Making a Fireplace DIY

We had our annual Breakfast with Santa today.  Our decorations were a tree and a Santa chair along with a few odds and ends of decorations around the hall.  I thought it would be great if we had a visual behind the chair.

So I happened to see this link on Facebook about making your own fireplace.  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/473440979548971449/  I went searching and found this on Pinterest.  Super easy to make.

materials needed
boxes 5 about the same size
tape
white paper
red paper
black/brown paper
glue

 

This is what it looked like when finished.  I added a few decorations, I totally forgot the Christmas socks that we decorated for this.

When it all came together.  So cute and it will look great in all the Christmas photos with Santa.

It's Almost that Time of Year Again; Ginger

Ginger will be arriving shortly.  In matter of fact her suitcase will be here tomorrow.  My kids have gone crazy this year making her "rooms".  It all started with needing a place for Ginger to be during the day after she did her activity.  Sometimes she just couldn't stay in the area she set up her activity.  For example if she did an activity on the table, she couldn't be there at supper time.  She needed to have a place to be during the day.

The first year we just had a bedroom with a bed and her suitcase and the kids made some clothes for her. http://tenille-wilsonfamily.blogspot.ca/2013/11/elf-on-shelf.html

The next year it got expanded to her bedroom and some hanging items and a more elaborate bedroom. To see those pictures go here http://tenille-wilsonfamily.blogspot.ca/2014/12/ginger-day-2.html

This year there is a bedroom a living room and a kitchen.

In the bedroom Clayton made a MTS cable box

Samsung tv  It says "it's Christmas time" and there is a person cutting down a Christmas tree

 Payton made an ipod with earphones.  There is also a laptop.

Living room with a fish tank, chimney, couch, chair, laptop and pictures.  Christmas tree with presents.  Payton made her a present and wrapped it and put it under her tree.

Clayton made a cross that says "Believe in God Forever".  There is logs and fire in the chimney.

 Payton made a Maytag fridge.

 Kitchen, still a work in progress.  Table and chairs, fridge and stove.

 The bedroom that started it all this year.  Payton did most of the work in here herself.  She made a loft bed, chair and garbage can.  Clayton made the little note book under the loft bed.  You can just see it here in this picture.

Can't wait to see what Ginger comes up with this year.  Sometimes last year she was a naughty elf and made a mess, sometimes she was a nice elf and did kind things.

You can also check out my Pinterest page here https://www.pinterest.com/tenillewilson/christmas/

We are Building A House

It's very exciting and very scary all at once.  What is the saying "If you can survive building a house your marriage will last"  So far so good (knock on wood).  Dustin and I haven't fought on anything.  I think it's mostly due to me.  I know what Dustin likes and what he's going to pick, so I make my picks within his picks and get him to see why my pick is better.  So it's a compromise, but a strategic one.

We went to the local Parade  of  Homes back in the fall.  Dustin found a layout he really liked.  Let me be honest here, I didn't really care either way which layout we had.  I just knew that I didn't want a 2 story.  When we found one, then we made a few modifications.  I personally didn't like that the garage takes up most of the view out of the front of the house.  But now a days you can't get away from that.

After hours of Dustin going over the layout, designing it and redesigning it we finally signed the contract.

We are building a house.  The contract is very detailed and goes into every detail, like when the workers are on site we can't be there.  Which is understood.  It states when we can start making our house selections like cabinets and plumbing.  Everyone we've dealt with so far have been amazing and so accommodating with Dustin's need to know every detail at every stage.  I'm sure they've dealt with like that before.

Our garage is going to almost as big as our house now.  Seriously we could move into the garage and make it work.  We are going to have way to much space.  I'm sure Dustin's hoarding tendencies will kick in and we will run out of space soon ;P

 http://discoveryliving.ca/index.cfm
 Here is the website for Discovery Homes.

This past week we had to make our house selections.  So far we've been to All Weather Windows, the guy there was very helpful and informative.

We went to Norcraft Cabinets for our cabinets selections.  There is really a lot they can do with cabinets now adays.  There is more than just your standard shelve cabinets. The lady we dealt with was awesome.  She was so patient and really helped us with colours and choosing counter tops.

We also went to The Ensuite for plumbing.  The guy we dealt with was really hard to like.  He kept saying things like "This is standard and what I have in my house" "No skin off my back choose what you want" He was 20 minutes late for our meeting and so unorganized, he didn't have the layout of the place and we had to tell him what was what.

