Awwww

Isn't my husband so sweet!?! I had a good Mother's Day and he made it even better with that previous post from him. Jared and the kids made me a scavenger hunt that took me all over the house to find all my favorite treats/little presents. What a sweet guy. And he has a pretty cute tushie, too.

Sorry honey, I had to :)

Speaking of Mothers, this post is going to be the mother of all updates. The problem with slacking on updating your blog is the pictures really add up. Here's what we've been up to the past few weeks:

I love this picture of my kids. Carter plays computer games while Hayley sits and watches. These two are best little friends and they get along so well together. I hope they always remember how lucky they are to have each other.

Our friends moved away, and I took this picture of the kids the day before they left. Carter misses his little buddy Jordyn and keeps asking me, "why do people have to move away?". It's quite sad.

We went to a Rodeo a couple weeks ago. I think I was more excited about dressing my kids up for the Rodeo, than I was for the actual Rodeo.

This is the only picture because, despite looking adorable, Hayley was not in a picture-taking mood.

With the weather getting warmer, we had our first hot-dog roast of the year.


Have I mentioned I love where we live? These mountains take my breath away every dang time I look at them. It's annoying actually (the whole losing-my-breath thing).


We got to see our good friends the Jarmans. Once again, I always just take pictures of the kids. They're the cute ones.

And yet another hot dog roast/quading, this time with some friends.



This past Friday, we took part in the Move for Health Day in BC - a 3k walk through town. Then we went quading, where we found a picturesque little area and took even more pictures of my outdoorsy kids. They love it.



On Saturday, we went to the Kootenay Children's Festival in Cranbrook. There was tons of fun stuff for the whole family to do, and the best part was it was all free!





It was super fun, we'll have to remember to go back again next year.

This week, we are just chilling at home hoping Hayley recovers from her cold. She's pretty congested and her eyes and nose keep running. She keeps saying, "Mommy, I have more crying on my face" when she wants me to wipe her watering eyes. Poor gal. We need her to recover in time to head up to visit Grandpa, Grandma and Auntie Carly this weekend. Fingers crossed.

To the Best mom
And the Best wife a family can ask for
Happy Mothers Day Jules.

Love Carter, Hayley and Jared

I could really use one of these right about now...

Dang springtime allergies.

Bed Head

My daughter has the best bed head in the mornings. It never fails to amuse us. See?



I wonder where she gets it from?

My sister and me, circa 1987

Check out my crazy 'do! Apparently bed head is genetic - who knew?

See that cute little brunette beside me? It's my older sister Lisa who turns 27 today.

Lisa and me, Easter 1986

Weren't we cute?

My older sister is one of the wittiest people I know. You can hop on over to her blog and wish her a Happy Birthday. It would make her day. And maybe yours, she is that funny. Just don't get too chummy-chummy. She's my fabulous sister, not yours.

For Daddy

Weird

2 days ago, I was digging through a box trying to find cleats and shin pads for our first soccer practice in +24 degree weather.


Today, I found myself digging through a (freshly-packed) box looking for my winter boots so I could go outside and take these pictures:






In the words of my sweet little 2-year-old, "What the heck is going on!?!"

First ride of the year

Springtime

The infamous tower

I stole these pictures from my sis-in-law Leah. She actually remembered to take one of the finished 14 foot Eiffel Tower (with my niece Riley in front). Impressive, oui?

Leah also got a shot of the entire Whidden side of the family. I think the only person missing is little Dryden. Not sure where he was.

Wedded Bliss

This past weekend was Jared's brother's wedding in Cardston/Lethbridge. We headed out for the weekend, and it was so fun being with all the Whiddens and getting to know the bride's family as well.

There was lots going on. Friday night was the Easter Party, with an egg hunt. The kids got way too much candy...



Even the big kids...

Saturday morning was the wedding - Ashton looked beautiful. What a great couple, hey?



All the Whidden grandkids had matching outfits. Here's the girls in their dresses:

Alivia, Riley, Kaysa, Hayley, and Avery

And the studly little boys:

Dryden, Deegan, Ryker, Bauer, Kessler, Carter, Cooper, and Easton

The family dinner was that afternoon. Auntie Allie did an awesome job entertaining all the kids while we waited.




The reception was that evening and it was decorated so beautifully. It was a "Paris" theme and they even had a crazy huge (to the roof) Eiffel Tower, lit up with white lights. No picture -oops.

