The Perfect Christmas

Most people celebrate their Christmas on December 25th but because Rob and I and the kids go away for Christmas we celebrated with my family on the 21st. It was the perfect Christmas, it started with a Sleigh ride, then rockband, dinner, presents and then a fire at Craig's.
Click here for pictures
For Christmas I received LOTS, a Logitech remote control that plugs into the computer and you just say what devices you have and it programs the remote for you. I also received an Ipod touch it is so cool, I was so shocked to receive it because I handle the money and Rob put $20 a week away to save for it, that is amazing.... he is so awesome. As you know I left my camera at the movie theater so Katy Perry.... lol that is what my present said brought me a digital camera and a 16GB SD card. I also received a tea chest from Costco for those of you who have seen it there will know what I am talking about, it is starbucks tea and a little tea pot. I also got a wii game, and a $100 gift certificate to a spa, which I am so excited to go to. The students on my bus gave me some really cool stuff too, there is so much stuff to even start listing
Craig received a personalized licence plate that says 0773H, and a candle holder from costco that hangs on the wall.
Rob received a 22" flat screen TV for his truck.
We gave my dad a remote control tuck so now he has a hobby... lol and we gave Leslie a Kitchen Aid.
Well I am going to play with my Ipod touch, Merry Christmas and I will talk to you in the New Year

Shooting Range

We went to the shooting range on Saturday. My dad shot a 40 caliber gun, Rob shot a 45 caliber gun and I used a shotgun. The shotgun was awesome because you didn't have to load the magazine, and of course the smoking barrel after a shot was fired was so cool. I was standing behind Rob as he was shooting my dad's gun and the shell went out of the gun to the right and went right down my shirt, I now have a nasty burn on my chest. If you look in the picture it is on my right chest, so left on the picture.

Then on Sunday we went to Tony Roma's for dinner and then home for cake and presents. My dad got the 007 movie pack with all the movies in it....... Craig got Dido cd's, a rice cooker, and dimmer switches. We got Rob a remote controlled Semi, it is so awesome...... he loved it.

Dinner at Montana's and White Spot

I now know why people stay home in weather like this. Last night Craig and I went out for supper, to Montana's. We ordered our food, played dice and then right in the middle of the game the power went out. They offered us some soup, and we waited for a few minutes to see if the power was going to come back on, finally we gave up and went to White Spot, lol! When we were there Craig and I were joking that we had our appetizer at Montana's and then our dinner at White Spot, now where are we going to go for desert? lol!

Watching life come around again

It is so much fun to drive the bus and watch the kids do the things that I did. I had a flood of memories come back to me this past week.... the kids have been into Cat's Cradle , for those of you who don't know what that is click the link and it will show you. It was fun to find the illustrations and freshen up on how to do it and show the kids. I wonder what they will pick up next???? lol

About as Crazy as it gets!!!!

For those of you who don't know my husband Rob is a Truck Driver and has recently switched jobs and he now travels to Edmonton and back to Calgary everyday, making it about a 12 hour day. I was just talking to him and he told me what just happened to him. Rob was traveling to Edmonton and somewhere around Red Deer there was this car trying to pull him over, the guy was driving really crazy and flashing lights and trying to signal him, at one point the guy even slowed Rob down to 50k. There was no way Rob was going to pull over because they most likely wanted to steal his load. Rob called the cops and they waited about 5 minutes up the road in an unmarked car, then pulled in behind Rob and called him and told him to move into the other lane and then they pulled the car over. Of course when they were questioned they denied the whole thing.
You think that was good??? no no it gets better. Rob was driving a little bit farther down the road and this minivan goes flying past him, hits the ditch and roles 3 times. He stopped to see if they were ok and called the cops. He stayed with the couple until the cops arrived.... he said the girl was dizzy cause her adrenaline had come down and the guy had some glass pieces in his arm. He is currently in Edmonton and doesn't want to come back because things seem to happen in 3's.

