Pictures from the beach...

We took the boys skimboarding today and despite the gray sky, it was actually quite warm. We were just there early. ;)

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Summer's here so that means...

SKIMBOARDING!

Scott 4x racing...

School's Out...

Yay for the kids...school's out! Both boys did very well this year. Jack met all expectations of where he should be for entering into grade 3. The only real improvement he needs to do is with his printing. His teacher feels that he should be able to print faster and neater than he does. (he has a habit of fattening his letters) I'm thinking he might need to go back to the eye dr for a retest. I know he has a problem with depth perseption but I think his vision to see has gotten worse.

Scott is doing well. His report was really great. His third term marks and final marks ended up being the same with 6 B's and 4 A's. His select team we think is finished for the summer. No new games have been scheduled and between you, me and Sam, we think that's nice. lol Scott has actually been asking for 2 years now to do bike racing and well...Sam found one (almost) 2 weeks ago and Scott went and raced. He did pretty well for his first try and has another race coming up this Wed. I got alot of pictures and plan to post some soon. It's called 4x racing as in 4 cross. Confusing I know. I can't believe he's 10 and will be going into grade 5.

George recently celebrated his 3rd birthday and is a very happy, busy and talkative little boy. He's now 38 inches tall and weighs 35lbs. So, he's not exactly small, which I suppose is a good thing considering he's got two older brothers, lol. He can not wait to start Preschool in Sept and sometimes that's all he'll talk about. I have full belief that he will not be sad to see me leave on that first day.

The two older boys will be starting day camp next week and are quite excited about that. And so are we, lol. I hope to get them into swimming lessons for the week after next and it's unfortunate that George will have to wait. I'd like to put him in but he still has the tubes in his ears so the dr said no pools, lakes or bath water. He's had them for a year and half now so I'm curious to see how much longer they stay in. Typically they fall out within 6 months to a year. hmmm...I suppose he still needs them then.

Sam is doing well. He's able to use his hand for many things now although the feeling and strength isn't there yet for other things. He should hopefully be starting hand rehab therapy and will be going back to work soon. We're just waiting to hear as to when he's supposed to start going to rehab. It's apparently a 6 hr everyday for 3 weeks program he will be on and then once he's completed that he should be cleared to go back to work. Fingers crossed that it happens soon!

I think I told you all that I started my own cake decorating business??? Well, I've had a few orders since then and have now completed all 4 courses I was planning to take. I quite enjoyed them and learned alot of new techniques and when offered I might take the advanced flowers class. It's really interesting to see how some of the flowers are made and how realistic they can be. And unlike this blog (I know I'm horrible at updating it, sorry!)...I'm actually pretty good at keeping my website up to date so if your interested in seeing more pics you can see them at http://www.charscakes.com I think I'll put a link up on the right hand side like I have for our photo albums just to make it easier for those interested. Can't say it'll be right away as blogging format seems to be a little tough for me. But as soon as I can figure it out, I'll do it.

Well, I think that's it for now. Hopefully now that it's summer, it'll be a bit easier for me to get on here and post updates. I hate to think that people actually do log on here and keep seeing the same thing over and over again.

Happy 3rd Birthday George!

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Times a flying!

Wow, end of May already. Well, here's a quick update for you all. ;o)

Scott and Jack continued with their swimming lessons and had their last lessons last month. So, Scott is now in level 10 which is the last level of the swim program. And he could very well pass and finish this summer when they start lessons again. He's doing very well and his report card was definatley one to be proud of. 5 A's, 4 B's and 1 C+. He just finished taking part in his school's track club and had alot of fun. Regular soccer season is over now however he is still playing for the select team. So we've been pretty busy with games and practices there too since they've been having a fair amount of games lately. Here's a more recent pic of Scott taken before a soccer game.

Jack is doing well too. He's currently in level 4 for swimming and based on how his lessons go, I'm really hoping he will pass levels 4 and 5 this summer. His report card was very well too and although he doesn't have letter grades yet, the comments made by his teacher were really great improvements from the last term. I don't think I told you all that he was getting braces. Well, he's got 4 of them and is doing really well with them. The big gap in between his big teeth has now closed and we're just waiting for the teeth beside each of them to come down before deciding what to do next. Either he'll then be able to have them removed, or he'll have to have 2 added on, lol. Here is a more recent pic of Jack, as silly as he is. He likes to ham it up for the camera, lol.

