Shout Out Sunday

I think I mentioned before that I finally got to goto a store called Lush. You can go here to their homepage and choose your country. I had bought some cream for my kids because they all have excema. The cream I bought made them break out even more so I guess the $24.99 tub will have to be for me this summer...DARN.

I did get a free hand cream with my purchase. It is called Smitten. I have psoriasis and it is on my hands. I usually will stay clear of any breakouts if I am really careful about what soaps I use. I think this last break out was more stress related {lol} and I had the usual raw, itchy patches right on my knuckles. I used the Smitten cream a few times and was AMAZED at the result.

I tried it on the kids..who cares that it's handcream..the fact that it cleared up my skin was enought for me. It did work. Bad thing is...it's in a smaller tub.

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I want to start highlighting some blogs that I find, especially those that capture me right away. I found "Crazyland, Tales from the Motherboard" recently and found myself reading and giggling for over an hour. Check out the quote regarding women on her right hand sidebar...AMAZING! I was reading the posts from her Favorites area and this one is amazing..not as much humor and the others but really good analogy.

!!!!!!!!!

This is for one of my twitter buds that mentioned she "lost" her brain... I think I found it!

Short and sweet this week.!

Your Gonna Miss This Moment

I now believe people when they say "Enjoy it now because kids grow up so fast!"

I don't think I fully understood this with my first baby and was way too busy with the twins {#2 & #3} to even think about how fast time was flying by.

Things finally settled a bit and we got in a groove and BANG...we expect surprise baby #4. Totally not planned and totally a surprise because we never thought and was also told by Doctors we had a 1% chance of ever having children on our own. We proved them wrong as the pictures show you below.

Yup, that's Gage under that box. Our goofy, adorable, surprise baby #4 who we all LOVE like crazy.

He had so much fun with this box. I will miss once again the simplicity of joy children have. Seriously, I could be screaming at my children one minute and in the next breath they go off and find joy in something. It actually kind of irritates me that they can do this but I think it's God's way of telling me I need to let go of some anger.

Love the tongue ALWAYS sticking out.

And of course Big Brother {the look alike} had to give him a ride in the box which Gage did not like at all.

Go visit Pam's blog and read about other moments we Mom's will miss.

Shredding or Shedding?

I don't ususally do this BUT....I am desperate.

I have to wear a bathing suit in less than a month and I like to be comfortable in such things.

Even though Mimi was in some serious pain, I am following in her footsteps and I just ordered this....

You can read about it at her site.

I really like the 3-2-1 technique she uses, though I may regret saying that.

Wish me luck!

{Now why does she call it Shred? and not Shed?}

Battle of The Bulge #12

Okay I totally have been avoiding this kind of post.

If you were not here for my first Battle of The Bulge post feel free to visit it here.

I failed miserably. I have only lost 4 lbs and on somedays it reappears.

I am frustrated. The weight is just not coming off.

Funny, while I type this Melissa Joan Hart is showing off her "new" post baby body in a bikini (sticking out tongue at t.v).

I dislike dieting...I hate feeling hungry. In previous years I have had weight loss results just by exercising and not a whole lot. I am not a thin woman, never have been but I am not seriously over weight either.

The goal is to be fit....to be strong and that I have had results these past few months.

I may not be in a size 10 or even a size 12 pant yet...BUT...I am running. I can run and for more than a minute. I can do exercises, like planks and pushups that I could not do a few months ago. I am happy with myself for that considering the time I had to exercise was very limited.

But...the weight is still there and please do not comment that "it's only been 6 months since you had you fourth baby". I am sure that is part of it but I am in my mid 30's, do not get enough rest for my body or my mind, and I am ALWAYS tired. I have four children people...I am just tired.

I need to take a more drastic approach so I have decided that I need to really start watching what I eat and portion size. Who knows how long this will last.

Working out is not an issue...I enjoy that to some extent it's just the time factor, but so far it's working out having Daddy around alot more. Time just seems to pop out of no where!

So the Battle of The Bulge will continue and when I have more results I will post them. But until then....I am just embarrassed that I still look at my maternity shorts and think ....no one will notice right?

Wordless Wednesday

Boys will be boys!

For More WW participants go here.

