Day 25 - January 25

So anyone who knows me, knows that I collect sports memorabelia. I recently put a bid in with NHL.com on a banner from Dallas used for the 2007 All Star Game. I think it was like $12 and I thought it would go great in my work out room in the basement of the office. So i was quite excited to get my shipment today... it looked pretty big when i got it... opened up the box and there it was.. i thought, cool... but there appears to be a bunch of other boxes taped to this one... 6 in total. As I opened each one up, i discovered 4 all star banners, an advertising rink board sign "shop nhl.com", a banner from the year end awards in las vegas and...

a banner from this years winter classic. I saw a bill and invoice for $202 for this on. I know I only paid $12. I was pretty happy but then i realized, someone else had paid for them and they must have shipped to me in error. Do I say anything or just keep them... well, i felt very convicted so I wrote an email to the NHL and said, i'm pretty sure I got these things in error. I was very tempted just to keep them but i couldn't live with myself. I wrote them right away and have yet to hear back... perhaps I may get to keep them after all but we'll see. In the mean time, i'm enjoying my banners:)

Day 24 - January 24

Mom & Dad came over for a visit today. It had been a little while. Faithy has a radar for Dad's pocket to get his cell phone.

She is so busy these days, breaking out of places and heading for the stairs... she wears me out

Day 23 - January 23

Friends from Courtice came for a visit today. Great to catch up with Mike & Heather and Aiden

As a kid, tanya remembered going to the cross' place for pop and chips and how special that was. Our kids rarely have chips and pop so we decided to give them the treat on saturday, kinda like tanya had when she was a kid.

Day 22 - January 22

Home from TO. I ended up buying the kids and Tanya a little something from the trip. I made a stop at the pottery barn for kids which normally is devestatingly expensive. They had this box of wooden building blocks which helps you make sky scrapers and things. Retail price... $200... on sale for ... $19.99 that's 90% off... woohoo. we are also getting things together for isaacs new room (Spider man theme) and the girls will be moving in together in the big room

Gramma Mackay got all the grand kids Olympic wear for christmas. Girls are in their matching outfits...

Day 21 - January 21

One of my main companies has a winter retreat for some of its brokers every year. Usually it's in Niagara on the Lake but this year it was in Toronto downtown at the 4 seasons. Its always good. They good a really good speaker, review some of the things the companies done over the past year and look forward to the next and just inform it's brokers and interact. Always profitable. Anyway, they usually have a nice dinner and some type of theme... I've determined I am not cultured at all. They had dinner hosted in some museum across fromt the ROM. And then they had some world famous canadian chef, Jamie Kennedy prepare our meal for us and he came out and discuessed the meal a head of time, tell us where the chickens were from, what farm the beef was from, where the veggies were grown and how none were exposed to bad feed and that it was all natural and stuff. There's something to be said about going to the freezer, popping out a a frozen chicken filet and cooking it up. I have no idea what farm it grew up on... and i tend not to think of the food i'm eating as pets roaming around on a farm. All in all tho, very nice meal, i felt important but slightly out of place

One of the speakers they had was a guy by the name Jeremy Gutsche, host of Trend Hunter TV and the website Trendhunter.com He's written a book called exploiting Chaos and all about how some of the largest companies in north america were actually founded and started during times of recession. He also talk about buying habits and just trends in general. His website trendhunter.com get Ten Million hits a month. Pretty interesting stuff. I ended up getting his book... i would recommend it.

Day 20 - January 20th

Little Miss Charmer... she hears the click of the camera and out come the smiles. So funny cause everyone else says she's so serious but this is who we see most days

Day 19 - Dress Up day

Day 18 - January 18

So Monday was PJ day for Eva's class. We had talked about it for a week. Sunday Night she decided, I'm not going to wear them, I'm not. So we sent a note with her to school to tell her teacher that Eva was having a bit of stubborn streak in her and refused to wear her pjs. We got a note home from her teacher saying, Eva had told her that she "forgot her Pyjamas" Needless to say, Eva got in a wack of trouble and had to write Mrs. Bessette an apology letter which she ended up having to read in front of her class and tell them that she had fibbed and that its wrong to lie. She will learn...

