I forgive you

J Man just came to me showing me a toy frog. "Mama, look, his leg is broken!"

I looked at him and said, "Oh, sorry buddy", empathizing with him in his sadness.

"I forgive you Mama", he said as he turned and walked away.

Christmas 2011

A Lego Short

Cici has been asking to do a stop motion movie for weeks. Well, today was the day, and with all the new Lego in the house it offered endless ideas for her movie. Here is what she came up with!

Stubbornness... Again

It is happening again. Stubborn ways from my son. Remember this? Well, that was just the tip of the iceberg. Today, our 3 yr old son is up to his old ways again. See, it all began about an hour and a half ago. Paul found J Man hiding upstairs under his bed. Turns out he hid a bunch of his sister's things under there and won't fess up to it. He is refusing to tell the truth of what happened and is been sitting on the stairs for going on 2 hrs. He understands that this could all end very quickly, just tell the truth of what happened. However, he is choosing to not talk to us and seems more than happy to sit on the stairs. He has taken a potty break and we keep asking if he is ready to tell the truth with the answer always being NO. We will see how long this lasts. Good thing we have no where to go today.


The standoff just ended. He called us and said he was ready to talk to daddy. The truth is being told, there are hugs and apologies being past around. It was all resolved 10 minutes after I began this post. Another LONG lesson learned.... hopefully.

Spontaneous

Us Truman's, we are planners, we like to know what is happening. You ask us what we are doing this week and we can tell you in detail, probably to the minute. Sometimes though, we get a little crazy and we do something spontaneous! Ok, so I might be stretching this a bit, but with no more school for Paul and the kids till the new year and me feeling soooooo much better, we are excited to have some fun!

It started yesterday after church. There was no rain and the ideas started flowing. We decided to head downtown, hit the aquarium for a bit and then do some last minute shopping downtown. On the way we thought, hey, Bright Nights is right there, lets check it out and see if we can get some tickets. The only tickets we could get were for 8:30-9pm... it was only 2:30! So, we got all crazy and bought the tickets and spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the sun, eating, shopping and being spontaneous. It was such a great warm day, the type of days that I envied when we were trapped inside because of the -20 temps and feet and feet of snow! It was the perfect day to take in the train, good thing too because we didn't bring hats or anything to keep us warm, we were being spontaneous!

We made some fun memories last night. We got to thinking of the last time we had done the train. We couldn't quite remember who was with us but I remembered Beaner being only 2 months old. Sure enough, I found pictures of the last time we went. Beaner wrapped probably WAY too warmly (we were wimpy Coasters then, not hardened by winter life in the mountains!) My dad and mom came and even my grandparents! I have always had memories of my grandparents holding hands, very sweet, so glad that I have it frozen in time!

There is no longer a petting zoo there now, Santa is there getting pictures taken. I miss the petting zoo.

Me and my girl's on the train. I don't know how many were running last night, we thought 2 but later thought 4. I was so thankful this time that we got a train with padded seats! I don't think I could have done the wooden one. Actually, not sure how I did it that time either, just had a baby that broke my tailbone. I'm tuff.

It is fun creating new Christmas memories for our family. One that involves green grass, the ocean, fog and lots of time with our extend family. It is going to be a great Christmas!

Christmas Sense

It is a running joke in our house that our oldest has a Christmas Sense, or more to the point a Present Sense. I don't know how she does it, but year after year she knows when her gifts enter the house. One particular year we were wrapping gifts late at night with the kids snug in their beds when who walks in?? Yup, we were busted. She even surveyed the loot and told us which toy she wanted. We have learned to lock the door when the wrapping begins and even then we hear a small hand trying to turn the knob. This year has been no different. Last night Cici walked into our room saying that she couldn't sleep. I was alone because Paul was out getting the loot. Well, just as she was in my room who do I hear enter the house? There was no time, I couldn't even text him to stay downstairs. They past each other in the hall and I heard him gasp at the surprise ambush and she just giggled. This morning she announced that she knew where dad had been last night and I had her vow to keep it a secret from the other two. Busted.

The Countdown Is On

The Dance Off

Let it snow

We got our first snow yesterday. It was fun to see it but more fun to know that it will be gone soon!

Google

Have you ever Googled yourself? I just did. My blog shows up, images from my blog and THIS, which made me laugh out loud which takes a lot.

So Sweet

He is so sweet! 

How could this sweet boy ever do anything that would drive us nuts?

 This sweet face would NEVER wake up at 2am and poop on our white carpet in our room causing us to all wake up in a panic and require a major bath and bed change. He is too sweet to do anything like that!

