Pumpkin Carving and SURPRISE VISITORS!!!!

It was a very special day that the kids had no clue about. Well, I did end up telling them a visitor was coming so they needed to help me clean and keep it clean. They were so excited and asked me all day long to tell them who it was! No way. It was hard for me to wait...because it was MY PARENTS who drove all day one day, stopped in Utah, and then all day another day up to us! They kept coming!!! They end up in Utah a lot since half of our family is there and a lot of Church events are there and I get a bit disappointed that we live so far away that my kids don't get to see Papa and MerMer and their cousins as often as they like, but this time they came to us. I was so worried about them driving up here (to winter!) but everything melted and stayed away until a couple days after they left. The did get to experience a couple days of freezing rain though. Weee. Here is the arrival!


Pumpkin time! Little Miss Priss didn't want to touch the pumpkin guts because they felt gross. :)

The others dug in.

Digging out the pumpkin seeds.  

 

 

 

 

Good thing Papa got here when he did! I get itchy and rashy if I dig out pumpkin guts. Weird I know...but convenient!! Worked with weeding sometimes too!!

Addie was excited to see them too! Last they held her she was 6 weeks old. 

I love this picture! Everyone looking and smiling. Quite the feat!
It was such a fun surprise for my kids. They love Papa and MerMer and want to go to their house. Me too!! Come and visit again!!! And again...and again... :)

First Snow...

October 22 we woke up to this...whoa. October 22?!!? That's 2 months before the official 1st day of winter! Lucky for me Justin was home for his "research" week and he took Zach to school. Well, tried to. We were snowed into our garage. Ridiculous. It is days like these that I question my living in Canada...or any place that has snow. But I know this happens to me every winter. The reality of winter. It always comes back! This year I even found myself in May dreading winter coming. "Yeah, the weather is turning beautiful now and spring is amazing here, but spring is here, and then summer will be gone, and then winter is here...for a long time." I know I have a sickness! It envelops my brain. Too much. But THIS IS WHY!!! I really really dislike this! When I can just stay home and watch the snow fall it is quaint. But life these days isn't all indoors! And I have a kid in school now that has to be there every morning! Before any thaw. Almost makes me want to home school...but that's not going to happen. So I have to grow up and be brave. I just feel ill prepared for this ('this' being winter roads and driving). Out of my element. Uninformed. I didn't grow up with this! Put me in L.A. traffic and i am way more comfortable than with a middle of no where winter road! Is it wet? Icy? Dry? And freezing rain? I thought that frozen rain=snow but apparently not! Even rain has to be threatening here! Ativan might be beneficial on a winter drive for me, but then maybe I would relax too much and then things would go wrong!
Anyway, you can take the girl out of Southern California, but you can't take the Southern California out of the girl...some days I long for my southern California "winters." Wearing my sweater until 11 a.m...Still mowing the lawn every few weeks...Or maybe I could fabricate my ideal winter. Maybe 5 dumps of snow. On the weekends only. When I have no errands to run, lots of groceries in my house, and nothing to be outside my house for and we could have time to play. And I would be at my ideal weight so I don't feel guilty baking all day. :) And the roads and sidewalks will be completely clear by Monday morning. Snow can stay on the grass for 3 months of the year with melt in between. Winter will only be in Winter. Like it says on the Calendar...December 21? First snow right in time for a White Christmas. Lows are NO LOWER than -10. And March 21st the blossoms are out. That's what the calendar says!!
Anyway, enough of my rant. I will get used to it and not be a crazy lady by the end of winter. Then Spring will come and I will fear winter again. And then I will realize that this is my life, for the next 100 years I will have the reality of winter 6-7 months of the year. I will be that 80 year old woman late for my shift at the temple because it took forever to brush off my car and get through the foot of snow on the streets, catching myself before I almost slipped on the icy sidewalk and broke my hip. Both of them. And my arms. Both of those too. :) At least it melts here in Southern Alberta. I am really enjoying that part of this!!
And Zach did get there. He wouldn't have if I was the only one home. No way.

But look at my blessing. I can't complain about ANYTHING when I have this. This is such a sweet picture of Adaleigh. I LOVE IT! And this is true to life. This baby is like this 99.3% of the time.

Look at that little face.