George is doing really well and at almost age 3 (he'll be 3 next month) he can now say anything he wants. He's also entered the new phase where children start to make jokes. And while he can be very funny, there are alot of times we just don't understand what the joke is, however he'll be laughing and having fun. So that makes me and Sam laugh anyways. He and the coffee table got into a bit of a fight last month which resulted in him getting 2 stitches near his right eye. Scott and him were playing and somehow he ended up whacking the corner of the coffee table, ouch! Was not a good day and he looked so beat up for about a week and half with his huge puffy black eye. He's since recovered well and hasn't forgotten that memory as he'll sometimes tell people about it. LOL Thankfully the scar looks like it will be quite minimal. He still has the tubes in his ears and the specialist says that's ok for now. He goes back in June for another check up so we'll see then if they've fallen out or not. Here's some more recent pictures of George...

He's since had a haircut ;o) .....

I almost forgot to tell you all, that yes, he still naps occasionally,

Sam has what should be his final surgery last month and is doing good. This surgery was a tendon transfer from the pointer finger and should enable his thumb to be stronger and more able to move so he can grasp things better. The surgeon is quite pleased with how the surgery went and his physiotherapist is happy with the range of motion he has with his thumb. So now he's still recovering and has to wear another splint 24hrs a day unless he's doing his finger exercises. But, in two more weeks he's allowed to take the splint off and then he won't be limited to what he can try to do with his hand. And hopefully he'll regain the movement he had before the surgery (he's lost alot since having to be splinted and not able to move his hand or wrist) quickly so that he can then begin to proceed past that point and move forward with more movement and strength.

I broke my camera two months back and have finally gotten a new one. Thanks mom for letting me borrow hers as I broke it only about a week before Scott's birthday. I was not happy. However, I've now got an even better one now and am seriously "in love" with it. It's a Canon Rebel and is so awesome. I've also recently started making cakes for other people and have had 3 orders so far. Pretty exciting and I'm happy to say that the people I made them for were very happy with them. I'm just finishing up the last of the Wilton cake decorating courses too and found those to be not only great for teaching me some techniques, but also fun. I've put up my own website now too so if your interested in seeing pics you can go to http://charscakes.com/

Other exciting news...hmmm...oh yeah....we leave for Disneyland in two days! WOOHOO! We are all so excited. I'll be sure to post some of those pics for you all soon after we get back. :O)

George can now ride a bike!

Sam recently taught George how to ride a bike. So now everyday, George wants to go outside and ride. He's gotten really good so now we usally take him across the street so he can ride in the empty parking lot at the flower auction.

Don't forget...

to sign our guestboook when you stop by. It's located in the right hand column. :O)

NOW...

if only I could figure out how to replace the top three pictures with the new ones from this year...

The night before and Christmas morning...

The boys with the snack they made for Santa. (milk, crackers with peanut butter and banana chips, the carrots are for the reindeer) The "R" out of the carrots stood for "Reindeer", lol. And yes, George needed a different pair of pj's, so your eyes aren't tricking you when you see him wearing a different pair in pics of Christmas morning.



A few pictures from Christmas morning...

Building a Gingerbread house...

A good friend of mom's (Marilee) sent the boys a gingerbread house kit. Auntie Sarah seemed excited about it too so the boys thought she should be the one to help them decorate it. As you can see, they had alot of fun doing it and it looked great afterwards. For about 5 hrs!

Sorry I don't have any pictures of it after we smashed it...the boys ate it too quickly to get any, lol. We thought George would be better suited visiting Grandma this time around as we didn't think any candy would actually make it on the house if he was to help. He did however eat his fair share.

p.s. Auntie Sarah is probably going to "kill" me for posting pics of her so we're not going to tell her ok? ;O) LOL!

Various Pictures of our Christmas tree...

This was George's first year of putting the ornaments on by himself and as you can see, he quite enjoyed decorating only one area of the tree. LOL!





Our tree just after decorating...



Our tree after Santa's visit...