Day 17 - January 17

Great day at church today and then home for some... wait for it... wait for it.... Swiss Chalet. I know a real shocker i'm sure. After lunch I ventured out with the boy and the diva to Brighton to watch my nephew rhys play hockey against the brighton braves. Rhys' wore # 99 and it was neat to see him play. home for games night, eva picked out hullabaloo, one of isaacs favorites but isaac was going to sit out in protest because eva picked it out, not him. He loves that game but because he didn't pick it, he didn't want to play it. Stubborn as a mule that kids sometimes. After some discussions, we all agreed to hullaballu.

While at my folks last night, saw a picture of my grandmother Mackay. Not sure why i felt like posting her pick but i just did. She's been gone for 6 years now... For as long as I can remember, she always used to say, well, i'm pretty near 100 you know... anyway, when she died she was in her 98th year... almost 100

Grammy Mackay had a zest for life. I remember in her later years at the nursing home, after she had a fall and hurt herself, she had to be restrained in her room on her chair from time to time. They used to call her houdini because she'd either get out of it or somehow manouver herself, restrained and all to wherever she wanted to be. When asked, how on earth did you get over there vivian, she'd reply, "just like this"

A few years ago, Eva somehow got in and out of her crib and we were in amazement and said, how did you do that.... "just like this" From her falling and her zest for life, it's no wonder the similiarities between eva and her great grand mother mackay, for whom one of her middle names, Vivian, is named after

Date night

So it's been since early september, we thinks, since tanya and i got out just the two of us. Tonight, my parents took the 3 kids and we went to dinner at earl & angelo's

went for coffee at starbucks and chapters

And then to a flick for chicks and sensitive guys. it was great night out. Mom and dad had fun too... well, excpet for dinner. Mom had prepared macaroni which kids had earlier in the day and didn't hold back in telling their grandparents, "Papa, we can't eat macaroni for supper too.... we already had it for lunch" Oi boy... i gotta work on these kids:)

Went to pick them up at mom and dads and the older 2 were back to back in the same bed... kinda cute

Day 15 - January 15

20 lbs... finally, and faithy is officially front facing

It's a whole new world

Have a look at eva in the pictures, she's more excited for faithy than faithy herself.
My baby is growing up

Day 14 - January 14 - Sick Day

Eva wasn't acting herself when she went to bed last night... she is such a drama queen that i just can't tell what's wrong. But tanya has mothers intuition and thought, she was going to be sick. I said, i don't think so... and well, i was wrong.... again.

I was holding her and we were up up until about 3:00am with Eva throwing up... she threw up 10 times... poor little thing. Just got nicely asleep at 3ish and then Faith decides, I'm going to wake up and cause some trouble too. The whole house was crying, carrying on. Eva was in her bed, we had the lights on, crying loud, throwing up, all the while isaac slept just above her. The next morning he woke up and had no sweet clue anything was going on... oblivious. Perfect:)

Next morning, Eva woke up and was fine. At a big breakfast and she was good to go.

Another memory from this week, we received a phone call home from Eva's teacher. She said, just calling to give you a heads up that you may get some tears at home today. Ok, what's up with Eva.... No, not eva, Isaac. ok, What's up with isaac. Well, it was getting close to home time and as they were getting ready, Mrs. B noticed that isaac was down in the dumps and looking like he'd just lost his best friend and was close to tears. When approached and prodded with the reason by some other students and mrs b, it was determined that his teacher forgot to put his reading book and homework in his backpack to take home. At this point, his teacher was gone. Most kids would welcome the opportunity not to do their homework, but not the boy. He was so upset that everyone else got their reading/homework to take home and not him. The minute he stepped off the bus, an upset isaac got off the bus to tell his mother that he wasn't going to be able to do his homework and it wasn't fair. A note home from the teacher the next day revealed that isaacs homework (which didn't need to be done until later on in the week) had been put in Hemza's back pack by accident and that she was very sorry. We ended up getting the book that day, isaac read it, completed the task and all is well in mackay land

Day 13 - January 13 - Daddy's Helpers

One of the benefits to owning your own business, when tanya has a doctors appointment or something she drops one or some of the kids off with me at work. Kids just love delivering mail, running the envelopes through the mail machine, and just having fun. I'm sure when they are bigger i'll look back fondly on these days