Saturday, November 28, 2009

Thanksgiving

We travelled to New York for Thanksgiving this year! Here are some random pictures of the various activities going on around here. Lauren and Ann were both working and not able to make it home, so it's a mini-family gathering. We miss them!


Cute bums! Tubby time...


Napping, after rising before 4am to go shopping on Black Friday! We got some great deals on clothes, and a portable DVD player, which we've been needing for our long trips to visit family via car and plane.


Helping me make Scor Bar Dessert


They are good at licking things:-)


Completed masterpiece. And delicious!


The reject dark meat and skin...nobody else likes it, but I was picking at it all day. Yum!

Ta-da! Look what we made!

Putting sprinkles on cupcakes


More cupcake decorating. He loves this civil war style hat, and insists on wearing it inside out, but it's pretty cute!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Soccer Trophy's

Soccer is over for this season.

At home showing off their trophies. They are engraved on the back with their names, they love them!


Award ceremony


Last soccer practice




Beach Fall Pics

Here are some of the pictures our friend and photographer Chani took of us 2 weeks ago. It started to rain while we out there, and was pretty windy so the kids were making tons of funny faces and our hair was all over the place...so we did a re-do session today, as not as many turned out as she would have liked. Still some pretty cute ones though!



















Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Hey...Good Lookin'

You have to check out Kari's site. She is such an awesome photographer! As I was browsing her blog, I saw these pics (more on her blog) of my brothers. Of course, I have to re-post. Good looking dudes!

Here's Logan


And here's Davis

I think they should be models.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Craft Sale - Dec 12

I have a friend from church (www.laurenalexis1.blogspot.com), that is trying to adopt a baby boy from Ethiopia. International adoptions are very expensive, and they are trying to raise money to help with the cost. Another friend from church had the idea to have a craft sale for them, where some of us "crafty" people make crafts/cards to sell, and then all the money we get will go to John & Lauren to help them bring a little baby home. So I have been trying to come up with some nice ideas (that people will want to buy), and yet are easy enough to create quickly, since we do need some volume to be able to have enough to sell. The date of the craft sale/fundraiser will be December 12th. I have been posting a few things I made recently with the craft sale in mind on my Stampin' Up blog, (www.darbyjanestamps.blogspot.com)

Here are some adorable gift card holders, that can be hung from the tree. They are made so the card cannot fall to the bottom and get lost.


Saturday, November 14, 2009

Rain = Not Ideal

When Hurricane/Tropical Storm Ida meets a Nor'Easter storm...disasters happen. It's been raining here (constantly) since Tuesday night. I think this is the worst storm we've seen since we've lived here. The Nor'Easter is much larger than a tropical storm, apparently, so it lasts much longer. Yesterday morning we had a brief period of no rain, and today it's only a light rain, so I think the worst is over, but yesterday & today in places closer to the beach it was raining harder, all day.

Nothing has happened to us, all our trees are still standing and everything. We are not in a flood zone, so we are fine. Sister-in-law Lauren has been out of power since Thursday, and hopefully it will be back on tonight. She is also flooded into or out of her house...can only get out (or in) in low tide! So some people have it really rough, and I'm very glad we've just been 'business as usual' here.

Yesterday we ventured out to Costco, I left Kenna in the cart while I quickly tried to load Brooks in the car. She is being blown away by wind and rain, and shouts (with her little hands covering over her brownie sample, so it doesn't get wet) "Hurry Mom, hurry! This is not ideal!" I just totally cracked up laughing. I said, you're right! This is definitely not ideal!

A tree blew over just down the street from us on Thursday evening and crushed 2 vehicles. Here is the truck that was crushed by the tree.


