Playing Catch Up!

OK I decided to just do a very random post to catch up on everything. We've had lots going on in the last little bit. I just want to get it written down, before I forget to write about it at all.

1. We've been working on our house plans. We've had some drawn up about 6 years ago, but since then we've decided we want the house a bit different. So someone showed Richard a cool program on the computer and we've been drawing up our own. I went and walked through a house I really liked about a year ago. They gave us a copy of their plans and we've made our own adjustments. I'm getting super excited. Once we have it drawn up, I can put a copy on here. But hopefully we can start in the next month or so. So, so excited. The kids are too!

2. Our neighbours, the Webster's, have been going through a really scary time. Andrea was due to have her baby about a month ago. She went in and had her baby girl, then Andrea had a heart attack. She flat lined. Anyways, to make a long story short. She's had three heart attacks and 1 stroke, but she is fighting hard and starting to recover. It's been 4 weeks and she is in the Foothills in Calgary. She has 3 year old twins and her new daughter. So the twins have been over here quite a bit, just playing. Our heart breaks for their family. But there have been miracles and lots of prayers going their way. We sat our kids down and talked about what happened, and we always include them in our prayers. It's so sweet when the kids pray for the twins mom or the neighbours mom. So sweet. DJ, Kai and Beck have had a lot of fun playing together. They can get pretty crazy and wild. Fun times!

Kai pretending to drive the bus.

DJ driving the bus. He really gets into with his sounds!!

Beck trying to drive with Kai climbing in behind him.

Cute picture of DJ, Kai and Beck. We went and did a quick bus run with them. They all had so much fun!

Snack time! They all took off their shirts like, "real men"!! DJ was eating then he put his finger up and said, "Wait for it, wait for it", then he burped really loud. Here's the twins laughing at him! Too funny!

3. My girls are in basketball camp again this year. Brianna originally said no, but after the first week she was interested. So she went the 2nd week and had fun. Oh I should mention that the first week I had to basically dragged Cadence to the middle of the gym. She was crying and saying no. But, I only signed her up because she really wanted too do it. So I told her she has to at least try it. So I pulled her in and sat down with her. I did the first few exercises with her and then she was happy. She did so well. So did Abbi. Then Brianna came the next week. She had fun too. But then Cadence go hit in the head with a ball and was crying. A few minutes later Brianna got hit in the face with the ball. So I had them both in my arms crying. Brianna looked at me and said, "This is crazy, I don't ever want to play again." Oh, it was so funny. I finally got them calmed down and they went back out and started shooting. They were doing so good. I think that they will go again! Ha ha!

Cadence shooting and she made it! Yeah!

Passing the ball while they are sitting! Cadence and Brianna(in black shirt) were partners.

Cadence guarding Brianna. It was hilarious. They couldn't stop laughing!!

Abbi shooting the ball.

Brianna shooting the ball. I had to show her how to bend her knees so she could get the ball up to the net.

Brianna and Cadence playing a dribbling game!

This is half the kids at the basketball camp (Grade 2). My 3 girls are in here.

4. All my kids say annoying wrong. And it's so annoying! Ha ha! They say it like this, "Stop, that's so annoring." Seriously, all the time. Doesn't matter how many times we correct them.

5. DJ is doing so good at school. He is now going all 4 days. Monday and Wednesdays are up on the stage. It's just him and 3 other boys. He loves these days. They do a lot of physical stuff, like gymnastics, playing floor hockey, jumping etc. Then Tues and Thurs are pre-school. It's been 4 weeks and we haven't had one melt down about going to school. YEAH!

Happy DJ playing a game on the IPad!

Serious DJ!!

6. It was super nice outside about 2 weeks ago. The kids didn't have school on Friday and we were watching Kai and Beck for the day. So we decided to go for a bike ride. I walked and herded along the 6 kids!! We went to the park and played there for hours. They had so much fun. Then we started back. Not so much fun! Kai was tired so I had him on my shoulders and was carrying his bike. Plus I had 1 shoe off and was carrying that. I had a huge blister that was killing me. We were quite the site. We stopped and got a bandaid for me from the Bruce's. Then we left a bunch of bikes and kept walking. By then both the twins were crying that they were tired. So I had them all sit down and Abbi stayed with them, while I ran back to get the truck. I picked them up and went back and got all the bikes. Oh fun! Then we had a big lunch. Everyone was tired and hungry.

