"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will -- to your surprise -- miss them profoundly."

--Thomas S. Monson, 2009







Sunday, October 26, 2008

Caught in the Act!!

For the last week, Chloe has been sneaking into my room whenever she can, and doing this:


She loves to put lipstick on, but her pretend kind just doesn't satisfy her.

What a mess! Oh well. Chloe is so cute!!!!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Sunday, October 19, 2008

"I'm Pretending to be a Mom"

The other day I came down to see Lily like this:




I said, "Lily, why are those balls in your shirt? What are you doing?" To which she replied, "I'm pretending to be a mom." She said it in a tone that was as if she was saying, "Hello? Why else?" Lily is so funny sometimes. Today in Nursery, her and a little boy named Mason, were ballroom dancing to "Do As I'm Doing", during singing time. They were having a blast. It was very entertaining. We love Lily so much! She is so cute, and so much fun.




We went to Calgary last weekend for Thanksgiving. It was so great to see everyone, and we had such a wonderful time as always. I am so thankful for the wonderful family that blesses my life. Here are some pictures. Mostly of just the kids.



The kid table during dinner:







Isabelle holding Beckam. He has grown and changed so much since we last saw him. He and Braxton are so adorable:







Chloe having a turn holding Beckam. She just loves babies:







Here are a couple of pictures of Braxton giving kisses to Chloe. So cute!



Lily and Grandpa fishing:




Ben having a go:





Some of the kids playing on the trampoline:



Friday, October 10, 2008

Bathtime Mischief by Ben Anderson

So this post has no pictures, because I was too busy cleaning up the mess to capture it for posterity. The other night, Sandi was out shootin' hoops with all her baller friends, and, being the super-dad I am I decided to give the girls baths while she was out (that way they go to bed earlier, and I get Sandra all to myself). Isabelle has recently decided she no longer wants to bathe with the little kids, so I filled the tub with bubbles, and put Chloe and Lily in together. Isabelle wanted me to read her library book from school, so she and I were in my bedroom reading, with the doors open so we could listen for the laughter and splashing. In an instant the shrieks of glee turned to shrieks of despair. Rushing to the aid of my little ones I round the corner to see Chloe and Lily sitting in the empty tub, covered in a sudsy lather. Lily was crying as she rubbed even more of it into her eyes, while Chloe squealed with delight as she emptied the last of the shampoo bottle (purchased earlier in the week) onto her sister's head. After 5 minutes of rinsing per child they were finally ready to get out of the tub. Sorry Sandra, but I have decided I will not be doing any of the bathing from now on. I guess it serves me right for being a somewhat less "Super" version of Super-Dad.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Sprouts


The other day in Church, a man came up to me while I was holding Chloe and said, "It should be illegal for someone that cute to have those sprouts coming off her head like that! I couldn't take my eyes off her the whole meeting!" She is cute indeed! Especially when you get to know her personality that comes with it.

We are really enjoying this beautiful fall weather we are having.


The girls are really enjoying their swimming lessons too. We are really seeing progress in them, especially in Isabelle and Lily. Lily actually goes right under the water now, several times. Before she would hardly put her face near the water. Isabelle can swim a whole pool length with a lifejacket. Before she would not let go of you in the deep end. Good job girls! Too bad there are no pictures of them in actual swim lessons, but both Ben and I have to be in the pool for Chloe and Lily's class. So here is a before shot:
So now all 4 of my wisdom teeth are finally out! Yay! The second time around, it seemed to go a lot faster and easier even; maybe because I knew what to expect. So now all I have to do is heal, which should only take about two weeks. Thankfully my wonderful husband took some time off work to help me out with the girls. Thank you Ben! I love you!

Friday, September 26, 2008

Student of the Month




So Isabelle was chosen as "Student of the Month" in her Kindergarten class. The school called us last night, inviting us to attend the assembly and watch her get her certificate. Luckily, Ben was off work for the day and got to come. We are so proud! The teachers pick students who are the most responsible, who listen well, and "se portan bien", are well behaved. She was so excited too.
Here are some pictures.
This is her after they called her name. We were sitting way at the back, and so the picture is not very great.
Here she is with her teacher, Senorita Fatima. She is such a nice lady. This is her first year teaching in Canada. She just came in the summer from Spain.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Time for An Update!


Picking Izzy up from school.



Playing at the playground after.






Having a picnic lunch after.



The girls are happy to be together again after school!



