What do you do at 7am?

I blog.
Not normally but today I did. Normally it takes until 8:00am for me to even function since my girls wake up at 6:30 every morning. I usually lay on the couch, and the girls all climb on top of me, squirming and pushing and laying on my head. I usually can't breathe after about 2 minutes, so I get them a snack or something to do and lay back down. Then at 8:00, Britt calls and we talk for an hour on Skype, and this normally wakes me up.
This morning they are pretty talkative and busy so I just stayed up.

Dustin had this weekend off and I had a ton of stuff for us planned. I wanted to go to the park everyday, color on the sidewalk with Kyla's new Spirograph chalk (remember having the pen sets when you were a kid? I do, now they have them for chalk. How cool eh? She got it for her bday from Emma) I also wanted to play baseball with Kyla and Dustin in the field across the road and just let the little girls run free. We bought her a bat and ball last year, and we went out and got her a new glove and a "real" baseball. It's squishy but small and not so huge like her last one. She loves it. I grew up playing baseball, I played it for 6 years and I loved it. I've always wanted to get back into it but it has been YEARS since i've played so I would definitely need some practice.
Anyways all those plans went down the tubes, when we got hit with this....

This is our van stuck

and that's the mound after shoveling it out.

We had to go out that day, because Kyla had a doctors appointment to get her prescription refilled (another post i've been avoiding) and it had to be done, plus we had a birthday party for the kids that we really wanted to go to. The snow was so heavy and wet and it was still warm out so it wasn't freezing up. The streets were flooding downtown because the drains were getting clogged and the snow was so wet. It was brutal. This was all over 2 days. We had nothing before this, the ground was dry.

When we had Jayci and Presley, most of you know they came 7 weeks early and I got air lifted to Edmonton to deliver them and they had to be in the NICU for 3 weeks. (Pretty short considering they were 7 weeks preemie) We met another set of twins there, 2 boys and they were born at 27 weeks gestation, really preemie. They had already been in the hospital for weeks and just got transferred to our hospital. They have a bigger hospital for super preemies and once they get strong enough they get moved to another hospital for the rest of their stay. These other twins were actually also from up here, so we became friends and got to know each other over those few weeks. They were right beside our twins pretty much the whole time. It was so nice having company during the week when I was by myself everyday. (I had a really hard time without any family, especially Dustin) the whole story is Here if you want to read it.

So we got invited to these boys 2nd birthday party, and we haven't seen them in a long time. We run into each other quit a bit but we haven't really got together and they are moving in a couple months so we really wanted to go to the party. The party was at an indoor little play park and it was perfect for the kids. They loved it!

Dustin enjoying the park, actually he was throwing balls at the kids, when they weren't looking. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

Presley. (Do you see the static hair??) I was excited about that.

The parents of the twins

The twins reunited

Lately Jayci and Presley have been into making these spaz faces. It's hilarious.
This is one of Jayci's when I said "say cheese!"

Then I also said, "say cheese Presley!" This is what she gave me.
It's my favorite. Ever.

So since we couldn't do any of my plans, we made the most of it and went outside anyways. It just took us and extra hour to get ready to go out! We had to find all our winter stuff again.





It wasn't that cold out, about -4C. But the wind was cold and you can't tell but in this picture we all have watering eyes. Presley even has a tear. So we decided to take them in. Kyla wanted to play more so Dustin stayed out with her.

And they built a fort! A fort in Fort Mac!
Ok not funny. But kind of funny.

I have to share a story. Dustin and I decided to be awesome parents and lay in bed forever one morning while we let our kids roam free in the house. I heard the downstairs toilet slam shut so I knew they were in the bathroom. Kyla yelled up and said she got them out and shut the door. Thanks Kyla. So we stayed upstairs. A while later we came down and I had to go to the bathroom. I opened the door to find the wrappers of a ton of my "feminine products", all over the floor. But where was the actual "product"?? I looked all over the living room, bathroom, then it hit me. The toilet. Yep almost half a box were shoved into the toilet.
Well at least they know where they go.
Dustin said I have to clean them up because I shouldn't leave them accessible. Does that even make sense? Isn't that the point?

