World Math Day

When Ashton got home from school today he asked if he could go on the computer and play math games.  MATH GAMES? - sure!!  He had gotten a username and password from school and went on his school's webpage and could access games to play against kids all over the world.  How awesome is that!  He's played quite a few rounds and even won a couple.

Happy World Math Day!

Fantastic Five

This past Saturday, February 26th was Bowen's "5th" Birthday!  I still can't quite believe that he is 5 years old already.  Where did all that time go.  Bowen has never had a friend party so now that he is in preschool we decided that he could invite all the boys from his class for a party at our house (all 14 of them).

A few weeks ago Bowen picked out his invitations - Transformers - and got to work addressing the invitations to give to his friends.



I just noticed Bowen is wearing a Bumblebee shirt - how fitting!

Nine little 4 / 5 year olds arrived on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. ready for fun.  I pulled out my camera to capture the moments and of course my battery was dead.  Quickly got it on the charger and got pictures for about half of the party.  Jason had prepared games for the boys complete with medals for the winners.  A bean bag toss, pin the symbol on Optimus,

Target practice - shooting at Megatron,

Bowling, Bop It!

And no party would be complete without limbo.

After games the boys ate pizza, chips, grapes and juice.  I'm always amazed how much food little kids can put away.

After lunch Bowen opened presents.  What a haul!  He was so excited, loved every present and remembered to thank his friends.

Bowen with all his friends and presents.

Next the boys returned to the basement to smash open the pinata.



Jason had rigged up a pulley system to raise and lower it.

It finally took a big whack from Jason to get all the candy flying. 

We finished up the party with birthday cake and the boys watched a Transformers cartoon until their parents arrived at 1:30 p.m.

Later that afternoon we took the boys to the movie "Tangled".  Such a cute movie.  The boys and Jason and I really enjoyed it.  We returned home and Bowen opened the couple of gifts we had for him.  Had hotdogs for supper (his favorite) and then played with new toys until it was time for bed.

Bowen is such a special little boy and I feel he is such a blessing to have in our home.  We call him our "Drama Queen", as he is a bit over dramatic, but he is also very loving, kind, and so funny!!  He is so smart and I can't wait to see what kind of a man he will grow up to be - actually I can wait. 

We love you Bowen - Happy 5th Birthday!

Family Day Fun!

Our Community Association this year decided to put on a skating/tobagganing party yesterday for Family Day.  Jason had taken the day off so we thought we'd take the boys.  It was a beautiful day, no wind and not too cold.  The boys had so much fun tobagganing.  Explain to me why we can't get Bowen to hardly go on any rides at Calaway but he'll fly down the hill on a tobaggan.



Picture is kinda blurry - but Bowen has a huge grin on his face.

 

Ashton on his new crazy carpet - he fell off it alot, but had a blast.

They supplied hot dogs, hot chocolate, cookies, donuts and marshmallows for roasting.  All they asked was everyone bring a food donation for the local food bank.  I really hope they make this an annual event we all had a great time.

Stopping for a hot dog.

Daddy and Bowen taking a run together.

Roasting a marshmallow.

Bowen visiting with a friend from preschool.

After the party we headed to Toys R Us for Bowen to spend his birthday money from Grandma Bach.  He bought himself a Ninjago Dragon Set and he and Ashton spent the next hour or two putting it together. 

After supper we surprised the boys and headed over to the Trico Centre to go swimming.  They were very excited as we haven't been for awhile.  We all had a great time.  We discovered that Ashton is "just" tall enough to go on the big slide alone so while we were sitting in the hot tub we let him go.  I noticed that when he got to the bottom of the slide one of the lifeguards was talking to him.  When he got back to the hot tub I asked him what the lifeguard said.  He said he had asked him how old he was.  Ashton had answered that he was 6 but was turning 7 in March.  The lifeguard told him that if anyone asks to just say he's 7.  Apparently that is the age it's okay to run loose at the pool.  It was great to just spend the day together as a family.  I think it has been one of our best "Family Day's" so far!

