Mexico Trip

I'm not sure that it will be an annual tradition, but we took off to Puerto Vallarta again in November with my stepdad and stepsisters. This trip was to celebrate my stepdad's birthday, we all took him. It was a great week of sun, fun, family and relaxation. The kids, being another year older, had lots of fun. Happy Birthday Steve! Here are some photos:

Boo!

Fall Flies By...

As I mentioned last post, the kids seem to be growing up before our eyes. This is just some of what's happened this fall:

1. Jaina started Grade 1:

2. Lewis turned 3:

3. Jaina lost her first tooth:

4. We finally broke Lewis of his soother habit (because "the dentist said so" - its amazing how much pull people other than mean ol' mom and dad can have...). It was not traumatic for him in the least, but now he has started to drop his afternoon nap many days and he now has much difficulty (and us much frustration) settling at night.

5. Jaina had her 6th birthday:

It is certainly amazing how quickly they are growing up. Sometimes it makes me feel like this too:

Busy Busy Summer

Well here it is October already, about time to do an update on our busy busy summer! It's been so long since I posted, we did many things this summer, that I think I have actually been procrastinating on this post because I didn't know how to sum up the whole summer in a somewhat condensed manner (plus I bought a new digital SLR camera that I have been wanting for a long long long time and took just a few less than a million pictures so I have spared you by making a slideshow representative of our summer):
What did our family do this summer? We:
1. Went to a Canada Day parade in Airdrie. Lots of fun.
2. Visited family and friends in Taber and Lethbridge. Went to yet another parade (a CANDY parade) in Coaldale.
3. Made multiple trips to two of our favourite places, the Zoo and Heritage Park.
4. Ate lots of ice cream.
5. Took the kids to Calaway Park for the very first time. They absolutely loved it, and had a blast riding the tamest of the tame rides. But their fear if a ride so much as hovered a foot above the ground confirmed our decision not to visit Disneyland in the fall.
6. Jaina went to overnight camp without me for the first time (at the camp where Matt used to work summers), Lewis had his first sleepover alone at the Grandparents. They both LOVED their weekend.
7. Matt and I escaped to Waterton to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary.
8. We celebrated cousin Oscar's 2nd birthday.
9. We attended a couple of family weddings on Matt's side. Lots of fun to see relatives again.
10. On a sad note, Matt's grandpa passed away in August at the age of 96 years (4 years shy of his goal to be 100). He had an incredible zest for life and was an amazing person. We can all only hope to live as long as he did, in the great condition that he was. He will be missed.
11. Matt and I took the kids to B.C. We stayed with his wonderful aunt and uncle and explored Vancouver.
12. We made a side trip out to Vancouver Island to visit Matt's cousin and her family. Jaina had her first horse ride and both kids loved the acreage and animals there. It was a great visit.
13. We came home through Kelowna and spent a few days there with our beloved cousins Nate and Kristie and family who moved there in May. We enjoyed lots of beach and playground time.
14. Then we went with Nate and Kristie to Kristie's family cabin on a smaller lake in the Shuswap. The kids had an absolute blast together, as did the grown ups. We spent two days swimming off the dock and hanging out, and Matt and I even got to try wakeboarding for the first time. We had quite the view of a forest fire at Notch Hill.
15. Then we came home and our kids continued to grow up before our eyes (more to come next post).

Here is a slideshow, about 1/1000th of the pictures taken this summer:

Super Science Fun!

