The Little Clock Strikes 3!

Its happened. Kael turned 3! I can remember thinking when he was just a teeny baby about the day he would turn 3. I couldnt even phathom the idea! I couldnt imagine this cute little baby running around and talking. Playing with toy guns and building spaceships. Counting to 10 and knowing his ABC's! But its here and its happening and how much fun it can be. He is such a busy body with SO much love to everyone. He's incredibly passionate about his love for rockets and spaceships but is sure not to let his huge collection cars feel left out. I still think there is some engineering in his future!

The morning of his birthday Kael was greeted by one of his new toys when he came into the living room. We got him a 3 wheel 'Lightening McQueen' Scooter. He thinks its pretty cool! We hid one of his other toys we got him as I was going to wait until later to give it to him, but sneaky him spotted it while coming down the stairs and yelled "I WANT THAT TRUCK!". I guess Id didnt pick a good enough hiding place. We got him a little toy Moon Truck. It comes with a bunch of little men with backpacks and guns. I also made him a pair of Outer Space PJ's.

We wanted to make his birthday a little extra fun this year now that he is old enough to understand the whole process. I planned a get together and the Science Center for him and all his little friends. There sure was a lot of people there! Although I didnt get to take all the pictures I wanted of Kael playing with his friends I had so much fun watching him run around and learn new things. That is, when I wasnt chasing Naveah!

Kael had lots of fun on a pulley chair and was even able to do it all by himself! He also loved the water play center. Managed to stay fairly dry too! At noon we all met in the cafeteria as it was too hard to stay as a group. We had lunch, mingled, and Kael opened some of his gifts.

Thanx to; Cayden, Mia, Keira, Anika, Traver, Corbin, Berkley, Hailyn, Makenna and baby Addison, Jayde and baby Logan, Cosette, Anothony and Lliam for coming along and making Kael's day so fun! And thanx of course to all the Mommies and Daddies that brought them!

Later on that night we invited the rest of the family over for Cake. Kael was very excited to blow out the candles on his Space Shuttle cake I made him. After cake Kael opened up more presents and then just played and played and played. Needless to say, bedtime was a challenge that night.

Kael insisted on cutting the cake himself.....

Since his Birthday we have started potty training! He is doing very well though we are only on day 2. We only had one accident the first day and 1 today. Although he was trying to tell me he needed to pee both times he had an accident. So we dont really count those. I made him an 'Outer Space' sticker potty chart for him to give him a little extra motivation. He told me what he wanted me to draw on it. A rocket, a moon, a spaceship and twinkle stars. We hung it up in the half bath here on the main floor cause its the one hed be most often using and I brought up a celection of stickers. Hes pretty excited to get to pick his sticker and put it on his chart. I told him that after 7 days he will get a BIG prize as long as the stickers keep going on the chart. What that big prize is? Not sure yet, but ill find something.

Heres Kael so proud of his sticker chart...

Showing off his new gynch! Dinosaurs!!!

Belated Birthday Cake

For New Years we had some friends over for an early dinner. I made a scrumcious roast in the crock pot, mini yorkshire puddings and potatoes. Trina and Jared brought a greek salad (amazing!), and Dee finally made me a birthday cake for dessert. Its a few months late, but it was pretty awesome! After dinner all the kids ran around and pulled out every toy in the house, the boys went and watched the hockey game and us girls just sat on the couchs and giggled. Everyone was gone by about 9:30 but I think it was a pretty good end to the year and a good start to another. Here are the last pics of us taken in 2009!

So far this year has been pretty entertaining. The kids have been pretty goofy. Kael has become a chatterbox, hardly stopped to take a breath. Mostly he talks about monsters. Where they are, when they will come out, where they are stuck, what they are eating and what he is going to shoot them with. He still into builing things with his mega blocks. Trailers, robots and spaceship mostly. He got some "bright builders" blocks for Christmas. They are kinda star shaped with slits all through them and he built a pretty awesome train with them the other night. I wish I had taken a picture!

Naveah is quite taken with her new toys she got for Christmas and wont let anyone else touch them. Her Upsy Daisy doll and bed (see previous crimis post for pic), and Iggle Piggle. He is another character from 'In the Night Garden'. She carries them around with her all day. Hugging them, rocking them, tucking them into bed and kissing them. Windows shatter whenever she catches another little person touching them. She immediatly screams and races over to what you would think is a crime scene. She keeps everyone on their toes. She made me giggle the other day as I looked over at her and she had fallen asleep in her highchair while I was preparing lunch.

