Connor's 5th Birthday

Today was a very exciting day for Connor: he finally turned 5 (he's been looking forward to his birthday for a very long time). He woke up in the morning with his bed covered in balloons. At school, he got a birthday crown and cupcakes. Grandma Cathy, Aunt Jill & Uncle Steve and their kids, and Grandpa Ron, all came over for supper. Connor chose the menu: cheese pizza and steamed broccoli. Our cake was a peanut butter ice cream cake and Isaiah helped Connor blow out the candles.

Here are some pictures from Connor's big day.

This is a car mat/quilt I made for him (I got the panel from the best quilt store in the whole world: The Fabric Addict in Lethbridge).


This is a quilt panel that I got at Davies Fabric here in Edmonton. All the constellations are labeled and they glow in the dark. "Awesome!" was Connor's response when he opened it. It's hanging beside his bed now.


This is Connor and Shae playing with Grandpa and the new soccer nets he got for Connor.

Baby Robins

A pair of robins built a nest in one of the pine trees in our backyard and to our delight, last night we saw that the babies had hatched! We watched both robins fly around our backyard gathering food for the babies and we got to watch the little fluffy babies being fed - what a treat!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hinton Triathlon

So last weekend, we went to Hinton (3 1/2 hours west of Edmonton) so that Shae and Connor could take part in their kids' triathlon. The weather wasn't great: a high of 10 degrees Celsius that day and overcast and windy. But it didn't rain during the race and it even snowed that same day not far away so it could have been much worse.

There were three levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold. Connor did bronze and Shae did silver. So, Connor swam 50 m, biked 1400 m and ran 600 m. Shae swam 150 m, biked 3.5 km and ran 1600 m. They both got t-shirts and medals ("real" medals, made of metal, not plastic). I think they were both surprised at how hard it was but they were both really pleased with their accomplishment. I had been worried Connor would be focused on winning but I think he saw pretty early on that lots of the other kids in his level were bigger than him so he didn't seem bothered to be near the back of the pack.

I really like doing races so I was excited to give my kids a taste of how fun and satisfying a race can be. They're already talking about doing it next year so I guess it couldn't have been too bad!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Bouncy Hudson

Hudson makes me laugh when he's in his exersaucer. He bounces so hard in that thing that he literally scoots it around the kitchen floor! Funny boy.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Yes, I use cloth diapers, and no, I'm not crazy

I tried cloth diapers when Maira was a baby and Connor was still a toddler and I liked them at first but after some wear and tear, they got smelly and I just couldn't get them clean no matter what I did. Also, Maira got diaper rash even worse with cloth diapers than she did with disposables.

But...now, I have found out why I was having those problems: bad diapers and hard water. Now, I have found a great cloth diaper (that's not ridiculously expensive like a lot of them are), the AMP all-in-two diaper. At the risk of sounding like a commercial, they are easy to get clean, quick to dry and so soft of Hudson's skin, and they're made in Canada. The only time he gets rashes now is when I put him in a disposable (which I still use when we're on a trip). I order them from a local business run by two stay-at-home moms, Natural Urban Mamas.

And as for hard water, I'm learning that Edmonton has crazy hard water and that there's a reason the people we bought the house from had installed a water softener (which is now broken). The minerals in the water build up on fabric and stop it from absorbing as well. So, now that I know that, I've started using washing soda and vinegar in my washing machine when I wash my diapers (they both help to soften the water). I've also found a wonderful laundry detergent that is phosphate, dye, fragrance, whitener, etc, etc, - free AND is for use in front load washers. Yay!

The Top Five Reasons I Use Cloth:
1 - Less diaper rash
2 - Better for the environment
3 - Cheaper
4 - Keeps the poop in much better than disposables
5 - They're so cute

Some of my favourite home movies

Here are a few of my favourite home movies from the past couple of years. I'm a little behind in my video editing but I hope to have a few really recent ones up soon.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Welcome to my blog!

Thanks for stopping by! I'm so excited to have my own blog. About a year ago, I discovered the world of blogs and have accumulated a long list of blogs I subscribe to. I have been so inspired, educated, entertained and uplifted by these blogs that I finally decided I wanted to have a blog of my very own. I'm not completely sure how it will end up working but right now, I picture it as a site that will centralize all my family photos, news and videos, a place I can point family and friends to if they want to see what we're up to. But I also like the idea of using it for a catalog or record of the different "projects" (aka crafts) that I'm working on or have accomplished. I love all the crafty sharing that happens on the internet and I'd like to contribute. So, have a look around, make sure and subscribe if you'd like to be notified when I've added something new, and please, by all means, feel free to leave comments any time!