~Santa Visit 2008~

For some reason I cant seem to load it directly on my blog but here is the link for it

http://www.verymagicalvideo.com/public

Email address is michelleperkins@rogers.com and the password is the same.

Our mall took videos this year instead of photos, I missed the photo but the video turned out to be pretty cute. If you KNOW Joshua you will laugh so hard at this video cause its him through and through, talkin' up a storm and givin' a million details!! In case you cant catch what he asked for its a Wall E Leapster Game...funny thing is he kept forgetting what he wanted to ask him for, he wanted a Wii from Santa and then this came out of his mouth when he spoke to him..lol

~Christmas Recital~

Last night was the Christmas Piano Recital, Victoria's second and Joshua's first! They both did wonderfully and we are very happy with their progress. We took the opportunity to grab some photos since the Churchs backdrop was great :)

~Family Photo~

~Grandma with her 'students'~
~Victoria and Joshua~

~Victoria ~

~Joshua Playing Jolly Old St Nick~

We took a video of Victoria playing too, but it came out very blurry :( If I get another copy from another 'onlooker' I will post it then.

~Winter Already??~

What a difference 20 days makes!! Looks like my favorite season has come and gone quick as a wink once again. So we went to bed last night with the snow starting and woke up to a winter wonderland. Hate driving in it(doesn't everyone?) but its beautiful to look at. The kids are in Heaven of course, I don't think much compares to playing in the snow when your a kid ;)

~Do ya think she looks happy?~

So of course like all Canadians, the snow came as a big SHOCK(lol) and we were unprepared for clearing the snow in our extra long driveway. We went on a snow thrower 'hunt' this afternoon and of course everyone had the same idea and bought them all before us...uhhg ...I hate when that happens. I called my Canadian Tire connection...aka...Mommy :) and she hooked us up big time, so our new snow thrower is coming tomorrow...bring on the white stuff!!

~Home Early Today~

Joshua's Daycare was closed today so I got to come home early to pick him up. On the down side we spent an hour in the Drs office this afternoon since he is still not feeling 100%(remember he wasnt able to go out for Halloween cause he was sick...) So we saw the Dr and low and behold he seemed to have an Ear...throat...and sinus infection...poor little thing. I have to tell you though, please dont think I am a horrible Mother, he was NOT complaining. The Dr actually said his throat and ear were healing up on their own but the sinus'(which was actually my concern at this point) needed some helping along. So we are home now, with antibiotics and nose spray in hand.

Worked out well that I got to come home early today, everyone in the house had been sick but me and I started feeling not so great yesterday, figured it was only a matter of time before it hit me.

~Joshua Sillies~

Joshua as always has us in stitches but I had to share some of his recent sillies. Last night while I was at my Bible Study Robert put Joshua to bed and prayed with him, Robert prayed first and then asked Joshua if he wanted to pray too and he said, " Dear Lord, please help me to have a good sleep and that I feel better tomorrow and that my nose will stop running and that I don't cough when I race....(pause) if there is a race tomorrow...."

The other day I called him a 'Turkey' and he told me that he wasn't a Turkey and I said, well your my turkey and he came back with "Awe Shucks" I about fell down laughing I thought that was so cute!

~L~E~A~V~E~S~

Everyone is coming down of their 'sugar rush' and its a perfectly beautiful Autumn Day so we had some Fall Fun!! There are still a TON of leaves to fall off the trees around our yard but we made quick work of it tackling what has already fallen so far.

Joshua is still not 100% but you can see that it doesn't effect his mood much :)

After we came in from the raking and jumping we roasted our Pumpkin seeds...yummy!!!

~BOO~

Here is our little Motocross Racer this Halloween. Unfortunately he wasn't able to actually trick or treat this year. He has not been feeling well the last couple days and had a fever this evening so he had to stay home and give out candy. He got to wear his costume though and he gets to have our left over chocolate(we have lots too...lol)

Victoria didn't dress up this year, and is already at a sleepover at her friends for the night. We thought we would have a lot of kids but we didn't have that many at all, Joshua was counting the kids and we didn't realize it till he started saying, "That's 23" So we only had about 30 kids which was disappointing considering I know have about 150mini chocolate bars calling my name.....

