Anticipation

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Here are some photos of the boys this morning. Riley turned the tree lights on and proceeded to stare at it, which gave me a great idea for a few pics. Boy, are they excited?!?! They all are. Supper at 4pm. Church at 530pm and then let the excitement begin.

The Kotzers On Holidays

Holidays have been great so far. We are really enjoying our time with Grandma Kotzer and she has been helping us so much. Today, she pretty much, single handedly tackled over 300 perogies and taught Riley, Brodie and Grace how to make them too. Anyways, here are some photos from the last week before Grandpa headed off to work. Merry Christmas to all.

Grandma and Grandpa Have Arrived

Grandma and Grandpa Kotzer have made it to town. We are having an excellent time with them, but unfortunately, Grandpa leaves tomorrow and has to work over Christmas. He's not very happy about that to say the least. In the first couple of days with them, we set up the tree, Grandpa fixed some stuff for us and we played a few games together. Grandma and Grandpa also got to see Riley's school Christmas concert. They were really impressed by it. Riley did really well. Here are some pictures of the first few days.

All We Want for Christmas.....

.....is our two front teeth. That's right OUR two front teeth. Nine days after Riley lost his first tooth, Brodie lost his first tooth too, the bottom right. So, each of them have a missing tooth for Christmas this year, hence, "our two front teeth." Brodie was super excited and couldn't wait to show his big brother once he got home from school. The tooth fairy was very generous to the boys too.

 
 
 

We have visitor with us now. Clay's parents have arrived and we are having a fabulous time. More photos and posts to come in the near future. Evelyn

Guess Who's Comin' To Town?

If you guessed Santa Claus, you were wrong. No, instead, the Tooth Fairy will be stopping by our house before Santa. Last night after supper, we were eating pears for dessert. Riley bit into his pear and caught a quick glimpse of red before he took another bite. Good thing, otherwise he would have eaten his first tooth. Really, his first to fall out and first tooth to cut out. I checked his baby book before writing this post. He cut his first tooth on 22 Nov 03 while visiting uncle Mark and Auntie Laura in Ottawa. It was his bottom, left tooth, which is the same one that fell out this evening. Here are the pictures of an extremely excited boy....



As you can see from the photos, Riley's eyes are glistening. He was sooooo excited and happy about losing a tooth. So, I asked him why it made him so happy to lose a tooth. He replied, "Because I feel like I am really getting older." Another cool fact, Dec 5th, 2003 was when Riley got his second tooth. It was his bottom right.

The Boys Wanted Crowns Too

After seeing the crowns that the girls got, the boys wanted crowns too...except not so girlie. So this is what I came up with for my lean and mean little Rider fans.

We are all getting geared up for Sunday's game. We'll be heading down to Belleville for the big game on Mark and Lorrie's big screen.

Bartering is Alive and Well

Why pay when you can do a favour back for someone? Erika, a good friend of mine in need of daycare two days per week, traded off some daycare time with me. She watched my kids for a few days over the last couple weeks, and now I am returning the favour. Melina is an excellent little girl and plays so well with both Fiona and Grace. It is really a joy to have her hang out with us. Here are some photos of their playtime outside today.



As well, it was my neighbour's, Kathryn, birthday today. I really didn't have time to get a card today, so here's what I came up with on my own. I plagerized a few ideas from my sister who actually has real talent in this department.

In the last photos, you will see my girls wearing crowns. Why should the boys have all the fun? While they went out to Beavers tonight, the girls and I made princess crowns.

Our Cool New Park

We got a cool new park in our area just the other day. Actually, it was always there but only had a play structure for small children. The city added a new play structure there that is ginormous. It is supposed to be for kids 5-12 years old but I couldn't keep the girls off of it. Here are some photos from our playtime at the new "Fort".



It's amazing how a regular weekend can turn out so great. We headed out to a small town about 30 mins from Kingston and hunted down a kitchen table. The table looks even better than it did in the ad so we are super pleased about it. Then, we took the kids skating...all of them. Skating was awesome. The boys are doing great, thanks to hockey. They can stop now, without using the boards and can skate backwards. The boys are getting so good that I think they'll out skate Grandma K. We'll find out in December. Grace is doing excellent as well. She is pretty much doing baby steps on the ice, with the odd glide here and there, but is very stable, hardly falls and absolutely loves it. As for Fiona, we strapped the bob skates onto her shoes. She loved it too and smiled the whole time. Next time we go skating, I will get some pictures of everyone skating around.

Hope everyone else's Saturday is going great, whether it's a regular day or something special is going on.

