Art Work

Ever since the boys were very small I have wanted to paint and decorate their bedroom so that they would have a fun place to play and a nice place to sleep at night. Now I don't know about your kids but my kids are forever changing their minds... one day they like fish, the next day they like monkeys, the day after that it's transformers or spiderman. I have always been a little bit hesitant to spend money on decor that they like today when tomorrow they could come tell me that they hate it, so I have always just opted to do nothing. Anyways, a few weeks ago I was walking through the dollar store (which happens to be one of the best stores in Fort Mac) and I came across these gigantic blank canvas pictures and the wheels in my mind started to turn... I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them but I was positive that I needed to have them. I didn't buy them right away because really, what on earth did I need them for? So that night when I was tucking Evan and Logan into bed I was laying there looking around their room and the best idea of my life ( okay maybe not that good, but close) came to my mind... How fantastic would it be to go back to the dollar store, purchase the canvas pictures and a whole bunch of paint and then let the boys paint their own wall art work?!?! Pretty stinkin fantastic!! So that's exactly what I did!!

Now for those of you that know me well, you know that I am somewhat of a perfectionist and have a hard time just letting things happen so this particular project was insanely hard for me to not micro-manage... that being said, I think I did a pretty good job of letting the boys be creative.

Logan was "all hands on deck" right from the beginning.. he thought that having a plate of paint, about 10 paint brushes, and his imagination, was awesome... he needed absolutely no coaching or prompting.. he just went for it. I helped Logan do his hand print and then he asked me to paint a rainbow so... I at least got to do some of it :)

Evan took a little more convincing. He is very cautious and calculated and the idea of just sitting down and creating whatever he wanted with no direction or purpose other than to just make a mess was a little more than he could handle. In fact, He couldn't come up with good enough ideas (his words not mine) for his picture so he chose to just mix all the colors together on one hand and then smear a reddy brown paint everywhere. Any of the pictures that you do see on here were pretty much forced. Evan did draw the Sun on his own but Dan drew the bird, the rainbow, and of course the excavator. He tried to quit half way through but we got him to finish by bribing him with candy.... if you promise your kids a special treat, you can get them to do pretty much anything ;)

It's hard to tell from the pictures but, The canvas' are quite large, they cover a good portion of the wall above each of their beds. The boys LOVE them and are extremely proud of their art work! This was a fun, relatively cheap, way to decorate the boys room - it is special and I will forever have these as a keep sake! I wish now that I had thought to take pictures of them actually doing the painting but, the stress of it was overwhelming and the idea just never came to be. Bummer.

On another note... ever since the boys learned how to paint, they have been making art work all over the place with anything they can get their hands on.... Side walk chalk, crayons, yogurt, and the newest one... MUD! Thank God that I own half of all the cleaning supplies in Fort McMurray!

This actually made me smile... I think the Little hand prints are adorable and they were so proud of this... It's hard to get mad when your kids run up to you with the hugest smile on their face wanting to show you their creations! I did however have to give them a little talking to when they went next door and did the same thing to the neighbors! Thankfully she has two twin 2 yr olds so she knows what its about and was very understanding!

Anyways... Thanks for stoppin by :)

~ Tanisha






So Whats The Deal?

Wow! It's been almost an entire year since my last blog post... that's shameful. I am sure some of you are wondering what the deal is and I wish I had a really fantastic excuse but the truth is, I have just been super

lazy. Lazy and uninspired. That however is all about to change (I can hear my readers snickering with sarcastic criticism). I am turning over a new leaf and am planning on keeping you all updated regularly from here on out ( now I can hear my own head issuing remarks of un-belief). Anyways... Life has been busy.

