tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34902291623219914972012-01-20T21:13:07.720-05:00"Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always." Ps 105:4Stephaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02189388937317702709noreply@blogger.comBlogger3721100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-83086445959217629112012-01-20T10:33:00.000-05:002012-01-20T21:13:07.738-05:00

January 7, 2012

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-80111480366324089722012-01-20T09:05:00.000-05:002012-01-20T09:05:00.059-05:00

This one is the new favourite around here.  The tutorial is here.   You can see here where I tucked in the remainder of the braid.  I would have put a flower over that part, except I needed to put it on the other side to hide the fact that I got a bit thin on that side and that the braid went too high … it should have stayed closer to her ear before it came back around the head. And that ends

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-79789320950916771512012-01-19T11:03:00.000-05:002012-01-19T11:03:00.942-05:00

This is a hairstyle I used to do more often when the girls were younger.  Not sure why, but it sort of got forgotten in recent years, until Marietta asked me to do it last week.  No link to a tutorial for this one, but it is a pretty simple hairstyle where you start with a section like you do when doing a french braid, then begin to twist it and as you twist it you bring in pieces from below to

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-42790093392377258292012-01-18T11:28:00.001-05:002012-01-19T10:36:17.120-05:00

We had a gift exchange afternoon with my family on January 7th where Grandpa and Grandma spoil the grandkis.  It worked out nice that it was at the end of the holidays since this gave Matthew some new things to do as the kids returned to school and he was left at home by himself again … and he was definitely spoiled and had lots to play with. We usually open presents in order of age, starting

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-76991358518433843862012-01-18T09:19:00.000-05:002012-01-18T09:19:00.277-05:00

This idea came off of this video (at the end).  I liked how it looked, but when I did it myself I ended up putting too many elastics in and using too small pieces of hair (similar to what I’m used to when doing elastics), so it didn’t look much different then when I put the girls entire head in elastics (see here).  I should have used bigger sections and maybe even twisted the sections so that

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-22950618936092250772012-01-17T17:20:00.001-05:002012-01-17T17:20:46.477-05:00

The holidays went by quickly as they usually do.  They were the right mix of busyness and rest and relaxation.  We enjoyed lots of sleeping in as well as enough mornings of getting up and out the door on time.  There was plenty happening the first week with Christmas and Boxing Day and the annual croquette making day, then a trip off to Chatham for a night, some quick visiting and partying before

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-13909552384514766382012-01-17T09:32:00.000-05:002012-01-17T16:00:42.671-05:00

Rebecca went with the five braid concept as well, but since her hair is too short we had to do three braids.  I have often found the three braids gives a nice look to the face, as well they seem to stay in a bit better, probably just because smaller and tighter in size. Same idea … just only on the front. We put some rollers in the back to give a bit of a fancier look to the back … we had

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-15283457207245512302012-01-16T09:27:00.000-05:002012-01-16T09:27:00.382-05:00

This is actually nothing new around here.  I have done this many times on the girls, often putting rollers in the hair to give a nice curly crown at the top of their heads.  You can see previous post where the girls are wearing this style here …. and now it’s been included in the hair posts. No tutorial for this one as this is one I have done on my own for years.  The upsidedown braid means being

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-35081792316509823412012-01-14T22:39:00.001-05:002012-01-14T22:39:31.725-05:00

We are so tired of dealing with this This would be a perfect winter to live in the city … where you can enjoy the mild weather without all the mud that comes with it.  During our years in the city we had lots of snow each year, great weather for country living when the sledding and skating is in the backyard.  Now that we live in the country … hardly any snow.  This year has been the worst so

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-39412351734655495422012-01-14T09:09:00.000-05:002012-01-14T09:09:00.300-05:00

Still on the waterfall theme. This hair-do did not turn out as I had hoped, but I think it’s just because I need to practice it again and work out a few mistakes.  Next time I would work across her head from ear to ear instead of on an angle like the video showed. I seen the idea on this video, but as you can see my braid is much thicker at the bottom then what shows in the video. This

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-17600172379777346452012-01-13T09:13:00.000-05:002012-01-13T09:13:00.163-05:00

If you have the waterfall braid figured out then this is a pretty easy braid to do also, you can find a tutorial here.  If time allows you could carry on and do a triple braid.   The fancier look … we put roller in the dropped sections overnight.  

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-59580424651763465322012-01-12T09:08:00.000-05:002012-01-12T09:08:00.969-05:00

The waterfall braid is actually considered a relatively common braid, although I can’t say that I’ve ever really seen it before.  In this braid you drop a strand as you go and pick up new hair to keep the braid going.  It creates a rather elegant look to the normal braid and you can do a wide variety of different things with it, whether it’s double braids or weaves or such. You can type waterfall

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-60183739129357754362012-01-11T09:08:00.000-05:002012-01-11T09:08:00.823-05:00

I’m not the greatest at these twisty things, but we did manage to do this one a few times.  One of those things that I just have to try more often so I can get the hang of it and make smoother twists.        Click here for tutorial

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-9923116729027395822012-01-10T09:07:00.000-05:002012-01-10T09:07:00.058-05:00