Beautiful Weather

We have had some beautiful weather lately. So, yesterday, after hockey practice, we took the crew for an awesome fall hike along the St. Lawrence waterfront on base in the wonderful 13 C sun. The kids loved it and Fiona did really well. Then, we played at the Pirate Park by the Yacht Club and headed home. After all that hiking, we needed to relax in the hot tub. Here are some pictures from yesterday and a few days earlier.

Where did October go?

Does anyone know? It seemed to be gone in a flash. Clay and I have been very busy but having fun with all of the kids activities.

The boys are LOVING hockey and excited everytime they get to scrimmage. Grace is LOVING her music lessons and doing very well at them. She knows where all the C,D,E,F, and G notes are on the keyboard and can play the C major scale up to G. The boys continue their music lessons and are doing great as well. I thought it would be so hard to motivate them to practice, but the songs they play are so fun and catchy, that they love to practice. Some days, Brodie even practices twice. Fiona is busy climbing everything. Her speaking is coming along and sometime she surprizes me. Today she asked me in the van, "Where Daddy go?" But, in general, she is more of a mover than a talker...and sometimes a bit of a screamer. We have to endure the odd temper tantrum here and there.

Clay is working on a paper from further research relating to his masters. He is hoping to go to a conference in Scotland next spring. I am working reservist military work, which involves every Thursday, every other weekend and every other Tuesday night for a few hours. I am also enjoying my contract work which I do in the evenings at home, for the most part. Otherwise, I am loving being at home with the kids during the day. It's the best decision we made for our family.

Here are a few photos from the month of October and a few more Halloween shots.

A "Star Wars" Halloween

As stated in the previous blog, the kids decided to dress up in Star Wars costumes for Halloween. Riley was Obi Wan Kenobe, Brodie the Emporer, Grace was Princess Leia, and Fiona an Ewok.


You will notice that Grace's costume looks nothing like princess Leia, who usually wore a lot of white. When Grace found it in the store,there was not leaving it behind and no convincing her otherwise. So, at least I did her hair up like P. Leia.
They had a great time, in spite of the horrible wind, and got lots of treats. Clay and I enjoyed touring them around the neighbourhood and visiting with neighbours. We just left our candy on our front porch with a sign that said, "Take a few". Either everyone was super honest or there weren't many kids because we had a lot of our own candy left.



As well, here is the link to the video I made of them. You should be able to just click on it to work.

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/TGFmyLHKDCdJqhAk

Get in the Spirit of Halloween

Hi Everyone,
Here's a little video I made up using my kids and my niece Emily. Hope this gets you all in the mood for Halloween.

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Riley and Brodie are Jedis...more namely Obi Wan Kenobe and the Emporer, respectively. When Grace found out that the boys were being Star Wars characters, Grace decided that Princess Leia was the person to be. And, to top it all off, why not keep Fiona in the then of it all. She will be an Ewok. The kids are getting super exited. Cheers. Evelyn.

PS. If the video above doesn't work or come up, follow this link.

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/TGFmyLHKDCdJqhAk

Hockey and Beavers and the rest of September

Brothers
Here is a photo of the boys before their first hockey practice ever. They loved getting dress in all that equipment. They also loved the practice.












Sisters
Here's a photo of my girls on a school day. Fiona has changed so much and they are becoming best little buddies. It's so awesome to watch them laugh and play together.

Here are a few more photos of September.

And Here Comes Fall!!!

As fall approaches, like tomorrow, here are some photos from the month of September as we enjoyed every last bit of warm weather Mother Nature would give us.

We thoroughly enjoyed Mike and Kathryn's pool this summer, especially since they installed a heater. The weather wasn't the best but the pool was always warm enough for a swim. The kids all improved so much in their confidence and abilities.

As we step into fall, we kick it off with Clay's birthday tomorrow. The boys have started music lessons, and Beavers while hockey starts on Saturday. Grace has started music lessons as well and is loving it. As for Fiona, she is starting to sleep in a big girl bed and will hopefully be transitioned over by the end of the weekend.

September Long Weekend

On the September long weekend, we cruised up to the Calabogie area of Ontario and spent the weekend with the Taylor and Eberts families. Accomodations were provided courtesy of Al's family who have three cottages at the end of a long road.

During the weekend, we waterskied, swam, did a little fishing off the dock, and hung out by the campfire. The Moms and Dads also went late night swimming, when all the kids were off to bed. The air was cold but the water felt warm...for a few minutes anyways. Then we had to get back to the fire and warm up.

Al's stepdad has a two-seater float plane. He took Clay up for a ride to check out the area. There are a few aerial photos from his trip in the slide show.

