bragging rights

Enoch: Is my dad bigger than your dad?

Friend: Hmmm. My dad has spiky hair. Everyday, all day.

At this point Enoch concedes and grants biggest dad to his friend.

piano

Levi has started piano lessons. Initially he was really opposed to the idea, even after the incentive that he could learn to play drums after he learns to play the piano. After talking with him, though, I found out that he was worried that he wouldn't get the songs right. Since he has discovered that he doesn't need to play them perfect, only his best and that is what lessons are for (learning), he has had a much more positive attitude.

The pressure he puts on himself worries me sometimes. Like a few weeks ago he was asked to say the 11th Article of Faith in primary. He did NOT want to do it, not until he found out that he didn't have to have it memorized and that he could get help reading the words. Is this me doing this to him or is it something he does to himself???

I am grateful that he is always willing to talk and am relieved the solutions are simple enough. I hope it stays that way and that he always likes talking to his momma.

to post or not to post

For nearly 13 weeks I have thought I was pregnant. For about 10 weeks I have known that I was.

During those weeks I made posts about how awful I felt and kept track of what I was thinking. I thought that I would post it when the time came.

But now that the time has come, looking back through my eyes and my typing, I am a real whiner! Who wants to read that??




So lets forego the TMI posts, and just be happy with the news that we are expecting a baby to make our 5-family a 6-family early June 2011.

happy thanksgiving!

As a belated salute to this thankful time of year, I want to say how thankful I am for my family.

For kids who are so cute they can get away with almost anything.

For a husband who helps clean around the house.

For in-laws who are thoughtful and caring.

AND for a dad who is going to watch my kids for 3 days so I can go to Kalispell for black Friday with my mom and some of my sisters!!!!!!!!!!!!

sweet childs o' mine

Enoch has many spiderman/random superhero figurines. He loves these guys and plays solo quite a bit with them. For his birthday he even got a foot and a half spiderman "doll." He loves that thing and will put it to bed and loves to sleep with it. He has an old spiderman figure with webs in his armpits that Enoch is really taking to lately. He calls it "my son." It is so funny! "Mom, have you seen my son?" or "I want to play with my son, now." It cracks me up.

Levi has the idea in his head that we are going to be making a clubhouse this winter. He drew me pictures of what he wants it to look like, complete with color choices for walls and roof. What is really interesting is that his drawings include every angle of the house, front, back, left-side and right-side. I was pretty impressed.

Monet is starting to be a holy terror at church. We arrive just before 1pm and she is crazy. The boys are happy to color or read, while she just throws things out of my purse and speaks as loudly as possible saying the one word she loves most; "NO!" So then I take her to a classroom, let her cry on the floor for a few minutes, then pick her up, squeeze her tight for 10 seconds, following which she zonks out if I am lucky. Sometimes this process takes a few tantrums to get the desired outcome. Today at church, with her cute blonde hair complete with outfit matching bows, all I could think of was, "The Devil Wears Pig-Tails."

One more thing about this girl I don't want to forget is that she tells me to shhhhhh!!! anytime I try singing for her. It is so funny.

twenty-four

I love love love this new show.
Well, its not new, but it is to me.
Just finished season 2 and it was even better than season 1.
Sometimes I ride my bike while I watch so that it is a good use of time. Sometimes I pretend to fold laundry while I watch so that I can pretend it is a good use of my time.

Lately I have been wasting the evening watching 3 episodes in a row with my hands clenched and my heart racing.

photo update

First off we have a picture of the boys, together, on their first day of school. It is fun that they can share stories and exchange ideas on similar things, such as the coolness of the playground or the choice of books at the library.

Next we have Monet. This is her eating an onion. I literally had to pry it from her hands.

Pig tails!!!!! What a joyous day in my life. My mom called these things wop wollapins growing up.

