pantry fun!

has anyone seen my children??

oops

oops, those pics were actually from thursday below... after kai's playschool in the morning, thursday afternoon we went to the indoor playground at the rec center. the kids had a blast!

friday pics

kipp took the kids for a walk friday evening, to see the new house up close.... he also brought the camera apparently!

tired boy after a busy day!
i think hallie must have been hot, so she rolled up pants up?? LOL
my girls, playing at the indoor playground
they were having so much fun in the wagon.... while i ran around working up a sweat!
big sister was pushing her all over the place, and FAST! emmy loved it!
kai's favorite thing is this bike... but all of the boys love it so it causes some trouble!
wagon fun!

blabbing on and on....

our new backyard from the kitchen window-- read below...

i had a nice blog entry written up this morning but i got sidetracked (easy enough to happen with a house of kids -- i guess!) so the whole thing got erased. oh well.... i'll try to remember what i wrote but i only have 15 min here!

had our electrical walk through yesterday... have to change some of our light fixtures to pot lights, somehow they screwed up and we have to add a cupboard and of course PAY for the extra cupboard... oh, made some major changes to the structure of our house now that i have been inside and SEEN it. it's so tiny (i know that sounds bad but i just mean our great room is not so "great" LOL!) there's no room for furniture the way we have it now... looks so different on paper somehow. anyway, i changed up our den, thanks for recommendations from juanita (should've listened to her months ago when SHE thought of this!) and thank goodness the builder was ok with this since our house is already framed. really, what we changed should save him $$ so i think that's why he allowed it ;)

i went back to our lighting place last night and re-chose our foyer light. it was a much cheaper one and it will match better. woo hoo! (although the pot lights will balance it all out in the end)

met with the builder, also changed our backsplash in our kithchen to what his new house has. it's SO nice... he also has it for his flooring, and i WISH we could get it, wow it's nice, but unfortunately it's mega expensive so we'll stick with our previous choice ;)

sounds like our new possession date is all still fine... the builder knows our house is for sale, which is good. now, if it would just sELL! open house this weekend, wish us luck!

oh, and our backyard isn't nearly as big as i had thought. it's a good size, but looks much more normal sized now that i've been there.... it just looks bigger from upstairs, which is where i saw it last time. i think it's about 40 x 60 feet? sounds tiny compared to amanda's 100 x 60! haha!

ok gotta run, more pics later :)

wednesday mornings

i like wednesday mornings because we get to sit around in our PJs until we have to leave for ballet, which isn't unitl 10:45am. it's nice not having to rush to get somewhere! tuesdays i wake up and i don't stop moving until i sit down at ladies morning out! it's insane, but it's still worth going to! :)

we don't really have plans for tomorrow but i might just go get some errends run. i need to find snow pants for hallie but i refuse to pay store prices. my kids love to play in the snow, but for something that doesn't get used daily i can't pay full price of $40-60. i usually try to find some at value village, good will, or consignment. color does not matter, actually black and navy are fine because then kai can use them too!

we went to millwoods rec center indoor playground yesterday with some friends, it was fun! i'll post pics later...... i'm in lazy mode right now!

we picked our lighting for our house but i'm second guessing it all now. i went way over budget and the main foyer light goesn't "go" with the other lights.... and it was more money than our entire lighting budget so i went over budget by a LOT. hmmmm..... maybe i'll do that tomorrow, go and re-choose a different foyer light. blah.

my parents are on vacation again... must be nice! we haven't been anywhere in so long :(

oh, our house is for sale! it's on comfree.... they came to put the sign on our lawn yesterday and today i'll have to put up the directional signs. so far, it has not sold LOL. darn!

let it snow!

we got some snow last night/this morning, and the kids were dying to play in it! unfortunately, we don't have snow pants for hallie yet... (reminder -- get some this week!) so i let them play outside anyway, thinking they wouldn't get too wet. WRONG! they came in soaked and muddy :( oh well, looks like they had fun anyway!

kai doesn't like his winter jacket though.... he keeps saying it's too big, but i think it's just too puffy compared to his fall jacket..... hopefully he gets used to it!

some pictures...

emerson's spicy taco

emerson's krazy hair
little em
hallie's close up
em's close up
kai's close up
isn't she CUTE?
yep, she is!

spicy taco!

BEFORE YOU WATCH here is what this video is.... i was takaing pictures of emerson eating a cute little taco i made her, all mini-sized... and then i thought i'd take a video... and while i was taping it, i realized it was a spicy taco! oops! so emmy was NOT enjoying the taco as much as i thought she would.... it's funny now but i felt so bad!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC4sFZ7kaFg

big brother

presenting....

our new house! the first public pictures!

in this picture you can see the little push out on the bottom of the right side, which is our den... the 2 top front windows are just open to the upstairs and will give light on our stairs and to below. (it's an open entrance up to the 2nd floor) the window above the garage is the master bedroom. the window beside the front door is our stairs which go up to the right, then turn 90 degrees, then turn again 90 degrees to face left. (clear as mud?!) there is a window on the top, right side of our house... which is emerson's room.

in this picture the only extra window you can see is the one on the top, far left, which is one of our ensuite windows. the other kids' windows are at the back of the house.

thanksgiving!

