according.to.kim

For the Rider fans

And for posterity, 'cause I like to document stuff.

This paper has been on our fridge for months. This weekend we discovered that it's not held by the magnet frame alone; no, the paper is actually GLUED to the fridge! Nice. Artwork courtesy of Sophia. Glue courtesy of Georgia.

Neil just before the Western Final on Sunday.

It wasn't easy to convince the girls to watch a few minutes of the game, but they were genuinely excited that the Riders were winning.

SK beat Calgary 27-17 and they're off to the Grey Cup!

Our jack-o-lantern

Neil took this photo and I thought it was pretty cool.

He and the girls selected this free pattern ("Sharpie" from SpookMaster) and carved our pumpkin this morning.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! We did. (I'm glad it's over for another year!)

An all-time favourite

Freshly scanned. 1975.

AC/DC concert photos

We let Sherlock go today

...and it was hard; really hard. But it was the right thing to do. He was not doing well. I took this last picture of Sherlock this morning. He looks so strong and beautiful here -- just the way I want to remember him. It's odd that he raised his head so high at that moment because he had hardly lifted his head over the past few days. We hope he is healthy and strong again, and having a ball running and playing with Alfie.

I love this picture

Before I forget

Yesterday, Georgia was sitting on my lap as I was selecting photos to print. When we got to this one, she asked a question I've heard hundreds of times, "Is that me?" I said yes, and then she asked a question I had not heard before...

"Was I a girl or a boy?"

Happy Easter!

These are the eggs we decorated today using regular egg dye, elastic bands, and a "Spin an Egg" decorating kit (which is similar to a salad spinner) purchased at Walmart.

Birthday party photos

I have finally posted photos from the girls' birthday parties!
I posted them on a private website because other people's children are in the photos. If you already have access to the website I use to share photos of my children, then you can go there and click on the Birthday Parties link in the left column. If not, and you would like to see the party photos, please leave me a comment or send me an email. Thanks!

Good ol' Facts of Life

 
  I didn't know what to call this hair style
  last night, but it came to me today...
  It's: Jo from The Facts of Life!

  Hmmm, what other 80s television hair
  can we recreate -- without hairspray?!

Final batch of hearts

This heart was created unintentionally; Sophia had squeezed mustard on some sliced sausage and then discovered that some had landed in a heart shape.

I decided I may as well make heart-shaped pancakes -- a week after Valentine's. The girls loved 'em!

Either Madeline or Georgia found this heart shape in the stitching on Georgia's top. I could have found many more items of clothing in the girls' closets with hearts on them, but I like this one in particular because it's much less obvious and the little ones found it for me.

I was excited to spot this heart on a billboard on my way home from dance class Tuesday evening! I pulled out my purse camera to get this snapshot.

This little heart was right in front of us every evening when we opened Inkheart, but no one noticed it until this past week. Sophia spotted this one.

I was looking for a final photo to make the collection an even number (24) as I'd like to print a grid of heart photos sometime. I did find a few more hearts around my house, but nothing could be more appropriate at this moment than these hearts on the Photo Freedom/Library of Memories poster hanging in my scrapbooking space! I'm working on week three (of 16) in LOM 2009 (my second time) and I'm so happy to continue working on this system.

It was fun to find, snap, and post hearts for "I (heart) me" month in A Life Well Crafted. It was especially fun to have my kids involved! I look forward to finding out what this class will bring us in March.

See also: On the lookout for hearts, Surrounded by hearts, and More heart discoveries.

More heart discoveries

Welcome to the third installment of heart pictures...

This muffin baking dish hangs above our stove. We received it as a wedding gift, which reminds me, our 10th anniversary is this year! We'll be attending Mosaic that day (which is fine!).

This t-shirt is one of Sophia's favourites and she wears it often.

These are the invitations we made for Madeline and Sophia's birthday parties in January. We didn't intend to have hearts on the invitations, but the colouring pictures we found on the internet just happened to have hearts on them!

These heart magnets are for the kids' responsibility charts (which we should start using more consistently!).

