The kids participated in Trunk or Treat, an activity at the church on the night prior to Halloween.  One of the members, Tracey, was taking these amazing photos of the kids for free.  Wow!  She was nice enough to send me a copy of them so I could upload them but also to make copies if I wanted.  I know I am well past the Halloween time but just had to post these.  Thanks again to Tracey!

"My Happy Birthday" - the continuing saga

We went to a 2nd birthday party for a little boy last Saturday.  Nathan was very excited to sing Happy Birthday to Carter all day long, until we got to the party when he completely clammed up.  Tonight I was out running errands with Nathan and Jay when Nathan started singing Happy Birthday to Jay-Jay.  This has been a dilemma but Nathan seems to be grasping the concept.  Even sweeter, however, was when we were looking at the Christmas lights and Nathan said Happy Birthday to Christmas.  I then told him that Christmas is actually the time that we celebrate the birth of baby Jesus, so Christmas is His birthday.  He then started to sing again, this time, "Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus! Happy Birthday to You!"

Soldiers, Cowboys and Lamanites

Carson has been very good about learning new songs in Primary and singing them whenever he is playing, or even to his teachers/classmates at school. For the last 2 weeks he has been singing Book of Mormon Stories. I went downstairs early this past week to find Carson playing with his soldiers as well as his western figurines. I asked what he was doing and he said he was playing "Soldiers & Lamanites".

Jay is enjoying preschool, especially the fact that they let him use scissors everyday. (We have been on a scissor hiatus at our house for the last 2 weeks since Carson cut his hair.) Their 'theme' for the month is nutrition so they had the kids cutting out pictures of food from magazines. Jay always brings his pictures home and puts them on the wall. Thursday night when we went in to the boys room for scriptures and prayers we found a number of pictures of food on the wall as well as one of a woman laying on a bench with a sandwich glued to her. He is 3 and he has posters of food and girls on his walls. A sign of things to come? Jay is our food oriented boy as it is and then today came home from church with a coloring sheet that said, "I am grateful for good food." How appropriate for our little man. It made me laugh anyway.

Nathan has developed a keen sense of ownership. He is very creative about it too. He likes to sing "Happy Birthday to me" and just cracks me up when we are out and about and unlike his brothers who beg for things that they want, Nathan picks them up, holds them tight and sings "Happy Birthday" or says "My Happy Birthday" as he puts the item in the cart. As Jay's birthday is approaching Nathan is getting nervous and when Jay says "My Happy Birthday" Nathan starts to cry. I have tried to catch Nathan on video singing Happy Birthday but he clams up as soon as he sees the camera. His other song of choice is "Oh Canada". He will also periodically sing Happy Birthday to Canada. I can't help but giggle when he gets going.

As for Clarke and I, I continue working every other week and in the meantime playing taxi driver for the boys. Clarke is finally going to be starting a new rotation in 2 weeks and will be back to 4 on 4 off. He is excited, I am not. We'll see how it goes. We are planning a trip to Vegas in December, starting with the half marathon, Clarke running it and I am volunteer medical staff for it. We are then planning on hitting the rodeo and a couple of shows. Should be fun.

It is now May and things continue on a hectic pace in the Imes household.  Happily the house in Peace River officially sold on April 24 which was a huge relief.   Bobbi-Jo and the boys will likely go to PR over the long weekend to pick-up the travel trailer and visit with some friends.  She is not looking forward to the long drive but it will be nice to visit with friends.   May is also the end of the extended holiday from work which Bobbi-Jo has had.  She is a little sad that she will be on a regular schedule again come June but also excited as it will be nice to have a routine and be able to plan things with a little more ease.

Carson is turning 4 this week.  He is very excited as we try to plan his party.  So far all we know is that we would like to be outside playing games.  He hasn't really picked a theme or anything.  We have invited the kids from his primary class as these are the only little people that we know at present.  If they all can come it will be a good little party.  We have sand pails as treat bags and will go to the store this week to pick out treats to go inside once Grandma is here to help out.  

Clarke interviewed for a job in Medicine Hat this last week and we will find out tomorrow how things went.  It would be very nice if he got the job but there is someone with more seniority who also applied so we don't know how things will go.  Hopefully things will work to our favor.

Nathan has started to pull himself to stand and sit up from his tummy.  His inch worm movements are also much closer to a proper crawl.  He wants so much to feed himself and do everything else he sees his older brothers doing.  We switched him to a 'big boy chair' in the van this week.  He seems to really like it.  I still can't believe how quickly he seems to be growing.

Jay is Jay.  He has had an interesting 2 weeks.  He had a little accident on the 26th and in addition to getting a lovely goose egg on the back of his head, he made a hole in the wall of our dining room.  Poor guy.  It only took about 20 minutes for him to get back to his normal self.  Since then he has been his normal self - coloring walls and doors with chalk and markers, tearing open packages that weren't his and generally causing problems.  He just smiles at the end!  Clarke has started putting him in the corner and he is very good at standing there perfectly with his nose in the corner that it makes me want to laugh.  I don't know yet that it is helping but we are trying! =)

That is our update for this week.  We hope all is well with you.

Welcome to the new millenium

Well, all of our friends seem to be blogging and it does beat Journalling at times so here is our first venture into the blog scene.  I am not that imaginative when it comes to names and other things so BJ & the Boys it is for now and here is our scoop:

Carson is about to turn 4 in 2 weeks.  He talks non-stop and likes to boss his brothers around.  He starts soccer in 2 weeks as well and is really looking forward to that.  It should be interesting though as mom is his coach and he often doesn't like to listen to his mom.

Jay is 2 and loving it.  He is a big boy, almost as large as Carson in height and certainly out weighs him.  He has learned to throw this weight around which can be dangerous at times.  He is also a bit of a parrot and just kills us with some of the words/phrases that he will repeat.

Nathan is just shy of 8 months and growing way too quickly.  He is commando crawling and starting to get into everything.  He loves his food but mostly he loves sleeping with mom or dad.  Hmmm.  He goes to sleep in his own bed and to be honest if he doesn't see mom all day with 'snacks'  he drinks himself into oblivion and will sleep most of the night in his crib.  If he sees mom during the day though he likes his 'snacks' all day long and all night long as well.  Apparently this is a sign that he needs to be weaned but mom isn't ready for that yet.  He is the baby afterall.

Clarke is working in Brooks while we live in Medicine Hat.  This means he is away for 4 days of every week.  The boys and mom miss him a lot and we have no idea when he will be working in 'the Hat'.

On Friday the deal on our house in Peace River should go through which is a relief to us.  It will be nice to payoff some bills.  Unfortunately mom told Clarke that when the house sold he could get a truck.  She did not mean the top model at the highest price but this seems to be how Clarke interpreted things.  We go to look at the truck on Monday but Clarke is already making plans with it that don't seem to include the family.  

Bobbi-Jo is working on days when Clarke is in town so that he can be home with the boys.  This translates to not very often but that is okay.  She has been enjoying the break.  She has taken on the task of coaching Carson's soccer team which should be some good entertainment on a weekly basis for a couple of months.  She is hoping to drag Clarke away on a holiday this year but its not looking promising so far.  Good thing her friends like to travel.

That is our summary at present.  As mom gets better about figuring this out we'll post some pictures and try to become more creative.  Hope everyone is well.