Dawson's Birthday

Yesterday was Dawson's birthday so of course he was very excited. In the morning we brought cupcakes to playgroup then in the morning he got to go for a play at a friend's house. We bought him a bunch of the cars from the Cars movie. He LOVES that movie and watches it over and over again. Later on he helped make his cars cake which he is very proud of.

Today was his birthday party. It was all girls at his party again but he never seems to mind. Other then Dawson having to be told to let everyone play together the morning went well. Everyone wore off lots of energy and hopefully having a quiet afternoon like us. Right now Dawson is watching the Cars movie so I can have a break.

So one birthday down three to go.....Travis' is coming up fast so I need to get thinking about it.

We'll see what I can come up with. We've always had tractor or monster truck cakes, I'm just waiting for him to ask for a Pokemon one which will be a challenge. God forbid it's just a plain cake!!

Michelle

It's a beautiful day!

Brady

Dawson, Riley, Travis
Kortney
Travis, Dawson
Brianna

Wasn't this weekend perfect? Saturday my friend Tammy and her kids went to the beach with us. Everyone was so excited to go. My kids were disappointed since Kaitlin had a birthday party to go to Sat. She got to go to Chuckie Cheeses in Hamilton which I've heard is amazing. She still can't stop talking about it....So Travis especially was thrilled to hear he was going to have a good day too. We picked up McDonalds and had a picnic then played at the park on the beach. The kids couldn't wait to go exploring by the water though. We could have been there all day, they were having so much fun. The shore isn't cleaned up yet so the kids were looking for washed up treasure. It's always amazing how all kids love to collect little pebbles and stuff. Something so simple yet it made their day.

After we all went back to Tammy's for a BBQ. Since her husband is also a farmer he was out working past dark too so it was nice to keep each other company.

It was such a perfect day. I can't wait for the months ahead when we can camp, hike and enjoy the summer with the kids. This is the part of spring I love- the excitement of fun yet to come. Now that the weather is turning nicer there's so much to look forward to.

Michelle

Mother's Intuition

Well I've just got back from the hospital...This all started last Thursday when Kortney wasn't her normal happy self. She slightly had discharge coming from one ear, a fever and cold symptoms. I thought for sure it must be an ear infection. So off to emerge we go Thursday night. What a pain in the ass that is. I know how lucky we are to have a small hospital compared to a big city but waiting around with a sick baby sucks. Anyway the doctor looks in her ear and says nope looks normal, must just be a cold. A little surprised and mad now that I just waisted his and my time I went home. From then till today she has been a bear. Something is definitely wrong. She is cutting two teeth right now so I thought maybe it's just a combination of teeth and a cold. This morning she woke up with crap coming out of her ear. I phoned the hospital again and was told they were backed up and they'd phone me back. I ended going in tonight at 7:00. Since Dan is gone tonight my good friend took my other three so I didn't have to cart them with me. Finally by 8:30 the doctor saw us. By this time Kortney was pissed and ready to leave. I'm sure the hospital was tired of hearing her screaming. The doctor that saw her couldn't see in her ear enough because it's so filled with gunk. He thinks it might just go away on it's own but wrote my a prescription if I wanted to get it filled....yes I'm going to! So anyway we're all home now and I'm just venting about a long night. Thank goodness I didn't have to have all the kids with me though - thanks Tammy!!

Hopefully tomorrow will go smoother.

Michelle

Another great year!!

Friday night was Hullett school's 5 th annual Family/community night. This involves lots of planning from the SAC committee. (parents) This year our theme was the school's 40th anniversary. The night includes a silent auction, a penny sale table for the kids, games for the kids, face painting, a clown, bake sale table, cotton candy, popcorn, hot dogs ect...We received almost 300 auction items from the community, all the food was donated, all the prizes for games were donated and all the penny sale items were donated. This is an amazing night for the school. I just found out today that the approx total we raised is 12,000!!!! Can you believe it, this school has less then 200 students. The picture here is missing afew of the parent volunteers but this is almost the group.

Anyway just had to share this with everyone.

A big thank you to my mom who came down to help with the kids that night. I couldn't have helped with the night without someone to help me out.

Michelle

Thankful Reminders

Baby Dawson

Yesterday a friend of mine had to take her daughter to the McMaster Hospital for an appointment. She asked if I would go along with her for company. Off we went for Hamilton with 3 kids. We left her other son home sick with a cold. Brianna, Dawson and Kortney were very good considering the long trip there, two hours at the hospital then another drive home. ( with a small shopping trip in between!)

Thankfully Brianna so far is ok. We have to wait another month and hope her symptoms can be controlled with diet.

I have to say though going to a big hospital like that with so many people there is very disturbing to me. Just in the waiting room we were in there were 6 other babies there waiting to be seen. All of them were under 6 months old. There were other little kids there two who obviously had been there before. I've been extremely lucky that all four of my kids are healthy. Only Travis has had a couple stitches but other then that just normal flu, colds and minor bumps and bruises. (Please don't let this jinx myself!!!)

I consider myself a very grateful person but during the everyday shuffle of life it's easy to forget how our lives really are. I can't begin to imaging the hell a lot of people go through. And if I sit and think about it too much it's all to overwhelming. I can't help but imagine the thoughts and feelings others would be going through....

I want to raise my kids knowing how lucky they are and be willing to help others. This can be very frustrating when they just don't understand they have so much to be grateful for. I'm trying not to preach too much and hope that they'll learn from remodeling. They're very aware that whenever we see someone needing donations that putting money in the box is just something we do. I don't know, I'm hoping that when they get older they'll then be able to look back on they're childhood and "get it".

So the yesterday was one of those little reminders for me that yes my life is great and we are so very blessed. I can't help but pray we stay like this.

Michelle

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone had a good long weekend. Ours was good. We weren't sure about how the weather was going to effect it but he were ok. For the people reading this who aren't in this area Huron county looks more Christmas like then Easter. Last Wed we got thunderstorms all day then it turned to snow, lots of snow. Friday our plan was to head up to my mom's near Lion's Head. We left in crappy weather. When we got to mom's they barley had any snow. Other then being cold the weather was great up there. The kids had lots of fun. They couldn't wait to see their uncle Marc so he could help them with Zelda. (a gamecube game) The weekend was pretty quiet with just us there but everyone had fun. I was fortunate that Dan was able to come with us.

So with not much else new I'll sign off. I'm not really in the mood for writing.

Write later,

Michelle

"Ouster Eggs"

I'm not quite sure why but Dawson keeps saying ouster bunny and ouster eggs. It's not that he can't say Easter he just has it in his mind to say ouster. He's cute.

Sat night we decided to dye our eggs since Dan was around to help. It's really hard to wait turns if there's only one adult. I knew Kortney would be all over everything and wanting to do it too. She's not a just sit back and watch kind of child.

I found a neat way of making designs on eggs this year. Take clear nail polish and brush it on an egg. Where ever you put it that part of the egg stays white. Kaitlin did some with stars on them and it worked out great.

The kids are getting excited for Easter especially since we're going up north to Grandma's house. They're looking forward to an Easter egg hunt. Hopefully the weather will be nice by then and not snowing!