Last's nights fondue party

Well last night was a great time. Sorry I can't download pictures, but thank you Melanie for taking pictures there are some good ones, but I don't have a cord to download pictures with I have to go to Craig's, he has a card reader. Here is the recipe for everyone who wanted the spinach and artichoke heart dip:
1 8oz package of cream cheese at room temperature
1 9oz package of artichoke hearts (drained jarred or canned, cooked fresh, or frozen, but not marinated)
1 cup steamed spinach (1 lb raw or one 10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed) well drained
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 garlic cloves
6 large fresh basil leaves
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Grease a 2-qt baking dish
In a food processor, combine the cream cheese, artichoke hearts, spinach, mayo, Parmesan, garlic, basil, salt and pepper. Spoon into the baking dish. Top with the mozzarella. Bake until bubbling and the top is golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve with crackers, tortilla chips, or toasted rustic bread.
I didn't put the basil leaves in because I don't like basil, but that is up to you. Enjoy!!

My Stupidity

The other day I used Rob's keys to go and get the mail and I took them from his pants pocket. He noticed them on the ledge and says to me "If you are going to take my keys make sure you tell me or please put them back because if I don't have them when I leave here I will not be able to get my car at the end of the night from work". I was joking with him and said "When I leave here in the afternoon with the bus I always make sure I have my car keys". Well today I left them at home.... I felt so stupid, it took me an extra 45 minutes to come home with the bus, get my keys and go back to the yard. grrrrr...... lol!!
On another note..... Seth is so adorable.... he says "sank-you" to everything....... he used the potty today and I finished wiping him and said "there you go" he replied with "sank-you" lol what a nut.

Dear Santa

Oh man I am so upset.... I was going to post pictures of dinner last night.... we went to Berlo it is a Brazillian Grill, which means they bring the food right to your table. They had these sea salt chicken wings, smoked caramel pineapple, top sirloin meats and bacon wrapped fillet mignon and bacon wrapped chicken. It also comes with an exotic salad bar and a hot bar, it was absolutely fantastic. I can't post the pictures because when we went to the theater I took the camera out to take a picture of us and then I left it at the theater. So Dear Santa.... I need a camera so I can take pictures to perserve our special moments..... thank you .... lol

DON'T

Seth has been running around saying "Don't, Don't" to everything that Tyler does.... it is so funny..... I don't really say No, I say don't do that, so now he has copied me and poor Tyler is not allowed to do anything.
I felt like such a dork on Friday.... we went to watch Madagascar 2 and I walk up to the desk to pay and I say to him "for 2 please"..... he very politely says "for which movie" I started laughing and said "what you don't know" lol..... he says "well I could guess"..... so yeah I felt dumb.
And again I have to be annoying and ask that you vote for Tyler so that we can win lots of cool prizes.... there are just a few days left..... thank you to everyone who has been voting. Please click HERE to vote.

Why Me

Seriuosly, I have had all I can take lol........... my bus broke down yesterday AGAIN!!!! I was on my way to the school for the afternoon run and all of a sudden the engine light went on and the bus heated up. Turns out that there was no coolant in the radiator..... which is not my fault, I checked what I was supposed to, it just wasn't cycling properly, so the coolant that was in the engine just got really hot and then boiled and came exploding out of the radiator cap. It was weird, I turned of the heat in the bus which is heated from the coolant once it gets hot, I get heat, so the engine was using the coolant that runs in the heaters to cool the bus down..... well no wonder it was so hot I had to turn it off lol!!!!!..... I just wish they would give me a NEW bus!!!!!!
Oh and don't forget to vote everyday for Tyler so we can win lots of cool prizes.... estimated at $50,000.00 click here to vote and thank-you.

