And Then There Was One.

So 7 years ago Sean officially moved out of the house when he was 18 years old (it was a little tramatic for us because Chris and I had gone out to see a movie and when we returned home Sean's bedroom was COMPLETLEY empty). He moved in to his own apartment in Regina and then in to a house downtown with some friends and then in the summer of 2007 he moved to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Tofino and then Victoria.

Although Kelly has been away to school at BYU Idaho and lived in Virginia for a summer it has been almost 9 months since she officially moved out to SLC, Utah.

  Yesterday Caleb moved out and left for British Columbia following in his big brothers footsteps but living outside of Vancouver in a city called Richmond. Caleb has rented a 4 bedroom house with 3 friends and will be working for Vivint. He worked for them up in Edmonton last summer and did quite well installing alarm systems but wants to try his hand out in selling the alarm systems. He is happy to start a new life in B.C. and we know he will do well.

And then there was one.
Seth is still at home with us and we are happy to have him around. Shhhhhh....don't tell anyone but he is our homebody. Our homebody boy.

Good luck Caleb and don't forget to visit once in awhile okay?

November the 2nd = Seth's 18th Birthday!

It's hard to believe that our youngest child is 18. No really. It's crazy! One day back in 1987 when I was pregnant with Sean I remember seeing a lady who was close to having her 4th baby and thinking to myself, "No way". I just couldn't imagine myself having 4 kids! Well.......never say never!!

I just love this picture of Caleb and Seth back in 1996. We were living in Camarillo, California at the time and I was making our famous chocolate cake. Look at Seth's little hands. By the way, I still use those exact bowls, measuring cups and still use that recipe book for our famous chocolate cake. Oh, and I still have that robe. But, I don't have that mixer anymore.

Here is Seth on his 2nd birthday. No chocolate cake. Just a dumb old cupcake.

Seth had asked if he could have a birthday breakfast this year and I said, "sure"! So he requested BL's. BLT's with out the tomatoes.

And the morning of his birthday he left this note on the counter for me to see when I woke up. Just one more thing for his birthday breakfast. Sure!

Just like his 2nd birthday Seth still looks down at his cake. Or is it becuse I'm not very good at timing my picture taking? No matter.

Happy Birthday to our youngest boy whom I told so many times never to grow up! But he did.

Kelly Is Twenty-Three Today!!!

Kelly Belly Shmelly Melly is all grown up!. Yep she is. She is living in Salt Lake City, Utah attending the LDS Business College (medical assisting program), working at Nordstrom and volunteering at the Primary Children's Medical Center. Want to hear how happy Kelly really is? In her own words. September: "In love with my life. Being busy doing what I love has never felt so good". October: "Totally exhausted but totally worth it".
Let's take a look back and see who Kelly was. And still is.

Kelly has always loved putting on hats. Her face would light up everytime. Still does!

As you can see even way back when she was not even 2 years old she loved dressing up. Still does!
She always looks smashing when she walks out the door and you should see her Halloween costumes!

Kelly has always been good at applying make-up. Still is! See how intent she is? She's seriously good at it. But I'm not quite sure what that is on her forehead!

By the look on her face in this picture I'd say that she is going into the right line of work! Blood? No problem!!

Kelly has always loved feeling pretty. Still does! And she still is!

I LOVE this picture of her!! Love her hair, her eye, her skin and her beauty mark! Bonus? She has another beauty mark on the opposite cheek in almost the exact spot! I love em'.

Here is Kelly's style today. Sure wish her face was showing though. But that's the "style" these days. Taking pictures with your phone but only partial shots.

And here is Kelly all grown up! 23 years old and beautiful. Couldn't be more proud of her!! Happy Birthday Kelly!!!!!!!

Busy October

October has been a busy month so far and it's not even half over! This post has 4 parts to it so let's get started. It begins with apples and ends with blood (fitting for the month of October wouldn't ya say?).



Part 1~Juicing Apples

Chris and I (Seth also but he didn't want to come. Teenagers!) were invited by our good friend Scott to come to his dads place in Yahk, B.C. to be a part of thier annual apple juicing activity. Scott is the one looking at the camera and his dad is the one Chris is talking to. That's Scott's daughter Lauren on the right with her baby (Ollie) on her back.

The really cool thing about Scott's dad is that he is 95 years old and still lives on 140 acres of land and has for almost 40 years now! He told me he uses a cane but that he doesn't really need it. Wink. Wink.

Before we started with the juicing Dan (Scott's dad) took us for a little tour of his property in his Polaris Ranger. Thumbs up!

One of the sites that we saw was this random outhouse. I mean is this not the prettiest place to have an outhouse? Just leave the door open right? Why not. Dan has built everything on this property that you are about to see. He is the handiest of handy men I'd say.

This looks like another outhouse but it isn't. This little building is for sitting in during hunting season. Inside are 2 comfortable chairs that look out through a couple of holes that have been cut out of the other side. They are for your guns. Notice that the color of the building blends in with the color of the tree trunks? You gotta be sneaky to get a deer!

This little house (one room) over looks a small body of water. I believe they call it the Lake House. Look at that porch!

