Busy, busy!

So for the past few weeks (ok, the past 8 months) the weather has been terrible. I'm so sick of it (and I've grown up here!) So If it's not raining, or it's just about to rain, I take the kids out to the park. This morning I tidied up the kitchen, living room and bathroom then fed the kids lunch(I don't know why I do... they never eat what I make them, and I have to make them something else, or they just help themselves in the fridge)then we rushed out the door for some much needed vitamin D. Just down the street there's a great sports park with a turf soccer field and a little enclosed park. So we headed to the soccer field to get some running into our afternoon(I ran too!) and then headed off to the park. By the way... I DEFINITELY need to bring my camera out with me more often.

 Anyways...I am really enjoying the ok weather and being able to get the kids out of the house and run off some of their energy. Living in a condo is so not fun, and we're ready to get out of here. But in order to sell this place we need to organize our finances and just make sure we (and the house) are in a position to sell. It takes a lot of preparation. There's a lot of goals that V and I are working towards, and that's just one of many.

This picture is a fairly recent picture of the kids. They grow so fast and I'm so amazed every day at how much they learn. Sam is talking more and more, and really testing his limits when it comes to obeying rules. Soph is asking lots of questions and trying so hard to be a good sister and good helper around the house. She loves to play games and loves to play pretend.

 This weekend is Canada Day so I'm going to take the camera with me everywhere and write about it next weekend. The plan is to go to church(canada day is on Sunday) then take off to some of the free activities going on, then if the weather holds out (yup, rain in the forecast, AGAIN!) we're taking the kids to the fireworks. Sophia LOVES fireworks, and Canada Day in general. I would say it's one of her top holidays. So it'll be pretty special for her.

It's been too long!

So I just looked, and I haven't blogged in over a year. What the heck!! I'm on the computer a lot, and don't take time to write about the family or whats going on in my life? Fail!!! I'm going to start again and it should help me organize my thoughts and what has been happening lately. So what major events have happened since I left off? Well V was working from home (which was awesome and frustrating) I loved having him home and he was able to help me with parenting and watch how amazing our children are, and how fast they grow. Then we headed off to Brazil for a month for Christmas. It was amazing and I was finally able to enjoy since last time I was pregnant with Sophia and sick every day. But I vowed that this trip we were going to enjoy as much as we could, and boy did we ever! I loved watching the kids interact with their foreign family and see how loved they are by them. They are so lucky to have such wonderful family in Brazil. We played at the beach, pool, and outside in the warmth. They were picking up the language quickly(so was I), but we had to come home... darn. After Brazil V and I decided that the days of being at work-at-home dad needed to come to an end if we were to look into getting a bigger house and get out of this city life we're stuck in. I love the city, and how nice it is to have everything within walking distance, but I hate living in an apartment and we want a big, big backyard and lots of space for a large family. Not going to happen in the city. So Vitor is back in engineering(and still doing the evening work-at-home dad) and getting all our finances in order to make the move and get a bigger place. Just this past week we've had an excellent opportunity to ponder and do some goal planning. instead of writing them on paper and sticking it on a shelf, or on the fridge, V bought some presentation paper and we wrote our goals on them and posted them on our bedroom wall. It's a great way for us to wake up and go to bed... being constantly reminded of our goals and what we did in the day to get closer to accomplish those goals. Every day we're getting a little bit closer! So this is a glimpse of what has happened in the past year. More blogging to come. Promise!

Getting serious about potty training

So I've been thinking about a few things that i'd like to change in our household. Sophia is 2 1/2 and she's been going to the bathroom on the potty since she was a year old (yup thats right) but she's still not fully potty trained. I get so frustrated because I wasn't sure what I was doing to delay her potty training. Then last night I realized that it's because I go from putting her in a diaper to putting her in training pants(ANOTHER ABSORBENT DIAPER) so no wonder it's not working. She can go in the pull ups and they'll absorb her pee. Well I went out and bought regular panties and starting today we're officially potty training without pull ups. She's only had 2 accidents and right after it happens she freaks out and says she's peed. Yeah it's a little messy, but I'd rather deal with the mess for 2 weeks then have her 3 or 4 years old and still in diapers during the day.



Another thing I've wanted to change is that Sophia picks her nose like CRAZY! It's bleeding because she can't keep those little fingers outta her nose. So Again one night before bed I was lying there and thinking that there must be a better way other than sounding like a broken record, "Sophia get your fingers out of your nose" So I thought of putting band-aids on her index fingers. The band-aids stopped her from getting her finger in there as well as reminding her why I put them on. She would walk around the house and say "Look daddy. Band-aids cause I pick my nose" So she hasn't picked her nose in a day. (Which for some people isn't a big deal, but it's big for use because it means it's one day that her little nose can heal)

Celebrate the little steps in life!

