More of our summer!

Our summer has been so busy so far! We have been on the go and enjoying every minute of it! Not a whole lot has happened since my last post, but I thought I would blog anyways. Let's see...okay so a couple of weeks ago my friend Cassie (she was my maid of honour) and her 3 children came to visit from Winnipeg. It is always a fun time and the kids always have fun playing together. She has 2 boys, David age 10 and Daniel age 9, and one girl, Danica age 4. We spent a lot of time together and all of them even slept over here one night. All 5 of the kids crawled into Deacons double bed and slept there. Cassie and I decided to invite our friend Krystal over and we had a girls night sleepover :) We had some drinks and played a trivia game with Justin on the PS3. Then we blew up the air mattress and all 3 crawled in lol. It was a lot of fun. The rest of the time we hung out at the mall, went to the park, braved Chuck E. Cheese's, and just spent time at our house or Cassie's parents. As a matter of fact, I would bet that some of the most fun the kids had this summer was when they were at Cassie's parents house. We had spent the day with Cassie at West Edmonton Mall shopping and going on rides and she asked if we could come over after. I had made plans about a month before to go have coffee with a friend of mine so Cassie offered to take the kids back and I could just come by after. Well I did. When I got to Cassie's parents house Cassie opened the door a bit and told me to come in and she would get me a drink. I told her that I didn't want a drink. She said that I should have a drink and not look in the backyard. So I looked in the backyard. There was Cassie's brother Mike smiling like a little kid and there were the kids, all 5 of them, covered head to toe in MUD!! Yes folks, that is right, while I was enjoying a Starbucks Frappuccino, my children were slinging mud at each other while being supervised by "adults" lol!! It was awesome though, the kids had a great time and I didn't have to clean up, Mike even did the laundry lol. The kids had a blast and it didn't hurt anyone so it was all good. We had a great visit with them and wish that we all lived closer together so we could see each other more. But, it was really great to see them and we had a lot of fun.

The week after Cassie left we packed up and headed to the lake for 10 days! We stayed at Justin's Aunt's cabin and had a great time. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins!! They loved to go to the park and the beach. We went tubing and drove around on the seadoo. We had campfires and hot dog roasts and made smores. It was so much fun. The kids love going there and we have been going there since before Deacon was born. Justin has been going there since he was a baby too :) The mosquitoes were pretty nasty though. The worst experience we had with mosquitoes was when we were driving home. We had left really late because we stayed and had dinner, they deepfried turkey :) Deacon started getting really bad pains in his legs and because he is still in a car seat his legs hang. We found a safe spot to pull over and I was going to crawl through to the back and grab the bag of dirty clothes so Deacon could rest his legs on that. Well Justin and I figured that it would be easier to just get out and go get it out of the hatch. Well that was a horrible idea!! When I opened that hatch about 40 skeeters flew in! We spent the next 5 minutes killing every single one of them...ewww gives me the heebies just thinking about it again lol. We were happy to get home though and were happy that we left on Sunday so we had all of Monday (it was a holiday) to recoup and relax and run some errands.

Well that is all for now. I will write another post soon. Justin and I are taking the kids to Drumheller to explore the hoodoos and to go to the Royal Terrell Museum and then we are also going to head to Calgary and spend the weekend with Justin's Aunt and we are going to take the kids to Calloway Park. I will write and update how that goes. Until then, keep having an awesome summer!!

Our summer so far...

has been a pretty fun and busy one!! Let's see, where to begin. Well I suppose I will just start at the end of June. Deacon's last day of grade 2, that's right next year he will be in grade 3, was June 29th. On the Tuesday before his last day, his class went on a field trip to the John Janzen Nature Centre. My friend, Carol, babysat Keilie so I could go with him! It was a lot of fun. They did a pond study, Each group was given a water tub and some nets. They were able to go into the pond a bit (if they had rubber boots on) and try to catch different insects and other residents of the pond. My group caught a water boatmen, some snails, a weird worm thing, some water mites and many other creepy things lol. We all had a great time and I was glad that I was able to go.