I'll leave you with two cute pictures I took of the girls this weekend.
You can tell this is morning because for some odd reason, Kyla likes to strip them down out of their pj's.

This is getting old

Ok before you judge me....

First all these ones are from when a babysitter was here.... (all upstairs by the way.) and this is only a portion of what was really there.

Kyla's room

Kyla's room, this is a big section, you can tell because her bed it beside it and it's a big bed.

This is our bedroom door (you can see the sitter tried to wipe it off, doesn't come off very easily obviously)

Kyla denied having any involvement in it, so i'm pretty sure the babies are genius's and can write her name. That's my only conclusion.

When we got home, the sitter told us and we just laughed it off thinking it was no big deal and so typical. We walked upstairs and of course the girls rooms were close so we didn't see in them. Well the doors were bad enough but then we looked in Kyla's room in the morning, and her room was covered. Magic erasers work, but I used one eraser alone on the staircase (not even pictured), these are not easy to remove markers. They are dora ones and I have no idea how they got ahold of them. I didn't even know where they were!

Then these next pictures are the latest fad around here. Everyone is doing it. I have no idea how they get these felts, and pens. They have this obsession for pens and felts! Not crayons so much but pens and felts are awesome because they color on so many more things, which I understand. I guess. I'm always like "where the heck did you get that?" Drives me nuts.

Ok well, this time I did let her color with Kyla and I was right here and within seconds she was covered. She was coloring with a pen first, took that away. Then Kyla wanted felts to color on her huge coloring pad she got for her birthday so I let Presley color too. Man I hate it. They LOVE to color and honestly it's the only thing that keeps them occupied to get stuff done around here. Plus it keeps me sane because they are not clinging to me all the time. (Ps: I want my body back! To myself! I really do) that's another venting post to come. Anyways, they are getting tired of watching Dora and it doesn't work as well as it used too. Crayons just go to the walls since they don't color on skin right? I don't want to have to take it away for good but I think today was my last straw. Only Kyla will get to color when the babies are sleeping because she is good 95% of the time, the twins have an influence on her though, who knew? Anyways, kind of my fault I know but it still sucks and you should feel sorry for me anyways. When we build a house, our playroom will have a whole wall for just art and it'll be easy to remove or wash off or something genius. I just need that wall....now.

I think i'm going to get those felts that are clear and only color on certain paper. Maybe that'll be better. They just love to draw, which is cute and all, but I HATE it.

Success! Now I can relax.

Kyla's birthday is today! My big girl is 4 and I feel like I just had her. I remember waking up the morning after having her in the hospital and they wheeled her into my room right beside my bed and I remember thinking how it was all real and that she was really here. I had her at 8:22pm the night before but by the time everything was done it was almost midnight and I had 20 hours of hard labour from the start so I was wiped. They offered to take her to the nursery for the night and I was definitely ok with that since I needed the sleep, bad. I couldn't even function after I was so tired. (Those who have been in labour know what I mean).
She was an amazing baby and so happy all the time. She was very smart and she took EVERYTHING in and remembered it. She was/is like a sponge. She was talking very clearly at 2 and could say anything you wanted her to repeat. Now she is the exact same way, remembers everything you show her. She can spell lots of words, even write them. Writes and knows all her letters and numbers. She can tell time. Loves to sing and dance, she makes up her own songs all the time. She will bring things up from forever ago, like a year or more, and she'll say "remember when...?" I'm like what? How the heck do you remember that? I tell ya this kid is way smart and never ceases to amaze us with what she says. She loves her little sisters and is one protective big sister of them. She loves to help them learn things, and she is always trying to get them to copy words and stuff. She loves to help them do anything and I am so lucky to have her here to help me. She cleans, loves to bake, and tries to do dishes (of course, I have to redo them after). She is hilarious and is constantly making us laugh. She loves Dora of course, Hannah Montana, Barbie, Princess anything, Twilight (this is for real.) I asked her yesterday,
"guess what movie we are going to watch?!" (Being Alice in wonderland)
and she goes, "Twilight!" all excited.
I'm not opposed to that idea. We watch it a lot. Well New Moon, not Twilight, but to her there all the same name. Crazy kid. I love her.
So there are just a few reasons why we love Kyla.