One of the presents we got Kael for Christmas was the movie "Fly Me to the Moon". Its a cute little show about three little flies that need adventure so they go to the moon with the human astronauts. I was lucky enough to come across the movie while grocery shopping one day as its one of his favorites and I lost the DVD we had. Whats more fun about the new one though is that its got a 3D version! So one afternoon while I was cleaning out the basement Evan put the movie on and Him, Kael and Naveah checked it out (oh and Zuli).

2010 so far has been rocky. But happy moments like these ones tend to take over the bad ones.

Happy New Years Everyone!

Tears of a Little Boy

Today I realized something. Kael is really something special. I mean, Ive always thought he was special but its now something a little extra...

Aaron, Stef, Naveah, Kael and I all went to a movie today. 'Where the Wild Things Are'. Kael was pretty excited to go see a 'monster movie'. Naveah just fell asleep. I wasnt sure if Kael was really enjoying the movie or not. It was a hard movie to get into, really slow and not very exciting. It picked up though when the monsters were in the picture. He was talking throughout the whole movie...telling me what the monsters were doing...etc. Over half the time I couldnt understand what he was saying but I could tell he was having a good time.

When we got close to the end of the movie it came time for the boy to leave the monsters. The monsters were crying, the boy was crying and they all started howling like wolves. I asked Kael "can you do that?". He responded with a little howl. When the monsters started howling again I leaned over to Kael and said he should do it again. He whined "no" and I looked over and realized he had tears in his eyes and his lip started quivering. The poor boy was CRYING!!! He was so sad to see the departure between the boy and the monsters! I hugged him and told him that everything is OK, that the boy was going home to see him Mommy. I felt his little tears dripping down onto my hand and I felt so sad for him. How heartbreaking it was to see him like that! I had no idea he was that tuned into emotion! It all ended happily of course but wow! How precious is this kid!?

Merry Christmas

Christmas. I was so pumped for it all year. I dont know why I was looking forward to it so much this year I just was. But as the holiday got closer and closer, I stopped liking it so much. I wanted it to end. I wanted no part of it. The thought of opening presents, the mess, gathering with family and doing the present thing again was absolutely exhausting to me. A few days ago I was ready to throw in the towel-actually Im quite certain I did. The amount of bad news that had been circling finally got to me. Then it was stress over not having presents done in time, it was the piles and piles of things on the never ending "to do" list. It was the kids misbehaving and pushing my every last button. Then It was the tree crashing its way to the ground for the second time and im sure it wasnt by choice. Then my dryer stopped working......it keeps going. So I packed up all our Christmas stuff and left no evidence in my house. Besides, of course, the state of the basement as it was completely cluttered in all parts of Christmas.

I pushed through the days, though rather unwillingly, and finally it was Christmas Eve. It started to get better. Suddenly the stress was lifting as all the presents had been completed. The house was in a rather liveable state and the children were relatively well behaved. We had our friends Dee and Dawsyn over for dinner that night and it became an interesting night. We spent about 45 minutes hunting for Monsters. Kael came running out of the dark dining room with his flashlight saying "look a monsters in there!", "I need to go look for more monsters". I followed and asked where the monsters are hiding and if he could show me. He grabbed my hand and led me to the Monsters hideaway. It was the heat registers. "see a monsters down there! yah!". I laughed and played along and we spend some time 'hunting' for monsters and shining lights on them. Later on the kids started to get pretty goofy and were trying to think of ways to 'poop' them out. There is a game that Kael enjoys that involves me spinning him on the floor then standing him up as he wobbles and stumbles around trying to catch his balance. Naveah always wants to join in but the whole process freaks her out when its happening to her so instead we just launch her across the floor and she slides across the room perfectly sprawled out on her back. Once Dawsyn saw how much fun Kael was having she soon joined in and I have to say, Kael had nothing on her with her stumbly walk after the spinning! Poor thing kept running into walls and crashing into chairs(dont worry! there were no injuries).

It came time for Dawsyn to go home and the kids to go to bed. It didnt take long for Naveah to crash but we were having a harder time with Kael. Once we thought we were in the clear to start setting up Christmas presents we got started. We got Kael a Space train set and table and it needed to be set up. We were working away in the living room and were almost done when suddenly I hear Evan shouting at Kael to "go back to your room NOW!". The little STINKER had snuck out of his room and was watching us from the stairs and I dont know for how long!!! So we returned him to bed and he kept saying "play with the train!?". I explained to him that Santa doesnt like it when little boys spy so Santa might have to take whatever toys back he was spying on.

