What's Doing

Mr Liam prefers to feed himself these days. Ever since I let him eat that birthday cupcake on his own! I've never been one to let the kids mess about with their food....control freak that I am. But he's doing really well so far and has not thrown any food about!

Life is settling down into a routine now that September is almost over.

Both boys are loving school and I hope the novelty doesn't wear off anytime soon. Nathan has set a goal for himself of straight 'A's. That was a delight to hear. I've offered up a cash reward and so just maybe there will be enough motivation for it to happen. He is also attending youth group at church and loving that! They are going on a retreat at a local camp this weekend and he's pretty excited about it. He still wants to get into acting and made a big decision to audition for the Christmas performance at church this year. Sadly he didn't get a role but he wasn't discouraged in the slightest. Atta boy!

Chad is back into soccer this fall which means weekly games and practices for us! It's a sport for the hardy as they play/practice rain or shine. More rain than shine around here! He will also be going to choir at church once a week again. His most favorite activity is to play outside afterschool with his friends. He's my social butterfly.

Keith is doing quite well since his back injury a few weeks ago. He had a CAT scan yesterday so we will get the results next week to find out what exactly happened. Hopefully there won't be any permanent damage.

So my life is probably quite similar to many of yours right now. Getting back into regular bedtimes, meal planning, scheduling, and warm casseroles!

A Baby No More!

Our sweet Liam turned ONE on Sept 26th. Yesterday we held a celebration of this milestone with family and friends. Secretly it was also a personal survival party of making through year one with all it's ups and downs! There were many days I wanted to run away but now so glad I didn't :)
Anyhow, we had a fabulous day. Liam was showered with wonderful gifts and we had a great time visiting and eating cake and nibbles.

Thank you SO much Kori and Karli for decorating the cupcakes. I'm just not talented in that department so their help was very necessary!

Liam was only wore the party hat for a very brief moment and then wanted NOTHING to do with it. The other kids were good sports. Minus Nathan....he had a fit like Liam about it!

Liam eventually got the hang of what opening presents is all about. He had many hands to 'help'!

Happy Birthday dear Liam!


Yum...thanks for sharing! Neither Nathan nor Chad wanted to do a messy cake thing on their 1st birthday so it was a real treat to see Liam eat his cupcake with great gusto!

15 Today

I would have thought that after 15 years of marriage I would have gotten the hang of it.

Maybe it would have seemed effortless and smooth. No.

This past year has been the hardest for us as a couple. The new addition to the family, me being stuck home on maternity leave, a new job and a big family vacation has put an awful strain on our marriage.

We are in a rough spot and the light at the end of our tunnel is the Family Life conference in November at Whistler. We went 6 years ago and afterwards felt refreshed and re-energized to make our marriage the best it can be. We need some new vision...or SOMETHING?

Opposites may attract but living with them long term is something else completely! For all of you out there with great marriages (and I read your blogs so I know!) please remain encouraging to the rest of us. Little shreds of hope are needed to make it through!

He Likes It!

Liam's latest enjoyable activities:

Watching Baby Einstein 'Water' DVD over and over and over again.


Waving bye bye out the window or just standing there and watching the kids play on the street.

Standing on his own....close to walking but not quite there! Maybe for his birthday.

Banging the drum all day...or pots or coffee table....

It Just Happened

Many years ago I had a pumpkin cheesecake crack in a heart design all on it's own as it cooled. You see, I love cheesecake so much it loves me right back!

Filling Up Fast

My blog is reaching capacity. I need to make some decisions here about what to do next.

What I'd really like to do is have my blog bound and put into a book format.

Fellow bloggers....have you ever done this? Have you known anyone that has done this? Is there a website you could recommend?

Please! Share what you know!

We Were Tracked

I love technology even though I can't really keep up or understand much of it.

We were nearing the end of our hike yesterday and I said to Andrew that I wished I had brought my pedometer. He told me he'd take care of all hiking stats and I jokingly said...on your GPS? He said YEP and low and behold he was tracking us!

He emailed me this map tonight that shows our 7 km trek. Very cool!

You should be able to enlarge it by clicking on it.

Take a Hike!

After a great church service yesterday we had an empty afternoon ahead of us. The sun was warm and I had an urge to get out and enjoy the remains of summer. Keith decided that his back could handle a hike so we set off to do one of our favorite trails up to Westminster Abbey.