I don't think my nephew Easton stopped beating up on his dad the whole weekend. What a goofball :)

Kitty

I love how every emotion she portrays consists of the exact same facial expression. The eyebrows shoot straight to the roof. Every time.

*this video is from a couple weeks ago. I still haven't found my camera cord.*

Lost

For the past week, I have been dying to come on here and post all the pictures from off my camera. We have had a busy week with both sets of parents visiting, Carter starting his new swimming lessons, warm weather which marks the start of quadding season, and home reno projects. All of these pictures I would LOVE to share with you, but can't. Why? Because I can't find my camera cord to transfer all the pictures onto the computer. It's lost.

That's not the only thing that's lost.

For my birthday, Jared got me a lululemon hoodie that I only got to wear about 6 times before I couldn't find it anymore. I am still baffled.

Remember our car accident last month? Not only have we "lost" our Explorer and the snomobile trailer, but in all the accident kerfuffle, I cannot find my wedding rings. They somehow got lost in the whole smashed up vehicle/two different hotel rooms/two different rental cars/transfering-all-our stuff-many-times ordeal. I have searched high and low and can't find them anywhere. Just thinking about it makes me so sad, I could just cry.

I'm not usually the type to lose things. Usually I know where everything is, so this is driving me crazy! I have scoured my house from top to bottom to find all these things. I have a wicked clean house, but still can't find anything.

What do I have left to lose? Ok I know what you're all thinking: my mind. Very funny.

Today I am...

excited for some upcoming programs that I enrolled my kids in.

sad to see my parents and sister leave. We had a fun visit with them this past weekend.

sore from rock climbing yesterday.

looking forward to Jared's brother's wedding on Easter weekend. The entire Whidden family will be in attendance, which is a feat in and of itself.

still full. I ate way too much yummy food the past few days.

wanting some of that leftover chinese food in the fridge. Even though I am still full.

dreading the possibility of Jared losing a friendly competition with some coworkers. A competition in which the loser hosts a dinner party for 10+ people.

contemplating a funny, but semi-cruel April Fools joke to play on my husband tomorrow.

trying to find my camera's USB cord so I can upload pictures of our fun weekend, and Carter's first day of swimming lessons.

waiting for our tax return to get here.

wondering why it's snowing.

noticing that practically everyone I know is pregnant with their third child.

not busy, which is a rare occurance over the past couple months. It's nice.

What are YOU today?

"My Parents" - By Carter

There's a little interview that's been making it's rounds in the blogging world that you do with your kids. I did it with Carter, about Jared and I. I asked him for me first (my answers are in RED) and then asked him the same questions for Jared (his answers are in BLUE).

1. What is something mom/dad always says to you?
Me - “Are you going to go to school soon?”
Jared - “Chillin like a villain” (*it's true. He does always say that*)

2. What makes mom/dad happy?
"a kiss"
“Hayley peeing in the potty”

3. What makes mom/dad sad?
"when we were in that car crash"
“she didn’t pee in the potty”

4. How does your mom/dad make you laugh?
"make silly faces like this…""tickle me"

5. What was your mom/dad like as a child?
"barbies"
"basketball" (*I think he thought I meant WHAT did we like as a child*)

6. How old is your mom/dad?
"I don’t want to say, I might get it wrong. Um… 20?"
"20."

7. How tall is your mom/dad?
"Tall like this (stretches his arms as far as they can reach). Like a giant"
"(holds up his hands about a foot apart)" (* Do you think he even understands the question?*)

8. What is her/his favorite thing to do?
"Go to the park" (*I think this is more like HIS favorite thing to do*)
"go swimming!"

9. What does your mom/dad do when you're not around?
"Go to Rhyme Time with Hayley"
"chillax"

10. If your mom/dad becomes famous, what will it be for?
"being good at using a yo-yo" (*???*)
"work"

11. What is your mom/dad really good at?
"playing games"
"getting money to live in our house really long"

12. What is your mom/dad not very good at?
"swimming" (*Sadly, he's right. I am a terrible swimmer. Truthfully, I really just don't like getting my hair wet*)
"I don’t know. He’s only good at everything"

13. What does your mom/dad do for her job?
"work in the house. Just clean up"
"works at the cold line" (*should I tell him it’s really called a coal mine*)

14. What is your mom's/dad's favorite food?
"pizza?" (*once again, he is answering for himself, I think.*)
"frosted flakes"

15. What makes you proud of your mom/dad?
"when we go swimming"
"him swimming really good. Like going under the water" (*ok, I get it. I suck at swimming*)

16. If your mom/dad were a cartoon character, who would she/he be?
"Barney! no that’s a boy... There’s a girl on American dragon!"
"American Dragon!"

