Bath Time!

Rub a dub dub, 3 little cuties hanging in the tub...

Pretty self explanitory byt too cute not to share!

Look at that little face...Muahhh!!

A back wash from sister...won't they love this picture later in life!!

Hit and a Miss...

For a few months now, our Little Leah has been able to escape from her sleeping bag and crawl out of her crib...She can easily climb out and into her brothers bed, on the change table...really anything! I've found her on the stove, in the sink, on the Kitchen counters...and we've had to install a lock on our front door really high so that she can't escape outside! We thought for her own safety that it was time to switch her to a big girl bed...and we didn't think it was fair to switch one without the other....

We bought a Tinkerbell bed for Leah, and a Car bed for Blake...Since the room they share is fairly small we opted for the toddler bed size, we'll eventually have to move the girls together with bunkbeds...

The babies watched with excited anticipation for several hours of dismantling the cribs and assembling of the new beds, which was a pain in the butt... Blakes car bed didn't come with any hardware and Mama Leanna and Papa Murray who were there for the assembly, made a 8pm trip to Toys R us...When they got back home, Leah dropped a pretty important bolt down a hole in the frame that we couldn't get out...9:30pm and way past bedtime we threw in the towel and put his mattress on the floor...

What happened for the next few hours was a Party in their room...Jumping on the beds, climbing out...on and on and on...there was no sign of sleep so close to midnight we brough in the playpen for Blake who happily crawled in and went to sleep...Leah did end up sleeping in her bed for the whole night.... 

The next day we got the car bed fixed up and ready for nap time...and what happened over the next few hours was hands down the craziest few hours of parenting I have ever experienced...There were stickers ripped off the walls, blinds bent, their newborn picture above their change table was painted with diaper cream, the light kept being turned on, the closet was opened and all the nicely hung and folded clothes thrown every where...No less than 300 wipes shredded into tiny pieces, diapers everywhere...The destruction would happen in 2 minute intervals as I'd leave and give them a few minutes to try and settle themselves...They had no concept of what they were suppose to be doing...and while it sounds like I should have thought of these things before they happened believe me I did...they are just crafty enough to move the chair I had infront of the closet door out of the way and scale the shelves to things they shouldn't have been able to get! A thermometer dipped into the diaper cream as a paint brush...

Crafty Leah, very crafty!

Needless to say, I could not see this getting better any time soon, and had visions of this happening for hours on end through the night and for days to come...I literally almost lost my mind and even before Kirk arrived back home from work, the little toddler beds were in the basement and the cribs were reinstalled....

My sanity won the battle of the beds...Thankfully we haven't have any issues since...Leah can still crawl out and still does, we often find her in Blakes bed...I think we'll be keeping the cribs as long as humanly possible!!

The beds set up the first and only morning!

 Pipsqueak in her "Binkerbell" Bed...

 PAAARTTYY!!!

 The 3 of them did look pretty cute all tucked into the car bed...

 The only 2 seconds he stayed in his bed...

Their room looks awfully bare in these pictures...Its hard to imagine they could have found the trouble they did!!!

I would like to add for the record that Alyssa who is now 5 and been in a bed since she turned 2 has never once crawled out of her bed...EVER! She still to this day calls me when she wakes up to come and get her...

Flashback Friday...2003

We started 2003 in Mexico...

 Kirk had his beloved BMW...

 We spend lots of time with Baby Marko...

Erv got his boat, and Kirk thought it was his...

 A trip to Vegas...

Ahh so much fun!!

Finding the Joy...

Somedays I feel like I Rock this Stay at home mom thing...Somedays not so much...Some days I have an infinite amount of patience and somedays not so much...Somedays I can be a good mom, a good wife and a good housekeeper all in the same day even!! Somedays not so much!

Today was not a good day for me, no particular reason I just wasn't feeling it...Awhile back I stumbled on another Mama's Blog post (I think it was Julia) and it said something along the lines of

"Seek Joy and you will find it".

What a simple phrase...but somehow its changed my whole perspective on life in general...and more times than not, I can literally Find the Joy all day long!!

Since I came home from Vegas its been pure insanity around here...My Darling Kirk has been working like a mad man...Several all day meetings turned into dinner and running til 11pm, and sometimes issues arise that need to be worked on until they are resolved...Sometimes that means him pulling all nighters and around the clock working for days at a time...When that happens, I also have to step up my game...Being supportive and helpful to him as much as I can to help avoid even more stress...and take on Full time parenting...That is however the nature of his job and while it takes a toll on everyone, I have been trying to Find the Joy in situations like this to help me through the rough times...there is almost always some joy to be found...Thanks to his hard work ethic he has worked his way up to a position that gives me the ability to stay at home with our kids...and he Finds Joy being able to provide for his family...

