The picture.....ooops!

I am still trying to work my way around this blog. As you can see, I am not that good at it!

Merry Christmas to you!

Now that we are settled in our new home I need to be way better at posting on my blog.
I will start with this family picture. This was taken in Waterton Park on Christmas Day. We met up with my sister's family and had a great time tobagganing. It was a very snowy day with the snow falling as we raced down the hill. I had heard that last year at this time people were actually hiking in Waterton Park because the weather was just that nice. You just never know!

Happy Birthday Seth!

Today is Seth's 14th birthday!! It's very exciting. He has had a great weekend with Trick or Treating on Friday, moving furniture on Saturday morning and then that night had a bunch of friends over for his birthday. He has known these kids since Kindergarten so it was nice to have them over one last time before we move. He has chosen for his birthday dinner: Pancakes (thank you Jo-Ann, it's your recipe!), eggs, O.J., fruit salad and sausages (actually I added the last 2 items on the menu because we are having the missionaries over too)!

Moving

Here are a few pictures of the boys helping Chris this morning. They were a big help. Chris leaves tomorrow with the loaded trailer and then will return on Thursday with an even bigger trailer. Bet the boys are gonna love that!!

My boys are funny!

The first picture is a note that Caleb wrote for Seth!
The second picture is a note that Seth wrote to Caleb!

Halloween

Seth and his friend Darian last night just before going Trick or Treating and then on to a party. He is a great friend to Seth. He will be missed!

WE SOLD and WE BOUGHT!!

We sold our home 12 days ago and we bought a home in Lethbridge,ALberta just about an hour ago! We were going to put in an offer this morning when our agent called Chris and left a message saying that the people had dropped the price of the house again! Can you EVEN believe that? So we saved even more! Here are some pictures of our new place. We get posession (how in the world do you spell that word? David? Daddy?) on the 28th of November.

Birthdays, Bird and 2 kids=Random Post

Celebrating Chris and Kelly's Birthdays together this year!
CHris is 49 and Kelly is 19!!

Chris went hunting today with his hunting buddy friend Don and came home with a Pheasant!! Isn't it pretty? I am sure we will be eating that bird tomorrow for dinner.
Kelly and Seth just before we went out for a Birthday dinner to Boston Pizza.

Seth's Pizza!!

Here is Seth styling his new pizza in assorted flavors. Ham and Cheese. Made it himself! The other pizza you see is spinach/turkey sausage. All eaten with a diet Pepsi. In this house, you don't eat mexican food or pizza with anything but a pop! It's an Eagan rule.

Raspberries from my garden. Right next to my Potatoes.

This is what I did with part of my morning today. I made a batch of Raspberry muffins and a jar (it's all the berries I had) of Raspberry spread. Seth will be a very happy boy because he really likes raspberries this year. Raspberry Crystal Light, Raspberry Mini Wheat cereal and Raspberry smoothies.

Look at em'?

I thought I would go out to our garden yesterday and check out the potatoes. I was so surprised by what I found. Potatoes! Real potatoes! I got all sorts of different sizes. It was very exciting for me.

This is kind of a goofy looking picture. "Posing" by potatoes? Seth wasn't very excited to even come out and take this picture so I just went with it. I felt very "Fall-like" in my old orange t-shirt though. It matches the leaves on the trees....well almost. I gave some potatoes to the neighbors and then cooked some up last night and they were sure good!

First day of school

Seth on his very first day of High School. He is making the number 9 with his hands to let you know that he is in grade 9 this year. He had a great first day and was pretty intrigued with the "odd" students around school, as in kids with their own style! And these days we know that it can be very interesting!

Caleb on his first day of High School...this year. He is in grade 11. These are 3 of his good friends that he hangs out with a lot. I haven't seen him yet after his first day so I can't tell you how he liked it. But then again it's old hat to him right?

Sean's 21st birthday...a little late.

Isn't he a handsome young man? He came over for Kelly's yummy meal and this cake was dessert. His birthday cake a tad late. But THIS cake is worth the wait let me tell ya!
Happy Birthday Sean!!!!

Kelly cooked dinner too!!

So tonight was Kelly's night and this meal was equally as yummy as Caleb's was last night! She grilled Greek chicken, grilled zucchini with rosemary, saute'd asparagus with lime/rosemary and white rice. It was very good and very tasty. Wonder if Seth will want to cook tomorrow night? My kids are excellent cooks!

Caleb cooked dinner tonight!!!

So I bought some meat the other day but wasn't quite sure what I was going to make with it. Caleb works at a place called "WOK BOX" and he said that he would make a stir fry for dinner! He did a great job and we ate ALMOST every bit of it. He chopped all the vegetables and learned that the skin on an onion is not edible. He even added chopped asparagus and I would totally do that with my next stir fry. That was a very nice touch AND a very yummy taste. Kelly wants to cook dinner tomorrow night. Yea!!

Aprons!

Aprons seem to be the "thing" these days so I thought I would make one as a gift for my friend Jo-Ann for her birthday. When I sent the picture of it to Kelly at school, she put that on her list of things "to do" when she got home.

So the first picture is of the apron that Kelly made and the other one is the one I made for Jo-Ann.



PS..I had the wrong setting on my camera when I took the one of Kelly!

Pioneer Trek

We just got back from Trek yesterday and what a great 4 day experience it was! Chris and I were a Ma and Pa to 9 children. 5 girls and 4 boys. There were 2 stakes involved so there were kids we had never met before. We had great kids!

Our Trek started Friday morning where we were given our "children" and put our handcarts together and then off we went. We trekked about 17 k the first day in 32 c weather but there was a real nice breeze so it was pleasant. That first day was actually mine and Chris' favorite day. Because of the unknowns it was fun to look forward to the time ahead. We got into our place of rest just before dark and just before the rain, thunder and lightning. It was a very interesting night. We were greeted with banak and hot broth before sleeping.

The next day we trekked another 5 k to our base camp and got settled in for the remaining days. Each morning the families gathered to make their own fires to cook their own breakfasts. There were activities for us to enjoy during the day. Tippi(sp?) demonstration, stick-pull, square dancing, skeet shooting and if you wished, could have your hair washed. Saturday afternoon each family was given a live turkey to kill, pluck, clean, gut and cook for their dinner meal. The kids did a great job with the whole activity. Those who weren't interested in the turkey experience cleaned and cut up the vegetables. We put everything into our dutch oven to cook over the fire and then we waited. It was yummy.

Sunday we were awakened from our sleep by music being played by fiddles and a guitar from a hill in the distance. They played Beautiful Savior. We had church on a hill with the weather being great but then as the day went on we had our first of 2 storms. One in the afternoon and the second after our campfire program that evening. We had high winds, hail, thundering and lightening and amazingly not one of the tarps ripped or blew apart. At one point, it was so loud under the tarp that Chris had to yell so that I could hear him. And when the hail came it sounded like we were inside a pop corn popper. It was wild! But there was no complaining what so ever from anyone in the whole camp and there was a calmness. I know we were blessed.

Monday we headed out with much better weather and then ended our time with a testimony meeting.

We trekked in warm weather with plenty of water and sufficient food and sure we had a few storms but to think of those pioneers who trekked in the winter with the storms and unbelievable circumstances we only caught a very small glimpse of what they endured. We didn't have to bury our husbands, our babies, our children. We didn't wake up to our hair frozen to the tarps. We didn't have to take the leather from our only pair shoes to fix the hand cart wheels and then later take that same leather to chew on for food. We didn't have to walk in snow with no shoes on our feet. We didn't have to cross a frozen creek with the last set of clothes on our backs and then continue walking with the clothes frozen to our bodies. We didn't wonder if we would make our destination alive. This is what they had to endure and much, much more. Day after day after day.

"For Sale"

Our house officially went on the market (mls) on Monday. I sure hope THIS does the trick! There are just SO many houses out there right now, but ours has that little something extra. It's what you feel when you walk in it. Those looking for a great house will feel it when they walk in too!

Oh, Canada!

Yesterday was Canada Day and we spent the day out at our friends lake house in the Quapelle Valley. We brought freshly made rolls and monster cookies and Linda made the best Fahitas (did I spell that right?) for dinner. The water was a little choppy for the boat to be wake boarding and tubing so we had to wait until about 7:00pm. Until then the boys kept busy with the trampoline, the Wii, Mini golfing and going down by the water to see if the wind had died down. Chris and I had a good time relaxing and talking with Ron and Linda. The weather was great.

Tree

This is the best tree in the whole world and it's in our very own backyard! And the boy in it is pretty great too!! When we moved into this house almost 12 years ago this tree was very small. As the years go on, it just gets nicer and nicer. It covers a big portion of our yard now and really needs to be trimmed but we were a little too busy this spring so we missed the opportunity. If the branches were stronger near the ends of the tree, Caleb could escape out his bedroom
window. It's a very cool tree indeed!! See those canoes in the background? They are made of cedar strips and Chris made those babies!