I fell asleep with Kira and woke up a little while ago feeling sick. I had a funny tingling in my throat all day. I woke up to a raging sore throat, a bit of a fever and a runny nose. I am praying that this isn't strep throat since antibiotics are a major problem for me.

Matt has been really busy at work. They just got a bunch of contracts and on top of the usual, he has been wearing the hat of engineer. He has squeezed me out of this chair most nights this past week so that he can do drawings on visio. Matt doesn't have the patience for computers, so let's just say, things have been a bit tense...

Some good things:

Kira and I went on a shopping spree this morning. She bought herself some belated birthday gifts at Gymboree, Please Mum and the toy store. Her favourite things that she played with for the rest of the day are her red glitter shoes, and her push broom. We also ordered a new tray for our puppy's crate. Puppy is coming in 3 weeks, I'm so excited.

Patrick's hockey game on Sunday was cancelled, which means that we no longer have a conflict where both Matt and I need to go to 2 different arenas for games. So if I am so sick that I can't drag my ass to the rink, at least he can handle the hockey schedule on his own. *OKAY I take all of that back, I just got an email that Patrick's game is back on, but later in the day so Matt will be able to take Damon to his game and it is our turn to do "juice duty". I just need to take Campbell to hockey while Matt is away with Patrick. Damon will be at a friend's birthday party, so I will just have Kira to watch at the arena and THAT is a vacation to me. ;-)*

I think things with Damon may be getting better. (knocking on wood) He really wants his own gameboy advance, and he recently made huge strides in improving his reading(a pre-requisite here). But it is still a struggle for him to finish his homework, so we told him that we need him to stop struggling with us if he wants a gameboy. Tonight he came home really eager to do it and to read books to me. After a while he started up (he yells instead of speaking and throws himself around and hits his siblings) and I reminded him. I could actually see that he was thinking about it and TRYING to resist the urge to behave like that. He stopped for a while and when the behaviour started again, I sent him to his room and he agreed that he needed to go there to settle down. He came back and was good for the rest of the night.

Campbell took the picture of him with the snowman in to his class. They had been doing a unit on snow and snowmen. He was so proud and so cute.

Oh yeah, this is the dress that Kira wore for her birthday -
me in my dress 

My dad brought that dress and the doll back from the world championships in Germany when I was 15 months old. Funny thing, we planned to make a German meal for Kira's birthday party (weiner schnitzel, spaetzle, red cabbage, german potato salad, cucumbers in vinegar and sugar and of course Black Forest Cake), I planned for her to wear her Christmas dress again, but I saw that dress hanging in her room and decided that if she didn't wear it soon, it wouldn't fit any longer. My family thought that I meant for it to be a German themed party and thought I had lost my marbles. Well my husband was born in Germany.

Kira had her 12 month visit at the doctor's today. She was 31 1/2 inches and 23 lbs. 1 oz. So her weight gain is slowing down. She didn't even cry when the doctor gave her her needles in her arm. She's such a trooper. She was funny though. She kept escaping into the neighbouring pharmacy and rearranging their shelves. They lady there is really sweet and understanding and loves to make a big fuss over Kira. I hope she doesn't mind the fact that Kira thinks that the Kaopectate BELONGS in between the A535 and Deep Heat. ;-)

Thank you Cindy for sending me the pictures you took!

Finally opening presents. 


Cindy did better than I did, she got all of them at once! 


Funny girl 


she was so excited 

Birthday cake! 

I love this pictue! What a poser. She's a very social girl and she really loved her birthday party. She's growing up too fast!

How Kira spent her 1st birthday...at the arena. 

Is that lame or what! I have decided that just for fun, we are going to organize it so that Damon and Patrick spend their 16th birthdays watching dance recitals. Poor girl. We had 2 kids playing at 2 different arenas at the same time, so we didn't have much of a choice.

Damon's game. 

Damon had an awesome day today. He loves playing goalie and he waited for his turn to come up (at his age, they rotate amongst the kids who are interested). His team hadn't won a game and he was determined that they would win if he was the goalie. Matt was taking Patrick to his Rep game in a town an hour away. Damon was disappointed that Daddy wouldn't be there to watch. The first period, he was listening to Daddy's advice and came right off of the blue ice! He was going after the players. After 4 quick goals, he learned not to do that! Thankfully his team managed to score 4 goals too. He was awesome for the 2nd period. They were winning 7-4 by the end of the period. In the third period, he blocked a shot, and then lay across the net to stop the rebound, but somehow the little guy shooting got some lift on the puck and it sailed in over top of Damon. Then they scored again, it was 7-6. Then with seconds to go, the other team got a breakaway and scored. My heart was breaking for him, but then we found out that there had been an offside (one of the players crossed the blue line before the puck did), so the goal didn't count. His team won their first game, and so many of them had scored there first goals today. It was a really exciting game.

