Birthdays and Babysitting...

Well for the four people who seem to be reading my blog lately, hope you enjoy my post. I check daily for comments and since I have posted my last blog I have checked to see if my four comments would increase and they never did, I'm not going to lie, I was bummed... hopefully everyone got my blog address change. I'm vowing to be a better blog commenter, so no one else will be disappointed as I was this past blog. On to happier things...

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Summer School is DONE!!! Brandon and I finished our class this week and we couldn't be more excited to be done and have a short but good summer vacation. For anyone who commented on my facebook question, Science is...? this was what I was using the information for, it was a canvas that we had to decorate and I think it turned out pretty great! I love using all my fonts so this was a fun project to do. We learned a lot in this science course and it will definitely help us be better teachers!

Today I had the pleasure of celebrating and going to 

Lyla Blakeney's First Birthday Party! 

I can't believe that she is one already, I remember walking over after work to go visit her in the hospital. She is just such a cutie and was a lot of fun to watch eat her little cupcake... she was very very pink and sticky by the end. Julia and Caverly made some cute lady bug cupcakes which you can see on facebook. It was a great day and I was glad I was able to share in this special day with friends, it's really nice having Josh and Julia living across the street, even when we don't see them, it's nice to know they are across the street!

Little Miss Lyla eating her birthday cupcake, I wasn't sure if this picture was going to turn out okay I thought the flash might have been too bright but I actually love it!

The Blakeney Family of Three on this special First Birthday!

The Birthday Girl, Lyla Jae Blakeney!

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Saturday night I had the pleasure of babysitting the Nelson 5, I'm not going to lie, it was very busy with 5 but I LOVED having them over and spending time with the kiddies, I just love them all soooooo much! I give kathy a major shout out, I don't know how she does it every day, she is one super mom! I gave them all baths while they were over, Cooper didn't love his, bathing a baby is challenging, he was so slippery, but don't worry I didn't drop him :) Here are a few shots of some of my most favorite people!!!

The Nelson Boys... tried my best to edit out Jake's orange mustache!

Crazy little miss georgia, I love this shot... it's my laptop back drop right now!

The Nelson 5 it's hard to get them all to look and smile, this was the best attempt!

I LOVE this shot... he is just such a chubby happy guy!

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In one month we will be HERE!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't wanted to make too big of a deal because not everyone in the family is getting to go to Disney this time, although I'm sure everyone will get to go sometime because mom and dad love it there so much. I do have to share some excitement because Brandon and I can't wait to get away and enjoy Disney together. I have always wanted to be in Disney with my special significant other and Brandon missed the last family trip by a year, so I'm excited to go and experience this magical place together and take so many pictures. This is such a wonderful opportunity for us, we really needed to get away, but both being students it was not going to happen any time soon, so there was no way we were going to pass up the opportunity to go. We'll be there for 5 days with mom, dad, and mike,(don't worry keah said it was okay for him to go without her) and are so looking forward to the vacation. It's been a bit stressful with work, since technically I am not allowed to have time off at the end of the month, but I'm hoping everything will work out, I don't want to leave Roots but I am prepared to if I have to, we need this trip! We'll also be celebrating dad's birthday when we are down there, they celebrated mom's there in February and now it's dads turn, he's such a big kid at heart!!

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Hope everyone is enjoying their summer, and the sun when it is out. Brandon and I are just getting out summer started and are looking forward to every minute of it!

July so far...

Well after my evening fix of Merlin I finally was able to load some pictures on to blogger... my goodness it took forever, but they are here and ready to be viewed.

We are 19 days into July and we haven't been too busy here at the Bing home... Both Brandon and I are in our second summer science class and both enjoying it a lot. Brandon has been enjoying it and wants to take some more courses so he can teach science too. We are entering the last week of class and even though we like it we are ready to be finished... I have my final project pretty much done, it's on the clown fish and I have learned so much! We are both ready to have our Summer Begin... I'm ready to have time to clean my apartment, make cards and work on my wedding scrap book, which is a book of invites and pictures from my friends past weddings. Don't worry though we haven't been all work and no play... we have been able to have some fun this month and here are a few of the pictures... hope you enjoy!

