Chrystal’s blog

So time is flying by faster and faster and the sands just don't stop running through my hourglass!!  Here's a peek at the latest in our household.

So this past weekend Brody participated in his first badminton tournament.  He has practiced really hard over the past few weeks - going in to school early, staying at lunch, and sometimes after school as well.  Well, all his hard work payed off and he walked away from the tournament with the Bronze, placing third in singles.  The best part is that he got to play a lot of other kids from the  entire school division (playing against the same 3 or 4 opponents in Barnwell gets a little old after awhile) and was able to really draw from that experience.  He recognized a few things that he wants to continue to work on for next year.  Way to go Brody!!  Way to put in your best effort!

Yesterday was my Grandma Paxman's birthday. 

She is now a very youthful 79 years of age.  She still is a ball of energy and hasn't changed since...well, since I just don't know when.  She still calls me Jenni...completely innocently...and refers to all of her children or grandchildren in the same mixed-up way.  She still thinks I'm the best at everything I do.  She tells me I look wonderful and that my children are beautiful. She sees the good in everyone around her. She loves her home.  She loves her family. She is a wonderful influence in my life and that is the way it has always been. 
Earlier this month, my cousin Jenni (who currently resides with my Grandma on the farm) came up with a super plan that all the grandkids got involved with.  Grandma's fridge and kitchen flooring have needed replaced for a while now, and Grandma was raised in the good old days, when you made due with what you have and make it work till it can't anymore.  And honestly, the fridge and the floor had served a long and useful life.  So Jenni collected funds from all the grandkids, and found a new fridge and flooring to install.  She organized a group of intelligent, hard-working Paxman blood to install the flooring and the fridge on Grandma's birthday's while Grandma was away.  Enter Project:Diversion. 
My sister Mandy arranged to pick my Grandma up at her house on the morning of her birthday.   It was presented to her as a Day On The Town for her birthday.  Mandy drove her to Lethbridge, where I met them at Green Haven Garden Centre for a little first-of-spring shopping spree.  Mandy and I had all 8 of our children with us - which could have turned into a three-ring circus - but thankfully our children were very well behaved and Grandma had a wonderful time looking around at all the flowers and pointing out their individual beauty to the great-grandchildren.  We found a few of Grandma's favorites and some new fun things to try planting in her boxes and planters when spring actually hits southern Alberta with full force.
Then we left the children in the capable care of Brody and Tyson while we whisked Grandma away to lunch at the Regent Restaurant with my mom (who was on lunch from work).  The Chinese Buffet was as delightful as always, as was the company.  At the end of the meal, my mom opened a fortune cookie that said she would receive an unusual gift - and we all insisted the fortune was actually meant for Grandma.  (While Mandy and I were having a jolly, good old time in Lethbridge with Grandma, the hard-working intelligent crew were tearing out the old flooring and laying new laminate in her kitchen)
When our bellies were stuffed, we headed to watch Lizzie (Jace's daughter) sing in the Kiwanis festival (check out Vicky's blog for an adorable video) and then to the park with all our kids again for birthday cake.  Throughout the day, we kept in contact with the crew at the farm to know how things were progressing...and they were much faster than I ever believed they could be...Kudos to the intelligent, hard-working crew!!  The Diversion squad had much more up our sleeves that we could have done with Grandma, but as it was, we kept her longer than necessary in Lethbridge and I think we may have wore Grandma out.

My cousin Angie met us at the park for birthday cake, and then she offered to drive Grandma back to the farm, as she needed to pick up her son Kyler anyway (okay - that really was one more previously thought out part of the diversion squad - like I said the intelligent Paxman blood was at the farm....those of us doing the diverting are known for our beauty!!!!)  But Grandma had no idea...at least she didn't let on that she had any idea we were on a diversion mission. 
After that, I'm not sure what happened at the farm, but I sure hope that Grandma was surprised and pleased with the change that had taken place while she was away.  We all love you Grandma!!  Happy Birthday!

During our Easter break, the kids and I went to Waterton with my parents, my brother Ty and my Grandma Paxman.  This year, Waterton has seen an incredible amount of snow.  When we were there in February, it was possible to walk on drifts over the roofs of buildings.  At the end of March, there wasn't quite that much snow - but there is still an amazing amount.  The rest of Southern Alberta is snow-free, so we all went up in our runners, but we did have warm jackets and some of us had mitts. 