Well, Kael finally went to sleep that night but Evan and I were quite distrot that Kael had seen his big surprise! So we moved the table into the dining room and hid it from view so that Kael wouldnt see it in the morning.

Around 8:15am Kael came waltzing into our room and immediatly said "go play with the train!?". I so new this was gunna happen. So I said to him "uh, what train are you talking about Kael?", to which he says "the train downstairs!". Oh Great. So once again I explain to him that Santa might have had to take it back cause he didnt like that you were spying last night. We went downstairs and Kael went running around the corner and looked kinda stunned when he didnt see the train in the spot he saw it the night before. He looked at me puzzled and I quickly reacted. "KAEL! look at all your PRESENTS!!!". He seemed to immediatly forget as he yelled "PRESENTS!!!????" back to me, but then I new it wasnt far from mind as he picked up numerous presents and said "train? train tracks?".

It was so fun to watch the kids open presents. The experience was still pretty new to Naveah so she was having a hard time with opening but Kael was always up for helping her. One of her favorites was a little Leap Frog worm with Alphabet legs that she got from Aunty Jasmine and Uncle Jeremy. She would scream and shake everytime someone touched it. Even when Evan was trying to take it out of the package for her she was having a complete meltdown. One of Kaels favorites was a Bosch Drill with interchangeable bits, which also came from Uncle Jeremy and Aunty Jasmine. There were still more presents to open after he got it. So little creative Kael attached the drill bit and just started going to town opening his presents by drilling through the paper. Very cute.

Nanny and Papa Jevne came over afterwards with more presents. Once those were opened it was time to bring the big presents out. Evan took the kids upstairs and Papa helped me bring the train table back into the living room and carry in all of Naveahs "Littlest Pet Shop" (I was able to get her quite a large set off kijiji). Evan brought the kids back down and they were a hit. Kael was so exicted he showed no emotion. He nearly walked right past the table but once he spotted it he casually changed his direction and went straight into play mode. Not a single word out of him except the sound of a rocket taking off and his entire little body shaking as if he were REALLY taking off (the train set came with a toy rocket). Naveah had fun digging through all the little animals and setting them up in their houses. Glad we got some toys that will entertain for a long time!

I made Banana Pancakes for Breakfast. After that it was time to relax. Suzanne and Tom took turns napping on the couch, Evan wandered around doing whatever it is Evan does, the kids played and I went back to the sewing room and whipped up a couple more presents for Evans family and made Christmas phone calls.

Around 3pm we headed for Christmas dinner. It was a fun night. We opened presents before dinner. We new it was time when Kael came RACING into the room yelling as loud as he could "TIMA OPEN PESANTS!!!!!". It all happened so quickly I became very overwhelmed with everything and had to take myself out of the room to watch it all. There were close tp 20 people in a tiny little space. Paper was flying everywhere and large toys began taking over the room. Naveah started shrieking when she opened her one present that contained Upsy Daisy and her Bed and no one could get it out of the box fast enough for her. Its one of those toys that should have been opened last cause she wanted nothing to do with any other present after that. Kael however continued on and plowed through whatever was handed his way and even some that weren't. He was very excited to have recieved another train set ( a different one than the one we got him).

After presents were done and the paper cleaned up, it was time for the feast to begin. What an awesome dinner. I need more. I think Im on a turkey withdrawl this year! I always seem to get at least 2 dinners. But this year only one! After dinner it was relaxing time. All the adults sat back, relaxed and mingled while all the littles played with their new toys. Once the toys got old Kael and Cosette, his cousin, came up with a new game involving them jumping one of the couches. the cushions were on the ground for padding. Kael decided to get a little brave. Suddenly he was standing on the ottoman, at least 5 feet away from the couch and went for it. I new what was about to happen but unfortunetly was in a position that I couldnt grab him. He dove and missed the couch. Well thats not entirely true. His forehead didn't. It was instantly puffy and bruised. He screamed. Didnt take long though for that cute little smile of his to start shining again. He seemed pretty excited to have a bag full of snow to put it on his owie.

Our Christmas Letter.

Im sorry if we werent able to get a card to you this year.

But here is the next best thing! Here is the letter we sent out with the cards....