You know who else is sweet, my husband. He has cared for me in my recovery better than a nurse, taken care of the kids even when they are throwing up and pooping everywhere. Cleaned our house, made dinners, done all his work for the church and for school and has had a great attitude about the whole thing. He is amazing and am so very thankful for him.

This sweet boy got his first 'real' haircut yesterday with his daddy. See, I cut all the hair in my family, but with me down and out these past weeks the boys needed to head to a real Barber to get the work done. There is a classic Barber near us that Paul was excited about going too. Go sit with the older local men, get a cheap cut by a real Barber. They walk in and see Jack the Clipper who says that he can't do kids because of a problem with his neck. In desperation, the boys head to Great Clips where there is a huge line up. In further desperation they head to a fancy salon next door and cough up close to 50$ for their haircuts. They look good but must say look no better than what I do. Paul came home and announced that I will be the only one to touch his hair from now on.

I am getting better slowly, but just as one pain leaves, another shows up. There are good and bad days, yesterday bad, hopefully today good. I got brave the other day and walked over to the school with my mom to pick up the girls. I haven't been there in weeks and it was sunny and nice out. I need to get stronger so I thought this would be good for me. It was all good until on the way home I got honked at because I was taking too long crossing the street. When I got home I was exhausted and emotional and realized that the big world out my window is not where I should be yet. I should get a walker so people might understand that I am a very slow right now!! At least it made me more aware that I need to be patient with people, we never know what they are going through.

Autumnal

Here is another amazing video that my brother did recently. I like it a lot, not only because it has my little ones in it but what it captures about this amazing season and the love my family gives to my kids. The footage was taken the day before we surprised the kids with our Disney trip. Paul and I stayed home and packed while my parents and my brother and his wife took the kids out to feed the birds. Enjoy.

Day Three

Day Three was a take it easy kind of day. We headed to the park for just a bit and did some rides like the Jungle Cruise. We then went to Downtown Disney which is located in between the two parks and hit the shops! J Man was excited to buy some toys from Toy Story and the girls both decided to make a special bear from Build A Bear. Paul was thrilled to hit the HUGE Lego store. I must admit it was pretty cool.

There was...

Lego Woody

Lego Darth Vader

Lego Paul

One thing that mystified me while at Disney was watching people walk around the park eating this.....




For the longest time I couldn't figure out what they were eating! It was pretty funny seeing hundreds of people walking around tearing off meat with their teeth. No, we didn't partake.

Day Three, quiet and relaxing. It was a good thing too because the next day was our early morning entry!

A Long Road

Where have I been you ask? In bed. This post surgery recovery is in day 10 and it is going to be a long road. I knew it would. My surgery went very well and I have had no complications which I am very thankful for. I have been getting lots of help from family which gives me the ability to recover much faster. I do feel worlds better than last week, I can get out of bed, get up and down the stairs more, am off my pain killers and even got outside a bit yesterday for a tiny walk. I am getting stronger by the day but still have a long way to go. I put on some real clothes yesterday but that only lasted a few hours and then I was back in my pjs! You know I am feeling a bit better just from the fact that I can sit for a few minutes at the computer and blog. You are gonna have to wait for the finish or our Disney trip, that is a ways off yet! I am pretty bored and sore from lying around so much and am really ready to get up and moving more. Baby steps, baby steps. Well, I am at my max for sitting here, gonna go head up to bed again!

Day Two

Day Two was spent at California Adventure. We woke up early and headed over for a full day of fun. It was a bit cloudy and cooler so the crowds stayed away and we enjoyed all the rides with no lines!

The ferris wheel is huge and the focal point of the pier area. It is impressive during the day but it really shines at night! Get it... shines?? Anyway. I am not a big fan of heights and this one is REALLY high. As you go get in line you have to make a choice. Swinging cage or non swinging cage, we chose the latter! The view was amazing, when I was brave enough to peek out!

The Paradise Pier wraps around the ferris wheel and has lots of midway games and "old fashioned" rides. The food was amazing too! Great healthy choices and lots of fun kids food!

We had a chance to meet some characters too!

There is a part of the park that is themed after A Bugs Life. The rides where right at J Man's level, the girls even had some fun on the 'toddler' rides. We went to watch a live show there thinking it would be great. There was a sign saying that some parts might be scary. We asked the lady what was scary and she said some darkness and fog. We can handle that! Well, she forgot to mention the 10ft man eating grasshopper that appears out of nowhere! Instant tears from all our kids and we high tailed it out of there! There may be some long term damage done.

