April one photo a day

Day 91: Ivy doing a little reading in Max and Mya's room:)
Day 92: Grandma Linda and Grandpa David came for a visit!
Day 93: After a brief hiatus, I got back to the tennis courts and got to teach my favorite pupil, Mya:)
Day 94: Last day of the mini van. I'm getting more and more used to my Acadia, but I really miss the sliding doors!


Day 95: Some of our dear friends came for a visit! Always fun to see the Neymeyers and the Graves'. The kind of friends that even when we don't see each other for months and months, we can still pick up right where we left off!
Day 96: The day Chloe left to go stay with Chris's parents for a bit. Max and Mya were pretty sad.
Day 97: It's official...house is on the market. And still is unfortunately.
Day 98: This girl is not afraid of speed. Just like her big sis.


Day 99: When you no longer have a dog to clean up messes under the table, and the house needs to look good for showings, we eat outside! Even if it's spaghetti:)
Day 100: Can't think of a better way to celebrate day 100 than to watch my cousin Kelsey play tennis here in Dubuque!
Day 101: A common activity around here..plasma car races down the big hill. That's Max on top of the box shouting "GO"!
Day 102: Matching t-shirts from our going away party:)


Day 103: We were blessed to be chosen as Miss Clara Fry's Godparents! What a sweet little girl.
Day 104: Dance party in the kitchen after dinner
Day 105: Ivy walking into school with her teacher Miss Allison.
Day 106: This day was the day I made the rule of what kind of shoes could be worn on the plasma cars. This was the 4th pair ruined so far this spring.


Day 107: This picture says it all. Best show on television!
Day 108: Grandma Pat and Mya Pat before the Easter Egg hunt.
Day 109: Looking at the Eagles and feeding the fish at the Decorah Hatchery
Day 110: My kiddos and a creepy Easter bunny that talked!


Day 111: Ivy and I outside waiting for the bus to get home
Day 112: Chris's 36th birthday! What an exciting way to celebrate with him. He was on the iPad on facetime, I was drinking a glass of wine, while folding kids' clothes and watching Ellen!
Day 113: Found this lovely note in Mya's bag:)
Day 114: Mya said Ivy was scared during Frozen so she put her on her lap. I'm pretty sure it was the other way around.


Day 115: Some awesome girlfriends of mine organized a little girls day trip to some area wineries! We had an absolute blast:)
Day 116: Ivy had a great day playing in the dirt at my friend Marie's house.
Day 117: Getting ice cream in Iowa City to outlast the storm!
Day 118: Happy 30th Birthday to my little sis!


Day 119: Another rainy day means another day of my kiddos watching TV and playing iPad. Once they got a taste of playing outside after school, they lost all ability to think of things to do inside!
Day 120: Had to wake this cute sleepy girl for a house showing. Hope it was worth it!

Latest random update!

I feel like 99% of my posts lately have been really really random. It's this or nothing right now so here goes!

In case any of you were wondering how our Chloe is doing up in the twin cities with Chris's parents....this picture pretty much sums it up:)

(In case you can't tell...she's getting to use the umbrella because she has something against going to the bathroom in the rain!


Last weekend Chris's brother Jeff flew up to Edmonton to go skiing with Chris in Banff. They had a good time and I scored some pretty awesome pictures of my house. Jeff is just a little bit "tech-ier" than Chris so I got some great panoramic shots which made it so much easier to picture where certain rooms were at, etc. I hope Jeff comes up every year so Chris can have a "guys skiing weekend". I'm afraid the kids and I won't be doing all the of the crazy stuff they did when we go as a family.

(a shout out to Tara...he's pointing to Tokyo:)

(that sign below says most difficult...yikes!)


