Ian & Helena

I’m feeling like I’m posting all the time now, but it was part of my plan to not have such long posts, so I hope no one minds too much!

Yesterday a friend of mine dropped off her kids’ old kitchen set, which has become a very hot item around here!  The kids played with it and the dishes for quite some time yesterday, and Rory’s becoming quite the creative cook!

 I also received in the mail my package for the Fitness Leader course I am taking, starting March 1st.  I’m doing it by correspondance, and my plan is to head into group exercise (i.e. step classes) or possibly aquasize or something like that.  I’m excited but quite nervous too.  I won’t be doing anything other than taking classes and practising until September or so, because I was also accepted to receive parental benefits until then, which is nice for the pocketbook!  And the job will be good too, because it will only be a few hours a week, and I need to get my exercise in anyway.  And the main gym in town has childcare as well, so that will work out quite conveniently if I can do a class there.  Anyway, that’s my news…wish me luck!

 Ian played in a volleyball tournament this weekend, and after numerous games back-to-back was pretty sore afterward!  They won the tournament though!  He also received a good annual raise this week and a bonus (mainly because we’ve had such cold weather this winter so they could get a lot of wood in), and a little financial incentive always makes you feel a little better about your job!  Although he seems to be enjoying his job anyway.  In a few more weeks it will be too warm for logging (spring break-up), so that will take a lot of pressure off him and some time to do the catch-up stuff that tends to be set aside for higher priorities. 

And we’re looking forward to going to Edmonton this weekend to see the fam. and check out the dinner theater (well, we’ve decided to go to the brunch version, partly because we love breakfast foods so much!)  So we’ll let you know what we think afterward.

The girls’ hair, not my post.  I spent a little time doing the girls’ hair yesterday and they looked so darn cute!

  Breanna

  Stevie

 But it didn’t last long…  by the end of nap time they had pulled everything out and their hair both looked more like this:

 It made me laugh:)

And here’s just a cute one of the girls & I playing at the playground nearby.  It was our family day activity together (for those of you who don’t know Alberta has a stat holiday called Family Day added in - pretty cool, hey?), although we do go there quite regularly now that the temperature is warmer and the girls can manouever their way around a bit!

Not directly for us, but we are so excited that the kids have their third first cousin, Natalie Jade!  She was born on Feb 16, healthy and cute!  Selfishly, we are pretty excited that the girls will have a playmate so close in age!  And we all know how important cousins are!  Here’s a pic of Ian’s sister, Eileen, and family a few days after Natalie was born.

And while I’m sharing other people’s news, I thought I’d post a pic of the beautiful gift that Brent gave to Karen on Valentines day.  I asked her to post it, but I think she’s ignoring me…

Beautiful, hey?

So far we are having a lovely day today!  We received a package from my parents filled with Valentine goodies for the kids, and they loved tearing into them and eating the snacks, of course!  Rory was pretty excited to see an R on his cookie! 

We’re going to make a Valentines Day card for Ian this afternoon with some of the stickers.  He’s out of town for a couple days for work this week.

This past weekend Theresa & Shaun came up to visit with us, which was really fun.  Theresa and I got a good start on painting our garage while Shaun & Ian held down the fort with all the kids.  On Sunday, Jay (Ian’s brother) and his girlfriend Fran came up to visit and we all went swimming together.  The pool in Edson just opened after 8 months of renovations, so it was crazy packed in there.  It took a bit for the kids to get used to it, but they seemed to enjoy themselves, especially in the hot tub!  It’s nice to have so much family just a couple hours away, and nice to meet Fran too!

Then on Monday Breanna and Rory stayed with friends for the day, while Stevie and I headed into Edmonton.  Stevie had an eye appointment which revealed that she has great eyes and no problems.  Then we spent the afternoon shopping and then headed over to aunt Theresa’s to make Thai dinner.  It was a great day for both of us, although as you may be able to detect, Stevie did give herself a black eye by falling into one of the display shelves at one of the stores we went to.  Anyway, we found a great outlet store where cute, brand new clothes are on sale for as low as $2.50 (Breanna’s skirt).  Here are the kids in their new duds:

And here’s one Stevie building a tower last week:

  Perhaps we have an architect on our hands!!!

I hope you all have a great Valentines Day; we’re sending out our love to all of you!

Helena, Ian, Rory, Stevie & Breanna

I should almost be writing a little more often, because by now I have so many pictures that I want to share it ends up being a long post!  Anyway, here goes, along with our events of the last couple weeks!

 A couple weekends ago I went to a faith exploration course at our church (United), so Ian took the kids on a whirlwind of a weekend with dad!  I came home to find our furniture all rearranged and this beautiful ‘helmet’ cast aside.  Ian also planned a sledding outing with the kids that I ended up going along with since I got out early.  Isn’t it a blessing when there’s two parents to input different ideas & styles into our kids’ lives!  I think the kids had a blast with Ian.

Then this last weekend Karen & Brent stopped by on their way out snowboarding.  We would have loved to join them but couldn’t arrange babysitting this time; instead we enjoyed a nice dinner & game with them (did you know Brent likes pickle & peanutbutter sandwiches?)  The following day friends from Drayton Valley (our last home) came up to visit along with their two kids. We headed out to the playground.

(Breanna & Stevie - and yes, we tape Breanna’s mittens on…it is so hard to find a decent pair!!!)  Since it’s been a lot nicer here and the girls are walking a lot more now, it is much easier to get outside to play.  We’ve scraped off our slide and pulled out a bunch of toys so we are back in outdoor play times!

We’ve also started up a new project (yes, I say we, but so far I’m pretty much just the muscle for lifting boards on the ceiling) of giving our garage a new look.  We are getting rid of the saggy, old drywall and covering everything up with OSB (Ian got a good deal from work).  Then I’m going to paint it all and Ian’s going to build some new shelving.  It’s our evening/weekend project, and Ian has been very dedicated to keep working at it (you know those evenings where you just want to sit on your butt…)

Here’s a mid-way picture.  We still have a long way to go!

  You can also see our triple stroller on the bottom there…I LOVE that thing.

The girls of our family (Breanna, me, Stevie)

Then tonight we were just playing around with the camera a bit and accidentally took this scary picture:

 But don’t worry; pictures can lie. Here’s one to prove Breanna is actually healthy!

A couple more cute ones:

No place better than box to hide in (this is Rory’s favourite thing lately…I’m just waiting for the day it happens when we’re out somewhere…I’m keeping an extra eye on him.  Unfortunately, I still have not grown those eyes on the back of my head that my mom always told me mom’s have (or was she LYING!!!)

 Dad’s new boots! 

Well, that is all.  We have plans to go to a couple dinner theatre’s in the next few weeks, and Ian has a volleyball tournament coming up too.  So on goes the fun!  I love hearing from you all, and I’m very intrigued about the can…