My new and hopeful career

So While in Kamloops I was thinking how crappy it was that the Sun was beating into my car on a hot Summer day and poor little Samuel was getting the sun in his eyes and how frustrated he was that the hood of the car seat wasn't quite working to give him the sun protection he needed. So I did some research and I found a car seat 'tent' and I thought it was an awesome idea.

Well Carla's baby shower was coming up in December and I wanted to make something for her because she has almost everything she needed for Damien and I wanted to get her something unique. So I brought out my grandma's 1940's sewing machine and went to work making a car seat cover for Damien with just an idea in my head.

Viola! My first car seat cover was made. I got excellent reviews, but I knew that it wasn't quite complete and I needed to make changes to it before I was totally happy with it. So a couple more babies later and I finally have a model that I'm proud of and I'm starting to make several of them to sell.

I made one for Janet's sister-in-law and she loves it and tells friends about it. I guess one of Natalie's friends said that I should start selling them in baby boutique stores and she knows someone who will help me market them to the different stores. WOW!

So I'm taking her advice and making some to market to stores, as well as sell them on my website that Idealize360 will be making shortly. I am getting really excited for this!!

Well I'll write more about it later, I need to got finish a car seat cover. I'll reveal more info when I'm ready to get this going!!

Weight Loss

So about 2 1/2 months ago I tried out for a TV show called "WOW" that they were trying to put on the Oprah Winfrey Network. I was totally excited because I thought that was exactly what I needed to kick my butt into gear and lose this baby weight(and then some). Weight has ALWAYS been an issue in my life ever since I can remember. It's one of the topics in our marriage that I feel very uncomfortable discussing and I hate talking about it because I know I'm not at the weight I should be, but I'm not sure if I could talk about my weight issues with others. It makes me feel awkward... make sense?

Anyways, I really want to get into shape because I really want my kids to be proud of me and I NEVER want my children to go through what I had to go through as a teenager and even now.

So I still haven't heard back from WOW and I'm not sure if I ever will. I e-mailed the host and she said that things are still in the works. So I'm taking things into my own hands(which hasn't worked the best before but I'm hoping with a few things I'll finally be able to get to where I'm happy)

So I've signed up for Loseit.com. it helps me track my food, exercise and calorie intake as well as my weight loss goals, how long until I reach them at the rate that I'm going. I'm very excited to have this and I can see that every day I'm getting closer and closer to where I want to be. Another contributing factor is that our family is planning to go to Brazil in December and I definitely do not want to look the way I look now. I want to be happy and confident while I'm down there and not feel like I need to hide behind large clothes or be too scared to put myself out there and be thinking "what do these people around me think of me???"

It's a hard subject for me to talk about so I'll leave it at that and report progress as time goes on. maybe if I publicly write about it it'll help me to stay on track. Since Christmas I've lost 20 pounds and just need to keep on going.

Easter

My goodness did we ever have a busy weekend. On Friday we went over to my parents house in Abbotsford to help them clear out their backyeard to get ready for fixing it up (but also to get it ready for an easter egg hunt) Then we rushed over to Vitor's parents place for a wonderful dinner and an Easter egg hunt with the kids. Sophia was really into it, and Sam just grabbed one egg and played with it the whole time. I think he knew how to search for the eggs, but wasn't interested in it.

The next day we woke up and got to go to the Temple! It was such a wonderful day to go because it was during the Easter weekend and I loved being able to go and to just relax and spend time there with Vitor. The kids were watched by Marina and Madelaine and were exhausted when we went to pick them up.

On Saturday night we went over to my parents place and had a HUGE Easter egg hunt(thanks to the Buchanan/Scott and Wade families) we also had a turkey dinner and pumpkin pie (definitely NOT a good weekend for dieting). Sophia and Samuel had a good time hunting around the backyard for candy and Parker and Kole had a good time too!

The birthday dinner

Last Monday we had most of the family over for a spaghetti dinner and it was great. Samuel really dug into the cupcakes I made! Sophia, Kole, Parker and Samuel had a blast playing together in the kids bedroom. All I could hear was screaming, so that means they're all having fun and keeping each other occupied. Little Jamey came to so I could get my baby cuddles and by the end of the night everyone was exhausted! I can't believe he's 1 already. Where has time time gone? 1/2 of his life was spent up in Kamloops while Vitor was working like crazy and I was at home trying to keep the kids busy (which was actually very easy). Where does the time go?