The most anticipated time of the year is once again here. Everything is just better at Christmas. The smells, the mood and the look. I love seeing the way people come together and do everything they can to help others and keep the spirit alive. I love how bright the world becomes. While most try to hang lights and decorations before the dreaded winter weather sets in, I’m always impressed with those late few that head outside in freezing temperatures making their house shine amongst the rest. During this season hours upon hours are dedicated to Christmas decorations, good cheer, baking, present making, card creating, letter writing, singing, and making sure the people we love feel loved. This season, is by far my favorite.
We have once again ‘boycotted’ the malls this year. I don’t think there is a single thing I will be buying this year, with the exceptions of the kids. But still we have a small budget for that too. I’d like to think of this year as my ‘recycling’ Christmas. Everything I’m making for people is made only with the supplies I already have. We have opted to buy ‘used’ gifts for the kids rather than spending more than double the amount on a newer version. I’m trying to keep Christmas as ‘handmade’ as possible.

The Jevne Update;
Evan has started another new job. It seems every time I write one of these letters he has a new job but times were tough this year and it needed to be done. As much as Evan enjoyed working for Amaritech he needed to find something a little more stable as the recent recession hit the company hard. Hours were cut, pays were cut and that was followed by lay-offs. It was a difficult decision for Evan to leave the company. He is now with a company called Magnaflo Systems. For the most part it’s the same thing he’s been doing for the past few years, building the ‘brain’ of the Rigs. This coming year though will be bringing a new challenge his way. Evan was hired into this company to be ‘that guy’ that travels with the rig and sets its up –In Russia! He will be having to learn new techniques and programs and has only a few months to do it. This trip could be 4-6weeks long! It will be a hard time without him around but it’s also a huge leap in his career. When Evan isn’t working he’s still working. He only gets one day off a week and that day is filled with his regular routine. Running around doing his errands, cleaning his truck, and ticking off anything I have on his ‘honey-do’ list. He loves spending time with the kids on the weekends and has no problem having them tag along with him while I stay home and get some ‘me’ time.
Myself. I have been the busiest I think I’ve ever been this year. My new year’s resolution last year was to handmake all presents. And I’ve stuck to it! I didn’t buy a single present this year and had a lot more fun doing it this way. I’ve also been fixing up the house and moving things around. For those of you that know me well know that this is something that happens on a regular basis. I’ve been busy snapping pictures, painting, crafting, playing, cleaning, teaching, disciplining and laughing. The list could go on for miles. My most recent projects have been renovating the Master Suite. We’ve been in this house nearly two years and I’ve finally decided it’s time for us to have our own little ‘retreat’ that we can comfortably retire to every night. My next project, after Christmas, will be finishing Kael’s room and then working my way through the house until its perfect. To which I will probably want to start all over again or move. But in the mean time I’ll be finishing Christmas presents, decorating my house and tree, baking and all of that stuff that goes along with Christmas.

Kael. We’ve had our challenges with him this year. The tantrums. I remember the day it started. Evan and I were so shocked we could do nothing but laugh. Kael, our perfect, well mannered and obedient little boy suddenly transformed into this little ball of rage. Where was this coming from!? Suddenly “no” was the only word in his little vocabulary. But through months of frustration, patience, exhaustion, and accomplishments we seemed to have gotten the ‘fits’ under control. He has grown so much this year. How fun it has been to watch him grow and learn. He went from never talking to never not talking. He is a very affectionate little boy. He is always trying to make everyone and everything feel better. If someone is hurt he will go up and kiss the ‘owee’ and say “Kael kiss it better” to which he says “see Kael make it better. See Happy!” When Naveah is crying he runs up to her, gives her a big hug and says “see Aya’s all better”. He is always trying to cuddle with Lazuli, our cat, although sometimes he cuddles a little too hard. He is still a man obsessed with the mode of transportation and has recently taken a liking to Spaceships and Astro Boy. Trains and Airplanes are a close runner up. The other day he watched the Astro Boy movie trailer for over an hour. “wachit ahden!?” “more Astro Boy?”…this led to my decision to download a ‘bad’ copy of Astro Boy just to keep him happy until the ‘good’ version comes out. He is also really into his building blocks, constantly building spaceships and rockets over and over again. I love sitting back and watching him sometimes. He can build almost anything to a ‘T’. I stared in upmost fascination one day as he built a pirate ship almost dead on! Included the crowsnest, masts, and a place for the captain to steer the boat! His rockets/spaceships are simple yet amazing. As I watched him animate his spaceship one afternoon I wondered what he was doing as he would make the ‘take off’ noise, lift the rocket into the air and then split it in two. Kael would then say “see spaceship broken!”. It only took me a minute to realize he was recreating what a real life spaceship would do in space. Parts of the spaceship ‘brake off’ as its makes it way further into space. What more can I say about Kael except he is absolutely amazing!