Most impressive thing over the weekend: Al's Mom, who is turning 67 soon, waterskied. She had done it a couple time previously in her life but hadn't done it in ages. After a little of Clay's coersion, she put a wet suit on and went for a ski. She did awesome, as she is an extreme wind surfer by nature.

THE SKI MOMS
Here's an awesome photo of Melissa, me, Lorrie and Janet - the ladies and more importantly, Moms, who all skied over the weekend.

A Few More First Day Photos

  We had to get a picture of everyone together.
  Brodie with his teacher Mrs. Dempster.

Back to School

Here are some pics of the boys first days of school. Riley started on September first, while Brodie had his first day September 3rd. Riley is in Grade one and Brodie is in Senior Kindergarten.

Riley coming off of the bus after his first day.












Brodie, just a little excited for school.
So far, the boys love school. Riley is taking a particular liking to his French Classes. As for Brodie, this is his comment after the first day of school: Senior kindergarten is awesome, but there is a lot more work and a lot less play time.

A Great Camping Trip

Clay and I and the kids went camping for a week at Charleston Lake Provincial Park. So far, it's our favourite place to go camping and this year it did not disappoint. We had many friends join us throughout the week, but the Ebert's family camped with us the whole week. Things we did: the beach (every day), waterskiing, fishing, snorkeling (Clay and the other dads only), a little bit of kayaking, watched nature shows at the Ampitheatre, campfires and marshmallows...most of the standard camping things but super fun.

We also met some new friends, Doug and Shannon Howe, whose youngest daughter was in Kindergarten with Riley. One of the coolest parts of this camping trip was that our campsite, the Howe's and the Eberts' campsites were all in a row. There were trails running through the trees to the rear of our sites that led from one site to the others. So, the kids ran and played in the trees on the trails continuously and all of us parent watched over everyone's children. That was super cool for the kids.

Here are the pictures from the awesome week of camping at Charleston.

Prairie Vacation Week 3 - 8-16 Aug

Week 3 of our vacation started out with sausage-making. So, Clay, Martin and Greg got at it and pushed out about 60 lbs of sausage and put the homemade smoker to the test. The efforts of Clay, my Dad and Martin did not go to waste as the smoker work great and could smoke all 60 lbs at once. The next day we were treated to a visit from my Grandparents. This is always a treat because they are so much fun and have so much energy. And, when Grandma isn't listening, Grandpa pulls a few good jokes of the brain bank. When Grandma is listening, he still tells his colourful jokes but gets heck for them in Polish. It's all good for a few laughs.

At about the midway point of week 3, week headed back to the lake for a few more days. The weather could not have been better as the lake was like glass for three days straight. As a result of the beautiful water conditions and the promise of a whole can of rootbeer, Brodie decided to go waterskiing. Clay's Mom promised him that she would also ski if he skied (probably thinking he wouldn't do it). Anyhow, Brodie waterskied and loved it. And Grandma Susan, well she waterskied too and you'll have to find out from her if she loved it or not.

Clay also got the chance to play around on the air chair. It's another water toy that is towed behind a boat, while the rider is strapped to a "chair" or seat connected to a pole with a hydrofoil at the bottom. It's a challenging contraption, but Clay got the hang of it and sailed off the ski and out of the water. He also crashed a few times, but got better and better at it. Pictures of this thing are included in the slide show.

By Friday, we were back at the farm and hanging out with my family again. We visited my Grandparents again and had a wonderful time with them. Grandma treated us to supper and Grandpa treated us to more jokes and a few shots. We gots some good photos of them with the kids. It was great to see them and spend such great time with them.

Well, that was our trip. Lots went on and we saw lots of people. Here is the final slideshow of the big trip, week 3.

Prairie Vacation Week 2 - 1-7 Aug

Week 2 of our vacation opened with the wedding of Olivier Houle and Dori Rainey on the first of August. It was a wonderful event, the bride was stunning, the families were both gracious hosts and I got to play the Top Gun Anthem on the Pipe Organ. Too cool. While in Edmonton, we stayed at Clay's cousin Michelle and Sean's house. Michelle was a wonderful host and let us have run of her home while she was not there. It was great to have an actual house to stay in and it was super convient for feeding the kids. We got to hang out a bit with Michelle on Sunday and had a really good visit with her.

On Monday, we were off to Calgary to visit the Strawsons. We also threw a day trip to Banff in there to go see the mountains. Although it was quite cloudy, the kids still got to see a few good views of the grandure of the mountains. Mike and Katie were wonderful hosts and Katie was quite the die-hard. At 7 months pregnant, she stayed up with us and even completed her pleasure craft liscence at about 1 am.

Finally, about mid-week, we headed back to Saskatchewan, to the farm where we could stay put for almost a week with no driving. The kids were getting pretty sick of driving after the 7 hour drive to Regina from Calgary, then hour and a half to the farm.

