Long Weekend laughs

We just returned from a weekend in Osoyoos, the desert of BC! Not so much this weekend. The weather was not so great, I think they saw more rain there this weekend then they do all year. But somehow I still managed to get a sun burn? Go figure! We went to Ryan's parents place at Paradise Park, with them, Ry's brother and wife Marc and Nat. Ryan's parents just purchased a boat so this was the christening of "sudden debt" in the water.

The boys despite the weather found time for a tube ride...and yes Ryan wore those bob the builder goggles the entire time:) It was so choppy we thought a couple times that they might bounce out. But thank goodness they didn't it would of been sooooo cold.

Abby loved her freedom andany moments of confinment sent her into a rebellion. She has had better weekends. Her sleeping habits were hmm well non existent. She had her own agenda and that was to roam the park freely, chase ducks and ride in the boat. Anything else just annoyed her!

We squeaked in a couple games. Settlers which I really should of one I just needed one more brick. And cities and knights....funny I can't remember who won that one. I must be in denial about it.

Our ride home was the most comical more because what else can you do but laugh when you are moving that slow! The first obstacle was a brown cow! Traffic came to a hault as people avoided the large cow.

The kids were entertained as they watched Jimmy neutron....you can see by abby's face it was pretty intense. The other obstacles along the way were plain old traffic so it made for a longer trip. Normally it is about 4 hours it took us just over 5. But we are home safe and sound.

THE BIG 3-0

Well it is official....I have joined the other side! I am officially Thirty. So far so good. We had a great time celebrating it, pickleball, games, dinner with friends and family. It was a whole day event thanks to my hubby and I had tons of fun. Hopefully everyone else did too! I will see if I can put a little video together so you can get a peek into what the day consisted of for me:)
Thanks for a great day Ry!!

here is the video!!!

Ice Ice Baby

Normally you would think kids laugh at the movie...well NOT my kids who needs the movie, it is the previews that get them going! Check out this video...

The Big Race!

Have a peek at but yet another video into the douglas house!

Story by Josh

To listen to the well renowned Josh tell one of his story's just click on the picture and enjoy.

cake it is

Yup, me and my pal Cheryl did this. Ya know we are pretty proud of it too for a first time cake decorating experience. We used a fonthingamajig or something to cover the cake and then cut out shapes and stuff...the more important detail is we did this in like less then an hour. And with not the right amount of fonthingamajig stuff....OH ya we had another helper in there too. It was at our church a womens thingie we went too and this was the course we sorta signed up for. Not too bad hey!

Note to Self...

Do Not go along Lougheed Highway when going for your run! This morning I was off for my usual exercise routine the jogger buggy's tires were low so we went to the closest gas station to pump dem up! I then decided to take a different route and go down lougheed it is straight and flat. Well after feeling the gusts of wind push me and abby off the shoulder a few times I have re-evaluated and will NOT run down there again! I am sure I probably broke some Mommy safety law, I bet I am out of the club now. Sheesh. I could feel every mini van just staring me down....and then you can just start to think of the comments they spitting out! hee hee.

Shop, Drop and Snore!

This weekend was a Mommy retreat! Me and my Sis were given a weekend away from a dear loving husbands. And it was such a treat. We headed down to Seattle (we were dropping my parents off at the airport) early early early Saturday morning. We headed for a place called North Bend...to most peolple reading a map is a easy task but for some reason for the two of us it was a challenge actually we were really good at reading the map it was the watching for signs we weren't so good at. We toured Seattle for well we won't disclose the time it is too embarassing, but we had great attitudes and were just happy to be on a break. Once we reached North Bend we were chomping at the bit to shop, it was a great outlet mall, we had a good start to a weekend of shopping. After a few hours there we needed retreat so we headed to our hotel which was great (all done by the hubby's I think David actually gets credit here!). It was a nice place where we got to rest up for a bit then we headed over to the "super mall". I don't think "super mall" does it justice. It was a honkin huge mall, it was just stinkin huge. We shopped for a couple of hours but we were needing to drop. We went back to the hotel to enjoy the hot tub and relax. The next day we had a delicious breaky and ventured over to Chelsea Outlet in Tulalip. We loved this one too! We stayed for few hours and then completed the shopping extravaganza. Back home for our baseball game...which unfortunately our team lost. But we played together well as a team and it was a fun game it was nice and close.
Well that was our weekend. Me and my sis feel pretty lucky to have husbands who appreciate our work at home so much...we are very blessed. I must give extra props to UNCLE DAVID, he was Mr. Mom for most of the weekend and had 5 kids for lots of the time. He will now be forever referred to as Super Uncle! Abby was with her Nana, for her own retreat. I know not very many dads would do this so willingly so I feel pretty honored that I have such an amazing Husband!

