Solo-me-o

till Sunday as Den and (I say this with love) his loser friends have gone to BC to go dirt biking. They plan a trip 2 times a year. What-evah, I say. Two times a year? What is wrong with that picture. I get away one time a year with the ladies (although I spend the same amount on one trip that he spends on both-but that is not the point!) AND this time they left a day early too, so that gets him 7 days away this year...hmmm I get 3...we will have words when he gets home, me thinks!

Before he left, on Tues, Danika was possessed by a demon. I got her up from her night time sleep around 6ish and she was livid. Her hands were flailing, scratching, arching her back...right pissed off. I was like who the hell are you? So I said 'what-evah' and got some bottle in her and put her back to bed. She was also running a fever. I was going to go on the treadmill, but just as I was going to put on my shoes I heard her through the monitor and thought okay, she will be happy now...nope..the demon was still in her. So I loaded up her and Kael and off to the walk-in clinic we go. That sounds easy but they we were all in our jammies and trying to get a possessed baby changed and dressed is not for the faint of heart. Anyway we made it to the walk-in clinic -which I can't figure out why they call it 'walk-in' as you always wait at least a half of an hour just to get in the room, then you got to wait some more! It should be called 'if your lucky you'll be out within an hour'. I know it is too long of a name, but at least people will know what to expect!

So Danika ended up having a double ear infection and I am happy to say the demon has left my baby and she is back to her happy self. Yeehaw! Her fever is gone now as well. She is such a little thing...we weighed her and she came out at 8.96 kilos which is just under 20 pounds. She is by far our smallest baby (she'll be a year on Nov 21st).

I made a recipe called Sweet N Sassy meatballs on Monday. They were really good (I served it with rice). The big kids didn't like it at all, but the babies loved it. If I was to make this again I would make the meatballs smaller and serve them with toothpicks for appy's. I won't be making this again as a meal. Too me the meatballs tasted great, but didn't make a great meal for us.

I was able to scrap a layout using a sketch over at Pencil Lines. This is of my dad and Travis going down a slide at the Calgary Stampede this year. I am glad to finally scrap pictures of the kids with their grandparents. I have another layout almost done...I am just letting my eyes rest from it and will judge it tomorrow to see if it is good the way it is.

Oct 31st was a busy day

that first started with Jacie's 8th birthday party with her friends. She had 5 friends over from 11am-2pm. They had fun. Of course Jacie was just thrilled to get this kitty cat from her best friend Paige. Jacie loves stuffies. She named it Orangie...I know very original. She got some money from her Granny and a Walmart gift card from one of her friends, so yesterday we went to Walmart (just her and I) and she bought herself a DS game called Petz Horses. She loves animals and I am glad for that.

Okay back to the 31st...after supper, around 6pm we headed out the door, with our good friends, for Halloween fun. Travis was Batman, Jacie was a witch, and Kael was an orangatang. Danika was bundled nice and warm in the stroller. Travis lasted longer than he did last year (which doesn't mean much as he did 1/2 a block last year). Kael was on fire.., until he crapped his pants (around 7:30pm) and Dennis took him and the baby home for bed. Then I was pulling Travis in the wagon and Jacie was working the houses. It was quite chilly out that night and we finally quit around 8:30pm. Then as a tradition we dump all the good in one big pile and separate it into chips, chocolate, candy and yucky. Jacie seemed in a mood that night...not sure what the problem was, but hopefully they all had a good memorable Halloween.

This past week has been cold central here but I'll take it over what else is going around. So far the little ones are worse off as they aren't old enough to get 'blow your nose,' so it just runs down their face. The old saying glazed donut comes to mind! :)

On Friday it was my birthday, so we ordered in Pizza from a new pizza joint here in town and it was good. We ordered WAY too much in regards to sizing. Who knew a 16" pizza is SO big and we ordered 2 plus a 10" cheese for the kids (it was only $4.99 for the 10"). We have been eating ever since...Dennis says he is so sick of it and had so much that he is going to crap out a pizza pocket! HAHAHAHA

Last night I met the ladies for supper and it was so good. The food, the drinks, the friends...to get out and enjoy ourselves sans kids and hubbies was well needed! I love these times. After the supper we went to a movie called 'The Box'. Well to put it nicely it is 2 hours of my life gone. The movie was so weird, boring, bad music, so poorly done. It isn't even a renter. Don't waste your time! This is our second dud movie with the group...our luck has to change!!

