Nana's chickens

One of Sarah's favourite things at Nana's house is her chickens. We are never there for more than 5 minutes before she has to put on her yellow boots and go and see if there are any eggs. She loves to order them to "make eggs!!!!" and "get in there" (always followed by a kick), and has absolutely no fear to get right into the coop with all the poop, dust, feathers, and nesting hens. I think that any time my parents go away, I know who will go and collect eggs for them. (It's why you have kids, isn't it, to do the work that you don't want to?) :)

So thankful

What a week. And not for us, but our dear friends Matt and Ange. For those of you who don't read her blog, I'll just share a little story about the fire that they had at their house on the weekend. The simple fact that their house didn't actually burn to the ground is a miracle in itself -- there are so many "if the fire had...." or "if the hose was a 1/4 inch smaller" etc, the house would have gone. The part that actually brings tears to my eyes every time I talk about it is the part where Nathan is safe. Ange showed me pictures yesterday of the house, and I'm not kidding, the fire was 2 feet from his crib. At the end of the night, everyone who was at the house smelled of smoke, but Matt's dad pointed out to them, that Nathan did NOT smell at all, even though he was covered in soot. The next day, they went back to the house to do some more work, and went up to little Heen's room, and his bumper pads did not smell either. Bottom line is that is a miracle, no question about it. Our God is good.
Fires actually bring about strange feelings for me. Our family lost most of our house in a fire in 1994. I think that you could say, though, that it is a mixed sort of blessing. It is terrible to lose that stuff, it's scary, it's a hassle to rebuild, but on the other hand, it is just stuff, and it's the kind of thing that reminds you of what is really important in life.
Matthew and Angella, we love you and the boys dearly, you really are like family to us. We are here to help you with anything at all, just let us know, and we'll be there.
love,k

the happy couple

Ryan and Lisa Robinson



At the un-shower
A sign of things to come?!?!
Looks good, Lisa! :)

Old Friends
Sheryl, Lisa and Karen

How embarassing

Sarah and Graham in the bath.

As if this won't come back to haunt them in about 13 years or so. There's even video.


ps. I just spent the last 30 minutes in the bathroom rejoicing with every little tinkle that hit the water. We just had success on both the #1 and #2 fronts! Yippeee!!

A Holi-what?

Well, I've decided that you can never call a trip a holiday if you take your kids with you. It was a trip, or a visit with friends, or a tour of the Rockies, if you will, but I really can't say it was a holiday. In fact, I have no pictures to share. Part of that is because I still lug around my (relatively speaking) large 35 mm film camera with me wherever we go, and have to actually wait to see my pictures, and part is because the digital part on our video camera is just plain a pain to bring out most of the time. So, when I get those pics developed, I think I will have some to show. Anyways.....
We spent our first night with Trav's grandparents in Vernon. It was great to see them, and we realized that we really don't get up there enough considering how close they live to us. Next day we were on to Fairmont, where we apparently left the lovely 30something weather in the Okanagan to pouring rain in the Rockies, but really that's ok, because we spend most of the day indoors anyways because of naps, early bedtimes, etc, etc. Then we were on to Okotoks where we visited with good friends of ours Craig and Tammi and met their newest one, Mattea, and Sarah played with Emma, who is 2 1/2. Usually Craig and Tammi come out here for a visit in the summer, but we traded with them this time, and really enjoyed getting to see them in their new home. Then we were up to Red Deer where we stayed with my good friend Brenda and her family, and went to my other friend Lisa's wedding. It was a beautiful day, and one of the best parts was that I got to actually see the legendary 'gator'. My wish is that you all could see someone do the 'gator' at a dance at some point in your life. It's the best.
Sunday was the longest day yet, but we made it through in good time mainly in thanks to "dora the explorer" which Travis and I can recite by heart. In fact, I had visions of the embarassing parents we will become as we were singing "I'm the grumpy old troll, who lives under the bridge" together at full volume, while Sarah danced in her seat in the back.
And now we're home, and Travis has 2 days of school under his belt. Fall has arrived so suddenly. I'm always a little sad to say goodbye to summer, but I love the routine of fall too.
We got news yesterday morning when I talked to my friend Ange, that they had had a fire at their house on the weekend. We are SO thankful that everyone is ok, because that really is THE most important part. The rest is just stuff.
Ok, ok, here is a picture of Ben from today.

