So, we got a call from Kris’ teacher on Sunday night…  (If you ever want to freak parents out, call them on Sunday night saying that you are their kid’s teacher.)

Kris will have one or two pieces of art in his high school’s art showing this thursday!  Paula and I can not wait to see them!  If anyone is interested, there is an open viewing on Thursday night at his school.  Contact Mark for more details. 

Kris had been taking art this semester as an option and has done really well.  Both art teachers (and his parents) have been quite impressed by his art.

Emma scored her first goal on Monday’s game!!  It was on our team but it still counts, right? lol  Right after she scored on her own team, she scored on the other team.  She was beyond super stoked!!  She definitely is loving soccer.  Hopefully the weather improves so that they’ll be able to play games again soon.  Tonight’s game is definitely going to be snowed out.  Oh well, two more games next week!  At least her gymnastics and ballet are indoor activities that aren’t effected by the weather.

Kris has cadets tonight with the monthly parents meeting.  The cadets are having an exam tonight on the hunter ed course they’ve taken.  It shouldn’t really be a big deal because it’s open book.  Plus, with cadets Kris doesn’t really get homework.  That’s where his problem really lies.  He doesn’t do any assignments but gets ridiculously high test marks at school.  Too bad the exams don’t count for most of the class:(  I’m sure he’ll pull it together just before the end of the year so that he manages to get into the correct classes next year.  He’s just got to make us sweat it out a big in the meantime.  Nothing like stress, right?  Oh, kids.

So Emma’s birthday has come and gone.  Hopefully the drama will settle for a bit too.  Some family manged to make it for her at least and others even managed to call on her birthday.  She’s started soccer twice a week now so that’s definitely keeping us all busy.  She was very anxious on her first day and scared because she said she didn’t know how to play soccer.  Of course when she got there, she decided that she loved it!  She only had one game last week because of the usual spring snow storm.  I’m afraid that the same is going to happen this week!!  Hopefully tonight’s game is still on at least.

She managed to get to the ball lots of times and even made a few shots on goal — even the right one!  We just might have a little soccer star on our hands yet!  Not that she noticed the ball all of the time…Soccer for kids this age is so fun to watch.  It’s like a comedy really and a great stress relief.  I wish they played every single day!

Kris has decided to take a break from fencing for the rest of this year’s season.  His finger is still healing from his last major injury — the fingernail is about halfway grown back now.  I hope he goes back in September.  He’s been taking fencing for 8 years and it would be such a shame to see him give it up.  He is absolutely loving and excelling at cadets.  He’s heavily involved in all of their activities which is great to see.  He seems to have gotten over some of his shyness around people and to be more concerned about his appearance — at least when in uniform!

It’ll be interesting to see if he is deployed this summer.  We won’t find out until just before he’s set to go.  Hopefully he’ll be around for his 16th birthday.  Otherwise we’ll just have to celebrate when he returns home.  I can’t believe he’s 16 already!  We drove by the hospital he was born at this morning and it feels like he took his first breath just a few months ago.  He is definitely working on becoming a man — growing taller (and hairier!) every single day.  *sigh*

Work has been going well for both Mark and I.  He’s working on redoing my Auntie’s Devon Registry website again, keeping the cadet website and facebook account up to date and finishing off the last touches to the deck and patio beneath it.  I’ve been hired on as a monthly contributor to Hippie Magazine which is kinda cool.  I think I’ll be doing thematic posts every month based on the seasons and holidays.  My latest one was published this morning and was about Mother’s Day.  Both of my other websites are still up and going.  Keeping up with them is quite another thing though as I’m getting more and more tired each day.  Hopefully the next few weeks will afford me some more energy.  Mark’s definitely been picking up the slack around the house.

May also means Mother’s Day, my Dad’s birthday, Uncle Joe’s birthday, Mark and I’s 5th anniversary as well as a ton of doctor’s appointments for me.  It’ll be interesting trying to keep everything straight!  Em’s ballet recital practice is really coming together for next month’s big performance.  She even has her ballet pictures this month.  I imagine that they’ll be absolutely adorable!  Will definitely try to post the pics of both her and my next ultrasound provided everything goes smoothly.  I have no clue who reads this but in case you didn’t already know…Mark and I are expecting…again!!  Please keep your fingers crossed for us and pray if that’s your thing.  It’s definitely not ours but every little bit can’t hurt, right?

I just noticed that Mark has been posting here and I absolutely have not at all lately.  I thought I’d give a little “spring” update!

