Jorge (you know... Jordan... Jorjor... Jorge!)

Here are a few more pictures with our new camera!! We bought a Nikon D60 DSLR. I'm loving it so far and haven't even really ventured far from the automatic settings. I love when pictures capture the kids' personalities... I can just keep snapping pictures and then choose the ones that fit their personalities.

Abby & Jude

My grad present from Jon & the kids is a new camera. Although I'm still a couple months away from having all my requirements completed, we (okay, so I) wanted to have it for our upcoming trip to NB to see family and friends and to celebrate my dad's 80th birthday. The learning curve going from a simple little point & shoot to a DSLR is going to be enormous, but I'm soooo looking forward to learning (after...ahem... I finish off my doctorate). I took these pictures this afternoon.

What we've been up to...

It's been awhile, so here's a little update from the Gomers... Jude got a firetruck from his Nana & Papa for his birthday... he LOVES it. It makes lots of cool (loud) noises... Mummy doesn't love it nearly as much as Jude & Jordan do.

Jordan also loves wearing Daddy's boots.

By lunchtime on his birthday, Jude started throwing up. He had birthday jello. He threw up his birthday jello. He was a sad little birthday boy.

Jude and Abby finished gymnastics at the end of June. Jude adored his coach, Brianna. She was AMAZING at keeping the attention of 6 3-yr old boys.

This is Abby's coach, Mike. Jude had coach Mike during the last session. He would often give Mike big hugs :)

Abby and Jude had their friends Katie & Nolan in their classes. The boys would share snacks and play cars while they waited for their sisters to finish their classes.

This was Abby's last day of school. Jude liked pretending he was going to get on the bus with Abby. Jordan just liked watching for the bus!!
We celebrated Canada Day at our house with friends & family. Our friend Katarina took lots of fabulous pictures... check them out!

We took Abby & Jude to see Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. They started playing The Taking of Pelham 123 in the wrong theatre, our theatre. The Taking of Pelham 123 is NOT a children's movie. Jon took the kids out during the previews where Orphan was the first preview. Orphan is REALLY NOT a kid's movie. We switched to another theatre that was also playing Ice Age 3. Mummy, so very NOT impressed with the error, spoke politely but assertively with the nice manager who refunded our money and gave us 4 movie passes, 2 free popcorn coupons, and 2 posters. The kids LOVED the movie (and the popcorn). It was Jude's first movie. Jordan stayed with Grammy who has been here visiting since the end of June.

Grammy is our laundry and dishes fairy...I REALLY like having a laundry and dishes fairy!

Jon went to Fort Severne to inspect a bridge yesterday. It's in the Arctic, the most northern community in Ontario. There was still ice on Hudson Bay. He did not see any polar bears.

More Abbs

These 2 pictures were taken at Gammondale farm where she went for a birthday party at the end of May. Abby loves animals and was so proud when this baby chick fell asleep while she was holding it. I was so proud of her for going on the horse... it was a big horse and she was a little nervous. I convinced her to try by telling her that I would go for a ride after her. It was fun!!

Abbs

Abby's friends call her "Abbs". It's cute. It also reminds me of how quickly my little girl is growing up. This spring, she played in her first piano recital. She was the youngest student playing at the recital. She chose a long piece (from her favourite movie, The Lion King) and trying to get her to practice added to our growing collection of grey hairs. But she did it.... she was proud and we were so very proud of her. We are; however, going to take a break from piano this fall to pursue her other interests! This is a clip from her recital:

Jude & Asher's 3rd Birthday Party

We had Jude and his buddy Asher's birthday parties together this past Saturday. They were born 12 days apart (their younger siblings were born a day apart...) Our friend Katarina offered to be our "photographer". The photos in this post are ones that she took. I'll post some of ours in a post closer to Jude's actual birthday...mostly because I haven't yet downloaded them to the computer.

Jude ate the icing names off the cake tray...at least he asked first!

You can see the evidence...red icing fingers & face.

Jude eating one of several candy necklaces...

Look who's using crayons for colouring, not as a snack!

