August 1

Our first of August was a rather special day. Our last day without the twins who were happily camping with their cousins and grandparents. We started with our daily schooling, of course. We had an exciting workbook completion! Emanuel has been working some of these larger K books all year so when we finish one it is huge smiles and celebration!

We finally had a lovely sunny day and some spare time so first thing in the morning I filled up the pool and placed it in a new spot in the backyard. I put the water in early with the hope that in an hour or two the water would warm up in the sun… of course the kids jumped the gun and wanted in as soon as they finished their schoolwork.

This was Echo’s first time in the pool and she made the best of it. The air was not as full as in the beginning, but instead of adding some air I left it softer so she could get in and out easier.

After the pool it was lunch and naps until Ken could get off early to take up out to use some of our soon to expire coupons. We had to sniff soaps and lotions at Bath and Body Works… I really wish I could catch the scrunched up face Echo makes when she smells things. Of course there was free underwear with Victoria’s Secret I could not pass up thanks to my inlaws having gotten a credit card with them an eon ago that I doubt they even have anymore!

It took considerably less time than we had anticipated so we headed over to the Novak’s and then to the park before Aidan’s game.

Echo and her protector in the park Alex

Aidan played like a champ and they WON 1-0!

Aidan is in the yellow pinny as the goalie.

Alex was amazing and perfectly willing to take Trinity and Emanuel to the park to play while we watched Echo and the game. Both were equally cute.

We came home to a happy but tired set of twins and grandparents! I think we all took great advantage of our 3 special days!!!

November 23-24

I don’t normally allow a true four day weekend but with this being the first weekend with Nana and Baba back from Tulum it seemed like the best thing to do. Of course that does not mean we DID much. In fact, Friday was definitely a sit about and relax kind of day. It was at MIDNIGHT Thursday that Ken and I did one more rather “American” thing. We went out for my very first Black Friday.

Apparently it is not the same as it used to be as some stores opened as early as 8 pm on Thanksgiving day, but we decided to wait til midnight with the hopes that the lines would be shorter as well! We only went to two stores – Walmart (crazy lines!!! Lost a mitten… so sad as it is one of my Canadian ones from the Bay from last year, but we will be going back to Walmart to check the lost and found) and Target (the exact opposite, quiet and no lines, and I bought a pair of stretchy gloves for 3.00 to replace the mitten at least temporarily). OH and Starbucks IN Target… I got a Christmas themed coffee for the fun of it, total yum and NOT cheap!

We didn’t buy much but could not resist the pj’s at 4.00 a piece (I really should have bought double sets)… I did finally find out the reason it is called BLACK Friday though… It is because the day after Thanksgiving is seen to be a good shopping day, the day that stores move from being in the red to in the black due to large sales! Interesting but boring reason. So we drove around a bit and saw the crowds and determined that the big thing we needed to get was better purchased ONLINE! BUT now I can say I braved the crowds! And as I promised myself, only bought the things we needed from a select list,  not just sales for sales sake.

It snowed that night!

Anyway, after returning victorious (we also managed to get a copy of Brave for Nana and Baba at the 10.00 sale price) we had some cleaning up to do, and then bedtime. Friday morning we… well we sat around, the kids played computer type stuff and the adults rested. We really did NOT want to go out on Black Friday and face the craziness. Some places had time sensitive sales but really we didn’t NEED anything badly enough to head out. Family together time was a MUCH better choice.

A Short run in the snow since we needed to get boy boots yet

Poor little bruised face

Zander with his reading. They are REALLY improving!

Of course SATURDAY was slightly different. That evening Ken and I went out to Bath and Body works to take advantage of a limited time sale AND the fact that here in the US we can stack coupons. Add to that an American Express gift card I won online and we spent a grand total of 71cents and got almost a hundred dollars worth of items! That included a FREE candle! (I am sure you can imagine how happy the family pyro is with his TWO Christmas scented candles) We had actually planned on going out to get boots for the boys but when we stopped at a gas station to fill up a tire Ken ended up accidentally deflating it and slowed us down to the point where it was just best to head home and plan for another day.

I saved 53 dollars PLUS I had a gift card I won so I only spent 71 cents :)

Instead the boys played Minecraft and they all played games. That freed me up to sew to my heart’s content (though did mean we did not make it to get the yarn I am missing for some Christmas presents). I am done all the hats for all of the kids, and now am moving onto the other people in our life… lots of light bulbs and various ideas are coming to mind so hopefully I can manage to continue at a fair pace without wearing out my hands.

Minecraft AND puzzles

It is definitely winter here, though nowhere near as nasty as we are used to for November. The snow is sticking and the weather more overcast BUT it is still lovely! No -30 Celsius yet!

Poor Echo, her face looks worse before it looks better!

November 17-18

We actually MISSED recording our thankful thoughts Saturday!!! But with good reason – we had a HUGE reason to be thankful that we shared – we got to go visit family for a birthday celebration!

Visiting

I really didn’t take too many pictures but we had a ton of fun

So we had family, pie, good food, puppies and plenty of hugs all to be thankful for! And a lovely reminder as to WHY this move south was really a good reason. For the first time ever we are close enough to enjoy a more casual celebration with members of Ken’s family. It was two of his cousin’s birthdays this month – Robbie and Jessica so we were over at his Aunty Judy and Uncle Jim’s to celebrate. Ken’s other Uncle Greg and Debbie were there too so we had a large portion of the Johnson clan to enjoy time with as well as the relative puppies, fish, and a frog to see! It was a terrific afternoon/evening!

Bossing around Uncle Greg

In the morning Ken and the boys got their hair cut AND Ken SHAVED! So not only did we party but we partied with style! I am one happy (and proud) Momma and wife! On Sunday we DID remember to think of our thankful things!

Trinity: kitties

Emanuel: Thomas the train

Gavin: having a turkey on Thanksgiving

Zander: having a mom and dad

Sunday was a busy but quiet day. We had a slow morning with our new colouring book stack for the kids in the morning. It seems to be working as long as the kids don’t get too excited! And then it was time to rally the troops and run errands.

Of course we had to spend some time on the Nat Geo magazine Gammie got for the kids.

While I do not have the safety buttons I need to finish the penguin for my nephew yet I DO have stuffing… that means the teapot CAN be finished… which would complete everything but Trinity’s wand for her Christmas presents! That feels GREAT! Now to find a special box to put the set in as every little girl wants a nice box for her teaset.

We treated our pretty well behaved kids with ice cream cones from McDonalds on the way home (and a plain burger for Miss Echo). Thankfully we got a good deal on the necessary turkey the day before on the way home from our party so it was minor groceries and stuffing. I love that the nearby center has quite a few of the stores we like (Cub, Michaels, Bath and Body Works, Walmart) all in the same area so we could park and go to a couple and then head to the other side and walk the rest.

When we got home it was MY turn to put a feather on our Gratitude Turkey (sorry about the hair, I was in a rush to get things done).

Turkey

We also made a Thankful family poster. We all took turns drawing little pictures of things we are thankful for. The end result was rather nice, I thought AND it had us ALL talking about and thinking about things in our lives. What made my heart happy was the lack of THINGS, toys, possessions and instead so many things like the sun, friends, family… dinosaurs (guess who said THAT one?). The race is on to get toner so that we can get our centerpiece done for the Thanksgiving table in time.

Our family page

The emails have been checked and it is certain – Tuesday night (after 10) Nana and Baba return so the race is on to try and get all the little things we wanted to get done before they get home done. We have rebuilt the cabinet we brought down with us which of course was missing the rod for the coats that we need a home for (of course a dowel works so we may need to go and get a new one) but we have been working on clearing spaces here and there. The kids are VERY excited that they will be back soon!

Some evening block building (Gavin)