Last Sunday I took the kids to Iowa City to the Children's Museum. They have loved that place every time we have gone and this time proved to be no different. We stayed 3.5 hours and they could have stayed longer! I had to coax them out with ice cream. When we walked out of the museum, they were not letting people out of the mall because of the bad thunderstorms so we were stuck in the mall for another hour. Bummer. That was sarcastic...I got a little shopping in! What else was I supposed to do??!? Plus we watched a little hockey and rode the carousel. It was a great day with my kiddos. I love that Ivy is getting bigger and we can do things like that. She didn't nap until the car ride home at 5:30. Bedtime was a disaster Sunday night, but it was worth it.

Happy Birthday CJ!

Happy Birthday to my hubby! He has entered the other side of the 30's...now closer to 40 than 30! Yikes:) I'm not too far behind though so I shouldn't say too much. He's in Edmonton this week so I hope some people at work figure out it's his birthday and at least tell him Happy Birthday! If something good is to come out of this transition period where we are apart most weeks, it's that I can't wait until we are all together again living under one roof! We love you CJ and thanks for everything you do for us:)

Easter and Eagles

We had a wonderful Easter weekend! Friday the kids had no school so we headed up to Decorah to enjoy a couple of days there. We had an Easter egg hunt for them which is always fun. We hid the eggs while the kids were at the Whippy Dip and Ivy was napping. When they got home from getting ice cream, they spotted a few eggs and it drove them absolutely nuts that they had to wait for Ivy to wake up! When she finally did wake up (with a little help from Mya and Olivia:) they got to do the hunt. They loved it and everyone ended up happy! The verdict is still out on whether or not we set limits to how many eggs each kid can get next year. My brother thinks we just let them go and they get as many as they can. We shall see...something tells me there will be some tears if we go that route!



Saturday we headed out to one of the kids' favorite spots the Fish hatchery! Lots of the eggs from the day before were filled with quarters that they could use on the fish food. I'm not sure if any of their quarters actually got used, but the idea was a good one:) Thanks Grandpa Rog for doing your part to fund the fish hatchery! The famous Decorah Eagles were in the area so we got to take a look at them up close. If you don't know what I'm talking about, click here to watch the Eagle Cam.



We came back to Dubuque Saturday evening. Chris had to head back up to Canada this morning so we needed a day home to regroup and get ready for him to leave. We had a really nice church service Sunday morning and then a delicious brunch at the hotel downtown. We came home and rested and then headed to the park for some play time and tennis. It was a great day!

good news about school!

I wanted to write a quick post about some good news we got yesterday about school for Max and Mya next year! We were accepted into our 1st choice. It is a public school about 8 minutes from our house. The public school we were assigned to was about 30 minutes from our house.  So we open-enrolled (it's not called that there, but it's basically the same thing) and they had room, so we got in!

The school is called George P. Nicholson Elementary. Website here if you're interested. We toured the school along with a few others and both Chris and I felt strongly that this is where they should be going to school. It was very warm, welcoming, not too big, had strong parent involvement, high academic standards, (16/782 elementary schools in Alberta) in a good area, some diversity within the school and most importantly, Max and Mya loved it.

I had been having kind of a tough week with everything going on and trying to get excited about the move. This definitely brightened my spirits and made me feel like everything will fall into place eventually.

Update

Lots going on around here! Time for an update.

We got rid of the minivan last week. Although I was very happy to be getting rid of this particular minivan, it was sad to be moving out of the minivan stage of my life. We decided that if we were going to need a new car, we should probably get one that was better on the snow than a Honda Odyssey. It was a tough winter trying to get around in snow and ice with the van in Iowa....let alone Canada. I am already missing the sliding doors and the awesome cup holders, but the kids are getting better and getting in and out and I'm on the hunt for a coffee mug that fits in my current cup holder. (I'm not a fan of travel coffee mugs...I think the coffee tastes weird out of them!)



