To say we've had some strange weather around here the last couple of weeks would be an understatement. The day of Kaden's Birthday party (October 2) the weather was beautiful. It was really a blessing, because otherwise I may have just gone crazy with all those rambunctious kids running around inside my house all afternoon. Thankfully the day of the party was sunny and plus 20 degrees, so the kids played in the backyard for at least 30 minutes. It was fantastic!

Just 6 days later we had this:


It was so cold! and quite a shock to the system. It didn't stick around for long, but once again a week later, we got another dump of snow. The City (or whoever is in charge of the sanding trucks) seemed to be in denial about it all, and didn't sand or anything in the morning, so it took me 20 minutes to drive Kaden to school in the morning because traffic was so backed up. Normally it is a 10 minute walk or 2 minute drive. Crazy!

The kids sure seemed to enjoy it though, and when I went to pick Kaden up from school, the school yard was littered with snow forts and half assembled snowmen. That really made my day. Honestly, I almost cried. And made me wish I had a camera with me. It made me really happy to see that in this age of video games, computers, and electronic entertainment the kids would and could still have some good ol' fashioned fun in the snow. It also made me reminisce about when I was in elementary school, and how much fun it was when it snowed. When I didn't care that snow meant the need to shovel the sidewalk and driveway. The hassle of needing to leave extra early to get places because traffic would be slow. The extra heating costs. The wet front entrance from everyone's boots, mitts, toques and snow-pants. When life's "little" pleasures were enjoyed as the monumental events that they really are. If only we could see things through the eyes of our children more often. I think we would all be a lot happier with ourselves and the world.


Besides frolicking in the snow, my other favorite thing to do when it's cold and snowy is to bake! I had some bananas that were in serious need of attention, but I didn't want to make banana bread AGAIN. I always make that with old bananas, and while it's absolutely delicious, I wanted to try something different. So I headed to my favorite recipe site www.allrecipes.com. Here I found a good recipe for banana oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips. They were really quick and easy to make, and quite tasty. You can find the recipe Here if you are interested. I substituted the walnuts for chocolate chips, and I think next time I will make them smaller, so it's more like a mini bite-sized banana bread instead of a monstrous cookie. After being outside in the cold the kids couldn't wait to dive into the warm cookies!


Yesterday, we got yet another dose of crazy weather. This time in the form of fog. It was insanely thick. You can't see the end of the driveway thick. It was a bit scary driving Kaden to school, because you really couldn't see the houses we were driving passed very well. When I dropped him off, he wanted me to just stay in the van so he could walk to the school by himself. That was hard to do because from the parking lot I couldn't even see the playground 50 meters away, let alone the school. But being the brave Mom I am, I let him walk himself across the foggy abyss and watched him totally and completely disappear from view. I had to push the panic down. It's one thing to sit in the van and watch him make it safely to the school, but it's another for him to be totally lost from view in the fog, and just sit there hoping he made it ok. Anise on the other hand kept yelling from the back "Let's go Mommy! Why are we still here" I guess she couldn't see him any more either, so figured it was time to go. By the time we got home, the fog had lifted quite a bit, but I realized it was still pretty foggy out, so I took a picture from our front steps. Normally I can see all the way down the street and over to the next block from here. When I had first gotten up I could barely make out the bush and rock in our front yard!


So a while ago, some of you may remember that I declared my new found love for making quilts, and that I was going to be needing some people to give all these quilts to. So, that may have been a bit premature. I do love making quilts, but I have really only finished the one for Anise. I've started on Kaden's, but it's not all pieced together yet. And I haven't decided what I'm making next or for who. I'm sure I can go through my fabric stash and find plenty of suitable specimens, but I have yet to take that plunge.

So what I really should have said is that I love making quilts, and I would like to keep trying out different patterns, so I may eventually end up with more quilts than I know what to do with. Eventually. Right now I though I do have this to show off:

Isn't it cute?! I LOVE it! But don't let the picture fool you. Anise hates it. I finished it on October 13, and 10 days later, this was the first time she actually let the quilt be on her bed. Or anywhere near it. The fact she is under it is nothing short of a miracle, and I'm glad to get the picture to document this monumental occasion. Right now it's at the foot of her bed as far away from her as she could possibly get it. At least it's on the bed now. I keep telling myself that someday she'll warm up to it, and want to actually use it. But maybe it's just destined to be forever folded neatly at the foot of her bed. Oh, well. It was fun to make, and I got to spend a lot of time visiting with Grandma while I did it. And now I'm on to the next one. This one's for Kaden. I'm not doing a rag quilt for him. I'm trying out a quilt made from 20 fat quarters. So far so good. I would have gotten more done on Kaden's, but I ran out of thread - silly me.