The brown dirt sticking up is the root system, the whole tree just tipped over from the ground up! We saw this lots driving around, it's amazing to see. It was a big tree, but people were working on it really fast, as it was also blocking across the road.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Rained In

It's been raining (pouring) for 2 days and nights now...starting to feel like Noah over here! School is even cancelled today! Here are the kids heading out to church last night. We only have one raincoat, so Kenna got that (it has a bit of pink on it), and Brooks wore the shell of his winter coat, since it has a hood. Then of course there were lots of arguments about who gets to hold the "ber-rella" (to Brooks). The umbrella was passed down from Brian's sister Meghan. It's so cute!

Showing Off & Memories

Another piece of clothing Kenna now fits into that we have to show off!

This sweater is a hand-me-down from my sister Maryn (almost 10). And it has a little story too...

Brian and I were engaged in Central Park, NYC, on December 28th, 2002. We traveled to the city a few days prior, with my brother Brent, and Brian's/our friend Ben. We stayed with Brian's Aunt who lives in the city. We had such a good time! Anyway, in all our travels and excitment, we missed little Maryn's 3rd birthday, which was December 27th. Poor girl, she was so cute! So we bought her this sweater at The Gap, as a gift. It also had a matching hat/tuque, but I am not sure where that got to, maybe Maryn kept it, or it wore out.

Maryn gets the short end of the stick with a poorly timed birthday I guess...the year she was born ('99), we (us older kids) wanted to attend my friends wedding in Nashville, TN. We weren't allowed to leave unless the baby was born...we figured out the latest we could leave was midnight on the 27th to make it there in time...she was born sometime in the evening of the 27th, I don't remember the exact time...so Brent, Lauryn & I stopped in at the hospital to visit her (around 10 at night!) before we left town! Jared graciously stayed back to help...or maybe he didn't really want to go? I can't remember. Anyway. Poor girl. In my opinion, she should have waited a few days and come in early '00...then my mom would have had children in FOUR decades. Wow. Oh well, she'll have to settle for three decades. Still has to be a record or something:-)

Here's the sweater!

Too cute!

Thinking about all that again made me dig out the pictures. I didn't have a digital camera in those ancient times, so I scanned in a few just now...here they are! If you click on them it will enlarge them better.

About 20 minutes after getting engaged, we caught back up with Ben & Brent and they snapped this pic.

All 4 of us at Rockefeller Center in NYC, near the famous Christmas tree. Notice the Gap bag Brian is holding...the sweater is in there!!

Pictures taken before our engagement, but we loved them so much we used them as our engagement pics. My brother Brent loved to explore the country around our house, and he found this gorgeous place right off the side of the road in Altona, ON. So pretty!


Look at that waterfall!


Brent took all these pictures and did a great job!


Maryn & Lehman at our wedding. Maryn was 3 and a half. Wasn't she cute? So was Lehman, can't forget the handsome little guy!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Ultrasound

I had my ultrasound on Thursday, and our little "Shauna-seed" is a big one! The baby is measuring at 22 weeks, and I am 20 weeks...She said my dates are right, it's just a big one! She asked how big the others were, I said 7lbs 12oz and 8lbs even, she said, "that is a pretty good size for you, but this one will be bigger!" Greeeat, I thought. The first two were plenty big enough for my size, thankyouverymuch. So we'll see. I'm wondering if it will somehow taper off and just be a normal size by 40 weeks (hoping).

The baby looks astonishingly like Brooks, and even moved like him. It's amazing what you can see on the equipment they have these days. Of course we both remarked about how much they resembled each other, and are thinking BOY, only because of that connection. So we will see how it all ends up! We are excited to meet the monster-size baby:-)

New Dress

The dress that Kenna is wearing was made by my Grandma Shantz...for my sister Jillaine! Jillaine (now 13) wore it at a similar age, and my mom saved it and passed it along. Kenna was very excited to fit it and wear it to church.

We had to snap a few pics to send to Great-Grandma and also show "De-waynie". Naturally Brooks just had to be in the picture too...he said he need a picture to show how Daddy did his hair "wike a man, wiff gel and water"




Smiling nicely was a bit of a chore this morning...here we are trying the "Say Cheerio" version...also a failure...


Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Baby Shauna-seed & the Name Game

A cute little note - I'm posting it more for the sake of my memory, I'm sure I'll forget as time goes on unless I record it somewhere...

As I'm sure many of you know by now, Shaughnessy is my all time favourite girls name. It's been previously disallowed by Brian, for being too many letters. With this baby, he said we could name it Shaughnessy if it's a girl. Yay. Of course I immediately told the kids we could name our girl Shaughnessy, partially in an effort to garner support so he can't change his mind:-) Admittedly a little bit evil, yes:-D My love for names knows no bounds, apparently, haha!

Anyway, Brooks has really taken to the name from the start. He says "Shauna-seed", and almost always refers to the baby that way. When I suggest other names for boys or even other girl names, he says No! It's baby Shauna-seed! It's just so cute!

I'm also teaching them to spell it - which was Brian's biggest hangup on the name - If you sing the letters to the tune of the Mickey Mouse song it works, it's the same number of letters (11) Yay.

Anyway, I just love it, and I think it goes well with Kennedy too. I love the surname thing, and I guess these are all Irish too. A little theme.

History -

Baby 1: Kennedy Shea (Kenna) or Brooklyn Carson James (Brooks) - this was pretty easy. We knew Kennedy would be the first girl. Shea is a family name on Brian's side, and is a perfect fit with Kennedy. Brian's choice was Brooks, and I liked it too.

Baby 2: Cassidy Jordyn/Jordin (Cassy) or Brooklyn Carson James (Brooks) or Lleyton Carson James - My choice was Lleyton, his was Brooks, and we decided to go with Brooks moments after he was born. We were pretty undecided right up to the last moment. After he was born, Brian wrote 3 names down along with Carson James, which we were sure of. Brooklyn, Lleyton and Callum. We looked at them all, and thought Brooklyn/Brooks was the coolest. Very Posh & Beckham, haha. We're cool like that. Nah, it just "looked" like him, so we had to do it!

Baby 3: Shaughnessy Alea (Shaunie) or Lleyton ? David - we have time, so the verdict is out on this baby still. We have too many "likes" and need to narrow it down...It will definitely be something-something-David, with a nickname in there too, since the others have 'em.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Elections Today - Quote

It's election day here, and I love this quote I have in my 'quote file'. Of course I can't vote in this country, but still...

"In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate - look to his character...It is alleged by men of loose principles, or defective views of the subject, that religion and morality are not necessary or important qualifications for political stations. But the Scriptures teach a different doctrine. They direct that rulers should be men who rule in fear of God, able men, such as (those who) fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness...When a citizen gives his vote to a man of known immorality, he abuses his civic responsibility; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbour; he betrays the interest of his country." Noah Webster

Monday, November 2, 2009

Halloween

We went to a Harvest Party put on by a local church (Jack's family attends there). We had such a fun time!! It was huge! There were lots of games to play, food to eat, fun music & square dancing, and even a mechanical bull, but Brian wouldn't try it. I thought it would be fun:-) The kids had a blast and were completely tired by the time we got home (we stopped by a friends house on the way home too...more candy and even later night. Lucky thing we got an extra hour with the time change!)

Hayrides!


Chewing on their newly acquired Bubble-icious gum from the candy stash. Kenna is 'practicing' to blow a bubble. Each kid got a big bag of candy, and each parent got a box of M&M Premiums. Yum! Mine are mint and very addictive!

An inflatable...Brooks and Jack were too scard to go through, they only made it in the front door and came back out. Kenna tried to do it, she wasn't scared, but I think she couldn't get up the hill obstacle that was first, so she also came popping back out the front.


Pony rides! He went by himself without us! I thought he would probably do ok...Brian thought he would freak out. He had a funny face there for a moment when the horse started moving, but he never cried or anything. He was so pumped when he got off "I am a cowboy!!".



Little Kenna has always been completely unafraid of horses. She loved it!