Pillows

For every holiday (or just for fun), Nolan and Jarom’s grandma makes them a pillow case. They love it. They love receiving them in the mail and then sleeping on them every night. One night I put a pillowcase purchased from the store on one of Nolan’s pillows - that did not fly, he wanted me to change it to one of the soft ones that grandma makes.

Flat Nolan Goes to the Calgary Tower

Nolan’s class is doing a totally fun project. They made flat versions of themselves and then mailed them off to people they know around the world!!! The person who receives flat Nolan is to take pictures of them and flat Nolan at some fun attraction, e-mail the pictures to Nolan’s class and then send flat Nolan to another destination.

This is flat Nolan’s first stop around the world. He visited the Calgary Tower with Aunt Rachel, where I am told he had a bad case of vertigo, but with the promise of ice-cream and a trip to Pengrowth Saddledome to visit his beloved Calgary Flames he got over it pretty fast.

Next stop: Japan – Thanks Paul!!!

Yummy Yummy

I made this roast chicken recipe for dinner yesterday and it really is as good as all the reviews say it is. I followed the recipe exactly, except I used two 2lb chickens since I couldn't find 4 lb ones. I cooked them for about 2hrs 45mns - 3 hrs. So Good!!!


http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Roast-Sticky-Chicken-Rotisserie-Style/Detail.aspx


P.S. if you make this recipes let me know what you think

Nolan's Magnetic Mouse Maze

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Nolan had to create a maze with a Mouse that is moved by a magnetic power. Maze goers have to retrieve the cheese in the top right corner and then make it out the exit. Nolan had a great time working on it and did a great job.

Some days are like that

I received an e-mail Monday morning from my cousin title “Some days you just shouldn’t get out of bed”. By the time I went to bed Monday night I shared these exact sentiments.

My days are usually very busy running kids everywhere, trying to keep my house running smoothly and fulfilling my obligations. I usually manage pretty good during the day; but when Nolan gets home from school and he has Mad Science Class, Jarom has a friend over (who refuses to leave), there is supper to be made, homework to be completed, a magnetic Mouse Maze project due, not to mention the nightly reading, as well as basketball practice to get to, I sometimes get a little frazzled.

Monday was just such a night. By the time I got everyone organized and out the door we were running late for basketball. In my hast to get into practice I forgot to lock the van doors and returned after practice to find the van totally ransacked - my wallet missing and Nolan’s back pack gone.

Now it could have been a lot worse, I wasn’t using my wallet so all the vital cards were not there – except mine and the kid’s birth certificates. Nolan had forgotten to take his glasses to school so they were not in his back pack – something that was such a relief to me I wasn’t to worried about the rest of the missing “stuff”.

Spencer and I spend half and hour searching in the freezing cold for the wallet and backpack, hoping they had dumped it somewhere along the way – no luck.

Tuesday morning Spencer received a phone call at work from a man who found his business card amongst all the other card thrown all over the street. He told us the street and my friend (I was trapped at home waiting for my new fridge and stove to be delivered - Yippee) went and searched the street and recovered more of my cards and Nolan’s backpack and agenda minus the library book – the thieves must be into A-Z mystery books.

We haven’t recovered the birth certificates yet, but all in all I feel very fortunate.

I Have the Best Young Women EVER!

Sunday night 2 of my young women surprised me by showing up at my house with a plateful of brownies – a dessert they know I love. They even went to the extra effort of cutting them out like hearts!!! Along with the brownies I received a “Love Note” it was so fun to read and made me laugh and feel so treasured. I feel so fortunate to have these incredible young women in my life!!!

Party Night has TWO New Additions

Party night has been a long standing tradition. Every friday night we possible can, we gather with friends and play games. There have been many games over the years we have enjoyed playing: Settler, Rook, Lord of the Rings Risk, and Killer Bunnies; just to name a few of our favourites. We now have two new games that I totally love.

The Northcott’s purchased Ticket to Ride, which is very fun and doesn’t take to long to play – Nolan and Greg even love it. At the start of the game everyone is given mission cards (I think that is was they are called, but I really have no idea) telling you which cities you have to build a train to. For example , build a train from San Francisco to New York. There are only so many train tracks and if someone builds in your way, you have to find an alternate route. Very fun, although somewhat stressful.

One of Spencer bus friends told him about Puerto Rico a couple of years ago, and when the sale man added his confirmation that it was indeed a very fun game, we decided to make the purchase. I totally love it. Three people are the minimum amount you can play with for I would make Spencer play with me every night. I can’t even begin to explain how to play the game as it is very complicated; but well worth the time it takes for figure it out. In my opinion it is right up there with Settlers, so anyone who is a Cities and Knights fan will love Puerto Rico.