The farm was awesome. The first thing on our agenda was to visit "The Big Tree", which is a huge poplar tree in the middle of a field. It is surrounded by other trees, but somehow out grew the others over the years. The second thing on the agenda was to make sausage. And with that, my Dad, Clay and brother, gutted out and old fridge and turned it into an awesome smoker. Clay also helped my dad get his new little boat on the creek. So, we all got to take turns cruising around the creek. That pretty much ends our second week of holidays. Here are the photos during that period.

Prairie Vacation Week 1 - 24-31 July

Well it's time to get blogging on our prairie vacation. We spend a little over three weeks there, so I'll break the trip up into three different post over the three different weeks.

In the first week, we arrived in Regina and stayed with my sister and her hubby for a couple nights. It was great to see our niece Emily, the wee turtle and see how much she has grown and what she is busy at. While we were there we went to a Roughrider game. They ended up losing to Edmonton but the action was still pretty good. The atmosphere in the stands was really great. Everyone is friends with everyone. We also survived the sweltering heat of the east side stands. We were beat on by a 32 degree sun the entire game. My sister was super prepared and brought tonnes of water and spray bottles to cool ourselves off with. Here are some photos of us after the game, all decked out in our green and whites.

The next day after the Rider game, we headed over to the Lake of the Prairies in Manitoba to visit Clay's parents and family. We had a big birthday party for Great Grandma Kotzer that day. We also took in the beach, waterskiing and the airchair for Clay. One of the best parts was seeing all of Clay's cousins from the Kotzer side of the family. We had such a great time with everyone!

We headed out to Edmonton by the end of the week, Friday 31 Aug. We made the long journey to Edmonton a two-day affair and stayed in Saskatoon to visit more of Clay's family. Once again, it was great to visit his Aunts and Uncles from the Cenaiko Clan. The kids also love playing with the Cenaiko cousins. We also got to meet Tatym, Clay's cousins daughter.

Finally, on Friday, we ended up in Edmonton, reunited with the RMC crew, did a rehearsal for the wedding and had a bit of fun. Here are the photo from the birthday, the lake, Saskatoon and the wedding rehearsal.

Family Photos

Well, Clay and I and the kids are done with holidays and it is time to get back to some serious work...and blogging. I will do some blog posts of our holidays over the next week or so, but I will leave you all with a collage of some of my favourite photos from our professional shots done on the 14th of July. We love them and are having a hard time figuring out what to do with them now.

As for our holidays, they were great. We spent a little over three weeks in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta. We returned to Kingston on Sunday Aug 16th and then went camping two days later for a week. The prairie trip was wonderful as we got to spend lots of quality time with our families, attend a wedding of two dear friends and see may other friends along the way. The camping trip was great as we camped with the Eberts family for an entire week while other friends joined us over the weekend.

All good things must come to an end. Clay is preparing to teach his classes this fall. I am starting my contracting work and military reserve job soon. The boys are gearing up for school, music lessons, Beavers, and hockey this fall, while Grace will be doing music lessons. As for Fiona, she's probably going to get passed around a lot to make the rest of our schedules work.

Anyways, more to follow on the blog posts. I have a slight computer issue to sort out and then the posts will be rolling. Cheers, Evelyn

Brodie's Birthday Party

Brodie's real birthday is not for another month. Clay and I and the kids will be leaving shortly for our big holidays out west and then following that we will be going camping for a week. So, we will not be in Kingston for Brodie's 5th birthday.

Brodie had three friends from school come over to his party. The kids played on the slip and slide, had a water gun fight, and went hot tubbing. Then, we had a treasure hunt for them. They were given clues and had to find little bags of candy around the yard. The bags had all kinds of yummy, chewy, gummy treats inside and two lollipop sticks. The kids put the gummies on the sticks to make candy kabobs. This activity was done while Clay was BBQ'ing supper, so, there may have been a few spoiled appetites. But, once Brodie's Race Car cake was brought out, they all had their appetites back. Here are some photos from Brodie's party.

Our 8th Anniversary

Clay and I celebrated our 8th anniversary yesterday. We actually got family photos done as our anniversary gift as we haven't had a professional photo of our family since Fiona was added to the crew. The pictures will hopefully turn out really well as we took them on Fort Henry Hill over looking Lake Ontario. When we got home, I put my wedding dress on and took a few snaps in it with the kids and Clay too. We didn't do too much more than that. The boys had soccer last night, so by the time that was done, the kids were in bed and dishes completed, it was already past 9 pm. Clay went out and hunted down some gourmet dessert for us and we had wine and yummy dessert at home while catching up on some TV shows. That was about it. Here are a few more photos from our photo shoot that we did at home.

