Waiting for the School bus (heart)

                                      

Book Character Dress up Day at School

Book character dress up day at school!!!  Miriam decided that a princess would be a fun book character to dress up as. Who wouldn't want to be a princess for a day?

I was going to take a picture before Miriam had her coat and boots etc. on but, she was faster than me... You can kinda see what she looked like.  Dylan decided he had to be an elephant even though he doesn't go to school just yet - Lydia was a baby and Mommy decided she would be a housewife (so boring hey?) :-P

Elephants eat carrots... BIG carrots, not little baby carrots! (And he finished it too!) This was shortly before supper so he didn't eat much for supper. But who can complain about such a healthy after school snack?

Miriam home from school - Alas, I was too slow again... she had her dress off before I had time to pull out the camera - dresses get annoying if you have to wear them the whole day. So here she is in what she wore under her dress... BTW - Princesses in underclothes eat big whole carrots just like elephants!

A New (to us) Kitchen Table

We have had our eye out for a new (to us) table for a little while now. Because we are quite picky, we hadn't found one that we liked until just recently... What we wanted in a table?

- a pedestal 
- it needed to be able to expand if needed.
- small enough to fit in our little table area in our kitchen, but large enough to fit quite a few people.
- nice real wood, or black
- very sturdy
- inexpensive 

This isn't a huge list BUT, it is very hard to find a table that meets this criteria! Mostly, the expanding and pedestal parts, paired up with the inexpensive part.
 I think we paid $50 for it (might have been $40 but Matthew did the paying part, and he doesn't remember). When we bought it off kijiji it was not able to expand BUT, my handy hubby cut a leaf out of the table, took the metal expanding rails(?) from a different table we had laying around the house, (we are using the wood from that table for a different project in the basement) and put the rails(?) on this 'new' table :-D Tadaa! We have a table that we like. It is quite big in our little kitchen, but it doesn't take up any of my working room, so it works great for us :-) We also plan to paint it black later. It is not real wood, but not super faded yet either, so it'll do like this for now. :-P (That sounds so spoiled... Yes, I am spoiled. Some people would love to just have a house (or food), never mind being picky about the table they are eating off of :-S .
When we pull the table away from the bench, we can comfortably fit 4 adults and 6+ kids depending on butt size. :-P I'm sure we could fit 5-6 adults, but it would be a little squishy.  If we put the leaf in we can fit about 2 more adults.

Fits perfectly.

The table works better turned like this... more seating room while eating, without getting in the way of walking space.

Hopefully one day we can renovate the kitchen, but it will likely be right before we sell (maybe in 4-5yrs?)

Family Photo adventures :-)

So... we are supposed to submit a family photo to our Church Life Committee for a Church pictorial directory... (actually, It's past the deadline and we are late :-S)
We had planned on getting a quick family photo at Aaron and Sherene's wedding, after the ceremony while we were taking pictures of the whole B or D family... but as it turned out the kids weren't up to it, after pictures with the B family, and then the D family and a few with the bride and groom they were done! So we just skipped it. But we still needed a pic...so here is a few pictures of our little informal photo shoot yesterday (My lovely SIL Rachel took the pics for us, Thanks Rach!) :-)
Family photo's are always an adventure when you add kids.. never mind 3 of them :-P


First Photo shoot.... 

 

This one is not bad... but Lydia isn't looking...

 Much to the rest of the family's dismay, I wasn't happy with the results of the first photo shoot because I wanted to see Lydia's face :-) Hence the first pic in the 2nd shoot Matthew is holding Lydia's face straight :-P

Yay! Finally a good one :-P

The Final result :-)

That's it?

Yup, That's it... only a few pictures after being in Winnipeg for two weeks...:-(  I completely forgot to take my camera almost everywhere.. oh well - I have a few of the bridal shower (too many people on those pics to share them on my blog (privacy of others)) I also have a few of the guys getting ready, I think a girlfriend of one of the groomsmen took those with my camera :-) But I'll save those for another post as well :-)

All cozy at Auntie Sherene's (and Uncle Aaron's but he didn't live there yet ;-) This was the first of three places we stayed during our two week stay in MB. Lydia had a hard time every time we moved :-( poor girl. btw I slept in between Miriam and Lydia :-)

Lucas snuggling Lydia :-) Aww!! (heart) What a sweet cousin. Also, notice Amelia trying on her flowergirl dress? :-) Sweetie pie!

Nicole stole my camera...

Haha! you make me laugh nikki

Really? lol

Betcha didn't know I would post these on my blog :-P

First Day Of School

It just occurred to me that amidst all the business of September, I haven't posted any pics of Miriam's first day of school... :-( I'll post a few now. :-)

Eating Breakfast - Cheerio's! What a treat!

All her stuff at the door ready to go.

All ready!

Waiting for the bus...

