another year older (almost)

This very soon to be eight year old had a birthday party tonight, and was quite horrified to find one candle still burning, aka one girlfriend!  Seriously though, his class is mostly girls and I think they all love him!  He comes home from school shuddering from the hugs and notes and words of endearment he receives!!

And guess what he wanted for a birthday present???  A FURBY Boom.  I can tell already it might not have been the wisest gift a parent could buy.  We opened it up tonight so that it is ready to play with bright and early in the morning ...

a "chilling" update

 I just heard tonight that Alberta has the coldest temps on the continent tonight ... in Manning, Alberta.  I haven't looked where that is in relation to where I am but I'm sure we are almost as cold with a temp of -34, feeling like -44 with the windchill.  Sounds like a good night to stay home with the furnace turned up! 

I should be baking up a storm, which would heat up the house, but I'm just not up for it.  I am participating in a cookie exchange tomorrow afternoon and I haven't even started  on the 9 dozen cookies I need to take!  But, on a good note, I think I have all the ingredients and with a convection oven it should take me almost no time at all in the morning!  And who doesn't like FRESH cookies???  That wasn't my plan in the beginning, but it sure sounds like a good plan at the moment!

These pictures are from a couple weeks ago when it was only minus 20 or so!  I kept driving by this spot taking the kids to and from school and I finally stopped to take a few pictures. I couldn't really  capture it in the photos, but with the sun reflecting off the massive icicles and the fog from the lake it was quite beautiful.  Almost as beautiful as a sunset on the coast of the big Island of Hawaii, just not quite as balmy :)   

a new nephew

It was absolutely wonderful  to spend some time with this special baby boy last weekend!  With both sets of grandparents away, we didn't have to share him with anyone :)

Mr. Baby Dane is one of the calmest babies on the planet I am sure.  That definitely makes up for his not so calm delivery at ?? kms/hour in the back of the car!!  As you can see he is well loved and adored ...

One pleased as punch big brother ...

Some smitten cousins ...

Questionable future babysitting skills ...

Auntie Leah

Take 20 pictures (says the kid who doesn't like his picture taken)

A group photo session

might have been two photographers ;-)

Auntie considering taking him home :)

My favorite picture

Love the studious expression and folded hands!!!

Pictures of other things!

Editor's note:  I did ask if I could take a family picture, but was not allowed!  Granted, it was at 9:00am when we were trying to get on the road!  Should have done it Sunday ... next time!

harvest 2013

This is the extent of my pictures from the harvest season.  I got out to the farm a couple times, but not to the field until it was almost too late for pictures.  The kids find the grain bags to be a great source of entertainment.  All fun and games until a bag gets a hole ... which has not happened!!  (knock on wood ... if that helps)

Barb continues to be the miracle worker in getting heaps of delicious food out to 7 guys.  I honestly couldn't do it night after night, especially when working more than full time.  Hope my kids get some superwomen genetics from her.  Thanksgiving weekend we had a fresh cooked turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, turnips, sweet potatoes, broccoli salad, garlic bread and pumpkin pie all served in the field.  Writing about it is even making me hungry.

You may have noticed that the color of the equipment has slowly changed over the last couple years.  Somehow the green paint disappeared and the red took its place!  If you have comments, questions or concerns, just call and and talk to Phil for at least an hour.  

(Their version of cooperating for a picture)

falling in love with fall

I've been been doing a few projects since I have a few more minutes of the day to myself.  I did have an extensive list of "things to do before it got cold", but many are still undone.    Now it is almost too late.  The cold is here.  Today I had the fireplace on all morning and the furnace has run occasionally in the night.  Sad, but not all bad.

One thing I have wanted to to do for some time is to paint my doors.  I thought I'd paint them black but when I was holding up 10 different shades of black paint swatches up to the doors and fixtures I ended up going with "black bean soup". 

Before I get to the painting part here is a fitting little anecdote for you all:

 Black beans are my new thing to put in everything!  Kids took a quinoa and black bean mixture to school for lunch today.  Or, I should say ... that is what I sent them to school with for lunch.  Upon returning back home at the end of the day I had 1 complaint out of 4.  Not bad.  Here's the part I thought was funny:  the one who complained still ate his all up.  One of the ones who didn't complain came back with a pretty full thermos.  When I asked this certain kindergarten boy why he didn't eat his quinoa, he simply stated he didn't eat it because he was full!  End of story, until the next black bean lunch!

Getting back to painting, black bean soup color is more of a dark brown.  I knew going into this project that painting doors is tricky.  I proved that to be so.  I used oil based paint for metal and it seemed to go on well.  However, when the light shines on it the wrong way, or maybe it is just the right way, it shows a few marks that I'd rather not  see.  I painted the man door into the garage, the garage door into the house and the front door (all painted inside and out) ... and the outside of the garden door.  I hope to do the inside of the garden door tomorrow or Saturday, but don't hold me to it! 

I love the new look:

I made this little vignette the other day with some wheat I took from the field last weekend (harvest pictures coming at some point), a 20 dollar clearance metal vase from a shop in town, a hand me down parrot from Phil's sister and finally the mini wreath I made from cutting out the middle of a margarine lid and knotting some t-shirt strips around it.  The best part was I have a whole bag of t-shirt strips from last year (or maybe the year before) when I was going to make a rug out of them.  Sometimes it just pays to put things off and just maybe this winter I'll get around to making the rug :)

a few more summer pictures ...

I am taking a quick break from the laundry pile.  I hope it doesn't multiply when my back is turned.  Seems like it does that on regular basis.

I forgot to share these photos of a special time last month ... some hellos (met Mr. Theo and welcomed some British girls back to Canada) and some good-byes (Jason is leaving the country for a few years).  

 

Grandma and Theo

Grady and (girl) friends

Benjamin and Rhett

Jack, Dustin, Jason, Dennis and Terry

Jason and kids

last of summer photos from 2013, I think

Although we have had a couple nice weeks of summer weather,  summer really is over.  The cabin has been winterized already, so says the maintenance man when I came across him at Canadian Tire today.  Doesn't that make you shudder?!  Winterized ... when it is still 25 degrees during the day.  But, harvest has begun so the focus has changed for this family.

And, Grady started school TODAY.  It was much too chaotic of a morning to even think about being sad.  4 lunches = daily nightmare.  It might help if I went and bought some groceries.  It also might help if I had room in my fridge for groceries.  I have been too busy painting things to do the real jobs that need done!  I will post evidence later on.

I thought I had left my camera at the lake because I couldn't find it for the last couple weeks.  But, today it "appeared" in a bag that contained books (from the lake) that needed to go to the library.  Hadn't looked there until now.  Did I mention organizing stuff is on my list of things to do when the kids are back in school?  It is after the painting, fridge cleaning and grocery shopping.  Just to clarify, my fridge isn't exactly gross and dirty ... it just has a lot of stuff in it, especially after emptying the fridge at the lake and bringing it all home to stuff in my already smallish fridge.  I need to add buy extra fridge to my list. 

Some of the pictures off the camera:

Gavin loved playing at "Keithan's house by the water"

Samara's castle 2013

Brave Rhett: first one to try kneeboarding

SUCCESS!

Annual cabin potluck

Blueberry Festival

p.s. they won!

FUN TIMES with Grandpa and Grandma

We all had fun, and it was over far too quickly.  Hoping for more time next year.