Grace's 3rd Birthday

Grace turned 3 years old on Sunday. We had a big birthday party for her with a few games in our yard. Grace is going through a major Tinkerbell, pink and princess phase, so I made her a Tinkerbell cake. She got lots of awesome gifts that conformed to those "characteristics" and many other cool gifts such as a wooden "Make-your-own-pizza" set and wooden dress up dolls with magnetic clothing. We hosted 26 people, which included 11 kids, at our place which made 32 including all of us and held a BBQ. She had a lots fun and lots of people helped her open her presents. Here are some photos from her birthday party.

We will be hosting Brodie's birthday party on Saturday. We have invited his school friends. It will be just a kid party, so it won't be so hectic, but hopefully just as fun for Brodie.

Fiona - 18 Months Old

Our sweet Fiona is half way between 1 year and 2 years as of yesterday. She amazes us and makes us smile every day and we are so blessed to have yet again, another beaming, happy child. Here are some of the things she can do at 18 months old:

-climb everything
-if she can't climb it, she will find something like a chair that will enable her
-she finally consistently sleeps through the night
-she knows right from wrong and is learning to hug and say sorry when she makes a mistake
-puts her shoes on by herself
-dresses in her own clothes and everyone elses by herself
-uses a booster seat and not a high chair
-doesn't take a bottle anymore
-proficiently uses a spoon with very little mess
-sings Happy Birthday

Fiona loves water and runs to her room to find a swimmer at the slightest hint that might go hot tubbing. She runs to her Daddy and squeals enthusiastically when he comes home from work. Fiona has 16 teeth, is 33 1/2 inches tall and is somewhere around 26 lbs. Her siblings love her but she generally drives them nuts as she breaks everything the build...like legos. She loves to chew everything still,even though she is not teethin. She is the perfect finale to our wonderful family, bright, and happy (most of the time) and tough. So, in honour of her 18 months with us, we took photos of her with Preston, her bear, and with her siblings and their bears.

Gone Skiing

On Sunday, July 5th, we finally got out on the lake and went skiing. It turned out to be quite a nice day. We invited the Taylors to come with us. Thankfully, Al and Colin came along and we had a really good time. Unfortunately, Melissa and Claire had to stay home because Claire wasn't up to it that afternoon. It's also good to have a doctor around just in case something bad happens. Clay, Al, Riley and I all skied. Everyone else, except Fiona, went for a swim. Al hadn't been on skies since he was a teenager. Riley got his first ski in of the season and since last July. He was super psyched for it and skied for at least 10 minutes straight. I was driving the boat and had to tell him he was getting off. He was very brave and kept asking to go faster. In the one picture, you will see him giving the thumbs up to me, which means "go faster" in waterskiing language. I finally got my first ski of the season in. It was tonnes of fun as you can see by the expression on my face as I climb into the boat. As for Clay, unfortuneately, I don't have any hero ski shots of him cutting up the water. Maybe next time.

O Canada

Hi Everyone, yesterday we had a great day at Mary Ann and Derek Gilchrist's place. They hosted a "Redneck Garage Party" for Canada Day. Clay and I dressed in theme but we just put our regular Canada Red shirts on for the kids and gave everyone tattoos. It was a really good time and we had lots of fun. The kids did too. Quote of the day goes to Riley who proclaimed to me before heading over to the party, "Well, I don't know if I've ever been to a garage party before, but it sure sounds like a lot of fun." Here are some photos of us as well as the other guests. Note, not everyone met the theme but they were all allowed to stay.

First Camping Trip of 2009

Well, with Riley and Brodie's school year ending this past Thursday, we decided to go on a family camping trip to reward them for their hard work and excellent report cards this year. We also needed to shake the bugs out of the trailer before our big camping trip scheduled for August.

We went to a Provincial Park called Murphy's Point, which we had been several times previously. This trip went particularily well because it was very fun and there were no "unfortunately incidents" such as getting lost for an hour, almost rolling the camping trailer, getting a flat on the boat trailer, or catching any fingers with fishing hooks. Basically, we took the easy route versus the scenic route there and left the boat and fishing rods behind. We spent two fun filled days playing at the beach, attending a nature show, playing around the park and sitting around the camp fire. Here are the photos from our first camping trip.

Father's Day

Of course, this past Sunday was Father's day and here is the official photo to go with the occasion. We had a simple day: went to church, had lunch and then went to Belleville to spend the afternoon with the Eberts family.

Here are some pictures of the rest of the day and the kids playing in the neighbours pool...and my pretty roses too.