I finally finished this layout a few days ago. Seemed time wasn't on my side to just work on it or I chose quiet time to snuggle with Travis and chill.

I had planned to have chicken fajitas for supper, but haven't gone out to get the chicken...we'll see.

We jumped

last night and got the H1N1 vaccination. It took us just under 3 hours to get it. The kids were pretty good but near the end we had all had enough. It was around 8pm when we got out of there and we were all hungry and tired. I took us to McDonalds for a reward and then came home. We all had showers and then to bed. I wanted everyone clean after that ordeal.

When I picked Travis up from school this morning I was talking to another mom and as I was talking to her another mom came and heard that I had taken my family to get the shot. She then proceeded to say that she 'will be waiting to see how many people die from this shot before I make up my mind.' WTF?! I felt like a knife stabbed me in the heart. How cruel and heartless can someone be to say such a thing. I was so dumbfounded that I couldn't even move. Then the two moms started saying that there was a show on 60 Minutes of how the Swine Flu of 1976 killed more people than saved...and on and on and on they went. I gathered Travis up when he came outside and went to the van when the wave of emotion hit me. I am still tearing up writing this and thinking about how I wish I would have gathered my jaw and heart off the ground and said something back to her about how what she said was totally uncalled for. I did the research too and there is so much conflicting information and the pros for me outweighed the cons. I didn't make the choice lightly.

Okay moving on as I am too emotional to keep talking about that. This afternoon I did a layout from Sketches again. I am not submitting these, just doing them for fun. The paper clips up top spell out SCARY and I had fun with rub-ons, stamping and getting back to doing what I love to do. The writing says Grandma & Grandpa took Travis and Jacie to the Calgary Stampede on July 3rd, 2009. This was the first time ever for the kids.

I did this layout a long time ago, but never posted it. This is of Kael around 6 to 7 months old I think.

Anyway, time to make supper...tonight it is soft taco's! YUM!

What do you do when you

just don't know. When you are on the fence and don't know which side to jump on. With this H1N1 vaccination there are a lot of questions floating around and to try to decipher through it all is just maddening. I found myself getting frustrated with those who say dumb things like 'it is just like the flu, get over it.' I am sure if someone they loved died (from cancer, flu, car accident, etc) they would no longer say 'get over it'. From what I read the mercury levels are only like eating 1/4 of a can of tuna, it is the other things in it that scare me, especially for Danika and Kael who are 11 months and 2 years old. I think for everyone else in my family it is okay to give them, I just am nervous about the little ones. We actaully went once to get the vaccination, but the line up was too long, so we came home. When we go back, I am going to request the little ones be given the serum that pregnant ladies get...if they say no I need to know if we are comfortable giving them the other serum. Until then, I will keep reading and watching.

This past weekend the ladies and I met up for our Christmas Stamp-a-stack. We met at 11am and stopped around 5pm. We had a potluck lunch and had a great time. It was nice to get away for the day. After I left I went to Walmart and bought what I needed for the week, along with Travis' costume-Batman, Halloween treats for the kids. This year I bought chocolate bars and nibs! YUM

Tonight for supper is soft taco's. I have been craving them something fierce! I can't wait.

This picture of Danika doing downward dog in Yoga terms is so cute. I love how mom has pictures of me doing them same thing. So cute.

Here is Dennis and Kael. Until next time take care!

2 layouts are done

can you believe it?! I completed one today using the blog Sketches-which I just love! Feels good to get back into it. I have missed it. Now that winter is arriving I think I will have more time to do it. One good thing about winter! :)

My parents came for a visit last Wednesday and left this morning to go down South for the winter. They have officially become Snow Birds! This year Christmas is at our house so they will fly in for that. We had a hectic visit, but I'll take it. Mom, dad, Danika, Kael and I went and got our flu shots yesterday. It was a busy place...thankfully it went okay and the little ones didn't get cranky waiting! The should have an express line for people with children to get them in and out!

