New Addition to the Family (no we didn't have another baby ;)

Last week was pretty exciting as we got to welcome this sweet little bundle into the world...

Her name is Leah Mabel and she is our newest little niece :)

May Travels Part 2

So last time I talked about and showed pictures of our visit with family and our time at the beach and this time I'm going to share our two farm visits. 

The first farm we went to was called Morning Star Farm 

So, we pull up and park in the parking lot and the first thing we see in a field adjacent are these beautiful bovines :) Our kids have never been up close to a cow before and they were amazed at how BIG they are!

May Travels

Way back in May our family did some travels and we spent about a week on beautiful Vancouver Island on the west coast of Canada (I can't believe it has taken almost a month to post about this but hey that's life) I'll warn you though, this post is going to be pretty photo heavy :)

So, in order to get to Vancouver Island you need to either fly or take a ferry and in this case we took one of the ferry's. On our trip over we had gorgeous weather, but unfortunately didn't see much marine life (we saw one sea lion, very far in the distance)

We were visiting the area of Parksville and Qualicum and we had such a great time! We took the kids for their first time mini-golfing and we all had a blast (so much so that the kids kept asking if we could go back every day!)

A Fun Family Weekend (Canadian Style :)

We had such a great weekend this weekend past (it was a long weekend where we are) and I just had to share some of it with all of you who are still checking in on me here ;) 

On Saturday it was gorgeous and sunny and my hubby had the great idea to check out a local park on the lake where we heard it freezes when there is a long cold spell (which there has been!) I decided to bring the good camera to play around with ;)

Christmas Aftermath

Hello strangers! I hope you all had a lovely holiday, we enjoyed lots of family time and relaxing together time (partly because we were all sick and partly because we just wanted needed to relax.) Yesterday I spent most of the day cleaning,sorting,organizing as the New Years organizing bug hit me full force. Do you get that feeling? New year, new you? Well maybe not *new* but scrubbed up anyways. :)

It doesn't feel like a new year here on the blog until I close out the old one by sharing some post Christmas pictures, so bear with me as I relive it a little bit.

Here are the kiddies in their new Xmas PJ's setting out cookies and eggnog for Santa. I can't believe how big they're all getting!

I'm still here

I'm still here, but it's summer time and I have to admit that my blogging time has been drastically reduced. But we're having fun, kids went to Grandmas farm for a couple days and Cady got some cuddle time with Rosco the goat kid :) Really he is alive though he doesn't look like it :)

Mom's Day

I hope all you mothers had a wonderful day yesterday. I know I did! We had a very busy weekend and so I'm not going to bore you with all of the details, but I did take a bunch of fun pictures that I wanted to share with you.
      These first few pics were taken with my phone and didn't upload as clear on here as they appear on my phone :)

Such a cool big rock!

A Visit to Vancouver

Yesterday was my birthday and I turned 32! Ack! It's crazy how fast time flies by isn't it? I had a lovely day spent relaxing with my family as the previous few days were busy busy. My sister, my mom and I went to Vancouver (B.C.) for a couple of days as my sister had to have a surgery done there (she's doing great!). And though the reason we were there wasn't so great, we had a great time doing some touristy stuff despite that reason. We had to stay right downtown Vancouver for a night and two days and the first day we were there it was gorgeous! We decided to go down to Granville Island to see the sights (and get some dinner!) Here's my sister Kim at the market enjoying her gelato :) We had dinner in the Public Market and I can't even describe how amazing the food is, in fact just click on the link above and it'll take you to their website which explains it all way better than I ever could.

:)

A week with family

Happy Monday! Did you have a good weekend? We had a pretty quiet weekend after a busy week of travelling and visiting. As you know, last week was Cadence's birthday so I have a whole mish~mash of pictures to share today. I should warn you that this post is pretty picture laden :)

Like I said earlier, last week was Cadence's birthday so she got to open some presents before breakfast on her special day.Needless to say she was a little excited   :)

A Sad Week

 

We have had some sad news this week in our family. On February 14th my grandmother lost her fight with cancer and on February 17th my husband's aunt lost her fight with cancer. So, I won't be around here on this little blog for the rest of the week as we will be journeying to afar and spending time with family and relatives. Thank you for your understanding and I will see you back here next week.

Christmas 2012

Hello blogworld :) It's been a little while since I was around here, but rest assured I haven't forgotten about my little speck of blogland here, I've been working on a bunch of "behind the scenes" stuff and trying to get my computer to work well again. Thank you to all of you interested and wonderful enough to stick around and see what I have to (eventually) say and share :)

I know most blogs are done with Christmas, but I have to post this as it was supposed to go up around the 27th, but you know what they say about the best laid plans :)

I should warn you before we go further that there are a LOT of pictures, so pull up a chair and maybe grab a cuppa tea or coffee (whatever your "thang" is) and enjoy the highlights with me :)   

Here's the sweet kiddy's near the start of the opening frenzy, all decked out in their new Christmas PJ's (the hat on Cady is new as well :)

Christmas fun

This weekend we did something fun together as a family, we made a gingerbread house! We don't usually do these things (gasp!) but we got one of those kit thingies last week ( thanks Gramma Bev!) and Gabe has been pestering asking me all week to make it. So on Sunday we had nothing going on (for once!) and we decided Gabe had pestered waited long enough. It was actually pretty fun once we got through the arguments of who's being fair and who's hogging all the candy :) We even had my sister here to help.

A Quick Trip

On Friday I mentioned I would be away for the weekend and the reason I was away was to go to a barbecue supper for my sweet cousin Rebecca  abd her new hubby Tristan (that's her in the middle holding their cute baby Avin, and that's their sweet dog Donny in between).  The guy on the left is my other cousin Jake (who coincidentally is Rebecca's big brother :) He is also a wonderful musician and he sang their wedding song ("Home" by Phillip Phillips) They had a very quiet nuptial ceremony during the week before with just their immediate family and the barbecue was kind of their reception to celebrate with more family and friends. It was a lovely evening and I was so thrilled for them, they are the sweetest couple!

The reason I was gone all weekend was because the party was about 8 hours away, so two of the days were mostly travelling time (we got back last night). I hitched a ride with my mom and Al and Pat stayed home and took the kids to soccer on Saturday (almost done, 1 more game weekend, whew!) and did various other things needing to get done (like finding firewood so we don't freeze this winter!)

Anyways, although it was a quick trip I had a wonderful time seeing relatives I hadn't seen for a long time. And also meeting some of the newest members of our large extended family.

How about you, did you go on any 8 hour drives this weekend? 

P.S Fun Fact: Rebecca was my maid of honour when Pat and I got  hitched :)

Baa baa black sheep......

Have you any wool? You sure do and you are super cute too! :)

 Yesterday, we went and visited Grandma Dusty and Tim's farm again! Every time we go there, there are new little treasures to get acquainted with :) I can't believe it has already been two months ago since the last time we visited when first saw the baby lambs! (I do realize that saying baby lambs is redundant, but I just can't help myself :) They are getting so big! Also, since Grandma helps a friend with taking care of lambs rejected by their mothers, her lambs have changed and now she has a few black ones, last time they were all white ones. But, black or white, I think they are all super cute, and so do my kids.

Grandma has also acquired some miniature donkeys! Aren't they cute? The smallest one is called Isabella (or Izzy for short) and she is only two months old. Pictures just don't do these guys justice, but they are so cute and charming in person.

The kids sure had a blast getting reacquainted (they met once before, but it was mine and Pats first time meeting them)

 The kids (and I) were thrilled to meet Grandmas newest chicks and another new addition, ducklings!

Sooo cute! I have to admit that although I think the chicks are cute, I fell hard for the ducklings :) Have to add ducklings to my list of animals for our eventual farm (still working on that, went to look at a few places yesterday!) Here is Grandma holding one of the ducklings...

and of course the kids had a turn holding the chicks and ducklings :)

I just love Gabes' expression, he is cuter than any baby animal, by far :) He was also so nice and gentle and calm while holding them, a real natural.

Gabe also enjoyed helping Grandma herd all the animals back in their pens for the night :) "Follow me donkeys, follow me"  

We sure enjoyed our day on the farm and the kids are sure looking forward to summer break so they can sleep over at Grandma and Tim's place for a whole week! :) Pat and I had a quick, but very enjoyable visit and I know for me it totally inspired me and made me extra committed to finding our "perfect" place to have our own farm.

Thanks again, Grandma Dusty and Tim!

Anyone else visited any farms lately? Have your own farm and enjoying the spring influx of baby animals?

Have a great week!

8 happy years (so far!)

As you may have guessed, today is Pat and I's anniversary. Eight whole years! 

A lot has happened in those eight years, 2 kids (our first was born before we married) 4 1/2 moves (we're smack dab in the middle of one now!) 2 different cities, 4 different vehicles, got a puppy, lost a cat, and a partridge in a pear tree. Just kidding about that last one :)

Happy Anniversary darlin'! Thanks for being a wonderful husband and father, my best friend and lover (hey that rhymes sorta). I can't wait to see how happy the next eight years are going to be.

I love you.

:)

I feel loved :)

Yesterday I had a lovely day with my family. I was greeted with a plethora of lovely handmade gifts from my sweet little kidlets :)

Nyla made this sweet card,

and a few paintings that she made at school. The one below is one called "friends come in all colours" or something like that....

and this one is a pastel and watercolour of some waterlilies. I love the colours in this one, definitely one of my favorites!

Cadence painted this beautiful flowerpot and then planted the flower/plant inside :)

She also made a whole whack of cards and some of my favorites are on the right side of the picture below. The one on the left is Gabe's sweet card which Nyla helped him with. She drew what he asked and then he coloured it all in. Isn't it sweet? I loved it! 

We were blessed with a gorgeous day! A beautiful cloudless blue sky and nice and warm :)

So gorgeous that the grass is growing like crazy :) So, me and my trusty lawnmower set out to make the grass pretty. I know it sounds crazy, but I really like mowing the lawn! It is so nice to know I can make a nice pattern in the grass and it won't get upset or ruined right away. When you do dishes or laundry you know that the cycle is going to start again almost immediately, but mowing lasts about a week :) 

Hard to see, but there are pretty lines in the grass :)

We all spent the day outside, had a big bonfire (doesn't look like it here, but that fire is super hot! We had flames about 10 feet high for a bit too :) and roasted hot dogs and smokies.

 The kids had a blast building a fort in the forest and swinging and playing on the trampoline with the neighbour boy.

Whee! Go Cady :)

So, did you have a good weekend? And a good mothers day? Have you roasted anything over a bonfire lately?  Do you like mowing the lawn like I do, or do you prefer the "man of the house" to do it instead?
Have a great week!

Demolition Day

Whew it's done! Yesterday we lucked out with some perfect weather and some wonderful friends and family to help us demo the deck we have to redo before we move. I first mentioned it last week HERE that we had hoped to get most of the demo-ing done this weekend, and thankfully the stars aligned and we were off!

So first off, I'll share a couple before pics of what our deck looked like. This first one is facing our front yard and driveway,

And this next one is taken from the driveway, looking up. As you can see, there is a carport underneath, and you can sort of see that wall on the right how the concrete is leaning in, well that is not a good thing and that is one of the major reasons why this had to be redone. There is also some of the wood that is starting to rot through as well.

You can see in this picture below where the hubby started a bit of the demo last week. The wall underneath was covered in plywood and those two squares (rectangles?) had windows in them. We might change this set-up a bit, but we still have to discuss with the contractor.

Also, notice how the concrete is sloped? Apparently that is not the proper way to build a concrete retaining wall!? From what we gather, it is much better (and easier) to have the wall come down in steps and 90 degree angles to make it easier to build on. We figure whoever built this was a bit of an amateur :)

Progress! The railings are down...

You can see a little better in the picture above how much the wall on the right is leaning. Then, we (and by we, I mean the hubby and the other four big, strong men who generously gave their Sunday to help us out!) started prying off the top layer of decking etc etc.

(Hubby and his dad, aka Grandpa working together)

I enjoyed watching this big strong man at work ;) I think he was the cutest of them all :)

Gabe was right in there as much as he could be (and as much as mommy and daddy would let him :)

Then came the rest of the deck, piece by piece...

The guys sure seemed to enjoy breaking out the tools, especially ones that made lots of  noise :)

 We are very lucky to have friends with some big machinery at their disposal to help us with the really big heavy stuff (thanks Al!) and Gabe had a grin on his face the whole day as he got to go for a ride in it :)

Then the boys had to show off their muscles for awhile :) My mom and I hauled a bunch of that wood out of the way (had a nice picture of you with the wheelbarrow on here mom, but I didn't think you would appreciate it :)

We were trying really hard to not break or crack the concrete floor as it was fine and we didn't want to replace it, so Al did a great job with the backhoe of being very careful and delicate (or as delicate as one can be with a backhoe :) He did a fantastic job and I'm please to say that we shouldn't have to replace the concrete floor.

Next, we decided to break up the concrete the old fashioned way (with sledgehammers) and haul it away in a couple pick up trucks. I'm not exactly sure whose idea that was, but it was sure a lot of hard work and heavy lifting!

 

What started out like this...

Ended up like this....

And demolition is done! 

It was a long day, but I can't believe we got it all done. We never could have done it if it weren't for some very special people in our lives. So, thank you again, Mom and Al, Dennis, Al F, Kevin, Sheldon, Sam, Nora and Griffin. We owe you big time!

Once again, before...

and (8 hours) after...

Feel free to ask any questions and have a great week!