These last two are the boys painting. We haven't done it again since, although I give full points for the image of gore they were going for.

you know you're in stirling when

everybody you meet already knows who you are.

your new neighbours greet you with cookies.

you start to connect the dots, and see that everyone is related somehow to everyone else.

people around you seem to own more quads than cars.

you run down the middle of the road rather than use a sidewalk.

you can smell a certain something awful in the air.

you can hear more horses and dogs than cars.

you can fly a kite in your backyard (every day of the year).

you discover the BIGGEST scoops of ice cream at the local store.

you are constantly embarrassed that you are driving everywhere.

fried green tomatoes??

No, thanks. But I made this the other day. It is a great way to use up green tomatoes.

all about me

With such cute kids to blog about, it seems I never talk much about what I am doing.

So, the question is, what am I doing?

Well, of course, my life revolves around kids and a husband. But aside from that I think I am finding a thing or two to do around here. Some mornings I go running. A few girls are training for a half marathon and I join them. I ditch out on the long runs, though. I ran 10km on Monday, and that was a first for me.

I bought an exercise bike and I love riding it at night and watching 24. I am almost done season 1. What a great way to involve entertainment with exercise.

Canning, canning, canning, I have done lots of canning. I wonder how I ever lived without it. Apple butter, saskatoon sauce (its really a chunky syrup, but its really good on pancakes), cherry preserves, cherries, crab apple jelly, choke cherry jelly (more of a syrup), chokecherry syrup (more of a jelly), apple juice, cherry juice, applesauce...... I tried pear butter but they were to grainy and that was a big failure. Not to mention a big mess. I still hope to make a couple different salsas. Canning is so seriously fun, I wonder why no one ever told me before.

As far as Stirling goes, we love our house and yard. It is fun. The people here are really nice and friendly, but I miss some things about student life. For instance, girls nights. Here, everyone has a husband at night (who isn't studying) and so it wouldn't make sense to all get together then. I saw some pics on facebook of a girls night in Saskatoon and I loooonnnggged for it. I miss gaming with my girls, and talking till the wee hours in the morning. I also miss the hundred or so parks. We have 2 here and that is it. But don't ever let that defer you from coming out to visit. We can find something to do. Cow tipping maybe???

We ended up changing wards and I was called again into YWs. Now I am with the Mia Maids. It has been pretty fun and they are a great group of girls. I am in charge of YW in excellence in November. I have some plans outlined, we will see how things turn out.....

So that is all about me. Nothing spectacular but more than enough to fill the days.

flashback

A few weeks ago we had some nice, windy, S Alberta weather. So what better thing to do than fly a kite? Please note the brave batman flying with the dollar store kite. I think that is why Enoch is so mad - because Batman kept falling off.

am i that bad?

"Mom, sometimes I eat boogers."

This was said in a matter-of -fact tone, at the supper table, coming from the kid that NEVER eats his food cause he never thinks it tastes good.

Am I really that bad of a cook??????

karma

Serves me right for relishing the thought of being able to see my HT/VT from my front window. Today they switched up the wards. Now we are in Stirling 1st ward. The boundary goes right down the street. So now my friendly neighbours across the street are all in the other ward. No callings for us again.

splashie jr

In high school I joined the swim team. I was no good, but I had two friends on it so it was fun. My nickname was Splashie, cause no matter how hard I tried, I was a slow moving splash.

Miss mini-me has earned her rights to that name tonight. I turned on the bathtub water just after coming in from a dinner at the school. I wanted the boys to have a quick bath before bed. I was on the phone and a little distracted, and came back into the bathroom to find this:




That's not how a bath is meant to be, but she sure looks like she is having fun.

new calling

Josh and I got new callings today. We are pretty excited. The ward here is starting to feel familiar as the faces start to be replaced with names and such.

Josh is the High Priest group secretary. We sort of laugh a bit at that. I didn't even know they had one of those.... then again there are 36 HP in the ward, so that is quite a few people to keep track of.