Another view of our tree after Santa's visit...Jack was overjoyed with his gift~the game Risk. He waited patiently for 6 months to ask Santa for it! And as you might be able to see, Santa listened. ;O)

And thank goodness I took before pictures of our tree because after 23 days of being up and decorated, it somehow seems to be looking a bit mangled and undone now in some places. For example...now that I see the pictures, I have no idea where the lights went to on one whole area of the tree! Signs of a toddler and a cat in the house for sure huh?! LOL!

Our visit to Santa...

Last year, George was not impressed with Santa and cried the whole time. This year, Santa was his best friend...he ran right up to him, hugged him and didn't want to let go, lol!

So of course I had to add the cd offer to our order after seeing this display of affection! In fact, I even lucked out getting these shots because I asked the guy if the other pictures he took were usually on the cd or not. And he said no, usually only the one pic (the one you order) is on the cd but he'd add some of the others on. Guess he thought this moment should be captured forever too, lol.

Thanks again Uncle Dennis...

The horse's name is Joe. He used to be Sam's from when he was a little boy. And after Sam outgrew him, Mom passed Joe down to Sam's cousin's who then passed him down again after they outgrew him. Several years ago, Uncle Dennis got him back and not in good shape either! Joe was in need of repair and was so badly weathered he had faded to white (from brown)!! But despite that, Uncle Dennis saw potential and after alot of hard work and paint, Joe was brought back to "life". Then for Scott's first Christmas, Uncle Dennis brought Joe down, all fixed up like new again. It was such a great surprise and here we are 9 years later and Joe is still loved and being happily ridden! ;o)

Some random pics...

Of course we did celebrate Jack's birthday!

Here's a couple of pictures from his happy "days". For his first party he requested donuts instead of a cake. We had Grandma and Grandpa over for supper. He loves donuts, especially Tim Hortons or Krispy Kremes. His second party consisted of 18 children and 12 critters! His cake request was for a bug/dirt cake...

A more recent update now...

Since mailing the letter we have found out that Jack did indeed pass his swimming lessons. So he is now in Level 3 and both him and Scott are going to be starting lessons in 2 weeks.

Sam's surgery went well and he is now going back to physio. He hasn't had many appt's yet because it's the holidays. But he's been faithfully doing his exercises at home and has gotten some of the movement back that he had lost from this last surgery.

Report cards came home just before the break. Scott got 2 A's, 5 B's and 2 C+'s and Jack doesn't get letter grades yet but it says that he's doing well too.

And yes, George is still doing well with being potty trained, lol. And he's still amazing us with sentences he says and questions he's asking or answering now. He truly is just a little boys now. Part of us is a little sad since he is "our last" but for the most part we're jumping up and down with excitement that he's a "big boy" now. Preschool is just around the corner and I just know that he'll love it!

Hello again...

Hey Everyone...

I haven't blogged for awhile as I'm sure many of you have noticed. But I know that many of you know why and understand how busy it's been around here. I did manage to mail out Christmas cards but it seems I missed putting our yearly updated letter in some of them. Mostly because I know that everyone knows about Sam's accident already and that was a big part of the letter. However I didn't realize that there were so many that also miss out on how the boys are doing througout the year too. So, instead of writing everything over again, I've decided to just copy and paste the letter here for those of you that want to catch up. It's cut and pasted exactly as it was sent out...

"Thursday December 13, 2007

Hello Everyone,

Another year almost over! We hope everyone is doing well and has had a great year. We’ve been really busy this year, especially within the past few months and we’ve got some good news and some not so good news again this year.

At the end of September, Sam had an accident at work that badly injured his right hand/wrist. It got caught in a conveyor belt on one of the crushers and amazingly, no bones were broken and he still has all his fingers and his hand. But, the damage is still severe. All the skin on the underside of his hand…from half the palm down to 1 ½ inches under the wrist area eroded from the belt. He was in surgery for 9hrs…the surgeons assessed the damage, cleaned the veins and tendons (burnt rubber from having to be cut out using a blow torch was on them), took a vein from his foot to replace a damaged one, harvest a skin graft (from his groin up to his hip) and attach it.

Sam spent 7 days in the hospital and then started physiotherapy three times a week. Sam doesn’t have much sensation in his fingers and after 2 months of physio, he still has limited movement in all his fingers, thumb, and wrist. He also has 80% tendon loss in his wrist which will never repair itself.