This was a different day. But here's the twins and DJ throwing rocks on the ice.

DJ riding his bike and giving his stuffed animal a ride!

Beck and DJ having a snack at the park!

DJ driving his monster truck!

7. That same day, later, we went and fed the horses across the road from us. At about 1:30pm that same day, we added 2 more kids to our mix! Ha ha! I was watching them for a friend for a bit. So all 9 of us went across the road and were feeding the horses. Then we found a big puddle, which everyone had to take a turn jumping in and splashing. By this time Kai and Beck were both soaked. We walked them back to their house. They were crying, because they wanted to stay with us. It was almost 4pm. We had a lot of fun with them. Then we took the other two back home too. It was a fun day!

The kids feeding some of the horses!

Those lucky horses!

The huge puddle the kids were having fun in!

Cadence and Beck ready to jump in!

8. Keira has been over a few times lately. We always have fun with Keira. I took her to Lethbridge with me one morning, after we dropped the kids off at school. I had a list of things to do. She insisted on bringing her stuffed puppy. So away we went.

Keira walking through the tiny puddle with her puppy!

Keira and DJ playing in the backyard. She thought it was funny she could go in the bath tub!!

9. My girls have been in their school choir this year. Last Wednesday they went to Cardston and sang in the festival there. DJ and I went up to listen. I was so proud of my three girls. They do a good job! We got to take a picture before they sang. They sang three songs. They were super good. Then on Friday we went to the school assembly and I got to record them sing those songs.

Here's a picture of the whole choir.

Here's Abbi, 2nd from the left on the front.

Then Brianna and Cadence are standing by each other. You can't miss Cadence with her red hair!!

10. My kids are so funny when they watch a show. I found them one day all cuddle up on the floor and our chair watching a movie on the computer. It was pretty cute. I made them some popcorn to go with it too. Then another day I found DJ on his bed watching on the Ipad. Richard was cuddled up next to him and Brianna on top of her dad. They were all focused on the show! Ha ha! So funny!

Movie time at the Spencer's!!

Relaxing in DJ's newly cleaned, painted and organized room!

11. We've had some crazy weather lately. On March 20th, the first day of spring, we had a huge snow storm. We woke up that morning and there was no snow. We were at my parents house (long story, but we were painting our house and stretching carpet and cleaning carpet), and I got the kids ready for school. Then we took off for Magrath. The clouds were so black over by Magrath. All my kids were commenting on the clouds. It looked pretty cool. So I took a picture and then about 1hr later we were in the middle of a blizzard! Crazy!

Love this picture! Driving away from my parents farm. The sky was so dark.

Then behind us it was still blue.

This was a couple hours later. Crazy stuff!!

12. This winter has been so LONG!! Driving me and everyone in our family crazy! The kids just want to go outside and enjoy the nice weather. But the weather isn't cooperating. We went to my parents one afternoon and the kids had fun running on their treadmill. I was helping them. It was pretty entertaining!! We were all laughing!

Brianna and DJ running together.

Cadence squished in and Brianna ended up flying off! Ha ha!

13. We have been working hard getting things done in our house. We put it up for sale last week. The week before, we got the carpet re stretched, and then we cleaned the carpet. It looks amazing. Then before we put all the furniture back, we decided to paint all the bedrooms. Huge difference. It was a crazy week, but we got a lot done. I dejunked a lot of stuff, and packed up things and put things in a storage space we rented. It makes it so much easier to keep clean, with less stuff.

We painted the rooms all a light grey color. I love it. This is Cadence's room.

Richard painted himself into a corner and couldn't get back to his ladder. We were all laughing. I heard him call for me, "Janae I need help!" Too funny!

Cadence's room, nice and neat!! Richard made all the girls a desk out of DJ's dresser. They all love them!