Deacon's last day of school was Track and Field Day. The parent council had also raised enough money throughout the year that they were able to provide a free BBQ lunch to all the students and volunteers. I volunteered to take a group around to the different events. I was with Deacon's team. Keilie also came with me, but she played with her little friend that was there with her Mom. Deacon's team got one first place, and two third place ribbons! After the events were over I helped get the lunch ready. It was really good. There were hot dogs, carrots, and watermelon with juice to drink. We had a great day, it wasn't too bad in the morning as it had rained the night before, but by mid morning it was quite warm. Deacon cleared out the rest of his belongings and summer vacation began!

Justin's parents asked if they could take the kids to the lake for the July "long" weekend. Although it wasn't really a long weekend for everyone who had to work the Friday lol. Justin's parent's had Canada Day off and they also took of the Friday so that they could go to the lake. So, at around 10:30 am, the kids were loaded into Grandma and Papa's car headed to the lake and Justin and I had the weekend to ourselves!! We went to Humpty's for brunch, just the two of us! After brunch we went to the mall to window shop for a bit. We ended up going into the Disney Store to look around and they had their swim suits on sale for $7.99!! So we got each of the kids a new one, Deacon got Wall-E trunks and Keilie got an Ariel suit. They also got matching flip flops and sunglasses lol. After that we picked up my brother Sam, his girlfriend Jesslyn and their daughter Olive. We then headed over to my Mom's for supper. We had a lot of fun and played Rock Band and visited for a long time. Justin and I ended the night by driving downtown to watch the fireworks.

Friday was mine and Justin's 5 year anniversary!!! Justin worked and I spent the day with my parents and sister. My parents gave me a gift card for Boston Pizza so that night Justin and I went there for supper and then went to a movie. Saturday we bummed around the house a bit and went and did some shopping at Old Navy. After we drove down to Whyte Ave and walked around a bit and stopped in at a candy store down there that I found out sells Jelly Tots, which were my favourite candies when I was younger!! We decided to have our anniversary supper on Saurday night so for supper we went out the The Keg! It was amazing as always. It was funny because the waiter asked us if we were celebrating anything special and we said we were celebrating our anniversary. He said, "your first anniversary?" and we said no, that it was our fifth and the look of surprise on his face was priceless lol. After our delicious dinner we decided to go to another movie. As you can tell, despite missing the kids, we were enjoying our freedom haha!! On Sunday the kids came home and it was nice to have them home.

Monday was spent relaxing and doing laundry and hugging the kids. On Tuesday my sister was here for the day and we went to the Botanical Gardens for the day with my friend Krystal and her two daughters, Mia and Kiara. Mia is the same age as Keilie, Mia is a day older than Keilie. Kiara is 2. It was a beautiful day to go. Krystal and I weren't sure about going that day because it was cloudy and there were conflicting weather reports, with most of them calling for afternon thundershowers. We decided to take a chance and go anyways because the first Tuesday of the month is half price admission. We got there around 11 and the day ended up being gorgeous and I wished I hadn't worn jeans and sneakers lol. We had a nice picninc lunch there and enjoyed walking around the beautiful gardens. We stayed until about 3:30 then we left, but not before sitting down and enjoying some ice cream on the way out. Krystal and I decided to take the kids to a new park that opened with a playground and a splash pad. We were there for about an hour before we each had to go home and make supper :)

Thursday my friend Crystal and her kids Ashton (7) and Ciera (4) were going to meet us at the park down the street. It was really hot that day though so she suggested we go spend the day at the Legislature in the wading pool down there. Well that sounded like a great idea. I made sure it was alright to invite Krystal and her girls and we all headed down to the Leg. Well the was quite the adventure haha. Crystal and her 2 drove down and Krystal, myself and our 4 took the bus and LRT. Well anyone who knows me well enough knows that I never take the bus, not as a teenager and def. not now lol. So I planned our trip and found that we had to take the 153 to the LRT station and then take the train the rest of the way. Sounds pretty simple, right?! Well not if you're me :) I didn't know where to catch the 153 so that took a little bit of walking the once we were on the LRT, we didn't know what station to get off at so someone told us to get off at one stop and we ended up having to walk from Jasper Ave to the Leg...not fun!!! On the way back, however, we decided to take the pedway back ad found that there is a stop that takes you almost right to the Legislature. If we had only stayed one a bit longer we could have gotten off at the next stop that would have brought us a lot closer. Needless to say, the trip home was much easier and next time we know! The kids all had a great time playing with each other and it was a beautiful day to spend cooling down in the water!!

