Hockey

I knew we would be living in hockey country when we moved here 2 1/2 year ago, but I didn't have a clue how big it was. Everyone gets behind their team and the pride people show is unbelievable. Chris even tells me that the mood in the factory during hockey season is entirely dependent on whether the Oilers won or not! Last night I experienced something I wanted to write down so I will always remember.

I took Ivy to the kindergarten home reading kick off evening last night. The kids and teachers wore pajamas and the parents got to hear lots of tips for how they're teaching reading, we had a presentation from the Edmonton public library, got lots of hand outs, etc. Before it started, we were all gathered in the library and then a song started playing and everyone started singing along! It was a song about hockey that I had never heard. I told a friend sitting next to me that I had never heard of this song and she looked at me like I said I'd never heard of Michael Jackson. So I wrote down the name of the song and decided I would listen closer when I got home.

Fast forward an hour...I got home and was starting to tell Max (who was home watching the Oilers) that I heard a new song tonight in the library. He immediately knew exactly what song it was because apparently they listen to it on every game day at school! How awesome is that. He knew all the words:) Here's the you tube clip of "The Hockey Song"



Last weekend Max had his first hockey experience. A friend told me about this program for kids who have never played. It's sponsored by Canadian Tire (like a Fleet Farm) and Bauer. They outfitted the kids from head to toe...all included in the price of the 6 week program. He loved the drills and we were pleasantly surprised with how well he skated! We'll see if he wants to keep playing when this is over!

Disneyland 2016!

Time to cross some things off of my to-do list and post a few blogs! On November 8 we took off for some fun in California! We wanted to visit Tara and are unsure of what our spring is going to look like, so we decided to do it in November when the kids had a break from school. We went to Disney World in February 2013 and told Max and Mya at that time that we would go back to Disney when Ivy was 4. We came through with just 2 days to spare before she turned 5! Funny how Max and Mya seemed so big at 4 1/2 and almost 6 but Ivy seems too young for Disney at 5!

We flew into Los Angeles and spent Wednesday and Thursday at Disneyland. We went to California Adventure on Wednesday and had a great day despite it being 95 degrees and spending $70 on cold water! We got smart and bought water at walmart that night for the next day...24 bottles for $4. The kids did great on all of the rides...Ivy was a trooper and Max came through too. He is totally the kid that you have to drag on the ride and then when it's over he claims it was the best ride he has ever been on! Mya isn't afraid of anything so she had a blast. Our favorite rides were Soarin', Toy Story Mania, Radiator Springs Racers and Grizzly River Run. We also saw the Frozen Live show which was amazing. The night show "World of Color" was simply awesome and I highly recommend!





Mya and Ivy were tall enough to do all of the rides except California Screamin' and Tower of Terror. Next time!





















The next day we headed over to Disneyland Park bright and early at 7am! We hit up 9 rides in the first hour and then probably 9 rides the rest of the day! It was super busy and another hot day. The highlight was definitely Tara/Tony and the girls meeting us! The kids were pretty surprised as they didn't think we would see them until later that night. Quinn and Shae hung in there, but we all decided Disney is not a place for families with multiple small kids! We made the most of it for sure, but it was a bit too much for the girls. We left that night around 6pm and then dealt with southern California traffic for a few hours and eventually got to Tara's later that night!































All in all, a great first two days of the trip! And after that crazy election, it was perfect timing to be at the Happiest place on earth:)

Happy Birthday Ivy!

Dear Ivy babes,

Today is your birthday! Your dad, Max, Mya and I cannot believe our baby Ivy is 5 years old already! You are one of a kind and everybody loves you so much. You can light up a room when you enter and you can melt the hearts of everyone you come in contact with. When daddy and I took Max and Mya to Disneyworld in 2013 (Mya was 4 1/2 and Max was one week shy of 6), they asked when we could go back with you. I told them before you turned 5. So in order to keep my promise we went to Disneyland on the last two days you were 4! Today we're in San Diego with Tara, Tony, Quinn and Shae.

What you're like these days..you are in half day kindergarten and loving it. You are starting to know letter sounds and are pretending to read. Your teacher is amazing and you are a good friend to all. Speaking of friend...you love to make friends with people wherever we are. Mya and I usually just roll our eyes when we're somewhere new because your first goal is to find some little kid and "make friends" with them. It's pretty cute and I'm thankful you have that kind of a personality. We had parent/teacher conferences last week and you got a rave review overall..just need to work on choosing a good place to sit on the carpet and maybe not by your favorite friend all the time. You love playing with Mya and her friends at recess. When you were sick one day last week, Mya said she was so sad not to see you at morning recess! I love that you're still home with me in the afternoons. You do gymnastics one of those afternoons, but otherwise we're home together for one more year.