In the dressing room afterwards, everybody was praising Damon on his saves. If he hadn't done so well, I'm sure that the score would have been closer to 20-7. The coach awarded him the Super Sport of the Game award and told the kids that they all played a great game, but that he feels that Damon had an outstanding game and that he kept them in it. He was so overwhelmed that he looked like he was going to burst into tears. He was behaving so well today both before and after the game, it confirms my theory that he needs more things that really motivate him and then to find some success at those things. School is NOT one of those things. ;-)

Campbell is loving hockey! 

After every practice they award a "sport of the game" award to the player who tried the hardest that day. Well Campbell won it the first week they started with it, and they have tried to award it to him 3 times since. He gets really happy, but we have to remind them that he has already receive it. LOL He isn't the fastest kid out there, but he is having a blast and is right into it.

Snowman and Friends 

Patrick's principal got in contact with the family of his classmate and they are all safe and inland in Sri Lanka. PHEW! The school wanted to do some fundraising for tsunami victims, and since one of our own families is already there the school is sending all the money they raise to the family's Roman Catholic church there to help fund their local relief efforts.

My heart is hurting for my friend. She has been going through HELL and it just got worse. Her husband has been battling Acute lympboblastic leukemia. She just emailed me tonight and said that she and her sister are flying off to the east coast to be at her mother's bedside. Her mother has battled cancer many times already, but this time it has gotten the better of her. She has pneumonia and doesn't have the strength to fight it. My friend has been so positive up until now, but I fear this might be more than she can handle right now.

Computer woes. It's happening again. Spontaneous crashing. I've been madly running my AV software and my freebie anti-spyware and nothing is coming up. UGH. I'm so tired. Too tired to stay up and fix my computer. Who does this to my computer?

Well we slept through the alarm (which was set for 2 hours too early) and woke up at 8:30 am. School starts at 8:50. Amazingly we got dressed, ate breakfast and brushed teeth and got there by 9! Not the best way to start the day. I hate waking up and getting going like that, I always feel so frazzled for the rest of the day and never get anything done.

I stayed up too late last night and 3 of kids had a late night too. Campbell fell asleep early at bottom of my bed. Kira was up later than usual, I lay down with her. She nursed and I drifted off to sleep, until Matt came to go to bed, and she woke up and wanted to play. Patrick is worried about his friend who went to visit family in Sri Lanka. He isn't due back until later this month. The teacher has tried to contact them to make sure they are safe but hasn't heard anything. So Patrick tossed and turned until at least 11 pm. And Damon, well he will use any excuse to stay awake. Usually he is the last one awake and I just have to sit and watch tv or sit here at the computer or else my movements will keep him awake.

I'm counting the sleeps to March Break.

In the year 2005 I resolve to: Pick my nose at stop lights. Get your resolution here

Eyes, we have eyes. Click on PUPPIES!

Okay, I have thick and slightly curly hair. So thick that I've never met anybody with hair that is thicker. It is as thick as it looks and twice as heavy. My hairstylist is a really talented man who can work miracles on most hair. I went to him thinking he would work his magic and tame my hair too. Instead he told me that I had the thickest hair he had ever seen and there was no point in working against it. He told me that layers would only make it puff out more, this is true. So he told me that I need to keep it long to weigh it down, so I've been onto something all these years.

Have you ever seen hair this thick?
	yes
	no
	yes, her name was Flicka
Free polls from Pollhost.com

the face 

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!

We went to a friend's house last night for dinner and drinks. The boys played with their kids and I chased Kira up and down the stairs. I am impressed by how well she started going down the stairs, because she is NEVER allowed on my uncarpeted stairs.

Another friend was there last night after having dinner at the hospital with her husband. He is battling leukemia and has just started a new round of chemotherapy after the cancer came back again. She is showing amazing strength and grace as she goes through this with him. She always sounds so positive about everything and when she complains she does it with a great sense of humour. Friends and family have really rallied around this couple and their 2 young children.

My MIL is nearing the end of her radiation treatments. She has kept in good spirits and seems to be doing really well, but it has been a tiring process of chemo and then radiation.

My wish is that 2005 is a year for healing miracles.

I managed to get a few links on my blog. Fun! Bridget, if you want I can show you later on Yahoo or something.

The making of a tantrum. If you could see the video, you would see the legs kicking wildly and the holding of the breath. All because I dared to put her shoes on.


tantrum1 


tantrum2 


no problemo 

OMG Look at the PUPPIES!!!!! <--click on this

The boys are all so cute! Matt is already SURE that Fezzik is the puppy for him, but I kind of like Wesley's happy face on his chest.

Instead of cleaning up after stockings, we packed up and left for Matt's parents' house. We got back from late last night and I am still trying to get my brain organized and put away some of our new toys. This was a VERY good Christmas for me. I got a cameraphone, lots of clothes, lingerie, an air cleaner, cake pans, a duvet cover, a silver locket with room for 4 pictures, a bathrobe, and more. I feel very fortunate. The kids did pretty well too. They got a DVD system for the van.

Once I get organized, I'll get the pictures off of the camera and onto here.