2008...a year in pictures.

January- We spent eight great days in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico with my sister's family and our neighbours. It was warm, relaxing, and a lot of fun. We ate too much, drank too much, and generally became a complete bunch of sloths.

February- This was the month that "I didn't do it" came to visit our house for the umpteenth time. This time the pantry door was the unfortunate victim.

Ty's team won their hockey tournament in an awesome game.

Grace started English riding lessons.

March- Sammy began his skating lessons in hopes of becoming a future NHL star.

It continued to snow....

I continued to make lunches and began to long for the Summer to come...

April- Phil and I headed to Vegas, after all we were told Wil would be home any day and we wanted one last grown up vacation. We all know how that panned out....

May- I had the arduous and ridiculous task of sewing dozens of terry cloth strips to a unitard for Grace's musical theater recital.

June- Kelsey graduated from junior high and was now high school bound....

The "blower-slide" thingy was purchased and was about to become the hit of the Summer....

Grace and her friend Zoe, made slide rules to ensure a safe and fun time was had by all.

July- Wil FINALLY came home...

August- There was Star Wars birthdays....

Trips to Kelowna...



September- Brought back to school.

...and yummy pies!

October- Brought Halloween fun...

November- Was our first family vacation of seven...to Mexico, of course!

December- Christmas, of course!

...and Phil in weird long john's.

I00 things...

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chicken pox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Christmas 2008

Well another year has passed and I am EXHAUSTED!! I am not sure why Christmas and the festivities that go with it are so draining but man am I tired. My house did and still does resemble a frat house. I have about ten loads of laundry, washed and folded and still needing to be put away. I need to change sheets on beds before they get up and wash themselves. I still need to hang up the new clothes all the kids got for Christmas and put away the mountains of toys....




Phil and I got the little kids to bed on Christmas eve after a few rousing games of Big Brain Academy on the Wii. We hoped to get the Santa gifts out, fill the stockings and go to bed but we ended up watching some stupid movie on Movie Central and didn't get to be until way after one in the morning.







This is Wil checking out one of many new cars he got this year. It came with a plastic stop sign which held his attention much longer than the car itself.












Grace is opening her stocking with a little help from Wil. Once Wil learned what unwrapping was all about he was a mad man, unwrapping any gift he could get his hands on, regardless of if it was his to open.










Now I know it's cold this time of year but we still cannot explain why Ty came upstairs wrapped in a Mexican blanket with a toque on. He is not really that normal...

Kelsey racked in the new clothes this year. It was all she asked for and I swear it was waist high when she was done unwrapping. Then she spent nine hours yesterday going Boxing Day shopping...

Sam was thrilled that Santa remembered what he had told him and brought a big pile of Speed Racers. I was just happy the girl at Toys R Us knew what Speed Racers were and was able to point me in the right direction.

Wil loved the Smarties in his stocking and wouldn't put them down for much of the day.

The kids and I opening gifts. I tend to get very dressed up for Christmas morning. Can't you tell?

Sam got a new Darth Vader costume, which was a big hit.

Even Wil got in on the Darth action!

Remember what I said about a clean house?? Obviously doesn't hold true for Christmas morning!

Hope it was a good one...

...more pictures to come, after I dig myself out of the filth of my home.

Most proud of....

My blogger friend Sarah, challenged us to say what we are most proud of this year. I being the woman I am have risen to the challenge and ask all of you, my loyal readers, to do the same! So here it goes...

1. I am proud of my kids. They are quirky, weird, and sometimes annoying but they are mine, all mine. I am proud I have kids that people actually like, with their own opinions and personalities. I have kids who will shake your hand when they meet you, look you in the eye when they speak to you, kids that are aware of the world around them. I have kids who do not blindly bow to authority simply because they should. I have kids who question things and try and make sense of the things that are hard to make sense of. I have kids who are people I like and want to be around. They are not perfect, but are pretty perfect to me.

2. I am proud of my man. I don't think I could ask for a harder working husband. He works six days a week and has for years with never a complaint while doing so, mind you I think work is a lot quieter than home....I have a husband who provides for us far above what I could have ever asked for and because of this I can stay home with the kids, which may simply be his plan to slowly erode my will to live and collect the insurance money, but regardless he is a good man. After 18 years of being "together" he still thinks I am hot, still grabs my butt as I walk ahead of him up the stairs, still loves me the best.

