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Well as most people reading this blog will know that both my parents have passed away from Cancer at a young age. I strongly feel that if cancer research was where it is today when my parents got cancer that they would still be alive today. So with peoples continued support to the Cancer Society maybe we can make cancer history!

I am going to be heading back east for a one day curling tournament "Curl for Cancer" in Fredericton on Jan 23, 2010. A couple of friends of mine Kevin Haggerty and Grant Lawson will be driving down on the Friday and returning home on Sunday. Once there we will be meeting up with Trevor Mason to make our full curling team. We are calling ourselves "Stones of Stone" and we are planning on wearing some Scottish outfits. If you would like to sponsor us we would really appreciate it! Some Pictures will be available of our team and outfits after the event.

To donate you can go to the following link:
http://convio.cancer.ca/goto/johnyk

Thanks in advance for your support.

We spent the day at Busch Gardens in Tampa yesterday, and were reminded how much we LOVE this place! The boys had a blast and correspondingly so did mom and dad. There is so much for kids in this place and it really is well planned and thought out for families. Daniel was big enough to go on almost all the rides in "Land of the Dragons" which he loved..... he loves being able to do everything his big brother can:) We ended up with a "fun pass" good for the whole year, so we are planning to go back again at least once. Next time we will focus on more animals and watch at least one show. This time, we let the kids spend as much time as they wanted on the rides, and they were exhausted by the time they were ready to leave the kids area. Not much point seeing animals when the two of them were snoozing in the stroller! Instead, John and I split a delicious funnel cake with ice cream and fresh strawberries and John hit up the complimentary beer garden for a sample of our favourite from last year...Shock Top. We headed home in time for dinner with Grampy. It took about an hour and a half to get there, which I think is reasonable for a day trip:) Of course, we came home with the mandatory merchandise as well. Next time, no tshirts, no visors and no more stuffed tigers..... Ah, well, I guess we were all caught up in the moment:) Oh yeah, we also got an awesome pic taken of the four of us on the way in, and I couldn't resist buying it - it is so rare to get the four of us smiling at the same time! By far one of my favourite days in Florida so far:)

It seems like there hasn't been anything new and exciting to share this time around in Florida...... We've been to the beach a couple of times, we've been to the pool afew times, we've been to Target a couple of times:) We did visit the new Kohl's and it was quite enjoyable:) We went to the flea market and got the kids matching yellow fake crocs the very first day here....which they love... The weather has been fabulous ever since we arrived, sunny and warm and not a cloud in the sky. I must thank Stephan for recommending the new camera that John bought me for Christmas (it's waterproof!........and pink!!!) Tomorrow we will be going on a new adventure -mom is taking us to the Myakka State Park which ncludes a boat tour and will hopefully net us some alligator pictures, we'll see!!! We bought the boys some water wings at Walmart today, and apparently they were a huge hit. I am looking forward to hitting the pool with them tomorrow afternoon. That's all for now...... like I said, not much exciting to report on, besides the fabulous weather:)

Haggaret, you know: Think... TPB.... Think agian. Headed out toe Undcle Ron and Auntie Katnica house and aad a few drinks..... now I plan tp type I as as I sprek. I am having yhiouble.... I nam I dinkeing a fe ding's.Juline is now suxing... I guess not priness is going ot bed... poo por ;itl,e,m fe;llos.w... ji Oit.

john...

Miss yu all!!1

John

Well, here we are again, back in the state of Florida at Gram and Grampy's Florida house. Right now I am sitting out in the lanai (screened in porch) blogging today. Kevin and the boys in Ottawa are going to be having mustache Disc golf round on New Year's Day, and I want to be a part of it so from the picture below you can see my mustache as well a pole hole in the background. The course was quite a bit busier this time when I went. I did not shoot very well I finish with Bogie golf. All the holes are now listed as par 3s, so not very good +18.