Rebecca had short hair for about half and year and then was ready to start growing it out again with the intent of donating it again.  Since Rebecca has thick hair that easily knots long hair can be a fair amount of work … and now that she’s nine she’s going to have to learn to care for it herself a bit more.   At the same time when her hair is done it is very nice hair with a nice thickness

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-69257380066307187592012-01-09T08:53:00.000-05:002012-01-09T08:53:00.453-05:00

Okay, so I figured I’d do another hair series since I have a few new ones that we’ve tried.  We sort of stick to the ones we like now, but every now and then decide to try something new again.  There are lots of neat ideas out there, but not all of them ones that the girls would actually want to wear, they’ll just look at them and say “that’s neat, but not for me”.  This one has become a new

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-31005630463326765802011-12-30T20:28:00.001-05:002011-12-30T20:28:05.960-05:00

We spent Christmas Day with my family and Boxing Day with Rob’s family.  I didn’t take any pictures on Christmas but did remember on Boxing Day.    It is a tradition to get together in London with Rob’s family on Boxing Day, although the date has been a bit flexible, it’s usually on Boxing Day or close to it.  For the past two years we met at the school but now that London has a new, larger,

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-63542791583218980582011-12-28T20:56:00.001-05:002011-12-28T20:56:49.475-05:00

Okay, this wasn’t really planned for my birthday … it was just the date that worked, but the kids see it as something we did for my birthday, so we’ll go with that :) The girls had their last day of school for the year 2011 on the 23rd.  It was only a half day and they were home shortly after noon hour, at which time they showered mom with presents before we headed out the door off to Hamilton. 

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-47749143264420567842011-12-27T17:23:00.001-05:002011-12-27T17:23:00.634-05:00

Since it is the tradition at this time of year to send out updated family pictures I figured I would share our updated pictures as well … which should eventually end up along the side of the blog with the other years of pictures.          Soooooo …. that’s the family pictures for the year 2011

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-49090989190243269942011-12-25T00:05:00.000-05:002011-12-25T00:05:01.289-05:00

“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”  Matthew 1: 22, 23 What a blessing that God sent His Son to this world for us. May your celebration reflect the true meaning of Christmas, as you gather together with family and/or friend may you have a

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-29334306627232065812011-12-23T08:29:00.000-05:002011-12-23T08:29:00.162-05:00

In the past I have spoken a bit about Fructose Malabsorption on this blog (see here for previous posts).  I haven’t talked about it for a couple years, but this does not mean that we have not still been dealing with this issue.   We have actually been dealing with it much more in the past couple years as it has made a major change in our way of eating. With four of us in the house having FM it’s

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-593946475388072962011-12-22T09:28:00.000-05:002011-12-22T09:28:00.521-05:00

Can you believe that I can actually say I am caught up … wow … has this ever happened before?  Take note as I’m sure it won’t happen again for a loooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggg time. I’m telling myself that now I have to stay on top of it and not get so far behind, but since I don’t blog regularly but only from time to time … time to time turns into a long time to a long time.  We’ll

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-45705922609616154492011-12-22T08:23:00.000-05:002011-12-22T08:23:00.134-05:00

The school had their Christmas program a week early this year.  I’m not sure why, but seeing as the kids go to school right until the 23rd this year (as far as my memory serves that has never happened before … my birthday has always been during the holidays) it’s nice that the program is out of the way and we can dive right into holidays at the end of this week.  Both Marietta and Rebecca love

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-89902041387387873622011-12-21T12:02:00.001-05:002011-12-21T12:02:06.331-05:00

To follow are the pictures that Marietta had taken and been working on in Photoshop and which I enlarged and had framed for her.    

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-6276202197904319412011-12-21T07:50:00.001-05:002011-12-21T07:50:13.522-05:00

Santa arrived at the beginning of December this year.  On December 2nd we had our annual family gift exchange.  The girls are each given $20 to help cover the cost of their purchases.  Last year we set a limit of $5 per person and we supplied the money for them to buy their gifts.  This year we supplied them with $5 per person and the limit was set for $10 per person, anything over $5 they had to

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-63647490642497250802011-12-20T20:31:00.001-05:002011-12-21T07:44:19.411-05:00

Rebecca has been on a couple class trips this year.  I went with her for one of those trips, to Guido de Bres, the Theological Seminary and the Beacon, which was similar to a trip I took with Marietta two years ago when we just moved here (see here).  Since I went with Marietta it was just expected that I would go with Rebecca also.  Rebecca had been looking forward to this trip since Marietta

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-26934714311080977412011-12-03T11:51:00.001-05:002011-12-03T11:51:50.372-05:00

During the spring and summer the girls worked on putting together a pioneer fort.  You can see a picture of this fort on this blog post.   They had built the fort in the barn loft and had spent a fair amount of time up there.  Unfortunately in the spring when we had our major wind storm (see here) it did damage to the barn, shifting the roof of the barn.  This was not realized until sometime

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-48898851933095951132011-12-02T08:16:00.001-05:002011-12-02T08:16:22.151-05:00