Well I guess, given the length of this post, that I need to blog a little more often so my entries resemble more of a journal entry and less of a novel lol!! Hope you are all having a fantastic summer!!! Take care!

Visits, hockey registration, baby showers, movie night, and Father's Day!!

This past weekend was a busy one! It was a lot of fun though! On Friday night the kids and I went over to my friend Krystal's and played with her two daughters. Saturday morning we hung around the house for a bit and relaxed then Justin and I took the kids to register them for hockey!! Can't believe it is almost hockey time again. Deacon will be playing Novice again and Keilie is in Initiation 1A. They are both very excited to play hockey and I cannot wait to see them out there.

After the kids were registered it was time to get ready for my niece's, Olive, baby shower. Justin helped me get the kids ready then Justin dropped us off at Jesslyn's (my brother's girlfriend) parent's house for her daughter, Olive's, baby shower. Olive, of course, is my new niece! She is quite a cutie and it was very nice to enjoy some time with her. We had some food, watched Jesslyn open gifts, played some games and went to the park with the kids. We played a game where you take a marshmallow and put it in between your knees and "walk" over to a jar and drop it in. Whoever gets the most in the jar wins. I tied with another girl, so we each got a prize. Deacon didn't want to play when everyone else did, but he tried after and he would have won!! He filled the jar with one marshmallow after another. Jesslyn's Mom was nice and gave him a prize too :) Keilie also received a prize, not sure what for though haha. Deacon also received a prize for winning the clothes pin game, we couldn't say the words "Olive" or "baby". He was just sitting there hardly talking and taking pins from whoever made a mistake lol. After the games we went to the park with the kids and played there for quite a long time, then we headed back to the house to visit some more. It was great day!!

Justin picked us up from the shower and we stopped at the store to pick up some fresh buns, lettuce, tomatoes, and cold cuts for supper. It was so hot I didn't want to make anything too time consuming. Keilie fell asleep on the way home and when we got home she took off her dress because she was "shweaty" and crawled up on the couch and went to sleep. We ate, minus Keilie. After supper we were going to go watch Justin play hockey, but Keilie just wouldn't wake up. So Justin went to his hockey game and Deacon and I had a movie night. Keilie woke up about half an hour after Justin left and she joined our movie night. Justin came home, the kids went to bed, and then Justin and I watched a movie!

Sunday morning was, of course, Father's Day!! We had a lazy morning and then the kids and I made brunch for us and Justin. We had bacon, eggs, hasbrowns, and toast. The kids brought brunch to Daddy in bed, but he wanted to eat out in the kitchen with us, as a family. So we ate then we relaxed a bit. Got ready, slapped on some sunscreen, and headed out to the river valley for a walk. After the walk, we went to the park and had some strawberries and water and the kids played for about an hour at the park. We then headed out to my Papa's house for a Father's Day BBQ! The kids had a great time. The kids had each made mugs for Marty, my dad, and Mike, Justin's dad, so they gave Marty his mugs and a chocolate bar with a special message printed on a label over the chocolate bar. They gave my Papa a picture frame with a picture of them in it. They gave Mike his mugs and chocolate bar after Keilie's soccer game on Monday.

Yesterday, I went on a field trip with Deacon and his class to the John Janzen Nature Centre to do a pond study. I had borrowed boots from my little sister lol. I am glad that I did, because I was able to go into the pond a bit and scoop with the net a little further to catch things. Keilie had gone to my friend Carol's house and they had gone out for breakfast and then played outside all morning. I got to Carol's house at about 12:30 and stayed for about an hour visiting and letting Keilie finish playing. She has so much fun over there. We walked home and I made lunch. Keilie fell asleep on the floor and then I moved her into her bed. I was relieved Carol had offered to pick Deacon up from school so I didn't have to wake Keilie up to walk there. Keilie had her second last soccer game yesterday, then we went to Dairy Queen for ice cream!

Well that's all for now!!

I am officially a University Graduate!!!

