see below

Because of my husbands job, we arent always able to celebrate on the day of actual events. Today is his fly day so yesterday we had Kate's 2nd birthday party. Joe made us a roast, yorkshires, mashed potatoes, carrots and gravy. I added a salad and juice. The cake was done at the Yamouri.









We had the four of us and my father in law for dinner. The kids love to hang out with grandpa. Kate will actually be two on Thursday, so she'll have a mini party at day care and will have another mini party at playgroup on Saturday - what a party girl!

Derek's a big boy.

Today is the day. Finally after months of procrastination, months of waiting and planning and stress it has finally arrived....and what do we find? a broken board. The brand new mate's bed that we have been waiting for, finally arrives and it has been damaged in shipping.... which in the south would be fine, but in the north, that means improvisation or waiting months. In the end, Sears agreed to send a replacement board, so we've temporarily improvised - now its just a frame bed until the new board arrives. However, today Derek is officially a big boy. He is sleeping in a big boy bed!

Play Day

One of the things I've learned about the north is that houses are small. I'm used to the Okanagan's need to show off to each other. Here people live in trailers - atco trailers that I'm used to looking down on - and duplexes, and prefab or what are called hab houses. I currently live in my biggest home in the wells. It is a 2 story a frame house. We have 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. The kitchen is too tiny, and there isn't enough storage, but I love it. The catch is, with -40 being the average temperature for the month of January we were getting a bit of cabin fever. Luckily we have a playgroup. We are just a bunch of parents who hang out and have coffee while our kids run in the in the community hall - graciously donated by the town. The community hall is a room the size of a gym, we have a storage area for bikes, balls, tables and all sorts of other stuff. My kids have their favorite toys that they play with every time to start the day off, then they vary with what they change to. Today is a playgroup day, we played with the bikes, the shopping cart, the keys, the hop scotch and much more. It was such a busy day for playgroup, there were 4 boys under the age of 6 months there. Plus a bevy of girls, and 3 more boys. In total there were 15 kids. This is not a drop in group, so I had lots of parents to talk to and drink coffee with.

Katie's show

In Thursday's mail we received many parcels - birthday gifts for my growing gorgeous almost two year old. One of the things we received was shoes I'd ordered for her. Since my first child was still in utero we've bought Robeez shoes, a cousin gave me my first pair, the first pair I bought were maple leafs, we bought white bows, sailboats, even knock-offs with the Canucks logo. My sister and I share the Robeez as the kids grow, as a result we've had crabs and lady bugs. Robeez recently added a new like called Robeez Tredz, just in time for my children to start at day care. Kate has been wearing Robeez slippers but in Thursday's mail she received her first pair of Robeez Tredz. These adorable pink shoes with coloured circles to decorate. She tried them on right away squeeling with delight, clomping around the house with her new pretty shoes. I got the camera and said "Katie I want a picture of your pretty shoes" and this is her pose.

Mean Moms

I received this in my email and had to share it with the world.

Someday when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a parent, I will tell them, as my Mean Mom told me: I loved you enough to ask where you were going, with whom, and what time you would be home.
I loved you enough to be silent and let you discover that your new best friend was a creep.
I loved you enough to stand over you for two hours while you cleaned your room, a job that should have taken 15 minutes.
I loved you enough to let you see anger, disappointment, and tears in my eyes. Children must
learn that their parents aren't perfect.
I loved you enough to let you assume the responsibility for your actions even when the penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart.
But most of all, I loved you enough to say NO when I knew you would hate me for it.
Those were the most difficult battles of all. I'm glad I won them, because in the end you won, too.
And someday when your children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates parents, you will tell them.
Was your Mom mean? I know mine was. We had the meanest mother in the whole world! While other kids ate candy for breakfast, we had to have cereal, eggs, and toast.
When others had a Pepsi and a Twinkie for lunch, we had to eat soup and milk.
And you can guess our mother fixed us a dinner that was different from what other kids had, too.
Mom insisted on knowing where we were at all times. You'd think we were convicts in a prison. She had to know who our friends were, and what we were doing with them. She insisted that if we said we would be gone for an hour, we would be gone for an hour or less.
We were ashamed to admit it, but she had the nerve to break the Child Labor Laws by making us work. We had to wash the dishes, make the beds, learn to cook, vacuum the floor, do laundry, empty the trash and all sorts of cruel jobs. I think she would lie awake at night thinking of more things for us to do.
She always insisted on us telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. By the time we were teenagers, she could read our minds and had eyes in the back of her head Then, life was really tough!
Mom wouldn't let our friends just honk the horn when they drove up. They had to come up to the door so she could meet them. While everyone else could date when they were 12 or 13, we had to wait until we were 16.
Because of our mother we missed out on lots of things other kids experienced. None of us have ever been caught shoplifting, vandalizing other's property or ever arrested for any crime. It was all her fault.

