Kat has something to show you!!

Finally lost it this morning!!! Steph and I got woken up to Kat running into the room, tooth in hand, screaming that it came out!! So she gets to use her "tooth fairy pillow" tonight and the tooth fairy will be visiting for the first time!! :)

A very Merry Christmas

Things are getting back to normal around here. The livingroom floor has been found, the girls are getting rested again and not so overwhelmed, the ground is still very white, the treats are still being enjoyed, and we are very thankful to have people love the girls so much! :)

The girls enjoyed each and every present that they opened.. we have played board games together, raced on the cars track, watched movies. The girls have played all of their leapster games, put together their puzzle, read some books, cuddled with new animals, worn new clothes, and there is still stuff in packages not yet played with. Dani isn't sleeping in her new bed yet, but she is definitely excited about it.

We had 2 wonderful home cooked dinners. First on Xmas eve - ham, scalloped potatoes, and corn. And then on Boxing day (despite mommy not feeling well) - Turkey, stuffing, carrots, green beans, mashed potatoes, and rolls. Yum Yum!! plus of course, the treats. My famous molasses cookies, sugar cookies decorated by the girls, chocolate chip cookies, fudge (which only really lasted a day), plus many store bought chocolates.

We all missed our families during these holidays, but we had a great time with just the 5 of us. Made everything special. Continued with some traditions (going to look at the Christmas lights on Christmas eve). And started some new traditions (making "Monkey Bread" on Christmas morning). And whether family was with us or not, we got to enjoy the company of my parents and Carole and Dan via Skype while the girls opened their presents from them. So even many miles away, still got some special moments with our families.

Some of the favourites of the girls... hmm.. For Kat, she is in heaven when listening to her MP3 player. She adores cuddling with her WebKinz kitty.. And of course, she LOVES all of her Littlest Pet shop stuff. :) Ellie.. She is enjoying all of the Leapster games (new challenges). She is enjoying her sister's Littlest Pet Shop stuff. They are both really enjoying the cars racing game.
Dani.. she is really enjoying alot.. maybe even everything.. Even the simple things like her new sippy cup she loves. What can I say.. she is easy to please. She loves the inch along ride on thing.. She loves her babies.. She loves her "Freezer" (polar bear), and her Pablo doll. She is quite disappointed of the things that she can't have (mainly - the chocolates). And of course, being the youngest, she loves torturing her sisters by taking all their toys. ;)

And for the first year since we have been together, both Steph and I spoiled each other. Most years, Steph did a wonderful job making me feel special, but me making little or no money, never felt right doing the same back.. But this year.. just had to. So we got to enjoy wonderful gifts as well. :)

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas. :)

And of course : PICTURES :)

Our Christmas

Apologies : the computer just wasn't keeping up for some reason, so i didn't get a chance to rearrange them or flip them.

Meeting Santa

Kat & Santa Ellie & Santa

Dani & Santa

Twas the week before Christmas......

And the children were full of excitement and bouncing off the walls. ;)

First big news : Merry Christmas to us.. And a big congratulations to Steph. His promotion board was on Tuesday Dec 11th.. and although the interview didn't go perfectly, the write ups that his previous boss, and a previous coworker gave him was enough to sway the panel. So as of the date of the interview, Steph got a nice $7000 raise!!! Although it is still conditional, the paper work still needs to go through and everything needs to get finalized, but it will come soon enough.
Both of his trips in December went well.. The first was long and hetic. But the second, although it started on a stressful note (the promotion), was a nice trip for him. He met up with a couple of friends in Ottawa, and got to actually relax a little in the hotel.

On Sunday (16th), we headed to the Tax Centre for a small Christmas party for the federal employees - but it was just for the kids. ;) Food, crafts, big bounce house, and of course the jolly guy himself - riding in his red pick up truck. 2 of the 3 girls liked Santa, but the 3rd - obviously Dani - sat on him, but didn't enjoy it at all!! But they each enjoyed the present that "Santa" brought for them. Kat received a barbie doll with 2 sets of clothes, Ellie a travel Aquadoodle, and Dani got a look and find Backyardigans book. So they were quite happy.

Kat had her first field trip this week with her kindergarten class. They went to Studio 12 (the big movie theatre) and saw "Happy Feet" (in French). She had a blast of course. Though a little bit of worry on Mommy's end when she didn't arrive home on the noon bus, but found out they had missed that bus, and after all the kids were picked up (Kat is the only French Kindergartener to take the bus home), her teacher drove her home (after finding a car he could borrow that had a carseat LOL).

Today, was another big first for Kat. Today was her Christmas concert! All the little kindergarteners were up on the stage and sang i think 6 songs in total - some in english, some in french, and some mixed. She was cute and did a great job. And afterwards, her and a little boy got to present the teachers aid a little present to thank her for all the help in their classes (she was there from September, and today was her last day). Kat adored her, so it's nice that she got to be a presenter.

Friday is the last day of school for Kat until Jan 7th. And it begins the Christmas holiday for us (well almost... Steph is planning on going into work for a half day or so on Monday).

Another big thing has happened around here. Since this week is just full of firsts for Kat's, is it any surprise that she has yet another first.. Tuesday mid morning she came to me and said that her bottom front tooth hurt but it only hurt when she moved it. Yup.. one look and there was no doubt - she has her first loose tooth. :) Boy, when i told her that it was loose, she was bouncing off the walls excited. Asking to eat apples and pears - because you loose your teeth is hard fruits - and looking at the calendar trying to figure out which day she would loose it. As of bedtime tonight (Thursday), she has not lost it, but it's definitely on the way. Part of me really hopes she hangs on to it until Xmas day, because ***shhhhhhh*** she has a tooth fairy pillow in the stocking from my parents (thanks mama and papa!! Perfect Timing!!). So now the question that we are asking ourselves - what is the going rate of the tooth fairy these days? LOL According to Kat it's "5 coins and a present". Where she got that total is beyond me!! LOL

I can't even begin to describe the excitement around here. It's electric! :) The countdown is well on it's way, and we look at the calendar many times each day to see how many days until Christmas.

And yes yes.. I know.. Pictures need to be posted. I am planning on getting a few up tomorrow, but right now, a bunch of presents and a few rolls of wrapping paper is calling my name. (since i can say the children are nestled and snug in their beds). And pictures i can upload at any time, but i can't wrap at any time. ;)

Dec 13th... Really??

This is the view this morning from our Kitchen.. Yup.. the snow is up to Kat's waist!!!

Dani going through the path that I dug out so that Kat could get to the bus. At one point, the back reached her shoulders!

Ellie between the car and the side snow bank. Given, that we had a hill there before the snow, but already, mid december, it's already that high!