So I had my convocation yesterday. Received my diploma in HR Management. It was kind of awesome!! So many people came to see me graduate; it was almost as exciting as my wedding haha! Justin and the kids were there, my parents and my little sister, my grandpa and his wife and Justin's parents were there too! The kids were really good!! (might have had something to do with the fact that Keilie slept until it was almost my turn on stage and Justin woke her up and Deacon was playing with his DSi with the volume off haha!)
I didn't fall on my face which was nice :) I was really wanted the announcer to pronounce my name correctly so I crossed out Myria on my name card and replaced it with Mariah. He said my first name right, but pronounced my last name wrong!! For those of you who don't know, my last name is Sander. How do you, a "professional" name announcer, screw that up and say Sa"u"nder?? All well, it was funny because I never imagined my last name would be said wrong haha! Justin and the kids, as well as my parents, bought me beautiful roses. I came home with 3 dozen lol.
After the convocation, we went to Joey Tomatoe's for supper. It was so nice because we were in their private party room which was great for the kids. If they wanted to get down and walk around the table then they could and it wouldn't be a disruption to the rest of the restaurant. We could talk and not worry about being too loud. The kids could...well, be kids! The only thing that was inconvenient about it was that another party had the room booked for 7 pm, so we only had 2 hours in there. Which is a lot of time, but it took a long time to receive our food and you know how slow kids eat, well at least mine do :) It was a great time though. I was very surprised that I received some gifts. My parents and grandparents gave me a beautiful amethyst and blue topaz ring, my parent gave me a photo album and my sister gave me a monkey dressed as a grad and it plays Celebrate, and Justin's parents gave me some money to spend on myself, and Justin's sister even sent along a photo album for me to put grad photos in.
So now I am officially a University Graduate with a diploma in Human Resources...now all I need is a JOB!! :)

Quick recap on the last few months! real date written....June 18

So ummm...let's see what has been going on the past few months...
I finished school in April!! So that is awesome. After two years of school it is nice to be done and to have accomplished something! Just looking for a job that is right for our family. I will let you know if I find anything :)
In April, Mandy Jorge and their two sons came to Edmonton and we were able to see them for a few hours and really enjoyed the visit. I enjoyed seeing Josiah again and meeting Levi for the first time...they sure are cuties! The visit was too short of course as it was the last time we would see Jorge for who knows how long. It was nice to visit though and I am happy that I am on the list of people to visit, as I know there are many people who wish to visit with them when they come to town.
At the end of April, Justin, the kids and I took a trip down to Lethbridge for a few days to say good bye to Mandy and her boys, as well as to visit with her parents. Wendy and Floyd were gracious enough to let us stay in their bed for the weekend as they had finished the sunroom and thought the kids would be happier on an air mattress in their than in the living room. We had a great weekend and Tanya and her children were even able to come out and visit with us. Our kids love having so many kids to play with so when they get to see Tom and Tanya's kids it is always a treat for them!
I have a new niece!! My broher, Sammy, and his girlfriend, Jesslyn, had their first baby on May 19th!! My niece Olive McKay Bell weighed almost 8lbs!! She is gorgeous of course and the kids love her. When Sammy phoned me to tell me Jesslyn had gone into labour, I was so happy. My Papa and his wife Wendy were supposed to take Justin and I out for supper to celebrate me finishing school. When I found out I was going to be an aunty again I couldn't even think about food! I told my Papa we should reschedule as I wanted to go up to the hospital. Keilie and I walked to Deacon's school and picked him up then we took the bus to the hospital (we only have on vehicle, and Justin had it at work). Sammy and Jesslyn didn't have a name for Olive right away and when Jesslyn's Mom asked Keilie what they should name the baby Keilie replied, very seriously I might add, Pizza Face. Yes, if it was up to my daughter she would have a cousin, and I a niece, named Pizza Face. Glad she wasn't in charge of that decision haha! Olive is just a doll of course and I am very excited for her shower tomorrow so I can give her a cuddle!
Both of the kids have been playing soccer since the beginning of May. They both really enjoy it and I can see this being their spring sport of choice, for a while at least. Deacon scored his first goal a few weeks ago!!! GO DEACON!!! It gave him the confidence he needed to be able to play his best. He challenges opposing teams when they have the ball and he takes as many shots on net as he can! Keilie of course loves hers and she loves to score on the net and do drills with her team. This weekend, actually tomorrow before the baby shower, Justin and I are registering both if the kids in hockey. We don't put the kids into things in the summer because we like them to be kids and have free time and also it makes it easier for when we want to go out of town or something we don't have to worry about them missing something. I think Keilie is also going to do dance and I am not sure about Deacon. Keilie will only have hockey once a week, I think, whereas Deacon will have hockey about three times a week. So it will be harder to find something for him to be in at the same time. He will probably do power skating as well though so he will most likely be doing two activities also.
I am off to tidy up the house before Keilie and I walk to pick up Deacon from school. Hope everyone is well! I will try to write more soon.