So where on earth am I going to find the time to make all these quilts for everyone under the sun? Every Tuesday, I have what I call a Grandma Day. Anise and I drop Kaden off at school, and then we go over to my Grandma Frache's house. My Grandma is the typical sweet Grandma, who loves to cook and bake and has to feed you the moment you walk in the door, and if you don't eat, wonders what is wrong with her baking/cooking that you don't want to eat it. I spent the majority of my childhood here, while my parents were at work, so I totally get this from her. It's where I learned how to make cookies, bread, buns, homemade noodles, pies; you name it, we baked it together - and often on cold days to warm up the house - yup I got that from her too. So ever since we've been back in Lethbridge, I badly wanted Anise to get the same tutoring in the kitchen, and I know how lonely Grandma is since Grandpa died a year and a half ago, but she really isn't up for babysitting anymore. Don't tell her I said that - she would be furious - She's almost 80 years old, but thinks she's still 50! Anyway, I decided that a great arrangement would be for both of us to go over (because I want to see her too!) and I would have some sort of project to work on, and she could "watch" Anise for me while I was there. We've been there every Tuesday for 2 months now, and it's perfect! I get to spend the day with my Grandma, working on quilts (which she also taught me how to do), Anise gets the same spoiling and teaching that I did when I was her age, and Grandma gets to have a house full of people for the day. Most days Anise will ask her to watch Beauty and the Beast with her, and they'll snuggle on the couch. Every so often throughout the movie Anise will ask for some kind of snack, which of course Grandma will willingly provide. Then they watch Aristocats next. Usually by that time it's about time to pick Kaden up from school, and Anise never wants to leave. I love Tuesdays.

A picture of Grandma and Anise from about 3 years ago:

Losing teeth and turning six

I can't believe it, but today my little Kaden turned 6 years old! How on earth did he get that old already? I just can't seem to wrap my mind around him being 6. Of course I'm still shell shocked that he's in Grade 1 this year too. Maybe it will all sink in around Christmas? Ok, Easter then. He had a party with friends on Friday at our house, which went relatively well and I survived thanks to my Mom stopping by to help out. THANKS MOM! Today we had my parents and Grandma over for supper and opened presents and had cake. He got spoiled (as he always does) and didn't want to go to bed because he wanted to try out all his new toys first.

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Yesterday part way through the afternoon session of General Conference Kaden started giving Anise piggy-back rides around the living room. They were short little rides and she was enjoying it, so I let them have their fun. 10 minutes later they were getting a bit to rambunctious, so I was about to ask them to stop the rides, when Kaden slipped on the floor and fell backwards onto Anise. Heads cracked, limbs went flying, and the tears and blood began to flow. I ran to Anise first, since she was on the bottom and seemed to get the worst of it. Her mouth was bleeding, and she was crying uncontrollably. Kaden just seemed more shocked than anything. I ran Anise to the bathroom with a cold cloth to stop the bleeding. A minute later, I pull the cloth back to check her mouth only to discover her front tooth has been knocked partially out. A quick phone call to "Doctor Daddy" (that's what we call Sean around here) - and he comes to take her to Emerg where they pulled the tooth the rest of the way out. And where was I through the rest of this you ask? As soon as I got a hold of Sean, I started to feel queasy, and lightheaded. I had to sit on the floor and lean against the wall to stay upright, while I held Anise and waited for Sean to get home. Once he was home I crawled to my bed where I stayed for the next while. Sean coaxed me up so that I could come with him to Emerg (because I was obviously going to be so much help!), but it wasn't until this morning that I felt totally better. I've seen a lot of gross, bloody things before, but something about it being my kid made it so much worse and I just couldn't stomach it. I have to admit that I feel like a wimp - my husband is a Doctor, and here I was curled up the corner of Emerg trying my darnedest not to hurl while the ER doc and Sean took her tooth out the rest of the way. Apparently it was only hanging on by a thread anyway, so it pretty much fell out on it's own.

