Shoes, Glorious Shoes.

These children of mine are obsessed with shoes.

Obsessed.
Right now Ruby will not go one minute without a pair of shoes on.
She has her indoor and her outdoor shoes.
She is reminding me of a younger more feminine version of Mr. Rogers.
I can see her now with her indoor sweater, her soft voice, and her messages about the environment.
It IS a wonderful day in the neighborhood!
It's coming- I'm seeing the trend.
Right now she is obsessed with a pair of Cinderella shoes that we got from a garage sale.
We have confined her to only wearing them in the house.  She obeys but she also sleeps with them beside her.
It is a shoe fetish started at an early age.  Sadly I don't think there is a less comfortable shoe on the market.  Stylish, Yes, Comfy, No.

Then there is Noni.
If he doesn't have his crocs with him then you will constantly hear him yelling- 'CROC!'
Until you find it and put it on him.
***(As a side note- isn't it interesting the words that our kids know at a young age that we didn't even know existed when we were their age (or that simply DIDN'T exist when we were young kids)  For example- croc, WiFi, Ipod, and yes even internet (it may have existed but who knew?)....  And yet other words they may NEVER use in their vocabulary- VHS, cassette player, walkman....)***
He also enjoys sleeping with his shoes on.  And some nights that is the only thing we can do to get him to go to bed.
They are his constant companion.
I don't think there is a comfier shoe to love.  Stylish, No, Comfy, Yes.

*As a side note- while I write this post Justin is trying to unlock the bathroom door from the outside because Ruby locked the bathroom door and closed it with Noni still in there.  So please imagine with me- Justin feverishly trying to unlock the door (it wasn't an easy stick the end of a bobby pin in and push unlock one- he had to take the door off the hinges) and Ruby kneeling beside him singing "Heavenly Father Loves Me" under the door so she can keep Noni calm.  I mean he was in there by himself with the door locked and the lights off.  But at least he had his crocs to keep him company....- It looks like they have things under control- I'll just keep typing.  He is now out (about a minute later).  It was a short incarceration...*

The Plank Master

I have no idea where she came up with this.
We don't normally 'plank' in our house.
We don't even have tv right now and I am pretty sure the disney princess movies that she watches don't showcase any planking.
Yet here she is in all her planking glory.

Now I am no planking expert or anything- but from what I see she looks pretty awesome.
A Planking Master- if you will.

Crazy Eyes

I know you were all missing him-
Probably as much as me, if not more.
So for your pure enjoyment
I reintroduce you to my very own- Crazy Eyes McGee.

I have the pleasure of seeing this around 5:30pm every few days.

Doesn't it just bring butterflies to your stomach?
It creeps me out.
And in case this post wasn't enough for you- check out the last time Crazy Eyes McGee made it onto the blog....

Gotta Bottle Full Of Sunshine

I was once told that freezer jam was like bottled sunshine.
And frankly, I couldn't agree more.
The smell alone is unbelievable and the taste- nothing tops it.
Plus as an upside- it is INSANELY easy to make.
I love it.
It also brings back summer memories with my family- picking raspberries at the Mouly's and making a whole bunch of freezer jam.
That was the best jam I had ever tasted.  Delish.
I decided that this year I would make my own freezer jam- so I did.
Raspberry (my favorite) and Strawberry (which I also love- but is obviously not my favorite).
The kids got as involved as their attention span would allow and then they ended up like this.

Now we have lots of delicious jam to enjoy- all year long....
Our own version of bottled sunshine.
LOVE IT.

It's Growing Up Time...

This little man of mine is growing up.
He is the sweetest, loveliest, toughest, most wonderful boy I have ever had the privilege of raising.
And like every other little guy- he had to grow up.
It happened too soon for me.
And it began on Sunday July 10- when we cut his hair.
He has had a little trim once before but I refused to cut the curls in the back.
They were just too cute and I couldn't do it.
Then we were in Costco and someone called him a girl.
That was where the line was drawn.  Thank you Costco lady for dropping the hint and making this transition a little bit easier- someone had to do the dirty work since our relatives are too far away to clue us in...
This little boy needed to look like a boy even if it would pull at my heart strings and force me to lament the loss of my little baby.
We cut off the curls.
Here is a before-

 Now before you start judging me and saying how uncute this looks- I will agree with you - this picture of his hair is not cute.  It didn't normally look like this- this is post bath and a good combing-
It normally looked like this-

More crazy mad scientist- less- I am in the Italian Mafia at 18 months old.
When pulled straight we cut off a good 3 inches.
We trimmed the top too.
And an after-

(Not the best after- but trust me- its gone)

We are going to get the clippers out and do a full on hair cut- once my heart has healed a little bit.
He does look pretty cute.
Then if that wasn't enough- Myers had his first day of nursery on Sunday as well.
Here he is in all his going to church glory!!

(Once again- not the best picture...  He really needs to work on his posing...)
(He was one day shy of 18 months but they let him in anyway)
He wouldn't let me leave his side- but he seemed to enjoy the toys.
We will see how next sunday goes.
And for those of you who love my children- remember when Ruby went to her first day of nursery??