Playing Wii

So the other night I woke up to hearing little voices coming from downstairs.  It took me a minute to realize it was Ashton and Bowen.  Not knowing what time it was I thought maybe it was past 7:00 a.m.  I woke up Jason and asked what time it was (I really should get my own clock), he said it was only 5:00 a.m.  I got up and called down to the boys and asked what they were doing.  Their reply was "playing the Wii".  I told them it was still the middle of the night and to get back to bed.  I have no idea how long they had been up for, but they were awfully tired that day!

Valentine Surprise

Valentine's Day is always pretty low key at our house.  We usually exchange cards (but not always), and Jason usually has chocolates or flowers for me.  Sometimes we go out for dinner and sometimes we eat in.  We hadn't talked about doing anything this year as our Anniversary is right away and we are thinking we might have a little get away then.  Jason called me in the morning and asked what we were doing for dinner.  I hadn't really thought about it yet.  I told him 2 of my students had moved to other days this week so I just had one student from 6:30 - 7:00 p.m so Jason said he would take care of supper.

After teaching we decided that we would wait until after we put the kids to bed to have our romantic dinner so at 8:00 p.m. Jason went upstairs to get the kids to bed and then ran me a bath.  He lit candles for me and added bubbles and told me to have a nice soak while he got supper ready.

After my fabulous soak I came downstairs to find a fabulous lobster dinner.

He had candles, flowers, chocolates, a card and all my favorite food.  Articoke dip with french bread, asparagas and lobster with drawn butter.  It was so delicious.

Thank you "my valentine" for a wonderful Valentine's Day - I love you!!


The kids also had a pretty good haul of valentine's from their friends at school.  Ashton came home with a bit of a belly ache.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Rectum Appeared Unremarkable

Our internet service has been down for 5 DAYS!!  It was absolutely miserable.  I didn't realize how much I rely on it.  I felt so out of the loop and am so happy I'm back!

So I had my colonoscopy on Friday.  The prep started on Thursday with having only a clear liquid diet for the day (juice, pop, popsicles, broth etc.)  Then drinking 2 litres of Colyte.  Oh my goodness - NASTY.  I really didn't think I was going to have a problem drinking it but it was very salty and sickening sweet at the same time and kind of thick.  I took the first gulp and almost threw up.  Had a little cry about how I was going to do this and then started downing glass fulls at a time and gagging it down and fighting with every fiber of my body not to throw up.  Then the running to the bathroom started.  Let's just say it was delightful.  The next morning I had to gag down the remaining 2 litres and the end of the container couldn't come fast enough.

Off to my appointment at the Foothills.  I arrived around 2:00 pm.  They put me in a gown, put in an IV and got me all checked in and into a bed.  Jason sat with me for awhile until we were told of a "change in policy" and that he wasn't able to wait with me and they sent him off to the hall.  I didn't know about the original policy - not sure why they let him in with me in the first place.

About 3:20 p.m. they finally came and wheeled me down to the examining room.  I met with the "beloved" drug guy.  He told me I probably wouldn't fall asleep, but that I would be comfortable , although I would probably have some cramping.  They did the procedure - I did have quite a bit of cramping - and they sent me back to recovery.

When I got home I was complaining to mom that I was disappointed that I was awake the whole time and that I felt everything and that I even wondered if they gave me any drugs.  Later that night I got thinking about it.  I don't remember them putting in the endoscope (I THINK I'D REMEMBER THAT!).  Jason also told me I was in the examining room for about 45 minutes.  I remember about 10 minutes - so I take it back the drugs must have been pretty good.

They found one small polyp and took several biopsies which were sent to pathology, and in the words of the doctor "my rectum appeared unremarkable"  - that wording totally cracks me up!  They also included in the report some pictures of my bowel - Mom didn't think I should include them here.  I'll meet with the doctor again when he has my results.  My concerns over my symptoms haven't really been solved yet, but I'm grateful the colonoscopy overall went well.  I'll just need to press for additional tests to be able to get some answers.  In the mean time I'm striving to not freak out.

All in all I'm just glad it is over and dinner that night tasted fantastic - I was starving!!

Remembering Poppa

Bowen was playing with his lego that he got for Christmas this morning and says to me - 

Bowen - "Mom, Poppa picked out this lego for me right?"

