Calgary!

We were able to go stay in Calgary while Justin had another course or retreat or conference or whatever it was. We had fun in our awesome hotel room (a suite!!) with a water slide. We also had so much fun visiting some Calgary friends. We saw the Sladeks, the Cahoons, and even the Browns!

 When I was checking out this nice man pushed my stuff out to the car and gave the kids a ride back in too. I had to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything. Good thing too! We forgot Kara! Just kidding...she was too shy to get on the cart that the worker was pushing so I had to carry her.

 After checking out we went to visit my friend Katherine. My Zach and her Sebastian (or C-Bass as we like to call him) are 2 days apart! We met in Edmonton just on a walk when I first moved there. She is great and I was SO sad when they moved away from us!

 Katherine is a great gardener! This was ONE of her amazing tomato plants. I think the kids had more fun picking them and throwing them off the deck than eating them. No, no.

 Gotcha! Katherine snuck this picture while I was out of the room...and now I snuck it on my blog! :)

 Our "twins". 2 days apart. I know Zach has grown up, because I've watched him. But it was so weird to see a 4 1/2 year old Sebastian! What a cutie.

 Here they were at 6 months old...

And while taking a bath after eating their cakes on their first birthday.

Thanks for the delicious popcorn (Kyle!) and for all of the yummy recipes you shared with me! Miss you!

School Boy!





Zach's a school boy! He started preschool on September 7, 2011. I got to go the first day with him just to see what it would be like and to ease him in to it. I think he was totally ready to go by himself. He was kind of like, why are you coming? :) It was fun to watch him explore and just be.

He loved these blocks. We played with them for a long time.

Snack time!

He approves. This kid is funny. I love when he does these little things. Everything's great Mom. :)

He loved it! Yay!!! I am excited for him to have his time there, and for me to have some time too. It has been really hard to occupy him while the girl's are napping now that he doesn't take naps anymore. He is in afternoon preschool 3 times a week (which almost seems like too much to me!) so he is there when the girls nap. He LOVES painting and playing and they do a lot of crafts. It is working out really well. Yay for school! Here's to the next 20 years of it. Have fun Zach!

Labor Day Weekend

I had a few unfulfilled desires in Waterton from when we were last there. I wanted to rent one of these bikes and ride around the town (mostly because it was the perfect size for our family and I knew the kids would think it was cool) and I wanted to get ice cream at Big Scoop. So, on Labor Day weekend we went to Cardston and hung out with family and then we all went to Waterton for the evening. Richard and Leslie came down. It was so fun to see her big baby belly. It wasn't very big at all actually, being that she was due only 6 weeks later! Cute cute. Can't wait to see that babe.

The kids loved it! And while we were on our ride we randomly saw Uncle will and Aunt Shirley from Edmonton! :)

 

Tried to get the camera out quick to get the picture of the deer roaming around. They are EVERYWHERE in Waterton. This group had a few babies. Aw.

Papa, Justin, and the girls...and Zach very far ahead. That is what we usually see on our walks. Quite the free spirit.

The rest of the weekend we hung out at home, worked in the garden and played around. Here is family pool time! We barely fit, but it was fun. And yes Karen, I forgot my suit so I borrowed one of your leftovers. :) Please and thank you!!

We got Bikes!!

We FINALLY got bikes and a bike trailer! I wish we did this when Zach was a baby. It is a 2 man trailer, but yes, we do squeeze all 3 in there. Zach doesn't love riding his bike. Weird, I know. He'd rather sit in the trailer and hold Kara on his lap. Maybe after he is squished in the trailer enough he'll give up his spot and get pedaling!

Justin put it all together and then it was time for a ride!

This was the best shot I could get. Justin is SO fast that all of my other shots were blurry. Wow.

They LOVED it! Good thing we got it JUST in time for winter...

Crafty Crafts

Over the last 3 months of living in Lethbridge I've done a few crafts I thought I'd share...

This one was one I've been meaning to do since January! I bought the styrofoam balls when I bought all of the other materials to do my wreaths. The flower balls were made with small styrofoam and the bean ones were large and small. The site I got it off of said you could spray paint the beans any color for cool texture. I might spray it ivory, just so you don't see the styrofoam underneath but that's if I get ambitious. Now it matches/ties in...

...this wreath and...

...this one! Yay for coordination. And for purple. I am liking purple lately. Must be in because both of my soon to be sister in laws chose it for their wedding colors! Purdy.

Here is the next project. I've been looking for an oval, detailed mirror for our room for a while and found one on kijiji for $5. The only problem is this thing is HEAVY! Must be old! Once I took the mirror out it wasn't heavy at all though. I just don't know how I'll hang it yet. It is going to need more than just a nail, that's for sure!

Here is the process...

Primed, painted with ivory, and ready to glaze.

Glazed! This was harder than I thought! Well, not really, but I had a really hard time keeping the glaze in the little nooks and crannies. They were pretty shallow. I'd been planning a glazing project for a long time and wasn't really happy with how it turned out right away, but it is growing on me.

One spot where I liked how the glaze took.