We still have lighting, interior and flooring and alarm, phone/cable to pick out.  Lots of selections to make.  It feels like sometimes that when we go to an appointment we make a selection then they say ''Oh you don't have to make a final selection now, you have till they break ground"

I want to start packing now.  We should be in our house by March 2016, we have alot of stuff.  But Dustin said no and won't be me any boxes lol.


 

This is what the front of our house is going to look like

Can't wait!!!

Just Some Sentences

It's funny how the saying goes "One year someone can be the most important person in your life, the next year, they are just a person in your past. 

I always tell the kids to shake it off and tomorrow will be another day, but when it happens to you rejection hurts and hurts big time.  I've made my mistakes.  I was feeling very depressed and overwhelmed often pulling away from friends.  I often started feeling like the 3rd wheel. They often made plans with me than changed them to suit the other one. Later I find out that I've been deliberately excluded from something or otherwise snubbed.  Reject hurts no matter your age.

Friends are suppose to be there to support you no matter what, no matter what you are going through.  There have been times in their lives when I've supported them in their times of need.  When it comes to my time nothing. I get snubbed.  Than I find myself feeling crappy and grumpy and coldly towards them.  When in reality all I want is to be included.

I was going walking with my kids the other day and one friend of course was invited over to the other friends house.  Yes amazing we all live on the same street, not much goes unnoticed.  Feeling rejected yet again, I put my ipod in and listened to music on my walk.  What song comes up that NEVER comes up but an old song that my mom used to sing to me.  It was a silly song she changed the words to.  She was always doing that, I felt immediately better like mom was there to give me a hug.

I did something this week.  I quit something that has been important to me for the past 8 years.  I joined this group to make friends and be apart of something.  My life has revolved around this organization and I feel this group is important.  I still want to see it thrive and carry on.  But I can no longer be in the group.  It hurt bad, really bad to pull out.  But I tend to run and hide when hurt and rejected.

Now to shake it off and move on, harder on some day than others.

Valentine's Day 2015

Let's face it St. Valentine's day is really just for the young and newly in love.  Really if you've been in a committed relationship, you don't really go out and celebrate, especially if you have young kids.  My husband and I went out the Thursday before because we don't want to be bothered with all the hussel and bussel.

He did go out of his way yesterday, to make me feel special.  He made bacon and eggs, bought me some roses and made an awesome supper.  The kids were being kids of course and fighting over everything they could fight over.  So much for being kind to one another.

I think Valentine's day is for people in love.  The kids don't need cards, or presents or chocolate.  They actually had a nice celebration at school.  My school does something really neat.  All the kids make 2 cards during class time.  One card goes to someone in the school, they draw names and one card goes to someone in their class.  This way everyone gets two cards.  I think it's a really neat idea and wish more parents would get it.  They still send a bunch of stuff and cards to hand out to the kids.  While it's a nice gesture, it can make the other kids feel bad for not bringing stuff.  For a few years my kids were asking "Mommy why don't we bring stuff"  The school does ask the parents not to bring extra stuff.

For the past 2 weeks I have been doing Payton's hair in hearts.  It's fun and really only takes a few minutes to do.  I think the longest was 10 minutes and that's because her hair is so fine and thin the braid wasn't staying put.  So it took me a few times to get it just right.

I used a lot of different hair tutorials on youtube.  My favourite one is Cute Girls Hairstyles
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2LgZ_4GzSFQS-3a87_Jc6w

Another great one is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG8JH5HlRSKEyNgliXqY-Qg

and this one is in Spanish but they have English subtitles https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYqZHGX8pCmIlSupBiyEXeQ 

And this one is great too.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs6uJVO1UA6GqdWxe7gxQvA

All have great tutorials and super easy to follow.  There are harder ones and easier ones.

Here are the ones I did in Payton's hair this week.

 The hairstyles were fun to do.  Enjoy and Happy St. Valentine's Day!!

My Advice For New Moms

I'm always reading on Facebook about people ie mothers asking questions about their kids.  Most with a photo, does this look right? what do you think this is?  I've never asked that question, but have tried googling systems to see what it "could" be.  We all have those worries as new moms, even veteran moms.  It's hard when it's your children and you are unsure what to do.  I know I for one do not want to spend hours in an ER just for them to tell you it's nothing and they send you home.

Now you may be wondering why I started this blog post with that.  Here how it all ties together.  It takes a village to raise children.  Some where along the lines we have forgotten that.  I for one never had that opportunity as I did not/don't live near family.  I didn't have someone to lean on when new mom worry would take over and I would freak out and run to the ER/doctor or walk-in.  None of my friends had kids at the same time I did. So I couldn't ask them. 

