Winter Fun!

It was a beautiful winter day yesterday, and we stayed home all day to enjoy it! We've cleared off some snow off the big pond so the kids can skate around. It's not a large area, but it helps them learn how to skate better, and we don't have to worry about making a rink, just keeping the snow off!

In other news, the kids are getting very excited about Christmas. The excitement level builds a little more each day, hopefully we don't all burst by the time it actually arrives! Our dog Lacy had 3 maybe 4 puppies last Thursday night, the coldest night of the winter so far. Henry & the kids did move all the bales from around her dog house yesterday to have a look, but you can't seem them properly so that's why we don't know exactly how many there are. He did take one out for the kids to see, and the neighbor boy came to look as well (his dog is the proud father). I missed the action, so no pictures to show! That's about all the excitement we can handle for a while...lol...

The Real Thing

Here is our real Christmas tree. It's the nicest one we've had so far. This year I went to a greenhouse to buy it, so nice to shop out of the cold!

Beautiful Girls!

Little miss Brielle, the latest niece/cousin

I had the privilege of babysitting little miss Cate last Wednesday. It is so hard to get her to smile, but here her dad had her smiling, and I didn't want to miss the opportunity for a picture!

"walkin in a winter wonderland"

The forecast is for a cold winter. I can handle the cold, but there has to be snow. Well, we are seeing our share of snow! So many people are complaining about all the snow and how cold it is, but I figure if I want to live in Manitoba, then I might as well embrace the weather that comes with it. We got a good dump of snow in the past 24 hours. It looks so peaceful out there! The kids were blessed to have a short day at school. The school division called off the buses at noon, so we had to pick them up from school.

A blustry Monday afternoon, but I LOVE it!

How cute is this??

Isabella & Jeziah are the best of friends (cousins). I thought they were so cute all dressed up for the Christmas gathering.

I think this picture is priceless! Jeziah had been trying on clothes I had bought for a Christmas outfit. He was having a blast until he fell onto his finger somehow, and the fun ended. I'm not sure if you can see it, but he has a big tear coming out of his right eye, and the price tag on the sweater just completes the picture! (Just for clarification, he is not for sale, the sweater went back to the store)

Rockin Around the Christmas Tree!

That's the song that comes to mind when I see this picture, not that we were rockin around it or anything! Our tradition is to have a family tree that we decorate one month before Christmas. This is the tree where the kids hang all their own ornaments, and any other family ornaments we have collected over the years. It's getting to the point where we have quite a collection, which makes the tree look fuller. The kids did a great job decorating! Hopefully this week we can get our real tree for upstairs, just not sure where we're going to get one. But we'll keep you posted, lol!

Yesterday we started our Christmas get togethers with a gathering with my Mom's family. Lot's of food as always. Maybe too much...Dexter was friends with the pail and toilet from 3 to 9 a.m. He knew he had eaten too much, but nothing is more disgusting than when you prove it. UGH...

So is life with us right now...looking forward to more snow...it looks like we're in for a white Christmas! We'll talk again real soon...

Some Favorite Pictures

Here are a few of my favorite pictures I took this fall. I am falling in love with the sepia finish!

Hannah, Mackenzie & Tori

Danae, Natalie & Amy check out the pond. This was not a staged pose!

Kyla

p.s. you can now post without having an account.

A thought....

I came across this on another blog, and loved it so much that I thought I'd post it here as well.

The Drifting Life, by William Barclay
There are few people who deliberately and in a moment turn their backs on God; there are many who day by day drift farther and farther away from Him. There are not many who in one moment of time commit some disastrous sin; there are many who, but by bit and almost imperceptibly, involve themselves in some situation, and suddenly awake to find that they have ruined life for themselves and broken someone else's heart. We would do well to be continually on the alert against the peril of the drifting life.

How very true...

Wednesday, November 7th

Until about 2:00 p.m. yesterday, it was gorgeous out! NO wind and lots of sunshine. It felt a lot warmer than 5C. Jeziah & I enjoyed the outdoors for a couple of hours.

