Family Home Evening

Yes, sometimes we 'just dance' or do some 'Kung Fu Fighting'.

Sometimes we even have guests like 'Rasputin' join us!!

Family Home Evening this past Monday was certainly one that was a hit!!

A Fortress

The girls are having a sleepover tonight and had to build a fort. The boys saw this and cried as I said it was time for bed. They wanted something too. Fair enough, so we built one. Nothing fancy, but it was sure fun!! We'll see how long they stay in bed this time. Benson might even last more than 30 seconds... Who knows?!?

Sweetness

I love these moments with teddy bears!!

Benson - @4am

Yep, we have a crazy Dad. Every trip has to start long before the crack of dawn - my kids generally handle it better than I do, but clearly Benson takes after his Mom.

A Yummy Project

Look what we've done all morning!! And there's still at least three more dozen to go!

Old Memory

Just found that I had jotted this down randomly about Kienna.  Apparently it happened on June 3, 2007.

On Sunday, Kienna was standing over a vent at church and since it blew her dress out, she said, "I'm turning into a swan Mommy!!" and then she'd melt down and put her arms like wings.  

We MAY have been watching Swan Princess around this time.  Anyway, random memory that I thought I'd jot down.

My Monkey - Part 2

Benson just doesn't stop - ever.  I literally can put cookies on top of the cabinets and he still will do his best...

A Car Party!

The girls slept over at my moms last night, so I told the boys we could go have a boys party.  Jaymeson insisted that it should be a cars party.  "Mom, we would watch Cars 2 and eat pizza and have popcorn - in our pajamas!!"

Sigh, I just can't refuse that level of excitement.  So Cars Party it was (except we couldn't find Cars 2, so we watched Kung-fu Panda instead).

This was at a scary part - so Jaymeson was protecting Benson

We got Powers

I found the following piece of paper and wondered what on earth it was. I was told very simply that it was a list of Saryn's powers. Oh, okay.

Oh, and for your information, FKDA means Fairy Kant Do Anything.

Now you know, this beautiful princess is more than she seems.

An iPhone Blog

I just put 2 and 2 together and transferred my videos and pictures from my iPhone onto my computer.  (Well done Ashley!  Now you might have some free memory on your iPhone.)

Today has been fun.  Started with "Story of the World" at 10 this morning.  We have 10 kids in our home school group and had them all over today to discuss, reinact and/or play games related to our readings for the last couple weeks.  We learned all about how the Mayan's did math.  Ate Incas' chocolate (dark chocolate), had sweet potatoes (just like Christopher Columbus found when he came to the Americas) and reinacted the journey of Magellan.

Since then, we've had a play date day.  Kaia has Jenna Kapscos over, Kienna has Jasper, Saryn has Ava Meeks and Jaymeson has Tyrus.  (Benson is having a really good nap).  It's been fun to have everyone switch things up and to be honest, I think I'm getting more "thinking" time with 9 kids here than I do with 5.

And can I just say how much I love my nephew Tyrus?  He is a 10 year old boy that isn't "too cool" to come and have a play date with his 4 year old cousin that absolutely adores him.  If you ask Jaymeson who Tyrus is, Jay will answer, "He's my best friend!"  And Tyrus plays with him and teaches him to save for his mission and tells him what good manners are.  I just love Jaymeson and Tyrus' friendship!!

Anyway, besides talking your ears off, I also wanted to post a couple random pictures from my iPhone from the last few months to have a nice memory moment.  Enjoy!

Sweet little man fell asleep

Snuggle Time (Getting 'Nuggles)

Brooklyn reading her mission call

Mr Benson snitching - yet again

A puzzle we just finished

The Best Kind of Mornings

My kids really make or break my mornings. The expression says, "If mom ain't happy, nobody's happy". But I think a more accurate one might be, "if the kids wake up grumpy, mom will be grumpy". And that is regardless if how she felt before they wake up.

Today, however, has been absolute bliss! I woke up a little later than usual and Jarett made extra eggs for me. Then my sweet baby Benson woke up and just wanted to snuggle on my lap with me. I made him a quick breakfast and he was just so sweet and tender and excited about it all.

Then my sweet Jaymeson walks down the stairs, gives me a hug and sits down. I ask him what he wants for breakfast. He says, "I want Mini-Wheats, especially if you can give me a double!" While I'm pouring it in, praying there's a double, Jay asks me, "mom can I please go potty?"
"Of course Jay!" "Thanks Mom! You're the best Mommy ever!"