You say some pretty cute things. The other night daddy was tucking you in and you said "goodnight little boy" to him:) You also call Netflix "neckflix" and I smile every single time. I love when you make cute mistakes like that and I have to make sure Max and Mya don't tell you what's right! Mya has a really hard time not telling you you've made a mistake. You are a true love bug. You can give love like nobody else in this world. In fact we have had to have lots of talks about what is appropriate in public with kissing your family members. Mya told me you were trying to kiss her on the lips at recess! We have some good laughs at your expense and wouldn't change you for the world.

You are 43 inches and 41 pounds. You are wearing lots of size 6/7 hand me downs from Mya...so basically the whole clothes storing bins are a thing of the past for us. Clothes just go straight from Mya's drawers to yours! You hate getting your hair combed and you hate floss. You still can't get the meal order straight and you know the names of more shopkins than I care to admit. You still love dad and I to sit with you in your room until you fall asleep. We have tried stopping 100 times, but we just somehow keep getting roped into doing it again. You don't have a show that you are really into...you love to watch cookie swirl c on you tube and I can't seem to figure out why.

We sure love our Iverson and are so happy you are in our family!

Love, Mommy

11/11/11

11/11/12

11/11/13

11/11/14

11/11/15

A

11/11/16
Pic coming soon;)

Chloe Jo is 12!!

Chloe Joanne Hoden turned 12 on October 27th! We always celebrate her big day...the kids love it and look forward to it. We started off the day just like any other day..Chloe riding in the car with us to school! We snapped a pic before we got in the car and then I ran into the house and came out to see my crew waiting in the car and had to take one more pic even though it's pretty dark. 

This year Max had parkour in the evening, so only the girls got to go to PetCo and help her pick out some treats. She chose a squeaky bird, some raw hide bones and some yummy treats that were on clearance! 

She is such an awesome dog. She still sleeps on the trundle bed with Max, (around 7:30 every night she just gets up and walks upstairs to bed...Chris and I always comment on how lovely it would be if our kids did the same thing!!), loves to go for walks, (hardly needs a leash anymore), rides shotgun nearly every time we leave the house, loves to lick the dishes in the dishwasher, makes a giant mess of her water when she is done drinking, still gets really mad and rips up garbage when we leave her home alone, is not a fan of our neighbor's 10 week old puppy, still digs up the yard whenever she can sneak past Chris's barricades, and pretty much has every person she knows wrapped around her paw! 

Unfortunately with age comes some issues too. She has not been eating very well lately and has been losing weight for the past year or so. I took her into the vet yesterday and she is down about 17 pounds since July 2015. They ran some blood tests and she has some kidney failure. We are hopeful that we can treat it and she will be able to recover enough to live pain free for awhile longer. We switched food to a kidney care food and she's also taking 1/2 of a zantac each day to help with antacid build up. I wish I could report that she loves the new food, but she doesn't, so we'll be heading back to the vet to see what they can do for her next. I know she's hungry because she's a crazy beggar these days, but for some reason is not interested at all in her own food. Other than the food issues/weight loss, you wouldn't be able to tell she's 12. She is still so active, loves people, gets super excited when we say rabbit, squirrel, etc:) 

The best part of having a dog is seeing the kids' love for her grow and grow. They all have such a soft heart for her and hate when she's sad, when we have to leave her or when she gets in trouble. If I ask Max to pick up his socks, he will do it sometime in the following 10 minutes. But if I ask him to let Chloe in/out, feed her, get her water, pet her, etc, he'll drop whatever he is doing and immediately tend to her needs. 

We hope she has many many more days with us and we're going to enjoy every one of them! 

Halloween 2016

Well if this explains anything about our Halloween..Mya walked into my room this morning and was so sad. I asked her what was wrong and she said she was so sad because Halloween was a year away!! They absolutely love this silly little holiday. As we were walking around trick-or-treating last night I had to wonder about all of different cultures of people here...what do they think about this crazy tradition of ours??!?

One of the things I love most about our school is that they let the kids dress up and dedicate half of the school day to fun Halloween parties. They do parades around the school, dance in the gym and then spend the rest of the day doing fun activities relating to the holiday in their classrooms. All of the teachers dress up and the kids love it.


                                       Here's Ivy waving to me during her parade around the school!

Mya wore her orange Iowa shirt and pumpkin earrings to school for the morning and wanted a pic:)

This is our 3rd Halloween in Edmonton and have gone trick-or-treating with our neighbors each year. Chris and I both go out with the kids because neither of us wants to miss it! We try to get back and hand out candy to the late ones if we can. Chris loves going out with the kids so much that he took a red-eye flight to Toronto last night for a 9:00am meeting this morning! That's dedication:) This year for costumes we had a ware-wolf, the shopkin Lippy lips and an 80's rock star. Funny side story...nobody at school knew what Mya was and it hurt her feelings. Then last night everyone answering the door trick-or-treating knew what she was. I told her it was because they were all alive in the 80's and she thought that was hilarious!!:) It was pretty cold (between 35-40 degrees) but no wind so we made it a lot longer than I thought we would!