My arm is a bit stiff in the injection site, but it was a piece of cake. Nothing to freak out about.

Tonight I am making Turkey fried rice for supper (we had a turkey on Sunday as we were out of town for Thanksgiving). I can't wait for it...yum-o! I am starving.

On Oct 7th Kael turned 2! I made a homemade chocolate cake for him and had a little birthday celebration for him with just us. I just love the picture of him waiting for his cake and then of course he is trying to blow out his two candles. He is such a ham!

1st Annual Block Party

was on Sat and was a lot of fun. The kids had a bike parade which was very cute and then we mingled and when it was time for supper, I help grill up the burgers and hot dogs-which by the way I thouroughly enjoyed. Brought me back to my McDonald days! Then I ate some great food...don't think though in the back of my mind I wasn't thinking 'please let the people who made the salad use good hygene practices when making this'!! lol Those of you who know me know that I am a bit of a freak when it comes to germs and other people touching things I am going to be putting in my mouth!! BUT I sucked it up and ate lots. *shudder* LOL

Today we went to church and then came home, had lunch and watched Transformers 2. We were all excited to watch it as we didn't get to finish it yesterday because of the block party. It was good and finally nice to watch a movie again with the whole family. It has been a long time!

The budget is going great! I love it! For those who aren't on one, I highly, highly recommend it! It is wonderful. This week is going to be tight because the kids had their teeth cleaned (Jacie and Travis) and it came to $220-which I didn't save up for as we just started this budget, so instead of living on $380 for the week, we will live on $160! We can do it! eek...I am planning out our weeks worth of meals...so when I go get some groceries I will just get what we need for the meals. So far on the list is Beef Stew (which I already have all the ingredients for) and Easy Cheeseburger Pie (again, I have all the ingredients for)....so, so far so good!

Danika is fully crawling now and trying to pull herself up. She is babbling lots and I swear she is spitting out words. She is 10 months old now. She is eating her baby food way better and of course still loves her mush. I need to get another highchair that sits on our regular chairs...I am having a hard time finding the green Fisher Price one that I have already...I will have to phone around as the one they replaced it with at Walmart is crap looking compared to this one. GRRR

Danika is also on her last can of formula!! WOOHOO! I have been making her bottles this past week with 2/3 formula and 1/3 milk. Sometime this week or next I will make it half and half. This is to get them use to the flavour of milk and so far it is going good. I have tried just giving her milk before when we were out doing errands and she was fussing and she didn't like it straight up...

I think I am going to actually make a scrapbook page...man it has been months since I have touched any of my scrappy stuff. I hope to get my mojo back and get back to it. Wish me luck and a burst of energy...boy has it been a busy month!

Update

is finally here. We went camping last weekend and although we had fun there was too many wasps and it made it really unbearable to be outside. I got stung and Travis got stung in the hand. He is such a tough kid...he yelled owe, but never cried and never came running over to me. He just kept on playing with the kids. We were camping up in a mountain and boy did it get cold at night. Sunday morning we woke up to rain which then turned into heavy wet sleet. Here is Kael playing out in it...

Kael also went on his first dirtbike ride with Dennis...he loved it!

This week I have been a single mom as Den is working up in Crossfield. He leaves early and comes home later...sucks. We haven't ate as a family since Sunday and it is taking its toll. Tonight I think he is going riding, so that is another family time lost. Grrrrr

Thankfully I have helpers to keep the house in order. :)

Anyway I have been busy going through the kids clothes and taking the small stuff to the consignment store. I toook in a full rubbermaid on Tuesday. Travis was low on pants, so I picked up 2 pairs while I was there. I love our consignment store and they know my well. :)

Danika is fully crawling now and is doing a upside down V with her body. She is trying to pull herself up now which is quite funny to watch. She looks so little still which I love. I want to just take it all in as she is our last and they grow up so fast!

Last night I made chicken fajitas for supper. I love that supper. Too bad my avocado's to make the Guac dip were not ready (and I think one was bad)...so I had to just use sour cream...not near as good, but still so good.