Please, please vote

Well it is a day late but the voting has begun.... I wasn't able to find Seth's photo on the website, but Tyler's picture is in Photo Gallery 31 and he is #1586. Please go back every day and vote for Tyler... you can vote once a day and we need as many votes as possible so get as many people as you can to vote..... it goes by IP Address which means one vote per day per computer. Thank you for voting..... click here for the website

Pleast Vote for Seth and Tyler

Please vote for Seth and Tyler, on the Calgary's Cutest Kid Contest... I couldn't find the picture for Seth that I put up but here is the one I put up of Tyler. Please go back everyday and vote... it is based on your IP Address so you are allowed one vote per day.... this contest is based on votes ... I can win lots of prizes so get as many people as you can to vote for them as well... thank you. This starts November 10th, click the link or here to vote
http://www.vibemorningshow.com/

3 and a half blogs

Yesterday we went to a birthday party for Mathias 1st birthday. I made a giraffe cake and realized after that I forgot to do the hair in icing on the head, so it doesn't look like a giraffe. But the best part is, it took me two and a half hours to make it and less then 10 seconds for Rob to drop it.... lol! yes he dropped it.... I was able to salvage it cause it didn't drop on the floor, I just had to redo the icing on the top.

When Seth was a couple of months old I received a motorized John Deere , well more like I pushed and pushed to get it... lol!, one of the axles was broken because the children driving it didn't drive it properly. So my wonderful husband :) fixed it for Seth today and we let him drive it...... and it didn't take him long to figure it out.




And here we have 3 blogs in one..... Uncle Craig and I took Seth trick or treating..... he was so cute.... he had it all figured out. He knew that the bucket was for candy and people put it in there..... lol! Seth wouldn't let go of the bucket for anything. Seth was pooh bear and Tyler was Tiger. I posted pictures, to view them click Here... no click Here...... lol!!!! sorry lame sense of humor

Oh wait make that 3 and a half blogs..... The other day I was trying to get Seth to say "juice" and he kept pointing to the juice and he was using 2 syllables and it took me a bit to figure out that he was saying "juice Seth" lol!!! cause that is what we always say... "do you want juice Seth"..... the other thing he says to me is "Get It, Get It"..... I think it is the funniest thing..... both Rob and I have said it at times to Seth.

Wow where should I start?..... My Nephew, Niece, Brother and Sister In law came to Calgary for a visit this past week. We have had so much fun. We went to West Edmonton Mall, The Calgary Tower for dinner, Chucky Cheese's and they went to Shakers one day when I was at work. Oh yeah and a whole lot of shopping.... lol! Check out http://picasaweb.google.com/vmairs for pictures.

When we went to The Calgary Tower for dinner we had this ceasar salad that you had to eat with a knife... lol! Did you know that ceasar salad is anchovy based? I didn't know that till we had diner at the Calgary Tower. It was really expensive but we had a great time.

At West Edmonton Mall we had 9 people and 4 kids to coordinate... let me tell you that was a whole lot of people to get them to do the same thing at the same time.... lol but we worked it all out.

Butterfield Acres

I had a charter last Friday to Butterfield Acres and I was able to stay and walk around with the boys. It was so much fun and since Rob had Friday off he was able to join us. When we got there the first animal we saw was a donkey..... it was so cute Seth repeated me. Then when we saw the goats he was mimicking them saying "baaaaa" what a character lol! When we showed Seth the horse it sneezed and then Seth wouldn't go near the horse again. If you want to check out the pictures click on the link. http://picasaweb.google.com/vmairs

Here Craig this one is for you.... he started doing this thing with his lips on Monday and I knew you would get a kick out of it.

Thanksgiving

My crazy cat...... she is sick and I am guessing didn't want to be bugged by the dogs.



Awwww! Tyler looks so comfy....



Tyler was really tired when we were having supper that other night and he was being really cranky, so Rob gave him a pork chop bone to chew on... he loved it.




We had Thanksgiving at Leslie's brother and sister inlaw's house...... it was fantastic. They had a bunny that Seth seemed to like, so we let him feed the bunny a cracker.