Some advice I have for new moms.  When your kid is sick treat the kid not the symptoms.  If they have a fever and they are doing o.k, if they are still running around being silly and doing normal kids stuff.  They are more then likely fine.  If a rash appears on their body after they had a fever chances are it's the fever leaving the body.  Now don't get my wrong if your mother instincts will tell you something is wrong, than something is wrong. Don't hesitate to take them to see a doctor or nurse.

Now on to some fun advice for new moms.

Don't be afraid to get your kids face wet.  Babies spent 9ish months inside a water bubble they are not afraid of water.    If you don't want to be that mom standing on the side of the pool because your kid is freaking out, get their face wet as infants.

Let the dad parent his children.  Don't be afraid that you are asking to much of him after he gets home from work.  He needs to learn how to as well as you do.

Sometimes you just need to be more stubborn then your children.  Let's face it kids hold the trophy for the top most stubborn people in the world.  If you really want to change something examples taking away soother, getting them to eat or changing any habits you don't like.  Just be more stubborn than they are.  Don't give in but also be reasonable.

Don't be afraid to set your kids down.  You don't need to hold them all the time.  Sometimes they need to explore on their own.

You don't have to get involved in every fight your kids have.  Sometimes they just need to work it out themselves.  Mind you if someone is getting really hurt step-in.

The hardest thing I had to learn as a first time mom.  Learn to know your kids sleep signals.  It took me a long time and alot of reading to learn this one.  Kids need lots of sleep, they sleep alot.  Sleeping is what makes them grow, helps them learn and form memories.

Do what works for you.  This was another hard one to learn.  I spent so much time, thinking I "had" to be the perfect mother.  Perfect mothers do this, that and the other thing.  I mean I saw all these moms on tv, they could have crafts ready in a moments notice, they could bake 12 dozen cupcakes and make them look so yummy.  I say do what works for you and don't worry about being the "perfect" mom.  You kids are going to think your perfect no matter what.

Let kids do things for themselves.  Kids need to learn to be independent.  Your goal as parents is to have a child/children that can function in the world without you.  Hard as it might be, but other people are not going to coddle your children.  They do need to be able to think and do things on their own.  Yes it's going to take awhile, but trust me it's going to be worth it.

Now I'm not a parenting expert far from it.  But I am a mother to 4 kids and these are some of the things I've learned over the years.  Like I said I'm far from perfect, but it takes a village.  If some of these can help you when you are sleep deprived that's great.  Good luck!

Scientific studies

There are all kinds of studies out there. Some studies out there on simple things to how many calories you should have in a day to how foods affect the Cancer cells in your body.

I really think that there should be a study on "why 2nd born children have more troubles"  I seriously think this is a thing.  I know a lot of people and thanks to Facebook have read many more stories about 2nd born children having more difficulties in learning.

My own child my 2nd born, She has difficult reading.  She has some form of dyslexia.  My school is finally looking into it more and hopefully we are starting on a path to getting her help.  She's in grade 5.  Since she was a baby she would have problems with sounds, she would leave the first letter of a word or replace it with an easier sound.  English is a very hard language to learn there are so many variables.

My question is why the 2nd child?  Is it because the first child has your one on one attention? Is it because the first child talks for the 2nd child?  Does the age gap between the 1st and 2nd child matter?  I have 4 kids the twins are my "middle" children.  They both have learning issues, but my 2nd child is the one with the most learning issues.  Is it because her brain is wired a different way?  These are the types of questions I would like answers too.

I'm hoping by the end of the year to have some answers.  It would be nice to have it sooner but of course nothing works like that.

Winter, Winter, Winter

It's freezing cold outside.  We have been having extreme cold fronts.  Thank god they are not lasting long.  Last year it was weeks and weeks at a time.  This year it's only a few days at a time.

By the end of the week it's suppose to be -3.  That is wonderful.  I much enjoy winter when you can get out and enjoy it.

Assiniboine Park Zoo

We went to the zoo during the Christmas break.  It was fun and the animals were so lively.  It was much better then going during the summer when all the animals are so hot they don't move around.

We even got to see the new polar bear cubs.  Blizzard and Star they were off to the side from the other polar bears.  There were in the original bear inclosure.

Not sure which one this is, but they were so cute playing with the toys.  I think we have to go back more in the winter time.  Although not right now because it's like -37 with the windchill  brrr!!