~Michelle

~Pray, Pray Away~

I have eluded on my blog that I have been dealing with some tough issues as of late and have shared some of them with some of you who read my blog but I have for the most part just kept these issues to myself. I know that many have been praying for me/us and I just wanted to say that it IS working. Things are still not 100% but things are happening and God is great. We got some pretty terrific news this afternoon and once I know everything is gonna happen the way it appears I will likely update and fill you all in, right now though, I would just ask that you keep on praying that God continues to see us through this time and that his 'will' shall be done!

Love to all who have been there for me, it means more than you will ever know....

~Autumn Photos~

Our 'Fall' house :)

WOW so much for fall! Its been very cold this week! We even got some snow, although it didnt stick thank goodness. I have been very lax with photos so I took some to share today. Here is a photo of Victoria with her pumpkin. Joshua is at his buddy(our neighbours)Nathans house...as usual so I will add a shot of him with his Pumpkin later.

~Ahhh, Fall~

I love Fall, I love the cool clean air and the colours of fall, as well as the cozy clothes. This weekend was just beautiful and the perfect fall weather, it was bright and sunny and a cool 15degrees or so. Today is not as nice, its a downer day...cool and rainy :( Joshua was to go to Pumpkin picking this afternoon with his babysitter, I really hope they were able to go and didnt get rained on. He wants to roast pumpkin seeds so badly if they didnt go he will be disappointed. We got our pumpkins this weekend but we decorated them with these really cool kits I got from Avon so there was no 'carving' and hence no pumkin seeds.

I re-did my template to go with my favorite season and I am hoping that lights a fire under me. Hopefully I will get to pposting again within days instead of weeks.....

~Yup,....Im still around~

Life has been super busy lately and I have had so much going on, good and bad, more bad than good as of late, but things are looking up. I just needed a break from things so I took a posting break. Didnt want to come across all fake and perky when that wasnt how I was feeling ;) Nor did I want to be a bummer so I just didnt post at all! lol

Enough about that....

Joshua started Piano lessons last week! He is so excited about it. He went to a little piano club at his Teachers house(aka Grandma) and played his 2 notes...hehehe and tought it was so cool that the kids clapped for him! I am very curious to see how Victoria does with her piano now that she has some competition, I am sure they will be fighting over the piano at the very least.

~Felt Like A Kid Again!!~

I was treated to a ticket to the Anne Of Green Gables Musical last week! The original 'plan' was for Victoria to attend with Grandma, Catherine and Rebecca, but with Grandma Dale having a bad fall last week Sharon(Grandma) wasn't able to go and handed her ticket down to me. I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I was/am. Seems like no big deal to some, but being that it was my first ever live theatre/musical experience, I was on cloud 9 through the entire thing. I don't think my big silly grin ever left my face..lol. Victoria also had a great time and I have told Robert we HAVE to do it again!!! Thanks again Sharon, I loved it :)

Victoria spent Sunday at the Ex(an annual tradition with Auntie Cathy) and while she was away Joshua went over the the Neighbours House to play(Our Neighbour right beside us has a little boy from his class) The boys played together for hours and at about 5pm Joshua comes to the door all wet from the sprinkler and says, "Can I have dinner at Nathans house?" I said, "Did they invite you?" He says, "I asked them if I could and they said yes." I really have to work on his manners ;) He did end up staying for dinner and was wiped out by all the fun he had and fell asleep in no time.

I cannot believe that in a week I have a Daughter in Grade 5...gulp...I cant believe how quickly she is growing up. We have done our back to school shopping and have our indoors and we are ready to go! Joshua is very excited to get back to school too, he will be in Senior Kindergarten this year and we will find out who each of them have as Teachers later this week.

