End of Winter

Happy #3 Drew, and Happy #7 Kolt!!

OH MY GOSH!!! I am sooo far behind in posting. Here are some birthday pictures - better late than never I guess - there aren't any of Jake's birthday yet, but I got some great ones especially for the blog. I also have some cute stories, so I am going to get to work on posting them.

Chuckwagon Racing

Yesterday afternoon, we were at the xtreme game. Dedo's sponsored, & asked our boys to race for them as they had to whisk off to Wisconsin for a funeral. It was a lot of fun. They did so good. Jake has raced 3 times now. Twice for RnR and once for Woodmont. His team broke the record time when he raced with Woodmont, and yesterday they had the second best time overall. This picture below is Jake with Jaxon White, they are planning their strategy - Kolt is behind the chuckwagon, his job is to push and steer. He did awesome.






Ready Jake?

Kolt

Here is the video of the race... Jake is the one on front with 22 on his back - Kolt is behind.

Love,

Jodi

Happy New Year

Wow! It is 2009 already. I remember wondering what it would be like when we hit the year 2000 - now we've been doing this for almost a decade. I know I say this so many times, but how do the days go so fast?

As I look back over my blog and reflect on 2008, it was another busy but overall really great year. Sometimes, we get going so fast that it seems like we are spinning our wheels and never really ever getting anywhere. But if you take a moment to reflect on all that we have done, it really is awfully incredible what you can accomplish in a year.


I am so glad to be living out on the farm. What a difference it is from living in town. I really loved our house in town and all of our neighbours, I was quite sad to leave. But the best place for kids (especially ones that are homeschooled), is on the farm. There is sooo much to do.

I really need to go out and snap some pics of all that the kids do outside. Brian has plowed huge piles of snow, and the kids play for hours. They have also spent a lot of time in the rink. There is the ponies, the steers, and Meeka for them to play with. They made forts in the trees behind the trailer, they run and bike -- regular kid stuff. But so much of it to do in a day :)

Brian has been working on building a synthetic ice surface in one of the shops -- it's really close to being done now. That is our latest new venture. It really is a neat thing, and there has been an obscene amount of interest in it so far. It's very exciting!! We plan on doing power skating lessons etc on it.

We booked a last minute trip to Vegas last week. We decided Sunday night we were going to go, booked it on Monday, and left on Thursday. We came home on Saturday night (Feb 7). It was a quick trip - but again, we had great fun! There was no time for rest there, so it's taking some time to recover - but it's always nice to get away. The kids stayed with mom, and they had a great time also.

Next week is our 10 year anniversary. You would think that it would take time for 10 years to pass by -- but really, it goes by in such a flash, especially when you are running after 3 kids. We are going to spend a couple of nights in Banff, and I'm looking forward to that as well -- a little R 'n R will do us good (especially after Vegas). We come back to a really busy hockey weekend. We will miss one or two games, but we are scheduled to have 8 or 9 that weekend between the 2 boys -- that will be the most we've ever had in one weekend.

I'm going to try and get some pictures up soon. Drew has turned 3, and Kolt has turned 7 since my last post. So I'll work on some pictures - I know that's the best part of the blog.

Until then, I hope life is treating you well wherever you are :)

Love,
Jodi

The End of November

Phew! November was crazy. I made it through, but it wasn't easy. I feared burn out in the last week. Thankfully, Becca took some things off my plate (what a great friend), and gave me some down time - and I recovered quite nicely.
Today, mom and dad leave for Jamaica. Julie and Reg are there now - the wedding will be underway on Friday.
Here are some pic's from one of Julie's showers.

This one is Julie & Kim Nevada


This one is Julie's new "sisters". The one in the middle is Reg's sister Laureen, and the two blondes are Kari Lynn and Kim, Reg's step sisters.
Tanya Hagel and Julie

And this one is probably my most favorite picture we have ever taken together. We get way nicer pictures since Julie has become a little more snuggly :)
I've gotta admit, I'm pretty sad not to be going. It seems crazy that they would be going to one of my favorite places, for my sister's wedding and that I'm not going to be there. I did send a little piece of us with her, by making sure she had her something borrowed, new, old, blue, and a 6 pence for her shoe.

The "new" is the jewelery mom gave her for her birthday. The "old" is my Great Grandma's wedding ring. The "blue" is Blake's birthstone on the guardian angel I pinned to her garder belt. The "borrowed" is Roxanne's purse from her wedding day. And the six pence was my favorite. I looked it up online to find out the meaning of it. It said among other things - "Carry another valuable object like a different coin, jewelry, or a bill in the denomination of the bride or groom's ancestry". So I thought we would use something that was meaningful. I told the boy's they should find a special nickel. Jake thought they should find one from the year she was born. They ended up easily finding one from the year Auntie was born, and one from the year Blake was born, and gave them both to her so she could decide which one she wanted to carry. It was a great idea, and she loved it too. She told them she would wear them both. So that was nice, at least I got to have a little part of it all.

