Our Wed nights

For the last 3 years Dan and I have been playing volleyball together in the winter. It's great, we play at the school right in Londesboro. It doesn't start till 8:00 so Dan's usually home by then and the kids are in bed. Every year I look forward to this because it's the one thing we do together and one of the only things we do without the kids. The group of friends we play with are great. It's mostly couples which is really nice. The night is very non competitive...The men just come out for the drinks after! Anyway just thought I would post these pictures tonight since for some reason I'm still wide awake!

Michelle

Flamboro Down

Sorry guys, I'm back tracking in days but Becky just emailed me this picture.

On Friday good friends of ours - Tim and Mel picked us up to go to the horse races. We met up with four other friends that live that way. I had never been to any horse races so I wasn't sure what to expect. Becky works there and her horse races so she helped us bet. Let's just say we didn't win much, but the food was great! We had a great table right up front by the food and the front big windows. It was neat. Not something I'd do all the time but it was fun. After the races were over we went down to the casino. It was actually depressing. All the people there (that didn't look like they should be gambling) it was crazy. Dan and I found a 25 cent slot machine but very quickly lost our $20. I couldn't believe the people that sit there for hours. There were lots of people even sitting at the $5 slots...Can you imagine losing $5 every time you push a button!!?? It was insane. A neat experience but ya, too crazy for me. Anyhow we had a great night out with everyone. Maybe next time we should hit The Ranch???

Michelle

Chicken Pox!

Two weeks ago my little niece had the chicken pox. At the end of it she was at our house for a visit. We thought she wouldn't be contagious anymore but no, we were wrong :) Sunday night both Dawson and Korntey started breaking out in spots. So far things are going good (except for the fact that Dawson has an ear infection too). Kortney has a lot of spots and Dawson just has afew. Mood wise they're good. Kortney actually slept for 2 hours this morning and is sleeping again now!!!! She hasn't done that since she was a newborn. Dawson has watch the movie Cars now even more then normal. He loves it. So now we just have to wait to see when Kailey breaks out. It's just a matter of time. Travis and Kaitlin have already had them 5 years ago. This week is going to be long stuck at home. We are used to going out and being busy. So far today I have baked muffins, did 3 loads of laundry and I've been cleaning out my kitchen cupboards.....Can you tell I'm bored?? Anyway my house should be cleaner this week when I'm home!

Michelle

Saturday

Saturday was beautiful!! Since Dan was gone for the day roping my plan was to go to Goderich with the kids and get some Groceries. When I went out to look for the flyer's in the mail box I realized how awesome the weather was. It's not that often we don't have really windy days. So I ditched the grocery plans and took the kids out to the hill. They had a blast. Kortney actually fell asleep in her sled! At lunch time we went in for a while then decided to go back out. Dawson's friend Sara came over to sled too. We took some time go for a walk to which the kids loved. They were light enough they didn't sink down in the deep snow. Let's just say I got my workout that day!

I am sick of winter but when we get days like this it's great.

Michelle

Snowmen vrs ducks

The weather is great here today. I promised Dawson that when the babies were sleeping I'd take him out and we could make a snowman. It's actually warm enough to have packing snow. So after lunch out we went. He helped roll out the balls and put the carrot nose on. He was having great fun. After we decided to go check out the shed. I haven't seen the turkey and new ducks that Dan adopted after Christmas. Well lets just say Dawson had much more fun chasing the turkey around and trying to catch the ducks. (He's the only one who seems to be able to catch them) He's very cute. I can't wait till the weather stays nice and I can take him out more. There really isn't any protection where we live from the wind. There's fields all around us and it's usually windy. In the winter it's awful.

Dawson is such an active little boy he really needs to be able to go out and run and play. Today was good though. After playing with the ducks he wanted to throw snowballs. It was so nice to get some fresh air and see him having fun at what he loves to do.

Last night was sleepover night for the Hoggart kids. My good friend Kim came and dropped off one of her daughters and picked up Dawson. This is Dawson and Sara's 4th sleepover together. They're both 3 years old! It's just too cute. Travis' friend Wes also came over. It's great though cause the kids just entertain each other. The house is pretty messy by the end though! It's tradition that when ever Wes comes over they bring an extra mattress down to the living room to sleep on. Travis is always the last to fall asleep. We don't bother to stay up with them anymore. They watch movies or play the game cube. Travis says he stayed up till 3 but I think he's stretching it a little. So there's been a lot of commotion going on here. I don't mind though. I'm sure the kids will remember these fun times when they're older, so it's worth it.

Michelle

This morning I replanted a couple house plants that were looking pretty rough. This is going to sound crazy but you have know idea how wonderful the soil smelted!! After a long winter it was so nice to smell something from spring. I highly recommend if you're feeling sick of this weather to plant something. I haven't got my garden seeds yet but I'm really in the mood now. I usually start a few things in the house. The kids think it's neat planting then watching the seeds grow.

I'm officially in the spring mood. Even with this weather when I went shopping the other day the birds in town were very active. You know when they all gather around the shopping carts? It was so nice to hear them. It's hard to believe that spring is coming when you look out the window but March is going to be here soon! I'm counting the days!

Michelle

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!

The kids and I made our own valentines last week when we were storm stayed. They turned out really good. We melted down all the crayons we could find in the house them broke them into pieces. We filled up a heart shaped muffin tinthen melted them in the oven. (this was not my idea. I saw it in a magazine.) Anyway we made about 55 of them! The hardest part was peeling the paper of them. Travis and Kaitlin had enough for their class and we had have some extras I'll take to playgroup tomorrow.

The kids came home today with all their valentines from school. They were so happy with the little treats they got.

Hope everyone else has a good day,

Michelle

Well I assume I'm not the only one frustrated with this weather. The kids have only made it to school 2 days this week. We're all going stir crazy stuck at home!! It has been a long two weeks with the snow and this cold. (Which I still have). I finally got to town last night to get some groceries and get to an appointment. My van hasn't even moved for 10 days! When I have gotten out I've taken the truck since it has four wheel drive. Oh well it could be worse...my niece was storm stayed at her Grandma's for 4 days and my friend had family stuck at her house for the same time. I'm not sure being storm stayed for that long with extended family is such a great idea. Someone could get hurt!! Anyway I'm sooo looking forward to spring. You really see how much we take for granted just being able to leave the house and go somewhere. I have had afew friends stop by this week for a coffee which was really nice. It makes these long days go a bit faster. There's only so much house cleaning and baking I can do each day. I should get some projects done around the house, but I really just feel like hibernating. We'll see. Maybe I just need to up my coffee intake to get some drive to do something!

Only 40 more days till spring and my birthday!

Michelle

Before and After

(Whops the pics should be flipped!)

Yes I am lucky enough to have my own desk at home. The problem is I share the room with the other 5 members of my family. There's all my scrapbooking stuff, Dan's paperwork, the kids markers, papers, craft stuff (which is huge), playdough, paints ect. The kids come in this room and love to create but it always destroyes the room in the process. I am fairly organized, everything has a cupboard, shelf, box but there's always stray papers, stickers and ribbon around.

The office is also the dumping ground for everything that needs to get put away. The rest of my house is pretty clean and tidy. This is the problem room. The door just gets shut.

Well today my goal was to clean this room once again. I must say it's so nice to see my desk again. It puts me back in the mood for creating.....I'm hoping the kids aren't feeling to creative too. If I'm lucky they'll leave the room alone for a couple days....fat chance

Michelle