CRAZY Weekend!

Really that's an understatement. The kids had no school for 5 days. So it was a long weekend. I was excited to have them home with me. Of course, the weather did not cooperate. It snowed like crazy on Thursday and Friday. By Friday afternoon we had a tonne of snow. It was pretty cold outside too. The kids went out and helped Richard shovel the driveway and sidewalks. They thought that was great fun!

Talking about CRAZY....here's Brianna with her crazy BIG hair!!! Her hair is super thick and it drives her crazy when it's not up out of her face! I love her hair!

DJ working hard shovelling the driveway!

Abbi, Cadence and DJ taking a break from the work and having fun!

Thursday night we went to the school for a Family Carnival for the VanBrugen family. They lost their father/husband in a tragic accident. It was a way for the community to come together and support them. There was a silent auction too, plus we'd pay for tickets to play various games. It was a lot of fun. The kids had a blast and thought it was fun to have their own tickets to decide what they wanted to spend them on!

Abbi, DJ, Cadence and Brianna showing off their face paintings!

Rrrrrr Matey!! Here is Abbi at the Pirate booth!

Cadence, the cute pirate!

Rrrrrrrrr......DJ thought it was funny!

Brianna was trying to show us her "pirate" face by winking!!

On Friday we stuck around home. Richard did run into Lethbridge for some things and took the kids with him. I was able to work on the sock monkey's that I'm making for my kids for Christmas. I need a LOT more time then 2hrs. But it was a good start! Then the kids painted some Christmas ornaments and played inside. We also made some yummy ginger bread men cookies. They all had a blast doing that.

Our yummy ginger bread men cookies!!

On Saturday, Richard had to work, so I was home with the kids. We cleaned up and I was going to take them into Lethbridge with me, so I could do some shovelling. At the last minute I decided to call a babysitter and leave the kids home. GOOD THING! So away I went. I shovelled for about 3 hrs (we have a contract to shovel in front of the mail boxes). By then my feet were frozen. I still had about 1hr left of shovelling. But decided to come back in Monday to finish it. So I started driving home. Oh I should mention that my suburban was acting funny. Every time I stopped at a sign or just took my foot off the gas, it would rev on it's own and jerk me forward. Even with my foot on the brake it would jerk me back and forth. I was going to call Cody when I got home, because he was down and I was going to see if he could take a quick look at my engine. I drove to Magrath and turned off the highway onto the gravel road which was packed with ice and snow. I was starting to slowly accelerate when I did a fish tail. I took my foot off the gas, so I could control it, totally forgetting about my crazy engine and how it was revving up every time I took my foot off the gas. So it put me into a spin. I still wasn't too worried because I was going pretty slow 20-30km/hr. I figured I could probably drive out of the ditch if I hit it. Well I was going side ways now and hit the ONLY steep ditch around. Both tires on the drivers side dropped and it flipped me into the air and I landed on the roof. It was CRAZY! I remember hearing the roof crunching and I ducked my head and leaned over the steering wheel. Thankfully the airbags didn't go off, or that would of really hurt me. After it was all over I was hanging upside down in my seat belt. I was kind of in shock that I flipped my vehicle. It was still running so I turned off the truck and then turned the radio off. I was still hanging there trying to figure out how to get down with out falling into all the broken glass. I got down and was looking for my cell phone. I was going to call Richard to come help me. I was about 1 1/2 blocks from my house. Somebody stopped and ran and helped me out. I had to finish breaking the passenger window with the floor mat then I crawled out. Somebody called 911 and was getting me an ambulance. I told them I was fine because nothing was hurting and I felt fine. The only thing that I could see was little nicks on my hands from the broken glass. I called Richard and told him I flipped the suburban. He came right away. He told me later that he didn't believe me. He kept thinking I was in a little fender bender. But when he came around the corner and saw the suburban wheels in the air, it kind of freaked him out. We waited for the RCMP to show up and write an accident report. By then I was completely frozen and shaking. Richard took me home and a farmer came with his tractor and flipped the suburban over and drug it to the front of our house. So that's where it's sitting now. We just got the phone call this Friday that it is a total write off and they are paying us out. So now we are hunting for a suburban. Such a pain. We are driving a rental van right now.

