the McLaughlin Memoirs

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-13T22:19:00.001-04:00

Well, if you have been following my blog for a while, you will remember that in years past we took Jaxon to the a pumpkin patch each year to get a few pics, as well as get our family of pumpkins to carve at Halloween.
Well this year Jaxon is attending our local Nursery school here in town on Monday mornings, and they had a class trip planned yesterday to go to the pumpkin patch.
Since I am off work, I was able to go with Jaxon for the day to experience this with all the 2 and 3 year olds. Boy was I ready for my afternoon nape after that morning.
They started by having a little information session about all the pumpkins and gourds that they grow at the patch...well, this was above my head, let a long the 2 and 3 year olds. It was way too long, and not near attention grabbing to entertain them, or myself.After the information session we went to the corn maze, where my son had to be on the one to go off the trail. I had a little bit of a heart attack, and I am sure that my blood pressure was VERY high for the couple of minutes that we could not find him. All I could imagine was him last in the field of corn...and not being able to find him. Thank goodness he was just being his fast self, and when I got the end of it he was running ahead of everyone else, going to find the next thing.
After that we had to go to for a little time out in the truck and have a little talk about his behaviour.After we come to an understanding, it was time to join the others in the straw jump. He had a blast, jumping off the walls, and rolling around in the straw. It was then portrait time, which I only got 1 one, so this will have to do for the 2011 edition.
And then last but not least it was snack time with all of his friends, as well as they got to pick their own pumpkin and take it home with them. This was Jaxon's pick, and when we got it home he had to decorate it with some this puppy dog face that we had got for our pumpkins.
He had so much fun, but next year I think we need to take daddy, and we will be going on our own again....way too many kids, and way too kaotic!!!

Thanksgiving

2011-10-11T22:18:00.002-04:00

What a beautiful weekend we had for Thanksgiving this year...24-25 and sunny...who could ask for anything better.
Sunday was spent out on the farm for my Robinson Thanksgiving, and then Monday with Curt's family where they boys had lots of fun going for a ride on the mower with Poppy, and playing with their scooter, that was until they started fighting over their scooters!!!

We have so much to be thankful for each and every year, and are so great to be surrounded by such wonderful friends and family.

I hope that everyone had as great of a Thanksgiving weekend as we did!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Off WORK

2011-10-05T11:31:00.000-04:00

Well, I am offically done work until I have this baby.
The doctor took me off work because I have been having problems with my blood pressure for the last couple of months.
It could be a long 3 months until this baby decides to come!!!!

Pumpkinfest

2011-10-03T22:16:00.000-04:00

Well, after we did not make it up to the cottage for the last long weekend of the season back in September, we had decided that we wanted to try to make it up one more time before we closed it up to gather some things, as to enjoy it one last night.
I said to Curt on the way up that I was not sure why we did not go up more in the fall thought, it was beautiful. The drive was gorgeous with all the changing leaves, and it was so nice and quite, not like the summer. Of course we it was easy to pack for too, because you did not need to pack the summer, and the warm cloths like you do in the summer, you knew it was fall, and only needed to take the warm stuff.Since it was Pumpkinfest in Port Elgin the same weekend that we went up we decided that we would partake in this huge event. We had never been there, and had always said that some year we wanted to go, so this was they year.
It was HUGE!!! There is no way that We could have took it all in the 4 hours that we were there. We really only got to the kids stuff, which was fine by all of us, but there was also a car show that took up pretty much the whole town, a craft show in the high school, and so much more that we has no idea was even going on.
The weather for the weekend was cold, but no rain, so that was great. We could dress warm, and did not have to worry about getting wet.We managed to have one last camp fire for the season, and use up our campfire supplies.
The boys had a great weekend together, getting along very well, and getting into lots of mischief.
It was a wonderful weekend to end our season at the cottage. Next year we will have a whole lot more to tow up with us with the baby.

Welcome Baby Koen

2011-09-14T22:15:00.000-04:00

Today baby Koen Martin entered the world quickly...and to my suprise, as a male!!!
Proud big sister is miss Hadleigh.

End to Summer

2011-08-27T22:08:00.000-04:00

Well, Jaxon's birthday celebrations continued into the next week with having a bunch of friends up to the cottage for the start of our holidays.
Saturday we took the kids over to Owen Sound to Story Book Park to enjoy a morning of fun. Thank goodness we got over there nice and early for when it opened because a lunch time a big storm hit, and that was the end of our adventure there.If you have young kids, I would totally recommend you take them to this place. I am sure that it will be a place that we will frequent for a few more summers until they outgrow it. They had everything...rides, mini golf, petting zoo, big train ride through the whole park, a water park. It was great!!! Even the big kids enjoyed it.
After the rain took us back to the cottage, we had a cottage full of people, but some more celebrating to do. It was the day of Uncle Justin's birthday so we had a nice dinner with everyone and celebrated his special day.
Sunday brought not so nice weather again, and we had a early supper and sent everyone on their way home so we could start our week of relaxation at the cottage. It was full of laying on the couch, watching movies, playing mini golf in town, and going down to the beach (a few short times). The weather was not the greatest for the week, but it was nice to just be away!!!

Our last week of holidays for the summer was a success!!!!

Happy Birthday Jaxon

2011-08-19T21:09:00.000-04:00

Last night I had to work late, and Jaxon was waiting for me when I got home because his dad had told him that he could open his birthday gift when I got there.
A couple of weeks ago I had asked Curt what he wanted to get Jaxon for his birthday, and he thought that we could get him some new golf clubs. Jaxon loves to golf, but only has the plastic ones. He was given a really nice golf bag as a baby present from a friend of ours that works at the golf course, so we ordered the clubs through him as well. Well, just what every 3 year old needs, 3 top of the line golf clubs. For the amount of money they were...he better be the next Tiger Woods!!!It was well worth the money when I seen the look on his face. Curt has taken the day off to spend his birthday with him today, and they have planned an outing to the golf course for a quick round to break them in.Wednesday night my mom had us over for our annual Jaxon/Justin birthday party. Jaxon got his Car's theme just as he wanted, and Justin had to suck it up and enjoy it too!!!As every year past, Jaxon was spoiled by his auntie/uncle and gammie/poppy. He got some money for his RESP and a new air hockey game!!!This game will be getting lots of use around our house, I am sure!!!Happy Birthday Buddy....3 already. Where has my baby gone???

Welcome Baby Jesa

2011-08-18T21:04:00.003-04:00

Well, baby Jesa Marie Fischer decided to finally come into the world and join our McLaughlin clan on August 12. The first little girl to our mix. Hopefully we will be able to giver her another girl to play with in January!!!Jaxon and I went up to the hospital after his party on Saturday to meet her and to get some snuggle time in.
Then on Monday night we took dinner out to the Fischer farm so that uncle Curtis could meet his new niece.
Welcome baby Jesa!!!

3rd Birthday Party

2011-08-16T07:42:00.003-04:00

Saturday was my little man's birthday party....his first 'friends' party.

We started planning and talking about it after we got back from our family holiday in July. I had decided a couple of months ago that we were going to do The Very Hungry Caterpillar theme and he was allowed to invited any friends that he wanted to. He was pretty sure of his choices so we got the invitations printed and ready to hand out.

He took the ones to Daycare that needed to be handed to a couple of his friends from there and that is when he decided that he needed more invitations to hand to more friends. He thought that everyone at school should come to his party. Well, I explained to him that he had made his choices, and that was all the invitations that we had. He would have to wait until next year to invite others if he wished to do so then. He took it very well, and did not put up a fight.So, it was set. Jazlin, Hadleigh, Reed, Tate and Jonah would be coming to the party...his Birfday Party. Last weekend Curt was away for the weekend, so I had to take Jaxon out with me when I need to go and get stuff for the party. He was all excited to help me pick stuff up. The only problem being that once we got to the store he decided that he wanted to have a Car's theme at the party, and then he thought that he needed to get doubles of everything we picked out...one for him, and one for uncle Justin, because his birthday is the day after Jaxon's. He then thought that after we left the store that we were going to go home and have the party. The poor little guy...it was a very long week of him waiting for his friends to come to his party.So, finally...Saturday was the day. We spend a good party of the week getting ready for the party. We got our flower beds finally done for the summer. It is sad to say that it took us until August to actually get them done, and I am sure that 6 2 and 3 year old really appreciated how nice they looked! What is even more sad is that we have done absolutely no entertaining at all at our house this summer. We used to have people over every weekend for a BBQ or something, but this was actually the 1st weekend that we were all at home, and not one of us had to pack a suitcase to go away.At the begging of the party it was raining sporadically, and Jaxon thought that every time it started to sprinkle everyone had to go in side. The down side to this is that after all was said and done not only did I have a tail of toys to clean up outside, but I had a mess inside as well. We had got the pool filled for them, and put some nice warm water in it. We had told them to bring their bathing suits in case it was nice, and they could have some fun in the water. After we ate lunch the sun decided to come out and it actually got nice and hot. We got all the kids changed into their suits, lathered up in sun screen and let them go.After some play time it was time for cupcakes and presents. Basically all the kids just licked the icing off the cupcakes and ate their ice cream and then help Jaxon open his gifts. They were too cute to watch waiting to see Jaxon open the gift that they brought.The party started at 11, and by 2:30 everyone was gone. It was just the right amount of time to have a good play, have some lunch, dessert and presents. All that was left was the clean up. Thank goodness for my friend Nicole that stuck around to help me out. Curt was in a golf tournament, so he was not around for the party. He was there for the set up, but the clean up was all up to me. Nicole was a great help and we got everything put away and organized.

I have to say though, it is a lot easier to plan and play out a party for a bunch of kids then it has been in years past when we did it more of our friends!!!

Photo Shoot

2011-08-12T11:33:00.000-04:00

So I come home from work one night and was organizing my pictures on my camera and found some of these. Jensen and Jaxon must have been having a photo shoot one day that she was babysitting!!!! Too cute.

Long Weekend

2011-08-12T10:29:00.002-04:00

Well, the second last long weekend of the summer has come and gone, leaving us only a few more weeks of summer.

This year Justin and Cara joined us at the cottage for the weekend. Saturday we headed over to Wiarton to do some tubing and celebrating at my aunts cottage there. My uncle had brought his boat over from Kincardine so we had an afternoon out on the water all taking turns on the raft. For dinner we had a nice bbq chicken dinner with cake in celebration of my aunt and uncle's 30th wedding anniversary. Sunday was another wonderful day for some beach fun, so we spent the afternoon down on our beach at Sauble in the water and soaking up the sun.After a day of realization, we took Jaxon into the amusements in Sauble. He had been there a couple of weeks ago on the Monday after the ball tournament, and wanted to go back in again. Him and his dad have a great time on the rides. 2 kids...one big and one small having a blast. Auntie Cara even joined in on the fun when we had two tickets left over for the last ride.

Only a few more weeks and we will be back into our regular routine, free weekends, and back to school.

Pool Party

2011-08-11T22:27:00.001-04:00

This year our Strachan Family Pool party went off great. Great weather! Great Food! Great Family! Great time!!!!

Sauble Ball weekend

2011-08-11T22:25:00.003-04:00

This years Sauble Ball weekend was in the middle of our extreme heat waive here in Ontario. The guys ended up playing on Friday night, which was not too bad heat wise, Saturday morning which was kind of a scorcher and then Saturday afternoon at 4:30 which was unbearable to even watch, let alone play. That game they were put out, and non of them were too disappointed.

Sunday was then spent bumming around the cottage, and hanging out at the beach. A bunch of people come out to the cottage, and we were able to relieve some of the heat by relaxing by the water.

Fair Time

2011-08-10T22:23:00.000-04:00

This was the first year that I was able to take Jaxon to the Fair that we have in Listowel. Last year we were planning on going, but it ended up raining, and we are always away on this weekend in Sauble for the ball tournament. We are only able to go on the Thursday night, and this year it worked out that I had all our packing done for the weekend, and the weather co-operated for us to be able to go.It always kicks off with the parade, so Jaxon watched it with his friends Hadleigh and Tate. After the hour long parade we headed up to the fair grounds so that Jaxon could go on some of the rides. It just so happened that Jaxon's best friend Jonah was at the fair too, so he was able to go on some of the rides with him. He had a blast!!!!

Strachan Family Holiday2011 editon

2011-08-09T22:09:00.007-04:00

So, this years editon on our Strachan Family Holiday was spent in the Birshires in Massachusetts at the Jimminy Peak Mountain Resort .

We headed out on July 1st, and got to the boarder around 8:30. We thought that our best bet would be to go to the Rainbow bridge in Niagara Falls, because every time that I have crossed there to go shopping, I have never had a wait. Well....the Friday of a long weekend, with Canada Day on the Friday and July 4th on the Monday, what a disaster. We waited at the boarder for almost 4 hours to get across. This boarder was still the best bet, because the one to the north would have been double the time of a wait, and the one to the south, approximately the same.

Anyways, we finally got to our resort around 8 that night, after being in the car for almost 14 hours in the sweltering heat. It was beautiful. Mountains all around, just a great place to spend a week.

Saturday was our day to get our supplies for the week, so we headed into town to do that.

Sunday was raining, so us girls decided to take in some shopping, along with Jaxon. Jaxon was just interested in riding the mechanical toys that were beside almost every store. Thank goodness I did not get any change to be able to ride them until almost our last store, or else I probably could have spent a small fortune.

Monday was a day for rest and realization. A beautiful day for some pool activities. We also decided to take in some of the adventures that the resort had. A slide ride, and also a roller coaster. This is also the week that Jaxon fell in love with baseball. Know every day we have to go out and play ball, and hit home runs.Tuesday was our adventure day and we headed into Boston. We had tickets for the Red Sox's game that night, so we headed in for the day to go to Cheers as well as kind of tour the city. What a beautiful city. The architecture is absolutely amazing. It would be a wonderful city to live in. It just so happened that the Red Sox were play the Blue Jays the night as well, so it made for a very interesting game.

