Our Rock Star

From Russia with Love

Who knew that Russians loved the Colts?

Anyway, life here has been pretty crazy, lots of sickness this past week and it is still here. I brought Beaner home from school yesterday. We thought she was feeling sick because she was spinning on the tire swing at recess, nope, she has the flu. So, another home day. We have another showing tomorrow so I am working hard to keep our house clean so I don't have to do another 4 hour panic clean like I did on Mon.

Sigh.

I think I should restart my day with some tea, since I am missing out on my Wed trip to Starbucks with Paul. Tea and toast, perfect way to start the day, it's better than how it really started, cleaning up the living room floor and bathroom.. poor Beaner.

Pancake Sunday

We for many years of our marriage have had pancakes on Sundays. I think it stemmed from Paul's family tradition. I found this blog today and was amazed at the time and talent of this guy. I remember my dad making Mickey Mouse pancakes for us, I am sad to say that his are put to shame by these creations! I am tempted to try to make these, we'll see how that goes!

Ramblings

So here is the project that we did this weekend. Paper Mache (excuse the laziness with not using the proper French accents and all). Cici made an eel, Beaner made a tower with a mote, J Man made a dino face.

On to other happenings here, kids are sick with colds but J Man might have a flu. Fun. I am hoping that I don't get real sick while Paul is away for his class this week.

It has been really warm here the past few days. Lots of melting. I took Beaner out to the golf course yesterday for a formal photo shoot. Here is a little glimpse for you all.

What else to talk about. Oh, this article that Paul found yesterday got me thinking.... Are you a Single or a Double? I. Don't. Know. What. I. Should. Be.

That is about it for now, I am going to go get my morning tea and tend to my sick son.

New at My House

This is the new must see show at our house before bed. They hear the music and come running, calling their siblings as they race for the TV.

This is what you get when you think your boy is so grown up and responsible to use the potty on his own.... with no supervision....

Can you guess what craft we are doing this afternoon?

Snowing Like Crazy

It is snowing, a lot.

We shovelled about 10cm off the driveway this morning, just got back for lunch and there is about another 10cm on the driveway again. This is the first day of many forecasting lots of snow. We'll see if we can get out of our ally, snow bound may not be too bad!

...Because we Can

Why do we climb huge snow banks that were left after they finally ploughed our street?

Why does J Man spend 5 minutes trying his best to make it up the snow bank only to slide/fall back down a few seconds later?

Why does Beaner slide down huge snow banks backward?

Why does Cici speed to the top and race down over and over and over and over...?

Why do we climb another 10ft bank to reach the pinecones that are way up in the trees?

Why?

Why is Beaner wearing her swimming goggles outside?

Why are all the kids wearing their swimming goggles outside?

Why are all the kids wearing their swimming goggles outside and pretending to be Aliens?

Because we can.

Football and Cake

I don't know why but when big games happen in the NFL, we eat cake.

Today's cake was by far one of the best I have EVER had. A chocolate carrot cake. Yes, chocolate carrot.

What made it even better was that is was good for you, full of whole grains, agave nectar, carrots, and unsweetened applesauce. So, what does a healthy chocolate carrot cake taste like?Um... AMAZING! So, amazing I ate way too much. So amazing that I want to share the recipe with you so you can too experience this delight.

Snowman Time

It is finally warm enough to make a snowman, the kids had been waiting for these temps all Christmas Break. This is what they made, well, it was Cici with a bit of help from Daddy!

Ok, I am not a big fan of this type of editing with photos....

But this picture I snapped of J Man yesterday looks best like this. So there you go, you may never see me do this type of edit again.

Today is Fri, the last day for the girls at school, I missed them this week not having them home all day like on the Break. I think they miss being home too. It has been great just having me and J Man time though. I think I am gonna take J Man swimming this morning, he'll love that. What else... It has been snowing a bunch and way more snow is in the forecast. I love it when it is warm and snowing here, it is so beautiful and the kids are way more motivated to go out and play.

Well, it is 8:39am, I guess I should go start my day, the dishes are calling.

Our Quick Trip

He's excited...why?

Because we stayed in a hotel!

We decided to get out of town for an overnight shopping trip to our closest Costco which is almost 3 hrs away. The kids were thrilled to go. As we were in the elevator heading to our room, Cici was bursting with excitement and said she couldn't wait to see what the room looked like. It was nice, very nice in fact. The kids went crazy and ran around the room, jumped on the beds and couldn't wait to go to the pool.

Paul was more excited about something else though...

Cici was so excited when she found a note pad on the desk, she wanted to write a note to the hotel staff to say thank you.

Bedtime was interesting, trying to get 3 really excited kids to sleep in one big room, with football on the tv..... they finally crashed after the game was over.

None of us slept great though and this is how J Man ended up spending the last moments at Costco.

He was almost asleep sitting in the cart, I pulled him out and put him on my shoulder, then he crashed hard. Paul made it through the check outs by himself, but it was hard to get 2 FULL carts to the car with me holding a sleeping Jude. So, I laid him in one of the carts and he was fully asleep till I pulled the coat off of him so I could snap a picture.

It was wonderful just to get away, the kids kept saying they felt like they were in Vancouver probably because of all the "big" stores! It was great on our pocket book too, no tax in Montana, our dollar strong and we didn't have to pay anything at the border! Perhaps we will go back again... when we run out of T.P.!

I Spy... Something that is Green!

As many of you know, my husband has a short window of when he will eat a banana. If it is all yellow, it is past the prime, especially if it has a spot on it. He cringed as I fed one of these yellow banana's to J Man yesterday.

These green banana's are for sure the greenest I have ever seen in my house (aside from the one I saw a friend eat who lost a bet over Thanksgiving). I laughed when I saw them and asked if we would ever eat them. My husband's response was, "I will probably crack open one of those babies tomorrow, they'll turn fast!".

The banana's remain untouched.

On a more unhealthier note, what do you do with 3 cups of unused whip cream that was left over from pancakes yesterday? Mix with lots of icing sugar and a bit of vanilla extract and pour over your wholegrain cinnamon buns that you are having for breakfast today. Yum. Our New Year has not gotten off to a healthy start, maybe tomorrow....

Oh, some of you want to know the game we were playing...

Cranium Family Edition, so much fun, even J Man likes to guess what is being made out of clay, or what we are drawing.