Slugs

This summer we ventured out to BC to visit my parents place in Chilliwack. They are not there that often due to dads monthly work rotation in and out of Russia and mom setting up base closer to him in the UK. This August though we decided to try to meet up in Chilliwack, Estelle and her kids also made the long trek up. On our first full day there we went for a really nice hike to Bridal falls.

The hike is pretty short but you are in the beautiful BC forest. It was raining that day, though since the trees were so big and dense you didn't really get wet, and so the slugs were out. My mom has a brother that had made BC his home long ago while everyone else stayed in Calgary. One of the few memories I have of a visit to BC while I was a kid was of enormous slugs. The kids had a great time collecting every slug they could see and gathering them on their lovely slug home on a stump. I am certain all the slugs were ecstatic to see one another.

First Day

Yesterday was my first day at my new job. As a treat Alli made this crafty chocolate tipped pencil for me to take. I have to be honest, it is an exciting and proud moment for me to display my kids paraphernalia, especially when I can recollect doing similar things as a kid. For example what kid didn't make their father some sort of clay cup or dish for Fathers Day? I will be consuming the chocolate tip but the rest of the pencil will be displayed.

Crafty Alli

This is Alli's first painting. It was an acrylic paint by number from her birthday. I think it is awesome.

Happy Birthday Alli

Alli, being our oldest, gets to experience a lot of things first out of our kids. That means she gets to set the standard for her siblings and plough the path. Setting the standard may be fun but ploughing can't be too much fun. She gets to make the mistakes and train her parents. Then she gets to disseminate this information to the younger ones. Jen and I are both second children so we don't have the experience to draw on. One thing for sure, she is getting big fast. This year was another great birthday. She had a kid party which went pretty well but being a July baby, attendance is always a problem. I remember always having that problem as a kid, not the most fun but we did have a few kids make it despite it being summer holidays. We also had a fun family celebration, and again grandma sent her home with enough things to keep he occupied for some time. Alli has been into crafty things recently and loves to make cards or other things for friends and family. Grandma thought it prudent to expand her craft collection, and boy did it expand. Once we got home Alli just felt like laying it all out on her craft table so she could soak it all in.

And as I have mentioned on several occasions my favourite part is the video Jen puts together. And since I love it so much I feel like sharing. Happy birthday Alli.

Fathers Day 2011

Yesterday was fathers day and it was a great day. I got to sleep in, well as much as you can with 9am church. Jenny made a lovely breakfast of blueberry scones. We then were off to church where they handed out Dad’s root beer with a medal on it that said “Top Pop”. I think it was a clever hit. Then home to a little nap and a nice lunch of bread, cheeses, crackers, bruschetta and salad. Next off to Jenny’s parents for a family meal. Busy day but really nice.

Jen had the idea of preparing a clever video for her dad of the grandkids being interviewed about him. I love Jenny’s videos, I am also probably a little biased since they usually contain my kids. This one is quite entertaining, I was in tears laughing so hard. So I though I would share, enjoy…

Relocating H2O

It is a custom in this frozen place to relocate newly fallen frozen H2O (aka snow) from the sidewalks and driveways to the grassy areas. This allows people and vehicles to use the areas without the fear of falling, slipping or getting stuck. I hope yesterday was the last time I will have to do this until the fall.

On Friday it was relatively warm and the existing snow melted, we though spring was here finally… Well, not quite yet. Calgary is known for it’s bazar weather so this should really come as no surprise, however, Calgary also isn’t known for it’s large snow falls. We really don’t usually get that much snow, this year has been an exception. Yesterdays snow fall was quite a large one.

 

Smoking

Jenny and I have been spending some time recently painting a rental property of my dad’s that he bought 4 years ago. When he first bought it there was a “cat lady” who lived in the one side of the place. By “cat lady” I mean an older lady who lives with her cats and who’s house has a continuous haze of smoke hanging above your head. We decided to no longer allow smoking in the place and so decided we needed to repaint the place, among other things. Last week I was painting the ceilings with a paint that is meant to lock in the smoke stains, it is a flat white color and I though I would snap a picture to share. If this doesn’t speak for the effects of smoking I don’t know what does.

Hayden Turns 4

Hayden's birthday was low key last year. His birthday fell right after Halloween’s busyness and just before Adalia’s arrival. We had a nice family dinner at the Grandparents house, celebrated with his uncle Derek who’s birthday is just 3 days earlier. The theme this year was Dinosaurs! Hayden has grown to really like typical boy things, despite the constant attempts by his sister to turn him into a little girl. He is into cars, transformers and dinosaurs. Jenny ventured to make a lovely dinosaur cake.

The party was low key but the presents were abundant! A little cash for the little man from the great grandparents and about 30 dinosaurs and accessories from the grandparents.  Grandma couldn’t decide that to buy when she went shopping so she got it all. Big ones, small ones, ones that move and ones that make noise. We don't have a picture of them all but you will just have to believe me.

 

And of course, as is the tradition, the birthday movie.

Halloween 2010

I am going back a bit and writing about some things that happened in the fall that I never posted about. Halloween 2010 fell on a Sunday again but that didn’t stop us from celebrating it a day early. We had a ward trunk or treat on Saturday that we went to and got all dressed up for. Since Jenny was quite far along in her pregnancy we looked for a dress up idea that we could incorporate the pregnancy bump in. She had found some ideas but we decided on the skeleton family theme. People seemed to love it, and think it was creepy all at the same time. We got a few odd looks as we drove to the party. I have to say I liked it a lot better than last years costume. Last year I could hardly see, was hot and stuffy and kept tripping over kids including my own.

Halloween is a special holiday in our home and requires us go all out. Since the actual holiday fell on Sunday we had a family dinner with the Halloween theme. It included spider web soup, skeleton punch and stuffed pumpkin.

Last year we won the award in our ward for best family costume. This year we won it again. Jenny spends hours making costumes and this year was no different. We though we would go easy, since Jenny was almost 8 months pregnant, but it turned out to be almost as time consuming as last year. Fortunately this year was quite warm so we were able to walk around in just our costumes to collect our treats, really it is always a shame when you have to hide all that work behind layers or cold weather gear.

I don't know what we will come up with next year but I guess I will let you know.

New Person

So I was trying to think of something to blog about and Jenny reminded me that I never did post anything about our new addition. I was feeling like it was a bit late and that pictures of her, and her in person, have made it around to pretty well everyone. But just in case you missed it here are a couple of pictures taken by my fabulous photographer cousin Heidi. Love the hats. Adalia has been a great baby, she is calm and quiet and Alli and Hayden love her. She also seems like a cuddly baby which Jenny loves. She has a lot more hair than either of the two kids had but she does look like bits of Alli and Hayden when they were born. We are glad to have her in our family.

 

 

Valentines

This year was a bit more low key that last year. In fact I wasn’t really home for very long on Valentines day. I was out in the evening helping long time friends of ours move into their new house. However I though ahead this year and prepared something for Jenny. Nathanael had sent me a comical comparison between a potato and a rose that I though I would eventually use for Jenny. I wasn’t quite sure how to twist it so that it came across right. This year I figured I would venture to use it for Valentines.

First the letter with the quote, well kind of a quote but I had to re-word and sensor it.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Surprised at the potato? Well here is some symbolism that may make you think differently;

Potato Vs. Roses

Roses only last like a couple weeks, and that's if you leave them in water. They really only exist to be pretty, so that's like saying "my love for you is transitory and based solely on your appearance"

but a potato! Potato’s last forever, in fact, not only will they not rot, they actually grow even if you just leave them in the sack. That part alone makes it a good symbol but there's more!

There are so many ways to enjoy a potato! You can even make a battery with it! That's like saying "I have many ways in which I show my love for you". Potatoes may be ugly, but they're still awesome so that's like saying "it doesn't matter at all what you look like, I'll still love you".

I then carved a potato into a flower and put in a box with some chocolates. Here is the picture but the potato looks a bit weathered since this picture was taken a few days later. See I do have some creativity in me!

Talking Babies

We took a video of Alli, when she was just a few months old, of he “talking”. Adalia is now at about the same age and to us she makes the same sounds Alli did over 6 years ago. It is quite cute and though I would share the two videos.

Alli Talking

Adalia Talking

And Just for fun something that Adalia does a lot.

Fun In The Snow

Yesterday we decided that since it was such a nice day we should get out and have some fun outdoors. We went with Nathanael Becky and their kids and Lizzy and Elli. It was sunny when we were leaving Calgary but started to turn grey and windy and we were driving out to the Kananaskis. We thought about heading back but decided to press on. It started snowing, but since it was so warn it was actually really pleasant and beautiful. There was a nice cover of fresh snow over everything making it brilliant white. The warmth made the snow perfect for snow men too. All in all it was a great day in Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Lights

I though I would finally share the video of my Christmas lights that I set up this year. There was a competition in our neighbourhood which sparked the interest in the first place. Though we didn’t win the competition it was still fun to have the house light up. It takes hours to do something like this, I had no idea but thought I would share a bit of the work required. I bought the controllers from Light-O-Rama as well as the software program that runs the light programs and music. We had actually bought the lights last year after Christmas when they are the cheapest. The controllers came in the summer, which I then put together. The lights I put up in November just before a cold snap which was fortunate. There are about 3500 lights and two light controllers with 16 channels each. There is also over 500’ of extension cord to run to all the different channels. Gives me a new appreciation for other set ups that I see on the internet. Finally the programming takes about 4-6 hours per minute of music. That is the hard part, trying to think of how you want the lights to move so that it goes with the music and isn’t too repetitive. Anyways enjoy the video. It’s not very good quality because it was quite cold when I recorded it and my camera didn’t really like it. Oh also there is an FM transmitter to allow people to listen to the music in their vehicles, you can see the station on the board.

Adalia’s Blessing

We got to bless Adalia a couple of weeks ago and though I would share a couple of pictures. Dad was up from Utah for a conference so we though we would take advantage of the opportunity and have the blessing that week. Of course Jens dad, brother and grandpa were all in the circle too. It is always a special time to bless your own baby, they are a gift from God and it is nice to be worthy to use his priesthood to give the child a name. Adalia’s name means “God is my refuge” which is why we chose it. As most people close to use know we didn’t expect to have any more children after Hayden. We had a girl and a boy and though our life was busy and full, but God saw fit to encourage us to have another child. After a bit of coaxing on his part we consented, but we knew this would be a challenge. He name reminds us to rely on the Lord in our trials.

Here is a picture of her in her blessing dress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the same dress we used for Alli over 6 years ago.

Just for fun he is a picture of each of them on their blessing day.