Wednesday and Thursday were spend lazing around on our last few days of holidays. We swam, we rested, and we did some more swimming. We sent back to the roller coaster and slides, and just took it all in.Friday it was time to get back into the car and head home. The boarder crossing was not quite as bad this time around. We had decided that we were going to spend the night in Niagara Falls and go to Marineland on the Saturday to finish up our holiday. Friday night we got to our hotel room, and headed down to take in some of the sights of Niagara. We went to the Hershey's Chocolate Factory for some chocolate covered strawberries, went to see the falls, had some dinner and then went back to the falls for the fireworks. Jaxon LOVED it. He told me his favourite was the green, because that is his favourite color.

We got up in the morning and headed out to Marineland. We were at the end of our holidays, and it was a freaking hot day, and really all any of us wanted to do was to turn around and go home, but we we don't do for our kids. We toughed it out, and spend a about 5 hours at the party taking in all it had. On our way out around 2:30 we hit up the souvenir shop for a memento and headed home. We stopped for some dinner on the way home, and finally hit home sweet home around 6:30.

Holidays are always wonderful to go on, but it is always nice to come home too.

June

2011-08-08T22:07:00.001-04:00

OK...so I am not sure where the summer has gone. I have a lot of pictures to share of stuff that we have been doing, but am way behind on my posting. Probably for my summer posts, I will let the pictures kind of explain themselves, with little writing.
In June our community has a Teddy Bear Play day, and because it was actually NOT raining this year we were able to take it all in. Curt was in a ball tournament the same weekend, but as luck would have it his schedule work out so that he was able to join us.As for the rest of June, but think that I must have forgot my camera for our events, and I can not for the life if me remember anything too important (probably my baby brain kicking in!)

Where has the time gone???

2011-07-18T09:33:00.003-04:00

Seriously...where has the last 2 months gone. I can not believe that it is the 18th of July already. We have had absolutely gorgeous weather for the month of July, and have hardly been at home. We were on holidays the 1st week of July, and we just got home from a weekend at the cottage. I got a new camera, and am in the middle of organizing my pictures from my old camera with the new one, and getting our holiday photo's organized, so if the heat would break I would be able to sit upstairs at my computer to do that!!!

Anyways, until that is done....here is a photo from our first ultrasound on Friday for baby bean #2.....

Jaxon has some news for you........

2011-06-14T15:14:00.001-04:00

He is going to be a big brother in January.

His Auntie Cara and Uncle Justin are also going to give him a new cousin the end of January as well!!!

Busy times around the Strachan household to come.

May 24

2011-05-26T07:54:00.004-04:00

Well the start of the cottage season brought us some good weather again this year. The kids were in the water, big and small.
SSaturday was the guys work day. We always have a cottage full of people, and all are welcome as long as they are willing to work for a little on Saturday to get one big task done for the season, then they are welcome to come back anything during the summer to relax and enjoy the cottage!!! This year they were widening the driveway and building a bear proof garbage box for the at the road. They worked hard at it on Saturday and then got to play on Sunday.Saturday night was gorgeous and we were able to get a camp fire in.
Sunday the guys took off golfing and we stuck around the cottage with the kiddies and played outside. Sunday night brought the rain, so we were stuck in the cottage making our own fun, and kids watched a movie.Unfortunately our other little guest Hadleigh come down with the flu and was not able to join us, so we were down one kid and her mommy.
The first weekend at the beach was a success, so hopefully other weekends that we have planned to be up there will be as nice as this one was.

Jamaica

2011-05-25T07:35:00.000-04:00

6 hours after tax season was over Curt and I jumped on a plain for a much needed vacation. We headed to the Gran Bahia Principe in Jamaica for a week of sun, sand and relaxation.
We flew in to Jamaica at 9:30am on the Sunday morning, and were to our resort by noon. We had to wait for a couple of hours to check into our room, so we went and had some lunch and a few drinks to kill the time.
Monday was rain, so we spend the morning at an information meeting, and then just kind of touring around the resort checking everything out.
Tuesday was spent by the pool, and Wednesday we mixed it up a little and went to the beach. These days were spent relaxing and resting. The most strenuous thing that we had to do was get up out our lounge chair to go to the pool to cool off, or go and get a drink.
Our resort must have been a huge place to go and get married, because the one day alone I counted there to be 5 weddings. I seemed that everyone there was there in a group, and were all there for a wedding.Thursday we decided to get a little ambitious and go on an outing. We took a catamaran ride to the #1 spot in Jamaica, Dunns River Falls. This is a 650 foot climb up a waterfall attached to nothing except the person's hand in front of you, and behind you. We had to take a water camera for this, so I am still waiting to get the pictures back from this.On the way to the falls we stopped at the reef to do some snorkeling. I did not partake in this part, as the last time I did this I got really sick from the motions of the waves, and the salt water. I knew that this was only the start of our day, so I thought that I better forgo it so that I was well for the rest of the adventure.After we spent a couple of hours at the falls it was time to get back on the boat, and time for the party. On the way to the falls they would not serve any alcohol on the boat, but after everyone had done the climb it was time to get it out and turn up the music. They took the long way back to the dock and we had a great party on the catamaran.The food was really good at our resort. You were entitled to 3 a-la-carts for the week, and the rest of the time you had to go to the buffet for dinner. They had the buffet, or they also had a beach front place for lunch, and every day but 1 we made our way down there for lunch. They had the best Jerk Chicken you could ever have. I had that every day for lunch, and did not get tired of it. I actually miss it know that we are back. Some days around 1:30 my mouth is watering for a little Jerk!!!
After our adventure on the Thursday we had to rush back to the resort to get ready for our reservation at the Japanese restaurant. At this restaurant we sat around the chef as he made our dinner and gave us a show. This by far was the best place we at all week, and the show that our chef put on for us was great!!!Friday was spend in the shade. We both had got a lot of sun out on the boat on Thursday, so we needed a little rest from it on Friday.
Saturday was our last full day at the resort, so we took full advantage of it. We finally got the good lounge chairs, drank our drinks out of coconuts, spent a little time at the swim up bar, and just took it all in.We saved our last a-la-cart for our last night too and we went to the Grill house for dinner. It was a very nice restaurant, but there was 2 weddings happening in there while we were eating dinner, so it was kind of weird to be there while they were having their receptions. A lot of our evenings were spend either in the lounge bar listing to the live music they had there, or we would to the Bahia Center. There was a sports bar there, as well as shopping. When there was a big game on, Curt would spend his time in the sports bar watching hockey and I would tour the little shops that they had there. This was also where the nightly shows took place, so we would stay and watch some of it if they looked good.

We have only been back for 3 weeks, but it seems like a life time ago that we went. I could have stayed for a little longer, if only someone would have sent me Jaxon. By Thursday I really started to miss him. We did not go to an adults only resort, so there were little kids there running around which made me think of him when I saw them.

Although I missed him like crazy, it would not have been much of a vacation for me if he would have been there. Some day mommy and daddy will take him with us, but for this time we enjoyed our time away just the 2 of us!!!

Friday laugh...Royal Wedding similarities

2011-05-13T08:04:00.000-04:00

I l.m.a.o. when I got this e-mail today.

Easter

2011-05-09T19:43:00.000-04:00

It seems like so long ago, but as I try to get back into the swing of reality after our holiday I found that I neglected to post about our very busy Easter weekend. I had been so busy getting packed and laundry done the week after, that I forgot to write this post.
Our Easter actually started out the weekend before when we had the Strachan Easter. It was kind of nice to have this one in advance, because the actual Easter weekend was SOOO busy for us.

Friday:We had the Robinson Easter, and like every other Good Friday, Curt had to work and was not able to join us. If only Easter was in May...he would actually be able to enjoy the long weekend and some great family time. We were at my uncle Ron and aunt Lois's on Good Friday for our gathering, and of course our annual Easter Egg hunt for the kids. This year Jaxon was so fun with it. He actually got it, and was so excited to be let out the door to hunt for his eggs and special bag.

Saturday:Jaxon met his girlfriend Jazlin at the park because a local real estate business puts on an annual Easter Egg hunt for all the kids. Jaxon was so excited because he had just done this the day before, and knew exactly what he needed to do. They had the whole playground covered with eggs, and the area taped off so that the kids did not enter until it was time. They let the small kids start out first, and they managed to gather all the eggs just on the inside of the tape before they let the big kids loose to gather the rest.After the egg hunt they had face painting and coloring and music and hot dogs and juice and goody bags for all the kids, and of course we were not getting out of there without some play on the playground equipment.
Saturday afternoon we had the Omand family Easter at Sid and Lois's and Curt has a cousin that is getting married in the summer so the ladies were in the house for a shower for her, and the men were in charge of the kids outside for a while.When all the boys finally got there, Poppy Sid took them for a ride around the year on his tractor and wagon. They had a ball. With all the Omand kids, there is only 2 girls, and the rest of them are boys, and with the exception of Jaxon, they are all farm boys so they loved to get a little of the country with the tractor and wagon.After the ladies were done with the shower inside, it was time to have an egg hunt for the kids. Well, by this time Jaxon was an old pro at it, and he had his bag full before some of the other kids had time to get an egg in thiers. After I said that he better stop and save some for the other kids, he would still go around to find them, but then yell at the others when he found them for them to come and fill their bags. What a little helper!!!After the eggs, it was such a nice day we got some bubbles out for the kids, and they had a ball until my kid had to go and ruin it by dumping all the bubble water out, and putting an end to the fun for the other kids.Sunday:Finally, after weeks of talking about him, and reading about him, and doing crafts of him, the Easter Bunny came to our house. Jaxon had been talking about what he was going to bring him for weeks, and I am sure he did not disappoint. His dad told me that it looked more like Santa Clause had come, but really I said, why should Santa Clause be any more important they the Easter Bunny. They are both giving people!!!The bunny has carried his tradition on from when I was a little kid. He put a few Easter eggs filled with candy in Jaxon's Easter basket that was in his bedroom, and they left a trial of eggs leading him to his pile of gifts.A tent, a new 4-wheeler, some coloring stuff, a new ball glove, and of course chocolate. Jaxon loved it, and I loved watching him look through all the stuff that he got. After he sorted through it all, he threw it all in the tent and we did not see in for the rest of the morning.
Easter 2011 was great, and Jaxon is still talking about what the Easter bunny brought him.

Obsession

2011-04-12T09:37:00.002-04:00

So for the past couple of months my son has had a major obsession with the Zamboni. We play hockey and after every goal we have to clear the ice so the Zamboni can come out and clean it. We park the Zamboni every night under our pillow so that it can sleep with us It has even come to us not being allowed to park our vehicle in the garage anymore, because that is where the Zamboni parks. I love that he has such a love for something, and such an imagination sometimes about it, but really? I think this has got a little too far.

A couple of months ago Curt played in a hockey tournament in Howick and Jaxon's poppy Sid took him into the Zamboni room and tried to get him to sit up on it. There was no way that he was getting any where near that thing. He loved it from afar, but up close it was way too big for him.

Friday night he was at the Junior B game with his dad and I guess after the game the guys took him back to the room to see that wonderful machine again, and this time he was ready to sit on it. He played with all the sweepers, all the snow that it had gathered and examined it all around a couple of times. Finally he was comfortable enough to sit on it and drive.Jaxon's love of the Zamboni has evolved to everything hockey. We eat, sleep and live hockey at our house. He wants to stay outside every day and play. I have resorted to clearing out the garage and setting up the big net in there and closing the garage door when I am cooking dinner so that he can stay out and play. We had to go and buy him a 'real' hockey stick, and get it all taped up just like his dad's. When I play with him I of course have to be the goalie, and even when his dad is playing with us I still get stuck in net. It is not too bad when Jaxon is shooting pucks at me, but I might have to get some pads if I am going to continue to get stuck in there when his dad is shooting on me.

Now that hockey season is coming to a close, I wonder if we will have a new love of baseball for the summer, or if we will continue to play hockey all summer long?

Breaking the Silence

2011-04-07T11:18:00.000-04:00

What a couple of week we have had around our house!!! We have had celebrations and enough tragidy for a life time all in the matter of 3 weeks. Now I just need to get caught up with some housework, some family time, and my pile of stuff at work and I will be back in full mode. Chat soon....

V-day treats

2011-03-08T10:00:00.000-05:00

So I realize that I am a little late with this post, but I did not take a picture of the final product until I remembered this morning with 1 of the 3 that we had left.
In my January's Today's Parent magazine there was a cute idea for these little suckers to attach to kids Valentine's Day cards. They looked easy enough so I thought that would be something special that I could put together for Jaxon to give to his class They can not take anything homemade because of peanut allergies, so these would be perfect because the candy is still in the wrapper, and peanut free.
I set up shop at my mom's house one Sunday to put these together after I had spend the night on Saturday night cutting the hearts out, and it turned out that my aunt Lois and my grandma were over in the afternoon. In no time we had 50 of these things put together.
The next week the list came home for day care with all the kids name on it for Valentine's and it turns out there are a lot more kids that go to day care then I first thought. After careful consideration I decided that only the kids in Jaxon's butterfly class would be getting Valentine's this year, and the rest would be distributed out to family and friends outside of school. I was not going to spend another 5 days cutting and putting more together for kids that Jaxon did not spend the day with...sorry.
So, here is the final product, and I received a lot of complements. They were super cute.
I do fear for my second child when/if he/she comes along though. I will need to be more prepared and start whipping something like this up 2 months in advance when there are 2 children that they have to be made for.

Round 2 begins

2011-03-07T10:04:00.005-05:00

Congratulations are in our for 2 very special families close to us that are expecting.
At Christmas we were told that we would have a new little addition to our McLaughlin clan. Clint, Trisha and Reed are expecting a delivery in August. We were told the news then, but were not allowed to tell anyone until she was further along, which was a good 6 weeks of keep our lips closed.
A couple of weeks ago we then had a visit from Rob, Beckie and Hadleigh to let us in our a little secret they had for themselves. Hadleigh was going to be a big sister in September. They too told us early and we had to keep it hush hush for a couple of week (or until my husband got drunk one night and decided that he was going to tell everyone).
This brings the beginning of round 2 of babies around us. We are still waiting for a few people to still have their first, but come the end of the summer we will have little babies around us again.
Congratulations to both families....we are soooo very excited for you!!!