I already mentioned how good the food was right? Well, one of the food areas is set up like the Wharf in San Francisco that I have been to. The sealions are replaced here by ducks but you can still get some amazing chowder in a fresh backed bread bowl, yummy!

Here is a little sample of the rides we did on day two.

One of our favourite things to do was to go talk to Crush from Finding Nemo. I still have no idea how they pull this off but it is really cool. Us adults enjoyed it perhaps more than the kids! Grace even got a chance to talk to the turtle and now Paul and I are in a contest to see who can say "Dude" the best!

Well, that's it for Day Two. Three more left. I have no idea how I will finish all this. Our life has been crazy since we got back on Sat. We barely even made it through Halloween! Halloween this year was certainly overshadowed by Disney Fun! Those pictures will have to wait in line! The rest of these posts may have to take a rest too as I am going to be out of commission for a while due to a surgery I am having. Maybe I will move my computer upstairs and blog from there with all my upcoming free time!

Day One

For months and months we have been keeping this secret. It was hard and there were times that we almost blew it! Despite our almost slip ups, we did surprise them! We woke them up at 4:30am last Monday and sprung it on them. I was awake however at 2am, unable to sleep because I was sooooo excited! After the news sunk in, we were on the road and soon on a plane to LA. From there we took a bus to our hotel that was right across the street from Disney. 

We were in the park early that afternoon.

We headed straight for Fantasyland and Mickey's Toon Town.

This is the first ride we did.

We then packed as many rides in as we could before it closed at 6pm.

We went into Downtown Disney to grab dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, the kids loved it!

By the end of day one we were exhausted! Tired, but thrilled to be living the dream we had kept a secret for months! We were there for 5 days, there are so many more pictures and videos to share. Stay tuned!

Here is a video of some of our fun on the Island a few weekends ago.

Birds of a Feather

What are my girls doing???

Being scarecrows of course! 

But, these little birds were looking for some food and we didn't look too scary, so we got up close and personal with LOTS of little birds!

We spent almost a half and hour having these little birds come and greet us. Then some kind person with actual seeds gave us some and then the feast began! Cici even had a very interested squirrel come and nearly climb up her!

J Man was a little unsure of all this but soon he was brave enough to feed some too!

It always happens, the day you don't bring your 'real' camera some amazing things happen. Good thing we have our iPhones. The best camera is the one you have with you!

Cookie Sale

This past Sunday our daughters were challenged to raise money for a girl in Africa so she can go to school. The organization is the Hear Africa Foundation which was founded by someone who went to our church. Cici had a playdate yesterday and over the past weeks they had been begging to do a lemonade stand. I thought instead of lemonade, on a sunny fall day perhaps halloween cookies would be in order. Then Cici suggested instead of keeping the money they could donate it to the girl they are raising money for! Just what I was hoping she'd say! They set up right after school and with way more enthusiasm than I could imagine they let the neighbourhood know what they were selling. Soon, kids came with pennies in hand and then parents started coming too. They even stopped cars that drove by and they donated money without even having a cookie. My expectations were blown out of the water as they counted their 26 dollar profit! I am very proud of them, and they were pretty proud of themselves too. 

I'm In Pictures

This weekend the sun was out, it was warm and the beach was calling. We meet family down there and before we enjoyed the best fish and chips ever, we had a family photo shoot. I turned my camera over to my brother and bravely stepped in front with my family. It is nice to have pictures with me in it! I have a lot to learn about photography and being in front of the camera has shown me a whole new side of photography that I need to learn! It was tons of fun though and my brother, and even his wife, captured some great moments of my family!

Catch Up

This describes how I have been feeling. A bit excited. Excited that we had a great week last week celebrating our second born's birthday, Thanksgiving, seeing friends and taking a trip to the Island. I am also getting real excited about what is going to come! Of course that is under wraps for now!

We had 4 birthday's for this special girl. It all started with a special trip to the Aquarium. There was face painting, bat watching, frog spotting, a concert and the highlight, a 4D Dora and Diego movie!

There was also some creature holding.

We had a family party for B the next day with cake and gifts, then we headed out for the weekend. We can't go to the Island without taking a trip to "the statues" at Coombs. Paul and I are always a little creeped out by them but the kids love them!

We also went to the beach on the one day that perhaps was the windiest on record. 

Some loved it.

Some didn't.

Others were prepared to have some fun in it.

We also can't go to the Island without going to the old growth forest that is down the street from Grandma and Grandpa's. It is one of my favourite places to walk. It is soooo quiet in there, except for our loud kids and it is beautiful. 

Ok, I swear that us girl's didn't plan this. Honest. What are the chances that we would all wake up and meet for breakfast looking like this! It is almost like we are related or something!