I've Been Tagged

Ok fine I guess I will do this, I have been tagged by a few people now

1. I have two children and I want two more
2. I play the piano.... not well but I do play
3. I have a legal degree
4. I want to weigh 140 pounds lol!!
5. I love to bake and decorate cakes
6. I feel most satisfied when I am helping other people

RULES: Link the person who tagged you.
Mention the rules on your own blog.
List 6 unspectacular things about yourself or your group.
Taggify 6 other people.

I don't taggify anyone, cause the people I would have already did this and cause I know how hard it is to talk about yourself.

Seth

I thought this was so cute and just had to share it...

Tyler

My baby finally cut his first tooth. Tyler is 8 and a half months and finally one tooth. I am not worried about it cause I heard that the longer their first teeth take, the better.
We went swimming today.... if you are looking for a good place to go swimming check out the Southland Leisure Center..... it is great for kids. They have a really warm kids pool and then a water play area with squirters and slides for toddlers, and 2 slides for the adults and older children.

http://picasaweb.google.com/vmairs

Coffee and scream

We went to coffee and scream yesterday afternoon...... it was awesome..... the boys loved it, I would suggest going.... if you want to check out there website http://www.coffeeandscream.ca. Finally all the family pictures are posted feel free to take a look at http://picasaweb.google.com/vmairs

Life

Man I have the worst luck with buses...... my original bus broke down yesterday and I was delayed over an hour..... the worst part is I would have been home half an hour earlier than normal. My very sweet dad came and rescued the boys so they didn't have to sit on the bus and took them over to Leslie's. So I guess it all worked out cause Leslie made supper for us to. Tyler must be growing cause he ate so much it seemed we couldn't fill him so we gave him a cucumber to chew on and he stuck the whole thing in his mouth. We had to leave early cause Tyler was really cranky, my dad was trying to cuddle with him.

Dinner

We went out for dinner tonight at Red Lobster.... my dad paid and I found out it was cause he won at the casino.... some people have and others don't.
Red Lobster has all you can eat shrimp on for $20.00. Rob ordered mashed potatoes and Tyler, yes I mean the little one.... ate over half of his potatoes. You can see in the picture how big the pile was in the first place, needless to say he passed out as soon as he got home. I am not sure what it is, maybe I just expect to much but when we go out I just end up getting mad at something about the service or the food and then the whole night is ruined. Tonight was the first time in a very long time that I enjoyed myself, we had the best server, I have ever had, if you go to the Red Lobster on 36th street ask for Tanya and you will see what I mean. She was so nice, we were telling each other a story and I did not feel like she had other tables to wait on, it felt like she was there just for us...... we left the biggest tip ever.
Well just an update on the school bus driving. I did a charter in between my morning and afternoon route, and as I was taking the first group of kids to the pool, I was coming up to a green light and a car came really fast from the side road and if I hadn't of swerved he would have hit the side of the bus, cause he ended up stopping half way in my lane. I was shaking so bad when I dropped the kids off that I called Rob and he had to talk me before I calmed down.
The other thing I have been meaning to write about is..... the first bus I had #906 was fine for the first day and then after that something went wrong, I am not sure what but it was really slow.... so I talked to the owner about it and his mechanic came and got it from the yard and it took him 1 hour to go a 20 min drive.... hmmmm lol! so then they gave me a new bus #510 and iI broke a hose the first day and it is really good but REALLY LOUD and it has no radio, so now I have to decide if I want 906 that is fixed which is 62 passengers of the 510 that is loud and no radio and 72 passengers.
That is all for tonight, I have had a long day I will update more later.

Seth and Tyler

Seth just chillin with Uncle Craig.... notice Seth's cell phone (my old one)

















Awww!!!! and he is all mine you can't have him. lol


















This is so adorable....... he is playing with Uncle Craig

Todays Supper

I was feeling like something a little different tonight. My brother came over tonight and he has eaten noodles for 3 nights in a row so I was going to make supper with noodles but I used rice instead. I used 2 cups of rice and cooked it.
Cooked rice
mushroom soup
canned peas
red peppers
sour cream
spices
chicken breast
cheese
I mixed the soup with the rice and then added everything else in and then put the cooked chicken breast on top and then topped it all with cheese..... it was fantastic..... it didn't look that great but it was good. Hmmm!!! I think I will eat the left overs now. lol! I have made this before but I used asparagus instead of peas and it was really good to. Melanie told me she puts sour cream in her mashed potatoes and I tried it.... and loved it and now I use sour cream a lot...... I even made a potatoe salad and used a little sour cream with the mayonnaise.... it made it taste like baked potatoe salad.... really good..... you should give it a try. The edges of the plate burned a little cause I mixed everything in the caserole dish and the soup stayed on the edges.