Happy Birthday Jazlin

2011-03-07T09:35:00.005-05:00

On Saturday we had a very special Birthday party to attend. Jazlin will be turning 2 on the 9th of March, and Saturday night we were delighted to go and celebrate with her.Jaxon spent Friday night at Curt's parents place, and from the time that they dropped him off at 11:30 until the time we got in the car to go to the party that is all he could talk about. We even went out to get groceries and drove by their place on the way to the store and he was very upset that we were not going to the party. He has a very special place in his heart for Jazlin, and loves it when he is able to see her.Nicole had a game planned for the kids, and Jaxon really got into it. They had to sit on the balloon and try to pop it, but all 30lbs of them were not having that easy of a time getting the task achieved. It was not until Ryan got the fork out to assist that they got the job done. It shocked them at first when they balloon actually did pop, but they after it did they wanted to do it again. The looks on their faces was priceless. Every time it happened it was the same thing...it scared the bejesus out of them, and they they laughed their heads off.The kids had a great time. They play together so well. They are getting to an age where it is nice to get together for a play because you do not have to sit around and supervise them. They can go off and play on their own, and the we the parents can have a visit as well.Auntie Wawa made the cupcakes for the celebration, and did not disappoint. They were great!!!
After dinner it was present time, and then between the 3 of them they had to pretty much get every present that Jazlin received out and play with it. They had a great time breaking in all of Jaz's new toys for her.Well, the baby of the group is know 2...oh how time flies. Happy birthday Miss Jazlin!!!

Is it Spring Yet???

2011-03-01T15:42:00.002-05:00

I. am. so. sick. of. winter!!!!
I am a winter lover, but after 3 months of it, I am ready for Spring to be here. I am so sick of having to get bundled up, as well as getting Jaxon all ready just to walk 5 feet to the car to run out to get something. I will be so happy when all we have to do is throw on a pair of shoes and off we go.
Not too much has been happening around our house lately. We had yet another bout of the flu hit us last week. I was down for 2 days, and Curt for 1 night. Jaxon managed to escape unscathed. I think that is proof that the flu shot is in our future for years to come. We had decided not to get it this year, but I did break down and have Jaxon get it when I took him to the doctor's after Christmas for his follow up from his ear infections. We are thinking that is probably what saved him this time around, and after having it 3 times in as many months, we are believers in it!!!
We have been potty training at our house for about the past month. I had a few Monday's off in February because I had worked some Saturday's in January and thought to myself that it would be as good as time as any to get into training mode, with having a 3 day stretch of being home. The first weekend did not go very well. By about the 6th accident on the Monday I wrote it off and decided that we would take a 4 day break and get back at it the next weekend. It was much smoother that time around. We have been big boy underpants full time since then. Although there has been days where I hit myself upside the head and wonder if he will ever get it, I know that there is no looking back know!!!Well, here is to a short term forecast of above freezing temperatures, and rain. Hopefully this time next week we will not have anymore of that white stuff to have to shovel.

Family Day fun

2011-02-22T15:39:00.001-05:00

This past weekend Curt was in a hockey tournament with some of his friends, so the most part of the weekend was spent in the arena.

Saturday Jaxon and I were invited to attend a Family Fun day for my mom's work. It was being held at East Wawanosh Conservation Area and was to be an outdoor day filled with lots of fun games and then a pot luck for dinner. We were going to head to the arena on our way home to catch Curt's hockey game then.

Well, as well all know in mid-western Ontario, we can not plan anything in the winter months that is set in stone. We woke up Saturday morning and started to head over to Palmerston to my hair appointment and it was quite stormy. When Jaxon and I come home around 11:30 it was terrible. If I would have had to drive over to my appointment in that weather, I would not have been going. So, needless to say the Family Fun Day was cancelled. We instead were invited over to one of her co-workers house for the potluck, since everyone had their stuff made for the potluck.

By supper time the weather had died down, so we were still able to make it out to Curt's hockey game. Thank goodness, because I would have one upset little boy on my hands if he did not get to go see his dad play hockey, and to see the Zamboni. Hockey and the Zamboni is what Jaxon seems to live for these days, and the work probably would have ended if he was not able to get out to see them.
Sunday morning we headed back to the arena to witness a bunch of hung over guys trying to play hockey. Needless to say, in their condition, they did not win the game and we did not have to stick around the arena all do for them to have to play in the finals.

We headed over to my mom and dads place after the hockey game to have a nice relaxing Sunday with them in honor of Family Day.Monday we were invited over to Curt's parents place to celebrate Family Day with them. Curt is heavy into tax season know, so he spend the day in the office and come home a little early so we could head over there when Jaxon woke up from his nap.

They have a hill over at their house that we have visted a few time this year. When Curt was younger his friends and him would always race down it in the winter with their GT Snowracer's, and he has really enjoyed reliving his youth through his son. Reed was there, and Lois had bought a new sleigh for the boys. It was great...they loved it. Jaxon has only gone down it in his wooden sleigh in the past, and this new one was super fast. He LOVED it, to say the least. He belly laughed the whole way down. Reed on the other head did not know what to think about it. He did go down a couple of times, but after they almost ran into a tree, he was done. Jax...no way. He wanted to do it again.

After our outdoor fun we made our way inside to have dinner and a visit. With it being winter, and full on snowmobile season we do not get to see Curt's parents as much as usual, so it was nice that we got the spend some time with them on Family Day.

Hope you all had to great Family Day with your loved ones.

CWIFFORD...as Jaxon would say

2011-02-17T10:07:00.003-05:00

Last night Clifford made an appearance at your local library. Each month our Early Years Centre in Listowel has a night at the library where we go and sing songs, play games and read stories. Last month is was a story from the librarian, and last night Clifford the Big Red Dog come to sing songs and read stories with us.
Jaxon loves Clifford, and I guess he made an appearance at the Day Care yesterday, but Jaxon spend the day with his Poppy and was not there to see him. He got a ticket last week at school for an appearance that Clifford is making this Saturday at the library and they must have talked all about it because ever since he brought that ticket home all he wants to do is go and see CWIFFORD!!! He was so excited that it was finally the day, and could not even eat his dinner due to the excitement of going to see Cwifford. We got our pj's on and headed to go and see him. He was so excited that not only did he get to see Cwifford, but Jaz was there as well.

Clifford had not made it there yet when we go there, so we went in and read a story with Debbie and waited for him. After Debbie was done the story we called out for Clifford to come and join us and as the big red dog made his way over to us my little scardie cat came running over to me saying...I scared mommy, I scared mommy!!! When it came time to go and sit with Clifford there was no way Jaxon was going close to him. He would sit on my knee over int he corner and wave to him, and Clifford would wave back, but there was no way we were getting anywhere near that big read dog. When I tried to get him to get his picture taken to take home to show daddy he was clench on to my neck so tight I thought was going to rip my shirt.Oh well, he enjoyed himself, except for the party where his mean old mom made him get his picture taken with him. He went home and that is all he talked about with his dad.

Jaxon love to go to the library and get book and a movie, so last night it was all about Clifford. He wanted to get a Clifford movie (which they did not have) and he got 2 Clifford books. We will be able to talk about Clifford for the next week, until we have to return our book and then I am sure it will be all about something different.

First OFFICIAL trip to the Dentist

2011-02-16T22:43:00.000-05:00

As some of you may remember, Jaxon had to make an emergency visit to the dentist last Christmas. Today he had an actual appointment for his very first check up. Both him and I had back to back appointments, and when we got there he wanted me to go first. I got up on the chair and get my teeth cleaned, and Jaxon felt that I should have been done after I opened my mouth and she looked at my teeth. He was not prepared to have me sitting in the chair for 20+ minutes having the dental hygienist working on my teeth.
We have been talked for about a month know about going to the dentist and the importance of brushing our teeth the that the dentist does not give us trouble when we go. We have been preparing him that he will have to open his mouth really wide and have the dentist look at his teeth, and that he is probably going to count them, and they Jaxon will usually show me how the dentist is going to count them.
So, after I got all my work done, and found out that I had no cavities it was Jax turn to get in the chair. No mommy...lets go!!! He did not want to have his turn, and he did not want to sit in the chair. I finally got him convince that he could sit in the chair, and that I would sit right beside him. He took a ride in the chair, but did not want the hygienist to clean his teeth. We decided that we would just call the dentist right in the check them, and that maybe the next time he would be read for a cleaning.
He probably only sat on the chair the way that he should for the time that it took me to take the above picture, and then he was ready to go!!!
Oh well...we will give him 9 months to prepare for the next trip to see Dr. Nuhn and hopefully he will co-operate a little better.

Hadleigh Turns 3!!!

2011-02-07T10:06:00.000-05:00

This past weekend little miss Hadleigh had all of her friends over to celebrate her birthday. The little princess is 3. I.CAN.NOT.BELEIVE.IT!!! It seems like only a few months ago she was born.This was the first birthday party that Jaxon has been too where it was more geared for the kids, rather then the 1st birthday style with parents/grand parents/ect....there. Hadleigh got to choose who she wanted to come to her party, so she had Jaxon, Jazlin, her cousin Sam and her boyfriend Gavin over. She had a Tinkerbell and Pirate theme for her party, and she was the star of the show in her little Tinkerbell outfit.I stuck around the party too, to make sure that my child behaved himself!!! The party started at 10, and I tell you after lunch and cake rolled around I was ready for a nape. 5 little 2 and 3 year old can really tire a person out. I can not imagine how Rob and Beckie felt after it all.
(little miss Jazlin was ready for a rest after she ate too...she just put her feet up on the table and laid her head back...Oh, she is such a Johnston!!!)

HaPpY bIrThDaY PRINCESS HADLEIGH!!!

Happy Birthday WaWa

2011-02-02T10:04:00.001-05:00

This past weekend we celebrated Auntie WaWa's birthday with her dinner at mom and dad's.
In our family when it is your birthday you get to choose the menu and Auntie WaWa decided to tailor it around Jaxon's likes more so then hers. We had home made macaroni, chicken wings, meat balls, mini panzaroties and salad. What a great aunt, putting Jaxon ahead of her own taste buds for her special day!!! My aunt and uncle came over as well and my aunt made a wonderful coffee cake for dessert.

HaPpY bIrThDaY CARA!!!!

M-I-C-K-E-Y - M-O-U-S-E

2011-01-12T09:29:00.005-05:00

Sunday was the day that Jaxon finally got to go and see Mickey Mouse. He received tickets from his aunty Trisha, uncle Clint and cousin Reed for Christmas to go and see Mickey's Rock'n Roadshow in London.I tell you, thank god Gammie sent Jaxon with some money so he could get himself a souvenir. Every 10 feet in the JLC there was a stand that was selling Mickey, or Toy Story memorabilia. We had stop at the first one when we walked in the door so that Jaxon could get his Mickey doll that he wanted with his money from Gammie. Well Gammies $20.00 did not just cut it and mom and dad had to throw in a few extra dollars. We then got to the next one and they had Mickey cups. He needed a new cup anyways, so I thought that would be prefect for him to get that. I got up and it come with a snow cone in it, so bonus...a drink with the cup, we would not have to buy that on top of the cup. Well, $14 we have a cup for him to drink his juice out of each day.I do have to say that it was all worth it thought. It is not Wednesday and he is still talking about going to see Mickey, and his just absolutely loves his doll. He has to get him every night when he gets ready for bed, and bring him down stairs with him for a snack. Mickey even gets fed the snack, and he gets to have drinks from Jaxon's Mickey cup too. He melts my heart!!!Reed and Trisha, as well as Reed's other cousin Luke and his mommy went to the show as well. We met them down there, and they boys were really cute. Jaxon was the most excited, I would have to say. He patiently waited for the show to start, and once it did he was ecstatic. He was locked into it for pretty much the whole thing. He got up and dances with they told him to, and was very interactive with the whole show.They had an intermission with only 20 minutes left in the show...probably to sucker some more parents into buying their kids their overprices merchandise. It was too bad that they had to take the intermission because Jaxon thought it was all over and wanted to go home. He was not into the second part of the show near as much as the first.It was a really good show. Jaxon loved it, and Curt and I did not mind it either. I just loved seeing Jaxon get so excited and involved in it. He absolutely loved it, and if there is another one next year (which it usually us an annual thing) I would have to think that we will go to that one too. Next year we will just take the doll he got this year and then we will not have to buy another one!!! (cheep parents)

First day of the New Year

2011-01-01T22:31:00.003-05:00

We woke up this morning...too early for my liking. I thought that since Jaxon was out partying to the wee hours of the morning that he might want to sleep in the morning. Well mommy...were you wrong. He slept in an hour past his normal time for getting up, so by the time the afternoon rolled around I was ready for a nape.
We headed over to my mom and dad's to put Jax down for a nap and try to catch a few zzz's our self, but my mom had other ideas as to spend our New Year's day.
My aunt and Uncle come over, as well as my grandma and we had a game day. It was a blast. Once we got into our games I forgot all about having a nap.We had dinner and a few more games after and by that time I was beat...ready for my bed. If the first day of 2011 is a foresight to the year it will be a good year, with great times spent with wonderful family!!!

Happ New Year

2011-01-01T10:29:00.000-05:00

Well, it is out with the old, and in the with new. Happy New Year to all...the year of the frog.
New Years eve was spent with great friends this year. We headed over to Rob, Beckie and Hadleigh's house for a fondue party. It was awesome. We did steak, shrimp and chicken as well as we had fruit and some salads to go with it. For dessert we had a chocolate fountain with fruit and goodies to dip in it. It was AMAZING. I don't know why we don't do it more often, but maybe know that we have done it once we will think of it more.Hadleigh and Jaxon were the troopers. Their sidekick Jazlin had to cash it in around 10:30 and was not able to ring in the new year with her 2 companions. I had got some campaign for us to all ring in the new year with, along with some campaign glasses which Hadleigh and Jaxon go some ginger ail in for their special toast.The two of them kill me. It is so much fun watching them as they grow up and become friends. They melt my heart.
Happy New year to all, and may 2011 be a great year. Hopefully you rang it in a great way surrounded my great people, as we did.

Fun with Wawa...Mess for Mommy

2010-12-31T08:27:00.001-05:00

Cara was over last night to get her hair done.
Well, it seems that every time Jaxon's auntie Wawa is around there is some sort of fun to be had between the 2 of them, and a mess for me to clean up.
Last night it was painting. Jaxon has wanted to paint for the last couple of weeks, and I have been telling him that we will do it when I was off for the holidays. I had not expected to do it last night, thinking that I might have some time to prepare for it...but not. It was out before I knew it, and done not too long after he was into it. He was in the bath and I was left with the clean up.
I am glad that he loves his auntie Wawa, and loves to do all these exciting things with her, but all I have to day to her is....'payback is going to be sweet'!!!