If you have never done this hike, I would highly recommend it. The trailhead starts at Heritage Park in Mission and is a fairly easy hike that takes just over an hour both ways. It was pretty hot even in the shade and we worked up quite a sweat. Keith was stung by a wasp just before this picture. He wasn't impressed!

Finally we reached our destination! I can't get enough of this place....so beautiful and peaceful.

Liam had a good graze across his cheeky from a tree branch that Keith had to duck under on the trail. He stood up before he was completely pass it and Liam took a good whack. Thankfully there were no tears but he's looking a little worse for wear.

My brother came with us which thrilled the boys to no end. He's their hero.

Keith's got a sweaty back...icky! We were all quite sticky. We had a long rest to get some energy for the hike back down again.

The bells chimed for about 20 minutes while we were there. Such a lovely sound.

The boys at the seminary were all walking to afternoon vespers. I would have loved to have peeked in on the service but there are strict about no shorts in the sanctuary.

A perfect Sunday afternoon.

Years ago, we had a tour of the inside of the buildings. I wonder if they still do that?

Before we headed back down to the trail we stopped at the view point. I told Nathan this is where many men take their girlfriends to get engaged. He took this information seriously...perhaps has it stored in memory for a future event (a very far in the future event mind you!).

The hike back down was long....very long. At one point I had a turn to get stung by a wasp on my back. That hurts like the dickens!!

It was a fabulous day though. Keith and I had a nice soak in the hot tub last night to ease our out of shape muscles.

I hope you all enjoyed the fabulous weather this weekend as well!

School Time!

Here we go again! Chad has an exciting year of third grade ahead of him. Nate is navigating new waters in middle school this year. After one day they are both pleased with their schools and classmates.

My first day of school went well too. It was crazy busy but fun too. We were treated to a Greek lunch for surviving!

Liam did okay at my mom's. She told me he didn't smile or chatter but that being said didn't cry either. He made up for it by being extremely happy and hyper tonight at home.

Happy September everyone!

Promoting the Rellies

My dad's Uncle Ed sent Liam this very cool onsie. His son Sean (not sure how we would be related exactly) has started up doing some designer baby wear. You can check out his site at

http://www.orangeheat.com/ to see all he has to offer!

Want to Go for a Ride?

Many moons ago I was given this wonderful wagon as a baby gift for Nathan. Not precisely sure why I had kept it all these years but I am certainly glad I was so smart to do so :)

We gave Nate many rides in it. Nate gave Chad many rides in it. Now Nate and Chad are giving Liam many rides in it!

Liam might not look super comfortable but he fits in just perfectly!

Nate looks wildly excited to zoom Liam down the hallway.

Up and down they go until Nathan's back is sore! Sore back....hmmmm....is there a theme in our house this week?

Then it's Chad's turn.

Liam pays back in smiles and laughter! Let's go again brothers!

Owies

Liam's facial scratch is a by-product of a crazy time at our house yesterday!

The ambulance had arrived and in all the commotion, Chad was left to supervise Liam. Liam fell off the couch and landed on a toy...face first.

I should back up and tell you why there was an ambulance in our driveway!

On Monday night Keith was investigating a big barn fire. To make a long story short he hurt his back moving a charged fire hose. At the time it was just a twinge and he thought nothing of it. Tuesday and Wednesday it was bugging him but nothing debilitating. Thursday it seized and by Friday he was completely incapacitated. There was no way to get him down our stairs to take him to ER...he was close to passing out from the pain when he tried to stand up.

To summarize the saga, he was taken to the hospital, given an appreciated shot of Demoral and x-rayed. The doctor was able to give us the good news that nothing was broken nor was there any sort of herniated disk. Diagnosis....torn muscle. He got a lecture on not coming to seek medical attention sooner and was sent home with several prescriptions for T3 and anti-inflammatories.

Today he is somewhat better. He is very slowly pacing around the house as he was ordered to keep moving and not lay about.

I let my inner Blogger down by not taking pictures in the ER but I was understandably distracted with all the hub-bub.

So....it's been quite an interesting Labour Day weekend so far. I don't need anymore excitement of this variety!

PS. A special thank you to Andrew for taking Nate to his grade six orientation, my mom for babysitting in a pinch and Murray for accompanying Keith to and from the hospital. We've got good families!

How It's Going

I've been asked quite frequently how I like my new job.