SMILE!

Still smiling :-)

Waiting by the road...

The bus today was a little smaller than expected... lol - our bus driver didn't receive a kindergarten schedule so she wasn't aware she had to pick up Miriam that day :-( we didn't have a second vehicle yet so I couldn't drive her to school, so Laura generously offered to drive Miriam to school so she didn't have to miss her first day :-) (THANKS Laura!!) 

Miriam coming off the bus after her first day!

And the big yellow bus drives away :-)

2nd week of August

I just don't have it in me to think up a catchy/creative title for this blog post this morning... it's Monday after all, so a few pictures is really all I've got for you :-P

More Beans! And there are still more coming :-) Uncle Leighton, Miriam and Dylan picked them and then Miriam and Dylan helped me wash, tip and snap them. All the beans are now blanched and put in the freezer :-)

Yum!

"Hey Mom, these two make a heart!" (can you tell what we had for supper that night? :-P)

Sitting :-) My baby is getting a little too big...

Quite proud of her new skill!

Miriam and Dylan have discovered puzzles! The bigger one is 50pc and Miriam can do this one on her own, Dylan can too!  Also, notice the new rug? We picked it up this past week. I didn't think I would like having a rug (looks/cleaning) but so far I love it! :-) We bought it because Lydia is starting to get around (squirming etc.) and she keeps pulling the blankets I lay her on, over her head :-( twice I found her wrapped in it unable to get out. The rug reduces the suffocating risk significantly :-P

A hot day in August

So hot and humid lately! Not a typical Alberta summer that's for sure!

It was so hot I really didn't want to turn on the stove or oven...the bbq would have been ok but it's still super hot standing in front of it cooking something. So instead I sent Byron and Leighton to the store to pick up some Alphabets and Frosted Flakes (we usually have porridge for breakfast so I didn't have any cold cereal in the house) Yum! I love cold cereal for supper on a hot day! Matthew works in an air conditioned office so he still wanted something hot for supper so he warmed up some spaghetti.

Our first ripe tomato, I just picked it after supper. YUM!! (this one is from one of the early girl plants)

2 Months

Ok so almost 2 months has past since my last post! So much has been happening around here and it's only going to get busier! In October things should slow down a little around here.
Here are some pics of a few of the things we've been up to during these past two months. :-)

I smashed up the van :-( Now we own an 04 Toyota Sienna :-)

Smashed up Van...Guess the color of the car I hit :-P

Wishing...

'Bridge building' :-P So cute!

Proudly showing off her metal!

Rachel's GRAD!! (Sherene and Aaron came down to celebrate) :-)

Sherene did Rachels hair.. .super cute!

Excited!

Miriam is 5!! Growing so fast!

Ice Cream sandwich cake is the best kind of summer cake :-)

A road trip to Winnipeg!! Daddy had to stay home and work so Mommy went with the three kids... Sherene, Aaron and Rachel drove in Rachel's new-to-her car.

Story time with Uncle Byron <3 br="br">

Auntie Nicole teaching Dylan how to do his hair :-P

Snuggles with Auntie Sherene <3 br="br">

Some beach time!

Big Air

Making castles in the sand with Auntie Rachel <3 br="br">

Lydia snoozing on Nana at the beach (Lydia doesn't fall asleep on very many people!)

Hair cuts from Nana :-)

These two are more alike than I thought... both can talk your ear off and LOVE jewelry/anything shiny... lol

Chatting with Auntie Miranda.

Mom's 49th birthday! What did the kids buy her? an old school skateboard like she used to have when she was a kid (nicole's idea) :-) She loves it and uses it all the time! Yup, my 49 year old mother skateboards!

Dress up with Uncle Leighton. We took him home with us for 2 months :-)

Peas from the garden!

We have LOADS of tomatoes!!! Can't wait to try one (this pic was taken a month ago)... some of them are orange now!

Matthew and Byron re-surfaced the patio (this is only 1/2 done, I don't have a done pic of the patio yet, but it is done)  :-)

Playing at the (splash) park waiting for (great) Oma to arrive for her Surprise birthday party!

 Fun at the splash park

Leighton earning his keep :-) (Byron is here for the summer too! He came back from MB with Bekah) Notice the tomatoes!! They are huge!

Cup stacking - Uncle Leighton taught them that! (Uncle Leighton is into something called speed stacking, look it up, it's pretty neat!)

A BIG stack!

HOT and HUMID days! (and our little Lydia is chubbing up... I switched her over to formula now. I only nurse her once in the morning now, I'm hoping we can keep that feed for a while :-)

Beans from the garden. This pic makes the amount look small, but it was about 2 suppers for all 6 of us. (Bekah wasn't home and Lydia doesn't eat beans otherwise it would have been all 8 of us)

Some Sunday morning sibling snuggles. Aww!