We had our fundraiser this past weekend for Jake's novice team. It turned out fabulously. I wouldn't have changed a thing about the whole night. The meal was perfect, the guests were fun, the d.j. was spectacular, we had so much fantastic help, and we made a crap load of cash. It was absolutely perfect!

Now we will hit December, and hopefully it won't be quite so busy as November, or December of last year. I enjoy Christmas so much, but it's very hard to enjoy it when things are moving so fast. I'm keeping Becca's kids (3 or 4 of them, not sure yet) this coming weekend, and we've got a couple of hockey tournaments, and some Christmas Parties to go to this month. It will be fun, but hopefully not chaotic! I'll post again, when I find a minute - I have been doing some fun craft/decorating projects lately - maybe I'll find time to share.

Love,
Jodi

What's going on?

Well, this week these are my latest projects........ Julie & Reg are getting married in December, so we are throwing them a party of sorts in honor of their upcoming wedding. I am in charge of inviting and food delegating - that is next Wednesday the 12th. That weekend I am working at Spruce Meadows craft show selling candles. The Monday after, Becca and I are having a Quilted Cabin Party - I think I have invited like 65 people or so - hopefully we will have about 20 guests (although so far I only have 5 for sures, and 7 maybes - wanna come?) The next weekend after that I work Spruce Meadows on the Friday again, and then up bright and early Saturday to head to Brooks for a hockey tourney. The next weekend I am part of the planning for our big fundraiser (dinner and dance cabaret style) for Jake's hockey team.
Did I mention we just bought a house that went into foreclosure in the framing stage? We are planning on finishing it in the next 6 month to sell (or rent) ..... Jeepers I'm tired just from typing it all

Here are some picture's from the Hallowe'en festivites


And here are some cute pictures of Drew that I came across.....


Love,
Jodi

A little about me & what I've been doing....

So I have recently determined that I am my happiest when I am either creating or learning. I've found a bunch of new blogs to read lately that are about primitive country decorating, and do it yourself decorating, and craft making etc. I can't stop reading them. I have learned so many new tricks and techniques to make or re make so many wonderful things. I'm completely addicted. I stay up for hours reading forums & blogs. I am awake early in the morning excited about all of the things I want to do.

Here was a lamp I re did. This picture would have been the 'before' picture had I remembered to take one. This is a mini version of the lamp -- it's re do is on the way!

This is the almost finished version. What a difference!!! The best part is that it only cost me a can of spray paint and a lampshade (9.99 @ Walmart).


I would like to dress the lampshade up a little. I've already stained it (it was stark white). I'm thinking about wrapping fabric around the bottom of the shade, these are my three choices..... Which one do you guys like best?


Many more projects to come - I'm so excited to do them all!

Jodi

Meet the Flames

Last Tuesday the Washington Capitals were in town to play the Flames. For those of you not so up with the hockey world, Alexander Ovechkin, plays for the Capitals. He is coined to be the very best hockey player in the NHL right now.
I found out that you could go to the Flames practices for free, and that sometimes you can catch the visiting team's practice as well. I thought this would be a good day to catch them, and hopefully see Ovechkin practice as well. So we took some good friends off our hockey team down to the Dome and this is what we saw......

This is Ovechkin.....

Here we all are sitting in the stands. This picture is a Kolt sandwich with Cash & Cain Dedominicis on each side.

This is a Jake sandwich with Cole Dedominicis & Drew on each side.


This is Becca & Me.

We heard rumblings around the practice that if you go outside and wait by the Flames parking lot exit, the players will sometimes stop and sign autographs. So we did that too, and this is who stopped.


Very handsome Matthew Lombardi.

New guy Mike Cammalleri


Wayne Primeau


Sweetheart Jarome Iginla - such a genuinely nice guy. (He's handing back Drew's jersey here, you can see her little pink fingernails poking up from the bottom of the picture to grab it)


My personal favorite on so many levels.....Dion Phaneuf (he is signing my shoulder)

Robyn Regher


Craig Conroy. He was soooo super with the kids - what another great guy.

We also met Prust, McElhinney, Giordano, Glencross, Pardy, Moss & Boyd. Apparently, we had just missed Todd Bertuzzi by seconds - next time......

It was a terrific day. We had great fun (Becca & I maybe more so than the kids). The kids jersey's are now covered in signatures, it was all so very cool!

Jodi