Only 1 photo a day??

How can I pick just one with so many cool choices?

Today has been a great day for photos. So far I am making it my mission to capture the everyday moments but there is really too many to be able to choose just. So, for today I have 6 photos but I think I know which one I am going to use for my Project 365 and I will tell you that later. But first, here is my choices.

Photo #1 My little DS Girl, Natalia

Emma got the Nintendo DS for her 5th Birthday but lately, it's become Natalia's favourite toy. She loves to sit and play with it forever. I never thought a child who isn't even 3 would love this toy so much!



Photos #2, 3, and 4. The Cat and the Kids

Poor Casper! She is such a tolerant kitty. The kids just love her these days. She is also a sucker for punishment she lets Natalia carry her around like a ragdoll and even use her as a pillow. It's so cute! Emma is just now getting comfy enough just to let Casper near her and yet the cat has been around longer than her.





And for the last 2 photos I really think they deserve the title "The Things we Teach our Kids!"

I feel these photos speak for themselves.




Now, I need to decide which photo to use for my Project 365. I think I am going to choose one of the last 2 photos. Which would you choose?

Project 365

Ok, so I think Jen has talked me into doing this project 365. For this project I am to take at least one photo a day for the next 365 days. I am pretty sure I will fail miserably but it should be fun while it lasts.

So far, I have completed 3 days and here are some of the results.

Day 1. The gift of the year!

I think that Rock Band has been playing on our wii constantly since Christmas morning. Gerben and Emma are the in house drummers while Jess and I tend to stick to the guitar. Natalia is the singer. She is so cute belting out the words to "Eye of the Tiger"



Day 2. Sunday Breakfast!

For several months now Gerben has made a tradition of Sunday Breakfast. I get the lucky priviledge of sleeping in while Gerben creates our breakfast spread of boiled eggs, yogurt, different breads and spreads and some fruit. It usually a very lazy, slow meal for us and the kids really look forward to it. It is now an expectation in our house. Each Sunday, when Natalia feels she is done her part of breakfast she tours over to Daddy's lap and helps him finish his food. She loves to boss him around and tell him exactly what to eat. This way she also gets just what she wants.



Day 3. Oh no! Not another Roast!

I have made it a mission in my life to finally cook a roast and have it turn out. Well, this is attempt 3. The first two turned into rock hard bricks of meat. I made one in the oven and one in the crockpot. And incase you are wondering, there was tons of water in the crockpot when I turned it into a brick.

This time I used a pork shoulder and a recipe from Mariska. Well, I can finally say that I have had a roast turn out moist and juicy. So juicy, in fact, that I could barely scoop it out of the crockpot. It completely fell apart. I was a little paranoid that it would dry out because it called for 10 hours on low in the crockpot and yet by 11.30am it was already 160 degrees inside! Needless to say, I basted the heck out of it every hour or so until 6:00 and it didn't dry out. It was moist and delicious. Finally, a success.

Has it really been almost 2 months!

Wow, I can't believe that it's been that long since the last time I have posted on here. Things are going well for us. Emma is settling into school with her new teacher. So far we really like her. She is totally on board with Emma and her learning needs so that is a fantastic change over her last teacher. Tomorrow she goes back to school after a two week break and I think we are all looking forward to that. She will miss having her Aunt Jess to play with but I know she will be really excited to see her friends again.

We all had a fantastic Christmas. The kids got spoiled rotten as usual! If I had to pick I would say that Emma's favourite gift was a Volcano making kit that she recieved from Jason and Jennifer. We have already made one volcano and she was so excited about it. I must say, though, that she was a little disapointed but the erruption. I think she was hoping for something more dramatic but I also know that it won't stop her from making another. For Natalia, I think she really loved her dress up clothes and vanity best. She has spent most of every day since Christmas dressed up like a princess. She also absolutely loves anything that plays music. She is so into music now.

On Boxing Day we heading up to Arthur for Christmas with the McDougall's. We stopped by Paul and Christine's for a sleigh ride before heading to Mom and Dads. The kids had a blast! They really, really loved riding on the sleigh and then getting to head into the barn and checking out all the cool farm animals. My kids are true city slickers so it's fun for them to check out the pigs and the goat as well as the adorable little bunnies.

Here is a few of the photos we took over the holidays.

A Tough Day for Emma

Well, Emma has been in grade one for 2 months now and has really created a great bond with her teacher. Unfortunetly, yesturday, the school dropped on bomb on the poor kids in Emma's class. Mrs. McCall is transfering to a new school. The school is saying it's because of a space coming open in Burford due to a retirement but no one totally believes that story. It turns out that parents, students and her fellow teachers only found this out yesturday and she leaves today. It's pretty abrupt. They don't have a new teacher to replace her yet and we have been warned that there will be "guest" teachers for the next week or so. I hope this transition works out to be a smooth one. I feel horrible for the kids in Emma's class and especially Emma. They love Mrs. McCall. My understanding is that there was a ton of tears shed by the kids and I hope the new teacher is fantastic. They are coming into a tough, situation.

Halloween in Brantford

Another year, another spooky Halloween night!

Well, with the exception of one small hiccup involving a paintball and our front window on Devil's night, Halloween went great.

Natalia couldn't decide if she wanted to be a princess or a skunk so in the end she went as both. During the day, she dressed up as a skunk and for trick-or-treating she dressed up as Barbie from the movie Diamond Castle. Emma was a kitty cat and a very pretty one at that. Kelly was nice enough to do both of the kids makeup and Emma looked FANTASTIC.

Both kids had a blast trick-or-treating. The only issue that Natalia had was that she didn't like going up to houses with a dog barking. That didn't surprise me seeing as she is terrified of dogs. By the end of the day, both kids were totally exhausted and filled up on tons and tons of candy. I think we had about 60 or more kids visit our house which is a huge change from the 20 or so kids we had last year.

Pumpkin Carving

So, we finally got around to carving the pumpkins. It only took us until the 30th of October to do it but it's done. The kids had a lot of fun. As usual, Emma wanted nothing to do with the goop inside the pumpkin but had great fun drawing out her pattern on the pumpkin. She tried desperately to use a spoon but when that didn't work she spent the rest of the time begging the rest of us to clean out her pumpkin, so that she could carve it. Natalia, on the other hand, got quite a kick out of the goopy stuff in the middle. After an initial shock, she dug right in. She was covered in the slime and loving it. In the end the pumpkins turned out fabulous and I can't wait to see them lit up tomorrow night.

I'm back!

Oh my, I cannot believe that it has been so long since I have put anything on this blog. I feel terrible about it. Thanks to Aunt Karen for her email that reminded me that I have been neglecting this blog.

Lots has happened in the last few months. Unfortunetly, after a month, we had to pull Natalia out of her Montessori Preschool. I'm not sure why but she was not adjusting at all to the school. Instead of settling in, she was beginning to have panic attacks at the mention of preschool. Needless to say, she is only 2.5 years old so we decided to pull her out and now I take her to drop in programs a few times a week. She is much happier with this situation.

Emma is loving grade 1. She is still very advanced compared to her classmates but she seems happy and she absolutely LOVES her teacher. Lately in the car, we play question games with Emma like...How do you spell, "British"? or What is 6 x 5? She is doing really well with these and loves it when you play these games with her.

Oma was here for a few weeks this month and the kids loved it. How could they not enjoy all the extra attention? It also meant that Mommy and Daddy got to go on a date. We went to see Dirty Dancing on stage in Toronto. It was pretty good.

Anyways, I will leave you with a few pics of the girls from the past weeks and hopefully I will be posting here more often.