There's my poor suburban upside down. As you can see I was less then 6" away from hitting the telephone pole. If I was going fast I would of wrapped around it.

A bunch of stuff flew out the broken window when I rolled. So glad I always wear my seat belt.

I had night mares Saturday night about me crashing and having the kids with me. It really freaked me out. I'm so glad my kids weren't with me. On Monday, the kids stayed with Grandma Paxman for a little bit while I went into Lethbridge to finish shovelling. As I was leaving DJ ran up to me and gave me a big hug and said, "Mom you no cash (crash), otay?" He was very serious and worried. So cute. When I got back he ran around the corner and into my arms and said, "You cash mom, you cash?" I told him no and he smiled and ran off to play!

That was my crazy weekend. Oh by Monday my neck was really hurting me. I ended up with a mild whiplash. So I've been getting that treated too. Hopefully we find a suburban soon.

Halloween 2012!

My kids always give me a hard time about not decorating for Halloween. I really don't get into Halloween that much. I did make them some sugar cookies that we decorated and ate. We also did some orange cupcakes and decorated those. They seemed happy with that. The only reason they were complaining is because I dropped Abbi, Brianna and DJ off at a neighbours house while I took Cadence to the dentist one night. They got to decorate her house with all her Halloween stuff. She had boxes full. They thought that was great!!

We carved our pumpkin on Monday night. We had 3 pumpkins to do but the kids had them outside for decoration and they were frozen one night and then unthawed the next day. So they all turned to mush. So I bought one big pumpkin that the kids all decided on the design and everyone helped clean it out. It worked out perfect. Everyone was happy with it. This year I roasted the pumpkin seeds. Yum!! Cadence and Abbi loved them too! A yummy treat!

All the kids working together cleaning out the pumpkin.

Cadence and Abbi icing our orange cupcakes.

DJ making a face on the cupcake.

Brianna decorating her cupcakes.

Abbi and DJ taking a plate of cupcakes to someones house. They knocked and then ran, we BOOED somebody!!

My cute kids with their pumpkin!

On Wednesday I took the girls to school and told them I'll pick them up for lunch. So DJ and I got their lunch all ready and we went and picked them up. I had cheese pizza and some nacho chips. They ate and then I got them all dressed up for school. They were super excited. DJ got dressed up too! We dropped them back off for school.

Abbi the pretty mermaid, Cadence the girly pirate, DJ as Spiderman and Brianna as a cute cowgirl!

DJ had to put on his mask! He didn't wear it trick or treating.

About 20 mins later we headed back up to the school for the Halloween Parade. It was so fun to watch. The girls get so excited to see DJ and I there. I loved it! So many cute and amazing costumes!

Cute Cadence in the parade!

Abbi and Brianna walking together in the parade! I noticed that Brianna's dress was maybe a little bit small! Oh well! Good thing she had those thick tights on!!

After school I picked the girls up and we headed into Raymond to the chiropractor. That's where my mom works too. The kids were excited to show Grandma Paxman their costumes. I got adjusted and then I picked up some Chinese Food for dinner. We came home and had Chinese food and then got everyone ready to go trick or treating!

It was really cold out this year. We bundled up the kids. Brianna was not liking it. She was so mad. There was no way she was going out. I told her that's fine, she can stay home, that's her choice. I got the kids out in the suburban and Richard tried talking to her. She just sits there with her arms folded and won't talk. S T U B O R N!!!! She finally decided to get her coat on and I helped her get some gloves on. Silly girl!