14. We've had lots of friends over to play lately. I noticed the kids took some pictures on my camera so I wanted to post them.

Alexa and Cadence!

Alexa! Brianna and Cadence both enjoy doing things with Alexa!

Beck and Kai watching on the Ipad with Abbi!

Kai and Beck eating some yummy macaroni!

Reading Week!

We had the whole week off. When we got back from Kalispell on Sunday, I wasn't feeling the greatest. By Monday, I felt absolutely terrible. So we just stayed home. Richard ended going on camp with the deacons from our ward. The kids were good and kept each other busy and happy. We had a movie night, with popcorn and snacks.

Abbi showed everyone how to make pin wheels. They thought it was pretty cool!

Abbi was pretty proud of herself that she remembered how to do it. Way to go Abbi!

Just a normal lazy morning in our house. DJ watching cartoons on my Ipad!

Did pretty much the same thing on Tuesday. I was starting to feel a little bit better. Not quite as miserable!! The girls had some friends over in the morning. Cadence had her friend, Alexa. They get along really good and have fun together. I believe Abbi had Lillie over and then ended up going over there. Brianna plays good with Cadence and Alexa. Then we had Dustin come play with DJ. It was a fun play date day!

On Wednesday the girls were all in Cheer Camp. It ran from 10-2pm. They were all super excited to go. It was just a one day thing. They came home and were so excited to show us their different moves. Their favorite ones were the pyramid. And since there's three of them, they could show me. It was so funny to watch. We were all laughing pretty good. I took some pictures of them doing it too! They were all happy they went. I was glad they had a good time.

This is my favorite. Cadence thought for sure her sisters were going to drop her.

Brianna has good balance. They had so much fun showing us their different moves!

DJ and I just stayed home and played. I cleaned up the house too. Shelly, had asked earlier in the week if the kids wanted to have a sleep over at her house. So we planned on Wednesday after Cheer Camp. I was going to take them up to Cardston. So DJ and I packed everyones bags and had everything ready when they got home. I didn't tell them about it till we picked them up. They were all super excited. Their cousins, Jazi and Seth had been living there for a bit. This is while Lisa and Brian's new house was being built in Calgary. So they were excited to play with their cousins.

I took them, and stayed there for a while. Then I said good bye to my kids and told them to be good! DJ was happy to stay too! I never know with him! So I came home and met Richard at the house. He changed and we went into Lethbridge to have dinner and shop for a few things. It was perfect! I needed some new jeans. It was a fun evening. Then we came home and watched a movie.

Thursday morning we slept in a little bit, then had a yummy breakfast. Then Richard took off for work. I was relaxing when Shelly called and said Lisa and Brian have to go to Lethbridge and were bringing the kids. They asked if I could watch Seth and Jazzi for a bit too. So that got me moving. I quickly cleaned up and was ready when they got here.

The kids had so much fun just playing with their cousins. It was cold outside, windy and no snow. So they basically stayed inside. Abbi and Seth really wanted to do something different. So I backed out the Escalade and set up a work table in the garage. I gave them each a hammer and some nails. Then I found some wood that they were allowed to use. They were in heaven. I told them if they needed anything cut that they had to get me. They listened very well, and I had to go cut one piece for them. They hammered and designed out there for over an hour. So funny! They loved it! They were just finishing when Lisa and Brian stopped to get their kids. So the afternoon went by really fast.

On Friday we stayed home and cleaned in the morning. I had to take Cadence into an appointment that afternoon. I had a babysitter come watch the other kids. The appointment was quick, so we went shopping too. It was fun to just be with Cadence. She enjoyed it too.

We got home and quickly made supper. The girls had to be at the TK Gym at 6pm that night. They were doing their cheer during half time for the boys Jr. Varsity game. They were excited. So we got there and were able to watch the game too. I really enjoyed it. Especially since it was a super close game and we ended up beating Cardston by 4 points. Anyways, at half time the girls went out there and did about 4 cheers. Then they did a dance to some music. It was super cute and so fun to watch. Loved it! I videoed both, so I didn't get any pictures. Just imagine the cuteness! Ha ha!