One other thing I'm missing about my van is my dog sitting shot gun! Since the house is on the market and Chris is gone most weeks, we decided that she would be better off up at Chris's parents house for a few weeks before we move. We are so thankful they agreed to take her. It is really making our life easier here. The kids had a rough first day when she left, but since then have been just asking about her periodically and the alligator tears have stopped. Actually Ivy asks about her the most which is not what I expected! Thankfully, Chloe is feeling right at home...getting to ride with David on his errands:)




This last weekend we had our first going away party. It was fun in that we got together with a bunch of neighbors and other friends, but it was sad that the reason was because we are moving! It is starting to hit me more and more each day. Max told me the other night that he doesn't think we need to move..that he really likes it here. About broke my heart. I think the weather getting nicer has something to do with it. Every night they're outside playing with neighbor kids until it's dark. The house is officially on the market and we've had 2 showings. The house has never been cleaner and now I just need to keep it that way! Below are a few pictures of the kids enjoying the outdoors! We had a picnic out on the driveway the other night even though they were having spaghetti. We also got to watch my cousin Kelsey play tennis here in Dubuque and the other picture is of Max yelling out "go" for the plasma car races down the hill that happen around here most nights at 7:00pm:)







Yesterday Chris and I were honored to be the Godparents for my friend Marie's baby girl Clara at her baptism. It was at a really beautiful church in Dubuque and despite being on Palm Sunday, (a long long mass typically), the service went fairly quickly and all of the kids were really well behaved. Clara smiled through it all and was a total champ. We had a really nice brunch afterwards too!



And one more thing...Max and Mya had another gymnastics meet yesterday afternoon. They both worked hard on their routines and got 1st place! (Max had no competition, but he's still pretty pumped about getting 1st:) We are really hoping to find somewhere in Edmonton for them to continue with gymnastics. It has been really good for them to be in something together and they have both improved so much!

This week...we're hoping for some more showings and to hear about whether or not the kids got into the school that we chose! Keep your fingers crossed:)

Max's first Basketball team!

Max just finished his very first basketball season! He was on a team called the Runnin' Rebels that consisted of kindergarten-2nd graders from his school. They improved so much as the season went on and only lost a few games, despite playing in the 2nd/3rd grade level through the area YMCA.

Max loved every minute of it and always had a smile on his face. He wasn't the star of the team, but you would have never known it. He was pretty sure he was the reason they won every game. Some of his comments were so funny. One game they won by a lot and he told me afterwards that he didn't shoot much because they didn't need any more points! One of the last games he was guarding a boy with just a few seconds left and our team was up by 2. The little boy traveled which allowed us to get the ball and let the time run out. Max was sure he was the reason we won the game despite having zero points and barely touched the ball the whole time:) I love this age for so many reasons. I know this will not always be the case. Both Chris and I could tell that he was starting to really get a feel for the game by the end of the season...often times going to where he "thought" the ball would go to get the rebound. He needs to work a little more on dribbling and seeing the ball and the boy he's guarding at the same time. He does not need to work on his confidence:)

March one photo a day

Day 60: I walked into the kitchen and almost stepped on this. Instantly I was glad it wasn't legos.
Day 61: We had Max's birthday party at the tennis club
Day 62: 7 year old in the house!
Day 63: It's never a good sign when Chris needs 2 suitcases....


Day 64: She loves to lick the beaters! So nice to not to have to deal with the dairy allergy.
Day 65: She fell asleep on my bed like this. The girl loves her some blankee paci:)
Day 66: One of the first nice days to build a snowman.
Day 67: A happy house kid train down the slide!


Day 68: Max and Ivy rolling a snowball for another snowman
Day 69: Max and Mya after their performance in the Bell Tower theater kids production
Day 70: Happy Birthday to me! My first big girl sunglasses thanks to my hubby and the assist from my sis
Day 71: My three having some morning iPad time.