Saturday, June 6th - A Big Day

On Saturday, June 6th, we had a pretty big day. It was a day of performing for half of our family. Once the performances were done, the day was followed up by an awesome visit by our friends, Derek and Misty Niles and their two awesome boys, Joshua and Cameron.

The first performance of the day was mine (Evelyn). Back in April, while at a conference, I was sipping a few brewskies with one of the Majors that I worked with. Well, after some delightful conversation and two pints, I was signed up to sing "O Canada" for a military fundaraising event. The event was called the Kingston to Kandahar (K2K) spinathon and it supports Soldier On which is a campaign for soldiers who are severely injured while on a tour of duty. It has always been a dream of mine to sing O Canada to open an event and this was an awesome opportunity. The event took place at the K-Rock Center, the new Kingston arena, infront of over 750 people.


That afternoon, Riley and Brodie had their music recital. They did so wonderful. It was amazing to see them play so well and poised infront of a crowd of people at a young age. Their music teacher Jana Bolton, called them forward and introduced them. Then, they spoke into a microphone and told everyone what tune they were going to play. Brodie played a song called "Handel's Slow Dance." This is a picture of Brodie playing his song.

Riley music piece followed immediately after Brodie. Once again, he spoke confidently into the microphone and announce that he was going to play "A Happy Song" with his Mom. We played a duet together, which is why I am at the front with him.


On top of their individual pieces, the boys and their classmates played a percussion ensemble along with Jana. Riley played a tamborine while Brodie and a girl in their class played the triangle. (The triangle is way more complicated to play than anyone really knows.) The other half of the group played wooden blocks that made a cool "tick tock" sound. The whole group together sounded so cool. The Grande Finale was a vocal piece with all of Jana's students from all levels. She played of course and the kids sang. It was so cute and everyone sounded really good.

After all of that fun, we headed home to hang out with the Niles Crew. Derek is a classmate of mine and Clayton's from RMC. They popped into Kingston for something to do for the weekend and we had a great time.

Well, that's about it for now. Sorry for the added detail, but I must say, I was a very proud Mom and a very excited soloist!!! Evelyn

School Trip

While the girls and I are slaving away at home, the boys are going on cool field trips. Here are a few pictures of my boys on their field trip to the Cataraqui Creek Conservation area, where they learned all about pond life. A friend of mine who went on the trip was gracious enough to take some photos of the boys for me. Thank you Brenda Fullerton.

My Girls

Being at home with the kids is wonderful. I am so happy that I don't have to miss anymore special moments with them, although, it's not all laughs and giggles all the time. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and every other Friday, the boys go to school so I get quality time with my girls. It's awesome to watch them play together and bond as sisters. It is also just nice to spend the time together with them. Grace says the most amazing things and is talking so much now. Fiona is a huge cuddle bug and loves to give hugs and kisses. Here are some photos of my girls over the last few weeks.

Gone Boating

It has been a slow spring. On Saturday, we finally got the boat out on the water for the first time. Connie, Greg and Wee Turtle (Emily) were along for the maiden voyage of 2009. The weather was not super hot, just nice but it was dead calm out which made it easy for us to go out on Lake Ontario. Normally the big lake is too choppy and the waves are too big to venture out there. That day, it was perfect.

The Litzenberger family left us yesterday. I went to Ottawa with the boys to drop them off at the airport. Clay went to Madisson Ebert's First Communion with the girls. Here are the photos of our boating trip, Clay's hockey wind up party and the last few days of Connie and Greg and Emily's adventures in Kingston.

Riley's 6th Birthday

Riley turned six one week ago today. I would say he had a pretty good day...and night too. During the day, I surprized him with a family picnic at the marina on base. We went there to play at the Pirate Ship Playground, but little did he know that there was a cooler full of picnic food and cupcakes for his Birthday and his birthday gift. Daddy was at RMC watching the grad parade but joined us later for the picnic and some pictures.

Clayton left to Ottawa to pick up Connie, Greg, and Emily from the airport, while I manned the fort in anticipation of Riley's first sleepover. He invited four of his friends over for cake, a movie and a sleepover. So, there I was by myself with six over-excited BOYS, who were loud, rambunctious, but overall pretty good. Nothing got broken, but I did get a little concerned when I saw the chandelier above the table swinging from side to side with boys on either end pushing it. The sleepover went over really well and as expected some kids stayed up really late. Riley needed a super huge nap on Saturday afternoon. It was all good fun and really exciting for Riley.

So, now Connie, Greg and Emily are here and almost at the end of their vacation. It has been a great week. We didn't do anything too exciting, but rather just enjoyed each other's company. Here are some photos from Riley's Birthday.