Tackle It Tuesday

Another Tackle It Tuesday has arrived.

I was motivated once again to get something done so I could participate. I am happy to say I did get something done but this Tackle was different because I kept taking pictures of things I would start and then the Tackle would take a whole different direction. I apologize if the pictures don't make sense in a way.

I have been eager to tackle my scrapbooking area for awhile. This area overwhelms me and I had no idea where to start. Sunday was the day!! I thought I do it in small chunks so I started with one plastic storage unit to tackle.

When I finished that bin I decided I could handle another.....

Then another......

What the heck...why not go for the last one......

Once I had the bins organized I just moved the stuff I had in the area and I was happy with the result.

It may not be the fancy studios you see in the magazines but I wanted to work with what I had and not go out and purchase anything. I smile everytime I walk by this area and can't wait to find the time to sit down and create.

I did make a card here yesterday and I have to say I had to think where I put some items...thankfully I labelled the drawers.

I still had the motivation to continue with the other side of the office. I did tackle our desk unit once before and am happy to say it has stayed organized since then.

There were a couple shelves I was not happy with what was happening to them so I rearranged a wee bit.

BEFORE


AFTER


BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

{Pam notice the scripture prayer cards under my monitor)

AFTER

Owen tackled something too. He lost both front teeth on Sunday. One tooth had been hanging there forever and he just would not pull it. He and Sam were wrestling and it fell out so I encouraged him to pull the other one out and he did. He is adorable when he talks with his slight lisp now.

What are you tackling?

Go check out 5 minutes for Mom and check out some other blogs.

Quotable Monday

Love doesn't make the world go 'round;

love is what makes the ride worthwhile.

My Own Prayer Request

I have my own prayer request and would sure appreciate it if you all would just add this to your list.

I have a friend who will be having surgery tomorrow. It's a minor surgery and she should be in just for the day but it's still surgery and I want her to be okay.

Please pray for a quick recovery and healing.

Thanks.

Shout Out Sunday

I love reading and researching.

I love to research things with the kids.

The other day my son asked me why a lady bug is called a lady bug and why are there not boy lady bugs.

Thankfully we have a little thing called GOOGLE but back in the day we would have pulled out the encyclopedia's or gone to the library. Myself, I would have found my Grandfather because he knew everything!

I did answer his question and now we are all that much smarter. But seriously this got my little brain ticking. It dawned on me that instead of running around my house for my dictionary (I dislike not knowing what a word means) that their must me an online dictionary. And so I was right....guess what it's webhandle is? You got it...Dictionary.com!

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For those of you that are not Canadian (and I know there are a few), here are some Canadianisms and their explanations (scroll down the page). I was surprised at some of them and yes there is more than just "Eh?"

Yes, good ole Smarties.

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I shop for birthday's and Christmas all year round. If I see something that may be perfect for a certain someone I'll get it even if Christmas is still 6 months away. My little people enjoy these nesting soldiers I have as Christmas decorations. They are now a toy and not just a decoration. I thought I'd search the web for the original nesting dolls and get another set. In my search I was educated that there actual name is Matryoshka Dolls

Though I could not find original Matryoshka Dolls (that were affordable) I did find these. Perfect for Sammy! I also found a blank set and I won't link to it because I don't want anyone to buy it on me..lol. My sister can paint so I thought I'd see if she'd paint our family.

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Need to slow down your life? We did. Last year at this time our lives were full of turmoil, worry but we did have hope that change would come. The career change my husband decided to take has it's difficult moments but the most important thing and the whole point of changing jobs was to find time for us..his family and to slow life down to enjoy it.

I had listened to this song many times before but one day the words caught me...and truth be told I started to cry. It was while my husband was away at college and more than likely it had been another difficult day.

Watch for the little black posterboard with "suggestions" on them. These ones stood out to me...

"What Matters"

"People change"

"It's Time"

Your Gonna Miss This Moment

Times goes waaayyyy too fast. Kids grow up waaayyy too fast and things change and we move on in life.

Pam's Bloggy carnival is a great place to look back on your week and think about the moments that your going to miss some day. Here is my moment for the week.

This is Sam.

He is my son and he is three years old.
He is your typical boy...curious, rowdy and has selective hearing.

