Taya’s Bday Party

We finally celebrated Taya’s 4th bday. Because her birthday is in December she tends to get over looked. The holiday season is so busy and everything is closed. This year we rented some ice time on the 2nd of January trying to be on the ball for once. And then she got the stomach flu. So she missed her party. So we rescheduled and booked the gymnastics club for today. It was really fun and Taya finally had a special birthday for her. I could tell she felt special. Even if it’s a month and a half later…..better late than never.

Check flickr for pictures…..

CD Release

So the band I’m in (Hello Paisley) won some studio time back in the summer at this ‘battle of the bands’ type thing. We recorded 3 songs in the fall and today received our first run of CDs. If you’re interested in getting a copy you can get on  www.hellopaisley.com and order a copy.

Singer Prélude

So I barely passed Grade 7 Home Ec because I could not for the life of me sew a simple dress. That had hugely discouraged me from ever trying to sew again. But after being inspired by a few young ladies trying their hand at sewing and making such cute things I thought it was time for me to let grade 7 go and try again. I went to the Yellowknife Book Cellar and bought a learn to sew book with some really cute and simple ideas. Next I headed over to Walmart and bought myself the Singer Prélude sewing machine. It was the cheapest one there and all that I really need. I bought some material, scissors, pins, seam ripper, needles, thread and then headed home.

So the first thing I sewed after all these years was Mali’s name bar to her hockey jersey. To my surprise it was straight. I was very excited! Then I decided to make a gymnastic bag for Mali and one for Taya. I must say this sewing business is a lot of fun! I can’t wait for my next project. What to do, what to do?

Handprint On My Heart

My best friend Jaime suffered a very terrible loss last year when she gave birth to her daughter, Claire, too early. Claire was born sleeping.

Although Jaime had a lot of support from friends and family she felt there was a huge lack of support in Yellowknife for families who have suffered this kind of loss. Bravely she began her own website and daily blog. What she discovered was that as she was offering a place of healing for others her heart began to heal as well. Please take the time to check out her amazing site and pass this on to anyone you think may benefit from an honest and caring place.

Hello 21st Century

This week I joined the rest of the civilized world and got a cell. An iPhone actually. It’s awesome. I’m actually writing this post from my wordpress app.
My favorite app so far is facegoo. It’s fun. Here’s a nice photo of Peyton I created…

Disney World Extravaganza

So we just got back from the best trip ever. We headed out on December 3rd to Orlando, Florida. We arrived at 5ish and had a little drive ahead of us to Sebring. My Grandparents live there so we decided to start our trip there. We stayed with them for the weekend. It rained on and off but that didn’t stop us from swimming. I am sure people thought we were crazy including my Grandmother but we thought it was nice enough out for a dip. Plus the pool was heated so it was awesome. Grandma took the girls to a Museum one morning and then we headed out to Gatorama for the afternoon. Saw some gators and other interesting animals. Benji almost lost an arm and my Grandma and I screamed so loud I am sure we set off car alarms. The girls held a baby gator and the three adults opted out. Grandma even let Mali and Taya decorate the tree with the help of Auntie Darlene.

On Sunday we said our goodbyes and headed out to Clearwater Beach. We had a hotel right on the beach. Such a nice place to visit. The public beach had all sorts of things going on….street performers, huge trampoline bungee things, a big park for the girls to play, etc… We spent a few days in Clearwater relaxing.

Tuesday we headed back to Orlando to settle in at our resort, Mystic Dunes. It was a really nice place to stay. And having a condo with a kitchen was really nice. Tuesday night we headed to Downtown Disney. Did some shopping and walking around.

On Wednesday morning we woke up nice and early and got the girls ready for their lunch with the Princesses. We headed to Epcot in Norway and lunched at the Akershus Castle. The girls were so thrilled. We sat and had lunch and the Princess went to all the tables and chatted with the little girls and posed for a picture. We got a cupcake for Taya and sang her happy bday. Even though her bday isn’t until the 30th, this was something she wanted to do for her bday. After lunch the girls got changed and we went through Epcot. Saw Winnie the Poo and Tigger in England. The we headed over to Magic Kingdom for the Christmas Parade and the most amazing fireworks I have ever seen in my life.