All of these wonderful concentric hearts were painted by Madeline in kindergarten. They were the first ten paintings she brought home from school in the fall!

Here's a beautiful heart formed by Madeline and Sophia. Hey, I just noticed a heart shape in Georgia's legs and feet, too!

See also: On the lookout for hearts and Surrounded by hearts.

Surrounded by hearts

Apparently, it's pretty easy to find hearts in my surroundings, especially with my girls eager to help me look for them. This has been a fun exercise for us! Here are the next six hearts we found. And I know I'll have more to show you next week!

Not even five minutes after I finished posting heart pictures last week, Georgia picked up this book (Sophia's library book from school) and set it down beside me, upside down, revealing this cherry wood heart on the back cover.

These hearts represent the month of February on the 12-block Thimbleberries quilt I made. I suppose that means they're Valentine's hearts -- but who cares!

These hearts are on the tassel of Sophia's bookmark, made at her birthday party last month.

Sophia found this heart in her kiwi last evening!

Madeline spotted this heart formed by hangers this morning.

And Georgia asked for a heart-shaped sandwich at lunch today.

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day!

On the lookout for hearts

It's "I (heart) Me" month in my BPS class, A Life Well Crafted. One of the projects is to look for hearts (non-Valentine hearts) in our surroundings and take pictures for a mini album. I think the project is more for the full-version students than the audio-only students (like me), but I thought I'd play along in my own way by simply posting pictures to my blog. Here's what I've found so far:

This heart is hanging on one of my walls at work. It's from Georgia's heart checkup in January. When Georgia had her ECG done, she thought she was going to be able to see her heart (and of course she couldn't), so the nurse quickly cut a heart shape from the ECG printout that she wasn't going to keep for Georgia's file (because she had captured a better one). I love it, and I will either use it on a scrapbook page or put it in Georgia's treasure box someday.

This picture is hanging in my office as well. It's a "love bug" that Sophia drew for me last year.

This frame is sitting on my desk at work. Madeline gave it to me for Christmas in 2007. (The shell is from my coworker who brought it back from New Zealand.)

This heart hangs on a wall near my home computer. It was hand-painted by a friend of mine and I received it by winning a draw through her blog last fall.

Sophia and Madeline created this heart for me (for this project) at bedtime last night.

This is Georgia's beautiful quilt with a heart applique made by her paternal grandmother. I enjoyed taking pictures of Georgia with her quilt this afternoon.

I hope I'll be able to find (and post) more hearts this month. I could always make something up, like heart-shaped pancakes, but I'd love to find something natural like a rock (or potato chip!) in the shape of a heart.

First day for 12 of 12

I carried my camera around today snapping pictures for my first 12 of 12 ("twelve pictures of your life - the twelfth of each month"). This photo captures a view I enjoy on weekday mornings as I walk through the pedway between the Bank of Montreal and the Cornwall Centre on the way to my office. I like this picture and I'm glad to have it. See, that's one of the things I love about projects like this -- taking photos I wouldn't have taken otherwise.

***
Today I'm thankful for:

• my camera
• the nice walk between my bus stop and office
• end-of-season clearance prices (both knees were shot in Sophia's ski pants and I was able to buy her a new pair today for only $10!)

Sweet Georgia Mabel

(I know it's cliché, but...) How can my baby be three already?!

At three, this delightful little person:

• likes to be a big girl and do what her sisters are doing most of the time (but is "just a tiny baby" -- in an extra babyish voice -- when it suits her!);
• isn't quite ready to give up a couple remnants of babyhood; namely, her soother and Pull-ups (but her parents haven't tried very hard to give them up either!);
• speaks well, using full sentences and a good vocabulary, in that sweet little voice of hers;
• sleeps well, but occasionally wakes up and calls out, "I can't find my soother!"
• has her "moments", of course, but they're insignificant next to all the smiles she brings us;
• often flutters around the house on her tiptoes, waving her arms and hands gracefully, like a fairy princess ballerina (she'd love to be all of these!);
• enjoys colouring, painting, doing crafts, using play dough, playing dress up, watching TV/videos (especially Dora and Diego), looking at books, having stories read to her, singing, dancing, role playing with her sisters (mostly mom and baby), and so much more.