Jeziah was "fishing" with this stick. He doesn't want anyone to break the ice because he wants to skate on it. We're hoping he understands us when we say he has to wait another few months.

Yesterday afternoon.

Change is good.

I decided it was time for a change...

9:00 a.m. this morning...

4:00 p.m. this afternoon....

So I Lied?

The kids came home from school this afternoon and tell me they missed the bus this morning?? Apparently he was here, waited a few seconds and left. We must have been in the back room getting them out the door. He claims he was on time, I would say he must have been early. I wonder if our clock is loosing battery power or it wasn't set correctly with the time change...I better investigate. Whatever the case, the kids had a blast at home this morning!

Monday, November 5th

I hope you've enjoyed the blog update. Sorry if some of the pictures are a little fuzzy, I think I downsized them a little too much, but at least they upload really quick on my dial up connection! We had a funny happening today...the bus driver forgot to pick up our kids!!! My intention for today was to stay home, and I did not feel like taking them to town, so they have spent the morning at home. They will catch a ride back to school with Henry after lunch. I look at this as being one of God's interuptions in our lives! And who doesn't like to play hooky once in a while!

Our Southern Adventure - Oct. 22-27

Well, it's encouraging that there are people out there who wait for updates. Sorry to have been disappointing you in the past month! Hopefully this will bring you up to speed for now! What was supposed to be a quick trip to Edmonton for an auction sale, ended up being an American adventure in the southern states for a week. The purpose of the trip was to look at tanker trailers that were coming up for tender early November. We had four destinations: Marietta OH, Jeffersonville, IN (also known as the northern part of Louisville, KY), Calvert City, KY, and Spartanburg, SC. We flew to Columbus, OH and drove to each destination ending up in Atlanta, GA. Well, you can't drive that far south and miss an opportunity to see friends who live about 5 hours from Atlanta ;) So we met Cory & Tash in Montgomery AL for part of the day on Friday. It was a fun trip, but very busy and tiring. We set foot in 9 states (3 of them for the first time), drove over 1700 miles (not including to and from the airport at home), and saw lot's of hills and trees!

From Columbus to Marietta we took back roads. The fall colors were AMAZING! I wish everyone could experience such postcard beauty. The curvy roads did get a little old after a while!

After our first 3 stops, we took a short break and did some shopping in Nashville. It's always been my dream to spend time in Tennesse, and now I know I want to go back some day. It is a very beautiful state, and SO MUCH to do! After Nashville, we drove down to Pigeon Forge and spent a half day checking out a few sites. We loved the Apple Barn!

This shot was taken from beside our hotel in Pigeon Forge, which is at the foot of the Smoky Mountains.

The Old Mill Restaurant in downtown Pigeon Forge. This place still grinds all its own flour. We would have loved to have had more time and experience the food. Hopefully another time!

This picture was taken between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. I walked down a very steep embankment in flip flops to check out this piece of heaven on earth! Another very beautiful spot!

We drove the scenic route from Pigeon Forge back to the interstate towards North Carolina. It was good driving, except for the last 6 miles, which was narrow roads, very curvy, and not my favorite kind of driving, but the views were spectacular!

Driving in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. Very pretty, but....

what I call "white knuckle driving"!!

One of my highlights of this trip was to be able to see Cory & Tash. Who would have thought we would have opportunity twice in one year!! What a blessing to be able to keep our friendship alive!

Tash LOVES to take pictures!! We enjoyed a very quiet afternoon at a park close to Montgomery. The weather was a balmy 73F. A very relaxing day after having spent so much time being on the road.

And before you know it, it's time to say good bye, again. And next time we meet, Tash will be a mom! We can't wait to meet little "Miss Doerksen"!

Good Bye USA (taken as we left Atlanta). We have enjoyed our short stay in your country, but we are looking forward to seeing the prairies of Canada!! Yes, we love our flat roads and the fact that we can see for miles!!!!!

Happy Birthday Dexter!

