Advocating!!!

O.k. this sweetest little girl is looking for a forever family! She is described as having the sweetest personality. Her agency "given" English name is Sadie. Sadie has osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease) and has had a few fractures when she was a baby, however she hasn't had any in a very long time. Her nannies love her, but they treat her like glass so she isn't allowed to play with the other kids or learn how to walk. She is on the shared list and is 3 yrs old. I am praying we find her a family. I wish it was mine however I think not, Addison just needs more time adjusting, as do we :) If you are interested in Sadie email me! khmervyn@telus.net Oh how my heart breaks for her! Sadie deserves to see the world and not sit in a crib all day out of fear, she needs love and medication to strengthen her bones, she needs a Mom and a Dad! I know brittle bone disease sounds scary......and sometimes it can be, however the joy and love Nathan has brought to our lives sure outweighs the hard hospital times. I would love to mentor anyone who is interested in adopting a child with O.I. I don't know everything about the disease, but I have had 11 years experience in the trenches. If you are a fellow blogger I would ask you to consider posting her picture or linking this post you can even add my email. I am passionate about finding Sadie a home. O.k. I am now stepping off my soap box :)

Love This Boy!

Gosh this picture captures Nathan's spirit, in everyway, when I look at it, it makes my heart sing! Oh how I love this boy!

24 Days: Make a Christmas Puzzle!

So I have decided to do family focused activities for our Christmas advent calendar. I am really excited to do these activities and hope the kids will really enjoy them. Today was make a Christmas puzzle. We had fun.....it was a 100 piece puzzle from the dollar store, soooo it wasn't well made! lol! And alot of pieces could fit in several places!!! For real! It had the boys very frustrated, and Riley stormed off more than once when the piece she thought fit perfectly really didn't! Oh well, this is the stuff memories are made of :) It was really nice to do something with all of the kids and not have them all off in their separate spaces. Addison even found a couple pieces place, so I would say this activity was a success! Good thing too, because I have another Christmas puzzle to do later in our advent calendar :)

On a side note, I have never had any of my children go through the "why?" stage.........that was until Addison! "but mommy, whyeeee?" It really is so darn cute! And is something I will have to try and get a video of :) Oh, I am certainly trying to get a video of Addison "singing" Santa baby!

fingers crossed there, she definitely only performs when SHE feels like it :)

Santa Baby

What is Addison's favourite Christmas carol right now?.....well its not O Holy Night, Little Drummer Boy or something meaningful like Silent Night......neither is it Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman or Rudolph the Red nose Reindeer. My silly willy girls favourite Christmas carol is, yep you guessed it Santa Baby by Marilyn Monroe!!! Does that make me a bad mom!?! lol! Is that even appropriate!?! Either way it gets stuck in both Addison's and my head.....well the chorus does anyways. And it is the cutest thing I have heard, listening as she walks around the house singing "Santa baby hurry Addison's chimney tonight"

The weekend before last we were at the mall and Santa was in his chair. I pointed him out to Addy as we walked past, and was quite curious to see her reaction. Well Miss Addy got the biggest smile on her face, started waving like her life depended on it and in the loudest sweetest sing song voice she said "HI SANTA!" over and over and over again :) Whats so funny about this is that Riley is terrified of Santa. She was mortified and was doing her best to hide behind Howard! You could see the wheels turning in her head......"Why is Addison doing that! Oh gosh don't let him notice me! If he notices me I might puke! Oh Dad please save me! Get me outta here!" All years prior to this we could not even walk past centre court without Riley getting really upset! So this was a huge step for her! Needless to say we didn't do pictures with the Jolly fellow. And if you ask Addison if she wants to sit on his knee for a picture she shakes her head adamantly and says "No! Santa sit on Addison's knee!" Now that would be a picture to see :)

A Sweet Sunday

Today was one of those days that so rarely happen when you have 4 kids. Our morning went so smoothly, we made it to church on time and then both the girls went to their classes and stayed the whole service! This is the second sermon I have been able to listen to since June! So I was very grateful that Addison was happy to stay for her second time by herself! She had fun, and hardly wanted to leave when the service was over :)

Right now both the boys are at friends houses. Riley and I have just finished making a batch of buns and the pot roast is in the oven for supper. Addison awoke from her nap with smiles and giggles and the girls are playing "kitchen."

We have had another mini dump of snow so its a perfect day to stay inside and cuddle up with some tea and a good book while we wait for dinner to be ready. This is what I envisioned when I first started having kids......enjoying, teaching and relishing in them and their little ways. To consider it a honor and not a job to help and provide for them. Sometimes that all gets lost in the running around and getting things done. When days come along like this it reminds me of how blessed I am to be these kids Mom!

Smile!?!

O.k. so I said "SMILE" and this is what I got!!! Ha! This little munchkin sure makes me laugh! She is so cheeky and such a ham! If she gets one little giggle out of any of us, she is really hamming it up, so she can turn that giggle into full on laughter!

Also I know I said I would take some pictures of the tree, however the stinkin bloody cat keeps climbing into the darn tree and knocking out Christmas ornaments!!!! Hence the "holes" in my tree! That cat may just turn into a hat!!! I am totally kidding! Well not about him climbing the tree....just the hat part! We love you Bluey! Even if you wreck my special tree :)

Things are busy around here, Howard is back to his crazy work schedule I think by Sunday this week he will have worked 90 hrs in 7 days.....does that mean he gets next week off? Nope! He gets to do it all over again until Christmas Eve! Well thats what he has warned me. How am I feeling about it? We won't go there tonight!!! This too shall pass. Im Thankful he has a job he loves, and dreaming of a Carribean vacation this Spring (hopefully)

We are ramping up for our Holiday traditions, and I am still working on the whole advent calendar activity idea.....I have plenty of ideas, however I need to remain realistic with what we can do on weekdays and how much energy I will have with Howard gone so much. I know I may have to let some things go....however there are traditions and activities I really don't want to give up. I really hope my kids to remember the holidays and some of our traditions when they are adults, although I don't want them to recall their Mom being some frazzled stressed out freak because she wasn't realistic! And bit off more than she could chew! lol! I guess I will have to have it all figured out by December 1st!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American Friends!

Addy's first play in the snow

So this picture is just as we stepped outside, Addison thought it was quite fun, and I was outside to shovel the walkways and driveway, so she felt safe. Addy was quite happy to run around for the first few minutes......

Hmmmm this was Addy about 15 minutes after we came outside! It was only about -10C (14F) however that was too much for our little miss :)

Then today we woke up and started getting the boys ready for school, and I noticed our furnace was running alot. So I decided to quickly check the current temperature.....well at 8AM it was -30C feels like -39C with the windchill!!! For my American friends with the windchill it was -38.2 Fahrenheit!!!! That is when I started asking myself why the heck do we live here!?! Really I mean I had running around to do this morning.....that is obviously postponed for another day! And hauling Nates wheelchair out at the school......well we won't even go there! On these days I certainly miss living on Vancouver Island, I even miss the constant rain, wind and grey when its this cold! Luckily I was able to drop Nate off at the jr high doors, Josh off by his portable and the girls and I headed home. So I didn't have to haul Addison out in this ridiculous weather! We are looking forward to the high of zero they are calling for later in the week :) I know Howard certainly is, because he is working outside in this! Here's hoping that you, my friends are all warm and cozy!