He also can get stuck on certain things....kind of like we get stuck on drinking a certain pop all the time or only buying a certain type of apple at the grocery store.

See, Sam watched Planet Earth with the rest of the family a couple of months ago.

He loved it...we all did.

So we rented more.

I knew he was interested in fish and ocean life so we selected that one.

Sam thoroughly enjoyed it.

He LOVED seeing the whales and dolphins jump out of the water...the Great White Sharks were not his favorite though.

The Whale Shark was a favorite.

So much so, that now we hear of a whale shark EVERYDAY at some point in the day.

There is a whale shark in the river, the bathtub, the lake...pretty much everywhere there is water. At least he understands that...fish need water.

Like I said he gets hung up on things and can't move past it.

BUT, it's cute when he puts his finger up to his chin and is thinking. We always know what the answer is....Whale Shark of course.

Keeping it simple...that's my Sammy.

I laughed, I cried

In my search for Canadianisms {which I'll blog about in another post} I found a youtube video that just about made me pee my pants...I am still wiping the tears off my face.

The video is from the Rick Mercer Report on CBC. I clicked on it {after watching the videos on Ringette and other Canadian things} and was laughing so hard within seconds. It's probably due to the bear sighting right next to my house or the fact that this same bear and her cubs have had a few of my Dad's calves for lunch...put this way....anything bear related intrigues me, but this video is so much more.

Enjoy because it's funny and if most of you don't enjoy it, at least I know April will!

Just Living My Life

I thought I better sign on and get a post on here due to the fact you might all think I went on vacation and did not tell you all.

I'm not on vacation.....I just now have another adult to talk to during the day.

I am enjoying spending time with my husband and kids. I did not realize I had not twittered most of the day yesterday until after 5 pm. Yes, we were not home most of the afternoon BUT we were home in the morning but we were accomplishing some yard work.

I also watched some of the Oprah show on Wednesday and it hit home how we clog our little bit of free time with not the right activities. Though my family is still young and we do not own video games and such we do like our tv, movies and portable dvd players. Myself I am slightly addicted to twitter and blogging. My husband could spend all day watching UFC and WILD tv with a little bit of facebook thrown in there.

We could be headed in the same direction some of these families are going and I am quite aware of it.

Because of my realization I made a conscious effort to help outside yesterday morning rather than reading blogs and twittering while the house was quiet. I don't regret that decision.

That being said...my ipod is on the fritz! I can't exercise without it....see I have this issue with hearing myself breathing while I run....throws me off. So today we are dropping the twins off at preschool and going for a nice lunch as a couple (with baby in tow of course) and then hitting Canadian Tire for some summer items that are on sale. I am hoping we will find a couple minutes to hit Future Shop to see if my dear ipod can be fixed.

The 6 year old has a field trip to the St.Laurent shrine today and he is PUMPED about it.

I will enjoy this day and the company that will be with me.

I hope you enjoy your days too.

What do you all have planned?

Wordless Wednesday

Don't worry people....it's a doll!!!

{look Carrie it's green grass}

Check out more WW particpants here.

Tackle It Tuesday

Yay, it's Tuesday and time for one of my favorite posts of the week.

It's a simple tackle because I have been scrapbooking every moment of my spare time to get a book finished. I had three bins in my office..one of stuff from my van and a basket that used to be a "throw it here now" bin in the kitchen. I set the bins in a location where I'd see them everyday because I thought that would make me empty them faster...that so did not work.

Here I am a year or so later finally emptying the bins so I don't trip on them anymore.

Before:

After:

What I discovered............many, many cell phone chargers.....

And that my husband has way too many pocket knives...these were all in one bin and he has another bin full of junk stuff and I know for a fact there is one more knife in there.

Not sure what the other thing is...a gun holster possibly...who knows.

{Did I mention this tackle took me all of 15 minutes..why do we procrastinate?}

My other tackle was a picture frame we had done in our Stampin Up 10 for 10 group. I never did get it finished in November so I decided it was time.

Before:

After:

And look...my littlest little person tackled something too.....


besides being cute that is.

Gage is sitting up all by himself at 6 months, much later than my other little people but seriously this little guy is a monster compared to them.

He also LOVES books.....

To view some great tackles visit 5 minutes for Mom.