On Saturday we were trying to decided what to do as a family. Way back in February we had a FHE lesson on being kind to one another. We had a jar that they put hearts in every time someone did something nice for them. It worked so good. I told them when we put all the hearts in the jar, that we would do something fun as a family. Well it was full, so we decided to do something. We cleaned and then decided to go swimming at the Holiday Inn in Lethbridge. It's the hotel with the water slide water park. The kids were so excited.

We swam for over 3 hrs. Our kids are at the fun age, where they can do everything. Brianna wasn't too sure about the slides at first. She had a bad experience on one of them a few years ago. I finally got her to come down on my lap. She loved it and we couldn't get her off! The girls spent the whole time on the slides, until they closed it down for the waves. Then when it opened up, they were right back on the slides.

Brianna, letting the waves wash over her!

Cadence and I getting warm!

DJ was pretty happy playing around in the wave pool. We would swim with him, and then he would just swim around in his own world. He cracks me up. He got a tube and he was pretending it was a turtle shell. He dunked himself a few times, much to his surprise! Ha ha!

DJ crawling around on his tummy!

This was before he got the tube.

I finally, talked DJ into coming down the slide with me once. He loved it. So we went again. Then he was ready to go by himself. So he would walk up with his sisters, and I stayed at the bottom to catch him. He came down the first time and he was super happy. Then they went up again. Abbi came down first with a tube, and told me DJ was right behind him. I was standing right beside the slide. I could hear some screaming. I was waiting for him to come around the corner. He did and there was a double tube, almost on top of him. He was terrified and screaming his head off. Luckily I was right there and was able to snatch him away before the tube landed on top of him. I wasn't very happy. I told the girls that they need to wait longer. They kept apologizing, but I was still kind of ticked off. I bit my tongue though and was civilized! DJ was done. He was screaming and had wrapped himself around me like a monkey. I was holding him and trying to calm him down. We found Richard, who had just gotten dressed, and he took DJ into the change room.

One of the girls, just came out of the slide. They are under the water!

There's Abbi, Brianna and Cadence. They would sometimes come down together. Until they got in trouble by the life guard!

I went to go get the girls. They wanted to keep swimming, but I told them it was time to go. I let them go down the slide one more time. They loved it. They were moving around so quickly it was hard to get good pictures, but I got a few! We had some fun times.

The best picture I could get of my three girls. They were climbing out to go on the slide again!

We went and got dressed and came out. We were all starving. So we decided to go get something to eat. We started driving to Montana's but then noticed that Boston Pizza's was open. Yeah! I believe it was it's grand opening after the fire. So that's where we went.

We ordered our food. All my kids were starving, so they all ordered their own thing. The food came and they all ate so good. DJ was being a big goofy! We were all laughing at him. It was some fun times together. Our waitress disappeared and we sat there for a long time. At least we had our food. But we needed more drinks. Good thing we can all share!!

Yummy, yummy food!

Ha ha, Abbi looks a little confused!!

DJ with his big smile, as he eats his pizza!

Cadence and her crazy look!

Then the kids got their free dessert which was ice cream with some toppings. We had to wait for that too. As we were waiting, DJ decided he was going to attack me and try to kiss me on my lips. He does this once in a while, and it's always in public. Crazy kid. So I'd hurry and turn my head, so he kisses my cheek. He thought that was so funny.

DJ kissing me on the cheek!

He was trying really hard to turn my head! What a boy!

Love this picture of my funny loving boy! So cute!

Then the ice cream came and everyone enjoyed their treat! I am so glad we decided to go have fun as a family. It was a blast. We came home and the kids took turns having showers or baths, so we could wash their hair. I love Saturday nights, the kids are always so nice and clean!! Ha ha!

Waiting for their ice cream.

Cadence and her eye rolling! She does that everytime I tell her to smile!

Abbi loved the ice cream but was starting to get cold.

DJ was cold too. He had to eat it with his coat on!

So that was our Reading week off of school. Nothing too exciting, but we enjoyed having the week off of school. I love having my kids home!