part 2

 cry is the best trip planner. ever. she had these brilliant time and money saving tips and tricks that we used...one was buying a camp site at the disney wilderness camp ground for 60 a night. split 6 ways...10 an adult and we got disney bands which linked us up to easy fast passes, photo memory and the best!  FREE parking!!!  its 20 a car to park each day....so we saved 160.00 on parking alone with these bad boys!!! 

the pool was awesome. i am NOT a water person. i dont like being wet and cold so i dont swim....cont-rare this pool was heated and was HOT, we actually had to turn the heat OFF!  the hot tub was perfect at night!

 the kids swam everyday.  nate lived in the water, i would bring him food to the pool so he could eat and swim at the same time. haha

 we went just before the march break crowds hit.  so we planned to do back to back parks, we did magic kingdom and epcot. took a day rest, then finished up with animal and hollywood studios.  we then went back to catch the fire works at magic kingdom....SOOOOO glad we did this.  the crowds got much busier as the days went by.  we did disney smart and were able to fast pass and catch everything we wanted to see...thanks CRY!

 we brought along this bad boy and man oh man. it was WORTH bringing. 

 love this pic.  walking into the park on day 1 and talking about how happy they were

 we arrived for the opening show at magic kingdom

 dad took jo
chris took ellie

 they were in awe

 my heart

 my kid crew. i love them all so very much

 my little and i

 my favorite memory of magic kingdom. we just got out from seeing belle and dad walks around the corner with this HUGE cinnamon bun. we devoured it. it was SO good and fed us all!

 waiting for dumbo!

 cutie!

 riding together

 happy shawn!

 my little on dumbo.  8 yrs ago i took nate on this ride for the first time.  time flies too fast!

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Posted by mel at 11:55 AM

trip part 1

 after 5 yrs of no family vacation we felt it was time to take one with the girls!  this is our first trip as a family of 5!  mom, dad, cry, shawn, quinn and charlie came with us....ok cry planned, booked and did all the work for us. haha.  the kids had SO much fun together. i went into this vacation thinking that the boys will fight like crazy....wouldnt you know it, they got along SO well!!!!  we left tues march 8 as soon as chris got home and drove to the hotel at the halifax air port.  we stayed the night bec our flight was early wed morning.  we  let the kids go nuts when we got there...then had them in bed for 8 bec we had to get up at 3! 

 the 3 am wake up call

 then we went to the air port to wait in some lines.....

 ellie's first flight!  i had the brilliant idea a few weeks ago to carry on ellie's car seat and have her use it during the take off and decent....jo was a lap baby, free, and knowing joey and how BUSY she is i was like, dude. NO way am i having her wiggly and run for a 4 HR flight....so i took the car seat on the plane, and after lift off i strapped joey in ellie's seat and put ellie in my seat...so nate, ellie and i shared 2 seats. it worked out AWESOME!!!!

 nate and i seat sharing

 ellie back in her seat for the decent....she used the tray as a foot rest. ha

 we arrived in florida around 11?  and charlie pushed joey.  charlie is such a little mom
mom and dad flew in a few days before us to have sometime alone before the crew of kids arrived. they met us at the airport

we got into the house, joey had a long over due nap and the kids hit the pool.  we rented a 4 suite/bedroom house plus 2 rooms for the kids to share. it worked out awesome. they boys shared a room and got a long so well!!!  the girls shared most of the time. we did have to split them up because they were staying up too late giggling and playing.  i dont think the girls had 1 fight 0 comments

Posted by mel at 11:44 AM

me!

i know my blog is all over the place and i post mostly (now) about my family...but i had to make a post about my latest obsession....

the last month or so i have been actively, as in mon- thurs, following the timothy bosma trial.  i have no clue as to why this trial has me so heart wrenched, reading everything i can about it.  from mon- thurs they are in court and i can follow live tweets from reporters who are there in the court room reporting.  nate and ellie know that when dad gets home i am off to the play/school room to read the reports.  i often come down, just sad and confused at the whole situation.  it breaks my heart, so sad, so senseless.  so wrong on so many levels...but so very interesting in learning all about how the evidence speaks for the dead. from dna analysis to blood splatter reports, the cell phone pings, the gun shot casting, the blood, the paper trail. so very intriguing

anyways, aside from homeschooling and chasing after 2 little girls, i am found from 4-5 reading everything i can about the case

god totally be with charlene bosma

mel

on a totally selfish note, i said to chris, if and when the kids graduate school (more so when, and not as much if, cause hello...we home school they will graduate!) and i have some time (time???? what IS that??????) , i would totally love to go back to school to study economics (im totally intrigued by shopping and the economic economy, i know so much unlike me) or something to do with law....