Family Fun

2010-12-30T15:32:00.001-05:00

Curt and I both of the week off, so I thought that since we have been running around like nuts for the past couple of weeks, going here and there for Christmas gatherings it would be nice if we just had some family time.

Tuesday morning I did hair for a few people, and the we went to the city to get some new bedding with some gift cards that Curt and I got. I have been wanting to get some new stuff for a while know and asked from some gift cards for Christmas to help out with the cost. Thank goodness we had them, because before it was said and done, a new duvet cover, 2 pillow covers, 1 accent pillow, 2 sets of curtains, 3 lamps and new sheets our bill was over $300.00. Expensive...yes, but so worth it. After 5.5 years in our house we finally have a bedroom that is nice to go and spend time in. It finally looks like a complete grown ups bedroom.

Yesterday Jaxon went and spent his last Wednesday with his Gammie. For the past year my mom has been working a 5 day work week, in 4 days and has had Wednesdays off. Her and Jaxon have spent every Wednesday together, and the both loved it. Unfortunately that has come to an end as her company has told her that they will not allow this anymore, and she has to go back to her 5 day work week!!! We are not sure if this will be a permanent thing, but for know he will not have his Wednesdays with his Gammie.
Jaxon had a dr. appointment first thing in the morning and then he went and spent the day with Gammie. Curt and I spent the day relaxing around the house doing a whole lot of nothing. It was great to have a rest day after the business of the holidays, and even nicer that we did not have a 2 year old around to interrupt our rest!!!
Today we thought that we would go swimming in Hanover for some fun. The family swim was from 11:30 -12:30 so we were there for the most part of the hour. There was also a hockey tournament in the complex, and Jaxon wanted to stay and watch it. He really has a fascination for the Zamboni lately, and he likes to watch hockey with hopes that he will get to see the Zamboni do it's job. I was not much for sitting there and watching a bunch of children that I did not know play hockey, so I bribed him a bit and told him that we could go to McDonald's for lunch instead of standing around watching hockey. He was ok with that idea, so we went for some lunch and we are know home and fighting with Jaxon for him to have a nape...I think he just might win this fight as it is almost time for him to get up from his nape, which he has never had!!!

Christmas 2010 Recap

2010-12-28T09:13:00.002-05:00

I am not exactly sure what happened to the month of December, let alone Christmas.
Our celebrations started the first weekend of December with a family gathering in Stratford for Curt's dad's family.
The following weekend, after our Christmas party we had at our place, we headed to the farm to celebrate with Curt's mom's side of the family. This year the kids did a gift exchange because there is just getting to be too many of them. All of Curt's aunts and uncles used to buy for all of the kids, which was way too much!!! This year the kids drew names and got one gift which was perfect.

Jaxon got a Buzz Lightyear potato head doll, and was in his glory. He really is not into Toy Story, but he did receive a Buzz Lightyear doll that makes sounds and lights up for his birthday, so he knew who he was and was excited about his eyes coming out (oh my!!!, he is amuzing my the littlest things).

We then headed up to Kincardine on the Sunday before Christmas to have our gathering with my dad's family. There was no snow in the air, which was a blessing because just 2 days prior to us going the road to get into Kincardine had been closed for 5 days. We might have got in, only to not get out until April!!!

Christmas eve our tradition is to spend the night at my mom and dads place, and this is where Santa Clause makes his stop. When we had wrote him our letter this year we made sure that we told him that he would be able to find us there, and that he did.
Christmas eve was spend having dinner with my 2 grandmas, Cara and Justin, mom and dad, and us. Curt's parents came over after they were done at church for a little Christmas cheer as well. The flood of gifts also started this evening as well. Jaxon was so anxious to open gifts as soon as we got to my mom and dad place because the living room was full of them. We had to wait for my dad to get home from work to start to open, but of coarse his Auntie Wawa allowed him to open one of her gifts.

He was sooo funny opening his gifts this year!!! With some of them he had to get the paper off, and still get into a box to actually see what he got....but it did not matter what was under the wrapping paper, as soon as the paper come off he was in aw. His eyes lit up and his mouth dropped open in amazement. We could have just got away with wrapping empty boxes and I think his reaction would have been the same.
After we opened our new PJ's it was time to get in them and get our treats set out for Santa and the reindeer. Jaxon has a special plate for Santa, and we loaded it up with shortbread, and peanut butter balls, and of course a carrot for the reindeer.

When we woke up in the morning the cooks were just about all ate, and the carrot had been nibbled on quit well, there was only a dribble of milk left and there was a note from Santa for Jaxon thanking him for the special treat. Jaxon carried around that carrot all morning showing everyone that Santa's reindeer had ate it. The riping then began. Santa wrapped his gifts that he left for Jaxon this year, but I think that maybe next year I am going to write him and ask him not too. It was just too much for Jaxon. With all the gifts that he got from Curt and I, from Cara and Justin and from my mom and dad he really started to lose interest once he got a few opened.

He loved everything he got, but this years big hit was the load of dinky cars that he got with a new mat for the floor to play with them on. He plays with that thing for hours, and he even got a carrying case for all his cars that he can cart around like a suitcase on wheels, and that he does. I find that thing everywhere.

After the excitement of Santa, and all of his gifts it was time to get packed up to head over to the other gammie and poppy's place for some more excitement. We got there early afternoon, and Jaxon needed to have a little rest before his cousin Reed got there and it was time to getinto round 2. He laid down for a nape and 3.5 hours later he finally decided to wake up. This Christmas thing was just too much for a 2 year old.After Reed finally showed up we were able to get at it. It was complete and under kayos!!!! Everyone got their gifts handed to them and the ripping began. I was trying to sit back and take it all in and see what everyone received, but from trying to help Jaxon with his gifts, and trying to get my own opened it was a mad house. I think that maybe next year I might suggest that we go one at a time, and let the boys open their's together. That is how we do it at my mom and dads and it is nice because you get to see what all everyone got. I come home from there not knowing what Curt had received, let alone everyone else.

We were spoiled of course!!! Both Curt's parents and mine are way too generous with their gift giving. We are very lucking to have the parents that we do, and we love that they like to make Christmas what it is.

We had dinner at Curt's parents place with his Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Randy and after we got our phone call in with the rest of them out west it was time to head home and try to organize all of these new things that we brought into our house. On the way home were were talking and decided that we need a bigger house!!!

On Boxing day I got up with Jaxon nice and early and got my tree taken down. It had to come down right away so that I could try to find room for all the toys that Jaxon had got for Christmas. When I decorate for the holidays I decorate in snowman, so I leave those up for most of the winter so for me to take down my Christmas decorations down it really only involves taking our tree down, along with our stockings and a few other things. Once I got tidied up, I decided that it was as good as time as any to get my cleaning for the week done, so finally at 3:30 I sat down, but I had my house put back together from the holiday kayos, and also had it cleaned from top to bottom.

The next day we were having my mom's family celebration, and I was hosting it. I had to have it at my mom and dad's place because there would have never been enough room in our tiny house to fit everyone, so I spent a bit of time over there on Boxing day getting thing ready for the dinner, and then was over there bright and early the next morning getting things ready. My mom was nice enough to get up and get the turkey ready and put it in the oven for me at 3:00am, thank god, and she made the turnip casserole the week prior and froze it. I had to get things set up, get the potatoes done, and the gravy, and the turkey carved...ect. ect. ect. The day went off with no glitches, and I believe that my first hosting was a success.

The kids also exchange names on this side of the family. After dinner they went outside to play but when they come it there was not holding them back any longer...they wanted to get into their gifts. They all had to wait their turn, as we went from youngest to oldest.....

Jaxon was first, and the older kids help the little ones get their gifts and let them know what it was!!!The day turned out great, and it was a wonderful ending to our Christmas celebrations. By that night I was ready to lay my head down on the pillow and not wake up until 2011, but with a 2 year old in the house we were up right on que, 8:00 am!!!

Merry Christmas 2010

2010-12-24T10:02:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas to all!!!

Call to Santa

2010-12-23T09:12:00.002-05:00

This week we have had to make a couple of 'calls' to Santa because a certain someone has been being a not so good little boy. On Monday night he spent the night at Cara and Justin's and would not take his medicine, so they had to call Santa, on Sunday we were going to our family Christmas and he would not get in his car seat...he wanted to sit in the big seat with a seat belt. I had to pull out the cell phone and dial the big guy, and then on Tuesday night when I called my mom to check in on him he was standing on the coffee table and would not listen to here. I told her that she might have to call Santa.

On my way into work this morning I was listening to the radio and they were saying how you should not threaten your kids by calling Santa to let him know that they are misbehaving!!! Ops...chalk one more mark on the board for 'bad parenting'.

Sick, Sick...go away

2010-12-22T09:04:00.000-05:00

Well, we are know on our round to sickness # 2 in our house in the last 4 weeks. It stared with Curt being sick around his birthday, vomiting. Then a 3 weeks ago we all had a nagging cough and after taking Jaxon to emerge one day found out he had a double ear infection.
On Saturday Jaxon's cough was back, and would not stop no matter what we did for it. Finally Saturday night we took him to Emerge to see if there was anything we could get for him to give him some relief from the cough only to find out that it was in his chest and he also had his double ear infection back. We got him some medicine and within the 1/2 hour he was cleared of his cough.
Tuesday morning Curt woke up with the flu coming from both ends, and then by Tuesday night I had it the same. Jaxon was to spend the night at my mom and dad's on Tuesday night, and he did so but with the flu as well.
With Christmas only 3 days away, I hope that we are going to be clear of the flu bugs. It is not nice to be sick any time of the year, but around Christmas it is even worse. I think that our house has been through enough this year with sickness, and we wish for a very health New Year!!!

Ho Ho Holiday Cheer

2010-12-20T20:54:00.008-05:00

We had our annual Christmas party at our place a couple of weeks ago and it was CRAZY. Curt and I counted the number of people that were there on the Sunday morning, and the total, with Santa was 39. Wow...39 in my tiny house.

Santa made is visit for the kids again this year, and brought them gifts...

(Jazlin)(Knox)(Remmi & Darrah)(Riley & Jack)(Tate)(Gavin)(Jace) (Addy)(Hadliegh)(and last but not least, Jaxon)

Jaxon talked all day, actually all week about Santa Clause coming to his house and when people started to arrive they would try to sit int he chair that Santa was going to sit in and Jaxon would let them know that they could not sit there because that is where HoHo was sitting. He was very excited when all the other kids got their gifts, and even when his come out of the sack he was pretty excited. It was another story when it come to sitting on this knee thought. He wanted nothing to do with it. Really, he wanted nothing to do with being anywhere but at least 5 feet away from Santa.

Maybe next year Santa and Jaxon can be friends!!!

Mommy's Little Helper

2010-12-15T20:52:00.000-05:00

We were having a Christmas party at our place last week and I was getting stuff ready for the evening the night before. I had a little man that was very helpful in helping me get some treats ready, reindeer ears and all!!!

The Search for a Sweater

2010-12-09T12:38:00.003-05:00

So, my son is obsessed with Mickey Mouse. In the states I got him 2 pairs of Mickey Mouse Christmas pj's and he has to wear them every night to bed. I also got him a Mickey t-shirt and he thinks he needs to wear it every day. I managed to find a Christmas Mickey shirt, so he know has 2 in the rotation to wear, but I am afraid that after Christmas he will be one of those kids that wears the same shirt every day because we will be down to the one again. I guess I could always let him wear the Christmas one after the season, but I don't' think so. It will be going in a box, so it is out of sight and hopefully out of mine.

Anyways, a couple of months ago I was shopping with a friend of mine and we spotted a sweater at H&M that had Mickey Mouse on it. I did not pick it up then because he did not need it.

Know that he has this obsession, I NEED IT!!! I was thinking that it would be good to throw in with his Christmas gift, but of course the store that is close to me does not have any in his size. I have called around to a few other stores and have found one in London. The only problem...I can not get there until next Saturday. The Saturday before Christmas (mad house). I have e-mail a friend that lives in London and will be indebted to him if he is able to pick it up for me. But if not, is there anyone out there that will be near a mall that I could call to see if they might have the sweater????

Santa Visit

2010-12-03T09:50:00.003-05:00

Jaxon and Gammie headed to the city on they day together this week and went to see Santa. Jaxon has been telling us since Christmas talk came about that he was not going to see Santa, and he was NOT going to sit on his knee. Well, Gammie got him to do one of those things. She was bound bent and determined that they were going to see Santa. He pleased her by going, but would not sit on the big guys knee.
I guess trying to get a picture was quit a feet as well. They would just get Jaxon to look at the camera and then he would get worried as to what Santa was doing and would have to look at him to check it out. I am not sure how many they had to take to get a half decent one, but they managed.
I remember when Jaxon as a baby and we took him to see Santa at the mall and to get a picture I think it cost us about $18. Not sure what the cost was this year, but in stead of getting a hard copy of the picture, they e-mail it to you and you print it at your leisure. What ever happened to the days of the instant Polaroid picture that you walk away with??

So we have had some bugs at our place lately, and I think this weekend I will be spending the weekend getting our sheets clean and disinfecting.
Last week Curt had the flu, and then this week we are all fighting a cold. Yesterday I got a call from Day Care to let me know that Jaxon had a fever and was not him self. After a trip to emerge (and to my surprise, we were in and out within an hour) we are know on penicillin for a double ear infection.
Hopefully once he has time for this medication to kick in he will turn around, because we have a family Christmas to attend this weekend, and also we were planning on going to the city to get some Christmas shopping done. We don't have time to be nursing all our bugs this time of year!!! Poor little guy.

December 1st...thank god!!!

2010-12-01T11:21:00.000-05:00

Not sure if some of you are familiar with the month of Movember, but during the month of November men are encourage to participate in by growing a mustache and raising money for prostate cancer.

Curt was on a team called the Dirty Dusters, which consisted of 12 members who raised close to $3000 for this great cause. Curt alone raised almost $500.