**photos by Marietta               Ah … it’s great living in the country, it truly seems like we feel and see the beauty of God’s creation so much more here.  We are able to enjoy the beautiful sunrises and sunsets and hear the sounds of nature, we see the crops grow and mature and listen and see the wild life.    And to think that we aren’t even living that far out … with houses around

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-12964004404866074772011-12-01T08:20:00.001-05:002011-12-01T08:20:53.990-05:00

As far as I know that’s what it’s called, at least that’s what the kids call it … but in our schools case (and several other schools) there are not enough students in Grade 7/8 to put together a team.  The boys in Grade 7/8 had enough students, but there were not enough girls and so the Grade 6 girls were also able to play. Usually the tournament is on a Saturday, but the field was not available

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-13381569211245394732011-11-26T15:09:00.001-05:002011-11-26T15:10:54.051-05:00

After a cold, wet and very busy September we were pleasantly surprised to have a delightfully beautiful, warm thanksgiving weekend.  So warm that we actually had our thanksgiving supper outside … it was simply beautiful. On Sunday after an early supper we headed down to the school to check out the trail on the school property.  The kids often run the trail for gym or go for walks to study

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-81607658815038118532011-11-24T17:32:00.001-05:002011-11-24T17:32:53.095-05:00

September 6th arrived and it was the first day of school for the girls.  Marietta headed off to Grade 6 and Rebecca to Grade 4.  And Matthew was left at home for another year.  While the girls headed out the door to the bus Matthew prepped for a day at the hospital to have his hernia’s repaired. We had not talked much about the procedure.  He had been put on the surgery waiting list in February

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-71575393964465378402011-11-23T16:55:00.001-05:002011-11-23T16:55:37.139-05:00

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!www.onetruemedia.com

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-19702652283199069422011-11-22T20:07:00.001-05:002011-11-22T20:07:48.151-05:00

At the end of each school year the girls usually receive a small gift and we go out for ice cream.  This year my small gift turned out to be a rather large gift, since I did not do my research beforehand to find out the cost of the project … a sure sign that I am not a sewer!! The girls have been learning some basic sewing from their Aunt Jess and since they love acting as pioneers and were busy

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-78502628119202417072011-11-21T22:27:00.001-05:002011-11-21T22:27:09.395-05:00

On Saturday night we had a storm roll through and Sunday was a cool and windy day.  We could hear the waves crashing onto the shore from our campsite in the morning, but did not have time to go down to the beach and have a peak, so we promised the kids we would do it after the second service.  Our kids have never actually seen the waters wavy.  Their idea of waves are my idea of calm if I recall

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-36785569200467363142011-11-21T21:45:00.001-05:002011-11-21T21:45:39.013-05:00

Another long weekend … the one that signified the end of the summer holidays and the beginning of another school year.  It’s one of those happy/sad weekends. We survived the July long weekend with almost no rain, but we went into this long weekend excepting rain and unfortunately we did receive it too.  We hum-hawed on Saturday whether to pack up before the rain and call it a weekend or weather

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-2316993516738467322011-11-17T09:22:00.001-05:002011-11-17T09:22:47.793-05:00

This summer the girls each took part in Summer Soccer again.  This is a program run by volunteers for the students of our school.  We pay $4 per student to play, and this cost is just to cover the cost of the metals and team pictures that are purchased for the players for the end of the year.  This year I happened to be on the organizing committee and we worked to try and set up a program that

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-89914642207690593012011-11-17T09:03:00.001-05:002011-11-17T09:08:05.172-05:00

Marietta’s birthday was on July 14th, when we were on holidays.  She had hoped to have a birthday sleepover/campover, but her friends seemed to be on holidays each time she hoped to have it.  So after some time she sort of gave up and decided she’d settle on going out for supper with the family instead.  I could see her disappointment, as well as her willingness to settle for the next best … so

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-91945515106593207772011-11-01T08:24:00.001-04:002011-11-01T08:24:33.538-04:00

Day 9 was a Wednesday and Wednesdays it’s a dollar to play mini putt.  So after lunch we headed to town to go to the dollarstore and get some things for Jada to take home on her long bus ride the next day, then off to the dentist with Matthew.  Once that was out of the way we ate our picnic supper and went to play mini golf. After our road of mini-golf the kids played on the teeter-tooters

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-15836115593727261422011-10-31T20:07:00.001-04:002011-10-31T20:07:56.647-04:00

Day 8 of Jada’s stay was a “Hamilton Day” as they are called in our house.  Hamilton Days involved going to appointments (in this case chiro and dentist) and running errands (Wal-Mart, groceries, bank, etc).  Hamilton Days usually are done while Rob is in school … drop him off at school, run errands, pick him up when he’s done and return home.  On this particular day we skipped the errands part

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-60604839735410002292011-10-27T14:57:00.000-04:002011-10-27T14:57:00.214-04:00

Day 5 was a Saturday and that meant house cleaning.  After a late start to the day we tidied up the house and gave it a good cleaning.  The kids spent some time playing and reading also and then after lunch they decided they wanted to go play in the muddle puddle again.  I will say I did not expect them to get quite so seriously dirty, but even so, I did expect a mess.  I had a flashback of our