It's been 8 years since we welcomed our first boy into the family! Dexter requested a DQ Oreo ice cream cake...no one complained about his choice!!

Barn - Oct. 19

Here is where the barn was at on Oct. 19th. Since then some of the doors have been added

. There has been no action the past week. I was really hoping it would snow yesterday like the forecast said it would...that way I could post a picture of the barn in the snow! (This is the view from the house)

September 30

Henry's parents celebrated their 40th anniversary this fall. The majority of the family got together this past Sunday to celebrate the anniversary and thanksgiving was included as well. We rode on the Prairie Dog Central out of Winnipeg and into Grosse Isle & Warren. The train car we rode in was 106 years old and was considered first class for it's time. Unfortunately the weather was miserable, so we weren't able to enjoy it to the fullest, but the kids LOVED the experience.

For supper 29 of us ate at Ichiban, a Japanese restaurant. The food was prepared in front of us, and as you can see, things got a little hot! The food was good, and another great memborable experience for the kids!

Family

Just a few fun shots from this past week.

I did some pics of the kids, and they set up this shot themselves, actually Dexter started it. I had to take it against the sun, which wasn't what I wanted, but in the end I kind of like how it turned out.
One of our self timer family shots. "If you smile nice, I promise this will be the last one" (I did manage to sneak in one more)

We are blessed to have the most adorable nieces!
Miss Cate - 3 months old
Miss Rayleen - 6 1/2 months

Happy Anniversary!

It was 14 years ago today that we made the covenant to live together as husband and wife. Henry brought me a dozen roses yesterday. I do get flowers from time to time, but rarely do I see that many roses at once, so it was extra special! Honestly, it does not feel like that long ago. As Jeff & Sheri Easter sing..."Life is great and gettin better". Here's to another 14...

Our Extended Family

Our farm family grew this month. Raquel & Jeziah have asked for a horse for a very long time. Jeziah wanted a white horse, Raquel a Palimino. We haven't been sure how responsible Raquel would be if she were to get a horse, as much as she claims to like one, it's still different once you own one. Instead of making that investment to find out, we did the next best thing! Our local camp is always looking for people to look after their horses through the winter, and we offered to help out. We now have 4 horses and a colt. And two of the horses are white! One of the horses is rideable without a saddle, so it doesn't get much better than that. Currently I'm not sure who is having more fun with them, the kids or the dog. Lacy has entertainment all day in the fence. The weekend the horses arrived, we also found a stray kitten in the yard. The kids said "now we have a real farm". I suppose the more the merrier! Oh yeah, Jeziah rode the horse the first weekend, but was a little frightened and wanted to get off. When he got off he said "but I'm still a real cowboy, right?" Of course :)

Projects

Our latest project has been painting our miles of fence. The project is a lot bigger than we had anticipated. Slowly but surely another pen gets done. We're are almost done the first coat on half the fence. We would love to see the first coat completed yet this fall. Here's hoping for Indian summer! The barn is coming along. Next step is the shingles, siding & windows. We also had one pond dug out this month. We're hoping to dump in a couple feet of sand, and use it as a swimming hole. If every summer is as hot and dry as this one, I don't think we'll be doing a whole lot of swimming! Our other pond in the front yard is also almost dried up, that tells us it's dry. We haven't seen it dried up since we moved here. So this is what's been keeping us busy this past month.

Back to School!

September 5th was back to school for Raquel & Dexter. It didn't take us long to find routine again. Jeziah started Nursery School on September 11th, and is going every Tuesday & Thursday morning. He grew up really fast...the nursery school is now in the high school. (Yes, the boys have the same shirts. Jeziah is so thrilled to have matching shirts, "just like Isabella & Hailey", his cousins who often wearing matching outfits.)

A Barn Update!

The barn has grown wings! Slowly but surely it's taking shape.
Jeziah wanted to help paint. I think he had more paint on him than on the fence, but he had fun! It took almost 2 weeks to get the paint out of his hair. The joys of using oil base paints.