And according to averages, January is going to dumping even more snow on us! All I can say is Kat and Ellie are in snow heaven!!! :)

Round 2 has Started

The Girls and I survived the week last week without Daddy, but it definitely had its rough points - sister induced injuries, arguing, yelling, etc. What can I say? They missed him, and they each have their unique ways of showing it. Kat and Ellie get on each others nerves. Kat gets annoyed at everything anyone does. Dani is the calm one and she will just look at pictures of Daddy and give kisses. But despite it all, we did make it through the week, and enjoyed Daddy arriving home late Saturday night. And we enjoyed his company all day Sunday.

But Monday rolls around, and off he goes again. Took off this afternoon for 4 days in Ottawa. He has his Promotion board hearing tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon, and an unrelated meeting (for his current) job on Thursday. So a definitely laid back trip compared to last week. He will actually be able to rest a little, meet up with some friends in Ottawa, and meet up with some
past coworkers/boss.

So i have my fingers crossed that this week will go better than last week. It's only 4 bedtimes, and then the girls have him back at bedtime on Friday.

On an unrelated matter.. I cut Ellie's hair last night. She has been wanting it cut for a long time now, but i can admit, i was scared to get it cut because i just adore her curls. And since she was more concerned about length, I thought i would just snip a little off.

Before :

and AFTER :
I still have to get a pic with the hair dry. Looks good though. Much fuller. I'm still a little shocked at myself for doing that. It was a complete spur of the moment decision. But she is happy and really that is all that matters!

He's safe

Despite a long trip - over 6 hours on a plane, and a very short layover in Toronto (15 minutes),Steph made it to Ottawa safe - though a little lighter than he arrived. Because of the delay in St. John's and in Halifax, he only had15 minutes to transfer planes in TO, and well, his bags never made that connection. Luckily, it happened at a place where several planes travel between, so it did make it last night, and arrived at the hotel at 1am. *yawn*

But the important thing is that he did make it, and he is headed for a very long day today between the conference and the banquet.

And while me and the girls had a rough start with being just the girls - a couple of sister induced injuries - I hope it was just a one time deal, and today will go better. Of course, we all miss him, and the next 2 weeks will be tough without him, but we are going to keep busy.

Found a new way off.

Steph is headed to Ottawa. A little round about, but he is still getting there today rather than tomorrow. Leaves St. Johns, heads to Halifax, then to Toronto, before touching down in Ottawa. Phew.

Hopefully all the planes are happy, and get him there without too many delays.

No way off the Rock

The weather has thrown us quite the stinger. While Ottawa was enjoying 25-35cm of snow, and upper Ontario was enjoying a nice dump of snow as well, St. John's was hit with some as well. Rumours had told us that usually the snow came after Christmas.. That on a normal year,it was green here until January.

Well Mother Nature had different plans.

Steph was meant to be on a plane at 3pm Sunday. Even though the roads were slick, and the snow / rain was falling, he packed his bags, and headed via taxi to the airport at 2, since the info online said the airport was still running as smoothly as possible. He was back home at 4pm with a new flight scheduled for Monday early morning. Flight was delayed and then outright cancelled. And shortly after, almost all the flights followed suit. And by 8pm, his morning flight had been cancelled. Not a good way to start a conference. After a while of checking the flights online, he started the long wait on hold. Two phones, on hold with two different numbers. By the time he got through almost all the flights were booked solid for Monday. So he got booked on the early Tuesday morning flight. Almost seconds after hanging up, power goes out. We are left in the dark in the basement with no flashlight on this floor, except for the glow from the cell phone. Got the house set up - battery powered night light in the girls room, candles in the bathroom and our bedroom, and we settled in for the long night. The worse of the night was the wind. Crazy 100km/h gusts.

And Daddy being in bed this morning didn't even phase the girls. No questioning looks, no puzzled "why are you still here?". And of course with the clocks flashing, the 2 older girls were up before 7am. And even though the snow / rain continues to fall, all the schools are open, and the buses running, so Kat went to school like normal this morning. Never was a child so excited to go to school. Was it the fact that it was gym day? Or the fact that the snowsuit was put on, and she got to stomp through the inches of sticky snow? Either way, she had a blast while waiting for the bus.

Later this morning, we will head out to try to find the driveway. It is somewhere under that snow. And the camera will be coming out to take pictures of the white sticky stuff that covers everything. There should be some good shots because of the wind blowing while it fell, so it stuck in odd places.

I hope everyone else under a pile of snow is doing well. :) And fingers crossed that Steph will make it to the conference tomorrow with no additional delays in the flights.

The End of a era (so to speak)

I wasn't sure if i was going to add this to the blog or not, but it's the end of an important phase in my life, so i might as well share with the people closest to us.

Dani's last nursing session was on Friday (nov 23rd) early morning. She was only nursing during the nihgt. I had weaned her of the day time feeds in October. I decided that her sleep had to improve, so i stopped nursing her at night (cold turkey) on friday night. It's been 4 nights, and last night she didn't even ask for it. we are already seeing slight improvements in her sleep. And it shows how little she was nursing for milk when i am showing very little engorgement even after 4 days.

So it's the end of my over 7 year stretch of being pregnant and/or nursing . It's a very bittersweet end.

Dani's new thing

OMG.. My wee little baby is growing up.


Yup this is her yesterday.. Proud as proud can
be of sitting on the potty.. on her own potty. She never keeps her diaper on anymore, and chances are, if she goes missing for very long, she will come back with no diaper on. And she will just slide her pants back on with no diaper. So the potty came up over the weekend.

As of this morning, no pees on the potty, but no accidents either. So no good but no bad. This morning though. Little munchkin did her first pee on the potty!! And boy oh boy was she happy about it!!! :) And having her two sisters cheer for her, and hugs and kisses and praise from mommy is the best thing in the world. Who knows what this means in the long run. Is she ready to potty train? Is she just playing around, and got it right by accident? Is she really growing up this quickly? Guess only time will tell.

In the meantime, potty stays put, free access to it, and we will follow her lead. Of course having her out of diapers and potty trained would be fantastic, but after Ellie's long potty training ordeal, i'm not holding my breath at all.


The big question, will she be out of diapers during the day before she is sleeping through the night??? LOL ;)

Meet "Storm Noel"

Hurricane Noel headed our direction last week. By the time it hit us, it was just "Storm" Noel. We got off lightly compared to other Maritimers with just wind and rain which around here is not out of the norm.

But on Saturday, we decided on a road trip, and headed for Middle Cove Beach to see what the ocean looks like in high winds. And Middle Cove apparently is deemed the gentle of beaches because of where it is.