On Friday we took a little trip to the Science Center. Jaina had been asking me to go for quite a while, since we found out that the special exhibit currently there was about the author Robert Munsch and his books, which we love. It turned out to be the best day we've ever had there. I suspected it might be a good day to go. Jaina finished kindergarten on Thursday, but most kids still had school on Friday. So it wasn't quite summer holidays yet. But it was the last day of school. So, no school age kids. No field trips. No day camps. It was even better than I expected. We practically had the whole place to ourselves. The kids could actually try out the hands on exhibits without waiting, and could have as much time and as many turns as they wanted. No crowds to fight. No need for patience. And, lots of opportunity to take pictures of my own kids without others in the background! (Hence the rather lengthy slideshow below). The Robert Munsch exhibit was extremely well done and lots of fun (amazing what the science centre can do to create a hands-on experience, even with a literacy theme) Here are many photos of our day:

Little Lucy

We are very excited to welcome our new niece to the world! Lucia Beatrice Olfert was born on June 16, 2009. Congratulations to Jason and Michaelia, and big brother Oscar. We are so happy to have a niece (and a "girl cousin"). In fact, Jaina is very happy that their family is now the "opposite" of ours, a big brother and little sister. We were lucky enough to be able to go up to Edmonton this past weekend to meet her, and she is super adorable (and so far, a content, sleepy girl). We also went up as a family trip to celebrate Father's Day, and enjoyed our stay at a hotel with a pool and waterslides (not West Ed, another one only 5 mins from Jason and Michaelia's house...) The kids had a blast meeting their new cousin, playing with Oscar, staying at the hotel, and playing at the waterpark (we went swimming twice Saturday and once Sunday, joined by Oscar and Jason on the Saturday). We had a nice visit with our family too. Here are some pictures of the new arrival:

Relay for Life 2009

Last weekend we had a team that participated in the Relay for Life to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society. This was our second year doing it, and we decided to do it at the Taber relay, and our team was named "Bev's Babes" in honour of my mom. It turned out to be a beautiful night. The weather was amazing and the candlelight luminaries were an emotional tribute to those fighting cancer or those whom cancer has taken away. Our team really pulled together this year and besides supporting one another on this emotional night, we also raised just over $8000 for the Cancer Society! (We have had some donations since the relay...) Thanks to everyone who donated and/or participated. We plan to do it again next year too.



On a sad note, my Granny passed away yesterday, after falling and breaking her hip and undergoing surgery for it, she had had heart problems last week and just couldn't recover fully from the stress of surgery, I guess. She was 90 years old, and lived a full, fun life. Fortunately we had a very nice visit with her on Sunday when we were in Taber after the relay, and we are so glad we all got to celebrate her 90th with her a month ago. She will be missed.

Edmonton Escapades

On the May long weekend, we enjoyed a visit to Jason and Michaelia's house in Edmonton. The cousins had a great time playing together and we enjoyed a really nice visit, as well as having our first chance to see their recently purchased house in Edmonton and all their modernizing renos. Very nice indeed! We had a fun-filled weekend, playing at the wavepool, a bbq at the park, and a visit to Fort Edmonton. And we even had a chance to catch up with an old friend and her family (old, as in long-time, Heather, not old!) on our way out of the city on Monday.

Here is a slideshow of the kids having fun at the park and Fort Edmonton.

(Badly Belated) Birthdays: New and Ninety

Ok so once again it has been much too long since I posted, but life has been busy. That's a good thing though, being too busy living life to have time to blog about it, right? That's what I've been telling myself anyway for the past 3 months...

Two major events have happened in my family since I last made time to post here:

