Snow what fun!

Whew I've been a busy bee this last couple weeks painting up a storm and I can't wait to share with all you. I just need to finish up some of the "after" photos so hopefully next week I'll be all set to share with you all that. 

We've also been busy, enjoying the white stuff that finally decided to show up! 

A walk in the sunshine

It was so nice out today! So sunny and springy we had to go for a walk! Pat and I (and Stella!) went down to our local beach and enjoyed the sunshine, but it sure wasn't warm yet :) There was a brisk wind blowing and it was sure cold!

What a busy, fun weekend!

Last weekend we had a busy fun time and it felt like the beginning of the weekend was still summer and by Monday it felt like fall. Ah well, such is life in the great white north :) Actually one of the reasons I love where we live is that we get the best of all seasons. We have the beautiful fall foliage and falling leaves of autumn, of course we get snow in the winter (enough to ski at the ski hill 25 minutes away without the use of snow machines), the crocuses and daffodils of spring and the hot beautiful days of summer. But I digress! 

Our kids (all three of them) were invited to a friends birthday party on Friday after school. Since that friend and her family have a gorgeous house and property on the lake and since it was a gorgeous hot Indian summer day, the friends took all the kids who wanted to go, on a tube ride. Well Gabe and Cady were all over that! (Nyla decided to stay and watch from the dock) 

They had a blast! The friend also had a piñata for everyone so that was fun too. And of course there was the requisite cake and ice cream :)

Thank you to the Alexander family for such a wonderful fun time!

This weekend the kids were back into soccer games on Saturday morning. Thankfully it was a lovely day again. Cadence got a little bored while watching her brother play :)

On Saturday afternoon I decided to take the kids to a beach since it was still so gorgeous and warm out. Pat was doing a course so it was just me and the kiddies. Isn't this view gorgeous!

We decided to pick up some friends to come with us,

sometimes you need a brave friend to help motivate you to jump in ( and holding hands never hurt either :)

I just love the picture above :) Those five have been friends since Gabe was about a month old and they always have a great time together.

Sunday, I forgot to take pictures, but we went to a fall fair with my mom and did another special thing for Nylas birthday (which is actually tomorrow)including a picnic. Then on Monday, when the girls were done school, we went to my moms and helped pick  plums off their tree because a bear had decided to climb the tree the day before and broke a few big branches off. We didn't want the bear to still be attracted to the tree so we had to pick them all :)

Notice how bundled up they are? Well Monday brought autumn with a vengeance and it was windy and freezing! This tree did so well this year, there were TONS of plums.

Stella did her best to help "supervise"  :)

The kids helped a ton, partly cause they were small enough to climb the tree without breaking branches :) You can see in the picture above one of the branches broken by the bear :( I love how it looks like a big alligator mouth trying to eat Nyla in this pic :)

I can't believe this week is almost over and we're almost to the weekend again! We have another busy weekend with soccer games, another birthday party to go to, and another fall fair on Sunday. Maybe this time I'll remember to take pictures :) 

How about you? Has fall come to your corner of the world? Are your weekends crazy busy as well? Do you have any resident bears breaking branches in your yard?

Our 2011/2012 Family Photo Shoot

I'm back!!! Did you miss me? Sorry for the three week hiatus. It was very impromptu but I think I was just burnt out (that three months of Sept to Dec are a killer).   I confess I've been a bit of a hermit for the last month or so (ok maybe a lot!) and now I am ready to rejoin the world :)

So, I figured what better way to rejoin the world than to share our family pictures we had taken in the fall! I hadn't wanted to share these till after Christmas cause some of the pics were part of our Christmas card. I will warn you, there are a lot of pictures so you might want to grab a coffee or tea and a snack :) So without further ado here we go...  

These first couple are some collages that our photographer Cindy did :)

 Such a beautiful fall day :)

I just love Cady's smile in the background.

Awww, we have so very few nice pictures of Pat and I that I was thrilled to see this one :)

The above two of the girls were taken near the beginning of the shoot so their smiles are looking a little nervous still :)

And Gabe was just being his normal goofball self :)

Some of you may recognize the picture above :) And those of you who were at a certain wedding here last summer might recognize a certain little cable ferry we were on in that picture :)

More bum shots! Love how Cindy just accented Nyla's bright boots :)

LOVE this picture of Gabe! My little boy is growing up so fast!

The whole famdamily, Stella included :) And I just have to say I LOVE LOVE LOVE the next few pics...

Just the girls :)

And just my handsome guys :)

Pat and Gabe's hands. I don't know why, but I always love pictures of hands, and feet too!( just kids feet though)

Love this one!

Absolutely adore this picture of Cady :)

Kisses!

and more kisses! *snicker* I laugh at this picture every time I see it (though I confess, not too thrilled with my expression) Cindy told us to kiss each other, but I guess we need a bit more direction *snicker snicker *

Love it! all our hands together :)

Daddy and the kids off to explore :)

Awww, I adore this picture of me and my boy

 And of course I love this one of Nyla

*adore*

my handsome man :)

I love pictures on train tracks and I was so happy we could get these with all the beautiful fall colours in the background.

show me some attitude!

*sigh* oh my boy what a goof!

That's all folks!

Our family is pretty casual and just a bit rustic ( we live in a log house people!) so I wanted to keep it real and natural with jeans and fall sweaters (Nyla's sweater was handmade from my grandma! she is so talented)

All in all we lucked out completely with the weather, the timing with all the fall colours, and with our wonderful photographer and friend Cindy ( if you live in the Kootenays of British Columbia, (that's in Canada in case you're wondering) and you are interested in having a photo shoot with Cindy, just email me and I'll get the details to you.

Thanks to all of you who stuck it out through all those pics, these weren't quite all of them, but I had a really hard time just picking out just a few that I loved. And thanks again to Cindy for doing such a wonderful job and for making it fun while we did it :)

P.S Come back next week and see a little home decor project I made with some of my most favorite pics from this shoot.