Sigh, perfection. It's what every mom wants to hear at some point.

Jaymeson showing my how big a "28 double" is

Jay DOES get a double mini-wheat (which he informs me is a "28 double" and thanks me profusely for). Gives me a hug and moves to the family room to play air hockey with Benson! I love seeing my boys play together.

At this point, I sat down I write the blog. My girls are stirring upstairs, and Saryn comes down, bed made, clothes on and gives me a shoulder rub to say hi. She loves to give shoulder ribs these days. It's such a sweet and tender way of hers. I love it. Sigh.

Well, laundry awaits and I need to get my older two up and at it. The weather is supposed to be nice today, so I think I'm going to go on a run and push my boys in the stroller.

Bliss I tell you! I hope today keeps going the way it has - and that all mornings could be even close to this good!






Oh, and Kaia came down for her bowl of mini-wheats... a triple.

A triplet that I'm excited about having

Yeah, enough said!

Some tender thoughts...

I had a good cry last night.  I was remembering Grampa and missing him quite a bit.  He would have turned 90 years old today and I think I'll be humming "Beautiful Dreamer" the whole day.  He truly is a great man!  I am hoping to celebrate his 90th birthday the way he (more than likely) would have - at his favorite place, the temple.  Love you Grampa - miss you TONS!

With Kienna

At Hayley's Wedding - with Gran and Aunty Beryl

Kaia playing her violin for him - he also played

With my five kids!

With Benson Melvin Cahoon (named after him)

Colour On Cowboy!

I am currently watching 7 kids (my five and Hayley's two) and you wouldn't believe there was even one in the house if you called. After a rather chaotic lunch, both the two year olds were out down for naps. Both needed to be 'nuggled separately and Macy had a hard time going down without her mommy. Meanwhile, Lola (5 months) was fed up and wanted to be held by a grown up. Kaia and Kienna were taking turns holding her and did a great job, but after about 20 minutes, she lost it. Of course, Benson had ALMOST fallen asleep as Macy screamed for me. Once I got him settled and in to Macy's room, Lola lost it.

(Pause - I would like to thank Heaven for never sending me twins, no matter how cool it would have been. And if like all mothers of twins to know that I think they're amazing!! - unpause)

So after getting the three babies asleep, I go to check on Jaymeson after leaving him in his room with Benson (on the off chance that he'd fall asleep too) and he was all dressed up in cowboy gear. Immediately he ran downstairs, grabbed a piece of paper and said he's going to colour some paper for a paper airplane. It even adds to the silence.  My thought - "Colour on, Cowboy!!"

Isn't he adorable?!?

Anyway, I'm going to enjoy the silence! The girls are working on school work and we are only speaking in hushed whispers now. I might even get something done!!

Springtime? in Alberta

On Friday, my kids were having leaf races in the run off on the side if the road. Only a few bits if ice remained and there were no coats involved. We even broke out the sidewalk chalk for some hopscotch.
By Sunday, however, it looked like this... And that's in the sheltered spot by our front door. 25 cm in a day is a lot of snow. But, oddly enough, it is probably the worst Calgary has seen this year. It's been a fantastic winter, and I am NOT complaining!

(If you look carefully, you can still see some sidewalk chalk under the snow)

Moments to Remember

I've been really trying to cherish moments with my kids recently so that I can remember them for a while. I want to look back without any regrets on their childhoods (which I already do, so I better start now). So when I saw this on my couch tonight, I wanted to take a picture and write down how sweet and tender my little Saryn is.

I just put Jaymeson to bed. He was being exceptionally sweet, so I told him, "you've got to be the sweetest thing ever to live". Without hesitation, he responded, "yeah, and the greatest!"

I don't know if that proves me wrong or just shows that the male ego is alive and well. Either way, it got a giggle out of me.

Benson fell asleep at the table while eating tonight. He kept on feeding Himself without quite getting the spoon in the bowl or his mouth. It was SO adorable! I got it on video, so hopefully I'll find a way to put it on here, but if I don't, I at least wanted the memory written down!

My 'ittle Author

Jaymeson has started to write in a "journal" like his sisters. Kienna has also been writing a lot of stories to prepare for her PAT, so Jay has picked up on that. I thought I'd let other people read the beginning works of a famous author in the making. Enjoy!!


Kienna served as scribe for this Journal entry:

This was a dictated story.  I had just explained the "Characters, problem, solution" formula to Kienna, and I think he nailed it.