My sister Veronica and her husband Chris welcomed their first baby, Timothy Walter Falk on March 5th. He is happy and healthy (not to mention, adorable. Ok, I'll mention it - he's adorable!!). Part of the reason I've been putting off posting this is that all the photos I took of him brand new at the hospital are hiding somewhere in cyberland and somehow got missed when Matt updated our computer and put in the new hard drive, they're hiding on the old one and he's promised to rescue them soon. We're thrilled to have a new nephew and happy for them as they are adjusting very well to life with a baby. So here are a couple of the few photos I have taken of him, one after Easter dinner at our house and another of the happy family at the baby shower.
At the beginning of May we travelled to Taber to celebrate my Granny's 90th birthday with her. We had a tea at her senior's manor and then a dinner for a great many family and friends at a hall later that evening. She was thrilled to see everyone and enjoyed the day thoroughly. It was great to see many family members and family friends. Here's a picture of Granny with our family and Veronica's family at the tea (sorry for the bad photo, too many cameras were out) and one from the leftover eating party the next day at my aunt's house, which I love so I thought I'd include:
Other happenings: In April we had all our Olferts here for Easter and to celebrate Matt's mom's milestone birthday with a girls' afternoon at the Alice in Wonderland Ballet, and a wonderful (grown up) family dinner out downtown. We also rented scaffolding and painted our front hallway/foyer and changed the chandelier. Also in May, Jaina and I have been to Spark camp, we've celebrated my birthday (not a milestone), visited Jason and Michaelia and our other nephew Oscar in Edmonton, and brought our yard a bit up to our new neigbourhood's standards. So, more to come hopefully this week on some of our other activities.
For now, a much overdue:

Welcome Timothy!

Happy Birthday Granny!

My Beautiful Princesses

Lately, I've been trying to work out again, especially on weekend mornings when we don't have to rush off anywhere. I can't say it's been going great, but I try, I really do. It's hard though because usually Matt sleeps in (he's been working the more than occasional night shift again) and I take the kids down to the basement with me, where they proceed to tear it apart. In the course of a workout that's just over an hour, they manage to make the basement look like they've been living down there for a week, or a tornado has gone through. Oh well, I try and tell myself, at least they're having fun. They do get some elaborate schemes going, Jaina is still, as ever, such a "director". The funniest was last weekend. I was running on my treadmill which is in a room just next to the main room where they were having a lovely time together. All of a sudden I hear a little voice announce, "Look Mommy, I pincess!" and I look over to see my little boy adorned in the beautiful, fancy, Snow White costume his big sister owns, and just beaming. Here he is with "Mulan". Aren't they pretty? He walked around in the dress up shoes for a while but had them off by the time I got back downstairs with the camera. And then I had to pause to see them dance and sing. Thought I'd share:




The next day he was a winged fairy, but I didn't have my camera. He also appears sometimes as a ballerina. Or a beach-goer, clothed in his sister's shorts and what is, according to her, "his favourite shirt" which is white and a pretty lime green and reads "I love ice cream." I hope later in life he is not going to blame my quest for fitness for any issues he may have??

The School Bus Sled

Just had to post this picture. It's a picture of the kids ready to head to school on a typical morning. It shows how we've been getting to school for the past couple of months. My legs are getting a great workout, pulling the kids up the street and across the field to the school. Usually only Lewis rides and often I can convince him to lay down, which is the lightest load to pull. I don't mind, it's fun for them and it's certainly about a hundred times easier than carrying a toddler puffed up in a snowsuit who has stopped short in his tracks and refused to take another step halfway to school in the snow and wind.

One day I will reminisce about all of this wistfully, right?

In the Snow

Here's a little slideshow to show how much snow we've had in the past few weeks.

Of course, it's all going to melt into a big mess as temperatures have now been on the plus side, as warm as 9 or 10 degrees C for a few days. So many people were getting their cars stuck in the snow right on their own streets, and it's just as bad in the slush. Friday morning I saw the garbage men pushing out my neighbour across the street!

We've been doing lots to keep busy in January.

Matt painted and replaced the fixtures and toilet in our main floor bathroom (all by himself, with the instructions and his plumbing book! So impressive!)
Jaina's keeping busy making crafts she got for Christmas. Here she is with the princess she made all by herself.
Lewis has moved out of his crib (for safety reasons!) and Matt converted it into a bed. This is making life interesting with some early early mornings and listening in the evenings for an escaped toddler...

Christmas and New Years

Well here I am finally getting around to posting about Christmas and New Years this year. Things were supposed to slow down a bit in January and I guess they have but life is still busy!