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-20661431616880575342011-10-27T10:04:00.000-04:002011-10-27T10:04:00.094-04:00

Day 4 was a Friday and we decided to go off to Port Dalhouise for our annual trip with Ange and the kids.  I guess this being the third year that we’ve done this that means it’s developed into some sort of tradition.  The girls ask all summer when we’re going ot Port Dalhouise, as if it’s expected.  We don’t mind making a point of going since it is an enjoyable and free (well, if you skip the

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-57559393625170561012011-10-26T21:07:00.001-04:002011-10-26T21:07:51.996-04:00

On day three we had a mellow day at home, but in the late afternoon/evening we went off to enjoy the Fresh Air Fund BBQ where all the local fresh air kids could come and enjoy some swimming, boating, tubing, and fellowship with out fresh air kids that they met on the bus ride up (or sometimes already knew for years from the repeated visits). We discovered Jada likes to sleep in vehicles.  Again

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-16848485798492910842011-10-26T20:09:00.001-04:002011-10-26T20:15:37.894-04:00

This summer we participated in the Fresh Air Fund Program.  This programs provides a free country experience to kids of New York city from disadvantaged communities.  We had  a seven year old girl, Jada, come to stay with us for a week.  She arrived Tuesday, August 9th in the evening and left for home early Thursday, August 18 – giving her seven full days at our home.    The Fresh Air Program

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-88322101544527126102011-10-04T09:10:00.001-04:002011-10-04T09:10:21.720-04:00

On the August long weekend we usually get together with Rob’s family.  We take turns hosting the event and this year it was the Niagara areas turn to host.  After some debate we decided to go with Binbrook Conservation area again, it’s a bit closer for those coming for further and a bit cheaper then some of the other options.  With large families the places that have a cap on the price per

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-22228978465905692622011-10-03T09:23:00.001-04:002011-10-03T09:23:43.645-04:00

On July 25 we celebrated Matthew’s 4th birthday.  I cannot believe that our baby is four years old.  The time really does fly by.  It seems so very long ago that he was a fussy crying newborn baby with his big brother James’ watching out for him.  Moving has really distanced that time as well as it seems like another era in our life … back when we lived in the city. We celebrated Matthew’s

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-79753269533710646862011-09-26T08:34:00.001-04:002011-09-26T19:31:33.026-04:00

Seeing as we had no water at home and the weather was piping hot we didn’t feel all that guilty to be heading off to the beach to cool down and enjoy the water … the work at home would just have to wait another day.  Ange and I headed off to Binbrook for some cool-down time.   Up until the point Matthew did not really swim … he would just play in the water up to about his knees.  As the kids ran

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-71655534917877648922011-09-21T23:38:00.001-04:002011-09-21T23:38:54.418-04:00

Wednesday, July 20 Our last day of holidays had arrived.  It was time to head home, but not without one more stop … Fort Henry in Kingston We were up on time since we had to finish packing up and wanted to be on the road by 7:30am so that we could make it to Kingston by 10am.  True Steph-style, we left later then planned, although not much later.  We arrived at the fort shortly after 10am, partly

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-40856261731226168182011-09-15T22:06:00.001-04:002011-09-15T22:12:08.232-04:00

Tuesday, July 19 On Monday night we review the list of options for the next day, the weather looked more favourable and so Upper Canada Village was chosen as our destination for the day.  We were disappointed when we discovered that there was another historical village not far that was from the 1930’s era, instead of the pioneer age.  We would have really enjoyed this since we had done a Pioneer

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-5499981086184018482011-09-12T09:29:00.000-04:002011-09-12T09:29:00.792-04:00

Monday, July 18 On Monday the weather did not look very promising and so we had to make a decision on what we would do for that day.  Originally we were going to go to Upper Canada Village …. actually originally I believe it was the Science and Technology Museum, but a look at the website and the kids opted for Upper Canada Village instead.  Since I had coupons for the girls to get in free at

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-6818991780408687092011-09-10T10:22:00.000-04:002011-09-10T10:22:00.066-04:00

Sunday, July 17 Did I mention the word hot yet??  Sunday was another hot one and the church was not air conditioned, the morning was hot enough but we got smart and sat a bit closer to the front in the afternoon so that we could feel the fans.  Freezies after the second service were a welcome treat for everyone … adults included!  We enjoyed some nice fellowship with members of the Ottawa church

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-70460392089421769202011-09-09T10:15:00.000-04:002011-09-09T10:15:00.704-04:00

Saturday, July 16 Since it was cheaper to go the the Royal Canadian Mint on Saturday that is where we headed for our fourth day in Ottawa.  We saved a few pennies by going on a cheaper day, but we did not get to see the machines in operation … hence the reason it was cheaper, as they are not actually working on Saturdays.  We could still see the machines and they had some pretty good displays and

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-67578842118802874842011-09-08T20:29:00.000-04:002011-09-08T20:29:00.341-04:00

Friday, July 15 Our third day was at the farm.  We headed off to the Canada Agriculture Museum to see what we could learn about various farm animals and machinery.  Our first stop was in the dairy barn where we could visit the cows and feed them and later learn about how they are milked.  They had demonstrations throughout the day where the kids could learn different aspects of farm life.  Having

