What to Write??

People ask me "what have you been up to".  I answer "same old".  We are always very busy.  But does it warrant to be blogged about.  It is really just the same thing every week.  Being a chauffeur to baseball, hockey, dance, vocal etc, getting a little workout time in, sometimes some time out with friends, usual household stuff.  It seems boring to talk about, but really I love my life and wouldn't change it for a thing.  I love that my kids are passionate about something.  I love that they have so many interests.  We had trouble having children, so when we had them, it is our time together.  I did many things before I had them, so I don't feel as if I am giving up anything to help them follow their dreams.  Besides, I love watching Shyla perform, and love watching Ryley and his sports.  Spring is coming, so that means life will become even busier.  Shyla has 4 comps, Ryley will be starting his baseball league in buffalo, as well as state bound tournaments, hockey playoffs will be wrapping up.  I love this time as we finally get to see all the efforts of the year being paid off.  My little girl just turned 11.  Where does the time go?  Here is a picture of her and one of my daycare kids.  They won an award this past week at school for showing the trait: optimism.

Florida

We had a fantastic trip to Florida and have to face reality that we are back; easy to do when you go outside in the cold.  We were able to take my mom with us this time as we were flying.  It was the kids first time flying and Steve and my first time flying together.  We had a great drive to Buffalo last Saturday as we headed out about 8:30am.  We encountered no traffic even at Queenston to cross, which in itself is an amazing feat.  We stopped by the Old Country Buffet and got there a couple of minutes before 11am, so they only charged us for breakfast.  We arrived at the airport and had no lineup to check our baggage.  We were loving Buffalo airport for its small size and easy navigation.  We were lucky enough to see our friend Michelle and Mark come off the same plane that we were boarding...how cool was that!  Southwest went out of their way to help my mom with her wheelchair and we got to sit at the front of the plane with an easy transfer.  When telling the staff at southwest that it was Ryley and Shyla's first time flying, they preceded to show them the cockpit and let them sit up there.  The flight left right on time and was awesome.  We arrived in Florida and picked up our rental and were at the resort by 7pm. 
The resort was beautiful.  Our villa was HUGE.  We had a full kitchen, a living room, a king size master with jacuzzi, laundry facitilities, another bedroom with two doubles, which shyla and and my mom shared, another bathroom, and a den with a pullout, fridge, tv, micro which ryley had to himself; he called it his bacheor pad.  We had 4 tv's in all.  The unit was very accesible for my mom with even a roll in shower.
Sunday, we did some grocery shopping and then sat by the pool.  It was about 18 celious.  Very warm compared to home. 
Monday, we were able to get bargain tickets through someone who worked for disney (40 each for hopper passses and free parking) and went to animal kingdom and epcot at night for their illuminations.  It was an awesome day, with many things that my mom could do.  We saw some great animals, and shows and then had good eats at epcot in the mexican showcase.  It was a great day and about 20.  The night was very mild.
Tuesday was warmer about 22 but a little overcast as they were expecting a big storm to roll in.  We lazed around in the morning and then did the outlets in the afternoon.  We just got home in time before it rained.  We were then off to the Al Capone Dinner show that my mom treated us to.  It was pouring when we left and our ponchos came in handy, especially when someone was parked in the loading zone at the unit and we had to take my mom down to the end of the building to load her in the van.  The food was great, lasange, ham, turkey, mashed potaotes, salads, fettucine, sausage and peppers, rolls.  Our server, kept our glasses full; even alcoholic beverages were included.  The show was very funny, even more so when ryley picked the wrong time to go to the bathroom; they decided to pick on him.  It was hillarious and Shyla even went along calling him a party pooper.  She even got the actors laughing at that one.  It has stopped raining when we left and it was a very enjoyable evening.
Wednesday we did downtown disney but it was a little cooler about 15 but the sun was still warm.
Thursday, we went to hollywood studios.  It was a full day, but we got everything in as the park wasn't too busy and we didn't have to wait long for anything.  The only wait was at night for the fantasmic show, which was a little cool, but we had fun talking to other people from around the world while we waited.  My mom even met a friend whom sat beside her also in a wheelchair.  My mom loved the toy story ride and wanted to go again, however we had fastpasses for it at the beginning of the day and if you didn't have one, it was a 2 hour wait. 
Friday, we went to the mall in the morning, and then hit poolside in the afternoon.  Shyla, Ryley and my mom got tatoos and i had fun talking to people in the hottub.  It was warmer at about 18that day.  We even managed to get in for a swim, ryley, shyla and I.  At night we packed up and couldn't believe that the week went that fast.
Saturday morning was an early one, getting up at 4:30am to make our 7:40am flight.  Again southwest was amazing and we had a great flight.  A few groceries to boot at Tops before crossing over to come home and absolutely no wait to cross the border.  In fact they didn't even ask for our passports and only asked what we were bringing back.  It was a great week, except that it went too fast.

phew!!!