Do you know Abby's Bear?

If you know Abby you know about her bear the two are inseperable. Well we just go this urgent letter regarding her best buddy BEAR!


We recieved this picture attached with a note that read:
Dear abby
If you want to see your bear again send 100 cookies to uncle david or else the bear gets it
sincerely
the bearnapper

Stanley Cup Playoffs

At our house Hockey isn't just on TV it is the air you breathe. I knew this getting into this marriage so I am ok with it, I am actually learning to embrace it. Well I am learning. But no matter what no one can say the playoffs aren't exciting. This is the kinda of hockey I like to watch. Well it started yesterday the boys were all watching the game, and when the overtime break hit they coudn't wait to get a stick in their hands and play, their dad too. They all filed outside and thus it began. The Stanley cup Playoffs in the front yard. I am not completely sure how the games go but I heard in great detail who was winning so far.....and that is Caleb. The funny thing is I was given strict instructions to call them in when the game was back on, I did! They were having so much fun by the time they finished their period the game was finished.
I will keep ya posted as to who will finally win the Douglas Stanley Cup!

A really fun Game!

Hey guys, my friend Steve was telling me that I needed to try this game called "Ticket to Ride"! So I did. It is really fun. If you wanna give it a go here is the website!
http://www.ticket2ridegame.com/
Once you are on the website click on play, you have to get a password and user name but you can play for free, some people subscribe there are more options if you do, but you still can play if you don't!!
have fun!

Caleb's birthday in a Nutshell!

It is about 4minutes long...a little longer then most of the other video's

More Great Family News!!!

Bad Blogger

I have not kept up my end of the bargain here. Sorry folks.
We have had so much happen over the past few weeks! We had Caleb's birthday on April 18th I will put some pictures on. We had lots of fun "Caleb's Sports Bash" He had a bunch of his little friends over and they had to complete a variety of sporting events; balloon volleyball, basketball, dart throw, long jump, homerun derby, soccer shoot out and hockey slap shots! We had a great time. Pictures to come I have tried to download them three times and it seems to be having some issues.
In other news.....
Remember I mentioned the mouse....that problem seems to be resolved. No more sightings or any caught in our various traps. But on Caleb's birthday while we were in the front yard we had a snake slither by. One of the dad's Adam picked it up and all the kids were able to have an upclose and personal look at the snake...ewww. Then on Friday night Ryan noticed our neighbor had his truck facing our house lights on shining right at us. Hoping he wasn't going to run our home down Ryan popped his head out to see what was up. We were SHOCKED to discover we had a visit from bear. He was finishing off the rest of Caleb's birthday cake that had been thrown in the trash beside the house. This bear had just visited a couple of neighbors homes too, hence why our one neighbor followed him in his truck. The man in the truck got out and was throwing things at the bear which scared it and the bear took off into our backyard where he must of hopped the fence. So what is up? Sheesh maybe there was something to the less private neighborhood, this more private one gets the wilder visits. I will keep ya posted on the neighborhood bear!!

The BIG NEWS!

On Saturday we got some EXCITING NEWS! My brother Shane and his girlfriend Becky came over and surprised us with.........

their Engagment!

Late friday night my bro popped the big question! And she accepted. Nothing was going there way that night and the story really is a comedy of errors but all to make it even more memorible! We are so excited for them and can't wait til the big day...which is still to be announced!

Today Abby was following me down the stairs I went ahead of her into the kitchen and a few seconds later I heard thud, thud, thud. I think she did a HUGE tumble down the last group of stairs. It was so sad! She was not happy understandably so! Barney seemed to help calm the tears though!

Caleb is 4!