3. I am proud I do not wear tapered, pale, jeans. I am proud I am not stuck in some weird fashion vortex and still believe that the lighter the better. I am proud my jeans cover my ankles and do not ride up around my belly button. I am proud I do not wear stirrup pants with over sized sweaters. I am proud I have moved past banana clips, and feathered hair. I am proud to have left blue eye liner in the 90's and that my lipstick does not look like Crisco.

4. I am proud of my friends. They are a weird bunch, none the same but all great. I think our friends play such an important role in our lives and as we get older and get consumed in family life so many of those friendships get forgotten. I have friends that I can not talk to for weeks and pick up right where we left off. They are fun, they are insane at times. They have been there for me always.

5. I am proud I am not a member of the Duggar family. Those have to be the weirdest bunch of people I have ever seen. I am proud I do not have 18 kids and still wanting for more. I am proud I am not trying some weird alliteration record with my kids first names. I am proud my uterus and bladder is not moments away from falling out of my vagina from so many births. I am proud my home is a home and not an assembly line of robotic children working to care for those younger than them because Jim-Bob can't keep it in his pants.

6. I am proud we can expose our kids to the world. I know how lucky we are to be able to travel with our brood and expose them to all the world has to offer. I am proud my kids adapt to where they are, try new foods and see new sights. I am thrilled to be able to take them places that they may never see again, to create memories that they will have forever.

7. I am proud I am not a lazy slob anymore. I have always hated exercise. I have always heard people go on and on about how they are addicted to it and if they don't get an exercise fix they feel gross, I have never for the life of me understood it. I do now. I am proud that three times a week I drag my flat butt off to the Y and run. I am proud I am now able to do so without feeling like I was going to barf. I am proud my waist is slowly coming back, although finding my old butt still eludes me.

8. I am proud I am sane and remain unmedicated. I am thrilled that I have been able to stay sane with the chaos of my life. I am proud that I can juggle a clean home, mountains of laundry, five loud kids, all of their friends, and still not be addicted to any substance other than diet coke. I am proud I can still remember how to form words at the end of the night when a few hours earlier I was contemplating how much of my frontal lobe had melted that day.

9. I am proud of my home. I love a clean and somewhat orderly home and for the most part that is what I have. I am proud that people can come over and I do not have to use a snow shovel to clean the debris to make room for them on the couch. I am proud that I do not stick to the floor when I walk on it, although it has been known to be on the crunchy side after meals. I am proud the toilet does not resemble Shrek's swamp and that when using the facilities one does not have to close their eyes and plug their nose.

10. Finally, I am proud of this season of the Bachelor. I love that wimpy, single dad and hope he finds true love this season, which by the way starts in only a few short weeks. I am proud that every Monday night starting on January 5th, I will plop my flat butt down on the couch and watch true love bloom. I will listen to my husbands moan and groan about me watching it and then he too will become addicted and watch right along with me. For this I am proud.....

Open blog...for now!

I have opened up my blog for a few days because after posting on a few other blogs I have been asked if I could invite them to mine....so to make it easy, if you are new to my blog and want an invite please leave a comment with who you are and where you found my blog and I will send you an invite.

Christmas fun begins...

For the past few years we have had a pre-Christmas party with a few friends. This year it happened to land on Phil's 35th birthday. Remarkably the house is still standing and no one barfed! The kids out numbered us this year 16-18.




This is my neighbour and friend, Corrine. Our girls are best friends and have been since they moved in six years ago. Last month she and her family moved a few blocks over, about 30 feet from our new house! This is the beginning of the night....







This is my sister and her husband, Jason. This was them attempting to kick some ass on Big Brain Academy on Wii, they did not succeed.

















This is Jason and Aaron. If you look closely you can see the festive porn 'stache that Aaron is sporting. You can also see Jason making fun of said 'stache.







This is Aaron feeding his daughter some beer. This is what high class people do at parties, didn't you know??






This Char and Matt while Char could still stand. They have 5 kids as well and three of them are the same age as my oldest three and have been friends for years.







This is Jamie and his girlfriend, Melissa. If you remember they came to Mexico with us and they looked this happy in Mexico too! Jamie and Phil have been friends since they were 10 and I have known him since Phil and I started dating at 15. The world including Melissa think Jamie is gay, even gay people think he's gay, he does not think he is gay.



I could go on and on with people you don't know but I will spare you the weird and slightly dysfunctional details and leave you with this beauty....




This is my sister and I near the end of the night...no further description needed.