I am 2nd councilor in YWs. It'll be really fun. There are 30 YW or so, so maybe my job will be easier than Josh's. Next week our ward is having a joint meeting with 2 other wards in the area, so maybe my calling will be gone before I know it????

PS. I can see my home teacher's house from my front window. And my visiting teacher's if I look the other way. HA!

back and gone again

After spending a fun week in Montana, the kids and I headed to Calgary to spend some time - seeing as we haven't really been there at all since Christmas. Monday we went to Calaway Park, something they have never done before. It was most definitely a big hit. Tuesday we went to the zoo. That was fun, too, but we stayed too long and should have left before few kids no longer had legs to stand on. And leaving the zoo at 5pm to take Deerfoot south???? What on earth was I thinking? Tuesday night was a cousin's birthday party. Yesterday I got to leave the kids ALL DAY and go hiking in Kananaskis. It was so fun to go and do a real hike and enjoy the outdoors and lack of diapers.

Today? I am recuperating. Hopefully I can learn to make crabapple jelly tonight.

things to remember lest I forget

Living in an empty house really helped us to move and not look back remorsefully. Of course I miss the people in Saskatoon and our ward, but having nothing to do all day every day sure helped ease the ripping up of the root action while we transplanted to a new home.
Uncle Kyle did manage to save the day by bringing by old school toys of his that his mom had saved. Levi and Enoch enjoyed setting up GI Joes and taking pictures. I have a million on my camera.


I thought I got a picture of our meal area, but now that I looked for it I couldn't find it. We had two coolers next to an old end table for the boys, Monet in a borrowed high chair, and Josh and I stood to eat. every. meal. for. 2. weeks. Well, almost - we had nice friend invites for lunch or dinner sometimes. If they only knew the novelty we enjoyed of sitting down to eat......

We had fun at the Magrath parade. I cant believe the small town candy you get at these things!




Going to Writing On Stone provincial park was lots of fun. It was nice to go out with girls from my new ward and get to know them a but better- well, as good as you can with 28 kids running around. My favorite is that Enoch insisted on wearing his gumboots. Nothing could convince him otherwise.

stonelings are back

We just spent a fun week in Montana. My parents rented a cabin on Flathead lake, and we got to spend the week swimming, shopping, playing, snorkeling, sea-dooing, and everything but sleeping. (Note to self - a king size bed can never be replaced by anything smaller and still grant the same amount of sleep).

Enoch celebrated his 4th birthday while we were there. In the morning he informed me that now that he was four, he would no longer whine. He kept it up for a few hours at least - but since turning four he has decided that he actually does know how to do up his own seat belt. We could never ever get him to do that before, although we had our suspicions.

Meanwhile at home we have discovered that we have some chokecherry trees that are nice and ripe. Oh, and so are the crabapples and the sour cherries. I am headed to Calgary tomorrow but plan to bring a lot of fruit, so unless you want to pit cherries, you might want to avoid me if you live there.

still alive

It has been awhile since my last post. Probably a record for me. Nothing like a move to keep one away from the computer. (Also, because we didn't have the internet for 2 weeks after we moved, rural internet is surprisingly pricey, I now see why so many get dial up).
Here is a recap of that has been going on.

Obviously, we are no longer the Saskastones. We are now is Stirling. I don't have anything quite as cute to call us. Any ideas?

We have removed the trees in front of the house under the window. You can now even see a door! I have also spent HOURS weeding a little flower garden in the backyard. Apparently grass is really really persistent. I have made 2 kinds of saskatoon jam (one is good and one not so good), homemade cherry pie from my own cherries, saskatoon muffins with fresh ground wheat and have plans for making some cherry preserves tonight. We are lucky to have so much fruit, but for some reason the people who planted all these trees planted no raspberries. Hopefully I will have some of those in the future.