Naveah is a head strong, independent little girl. She is a world in itself. How much spirit she has makes me envy her. She is 18 months but seems so much older. I love watching her discover new things around her. I remember watching her as she checked out a small flower on a bush. She stared with total fascination and then gently touched every petal, then looked at me and shrieked in excitement. She has come to love all her stuffed animals and has become especially attached to one. A grey tabby cat she calls “Bahboo”. She for a while wouldn’t go anywhere without her. She came along on car rides, shopping trips, anybodies house we visited, any floor of the house we were on and of course had to go to bed with her. Heaven forbid if we ever forgot her. It’s so cute to watch her cuddle her little stuffies. She holds them right close with one arm while the other hand pats or pets the stuffies back. She is also very much into ‘dress up’. She always wants to put on bracelets, hats, mitts, necklaces and purses. She has become quite the guardian over cell phones, house phones, remotes and calculators. Don’t ever try to take one from her if it’s in her possession. You will hear decibels you never thought existed. It’s so much fun listening to her shrieks and shrills as she plays with Kael. There is a pretty good ‘track’ for them to run circles around the house. One of their favorite games consists of Kael dragging a blanket behind him and running and Naveah chases after him trying to get the blanket. She loves playing “boo”. No time is a bad time to play that game. She will run up to one of us, cover her face, peek through her fingers and say “boo!”. If we say it back, it’s even funnier. She enjoys learning the alphabet with Kael although almost every letter to her is “L”. She is talking up a storm these days and it blows me away. Her first word was “downstairs” believe it or not! She is very good at communicating what she wants. We taught her signing for the basics like, milk, more, and all done, but those signs didn’t last long as she took to saying them just as fast as signing! I like to refer to Naveah as the Color in my life. She has brought more into our lives than I could have ever expected.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope you all enjoy the upcoming New Year.

My Happiness

My Happiness...

Naveah. A world in its self. There are no real words to explain Naveah or her personality. She is who she is and we admire her for it. She is so quirky. Always getting into stuff, finding new ways to play with her toys, constantly raiding the pantry and climbing all over everything. She finds new ways to do just about everything. To walking backwards, yelling at things that wont talk back, and eating snacks as a cat would. Shes very sneaky. When she wants something she'll get it and half the time you have no idea how she did it. She sneaks up on you when you think she is somewhere else. One minute she will be on the other side of the house, maybe even on another floor, and the next minute she is right behind you. Shes our little monster. She stomps when she walks. Her hair is always in her face. She is always growling, moaning, groaning and make all sorts of strange noises. She is an all around fun to be with little girl....except when shes cranky.

Our Mr Kael. He can build just about anything He can spend hours building spaceships, rockets, robots and trailers. The majority of the time its dead on....other times, I question it. He will then put them on display for us and the side table in the living room. He loves trains, rockets, cars, airplanes, and Astro Boy. He has watched Astro Boy nearly everyday since I put it on the puter. Hes got the movie down thats for sure. The other day he was giving me a play by play before things in the movie were even happening. Before a robot in the movie would 'break down' or something he would yell out "fix the robot!!!". Hes recently come to love the song "twinkle twinkle little star" and sings pieces of it all day long. He has to say goodnight to Daddys truck everynight and sometimes Mommys car. He loves acting like a Robot. Ive caught him a few times speaking in a robot voice saying "I-am -Ro-bot- Kael" repeated over and over again. In the bath I heard him saying "Kael is superman" in the same way as a robot. The cute thing about it is when I ask Kael if he is a Robot he will yell "NO IM KAAAAAAEL!" Its good to know he knows who he is.

Its these little things that make up my children that make me so happy to have them around. They make me laugh when I think even smiling is too difficult a task. I am so thankful for them. I look forward to all the years I will get to watch them grow-up.

Take Me Home Safe.

We went to Magrath this weekend so we could be with Louise and Trevor as they joined their lives together. An hour before the Ceremony began it started to snow. Immediatly after the ceremony you couldnt see outside. The snow was blowing sideways, cars were getting buried, some people started rushing home, cars were started, shovels went to work, anxiety levels rose. But still - we celebrated.


Evan and I were forced to stay in Magrath that night. This morning we decided to brave the storm and hope for the best and if need be we would return. Here is our journey.

Winter Storm....

Please give me sight...

take us home safe...show me hope...
show me guidance...perspective... perserverance...and strength.