Don Burnstick (Native Comedian)

A true sign that I live in the North.. I not only understood all his jokes I found them freakin' hilarious! The ladies I work with showed me this at work and I HAD to put it on here!

Artsy fartsy and jumping monkey

I am totally in love with this boat. It's hand crafted by a man here in town, and I'm hoping me will build me a child size one for pictures! (yes, I've asked)

Couldn't you just eat this face?

I'm not sure when he grew up. As always, the rest of the pictures of him jumping are HERE

Spring Carnival

More pictures HERE of the spring carnival and HERE of the boys

Just had to shake my head and laugh

Alright, I admit I'm not the best at housecleaning, and I *HATE* dusting. But when I found this little note this morning written on a shelf of the TV stand, I guess I need to dust a little more.

I received the greatest little note from Jen one day last week with this little hat and gloves set in it. I love it and had to put it on my camera bag for where everyone would see it! Thanks Jen, you ROCK!

I had to post this. I requested a copy of my high school transcripts because I needed them for work. Check out the address. I just need to call them and find out when Saskatchewan was downgraded from a province to a city in Alberta!

Happy Birthday Aunt Kelly

Happy birthday! We miss you lots! Love all of us.

He's growing way to fast!

Friends of ours brought over this little quad tonight for Colby to try. As you can see, he loves it.

The good ole days

My grandfather's grandmother, Grandmother Lamb.

My grandfather's family. He is the one in the front in the dark.

My grandfather and his sister.

My aunt received these pictures from her aunt, who coincidently is the lady pictured above. My cousin Kellie posted them to Facebook so we could all see them. The picture above had a huge wrinkle across the picture, and with my newly found photoshop skills I was able to clean it up to this point. Unfortunately I couldn't get the wrinkle out of her face with all the shadows, but not a bad job if I do say so myself! I plan on printing these and adding them to the scrapbook I have started for the boys.

Taken today

Joey's early birthday present.

Look at that serious face!

I love this picture of Colby's face, even if it is of him holding a dart gun to my head.

When did my kid grow up, and how come he is tanning already?!?!

Conversation heard in the truck

We're on the road for a mini overnighter in the big city, getting full on McDonald's and Tim Hortons. But more about that later. On the way here in the truck, there was an unmistakable odor in the car. This is the conversation that happened:

Rob: "Joey, did you poop?"

Joey: "No Daddy, Joey farted".

Rob: "Oh, OK then".

When did my baby learn the word fart??? I'm sure I have his big brother to blame for this. I heard Colby in the backseat today teaching Joey new words. Such fun days we have ahead!

And if that wasn't enough, I am also guilty of teaching Joey a new word. Anyone who knew my dad knew that the first word he ever taught any child is "bullshit", as this was one of my first words taught to me by my grandfather. And let's face it, it's funny from a 2 year old. Joey has now turned the word into a song, which i'm hoping to get on video. He graced the people in the lobby of the hotel we're staying in with a very loud rendition of the "Bullshit" song, which of course only has one word, and is sung VERY loudly. All I could do was laugh and pretend he wasn't mine.

Bows and guns

Drake using Colby's bow. Now he wants one of his own.

He had to shoot it. Many many times. Now he wants one. (It's a bee-bee gun)

Finding out how it works.

Drake showing him how to aim.

Drake lives across the street from us and is the son of our good friends. He brought over his bee-bee gun to show Colby, and that progressed into bringing out the bow. They are both hooked!

Easter 2009

Easter in the Schwartz house this year was one of the best yet. The Easter Bunny bought Colby a bike, and it was completely unexpected. He hadn't even asked for one, but he has outgrown his one from last year. Joey was completely wrapped up the Easter Egg Hunt, and loved the race track mat he received to drive his cars on. We had a great dinner with friends across the street, and introduced them to a traditional Jiggs Dinner. For the rest of the Easter pics, you can see them all HERE

As a matter of fact I DO know the Easter Bunny!