It was quite the trip. When we got there the waves weren't too bad, but as we stayed, the tide got higher and higher. Places that we had stood were completely covered in water by the waves. We also witnessed the sadder side to a storm like that. Found a small crab whose shell was cracked in half. Found a second larger crab, who was barely hanging on for his life. Found a sea orchid (?) with a cracked shell in 2 places. And found a star fish who was still alive. I threw the sea orchid and the star fish back into the ocean to give them a fighting chance, but chances were pretty slim for them. It's sad to see stuff like that, but it's just part of nature.

The girls ('cept Dani) were quite thrilled to see the waves crashing. Dani was tired, and just wanted up the whole time. Plus the wind was high and pretty chilly.

here are some pics from our trip :

Storm Noel

Halloween (Part 2)

A little late.. But at the moment, i'm going to blame sicknesses entirely (which is what I'm blaming the lack of sense this blog may make by the end ;) )

Halloween night could not have gone more perfectly. Despite very tired kids by the end, i think they all had A LOT of fun trick or treating. :)

And since i'm currently lacking in the energy dept, you get to enjoy all the pics via a link. ;)

Halloween pics

And i will apologize for the lack of pics taken during Trick or Treating, but i got the joy of carrying a very heavy pumpkin to keep up with her sisters, and Kat and Ellie were going from house to house very quickly and eagerly, so no time to take pics.

Happy Halloween (Part 1)

So fall has hit St. John's. The trees are turning oranges, reds, yellows. It's quite beautiful. And it shows how many evergreens are really on this island. Some parts of mountains are still 100% green. Some just have a few coloured trees mixes among the hundreds of green trees. The weather hasn't changed much. We have had a few cold days (hovering around zero), but most days it's a nice temp between 5 and 12 degrees.




And with beautiful weather on Sunday, we took the girls to a local park. It was small, but the girls had a great time.

Here are a few of my favourites pictures from the day.. (and yes, playing with the features on my camera ;))







The rest can be viewed here : Park Pictures


Tomorrow Halloween Part 2 will be posted with pictures from today and our Halloween celebrations!! :)

Chilly, and cold

The weather is getting chillier around here. Half the windows in the basement have been sealed. All the baseboard heaters have been cleaned, though so far we have only used 3 of them (livingroom, Den and playroom). It's odd having temperature control for each and every room, and it's something that will take some getting use to. But it's also nice knowing we aren't heating up the storage room. ;)

The cold that has been travelling around this house is very stubborn. Each of us have had some form of it for at least a few days, some of us are onto round two. Ellie had a bout last Thursday and Friday which resulted in a high temp, and sniffles. Kat has had coughing, sneezing, runny nose, but luckily *knock on wood* nothing going down to her lungs, but she has her inhaler nightly as a precautionary thing. Dani is just getting it, and while she is perfectly fine during the day, she gets the sniffles at night, and had the "seal" coughing last night. Steph and I have it lingering. Mainly sinus and throat issues. It just won't go away. We are getting our air purifier up and running tonight, and we have to buy a new filter for our humidifier so that will be running non stop starting this weekend i would assume. So hopefully both of those will help (plus a good dose of Lysol around the entire house.. get rid of those nasty germs).

Kat has her first friend birthday party to go to this Sunday. A halloween dress up party. So she is thrilled. :) Another note on Kat. She read her first book ALL by herself last night. She read Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see? It's a book that she took out of the library last year at school. And she took it out of the library again yesterday from this school. Definitely a proud moment here!! :)

And my littlest baby is now 18 months old. And she is growing up before our eyes!!
She is eating with a fork / spoon at every meal. Wants to sit at the table without a booster seat (like her sisters), wants to sit on the toilet (like her sisters), decides when her diaper is too wet and takes off her pants and diapers, puts her diaper in the garbage and gets a new diaper, wants to buckle herself into her carseat (though this ends up with quite the fit because she just can't). Loves doing little tasks for us (like cleaning up, turning off the tv, bringing dishes to the kitchen).
She is quickly giving up her one and only nap during the day. And while she can be a bit cranky in the evening, she goes to sleep easily without the nap. With a nap, i can pretty much guarantee that she will be up for at least the length of the nap after her bedtime. She is still not sleeping through the night, but she goes to sleep at bedtime without a fuss, and i love the bedtime cuddles with her. She is getting a big girl bed for Xmas, and i have no doubts in my mind that she will take to it no problem. She is gaining more and more words each day, but still no "Mommy" And she thinks that it's the funniest game in the world when i try to get her to say it.

Here's a pic of my 18 month old goof ball, hamming it up for the camera. ;)

Set the bar pretty high

I couldn't have asked for a more successful Thanksgiving. Absolutely everything turned out wonderfully! The turkey was cooked wonderfully, tender and moist. The stuffing was great. The carrots were great. The mashed potatoes turned out really good. The gravy was good. The pumpkin pies were great (Even Steph who is not a big fan, really liked it). The spice cake hasn't been tried yet, and the sauce for it, well... it's the only thing that didn't turn out. But oh well. Everything else was great. The girls all ate wonderfully. And got to eat off of special China plates! They each said what they were thankful for. And after everything was done. I cleaned up the kitchen while Steph got all three girls changed into jammies and got their teeth brushed. And to end a perfect evening, we bought The Jungle Book to watch. :)

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

Our first long weekend here. It's also our first thanksgiving without any family other than our 5. But while we miss the big family meal, we are still having a nice turkey dinner. It'll be the first i make, so hoping for the best. On the menu will be Turkey, stuffing, maple glazed carrots, mashed sweet / regular potatoes, gravy, and rolls. For dessert, it will be pumpkin pie, and spice cake with sauce.

I'm of course very thankful to have my husband and my three beautiful girls to celebrate with. I'm also thankful to have this house in St. John's, and thankful that we get to experience this beautiful city for this year. I'm thankful every morning that i get to look out from my kitchen window at my view. And thankful every time we go shopping and I see the ocean (though Steph gets to see it daily). I'm thankful for the support that we have gotten from both sides of our family during our adventure out here. I know it must be tough on the girls' extended family to be so far away from them.



On other news.. thank you to my dad for identifying our mystery birds. But I don't know if we can keep up with their needs. Between the blue Jays, the Yellow-Shafted Flickers, and the starlings, they are emptying our feeder within a couple of hours of filling it!!! And on the days that it's empty, the birds line the deck railings and the lines (power, washing, etc) looking into the kitchen window. It's quite the sight.

The girls are excited for Halloween. Kat is going to be a princess (with LED sparkling dress). Ellie will be Dora (provided we can find a way to dress her warm enough while not hiding the costume). And we had bought Dani a Pooh Bear costume, but she didn't like it around her head, so instead she will be a pumpkin (same one that Ellie has worn the past 2 years). Not sure how many kids we can expect at this house, guess we will find out soon enough. We are planning on just doing our street, and maybe the street that joins the beginning and the end of our street (to make a full loop). And Kat has November 1st off school, so Steph is taking it off as well, so we can have a movie night after trick or treating.


Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. :)

Who Am I ?

Time to play the Who Am I game.. Or i suppose the What Breed Am I?

These are the birds that have been visiting our feeder out back. I'm thinking the one with the red neck is male, and the plainer ones are female. There are a TON of them! The first two pics are of the same bird.. The other two pics are of three different ones. Sorry for the lousy quality, but taking the pics through the kitchen door.





This is what i mean by TONS : That's a glimpse of how many were in our backyard (and our neighbours backyards). (YIKES!!)


And here is one of our pretty BlueJays.

Another week done

Another week done, but nothing too exciting to report. Steph had a two day retreat about an hour from here at a cute cottage place. He said that he had a great time - good to mingle with the local people so to speak. And he said that the view was unbelievable. Waking up on the edge of the ocean was breath taking.
So it meant that i spent my first night alone here with the girls. Went as well as expected.

Kat is really enjoying school. She brings home several french words each day. And talks about this friend or that friend.

We found out this week that our house is under new management (rental management). So we will be sending them an email about the work that has to be done around the house. And hopefully they are speedier than the last management. It's nothing major though, but just stuff that would be nice to get done. And we will be waiting to hear from them regarding how they will "pay" us for the painting that we will be doing.

If i can get a picture of a recent visitor to our bird feeder, we will be playing a "who is it?" game on here. Very beautiful bird nonetheless.

I've started on some basic craft projects to keep me a little busy (when i am tired of cleaning the house). Right now i'm working on a shelf for Dani's room. :) Hopefully it will turn out really cute :)

Weekend plans revolve around our usual stuff.. shopping around at the sales, cleaning the house, making the house more like a home.. and a trip to the library! :) Girls are pretty excited to get some new books. We got a chapter book about Arthur last time that we would read at bedtime. Took us probably 6 nights to read it, but it was always something to look forward to.

TTFN! :)

A Newfie Car.

LOL Couldn't resist the title. But our car has Newfoundland Plates on it now. (because it's a lease we had to wait for a Power of Attorney letter from GMAC since technically they own the car).

The weather is getting chillier. The birds have found our feeder. Last night there were several Blue Jays plus several little birds that were visiting the feeder. The girls are loving it. And Azzie is "loving" it too. ;)

Kat and Ellie have been missing their families back in Ontario, and they would really appreciate any snail mail letters that anyone would like to send. And maybe adding little tokens (stickers, pictures, magazine clippings, etc) would be very nice too. They get to check the mail every day because that is where the bus stops to pick Kat up.

A little more "home"

After a busy Saturday of running around getting some good deals on things, we spent just a little bit of Sunday shopping. And spent the rest of the day doing some house stuff.. Got all the stuff hung up in the dining room (pictures, shelves, etc).. Got some pictures hung up in the hallway.. Got a birdfeeder installed on our deck (which was visited by 2 bluejays this morning). Got a coat rack installed for the girls. Got a shelf installed in the girls room. And we started getting the stuff installed in the livingroom.. So while the walls are not painted in the colours that we would like, it starting to feel more like Home. :)

In our good deals on Sunday we got a great little thing for Ellie. A kindergarten learning kit which included about 8 learning books, a DVD, a CD, a CD-Rom, a Bingo game, 2 sets of flash cards, and markers - all for only 24.99$!! That's enough to teach Ellie all of the kindergarten stuff.. and there was a grade 1 set too, so if we finish the kindergarten stuff, we can move onto the Gr. 1 stuff. :) Good stuff! :)

We went to see our Ducks at the pond last night. A short visit. Either they were already fed, or It was too cold for them to come out of the pond, but we didn't get a greeting outside of the pond. So we threw their treat into the pond for them to enjoy. I don't know if we will see them much longer though. But i'm glad they were still there last night. The girls will be very excited to have them back in the spring!

Just a quickie

Everyone here seems to be getting over the cold.. so you know what that means, it's mommy's turn. I've had the starting symptoms for the past day or so, so guess that means i'll be hit hard soon enough.

Dani is going for naps and going to bed without a single tear. (yah) and she hasn't asked for
"num nums" in 5 days now (during the day that is). She just "asks" for her cuddles with mommy, and will quickly find a comfy spot and fall right to sleep on me. so sweet! :)

Kat has school pictures today. We have ordered the biggest package, so i'm sure there will be plenty of pictures there for the family.

One thing i am having the most trouble getting use to over here is the time change in relation to the tv shows. For instance : Prime Time shows start here at 9:30 pm. So last night's survivor starts at 930, and with my being exhausted (due to the cold starting), i wasn't even able to watch the end. geez.. and forget about the normal 9pm shows.. they start at 1030! Guess we either have to get a PVR or i'll have to start downloading the shows so i can continue to enjoy my favourites. LOL

Wild Kingdom

A blog all about the animals..

Let's start with the family pets. Inka, well Inka is her regular self. Steph and I see her after the girls go to bed. Sometimes we will see her sneak downstairs, avoiding the girls at all costs. Sometimes she will forget, and let the girls *gasp* get close to her.

Azzie, now he has a whole other story to tell. Something happened between the time that he left in my parents car, and when he arrived here. He is still the loving, social, needy cat, but something is different, and yesterday, we found out what. He is Brave! He ventured OUTSIDE! In the late afternoon while i make dinner, i leave the kitchen door to the deck open. The girls are free to play out there, stay inside, or make laps from the livingroom to the deck and back again. They love it. While i was watching them, Azzie went up to the door. This is something that he has done before. He will sniff the outside air, but will quickly head back inside again. So i thought nothing of it, until he slowly crept out the door. Okay, fine. He got to the end of the door, got spooked and bolted back inside. I thought for sure it was the end of that, and went to make dinner.
Several minutes later, Steph went out to make sure all the light toys were in, and lookie lookie who was coming up the stairs!!! *gasp* he had gone outside without us seeing and gone to the bottom of the stairs.

Tonight, i tried to keep a close eye on him while the door was open - and how could i not open the door - it was a beautiful 18C out there!! Didn't see him go out, but thought for sure i had missed him, but he came out of our room when Steph got home. I didn't think much of when he went on the deck a little later.. Thinking, he may be brave, but he's not that brave. We would keep an eye on him while he explored the deck and stairs. Well the little bugger not only went to the bottom of the stairs, but he got off, wandered around the bottom of the stairs and then headed through our back yard. We tried to coax him back, but fearing he wouldn't come back, and with Dani and Kat freaking out at him from the deck, i went out to get him. He had left our property and was in the neighbour behind us smelly their fence. Geez.. just what we need, a brave cat. It was better when he was fearful of the outside. ;)

Azzie's Adventure Pics


So now you are asking yourself.. what other animals could i possibly talk about? Did we make a trip to the ocean and see wildlife there? Nope. These next animals live just two streets down from us. A very easy walk through the park on beautiful pathways.
But i think i'll let the pictures do the talking, so take a look at these!