As proud as I am of him for raising as much as he did for the cause, I am not sorry to see his furry little friend disappeared today. That thing was nasty, and I was beginning to get embarrassed to go out in public with him.

Thank you to all of you who have donated to his cause, and for any of you that may still be interested in donating, I think that you are still able to do so by going to http://ca.movember.com/mospace/628730/ and contributing to changing the face of mens health.

Christmas is around the corner.....

2010-11-30T21:32:00.000-05:00

Well, know that the birthday celebrations are over around our house, we can concentrate on Christmas.
I have had my tree up for a couple of weeks know, but this past weekend we did our outside greenery. As is the traditions with the Strachan's, the boys loaded in the truck on Saturday morning and headed out the bush to gather the supplies that we would need. My dad had just cut down someones ever green tree for the last week, so he dragged it back to their place and cut it up for us to use. That was one less thing that the boys had to cut down when they were trudging through the bush.
We had a garage full of ladies this year, and by the end of making our arrangements were pretty much out of everything!!!
Know we just need some more snow, and I will get a little more in the Christmas spirit and hopefully get my shopping done.

End of the Celebrations

2010-11-29T21:29:00.000-05:00

Last night was the end of us celebrating Curt's birthday. Thank goodness. It seems to have dragged out for over a week know.
Curt's family came over for dinner last nice to celebrate. It ended up that his sister and her family were unable to make it in, and we had all this food prepared. We called up my parents and Cara and Justin from some re-enforcements, and managed to get most of it all ate up.
Happy 29th Curt!!!

November Birthdays

2010-11-23T09:17:00.000-05:00

Well Sunday was a day of celebrations around our house. November is filled with a bunch of birthday on my side of the family. My dad's birthday is on the 10th, my mom's is on the 20th and Curt's is today (the 23rd). I had decided when Curt's grandma gave me an early Christmas present of a turkey roaster a couple of weeks ago that I would do my first stuffed Chicken for the celebrations.
Sunday morning I went over to my mom's place to get the lesson on how to stuff a bird. While I was there I also made my first maple chiffon cake, which was my dad's request of birthday cakes.
I had my grandma's over, as well and Cara and Justin and my mom and dad then for dinner on Sunday night. It was great...the bird turned out wonderful!!! We had our cake and did the celebration, and everyone went home.
After everyone left Curt said that he was not feeling well. OH NO!!! Did I poison everyone??? I was not feeling the greatest either, but I contributed it to being exhausted. Curt was up sick all night and all day yesterday, so first think I did yesterday morning was e-mail everyone to make sure they all felt ok. After getting a good report from all I chalked it up to Curt having a flu bug....fewf, thank goodness!!!!

First Sight of HoHo this Season

2010-11-22T21:14:00.003-05:00

Saturday morning we bundled up and headed down to Kitchener for the KW Santa Clause parade. Listowel's is this coming weekend, but unfortunately it is on Saturday evening and it is also Curt's Christmas party so we will not be able to take Jaxon to see it. He will be going with his aunty Wawa and uncle Ju instead.
It was a cold day on Saturday, so we took our mittens and hats and scarfs and headed out to see the big guy in red. Jaxon was ok with going to see him, but he insisted that he was not sitting on his knee. That was fine with time around being as we were just going to see him in the parade.The parade started at 10am, so we were there nice and early. We did not take a blanket or chairs because we thought it would probably only be about 1/2 an hour or so, and we would be able to stand for that. Well, 1hour and 45min later Santa finally made his way past us!!!! After the parade we decided that we might had to the mall to maybe do a little Christmas shopping, but that did not get done. I really have not been in the mood to get my Christmas shopping even started this year, which is very much unlike me. This week I have been making a list, and I guess I better start to get some of it crossed off, because by the way the crowds were in the mall on Saturday, I do not want to have to go there in December and try to fight them any more then we did on Saturday.

Let the Christmas season begin!!!

Holiday Greeting 2010

2010-11-18T12:30:00.002-05:00

Now that we have our pictures back from our photographer....this should be in the mail in 3-4 weeks!!!

Some of my favs

2010-11-18T09:39:00.000-05:00

We received our family pictures from our photographer this week and thought I would share a few of my favourites.....

No Hockey Player in the Near Future

2010-11-09T21:11:00.003-05:00

Jaxon stepped out on the ice this past weekend for the first time. Needless to say, that was the only step he took on the ice. He hated it. He did not want down, and would not even try. The only time he was happy out there was when he was in this pose, feet far away from the ice. He must be like his mommy, because I think I lasted about a whole 4 min. on the ice. Enough time to get the picture, and then make my way over to the benches!!!

Halloween Fun

2010-11-03T21:59:00.000-04:00

Sunday morning we woke up and headed over to Curt's mom and dad's place because the boy's had spent the night there the night before. Since they were both there we thought that it would be nice if we could hit up a few of the neighbors and friends of Curt's parents together before we had to go out at night to the other places we had to go.

By coincidence, again this year we got the boys the same Halloween costume. This happened the year they were babies and either year neither one of us knew what the other was going to be. It is too funny, and too cute.After lunch we went home for nap before we had to head out for the big evening. Unfortunately when Jaxon woke up from his sleep he had a fever and was not feeling every well. We got his costume on, and hit up a few places but the evening was cut short because our little giraffe was not having fun at all.We made it home in time to hand out candy at our house. It was kind of nice, because we have not been able to do that for the last couple of years because we have been out with Jaxon. Jaxon come home and all he wanted to do was watch Diego. He got to bed nice and early, and did not even want to have any of his candy. He woke up around 9 with a very high fever. Him and I had a rough night and he had to stay home from school on Monday because he still was not better. Even last night he was not himself. I just don't know what is wrong with him. He says that his tummy is sore, but he has not got sick or anything. I guess he is just having an off week. I think it is the weather, I don't really feel my self either.

Hope you had a better Halloween at your house, then we did at ours.

Weekend of Fright and Fun

2010-11-02T21:50:00.002-04:00

After our evening out on Friday night, we got to do it all over again on Saturday. Curt and his friends had their year end golf tournament....YA, golf is done for another season.
Jaxon and I headed out on Saturday morning to the Early Years Centre in Listowel to their annual Halloween party, and met Jazlin, Hadleigh and Reed there. The kids did crafts, played some games, there was a book fair where we picked up some Christmas presents, they played with the toys, and then they had a story and song time. After the party, we had to head to Auntie Cara's house were we were invited to attend a shower for baby Gavin. Cara was very excited to be hosting this event for her best friend and her new baby, because was was actually able to have more then 5 people in her house at one time. There were a few too many people, but it was very nice.
Because all the dads were golfing for the day, the kids had to join us at the shower. They spend a good part of the shower down stairs playing with the toys and watching Halloween movies.Saturday night we were invited out to a Halloween party for ourselves. Jaxon and Reed spend the night at their grandma and poppy's house together, and their mommy and daddy's went out for the evening.Their were some great costumes at our party. Nic and Johnny took the couple category for sure. Johnny was non too pleased about sporting this costume, but everyone loved it.Thanks to Tim and Deborah for a spooktaculare evening!!!

House Warming

2010-11-01T21:47:00.000-04:00

Well, Cara and Justin have been in their new house for almost a month know, but Friday night they finally had a little house warming party to celebrate their first home!!The evening was a kid friendly event, and since it fell on the same weekend as Halloween we decided that we would dress the kids up in their Halloween costumes instead of all trying to get together on Sunday night to see each other. This would eliminate the confusion of who's house we would meet at, and they could exchange their candy early and enjoy it for a couple of days before they were bombarded with treats on the actual day of trick-or-treating.We ordered pizza for dinner, had salad and then we had make your own sundae. It was yummy. Hadleigh, Jazlin and Jaxon have been the only children for a long time know, but in the past couple of months we have had some friends who have had babies. Jaxon loves them. No one else is allowed to hold them if he is around. He is a little bit of a baby hog.
Above is a picture of Jaxon and Gavin. Gavin borrowed Jaxon Halloween costume from when hew as a baby. It is hard to believe that just 2 years ago that was my little baby bear...tear,tear!!!The newest addition to our little clan is Knox. He was only born last Monday, but made it out for a little bit of the evening. As soon as he was out of his carrier, baby hog Jaxon has to be the first to hold him. He scares me a little...no, actually a lot with them. I can not imagine what he would be like if he had a baby at home to cart around and hold. He would think that he would be able to carry him/her, lift them, and pretty much do anything with them....SCARY. I guess we will not bring one of them in to our house a little while!!!!

Pumpkin Carving 2010

2010-10-25T10:18:00.003-04:00

As in years past yesterday we had our family pumpkin carving at my Mom and Dad's place. This year I thought that it would be really fun with Jaxon being at an age that he would like to do it. Well, that was not the case. He stuck his hand in one pumpkin to clean it out, and felt the mush and was out of there. We did it in the garage, so he played outside while we carved our pumpkins.
Our theme this year was reflective of some of Jaxon's favourite things.....

Gammie made Pooh...Daddy carved his favourite hockey team...And Mommy did Mickey and Minnie (did not get a picture of Minnie before my camera died).I will have to take a picture of ours at home some night when they are all lite up, because my camera decided to run out of battery when it turned dark and we got them all lit up.

Happy Birthday Riley

2010-10-24T22:36:00.000-04:00

After our weekend of work last weekend, this weekend we had some fun time.

Saturday morning we had a 2nd birthday party to go to for Jaxon's friend Riley. It started in the morning, and went over lunch hour and was over in time for the kids to go home and have their naps. It was perfect.

After the party we had to go to the city to get some stuff for Jaxon's new room. We headed to Burlington to ps>go>brand>ikea>ikea_corporate>en_vaughan_corporate>corporate>e>5714399734">Ikea to get a few finishing touches for the big boy room, then come back to Cambridge and stopped and picked Jaxon up a new snowsuit for the winter and then headed to Walmart in Waterloo to pick up our Halloween candy for next weekend. The stuff has been added to the new room and it is pretty much complete.

We just have to pick up his mattress on Monday night and then we will be able to unveil!!!

Happy Weekend

2010-10-15T08:30:00.003-04:00

Well, it is the weekend again....THANK GOODNESS!!! Why is that the short work weeks seem like the longest???

This weekend is a work weekend for us. A couple of weeks ago we went to a warehouse sale in Mississauga and got some new hard wood flooring for Jaxon's new room, as well as our bedroom. We have been working away all week to clear out and organize the stuff out of the office (which is going to be Jaxon new room), and we will lay the floor this weekend. My dad and Curt are going to work away at it on Saturday, and then Sunday hopefully we can start to paint.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and while you are relaxing think of me working away at our reno's....hehehe!!!

McLaughlin Family Pics

2010-10-13T08:59:00.004-04:00

Monday we had some family pictures taken with the McLaughlin. Last yesterday afternoon the photographer sent us a sample of what she got (they are unedited) and thought I would share.....

Poppy, his Toy's & his Boy's

2010-10-12T14:56:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we spend most of our day with Curt's family to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Curt's mom has been wanting to get some family photo's done for quit some time, and finally decided that we were going to do it yesterday.

The photographer wanted to do them at dinner time, so Lois decided that we would have Thanksgiving brunch instead of dinner.

We had a wonderful brunch and then headed back home so that we could have a nape and get ready for our pictures.

Before we headed home, Poppy wanted to get a picture with is toy, and his boys...so here it is.

When they were away this summer on a bike trip, they came home with new sweaters for the boys, so they all got dressed up in their gear and got some pictures.

It is a little hard to get 2 two year old boys to look and smile at the camera at the same time, but hopefully with two cameras taking pictures at the same time, one of us got a good shot.

Robinson Thanksgiving

2010-10-11T14:53:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we spend the day at my uncle Jack and aunt Sue's place for our Robinson family Thanksgiving.

It was a beautiful day...we could not have asked for better weather this long weekend, especially for October.

We spent most of the day outside, with the kids preforming for us.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Parsons

2010-10-11T14:44:00.000-04:00

Saturday we were invited to a wedding that was held at the Centre in the Square.

This was the first wedding that they had had there, and oh...what a wedding.

For the ceremony we sat in the audience, and watch as the ceremony took place on the stage.

Then we come back in after the cocktail hour and the reception all took place behind the back drop of the ceremony. I did not realize the stage there was so big...but it is.The meal was great, and it was a very beautiful day.

Congratulations Brenden and Katherine!!!

Happy Birthday Reed

2010-10-05T13:34:00.000-04:00

Sunday we headed out to the farm for Reed's birthday party. His birthday was on Monday, but Sunday was the day to celebrate. It was later in the day, which worked out great that Jaxon got to have a nice afternoon nap so he was in good humor to go and be around other kids.Reed got a new toy from his daddy for his birthday, and Jaxon was not too sure about it when we first got there, but he soon warmed up to it, and loved it. It was hard for the kids to steer it, so you had to chase around after them and if they were heading for a tree you had to crank the steering wheel to avoid them hitting it. Reed would push the gas, and Jaxon would pretend to steer....they had a great time on it.

You know, when I was growing up on the farm you always wanted to live and town. Know that I have had the experiences of both, I would take living in the country over town life any day. There is something about the country that you don't get in town. The piece and quite, open space, and Jaxon would never be able to have a toy like this in town. Where would he drive it?

Diago was the theme for the party, and after dinner we enjoyed some great cupcakes and opened presents.

Happy Birthday Buddy!!!

Pumkin Patch 2010 edition

2010-10-01T15:28:00.007-04:00

As in years past (2008 and 2009) we made our way to Nauman's pumpkin patch on the weekend. This year Curt was not able to come with us as it was her year end party for his ball team, so we invited Jazlin and Nicole to join us.When we woke up in the morning it was beautiful out, but by the time we got packed up and ready to go it had started to rain. We decided that we would go anyways, because I had to go in to Waterloo and get Reed's birthday gift, so if it was raining when we got there we would just forgo the pumpkin patch and go shopping. When we got there the sun was shinning so we made our way to get our pumpkins.

Before we left Curt had talked to Jaxon and asked him to pick out a pumpkin for him as well as himself. Well when we got there that was all he was worried about. He is all about being fair and sharing these days, so if everyone did not leave with their pumpkin we would have thrown a fit!!!!

Nicole and I tried to get some pics of the kids, but it really did not go as planned. They were not much into wanting their pictures taken, and especially did not want to co-operate with their moms to get shots, so what I have posted is good in comparison to the ones that did not make it on here.