The kids and I went to windermere for half a week. There were 9 kids and 3 moms. Not the numbers for a very relaxing vacation, but it was so fun to hang with such amazing friends and see our own kids learn to make friends with eachother.

We have been swimming at the Stirling pool a few times. It is almost like having a pool in the back yard. Not quite- but almost. We are really enjoying it. We went to a Southern Alberta parade and got lots of candy. We went to Writing on Stone provincial park.

Lots of family has come for visits. That is probably the best of everything. It is so nice to actually see people. Aside from my in-laws, no one made regular visits out to Saskabush. I guess trips here are more fun- especially when you can find dead, petrified fowl in the barn!

I competed in my first triathlon in Raymond. It was supremely awesome. I definitely plan on doing more of those in the future.

I think that is about it. We have spend hours and hours and hours in our yard. It is big and overgrown and hopefully overtime we can tame it a bit. Josh loves his new mower more than I would have ever guessed.

Check out these before and afters.

home sweet home

As promised, here are some highlights in no particular order.

A look a some of the trees/bushes at the front of our yard. These are all sour cherry and Saskatoon. (sniffle)

Our house from the front. Nothing fancy, and needs a lot of taming.

YES!!!! A master ensuite where I can pee at night without waking up the Monet. (pronounced Monette)

Pantry off the kitchen. Need I say more?

Kitchen.

Chicken coops. There are more not pictured, that need to come down seeing as they are S.C.A.R.Y.

new house

I couldn't post about our new house before- partly because we had never seen it, and partly because it seemed like it wasn't real. This last weekend we were able to go and see our house. It lived up to our expectations, and more! The inside was as nice or nicer than what we had expected, and the outside was as wild or wilder than we had thought. After just a few short days, though, it was already beginning to feel like home. We were really welcomed into the new town. I guess it helped that my Dad's generous cousins live there.... between them, their kids, and grandkids, we were brought rice krispie treats, dinner, and had our lawn mowed - including our garden area that was so overgrown with weeds you would have never known it was a garden. Friends from Saskatoon were there, too, to greet us and even take the boys off of our hands for a day. Thanks to everyone who helped with the move from this end to the other end.

Our house here sold last night! We are so happy about that. Now we have some moola so that we can buy the riding mower and rototiller and trailer that we are gonna need to keep this new place lookin' good,

I took a few pictures but of course left the cord at the new place. So, here are a few pictures that my parents have sent previously. Nevermind, I can't get into hotmail. You will have to wait to see the new place.

specific enoch

Previously I have posted about Levi being so literal it is hardly rational. ie. You can't call a piano bench at the table a chair, cause its a bench, etc. etc. etc.

As Enoch is growing up we are learning more and more about him. He is specific.

When he is building something with Lego, whatever it may be, he wants it to be just so. Often he can't get the Lego to do what he wants, and he demands that we do it for him. Unfortunately for all involved, we can't see what is in his head, so this has proved to be most difficult. The same thing with pictures. Enoch is learning and loving to draw. But he gets SO mad when it doesn't look exactly like he wants it to. My dear, dear Boy, you are only three!!!! What does he expect?

Clothes are no exception. He always has a shirt and pants picked out already, so don't even bother trying to get him to wear something else. He knows what he likes and he'll find a way to wear it. Then we get to his bedding.... He sleeps with one blanket ONLY, and even if you try to sneak another one on in the middle of the night, he somehow knows and will remove it. Once I tried to give him a different pillow, and I later found it outside his bedroom door in the hallway.

We see this mostly with food. Not only does Enoch love a PBJ sandwich, but he loves it a certain way. Cut in half. But not into triangles. Rectangular halves. And don't even think about ripping it into two at the table. He will call you on it. He wants it cut in half with a knife. And while we are at it, make sure its an orange plate, too!

Watching Enoch get bigger and smarter and taller is sure lots of fun. I love getting to know my specifically special boy.

my sister the hero

My baby (and only little) sister came out this weekend. When she first decided to come out, I thought of going to the river for walks, pinics, a trip to the zoo, and other lovely Saskatoon things to do in the summer. Unfortunately for her, we then realized that listing out house needs to be a top priority.