Later on I took the kids outside to play. It was fun, for a few minutes...until Kate kept taking off her mittens and I had to put them on a million times and they wanted to build a snowman but the snow wasn't wet enough to pack into a ball...JUST PLAY!!! :)

This girl (Kate) bathes in snow just like she does in any water. She LOVES the water and LOVES the snow and LOVES to eat snow and ice or anything having to do with water. But with snow your face gets cold and freezes, and if you take your gloves off you get cold! 

Zach's getting ambitious enough to help shovel. AWESOME! Get that man a bigger shovel!

Trying to navigate through the deep snow!

Here are some pictures from a week later. Addie has been mastering sitting up...

...still a work in progress.
(although now she is a champ at it!! I am slowly catching up on these blog posts!)

And Kate's new favorite lunch. Monster faces! Justin's mom said she used to do this for the kids and they loved it. My kids did too! So much so that Kate did it all by herself a couple days later when she helped make lunch! And she did sooo good! Love her creativity!  

Trying to make the same face if you can't tell.

 

Calgary, Alberta L.D.S. Temple Open House

All of us Alberta Lows (8 adults, 7 kids) got tickets for the last day of the open house of the brand new Calgary, AB temple. We met up at the hotel, had a pizza party, swam in the pool and then afterward celebrated Papa Low's birthday with delicious chocolate cupcakes made by yours truly. Yum.After the kids were all down we played cards! It was a blast. The next morning we got up bright and early to get to the temple by 8:15. It was beautiful. Then we got late check out so we could swim a bit longer and play with cousins. Such a fun, family filled festivity. And awesome alliteration.

Little Miss Addie showing off her delicious chubs in my favorite onesie undershirt. She just looks so creamy to me in it. It is white with tiny light pink stars on it and a pink bow. So sweet. Makes me want to eat her. And live somewhere warmer so I could see those cute arms more often. :)

Jace was really excited to see his cousins. ;)


Prepping for the delicious cupcakes.

  

Ha ha! Happy Birthday Papa!!

Adaleigh doing her nightly push ups. That's how she keeps her arms looking so toned.

Bright eyes and arm rolls, can it get much better?

Tali and Kara at the hotel, up way past bedtime, chowing on junk food.

Mmmmm...See, they were that good.


Our Rook tourney. We were the overall champions! Whoop whoop.

Adaleigh the card shark just helping me out.

Kamry went and checked on her kids and this is how they were sleeping! Soo cute!!!

...And this is how ours were sleeping. HA! Interesting position Zach.

 

The whole gang on a COLD morning at this beautiful temple. I loved the "wheat" theme they had in the stained glass and on the door handles and everything. It really was so beautiful inside and it was fun to take our kids and have them understand where we were and how special it was. Zach's favorite place was the baptismal font. Kate and Kara loved the sparkly lights. The chandeliers were incredible. I am so glad we all went up together and went through the temple.

Our little family at the temple.
When did we get so many kids?!

Cold little almost-one-year-old Benny boy.

Justin took the kids swimming while I packed up our room. Addie just kicked it for a while. I know I rave about this girl a lot, but she really is SUCH a good baby. Super happy, chill, along for the ride and excited about it. I love love love her. This is the kind of baby we needed for #4! :) Gotta love the soother smile. 

Swimming with Papa!

Zach standing on the water. Amazing, right?

Kate is our little water baby. She LOVES it.

Brian is such a fun grandpa.

And 7/12 of the Low Grandkids. They had a great time together! Yay for cousins!! Now move closer!

Crazy Hair/Rainbow Day!

The girls finished off their "Colors" theme at preschool with a crazy hair day/rainbow day. Naturally that makes me think that they need to wear every color of the rainbow and clash like crazy, so they did! It was fun letting them pick out whatever and doing their hair crazy. 

And I love the silly faces they pulled. Especially Kara using her finger to help her cross her eyes. 

She's an Eater!

We thought we would let Addie participate in Thanksgiving and gave her her first taste of real food! :) She loved it and was so great with it! She's been wanting something for a long time, watching with longing in her eyes as we take each bite. Now she just wants to eat everything we do! Looks like we are going to have to find room at our tiny table for another chair! Yikes.

:)

 

It's extremely out of focus, shakey, and LONG, but at least we got it on video! 

 

Look at that cute profile. :)