I think and hope we finally finished all our shopping. I am amazed with the amount of people in the malls and box stores on Dec 22 and 23, there was NO-ONE! fantastic for me since I am not a big fan of people. Gram and Grampy bought a new Christmas tree with the lights already on it. It was the last one but one of the strands in not working so I think they are going to return it today, hopefully they will be able to find another one, or else we are going to have to get a Jesse tree.
Today we are planning on going fishing with Uncle Ronnie and Auntie Cathrina and maybe going on his boat out to an island depending on how rough the water is. Hopefully David will be able to catch some fish.

Yes, normally our children are moderately well behaved.
Yes, normally I consider myself to be a pretty patient person (I mean, come on! I'm married to John Kean for heaven's sake!)
Yes, normally I don't really care two figs what other people think about my parenting skills or how I discipline my children...... but today......... sigh. today was not my day to shine as a "good mom" [emphasis on the quotes, I try to not to get bogged down in the good mom myth!!!!]

Anyways, here is my story for today. We got an email a couple of weeks ago about a field trip to Acorn Creek farm for David's nursery school. Siblings were also welcome to attend. "Great" I thought. David's first field trip. It will be fun. I will take the morning off work, I will bring Daniel and we will have a great time. Not so much. First of all, it was pretty cold today. Not winter cold really, but there was an edge to the coldness in the air. "No problem" I thought. I will dress the kids in extra layers, we will still have a great time. I packed the kids in the van with lots of time to spare and ran back into the house to make sure I had everything.... snacks in my pocket... check. .....water bottle in my purse, ......check. Directions to the farm........great, where the heck are they. I searched for AT LEAST 10 minutes. While the kids were in the car (with the heat on and the Cars soundtrack blaring on the stereo so they were quite happy but still!) FINALLY i find the directions. On the floor. Near the "toy section" as David calls it. Hmmmmmm,. how did they get there? Anyways..... so now we are late. "No problem" I thought. This is a nursery school field trip. I'm SURE other moms will be late too. Well, that part turned out to be true. At least four minivans pulled in after me, so that was good. I do hate being late though, so I was starting to get a little grumpy. Anyways, we get there, I get the kids out of the van, we head over near the tractor to wait for the other late moms to get their little angels out of their vans and it starts. "I'm hungry", (from David) "aaaaaa, aaaaa, aaaa with pointing" translation, I want down, I want to run around in the mucky grass. (from Daniel) "No problem" I thought. As soon as we get on the tractor, the kids will be so busy enjoying a fascinating, enriching farm experience with wonderful educationally interesting sound bites from Farmer Andy, that the kids will forget about their complaints. Not so much. The complaining continued with increasing volume each time Farmer Andy stopped to explain photosynthesis, or how a frost makes brussel sprouts taste sweeter, or how they grew 150 different varieties of carrots to find the best tasting ones. SOMEHOW, all the kids sitting in our immediate area were of the quietly sitting next to their parents type, who obediently munched on each vegetable sample (kale, brussel sprouts, parsley, celery root) that was passed their way. Meanwhile, David literally spit everything he tried out and said "I don't LIKE THAT" for any and all to hear, and Daniel, well Daniel was happy to try everything because face it, he eats almost anything PLUS this was fresh from the garden with dirt still attached and everyone knows how much he loves eating dirt!!! Anyways, I managed to keep them quiet for a few minutes with the emergency Welch's fruit snacks that I had tucked in my pocket... but literally, as soon as the last snack was swallowed, it started up again. "I'm hungry" "I want to go home" "I want to get off" etc etc etc. I was getting looks. And I don't mean the "I totally know what you are going through, my kids are like that too" looks. More like the "if you were a better mother, and you didn't give your kids sugary snacks, and you gave your kids a more complete breakfast of porridge or something, and you used some kind of effective discipline technique, you wouldn't be standing there trying to keep a one year old and a three year old from jumping off the field trip tractor ride while shushing them and trying to bribe them into being quiet" Sigh. So I was losing my patience, and getting really mad. (are those two things mutually exclusive?) I don't know, but I was NOT having a good time. The tractor ride could not end soon enough for me. The farmer asked at one point if we wanted a long tractor ride or a short one, and I actually couldn't stop myself from blurting out "short, PLEASE short" and the mom sitting next to me, repeated it to the farmer with the additional comment that "some kids are getting antsy" as in, not her kids, but other kids sitting near her! Argh. And so, finally we head back to the parking lot. We stop to hunt for pumpkins in the woods that the kids got to keep. - which in theory would have been fun, but I was SO mad at my kids, that I really didn't enjoy it as much as I normally would have. And then we stopped for pumpkin bread. Which of course quieted down my bratty kids for another one minute while their mouths were full of bread,... until it was done. "I want another piece" , " No David, everyone only gets one piece" "I want another piece!" again. Argh. So finally we are done. I put the kids in the van. Great, get me the heck out of here. Here is our conversation in the van: me: "David I am really, really, really dissappointed in how you were acting, you were very, very bad at the farm" David: "I'm really sorry Mommy", me: "But David, you were really really bad. Why were you so bad?", David: "I'm really really sorry Mommy", me: "I know you're sorry, but......" and herein lays the problem. I was so mad. I really did not want to buy his three year old, I'm sorry cause I know you are mad and that is what I usually say to get myself out of trouble line. So I gave up on the discipline/behaviour teaching moment and decided to stay quiet for the rest of the car ride home. I dropped them at the babysitter with (relief?) slash guilt because I was STILL mad. I went to work and tried to catch up on the work I had missed in the morning and I was STILL mad. I get home and listen to David tell Daddy about everything that he did at the farm and what vegetables he ate and what farmer Andy said and CLEARLY he still had a good time, despite the non-stop whining that he did the entire time we were there. But you know what? I am STILL mad.

Maybe I will get over it in a few days. but really. I'm pretty sure it is not a good idea to hold a grudge against your children. Anyone?

OK, so we have been extremely delinquent with the blogging.
It becomes very overwhelming when you miss a few events, and things snowball and the summary blog post in your head starts getting bigger and bigger and more and more stressful to think about!

Here is a brief summary of the things we COULD have written witty and interesting posts about this summer:

- our purchase of a Wii for "father's day".
- Dana's moment of shame when she edged out a mother of four to get a Wii Fit at Best Buy
- Hulahooping over the summer, and learning new tricks from Alyssa (who knew she was a rhythmic gymnast!?!??!!?)
- Flossy ultimate fun
- Dr. Teeth and why Dana and John won't play on the same team until the kids can babysit themselves on the sideline....
- Our trip to New Brunswick and associated case of food poisoning.
- Our week by ourselves at home while Mom and Dad watched the boys in Belleville (FYI, the boys did NOT miss mommy!!)
- how I tricked John into painting the bathroom while the boys were in Belleville.
- John's summer long quest to build a horseshoe pit in the backyard. (yes, he finally got it done, no, he has not played a single game with anyone yet)
- the birth of the adorable Grace Elizabeth Haggerty to Kevin, Amy and Liam (and how I had just told John a few weeks earlier that I wanted to name our next daughter (if we ever have one!) Grace - but having a Grace Haggerty is perfectly perfect to me!)
- the birth of Emmett McGinnity, to Sarah, Noel and Owen and my sincere wishes for the miracle blanket to work it's charm on him for the sake of his mother's sanity.
- learning to make fondant cakes with my talented sister-in-law. (that tastes as delicious as it looks...mmmmmarshmallow!)
- how Trevor almost broke my record for hulahooping on Wii, and how I haven't been doing any training to prevent this from happening the next time the Mason's come over!
- our purchase of our Toyota Sienna mini van and associated drama with car dealers, trying to decide where to buy (US vs Canada) etc etc etc. (the truck recall post is of course john's to write)
- how much i LOVE our minivan, even though i wasn't sure if I was going to be able to reconcile myself to being a minivan mom.......apparently i can!
- how the boys have grown and learned all kinds of new things this summer, good and bad!
- how Daniel has the most mischievous smile and has earned the nickname "Silent Sam" cause he doesn't talk much, especially when new people are around. Every new word he says is like a present because they have seemed so few and far between.....his latest are "brother" and "catch" and "tani" (his babysitter)
- how David continues to amaze us with his oh-so-accurate recollection of everything that he hears..... including spelling "p-i-s-s-i-n-g me off" to his stuffed animals. (fyi. all spelling of inappropriate words has been officially suspended in the Kean household)
- how David starts nursery school tomorrow and it makes me happy because i know he will love it and thrive and soak everything up like the little sponge he is, and how i am sad because he is getting so big and he goes to the potty by himself and gets dressed (mostly) by himself and he is getting SO independent!!!
- our anniversary dinner last thursday and how awesome it was to go out just the two of us and enjoy a bottle of wine and some delicious steaks
- Heather and Julien's wedding and how the bridesmaids looked fabulous in orange, and Heather's craftiness and organization were quite a sight to see.
-hmmmm I think that brings us up to the present..... hopefuly I can start a fresh tomorrow - maybe some with some pics of David's first day of nursery school and a "david kean" review of how the day at school went:)