This morning I took her to the Dentist to check everything out. They took x-rays and found that a piece of the root is still in her gums, but he is confident that it won't cause any trouble for her. We'll go back once a year to have x-rays done again to check on it, but that's about all we can do for her. So for the next 4 years or so Anise will have a toothless grin:



My poor little girl :-(

At least she thinks it's kind of cool - for now. We'll see how she feels about it in a couple of years when she is sick of telling everyone that her older brother knocked her tooth out giving her a piggy-back ride when she was 3. And poor Kaden - his little sister gets a visit from the tooth fairy before him!

We're still alive!

So just in case anyone was wondering, we are still alive. We all survived the move to Lethbridge, and are mostly settled into our wonderful new house. There are still a few pesky boxes hanging around, but we've done pretty well considering how much we had. And for the record, I never want to move again. Not just because it's a total pain to pack, move and unpack; but because I love our house that much. It just seems so perfect. The kitchen is HUGE, and wonderful to bake in (I made 3 batches of buns in one week!) The bedrooms are good sizes, it has a gigantic backyard with a sandbox, and an attached garage. What's not to love? It's a little scary actually, because Sean is considering doing a third year for residency, and that would mean a year somewhere not here. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

We are settling in to our new ward nicely too. I just got called as a primary teacher for the 6 year olds. They had to split the class because there were so many kids....in fact I think there are more 6 year olds in our new ward than there were total primary kids in our Calgary ward! Everyone is really friendly and very welcoming. We look forward to getting to know everyone better :-)

I'll post more later when I've got a bit more time, but I just wanted to get word out that we are all alive and kicking!

Another fun and exciting week in Drum

We're still busy having fun here. I can't believe another week has gone by already!

The weather here has been HOT!! Like 35 degrees hot. We have no air conditioning in our place, so it makes it a bit unbearable in the house in the afternoon and evenings. Luckily the spray park is so much fun that we spend most evenings there to cool off.

The kids got to go to a class at the Tyrrell Museum. It was a lot of fun for both of them. The museum has a whole section of the building full of classrooms for things such as this summer program. At the entrance is a dino statue named Trevor. The kids thought it was pretty cool to meet a dino with the same name as their uncle.

---Trevor the Dino---

Once inside the classroom, the kids got to hold real fossils! So cool!!

---Anise holding a T-Rex claw!---

They also had this box set up for a dino dig. The kids got to pretend they were real Paleontologists and dig for dino bones.

---Kaden the Paleontologist---

We had a chance to go to Carstairs for the Annual Beef and Barley Days Parade. Both kids really enjoyed the Canada Day parade in Raymond, so we made the drive from Drumheller to Carstairs Saturday morning. When we told them where we were going, they could hardly wait to get there. Anise was particularly excited. Once there, she could hardly wait for it to start.

---Anise can see the parade coming down the street. Pure excitement---

The kids have quickly learned that parade = candy (a lot of it!)

---Anise shows off her purse full of candy---

On the way back to Drumheller we stopped at Horseshoe Canyon to enjoy the beautiful view.

---Horseshoe Canyon---

To kill time one morning the kids and I went downtown to look for dinosaurs. Now I knew there were a lot of dinos downtown, but I had no idea how many. I took a picture of the kids with every single dino that we saw. We spent almost 2 hours and only made it about 3 blocks from where we parked. I took pictures of over 20 different dinos!! Here are 2 of my favorites

---riding the dino---

---a dino hug---

Tuesday, Sean was on post call, so we headed out in the afternoon to do some more touristy things. First we stopped at the suspension bridge in Rosedale.

---Sean and the kids coming back across---

Next, we drove to the Hoo Doos. Now, growing up in Lethbridge, we frequently went to Writing on Stone and played in the Hoo Doos there. This was what I was kind of expecting here. However, the Hoo Doos here are much different. They are a lot smaller, and seem more fragile and there are a few areas that are roped off to stop people from climbing on them. The area is also WAY smaller. Anyway, since the kids have never seen Hoo Doos before they were totally impressed and had a blast.

---climbing on the Hoo Doos---

Finally, we went to the Worlds Largest Dinosaur. You go up several flights of stairs inside the dinosaur and come out in his mouth! It's pretty neat because they've decorated the walls on the way up with fossils, and murals - some in glow in the dark paint, which Kaden thought was so cool. Anise loved being at the top! She kept saying she was being eaten by a dinosaur, and now every time we drive past it, she reminds us that he tried to eat us.