I was able to take a day off from work and school to go and hangout with Sonja and the kids. She is babysitting this summer, so she has four cuties at her home every day, so I went down and spent the morning with them enjoying the fun and the sun. We went to the play ground and had a fun time... Sonja and Karington enjoyed the rocking froggy!!

Little Miss Lyla growing up so fast!!!

Baby Karington... too cute in her little sun hat!

Later that Friday Brandon and I were able to go and hangout with his family... we went out in the boat and then had a BBQ with almost the entire family. It was a lot of fun and I was able to get some more sun, I'm so pale that I take any chance I can get to get some color. I didn't venture out in the boat this time, but enjoyed taking pictures from the shore. I spent some time talking to my brother-in-law Jaccob's girlfriend Sarah and her best friend Sarah, which was pretty funny, they ventured out in the tube, this is them just before they headed out!

Lucy the Beagle... she is such a cute puppy... love this picture of her!

The boys paddling into shore... Jaccob and Brandon

Brittany and her boyfriend Ian... this was the first time I met him but he seems very nice!

Chels and Ryan after the lake waiting to eat some delicious food!

The Bing back yard I love it out there... so pretty!

Brandon and his mom chatting as he BBQ's us some dinner... he's a great cook!

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Canada Day 2009... this year on Canada Day we headed over to my sister-in-law Meaghan's house for a family BBQ. We hadn't been to the Stewart's in awhile so it was great to see the changes at the house and to see them and their chocolate lab buddy. They recently renovated their bathroom and it looks amazing they did such a wonderful job! We had such a fun night, the food was delicious ad the company even better. We ate, we played catch phrase, roasted marshmallows and had some fireworks too!! Great night... a BIG thanks to Meaghan and Jason for having us all over!!! Happy Canada Day!!

Akayjah, Ryan, Chelsey and my father-in-law Peter... doesn't Akayjah have a great smile she is such a little beauty!

Sarah and Jaccob relaxing after a day out on the water... Jay got a little burnt

Great friends were there to celebrate too.. Stacy and Akayjah with my sister-in-law Meaghan

Brandon and I being festive... when you work at ROOTS you have your choice in Canada Day Wear... I chose my latest Canada Hoody and a printed maple leaf tee... I love love love this shirt and all its fun... I don't know why I didn't wear it last Canada Day!

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Hope that this post finds everyone well and enjoying the summer even though it hasn't always felt like summer yet in Nova Scotia but it is coming. I will post again soon since I'll be done school and enjoying my summer holidays... all 5 weeks of it before practice teaching starts again... I'm going to be in grade three this year and couldn't be more thrilled about that... it's the grade my mom retired from so it'll be nice to chat with her and bounce ideas off her!!

Annoying Morning

Hey everyone,

I had the time to update this morning, but now it won't let me upload pictures and I can't do a post without pictures, I'm so annoyed!!! So stay tuned for a new update I need to be better with them.

I guess this little post will let me know who got my new blog address change, please leave a comment so I know you got my message.

Off to wait for Brandon to be ready for class this morning, we were going to take the bus, but then someone couldn't get himself out of bed, so now we are driving... which I don't mind, I just hate that I was up at 6:45am... oh well... that's my complaint for the day!!

Hope you are all well, and I will update again soon, when I can get pictures on here!!

Love Karen

My new LOVE! His name is Junior!

So I have developed a love which I never thought I would! That love is of Pit Bulls.... random I know!! I have always wanted a little dog, a cute little dog that will follow me around and cuddle on my lap. I still want a little dog, but I may be willing to reconsider some day if I could find a dog like the little grey one in this picture. His name is Junior and he belongs to Ceasar Millan, The Dog Whisperer and I LOVE THIS DOG! I think from his site that he is a Blue Pit Bull and I LOVE THIS DOG! The other dog in this picture is Daddy the pit bull and I also think this dog is amazing too... but junior has my heart. He is grey with white feet and grey blue eyes... he is awesome. Although pit bulls can be worrisome, as Ceaser says it's not the breed it's the humans that are around them... we need to be calm and assertive, which I think it a good way to live in life.

My mother-in-law introduced me to the show, I had seen Ceasar on Oprah, but that was it. So one night she mentioned she liked the show and watched it sometimes, so we checked it out. A free preview one month built my love of the show, and I now have the channel in my own home so that I can watch the Dog Whisperer whenever I can. I totally recommend this show is you have a dog, love dogs or just want to watch an amazing show. He has such a talent and is amazing to watch.

I just have watched it for the past two hours and I'm not going to like I cried in some of the stories... it is just an amazing show and I just needed to share my love of this show and my new love and want of a Blue Pit Bull. 
So I figured I should mention some other things that we have been up to. Last week Brandon and I got to go to my grade six class graduation. They are finished elementary school and moving onto junior high. The ceremony was wonderful, and the students deserved it! I wish that I could post more of the pictures from that night because I want to tell the world about these wonderful children, but I can't, so you just have to trust me, these students are amazing and will do great things. I send my congratulations out to all of them!!!! This is a shot of my teacher Margo, she is an amazing teacher and is so dedicated to her students and to teaching. I have learned so much from her and hope that I can be a teacher like her someday! I cannot thank her enough for such an amazing first teaching experience.

After the ceremony Brandon and I went to Il Mercato for dinner and it was AMAZING! I had a pasta dish that is was penne, broccoli, pine nuts and raisins in a honey glaze... It is like my new favorite meal... I could have had two dishes of it. We got free dessert that night because I was brought the wrong dish first, which I wasn't going to let fly since I was wanting that meal so so much. The waitress was so sweet and apologized, and brought my meal out so fast, I didn't mind at all, but did appreciate the free dessert, I had cheesecake and is was so yummy! Brandon and I had such a wonderful night out just getting to relax and chat!
The kiddies were over for dinner one night when the bigger kids went to the movies with kathy and jeff, so of course I had to take pictures, Georgia and Cooper are just too cute and Brandon is not so bad himself...hahhaa, love that guy! He is so great with the kids and such a good uncle. This week he actually helped Kathy out and took the big girls to a birthday party, I think they had fun with their uncle B. I got to have some one on one time with jake that night. We walked to the mall to go to the dollar store and had a cinnabon treat together, with a stop to the playground. It was  fun to just have the quiet time to talk with jakie!
Brandon and I have been busy, we've just finished out first summer course, which was wonderful, we both learned and enjoyed the course. I will post pic's from our presentations as soon as I get them on the computer. We have a week off before our next course. We are enjoying being in class together, but will be excited to have some time off. We've also been watching the Planet Earth series that the BBC put out, and wow, what an amazing program we've watched 6 of the 11 episodes so far and have learned so much!

School has been taking up most of our time, but we are enjoying life and staying busy. The gym has been going great, I've been going 4-5 times a week and have been enjoying the activity so much... I definitely plan to keep this activity up, it feels great and I'm feeling awesome!

I'm off to keep relaxing and to get ready to watch Merlin, it's on channel nine, it's a mini serious about Merlin and the future King Arthur when they are younger... I don't know why I like it so much but I have been and wouldn't mind reading books (novels) relating to these people.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the summer!! More things to post but will wait to have the pictures to go along with them!!

Return to the Blogging World...

I know, I've been gone for a while, but life has been busy and has final settled down to a normal pace again. Practicum is over and was very successful and we have recovered from the lack of sleep those five weeks brought, I'm not going to lie though I miss my kids so much and I am excited to see them next week! We've had the past three weeks off and it's been super enjoyable.

What have I been up to these three weeks, not too much and enjoying it oh so much. Brandon got me a gym membership for my birthday, to the women's Nubody's and I love it so much more then the mount gym. I've been hitting it up 5 times a week and loving it, no big change in my appearance yet, but I'm working on it hard! I found I put weight on being back in school and had just been lazy since I've had so much school work to do, so I am changing that and loving it! So I've been doing that, attending birthday parties, and baptisms. Making movies for special occasions and getting a brand new camera, which is my baby... I love it and the amazing pictures it takes. I still have lots to learn about it, but that will happen over time!

This past week I've been relaxing since my summer class starts Monday, 6 weeks of science with my husband, should be a blast!! We haven't had a class together since we went to SMU so it should be interesting, but fun! I'm not looking forward to being back in school, but it has to be done! Brandon and I had a great date night this week, we went out and saw Night at the Museum 2 and it was AWESOME! I loved every minute of it and laughed out loud so so much! 

Friday I was able to go and hangout with Sonja and the kiddies. I took more pictures which will be posted on facebook after this update. We had fun playing cars and going to the playground. I hadn't been to the playground in awhile so it was a lot of fun, and I got an arm workout pushing Ethan in the swings. I love that he likes to be my little buddy now, when I walked into the apartment Sonja told him to come say hi to me, so he did and then took my hand and took me right to his room to play cars... it was great! He also loves to sit and read with me, which as a future teacher I LOVE!!! Karington is a little cutie and sits quietly and smiles, she doesn't love Brandon yet, but we're working on that. It was a nice hangout with Sonja too, we get our chats in over the kiddies playing! 

I also went to the dentist that afternoon- and guess what no cavities!! Go ME! I stopped by my parents place and to my amazement all the big kiddies were riding their bikes without training wheels- they were all very proud and we were all very proud of them! 

That night I ran some errands with Kathy and the kids, I got to experience cloths shopping with an eight year old. Oh my!! Jessica loves trying on clothes, but feels she never gets a chance to try them on and since she had a gift card Kathy took her out to Old Navy. She was too funny, we are pretty sure she looked at herself in the mirror for awhile before she came out of the room because it took her forever... she was such a little woman shopping, asking me to run and get her another color or put the clothes on the hanger for her...I laughed so much!

Thursday I headed over to Kathy's for the afternoon for some organizing fun, we tackled Jake and Georgia's room and made quite the change for the good. Kathy took apart Georgia's crib and we cleaned and organized and it created so much more room in their bed room. I of course took my camera and just had to snap pictures of my favorite kids. Kathy drove me back to mom's and we got to participate in the bike riding without training wheels. Sarah was the first to master it, Jake had no interest that night and Jessica wanted "one more day with my training wheels". After much persuasion she decided to try again... and eventually wanted to do it by herself... she didn't quite master it that night, but worked super hard and had made great progress, riding for a few seconds by herself! Check out more of the pictures on facebook! Brandon and I love spending time with the kids, he is such a great uncle, I love seeing him playing with kids, he'll be a great dad someday- don't get any ideas people!!

Nanny Jackie helping Jessica learn to ride, minus the training wheels

Miss Georgia being her cute self while we were cleaning her room

Jake riding his bike, last day with training wheels

Cute baby boy, Cooper just chilling with auntie

Sarah Grace, the first Nelson to master the art of riding a two wheeler, we were so proud of her and the hard work she put into bike riding- go girl!!

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So that's what we've been up to this week, just taking it easy and enjoying life. I forgot to mention that we had a nice night out to dinner with Brandon's parents at Swiss Chalet- delicious and then we went curtain material shopping with Laureen, my mother-in-law, who is the cutest and is making us new curtains for our bedroom, they are going to be chocolate brown and will block out the light which will be great for when Brandon comes home in the morning from work, and has to sleep during the day!

I know I've said this before, but I'm hoping to catch up on my month off from blogging, and I'm hoping to be a better blogger from now on, I really enjoy all your comments and your posts and I need to stop being a comment slacker!!

Hope this finds you all well and enjoying June!!! I will post again soon!!!

New Moon Trailer... awesome

Okay so I know I owe everyone a good post, but I don't have the time right this second, but I will soon. Why I am posting this quick little message is to let everyone know that the official New Moon trailer has been released on Stephanie Meyer's website, and can i just say IT LOOKS AMAZING!!!! I've watched it like 5 times so far and November won't come fast enough. I think the quality of the movie looks 100% more realistic to the books, for example, Bella's birthday party, although not as white as I pictured the room, very close... the piano is in the room, along with all the candles, silver wrapped gifts, everything!!!! Also it seems as if the Cullen's are much better dressed then they were in the last movie... Bella has a bit more color in the preview and dreamy Edward is looking much paler which he should!!! Jacob has shorter hair and looks much hotter then he did in Twilight! I just had to share my excitement with everyone. Check it out and let me know what you think about the next movie. I'M EXCITED can you tell???

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/

What Have I Been Up to???

I know you must all be wondering where I have disappeared to... it's like I have dropped off the face of the blogging world, but I am back. I'm taking a quick minute away from lesson planning to say hello to all my blogger buddies. I am almost half way through my 5 week practicum block, week three starts tomorrow and I have a wicked sore back but am ready to go. I get to experience parent teacher interviews again this week which is always a great learning experience. I am learning so much and realizing just how much work being a teacher is. It's been fun this week to come home and all Brandon and I do is talk about our day at school and discuss the different issues we may have faced in our day... we are such teachers. Other then that I've been sticking pretty close to home because of school and lesson planning. I did have a great treat last week when my amazing big sister took me to see 17 Again which was such an awesome movie... we laughed so much... and Zach Efron is a total stud... I would totally go see it again... I recommend big time!!

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Here is a backwards recap of some of the fun things I did this past week... see facebook for all the other pictures taken at these events... I'll be posting them sometime this week!

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Today is Mike and Kathy's 32nd and 30th birthday!! Happy Birthday Guys!!! We had a wonderful family lunch today, and had so much fun visiting and laughing at the kiddies, especially Georgia! Then last night Jeff threw Kathy a 30th birthday party, since it was such a beautiful day it was a BBQ with so much good food- I was stuffed. Kathy got to blow the candles out on her cake in the spot that the kids always sit which was really cute and she got some super thoughtful gifts. Mom and Dad drove me home last night and when dad was dropping me off I was trying to carry some grocery bags into the house and balance some food for Brandon... when I shut the car door with my food the hamburger fell to the ground and my Dad RAN OVER IT!!!! hahha I laughed so much about that... what is random though is that the burger isn't outside on the ground today... maybe someone was hungry at night?

Sarah Grace and I at Kathy's Party

Cutie Pie Cooper

The Birthday Siblings... Mike and Kathy

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The night before Kathy's party was Sonja's Birthday... Happy Birthday Sonja!!! Phil had some friends over to celebrate Sonja's special day. It was a nice get together and I got to play with some of my favorite little friends. We had a DELICIOUS ice cream cake, which has me wanting more!! I took a bunch of pictures and got to watch some pretty awesome rock band performances!! It was a fun night and a fun celebration of my friends birthday!!!

Cutie Pie Karington Hannah Nelson

I'm still trying to get a pic of these two together... I'm getting there!

The Birthday Girl and her Cake... YUMMY!

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Wednesday night Brandon and I took a few hours off lesson planning and went out to dinner with the Bing Family. We went to the Delta and had an amazing dinner. I had pumpkin cheesecake for dessert which was ummmm yummy it can't even be described. Brandon and I always have a wonderful time when we get to spend time with either of our families!!

Brandon and I at the Delta

The Bing Family... kinda dark :(

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Monday night One Tree Hill was back on and I couldn't have been happier. The gals and cooper headed over and we had so much to eat... which wasn't good since we were all stuffed before we even brought the snacks out. Lesley and Kathy picked up the new stamps I ordered and I can't wait to have a few free minutes to play with them.  Cooper is getting to big and chubby, the sleeper that he is wearing is one that I gave him on the day he was born and it looked so big back then... and now he fits into... so crazy and so cute! What a BABE!!!! I love him!!

Cooper in his first Roots Sleeper

Uncle Brandon always loves to hold Cooper when he comes to visit... how much do I love these to cuties!!! I'm back to the lesson planning, my goal is to be in bed by eleven which I hope happens. I'm feeling pretty good right now, Cooper and I had a little nap this afternoon, but I don't want to just catch up on sleep only to loose it again!!! Have a GREAT week!!!