President Gordon B. Hinckley

Today we were able to attend President Hinckley’s Funeral. I was surprised by the emotion that came over me as the camera scanned the row of apostles and then rested on the empty seat between President Monson and President Eyring. I was touched listening to his daughter, Sister Pearce and the other speakers talk about all President Hinckley has accomplished in his life.

President Hinckley has been the prophet for pretty much all of my adult life, I have always had a testimony that he was called to be our prophet and always felt the love that he had for the people he served. I love that so many of the speakers talked about him being a prophet of the people and the great love he had for us.

I think Jarom’s thoughts sum it up best. As the closing song was being sung, there was a slide show of President Hinckley visiting people around the world; the last picture was a portrait of President Hinckley. Jarom saw the picture and said, “He was looking at me, he knows me”.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Sorry we couldn't be there to celebrate with you, but we all hope you had a great day.

Love, Angela, Spencer, Nolan and Jarom

Who is this kid?

Nolan has been a VERY reluctant reader. In grade one some nights he flatly refused to read and the other nights there would be a meltdown before he would do his nightly reading. Over the years he has resigned himself to his fate and learned to read. He has read each night with either Spencer or I - but the sooner he could put the book away the better.

Nolan’s teacher this year is Ms. Sopka, she is young and energetic and super cute. I am pretty sure all the little boys have a crush on her – Nolan included. She seems to have super powers which enable her to get the kids to do anything. She has issued a challenge to the kids to read all of the A-Z Mystery books by the end of February. Nolan has taken this challenge seriously and has turned into a little bookworm. He reads for hours every night, reads without being told to, and this morning he was even reading while I was driving him to school. When we arrived at the school and I told him to put his book away he groaned, "I was just at the good part".

He may just be a reader after all.

This is why I live here

We were FINALY fortunate enough to be given a break from the glacial temperature and reached a balmy -3 on Saturday. Since we have pretty much been on lock down for the last week and a half we knew we had to get the kids out of the house. Skating seemed like the perfect way to spend the afternoon.

The Northcotts joined us at St. Vital Park and a highly competitive game of hockey ensued. The Northcotts vs. The Courts – I am of course happy to report that the Courts were victorious!

Jarom decided skating wasn’t in his best interests, so we strapped a helmet on him and let him run around on the ice and climb the snow hills. The Northcotts had brought their sled and he and Alina had a great time riding on the sled while I pulled them around the ice.

P.S. These are not pictures from the actual skating event on Saturday. I forgot my camera but was able to take pictures on my phone. If anyone knows how to get the pictures from my phone onto my computer I'd appreciate the help.

P.S.S. Today we are expected to reach -45 with the windchill. Brrrrrrrr

Why Do I Live Here?

Yesterday and today, with the wind chill the temptures is -42. These temptures are suppose to stick around for the next week.

My Latest Obsession

A while back my cousin, Camille, sent me a web site that is devoted to books!!! I checked it out at the time but did not fully understand how great it had the potential to be. People post and review books they have already read, books they are currently reading and books they want to read!

Here is my favourite part... you get to add your friends and see what they are reading/have read. I love this; I check it everyday to see if my friends have updated books! It’s like my morning “coffee” – can’t start the day without it!

Anyhow, I know that lots of you who check my blog are readers and I would love for you to be my goodreads friends. If I haven’t invited you to be my friend already it’s because I don’t have your correct e-mail address. So either email me your address or go onto goodreads and invite me to be your friend (goodreads link to the right)!

Angcourt@hotmail.com

Happy reading!!!

Christmas

Well here we are well into 2008 and I have yet to wrap up 2007!

We had a glorious Christmas spent with family! We made the long trek back to Alberta, but had to return earlier than we would have liked so Spencer could get back to work.

We spent Christmas Eve with the Courts! We definitely missed having Aunt Jane, Uncle Ken, Amanda and Logan celebrating with us, but since Aunt Jane loves family so much we had our first ever Reese family reunion. We gathered together with lots of Spencer’s cousins; it was great to see everyone after so long.

Back to Christmas Eve with the Courts... we had a fun time bowling, exchanging presents, feasting on good food and receiving our PJ’s from Kaye. Thanks to Ryan this was also my first introduction to Guitar Hero. I had a lot of fun playing it, but it quickly became apparent that I sucked.

Christmas day was spent in our PJ’s – although, when I could smell myself around 5 I thought a shower would be a good idea, I did however put my PJ’s back on. It was seriously the best day. The kids slept in until 8:30, and then we opened our presents, assembled the presents and played with all the toys the kids received. Then we got down to the puzzling. I know that this is a long lived tradition in many families, but is a new one to ours, last year being our first puzzling experience. I love it!!!

There was lots of skating/hockey on the pond, eating of delicious food, playing of the Wii, shopping, visiting with family... all in all a perfect Christmas!