Easter was good this year.  The weather managed to stay clear so that you didn’t have to dig through the snow to find the Easter eggs.  Definitely a far cry from the year we spent Easter in Malibu with Bibi though!!  We had a few community functions — one at a community center even had baby bunnies that Emma loved to snuggle.  Our street does a big hunt with all the kids too.  The guys all meet with coffee and Bailey’s at a hill nearby and hide a dozen eggs per kid filled with all kinds of goodies.  And then everyone meets at 9, about 50 kids stand in a big line and absolutely run down the hill looking for eggs.  Emma had a good strategy this year — she ran to the end of the hill past all kinds of obvious eggs and got ahead of the pack.  She grabbed her 12 with no competition and headed back up the hill with her loot.  She was the first one!!  Then we had another egg hunt at the Bentleys — even the boys (Chris and Joe) get in on the hunt.  It often turns into semi-wrestling with Kristopher and everyone rehides candy for Emma.  Hysterical!!  Had an Easter brunch with them as well that was lovely.  For Easter dinner, Mark and I took the kids to Swiss Chalet as my family isn’t really doing get togethers anymore.  It was nice though.  One of the waiters was dressed like a giant bunny.  For some reason, that bunny rubbed me the wrong way.  He was super duper freaky!!!  I’m still having flashbacks…

The kids have been busy.  Kris is in the army cadets, fencing, volunteering at the food bank and working on his teenage attitude.  He’s getting pretty good at it!!  All in all he’s been a pretty good teenager so far but maybe I should zip my lip because report cards come out in a week.  He’s at a field training exercise (aka camping) with the cadets this weekend, has a cadet meeting on Wednesday and a big march around downtown next Saturday.

Emmy is managing to stay busy as well with gymnastics, ballet, preschool and also working on her teenage attitude.  I think she’s better at it than Kris at this point, unfortunately.  The kids have been down with a cold on and off this week so she’s had me pretty much wrapped around her little finger for the last few days.  She even kicked Mark out of bed for a night or two!!  I went to work today mainly as a sanity check and ended up with a nasty virus on my computer that made it nearly impossible for me to get anything done.  Oh, plus the darn kids gave me their cold!!! lol

Emma is having her friends birthday party this weekend at her gymnastics studio.  It should be a lot of fun — 15 kids and lots of parents are coming for cake, running around and maybe even a little gymnastics!  I figure it’s always a good bet to have the kids get together somewhere that is NOT at our house!!  I’m sure it will be a blast and that she’ll love it.  I can’t believe she’s turning 4 already — she’s getting to be such a big girl.  She’s super tall, smart, bright and has bucketloads of personality!!  Unbelievable that these huge independent creatures once lived inside of me!

We’re having a family party the following weekend although I’m not 100% sure who all will be coming — between weird work shifts, teaching yoga classes, trips to Fernie and some family “issues” on my side it’ll be great to be able to see anyone at all really!!  I’m sure Gramma and Grampa will be there at least and maybe even Kristopher can stop by this get together for a while between cadet activities!!  I absolutely love family but it sure seems tough to get it all together sometimes.  Everyone’s on a different schedule and especially lately, everyone’s got a different agenda.  The important thing is that our kids are happy, healthy and well loved though.  They are spoiled to pieces by Mark and I and loved to the moon and back by us.  That’s what gets us through each day!!

Mark is super busy — working, volunteering at the foodbank, he’s taken over the cadets website and is constantly updating it, driving the kids around like crazy from one thing to another.  He’s still working on the finishing touches of our deck, spent a few days building a dog house for Bonsai with Emma and does most of the cooking now!!  I’ve cut back on work some and have been enjoying spending a bit more time with the kids.  I’m keeping 2 websites going with lots to do and write about.  I’ve even been getting lots of products for reviews and giveaways on both sites!  I’ve taken a leave of absence at the foodbank for the next year or so depending on how the next few months pan out.  Things have definitely been interesting and busy, busy, busy around here!

It seems that I have only been posting when one of the kids gets really hurt…  Sorry, I will really have to work on improving that.  Paula has been pretty busy with work and her main eco-friendly blog (Green Colored Glasses).

About two weeks ago, Kris was at fencing and when he and the other fencer attacked, Kris ended up getting his pinky finger smashed really hard.  When I came to get him, he said that it was hurt, and it was a little bruised, but not too bad.  So, I took him home early.  It quickly got worse.  A couple of days later, Paula ended up taking him to the doctor who said that it was pretty bad and Kris would likely loose the finger nail and to keep an eye on it.  The next day, he went to change the dressing on it and it looked even worse.  We ended up going to the Alberta Children’s Hospital late Sunday night.  It was packed!  Kris did super though.  I even offered to take him home and deal with it the next day but he said that he figured that it would just get worse and we should just stay and deal with it.  So, around 3am, the doctor literally pulled Kris’ fingernail off, cleaned everything up (there was some infection) and sewed his fingernail back on.  10 days later, Kris had the stitches removed and the doctor says that it looks like it is doing really well.  Soon the old fingernail will fall off and in about 3 months, it should all grow back.  In the meantime, Kris is doing a great job with it, although I think that he keeps it covered up more so that he does not have to look at it more than anything else.

Other than that, things are just very busy her and getting more and more busy in so many ways!

Emma starts soccer soon, or at least we sure hope so.  They are now saying that they are short coaches and may cancel things, so we shall see.  In June, Emma has her first dance recital.  We are really looking forward to it!

Kris seems to be really enjoying being in the Airdrie Army Cadets.  He was on the .22 cal and Daisy Air Rifle shooting teams and did pretty well.  He is hoping to get to go to summer camp, but we shall see.  He is obviously taking a bit of time off from fencing to let his finger heal up.  He has also had to miss a few weeks of volunteering at the Calgary Food Bank because of the finger.