Dustin had to work this weekend but he took yesterday off for her party. So we decided to also do Easter yesterday morning so he could be here. The girls all got Dora chocolate faces and some other stuff we hid around to find. We didn't go crazy and that is a good thing. We all know who is going to end up eating Jayci and Presley's candy anyways.... me. I'm kind of anal about feeding my kids junk, especially when they are younger. So they'll get a few things but not too much.

Her party was awesome and everything was perfect. I have been planning it for a while. There were definitely things I would have loved to add to it for sure but of course planning it by myself and not having a ton of mullah to do it, I made do. Dustin starts school in like 3 weeks! So we are saving for that. Well she invited 5 friends but one went out of town for the weekend, but it was perfect. They had so much fun and Kyla got spoiled. As you all know it was an Alice in wonderland tea party. I wish I would have pulled the new alice in wonderland into it more and I would of made it more crazy, but it is for a 4 year old so I kinda kept it more "pretty".

Ok be prepared for lots of pictures, I will try and keep it minimal. We did take over 200.

finding easter treats

All their findings. Oh we also got them my little pony's. We always got a little present with our easter stuff growing up so I want to keep that little tradition.

Birthday Breakfast~ another tradition. Pancakes with "only whip cream and not strawberries" was the request, and orange juice of course.

Birthday Girl! All ready for her party.
This is the dress I made her. I wanted to do a twist on Alice for her, so this is what I did.
It all worked out really well being my first real dress i've ever made.
She loves it too.

Friends!
Leela, Jayna, Kyla, Emma, and Erica

tea time!

just sippin on some tea, they loved it and i'm glad Dustin was on pouring duty because those cups are small, and they loved to drink the "Tea" (lemonade)
We also had little sandwiches and cookies that said "eat me" on them.

Some pom pom decor
playing pin the smile on the "Cheshire cat"

She and Jayna tied for being the closest.

Not too shabby for 4 year olds. I wanted to find a poster of the cat but of course didn't, so I ended up drawing and coloring my own.

Jill came to help. She is sitting with her best friends of course. They love Auntie Jill.
Thanks for your help!

Opening presents

Alice in Wonderland! Good thing it came out 3 days ago! I was kind of freaking out since this is the only thing she wanted.

Some other presents from friends

All her stuff! She got spoiled. We also got her a camera and some "K" letter earrings.

My cake!
Well Kyla's cake, but it's kind of mine because I made it.

She loved that they had to sing TO her.

She looks so old in this picture and it's too cute.
Can't forget about them! Eating some cake.
Cousins and BFF's

Doing the craft. It was butterflies to go in flower pots. I couldn't find little flower pots for them, so I told them they have to tell their dad's to buy their mom some flowers and then they can put their butterfly in them.

They did start out with different colors, but mixing them was more fun for most of them.
Crafty little girlies.

The girls in their Easter dresses.
Happy Easter!

It was a big day for someone. She knows how to party.

So I am quite glad that is over, as much as I LOVED planning it. I feel like I have to do nothing now and it's nice. Well for another week or so, then I have to plan Jayci and Presley's birthday. I still have no idea what to do for it. We'll see!

Happy Birthday Kyla!

and

Happy Easter!

~Mind~

The Park!