My Corn Muffin

I thought I liked corn on the cob- I was pretty sure Justin liked corn on the cob and I knew Ruby LOVED corn on the cob- what I didn't know was that Noni was crazy for corn on the cob.

CRAZY INSANE for corn on the cob.

He would eat his piece until he was satisfied and then survey the table until he found an unattended corn cob and he would go in for the grab.

Ruby lost at least 2 cobs of corn to the Noni-corn-snatcher.

I almost lost one but Justin swooped in with a new piece of corn that would satisfy the little corn monster.

He managed to polish off 2 and a half cobs of corn on his own.  One and a half of which he stole from other people at the table.  It made for an interesting dinner... Its hard to eat your salad when you have to constantly guard your corn.
We have learned to eat our corn quickly.

O-Hi-O

We are here- in Ohio.
There were times that I seriously doubted if I would ever be able to say that.
It was a long road getting here with many bumps along the way- but I know we are meant to be here and so- we got here.
After a great visit in Waterloo we headed south to our new adventure.
Even at that point we had no definite assurance that we would get through the border.
With the type of visa that we have the could accept or deny at their will.
We pulled up to the crossing guard and immediately Ruby woke up and declared that she had to pee.  I
Well- it was a little too late by then.  We didn't have any option except to tell her to try and hold it and to please stop yelling and crying so the guard would stop suspecting us of kidnap.  Luckily he didn't keep us too long and he sent us to 'enter the building'.
Well by then it was too late.  There was nothing to be done.
We spent a good 15 minutes cleaning Ruby and the pee up and headed into the building where a tourist bus had been stopped and everyone had to be checked.  They got there only moments before us but sadly we still had to wait for all of them until it was our turn.
In the mean time Myers decided that it would be fun to stick the dried blueberries he was eating- up his nose. Much to the enjoyment of the bus passengers around us.
We safely retrieved those little suckers and promptly put them away.
Then after about an hour our name was called.
And low and behold- Ruby had to pee.
So while Justin was talking to the guard I took Ruby and Myers to the bathroom.
That was an adventure in and of itself.  One in which details I will not go in to.
We got back, had finger prints taken, waited about 20 minutes and were on our way.
No questions, no issues, just a visa and a new state to explore!
Oh, and housing to find.
After a few days of being homeless hotel dwellers we got the place of our dreams!  It has a huge backyard and more space inside than we know what to do with!  It isn't huge but we are used to apartments, basement suites, and town houses.  In fact this is the first detached single family house Justin and I have ever lived in alone.  (We were in actual houses when we were vagabonds in Alberta and living with our parents- be we don't count those)  Finding this house was a true miracle- and we are very grateful to be here.
We did have to visit Columbus so Justin could take care of some work related things so we were sure to enjoy some of the sites when we weren't too busy...  We didn't do any shopping because we were driving around with all of our stuff still (this was while we were still homeless) and we were still very tired from the house searching but we were able to visit the Columbus Temple and enjoy the beauty and the feeling there.

It was super bright so we all had trouble keeping our eyes open.  Justin the most of any of us....
We are getting settled in and used to our surroundings.  It is new and definitely a different experience from any place we have ever lived in before.  We have been doing some garage saleing (Justin tells me this isn't a word) and found some really great thrift and antique stores here and are slowly accumulating furniture.  I will post some of the gems we have found thus far soon!!!
Until then- it's INDEPENDENCE DAY down here so we have some partying to do!!!  No fourth of July shirts to sport though....

Red, White and Maple Leaf

For the first time EVER we were out of country for Canada Day.
Blaspheme!  Unpatriotic!  I know.
We did, however, find ways to celebrate in our own little corner of the USA- while everyone around us seemed oblivious to the fact that Canada was celebrating their birthday!
We were sure to wear our patriotic garb and enjoy Canada Day as much as we could!

We also headed to our own Alliance version of Peter's--- HANDEL'S and picked up a delicious vanilla milkshake and a strawberry sundae.  Sadly they do not make raspberry sundaes which is a Peter's favorite of mine- seriously try it- there is nothing as delicious and satisfying as one of those!  And I might also add that I was a vanilla milkshake snob- meaning I would NEVER order a vanilla milkshake- I mean what is the point of that?  But for some reason we did and I would just like to go on record and say that IT WAS AMAZING.  mmmm mmm mmmm.

We headed to the park at 9 O'Clock at night (our kids have gotten out of any schedule they had at this point so we can do pretty much whatever we want right now) and just enjoyed the end of our day.

And to top it off we got our own little version of fireworks courtesy of the millions (perhaps an overstatement) of fireflies in our area.  They are really cool bugs- they are definitely an ugly bug when they get close (which I must say was a little bit surprising since they can be so beautiful from a distance) but looking out onto a field and seeing them all lighting up was something I had never experienced before.  But I do expect to experience it a lot while I am here.  It will never get old.  It was nothing short of magical.
In fact you should all come visit- and soon- so you too can experience the magic- we'll take you out to Handel's for a vanilla milkshake!!!