Our Local Gang

And now since it's almost 11pm local time, i am heading to bed, and will write about our local gang tomorrow. LOL

First day of "normal"

Steph headed to work this morning at 8am. And by noon, he already had his email address, phone number and parking spot all set up. So sounds like his first day is going well.

Here, it means that I am home alone with the three girls, trying to find the best routine for us. Kat has started her two weeks in the afternoon schedule at school, so she gets picked up at about 1245, and is home at about 315. She is starting the signs of the cold (sore throat and some coughing), so fingers are crossed that it goes away as quickly as it did for the other girls, and Steph. We will be discussing the possibility of starting her on the inhaler treatments sooner rather than waiting it out.

We started Dani in the crib last night.. And boy, does that girl ever have a temper. But good news, is she cried a lot less in the crib than she did in our arms the previous few nights. She only cried for about 20 minutes, but the poor thing fell asleep standing up in the crib, so we had to endure another few minutes of crying after i put her back onto the mattress. But she slept a good 5 hour stretch, so we will keep at it. She hasn't nursed before bedtime in a week now, and hasn't nursed for naptime in 5 days. Today will be the ultimate test for nap time since i can't count on a car trip at nap time. But she slept in til 9am this morning, so maybe she can make it to 730/8pm without one.


The weather in the evenings have been quite nice the past couple of nights, so we have been enjoying a nice walk as a family. We have found a few paths close by that lead through the park (baseball, soccer, tennis, and basketball there), and through some forests. Very pretty with all the streams, and bridges, and whatnot. I'll have to remember to take my camera next time.

A catch up

A few days since a good blog post, so here goes it. Girls are quiet eating their snack, Steph is Cnd Tire getting a good deal on a oil change, and hopefully i can type fast enough to get this done before i need to do something else. ;)

On Thursday, the weather was just gorgeous, so after picking Kat up at school, we headed to Signal Hill. Wish i could say that the adventure went great, and the girls enjoyed themselves, but even though the sky was cloudless, the wind was strong. So strong in fact that the observation deck of the tower was closed! Yikes. So the girls were freaking out about being blown away, Kat was freaking out any time that i got close to the wall. So the trip wasn't as planned, so we will try it again in the spring. One really cool thing about the trip there was apparently we timed it really well cause the boat that was carrying our car was coming into the harbour!! So we got to watch it from the ocean and watch it go into the harbour from Signal hill! Too cool!

On Friday, Kat got to take the bus to school and back home again! She was definitely excited! The morning bus was pretty full, but the bus bringing her home at lunch had all of 2 kids on it! So out of 2 kindergarten classes (one english and one french - probably a good 24 students) only 2 kids take the bus back home! WOW!

Friday morning, we got the wonderful call - our car was being delivered within the hour! phew. got our car back. Got all the carseats installed (very well too).

Friday afternoon after Kat got home and everyone had some lunch, we decided to take a safer adventure - no wind, not cold, no chances of mommy falling off a wall. We went to the public library and got everyone (except Dani) a library card, and took out 6 kids books. We are making it an every two week trip there to exchange their books. The library is very nice. a whole floor dedicated to the Children's library. Lots of selection, a cute little play table, a nice fish tank. So the girls had alot of fun there and are enjoying their new books.

Today.. Well getting back into a normal weekend routine since Steph is going back to work on Monday. Did a normal Zellers trip, though failed to get drapes for the kitchen - the morning sun is blinding through that window. Oh well, we will try again. We made a short, unproductive trip to the local surplus furniture warehouse, cause they had listed chairs available that would match our dining room set, but they were not available, but we did get a cute chair for the den.
And while we didn't see it at the store, how cute is this bed? And surprisingly only $400. But i could see arguments of who got to sleep in the bed with the slide. LOL But i'm sure we could figure out a rotation schedule for everyone to enjoy it.

Oh.. met another neighbour yesterday. They are an older couple, but we only have them as neighbours for another 5-6 weeks, and then they head down to Florida for 6 months. Guess they won't mind too much if they girls use their snow in their backyard this winter. LOL

More pictures

Taking alot of time today to upload as many pictures as i can to share with everyone. I'll do my blog about what we did today later tonight.

During uploading, alot of pictures ended up going in backwards chronological order, so if it doesn't make sense, that's why.

Alright.. Starting at almost the beginning :

The Ottawa Hotel stay - the Albert at Bay hotel

The Downtown Ottawa Tour

The Airport

Phew...

Middle Cove Beach

Move in Day

Rainy Day in St. John's


I hope all the links worked. *fingers crossed*

Cape Spear Pictures

:)

Click here

Enjoy! Lots more pictures to come. Uploading them as fast as the computer, and the girls let me!! ;)

One room organized...

Many to go.

But the kitchen is organized. Counters are cleaned off.. The stuff is in the cupboards where we think it should go. So much more counter space than the townhouse. We can actually fit the toaster oven, the kettle, the knifes, the paper towels, the "food film" (the huge costco one), pluse 6 canisters, and a wicker basket for my pills, and still have PLENTY of space. It's wonderful!! :) (and believe it or not, we still have several shelves in the cupboards empty LOL).

It's a rainy day today. A rainy day here puts almost any other city to shame. Our usual view outside out kitchen window is the mountains.. now i can barely see 2 houses across from ours and then nothing but gray fog. Today was suppose to be Kat's first day on the bus, but a mutual decision has moved it to tomorrow, because she wants it to be a family event.

At our house in Ottawa we had a family of morning doves that always visited.. Here, we have some crows, some sparrows, and one beautiful big blue jay, that comes and sits on our deck every evening. I'm trying to get a picture of him, but he flies away easily, so it's going to take some time.

Ellie's cold is completely gone. Dani got it, and it only lasted for 2 days, and 1 night. And now Steph woke up with the sore throat, so we can only hope that it lasts as long as Ellie & Dani's cold, and he will be all better in a couple of days. But for now, he isn't talking much, and i think he would rather stay in bed. (too bad the bed is full of folded laundry ;))

That's it for now. Next really nice day Kat wants to head to the "castle on top of the mountain".. also known as Signal hill. So hopefully tomorrow or Friday afternoon we will be able to head there. I would also love to visit the "underwater lake" before Steph goes back to work on Monday, but we will have to wait and see. Besides, we will be going there on the 26th (i believe) for the duck race, so might just wait til then.