I am such a terrible blogger! I have not written anything for a very long time, so I will catch up on some recent events. A few weeks ago was the girls first day of school. Can you believe it!!! Isabelle still seems so little to me, I can not believe she is in kindergarten already. She is absolutely loving it. I thought she might have a hard time going everyday as opposed to a couple of times a week, but to my surprise, she loves and wants to go every day. She has already made some good friends at school. Her "best" one is named Chloe, and it gets confusing, what with having a sister named Chloe too. Everyday when I drop her off, and pick her up, there are kids waving at her saying, "Hi Isabelle! Do you want to come play with me?!" She is such a friendly girl, most kids can't help but love her. Lily and Chloe (her sister) miss her a lot when she is gone, but love to pick her up, play at the playground after and have a picnic lunch. She is glad to see them too.



So we also decided to put Lily in the Playschool they have at the same school. We originally weren't going to, mainly because Isabelle was going to take the bus to and from school, and I wasn't going to put Izzy on the bus, and then drive to the school right after. However, we found out that Izzy's bus ride was going to be 1hour and 25 minutes long!!! It is a 7 min car ride, yet the bus, because of all the other stops, was going to be 1 and a half hours. So, to Isabelle's big disappointment, we withdrew her from the bus schedule, and I thought, since I am driving to the school anyway, and since Lily really wants to go, I'll enroll her in the playschool. To say she really likes it is an understatement! Last year, everytime we dropped Isabelle off at Playschool, she always wanted to stay and play too, so this year, when she can actually do that, is like a dream come true for her! She was so excited the first day, she walked right in and started playing, and went up to another little girl, and said, "Hi I'm Lily, what's your name? Do you go to playschool too?" Some of the other kids that day were quite sad and clingy to their parents, and I thought, maybe Lily would feel a little like that too. So I stayed a little longer, like all of the other parents were doing. Lily eventually came up to me and said, "Mom can you PLEEASE go now?" She knows what she wants and how everything is supposed to work! It makes me happy knowing she wants to be there, and she is enjoying herself.


So Mondays and Tuesdays, Chloe has me all to herself, in the morning anyway. She really likes the one on one time, but at the same time, is really happy to have her sisters back when they come home. I am going to join a Library group called "Fun for Ones" that run Mondays during the school time. It is like a playtime and storytime for 1 year olds and their parents. It should be fun for her.

I'm back now. I had to take a 3 hour break there to take care of the girls! I apologize that this is such a long post, but there is a lot to catch up on.

So the girls are in the swing of the school routine. Isabelle is also in Gymnastics once a week, as well as Lily and Chloe; although their class doesn't start until the end of October. She is loving it as much as she did last year. Lily can't wait to start up again, and this will be Chloe's first time. I am excited to take her. All three of them also have swimming lessons every Saturday at noon, which they seem to be enjoying. I was really lucky to find a time that had a class for each of them. It is at the Bonnie Doon pool, which seems like a pretty good one. I have also just enrolled Isabelle in a Dance class that her school is running, for free, Thursdays. It is a Spanish Dance class, and focusses on Hispanic culture. I think she will have a lot of fun with it, especially if she is there with friends from school. If I am finding it is too much, or she doesn't like it, I will just pull her out. I don't want to be too over scheduled here.

This all probably sounds like a lot for the girls, but trust me, it really isn't! They enjoy being active and learning new skills.

So I had joined the Edmonton Rowing Club, which they always refer to as the ERC. I have been wanting to join this club for like 6 years now, when a co-worker of mine said I would be good at it because I am tall. It only runs through the summer, and so, over these past six years, I have always either been pregnant and too sick, or have just had a baby and too busy. So this summer, I wasn't either and thought, now's my chance! So I signed up, way back in June, and was told all of the sessions were full except the last one, which is in Sept. It fills up fast! So I joined the Learn to Row class, which were 8 classes in 4 weeks. I was so excited to go, and I really enjoyed the first two classes, one of which I got to actually go on the river. They then told us that the class was cancelled because of lack of instructors. Bummer eh? I was so disappointed. They said if I sign up now for next year, I would be first on the list. We'll see. While I was there, one of the long time rowers came up to me and said, "What a shame, you certainly have the build for rowing." There were a lot of really tall rowers there. One guy must have been at least 7 feet tall! I guess the taller you are, the longer your stroke is, so the faster your boat will go. So, I was very disappointed. Oh well, maybe next year. Taking the girls to and fro places, loving them, and being their mom, is keeping me busy enough at the moment!

Well, it has taken me so much time to write this post. I didn't do it all in one sitting though. I've been mostly up taking care of the girls, so I apologize if it seems a little scattered. I geuss that is why I am not good at keeping up my blog, it takes so much time to do it! I will try to write more, short updates in the future. Until then!