Snowflakes and Spaghetti Face

So, last week we spent a lot of time outside - walking, enjoying the playground at Mill Lake, and appreciating the sunshiny, cool weather that felt like an intro to spring...Today, we're back in a winter wonderland, as a couple of inches of snow fell yesterday and made today especially bright! I LOVE it - no complaints here for this second shot at winter! Here are some pictures of the last few days...we've had some quiet, at home days, so busy errand days, and some fun days. Chelsie thoroughly enjoyed her moments on the swing after getting over the first few seconds of "AH! Scariness!" Auntie Melissa is hiding off camera, doing 'rah!' at Chelsie - as shown by the grin. These days good pictures require 2 people.We've also had some interesting times with food lately. Our sweet little girl has decided that she wants to feed herself (for the most part) or refuse to eat. Is this a sign of the 2's to come?! Here's the evidence of feeding herself spaghetti last week...pretty funny if I do say so myself. Baths are wonderful things - she loves them and the beautiful tomato sauce look disappears!
Plans for this weekend include helping at the 30-hour famine our youth group is hosting, enjoying a Moms conference (a day out with ladies!!), and enjoying a usual Sunday with family - imagine, March is starting already! Anyways, not much has happened lately, so that's it for now. Thanks for looking and enjoy the snowy picture of our backyard!

Our time at Apex

Well, it's good to be home. Our trip was extended by a day because of the amount of work to be done yet, so we didn't get home until Thursday afternoon around 4...Needless to say, I had a lot to do today! But it was a nice mini work-vacation. The pictures show a bit of what we did up there. Brian, Trav and Britt started Monday when we arrived. The plan was to extend the loft in the ski lodge over half of the open space. As well, the major portion of the loft was closed in to become a room. The kids of the family sleep up there and the noise from the adults below wasn't working out so well. So...before pictures (the wall's already framed but you get the open concept. The railing is also missing as Paul had already taken it down). The picture on the right is the dining room/kitchen (see the stove). You see that there's nothing above the kitchen...when we left, the kitchen had a pine ceiling and the floor above was laminated - quite the difference!
And after pictures...it was fun living in a work environment - lots of dust and mess, but we survived it. I cleaned up every day, doing vacuuming, some dusting, washing a couple of the filthier windows (like the patio doors onto the porch where the saws were). My chief role was feeding 3 and later 4 hungry, working guys. (They ate a lot!)

Besides working, we also enjoyed being up at Apex. We skiied a couple of hours each day...I would go out while Chelsie slept in the morning and the guys went out on Tuesday and Wednesday after lunch until the lifts closed at 3:30. Then they'd go back to work. I was hoping to take Chelsie out on one of their sleds to go exploring, but we were out for 5 minutes when the sled tipped, Chels got a face full of snow, and there was a definite 'no more, thanks Mom' after that! After that, her two favourite activities were sleeping (not quite 100% yet) and playing on the couches. I did go hiking on my own on Monday - should have skiied, but I learned that the hard way. Apex is pretty high in elevation, so I quickly got winded! We had beautiful weather all 3 days we were there, so the skiing was fabulous, the snow was gorgeous, and I'd love to go back! My opinion of Apex has changed...last time we went, it was -40, snowing, blowing and miserable. This time round it was perfect - and a great mountain for skiing too ;) Enjoy the pictures! (If you look closely, Britt is waving from our unit!) ~LPM

See you soon again

Just a note that we're heading to Apex for a couple days of relaxation and renovating a ski lodge...Looking forward to a change of scenery and some time in the snow. Chelsie was sick today and I'm feeling a bit lousy, so hopefully we all feel A+ tomorrow morning when we head out. A couple of quick pictures for you...Chelsie got this chair from our neighbours who have adult kids and no grandkids...She loves it, as you can tell! 'Uncle' Marinus enjoys his time with Chels. She really is a JOY as it says on her shirt :). This was taken last at Saturday's games night. We enjoyed another night of friends, food, laughter and games last night, but some things that 'happen at games nights, must stay at games nights'!
Talk to you later this week - hopefully I have some snowy pictures for you to enjoy :)!

A day with friends

We were excited to go out

with Trichelle and Breyden on Saturday. We've missed them since they moved to China for a year. We enjoyed a walk at Sardis Park with Melissa (even watching the ducks...wouldn't their dads be proud!?) Breyden's pointing at ducks in the above picture :)... Below, Chelsie and Breyden enjoy playing with Auntie Melissa and sharing a snack. After walking, the kids played, we relaxed, had tacos when the guys returned from a day of birding, and of course enjoyed a fun games night with everyone :). One of these days I really have to take pictures of our crazy games nights! We always have a lot of laughs no matter what games we play!


We all enjoyed a good laugh when Breyden tried to ride this bike...it's made for a decor piece, so it even has a stand under the large wheel...the seat is smaller than 1" square, and the wheels don't turn, but he was determined to ride it! Too cute :D
In the last picture is evidence that Chelsie's getting a bit braver in her walking attempts...one of these days she won't stop and things will change for us! Enjoy the pictures.

Puddles and jumpers

Last week Friday we enjoyed some time in the sun with Leanne and
clan...Leah was at school, but we took the 5 other kids (including Chelsie) and headed out for a walk. The sun was shining and stayed out for most of our walk. We went to Corbould Park, then turned towards the playground and church at Sam's request.

It was Leanne's first attempt with the huge stroller, but it worked great! Cam didn't mind it, Sam rode his bike, and the babies went nicely to sleep :) After a couple minutes of playtime on some damp playground equipment, Leanne ran home to ...lock the door (oops!) and grab her camera. The puddles were a big hit and the kids all enjoyed the fresh air and change of scenery.


The laugh of the day was about Chelsie's boots. She loves them but they're a bit big, so they hang down, making her look taller, especially in the picture of her on the swing! Hilarious :) She can't walk in them very well, but she loves to go find them when we're leaving in hopes of wearing them.

Sam returned home rather wet as he enjoyed every moment of jumping in puddles on the walk back home...his bike by then was riding in the bottom of my stroller :) His face held sheer delight as he jumped as hard as he could in the water - what a sweet little guy!


Enjoy the pictures Leanne took and your afternoon!

PS... Pictures of me are rare since I usually take them! So thanks Leanne :D

Wordless Wednesday

Working on a project helping me relive last year's fond memories...

Time for relaxing

As you can see, we've had a bit of time for relaxing in the past few days :) Always a nice change from the business of December. We've had some cold weather lately...this morning, a bit more snow on the ground, although it's gone already. The snow pile by the mailbox is slowly diminishing, but it's still there as evidence of the big Christmas snow dump. Hard to believe that January's gone and February's started already! We had a nice Sunday yesterday - a quiet, normal one :) We had church, Sunday school, a I had some 'extra' time today when our power went out for over an hour - no baking, no computer, no Chelsie as she was sleeping...ah! what to do?! So I cleaned up a bit in the garage and did some odd jobs I'd been avoiding. Nice to have the 'not-so-fun' ones done! A few more pictures of some moments in the past few days. Chelsie's been into watching the birds eating on the back porch. They don't mind her tapping on the glass at all, but they do fly away quickly when I show up. Hmmm...bird watcher in training?! And a quiet Sunday evening dinner before church - we all enjoyed having crepes. Chelsie's method - fill her mouth as full as possible before attempting to chew. YUMMY! She was also quite proud to be sitting on a barstool by Daddy...Feeling 'big'. Now...some walking adventures would be good :) She's definitely in no hurry there! Anyways, I'm going to finish another scrapbook page before I tutor this afternoon. Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your day!