April 18th is his for real birthday but we had a family bash on Easter Monday! Caleb had his wish and it was to have a family soccer game and he got his WISH! We headed down to Josh's school down the street where there was obstacle training, a few soccer drills, goal celebrations, and a family soccer game, Old Guns vs Young Guns! After a young gun victory we headed back to our place for supper, cake gifts a tough game of hide and seek! Uncle Marc was the best hider but he really did break the safety rules!!! He hid outside so I guess that means Auntie Natalie was best hider behind the office chair under a blanket....didn't want to tell her at the time that is where we saw the mouse shhhh! Caleb had a great time and really loves all his family!

Part of the obstacle course!

Dribbling through the cones!

Ry paired the kids with a grown up and they had to come up with the best goal celebration! Josh relieved Uncle David of his duties and came up with the super spinner winner! Caleb chickened out and left Uncle Marc hanging with his tummy bare!

Auntie Cara Lee had to play in net for the shooting drill, luck of the draw!

The two teams, Old Guns and Young Guns!

The Cheerleaders!

Our Anti-hugger surprised us all when David was overjoyed with the Young Guns win and scooped up Josh in a HUGE HUG!

Last picture "waiting for supper" then the battery died!

Happy Easter!

The morning started out with an egg hunt and basket find then off to church we were only 15 minutes late!

The rest of the day was filled with MASS amounts of chocolate eating!!!

Abby found Ry's ref whistle and LOVED it! She took charge of events.

We had Auntie Natalie and Uncle Marc over for Easter dinner, an impromptu one!

Mouse in the House

It started thursday morning. I came down stairs still in a fog, I stopped half way down the stairs because something dark grey and fuzzy caught my eye. I paused and thought am I seeing what I think I am seeing! I began shouting for Ryan, who was determined to ignore me and keep sleeping, but I was persistent enough, and not moving from my position of half way down the stairs. After Ryan hunted the entire main floor he was convinced I was seeing things. He even brought a toy rhino and said no this must of been what you say. I told him he was nuts and the toy rhino can not move and this thing was moving. But he would not believe me. The rest of the day went by I cleaned every cupboard, closet, corner and then some found nothing thankfully cause I don't know what I would of done! Around 3pm Eric (our room and board guy) came up and said you know I don't want to be the one to tell ya this but I am pretty sure I saw a mouse this morning. I was THRILLED! Finally someone who could verify my belief, I phoned Ryan straight away told him I was NOT crazy and he needed to take care of this or I would not be sleeping at home tonight. I was way too scared! I took the kids to ikea, then we went shopping and we managed to stay away from home from 3:30-9pm! We came home and saw the mickey mouse (tee hee mickey mouse) trap Ryan had set (Natalie is positive it works, that is his resource). This trap is a bucket with water string across the top with a pop can in the middle on the string covered in peanut butter. This just wasn't cutting it for me so I insisted ryan go and get some snap your neck kinda traps from the store. Ry finally got home around10pm, he set the traps up all around and we went to bed..I guess I didn't' follow through with my threat! The next morning (it was a restless night) we looked at all the traps nothing in the house but we did catch one in the garage. Ry reset the one in the garage and about an hour later another one was caught in the garage. I am pleased to say it has been 6 days and the traps have been up but we have caught nothing so we are hoping our problem is gone!!! That or they are not being enticed by our traps anymore? Mice aren't that smart are they?
One funny side note is on saturday I was telling my mom and dad about the all the mice we caught and told them we had caught four, all in the garage same spot too! Later when telling Ry there was another mouse in the trap which made four in total he laughed and informed me no it is the second one still I just haven't gotten it out of the trap yet...oops I had counted that stinkin thing a bunch of times....I will keep ya posted on the mouse action or lack there of!!

It isn't Terrible Two's it is Oh-Oh ONE's!