What a sweetheart. I can't say it enough.

To celebrate her birthday, we went to Montana's for supper, along with L&B. I made up four little goody bags (with a tiara, bracelet, ring, fruit snacks, and mini glitter markers) and placed them on the table before the girls arrived with Neil. (Laurel and I went straight there from work.) They were a hit and helped keep the kids busy while waiting for their food. (I'm very glad Georgia mentioned to me on the weekend how excited she was about having goody bags at her party, or I probably would not have done this!) We had a good meal and it was a nice little party. I think all the girls really enjoyed it. Georgia was pleased with everything -- and only a bit unsure about that huge horn helmet she was supposed to wear when the staff performed their birthday song for her! Also, we gave her Rainbow in My Room for her birthday and she was very excited to try it out at bedtime. (It is pretty cool!)

***
See my original photo/post called Sweet Georgia Mabel.

***
Today I'm thankful for:

• Georgia (everyday!)
• the convenience of shopping in the mall attached to my office building
• soothers or pacifiers (honestly, I'm so glad Sophia and Georgia used one, even if parting with it IS a little challenging!)

Happy New Year!

Sophia wrote this message for us this morning and I had to snap a picture. Perfect for posting today. I wish you all an excellent and joyful 2009!

***
We took it easy this New Year's Eve and spent the evening at home. The older girls and I worked on plans for their birthday parties, while Neil watched a hockey game on TV and Georgia fell asleep on the couch next to him. I let Sophia and Madeline stay up later than usual; they were having fun playing an art game on the computer. By the time they went to sleep, around 10:30 p.m., I was done for the day too. I decided that getting a good night's sleep would be better than staying up until midnight. It was! I was in bed for over 10 hours. Not a bad way to usher in the new year!

We also had a quiet New Year's Day at home. I was able to catch up on some photo-keeping (and sharing) tasks, and I'm very happy to have that done before January activities are in full swing.

***
Today I'm thankful for:

• statutory holidays
• a working furnace (we thought ours was broken this morning but the problem was just a plugged hose, thank goodness!)
• digital photography

Merry Christmas!

Just checking in to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and happy holidays!

***
I'm so glad to be off work today! It has been a nice relaxing day for the most part. The girls have been watching Santa travel the world on the NORAD Tracks Santa website. If you haven't seen this before, check it out! It's a lot of fun. They also loved getting special video messages from Santa today through Santa's Portable North-Pole console. Ahhh, the magic of the internet.

***
The girls enjoyed making the foam houses shown in the photo above. I have to share a little story that's slightly related... This afternoon, Georgia let out a scream in the living room and then sneezed several times. That was very strange so I thought I'd better take a look up her nose. Sure enough, there was a piece of white foam stuck up her nose. We tried a few times to get it out with tweezers, but she would not stay still enough even with Neil holding her head. The foam shape was quite far up and I didn't want to make it worse, so we decided she had to go to a clinic. By that time, she was very upset and didn't want to go. As we wrestled her into her coat and boots, she was crying pretty hard. Voila! Her crying helped push the foam shape down a little bit, so I was able to grab it with tweezers and she didn't have to go to the doctor after all! (For inquiring minds, the foam shape was a rectangular box, about 1.5 cm long and 0.5x0.5 cm wide.)

The girls' 2008 ornaments

These are the ornaments we bought for the girls at Rogers Pass Discovery Centre in the summer. They're handmade and were attached to cards stamped with The Flying Zebra "Winterpeg," mb. (and a phone number). Couldn't find anything on the 'net, so that's all I know.

We put up our Christmas tree and decorated it today. It was fun except for the girls being terribly impatient as I tried to unflatten the branches, arrange lights on the tree, and then get ornaments out of their containers. Once they got to start decorating, they loved every minute of it. I used to do a little rearranging; now I really don't care. You should see the clump of ornaments where Georgia was busy decorating! (I only insist on handling our most precious and breakable ornaments myself and I hang them out of reach.)