So instead, we weeded the yard, cleaned up around the fire pit, raked, shampooed carpets, mopped, swept, organized, cleaned, packed.....

She was so helpful I really can't imagine what I would have done this weekend without her.

Thanks Lella and Kuma for coming to visit. I promise your next visit will be more fun and less work.

new pictures

Just a couple of pics. I sure love love LOVE the last one.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4 years anthropology
1 house, bought and sold
2 years chemistry
2 years education
too many "journal" entries
1 trip to Israel
100s seminary lessons
3 kids
4 seasons of Smallville
1 backyard with lots of trees



Getting a job when all is said and done....... priceless.

soccer mom

Well, I have made it in life! Last night I coached Levi's soccer team. I am now officially one of those moms driving around in a mini-van with soccer balls in the back. Coaching was super fun! They are aged 4 to 6, so you can imagine the chaos that ensued anytime I organized a drill. I think they had fun, though.

The best of all, though, was when I had to send a dancing Levi on the field to see his Daddy to take him potty. Josh turned his head from Enoch for a second, and apparently (I didn't see it, but all the other parents did) Enoch decided not to bother trying to go in the school, too, but to water the grass right there in plain view of everybody.

Oops.

new look

Enoch's got a new look:



They aren't the greatest pictures, but you get the idea.

foot in mouth

Do you ever get caught with your foot in your mouth? That sort of happened to me this weekend. As I already mentioned, the boys were sick last week. Friday night Josh succumbed to the illness, too. I thought, HA! Serves him right for all that garbage he likes to eat.

Apparently I must eat a lot of garbage, too, cause I was sick with the exact same thing Saturday morning. Turns out the only one in the family who eats right is Monet.

On another note, our house recently doubled in size! Our renters moved out, and while we didn't mind them one bit, nor the rent they paid, it was really time to get more space. We have spent the entire day moving and organizing and unpacking and giving away and cleaning..... the house is a bit of a disaster but at least upstairs is starting to look reasonable.

sick

Things have slowed down at our house for the last couple of days. Enoch had a fever yesterday. It wasn't too bad. It was mostly pretty mild and he was happy sleeping all day.
But then in the middle of the night Levi decided to pop in our room and announce that he had to puke. And he did. Right then and there. And then he managed to drag it all over the place seeing as his blanket swept through it on his way to the toilet.

So gross. At least now he has a bucket.

play

The boys have a new game they have been doing lately, and I LOVE it!!

They are Frensten and Tensten. Two characters that do everything together from jump off of buildings (the table), to shoot guns at muddy water, to laughing and lego and everything in between. Just about the only thing that the infamous Frensten and Tensten don't do together is fight.

I hope this roadshow act stays around for a looooong while. They better, cause it took me almost a week to remember how to say their names right, as well as remember who's who.

bm

No, not that sort of b.m. mother....

I had a blonde moment yesterday. I was at work and could not find my glasses anywhere. My head, pockets, counterspace, coat...... nothing. So I had to go and ask another employee to borrow hers. She looked at me funny but gave them to me. Then when I tried to put them over my eyes, there were my glasses!

Duh.

What was most embarrassing was that my patient, who was sitting in the dental chair the whole time didn't even laugh. Not one little bit.

Other funnies:
Levi and Enoch are very excited to go to their primary pajama party this Saturday. Levi asked if all the teachers would be wearing pajamas, too. When I answered, yes they would, he stared at me in disbelief.

"You mean all my teachers are going to wear just their garments!?!?!" he replied.

ouch

Way back in the day I used to make music videos with my BFFs. It was really, REALLY fun. We did it once a year around Christmas/New Year's. I think only Laura still has the copies somewhere.
They are cool to us, but pretty sad.