Soccer

Abby started playing soccer on Monday night with the Thunder Bay Chill Youth Soccer Club. Two girls from her class also play on her team. They play twice a week, but spend the first 20-30 minutes learning skills. The rest of the hour is spent playing a "game" against another team. She leaves the field t-i-r-e-d. She actually asked me to carry her to the van after her first night...

Jon was away in Toronto for both games this week. When I asked Abby what she wanted me to tell Daddy when he called later Monday evening, she said, "Tell him I LOVE soccer"... a new passion is born!

Culinary challenge... I need your help!

***Update***

Thanks for your comment Dana!! To clarify...my family has been eating... ahem...frozen pizzas, many variations of pasta and tomato sauce, homemade waffles with berries & *whop* OR we end up eating out, which is neither healthy nor cheap. As much as I admire mothers who can make EVERYTHING homemade and organic, I can't pull it off at this point in our lives. Soooo, I would LOVE any recipes healthier than frozen pizza or KD that can be pulled together in less than 30 minutes :) Jon and the kids eat mostly poultry/pork, not beef so much.

***Original post***

I'm down to less than 4 months to finish off my PhD... I spend 20 hours (over 2 1/2 days) per week with the Community Mental Health Program at the hospital and try to squeeze my dissertation and other written requirements in during naps and after the kids are in bed. Then there's paying bills, doing dishes, washing floors, changing bums, washing toilets, doing copious amounts of laundry....you get the idea! Providing a variety of healthy meals for my family hasn't been a big priority...seriously... I just can't often pull it off. Soooo, this is where I need your help!!

I need recipes... simple, yummy, healthy meals that require little planning/prep... recipes that are tried and true... done in 30 minutes or less recipes (or crock pot recipes)...

They don't need to be vegetarian (Jon & the little Gomers are all carnivores!) If you have one (or many!!), please write it/them out or post a link in the comments section. Thank you sooooo much in advance!

I heart faces- "Hats"

This week, the i heart faces theme is "Hats". This is my entry for the Kids category. It's one of my favourite pictures of Abby, taken a few years ago.

This is my adult entry... Daddy and his little girl. Check out all the great entries for this week & even join in on the fun!

I heart faces- amateur

This week, the theme i heart faces theme is Easter/spring. This is a picture that I took of the kids on Easter Sunday while they were still dressed up from church. Jude was quite taken with the kitty-shaped buttons on his sister's jumper :)

Check out all the fantastic entries for this week! They truly inspire me to get better at a hobby I love!

No excuses... well maybe a couple...

So, Jon has done a great job on the office! It's done enough that I can use it to work and then close the door to keep little hands from destroying my organized piles of paper. Just as the shelves were getting their coat of varathane, my laptop developed a death rattle. My laptop is what I've been using for my doctorate work.... not using recently.... but where my work is stored. I backed up my data and sent it to various email addresses and family members. However, I have yet to locate my backup of my actual dissertation (I had saved a file on our old desk top, but alas it bit the dust last summer). I'm really hoping that our friend Bill's hard drive freezer trick works and he's able to retrieve my files. Yup, that would be a very good thing!

Jude has also become a night owl over the past few nights. It generally does take him awhile to get to sleep at nighttime, but the last few evenings have been really l-o-n-g with him up, out of bed. As the evening wears on and he gets overtired, the crying and screaming begins. Last night he didn't actually go to sleep for any length of time until 1:30 am! Between him and Nala who manically runs and pounces on our bed as we "sleep", it wasn't a restful night. When I finally slept, I dreamed of not being able to sleep. Tonight, we put Abby to bed in what will be our ensuite bathroom so that we could use drastic measures (e.g., close the bedroom door) if necessary. Jude hates having the door closed, so keeping it open is usually an effective incentive for staying in bed. Tonight was certainly better than last night so we'll see how it goes.

I'm down to 5 months in which to complete my doctorate. Now that I have our office back, it should be easier to work. We just have to get Jude to sleep a little earlier so I have time to work. Oh, and locate a copy of my dissertation files :)