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He's soooooo Handsome

We put it off as long as we could, but after lots of headaches and watching as Nolan constantly rubbed his eyes during his evening reading, I thought it was time to take him back to the Optometrist. Nolan was delighted with the verdict and was so busy bouncing around it was hard to nail him down on which pair he liked the best - Spencer and I went for the indestructible ones.

I HAD TO HUG A GIRL

When I picked Nolan up for lunch last week - he came running to the van and said, "Guess What!! - the fire alarm went off at school and we all had to go outside without our coats". The temperature that day being - 24 and -31 with the wind chill - they weren't allowed to go outside for recess. Then he went on, "it was so cold we had to huddle together (I imagine it looked similar to a scene from March of the Penguins) and I HAD TO HUG A GIRL!!! I had to pat her back and she had to pat mine, it was HORRIBLE.

I hope this attitude last well into his teenage years.

We're Still Alive

It's been awhile I know. I'm trying to think of anything exciting to share with you that has happened over the last month and a half.

• Jarom turned 5 - It's hard to believe that my baby is 5 - where did the time go? He had a fabulous day. Lots of presents and a cake that was to his exact request. A round cake with blue icing and purple and yellow sprinkle with jelly beans that go around and around.

• My bestest friend Annie came to visit me - She been trying to convince us to move to Vancouver and up until now I have been resisting - after seeing our temperature at -27 and hers at +7 I am a little tempted.

• Nolan is back ripping up the court at B-ball. I had originally opted out of coaching, but after realizing that the coach needed some help I am back coaching and really enjoying it.

• I've discovered the value of one on one dates with my kids. I used to think that since I am a stay at home mom I spend tons of time with my kids, which is true, but it is mostly time spent driving them to their various activities, getting them to clean their rooms, do their homework, brush their teeth - all the boring mom stuff. So about mid November Nolan and I went out on our first date and it was so fun to listen to him talk (don't think I've ever heard him talk that much). Turns out he is pretty funny.

• I finally made a batch of buns that tasted delicious, my kids went crazy for them. http://snipsnailsandpuppydogtails.blogspot.com/2007/09/thank-goodness-for-mcgavins.html (someone is going to have to teach me how to set up a link, this is all I could come up with)

• Jarom passed the crocodile level in swimming and is moving on to become a whale - he does a pretty crazy dive - more of a jump really with his arms in diving position.

• Much to my kids delight we finally (their words not mine) got snow. I now have a snow fort in my backyard. Nolan will derive hours of pleasure working on it until it melts in the spring.

It's Official - He's a Six!

Last night Nolan was invested into the cub pack. I would love to share another montage with you, but I’ll exercise some self restraint and share only these two photos.

Spencer and I were so proud as we watched Nolan perform the Grand Howl:

“A-h-h K-a-y L-a-a
We’ll do our BEST!
DYB, DYB, DYB, DYB
We’ll DOB, DOB, DOB, DOB

And repeat the cub promise:

1. I promise to do my best,
2. To love and serve God,
3. To do my duty to the Queen;
4. To keep the law of the Wolf Cub Pack;
5. And to do a good turn for somebody every day.

It was all so cute.

Halloween Fun

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Another Halloween has come and gone! My kids are hyped up on candy and are driving me CRAZY. This Saturday I plan on sitting them down with their buckets of candy and letting them eat themselves into sugar oblivion. Something I am sure their primary teachers will love me for. I figure the sooner it’s gone the better off we all are.

As always the pumpkin carving was entertaining. Nolan feels he is old enough to design and carve the pumpkin, therefore Jarom has decided he is also old enough to design and carve the pumpkin. Jarom is scary wheedling a carving knife and was therefore limited to very small saw. They both did a great job on their Jack-o’-laterns. Nolan was even brave enough this year to clean out all the “crap”.

Nolan has been talking for months about being a Zombie Hockey Player – something I was very relieved at since it requires very little work. Jarom wanted to be a fire breathing Dragon and I can not tell you how excited I was when I finally found his costume. In years past I have been excited to sew their costumes, but this year there was a very sad Saturday morning when I thought I may have to sew the dragon costume. I’ve come to realize they don’t really care if I made it myself or I bought it at the store. Plus in the end I am sure it was much cheaper.

Grade three I have noticed seems to be Nolan’s big independence year. This year he decided he wanted to go out with his friends. Apparently Trick or Treating with your friends is much cooler then with your parents. Spencer went out with Nolan and his friends – I’m not sure if Nolan encouraged Spencer to stand a house or two away.

Young Womens Temple Trip

One thing I have learned over the years is that when you are trying to go to the temple there seem to be many many many obstacles that present themselves. As an YW presidency we have been trying to take our girls to the temple for over a year now – last weekend we finally made it.

Friday and Saturday I had the opportunity to take 6 of my young women to the temple. It was awesome to be in the temple with them and watch as they did baptisms; definitely something every leader should get to experience with her girls.