Before we go

Ahhhh, summer. Just when you get into the swing of things, it seems it's already over. We're heading out on Sunday on a big road trip to Red Deer, Alberta to go to the wedding of my oldest friend, Lisa. She's not 92 or anything, but we have known each other since kindergarden, which for those of you who know my age realize that it has been a while. :) I'm looking forward to seeing her and Ryan take this next step in their lives. We'll also be staying a another old friend of mine, Brenda, whose kids turn 10 this year, which I can hardly believe. I know she laughs at me and my young-children stage, because at this point, it's only a memory for her. She tells me she knows what it's like, but she doesn't really, because she had twins, and she never had it as easy as I do. Anyways, after our trip (if we make it, though I'm sure we will thanks to our new portable DVD player), Sarah will be turning two, and I'll be lamenting about how time flies. I may get to post one more time before we go, but if I don't, I'll be back in about a week. love,k

She loves the water!!

Just last week before we went on our trip, when we would go to the beach, Sarah would walk around, and inspect the sand and water, but any time she was invited to go for a swim, we would get a prompt "buh-bye mummy," and she'd walk away. Now, last summer, she LOVED the water. Couldn't get enough. Course, we would have to hold her and stuff, but she was a real water baby, and we couldn't figure out why she didn't take to it this summer. So, we thought we'd take her in and see if she liked it. If you've ever seen Sarah for any length of time, you know that she has her own opinion, and likes to share it, and also has a good set of lungs to share it with. Travis and I took her into the lake absolutely kicking and screaming "duh-done (all done)", "buh-bye beach," and "home!!!!!" with the whole beach looking on. I was actually wondering to myself if this could be considered child abuse because of the way she was carrying on, but as parents, we always do what is best for our kids, right? So that attempt was a failure. After our trip, Travis tried again while I was up on the grass a bit of a ways away with Ben. Well, I didn't hear any screaming, so I went down to the water to check it out, and there she was a-frolicking away, having the greatest time in her life. She screamed the same way when we tried to get her OUT. And so now, every morning, we are greeted with the request of "beach," and happily oblige that one because that's why we live here -- the summers are so great.
Can you imagine the devastation, though, when the water is too cold to swim in? I'm not looking forward to explaining that to a two year old!

Home sweet home

Ahhhh, to be home. We just got back last night(now a few days ago) from a little trip down to the coast. It was a busy trip, as usual, and again, as usual, we didn't quite see everyone that we had meant to see. I guess you should always shoot high, and do the best you can. We had a good visit with Travis' parents, though a bit crazy with kids running around etc, and with Shirley too, who is home from the hospital right now, but still on bedrest. 29 weeks now, and every day is a bonus! Then we spent a couple of days with my grandparents in Richmond, spent the day in Abbotsford on Thursday with my cousins, visited Omi and Opi at their new place, and came home. It makes me tired just writing it!! We didn't even have a chance to take any pictures, so here is one of Sarah and Ben at the beach just before we left.

This is one of those weeks I talked about at the beginning -- one of the boring ones (but I really love to have a boring week every now and then). I'm just sitting here on the computer listening to Sarah sing along to her Veggietales Esther tape, it's so fun to hear her sing! She gets words in there sometimes, but it's mostly some sort of moaning or howling to go along with the words. I get such a kick out of her!




Our little Benny had his 4 month shots today. They did go better than the 2 month ones -- he wasn't nearly as upset, but boy was he mad! I got yelled at for a while. Can't blame him though, he's having a great day giggling and smiling for all the ladies at the clinic, then bam, out of nowhere, he gets poked three times! The injustice of it all would have me yelling too!



Isn't he the cutest?!?!