My first list

Since the last time this blog was updated was in January 2010, I call this list...

 "What I have been up to for the past four years"!!!

1. I have become a hockey mom (and a soccer mom and a basketball mom and a baseball mom).

Matthew (2013)

Caleb (2013)

Matthew (2013)

2. I have been to California twice!  (2011 and 2013)

Jenny, Suzanne, Me and Susie (2011)

3. I supported my mom during her battle with breast cancer.  (2012). She is now a cancer survivor!

Run for the Cure (2013)

4.  That reminds me, I started running.  Then I quit and I started again!  Ha, ha!  Alot can happen in four years.  Right now, I am taking a break from running (I haven't quit!) until it warms up a bit.

5. I started coordinating the K4J (Kids for Jesus) Program at my Church.  We started out with 20 kids and we now have over 100 coming out once a month.

6. I have purchased alot of Lego sets!!

7. I learned to embrace and appreciate my curly hair!  (No more straightening)

8. I went back to work full time in 2011 (I had been half time since the boys were born).

9. I recently won a teaching award!

10. Rick and I celebrated 15 years of marriage!

Oceanside, California (2013)

This post is part of a list-making project called Lists With Friends 2014, an effort to document the year in lists of all types.

Favourites from 2009

Inspired by Susie's 12 memories of 2009 (who was inspired by Stacy Julian), I put together 12 of my favourites from 2009. I know I didn't do a very good job of updating my blog in 2009. I am hoping to do better in 2010.

Caleb on a cold January day, Dad and Matthew in Mexico, Caleb's batman birthday party, Matthew's spongebob party, Matthew's sixth birthday, visiting with Maya and Ian (and great-grandpa), the lego exhibit at the Science Center, K4J nativity play, Christmas card photo.

last day of school (before Christmas holidays)

Yesterday was the last day of school before Christmas holidays for all three of us!

Matthew's school had "Whoville" day. He dressed up like the Grinch. I really had fun putting his costume together. I think he should have won, but apparently there was a really good Cindy Lou Who that won in his area of the school. I guess that's why they don't let the mothers that make the costumes be the costume contest judges! Ha! Ha!

But, seriously, isn't he cute? Here he is with his little brother.

Caleb's preschool had "Night before Christmas" day. All the kids come to school in their pj's. Then they go to sleep. While they are 'asleep', a visitor comes to the preschool! It's such a fun day for them! Caleb's still talking about how much fun it was.My Pre-K class had a party in the afternoon. We recited a French poem and sang a couple songs for the parents and grandparents. We had snacks and we also had a visit from the big guy! So much fun (even for the teacher)!

Today, we enjoyed our first day of Christmas holidays. We played dominoes, we cleaned the house, we ate donuts, we shovelled the driveway 3 times (lots of snow today!), we picked up our cousins at the airport. We had a great day! And we're looking forward to more fun in the days to come! Merry Christmas!

monkey butt :)

Matthew got his photos taken at school this year. We ordered a package to send out some photos to aunties and such at Christmas time. But we needed some photos of Caleb too. Grandma took Caleb to Walmart to get some photos taken, but it didn't work out.

I think it was because he was getting sick. But when the photographer sat him down and tried to make him smile, she said "Monkey Butt". I guess my child is easily offended because he did not like that one bit and decided not to get his photo taken.

So, we opted for an at-home photo-shoot :)

Caleb, the little "monkey":Notice Matthew's newly lost tooth on the bottom?



We're really getting excited for Christmas around here!

Halloween 2009 - My superheroes!

Despite Rick and I both being sick this weekend, we took the boys out trick or treating on Saturday night. Caleb has had this batman costume for over a month. He's been wearing it often. He just loves batman (still!). This was the best batman costume out there because it came with two bat-a-rangs (very important to have bat-a-rangs if you're going to be batman) Matthew had trouble deciding what to be for Halloween. For awhile he thought that he might want to be Robin to go along with Caleb's batman. But in the end, he decided to be Superman!
They had alot of fun trick-or-treating this year!

Trick or Treat! I hope you had a Super-Batastic Halloween :)

Caleb's batman party

Earlier this month, Caleb turned 4! Can you believe it? Four!
He had a great batman party with a few friends!
Here is the cake:
Matthew made a batman banner to decorate for his brother's party. Didn't it turn out nice?

I made Caleb and Matthew batman t-shirts to wear for the party. Here they are standing in front of the batcave that Caleb got for Christmas.

The batman capes that my mom and I made for all the little guests.

Caleb sneaking some snacks before the party.

Caleb and baby bear :)

Brothers

Mexico 2009 ~ final thoughts

Well, I think this might be the last Mexico post for awhile. Caleb's birthday was today so I wanted to finish up with Mexico.

We had such a great time on our trip. It was so cold at home for so long before we left. This was exactly what we needed to break up the cold winter.

We loved having this time to relax together, to play together, to make some new memories together.

We'll remember this trip ...
because of the pool,
because we had some anxiety about our seats on the way there,
because we didn't have to carry Caleb's potty seat everywhere like last year,
because the waiter gave the boys balloons,
because the maids folded the towels fancy,
because we relaxed and had fun!
We can't wait to go back!

Mexico 2009 ~ games

The fun continues! We had so much fun at our very kid friendly resort. Their motto is "If the kids are happy, everyone is happy!" Well the kids were very happy with all the fun games to play at our resort.

Matthew loved playing ping pong with us. I didn't get any photos of him playing, but he had lots of fun.

Now, outdoor bowling is just something that I got really excited about. We had so much fun bowling together. Rick is working on editing the videos from our trip, but I'm pretty sure there's a video of me getting a strike! :)

Let's go Matthew!And look at this huge checkerboard! We taught Matthew to play checkers. Since we got home, he's received his own checkerboard and now we play almost every day. And it all started here.

Caleb liked to pretend the checkers were burgers. Yum yum!

So much fun!

Mexico 2009 ~ food and drinks

Once again, breakfast was our favourite meal of the day. Our fussy little boys always found lots of yummy food at the buffet restaurant for breakfast. They liked to eat cereal, waffles, pancakes, muffins, bacon and toast. Rick and I quite liked the omelettes. For lunch, we would often go back to the buffet restaurant. Sometimes we would grab a burger or a hotdog at the snack bar by the beach.

One night we got dressed up and went out to the Japanese restaurant. The waiter at the Japanese restaurant really took a liking to Caleb :) even though he didn't eat much of his supper.

Another night, we went out for Italian. We had a bit of a later reservation so the boys were getting kind of grouchy near the end of our meal. But the food was good.

Caleb's grape juice mustache!

Rick and his morning coffee!

Now check out the kid's drink menu:Sponge bob! Pikachu special! The boys were in heaven! They tried them all except for the Barbie Special (that's for girls). Sometimes mom and dad even got themselves a kid's drink too!

I believe Caleb is drinking an Ola Marina in this photo.