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-47736081409184758612011-09-07T22:39:00.001-04:002011-09-07T22:39:27.984-04:00

Thursday, July 14 – 4 pm onward The City of Ottawa is full of museums and has many different attractions.  It is a beautiful city, built to impress with it’s lovely large trees, scenic parkways and many biking trails.  Our one week stay was busy with many different stops, and even so there were still many more we could go to see.  Beyond the museums are also many other attractions, parks, and

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-87763621787812233262011-09-07T09:33:00.001-04:002011-09-07T09:36:57.264-04:00

Thursday, July 14 A reoccurring theme for the week was: it was HOT … the weather that is.  We were in the middle of a heat wave and if you know what Ontario weather is like then you know that HOT weather means heat + humidity = hot and sticky weather that creates tons of sweat, makes you feel exhausted (which can translated into miserable).  For those of you who know me and how well I love heat,

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-69204518160873069362011-09-05T22:01:00.001-04:002011-09-05T22:02:42.982-04:00

Wednesday, July 13 This summer we decided to go to Ottawa for our holidays.  This is a trip we had planned to make at some point during Rob’s school years.  We had told the girls that we would go to the capital before dad finished school in case we ended up moving further away and the opportunity did not arise for them again.  We did have to hum-haw about whether such a trip would be worthwhile

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-78748802250514119502011-08-10T10:54:00.001-04:002011-08-10T10:54:08.559-04:00

Another highlight of our camping trip was tubing.  Cam and Jess came up with their boat and we were able to get out on the water a couple times.  The girls went with Rob on Saturday and then we all went together on Monday before we headed home.  Can you pick out the two who are NOT enjoying the ride? Tubing was not Rebecca or Jess’s thing and so they decided to enjoy the boat ride instead and

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-74553091302403476222011-08-09T22:31:00.001-04:002011-08-10T09:52:36.333-04:00

After three years I finally decided to give camping a try again (our last time was when we went to Pinery’s in 2008).   Camping is not exactly my idea of a holiday.  We have gone at least once a year since we got married up until James became ill and we started spending the summers in the hospital, so we missed out in 2006 and 2007 (although the girls still went with my parents/siblings).  After

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-1634860804966001912011-08-08T09:34:00.000-04:002011-08-08T09:34:00.285-04:00

After I buzzed Matthew’s hair the first time he excitedly went to the mirror and looked at it.  But then disappointedly said “That’s not like Greg’s” Greg had been over for lunch on Sunday and when the conversation of haircuts came up and that Matthew was going to get his buzzed off Greg told Matthew he should get it cut just like his … Greg has his right down to the wood … bald and shiny. 

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-69338362298151077832011-08-06T10:46:00.001-04:002011-08-06T10:46:50.163-04:00

For the past year I’ve been tired of my hair and wanting something new.  I played around with it for a bit, trying to keep it to a type of style where I only had to get it caught every other month … I really didn’t want to have to start going for a haircut every 4 weeks, seems like every 2 months already comes up way too quickly.  But I finally broke down and decided to just go get what I wanted

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-24167668818158965952011-08-06T08:42:00.001-04:002011-08-06T08:42:08.572-04:00

The last day of school arrived.  The kids only had half a day, or less, seeing as part of that half was taken up by the closing assembly.  It is tradition that we go out for ice cream on the last day of school.  Since that evening we were going to be babysitting a few extra rugrats it was decided to go out for lunch and ice cream.  So we headed off to the Grand Island BBQ.  It was a bit cold yet

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-30907794575442498442011-08-04T09:27:00.000-04:002011-08-04T09:27:00.307-04:00

I take turns each year going with the girls for their school trips.  This year it was Rebecca’s turn.  But as Marietta has moved up into the “older grades” that meant that she would be going to a different place on a different day.  Due to bussing they are unable to have the whole school go on the same day.  When the Newsmaker came home saying they still needed parents for the older grades trips

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-55755158036850837502011-08-03T20:57:00.000-04:002011-08-03T20:57:00.533-04:00

As I said … track and field and school trips signal the end of a school year.  This year it was Rebecca’s turn to have her mom go with on her school trip and this years school trip was to Marineland, so I was quite happy about that arrangement.  I was a little kid the last time I went to Marineland … if I’m correct I think the last time would be also on a school trip in elementary school.  While

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-22462035680240119742011-08-03T15:27:00.000-04:002011-08-03T15:27:00.435-04:00

We told the kids that come spring they could get a cat again.  Then we stumbled upon Dash and weren’t sure if the dog and cat mix was going to work seeing as our last cat disappeared as soon as the dog arrived.  But we figured with the dog there first it might go okay.  Now I’m not sure that two cats is better then one, but at least they have each other to keep company with and maybe that way

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-25632093220058860512011-08-02T21:46:00.001-04:002011-08-02T21:46:00.235-04:00

Always a sign that the end of the year is coming when the kids start going on school trips and have track and field.  This year I decided to go in the afternoon to watch for a bit since our bus was not running that afternoon and I thought that would save me a trip.  I found I ended up not seeing much as most of the end of the day was taken up with the Wheel came. Really all I watch was Rebecca

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-24511514563612128632011-08-02T17:50:00.001-04:002011-08-02T17:52:09.409-04:00

Every September Rob enters school with both of our vans tuned up and ready to run for another nine months until he’s done school again.  Each September we take the insurance off the the older vehicle and drive the newer 1995 Pontaic Transport (red)… yup, that means the other vehicle is even more then 16 years old!  By time Christmas break arrives in December the red van is either in need of some

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-75330049263928042522011-07-23T19:40:00.001-04:002011-07-23T19:40:05.818-04:00

I have to interrupt my regular order of posts to show off our lovely new nephew/cousin.  Seeing as I come from a “smaller” (3 siblings) family these blessing don’t come all too often for us.  Matthew is going to have to give up his post as the baby of my family.  The kids are thrilled to have a little nephew to dot on … and so is his aunt.  It’s been awhile since I’ve really been around a baby

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-67201569367321463452011-07-23T16:19:00.001-04:002011-07-23T16:28:30.118-04:00

Thursday, June 9th the girls played in their second piano recital.  After playing for the Tommy Benefit Concert and the Music Festival this was pretty small scale for Marietta.  This was Rebecca’s second time doing any sort of performance, last years recital being her first time.  Both girls did really well, separately and playing their duet.        It is exciting and rewarding to see

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-61381386384801830042011-07-21T09:50:00.001-04:002011-07-21T09:50:46.236-04:00

My next school trip was with Marietta’s class to the Science Center.  This was a longer day as we stayed at the Science Center until 5pm and then went out for supper before heading back, so that we could avoid rush hour traffic. We attended three “shows” during our stay and while at first this seemed a little much, giving no time to actually explore the center, it proved to be a good thing.  The

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-49317372757352771242011-07-21T09:49:00.001-04:002011-07-21T09:49:30.541-04:00

Can’t let a whole month pass without posting something.  So I best get back to it and try catch up again.  I’m really not meant to ever be caught up … and there’s lots to post about, so we’ll see how far I get this time before I get caught up in the busy-ness (how do you spell that word anyways?) of life.  I have a bit of time now … until my computer battery dies anyways …. as we head back from

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-1901812060082576392011-06-23T20:08:00.000-04:002011-06-23T20:08:00.104-04:00

A while ago I posted about Matthew going through a stage where he tried to outgrow his naps (click here), eventually napping won out and he naps most days.  Usually the only time he does not nap is on Sundays and on days when he knows there is something going on after nap time.  We make a point of not mentioning afternoon activities to Matthew as the excitement will prevent him from sleeping …

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-90881936685079778972011-06-23T16:00:00.000-04:002011-06-23T16:04:37.363-04:00

I’m not sure what the kids were thinking when they called me all excited to come see them on one of the first warm days we finally had this spring.    Did they think I was going to be excited and thrilled to see them covered in stinky muddy?!?!?!?!?  Only to be made worse by trying to clean themselves in the stinky rainwater barrel!!!!

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-37263397093406187712011-06-22T15:30:00.000-04:002011-06-22T15:30:04.125-04:00

To celebrate our 12th Wedding Anniversary and the finishing of Rob’s 2nd year at the College we decide to go out for supper at Medieval Times.    This is something we had wanted to try for some time and needed an excuse to do  :)  It was a nice evening out and we had a nice time, although both of us agreed that we were glad we got the tickets for a good price as we would not have felt it

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-67934619593099037572011-06-21T19:24:00.000-04:002011-06-21T19:56:01.829-04:00

Rebecca’s class (Grade 3/4) was studying birds this spring and so as a class trip they went to Rock Point Provincial Park for a day to do some bird watching and to see how they do bird banding.  Bird banding is done in order to monitor migration as well as give an idea of how the birds are doing and whether they are increasing or decreasing in number.  At the Rock Point Bird Banding Station we

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-28398942133806890302011-06-20T13:23:00.001-04:002011-06-23T11:37:36.362-04:00

It’s a bit of an argument around here on buzz cut or non-buzz cut for Matthew.  So I compromise … longer hair during the fall/winter months, buzz cut during the summer months. Isn’t it great to be a boy where it really isn’t a huge deal to grow out your hair!? (within reason Mark :) I was quite ready for the buzz cut …. seeing as I am one of the ones who likes the buzz cut, and also considering

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-24029538038718816532011-06-16T21:17:00.001-04:002011-06-16T21:29:24.263-04:00

I cannot believe that these pictures were taken over a month ago already.  Wow, where does the time go?  Rob is most certainly asking himself that question as he ponders what he’s actually accomplished in the last month. On May 14 Rob wrote his last Year 2 exam and then we could celebrate.  Didn’t matter at that point whether he passed or failed his exams, all that mattered was to celebrate

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-66763744055561697192011-06-11T20:23:00.000-04:002011-06-11T20:23:01.067-04:00

Giant Tiger celebrated it’s 50th Anniversary this year and the local store had the Grades 5-8 classes come to sing It was a bit silly since they had it at around 8:30 am when nobody was out shopping, so the only people there were those singing and their parents … but it made for a photo opportunity for them seeing as it looks like they had so many people there to enjoy the cake and celebration.