I put a clear glossy topcoat on and like how it looks a bit better now. The pillow at the base of it is from my bedding that I am basing my room around. That with maybe yellow accents? Still in the deciding process. And if you look in the mirror you can see my 3rd and final crafty craft.

A Jewelry holder!

I've been trying to find a jewelry holder for a long time now, looking for something to better organize my stuff and make it more accessible. Well, I saw this lace on on pintrest and thought it would go perfectly in my room too, incorporating into the black and white theme.

I just got an old wood frame we had, inserted 5 hooks in the base, and sprayed it all black. Then I cut up a beautiful lace valance I found at Value Village and stapled it in the back on the outside edge all the way around and then again on the inner edge to make the lace nice and tight.

Here's where I become a genius. And modest one at that! :) I am a problem solver. I get it from my dad for sure. An anything is possible attitude. We can make it work! Anyway, I didn't want to have to take it down from a nail every night I put my earrings away. In fact I would probably just put them on the bathroom counter if I had to do that, thus defeating the purpose of a jewelry holder in the first place! So I thought hinges...That would work. I just needed a piece of wood drill some nail holes in it to hang it from, add some hinges to the wood and the back of the frame, and voila you've got yourself a perfect solution. Luckily I remembered I had an old mismatched red block (that I tried to get back to you several times Maren!) and found it right away when I went to the basement. Perfect size. And THAT is why I have a hard time getting rid of things, because often enough I find that I could have really used them later on. Anyway, like I said, genius. Thanks for the block Maren. You can have it back...whenever you come here to Lethbridge and get it!

Kinda just floats there by the wall.
Anyway, that's all for now. Now that I am on Pintrest I am sure I will have more fun ideas and plans!

Two for Tea

I bought this tea set at a garage sale recently. Why? Because everyone needs a tea set and I didn't have one and I thought it was cool! A black one! Anyway, Zach doesn't nap anymore so while the girls sleep he always wants to play with my tea set. I gave in this day and we had a little tea party. :) It was cute.

Pinkies up! He later informed me that he doesn't like drinking it that one. Okay...

Visitors!!

The Gibbs Family was on their way back home from dropping their oldest boy off at BYU and they stopped by to say hello!! We LOVE visitors. We especially love the Gibbs! This family has been a big part of our lives since the girls were born. Sister Gibbs was their nursery leader, but before that always helped out every Sunday by taking a girl (Or two!)during Sacrament and/or Relief Society. I had their girls in Activity Days and they were some of our favorite babysitters up in Edmonton. WE MISS THEM!!!

These kids LOVE Rachel! She is so good with them.

Right before the Gibbs were leaving Rachel was SO sad and didn't want to go! I said we could take her up to Calgary in a couple days if she really wanted to stay! Her parents agreed so we got Rachel for 2 1/2 days! Weeee!!! Justin was on call a lot that weekend, so it was perfect timing for me too. I didn't have to be lonely!

The Gibbs recently went back to Taiwan for a visit and brought back a few souvenirs of the kids! Zach got an awesome Taiwan shirt and the girls got cute little cheetah dresses. So sweet of them.

I wanted to make it fun for Rachel, so I tried to fill up the weekend with fun stuff. First we baked cookies. 2 half batches of her favorites! Peanut butter with chocolate in the middle and chocolate chip cookies. Yum. I love baking!

It was fun watching her work with the girls. Cute cute.

Deliciously chewy pb cookies...mmm. The next batch was darker and Rachel wanted them! She likes crispy cookies! Good thing I never set a timer and often forget the last batch!

We also went to an awesome water park in Raymond. this isn't the water park, this is my backyard with a slip and slide...:) But I didn't take any pictures of the water park. Whoops. I think she did. Anyway, after the water park, we went to buy kool aid to make some snow cone syrup for her new snow cone machine and found this slip and slide on clearance too, so we bought it...along with A LOT of girl clothes for next summer! I love a deal. It was crazy shopping with the kids, but Rachel was there to help round them up every once in a while!
Anyway, Kate and Kara didn't really understand the whole slip and slide thing, but Kate really loved to drink the water!

So Kara joined her. I think Kara's mouth looks so funny!

I love this picture. What a cute little girl. Not a baby anymore. A little girl!!

And I think she know's she's darn cute too.

I love this one too. "What? Me? I have something on my face?" Love the drops all over. Oh Kate.

She was sooo good with them Thanks for playing Rachel! it was so fun!!!

As we were putting the slip and slide away she was trying to squeeze out the rest of the water for them.

Then they struck gold! A huge fountain of water!

...Every last drop. :)
I hope Rachel had a good time! I think she did. Cookies, movies, water park, playing with Kate and Kara, snow cones, making snow cone syrup, and babysitting for us one night so we could go for our anniversary date...dinner AND a movie...how could you NOT have fun?! I do know that she was ready to go when time was up. Babysitting is a lot different than hanging out with/living in the same house with the kids 24/7 isn't it Rachel? :) Not that it is a bad thing, I just know Rachel was REALLY bored. Especially during nap times.