Me - "He sure did Bowen."

Bowen - "Then everytime I play with it, I can remember Poppa."

He melts my heart.

Like Father, Like Son

Like Father

Like Son

Jason has this HORRIBLE habit of putting his coats, shirts, etc. on the the railing at the bottom of the staircase.  As I was going to bed the other night I noticed as I got to the top of the stairs that Ashton had put his Oilers hoodie that he had been wearing to watch hockey with his dad on the railing rather than putting it away in his room.  He actually did it for two nights in a row.  I hope he always copies his dad's example!

And So It Begins...

My days of sitting alone with the kids at church have officially begun.  This past Sunday Jason was called as the 2nd Counsellor in the Bishopric in our Ward.  I'm so proud of him and the man that he is.  I know I go on and on about how great a husband he is, but I really can't even put into words how lucky I am to have him.  He is loyal and kind, thoughtful of my feelings, and treats me like a princess.  I am so grateful for his willingness to serve others.  He gives of his time without complaint and I can feel of his love for the Savior.  What a blessing to have the priesthood in our home and he is such a great influence on our children.  I'm sure they will grow up to be great men if they just follow their father's example.  Now we just need to figure out how we are both going to attend Ward Counsel meetings twice a month.  Love you Hun!

Off to Bishopric meeting on Tuesday night

I thought I'd share this cute Chocolate Scriptures idea I found on line.  I had the Primary kids make them during Sharing time on Sunday.  I thought they were adorable and the kids seemed to enjoy making them.

Just take two mini chocolate bars, print off a scripture and wrap around chocolate bars, place on a piece of construction paper and finish with a red ribbon for the bookmarker.  I don't know how many of them made it out of the parking lot.  Ashton had finished eating his before we even left the building, but I noticed Bowen's still on his dresser this morning.  I love the Scripture Theme for the year in Primary.  My boys have been taking their Book of Mormon's with them to church each week and I've noticed a definite interest in reading them and memorizing the scripture each month to be a "Scripture Hero" (granted I give them a treat if they memorize it - I have no problem with bribery). 

Happy Groundshog Day!!

Crisis Averted!

Last night, as we were running out to do some errands Ashton lost his second tooth.  He was so excited and ran upstairs and put it in his tooth necklace and slipped it under his pillow.  After running errands it was kind of late so we sent the boys straight up to bed.  As Jason was leaving for work this morning about 5:30 a.m. and going past Ashton's room he must have woken Ashton.  Now awake Ashton quickly looked to see if the tooth fairy had visited him in the night.  SHE HADN'T!!  He burst into tears, Jason went in to comfort him and I came to see what the matter was.  He was completely heart broken.  He cried and cried in his dad's arms.  I FELT HORRIBLE!  I mean really, how could she have forgotten my little boy.

Jason told Ashton that because it was so foggy and cold maybe she couldn't make it tonight, but to not give up and to leave it under his pillow for tomorrow night.  After Jason left for work Ashton crawled into bed with me and had another little cry.  Then he decided to go downstairs and sleep on the couch (he does this quite often - I think he likes the cool leather).  Later when we were getting ready for school Ashton says to me "maybe the tooth fairy came while I was sleeping down here" - LIGHT BULB - (don't you love Despicable Me) - I told him I didn't know, but told him he needed to finish his chocolate milk and then go to the bathroom before we left.

I ran upstairs for Ashton's "glasses" and came back down as Ashton was coming out of the bathroom.

"You know Ashton maybe the tooth fairy could have come while you were sleeping downstairs.  You did wake up kind of early.  Why don't you go look!"  Ashton ran upstairs and I called up after him "Has she not come yet Ashton?"  To which Ashton replied "SHE CAME!!! - AND SHE BROUGHT ME A TOONIE!".

He was so excited.  He decided that now that it wasn't so foggy she was able to make it, and that she had brought him a dollar more than last time because she had made him cry - I think he is probably right about that!  He went off to school one happy little boy.

Crisis averted - whew!


Kind of a goofy picture - he was trying to show me his missing tooth.