Away we went. The kids got so much candy. They only got scared a couple of times. Once by a wear wolf holding a bowl of candy. My kids walked right up and took 1 candy from the bowl (a lot of people did that). As Cadence was reaching into the bowl the guy jumped and growled. Oh my, Cadence jumped back with a look of terror on her face. Of course, it had to happen to Cadence. It was so funny. DJ just stood there and watched. The guy told DJ to get a candy but DJ could grab anything with his big mitts on! DJ just looked at him and the guy got him the candy and put it in DJ's bag. I helped DJ down the stairs and he looked at me and said, "Mom that big wolf and nice wolf." It was so cute!! About 3 houses later we were walking away from the door when we heard a loud, "OO OO OO EE EE", gorilla sound. All my kids stopped dead in their tracks. I spotted a big black gorilla hiding behind a bush. It kept making it's loud sound then it started jumping around. It was hilarious. He finally took off his mask and then the kids laughed. Too funny!

We came home at 7:00pm and the kids checked out their loot. Then we brushed their teeth and put them to bed. They had a fun day and enjoyed eating their candy for days after that!

Kids Pictures!

This year the girls got their pictures taken at school. They came home with them and I was not happy with the pictures at all. It looked like the photographer just snapped the picture without caring what the kid were doing. So I decided to take all my kids into Walmart for their pictures. They had a deal going, where they would do a photo shoot with as many poses as I wanted and I got the whole CD with 50 of those pictures enhanced by them. It was an awesome deal for $60. So that's what I did. It was a crazy time, trying to get them all to smile and be happy but I am so happy with the turn out. So now I'm going to over load this post with the pictures! Enjoy!

DJ was a handful, but this turned out pretty cute! Crazy boy!

My 3 gorgeous girls!

Love this picture of my cute boy with his freckles!

Cute picture of DJ with the stuffed wolf!

Abbi's gorgeous blue eyes!

Abbi was having a hard time giving us her beautiful natural smile!! Funny girl!

Abbi with the cute wolf!

Brianna loves to pose and look pretty!

Brianna with the wolf. They all loved this stuffed animal!



Love this one of Brianna. So beautiful!

Cute picture of Cadence with her freckles too!

Cadence had ENOUGH of me bossing her around, she was not impressed! Can you tell?!!

I then told her to do her own poses and that made her happy!

Cadence with the wolf!

This would of been super cute, but DJ would NOT stand still for more then 5 seconds. We'd take the picture then he'd be standing beside me! Crazy boy!



My 4 cute kids hugging each other and DJ trying to get away. Love this picture of them all being happy!

Calgary Temple Trip!

Last month they had the open house for the Calgary Temple going. We decided to go on the last day. It was on a Saturday. But instead of making it in one trip, I booked a hotel and we went up Friday afternoon. It made for a much nicer trip. Not sure what it is about the drive to Calgary, but it's crazy with our family. Seriously, I can drive with my 4 kids by myself to Kalispel, without a hitch. But try a trip to Calgary and they are BONKERS!!! Not sure why, but it's true. So that's why we broke it up into two days.

We got to our hotel, which has a nice water park, and slides. The kids were so excited to go check it out. But we went and ate first then came back and went swimming. Everyone had a blast. I got my exercise running after DJ. He loved the slides. He didn't want to go with me, so I'd go first then catch him at the bottom. Crazy boy. We swam for just over an hour, then called it good. It was getting late.

We got ready for bed and watched TV and had popcorn. Luckily, we all had a good sleep. There was no breakfast in the hotel, so we got up in the morning and went to McDonald's for breakfast. The kids ate good and then played their little hearts out in the play place.

Then we went back to the hotel and got ready to go swimming again. I asked for a later check out and they said that was fine. We were going to check out at 1pm. So we had LOTS of time to go swimming. We were down there for a long time. The kids had fun. I tried and tried to get Brianna to go on the slides but she refused. I finally got her to go on my lap. She said it was fun, but didn't want to go again. The other three just stayed on the slides. I stayed at the bottom and would catch DJ. I missed him one time and he went under the water (he had his life jacket on), and really scared himself. So he decided to play with Brianna. Abbi and Cadence made some new friends and had fun going on the slides with them. There were no lifeguards, so kids would go in long trains on the slides. Another reason why we kept a close eye on them. We made all of our kids wear life jackets. Just makes me feel a bit better!

Abbi and Cadence raced each other down the slides. These two loved the slides! DJ's in the far right corner watching. That's where Richard sat so he could watch everyone.