Day 72: Mya and Olivia enjoying themselves in the Dells.
Day 73: Grandpa Rog taking the two little girls on the lazy river!
Day 74: A visit from Tony's sister Erin and her family while we were in the Dells! 7/8 of my sister's nieces and nephews all together:)
Day 75: They must talk about the leprechaun a lot at school because Max and Mya decided to go out hunting for one


Day 76: Look what that pesky leprechaun did to our toilet!
Day 77: My friend Marie bought the digital version of Frozen so we had family movie night in front of the computer!
Day 78: We went to Parkersburg to visit some good friends who just moved there and Ivy fell asleep like this. Apparently we were being too loud for her or something!
Day 79: I was going through some of my old school stuff and found this t-shirt. there were even a couple of phone numbers on there! I almost called...:)


Day 80: We went to the hibachi grill with some neighbors! The kids loved it and the food was really yummy!
Day 81: Max and Mya bought these little egg things that hatch into an animal after sitting in water for a few days. Ivy picked up the alligator and I'm pretty sure thought it was real!
Day 82: Lunch with my Mya at Panera!
Day 83: My kids can have fun with a box even if it's not put together. I wonder why I buy toys sometimes.


Day 84: I decided to let Ivy have a picnic lunch in my room while watching Mickey Mouse. It was a big mistake. Now she refuses to eat lunch anywhere but on a towel!
Day 85: I was thinking Chloe was getting a little chunky. Now I know why...
Day 86: Plasma car fun in the rain!
Day 87: I'm going to miss a driveway/yard full of neighbor kids when we leave. There's always someone to play with around here!


Day 88: A cousin sleepover at Grandma's! This didn't last much longer after the picture:)
Day 89: A walk with my dad to start a beautiful spring day in Iowa!
Day 90: Coordinating sisters watching a little Curious George while I make dinner. I didn't even plan those outfits!

#tbt

My mom must have been cleaning out her photos the other day and sent me a few of Max that she found. They just melted my heart. I can't believe how little he was! Since I was not blogging at the time of these pictures, I thought I'd do a "Throwback Thursday" post!

This first one was sometime in early spring of 2008, shortly after he turned 1. I remember how much I loved that coat and hat he was wearing!

The thing that sticks out from this one is how big and clean his blanket was! Of course it's already in his mouth, so the clean part wasn't going to last much longer:) This was the summer after he turned 1 and was about to become a big brother.

And this last one he was a little bit older, but I just love the picture of him and Chloe looking for squirrels!

Canadian spelling guide

Moving to Canada is probably the easiest place to go if we had to move to a different country. So many similarities-- we look the same, talk the same (mostly), dress the same, etc. There are a few differences and some of the spelling of words is one of them! Chris has a phone from Edmonton already and one day he sent me a text and the word neighborhood was spelled neighbourhood! He said the phone autocorrected itself to that spelling:)

One of Chris's co-workers sent him a handy spelling guide with all of the differences between American and Canadian English. Here are a few that are going to take some getting used to!

Canadian spelling in bold (I couldn't get this spaced any better for some reason!

CENTIMETRE CENTIMETER
COLOUR COLOR
FAVOURITE FAVORITE
KILOMETRE KILOMETER
LICENCE LICENSE
MOUSTACHE MUSTACHE
SCEPTICAL SKEPTICAL
DEFENCE DEFENSE
THEATRE THEATER
CENTRE CENTER
CHEQUE CHECK
FAVOUR FAVOR
GREY GRAY
CANCELLED CANCELED
MOULD MOLD
SCEPTICAL SKEPTICAL
FIBRE FIBER
FLAVOUR FLAVOR
TRAVELLER TRAVELER
OFFENCE OFFENSE

Let's just say I'm not expecting 100% on the kids' spelling tests right away!

Also, as of last Friday, we are officially renters in Edmonton! It was a crazy, stressful process, but our patience and persistence paid off and we are really happy with how it all turned out. Here's a picture of our new place. Chris will be moving in next week (with basically 2 suitcases!!) so I'll post more pictures when he sends them to me!



And no, it's not a town home. That's just how close the houses are together up there! And the sold sign is from the previous owner...we are renting from them:)