In typical fashion we celebrated Christmas quite a few times with various family get-togethers. Before going south, we had our own pre-Christmas morning at our own house. Here is Matt with a special present that Jaina made him at school:

We went to Taber to stay with Papa for Christmas Eve. It was fun for the kids, we were quite sad missing my mom, but I think it helped to be together with each other. And it was nice to spend some time with Papa. We also had a nice brunch on Christmas Day at my stepsister Laurie's house and got to spend some time reminiscing with the Mexico gang.

We had a nice Christmas dinner at my Auntie Carole's on Christmas Day. My cousin, my Granny, and Veronica and Chris were there too. I guess we were having too much fun or were too busy keeping up with the kids to take many photos, but here's Lewis with Granny:

We had some good family time at Grandma and Papa O's house, with Uncle Jason, Auntie Michaelia and Oscar staying there too. Again, we were too busy having fun and didn't end up with many family photos, here are the kids "helping" Oscar open his gifts:

We took the kids to a hockey game while we were there, here are the two of the cutest hockey fans ever:

Then New Year's was spent in Calgary with the Olferts. Some went to the Flames vs. Oilers game while Michaelia and I hung out at the house with the kids and had a good visit. We did a fondue here and went out for brunch the next day. It was a fun time with family.

Christmas Letter 2008

Well this Christmas letter is a bit difficult to write, I wasn't sure I was going to write one this year but decided to give it a shot (we do enjoy reading those that we get from friends and family...)

Sadly this will be our first Christmas without Michelle's mom. As most of you who may be reading this probably know, she lost her fight with what was originally colon cancer and passed away in July. She had done chemo from last September (2007) until February and her doctor was very pleased with her results, and she handled it all with such strength. We did know however that the cancer remained on her liver, but in the spring she was feeling quite well. She took lots of time this spring spending time with all the people she loved, and doing things she loved such as traveling. Unfortunately she began to feel ill during their trip to Europe and they returned home early. She went into the hospital on July 1 and learned that tumors had grown in her abdomen, and she was quite uncomfortable as they were quite large and obstructing her intestines. This made her very sick quite quickly and she passed away July 11. We were all there with her throughout this time. It was shocking to see her become so ill so quickly, but we take comfort knowing she did not suffer for a long period of time and this was the way she would have wanted it. We are thankful that she felt so well in the months following her treatment and had a chance to do what she wanted. We all miss her very much and this will be a difficult Christmas for us all, as it was her favourite holiday and she always made it very special for everyone. So, we try to carry on and make it special the way she did.

In May Michelle, Veronica and some friends and family participated as a team in the Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life, to raise funds for the Cancer Society's research and programs. We had very generous support from friends and family and spent a cold rainy night doing the relay. We plan to form a team again this year and make it really special in honour of my mom, and hope to even do the relay down in Taber.