Those blue LED lights look crazy in this photo! They're really quite subtle in real life and don't appear to cast much light at all. And there are actually very few blue (and green) lights on the tree relative to yellow, orange, and red. This is our first year of LED lights. They will take a little getting used to but the power savings are worth it. I have to add, Neil and I prefer white lights, but the kids love the "rainbow" ones so much, we put coloured lights on the tree for them. We have white lights on the house and twisted through a garland inside the house.

Related post: The girls' ornaments

34 days until Christmas

Can you believe it's that close already? The weather wasn't very wintery until yesterday, so it seemed a little further away until now! Good thing we've managed to start a few preparations...

***

The girls wrote their wish lists a few days ago (Sophia was the scribe for all three). Here's a glimpse:

Sophia asked me to write my approval on the paper so Santa will know it's okay to give this to her, and I actually did. (Have I lost my mind!?) But I did not agree to "a pet that we can take care of are self" [sic]. (She learned from her cousin that Santa can't give some things without a parent's okay. Good idea, Laurel!)

Last evening, we emailed Santa a letter from each child. I did a bit of research and decided to use this site this year: http://www.emailsanta.com/ (We emailed through the Canada Post website last year.)

I must say, this website was pretty cool and entertaining! The letter form was fun to fill out. When asked how good she has been this year, Sophia selected "my halo has been to the repair shop only a few times", which I thought was admirably honest!

We received a reply to each letter immediately and it was very customized with mention of the items they asked for and any additional comments they included in their letter. For example, Georgia asked for Dora stuff and Santa wrote back, "Did you know that Dora and that silly monkey Boots visited me at the North Pole on one of their adventures?" (Well, of course Georgia knew that! She's Dora's #1 fan.) Santa wrote back to Madeline, "By the way, Rudolph came running when I told him that you mentioned him in your email!"

The girls all loved hearing Santa's reply when I read it to them. The website also makes it easy to print a nice copy of the letter we sent to Santa and his reply.

***

Though I haven't acted on this yet, I have the unusual urge to do some Christmas baking (maybe it's because others keep mentioning it on their blogs!). I say unusual because I don't do Christmas baking and I've never felt like I needed to. It seems like an awful lot of work to me (I prefer to bake simple things like muffins, and I don't even do that very often!), and we always end up consuming plenty of Christmas treats without having a ready supply in our own house! But this year... I think I would like to make shortbread. Specifically, my Grandma's / Mom's recipe. It's my favourite cookie, bar none. I don't need anything else. Maybe someday I'll make some of the other Christmas favourites my Mom made when I was growing up, but I don't think I need to make more than one thing this year. That would be crazy -- for me!

Since I'm a little (or a lot) inexperienced, I should read these Better baking tips for shortbreads and butter cookies. I do have our family recipe, so I just need to find some time. (Alone time preferably... I'm sorry to say I'm not eager to do this with three little helpers. Gosh, I admire people who have the patience to bake with children helping!)

***

I always enjoy putting up and decorating the tree -- and I even like having the girls help me with this activity! But I won't do it until December. I think the 6th looks like a good day for it. This year, I'm planning to purge the things we don't use anymore from our two big bins of Christmas decorations. Both are completely full and I hope to pare them down a bit.

I just remembered I have already purchased an ornament for each child (I do this every year; here are photos of all the girls' ornaments so far). This year, I bought handmade ornaments at the Rogers Pass Discovery Centre when we drove through the mountains in the summer. This is great because I often don't get that done until after Christmas.

Neil put up our new lights on the house last week (but we won't turn them on until Dec 1). We traded in our old incandescent lights at Home Depot a few weeks ago and got some great discounts on LED lights. I'm so glad they have "warm white" lights available now.

***

Hmmm, what else? We only have a little bit of Christmas shopping done so far. I think I'm usually a bit more organized about gifts by this date. Time to get crackin'!

We don't have official plans for Christmas celebrations yet, but we will get together with my side of the family (most of Neil's side will be out of province/country at Christmas). Unfortunately, I don't have any vacation days left to use at Christmas this year, but I will have a five day stretch from the 24th to the 28th. Looking forward to that!