitting off to the side

hallie & kaelyn splashing in the water!
hallie was quite upset because a bug had landed on her arm. you would've thought she had BROKE her arm, but nope, just a little bug and a lot of tears!
"...and the sky is grey..."

oh, to be a kid and lay around in the sand on your tummy.... !

dayhome news....

the 2 people from today who i wanted have replied and it all sounds good to go! i'm excited! i'll be having 1 little one full time, and 2 after school kids who get bussed. and possibly keeping my one girl i have now who comes 1 day/week, except down to 1 day/month or so because she's starting a new program. i think this will all work well. i've learned through trial and error what to look for in both the kids i take in AND almost more importantly, the parents of the kids.

BIG THANK YOU to those who came to the usborne book party last night! it was awesome! i had fun! too bad my house couldn't exactly fit all of us but next summer our new house will! ;)

tomorrow we're off to the beach! can't wait!

"heaps" of photos! (that one is for you tessa!)

my kool australian friend, tessa, always says "heaps" instead of "lots" of something... there are "heaps" of photos here! made me think of you tessa! let me know if you're reading, write a comment!

emerson was SO hot. i was dumping bottled water on the kids to keep them kool....

brandy watched emerson (while she slept) so that i could take the kids on this roller coaster. thanks b!
dominic & kai.... the boys!
douplicate pic... oops!
emmy's hair went a bit krazy with the sweat...
happy baby!
my girls.........
hallie & bella... they've grown up together!
hallie eating ice cream! her fav!
hallie's on the road, watch out!
hallie is sitting on the outside of this swing ride, didn't get a good pic. but she loved it!
hallie on the merry go round
kai, the backseat driver! dominic was the front seat driver!

capital EX!

in the business of last weekend, i forgot to post our capital ex pictures. i took the kids on friday, we took the LRT there & back which they loved! we met up with amanda, dominic, & izabella and ran into brandy & her family there, as well as jen & her family! amanda & kids didn't stay too long, but we were there for a good 3-4 hours! the kids had a blast on the rides so we just stayed until they got tired out!

i forgot how expensive the food & drinks are :( and each ride was running us about $5/kid because we didn't have wrist bands or anything.... there were some kiddie rides and the card swiper things for getting on weren't working, so they just kept letting the kids on becuase they couldn't read the cards. (they have changed from actual tickets to reloadable cards with ride tokens) that's the only way we were able to do so many rides and stay for long. i didn't want to spend more $$$!

here's emerson trying to bug her brother while he was passed out on the ride home!

kai on the merry go round
the kids loved this ride, it went super fast around the corners!
i almost sold this stroller last week, thank goodness i kept it beacuse we used it at the parade, capital ex, and camping! i can't let it go yet!
straw buh buh buh buh berry shortcake!

YAY!

good news! i had 4 dayhome interviews today (for kids to take in, not to send mine out LOL!) and 2 out of 4 went really well! i think things are going to work out just fine............ let's hope! i think i still have 1 interview tomorrow, and 1-2 next week as well. i love choice!

camping pics.... continued!

the in-laws' 5th wheel... it's huge, but i'm loving that it had AIR CONDITIONING because we chose the hottest possibly weekend for camping. the A/C was essential for emerson to sleep...

our tent... it was huge! there's a screened room at the front (which wasn't 100% closed to insects... maybe we set it up wrong?!?) and then the tent itself fit our queen size air mattress, playpen, and 2 kids blow up mattress beds AND had tons of extra room for our bags, toys, etc. it was perfect! our queen mattress had a leak, so the first night was very uncomfortable as the air slowly leaked out, half asleep kipp and i were squishing into each other, it was horrible. finally i nudged him and we just deflated it and slept on the hard ground! oh well....
taking down camp... funny thing is that emerson was having a super long morning nap so she was still sleeping in her playpen when i took this pic. i had to end up waking her so we could go!
kiddos! (on the tent... pretending it was a ride or something)
"fasten your seatbelts!"
the kids with their grandparents' biggest dog, rudy
a group shot of the kids with their grandparents and their 2 dogs. they also brought their cat and ferret camping!
mr. kai

camping pics... finally!

kai coming out of grandma & grandpa's trailer... the kids loved going in and out, in and out...

goofy hallie
kai thought this grab bar was made just for him to swing on all weekend
my girls
hallie bear
emerson in big sister's chair
emerson just waking up
this is cute, emmy talking to her giraffe
hmmm.... what's in there??
the kids made some camping friends

camping...

blogger isn't letting me upload pics now so i'll post the actual camping pics tomorrow i guess!

water!

there was a neat splash park in drumheller. of course we chose the 2 hottest days of the summer to go camping (ahh!!!!!!!!) so this splash park was awesome for cooling off!


look at the huge dinosaur! you could walk up the dinosaur and look out of it's mouth i guess... we didn't dare go in there in that HEAT?!! on the grass you can see our little beach tent set up... much needed in the sun... of course no shade to be found.
kai found a jet on the side of the wading pool, he thought it was pretty neat!
you can't really see, but there was water coming down on kai as he walked through this...
this fountain / wading pool was really neat! i'm surprised i somehow got a pic without kids because it was packed there?!? weird... i must've had some great timing...


the water was COLD -- emerson wasn't too sure... she also wasn't enjoying her bathing suit, it was SO tight, yet sized quite big. weird.