Hello from Ottawa

Just a quick note to let you all know that we are having a great time on our vacation so far. Deciding to drive was the best thing we could have done. It feels like we have already had a little vacation already and we still have 2 days to go before we get to Halifax. Currently we are at Rob's Aunt and Uncle's house, and it's been a little mini family reunion for him. We have lots of pictures to upload, when we are not so tired. We have been averaging 8-9 hours per day in the truck and will be in Halifax by Monday. Tomorrow we drive to Edmunston, NB and from there straight through to Halifax, with maybe a lunch break in Amherst (cough cough Kelly) hehe. Will upload pics as soon as we get to Halifax!

Vacation Eve

Tomorrow we leave. Suitcases are packed, DS's are charged, books are packed and phone and GPS are charged. Our tentative plan is: TUESDAY: Drive to Prince Albert and spend the night (Rob works until lunch time) (approximately 4 hours) WEDNESDAY: Drive to Winnipeg, Manitoba. (About 8 hours). THURSDAY: Drive to Nipocin Ontario (About 7 hours). FRIDAY: Drive to Sioux St. Marie Ontario (About 10 hours) SATURDAY: Drive to Ottawa, Ontario (About 10 hours). SUNDAY: Drive to Saint John, New Brunswick (About 10 hours). MONDAY: Drive to Halifax, Nova Scotia (About 4 hours). Hopefully I'll be able to update along the way! If not, I'll see ya when we're on the other side of the country!

Vacation eve eve

We are down to the final few days before we head out on the road. I'm getting super excited for the trip. Bags are almost packed, and we had friends over tonight for "let's cook up and eat all the food in my house" supper. I'm not sure if I will get another post in before we leave, so I thought I'd share a few pictures I have taken of the kids over the past couple of days to hold you over (AUNT ROSEMARY) until I get back online. :)

We bought a trampoline from a family who was transferred to another community and didn't want to take this with them. It is jointly owned between us and our neighbours (they will be buying the enclosure for it. The boys LOVE it, and you can see all the pictures HERE

My little rockstar. As you can see, he still loves this movie (Music and Lyrics). He now loves to sing along with his microphone. You can see the rest of those pictures HERE

United Breaks Guitars by Joey

Proud Mommy Moment

As most of you know, Joey is now fully toilet trained. No more diapers, just pull ups at night. We just got back from a drive down to the store with friends of ours, and I swear I can still hear my friend laughing.

Joey: (in a sing song voice) "My birdie, my birdie"

Me: (to my friend Charlene sitting beside me) "Listen, Joey is singing about his birdie"

At this point my friend looks over her shoulder at Joey and starts laughing hysterically. When she is able to catch her breath (I'm talking tears down the face laughing here folks) she says

"He's not singing about his birdie, he's singing TO his birdie".

My wonderful, adorable little man had his birdie OUT of his pants and was singing to it. Oh the joys of having boys.

Did you really think I wouldn't?

Breakthrough!!!!

As you all know, I have been trying unsuccessfully for months to toilet train Joey. We have tried EVERYTHING to get this little boy to pee on the potty. My goal was to have him trained before we go on vacation, but as of today that was feeling like a pipe dream. We stayed in the house all day, and no freakin' way would this little boy pee. He has the strongest pelvic floor muscles ever! After a day of frusteration and a few tears from each of us, Daddy decided to take one final different approach with him. He stood him up in front of the toilet, and when I saw this I handed him a handful of fruit loops, for "aim". Joe didn't quite get it at first, so Daddy being the great guy that he is demonstrated the fine art of "sinking the fruit loop". I had to run out shortly after that, and when I got back Joey was at the door, just bursting to tell me that he peed on the fruit loops. 20 minutes later, he told me he had to pee on the fruit loop again and off we went! I was so happy I cried!