Slowly getting there

After a busy day yesterday shopping, we are taking it pretty easy today. It's amazing how much you can spend when you first move into a new place - between food, cleaners, drapes, etc, it certainly adds up, and we are constantly remembering things that we should get, or things that would make organizing a new place easier (and trust me, with three young girls, and a ton of clothes, and a ton of toys, any organization is a wonderful thing).

Kat started her first full week of school today. She impressed her teacher by already knowing the "Bonjour, mes amis" song that he was teaching today. And of course our enthusiastic little girl was singing louder than the rest of the class. ;)

We are making progress in each of the rooms. This afternoon we have been working on the girls' playroom. All the cardboard boxes have been unpacked. The new Ikea storage shelves have been built. The toys are slowly getting sorted, but it seems the girls want to play with each of the toys before they get sorted and put away - who would have guessed. ;) So after we got the boxes unpacked, we let the girls just play - why work all day, right. Steph and I can always sort while the girls sleep.

No word yet on the whereabouts on our car. We kept our rental for another day, but taking it back tonight.

Of course more pictures will be loaded soon. I just need to sit down with the computer after the girls go to bed, and just upload a ton of them.

A trip to the east

Yesterday, we went driving east, and only stopped when we couldn't go any more east. ;) We went to Cape Spear, the most east point in North America. Steph, Kat, and Ellie went into the original lighthouse (Dani and I stayed outside, because Dani, and old artifacts just don't mix). And then we walked the boardwalk around the newer lighthouse. The girls did great. And i was called a "trooper" by another tourist because I was walking all those stairs with a 25lb weight on my hip. LOL

We also got a lot of shopping done yesterday.. out fridge and cupboards are nicely stocked now, and I have pants to wear - as oppose to Capris. LOL

Today more shopping. We are returning our rental van tonight, so we may be a few days without a car, so we need to make sure we have everything we need for the next few days until our car arrives.

House is coming together nicely. Steph has been working hard in the den, and the desk is now together, and the computer set up. I have been working on the girls' rooms trying to get their clothes organized. Slow work, but its getting done.

A different type of blog

Since move wise, and excitement wise, things are slowing down quickly, and the blog would be very short, thought i would update in a different way.

I guess i will start with the littlest one. Dani. She has had a rough night here and there due to the fast food we were eating, and the fast food industry just isn't all that dairy free. So she has had more milk in her diet than she should, but considering, she is doing good. She is adjusting well to the new house, and has mastered going down the stairs since getting here. We are hoping that she is going to be an easier than Ellie potty trainer since she already tells us that her bum is dirty, and she has started asking to sit on the potty like her big sisters. LOL Her vocabulary is blooming, and even though we are still lacking the "Mommy" word that i so desperately want, she is saying plenty of other words that keep us amused. Our latest favourite is "Ding" from the van dinging when the seatbelts aren't buckled fast enough. LOL

Ellie.. well Ellie is Ellie. Like Dani she is adjusting fine to the new house and what not. Unfortunately she was struck with the first cold of the season, but considering all the *public* things she has touched between here and Ottawa, it's not all that surprising that one of them would end up sick. Right now its just a runny nose, and the medicine is doing the trick for her at night, so hopefully it will run its course with little disturbance.

Onto the oldest. Kat is really enjoying school. Already made a friend yesterday, but didn't remember her name. She is the type of girl that can make a friend anywhere though, so no worries about her making friends at school. She is a little "bored" around here, but i think she thought that we would move, and everything would be done.. none of this unpacking, and organizing, and setting up, and cleaning, and shopping. And while i'm not getting the reactions that i expected from her, i think she is enjoying herself and the little trips that we have taken.

As for me and Steph.. we are taking everything in stride, and trying to get the girls onto a schedule that works for everyone, at the same time as getting a house the is clean, organized and functional. So we are tired of course, but things are going well. Slowly each room is coming together. I started the laundry today, we should have the closets organized by the end of the weekend, and hopefully the playroom will start looking more like a playroom and less of storage room soon.

So that's the blog for today. This afternoon, we head out to do the mattress shopping, the food shopping, the drapes shopping, etc.. Should be fun (if all 3 kids cooperate LOL).

First night at our house

And while it could be better, i'm still very happy to be home!!

Where to start with this day... Early rise again, to get everyone dressed and out the door by 8am
(plus with all our stuff since it was check out day as well). Drove by the house to pick up Kat's backpack, and then headed to her school for her first day of school! OMG is she ever cute!

And a unique situation calls for a unique picture of course.. wish i had remembered to take one when she got home infront of the house, but guess i could always fudge it this weekend. ;)



Headed back to the house after getting Kat settled into her classroom, but she is a pro at this. And waiting for us was the unpackers. Great team they were - efficient plus very friendly. So with their help, got the kitchen, nursery, master bedroom, livingroom, diningroom, laundry room, and den ALL unpacked. Not all put away, but heck they are out of the boxes!! So it's a great start. And all of this done by shortly after noon! Amazing!

The afternoon, we were suppose to get the satellite installed, but apparently they were having one of those days that nothing was working, so we didn't see him until about 6pm. and unfortunately, that meant that we had waited around the house until it was too late to do anything outside of the house, but luckily we had leftovers from the hotel for the girls.

And can i just add a *brrrrr* unseasonably cold weather around here tonight.. actually have a frost warning tonight. geez. and since Steph and I are sleeping on the floor - since we didn't get anything done outside of the house, we didn't get a new mattress, it might be a tad chilly.

And as you can tell, found my charger, and the pictures will be added soon, so keep an eye on the other posts for pictures! :) (though don't expect them to be edited yet LOL)

A full house!

This will be a short blog since it was mainly a day focusing around one thing - a big truck and a lot of boxes. The truck was sitting in front of our house when we got there a few minutes before 8:30am. While the 3 girls and I watched, and Steph played Bingo with the numbers on the items as they brought them in, the 3 movers moved all our stuff in.. over 200 items brought in, and several things assembled in less than 3 hours. It was really amazing seeing them work.

So by noon our house was filled. Each room had stuff in it.. some rooms were overflowing, others had only a few boxes. Only one thing (so far) was damaged - our mattress has some water get into the plastic covering - how who knows, but it might mean a brand new mattress for us (bonus!!).

After they left, we got to get our kitties from the airport! Missed them! And they seemed alright despite being at the airport at 630am Ottawa time. Got them back to the house and set up in the laundry room. Azzie was more than happy to be out of the carrier and getting loved on by us. He is probably sad at the house all alone, but at least this is the last night at the hotel! :)

We got a few boxes unpacked.. got Kat and Ellie's beds made.. But with the unpackers coming tomorrow morning, we just worked on the clothes and such.