There is something about driving 6 hours, spending the night at a billets and then driving home another 6 hours (in the end it was more like 8 – but we had a good time!!!) that brings unity to the a young women’s group. One of the blessings I hadn’t anticipated.

On the way home we took many detours. I have always wanted to see the Souris Swinging Bridge, but have never been able to convince my family to veer off the main highway and go on this little adventure with me. I had NO problem convincing the young women. We had so much fun running across the bridge and roaming around the town. Not to mention the stop at the Bakery YUM!!! Further down the road we stopped to take a picture with a gigantic and anatomically correct camel. Once it seemed we weren’t in a hurry to get back to the city, we stops at any and all town signs that seemed appealing. So much fun!

He's a Cub

For about a month and a half Nolan has been in Cubs. He absolutely LOVES it. Right after he started he said, “Mom, I wish I could go to cubs Monday, Wednesday and Friday". He is lucky to have the best cub leaders EVER. They do wonderful Cub Nights. So far Nolan has learned how to build a fire, built a weather vain, learned about first aid and knot tying. This is totally Nolan’s thing. He has already earned a badge - his cooking badge. He makes a mean buttermilk pancake and fried egg.

These are pictures from the cub halloween party last night!

Calling All Book Lovers.

I desperately need a good book to read. I seem to be running a bad streak. The last 4 books I’ve tried to read were less than enjoyable and I gave up have way through.

Please share your favourite reads with me

Family Fun

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Here are some pictures of all the fun we had while everyone was here for Nolan's baptism. If it's not totally obvious I love making the movies. I especially love this movie making site as you don't have to post it for the world to see before you can put it on your blog. Nice!

Nolan's Baptism

Here a just a few pictures of family during Nolan's baptism. I'll post more tomorrow. We have a wonderful week-end and felt so very blessed to be surrounded by family.

Why Oh Why!!!

Me being me, there are very few concerts that I am willing to fork over big bucks to go and see.

Josh Gorban and Bon Jovi would be two concerts that I would be willing to pay pretty much anything to experience. Nothing makes me happier than relaxing with a cup of hot coco and listening to “You Lift Me Up” or blasting “Livin’ On A Prayer” as I drive my kids to school/sports/their friends, wherever.

I woke up Tuesday morning and heard on the radio that Bon Jovi would at last be paying a visit to Winnipeg. A phone call to Spencer sharing the exciting news, pretty much guaranteed that come Saturday morning he would be busy on the phone securing tickets for his sweetheart!

Imagine my disappointment this morning when Tricia squashed my dreams of reliving my youth by rocking out with thousands of other screaming Bon Jovi fans, by informing me that the concert is once again on a Sunday.

WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?????????????????

I missed Josh Groban because he came on a Sunday and now I am going to miss Bon Jovi. I’m not really sure what I would do if I wasn’t young women’s president, I’d like to think I wouldn’t be going, but chances are pretty strong that I would. I think this is probably why I was called as YW’s pres. - to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Guarding Angels

I firmly believe that Jarom is one of those kids who have 2 or 3 guarding angels with him at ALL times. Countless times in his almost 5 years here on earth I know that the only reason he is still with us is because 99.5% of our blessings go to keeping him safe and alive.

Last week Jarom was suppose to be playing hockey with Nolan in the backyard, when suddenly I heard him at the front door screaming –as only Jarom can. Immediately I notice the bike helmet on his head and the golf ball size goose egg above his eye. By now the swelling has almost gone down and he has a nice little shiner (although nothing can compare to his previous black eye).

Now I could go on and on about all the mishaps in Jarom’s short life, but I’ll just share the recent heart stopping incident.

I was just downstairs working on YW’s stuff and Jarom was upstairs watching T.V. Jarom asked me to come upstairs, which in and of itself is very usual as he likes to be left alone to his T.V. watching – I know I’ve mentioned his love for the T.V. When I got to the top of the stairs I saw Jarom with the blind drawstring cord wrapped repeatedly around his neck and he was sort of standing on his tip toes was it wasn't to tight.

Already certain items have been band from our house: suckers, little round balls, sharp blades, T.V. stands, halogen lights. Now we have one more – cords.

It's Great to be Eight!

nolanspencercourt

will be baptized on Saturday

Oct 13, 2007 at 4:00pm

delicious refreshments to follow

Look out below

Growing up it was always so much fun to jump off the top of my dad's boat. Up until this summer we couldn't get the Nolan or Jarom to join in the fun. When grandpa sweented the pot, by telling the kids he would pay them 5 dollars if they jumped it suddenly became something they wanted to do. They were still really scared, but once they made their first jump we couldn't stop their dare devilsh ways.

Grandparents

I just received these pictures from my Dad and couldn't help but think how lucky my kids are to have such wonderful grandparents.