3 days … well ALMOST 3 full days at Grandma’s house after THREE MONTHS of not travelling = sad kids and Mommy when it was time to go home! BUT the time there was a blessing. Do you know, I think we are the only family with a TOILET at the top of a Christmas tree at Grandma and Grandpa’s?? Seriously! It won second place at the college. 

Isn't it awesome?

Close up

With Ken having work to finish and laundry running we made it to Grandma’s around supper time on Thursday. Oh and  you would not believe how long it takes to get to Grandma’s… ever so long… and it is SOOO boring… (got too dark to play UNO too quickly I guess). We made sure to leave room in the van for the return trip. One of the few times I miss the old van. I am proud to report that our newest repair by Canadian Tire held and was terrific, though we still smell some burning coolant (and will due to puddles that froze). So another trip to the Grandparents’ is in the works already! 

Grandma's house is the best I am told!

We were all up late and Trinity was, as usual, in our bed splayed all over. Mom and Mike have a boarder over the holidays when he cannot be on dorms. He is VERY nice and great with the kids and apparently eats anything. We ousted him from his bed for his last night there but he was a great sport… and planning on being out and about that night anyway. 

Friday was our first WHOLE day at the house in ages… tv’s were rediscovered, a toy room trashed and eventually cleaned up, backyard explored… no one was bored! AND Ken got a TON of work done in the basement in his corner. Zander, mom and I went out and got his glasses straightened, stopped in at the baby store (no size mediums to be had boo) AND stopped in where Gavin’s godmother Christine works (pharmacy) to see when she was in (4-12). Later Ken and Gavin took his present and saw her at work where she was invited to stop by before she headed off to her parents’ on Christmas Eve. 

Mom did a lot of the cooking for Christmas Eve dinner on Friday so that Saturday we had spare time. Mom did some crafts with the kids as well… She and Trinity finished an angel ornament together! 

Crafting with Grandma

Oh and we cannot forget the traditional decorating of the Christmas tree (the one WITHOUT a toilet at the top). We had minimal breakage and TONS of fun. With Echo in the thick of it UN-decorating the tree to boot! We put on maybe half the ornaments mom has collected over the decades on the tree… the new black tree is smaller than the old green one (it is the one that found new life as a maintenance themed tree). 

I had to take various pictures with various camera settings of course!

With Grandpa Mike AND a stool to help

Echo helping Grandma

So pretty!

Don't forget about the Christmas train set - with added stops for fun of course

Saturday was Christmas Eve of course which meant even MORE excitement… by 10:30 or so we had Christine AND her two puppies Bella and Jasper over for a visit AND mom’s dip. It was a visit long overdue and we chatted well past noon and her projected leaving time. While she was here Uncle Wayne got in for the day as well. 

Bella

Jasper

It really is true, in Mom's house the KITCHEN is where it is at!! Having dip and hanging out!

Before she left for her family gathering we HAD TO open the presents! Lots of crafty things for the kids (which we did by Christmas Day of course!). And the maintenance designed tree had to be shown off of course!

PRESENTS!

Just a happy boy with his God Mommy

It was an important first for Trinity too – Grandma gave her her first trim!!! Just a tiny bit off the bottom to get rid of the dry bits. Very exciting!

Just a TRIM now

We decided to open the rest of the presents before dinner as Mike got called into work due to a boiler issue that took some time to correct. Paper flew, toys went wild and the kids were over the moon!! 

Uncle Wayne and the fancy tree

Girly presents

Chaos!

We had supper around 3… well most of us did, mom and Mike ran out to a coffee that ended up being 2 hours long. But it was delicious. 

Turkey dinner

After mom and Mike got back we had Mike open his presents, played some and then it was time for a rather tearful goodbye. AND packing the van to the gills. Of course Mike got called back into work AGAIN and managed to make it back just in time to see us off. 

Watching Grandpa Mike open... the wrong present !!

Mom's gift from Mike - those are black and white diamonds!

We decimated this dip! While they played Clue Jr. Mom, Uncle Wayne and I finished this puppy off

Our drive was uneventful though there were tears still shed and some boredom. We got home, piled out and then the great emptying of the vehicle began… SO MUCH STUFF! AND a phone call to boot – Esther! Well worth the interruption. She has given us some lovely tax advice and calmed some fears in the same regards. Esther you are our hero and certainly do NOT visit your little Reinsch-Johnson Canadian family enough (you do know it is too late – you ARE one of us). 

Once we got in, put on new pj’s, put the baby to bed and tidied it was time for our Santa picture! Santa got chocolate milk in a WINE glass AND a plate FULL of oreos. Of course the kids had to sample first! 

Cookies and CHOCOLATE milk for Santa... with our key ready to go into the mailbox

Then bed for the kids and finishing touches for the adults. Christmas Eve was a lovely day and ended with everyone tired and ready for the big day!

It was Remembrance Day today. This year has special significance to our family as my new brother-in-law Adam is overseas for 6 months. So please keep a special thought/prayer in your heart for him and his safety. He will be gone over Christmas leaving my sister Kat alone in the south. This comes quite soon after their wedding day and we cannot get down to her to visit. Please remember all in the military! Regardless of how you feel about current world events these individuals are amazing people who have sacrificed a lot to ensure that the world is a safer place. 

So yesterday apparently being told that since you did NOT follow simple instructions and do your schoolwork without grumbling you would NOT be getting your allowance today was grounds for a major full out screaming old fashioned temper tantrum. Well only if your name is Gavin. That was actually a huge surprise as he is usually my level headed boy who understands that behaviours have consequences. We simply had to have him yell himself out a bit in his bedroom (with the door closed as of course this occurs during naptime for Emanuel and Trinity), and then go downstairs and talk to Daddy. With Ken swamped with work lately we are all feeling the lack of Kenny time. 

The 4 kids DID manage some somewhat peaceful quality time working on Emanuel’s Thomas Mega Blocks trainset on his bed. I love it when they can all work together on something, there was chatter about the adventures the trains were on, the town they drove through…

Train set

We read our snowflake library books. Two of which were based on Wilson A. Bentley and his snowflake photographs. We drew our own snowflakes on black paper to look like his negatives and included a quote: No two snowflakes are alike. Gavin did a whole mini book of his own snowflakes to include in his snowflake lapbook. 

So pretty!

Today was a special day for the twins, they got to go to the Agri-trade show with their Uncle Wayne! So that meant we ALL had to be up and them ready by 9 am, early for our family. Since only the twins could go (handful they are and his truck can only hold so many) the little ones and I had our morning to ourselves. We started with popcorn and the jumperoo…

Popcorn

And moved swiftly into painting. There were some fridge magnet kits though the paint included in those was dried rock solid. Thank goodness we have a large  variety of colours, though I noticed my yellow is getting low. Trinity went one step further and did a painting as well… so of course baths followed! 

Painting together

Painting on paper

Last night I opened up my Etsy store! I haven’t posted much but it is a start! I need to get Ken to make me a logo and post up a few more items but I am starting small. Etsy charges 20 cents per post so I don’t want to go hugely into the hole and then find out I can sell nothing! So please click the link above and take a look… suggestions welcome, sales even more so! I have put the shipping low so far and will see how items go. I want to try and charge as close to what it costs me to ship as possible. 

Today was full of fun with friends… Trinity, Echo and I went out with Kathy and Karyn shopping for post potty training Kitty booty. She picked out socks (knee!) and a necklace/bracelet set (pictures to follow). Then there was the food court and Edo Japan (ok Arby’s curly fries for the picky Trinity) and then Michaels for a bit more shopping (oops). 

At the mall

Wore her out!