Thursday morning we woke up to some nice weather but by the time we got to Magic Kingdom it was raining. Pouring actually. We made it to the stroller place and bought some rain ponchos. The rain lasted about an hour and then drizzled on and off throughout the day. It didn’t seem to bother the girls and we managed to get to everything we wanted to do.

Friday was our last Disney day and we went to Animal Kingdom in the morning. Went on an African Safari ride which the girls thought was really cool and so did Mom and Dad. We were done Animal Kingdom by lunch time and then headed over to Hollywood Studios (MGM Studios) for something to eat, a block party parade, and some crazy rides. We headed over to Downtown Disney for dinner and last minute shopping. We got back to our resort at around 9pm, got the girls to bed and started packing.

Off early Saturday morning. Made it to Denver and due to complications we stayed the night there. Headed to Edmonton in the morning. Some West Ed action and back home to Yellowknife in the evening. As much as getting away is nice I find coming back home even better. Even with the crazy cold temperatures.

Our trip was amazing. We had such a great time. The girls were so good. And even with all the stuff we had planned Benj and I had a really relaxing time.

Happy Halloween!

Mali’s new smile

On Saturday Mali lost another tooth. Here was her letter to the Tooth Fairy:

Dear Tooth Fairy,

What do you do with the teeth? Do you make something with the teeth? Thank you for the money. Bye Tooth Fairy whoever you are.

PS. How do you carry heavy stuff?

Love, Mali

Letter from the Tooth Fairy:

Dear Mali,

Thank you so much for the clean teeth! They are so nice and shiny. Keep up the good job brushing. I collect the teeth from boys and girls to make my giant tooth castle. When it is done it is going to be awesome. I’m very little but I can carry heavy stuff because I have magic fairy dust that my Mom and Dad give me. Here is some money so you can buy a little treat!

Love, Tooth Fairy

PS. Your Dad is cute.

hmmmm….the PS makes me wonder if the Tooth Fairy actually wrote this note!

Albert Einstein – Does Evil Exist?

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New York City – Girls Trip

As most of you know I just got back from a weekend trip from the Big Apple. I went with my dearest friends Kim and Jaime. Here is a rundown of the most amazing, perfect New York trip….

Thursday, September 3rd – Jaime and I headed out in the morning while our husbands ran Daddy Daycare. We got to Edmonton at around 9:30 am and took a shuttle to WEM. We spent the entire day there walking around, and shopping a little. By 5 pm we returned to the airport and ate and then waited and waited and waited…

Friday, Spetember 4th – Our flight left at 1:30 am. Yes – The redeye! Never again! We flew to Montreal and arrived at 7 am (with the time change) and were off to New York shortly after. We arrived in NYC at around 10 am and met up with Kim at the airport. Her flight landed only minutes after ours. It was so exciting to finally be there and awesome to see Kim. Kim had set up a car service for us so we got our bags and headed to Time Square where we stayed at the Westin Hotel. The hotel was really nice. Thankfully we were able to check-in right away, shower and then hit the streets of New York. This was truly DAY ONE of our awesome trip. Lunch at Bryant Park and checked out the set up for the upcoming Fashion Week. Checked out the New York City Public Library which was floor to ceiling marble and where Carrie Bradshaw and Big were suppose to get married. We walked in Time Square, went to the Rockefeller Center and surrounding area and shopped (of course!). We found the American Girl Store and I of course had to go in and get some stuff for the girls. Three floors of every little girls dream. Dolls, clothes, playhouses, hospital, tea room, hair salon….insanity. I wish the girls could have seen that. I was thankful for Kim and Jaime who tagged along but it seemed like they too were having fun checking everything out. Although Kim wasn’t impressed the with “Asian Doll” that didn’t look very Asian. Macy’s was having a shoe sale so we of course had to check it out. Jaime and I found a pair each and Kim struck gold with 3 or 4 pairs. For dinner we went to Serendipity 3. For those of you who don’t know this is were the movie Serendipity was filmed. We had a 45 minute wait so we headed to Dylan’s Candy Bar to shop for our loved ones we left behind. The food at Serendipity was good. The portions were huge. Jaime and Kim enjoyed some Frrrozen Hot chocolate. After a long day of travel, shopping, sightseeing and eating we went back to the hotel.