My nieces just made a couple music videos, and they are really good. Puts me to shame. Technology does a lot, I guess. Along with good costumes and choreography.

Good job girls!

Watcha Say

Telephone

beware!!!!

...of bangs.

Today I had 2 teeth filled. We were a little rushed this morning because I decided to take the kids to the mall before lunch so they could run around a little bit. We came home, just in time for me to make a hurried lunch of quesadillas before I was off. I checked in the mirror while brushing my teeth after lunch to make sure all was what it should be.

Then while I was in the chair, the dentist (aka. my boss) sat me back so that he could freeze me. He wanted to know what was green on my head.

What???

A quick look in the mirror revealed a nice big gob on guacamole on my forehead. I didn't see it, cause the bangs were covering it up before.

Nice.

mutiny

I thought we were on the same team. I thought you had my back. I thought you would be different from the two older yo-yos you call brothers.

But no.

You have three words you can say. They are cheese (eeeez), clap (gap), and -

Daddy. Spoken clearly and perfectly.

prayers

My SIL recently posted her daughter's first bedtime prayer. She did a very very good job. It just reminded me of Enoch's first prayer in primary closing exercises last week.

(This is without any help.)

Heavenly Father
Thank-you for this day.
Bless the food.
Thank-you for me.
In the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen.

This is the same prayer he does for EVERY meal, and at bed time. I was hoping it might be different at church, but oh well.

Levi also got to give a talk about prophets. He came up with a lot of the ideas himself. I asked him if he wanted to tell the listeners to pray to know if President Monson is the prophet. (He was talking about GC coming up in a week). He looked at me and said, "That's crazy! Why would I do that? I already know he is the prophet!" Those are the words he said, and it sounded just like this, "Duh, Mom, like, what is your problem??!?" He is getting very old very fast.

enoch the brave

A few weeks ago I took Levi in to the dentist. He had had a dark spot on his tooth for a looooong time. Over a year ago it was fine, but it looked like it had finally turned into a cavity. We went in, and as soon as he was sitting in the dental chair he was crying. Great! Suffice it to say that he didn't let the dentist do anything. We are now waiting to see the specialist.

Next, Enoch had to see the dentist a week ago. He has not 1, not 2, but 3 cavities!!! (Yes, this is a hygienist who is writing this).
The dentist didn't even want to try just cause he remembered how poorly Levi did. So, good thing I have connections.... a friend on mat leave who is a dental therapist and has lots of practice with kids gave it a try. On Saturday Enoch did awesome and is now cavity free!!!

We are still waiting to get Levi's fixed. That poor kid is really gonna have to be drugged up.

today

I NEVER take pictures and upload then on the same day. Well, almost never. Since I did today, here you go:

big smiles

Levi got his report card recently; and just today I had a parent/teacher interview with his teacher.

I always thought I would care so much about how my kids did in school. Are they adding? Can they read well? How many questions can they answer correctly? Levi is doing fine in all these areas, but what REALLY pleases me is that his teacher described him with these characteristics: role-model, good example, well-mannered, confident, friend to anybody, respectful.... I was just beaming ear to ear as I drove away from his school. Way to go buddy!!!!!

birthday pictures

You will notice Monet is wearing the tutu she got for Christmas. This was Levi's idea all on his own. If you knew me in high school these pictures would be funny to you.

the big one

Happy Birthday to our Baby Girl!!

Monet right now:
starting to prefer walking
LOVES me
"sleeping" through the night (she still wakes up but we don't do anything)
97% height, 45% weight
loves to eat fruit, most veggies and pasta
does not like bread or pancakes (???, I know!)
will not drink cows milk
if you are reading a book on the floor she always goes and sits right on it
likes to play with blocks and empty out any cupboard she can reach
looks like me, from what I hear

Pictures to come soon.

family pictures

We had some pictures taken in Calgary over with the Stones when we were there for Christmas.