...dana
aka. princess disenchanted:)

A post for Kevin, so he can be jealous of all the fun that was had. Not really.... we missed you and Amy!!! Steve and I had a moment where we looked at each other and said "I wish Kev was here!" at least, I think we had that moment, i'm not exactly sure cause as Jody's pictures show, the Galbraiths and the Keans.... or at least one of the Keans were at the top of the drunkest people at the wedding club:) Fabulous. SOOOO Much fun:)

PS. don't you dare correct my FUNNEST;)

Our little monkey turned one today. And he really just couldn't get any cuter!!! (see flickr for more pics - we left them public for everyone to enjoy for now, but we encourage people to get a flickr account so we can add you as friends and keep them private!!) We had a very busy weekend with all kinds of visitors - Gram and Grampy arrived on Thursday, Nanny and Julie arrived Friday, Rachel, Ryan, Auntie Trish, Sarah, Emily, Auntie Cathie, Catelin, Chelsie, and Cody arrived Saturday. My (long lost:) cousin Nicole is visiting from Vancouver Island and everyone wanted to see her so we decided a BBQ was a fabulous way to get together. I say "long lost" because Nicole hasn't visited Ontario in years and we always have good times whenever we get together:) In any event, David and Daniel were completely loving the attention all weekend long and Daniel really appreciated all the great gifts. Funny how the noisy ones came from certain Auntie's - John has asked me "who bought him THIS?" in reference to the tambourine and very noisy rooster toy and was very unsuprised about my response. Thanks to everyone for coming and for bringing delicious potluck items. We really enjoyed having you!!!!

Wine makes me very happy. I recently went on a wonderful weekend trip to the Niagara region to celebrate a very special bachorette for my friend Alix. We had a fabulous weekend of wine drinking and shopping and hanging out with the girls:) Of course this was all possible thanks to my wonderful husband who looked after the boys for three whole days. I definetely owe him a weekend or two of disc golf for this. While there, I visited some old favourites: namely Featherstone and Caroline Cellars as well as some new ones, especially Strewn and Ridgepoint Winery where we enjoyed a fabulous lunch and an especially delicious white wine called "Ragazzi". I actually think it was my favourite wine of the whole weekend. This past weekend, I enjoyed drinking some of my purchases with John (and Kevin!) along with some homemade cheese and pepper jam that I picked up at Featherstone. Delicious!!! My favourite non-alcohol purchase of the weekend was a pair of gorgeous pink Nine West pumps..... David also was a fan of them as you can see below: