Winter Baby

"Holy Cow, that's a lot of snow!"


"I mean, just look at it all!!"

"Good thing I'm too little to shovel...."

Photos from a few weeks ago when we had a big snowfall. These days it's not quite so white, but we do have some lingering icy snowbanks...and our snowman hung in there to the very last moment.

Trimming the Tree!

Proud of their accomplishment! I can't say I helped much this year, was laid up with a cold that made me want to curl up and sleep for 400 years, so just sat in the corner with my camera. Kids had a wonderful time and every day there's a few extra ornaments that get created at school or at home that end up on the tree.

Chance: "Mom, your skin looks like Pill Pudding's".

Me: "Who is Pill Pudding?"

Chance: "Like on Star Wars 3 when Anakin goes to rescue Pill Pudding" (Palpatine).

Why isn't this stuff on anti-aging commercials??? I'm only 31 (OK nearly 32) years old!!

1 month time warp!

Caught in the act...trying to get up on the counter to play with her brother's Lego.
Anxious for snow much???

Christmas party face paints (Karin has a snow man on her cheek, but it's on the wrong side).

Visiting the Big Man. Very exciting!

...or maybe terrifying is the right word!

This month just flew by! We had a good visit with family earlier in the month, with good highways & good kids in the van. The plane rides, falling asleep in the van with the kids & change in bed took a toll on my neck so it has been out of whack, good thing the chiropractor is just outside my elevator bank at work, haha.

Curling on nights has been going well. Our team has had a series of up and down games but we're starting to see real improvement in our skills (ie. rarely hog a rock or throw through the house these days). The only thing is by the end of the week, sometimes it's all I can do to drag myself to the curling rink...the good news is it's only a 2 minute drive away from the house, so at least it's close. Cam's curling is going well too.

Work is work. :P

Kids are growing fast. Chance is starting to bring home lots of stories and songs from Kindergarten. They have a letter themed show and tell most days (usually they cover 3 letters per week, they finished up on "M" this week -- Chance brought the tumbled magnetite I bought him at a geology conference. He said everyone wanted to try playing with it, you could tell he was happy with the choice to bring it to school. When they covered the letter "K" he brought my kneepads, which he was really excited to show for some reason and said that everyone laughed at him...hard lessons already, my heart broke when he told us at the end of the day. Chance got up on his skates last weekend at the kids' party thrown by my work. It was held at the Stampede grounds, with an adjoining skating arena. Santa was present and we had a kid gourmet meal of hot dogs and hamburgers. Face painting, balloon animals, kraft kits to take home, etc. All in all a great morning and afternoon.

Karin has some new words these days: princess, food-ah (food), ehwant (I want). Also she came to me yesterday and was acting strange, and I asked her if she needed to go #2 (she usually goes around that time and it's the only thing I could think of that could be bothering her) & she said yes! We went to the bathroom and the big girl did her jobbie on the toilet! One less diaper to change yesterday...so today during her regular "quiet" time I'll be sure to ask her again.

Not a whole lot on the go today. The house needs some tidying up in places and we are thinking of heading over to the Farmers Market. On the way back I want to stop at a dollar store or something to get some craft supplies to keep kids busy on cold days. Yesterday was quite warm, all the snow melted on the deck and we went for a run in the late afternoon. That melted snow turns the deck into a treacherous surface, so last week bought some "sandy" rough tape that sticks onto the edge of the stairs. Last thing anyone needs here is a busted leg or thrown out back!

Oh and bought an order of beef from my friend Chrissy, she's got a friend that is a local beef farmer. Last week's was one of the best beef roasts we've had, it was even better leftover.

Vocab Roundup

Punkies = Pumpkins
Show!
Baddle = Bottle (ie. steel water bottle)
More!
Potty
Pee Pee
Buckie = Bucket
My Boots = new (hand-me-down) cowboy boots from Chance
Mommy Boots = Mom's cowboy boots
Whassat / Whassisit = What's that / What is it **

** hearing this one a LOT. Little sponge!

October activities...

Making jars and jars of salsa, late into the night....

Watching pots...