This is called the Honeymoon Suite. It was actually where Dan and his wife lived for a time while buiding their home. It was brought up to this location later and then given it's name. Now on to the apple juicing process!

This area is where all the juicing happens. 187 gallons were made in about 5 hours that day!

The process begins by picking up the apples and throwing them in to the wooden box there where my left hand is resting. Pick up the apple, lift the lid and toss! Over and over and over and over again. Inside the box is a wheel that has been fittied with nails. That chops the apples into smithereens which then drops down in to that orange bucket.

When the bucket is full it is then dumped in to ths old wine press that Dan got from Italy years and years ago.

Once the press is put back together you attach a rod to it and then walk around in circles. This squishes the apples. See the juice pouring into the white bucket? They had little cups around for anyone wanting some FRESH juice. It was awesome! From one batch of apples with this press you get about 5 gallons of juice.

When all the juice is squished out of the apples you take the press apart and this is what you are left with. This then becomes food for the deer. Lucky deer. Remember that little building I was telling you about???

The only real way to remove it is by using a shovel. It's actually quite heavy!



Part 2~Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving. Canadian Thanksgiving that is. Lee Lee and her family came over for the big feast and brought with them 2 big pumpkin pies. We all had at least 2 pieces each! Why not right?  Oh, and there is another Thanksgiving right around the corner!  

Cousins picture (Neal, Seth, Caleb and Clark). We missed Brad, Sean, Laurel, Kelly and Michelle though! Another time.

Next month we are going to Lee Lee's for American Thanksgiving where I will bring sweet potatoes and Nanny's potatoes. We have our traditions.

Lee Lee is rarely ever ready for her picture to be taken. Usually her eyes are closed. ;)

This is much better!

This was after 2 plates of food but before 2 pieces of pie! Oh my.



Part 3~Chris

Chris' birthday is the day after Thanksgiving and sometimes actually falls on Thanksgiving. He opted for leftovers and a lemon meringue pie this year for his birthday dinner. He will get that traditional chocolate cake next month when Seth's birthday rolls around! Happy 53rd Birthday Chris!!



Part 4~Kelly

Kelly is living in Salt Lake City, Utah and is in the medical assisting program at the LDS Business College. She loves everything about it and yesterday was her first time taking blood. SHE LOVED IT! She was almost beside herself while telling me all the details on her walk home last night. Blood anyone? Halloween is just around the corner!

Happy October!

Summer September

Just a few random shots of our Summer and September. The weather was hot in the summer and perfect in September! Fall is starting to become a favorite time of year for me but it will NEVER replace summer. Ever!

After gathering old aloha shirts and muu muu's from second hand stores for many years I finally finished my quilt! I was particular in what I bought. It had to be the old school fabric from wayyy back in the day and the tag in the clothing had to say that it was made in Hawaii. (I added the tags to the back side of the quilt for funnzies!)

This is kind of a sad picture. The kids have never known another couch but it had seen it's day so we gave it away for free on kijiji. Bye pink couch.

My summer music this year! Super catchy songs and super fun to sing to!

Kelly came home for a quick visit and the timing was perfect because it was the weekend of the Cardston parade. How fun is that? Sure wish we could have had Sean and Caleb with us in this picture. :(

This is what you drive by everytime you cross the "Babb Border" (I forget the officialy name) and continue on to Babb, St. Mary's, East Glacier, Kalispell etc. It's just a neat thing to see everytime you drive by.

This is a campground outside of St. Mary's. Some people pitch a tent and others pitch a tee pee! Super cool!

Lee lee got a new camera and a sweet lens so she was shooting away and got what I think is a great shot of me and Chris (especially Chris). She loves blurry backgrounds and crisp subjects.  Her favorite style of photography.

This picture is great news! This "little black truck" as we call it is finally running after almost 7 years! Yep. We have hung on to it for that long waiting for the day that it would run again. You feel so "old school" when you are in it (at least I do anyway).

And that "little black truck" now carries this Laser sailboat for Chris. Chris has wanted to sail for a very long time and so he bought this down in Montana, fixed it up and he loves it! He sails and if the weather is spectacular then I go lay on the beach.

My previous post was all about the creek and I mentioned a bear's den. Well, this is a picture of it from the inside. Super cool don't ya think?

We had another major fire just west of us that once again started on the Blood reserve. Seth took this picture with his iphone at Chinook H.S.. We were blocks away from being evacuated. Again.

When I saw this view as we were driving along I said to Lee Lee, "you've got to take a picture of that because it looks just like the cover of a Louis L'Amour book". Am I right???

Last week Lee Lee and I along with my good friend Jeri went headstone searching over the border and in to Browning and East Glacier. Lee Lee belongs to a search site called Find A Grave where people ask others to go to certain cemetaries and take pictures of thier relatives headstones for genealogy purposes. It's always an experience let me tell ya! We went to 5 that day and had really good luck.

This cemetary was one of 2 in East Glacier that we went to and what a time we had finding those headstones in all these weeds! But we did.


Good-Bye Summer and September!