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-37842108265117343012011-06-10T22:01:00.001-04:002011-06-23T11:37:06.070-04:00

Matt2 learning to play baseball … (I might add he’s got a pretty good swing too)    Our silly boy!  I think some of the genes from the previous owner of that splash outfit wore off  :)  Matthew loves attention and will gladly put on a show to get it!

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-29913601428710909822011-06-09T00:11:00.001-04:002011-06-23T11:37:20.655-04:00

Remember our dog Muddy?  I posted about him last spring when we got him … see here.   Anyone who’s been around our place in the last year knows how fond I was of Muddy … as a few of my other posts about him gave some indication to here and here.  Muddy tipped the scale when he decided to tear up our pool after Rob had just spent hours trying to clean it and taking it down to store for the winter.

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-12510131664749026112011-06-07T23:20:00.001-04:002011-06-23T11:35:23.112-04:00

So it’s been a long day of wandering around the Science Centre with Marietta on a school trip.  I should be prepping lunches and getting breakfast ready for tomorrow … but right now a cup tea and some blog time sounds more appealing.  If only we had little fairies around here that would do those other things for me. So here comes a mumble, jumble blog of miscellaneous pictures of this and that.

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-74275271336666628482011-06-02T21:36:00.000-04:002011-06-23T11:36:38.877-04:00

The next highlight for the girls was the local Music Festival.   This was the first time the girls had ever played in the Festival, or any sort of competition for that matter.  The interesting part came when Marietta couldn’t decide what her second piece would be.  She had two choices that qualified and we had told her to try play each of them and see which she liked better, but she left it

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-12747254327589895482011-06-01T22:44:00.001-04:002011-06-23T11:36:13.663-04:00

Okay, this is really not what I’m suppose to be doing at this moment, but if I keep waiting for a time where I can sit here and do this without any guilt that there are other things I should be doing … well then I should just pack up the whole blog idea … which at the rate of my posting it’s getting to be that way.  Except I recently discovered such a thing as Windows Live Writer.  How come

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-62943390226990324512011-05-02T21:59:00.001-04:002011-06-23T11:35:47.194-04:00

Sunday came and Rebecca got to enjoy another day of celebration.   Meaghan stayed until after lunch and then Grandpa and Grandma came after second service and the rest of my family after supper.  And what better way to spend your birthday then by going to church … okay, I know, she hasn’t quite gotten to the stage where she thinks that way. A few presents at breakfast … the best being her “new” 

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-55043540621399078762011-05-02T15:10:00.001-04:002011-06-23T11:34:27.099-04:00

With Rebecca's birthday on a Sunday she decided to have a couple friends over on Saturday and then go swimming at Brock University during the afternoon. This was a simple "party" and they had lots of fun. Waiting for her friends to arrive  Birthday cake time: How many boyfriends???    I think she has quite a few :) mmmm …… yummy!!!! Opening her presents: After some play time and lunch

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-74791371277022132682011-05-02T11:13:00.012-04:002011-05-02T12:33:08.142-04:00

Well it's almost been two months since Rebecca's birthday and she still keeps asking me when I'm going to post about it. She let me off the hook for a bit when we were having internet issues, but now that we finally have reliable internet I have no excuse anymore :) If I actually get this posted today then I'll be doing better then last year anyways seeing as I didn't get around to posting about

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-42315962740000434282011-04-28T15:43:00.006-04:002011-11-17T09:06:41.040-05:00

Around 8:30 this morning our hydro went out. Not surprising considering it was pretty windy out. When we kept hearing a knocking sound at the door we decided to look out the window to see what the noise was from and noticed a plastic chair that was on the porch had blown against the door. Shortly afterwards there was a rather loud "knock" at the door and so we looked out the window and the chair

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-20898365779085631572011-04-19T08:22:00.000-04:002011-04-19T08:22:00.417-04:00

Waaaayyyyy back in February we had a long weekend when it was Family Day. Our kids had an extended long weekend as they also had the Friday before off and the Tuesday after Family Day. Ange and I had picked up bowling vouchers off WagJag and so we took the kids out for an afternoon of bowling on Friday. It's the most fun to watch the little kids bowl. Putting all that effort into throwing the

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-75369358412392660432011-04-18T08:02:00.002-04:002011-04-18T08:22:04.009-04:00

Didn't I say I was going to stop my hair series so I could catch up on other things?? Well between computer problems and internet issues the past week blogging just didn't happen. Hopefully we got the computer problems worked out .... a.k.a. ... new computer. Yup, I had to give up on the old one ... disappointed that we had to spend the money, but excited to have a new and up-t0-date machine that

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-55503766210262473972011-04-08T09:57:00.006-04:002011-04-08T10:20:30.212-04:00

Another one of those fun weave ones that I like. This one turned out very nice and stayed in for some time ... I'm afraid Marietta hasn't been as faithful about washing her hair lately. We washed the pig tales a few times but not the weave for fear it would mess up. We probably should have tried to wash the weave to see what would happen, but seeing as it's pretty tight it would be hard to scrub

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-39015297652262395662011-04-07T09:52:00.000-04:002011-04-07T09:52:00.326-04:00

Another pretty simple idea and a change for the typical elastic headband that I usually do. Doing it with wet hair and adding some mousse and/or hairspray to the twists while doing it probably would have given it a cleaner look and reduced the fuzz over the next couple days. The tutorial is here.