Grandma Paxman is always prepared for what Waterton might throw at you - which was a really good thing seeing that Josie threw up in the van just as we pulled up to the Cameron Falls parking lot. (Seems she had eaten just a little too much Easter candy that morning before driving 2 hours in the van...) As a result, Josie was sporting an extremely interesting style...perhaps you'll see the designers of today following her lead on the runways of Paris soon.(Seriously, check out what she is wearing in the far picture!!)  Thanks go to Grandma Paxman. 
Meanwhile, Chase just couldn't stay out of the snow drifts - how could I possibly expect an almost 4-year old to not find pleasure in climbing snowdrifts??? He only had his little runners on and a fleece pair of sweats - but that didn't stop him.
After some fun in the townsite, we traveled up the Cameron Falls road as far as you can go(to where the cross country skiers all go) and found a little camp kitchen that had a plowed path.  We built a toasty warm fire and ate like Waterton kings and queens.  It just doesn't get better than pulling a picnic table with ice-cold benches within burning distance of a tiny, yet very hot campfire and warming your hands near the stovepipe!! AHHHHHHH!  What great winter fun!

Dane actually really had the best idea - he stayed bundled in his car seat for most of the day - in a state of hibernation. 

Every once in awhile he emerged for a quick feeding, then snuggle back in and  slept a little bit more. 

As is almost always the case in Waterton, the wind was blowing - and the hill up by the Prince of Wales was as windy as it gets - but the view was worth the extreme effort to walk out to the edge, and then we got pushed back to our vehicles with the full force of the wind. 

Ahhhhh, Waterton....  We love to enjoy all its seasons!!

This past week was Easter break at our house and we had a grand old time!  I actually love having time off school to get out of routine and play with my kids - but then I really love it when we get back to routine, too.  We had my whole family (except Nathan and his crew which were not on Spring break yet) over to our house for Easter dinner and a good old-fashioned egg hunt out at Uncle Arden's farm. 

In the past, we've always done the egg hunt in our backyard, but the farm presented some much more interesting hiding places and made the egg hunt last a lot longer. Then we headed to the coulees to roll our beautifully dyed Easter eggs.  My kids are less than fond of eating the cracked boiled eggs, so they are less inclined to roll the eggs down the hill and more inclined to chuck them as far as they can and see if they can make them explode.   At least Brody still does an underhand throw - Chase practices his pitching for the major leagues when he throws his eggs.  We had a pretty gorgeous day, considering Easter came in March this year and enjoyed the time spent with family. Dane slept through most of the outside  activities - but I had to get a picture of his first egg rolling!

So a couple of weeks ago, it was Disney dress-up day at our school.  What you need to know is that our Student Council thinks that it is fun to have a dress-up day every single month.  I don't even like thinking up costumes for kids at Halloween, let alone every single month of the entire school year - YEEEEEESH!!! The night before Disney dress-up day, I was helping Maren put together something for a costume to make her look like the wicked witch from Snow White.  She commented something about never winning for best costume in her class (Oh yes, not only is it fun to have dress-up day every single month of the year, but it is FUN to PICK who has the BEST costume - give me a break!!!) and I went on and on and on about how much I dislike making costumes for dress-up day and how I just don't have time to make amazing costumes like other kids moms and she probably will never win  and on and on and on (frankly, it was ridiculous!  - but I was on a roll and just couldn't stop myself - silly mom!).  Anyhow...she came home from school that day with a great big smile on her face - she had WON for best costume in her class!!! YEAH! And the rant the night before was forgotten , thank goodness.
Today my friend Wendy emailed me and reminded me of a lovely piece of advice I once had given her, but had since forgotten until she reminded me...and these are words to live by...so thanks for the reminder, Wendy, and I'm going to start living by them.
Use less words!! Instead of losing it and saying a trillion words and they stop listening anyway, just stop talking!!

Well - spring has finally arrived in Southern Alberta - sort of. At least according to the calendar it is spring, so during our Easter break I insisted that we use some of the more sunny days to get some yard work done.  As you can see from the photos, our fence needs some serious paint this year, and so the initial preparations need to be done - Chase was more than happy

to have permission to actually hammer something without being in trouble (usually he is swinging a hammer at the tile on my kitchen floor, or on the closet in the hall, or on his bedroom wall - not exactly where I like hammer marks!!!)  He hammered all the nails back in that were sticking out waiting for someone to catch their shirt on.  It kept him busy for so long, that I'm considering just giving him a jar of nails for his birthday and allowing him to hammer them in at random on my fence!!!  Only considering it....
The girls are slightly more prone to pose for photos of doing yard work than they are at actually accomplishing it... but they did manage to completely clean out THIS particular flower bed - so I can't complain. 

Brody was in the yard working hard to - but I forget to take pictures of him - it's not quite as fun as pictures of Dane's first day playing in our backyard.