She's growing up!

Emily LOVES to play the piano. She plays for hours each day and is getting pretty good (in her mother's opinion!). She sang this song with Janelle in lessons (and we have the Steve Green CD) and then taught herself how to play it on the piano. She knows a dozen or so songs by ear so far - which will work against her when she starts to read music. But I can't really stop her from tinkering around and figuring things out on her own!!

We're taking a little lesson break from piano - it's hard to squeeze everything in in the summer! - and we'll start up again once school is back. Since February Emily has learned the different types of notes and rests, some music notation, hand positions, where the notes A-E are on the piano, and how to play a song by reading labelled notes in her music book. She has also learned some new songs and Janelle is now teaching her to stay on key when Janelle sings harmony with her.

We're very pleased with her progress, and mostly I am thrilled that she LOVES it. I never took to the piano and only lasted a few lessons when I was younger.
So here's a little video of Emily singing and playing You Knit Me Together :)

Feeling Blue

Emily has been begging and pleading with me to PLEASE paint her room blue. Everyday I hear something about it. She's been stuck on this 'blue streak' (sorry) for quite a while, so I don't think it's just a phase. I have been thinking about a room makeover for her anyway; as my parents move from one house to another we are coming into a few new items - a beautiful white desk, a new princess theme comforter, a white metal headboard, some new art work and lamps.

I thought I would be smart and show her a few google images that came up when searching 'girls room blue'. Of course, this is room she wants:


HA!! How this even came up with my search words, I'm not sure. I pointed out that the walls are NOT blue in this room and she said "I would trade my blue walls for a giant carriage in my room." Of course she would. So would I ;)

This is more along the lines of what I was thinking of:

Her new bedding is quite similar to this quilt, and we now have the white headboard.

What do you think?? When do you allow your children to start making pretty big decisions - like wall colour choices?? (I know, I know, in the grand scheme of things a gallon of paint is not REALLY that big of a decision. But to a 4 year old, it's pretty huge :)

Should I go for it and re-paint?? Jacob's room is soon getting a major over-haul as well. And the best part of his new room will be a fully wired, fully working one of these: (another treasure from my parent's old house)
I'm so excited :)

JACOB

In honour of Jacob's 2nd birthday, here is post all about him:

Let me set the scene:

The kids and I arrived home from picking up a few things at Walmart right around the time the construction guys were packing up. I quickly put 99% of my purchases away. In fact, I only did NOT put away one item.

Anyway, I then headed upstairs to do the daily construction clean-up; folding up drop cloths, dusting dressers, sweeping and vacuuming. Emily likes to help me with this chore, and she usually does the dusting. We had made our way through all the dirt and grime when I realized that I hadn't had a single interruption from Jacob. I went in search of him with a bit of trepidation in my heart - all moms know that no noise from a toddler is usually not a good thing!
And this is what I found.





I couldn't help but laugh. He was so proud of his tp tower. You could see in his eyes he didn't make the mess out of disobedience or rebellion. He just found some really cool building materials (and the bag of bags that had once held our other Walmart purchases.) and got to work. He enthusiastically helped me clean up and said an "I'm sorry" when I told him he has made a big mess.

Happy Birthday, buddy.

So far today....

I have:

- been held hostage in my sunroom by a mama cat trying to protect her 6 kittens.

-checked on Jacob only to find him stuffing his hands into his disgustingly dirty diaper and then finger painting on our white carpet with a big grin.

- had to wipe purple paint out of Emily's ear canal (she was trying to paint earrings on her ears - apparently a concept that she doesn't quite grasp yet).

- pried a half dead very smushed cicada from the hands of my almost-two year old.

- googled how to spell "cicada".

- super cleaned the bathroom - you know.... when you take EVERYthing out of your bathroom and then go crazy with bleach. SUCH a good feeling.

- made chocolate toffee squares.

What have YOU done today??

There's no "I" (or red ball) in TEAM

My mom gave Emily an old cat toy that her cats no longer play with because they're old now, too. So she brought it home for Mischievous Mitsy. She of course FREAKED OUT when Emily first gave it to her and gave us all a good laugh while we watched her spin in a circle trying to catch and "kill" the red ball.
After a while of unsuccessful attempts to retrieve the red ball, Jacob took pity on her and decided to help her out and get the ball for her. Turns out he's not too much smarter than our cat. (But oh so much more loveable!) And I'm sure he is, actually, quite a bit smarter than our little kitty.
I had a good time watching them try to work together to gain the victory. I'm not sure who enjoyed it most. Mitsy, Jacob, or me :)

Loving the new toy:

"Here, kitty, let me help you":
"I think you just have to reach in like this"

"Okay, maybe the two of us can figure it out together!"