Well I have been debating whether or not to keep blogging. I have a few that follow it and more than follow here and there. I wonder at times if it is worth it. But then I look back on my blogs, I see a journal of our life and some of the important things that have happened.....so I am going to try and start again.

Many things have happened since the last blog: Shyla starred in scarborough music theatre's Annie as orphan Kate and loved every minute of it, though it was super busy. Shyla also auditioned for the proffessional show Billy Elliot. We were very proud to say that out of 143 girls that auditioned, she made the top 6. The cast from Chicago is coming here to perform for the first few months and if ticket sales go well, she will make the replacement list. It is very exciting.

Ryley has been doing really well with hockey this year. He has had 4 shutouts so far. He has been practicing baseball three times a week and just started with a trainer and weights at the baseball academy. He continues to grow and is taller than me now and is getting close to Steve. He has already past steve's foot size and his voice is changing.

I have started a couple new children in my daycare; one is 16 months that i started back in September and one i just started this week who is 10 months. It is very busy.

Steve's work is getting busy again which is a good thing.

We are headed on a family trip to Florida in a couple of weeks, with my mom. We are flying and this will be a first for the kids. They are very excited about it. We are looking foward to getting away.

here are a few pics from the last couple of months......

Some pictures of Shyla's dance groups from last year

Oops

Boy life has a way of ticking by. I check out my favorite blogs daily, but keep forgetting to update my own. I cannot believe that it has been three weeks since I blogged last.

This past weekend was a busy one as usual. Saturday brought us to Hamilon for Ryley to play a double header. He had a amazing first game, however in the 7th inning, our pitcher was struggling and Ryley as a catcher had to do a lot of blocking. He ended up getting a ball to the wrist and was down for the count. After coming off the field and applying ice, it still was swollen and his fingers tingled, so off we went to visit the emerg. This is the first trip for Ryley to the hospital. Pretty good, since his dad was probably at the hospitial 10 times before the age of 13. Xrays showed that it was just badly bruised.

Sunday, Shyla and I were off to the Eaton centre to meet up with a few dance friends and moms. We went to Mr. Greenjeans for lunch and then proceeded to the Ivivva Store. This is a new line of clothing made especially for girls by the makers of LuLu Lemon. The girls got to do a fashion show and tell what they thought of the new line. The recieved hair elastics, water bottle, and a headband and were very excited and had a lot of fun drawing a crowd.

Monday, we did Thanksgiving at our house as usual. We also celebrated my birthday (it is the 14th but i was born on thansgiving) and Steve's dad's bday.

It was an awesome weeeknd and went way too quickly.

Cramming Everything into One Weekend!!

Last weekend was a busy one as usual. We left with our RV Saturday morning to go to Hamilton. Ryley had a double header for baseball there. As it worked out my side of the family had a family reunion the same day in Hamilton! It couldn't get any better than that. Ryley's team did very well, winning both of their games against a team a year older than his. Both games went overtime though so we were a little late for the reunion. We went to Webster Falls and it was beautiful there. Some people had left already, and most of the food was gone, but it was still a lot of fun to see those we haven't seen in awhile. There was a friendly game of football going on.

After we closed the park at dark, we found a place to park the RV and watched a movie on the laptop. In the morning we headed to Guelph for Steve's cousin's 25th anniversary. It was a great weekend for weather and visiting family on both sides. The only unfortanate thing is that we had to leave shyla at home as she had dance on saturday and Annie rehearsals on Sunday!!

Shyla's internet commercial is up

Shyla's internet commercial is up for moonsand bake shop. Please go to the link below to see it. It advertises on the home page alternating with the construction one. Or you can click on moonsand tv and click under available commercials ' bake shop' . The tv one should be on soon, and she will have lines in this one. If anyone sees it, let us know what channel it was on, so we know to look for it!!

http://www.moonsand.com