17. What do you and your mom/dad do together?
"bake cookies together"
"Go quading."

18. How are you and your mom/dad the same?
"Hey! We’re both wearing green shirts!"
"Our hair! We both have light hair. That’s true! (pause) What does 'true' mean?"

19. How are you and your mom/dad different?
"I have a fox on my shirt and you don’t. And you are bigger than me"
"I’m little and he’s big. I’m just 5"

20. How do you know your mom/dad loves you?
"because I do lots of funny and cool things"
"I don’t know ….what did I say about how you love me? Yeah, that's right for daddy, too"

21. Where is your mom's/dad's favorite place to go?
"Pizza place! That’s a good question, hey?"
"swimming" (*how original*)


For the record, I tried to do this same interview with Hayley and her answer to every question was "Meow". Kitty refuses to comment at this time.

Melodrama at it's finest

Just an example of how normal life at home is way more fun with Hayley:

Yesterday, she asked me for some chocolate milk (we had previously been out of milk for a day or two) and I said sure, I'd get her some.

She then goes (in her wide-eyed, excited voice that raises a few decibels by the end of each sentence), "YOU DID???? You bought MILK!"

Me: "Yep."

She squeals, runs over, gives me the tightest hug and says, "Oh Mommy! Your my BEST FAVORITE EVER!!!!"

So I mix her some chocolate powder into her milk, she grabs it, hugs it, and goes, "Oh chocolate milk! I missed you SO MUCH!"

Oh, the dramatics around here. We were only out of milk for maybe 36 hours.

Luck o' the (Non) Irish

Wow, we have had a crazy past couple days. If good things come in three's, then what do bad things come in? I'm not sure I want to know the answer to that.

Some of you have heard about our car accident on Sunday evening. The good news is we are all fine. We were on our way home from visiting Jared's parents in Vanderhoof. We took our Explorer and brought home their trailer and snowmobiles. The end result equals us spinning off the road, slamming into a tree, and rolling the trailer. Not fun.

Right now I am tired, grumpy, poor (tow trucks are a rip-off), and just want to sleep in my own bed for the first time in days.

Plus I'm a nervous eater, which is not good for my figure. *I'm only kidding about that last comment. Kind of.*

And, don't worry, I am fully aware of how lucky we are to walk out of it unscathed. There were so many factors that could have made things alot worse for us. The kids are fine. We're fine. Glad to finally be home.

Cartoons for Dummies, I mean Mummies

Most mornings, I try to go on the treadmill. The kids just usually hang out with me and watch cartoons while I am excercising. They get bored, leave the room, and I am stuck watching their cartoons with the remote nowhere within reach. As a result, this is what I end up thinking about during my workouts:

- Why is Dora the Explorer's head so stinking big? I get that it didn't occur to the creators at the beginning, but once they added Diego wasn't it clearly obvious that she has an abnormally huge noggin'. And now that they know, would it kill them to make it just a teensy bit smaller with every progressing episode?

- Clifford the Big Red Dog and George Shrinks are completely impossible. That's it.

- Where are Max and Ruby's parents???

- Do you think the people on "Four Square" have families? And do their families actually admit to other people what their real job is? Same goes for The Doodlebops.

- When Lunette the Clown does her stretches/excercising on her clock, she seems like she enjoys it a little too much. Let's keep it PG, sister.

- Imagination Movers... that group seems like kind of a Wiggles rip-off, no?

- The Man in the Yellow Hat is an idiot and is not responsible enough to own a pet.

- Was anyone else disappointed when they replaced Steve with Joe on Blue's Clues?

- What kind of a Transformer name is Bumblebee? With a name like that, how are they supposed to strike fear into the hearts of their evil enemies?

- Contrary to popular opinion, I actually understand the whole Yo Gabba Gabba/Teletubbies/In The Night Garden infatuation. It's like a train wreck - so horrible, you can't even make yourself look away.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch Backyardigans. Now that's a good show.

And so it begins...

Wish me luck!