My Little Sweat Shop

Anyone who's been to my house knows that the lady who used to live here loved playing in her garden.  I kid you not, this woman had a jungle growing in the back garden; everything from onions, to rose bushes to tulips to ginger root.   And there was no rhyme or reason to any of it.  It was as if she threw a bunch of seeds up in the sky and allowed them to root where they landed.

Today I decided to rally the troops and we decided to tackle the yard, and of course they were thrilled.  Here's an idea of the garden we were dealing with.....trust me the picture doesn't do it justice.

The boys were great troopers and worked for 2 solid hours

We even got to the crazy weed garden growing along the side of our house.....the side where the A/C unit is, that is only about the size of a dog run.

I was really proud of how hard everyone worked.  I can't believe how much bigger our yard looks.  (But you can sure see how nasty the fence looks now.  That's going to have to be another project for another day).

We even got to picking the apples up in our apple tree.

They came away with a pretty good haul, too.  It looks like I'm going have to start scouring Pinterest to find recipes and cool things to do with apples.

I'm sure proud of how hard the boys worked and how it was mostly without grumbling and everyone getting along.  And just so you don't think I'm the worst slave driving mom in history, I rewarded them with a BBQ steak dinner and ice cream sandwiches for dessert.

A little bit of Summer Catch Up

As is typical, my blogging tends to slow down during the summer break, as I like to spend as much free time during these "lazy" months as I can with my family.  Ross and I had a week off of work together and decided to have some fun with the boys.

But first, it was date night.  Hubby surprised me on my lunch break last Friday with tickets for the two of us to go see Cirque du Soliel that was playing here in Lethbridge.  It was a fantastic, amazing, jaw dropping show and I loved every second of it.  I could seriously watch it every single night.

It was an absolutely brilliant show.  And apparently this was just a "teaser" of the full show that they do in Vegas.  I swear I could spend an entire month in Vegas just going to shows.

Then it was time to have fun with the boys.  We started out our week with a trip to Calgary to see their big brother, Chris.  But we also wanted to check out the new Telus Spark Science Centre.  It didn't disappoint. There were tons of things to do for kids of all ages, and the boys had a blast.  They even had a huge dome theatre (much like IMAX), where we saw a couple of really interesting shows.

The next day we headed up to Sylvan Lake to spend a day at the water slides with Uncle Jon and Auntie Brandy.  It was awesome....the sky was a bit overcast, so we didn't have to worry about heatstroke or sunburn and we had a wonderfully fun day and a great dinner in Red Deer afterwards.

As we were leaving the restaurant, a huge hail storm hit Red Deer, so we decided to hunker down and spend the night in a hotel and go back to Calgary the next day......which is exactly what we did.  And when we got back to Calgary, the boys decided that they wanted to hit Calaway Park before having dinner with Chris and his girlfriend, Amber.  So another day of fun was had. (Pics to come later....I had to take them on my phone as my camera battery died).

Anyway, so that coupled with a couple of trips to 2 of Calgary's Leisure Centre's is why I have been absent from blog land.  Hope you're all having a great summer.

Best Idea Ever

It’s after midnight and I’m only half awake because of all the hours I've been putting in at work this week, but I just had a million dollar idea and if I put it on the internet no one can steal it, plus I’ll remember it in the morning.

STRAWBERRY GRAVY.

That is all.


UPDATED: 6am:  WTH, me?  This is exactly why you’re not allowed to blog after midnight!

It Sort of Feels Like a Hollow Victory

Conversation with Ross in the car…


Ross:  You never talk to me while I'm driving.  You just play on your phone.

me.  Oh, I was just thinking that my friend J. is amazing, but she can't see anything other than her flaws.  I wish I could make her see all the awesomeness inside of her.  She's like a magnificent piñata filled with such beauty, and all I want to do is just smash in her face with a stick.


Ross: What the f-?

me:  But in a good way.

Ross: It’s amazing that Hallmark hasn’t called you yet.

me: I know. They don’t have nearly enough cards about pinatas. Hey, do my eyeballs smell?

Ross: Are you high right now?

me: No, I’m serious. If I said “It smells like ass in here” you’d know what I mean. Same thing with armpits, and earwax, and feet, and unwashed hair, but you never hear people saying “something smells like eyeballs in here”. I wonder if humans are immune to the smell of eyeballs.

Ross: This is not even close to what I had in mind when I asked you to talk to me.

me: Well, that’s the danger of not giving me a topic. I bet dogs can smell eyes. That’s probably why when I wake up sometimes Penny’s face is like an inch from mine, and she’s staring right at my eyeballs. They probably smell awesome.


Ross: Or terrible.

me: I bet they smell delicious.


Ross: *silence*


me: Smell my eyeballs.

Ross I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that.

me: Well, now I’m all curious. I can’t smell my own eyeballs, dude. This exactly why I got married.

Ross: You got married so you’d have someone to smell your eyeballs?


me: Well, not specifically. I mean, it wasn’t in the vows. But it was implied.

Ross: You know what? I take it back. Please, please go back to your phone.  You win.

me:  Really?  I didn’t even know we were fighting.  Damn, I’m good at this.

Listen to the Bananas

So I saw this really cool idea on Pinterest about how you can lightly trace notes on a banana skin, and then the next day they will show up like magic.