Our angelic little PRINCESS, Abby! Hmmm can you really use Angelic and Princess and Abby all in the same sentence. Um ya but only when she is sleeping. All my life I would hear about the "Terrible Two's" yet I have not experienced it. I think two year olds are great, it is one year olds that seem to take the cake here, or really they take, grab, eat, break anything they can get their hands on! I think the thing is two year olds start to understand that when the parent says NO they mean NO, the one year old is all about learning what this means. And trust me Abby is learning! Let me shed some light into Abby's World. Just in the past week she has accomplished all of the following:
Thursday: While playing outside with the three kids, we began a big soccer game. Mom vs the Rangers (Josh and Caleb). As we kicked the ball to and fro Abby ran around us and cheered, screamed and just walked about everywhere. As I was going in for my big GOAL! I realized oh my where is abby (don't' worry I kicked the ball and scored first) I glanced around checking all of her usual destinations, the garage, the porch and nothing. I then began to run over to a path right next to us to see if she had wandered but thinking it has been about 30 seconds how far could she really get? Josh had his nervous laughter going on, suggesting to me she ran down the street as I began to shout her name a bit more forcefully, Josh and Caleb both started laughing I turn and there is our angelic little Abby on our neighbors porch just running back and forth watching us!
Thursday night: I went into my bathroom at 9pm to discover an empty bottle of children's chewable tylenol on the floor. Knowing there were at least 5 tablets left I freaked! Ran into Abby's room yet she seemed fine....Thinking back I recall a pink beard on her but we thought she got a candy that had been on the floor in the kitchen. Poison control assured me that at abby's age and weight she would have to eat 13 for them to even be worried. She had a really great sleep that night!
Friday: I was telling my mom about her adventures (I am sure there are more that I am now blocking out). So Mom begins to tell me yes I know exactly what you mean After I few good swigs of chocolate sauce she got out of the cupboard she then decorated the floor at grandma's with the sauce! Better there than here though hee hee hee.
Saturday and Sunday were good she spent a good chunk of the day with her Aunt on one and her grandma on the other! But as we now know it doesn't mean nothing happened it just means that one of those two had to clean it up!
Monday: Abby found the bag of jelly beans...but of course only the black ones were left cause who likes black jelly beans.....let me tell you ABBY! She chewed, ate, who knows what else the remaining beans which left a beautiful black trail everywhere she traveled. The good news is after getting into the jellybeans she got into a almost empty bottle of tilex and dumped it on her clothes which actually prevented staining!
Tuesday: I was giving her a bath and she demonstrated her diving skills. She is sitting up and then POW she throws her body back goes under water completely, does a side roll and comes up laughing waiting for you to cheer! After I start breathing again I was able to show excitement, but more for the fact that she was still alive! Of course she does it over and over again!
So that is a week in the life of a one year old. Are you still thinking Angelic and Princess are the best words to describe Abby?

I am a Graduate NOW!

Saturday April 1st was not only Auntie Natalie's 27th birthday it was Josh's Wee College Graduation. A cap and gown event! Josh has successfully completed his second year of wee college this year he learned all the divisions of the bible, books of the bible, Psalm 23, 14 memory verses which he really can tell you and 17 stories from the bible! The program is amazing but what is even more amazing is how the kids take it right in and learn it for life!!






The ceremony began with the 50+ students (3 groups freshman, sophomore, graduates) marching in to the tune of "pomp and circumstance" they filled the stage and continued to sing a few of their theme songs for Wee College. After the large group performed they proceeded to do individual class highlights. The sophomore class which Josh was in, demonstrated their knowledge of the books and divisions of the bible. Josh said the blue division minor prophets and one of the memory verses he learned Acts 1:8. The entire group also recited Psalm 23.







They ended the ceremony with the children passing through the arch way moving onto to their next class or being recognized for completing the whole wee college course. There was a lunch afterward for family and friends to enjoy with the college grads! Basically tons of kids running around from the high of sugar from eating one too many cupcakes.












When asked Josh stated his favorite part of the whole event was when he had the microphone and said his verse and blue books.

They Came we Saw we Conquered

Veggie Tales LIVE was here on Friday!

We had a great time, we went with a whole crew of friends. The kids loved it even though their facial expressions suggest otherwise. Our boys sat with jaws open glazed look the whole time, but assured us they were loving it. There was big smiles when Larry Boy made his appearance. Abby on the other hand was shrieking and clapping and loving every minute of it. We were really high up for the first half then we followed Janelle and Daryl to the floor where we sat and watched the last half and it made a HUGE difference.

On our walk back to the car we had to cross a street so Josh and Emily Terrett grabbed eachothers hands crossed the street and continued to walk 2 more blocks hand in hand it was really cute! Hence why there are so many pictures.