It is fun to look back at the previous years, and compare. The first year we went Jaxon was only 8 weeks old, and know this year her is 2 years and 6 weeks. Where does the time go???

Summer....hold ON!!!

2010-09-23T10:28:00.000-04:00

Well, this week we are trying to hold on to summer as hard as we can. We have had wonderful weather, but the long range forecast looks like fall weather will be here next week.

With the arrival of summer again, we are trying to get outside and do some activities out there before we are no longer able to. We have headed out for a bike ride, played some t-ball, had the soccer net out as well as the golf clubs. The weather looks like it is to be wonderful for the next couple of days, but then my favorite season of all will be upon us.

I had my follow up dr. appointment today from being in the hospital. It looks like the virus that I picked up was the stomach bug that was going around at that time, and this darn bug decided that it was going to attack my fluid in my spinal cord. A very rare fluck thing, but it can and did happen. We also found out that the virus that my mom had probably came from me. I guess that is was she gets by not following the rules. She did not put on her mask and gloves when she came in my room in the hospital!!!!

The doctor also informed me that it would probably be a good 3 months before I will feel like my old self again. Oh great...a lack of energy does not really go over well when you have a very energetic little 2 year old to run around after. Thank goodness that he still likes to nap and have a good nights sleep, and I take full advantage of those times to rest myself.

Other then a our very quite nights, everything is pretty much back to normal around our house. Jaxon has got into his new routine of Day Care 'school' quite well, and actually wants to go now. He tells that he is going, walks in no problems, and talks about his days now. It is a true relief that he is liking it. A lode of worry is off my shoulders each day.

Happy Anniversary

2010-09-15T10:17:00.000-04:00

3 years....oh my. Where has the time gone? Our life has been a little crazy since this day 3 years ago. Not soon after we got our wedding presents unpacked, we were expecting Jaxon, and the rest has been a blur.

Here we are 3 years later, and we are all still in tact!!!

Well, life around our house has been a little hairy, to say the least.

I got home, and finally got feeling better enough to head back to work and them my mom went in the hospital. She was in Stratford, with what ended up to be enlarged lympnoids around her heart. It was pretty scary though, with lots of tests done, and a lot of questions not being answered. Finally we got what we needed, and she is now home resting and trying to get back to her old self. It was a virus that she picked up that attacked her in a bad way. She will have to go back for more test in a couple of months, and hopefully they have gone back to normal size.

So...we are trying our best to get back to normal here at the McLaughlin ranch, and we hope that there will be no curve balls thrown our way this week.

End of Summer 2010

2010-09-14T15:19:00.005-04:00

The Labour Day weekend marks the end of summer for most. At least for us it is usually the last time that we make it to the cottage for the year.
Unfortunately the last weekend at the cottage did not bring good weather this year. It was quit chilly for still being summer, and it held a little rain which prevented us from having our camp fires.
Because I had just got out of the hospital on the Friday, Curt and Jaxon headed to the cottage with Sid and Lois on the Friday night, and left me at home to rest and get a good nights sleep all by myself. I woke up in the morning freezing because of the temperature change and was in no rush to get up to the cottage in the rain. Hurricane Earle had been hitting the East cost the same weekend, and I think that our weather was from some of that. I have never seen the lake like it was that weekend.
I finally make it up on Saturday afternoon, and the Johnston's came up Saturday as well for the last weekend of the summer. We were to take the kids to Story Book Park this week and it had been planned all summer but when I got sick we decided that we would let it go for this year and plan a weekend next year for sure to take the kids.
We did manage to get our last ice cream at the Trading Post on the Sunday night though, and the sun even decided to join us.We had a few coupons from the amusement park left as well, so the guys got to take the kids down the slide once to use them up.

Jaxon and Jazlin got to spend the weekend in the cottage watching Mickey Mouse, and that was pretty much it. There was a little outside play had, but most of our weekend was spent in doors.So here we bid a farewell to the summer of cottage life of 2010!!! It was a GREAT year!!!

On The Mend

2010-09-08T17:40:00.003-04:00

What a week we have had around our house.

I am not sure if I mentioned it, but during our holidays I was just not feeling myself. Achy body, bad head ache, chest and tummy pains and the diarrhea were all the symptoms that I had present when we were at the cottage. The symptoms stayed with me through the weekend and progressively got worse over Monday and Tuesday. By Tuesday night I thought I was dying. I could not even lift my head of the pillow without shooting pains into my head and nearly throwing up.

I did make my way into work on Wednesday, but as soon as I got in there I headed down to the couch and had to call my manager in from her holidays so that I could go to the hospital.

It ended up that after 10 hours in the ER they admitted me to the hospital with viral meningitis. No laughing matter. After about 24 hrs of being on IV and IV Antibiotics I was coming around. Except for a trace of a headache, I was feeling back to my old self. I was discharged from the hospital on Friday around noon and proceeded to come home thinking that I could get my house cleaned and laundry done. Well, after I was home and got one load of laundry put in the machine I was whipped.

I have soon learned what a toll a virus like this can take on your body. It is know a week later, and I am still not back to my self, and defiantly not back to work. It takes me about 2 hour in the morning to even get my self ready when I have to sit down and even lay down to regain some of my strength back. I am planning on going into work on Friday morning for a couple of hours to go through some e-mail and set my week up for next week. It has been nice to be at home, but I am kind of getting bored. Jaxon has been going to day care so that I can rest and although that sounds like a nice day, after about the second day if I had the strength I would have jumped in my car and went to work. We will see how it goes Friday. I might be wishing I did not say those words.

First Day IN

2010-08-31T09:07:00.000-04:00

Well, we successfully completed our first day of 'school' yesterday. He was still talking to me when I arrived home last night and was very excited to show me his painting that he had done.
Apparently they had to wake him from his nap yesterday afternoon though, and that never is good. He was a little bit of a bear for the afternoon but he will soon learn that he might have to cut his 4 hr. sleep in the afternoons down. He apparently went to sleep fine though. That was my biggest fear. I would have love to seen it. They say they set up 25 cots in this one room and they all lay side by side in their own cot for their nap. I did not think that there would be any way he would go to sleep under those circumstances, but apparently he proved me wrong.
Today was looking good. We pulled into the driveway, and he said 'cool'....for school and then when I was getting him out of the car he told me he was going to paint. We entered the door with a big smile on our faces and he said hello to all. We hung his back pack up in his cubby and put his hat on his hook, and then he was attached to my neck. He did not want down. He did not want to play with the boys that were playing with the tractors. He did not want to go and see the girls. He did want to play with the elephant, but only if I was holding him. When I left he was in the teacher's arms crying....so hopefully after I walked out the door the waterworks stopped and he played just fine, which I am sure that is what happened...;)

Where has the time gone?

2010-08-30T13:59:00.003-04:00

Well, today was Jaxon's first day of 'school'. It is actually day care, but it felt like I was sending him to school. We had to get his back pack packed, and put labels on all of his things. Pick out his outfit for his first day, and go to bed nice and early so that we could get into our new routine.

Our summer has been relaxing, and there really has been no routine involved in our days what so ever, so now we have to go back to getting up earlier to get out the door on time, laying our cloths out the night before, and having everything packed an ready to get out and start our days.

It was hard dropping him off this morning. My heart was aching. He is the youngest child there. They usually have to be 2.5 years old to go to day care, but they are allowed to have 3 children that are only 2, and since Jaxon only turned 2 less the 2 weeks ago he is the youngest. He was not sure about me leaving him there but then he saw that they had an elephant, and tiger and giraffe, he was OK with going to go and play with them. That is when I made my move and snuck out. It was a tear drive to work, and I have been waiting all morning to call and check in with them to see how thing are going. I wanted to wait until he might be down for his afternoon nape. When I called I was reassured that he was doing fine. He had asked for me a couple of time, and although his lip was out a few time, there had been no tears shed. FEWF...all is good.

I hope that he is still talking to me when I go home tonight since I dropped him off at the strange place and never did say good bye. I am sure he will love it, as I know that he needs it. He is an active kid and they will keep him nice and busy. He needs to be around other kids and he will get that at day care, and more!!!

Nice Day for a Wedding

2010-08-29T22:00:00.004-04:00

Other then my sister and I, there has not been any of our cousins on the Strachan side get married, until yesterday. My cousin Sheena got married. It was a beautiful day filled with such love. The ceremony was at her Grandma and Grandpa Hamilton's place just outside of Listowel and was a beautiful outdoor ceremony. They had golf carts to bring the guest in to property, and Sheen and her dad drove in on my uncle corvette.(my family)

(my dad and his mom, brother & sisters)

The reception was at the golf course and was decorated beautifully...pink was her color, and even the guys had their pink on!!!

(my grandma with all of her grand kids)

Summer Holidays - part 2

2010-08-28T09:53:00.000-04:00

After the birthday party was all over, and things were back to normal around the cottage we spent the rest of our holidays lazing around and doing a whole lot of nothing.
My mom spend the night on Sunday night after the party, and Cara stayed up with us until Thursday.
Tuesday we did manage to actually leave the cottage, and do something. We headed into Sauble took in a little mini golf,and the amusement park.Other then that day out, we pretty much lounged around the cottage, had afternoon napes, and mosied on down to the beach. Jaxon spend a lot of time playing with his new toys that he got for his birthday as well.
The dog days of summer are almost over, so we took full advantage of the last week of summer holidays that we had.

Birthday Party @ the Beach

2010-08-27T21:41:00.000-04:00

Since the start of our holidays started the weekend of/after Jaxon's birthday, we decided that we would do his party at the beach. Since it is in the summer, and we have the availability of the cottage at our hand, we were very fortunate to be able to do it there.Curt, Jaxon and I headed up to the cottage on Friday afternoon to start to get stuff ready for not only our holidays, but the big party too. I did all of our grocery shopping and organizing before some of our guests joined us on Saturday.
Sunday was the big party day. Our guest started to arrive around noon, and the party began. The weather was not to nice. Overcast and a little cool at time....but no rain!!!
I had got the kids fishing poles that were magnetized and fish to go with them, and we did some finger (or body) paining as well.Some headed down to the beach for a bit, and then it was present time!!!
What a haul. Jaxon did no need anything, but he certainly did get spoiled. He has played with absolutely everything that he got for his birthday, and I can pretty much say that he loves it all.We planned on having an early dinner because people had to travel home from the cottage, so I did not think that Jaxon needed to have an afternoon nap. Well, he demonstrated during the gift opening that me thought otherwise. He was one tired boy, and did not have his head on his pillow for more then 10sec. before his eyes were closed. He even had to take his new truck that he got from friend Riley to bed with him.While Jaxon had his little cat nape, we had our dinner. I did not think that he would be missing too much if he slept through that. We did decide to wake him for cake though. We maybe should have just left him sleeping, but he could not miss blowing his candles out on his cake.After he blew his candles out, he was done with the birthday stuff. All he wanted to do was go into the cottage and watch Mickey Mouse Club House. He was the birthday boy, and he could do whatever he wanted to do. It was getting late in the day anyways, and people had started to pack it up, as they still had to make the drive home from the cottage. The kiddies were all played out, and were ready to go home too.We had a wonderful day celebrating Jaxon's birthday. We are very lucky to have such great friends/family to come celebrate our special little boys birthday with us too.

Happy Birthday Uncle Justin

2010-08-20T09:21:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday Baby Boy

2010-08-19T11:14:00.003-04:00

Where did my baby boy go? Happy Birthday Buddy!!!!

Baby Rhyland

2010-08-18T11:11:00.000-04:00

Last night after swimming lessons we stopped in to visit my friend Jill and her new (well, not so new) baby boy Rhyland.
What a cutie!!! Jaxon loved him. He would rock him in his vibrating rocking chair. He had kisses for him, and if I was holding him he was right there to watch him. He was on the rough side with him, but all in all it was good.
Baby Rhyland looks exactly like his mommy, who was the maid of honour in our wedding. She is a lucky mommy, because I have a little boy that looks nothing like me!!!
We had a great visit, and we will have to make sure we get out to see him sometime again soon. Jaxon might have to stay at home so I can actually have a relaxing visit.

Let the Birthday celebrations BEGIN!!!

2010-08-17T07:51:00.003-04:00

My baby is going to be 2 on Thursday....I can not believe it.
This year we are planning on having Jaxon's big birthday party up at the cottage, as it is the beginning of our holidays, and the theme this year for it is 'Fun In The Sun', and really, what better place to have a party then at the beach.
We always have birthday dinner for everyone in our family though, and since Justin's and Jaxon's birthday are only a day apart, the two of them always have to share their meal.
When it is your birthday you get to choose the menu. This was a little bit of a problem for my mom though, she had a 2 year old and a 28 year old, that really do not have the same tastes. We ended up having a great meal with a wide range of item from macaroni and cheese, to ribs, to stuffed potatoes. We had 2 birthday cakes, Mickey Mouse for Jaxon and an angel food cake for Justin. There were golf decorations for Justin and Mickey for Jaxon.
My mom truly out did herself, yet again. I wonder where I get my attention to detail from. She always have to go above and beyond, but we love her for it. She truly makes every special occasion, even that more special.

Fun in the big Smoke

2010-08-09T09:36:00.007-04:00

Well...what a weekend!!!

Saturday morning we took off to Toronto with the Martin's for a weekend filled a fun for the kiddies. For Jaxon, this was a weekend away for his birthday.

We stayed at the Sheraton Hotel in down town Toronto, and arrived there about 10:45. It was too early to check in to our hotel so we parked there and got loaded for our day at Centerville.

We walked down to the ferry, hitched a ride over to the island, and arrived around noon. What a great place. If you have small children and are looking for something to do with them is summer, this is a great place to take them. They had rides for everyone....from the train ride around the park, to the big log water slide. It was awesome. I was not too sure what Jaxon would think about it, and what he might do on the rides, but all in all it worked out good.

When we got there we thought we better take get some lunch into use before we went on the rides so we had some pizza and then the kids and their dad's took a ride on the train to see what the park all had to offer. Jaxon was not at all sure if he wanted to go on the train, but once his dad and him got on, and seated, he really enjoyed it. We pretty much hit up everything that the kids could do and once we did the whole park they got to choose to go back to the rides they wanted to do again. After standing in the lines for the little fire trucks (they ride on their own) Jaxon decided that he did not want to go on it, and when we got to the pony rides...he did the same. Oh well. I think that if we did it next year, he would love everything and would not hesitate to do anything.