he LAUGHED at me and said i couldn't  do it!  grrrrrrr    as if! now i want to prove him wrong!  i didnt say i want to be a lawyer, i just said i am intrigued by Canadian law! oya!

i can do ALL things through christ who gave me the strength to birth 4 kids! hahahaha


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Posted by mel at 6:21 PM

life stuff

 ellie loves dolls, not only does she not just take care of them she dresses them (thanks nana plumps for the clothes!) and uses jo's stuff too. haha

 what? there is nothing blue on my lip. i didnt get into anything....she got into the toothpaste!!!!

 teeny, tiny, tender hands. i love them

 nana plumps!  nate LOVES, LOVES this book!  he is begging me to get more. so its a huge success!  after a quick google search i discovered they are 10.00 Canadian but i can get them from one of the home school web sites i regularly order from for 5.00, so with tax and shipping its only 7. not too bad for a faith base, awesome christian book that he loved! 

 this morning i found ellie's dr station all set up. she goes in the front room and plays dr with her dolls...but only talks when she thinks i cant hear her. its too cute to listen to her talk away to her babies, she wants to be a dr when she grows up...

 this am, i took the older 2 kids out.  it was SOOOO cold. the wind was brutal.  we hit up the park

 ellie wanted to swing in the baby swing

 then went back home to put more layers on and hit the woods. i truly enjoy walking with the kids in the woods. its nice to be outside.  jo slept through all of it...at home with dad...ha

 nate lead the way

 i snuck a hait band in jo's hair. she will NOT keep anything in her hair if she knows its there....hahaha i got you little jo!

 seeing herself on the phone. she is such a card

 us.  she put her hand on my shoulder and took a quick pic before she got busy playing

what a nice, relaxing. NO SCHOOL day!  yipeeeee
happy saturday everyone! 0 comments

Posted by mel at 4:39 PM

battle of the soups!

 my little love. so happy!  i dont even mind my grey hair and wrinkles....i dont mind for real!  which is funny with the whole aging process, my hair is turning white and i like it. im not coloring it! my wrinkles share stores BUT i am NOT ok with my thinning hair. but that is another story for another blog post...

the other day both girls were tired, cranky and came to me for snuggles. i told chris to take a pic so that i can frame it...to have it on my desk as a reminder of all those yrs i didnt think we would have another baby....now i have 2!

 nate joined in for fun

 during school today, ellie did a smashing job at keeping herself super busy, she went missing for about 15 mins, i went looking for her and could not find her anywhere!  finally i called for her and i hear this little voice say "polo"

get it? nate and ellie play marco polo and i guess she wanted me to play with her

 the battle of the soups!!
monday chris stayed home from work and decided to make us a soup for supper. it took him a good chuck of time and after cooking for hours, it wasnt ready for supper time so we ended up hitting a drive through....ha

so yesterday we tried it. it was ummmmm interesting....so today, i took about 15 mins and made a batch of soup for the kids and i too eat today....it's 3:30 and almost 1/2 of it is gone....the kids love it....chris's soup?

 its in the fridge, 3/4 full.....cough.....hahahaha

i win!

this post is totally tongue in cheek, fun and silly

another fun thing, nate now knows how to get onto my blog and has spent the last 2 days reading it. he is totally shocked to read about how he was at 2!  ive been blogging for a long time now, crazy hu!  so i must be careful from now on about what i say....lol nate reads it! 0 comments

Posted by mel at 3:53 PM

weekend

 this is how i found joey. she is SO very busy.  i also caught her trying to climb up on the bar stool and the STOVE! 

i found chris "flying" as ellie calls it, the girl!  ellie's turn first

 bam! 

 joey's turn. the girls love this, i have to leave the room. ha

 we had a lovely visit from cry and shawn and her little zoo (har har) on the weekend. it was so nice!  the kids played in the basement for most of the visit and i was able to have a long over due chat with my sis

 charlie grace. such a beauty you are

 quinny-tas-tic! i love your spunk!

 ellie joy. such a sunshine of light!

 nate!  my buddy forever!

and thats about all the pics i have. why? bec ive been so sick the last week!  seriously!  im thinking it's the lack of coffee???? no idea all i know is is feel GROSS....BUT i've gone 1 week and 1 day with out a drink of coffee! yeah me! 3 comments

Posted by mel at 4:14 PM