This year our family also moved to a new house(unfortunately the timing of it was quite bad - after putting an offer in and being accepted in late April, we spent the spring trying to sell our house. It sold at the end of June, and the possession date for our new house fell on the same day as my mom's funeral. Fortunately we had a great realtor who did a lot for us during this time). We had been deciding back and forth on this for a long time, as we were not designated to attend the school in our neighbourhood, as it was too full and we were outside the walk limit. Knowing that Jaina would have to take the bus anyway, we began to look into the French Immersion program. After researching it we decided we would like to try it out. We then found out from a friend that the neighbourhood school in her community (which she loves) offered French Immersion. We began looking at houses off and on. We finally found one that we absolutely love, a block from school (and, as a bonus, around the corner from good friends of ours). The neighbourhood is wonderful so far, with friendly people, and it's really nice that Jaina's classmates all are within the community. Two of her friends from her class live right down the street, which has been nice for all of us. They can play together and we can help each other out when we have sick toddlers or appointments, etc. It's so nice (most days, except this cold spell!) to be able to walk to school. She is loving kindergarten so far and picking up quite a bit of French already. I have been taking a "French for parents" class in order to refresh my basic knowledge and be able to help Jaina out a little bit! And I've had a few opportunities to volunteer in her classroom which is fun from both a parent and former teacher perspective. As for my work, I decided to resign from the school board and stay home at least this year, possibly a few more, with the kids. I felt that they were only young once and since we are fortunate enough to be able to work it out financially, it was the best option for us (and besides that, we worked out that working part time and paying childcare for 2 kids wouldn't make us enough extra to be worth all the stress and scheduling hassles...) Having been through some tough times this year as well has maybe helped us to see the importance of this time when the kids are young, that we'll never get back. So now I am debating about going back to university to take courses towards my masters, one course at a time. We will see if that falls into the plans for next year or not. Matt is still working as a network specialist in broadband technologies at Shaw, and working quite a bit of extra on-call time, which has also helped us work things out on one income. He is loving our new location as he can now carpool with 3 other guys from his team, and is the last one picked up and the first one dropped off. It has worked out to be much faster than taking the bus and train! He has also been working hard in our new house, in the summer when we got possession he painted 8 rooms before we moved in! And we still plan to repaint the hallways, entrance, and possibly basement. He is just finishing drywalling the ceiling in our storage/workout room, which was a big job. And of course, he's still a hockey fanatic, going to Flames games with Chris as often as he can! Lewis turned 2 at the end of August and keeps us on our toes! He finally began walking in March but you'd never know now he was such a late bloomer, as we chase him all over the place. He still has his cheerful, easygoing personality which is a joy to be around. He is talking quite a bit so we get a bit of an insight into his mind. He loves playing cars, playing at the park, making messes around the house, doing anything that his big sister does, and napping. He tried out gymnastics this fall with me, and enjoyed it but did show us his stubborn side, he was very set in what he would and would not do or try. Besides school Jaina has also kept busy with activities. She did some more swimming lessons which she loves, and is now in singing and Sparks. I am also involved in Sparks as a leader (her Spark unit needed another leader for the amount of girls they have), and am glad to be back involved with the girls in Guiding. It also is nice because since I'm not teaching, I am enjoying doing things with this group of girls.

This summer we also got the exciting news that Michelle's sister Veronica and her husband Chris are expecting their first baby. We are all so excited about this, and await baby's arrival in early March. Jaina and Lewis are excited about having another cousin. We hope to babysit a lot (and I'm sure they will let us!)

In November we took a family trip to Mexico with Michelle's stepdad, his kids and some of his grandkids. It was bittersweet because it was a trip that we had planned to take with my mom, but it was a nice family time and a chance to bond with one another more. We all had some much needed relaxation and fun in the sun.

Christmas this year will be spent with my stepdad in Taber and then with Matt's family in Lethbridge for a few days. We are looking forward to some relaxing family time and fun with grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins.

We are thankful for all the friends and family that we have and we love you all! (And the door to our new home is open to any of you, at any time...)
We wish all of you a Merry Christmas, hoping you have time to create some special memories with those you love this holiday season.

Love,
Michelle
and with love from Matt, Jaina and Lewis

December

Well December is a busy month as usual and is flying by. We've been busy with school, the kids' activities, Christmas parties and preparations, shopping, and sometimes enjoying (sometimes cursing?) the large amount of snow we've had lately. The kids love it, the only problems are when it's too cold to actually be outside (with windchills around -40C a couple of times in the past week), and the way that the snow and ice create driving havoc in the city.

Anyways, as busy as we are this month, we wanted to post some pics of our activities that we've been up too, the kids are growing and changing as fast as ever. Lewis has again made some major developmental leaps and is definitely a full-out toddler now, no longer my little baby boy. He's a running, talking, playing machine. Jaina too is such a big kid, busy with school, friends, and activities. Here is a link to some pictures of what we've been up to this month.