Now that we have left home, we are all educated, hard-working, honest adults. We are doing our best to be mean parents just like Mom was.
I think that is what's wrong with the world today.
It just doesn't have enough mean moms!



Thanks Mom!

My Christmas present

Since our town is a small remote town with only fly in abilities for most of the year - currently you could travel on the winter road - an ice road only open from 8pm to 8 am - shopping is not readily available. When we moved here with our new born baby we were furnitureless. Luckily this is such a generous town people are always willing and ready to share their extras. By the time I got home from the hospital we had a table and chairs, a couch, a recliner, and a mattress. My generous mother felt that since we are in our 30s and we have children we should have a grown up bed. She ordered through Sears for Christmas 2005 a frame for the bed. The feeling of being up off the floor was amazing, I felt like such a grown up. This year we are further into our 30s, the parents of 2 and for Christmas 2007 we received a headboard. It makes the room look so grown up! Thanks mom and dad.

February 18, 2008 - Cold is a whole new word here

I graduated from high school in the Okanagan of BC. There cold means snow, cold means -4. I moved to the North in 2001 to be with my now husband. Then I learned that cold means C_O_L_D. When you can feel the hairs in our nostrils freeze its cold; when your wheels turn like you are riding the Fred Mobile in the Flinstones; when the metal in the frame of your glasses causes marks on your face, then you know its cold. Most days I don't mind. Its the days when I realize I have taken my two preschoolers out and the school is closed because it is too cold for them is the days I wonder why I live here.

We are praying the Cold has ended; it has been a beautiful weekend, the sun is out, the wind is mostly gone, the weather is nicer so we've been out walking more - forget about the bears, the people come out of hibernation with the sun! While out for a walk the other day I brought the camera along and got these adorable pics of the kids.

February 18, 2008 - an intro to my life

Hello world. This is my first attempt at a blog, so please have patience.

My background bio is that my name is Shannon Faith Hall Caidler. I am the eldest of 3 girls, and am married to the eldest of 3. We have decided to break this 3 chain and have 2, a boy and a girl. The Johnson & Johnson commercial about children changing everything is absolutely true. I learn more about myself every day with them than I ever did in a month before. Unfortunately I don't always like what I learn, but I work on changing things I don't like.

My husband is a wonderful man, a wonderful father. He works away from home and desperately misses being with the kids - and they desperately miss him. We call him regularly and have a map to show where he is, which the kids love.

My son is almost 4, he is totally into Cars and cars in general - he gets frustrated by me when I don't remember the truck we saw 10 days ago when he describes it to me. He loves his daycare/preschool, thinks its funny to give the wrong answer on purpose, and loves to chase his sister around the house.

My daughter is almost 2, she loves Dora Diego and Elmo. She is learning to run and loves to sing. We call her our little dub dub and she loves it.

I was until recently a mostly stay at home mom, I had a few casual jobs that took me out of the hosue when dad was in town. Now I am working at the day care and the kids come with me when dad is gone, and stay home when dad is home. It is new still, I haven't worked a full time out of the home job since I was 26 weeks pregnant with my son.