Saturday, September 5th – Kleinfelds! We woke up pretty early to get all fancy and make sure we made it on time. We took a cab there. The building was beautiful! Inside and out. We were so giddy and star struck. It was awesome. Keasha was running late in true Keasha style. We didn’t mind. We were having a great time and hadn’t even left the lobby yet. We got into our appointment with Keasha and she was hilarious! She sent us to the back to root through the dresses. We hadn’t even gone through one row and she was yelling at Kim to get in the dressing room to try on some dresses. Keasha was a blast. She let us in on some TLC, Say Yes to the dress drama. But we’d have to kill you if we told you so it’s best to spare your lives. Kleinfelds was the purpose of our whole trip. We were scheduled to be filmed and have Kim featured on Say Yes to the Dress but because of scheduling headaches we got moved to B-roll which we think meant that they would come do a little thing with us and not the whole interviews etc. But in the end there was drama going on downstairs with a dress fitting with a bride they had already filmed so we saw the cameras upstairs for a whole 5 minutes. We might be in the background?? Who knows? But we weren’t all that upset about it. Had the cameras been there I’m not sure we would have had the laughs that we did. After the appointment we went for some lunch and toasted to an awesome morning. Then headed to Soho (South of Houston) for some…..shopping, yes. We searched for DKNY but did not find it and our feet hurt and it had been such a long day that we decided to head over to Lombardi’s Pizza which was everything we heard it was going to be. The pizza was well worth the 45 minute wait. After dinner we headed over to Pinkberry for some frozen yogurt. A super cute dessert shop with yummy flavors. A cab ride back to our hotel and already our trip was half over.

Sunday, September 6 – Our main goal for our last day in NYC was to get tickets to Wicked (the Broadway play). The box office opened at noon and we got there just before. There were 2 huge line-ups and after hanging around for about 10 minutes we realized our chances looked grim. So we left a little defeated but as we were walking we spotted Mamma Mia and decided to check it out and see if there were any available tickets there. Lucky us, there were. We had an hour or so to spare so we walked to Anthropology to return a belt, JCrew for a sweater for Kim and then ended up in a Brazilian festival/market. The streets were closed for the vendors and a huge stage for music. Loads of people. We got back to the Winter Garden Theater for 2 pm. The show (Mamma Mia) was amazing. It had us laughing, singing and bopping in our seats. Such a good time. The plan after the show was to head over the Central Park and then Century 21. Because it looked like it might rain we just headed over to Century 21. We spent almost an hour browsing. Other than some really nice high end things I didn’t really find all that much that I liked. Kim found a few things for Phil and I got Benj and the girls one thing each. Jaime and Kim were craving some pasta so we headed over to Little Itay and wouldn’t you know it…another street festival. Our dinner was fabulous but again the portions were so massive. Jaime ended the night with a cannoli and that was that. Our last night in NYC had arrived and we were back at the hotel by 11 pm.

Monday, September 7th – Up and ready for our morning flight. We were all on the same flight to Toronto. We said our sad goodbyes to Kim and onto the next leg to Edmonton. We were pretty sure we would not make our last leg to Yellowknife as the planes were full and we were flying on passes but by some miracle Jaime and I both made it home.

And there’s my weekend summary. Check out our flickr for some NYC shots.