As speaking of vacation, we are now down to single digits. We leave in 8 more sleeps. For those who don't know, we are driving back to Halifax. We expect that it will take us 5 days. I am stocking up on movies and plug-n-play video games, and I borrowed the first Harry Potter from a friend of mine to read to Colby and Joey on the way there. Colby has seen the movies but has never read the books. I have been trying in vain to convince him that the books are better than the movies because more happens in the books, and I told him that I would prove it to him on the way to Halifax. I'm hoping that it sparks an interest in him so that he will want to read the rest of the books, which I plan on getting when I'm back in Halifax. I can't wait to leave, and I'm just as excited for the actual drive there as I am for getting to Halifax itself. It will be the first time that I can remember that we will get 5 days of uninterrupted Mommy-Daddy-Colby-Joey time. Did I mention it's only 8 more sleeps?

Your daily dose of Joey cuteness

Swimming Lessons

They have been offering free swimming lessons to the kids here in town, offered by local teenagers who are trained as lifeguards. To say they have been amazing is an understatement. To see Colby floating on his back today is a HUGE accomplishement for him, even with the life jacket. You can see the rest of the pictures HERE

My morning cup of coffee

While reading Faceb00k yesterday I noticed Clare's status said something about drinking coffee, and I joked to him that he needed to email me a cup. You can imagine my surprise when I opened my email this morning and received this. You rock Clare!

I've received a complaint

My joke about this is: "This is how the white man makes it rain. He builds a shed." It has rained very day without fail that he works on it, including tonight.

We were playing around this evening and Joey fell while getting in. Of course, like the thoughtful mother I am, I stayed where I was and kept taking pictures. I'm just like that.

Joey and his boots.

Colby is now in swimming lessons here in town.

So, as the title states, I have received a complaint about the blog. It seems that a certain someone is not happy that I'm just putting pictures on the blog, I need to be writing more. So here ya are honey, I'm writing.

Funny story for all you, thanks to my wonderful husband. I had asked Rob to change the month on the calendar because it is now in a spot that I can't reach. I asked him a couple of times, and I'm sure he "forgot". ahem. Anyways, I asked him again tonight to please change the calendar for me, and then went on doing what I was doing. I saw him out of the corner of my eye reach over the deep freeze where the calendar is now, so I assumed he was changing it and didn't give it another thought. Shortly after that he went outside to do his "white man rain dance (see above picture)" and I happened to glance at the calendar. After shaking my head, I leaned out the window where Rob was "dancing" and said "YOU'RE AN ASS". For 2 seconds he had a blank look on his face until he remembered what he had done, and then broke out into laughter. This is what I saw:

United Breaks Guitars

The ultimate revenge! For anyone who doesn't recognize him, this is one of the brothers from the East Coast group, The Sons of Maxwell.

For Chris

These are the only two that I could find. If you tell me what it is you have in mind I could shoot some new ones and send them to you. Let me know. Hope this helps.

Confirmation and communion

A small sample of what I have been working on. I'm now just waiting to receive these back from being printed. The bottom one is being printed in the July addition of the Catholic Diacese Saskatchewan newletter. :)

Admission

Hi. My name is Tina and I am now addicted to Photoshop. And I can hear you laughing Jen, Kennie, Sasha and Rob, don't think I can't. :)

Artsy Fartsy

A few of my favorites

As most of you know, I was asked to do pictures last week for the high school graduation. I started very early (9AM) and took pictures right up until 5 that evening. I had a blast, and everyone was really fun to work with. These are a few of my favorites.

Canada Day!

Every year the kids have a bike parade. The route is just over 1K and Joey biked the entire thing!

A rare peek behind the camera, showing off our tattoos.

The pelicans were EVERYWHERE! There was a fishing derby and the birds were going FOOLISH over the fish. It was a catch and release derby, which actually ended up being a catch and watch the pelicans fight over the fish derby. And yes, I know it looks like Joey is flipping me off, he was scratching his nose!

Storm season is here!

As much as I miss the East Coast at times, you just can't get pictures like this out there!