we spent thanksgiving sunday with family.... first we had lunch at my parents' house, and my grandma and auntie sheila, her husband and janine and her boyfriend, my sister and her fiance, kipp's parents, and my family were all there. it was a repeat of last thanksgiving, although last year emerson was just 2 days old... and i can remember going in to nurse her on my parents' bed, and her choking and me wondering what was going on with her... and why she couldn't drain much milk.... and then that night is when i took her into the ER. wow, seems like just yesterday....

anyway, sunday lunch, then visiting there, then back home and kipp's parents came over here for leftover turkey buns.... then we watched some tv including desperate housewives, woo hoo!

monday was our shopping day! another woo hoo! we had a good afternoon at the mall... had some lunch, got some shopping done for birthdays, christmas, etc. and kipp's mom bought me a nice hoodie for my birthday! she also bought emerson's bday gift, and the all of her grandkids' christmas gifts. (with some input from me LOL!)

we had a relaxing evening at home, visiting, and we rented a movie too. now it's almost midnight and i still have a TON of stuff to do before tomorrow, including cutting up 2 blocks of cheese for kids' morning out program and reading 2 more chapters in my book, due tomorrow. oops! better get on that.... so good night!

more pics from friday....

sara really wanted me to post the pic of her i took on friday, but blogger keeps freezing when i upload it! haha, kidding sara ;)

hallie and her friend madison!

the goofy girls!
mr. kai who is very difficult to get pictures of these days!
beautiful juanita and her cute kiddos!

happy birthday pictures!

friday was emerson's birthday and we went to play at the galaxyland play place with sara, juanita, and heather and their kids. (thanks guys!!) we played, then ate at mcdonalds, then headed off different directions - us to playschool! then friday night we were waiting around for kipp's parents to arrive for the long weekend, but they got held up in calgary and didn't make it in until quite late. they are camping, so they didn't come over friday but instead made it here saturday afternoon for a bit of a visit. then we all went out for dinner, along with my parents too! birthday girl emerson went all out and ate like a PIG! then, in true birthday girl style, she barfed in the parking lot afterwards! um.... oops! sometimes she doesn't know when to stop! LOL (she is fine, just ate too much and stayed up too late!)

emmy at galaxyland

emerson's first cake experience... she just mushed it and made a huge mess
"it's my birthday and i'll sleep if i want to!"
first thing on friday morning -- doesn't she already look a bit older? LOL!

help??

i posted this on LP too, but anyone with advice let me know!

first off, our new house possession date in our contract states dec 19th, but will not go later than jan 19th. our builder has said to plan for jan 30th -- which is what he told me to tell the appliance place. SO, knowing that, we were going to list our current house for sale this month, like in a week or 2. i know it's early BUT "they" say that oct/nov is the best time to sell in this half of the year, because december is busy with christmas and in january i'm guessing people feel broke? anyway, should we list our house this month as planned?? HELP!!!

now, next question -- how to price our home?? here is a link to our exact house in our exact neighborhood: http://www.mls.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?vd=&SearchURL=%3fMode%3d0%26Page%3d1%26vs%3d1%26rlt%3d%26cp%3d%26pt%3d0%26mp%3d0-0-0%26mrt%3d-1-0-0%26Beds%3d0-0%26Baths%3d0-0%26f%3d%26ft%3dall%26o%3dA%26of%3d1%26ps%3d10%26ptgid%3d1%26aid%3d7367%252c4604%252c4606%26MapURL%3d&Mode=0&PropertyID=5109907 except our house does NOT have a garage. our house has a few upgrades that this listed house does not have:

-hardwood worth about $3000
-ensuite worth about $4000
-faces a greenspace/park and not another house worth ?

THIS house in the link was on comfree at $365K, then reduced to $355K, and now it's at $349K on mls. weird. anyway, we were hoping to sell for about $340 but that might be a bit high. i see another similar home with no garage, no upgrades, in rutherford on comfree for $344. anyone who wants to share some insight/advice, please do! i'm sort of stuck on what to do....

ALSO -- everyone says to do a huge declutter and pack away some things when you list your house for sale. we're going to do this, even though we don't have a ton of "stuff" -- but my question is, to what extent should it be tidy? meaning, do i take out everything from under our bed? (photo frames, some books, etc. can't really be seen unless you bend down to look) and how clean should the insides of closets and cupboards be? also, our basement is our storage, should we actually take some things and store them elsewhere -- at my parents perhaps? or just leave our storage as-is? thanks!!

OOPS try this one isntead!!!

WATCH THIS LINK INSTEAD -- THE PHOTOBUCKET LINK only lets 5 min of video upload and my movie for emerson was just over 6 mins, so some people missed the ending.... which isn't a big deal but i worked so hard on fading it all in/out at the right time LOL!! and it has her recent pics which you bloggers have all seen, but other people may not have ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFJXqBHw3Mg

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

here's emmy's bday slide show: http://s88.photobucket.com/albums/k171/party-of-five-/?action=view&current=emersonbday.flv

i'll warn you in advance, it's a bit long (about the length of 1 and a half songs)

the beautiful lake!

i used to often take the kids to the lake to throw rocks, without even thinking, and the last time we went to do this (early this summer) there was a big NEW sign posted... LOL oops! so, we no longer throw rocks!

this lake is so beautiful! our new house is 4-5 houses down from the lake, and very close to the nice paths in front of the lake!

fall pics from today continued...