Work and Vacation

I have finished a week of work and it has been great, I am looking forward to the rest of the school year. For those of you who do not know I am driving a school bus. It is such a chore to pack the boys in the car in the morning, then get them into the bus, then when the morning route is complete get them back in the car and go home and then repeat all that for the afternoon as well. The children I have are fantastic... I can not believe it.... when I was young I never took the school bus so I had no idea what I was getting into.... Rob and Donovan both said they were horrible children when they were on the bus. I have heard from other people that they weren't good when they rode the bus either..... I guess it is the different generation of people raising kids. When we were younger we were all spoiled cause the baby boomer's were our parents.... and when they were young they didn't have anything.... they are mostly why we have so much these days they created the market for it...... so now that we were used to having it all we are making sure not so spoil our children this time around, either that or we are just used to the children these days.... lol!
We went to Vernon this weekend mostly for the fun of it... but also to take family pictures...... we had a really good time and the kids weren't that bad.... well a little fussy but for the most part they were ok. I should be getting the pictures sometime next week and I will post them as soon as possible.

Camping

Well I am back from camping and we had a fantastic time. We had some drama getting there though... as always lol! We had my dads pickup and his 5th wheel and then we pulled the quad trailer behind that.... as you can see in the pictures...... when we stopped in Cochrane some guy said to Rob that he has never seen a pickup back up a train before.... lol!
We took this trail out to a lake not sure which one cause I was just following John.... it was so beautiful..... the trail was alot of fun too ... not to many obstacles to worry about. There were 2 other campsites of people we went with and after it snowed saturday night, they went out on the quads once more and then packed up and headed home...... so all that was left was Rob, Ariel, Tyler and me...... Seth went home with my mom cause he likes to move around alot and he would have been stuck in the trailer most of the time cause it was really cold outside. Well that is about is for camping. CLICK THE PICTURE ON THE BOTTOM OF MY BLOG TO SEE PICTURES.

I have had a horrible day. Today was my first time driving the school bus on a real route... and I made so many wrong turns, let me tell you it is not easy to turn a 68 passenger bus around. The bonus is I only had 3 kids for the entire route, today that is... I guess people like to take their kids to school on the first day. So I was a little stressed that I made the wrong turns and I ended up being late to drop them off. So you are probably thinking if that is all the stress I have then I am going good.... wrong...... it turns out that I wrecked my dads bumper. I had the quad trailer and I was to return it after the morning route and when I was backing it up I jacked knifed it .... it happened so quickly to. I wasn't going very fast but enough to cause damage. I called my dad and he was a little upset and to add to that when we were camping it snowed and made huge cracks in my dads window cause he had two little rock chips.... now he has to fix that to. So then I go and fill the truck up and go to Shoppers Drug Mart and this old guy runs right into the hitch of my dads truck..... he goes oopps! did I bump you and proceeds to get out of his van I was like uhhhh!!! can you back up now. So he starts his van again and backs up .... when he got out I said to him they should make you retest when you reach a certain age.... and he was like I already have.... I thought after I said it that it was really rude so I just left it alone and didn't say what I wanted to which was well then you should voluntarily surrender it or get a vehicle you can drive. So one last thing to make my day worse..... I went into shoppers to pick up a package from the post office.... and because I just got my Class 2 License I only have a piece of paper that is my interim license and it doesn't have my address on it, so they wont give me the package.... The lady says to me do you have a passport... well no I don't but if I did I wouldn't be carrying it to the post office. So I guess all that to say, if I cut you off cause you looked at me funny don't take it personally ... I'm just having a bad day.