---In the mouth of a dino!---

This might be the last post for a while again. In the next couple of days the kids and I are heading back to Calgary to pack up the house. Sean is joining us on the weekend, and then we move the Lethbridge!!! Wish us luck!

Kim said...

oh my goodness! She looks so grown up with her hair cut short like that! I bet the hairdresser was sad to lop it all off! Does Anise like it? Do you have to do double takes every time you see her now?

Actually, the hairdresser had to kind of talk me through the whole thing...I was getting a bit teary. She had to keep reminding me that hair grows back, and if she isn’t letting me brush and do her hair, then it’s not as nice as it could be etc. etc. She put it in a pony tail, and then cut that off, so I have that to keep for her baby book. She was really nice.

Anise loves it! She keeps talking about how much fun it was to get her haircut, and asks when she can go again. So, now I think I need to keep a close eye on her and the scissors!

Later that day, when we were at the spray park (again) I kept having small heart attacks because I kept looking for her after I had seen her because I didn't recognize her with short hair. I’m getting better, but still takes me a bit to clue in it’s her.

Anise's new haircut

So, I finally got the nerve to get Anise's haircut for the first time. Her hair was so nice, and incredibly long- 3 years of growth, and it was about to her bum! But it was always so tangled, and she HATED getting it brushed, and I was tired of the daily argument. So I took her to the local beauty parlor and she came out a new girl!

---A before shot from a couple weeks ago when she got a trim---


---all set for a cut!---

---Her new do!---

It's time for an update! *warning - contains an overload of pictures and rambling stories*

Unless you have some time to commit (or waste) to reading this, then don't even get started!

You've been warned.

We've been doing so much recently that I wanted to keep everyone up to speed! I promise that I will back blog later to fill in all the gaps, but for now you'll just have to settle for knowing what we are currently doing.

Sean has started his Residency, and his first rotation is doing Family Medicine in Drumheller. Now the really nice thing about it is that the program provides housing for residents who are out of "home base" (in our case Lethbridge). The accommodations in Drumheller just happen to be a 3 bedroom, fully furnished and equipped duplex! It's why we requested this site actually. Anyway, Sean headed up here on the 5th, and we soon followed on the 9th. We brought a few more "essentials" with us, such as toys, coloring books, sidewalk chalk, movies, and favorite blankets (I packed some stuff for the kids to do too - *wink*)

The first thing we did after finding our house, was go to the Tyrrell Museum. The kids LOVE it there!! We've been here a week, and we've been three times already. We decided to buy a year pass, since it's very inexpensive ($60 for the family) and it pays for itself in 3 visits if we all go.

----Heading into the Museum----

---Anise striking her current favorite picture pose---


---Anise at the listening station. Every time it was finished she would say, "OK, Bye!"---

---It's a dinosaur, it's a dinosaur, and he's going to eat you up!---
(sing to the tune of the opening score from Jurassic Park - try it)

---The kids checking out one of the Tyrannosaurus skulls---

---Traveling back in time---


---making friends with a prehistoric salamander---

---Sean had been on call the night before (which is why he had the day off and was able to come with us) but by this point in the museum, he was ready for a nap!---

---the inside of an Albertasaurus---

---all finished the museum, and already asking to go back in!---

We are also very close to a really fun playground, and we've gone several times here too. It's kind of funny because every single playground in this town has some sort of dinosaur something as part of it, or by it. The kids think it's the coolest thing ever, and I wonder what kids who grow up here think of it all. When they go visit other places do they find it weird that there aren't dino's all over the place? I'll have to take some pictures of all the dino's all over town to show you what I mean, but for now trust me, they are everywhere!

---Anise mastering a tricky ladder---

---the dinosaur by the playground---

---the dinosaur in the playground---
(I didn't get a picture of the dinosaur "fossil" that was part of the rock climbing feature)


--I just love this picture - her face says it all!---


---climbing up the slide---

Right beside the playground (unfortunately) is an ice cream shop. So being the nice Mom that I am, I took the kids for a fudgesicle after we were done at the playground. It was hot and windy that day - not a good combination for ice cream treats!