~Fun Day!!~

We had an amazing day today. The weather was just perfect and not a cloud in the sky! We went to Sting Ray Bay and got to get up close and touch them, it was incredible. Victoria said it was her favorite part of the day. We literally spent about a half an hour with our hands in the pool petting them. Some of them came right up and put their faces out of the water looking at us. Here is a shot of Victoria's hand touching one

I cannot for the life of me remember what this little thing is called but he was just so cute asleep up in the tree we had to get a picture of him!

A Giraffe of course ;)

Couple shots of Victoria having fun!

It was a wonderful break and my phone didn't ring once which was a bonus! Thanks to my little Girl for such a wonderful day!

~Mother/Daughter Day Tomorrow!~

I am taking the day off tomorrow to go to the Zoo with Victoria and her Friend and her Mom. Victoria and I don't get a lot of time to spend alone so Joshua will still be going to Daycare and we are going to have a girls only day. I am looking forward to spending a whole day with my little Girl :) I will be sure to take lots of pictures of our day!

Now here is to a DRY day,which has been extremely hard to come by this summer!

~Michelle

~Kids Rooms~

Here are the pictures of the kids rooms. This is Victoria's room, she is really enjoying having a big room and that her space is so her own now. I think the timing is just perfect now that she is getting older.

This is her reading spot and Baileys favorite chair he sits on the back to watch out the window on.

Here is Joshua's room. If you remember this one the room with the floral wallpaper. We planned on ripping the paper off until we starting doing some work at the house. It came evidentthat the house is very old(80years we learned) and the walls are plaster and not drywall so taking the paper down would have been a disaster. I did 2 coats of primer and 2 coats plus touch ups of the paint and it actually looks great.

~Holiday Fun~

It was a long weekend this past weekend and we got to spend some time outside since the day was absolutely p-e-r-f-e-c-t! Victoria was hiding out in her room AKA the Girl Cave with a friend and Joshua played outside and ran through the sprinkler.

I just love these two shots, definately going to print them out and frame them! You should be able to click on them to open in a seperate window...you must do that to really see the shot, I am so proud of myself..lol

Joshua is doing some serious backyard fun catching up! He loves having a big yard to play in :)

~Michelle

~We're Home!!~

So we are IN the house and loving it! We have had both our Parents over to see it so I am going to post some 'moved in' photos :)

The Dining Room~

Living/Family Room~

...Guess I should have turned the TV off..lol

I will post the bedrooms tomorrow...

The kids love the house, they spend most of their time outside playing. My Mom and Dad came over yesterday and Mom and I watched the guys put the BBQ together and when they finished we enjoyed some burgers on it!

On another note I wanted to wish my Mom and Dad a Happy 35th Wedding Anniversary!!! Man that's a long time!! Love you both and love to see you both so in love even after all these years.....

~T'was the Night before...~

OK so I am managing to pop on one more time before tomorrow morning..hehe. Its 10min to 9 and why does there seem like there is still so much to do??? We will likely e up very late tonight and up very early tomorrow morning.

Last evening Joy came over to the house with me and spend a couple hours helping me do a cleaning...thanks again Joy, cleaning is so much more fun when your not all alone! She had wanted to bring her camera, but forgot it..... and I am secretly glad cause most of you would laugh at how organized everything is already and we don't even technically more in till tomorrow. Robert and I have been taking some loads over the in car since we are just a couple blocks away. Also since we bought quite a bit of new things for the house its actually looking 'set up; in some rooms.

Guess I better get get back to work, thank again Joy! Oh and Cathy the Bath and Body works stuff is making the house smell wonderful, thank you so much!