Dustin had this weekend off and yesterday was our productive day. We got rid of the high chairs finally, and wiped walls, floors, organized some shelves and we even got our carpets cleaned... I also got to sleep in until almost 9 AND Dustin let me have a 2 1/2 hour nap! I was super spoiled yesterday. I was exhausted though and I probably could have slept all day. So since it was so nice out we decided to take the girls to the park and I woke up around 4, so supper was decided quickly. Pizza it is. We were going to give them a quick snack to last until after the park then come home and order it. Anyways I was upstairs getting dressed and trying to look human after a MUCH enjoyed nap and Kyla came up and said someone was at the door. Dustin ran down and a couple minutes later I hear him yell "Mind, come here." So I came down and the lady wasn't there (she ran outside to her van) and Dustin said she was cleaning carpets and needed one more to meet her daily quota because her last appointment backed out. I was kind of confused but said, ok sure clean carpets for free, why not. Also we were gonna do them that night anyways, so why not have someone else do them? So she came in with her boss hauling all this equipment in and then he asks, "so have you heard of Kirby vacuums before?" Ugh, great, I knew at that time this was a sales pitch thing. So I just told myself, at least i'll get my carpets cleaned for free. Well almost 2 hours later she was still there and it was 6:30pm, so I said ok well it's getting late lets get these kids ready for bed. Dustin said he still wanted to take them to the park so I said ok then lets get ready and go now. She heard this conversation and was just starting to shampoo the carpet. I think she got the hint at this time. About half hour before this she said she forgot the shampooer in the van and had to call her boss to bring it by. I was ready to be like, "just forget it, and go" but then I thought, no way she wasted all our time she can clean our carpets for free now. So she did and we pretty much got ready and all the kids dressed by the door and kinda pushed her out the door. Her boss even came up and asked why we didn't want one, well lets see, I don't really see the justification in financing a VACUUM and I don't have $3000.00 just laying around to buy one. He said he could sell us a sample one for $2000.00 or for $93/month. I said "ya, um probably not." He got the hint and they left. I wish I wasn't so nice and would of kicked her out a long time ago. She cleaned our carpets but she did a crappy job because she knew we were done with her. Dustin and I, with the girls, just kind of sat in the kitchen the whole time since she took over our whole house with dirty rags to show us how dirty our carpets were. This girl was only 20 and told us if we bought one we would help her win a trip to vegas. Sorry but I don't care. Anyways can you tell i'm a little annoyed with how they get into people's houses by totally tricking them, and no warning that they'll be there for 2 hours!
So I have had the carpet cleaning experience now, and now I know for next time!

So....that had nothing to do with what I was originally going to post about. Lets get back to that.
Yesterday was the first time we went to the park this year. Finally. Oh how I love that Jayci and Presley are finally at the age of Independence and WALKING. I dreaded the park last year with them because they pretty much only had the swings for them and Kyla wanted to play all over so I couldn't do both and it was hard. I just didn't enjoy it and hated going. Yesterday was awesome, they were going up the stairs and down the slide all by themselves and they loved it! Kyla was of course in heaven. We didn't get to go very long because it was so late, but they had a blast and I got some cute pictures of them playing.

Presley being Presley, we are so in love with these girls.

Kyla and the number one man in her life

Jayci came down the slide....

and Presley came right behind her and I almost didn't catch both of them. Good action shots eh. Good job Dust.

Perfect slide for twins

daddy and his girls

Jayci

Me and my girls

Oh how I LOVE this picture. This is Presley running to Dustin yelling "daddy!" She was so excited. I just love her expression.

Kyla being a great big sister as always. She is super protective of them and it's so cute.

Oh and right before we were leaving I was walking holding Jayci and Presley's hand and I saw two huge dogs headed right where the stroller was, not on leashes. Well we all know how much I love big dogs. I turned right around with the girls and headed back to Dustin and he totally saw why and started laughing at me. So I waited for him and the dogs kind of went around further. Kyla stopped to ride on the whale with Presley and I was helping them and I hear Dustin say "oh heads up Min" I look up and this MASSIVE dog is right in my face! I said a few choice words since it scared the crap out of me and all the other parents were laughing and the owner came and grabbed him and put him on a leash. I do NOT like big dogs. I pretty much had a heart attack right there. Dustin was laughing. I was out loud, but in my head I was about to pass out and ready to ream the guy out for bringing a dog to a kids park with no leash. . I have no idea why they scare me so bad. I had big dogs growing up and I never liked them but I wasn't scared of them, but now my heart starts pounding and I want to cry. I'm terrified!

ANYWAYS....