Canada Day Fireworks

This year we decided to go the the Fingal baseball diamond for fireworks. Considering the size of Southwold Township the display was very impressive. It lasted quite a while. And - the best part - it's about 45 seconds from our house!
This was the first time either of my kids have seen fireworks. Emily LOVED it. Every minute of it. Although she thought it was a bit too loud.
Jacob didn't know what to think. He wavered between excited/amazed and scared out his mind. For a while, he held up his hand to the sky and yelled "Stop! Stop it!" Poor guy. He maybe should have stayed home in his comfy bed.

Scared Jacob (Justin is having a good time!)
Interested Jacob:And back to scared:Seeing the very first firework:

We are very thankful to live in such a great country :)

Happy Little Homemaker

Please pray for Jacinda over at Growing Home (previously named Happy Little Homemaker).

I found her blog through Sarah L, and Taunya VD's blogs. She is a lovely Christian wife and mother who blogs about her passion for Christ and her desire to serve the Lord.

Unfortunately, there are entire forums out there that are dedicated to ripping apart and personally attacking such blogs and their authors. Jacinda's blog ended up in their discussion forum where several members accused her of child cruelty and being brain washed (among many more horrible things).

Please stop by her site and leave an encouraging word for her. I know that if I were in her shoes I would be feeling very discouraged and depressed.

I'm praying for you, Jacinda - keep on blogging - you are a wonderful encouragement to others!!

Summer 2011

I have been HORRIBLE at keeping up with pictures lately. I'm not good at remembering to have my camera close by with a charged battery and memory card intact. And I'm not a huge fan of our camera. Jacob has a way of tracking down and acquiring anything electronic within a 10 mile radius. Seriously. I have found him with so many tools/remotes/ipods/cameras it's unbelievable.
And when he finds our camera, he loves to pull back the little metal lens cover and get him grimy little boy fingers all over it. So I'm constantly trying to get his finger prints off the glass - any suggestions??? - or I won't remember to CHECK for fingerprints and take a picture only to have it come out all blurry. And by the time I clean it, the moment's gone. That's my excuse.

But, here are a few summer pictures. We haven't done any day trips yet, so other than everyday life there's not much going on around here. But as of this weekend, it's all going to change. This weekend marks the "beginning" of our summer activities :)

After Rosie Rhubarb. Emily lives for face painting.


Baby Lucas. He's so so cute.


Jackson and Emily playing in the sprinkler. They are good friends, even though Emily says she'll never marry him because "he's a maniac" :)


And this is what the Jakester thought of the sprinkler fun. He has yet to splash in the freezing cold water without saying "ow!" the entire time.

Mitsy's mom. She just gave birth (again) although I have yet to find her kittens. But truth be told, I'm not looking too hard.
If I find them, anyone want one?? Her babies make great pets. See???
And of course, lets not forget Rosco! Mom and Dad Pennings' new dog. He is so sweet and gentle with the kids. Jacob loves, loves, loves him. When the kids are a bit older, we'll probably end up getting a dog. But for now, I don't really want to responsibility of one, (I'm not a dog person) and this cute little guy is only 7 mintues away. So we'll just get our doggie fix from Grandma and Grandpa's for now :)

The Tall and the Short of things

Every morning my kids have the same routine (mostly Emily, but Jacob usually just mimics his sister...)
They wake up and come downstairs and they get to watch one show while still in their pj's. You see, Emily needs time - a lot of time - to "wake up". She hates to be rushed in the morning and as long as she is left alone for about half an hour, she's fine. Then we do breakfast and the kids get dressed and Emily gets her hair done.
I don't mind this routine. It gives me time to have a coffee, do any cleaning up that wasn't totally finished the night before, get dressed, etc.

Well. On Monday, our TV broke. It won't turn on anymore. It is still under warranty, so it's really not a big deal. The TV repair man is coming on Friday. So a week without TV. No big deal. It will be good for all of us.

Wrong. Poor Emily. Her life was turned upside down. No show in the morning? No time to herself? Tuesday morning was NOT a pretty sight.

But there was NO way I was going to haul our old HUGE TV into the living room and hook it up. It is way too heavy and way too monstrous. (I know what you're thinking - can it be any bigger than the other TV in this picture? The answer is yes. It's not wider, but it's an oldie, and so it is DEEEEEEEP.)
So this is the compromise. A tiny little TV dating back to my university days. Won by my sister at the local Shoppers Drug Mart.

