I Hear the Girls Love a Moustache

All you ladies out there, don't start swooning. This isn't some mexican soap opera star, it's just a 9 year old with a moustache:

Sammy Day 2: Smooth As a Babys Bum

It looks like Sammy knows movember ended today because we caught him trying to shave off his peach fuzz this morning. Of course just shaving wouldn't have been enough for Sammy but he had to draw a snowman on my clean mirror too and I doubt Sammy will cleaning up his mess....

Sammy Day 1: Just Swinging

Sammy wasted no time making himself at home. The kids ran into Sammy this morning on their way into the bathroom. Thankfully he was just high enough over their heads no one knocked him off his swing with their heads.

Sammy's Back

Our trap worked! We caught ourselves our elf. The kids were SO excited this morning to see Sammy hanging from their trap.
There is something kinda creepy about an elf almost hog tied with a grin like that on his face!

Sammy Trap #2

Tonight is attempt number two at trapping our Elf On the Shelf Sammy.
The kids helped Ryan rig this beauty up tonight before dinner. Apparently, Sammy will step into the big loop while trying to take the candy canes (we know he already likes from the last trap). When he does it will trigger the safety pin breaking it free from the few carpet threads it's attached to, springing the green coil back, and closing the loop around Sammys legs trapping him helpless. Muahaha!
Sydney had all sorts of questions like "Won't Sammy just use his hands to get free?"
I guess she's an over analyser like her mother. We just had to explain that it'll be too tight for him to get free. Hopefully tomorrow morning we'll have something other then a mouse caught in our trap!

Better Luck Next Time

We have a rule in our house that in the morning the kids aren't allowed to leave their bedrooms until 7:00am. At around 6:45am this morning I could hear the beeping on the clocks as they were illuminating them to see what time it was. 7:01am and Brayden comes into our bedroom to tell us that Sammy left footprints. No Sammy. He was too smart to get caught in the trap. He ate every little piece of candy cane except for the one hooked up to the trigger and then went on his way.

Tonight Brayden was at Cubs so we didn't set up another trap but Ryan came up with a good snare idea that we'll do tomorrow and see if we have any better luck.

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

With a month until Christmas the kids are already getting excited. Madison has been asking when Santa is going to come since the first snow fall and has been questioning me relentlessly on how Santa will get through our fireplace with the glass closing it off. It seems that my continuous answer of "magic" isn't cutting it and I don't know how I'm going to survive the next month of daily interrogations. 'Tis the season I suppose and the excitement is contagious so I'll just have to brainstorm or use pinterest to come up with some genius explanation thought up by someone else. Once Christmas is over the questioning will stop and I'll have 11 months until they start up again.
Even though Santa doesn't come up in our conversations all year round, Sammy, our Elf on the Shelf, has. They've wondered out loud what Sammy was up to and when he would return. Tonight for our activity we decided to set a trap for Sammy. The kids thought that candy canes would get him here and then we made our trap! Our sneaky mischievous elf won't know what happened when he grabs hold of that candy cane, muahaha.

Monster Muffs

How cute are these? Sometimes I just can't say no to those big brown eyes. She used her own money to buy these and she LOVES them and they are worn both inside and out. I wonder how long it will last?

Snowed In

Saturday the snow started to fall. No big deal, it's November and so I expected it, except it doesn't stop. I have nothing against snow but it gets to a point where enough is enough. The ground is covered, everything looks white and the kids can get on all their snow gear and go out and have a fantastic time flopping around and trying to make snowmen. The dog loves it. He's running around like he's borderline crazy and I've never seen this much energy out of him. Maybe he's just super hot all the time and now he's finally cool enough that running around doesn't over heat him. I'm sure that's part of the problem, he's kind of a beast of a dog.
Anyway, I went out before I went to bed and shoved a big glue stick in the snow and snapped a quick pic so I could share how much snow we got in 12 hours and went to bed. When I woke up I went and checked on my glue stick and found that even though the snow was no longer falling it must have kept it up for a little bit after I went to bed. We got ready for church and Madison practiced her memorized scripture she was to share in Primary and off we went. We made it maybe 150m down the driveway until "BAM" we weren't moving anymore. Hmmm, with everything so perfectly white we couldn't see any dimensions at all and totally missed a massive drive blocking the driveway and was now mushed against the van up to our hood. Ryan starts digging and the neighbour comes out to help rescue us. Finally he pulls us out and we back out of the way so he can go to work with his plow. Have I mentioned we seriously have the best neighbours ever? Well shoot. Now he's totally stuck and crawling out the passenger door because the snow is too deep on the drivers side. The kids and I head inside to wait by the fire while Ry gets his truck and chain and goes to help the neighbour. It's not too long before Ryan's truck is stuck as well. I take off my jacket because it looks like we might be a while.
After quite a bit of digging and joint effort between Ryan, our awesome neighbour and their son Ryan gets out his big work rig and uses the weight of that truck to slowly yank everyone out and our neighbour gets back to work plowing the driveway. At this point we are more then an hour late for church and I'm seriously considering we not even go but Madison starts to get really upset. "If we don't go to church and I can't give my talk and I won't get my treat!"
Why do I bribe my children? So off to church we go, an hour and a half late so Madison can give her memorized scripture and get her treat. Have I told you I sure love her?