Brianna and DJ playing in the water together.

Cadence just coming down the green slide!

Abbi just came off the yellow slide.

Brianna and DJ in the kid area. I was up on the stairs looking down at them, sitting in the "waterfall" pool!

DJ going down the little slide.

Brianna loved the little slide. She would of stayed there all day!! Funny girl!

DJ and Brianna played for a LONG time with this water fountain. DJ even got a bucket and would try to put it over the water. It was pretty funny! I videoed it!

Here's my 2 water slide maniacs!! Silly girls!

After a couple of hours we called it good. We went up stairs and we gave all the kids a bath and washed their hair. We all got ready to go. By this time it was snowing pretty hard outside. I didn't come prepared for snow. We all had our hoodies. Oh well! We started driving and decided to have lunch after we went to the Temple. Well, we would regret that decision later on! ha ha!

We found the Temple after an hour of driving. DJ fell asleep on the way. It was impossible to find a parking spot. We finally found one a couple blocks away. I had to carry DJ (since he was still half asleep and insisted on me carrying him), and Richard walked with the girls. We didn't have to wait long and got right into the chapel of the church. Where we watched a very interesting video on the Temples. Then we waited out turn to walk into the temple. Once we got outside, a nice volunteer saw our little "freezing" family. He came and got us and took us right up to the doors and got us inside. He said the girls looked like they were going to freeze to death!! He was very nice.

It was really crowded and we walked through the Temple. It's absolutely beautiful inside and out. Amazing all the work that goes into it. The kids weren't saying much until we came into the Celestial Room. They started to whisper and ask us questions. We stayed in there a bit longer so we could answer their questions. Then we went into a Sealing Room. Again the girls were in awe. They were all asking me questions. I lifted each of them up and showed them the mirrors and how it signifies that we can be a family forever, because their image went on forever. They LOVED that. If someone asks them about the temple, they say they loved the "mirror" room the best! It was a neat experience to have as a family.

It was freezing cold out when we got back outside. I didn't get one picture of the Temple. Hopefully we can go back when it's nicer out and the kids aren't starving. By this time, they were all complaining that they were starving. I didn't blame them since it was 3pm by this time. We came back into the church where they had cookies and water set up for everyone. So we all grabbed a cookie and headed out to the suburban.

It was snowing hard and our windshield wipers weren't working at all. So we stopped at Walmart and we all went in and I took the kids into the bathrooms where we changed out of our church clothes into warmer ones!! Then we headed to the South side of Calgary. It took us FOREVER!!!

We finally made it and stopped at Eastside Mario's for dinner. I think by this time the kids gave up on us. I felt kind of bad. I guess I'm just not used to Calgary traffic. We went in and ordered some appetizers right away and then put in our dinner orders. Usually I order two kid size dinners and my kids share. Since they are all such small eaters. But luckily this time I was smart and had them each pick their own. WOW, they all ate so good. DJ and Brianna cleaned their plates of spaghetti and was licking them off!! I guess I should starve them more often. Ha ha...just joking!

Us eating our appetizers!! Ha ha, I think Richard was hungry too!!

DJ was so excited when his food came out! He chowed down!

Cadence went right to work too, eating all her food!

Brianna finished that whole plate of spaghetti! Our kids were hungry!

Brianna drinking and Abbi eating in the back ground.

DJ just cracked me up. He sat there and just kept eating!! Such a cutie!

Then the kids each got three small ice cream cones. I didn't think that they'd be able to finish them. But they are everything! I'm so glad we stopped there and had a good dinner. The kids were happy and we all had a good time at dinner.

Abbi eating her miniature cones!

Brianna loved eating the ice cream!

DJ didn't want to be bothered, he was enjoying it so much!

Cadence with her cone!

After dinner we all went back out to the suburban. We got the kids all belted in and comfortable with blankets and pillows. I put on a movie and away we went. They did so awesome on the way home. It was snowing hard out. We finally drove out of it by Claresholm. We drove straight home. It was a good little family trip. I'm so glad we did it. It was a good experience!