But the kids don't seem to care. Curious George looks about the same on a teeny tiny screen as he does swinging across our plasma..... :)

After the Storm...

The sun did not shine.
It was too wet to play.
So we sat in the house
All that cold, cold, wet day.


It POURED this morning. We had all the lights on during the day because the sky was so black. I thought it would be a good day for baking and catching up on my least favourite chores. Which we did. But then, all of sudden the clouds disappeared and the sun shone down warming up our dull day.

Emily quickly noticed the change in weather and ran to our electronic thermostat in the dining room. "Mom! It's warm out. And sunny. Can we PLEASE go outside? It rained ALL day, which means.... PUDDLES!"
Ugh. Puddles. I, personally, am not a huge fan. But my kids love them and you're only a kid once. So, we put on our rain boots and headed into the backyard.
My children also received big bubble tubes lately, from a Grandma who shall remain nameless, and so they were also eager to try them out.

I have to admit, we had a pretty good time. The sunshine was such a blessing, making us all so cheerful and co-operative.
And it's true. The best part about rain is the puddles.
But the worst part of rain? Is ALSO the puddles.... example:
Even manly-man Jacob did NOT like falling in the muddy water. This was his face afterwards:
But he cheered up quickly with the promise of some trampoline fun.

"Come on in, Mom. It's fun....."
Taking a break :)

What did you do on your cold, cold wet day??

Spring beauty

These beautiful daffodils were growing in our ditch. I don't know exactly how many stems I cut, but there are hundreds more. Once our porch is a little closer to completion (all the heavy construction finished) we will dig them up and transplant them to our new garden which will run along the length of the porch. But for now, I will continue to cut them and bring them in. They make the perfect Easter dinner centerpiece.

Two Little Monkies

Or maybe I should say wolf pups.

These cousins had great fun today while Clara was visiting with us. They ran around howling and Clara yelling "scawwy woof! scawwy woof!"

They are great friends.

The Sound of Music

We finally got a piano.

Emily has been taking piano lessons for about 2 months now and is already at a stage where she needs a piano at home in order to practice.

Both Justin and I wanted to have a piano in the house anyway. Even though neither of us can play, we both think a piano makes a home much more "homey". Having a piano in the house really makes me wish I knew how to play. It's never too late to learn, right? Maybe I'll get some initiative and either learn online, or really get out of my comfort zone and take lessons.

But for now I hear the sweet (?) melodies composed by my two littles. Emily can play a few very simple songs and likes to make up her own songs, too. Jacob just bangs his little "old man hands" on the keys and laughs when he plays really low notes.

We think the piano looks at home here. It needs to be tuned, but we want to wait a while until it acclimatizes to our house. Anyone know a good piano tuner?

pickles and pop

For those of you non-facebookers out there...

Jacob LOVES pickles. This picture may make it seem as though he hates them. But he will eat as many as you give him. It's just that first bite..... wowzers!! But let me assure you, he ate that whole pickle and then two or three more :)

And if you're wondering why his shirt is so wet??? Well, he also loves.....
POP. Yes, pop is bad - very bad - for children. But when Jacob sees a pop can he gets SO excited! "Pop! Pop! Pop!" He shouts. And sometimes ya just gotta give the people what they want.... And hey, it's only Fresca ;)

the kitchen.

WAY before - in all it's carpeted-flowered glory.


A little before - the hideous yellow. It doesn't look too bad in these pictures... I guess you have to be accosted by the ugliness day after day to truly come to despise it.


And finally... now. I LOVE this colour. It changes with the amount of natural light in the room. It's the perfect blend of gray, green, and a light brown.

My baby......

...is growing up, and really isn't a "baby" anymore. But he still gets to be the youngest family member until Aunt Bethany has her baby in September. Then he'll really have to grow up. Although Jacob doesn't have much of a problem getting older. It's his mommy who wants to slow down the process :)

Spring has Sprung.... hopefully!

Could spring actually be around the corner? We hope so, and here's some proof! Even though there's still snow on the ground, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to pull on our galoshes, rain coats, and get outdoors! Poor Jacob fell twice - and in two of our deepest puddles, no less. Good thing we have extra rainboots from Aunt Megan!!

After starring at their swings all winter long, they finally got to put them to use!

Their most favourite activity?? Wadding through our monstrous puddles!

Climbing a tree - or at least attempting to ;)