HALLOWEEN

Wow, carving pumpkins is not the way I remember it as a child. I couldn't wait to carve my pumpkin, get the guts all out and pick out all the seeds. I can remember feeling great disappointment if the pumpkin I had chosen lacked seeds and guts because then when my mom cooked the seeds we wouldn't have very many. My kids are not fun pumpkin carvers. I love them dearly but everyone has his or her own weaknesses.
First off Brayden starts gagging, seriously gagging, from the smell when the stop came off. He hadn't even put his hand inside the pumpkin yet and he was done. I had him go run downstairs and get a mask to wear and forced him to touch the pumpkin. I'm not proud to admit the frustration got to me and after a while I did most of the guts and let him scrape the rest out with a spoon. This was supposed to take the morning not the entire weekend.
Madison seemed fine with it. She wasn't excited but she wasn't gagging either so I'll take that as a success compared to Brayden. Sydney wasn't gagging but she really wasn't impressed. Even when I prepped her for a picture she couldn't help but curl up that lip in disgust. Finally Ryan took over and got to work so we wouldn't be there all day.
Where did I go wrong?

This year it seemed like Halloween went on forever. 6 days before Halloween our Ward put on a Halloween party which was a lot of fun. The kids got all dressed up and we spent our Friday night pretending it was the real deal. There was a magician, a dance party room, a haunted hallway, food and a trunk or treat. The kids scored loads of treats and we all went home happy.
The next night Ryan and I went to our first ever Halloween party hosted by friends of ours. We aren't too into the costume scene so it was a little intimidating at first but I think we pulled it off. We even brought a festive snack with us to wow the crowds.

By the time the real Halloween came we were more then ready. The kids had a lot of fun at school and I took Madison to the mall for some indoor trick or treating fun. We went with friends and had a great time. That night after dinner we drove into town and hit up a couple blocks of good old door to door trick or treating for the very first time. I know this might seem like we are bad parents never having taken our kids door to door before but remember we were gone for 5 years and they don't do Halloween in the Philippines. I feel like I'm a legit parent now that my kids have had their first real Halloween experience. We scored so much candy that it'll last us until it rots and we were out just long enough for me to remember that next year the kids costumes need to fit over snow suits. I hope your halloweens were just as fun as ours!

Pre Halloween Snow

It seems that there usually needs to be one good snow dump before Halloween. It always looks so beautiful afterwards, everything so white and untouched. It almost tricks me into thinking I enjoy winter. The kids get so excited and so I go and pull out all their winter gear for them and they suit up cheerfully. Each and every time I see my kids all bundled up I think of the Robert Munsch book "I Have To Go" so I ask them if anyone needs to pee before they go outside. They dash outside and dive right in immediately wrecking that untouched beauty but making up for it with their giggles.
Madison is the first one inside. I'm not sure if she takes after me and is seriously unimpressed with anything cold or she's just Filipina and doesn't have thick enough skin yet but after that first brief play in the snow I'm sure she's done for the season.
Brayden and Sydney are out there forever loving it. I remember when winter was fun and the cold didn't effect me. When did I loose that? How do I get it back? But if I got that back, who would stay nice and toasty warm inside with Madison?

Party Time

Brayden has never had a friends birthday party before. For the first 2 years we did the fun family birthday parties and then for the next few years we celebrated Filipino style. We'd have families over and do a cake with ice cream and kids would run around outside but it's a little bit different. The first year we had only just moved back and when you have the cousin selection Brayden does we opted for a family party. With all the cousins I'm sure it felt like a friend party, we just had to feed all thse parents as well. :) The year after that we had only moved up to Calgary a few weeks before and so Brayden didn't have any friends to invite yet so we tried to make up for it but it was hard because we didn't have any cousins to support the cause. A bummer of living away. Thankfully Kait and Matthew came to our rescue that year and celebrated the pirate party with us. So yes, this year, Brayden got his first real friends birthday party. We had 8 - 9 years olds running wild in the house and Brayden LOVED it. They played shoot the zombies, ate pizza, had a scavenger hunt, whacked a pinata and ate ice cream cake.
I don't like to get sappy too often on my blog but it's a great thing watching your child have fun doing 'normal' things that he hasn't been able to do before. I have loved the experiences we've had and wouldn't do a thing differently but I'm so grateful that we have found such a great community to settle in and call home. Our kids (along with us) are meeting great people and making some good friends to help them through the dramas of life. I know it was just a birthday party but for me it seemed to be a whole lot more then that.

He Keeps Getting Older!

I am so ready to pause life right now. I love this stage. Why do they have to get older?
Brayden turned 9 today. He doesn't look any different, it's just another day older but last night I tucked in my eight year old and today I'm looking at my nine year old. *sigh*
Auntie Kait and Uncle Matthew came over and we did a joint cake since Matthew had just celebrated his birthday a week ago and we missed it. Brayd picked his meal and I slaved on his cake all day. Well not really, his request was a simple one *insert humble brag here* just a two tiered chocolate cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles. No big deal. We put special home made lactose free chocolate icing for my sister which tasted like it had lactose in it, lots of delicious lactose.
His family evening was a success. He got some great stuff, felt special and had fun. What more can you ask for?
Happy birthday to my one and only boy. I love you for so many reasons but just to name a few:
*You are so forgiving. When we get upset with you and maybe over react you are always so eager to forgive and forget.
*You are so kind and patient to kids of all ages. It doesn't matter who we have over, you play with their children and make them feel welcomed!
*You're turning into a great worker when you go out with dad.
*Your freckles. I just love those freckles.
You're pretty awesome Brayd and I'm sure proud of who you're becoming.

Happy Thanksgiving

I would just like to take a minute to wish every one a Happy Thanksgiving. I have an enormous amount of things to be thankful for and so I will save you all a big speech and save it for another time. However, one thing I would like to be publicly grateful for this season is for my friend Valene who taught me how to make these adorably festive treats this weekend!