Around 5:30 we headed back to the docks to catch the ferry back to the city and got back to our hotel around 6:30. We got checked into our rooms, and headed out for dinner. There was a Keg just down the street from where we were staying, so we decided to eat there. Thank god we got a table in the back corner of the bar part of the restaurant because we had 2 kids (well, mine in particulate) that had had little to no sleep for the day, and were wired!!! There were no tears, or upset children...just one that was way too happy/climb all over the table/floor/people, and did not want to sit if his life depended on it. Oh well, it could have been worse especially since there was no sleep to be had all day.

We got back to the hotel, took in the pool for a little late night dip, and then tried to get the kids to sleep. I was not sure how this was going to go, but as soon as I laid down next to Jaxon, and pretended to sleep, he was out. I have never seen a kid crash as fast/hard as he did. It was latterly 30 sec. and he was sleeping. I soon followed suit and shut my eyes.

Yesterday we woke up and puttered around the hotel, sent the guys and kids out to get us coffee, got packed up, and checked out. We were going to the Jay's game, so we had a little time to kill, and were only a couple of blocks away from the Eaton's Centre so we decided to go and do some shopping. We took the kids to the Disney store and Jaxon got to pick out a toy for his Birthday. He decided that he would get a Mickey car and figurine, and loved it. I was going to wrap it up for him to open on his birthday, but he wanted it right then and there, so sorry buddy...but there is no present to open on the 19th.

After a quick trip around the mall it was time to head to the Jay's game. We wanted to get there and get a bite to eat and to our seat before the game started. It was kind of a boring game...until the final few inning were the pitcher was going for a no hitter. Unfortunately the second last batter did manage to get a hit off of him, but it turned out to be a pretty interesting finish. Curt and some guy fought over a fly ball that was hit to us, and in the end the guy did give it to Jaxon. Hadleigh and Rob made it on the jumbotraun, so it was one heck of a day.

We did not even get out of the Roger's centre before both kids were K.O'd. It was a good thing that it was a good walk back to the hotel to get our car so they managed to have a good little nape before we had to wake them to get them loaded into the car.

It was a great weekend. Family fun at it's finest. Those kinds of weekends are what I truly remember about my childhood, and I hope that Jaxon will have the same memories when he is growing up. I cherish all the time that I get to spend with my little man, and to be able to do stuff with him like we did this weekend is amazing and we are very lucky.

Swimming Lessons

2010-08-06T10:19:00.003-04:00

Jaxon is in his second year of swimming lessons this year. Because I am not home for the summer like I was last, we decided that we would forgo the 2 straight weeks of swimming, and do the Tuesday evenings for 8 weeks. You get 2 less classes, but with our schedule it worked out much better.

Unfortunate with they way our holidays are scheduled, Jaxon missed his first week, and will miss the last one too. I don't think we will have a problem though, we have a little fish on our hands. He loves swimming!!!! He is not too sure about having to listen to an instructor on what to do, but he just pretty much does his own thing, and loves every minute of it!!!

Another long weekend bits the dust.....

2010-08-03T09:20:00.000-04:00

This past weekend marked the second last LONG weekend of the summer. We spent the our time at the cottage with Curt's family. Every other year Curt's grandma's family have a big family reunion, and this was the year for it. Marg's sister Jean and her family rent the cottage next to us, and her cousin Pat rent's one down the road. We go to Pat's cottage for the reunion because it has a huge back yard with horseshoes, a big play set for the kids, and is nice and close to the beach.

All week long they were calling for great weather for the long weekend. By the time that I left work on Friday night the forecast had changed and was calling for some rain for the weekend. Up in Sauble we were lucky and did not get too much rain, but mr. sun decided that he would only show his face around dinner time on Sunday night. I was planning on spending some time down on the beach brushing up on my tan, but that did not happen. We even had to pull out sweaters the odd time through the weekend.Saturday was the day of the reunion, so we spend the morning getting food ready for the pot luck dinner, and then headed down after Jaxon woke up from his nap.

It was a little chilly that day, too chilly to take the boys down to the beach so they made some fun of their own. There was a great play centre for them to swing and slide on and they had taken some sand toys, so they played in the horseshoe pits in the sand.The new thing that they liked to do with each other is wrestle. They would chase each other around, and then Jaxon would stop and drop to the ground and Reed would jump on top of him and they would roll around on the ground. Jaxon love it! Reed only enjoyed it if he was on top. If Jaxon got to the top, game over. Reed was ready to call it quits. It was too funny to watch. Curt always wrestles with Jaxon on the floor, and thank god he has shown him that it is only friendly play, because we had no one get hurt out of it.By the time we got the boys back to the cottage they were filthy. It was bath time!!! and by the time it was said and done, I think Trisha and I had more of bath with the amount of water they splashed on us. Oh well, I love to get Jaxon together with Reed, and they love to play together too.
Sunday was a day of rest and relaxation. We had a big breakfast, and then took the boys down to the beach. Curt's dad loved to have both his grandson's down there. They had a ball. By late Sunday afternoon the sun finally peeked through they clouds!!! They boys made some fun of their own in the front yard with their wagon, the boat, and all their sand toys. I love to just sit and watch the two of them play together. It is amazing what they come up with, and I love to watch the looks on their little faces when they are trying to scheme up next. I can just tell that in a few years we will have our hands full when these two little boys get together.

Monday morning we woke up and cleaned the cottage after the weekend, packed up and hit the road. It was raining, so we decided that we could get some things done at home, rather then just spend the day in side the cottage.

I can not believe that we are already into the first week of August....where did the summer go?

Strachan Pool Party

2010-07-26T09:35:00.004-04:00

This weekend was spent down in Toronto at my aunt and uncle's place for our annual Strachan Pool Party weekend. My uncle had called Curt last week and asked him if he wanted to go with him to the Canadian Open because he had got some tickets through work so we headed down nice and early on Saturday morning to be there for 9 so they could head over and take in some golf before the pool party was to start.
Saturday was one hot day, but unfortunately the sun did not decide to join us for the pool party until after supper. They had been calling for rain all week for Saturday and sun for Sunday, so we had decided that we would spend the night on Saturday night so we could maybe enjoy the pool on Sunday in the sun. We did manage to go in the pool after dinner on the Saturday, and Jaxon had a blast. He had his water wings on and was one swimming machine.
Unfortunately the first time he jumped in the water for the weekend he did not have his swimsuit on yet, and me either for that fact. My mom was letting the dogs out for a pee earlier in the afternoon and Jaxon decided that he was going to go and play with the ball by the basketball net. After he picked up the ball, he thought he could shoot it for the net, but the net was facing towards the water. He fell in the pool, and I was not to far behind him to rescue him. What a little bugger. It did not even faze him though....no fear in the world this kids has.
Saturday night was beautiful. We had a bocci ball game after dinner and after dark everyone decided that it was time to get their swim on. They went from the pool to the hot tub, and even Jaxon was going along with everyone, until I finally thought at 11:30 it was time for the little boy to go to bed.Sunday when we got up it was a little overcast, but finally after breakfast the sun come out and it was a beautiful day. We decided that we would spend the afternoon in the pool and then head home. While, but the time I finally got enough energy to get things packed up, and drive home it was after 9 by the time we got home.
Next year I hope that the sun decides to make its appearance on the Saturday so we can have our pool party that day, because I am one tire girl at work today!!!!

Ball & Beer.....for the daddy's

2010-07-19T09:14:00.001-04:00

This past weekend was the ball tournament that Curt goes in with his father every year in Sauble Beach. We go to the cottage for the weekend, and are usually at the ball diamond all weekend. It used to be a weekend of 'whatever' before we threw our kids into the mix. Last weekend it was still ok, because Jaxon was small enough that he would sleep in his stroller, or was happy to be passed around from person to person giving him attention.
This year was a whole other story. Mommy's and kids pretty much only went to the games, and then it was back to the cottage to keep the kids occupied.
Johnny plays on the team with Curt and Sid, so him Jazlin and Nicole were at the cottage for the weekend too.We did manage to make it down to the beach late Saturday afternoon after Jaxon and I woke up from our wonderful 3 hour nape, but I did not get any pictures taken.
Well, it was quite the weekend. Daddy's play ball and drink beer, and mommy's get to tend with busy kids who do not want to watch ball, or sit in the beer gardens.
I am just wondering when mommy's get to have a weekend like that, because the daddy's have already had a couple of those this year???
On Sunday night when Curt finally made it back to the cottage after sitting in the beer gardens all day, I packed up and went to with Johnny and Nic because I had to work the next day. I left Jaxon and Curt at the cottage to enjoy a day at the beach together on Monday, and some much needed bonding time after the weekend!!!

Summer Holidays PART 1

2010-07-11T22:28:00.007-04:00

Last week was the first of our 2 weeks of summer holidays this years. Last week was spend in Collingwood with my family, and the next, in August will be spent at Curt's family's cottage.
The weather was beautiful. We sure did luck out!!! It was HOT, HOT, HOT. Not to complain, but it was almost too had to do anything. Thank god that is exactly what we did. It was a week of rest and relaxation.
My parents have a time share in Collingwood, so that is where our week was spent. We decided last year when we took a family trip to Virginia that we would make it an annual event, and every other year we would make it a big trip. This year was our off year, so it was spent by the pool in Ontario.
Jaxon spent a lot of time swimming, and learning to do it by himself. He was not all too fond of the water wings, but one he realized when he had them on he could swim by himself he did not mind having them on.
Jaxon even got the luxury of learning how to be a 'farm kid' by riding around on the resort in the back of gampy's truck. I was amazed that we got him to go in his car seat when we had to travel on the highways. He had his own chair set up in the back, and was pretty much the king of the resort!!!Jaxon was his busy self for the week, while the rest of us sat around and watched him use up all his energy. There seemed to be an endless supply of it though. He did get his aunty Cara to take him on a walk daily pretty much, and him and I went out for a bike ride a couple of times. Habby even got to come along for the ride.One night we made our way to the village over at Blue Mountain. It was gorgeous over there. The last time I was there was when I was a kid, and you would never know that it was the same place. There are little streets lined with stores to shop at, or restaurants with patios on them that you could enjoy a drink or an meal.There was a little man made lake there which people could fish off, and Jaxon loved looking of the edge of it to try to see some fish..... and he liked messing up the neatly arranged life sized checkers board.We also spend a morning over a Blue Mountain at the splash pool there. There was a lot of stuff young kids to do, but not so much the older. I remember when I was a kid there was the great slide ride, and wonderful water slides at Blue Mountain. Not any more. This is the extent of the water slide:We did not have to worry about Jaxon hurting his self thought. He did attempt to go down the slide one time by himself, but he flipped over on the turn, and from there on in whoever he went to the top with he held onto for dear life until he knew they were coming down with him. As soon as you took off from the tip, he was screaming with excitement....he LOVED it.It was a good holiday. Rest, Relaxation and great time spent with family...what more could you ask for during the lazy days of summer.

Happy Canada Day

2010-07-03T10:21:00.000-04:00

Canada Day this year, just as every other year, was spend in Atwood at the Lion's Canada Day festivities. They always have a big parade, a ball tournament, a beer gardens, a wonderful pork chop dinner and lots of stuff for the kids to do.
We usually put a team in the ball tournament, but this year with the kids the age that they are, we thought it would be kind of hard to contain them to the ball field when there is so much more going on. Thank god we decided what we did, because it would haven been crazy.
Out of the whole day's festivities, this appears to be the only picture that I got. It is of my dad and Justin competing in the log cutting....the lost!!!

Troy & Lindsey

2010-06-28T22:17:00.000-04:00

On the weekend my cousin got married and we were there to join them for their special day.Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Robinson!!!(the beautiful cake my mom made)(my aunt Sue and Troy)

Day FULL of Fun

2010-06-15T06:49:00.005-04:00

Saturday we had a day planned for a warm, sunny day. Unfortunately the weather did not co-operate with us, and when we woke up in the morning we had to do some changing of our plans.

Cara and Justin had their nephew Curtis for the weekend, and wanted to plan to do something with the boys together to keep them occupied for the day. My plans were to take them to Waterloo park to see the animals in the shelters there, and spend the afternoon at the splash pad.

The temperature and humidity would have made for a great day to be spent with some water fun, but with the rain it ruined it for us. Instead we decided that we would go to Kidzone in Waterloo where they could run wild, jump in balls, and play all day. It was a great way to spend a rainy day, and that way they did not have stay in the house and ask every 5 min if we could go outside and play.I did not know how much Jaxon would get out of Kidzone, but he really enjoyed himself. Curt and I even had fun...letting the inner kid out in us. We played around in the ball pits...crawled through all the tubs/tunnels and went down the slides. Jaxon has an obsession with baseball, so he loved the ball pit and most of our time was spent in there.We we come out of Kidzone the rain had stopped so we decided that we would go to Waterloo Park to the see the animals there.

When Cara and Justin picked Curtis up for the weekend all he wanted to see was a donkey. We were able to hook him up with some horses and cows, but were not too sure if we could come through on the donkey. Luckily when we went to the park there was an animal there that looked an awful lot like a donkey. I can not remember the exact animal it was, but in Curtis's books it was a donkey, and his weekend was complete.We decided to take a walk around the park after we seen the animals to see if it was worth the trip back on a nice day. We walked around the lake, dodging the bird shit and came across a play ground for the kids to play on.The play ground was right beside the splash pad, and since it has stopped raining we decided to get the boys bathing suits from the car and let them go run around in it for a little while. Thank goodness it was close to closing time and they girls let us in for free. Otherwise they were going to charge us all for going in, even if we were just going to sit and watch. It was a cheep price, but not for 20 min. of fun.

Thank goodness we didn't have to pay because when we got in there Jaxon was not a real fan of all the spraying water. He loved the puddles, but if it was near anything that might shoot water at him we was out of there.After we got cooled off, we decided that we better get these little boys fed before their good moods decided to take a turn. Thank goodness when we got to the restaurant we had a wait, because we had two little boys that were zonked out in the back seat. Curt and Justin waited in the restaurant while Cara and I stayed in the car while they had a little rest.

