Snow girls

Well, it must be Christmas time, there are Snow People in my yard!

 

Also along the Christmas theme, here is Don taking the last big load of trees into Vancouver today:

 

And here is Sean and Nick helping him harvest the trees:

Merry Christmas!

North Otter Wacky Hair Day

 I'm not the type of mom who gets all excited about decorating a bike for the annual bike parade, but when you tell me it's wacky hair day, I'm willing to get my kids up early and spend lots of time making their hair look as crazy as possible! Jorydn had little tiny ponytails all over her head and Patience had corkscrew braids.

 

Merritt

Here are the cupcakes that Waneta baked for Nick!

Sean and Nick on the tractor

Daddy gives Nick and Jordyn a tractor ride

Sean and Nick take a ride on the quad

Grad Cruise

Here are Sean and Bailey (the Power Couple) all decked out for their Grad Cruise this past September (possibly October).  The weather was beautiful and they got some great shots...all on Facebook!

Chief Petty Officer Murphy

This past September Sean got promoted to Chief Petty Officer 2nd Class. It's the second-highest rank he can achieve at Sea Cadets. The night he got promoted Don got a call from Lt. Juliusson telling him that Sean was going to get promoted, but please don't tell him. I quickly texted Bailey (whatever did we do before cell phones?) and told her so she could be there too.

As you can see, Sean is very happy! I've never seen him smiling so much while wearing his uniform!

Great job, Sean. Your long, hard work has paid off!

I think the parents should get awards, too, when their children reach this rank!

Bailey and I waiting forever in the cold :)

Cute pictures of Nick at Ralph's Farm Market

First day of school photos

Jordyn in Grade 1; Patience in Grade 3

Sean in Grade 12

Ha! And you thought I didn't take these, didn't you!?!

Photos of Nathan with the Littles

 Taken while he was home this summer.

I love this one!

Napping on the way to Penticton.

Nick is trying to wake Nathan up, but clearly Nathan just wants some morning snuggles.

New shop roof

You know how it's difficult for us to go more than a month or so without a major project? Yeah, well this summer that project was to put metal roofs on the two shops! Nathan was lucky enough to be home for the "demo" phase of the project! Here are all the boys hard at work...



Swimming lessons

The Littles were scheduled to take swimming lessons with Brittany Wheaton, a girl who used to swim in the Langley Flippers with the boys way back when. When we got to the pool, Brittany took Nick in first, who cried the.entire.time. It was horrible (and embarassing!). After trying every trick in the book, we decided that he was too young for swim lessons and Brittany focused on Jordyn and Patience, both of whom were excited to have swim lessons and were very cooperative. Here are some pics:

Jordyn advanced one level and Patience advanced two levels, so we got our money's worth even though Nick still can't swim!

The Surprise Update Post

I hope nobody dies of a heart attack when they realize I've posted again after several long months of silence. Last night I spent a good chunk of time reading my posts from years ago and I enjoyed myself so much that I thought it'd be a shame to stop now. My memory is not what it used to be, and if I stop blogging daily events I'm sure to forget them forever.

I'll try to recount what I remember from the past few months. Not the little stuff, obviously : )

Okay, since the blog was last updated, Don finished Nick's cute little room and we furnished it with a twin bed and a little toddler-sized armoir and that was his bedroom. He got CARS bedding and he actually slept in his bed for the first few nights. Shortly after that he started falling asleep in his bed but then would wake up in the middle of the night and come to our room.

In October Dylan moved out, into a cute little 1-bedroom condo in Abbotsford. He's in-between work and school. When Dylan vacated his room, Don renovated Dylan's old room for Sean: he touched up the paint, pulled up the laminate flooring and put down carpet, and then we got him some IKEA furniture to make the room look awesome.

That, of course, left Sean's room empty. So, we moved Nick's furniture into Sean's room and now both boys are in the basement.

And that left Nick's wee bedroom empty. So, I now have a cute little home office that I LOVE! I've never had a dedicated room for my home management work. We bought some IKEA tables and book cases and I'm so organized. Have I mentioned that I love it?

We took an awesome family vacation to Penticton with Nathan and we've decided that Penticton is the perfect family destination for the forseeable future.

I'll do some individual posts for other events. TTFN!