I LOVE that he gave me a title for this one.  It's so random that it had me in stitches.

 

The pictograph of the above story:

A Special Valentines Date

Well, I've been looking for a way to spend some more time with Saryn recently. Apparently she came up with a way before me because I'm currently sitting at the Children's Hospital spending my Valentine's Evening with a super special girl.

We were preparing a special family dinner for Valentine's Day and we were just about to call everyone to come sit down and eat when we heard BANG and Saryn was lying on the floor.

She was swinging between the table and island with one hand on each and lost her balance. Landing on hard tile floor on the chin is a great way to get moms attention. Off we went to the Children's Hospital.

The whole way, she didn't want to listen to music or anything, she was too worried. She needed to know exactly what would happen to her. After explaining that the people at the Children's Hospital LOVED kids and would be so nice to her, she calmed down a little.

In triage, we had a sweet nurse that said the words that Saryn needed. "Oh, that's just fine, the doctor can fix that up NO problem" and "we're going to put some "magic cream" on that so when the doctor fixes it up, it won't hurt you at all.

So far, so good. We're playing Nintendo Games in the waiting room and she's sufficiently distracted. Here's hoping we get in some time soon...

Monkey Benson

It was quiet for a minute, so I ran to check why. He found the sugar cookies and was going to town. I guess he's feeling a lot better after his Scarlet Fever.

My very own SUPERMAN!

"This is the best Super Cape EVER!"

Jaymeson got a new super cape from Granni (Jarett's mom) this morning. Now he, Benson and Jarett can ALL have one. He immediately wanted to wake up his sisters to show them, and he has been begging Jarett to put his on too. These are some of his quotes once he tried it on.

"It's a CTR ring Super Cape, too!!"

"Super Capes never give up"

"It's kind of like a life jacket, because it helps me float, then I sink and then it shoots me back out if the water!"

"I wish I had five eyeballs, then I could walk sideways, and the other sideways, because I'd have eyes on my cheeks. And I could also see up because of the one on top of my head!"

The picture is blurry because he kept on wanting to jump off before I could take the picture. Truly indicative of how he was this morning.

Being Inspired and Having Dreams Come True!!

So, I read a blog post yesterday about "drops of awesome" and focusing on the positive instead of what you're NOT doing. I was having a tough day and it helped me remember that I was snuggling with my boys and I got the kids to their music lessons etc., I'm doing okay. 

This post inspired me to try something I've been wanting to try for SO long. I have always felt like its not worth trying until I have the time I put in I master I (okay, I might have some perfectionism issues), but I tried it and I got through it!! I played Rimsy-Korsakoff's "The Flight of the Bumblebee" from beginning to end. It may have only been a fraction of the speed, but I made it through and I'm really proud of myself!  This has seriously been a life long DREAM!

This morning I pushed myself again!!  I went out for a run with my sister Brooklyn and got back on the "couch to 5K" program. Felt so good!! Even if it WAS -12 outside. I'm proud of myself!!

I just have to try and get the rest of the day as special for my sweet Kaia (who is TEN years old).

Remembering Our Civic

“That’s IT!”  I yelled at my husband as another puddle of water fell through the sunroof right onto my lap, “We’re getting a new car!!!”  We had just had our 1985 vehicle inspected and it had been completely rusted through by the Canadian Winters.  Not that the 1990 Civic was “new” in 2002, but it was a WHOLE lot better.
This “luxury” Civic included a few “special” features that are difficult to find on cars nowadays.  It had muscle-building steering (no power steering for us), it came with a learning curve (had to learn to drive stick), and it was 100% rust free.  It also included the seat belts that strangle you if you get out of the car too fast, an “easily accessible” trunk that opened with the removal of the bungee cord, and air conditioning (that came in the form of a spray bottle and an open window).  What could we say?  We fell in love.
As we were both full-time students, with our first child on the way, the $700 price tag spoke to us.  We were blown away immediately with the change.  We could drive the 10 hours between college and home with only 1 fill-up - and the tank didn’t take much to fill.  We never had to do any tune-ups or repair anything for the years of our ownership.  We felt 100% safe in a car that was completely reliable and loved owning our very first Civic!  We have had four more children now and have gone through a whole lot more schooling, but we still look back on that Civic with fond memories and a great love for Hondas!  In fact, 9 years later, my husband is still driving a Honda to work every day and wouldn't have it any other way.

Our Civic with it's previous owner.... ;)