After we had our dinner we headed back to Listowel, and the boys got their second wind. Us adults were all tired on the way home, but the boys kept us entertained. Jaxon decided that he had such a good day he did not want to go to bad that night, but when he finally caved and decided to close his eyes she slept like a rock.

Thompson Reunion

2010-06-08T11:41:00.000-04:00

Sunday was a busy day for us. We had Poppa Bear's birthday party for dinner, and for lunch we had a pot luck for our annual Thompson reunion. The Thompson's are my mom's mom's side of the family (if you got that) and each year we always get together and have a lunch and ball game. Most of the family are either from this area still, or have moved up north...so when splitting the teams we always have a North team, and a South team.
Again this year the South team (our region) were victorious and take the trophy!!!It is funny how you go to family reunions, and you will socialize with other to kind of catch up on what has happened over the past year, but for the most part you kind of stick to your immediate family. You usually sit with them for the lunch, play with them on their team and all around spend your time with them. Jaxon got to see his cousins and play with them in the park. This was the first gathering that I noticed a real change in him. He did not make strange with his cousins...which was kind of a relief.
(Jaxon also found a little birdy in the grass that was having a hard time flying...he was so fascinated with that bird and when it came time to leaving him, we had a little bit of a melt down)

Happy Birthday Popa Bear

2010-06-07T11:47:00.002-04:00

Friday was Curt's grandpa's 80th Birthday, so last night we got together as a family to celebrate. He did not want a big party, so just a small dinner with immediate family was what was planned.

It is always entertaining to get Reed and Jaxon together, but it does not seem to happen enough. Last night after they thought they were done eating their dinner they wanted to watch a movie. Curt got them situated in the living room, one having a chair and the other having a couch cushion. It did not matter which one had which, because what ever the other one had, the other one wanted. After everyone was done eating dinner, their grandmas went down and got a bucket full of toys for them from the basement. That did not matter though because all the wanted to do was use the couch cushion as a trampoline. Even their dad/uncle got in on the fun. Who knew that a cushion off of a couch could be so much fun.

I love it how kids can take the simplest thing and turn it into some enjoyable!!!

Tiger's Game

2010-06-01T12:43:00.002-04:00

Friday my mom called me at work around lunch time to tell me that she had been given 4 tickets to the Tiger's game in Detroit for Sunday afternoon, and asked me if we wanted to go. Cara and Justin were out of town for the weekend, so instead of us spending the afternoon up at their place like we do every Sunday, we decided that we would pack up and head to Detroit for the game. It was one HOT day. Not that I am complaining, because I love this weather, but to sit in a ball stadium, surrounded by tens of thousands of people....IT WAS HOT!!!
When we got to the stadium to pick up our tickets...they had no record that mom's company had any for that day. They tried to tell us that they had them for the Saturday game, but not for the Sunday one, so after we tried for about an hour (thank god we got there early) we ended up having to buy 4 tickets at the box office. We were able to get really good seats, right on the 1st base line, and when we got in the stadium we were able to see our 4 seats...right behind home plate...EMPTY.It was a great day. With the head were had to make sure that we kept hydrated, Jaxon got the full experience of the ball game. He had pizza when we first got there, and then he had a hot dog later, and then a slushy after that. He was able to sneak his other favourite food (mac & cheese) for dinner when we stopped at Applebee's for dinner.It was a good game. The tigers kicked the A's but, but I love being at the game. I love the atmosphere in the stadium, and with so much going on around us, I really hardly watch any of the game. We did have to pay attention though because we got a lot of foul balls our way.This was Jaxon's second time being at a Major League ball game. The other time was when we went to Washington last summer. I was teasing Curt that I had to get a picture of them in front of the score board just like we did in Washington, and he wondered if we were going to go to every stadium to be able to do this. I told him that was a goal that him and his son could set for themselves, and maybe by the time Jaxon is 50 they will be able to fulfil it.

Summer Time is HERE

2010-05-31T13:41:00.001-04:00

Saturday morning Jaxon and I packed up and headed down to the market in the morning to get the rest of our flowers for the season and some fresh fruit for the week. We also needed to go and get a new pool for the little man, as he had out grown his from last year. We had strict orders from his father that it needed to be big enough that he could go in it and be comfortable as well.
When we got home it was so flipping warm out we decided that we better get it out of the box and ready for him and his dad when he got home from golf.
We had people over that afternoon for dinner, so we told the kids to bring their bathing suits if they wanted to join Jaxon in his pool. Jazlin was rip roaring ready to go!!!!
Sam, Hadleigh and Reed came over too, all jumping in for a swim too. We only filled it 1/4 full for them, and they had a blast. It is fairly big, and deep. If we were to try to fill that thing full, it would take us all day to do so.
I am sure that if the past week of weather is going to predict what our summer is going to be like, this pool will get a lot of use!!!

Fun Fair

2010-05-31T12:40:00.000-04:00

My sister is a teacher at the school that we went to when we were little girls, and on Friday night they were doing their annual Fun Fair to raise money for the school.
She had told us that we should take Jaxon out to it, but when I went to school they never did anything like that, so I did not know what to expect.
It was definitely gear to the older kids, the age that would attend school, but Jaxon certainly had a good time. I have found that he loves to be around older kids, and loves to watch them doing their thing.
They had games there, which he was too young to really play. They had a fishing game though, and he loved that one. His obsession with fish probably had something to do with the love for the game. After he was done fishing, he got a goldfish to take home too. Great....just what we need. We already have our bata fish in the kitchen, a pond full of new fish from last week, and know Jaxon has his in his room. I was afraid that the fish would not last too long, so thank god Gammie had a fish bowl that we could borrow. I did break down and buy a little plastic plant to go in the bowl for it, as well as some food for the little thing though. So if it does decide to kick the bucket, we only really have about $5 invested in him.
Each class had also make up baskets, that you were able to buy raffle tickets for and put your name in on the draw. We ended up buying 6 tickets, and putting them in on 4 different baskets.....and coming home with 2 of them. Jaxon know has a new basket full of water toys, and another with just toys.

Great Weather

2010-05-27T12:33:00.000-04:00

On Monday when we got home from the cottage we shipped Jaxon over to Gammie's house for the afternoon, and Curt and I went to work. I puttered away at the garage, organizing it and washing the floor to get ride of all the winter grunge. Curt went to work on the flower beds. We had got my dad to get us some mulch on the Friday, and we had pulled the weeds the week before, so he had all the strenuous work out the way. After I was done with the garage I moved on to the pond. It had no attention since the winter, so I was in need of some TLC.
We have not had fish in our pond for the last couple of years because we can either not seem to keep the darn things alive, or we loose all the water in the pond and they die from dehydration. This year, since Jaxon has such an obsession with fish, I thought we would give it another go so on Tuesday night after we had our dinner we all went out to the greenhouse and got some fish. They were 7 for $5, so we went for that deal. We brought them home and Jax and I put them in. Jaxon wants to feed them all the time...so we keep the food in a place were only Curt or I can reach it. We will have to see if Jaxon brings us any luck in the fish department...because Curt and I have not been very successful.

May 24

2010-05-25T12:18:00.001-04:00

The first long weekend of the summer season came and went as fast as any other weekend does!!! We packed up and headed to the cottage on Friday night when I got home from work to spend our weekend up there with Curt's parents and grandparents.
On the Saturday we packed up and headed over to BJ and Ashley's cottage which is about a 45min. drive from ours. They are up by Lion's Head. This was the worst day of the weekend weather wise. It had rained in the morning, and looked like it was going to clear, but it was still calling for rain. BJ and Ash were having a bunch of people up for the weekend, but we decided that since we were so close we would just head over for the day. We had a nice day over there, and caped it off with a wonderful display of fireworks...courtesy of Kirby!!! Jaxon's friend Jace was up there for the day too, so he was able to play with him, and not have to be the only kid there.Sunday was our day to hang around the cottage, and Jaxon had some of his friends up for the night. Ray & Holly, Ryan, Nicole & Jazlin & Rob & Hadleigh all came up and they were able to try out the new bunk house that they spent last May 24th building.
They guys went golfing in the morning, so we decided to take a walk down to the beach to see what it was like. It was amazing. There were times that we were up there last year (in the middle of the summer) and were not able to sit down at the beach because it was so cold. This weekend the water was as calm as I have ever seen it, and the it very warm. It would have been a perfect day to pack up and sit down by the water all day.But since we had some kiddies that were getting hungry and tired we only stayed for a short time, long enough for them to throw a few rocks in the water and we headed back up to the cottage to wait for their dads to return from golf and have lunch. After lunch the kids went down for a nap, and we sat outside all afternoon and enjoyed the beautiful weather. When they woke up we packed up the sand toys and all headed back down to the beach to play. Miss Hadleigh did not want to go in the water:and Miss Jazlin did not want to get out of the water:and Mr. Jaxon...well he started out with all of his cloths on, just playing at the waters edge, and by the time we had to leave he did not have a stitch of clothing left on him because he had got it soaked. He did not even have his diaper left on because he had got it so water logged, it probably weighed 25lbs. on it own. I guess it is all right that he does this at this age...but come a few years and this will be a big NONO!!!After we got them all rounded up, and had a few tears because we had leave we went back to the cottage and enjoyed the rest of the day/night outside in the great weather.We had an amazing beef supper that Curt's dad did in is smoker. After we all ate and got cleaned up the little ones were getting ready for bed so we gave them a bath, and let them sit out by the fire for a little. They were not long until their eyes got heavy, and headed to bed. It was not long after they went to bed that some of us were joining them.
My how our long weekends have changed...it was only 10 years ago that if it was 10:30...or evening was just getting started. This May 24th...our day was ending at 10:30!!!
Monday morning we got up and had a big breakfast, cleaned the cottage a little and headed home. It was another gorgeous day at the beach, but it was our day to get some stuff done around the house, so we did just that.

Congratulations Scott & Heather

2010-05-10T12:11:00.000-04:00

This past weekend was the wedding of friends of ours. Heather is the sister of Curt's really good friend Ryan, and Curt has become friends with her husband Scott through poker and hockey.
We had planned on going away this week (with it being the week after tax season) but then decided that we would postpone our trip until over New Years so that we could attend the wedding.
Heather and Scott had asked me to video tape it for them, which I was more then happy to do. It is difficult to go an really take in the day when you are behind a lens, but it is a nice keep sake that they bride and groom always have to look back on the day with.
Jaxon's little girlfriend Jazlin was the flower girl.....and oh what a cute little flower girls she was!!!The wedding was beautiful, with hot pink, lime green and brown as their colors. It was a great evening, and I hope the happy couple of life time of happiness!!!

The End is HERE!!!

2010-05-03T13:38:00.000-04:00

TAX SEASON IS OVER!!!
The end is here. I have my husband back, and Jaxon has his daddy back.
Friday night we went to the golf course with Curt's work for their annual April 30th party. We had a wonderful dinner there, and had an early night because my husband decided to party a little too hardy.
Saturday I got up and did a few things around the house, went and got Jaxon from my sister's place and then we had some long over due family time for the rest of the day. Napping and playing, and going for a bike ride were on the agenda.
Today I left the boys at home when I come to work. Curt took the day off to spend with Jaxon, and to get a start on his honey-do-list that has been getting longer and longer as tax season went on. We will see what kind of dent he got in it when I get home.
The ends is here and I am happy for that, but it is kind of bitter sweet. The end of tax season means the beginning of the golf and ball season. All in all though, we do get more of Curt's time then we did in tax season, so I suppose it is more sweet, then bitter.

(Jaxon got a new bubble machine when I was shopping last weekend)

Sucessful Shopping Trip

2010-04-27T13:47:00.001-04:00

This weekend was my semi-annual shopping trip to the states. We plan 2 girls weekends a year, one in November and one in April. These times of the year work out great because in the spring we get our new summer cloths, and in November we get some winter cloths, and Christmas gifts. This trip we all needed to refresh a few things in our closet. Curt come away with a few new outfits, a few new golf shirts, and a pair of sandals. I got myself quite a few new pieces of clothing, and a few pairs of shoes, but Jaxon was the true winner with this trip coming away with his summer wardrobe and lot a shoes!!!
Jaxon LOVES shoes and hats. He truly is our child....no double about it. His father has an obsession with hats, and mine is shoes. He could have cared less about the cloths when I was pulling them out the bags, but with every pair of shoes that come out, and every hat, he had to put them on. It was quit the little fashion show that he gave us with is new duds!!!
Well the closets are full, and our bank account is empty. 7 more months to save for the next trip!!!

New Ride

2010-04-22T13:37:00.002-04:00

Last year for Father's Day Jaxon got his dad a bike seat for his bike, so that he could join him for a ride. Well needless to say, Jaxon never did follow through with actually getting his dad that gift. We had kind of decided that it would be nicer to spend the extra money and get a bike trailer instead. We had been looking for a used one but had not been able to find one. It is amazing what a demand for these things there is, expecially used ones.
Curt's parents got one at a liquidation place near our home town. Their neighbors go over to it on a weekly basis, and they just told them to keep their eyes open for one and when they see it, to get it. We asked them to do the same for us and they finally were able to get us one on the Easter weekend. It needed to have some repairs done to the wheel, but we are in business and have been able to get out a couple of times on it already.
I have not had a bike in a couple of years, as I really do not enjoy bike riding, but I decided that it would probably be something that we could all do as a family and bit the bullet and bought a new one a couple of weeks ago. It is a cruiser...a 2 speed...stop and go.
We are all good to go now with our bike riding family fun and I think we will get a lot of use out fo the bike trailer for sure. I am glad Jaxon decided to hold off on buying that bike seat for his dad last year!!!

Picture Taking

2010-04-18T13:34:00.001-04:00

Jaxon loves my camera. He loves to get a hold of it and turn it on to look at the pictures on it. It is amazing that at 20 months he knows how to operate what he does.
Not only does he love to look at the pictures on my camera, but he love to sit in front of the computer and loot at the slide show that is our screen saver as well.
Jaxon now has figured out not only how to look at the pictures on my camera, but how to take them as well. Last night when I was downloading some pictures onto the computer...these are what I come across.
We might have a little photographer on our hands...but we might have to enroll him in some lessons first!!!