Mackenzie

My sweet baby girl. Now you are 5. And you are most definitely your own person.

I love seeing your little quirks and sweet personality develop. You have your own likes and dislikes. The older you get the more I realize how sensitive you are. You are so easily hurt. I just want to protect you all the time. You are strong and brave though. I see this more and more when you march into new situations with your head up and a brave face. I love that you are so willing to try new things even when I think you are a little bit scared. This year I was so impressed seeing you tackle skating. I was also so proud of you when you learned to read. Reading seems so difficult – there are no straightforward rules for this skill, and yet, you just take all the little hurdles in stride. You are such a wonderful big sister and I love how you are always thinking about your brother. It makes me so happy knowing that you two are close. You two really get along so well for siblings.

And your art….. I truly believe that you are very talented. In the last year you have grown from drawing scribbles to being able to draw so many different things – princesses, houses, unicorns, flowers, cats. I love seeing the pictures you draw. And you take so much time and effort in your creations. Nothing you do is done half-way.

My dear, I hope that as you continue to grow, you will become more confident and will know what a wonderful person you are. I hope that you will continue to face your fears and be proud of your accomplishments. I hope that this year I will be able to spend more one-on-one time with you, talking, playing and getting to know you more.

I love you my sweet baby girl and I always will!

wow

Wow….

Christmas is over. To be honest I am glad. I think that it I were ever healthy and rested on Christmas, it would probably be different. But it seems that every year I am sick and exhausted by the time Christmas rolls around. So it’s never really as fun as I expect it to be.

This year was no exception. I had planned out the whole day (Christmas Eve – the day we celebrate). I would take the kids to the TTC children’s party and they would have fun and get tired out while CJ did the last minute Christmas preparations at home. Kids and I would be back home around 1:00 and the kids would nap and CJ and I could put the presents under the tree and the gifts in the stockings and maybe we would even get a nap in before the rest of the family arrived.

Unfortunately the plans went a bit off course when we came home and Sebastian made it clear that he had no intention of going to sleep. I still feel guilty that I got so mad at him. I was so tired and I just lost my temper with him. Luckily CJ put things into perspective and made me realize that it wasn’t the end of the world if Sebastian didn’t nap. So we let the poor child out of his room, poured ourselves a drink and tried to relax.

Kenzie checking out all the presents.


The rest of the Christmas festivities went well. Andrea, Chris and my mum came over for a fabulous Christmas Eve fondue followed by the opening of gifts.

Fondue (see Andrea's tiny little 20-week baby bump - tyeh big ultrasound is tomorrow - i can't wait to hear how it went!!!)


The kids were so pleased with their presents. It’s funny – one of Seb’s FAVOURITE presents was a tooth brush he got in his stocking - it plays Thomas tunes. He walked around with that for 2 days. His other favourite present was a “marble run”. He has spent hours playing with it. I love it cause a) he doesn’t need help playing with it, b) it doesn’t make noise, and c) he and Kenzie can play with it at the same time without fighting. CJ and I are also having a lot of fun with the kids toys – I especially like the Tinker Toy set.

On Chrsitmas day CJ’s brother, Craig and Craig’s girlfriend came over.


In the afternoon we all headed over to Andrea and Chris’s house for a delicious turkey dinner cooked by Chris. Seb fell asleep in the car and ended up sleeping for quite a while on the couch. It was actually quite nice to hang out at Andrea and Chris’s place without having to worry about Seb getting into something or hurting himself.

He still sleeps with his arms above his head... Oh i want to eat him up!!!


So that was our whirlwind Christmas. It was jam packed with family, tradition and children’s excitement. Just the way I like it. But as I said before… I am glad it’s over. I am tired now and am ready for our lives to get back to normal.

Kids' Birthday Party

Kids Birthday Party

I think it’s safe to say that it was a success. The kids were so excited yesterday morning that they were bouncing off the walls. Thank goodness the party started early (9:30). So we got to the party place, ZOOZ and soon 20 of Mackenzie and Sebastian’s closest friends were there to join in the fun. The kids had so much fun playing on everything. I loved watching Sebby and Mackenzie play. They just looked overjoyed. It was nice to see so many kids play nicely together too.











After about an hour and 20 minutes of wild fun, the kids were herded into the grub room for pizza and cake. And then it was over. Kids quickly filtered out, each receiving their own loot bag. And then we packed up the kids and headed home – leaving all the mess behind us. It was perfect.
So, right now I am sitting in our new basement. We are spending almost all our time here right now. It’s still not finished – we need the doors and baseboard put on. But that will happen with the next couple days. But we love it down here. It’s warm and cozy and the kids have tons of room to play.

December Update

Wow… it’s been a while. I’ve just been so tired lately. Even now it’s only 12:30 and I am trying to decide if I should keep working or if I should take a nap. I am working from home today and promised Kenzie that I’d pick her up from school at 2:30 so I probably won’t get a nap in. Oh well, I’m just happy to be home for a day. My new job is SO MUCH work. I am exhausted every day but at the same time I leave the office with the adrenaline rushing. I love the work so it makes the workload a bit easier to handle. And it sure beats the stress of worrying about NOT having enough work. But I am constantly tired and have spent a few sleepless nights thinking about work which I try really hard not to do.

CJ started a new position in his company on Monday. He's now in "corporate" so he's excited, and I am proud of him, but that means that he has to leave earlier in the morning so it's a bit of a mad panic getting the kids ready. On the plus side, CJ is home earlier in the evening so we can spend more time together. Which is really awesome. As convenient as our schedule was over the last year, I missed spending more time with CJ so I am looking forward to us now having dinner together every night.

Christmas is coming too fast. I still have some Christmas presents to buy but I don't know what to get and can't find a spare minute to go shopping, let alone wrap presents. Every day I think of someone else we need to buy for (teachers, daycare assistants, kids etc)

Its Sebby's birthday TODAY!!! Our baby is turning three years old. And he still is my little baby and I could just eat him up sometimes. We are having a joint birthday party for the kids on Saturday at this place called zooz… I am excited about it. Mostly because they do everything for us (play, food, cakes, balloons, loot bags etc). I think both kids are going to have a blast!

Oh and the basement! It is totally coming along. We have been busting butt trying to get it ready for Christmas (we've been pushing the contractor) and we also decided to do all the painting ourselves so CJ and I spent all weekend painting – we got everything done except for his music room which he did this week. And get this…. The carpet installers left about 15 minutes ago. The electrician will be putting up the fixtures tomorrow and the doors will be installed on Saturday! I can’t explain how excited I am…… To get all these toys downstairs and out from under our feet. And my scrapbook room….The shelves for my paper, ribbon and tools have already arrived so I will be setting up my room on Saturday. This whole basement thing is like a dream come true!

We also ordered a bunch of new furniture for the basement and also a bunk bed for Seb's room. I think I am more excited about the bunk bed than I am about the living room stuff. It's one of those beds with a double on the bottom and twin on the top. He doesn't know about it. He is going to FLIP OUT!!!!

Andrea’s sister's pregnancy is going well. She has her 20 week ultrasound on Dec 28th. She's invited Kenzie and I to come along (Chris too, obviously) to see the U/S. I am so excited! Afterwards we are planning on going shopping for baby stuff (she hasn't bought anything yet). She's still really nervous about downs but she decided against the amnio which I am very happy about. She was determined to have it and it was scheduled but she changed her mind at the last minute. All her tests have come back negative (for any issues) but she is still worried because of her age.

So there you go. That's our update. By the way here are a few pics of the basement.