In order to give you a full-length update of the past year this blog post would take you a full year to read so I am gonna touch on the important parts that most of you know about already anyways but I can't really omit them from my update or this wouldn't really be an update... make sense? good :)

So it's no big secret that we packed up our life and headed North to the not so big, so very cold, city of Fort McMurray...We have been here for 6 months now and are finally starting to settle in. I'm not gonna lie, it's been a pretty rough transition but I think that is to be expected when you up-root so quickly the way that we did.  The kids actually haven't missed a beat but Dan and I have found the last 6 months to be a little more challenging. The biggest shock to our system has definitely been the weather! Our coldest day here this winter (with wind chill) was -42 and let me assure you... that is some freakin cold!! We literally couldn't walk from our front door to our car without feeling like our hands were going to fall off! "Why didn't you you just put some gloves on?" you may ask... well... funny thing is Dan and I were under some kind of crazy assumption that people from the Northern provinces lied about the cold so we came here very ill equipped for Winter. In fact, I didn't even own a pair of shoes other than sandals until my 3rd week here. Pretty stupid I know. Anyways, we finally got ourselves suited up quite nicely.... snow pants, boots, heavy jackets, toques, face masks, scarves, thick gloves, long johns, etc etc, and were able to enjoy a few of the outdoor activities that other winter-likers do. Luckily for Dan his work supplies him with really great winter gear so he doesn't have to spend a tonne of money on a set of good winter clothes AND a set for work.. at least, we think they do anyways... Dan put in his request for his winter clothes 5 1/2 months ago and still has yet to see them.... maybe they will be here in time for next winter... for now though, I'm just glad we have some sunshine and have been able to retire the sorels for hopefully a few months at least!

The boys loved the snow forts they got to build this winter!

Dan is now working for a company called Syncrude. He is doing the same work as always (heavy duty mechanic) only now he is working on machines the size of a house... literally, these things are massive. I haven't had the opportunity to go to his work site as they don't allow family members to visit his particular mine but, the pictures he brings home are insane. He loves his job immensely and would like to retire here. I don't know if he will cuz that would mean we would have to live in Fort McMurray for many many years but who knows what our future holds. Fort McMurray is actually a really great little city that we feel at home in it's just that it's so far from everyone we know and love and that's the hard part. I will say though, This is the very first time that Dan has been so content in his job and that alone is enough to make the sacrifice worth it!

We found a really great house here. It's actually a duplex but it's big and cozy and we absolutely love it! Currently we are renting because we still own our house in Abbotsford (anyone wanna buy it??) but we hope to purchase this house this year or next. Our landlord is really great and she lives in the Yukon so we don't have her hanging over our shoulder which makes renting a much nicer experience. Real estate in Fort McMurray is ridiculously expensive though so we will have to wrap our heads around that before we take the plunge! Remember when $150K was an expensive house? That's what we paid for our first town house and when we signed those mortgage papers we both stopped breathing for a good 10 minutes I'm sure! It's crazy how things change! Ok, now I am just sounding like my parents (back when I was a kid..... blah blah blah). Anyways, you get the point... Houses aint cheap! ha ha ha

In case anyone would like to picture us eating at our table or doing dishes or sleeping in our beds ( ya creepers) here are a few pics of our humble abode....

My master bedroom... when we moved in all the walls were the color of the green blanket on my bed.... awesome.

little hallway down to our master bathroom

 

View from my kitchen to the front door/living room

View from front door - stairs lead to the kids rooms and a bathroom

Kitchen... obviously...

Door to backyard, you can also see a little of our bedroom... at first I hated where the master bedroom was placed but now I love it... I can't imagine living in a house without the master on the main floor.... AWAY FROM ALL THE KIDS!

view of the main floor from the top floor

view of the living room from the top floor

Our backyard.... the grass is still a little dead from the snow but the yard is big and the kids play hard!

House is a duplex..... we love it.

Everything else in life pretty much remains the same just in a different city. Kids are good, growing like weeds.... Evan is in kindergarten this year and is doing very well academically. It's been hard on Logan having his big brother gone so much because he feels very left out when Evan goes to school but it's been nice to have the time to bond with Logan a little when Evan is gone (and Aidan is napping!). I am looking forward to next year when Evan AND Logan will be in school and I will have Aidan all to myself... that has never happened before and I think it will be very fantastic! :)

I am sure I have tonnes more stuff to tell you about but I am starting to run out of steam here and don't want to turn you off of my future posts ( and yes, there WILL be future posts!)

Please continue to uphold our family in Prayer as we carry out this phase of our life. I am hoping that the toughest part is behind us but knowing that our friends and family are supporting us through this provides much needed comfort.

I'll be back soon so check in often ;)

Much Love,

Tanisha & Family