And I have the picture to prove it!

Taken today

"Cross At Your Own Risk" and pinned to it "Road Closed"

Obviously the same sign is not on the other side. Wonder how he's going to get home?!

I had to stop everything and post this

Rob and I are spending the day home with the boys. It's a beautiful day here and since no one has to work, we have been looking forward to this "family day". Rob and I decided that we would do a quick little "flight of the bumblebee" houseclean today, which included putting away clothes in our room. Last week, we got a new bed. It's a wonderful, comfortable bed that is on a platform. This beautiful platform bed has very large and very sharp corners, which we are both getting used to walking around. We both have many bruises on our shins from cutting the corner too close and hitting it.

Which brings me to today. Joey has become quite the little parrott, and his words are becoming very clear. After hitting the corner for the 2nd time in less than 10 minutes, my wonderful hubby yelled:

"Oh F*CK"

And right one que from the bed we heard perfectly clear:

"Oh f*ck"

Of course, we tried to pretend we didn't hear, but I could see Rob's shoulders shaking in laughter. Well, I could sort of see through the tears of laughter. I can't believe we're at this stage already!

I just don't get it

I wouldn't normally do this, but I need to vent and I can't do it here. I am in such an emotional turmoil right now, and there's not a damn thing I can do about it. As you all know, I work at an Aboriginal Headstart preschool here in town. You see a lot of things when you work in a preschool, and unfortunately not a lot of them good. It's very easy to tell when a child is having issues at home by the way they act with us and the other kids. There is one little kid in particular this morning that just broke me. He's normally a very easy going kid, but lately he has really been acting out. I know his family story, and like a lot of kids up here it's not a good one. I have seen him first hand with his step-mother, and he cringes everytime she raises her voice (which is a lot). He really is a little boy just starved for love, and it's becoming more and more obvious watching him at work. This morning he was just miserable, he refused to play or participate in anything we were doing. So, me being me, I went and sat down with him and tried to coax him into playing. He was just so sad, and there's nothing worse than a little boy with big brown eyes crying big fat tears. I tried everything I could think of, and I couldn't even get a response. He was just so sad, and wouldn't even look up to make eye contact. So, I said to him

"I just remembered something. I didn't get a chance to give my little boy a hug today so I have an extra one here. Can I give it to you?"

Next thing I know, he smiled for the first time, nodded and gave me a HUGE hug. It was all I could do not to cry. He sat in my lap for the longest time, and kept saying "Can I give you another one?". I think by the end of the morning I had at least 10 hugs, and he spent a good bit of time either holding my hand or in my lap. As the morning was ending and we were getting them ready to go home, he got upset again and didn't want to go. I told him that it was time to go, but he could come back tomorrow and I would have more hugs for him.

Seriously, I don't get it. As horrible as it is, I think it would be almost better if she beat him, because at least then we would have proof and could have him removed. But as it is, he's clean, he's fed and he has a place to sleep. Unfortunately that's the story of a lot of kids, and not just here either. But it's still hard for me not to tuck him in my pocket and take him home. My hats off to all you who do this for a living. I just don't know if I could and not punch parents as soon as I see them.

The best 20.00 he's ever spent

When Rob was away in Winnipeg for his manager's conference, he bought 20.00 worth of tickets. The money was all for charity and the prizes were a Wii, a PS3 and an XBox with a large assortment of accessories. Rob found out before he left that he won the PS3 package, but did not know what was all included. We were all super excited when all this arrived in the mail today!

Mail call!

The boys received this package in the mail yesterday and were so excited to open it. Thanks Gramma Jeannine!

Playing around

Spring has arrived in Ile a la Crosse, and with it lots of mud and puddles. We bought new rubber boots for the boys and of course when Joey saw them he had to try them out. It wouldn't be me if I didn't follow them out with the camera! Seriously, when did my children grow up?