The weather last week was something like I haven't seen for years! The day time high was -30! One night the temperature was -36 with a windchill it was -49...I'm not sure I've ever seen temperatures like that...I am a very social person, and this whole being stuck at home inside so much with not much adult interaction can drive me looney...Trust me its true, I actually at one point this weekend layed on the floor and yelled and kicked my feet like a 2 year old...Finding the joy with -49 temperatures with a husband who has been locked in our room working on a problem for 4 days straight, 3 housebound kids and a looney mother is no small feat...I often text back and forth with another Mama who has a 4 year old boy and almost 2 year old twin boys and we Joke..."Not finding the joy over here, how about you?"...Perhaps the combination of all of the above is the cause of my mood today...

Since adopting my new Mantra, I have been trying to find the joy in the smallest things...and it makes me Happy...Even on days where my mood is questionable...there is always room for some Joy!

Saturday Morning Pancakes...

Playing Lego in my Pjs with my kids at noon...

 Painting tiny fingernails and toenails...

Tea Parties...
A walk on a Sunny Winter Day...

Watching a tiny boy line up his tiny toy cars ever so perfect...

A glass of wine with my Hubby chatting about our days...

A loyal puppy who follows me everywhere...

A Starbucks Americano...

A bubble bath and my book...

Like many others out there who are choosing a Word of the Year, I am choosing Joy...

 I hope this year I am able to find the Joy in the small things and be Happy because of it...

 Life is too short to be anything other than Happy!

Catch up..

On we forge without the other camera :(

Christmas Eve was Spent at Kirk's Sisters house...We had a lovely dinner the cousins all have so much fun playing together...we really need to try to do it more often...Ronda had sent me this picture from that night...Its about the best we can do for a family picture these days! I'll have to borrow Erv's camera and get some more pictures from that night so we can post some pictures of our nice night with everyone...

Christmas Morning we stayed home and the kids had fun playing with their new things...

This was after Santa arrived but before the kids woke up...It looked more like a bomb went off after they woke up...

Christmas Dinner at Mama and Papa's was great...Dinner was delicious as it always is, and the kids were spoiled with more gifts...We missed Kris & Jane this year, as they were over at Jane's sister house...

 Kisses from Mama Leanna...

Not sure where Leah picked this up, but she does it all the time now...

Fun with Papa!

Family picture Attempt...

                             Family Picture Take #2...                        

 Blakes new truck...all 3 fit in it, and Daddy pushes them around super fast

Boxing Day Was going to be spent tobogganing with Dinner at Kris's but with no snow and a few exhausted adults the plans were haulted for another time...

What was going to be a quick gift drop off turned into a fun lunch with the kids having fun together 

   ...Once again we were spoiled with more presents...

A visit with Great Grandma & Grandpa I Love their new place...

Sadly this week a pipe burst through half of the building and they were evacuated and are now staying at my Aunt Sandy's house...

   Grandma spent some time in the hospital a few weeks back for her oxygen levels but she seems to be doing better now

 Grandpa had sugery last week to remove some teeth and he seems to be in quite a bit of pain still...

Lots of love and prayers for them

so they can get back home soon and get back to feeling good!

Maja's 1st Birthday

Its hard to believe little Maja is already 1...This year just flew by!

Yummy Lemon cupcakes!

 Lots of helpers to open Presents!

Mama and her boy...

 Sweetest Girl Ever!!!

Funniest Girl Ever!!!

Cutest Little Man....

 New Years Eve we had our 2nd Annual Family Sleepover with Kris and Jane & kids...The bigger girls are missing from the pictures, they are at the age where they just go off and do their own thing...they did have a great time though! The little ones did a lot of jumping in the bouncy house, and hanging out with their Auntie & Uncle and little Gabe...

Snuggles with Auntie...

That Gunkle sure is a fun guy!

Once the wee ones went to bed we pulled out some board games, some drinks and had a Super fun time...After a few rounds of Cadoo Cranium we realized we were playing a kids game...hahaha...thats ok the decoder glasses were worth it...

Good times...Good times!!! 

Well I think I've finally caught up on holiday pictures...