I can't really answer that question fully yet. I've only been shown a few aspects of my duties as it's more of a learn as you go type of environment. I've been warned that the first day of school is absolutely NUTS and it makes me a bit nervous about Tuesday.

What I do know is that I already really love my co-workers. The other secretaries are just a delight to work with. They are caring ladies who have shown me great patience and really made me feel welcome. I've even been out to coffee with one of them.

It's been a bit surreal to still have a few teachers from highschool there...and more strange is that they remember me!

The principal and VP are also amazing! They all have SO MUCH fun in that office, pulling pranks, telling jokes and bugging each other tons. They say it's their coping mechanism!

I just got through a two day 'on campus' staff retreat. I wasn't keen to go at first but after attending I was so glad I went. There is quite a 'family' feel the entire staff of all three schools. We had some delicious meals, great visiting, communion, prayer and an awesome talk by Jeff Bucknam (who happens to be our pastor). He spoke on the 'Emerging Church' and it was simply fascinating!

We had worship time in chapel and it was total deja vu sitting in the chapel singing with all those harmonious voices. The only change was the modern worship songs....too bad we couldn't sing one round of 'He is Alive'!

So, that's how it's going. For now....really well! I'll report back next week when the real hard work starts!

Desert Oasis

For the past while Blogger doesn't let me re-arrange photos on my posts very easily so this is a random and out of order photo journal of our mini-holiday to Oroville!

My grandparents are work horses. They don't sit still often! We didn't get to visit with them much as they were canning peaches, making grape juice, harvesting the tomatoes for juice, gardening, baking, watering, and anything else that needed doing. I think that they don't know how NOT to work.
Liam will love tubing in a few years. I think he's a bit of a thrill seeker.

Something about the Oroville air makes our kids sleep really well there. No complaints from me!

Nathan and Uncle Andrew took a speedy ride as you can see from their hair dos!

Chad preferred to go slow...very slow. He's terribly nervous around water. Although not at the pool....strange.

Here is a scene of us doing nothing. We did nothing often. I read my two books I brought rather quickly and then just sat around and did....NOTHING!

Nate was happy to go to the garden to pick peppers for our lunch.

The garden is my grandparents pride and joy. Besides peppers there are tomatoes, beans, potatoes, garlic, cantalopue, watermelon, grapes and fruit trees.

Nate loved helping with the grapes. He's got a green thumb.

My cousins were staying down the beach at their other grandparents place with their twins. It was nice to visit a few times!

There is a good bartering system between the neighbours. We found out they were getting rid of these kitchen chairs and we hated the chairs that were in the basement suite. So we went to fetch them and took the nasty old chairs up to the highway. Anything you don't want anymore you put on the edge of the highway and the Mexicans usually come and get it very quickly. They were gone in a few hours.

The trail between the neighbors. Yes, they are almost ALL Mennos. A big group of friends/family bought up much of the property in this area in the late 1970's because it was a very good deal. And as you know many Mennos marry within a close circle so two of my cousins have their other grandparents who have places in the same vicinity as us. So all the neighbors are good friends or extended family of some sort. It makes for a nice little community.

Liam liked it here.....he was pretty easy to manage. Next year will be even better as he won't be crawling on the dirty ground anymore.

Chad told me he likes to spy on people. I'll have to watch out for this kid!

The first dip for these toes in Osoyoos Lake!

Snoozing.....just what a holiday is for.

On our last day the smoke from some fires near Penticton started filtering down the valley.

No TV, no Playstation, no Lego. Chad resorts to Dominoes!

Andrew's friend came up with his Seadoo (I want one!) and was so nice about taking us all for rides and towing us with the tube.

I hadn't had this much fun in ages. Plenty of screaming and laughing involved!

Cool.

Nate spent most of the days on the windsurfing board. He loved to paddle himself out onto the lake and practice standing on it or scaring away birds. I tried to take Chad out for a little ride down the shore but he was terrified and we had to turn back. Last year he was fine with it....weird.

Chad's idea of a good time was jumping off the dock. Into very shallow water!

Some of these are my brother's pictures....his camera is about a million times better than mine.

Just plain cute is what he is!

He certainly enjoyed watching the ski boats whiz by.

We don't take our piece of paradise for granted. We know how fortunate we are to have this place to come to every year!

Next year I'm booking a week. Four days just wasn't quite enough!