The twins had an amazing time with their uncle. They came back with a whole bunch of booty, memories and stories to tell… oh and yoyos. Again pictures to follow as after a fun day out I am too lazy to take pictures of all the goodies!!!

Oh and the most awesome of friends kept me company even into tonight! We had Little Caesar’s for cheap food… and chatting was done… and now I have to post this silly entry before I forget!!! Remember to go back to this entryand enter the draw! 

YAY company!

What a weekend. We started it of on a great note… first off Ken went and got his hair cut (yay!!). And then was our cousin (maternal) bbq. We had all 3 of my cousins combined with Veronika’s fiancée Adam over. That meant 4 new people to tell all their adventures to. They drug Elizabeth off to the bedrooms for stories and play time.

Chatting in the livingroom... Veronika is in the back, Elizabeth on the couch and you can just see Katie's hair on the rocking chair.

Elizabeth in Emanuel's room

Dinner was a great success. We had beans (the ones I usually make), a Caesar salad thanks to Veronika, stuffed potatoes brought by Elizabeth, banana bread (made that morning) and then cake we didn’t make it to (Katie). The kids ate a ton and we still have left overs. 

After dinner was make up time. Veronika is on another course and needs  to do a certain number of faces before her test. She had time to do Elizabeth and Katie’s here at our house. Fun! By this time Echo had come to the realization that the cousins really aren’t that bad and was ready to cuddle. 

Working on Elizabeth's make-up

Oldest and youngest cousins

We finished our gift for Uncle Wayne on Friday. Each of the kids made pictures to put together into a book. They wanted to give him something special for his birthday that was on Friday. They put effort into it each day this past week with the making of the cover on Friday.

A very simple cover

One of the inside drawings

I made Jimmie’s card this year. Just playing around with paper and stamps and embossing. I am actually starting to feel the crafting urge when it comes to paper craft.

Skinny elephant

Inside

I did have a minor hiccup with my birthday purchases – the sunglasses I picked up had BIFOCALS on them… so unfair. Winners has a 10 day return policy and I am very glad I kept my receipt and tags. Very frustrating. 

I have decided, we need to have MORE family visits… it is absolutely amazing to have the ability to build a relationship with my cousins as adults. The age gap ranges from 12 years to 7 years between them and me so this is a whole new thing and a definite blessing.

The landlord came by Friday to spray the yard for weeds, so for 48 hours the grass is a no play zone. Luckily BEFORE that the twins and I went out and attempted to emulate a weed wacker. Ours is still not working. So the end result – we found 2 VERY active ant hills (not red) and the lawn looked much nicer. I couldn’t resist but take some pictures of our own sheep – Petite Sheepette and Bitsy Sheep with their Nanny Sheep. The boys thought it was beyond cute. AND I managed NOT to put them on the ant hills first try!

Out in the green

I snuck out for a walk Friday afternoon with JUST Echo in the single stroller with NO carseat! She is still a bit small to have the straps keep her perfectly in place but she had fun and got compliments. The netting is a great thing I got way back when the twins were born. And the slurpee was lovely and HUGE.

In the stroller like a big girl

"the Tub"

Our Saturday was pretty much epic… first off was getting the whole family ready AND out the door BEFORE 11 am to head over an hour out to my nephew Jimmie’s 6th birthday party. We were supposed to swing by Superstore to get the “prinpress shoes” our Trinity has been patiently asking after, but without the time AND a temper tantrum over the potty it just wasn’t a go. Neither was stopping at Winners to return the blasted sunglasses BUT we did get out earlier than expected. Of course there was at least 2 trips to get everything into the van that we could possibly need – everything from a playpen (in case of nap) to swim suits (in case of rain) and the stroller (which we actually used).

We managed to find my brother’s place without too much trouble and beat mom and Uncle Wayne there by a bit of time. We actually beat the birthday boy there too! He had swimming lessons and then they had to pick up the cake on the way home. So we got some time with just Aunty Holly and her mom up from Texas. They had Trinity’s belated birthday presents. A Hello Kitty dressed in leopard print and a sweet little Hello Kitty coin bank. She was over the moon!

Belated Birthday

Echo and Aunty Holly's Mom

There was bubbles, balls, rackets and even some sort of animal shaped grabbers. At first it wasn’t too hot but the heat came rather quickly. Sadly the shade was ant infested but we lucked out with the lack of mosquitoes… a clear indication that we were NOT in Edmonton. After all right now Edmonton is the mosquito capital of Canada!!!

Playing in the sun

We were out there over 4 hours in the sun with pizza, cake, watermelon and other goodies. The kids ran and ran and ran until the baby was more than done.

Enjoying the sun (note the OTHER Alaska shirt and the OLD sunglasses... they are missing a screw but do in a pinch)

Look at his awesome haircut!

We spent some time in their apartment before heading out. We got to pet one of their cats… not sure where the other was hiding. Echo was enthralled of course. She is a huge animal fan at this point. This gave me enough time to call up Veronika and ensure they were home.

Echo and Eris

I had to lend my face to her course work again. And during that visit the kids watched tv, played the new Xbox Connect, terrorized… I mean played with the pets (Combyne, Holli and Dinah the cat). Dinner was amazing – steaks cooked to perfection, steamed veggies and Caesar salad. Adam is amazing with the BBQ.

Playing Guess Who with Cousin Veronika

Hanging with Combyne

We all walked to the nearby 7-11 with the puppies… the boys took turns walking them. It was nice to get out for a walk in the now cooler evening. Veronika wanted to treat the kids to little slurpees for desert. They are super close to their 7-11, so are James and Holly! Lucky duckies.

Walking the dogs to 7-11

Veronika did MY make-up on Saturday for her schooling. I was already turning red from my burn but she did an AMAZING job. I am so looking forward to her doing our make up in August for the wedding. And can’t wait to brag about her to anyone and everyone to get her more business! Seriously, I love having her do my make up. And I am not a big wearer.

Natural look

It was well past 9pm when we finally got out the door to go home. The drive home was REALLY quiet with the kids nodding off before very long. With the amount of energy they used over Saturday we were NOT surprised. Actually I was amazed at how much energy they had at Cousin Veronika’s.

While today was a super quiet day (I even got in a nap which helped with the sunburn a little) this evening I got out for some girls time with pizza at Lauralee’s (homemade) with Karyn and Echo as well. We had pizza, played with the kitties (Xena and Gabrielle) and just generally hung out. What a great end to a busy weekend.

Echo and I think Gabrielle

OK one hitch in the weekend – well two combined… Ken accidentally locked the keys in the van while it was running before he and Trinity were able to head out to look at the “prinpress shoes” and then once the AMA guy came… and VERY quickly unlocked it were unable to find a pair of shoes at the store that fit. Her feet were too wide. So I am hoping the ones I saw at H&M previously COULD fit her feet better. Ken says she handled the idea of going to another store rather well… after all we have to head to the south end of the city to get my photos AND return my sunglasses… although on Wednesday we have to head back to the city to get to Echo’s cardiologist appointment. I am not sure if we will visit any parks there, the mosquitoes are rather bad. It will be a long morning at the hospital for the appointments anyway.

We had a VERY busy weekend, got in some quality play with their cousin… spent tons of quality time with MY cousins and have seen a lot of sun. I am not sure how much going out we will get this week upcoming. I am a little nervous about the appointments… they WILL be weighing Echo… and still rather burnt to a crisp BUT we have a story to finish, a bunch of cleaning to do and hopefully a chance to put ECHO in the girl pool. Either way this weekend will be a pleasant memory to bring up when the kids get stressed or frustrated. OH and Fat Sheep has done some blogging! Be sure to read all about it HERE!

Mom with ALL her grandkids

Uncle Wayne and his "greats"

James, Holly, Jimmie and Holly's mom