Making his own wrapping paper for a birthday gift. We ended up with 3 blue and red Optimus Primes, one red and green, and one all yellow. Added glitter to the belly grills and chest windows & was a much admired present at the birthday party.

Yes...expressing an interest in potty training. Have had several evening tinkles before bath time, but we're not pushing it on her at this point.

Chance has a loose tooth! Could this smile be changing soon???

Visit with Gramma & Grampa

Had a good visit with Grampa & Gramma from Regina, thanks for coming guys! Had beautiful weather and had a good time hauling in some produce from garden: potatoes, carrots & tomatoes. Also we decimated our sunflower field, which made a huge difference in the appearance of the back yard. I hung up some of the heads for the birdies ("burts") to enjoy.

Had a good walk around part of the Glenmore Reservoir, nice fall colours starting to show.

In other news...Chance's first tooth is loose...could have a crash course in tooth loss coming up soon!

First Day of Kindergarten!

Happy kiddo -- he was very excited to start school. He will walk from his daycare to school (a few kids there will be in his class), but I thought the orange schoolbus made a nice background!
Marching them in...one little girl got a bit tearful...

Bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to go in the morning. His shoes were ON, his jacket was ZIPPED, and his backpack was READY.

New Things...

New handmade blanket and pillowcase made by Mom!

Newest hairstyle....french braid pigtails!

Sportball Soccer

Go Chance, go!

Stretching!!

Learning some footwork...

Listening to Coach.

Happy Son!

Mishmash

Chance and his huge sunflowers. They're even taller now, and some golf-ball sized heads on them but no blooms yet.

Peas on the menu, every few days in our house! Yum!

New apple tree!







Karin loves the sandbox. She got pink eye this week.

Great Long Weekend

Had a Great Heritage Day weekend in the city, lots of picnics/eating outdoors as the weather was really great.

We visited Calaway Park and Chance stood in line for an hour and a half to do the log ride with Cam. Karin and I rode the merry go round 3x, the boats & balloon ferris wheel type ride. After the log ride, Chance and I did the Viking Ship and then a pod-type whirly thing that made me scream genuinely.

We had a great visit with our friends in Okotoks and enjoyed their neighbourhood lake and a tasty BBQ afterwards. We also took advantage of the splash park downtown as well as stopped in to view the city skyline from the 35th floor of Banker's Hall (Mommy's office). Chance thought that was pretty cool, along with getting a blue slurpee from the machine in the employee lounge.

Cam and I squeezed in a 5 km run in some pretty hot weather, plus took Chance for a fair bike ride with a stop at the river to cool off (Mommy jumped right in, it was THAT hot!).

Other highlights....on Tuesday we completed an 11 km run, was pretty happy with that distance! Seem to have injured my chest a bit though, so need to take it slower/easier for a few days. Filled in the dead spot in the garden with some marigolds. Not sure what got the sprouting beans, frost or worms...I'm thinking frost, as the ones that did come up are awfully stunted. Probably won't get a harvest off them. Saw the last Harry Potter movie (AND the preview for the newest Twilight installation....eek!) Got Karin in to see optometrist as she caught Chance's pink eye and we used up all our drops....Cam cracked that we need this stuff in 4 gallon buckets, not 3 mL droppers...the doc thought that was funny.

It's officially summer!

Summer weather and Karin and I did our first mom & daughter pedicure!

Yahoo! Chance's Perspective on the Calgary Stampede 2011

Chance LOVED the tractors. He took this photo very very carefully (no thumb in the way, straight, etc.) He was very proud.

The mini horses made him say "aww".

He loved all the police....especially at the end of the parade with all the police cars with sirens.

Next year we are supposed to try to get a ride on this thing, according to Chance.

Hungarian dancers.

1 1/2 years ago!

I gave Chance my digital camera a year and a half ago...just now got around to downloading.

3 months after Karin was born.

Chance would sit and chat while Karin nursed. She never really minded his questions and interjections. That kind of distraction would have made Baby Chance howl in frustration.

Mr. Grumpytown in Millrise walking his little white dog.

The Melita van that was always parked on our street.