:: YaY ::

:: And they are done. Our taxes have been plaguing me this year. I just wasn't finding the time to get them finished. I like to do most of them myself and make as little work as possible for the accountant (this equals less money spent on accountant bills)::

:: I was almost finished this laborious task on Tuesday night when I hit some funky key combination on my keyboard and lost my whole excel document. Upset was not the word I would use, I was furious. I have never done that before and I continually re-save my work as I go through it to avoid such things from happening. I didn't do anything further that night, heck it was already 12:30 am ::

:: So last night after I got the boys settled into bed, I hit the computer and started from scratch. It's now done and off to the accountant - Yippee ::

:: Clean and Cleaner ::

:: Yesterday while Paul was at a meeting after work, Jacob and I went outside to clean off the driveway from the dirt that was left over from the dismantlement of the root ball. It took us a good 1.5 hours to spray off and sweep the remaining dirt, I mean roots, I mean clay....It was crazy! ::

:: Jacob was a great helper, he personally picked up each rock and washed off the dirt. With his mouth. fabulous. He eventually figured out that dirt don't taste so good ::

:: Once Jacob had fallen into the hole from tree, that was now filled with water he got stripped down and put in the car. I then detailed the car while Jacob opened/closed/open/closed/open/closed the garage and turned every switch, knob, button to the "on" position. It was great fun ::

:: It felt great to clean off the dirty winter grime on the car and vacuum up all the little crumbs that come with having a 22 month old ::

:: To say the least, Jacob slept well! ::

:: Date Night ::

:: I almost forgot to post about our date night last week!!! It was a great night. "NaNa" (Paul's Mum) came to take care of the boys while we went out in search of something good to eat, after we hit the bank to pay a bill (how romantic eh!?!!?). Anyway we wanted to go to a far away land where we could have a nice quiet dinner. Where did we end up you say? Oh, about 3 block from our home...yeah we're into real adventure here! :: :: However you don't have to go South of the Border to get good Mexican food (well, then again maybe you do!). We ended up at "Pepitta's" on Fraser Highway and it was delish ::

:: Bottomless chips and salsa - this reminded me of the days we used to go to Chi Chi's after church at Johnson Heights :::: Paul had the Fajita's -- They were HUGE! ::
:: I was being good -- and had the taco salad, it was delish - I had pulled chicken on top....mmm thinking of it now makes me want to go back! :::: Then we headed to Red Robin for dessert and coffee, yep you got it two restaurants in one night! It was lotsa fun! ::
:: After dessert & coffee we went to Superstore to pick up a few misc. things and then headed home. It was a great night out with my love and I hope to do it again very soon! ::

:: I'm lost...::

::...In digital scrapbooking land. I didn't think I would ever be converted. But with the busy life we lead I just wasn't getting my scrapbooking done, let alone printing out my photos ::

:: So ever since I attended a class my friend Tania put on, on Saturday night - I've been hooked ::

:: There are so many benefits to scrapbooking digitally ::

#1 ~ you don't pay for printing picture and then crop the whole darn thing down

#2 ~ you can do it from your computer, no mess, nothing to clean up - just hit save and come back to it later

#3 ~ there are plenty of "free" digital sites to download things off of

#4 ~ less time working on my photo albums + less money = happy Shawna

:: Here is one of my first pages ::

:: No joke, this page took me less than an hour to arrange and finalize..including the journaling ~ Unbelievable, I'm sold!!! ::

:: Edited to say ::

:: I am using a program that was on our computer when we bought it. It's called Microsoft Digital Image Starter Edition 2006 ::

:: Our Little Boys ::

:: Haircuts in the House ::

:: Along with spring cleaning comes new fresh haircuts -- Both of the boys received one yesterday. This was Cole's first haircut, so I just trimmed off his "Donald Trump" comb-over. It was due time. He still has quite the head of hair that's for sure! ::

:: Poor Jacob got a little buzzed due to the fact that I thought 1/2 inch was long enough for the top of his head...um, not so much! Ah well, his hair grows so fast it doesn't matter! I love it short, it always looks so "boyish"and since he's a boy that's a good thing! ::

:: Yes, this is a picture of Jacob hitting Cole over the head...it's more like love taps :) ::

:: My happy little guys - sans the two year old attitude that Jacob has acquired ::

:: Have a great day ya'll - I'm off to a kidswap & Superstore (I know I'm crazy - Superstore on a Saturday, what am I thinking?!?!) and to finish up some office work. Hopefully we see some blue sky today, it seems promising ::

:: Happy Birthday Mum L ::

:: Today is My MIL's birthday --- 50-somethingish ::

:: She now has three Grand babies and 5 kids (3 by blood and 2 by love) :: :: Happy Birthday Mum ~ We pray your year is blessed with love and joy as you watch your Grand babes grow and know their Nana better ::

:: Look forward to celebrating with you tonight! ::

:: Happy Birthday ::

{Photo :: Taken @ Jen & Michael's Wedding in Sept '07}

:: Here I am ::

:: We have been busy around here and this week has just taken off on me! ::

:: Both the boys now have colds..serious, horrible sounding coughs. Poor little guys. Cole is trying his best to crawl and having great success. He just turned 5 months. I'm not ready for him to crawl. Hopefully it takes him a couple months to get it down to a fine science! ::

:: We have been, okay I have been working hard on getting the basement - more specifically my "scrap/spare room" that turned into the dumping ground for everything in the basement while we were getting the carpet installed into ship, shop shape ::