We always knew Sam would have to have at least one more surgery and he had that done this past Saturday. Two surgeons operated for 6 hrs doing a nerve transplant. They took the nerve that runs from his foot near the ankle up his calf, almost to the knee. Once they got it, they replaced the damaged nerves with it. This surgery should give Sam more movement and sensation in the areas that he’s currently not having any. And down the road, he may need another surgery in which the surgeon is talking about taking a tendon from his pointer finger and wrapping it around to his thumb. But for now, Sam’s just healing from this surgery and will then start physio again next Thursday.

Scott is now 9 ½ and is in Grade 4. This past spring he enjoyed playing baseball again and his team finished the season undefeated. During the summer he made great strides with his swimming skills too. He started off in Level 5 and after 2 more sets, he continued to pass Levels 6 & 7. He’s still playing soccer and is actually on two teams. In March, he was asked to join a select team and at first it was only going to be for a few games, but then it continued on throughout the summer. And they are currently still playing games, their last one was Nov 30th and they have two more scheduled for later this month.

In September, the house teams started up again and so he’s on that team as well. He’s the goalie on both teams. He enjoys playing the goalie position a lot and happens to be very good at it too. He’s just finished participating in a goalie skills camp and although there was one for his age group, he found it too boring. The coach noticed this and invited him to participate in the older age group’s session and Scott jumped at the chance. This was much better for him. He wasn’t bored and although he had to work a bit harder, he had a lot of fun and was enjoying the challenge.

Some of you may have noticed (in the picture I enclosed), that Scott is now wearing glasses. This is a fairly new thing for him as he just got them at the end of September. We suspected he was having trouble seeing the board at school so I took both Scott and Jack for an eye exam. Jack doesn’t seem to have any problems however Scott was not so lucky. Thankfully they make him look smart and he doesn’t complain about wearing them. In fact, I think he actually likes wearing them because he can see much better.

Jack is now 7 and is in Grade 2. He also played (t-)ball during the spring and had a lot of fun. During his 3 sets of swimming lessons, he finally pass Level 1. YAY! He didn’t play soccer last year and didn’t want to play this year either. So for his extra curricular activity, he’s chosen to continue on with swimming. He’s already finished a set of Level 2 and unfortunately he didn’t pass so he’s currently taking it again. This is his third try and I have a good feeling that he may pass this time. He’s such a trooper! He is doing so well in school and has come a long way. He really enjoys reading and spelling. He’s got a heart of gold and is not shy about letting you know he cares. There is no doubt he’s going to be a heartbreaker in the future.

George is now 2 ½ and is such a curious and busy little guy. You’d really think we named him after the monkey Curious George if it weren’t for the fact that we named him before we even knew his personality! In February, he had surgery to put tubes in his ears and ever since then he has just shown so much improvement with his speech. He’s saying so much now and at times won’t even stop talking. He’s truly a little person now, no longer a baby. He’s been sleeping in a big boy bed since his 2nd birthday and loves it, no transition needed there. He is now potty trained and has been by far the easiest to train. He loves it too which is actually a little funny! Even #2 is a snap for him and he’s beaten both his brothers by being younger than they were. He loves trains, cars and puzzles. He is the puzzle king! And his favorite movie at the moment is: Ghostbusters! HA!

Just a few days before Sam’s accident, we adopted a cat from the SPCA. He’s an orange tabby and is about 2 ½ years old. His name is Ramone and while there were many other names we thought would be better, we decided to keep his name the same just for the simplicity of things. So don’t feel bad for laughing because we still do it ourselves at times. He’s a very calm and quiet cat and has a very easy going disposition, even when he’s being harassed by George. He adjusted really well to being here and it feels like he’s been here all along. And amazingly, 12 days after decorating our Christmas tree, it is still standing.

I think that pretty much sums up some of what’s been going on over here. And if it doesn’t, it will just have to because today is the 13th and I must mail our cards out!

We hope you all have an enjoyable holiday season and a great New Year. Best wishes for 2008.

Love from,
Sam, Charlene, Scott, Jack, George and Ramone~ the cat!"