So tomorrow... the unpackers come.. the satellite installer comes.. the maintenance guy comes to hook up washer & dryer and to check other electronics. And Kat starts school!!!! :) :) It will be a weird first day of school picture with her heading to school from the hotel, but oh well, unique circumstances call for a unique picture. ;)

That's it for today!! I cannot wait to find my battery charger and get a ton of pictures on here!! :)

An Amazing Day

I can only wish that i trusted my battery for my camera enough to download the pictures from it, because there are probably some great pictures on there, but since our stuff is arriving tomorrow, i guess by Thursday night, this blog will be filled with pictures.

Our day started out pretty normally.. well at least normal for us these days. The girls slept in a bit. After everyone was up and went through the typical battle to get everyone dressed, we headed out. Kat was cranky, so after we picked up Tim's for breakfast, Steph and I decided to take a little detour from our plans.. Instead of doing the mall thing, we headed out of the city for a change of scenery. We head along the coast in Torbay, and then headed to Middle Cove beach. We brought all three girls to the Ocean! I was 27 years old when i saw the ocean for the first time. The girls are very lucky that they were 5, 3, and 1 when they saw the ocean for the first time.

They loved it! That's the easiest way to describe it. They loved it. We stood there, stared out at the vastness, we threw rocks, we searched for pretty rocks, and of course we took pictures. Kat found a tiny starfish that i guess had washed up on shore. We saw 2 jelly fish close to the edge, and one washed up, so Steph got to help it back into the ocean. (which is difficult when you don't want to actually *touch* the jelly fish.).

Both girls got to touch the water, but i think Dani won in that field since the tide rose all of a sudden when she was sitting on the rocks, so she got waist deep in the water. LOL She took it all in stride, and luckily we had clothes in the car that i could change her into. Kat and Ellie got up to the calves wet, and although cold, both loved it, and went back again and again. Ellie of course was testing her limits and seeing how far she could go in. So her pants ended up quite wet on the bottom even though she had rolled them up to her knees.



After that, we headed back to the hotel to get changed, and then almost immediately headed back out. Our intention was to head straight to Kat's school and get her enrolled, but got a call on the way from the Rogers guy, so headed to our house instead. Wandered from room to room figuring out our colour scheme. Got our internet connected - found out the previous renters had taken liberty with the cable and split it in 6 cables. Lawn maintenance guy came by while we were there, and since we haven't officially taken possession, he went ahead and cut the lawn for us. (yah!)
Finally headed out to Kat's school. Got her enrolled, met her teacher, saw her classroom, had the usual comments about Ellie, etc. Her teacher is very nice, and he is looking forward to working with her since she already has a year under her belt (he feels that she will be ahead of several of the students in some depts). She starts school Thursday morning - she was in the afternoon class, but he switched her to the afternoon after clearing it with us so the classes would be completely even with the girl/boy ratio - 6 to 6!! wow!! Much better than the 5 girls to 11 boys that Kat had last year. So 12 kids in her class with 1 teacher and 1 teachers aide, and the classroom is huge with lots of activities to do. She is definitely looking forward to it! :)

We headed to the mall, and were quite surprised that it was SOOO busy there! Like line up busy. After searching the lot for a spot for about 10 minutes, we gave up (we give up easily in those situations), and headed to a McD's for lunch. And then headed to Zellers to pick up some essential kitty supplies before our kitties arrive tomorrow night (thanks again Mom & Dad).

After such a busy day, we headed back to the hotel for a rest, but saw that nobody was in the pool, so a quick change of clothes, and we headed to the pool. Kat is still very uncomfortable in the pool, so while we thought she would eventually warm up, this is the second time in there, and she still hasn't gotten her shoulders wet. Ellie is becoming braver! She is learning to hold her breath and her nose and go under water for split seconds! And of course our little fish, Dani, is happy in any amount of water. Both me and Steph went down the waterslide today. We didn't give Ellie enough credit yesterday.. that slide is fast, and it gets pitch black at one point in there! but it's fun!

And now, Supper is done, kids are relaxing (Kat, Ellie, and Daddy are playing the Xbox.. Dani is listening to the Backyardigans on tv while she plays with a t-shirt and ziploc bag).

Tomorrow shall be busy. Stuff will be arriving between 830 and 9am, and it will probably take all day to unload the truck and get the stuff assembled. Wish us luck that everything was well taken care of.

A good news phone call..

Amazingly enough, our stuff will be arriving tomorrow morning. WOOHOO!!! So we will not be changing hotels, but rather toughing it out here until our stuff get unpacked. Sounds like a good deal to me. And considered they estimated the earliest time would be the 6th, they are a whole day early.

And it's a good thing too.. Ellie slept horribly last night, just could not get comfy on her bed, so was up pretty much on and off from 9pm til midnight, and then again once at 4am. But she is awake and happy this morning, so we will see how long it lasts. And i would love to get Dani from our bed again, and into her crib (there is literally no room for a playpen in this "suite" so in our bed she stays).

Now onto a fun and exciting Tuesday!!! :)

Why buildings should not be built in days

The soundproofing in this place is just horrible. It's 9:17pm, and we can hear people in the halls, we can hear kids in the pool, we can hear footsteps on the ceiling. We can hear kids running in the hall, even yelling in the hall. God, i can only hope that i never become a parent like that. I don't care if you are vacation, it doesn't mean your kids can be loud and obnoxious in the hallways past 9pm. My young kids go to bed by 830. They are absolutely exhausted, and need their sleep, and the only thing we can do is hope that the noise does not wake them up.

And as for the title of this post : we found out today that this was one of those buildings... one day it's not there, the next : Poof : it's there. Built very quickly, so maybe they just missed a step - like insulation. ;)

We are no longer homeless

though we continue to be "stuff"-less. We drove around today. The girls were not that excited as i had hoped they would be, but i guess in the mind of a 5 and 3 year old, the pool in the hotel is much more exciting than trees and mountains and houses. But Kat got to see her new school (just the outside and the playground).

And we got the keys to our new house!! :) House has new carpets throughout, and unfortunately slightly to our disappointment, no painting has been done. But we are getting all the paint for free, and some sort of credit for the labour, and bonus of course we get to pick the colours, so the girls get to have pretty pastel walls rather than white. So I guess that means more house renos in our future, but painting is better than flooring any day.