~Michelle~

~3 More Sleeps..or Should I Say 'Not' Sleeps~

I cant believe it...it just 2 more days we are in the house! Seriously cannot wait, but also seriously in need of a goods sleep so those 2 days cant go by fast enough. I would consider myself very organized and living with boxes piled up and what feels like a 'mess' has really affected me being able to just shut off at night, I am left with my mind working and thinking and planning for hours before I can finally fall asleep. Happy to say though that almost everything new is all set up and put together. Robert worked on the new Patio set till midnight or so last night in the garage. Victoria bed is set up and so are all the new shelves for her room...its looking so sweet I tell ya... The last 'big' thing to put together is the BBQ, and I don't particularly want to be there for that, it looks big and heavy and complicated.

So this weekend, we have to finish packing all the last minute stuff and frankly I find with 2 kids, practically everything is 'last minute' stuff. Joy is coming over tomorrow evening to head over to the new house so we can give it an official move in cleaning before all the stuff comes on Monday. I wont be on to update but hope to be back to my posting self once we are moved in and settled, and the way I work we will have every box unpacked and picture hung by 9pm Monday night, anyone care to wager?? ;)

~Michelle

~One Happy Husband~

We have been spoiled by both of our Parents for the new house. My parents gifted us a new Lawn Mower and yesterday we were gifted a BBQ from Mom and Dad 'P' :) Now I know the gift is for us, but, well, lets just say Robert is in BBQ heaven. He has wanted a Stainless Steel BBQ for a long time and he has been saying it more than ever since we got the house and voila....

Now realize he is likely going to want to BBQ every meal, everyday for the rest of the summer, anyone want a burger??

Thank to both Mom and Dad's your gifts are so gratefully appreciated...love you.

~Packing Up~

Haven't updated in a while. Every spare moment has been spent packing things, taking some items to the new house and out and about buying the things we want to make it just perfect!

Had a great 'God' moment last night/this morning. We bought a new larger Dining table and I had listed our old one for sale on some local selling sites and had yet to have a taker, I couldn't really fathom why since I was asking very little and its a nice set (with one chair that needs tightening) Anyway last night out of no-where I got the urge to offer it to a friend(more like family though) and I got her response this morning saying that she was just yesterday saying that she really needed a new set and that mine was exactly the style she wanted! So the set will have a new home...and a new little one sitting at it in the next year :)

Got an email this morning from Joy sharing a link to Christopher's new Anthem submission for the Toronto Maple Leafs, I think he did an awesome job!! Here is the link if you wanna have a listen http://anthemchallenge.cbc.ca/mediadetail/267381?sort=hits+DESC&moderationstatus=1&q=Rhapsody&offset=0

It unbearably hot today, thank goodness we got A/C this year and even more grateful that the new house has Central Air. Our next big jobs with the move is getting the house nice and clean and putting together some of the items we bought so that we can enjoy them right when we move it. Of course there is still Joshua's room to tackle too...I really need to get my claws into that soon.

Only 10 days to go!!!

~Worthy Double Post~

Ok so I know I already posted once today with a whole load of pictures, but I couldnt wait to post a new day, since we are so very excited. I got to call my Parents and give them the 'heads up' but we havent been able to reach Roberts Parents and we just cant hold it in any longer :) So here it is, our new home!! We are moving on July 28th...I know very soon, I have a lot of packing to do. We took lots of photos so I could take you on a mini tour. The house is actually just around the corner from our townhouse so the kids will stay in the same school.

~Front Of House~

~View from back of Yard~

~Deck~

~View from Deck to Right~

~View from Deck~

~Front Entry~

~Front Entry~

~Living Room~

~Dining Room~

~Kitchen~

~Kitchen~

~Bathroom~

~Bathroom~

~Master Bedroom~

~Master Bedroom~

~Little Extra Room :)~

~Joshua's Room~

(Must remvoe the wallpaper, alothough I do like it, just not for a boy)

~Entry to Loft~

~Loft AKA Victoria's Room~

Pretty Cool Room Huh?

~Loft AKA Victoria's Room~

The 28th cannot come fast enough for any of us!!!