A Little Bit Of Everything

We have been on the go, so there is some amalgumation in this entry. The boys started T-ball and really love it. To show them how to really play the game, Dad, Riley Brodie, Mark and Maddison Eberts, and Uncle Greg went to see a Jays game. We have some great seats, but didn't catch any fly balls! Oh yea, Uncle Greg and Auntie Connie are down for the week, so we are busy having fun. I did have to put greg to work for a bit making sausage, and it tasted terrific. Ev will put on some shots of Riley's birthday in a bit. Take care,

Clayton

Mother of the Year Award

I hope everyone has thoroughly enjoyed their Mother's Day...well, all the Moms out there anyway. I had a wonderfully relaxing Mother's Day: slept in, had breakfast served to me, brunch at the RMC Staff Mess and then finally off to Belleville for turkey supper at the Ebert's house. Very wonderful, very relaxing. I came home to a wonderful surprize. I have won the Mother of the Year award for 2009. Check out the link below for the highlights of this prestigious award. You may need to copy and paste this into your address bar.

http://news.cnnbcvideo.com/?nid=s3UPplp8gwuqKkCW7aGU9zEzODQ0NTc1&referred_by=16564190-gNre4Ax&p=moveon



Me with my beautiful flowers from my family, doing my "Mom-of-the-Year Pose".



Me and my beautiful children (who have a hard time taking a serious photo).

Grace does Madagascar

If you have seen the second Madagascar, you will know where Grace got this from. Check out our little actress, rehearsing her lines.

Another Kotzer Climber

Yet again, another one of our kids that loves to climb. We have removed this stool from the kitchen, for the most part as we can't keep Fiona off of it.

Happy Easter and More!!!

Happy Easter to All. Clay and I and the kids are having a pretty good weekend. Easter weekend marks the end of the academic year for Clay. He survived his first semester of teaching at RMC. Although it was pretty hectic at times, I think he really enjoyed it, especially the interaction with the RMC cadets. Another great part about the weekend was that it kicks off the last three weeks of work that I have left. Only 18 days and then I'm out of the Forces...kinda. I already have a part time job lined up. There are no week day hours for it, so I will stay at home with the kids during the day and then work every Thursday evening and a weekend or two per month. So, the long, 4-day weekend is kind of a kick off until the end.

We went to Belleville and had supper with the Eberts family on Easter Sunday. It was great. The kids did an Easter Egg hunt there, which was fun for all of them...even Fiona, who got to find a few eggs and discover the goodness inside. On Saturday, we decorated Easter eggs and had lots of fun with that.

These photos are from Grandma Kotzer's visit until now. Highlights of the slideshow are Fiona's split forehead, the boys climbing and getting caught on the fence, more of the boys Ice Show and finally some Easter Pics.

Skating Pageant

The skating finale weekend just pasted and the Riley was a clown and Brodie was a donkey in Pinocchio. They had a great time and the costumes were really well done. There will be some more of the action shots to follow!!

Good Times with Grandma Kotzer

Hi All, I won't go into recapping the last 11 days but it has been great. We have been having a wonderful time with Grandma and she has been a true blessing to have around...especially for emergency trips to the doctor just before supper!!! Anyways, over the last few days, she has managed to bake us more goodies, make tonnes of perogies and we all went to the Sugar Bush and had fresh maple syrop on pancakes (alld except Daddy). Here are some photos of our time with Grandma Kotzer since her arrival last Monday.



In our last few days together, Grandma plans on making donuts, going to skating lessons with the boys, and who knows what else we can squeeze into the last couple days.

The Kotzer Boys Breakin' It!

Check out the Kotzer Boys, Riley, Brodie, and Lochlan breakin' it down. These heart throbs have some pretty cool moves!!

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Skating With Grandma Kotzer

Grandma Kotzer came to visit us on Monday. She is staying for 2 weeks, so we have planned a lot of stuff for her to do. On Monday evening, she came to music lessons with Riley and Brodie and I to see first hand, how awesome their music program and teacher is. On Tuesday, we took her skating a city hall which is where the video is from. Wednesday night, she hung out with the gang while I went to Brooks and Dunn. Thursday night, Grandma babysat for us as we went to a Bryan Adams concert. Friday, we headedover to the Military Centre Pool and all went swimming together. Yesterday, Grandma treated to her special recipe of cinnamon buns. Grandma + dough + cinnamon + butter + honey = yum yum yum and a few spoiled appetites. No harm done. Grandma doesn't get to spend much time with us. I think Grandma has been having a great week. She took care of the kids all week instead of sending them to daycare. But, she did admit she was a little relieved in the late afternoon when Clay and I made it home. We have also enjoyed sipping on wine and watching the Briar. So far, the first week has been spectacular. Tomorrow, we are making perogies with Mark and Lorrie Eberts. I am also planning a shopping trip and visit to the Sugar Shack where they make Maple syrop. Hopefully, I will get the pictures off of Clay's camera so that I can post some pics too. Cheers, Evelyn

Quebec City Part 3

Here's one last video from our trip to Quebec City. It is from the tubing hills at Valcartier Vacation Village. This hill was call the Tornado. When you see the video, you will know why.