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-7459226727737879792011-04-06T09:40:00.001-04:002011-04-06T09:40:00.906-04:00

A quick and easy twist and knot we did one day. I can't remember where we found this idea.

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-86324250336651588752011-04-05T09:29:00.003-04:002011-04-05T21:18:43.407-04:00

Another very fun and neat looking hair-do. This one took a bit more work then yesterdays post, but I think with a few tries it wouldn't take that long either. While doing it I put mousse and hairspray on the strands to keep them a bit slick and less fuzzy. I could have actually done that to the hair underneath before I started the weave. In the end the hairdo had to come out because it was

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-65080314000449756752011-04-04T09:19:00.003-04:002011-04-04T09:28:44.696-04:00

I found this hairstyle on Princess Hairstyles .... our favourite site right now (as far as hair-do's goes :) Actually I originally seen it in a video, but with a bit of luck we managed to find the site and tutorial on it for which I'm very thankful for seeing as it turned out easier then I expected as I would have done it differently. This is one of my favourites. I love the look of it and it

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-66431591905461959782011-04-02T10:06:00.003-04:002011-04-02T10:06:00.794-04:00

I have previously posted when I've done elastics around the girls entire head so that they don't have to do their hair during the summer (see here and here). Marietta was determined at the beginning of the year that she was going to put elastics in her hair at the beginning of each month so she wouldn't have to bother with her hair for a month and then at the end of the month she could take them

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-68088639871042208992011-04-01T09:54:00.004-04:002011-04-01T09:54:00.120-04:00

Hopefully I can find the links back to give credit where credit is due ... I can't always remember where I found the hair style idea. We just take pictures of each one so we can look through our own selection and I don't have to go searching through the internet again. I found the link back for this one. I got it off of this video .

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-23946553339321248452011-03-31T08:47:00.003-04:002011-03-31T08:47:01.045-04:00

I don't have any pictures of the back to show how the braid wraps around her entire head. The curls ended up hiding a good section of the bottom, so it wasn't as visible as I had hoped, once the curls washed out she could just wear it with a messy bun at the top and then the braid was more visible.

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-46715437271701787062011-03-30T10:59:00.004-04:002011-03-30T12:29:55.509-04:00

Okay, this one isn't really a new hair-do. I've done this one from time to time before and have even posted a picture of it before (see here), but seeing as I'm doing a hair series I figured I'd include it again. Funny that it was also the last hair-do I did on Rebecca before she cut her hair last time as well.

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-74819164572702616552011-03-29T22:30:00.014-04:002011-04-05T21:30:44.071-04:00

So I finally broke down and decided I couldn't put off reformatting my computer any longer. It was just too bogged down and slow. Really a new laptop would be wonderful, but realistically the computers in the house are still running - altho not the greatest and for how long we do not know - so we will make due as long as possible. The kids took over Rob's computer when he got a laptop for school.

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-45828320393553354552011-03-11T22:05:00.005-05:002011-03-11T22:28:07.130-05:00

So here we have one of the results of my CHAOS Fridays. Since January I have been making a point of doing some sort of craft or something of that assort with the girls on Saturday afternoon. The hope is that Matthew will nap so we have time together, but since he has decided not to nap all the time that hasn't always been successful and then it can be hard to concentrate on crafts with him

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-22782681523689277242011-03-08T19:44:00.000-05:002011-03-08T19:52:16.137-05:00

One of the things I challenged myself to when the new year began was to be a bit more organized, specifically in the area of housecleaning. I will not deny that my ability to keep the house tidy is rather lacking. While it is not disgustingly dirty, I'm not hugely fond of housecleaning (is anyone?) and tidying and not "neat-freak" enough to be too concerned if I don't get around to washing the

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-83553847441037690872011-03-07T21:10:00.002-05:002011-03-30T12:21:26.514-04:00

A few weeks back was Reading Week at school and the kids had to dress up as a book character the one Friday. Each grade was assigned a type of book that they had to dress like. Rebecca's class, Grade 3/4, did Fairy Tales and Marietta's class, Grade 5, did Adventurers. So we did a Wikipedia search of what classified as a Fairy Tale and Rebecca decided to go with Rapunzel. So long hair we had to

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3490229162321991497.post-42471234280117973182011-03-02T07:40:00.000-05:002011-03-02T07:42:49.951-05:00

This is extra special since we all know that Grandpa doesn't like to play games ... well, maybe Matthew doesn't know that, but the rest of us do.Grandpa and Grandma came for lunch one Sunday and since the girls were gone to friends Matthew had Grandpa and Grandma all to himself. Grandma had a turn to play games with Matthew before lunch and Grandpa (and Daddy) took his turn after lunch.

Stephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527813780077959729noreply@blogger.com1