:: I spent yesterday organizing and going through different boxes that have been packed for almost a year now. So to say the least I am purging. If I haven't used it, it's gettin' chucked! But don't tell Paul...he likes to keep things...lots of things ::

:: Jacob is truly enjoying his new space downstairs and I love giving him that space. We were both ready for him to have that freedom and he is enjoying it. He comes upstairs every once in a while when he needs me to fix a toy that has come apart and I find that I spend time downstairs concentrated on playing with him because there are no other distractions - I am so blessed that we are able to live in the home we do ::

:: I'm off to finish up our taxes so I can submit them tomorrow morning and then tonight me and my love have a date...the place is a surprise to me - how nice! ::

:: Have a fabulous, wonderful, sunshiny day! ::

:: Easter Fun ::

:: I just realized that I didn't post anything about our Easter weekend...and what a weekend it was! ::

:: We actually started celebrating on Palm Sunday - We were invited over to our friends the Bakers for brunch, and we had the pleasure of visiting with the VanHarmelen's as well ::

:: We attended an Easter lunch with a whole bunch of friends ( + 27 kids ) on Good Friday, then Saturday was the annual Easter Blast @ church followed by the purchase of our new dining room suite (more on that later) :::: Saturday night we went over to our friends place (M & L) and had "Passion & Paska". I made the Paska (thanks to Lovella's recipe) and we watched the Passion of the Christ...Such a horrible movie, but such a great reminder of what Christ did for us. I am truly thankful ::

:: Sunday was spent at my parents place celebrating with lots of family & lots of food...it was a great time. My cousins Robert & Charleen have a little guy named Trevor who is 6 months older than Jacob so it was great to see them interact and have a very large Easter egg hunt thanks to Grammie! Oh what fun! ::

:: Then on Monday we headed to Paul's parents place for dinner...except I don't have any pictures from that event. I forgot my camera! Argh! ::

:: So there you have it our Easter all wrapped up - I hope you enjoyed your Easter and had reasons to celebrate that were greater than bunnies, chocolates & eggs. I had a greater reason to celebrate, because HE died for me and HE is risen! ::

:: Almost Done ::

:: March is almost gone -- I can't believe it!!! Now come April Showers, nah, it's not that bad. April has many fabulous events sure to keep us busy (but not too busy) and after April comes May; and May is usually such a beautiful month here in Vancouver ::

:: Well, as I sit here and write Ray & his friend are installing our basement carpet. Me and my friend...okay maybe it was more like my friend & I prepared the basement for the carpet installation for the better portion of the day yesterday and Saturday for that matter! ::

:: Paul finished re-building our rickety stairs that made the basement feel so much like a basement instead of an extension of our home & knocked the tiles out from around the brick that surrounds the fire. He (that being "my friend" aka Paul) installed the laminate floor in the kids play room (however, this went much smoother once I was helping him, ha ha that's at least what I told him...he said it was true, I told him he was being nice), I painted the kids playroom to match the blue in the rest of the main basement :::: It was a group effort to get everything moved out of the main room so that the carpet could be laid and voila...we're ready for carpet! Oh, and notice the new light fixture...Dad was over last week to install those as I didn't want to light myself up by trying to install them myself...and well, Paul isn't much of an electrician! ::

:: I cannot wait till my Paul returns from work today to help me arrange the furniture and truly make the basement part of our home instead of a really large junk drawer! ::

:: I am off today to go State side and take Grammie & Grampy to the Bellingham airport so they can continue on to Maui, via Seattle -- I've lost a bit of weight, do you think I can fit in the suitcase??? I'm sure that Jacob could drive Cole back home, heck he knows which passport is his, why couldn't he drive as well!?!?? He's very advanced ya know! ::

:: Okay all joking aside I must go and do some bill paying and laundry folding prior to our day trip ~ Have a great day ya'll & enjoy the sunshine, it's a beautiful one here! ::

:: My Life ::

:: Holy Smokes -- It has been a crazy busy week...I can't believe it's already Friday and here we are at another busy weekend ::

:: I promise to update with photo's but for now here are my excuses as to the lack of posts on my blog ::

:: Easter, wonderful holiday, wonderfully busy {pics to come} ::

:: Taxes, business & personal taxes - oy, need I say more! ::

:: Basement reno's {Carpet being installed on Monday *YAY* - still plenty to do before then} ::

:: Easter weekend + Buying new dining room suite...lovely, lovely & busy {pics to come} ::

:: Happy Housewives enjoying a night out with the girls and watching Enchanted {Such a great movie..I loved it!} ::

:: Date night with Paul {Wonderful breath of fresh air in the midst of a crazy week} ~ Date interrupted by little brother...so typical of brothers (ha ha - kidding Trev, kinda) ::

:: Trip to US of A for groceries + 18 broken eggs (oh, sorry 17 - one lived through the fall) = batch of Monster Cookies ::

:: Two boys - both of whom are teething, one with his two year molars and the other with his first bottom teeth - oh joy! ::

:: Working @ church tomorrow in childcare...then it's Sunday, then it's Monday and this craziness happens all over again ::

:: I may be back, then again I may not...send back-up if you haven't heard from me in 2 days * laughing...kinda ::

:: Oh, I am also trying to buy a camera, well, buying isn't my issue --- It's choosing a camera that's my problem...if you have a suggestion, please leave it in the comment section ::