Gasp...2 posts lol

Thought I would blog. I don't have anything new to say, but I thought I would switch up my once a month blogging. Tonight was Deacon's Christmas concert! It was great. His school is quite small with less than 200 kids. They have a pretty small gym as well. They usually have 2 performances as all the parents cannot fit in the gym at the same time. Last year, Deacon was so tired during his second performance (which is the one we went to) that all he could do was yawn. I was so disappointed and I felt so bad for him. We kept him home the next day as he was up so late; he usually goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 pm. The concert went to about 9:30 and by the time we got him home and to bed it was close to 11. This year the school arranged to have them perform in one of the theaters at Victoria School of Performing and Visual Arts (formerly known as Vic Comp). It was great. They were able to have one performance. The kids were done sometime between 8 and 8:30. They were able to be on a stage and do some great decorating! It was a great time. I always have fun watching the kids perform something I know they have practiced so hard. I used to love Christmas concert night when I was younger! It was so much fun! Anyway, that's really all I have. I am going to switch out the laundry and then head to bed so good night! I probably won't blog again until after final exams are over (Dec. 17th) or after Christmas. Maybe though, just maybe I may surprise you and me and take a break from studying and completing projects to write a quick note! Good night everyone and if I don't get back on her before then, HAVE A GREAT CHRISTMAS!! :)

For those who haven't given up on me yet!!

So I see a pattern of only posting about once a month lol. So that is fine with me and I guess that is what is most likely going to happen. So if you still read this blog, then I guess it would be safe for you to come on and check about once a month. Hey, if I happen to get around to doing two posts in one month, you will just have that much more to read :) So my last post left off with Deacon's birthday. Well not a lot has changed really since then. But I feel the need to post something as it has been quite a while!
I am nearing the end of this semester and I cannot express in words how excited that makes me!! This year I am just not into it as much as I was last year. I am struggling more this year with finding the motivation to do my assignments and put a good effort into studying. Don't get me wrong, I complete all of my assignments on time and I do study for my exams, I am just not putting in as much effort as I did last year. My marks have been alright, but not as good as last years. I am trying to find the motivation again, so hopefully that will happen sooner than later!
I don't talk about Justin and I on here very much, he's not a big fun of the public internet :) But I thought I would share that we are great! When I was growing up and dating, I figured I would end up with some loser lol. Well I am pleased to say that not only did I not end up with a loser, but I ended up marrying the best man in the world lol! Well enough of that sap; just felt the need to give my amazing hubby a little shout out!
Deacon is doing really good in school!! He is moving up quickly in his reading level and he is doing well on his spelling tests. He seems to enjoy school; although there are some days I think that he would just rather stay home. He decided this year that he wanted to play hockey. He had a choice between indoor soccer, which he has played before,. and hockey. He is really enjoying it so far. He has improved so much since he started. He could barely skate when he first started and now he is just whippin' around. Don't get me wrong, it's not like he is the next Gretzky or anything, but he has fun and he loves to play!! I love watching him, when I don't have class. He has so much fun and he just plays his little heart out. Hockey keeps him busy though. He has a game pretty much every Saturday and a practice almost every Sunday. Plus he is also in power skating on Monday evenings.
Keilie really wants to play hockey now too, so I think that we are going to put her in hockey next year! This year we are just planning on taking her, and Deacon of course, skating to get some practice. That is if it ever snows and they can make ice at the community league.
Anyways...I have to run and get supper ready. I didn't realize what time it was! Gotta run, bye :)