Quebec City Part 2

Finally, I have a video and a few more pics from our trip to Quebec City. Here is a video of us tubing down the hills at the Carnivale. The hills at the Vacation Village were way steeper and faster. The girls were real champs and survived the crazy ride. When I asked Grace if she wanted to do the hill again, she gave me a big, "Oh, Yeah!"

the sculptures



















the lift














the launch














the tubing

Brodie Plays Piano

And now, here is Brodie playing "Old Blue." The class that he is in is for 5 and 6 year olds, so he is doing really well, considering he is only 4 1/2. Try block out the singing...it doesn't do the playing any justice.

Riley Plays the Piano

Riley and Brodie started music lessons last fall. They are great and the boys are really enjoying them. Here is Riley playing a tune from the book called "Peter and Mary."

Quebec City Part 1

Hi All,

We headed out to Quebec City for the weekend to visit our friends Olivier and Dory, practice up our french and hangout at Le Carnival. We had a great weekend with our hosts and I think they had a good weekend too but were relieved to get some peace and quiet in their house when we finally left on Monday morning. We visited Le Carnival on Saturday and on Sunday we went to Le Village Vacance at Valcartier, where the waterslide park is transformed into a downhill tube park in the winter. The Carnival was super fun and the weather was awesome. The Village Vacance was super cool. You don't even have to walk to the top of the hill. Instead, you are pulled to the top on tire tubes connected to a cable. What did we do with the baby might you ask? She went sliding too!!!

Here are the pictures from Quebec City Part 1, which includes some photos prior to our trip, my birthday and the Carnival. Tubing photos to be included in Part 2.

Grace: The Big Helper

What a big girl our baby girl Grace is turning out to be. If I make the mistake of calling her baby, I am promptly corrected and reminded that "Gracee is a big girl now and Fiona is the baby!" She loves to help us with everything: the laundry, the cooking, the cleaning, setting the table...pretty much everything. In this video, she even helps us out with Fiona too. Her talking is coming along, but she is greatly known for her fine and gross motor skills. For instance, she can climb any piece of playground equipment a five-year-old can climb as well as carefully cut things out with scissors. For this reason, when she asks for scissors, her Dad gives them to her without question as she really loves to do crafts...right...wrong...about five minutes after Daddy handed over the scissors, Mommy caught Grace cutting her hair. Luckily, the scissors were extremely dull and she mananged to wrap so much hair in them that they would not cut. Here is a video of our helpful big girl Grace.



And now, it's starting to get messy.

The Halls Take Us to the TO Zoo

When our holidays in the prairies were over, we stayed at Jeff and Joanna Halls in Bradford Ontario. We visited the Toronto Zoo on the 2nd of January. The kids loved the animals and it was quite a hit with us all. Here are some shots from the zoo. Afterwards, Joanna and Jeff treated Clay and I to an awesome meal once the kids were in bed and the chaos was over. Good times.

Christmas In The Prairies

It had been three years since we spent Christmas in Saskatchewan. Clay and the kids left to Sask on the 9th of Dec. I followed later, because of work, on the 17th. During our time there, we celebrated Grandma Stajniak's birthday, made sausage, hung out with the Langenberg crew of family, baptized our Godchild Emily, did Christmas Eve with Grandma & Grandpa Kotzer (Ukranian Style), Christmas day at the Farm, and surprized Grandpa Stajniak with a 60th Birthday party. It was so great to go home and see so many people. Here are some photos from our holiday in the prairies. Actually, there are a lot of photos, so brace yourself.

Fiona and Preston: One Year Photo Shoot

 Here are photos of Fiona with her bear at one year old. She has grown a whole lot since their first photo shoot together. She is around 22 lbs now, a joyous and happy little girl. She has 8 teeth, is a proficient walker and has totally grasped the concept of presents. She gets really excited when a gift box or bag get placed in front of her...and not just because of the box!!
 She seems to back on track with eating table food, which is such a blessing. So, here are a few of the standard Fiona and Preston photos as well as a slide show of me following her around and taking random photos playing and of course, opening her birthday gifts. Thank You to all who sent birthday cards and gifts to our sweet little girl.