All three girls are exhausted as are mommy and daddy. So i imagine there will be no movie night tonight for the family. And despite the size (horribly small), and the lack of soundproofing (we were hearing kids in other rooms, in the pool and in the hall until after 11pm), we are staying in this hotel (Super 8) for another night. We will decide in the morning if we move to a different hotel. The girls got to enjoy the pool this afternoon. Ellie was the brave girl and went down the 80ft Slide!!! OMG!!! She went completely underwater at the bottom because she was going too fast and too awkwardly for daddy to catch her. She recovered very quickly though, but wouldn't go down again. Kat went up the stairs 5 times, but came down via the stairs 5 times. Dani would have loved to go down the slide, but much too narrow to fit daddy and her. But our little Fish, Dani, had a blast as usual when she is in water.

Now, off to figure out supper.

A new city.. A new hotel..

Nearly 3000km later, we are in St. John's safe and sound. We had a few bumps along the way, but nothing that us experienced calm parents couldn't handle - yeah right, who am i kidding. ;)

Started the day with the girls awake by 8 - early start to a long day.. Had our Timmies, and got the rooms empty one by one. The girls got to ride with just seatbelts in the taxi van - you can just imagine how happy they were about that. Two airport trolleys to carry all the stuff - 2 huge suitcases, 1 small suitcase, 3 carseats, 2 backpacks, 1 briefcase, 1 stroller, purse, camera, and 3 kids!! It probably looked like we were moving with all that stuff. Got everything checked except the stuff coming on the plane. Definitely lightened the load quite a bit. And having the stroller with a babe that would rather walk makes carrying all the goods easy - put it all in the empty stroller.

The girls got to watch the plane we were going to board land, and then watch all the baggage get unloaded. You would never think a sight that simple would keep 2 little girls completely amazed for so long. Too bad the littlest one could care less, and she would rather go her own way.

The first flight went completely uneventful. Daddy got to sit beside never ending questioning Kat. And Mommy sat with Dani on her lap and Ellie beside her. Dani fell asleep nursing shortly after take off.. Ellie fell asleep about 40 minutes into the flight.. So mommy's one arm was holding lying down Dani fast asleep.. her other arm, stretched out across the seat to Ellie - who had both arms wrapped around mommy's arm, and her head nestled nicely just above the elbow. Mommy was quite stuck.

Play time when we landed, and got some food in everyone. And of course, leave it to our girls to meet a new friend during the short time between flights. A little girl, probably a little older than Kat played with them, and then ended up sitting infront of us on the plane.

Can i just add here, that we had absolutely perfect flying weather. it was a shame that the girls (especially Ellie) were too short to really enjoy the fabulous view from the plane, but Kat enjoyed it every time we turned.

Second flight.. Had doubts that it would go as well as the first.. Dani refused to nap, and at several points refused to even nurse.. I'm sure if she was the boss she would have been touring the aisles talking to everyone that smiled in her direction. Too bad mommy wouldn't agree to that plan. But finally got her to sleep about 50 minutes into the flight - phew. unfortunately, that was just the start of the fun. Starting to descend, and oh poor Ellie belly.. The gravol just didn't last long enough. Threw up.. not once.. not twice.. but three times. Poor girl! The flight attendants were great, and had dry and wet napkins there quickly. And luckily I had a sweater in her bag so as soon as we landed, got her out of the tshirt, and into a clean dry sweater.. The pants would have to wait though.
Then the next pit fall. Got two carseats, and one suitcase when the whole carousel stops. Completely! we had time for 2 bathroom breaks (Kat and then Daddy), and then get the car keys for the rental before the rest of the baggage from the flight was delivered by HAND to the carousel. So it was a long wait. But luckily the first suitcase we got had the girls clothes in it, so i was able to get Ellie out of the stinky clothes.
Finally have all our stuff, and out to the van.. Yup, VAN! To those who know Steph well enough, this is basically a prison sentence to him. This will be the one and only time that we get to enjoy the space of a van.. Unless they change an SUV into a van that is. ;)

I cannot emphasize this enough - before leaving the airport, make sure you know where the hotel is, and how to get to it. LOL Enough said about that. We did make it though, me posting makes that obvious.

What a disappointment this hotel "suite" is though. They call this a suite.. but really it's the size of a normal 2 bed room, but with walls built around the second bed to make it into 2 "rooms". So one room has the bedroom (double bed), livingroom (tv center), dining room (table with 2 chairs), and very little space to walk between any of them. The girls "room" has the bunk beds (2 single), and a desk, with no space to walk. Then of course the bathroom. I would definitely not call this a suite. We will probably scout other hotels to see if we can find a bigger suite to allow some space so we don't go insane with absolutely no personal space to be found in this one.

And now, even though the laptop says 1030.. i believe it's nicely past midnight, and it's time to hit the sack.

We get to go to our new house tomorrow (today?), and get the keys!! So another exciting day tomorrow!!

Bye for now! ;)

Exploring the Capital

5 years old, and in awe with all the buildings around her. Asking questions left and right - "what's that building"; "How old is it?"; "Can we go closer?".

3 years old, and while amazed at the buildings, she was more interested in the blocks on the sidewalks.

and finally the youngest of the bunch... alternating between happy in the stroller, and wanting to walk.

All three were amazing. We started from our Hotel, and went down to Wellington, and then to the parliament buildings. We saw the river, we saw the statues. We went to the Rideau center for lunch. We saw the Canal, and the locks in action. We walked back to the hotel via Sparks St. Dani napped the entire length of Sparks, and woke in the lobby of the hotel. The older two got to get a treat in the Quickie in the lobby of the hotel, so now, they are on a sugar rush in the room with still close to 2 hours before supper. Sounds like fun. LOL

Unfortunately the pictures will have to wait. I still have 117 pictures left on my camera to take, but it looks like my battery charger probably got packed with the house stuff rather than the hotel stuff, so until we get to the new house, i have to save my battery power, or I may miss important things. But i will get the best pictures up in relation to our hotel stays as soon as I can.

Our Trip has just began!!

Aug 31st and we are in the hotel. Our whole house is in a truck waiting to start it's voyage across Canada. Our car is on the back of a truck waiting to start it's voyage. Steph is finishing his work, and celebrating his leave with a nice lunch with coworkers. Kat and Ellie are having a blast in the hotel's kids' suite. Dani is having fun colouring (hopefully more on the paper than the floor). And I'm creating a new blog for all of you to join us on our adventure across Canada.

We are staying at the Albert at Bay hotel in downtown Ottawa. The suite is HUGE! 2 bedrooms, 3 beds, 2 bathrooms, livingroom, dining area, full kitchen, balcony. Beautiful. Plenty of room for 5 people to live without getting annoyed at each other constantly.

We are going to be enjoying an order in dinner tonight and then watching a movie together - 5 people on a double bed - should be fun. And tomorrow we are taking the girls to enjoy the sights and sounds of downtown Ottawa - Parliament, the canal, etc. And if all goes well, supper out, and then come back to the hotel to watch all three girls crash from the busy day.