Update your blog

I was looking though other peoples blogs and then I opened mine, and it occurred to me why people don't update....... it feels like no one is reading your blog.... so make sure you comment so people will keep updating.
So on another note..... I passed my Class 2 test so I will be a school bus driver starting September 2, 2008. I am so excited... my route is small and the school is paying $78.50 which is awesome... for 3 hours of work a day.
And we will just put 3 blogs into 1.... we are going camping this weekend... so I will post pictures.

I feel educated lol!

I went to my brother's tonight, while my mom watched the boys..... to give me a break..... ahhhhh it was so nice. We ordered Thai food from Chili Club Thai House, it was fantastic, I would definetly recommend it. We have been trying to see You Don't Mess With a Zohan and when we tried to see it in the theater it had just went to the cheap theaters... so we tried to see it tonight and it had just left the cheap theaters tonight..... lol so frustrating.... Oh well I guess were not supposed to see it. So in the end we rented a movie, and now I feel very educated. The movie was Charlie Wilson's War.... it was about the Cold War from 1979 to 1989. It had Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman in it. They did a very good job. So it turns out that the states gave Afghanistan over one billion dollars to fight off the Soviet's. Johanne Herring was the start of it... she convinced Charlie Wilson who was in Congress to get the Congress to up the total from 5 million in weapons to 40 million to give to Afghanistan. So Charlie Wilson and a CIA Agent went about this for 10 years.... getting Afghanistan the weapons they needed and helping them. I don't know about you but I didn't learn that part about the Cold War in school. This is a true story as well.... on the extras they had Charlie Wilson talk about it as well as Johanne Herring. The story seemed long but I guess it all took place in a space of 10 years... so they did a really good job and like I said I feel very educated now lol!.

Calaway Park

We went to Calaway Park today, it was alot of fun. Seth has never been on a ride before and he really liked it. On a side note all moms out there planning a day trip DON'T FORGET WIPES lol!!! I forgot wipes and it is so difficult to change a diaper with 1 ply toilet paper.

Driving test

Oh man I am so upset I was supposed to take my driving test this morning at 10, but I woke up at 5:30 in the morning just puking .... it was horrible. Then Rob was sick a few hours later and it seems the burgers we had from the Red Deer A & W last night wasn't all that great. So Rob passed out on the couch and I was in bed.... Seth came to visit me in bad and then eventually fall asleep and Tyler played on the floor then Rob put him to bed. They have been great.

Rockband

So I have this all figured out, it's my weight loss program lol.... my brother and my dad bought me Rockband for Wii for my birthday and Rob and I have been playing it everyday... it is so addicting. So here's how it works...... we play all night and I don't snack after supper. Great plan... don't you think? :)

Seth

The other day I think it was Thursday of last week Seth fell down 7 stairs, that have tile on them. Ever since then he has been really whiny and it has been driving me nuts. So when I was at the doctors today I asked him about it and the craziest thing. He said that Seth probably has a headache and that sometimes you can have a headache up till a month later but Seth is not able to tell me that. So I did give him tylenol for the day after it happened but I never thought he would have a headache 6 days later.

Seth

Lol!! Seth thought that he would climb in and then when it moved he was like uuhhhh!!! cause it went really fast. That is Tyler crying in the back ground I was in the middle of feeding him.

Philidelphia recipe

I made this recipe a couple of days ago, it was fantastic... but considering I am lactose sensitive, I had like 5 bites and couldn't eat the rest. Rob doesn't like cream cheese but he loved this and yes I did tell him what it was. lol!

Philadelphia Cream cheese
Parmesan cheese
Red and green peppers
Mushrooms
Garlic
Spices ( I used roasted peppers with garlic)
Cream
Spiral noodles

Heat the cream cheese on medium heat, add cream. Add the rest of the ingredients. Serve over cooked noodles.