---this was before things got really messy! A lady walking by told me I'd better go hose them off, and that might not be enough!---

For FHE (Family Home Evening) we went to Fossil World. It's a total tourist trap (which we knew before we went), but the kids really wanted to check it out since it's also right beside the playground, and they see it all the time. So, we sucked it up and took them. The biggest attraction here is the animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex, and I have to admit that it was pretty cool, and a little bit scary. He had a heat sensor in him, so whenever someone would stand close to him he would start "sniffing" you out, and then roar at you.

---It's hard to tell in these pictures, but he moved, wagged his tail, blinked and roared!---

They also had a cool climbing structure that was one of the other few things included in admission.

There was also this cool wall projector thing that could "detect" you and would react to how you moved. One of the screens was a field with soccer balls. Without touching the wall you could "kick, hit and head" the ball all by just making that movement. We all had a lot of fun with this one.

One of my most favorite things about summer is sidewalk chalk. I had forgotten this, because in Calgary our house was on a busy road - so no playing in the front yard - and our backyard is either wooden deck or grass. So for 7 long years I haven't really played with sidewalk chalk. Sure I would join in when we were visiting my parents in Lethbridge and the chalk was busted out, but Grandma is just way more fun and I just can't top her lion. *It's true. Ask anyone who's seen it. If you ever get the chance, ask her to draw you a lion. His name is Leo, and he has a heart at the end of his tail. Awesome.* Anyway, so this spring as we were discussing what kind of house we were looking for the number one thing on the list was anything on a quieter street. Now, in Lethbridge we would have to live on Whoop-up drive to have the kind of traffic we do in Calgary, but I digress. So when I was in Costco one day and saw this giant box of sidewalk chalk, and the thought occurred to me that we would have somewhere to use this chalk, I have to admit I got a bit giddy. I tried to resist (not very hard), but for $10 how could you go wrong! (that's how they get you on everything in Costco - but I'll save that rant for another post) So I got this:

---I am the proud owner of 100 pieces of sidewalk chalk, and it makes me happy---

OK, so maybe I'm a bit weird that sidewalk chalk makes me so happy, but maybe it just means that I'm easy to please. I was so excited to try it out that it was one of the first things I packed to bring to Drumheller with us - and one of the first things I got out to play with. I even let the kids use it, on the condition that they put the pieces back neatly in the box when they are finished with them.

---proof that I share my sidewalk chalk---

The other day we went to the spray park here in Drumheller. It's so much fun!! In fact we ended up staying for 4 hours! The kids still cried when it was time to go home. The bad thing is I wasn't planning on staying that long so I didn't bring the sunscreen to reapply, so we all got a bit burned - oops, bad Mom moment. But despite my shortcomings, we all had a great time!

---Anise running away from the water - she probably stayed the driest of all of us! (and I wasn't wearing a swim suit)---

---she preferred to try and catch the seagulls - she would come back with her lower lip sticking out saying, "He flew away, HUMPH!"---

---she did eventually show some interest in the water---


---Kaden on the other hand, I could hardly get out of the water! He played with this water canon for the majority of the time we were there. I had to keep giving him reminders to share with the other kids!---

Since we are living in the Drum for a while, I decided to embrace the whole dinosaur thing. I found these dinosaur cookie cutters and since it's too hot to bake, the kids and I made jello jigglers instead. The worked really well, and I think we'll be making them again really soon. We ended up making 3 layers because I bought the smaller packages (4 serving) instead of the bigger ones that I usually get and one package wasn't thick enough to cut anything out of - it barely covered the bottom of the pan I used. So I was going to do a second layer, but then the kids couldn't decide if they wanted grape or raspberry on top of the blue mystery flavor, so we just went ahead and did them all.

---it's too bad you can't see the layers in the picture, but aren't our dinosaurs awesome (and yummy!)?---

Ok, one final picture for you. Kaden and I were playing in the basement while Anise was napping (kind of). We got out the work tools and were pretending to saw some of his building blocks. He stopped me right away, and reminded me that I should have the safety goggles on if I was going to be cutting wood. Since it's a kids play tool set I wasn't sure if they would fit. You be the judge:

---safety first!---

So this is what we've been doing this last week. I know, we did all this (and more) in a week! Crazy. But that's how life has been for us this last while, so why stop now. I mentioned to my sister a couple weeks ago that I'm looking forward to life getting boring for a bit - but when I look at all the fun we've had, maybe boring isn't for us, maybe we just need to keep living up to our names and enjoy it!