Tree Removal

This tree was in our back yard and over half of it was dead, so we decided to remove it. it will open up the yard a lot when it is all done.


Jay is lucky and is able to bring home equipment from work to help with jobs like this. this machine really old and not in the best shape, but it got the job done

now we need to level it and seed it to grass. it should look good when it is done.

Ember's Birthday

I can't believe my little girl is now 9 years old. This year her birthday party theme was a game board party. she invited all of the girls in her class, a total of 11 girls plus Ember. then the grade three girls stayed for a sleep over ( 4 plus Ember). it was a lot of fun but really really loud.
we got Ember a DS lite and a game, and she got a lot o money so she will probably by another game and accesories for it. She also got some webkinz, and board games.

her birthday cake is a checker board, to go along with her theme of board games.

dance video's

these are video's taken at the kids dance recital in April. Ember took hip hop, jazz, tap and did a duet this year (4 video's). Zander took tap (i video). They did a lot of practicing, and put a lot of work learning the dances. I hope you enjoy seeing the video's.

Ember's hip hop - "get your head in the game" they won first at the dance competition.

Ember's duet - " Jail house rock" - they won second at the competition

Ember's Jazz - "Girls just want to have fun" they won first at the competition

Ember's Tap - " Crazy little thing"

Zander's tap - "Splish Splash"

4- H

Sunday was achievement day for 4-H. for those who don't know that is the day that the kids take their record books and projects they have made to be judged. Ember got first place ribbons for her record book and christmas ormament. I was a craft leader this year, it was a learning experince to say the least. I had 14 girls some where in grade 2 and others that were in grade 7. It was hard to try and find stuff that everyone would want to do, and would be capable of doing. We made a total of 11 crafts over six months.

Ember's new hair cut

Ember has wanted a hair cut for awhile, but I told her that she had to wait until after dance was done. I had to put her hair in a high pony tail with ringletts for dance and if she got it cut short, I wasn't sure how to accomplish that. these are her before pics

and these are the after pics

She looks so cute.

My dad's birthday

It was my dad's birthday on Thurday he turned 89. the kids and I went down for supper and cake. it was a nice visit but short, we were only there for a couple of hours.


dad is looking at the scrapbook Val made for him with all of his army pics in it. she did a really good job.

Zane didn't want to get his picture taken with the other kids so I got one of him and Grandpa when he wasn't really paying attention.

A rat named Scooby

Zane really wanted his own pet rat, so we went and let him pick out his own little buddy. Ember thought it would be fun to have all the rats name start with the letter ' s' . The only name that zane liked that started with the letter 'S' was scooby. I think he watches to much scooby doo.

air band video's

Jason was in airbands yearly this year. I finally had a bit of time to figure out how to crop his parts out of the video of the whole evening. here are a few of the performances he was in.

scooby doo song

Zane's Room

Zane loves scooby doo and has for a while now. Before he could say scooby do he use to call him Doo Ya Ya. We let the kids pick the color of the walls for their rooms and Zane's favorite color is orange, it is not my favorite but it makes him happy. He has the room to himself, but he wanted a bed like Ember so we put the bunkbed in his room. He thinks his bed is really cool.

Ember's Room

When we first moved in the basement was all open and had a bar area. we took out the bar area and made into a bedroom. once we had the bedroom finished, Ember thought she wanted to move her room into the basement, that is what brought on all the switching of rooms. Her new room is smaller than her old room, so be got her a loft bed so she would have more floor space. We were worried how everything would fit, but it turned out ok. She tie dyed her own curtain over the easter break.

Shadow & Sparkle

for those of you who don't know, we got rid of our cats and let the kids get some hamsters. Ember had a run of bad luck with her hamsters. the first one she got was really mean, so we took it back and got a different one. The second hamster had a accident when one of Ember's friends were over here playing and he did not survive. we got her a third hamster which ended up dying too. She then decided she didn't want to have another hamster so she got a little mouse, it ended up dying as well. Zander got a hamster at the same time Ember got her's and it lived until about the time Ember's mouse died.

The kids thought instead of getting another hamster or mouse that they wanted to get pet rats. I did some research and found out they are alot better pet for kids then hamsters or mice. They don't bite, they are social animals so they want to be around people, they get attached to people. They are also very smart so you can teach them to come when you call them as well as other tricks.

We went into town yesterday and picked up two female rats. They are just babies, and they were still with thier mom when we picked them out. They kids really like them. The rats are still a little scared about the new surroundings but hopefully in a few days they will start to relax a bit. the kids are really excited about teaching them tricks once they get use their new home.

this one is sparkle Ember's rat

Zane likes the rats but he needs to learn to settle down a bit, the rats get scared because he bounces around alot and is very loud.

This one is Shadow Zander's rat. Zander does really well with Shadow, and wants to hold him alot. Zander was scared to pick up his hamster and didn't want much to do with it, he thinks the rat is alot cooler then the hamster.

Crazy Driver

Easter

We died eater eggs on Saturday. The easter bunny hid all the eggs inside the house, it was too muddy for the easter bunny to go outside this year. It didn't take the kids long to find the eggs but they had fun. The easter bunny will have to hide them harder next year lol. That was our easter, everyone was too sick to got anywhere.