The person writing the tip suggested writing sweet notes for your kids on their bananas.  I promptly went and traced notes on all of our bananas and then immediately forgot about it, until the next day when I heard Ross screaming about how the bananas were talking to him.

I acted like he was insane and like I couldn’t see any notes on the bananas, and asked if maybe he needed to go lay down and rest, but then he was all “I recognize your handwriting, dumb-ass.  Why are you writing threatening letters on the bananas?” and I was like “Because we were out of post-its?”  

But then I finally admitted that I was just practicing, because I thought it would be funny to write paranoid demands on bananas at the grocery store, so that when people get them home they’ll be all “What the Hell?  Are these bananas talking to me?  WHAT DOES IT MEAN?”  

Then Ross just shook his head and walked out of the room.  Probably because he couldn’t stand how awesome I am.

I suppose you could also write sweet, complimentary things on anonymous bananas, like “You’re so beautiful” and junk, but honestly I think having a banana hitting on me would be way creepier than one telling me to “Act natural.  You’ll be contacted soon.”  It’s probably just me.

Also, I can only think of about 6 things to write on stranger’s bananas so if you have any suggestions, please leave them.

Ryker's Baptism

Today was a wonderful, awesome, fantastic day.  Today Ryker was baptised and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  We were lucky that so many friends and family were there.  Ryker had his dad, brothers and I, his grandparents, his 2 uncles and soon-to-be auntie, 3 great-uncles and aunties and a bunch of cousins.....his best friend, Corbin, even made it over to our house for lunch afterwards.

The day started with Ryker waking up and immediately wanting to get his church clothes on and get ready.  This was at about 7 am and we didn't have to be to the church until 10.  But first, we had to go pick up his cake.  A girlfriend of mine from high school is a pretty talented little cake maker, so I asked her if she thought she could whip up a cake that resembled a CTR ring, and boy did she deliver.  Ryker said it was the most awesome cake he had ever seen.

So once we had the cake in hand, we headed to the church where Ryker and his dad got into their whites and we were ready for a baptism.

Grandma did a really cool photostory slideshow with pictures of Ryker and she and Carlos both gave amazing talks.  The spirit was very strong, and daddy did a fantastic job too.  I'm not sure if it was me, but I'm pretty sure that Grandma and Grandpa Court were sitting in that room with us all.  It was a very special and wonderful day.  And now our ENTIRE family are baptised and confirmed members of the church.  How awesome is that?!?

After leaving the church, we all came back to our place for some BBQ burgers and snacks.  It was a great time.

Ryker had a lot of fun playing with his cousins.

Uncle Jon and Auntie Brandy drove all the way down from Leduc to be with us.  They are pretty awesome and we are really looking forward to their wedding this fall.

Auntie Liz and Uncle Dean were there and really helped us out with the program and  the baptism.  We are sure lucky to have such an amazing and loving family.

We had some good BBQ, and salads, and cakes, and pop.  Yup, we like to eat.

Uncle Jon played around on the little guitar that we brought him back from Jamaica.

Jon and Drew were their typical nerdy selves.....

Mark an Linds came with their kids, and what a sweet group of kids they are.

Ryker and Jackson had a lot of fun playing together.  Can you believe that Ryker is twice his age?!?  I know, it's crazy.  That Jackson is going to be one tall dude.....kinda like his daddy.

And of course no awesome family day is complete without the beautiful grandma.  We love her to all the infinities.

Tami and her family got Ryker a neat activity book for him to do -- I think it will be a great, and still reverent distraction for Ryker when he gets a little restless in sacrament meeting.

Ryker LOVED having Uncle Jon here.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that he spent a good hour trying to convince them not to go back to Leduc.

In fact, he loves his Uncle Jon so much, that he tries to be cool "just like Uncle Jon Jon".

Uncle Steve was there too.  It's too bad he had to go back to work and couldn't stay for lunch.

I think I titled this picture "The Princess and the Popcycle".  I'm not sure why, though.  But I do know that we love our sweet, little Natalie and always have fun when she comes over to visit.

So as you can see, it was a fabulous, wonderful day and we are so grateful and proud of Ryker for making this important choice and big step in his life.

A Father's Love

Before I had children, I always visualized how my husband would be as a Father. I knew he would be loving, supportive, fun and protective to our children. But there was one thing that I never expected.

To fall in love with him all over again!


There is something about watching your husband interact with your children.  My husband is such a “manly man” so when I see him playing tickle monster with the boys, being silly with them and acting like a goofball or even watching him sit with them while reading a bed time story, it completely melts my heart.

I really admire the Father that he is:


He always takes time out of his busy schedule to “teach” the boys. It could be as simple as playing a game, explaining to them how something works or showing them something completely new.

He knows how to have fun with them. At times I am not sure who is the bigger kid Daddy or the boys?

He is always up for taking them on fun little adventures even if it means jumping into something right after work, when you know he'd rather be relaxing.

He loves being silly with them or trying to make them laugh.  And it has to speak volumes that our 15 year old son is still willing to hug him and say "I love you".  He has learned from his dad that it is okay for a man to be affectionate, no matter how hold you get.

So thank you, husband.  You are a fantastic father, role model and friend to our boys.  Thank you for teaching them, loving them, and showing them what a real man is.  You are truly a blessing in all of our lives and we all love you.