Click here to see a few December photos


My next post will be the daunting task of writing a Christmas letter. My cards were mailed today (a little on the late side, I know). I thought including a note in them saying the Christmas letter would be up on the blog would ensure that I stopped procrastinating and wrote a little something about our year. So hopefully that will be up soon (maybe, by the time our friends and family receive their cards!).

Mexico

Just about a week ago we got home from spending a wonderful week in Puerto Vallarta. It was such a nice escape from the busyness of life for a week. We went with my stepdad, his kids, and a stepcousin and her mom. Sadly, my sister and her hubby were not able to join us, as she was not feeling well enough to come and was a little worried, wanting to take extra careful care of baby-to-be (due in March!). It was a happy and sad trip, as it was a trip we were going to take with my mom this fall, so we all decided that she would have wanted us to go and enjoy ourselves, so we went with thoughts of her with us. It was a very nice opportunity to spend time with that part of our family and get to know each other even better. Everyone had a great time, Lewis liked playing in the sand (but not too close to the water...) and Jaina spent most of the week jumping into the swimming pool and practicing her swimming. We had beautiful sunny weather every day and nice warm evenings. Having lots of relatives around was nice too because Matt and I had a few opportunities to be out together while someone stayed with the kids in our room.

Now that we're back life is in full swing as usual, as we realize it's time to get ready for Christmas! In the interests of time, I am going to try something new and hope it works. I have two full albums of Mexico pictures on Facebook, and hopefully clicking on these links will take you to the photos if you would like to view them.

Mexico Photos Album 1

Mexico Photos Album 2


If this works maybe I will post more often as I seem to spend most of my time when I post making and adding slideshows or uploading pictures.
Michelle :)

And that was October...

Life is just staying as busy as ever, leaving little to no time to keep up with things like the blog. So here's a quick update: Had a nice Thanksgiving in Lethbridge, celebrated Jaina's birthday (far too many times, but it always seems to go like that with hers - friend party, family dinner, down to visit family... etc) and then Halloween. So now our little girl is 5. How time flies. And we also couldn't believe the exceptionally warm Halloween we had this year - it must have been about 10 degrees C for trick or treating. It's a rare year when kids can wear their tights without a snowsuit underneath!! Here are some pictures to show our highlights of this month:

Growing Up

Well as probably any of you who are actually reading this blog know it has been a crazy summer for us, some very bad and some good. We hope to post some before and after pictures of the new house soon, but that's not what today' s post is about. Today, it is about how fast the kids are growing up before our very eyes. On the weekend, Lewis celebrated his 2nd birthday. He is more like a child than a baby every day (although he does have some "baby" habits that we hope don't follow him right to adulthood, such as his extreme soother attachment! - he is the only child I've seen try to climb INTO his crib, because the soother was in there, and he was scaling the outside yelling "hold it, hold it!!"...) But besides a few things, he is becoming a walking, talking, running, yelling machine, who every morning announces his grand intentions for the day, to "pay toys" and can't wait to get downstairs to his cars, train table, and other toys. We planned to have a BBQ with close family to celebrate his special day, but as on the day he was born, the weather was cold and rainy so the party moved inside. But it was nice to have family celebrate his birthday with us, minus one special Grandma who was missed very much...
The birthday boy:As part of the long weekend, Jason, Michaelia and Oscar came down from Edmonton and we enjoyed a family outing to the Zoo. Here is a picture of the three cousins, Oscar you can see too is growing up quickly, he celebrated his first birthday at the beginning of August.Two days after Lewis' birthday, Jaina began Kindergarten! It's hard to believe she is almost 5 already. We are loving the location of our new house, it's just a 5 minute walk to the school. Jaina is in French Immersion and has already learned a couple of french words (and has many more of her own invention...) She has already also met 2 girls in her class who live right down the street from us. It's been a bit of an adjustment having to be ready to leave the house shortly after 8 am, as we're sure 5 mornings a week of school will be. But so far after the first 2 days she is loving school and we hope that continues. Here are a couple of pictures from the first day of school: