Christmas is coming....christmas is coming

So little PK is getting excited about Christmas. He obviously isn't to the oh goodie presents stage but he senses that there is excitement about this event. He is very into turning on 'my christmas light' (snowman lamp) and plugging in the christmas lights (bannister is decorated). He is also newly attached to 'my christmas bear'

He has helped me make him a stocking as we used a christmas fabric bag for him the last two years and we thought perhaps a proper stocking was in order this year. Here he demonstrates what a smartie pants a two year old can be - stocking looks like a sock so it should go on ones foot shouldn't it?

Greetings from snowland

Well they said it was coming but I'm not sure I actually believed it. Here however is the proof.

And the littlest PK helped out with some sidewalk clearing.

It started Friday evening and as I write this on Monday at 3pm it is still snowing!

Move me........

So as a parent you get to experience so many great stages of a little ones learning. One of these is the learning words, expressions and so forth. Sometimes little ones come up with great versions of sayings.

A fav right now is "move me" for excuse me

Another great one is how many things are now "no my like". Atleast I know his opinion.

He is also very caring of his baby. He takes her for walks around the house and makes sure she gets breakfast and bottles regularly.

Goldstream

We went to Goldstream today for a Strong Start fieldtrip. The Nature House gave a great story all about a salmon's life cycle. We got to watch a frog eat it's breakfast and then we went down to the stream to see some of the fish spawning. Not a lot of fish today but still neat to see.

Learning about owls

Taking a few photos

A spawning Chum Salmon

Posing in a log

My favourite photo of the day 

Our Little Trick or Treater

We took little PK to four houses for trick or treating this year. One aunty and her neighbour and his Papa & Mimi and their neighbour. Then we headed to the community centre to partake in their live music, hot dog eating, bonfire, bouncy castle and other activities. PK wasn't sure about all these weird costumes on people but he sure liked the balloon he was given at the centre and spent most of his time hitting it around.

Little Lion all ready to go

His loot from four houses and the community centre.

Way too much for a little boy! Guess Daddy and Mommy will have to help out.

A very bad picture of this years decor. We cut out faces in large poster board. Once dark out the house light shines through the faces welcoming any whom wandered up our drive.

A Visit to Providence

Last week we went for a hayride, a pumpkin patch tour, animal watching and other fun and games at Providence Farm with little PK's Strong Start program. They got all the local strong starts to go on the same day which was fun with all these little kids running around.

The Hayride

The Steeple

And many a People

10 - 10 - 10

This was how we spent our Sunday afternoon. Watching friends get married. After several days of rain the sun and warmth came out just to celebrate their day. Very fitting.

Summer days

Not sure what this meant but boy was it cute.

Some intense choochooing - loving the truck transport.

Still in love with my new camera

Babysitting

Today PK and I babysat my mother's cousin's littlest one - M. Super cute. The two littlies had great fun together. PK helped by giving her a bottle and her soother and showing her how to do things. She was a pretty good sport about the whole thing. I just loved this moment.

The little princess out for some glorious summer sun wearing the crown we had whipped together in the craft room at GG's.

Tea For Haiti

The in-laws recently had a "Tea for Haiti" fundraiser. I contributed through making dozens of scones, donating jams, plants and items for the sale and auction, helped with set up prior to the event, etc, etc.

The exciting part was there was a donor who would match our funds raised by 10x's the amount up to $100,000. So the items I donated which netted $51.50 then became $515.00 and littlest PK whom painted cards for the event turned into $350.00 - not bad for a two year old!

Currently we are at over $6500.00 in donations which means over $65,000.00. I'd say that was pretty good for a two hour event on the front yard with less then a hundred people.

For anyone interest this is the charity the funds go through - Compassion Canada

Back in Business

So my old camera had given up and I have been super busy just living life......but now I have a new camera. Excitement! A snippet of our last couple of days.

Peek a Moo

PK made this cute cow mask at Strong Start several weeks ago. He enjoyed playing 'Peek a Moo' with Daddy.

Cinco de Mayo celebrated

So we paid a small tribute to Cinco de Mayo tonight by having a Kahlua Flan for dessert. I don't typically make dessert so this was a bit of a treat. I hadnever made a flan before so it was a fun experiment. I must say it was actually super easy to do and tasted pretty good if I do say so myself. PK on the other hand thought it was a fun thing to cut into a million pieces but not so good for eating - guess I can't complain if he doesn't want to eat something full of sugar :)

Been busy in the garden

It's been awhile since we left a note on here.

 PK and I have been busy little bees in the garden installing a new berry patch and starting to plant veggies for this years crop.

PK weeding and thinning out the strawberry patch.

Anyone need some plants?

Taking a break to sniff the flowers.

Garden Shed Fortunes

Found in the pocket of my spare gardening jacket hanging on the wall of my Potting Shed.

"When the daffodils bloom, so will great joy in your life"

"Make the most of a period of relative peace and harmony"

And on that note I will say goodbye and make the most of the time my husband has my child for a little father son time (ie: mommy peace time)

The last few days

Washing anything and everything is our newest funnest thing to do.

We do believe spring has sprung

Blue Jean Boy

Sweet Suite Cleanup

So we are in the process of freshening up our suite. Our tenant of 6+ years has moved out and we are painting, fixing, replacing and in general making the place look a whole lot better then it did. We inherited the place as it was when we purchased the property and had done nothing but repairs as needed since then. Now that the place is empty we have discovered how truly thrown together it was and figured now was a good time to throw some elbow grease at it before someone new moves in.

So here is a before of the kitchen.

I don't think this is what they mean by green living!

Littlest PK helping prep the cupboards to be painted.

The kitchen as it looks today.

Attempts at a Photo Time

I attempted to set up a photo shoot with little man this morning.

Not something to attempt without help apparently as someone thinks the curtains should be pulled on and one should grab at the camera.

I am leaving it all in the living room and hoping that perhaps a day or to of playing with it will make it old news and we can try again.

I did however catch this.

Sad Day......Happy Day...Grateful Moments

Today is a day that started with some sad news. My grandmother passed away. And though it may sound odd that is happy news. Though it is sad that she is no longer with us in the physical sense it is good...great in fact that she has passed away. The reason that it is great is that she had cancer and it was just a matter of time and no one could say just how long it would take. The doctors also said that it would be very painful near the end and yet she went suddenly from doing just fine to gone and for that I am happy. I didn't want her to have to suffer a long and painful drawn out closure to her life.

The odd thing is that our household was getting ready to go and see her when the phone call came. Had my Mother phoned me just 10 minutes later we would have been gone and the news would have come from some staff member at the hospital. So for that person whom was spared having to give me the news I am grateful. For receiving the news from my Mother rather then some unknown hospital worker I am grateful.
For my husband whom chose to spend the morning with us despite there no longer being the reason to go to Victoria with me - I am extremely grateful.

PK feeding my grandmother when we went for a visit with my father back in September. This was a visit I insisted on doing as I wanted to make sure we had atleast a photo or two of all four generations. It may not be a portrait but atleast I have something for the photo album.

A Fun find that makes you Feel Good!

So why you ask is there a picture of a handbag on my blog.

The answer

This super cool bag is made from recycled coke labels

This and many more styles can be found at http://www.ecoist.com/

Check it out!

Work in Progress

So the bathroom is almost complete. We have some touch ups to do around the countertop due to new backsplash not at same height as old backsplash. Sounds like maybe a new mirror going in - yeah! And then finally using the beautiful wrought iron towel racks, etc that we were given for Christmas several years ago.

Before

After

And a look at the project that has been going on in the front yard the last couple of days.

Littlest PK telling those guys to get back to work. Anyone need a pint sized supervisor?

I am very excited about our new block wall - it is already making the entrance to our property look a million times better.

Tonight's Fortunes

Asr the hubby spent most of his day working on our new retaining wall for our driveway I figured it was a good night for Chinese Smorg. Off to Kim Wah's we went.

My fortune
"Your search for knowledge will lead you to high places"

Little PK had a triple fortune in his cookie - how lucky is that!
"You have an important new venture shaping up"
"Financial security is just around the corner" - good news for a 16 month old :)
"You will soon face something new and exciting"

Reno time again

So now that the upstairs bathroom is complete (almost)

we decided to do a partial reno on the downstairs bathroom.

New paint, new countertop, sink and faucet.

So here are the boys hard at work on the bathroom.

Yes, we are plumbers

And mudders

A bit of handyman

Sanding till it's smooth

And this afternoon we were even painters!

But I'll save that picture until after the second coat.

Sunday morning and all is normal????

So we have croup yet again in our household. You wouldn't know that we were up most of the night judging from our rockin little guy this morning.

This is what he wanted to wear to help Daddy and Uncle Todd with the backyard project - cute eh!

So in order to clear my head and get a handle on my day I started Day 1 of my 14 week training session to run the TC10K. I haven't ran since before I was pregnant with little dude so it will be a good challenge for me. Today I did 5:1 x 3 and I just managed it so I figure so far so good.

And this is what the guys have been up to this weekend.

That would be the run of my chicken coop laying on top of my herb bed. The coop is now located behind the barn and the harb bed will be added to my vegetable garden to make on large garden - yeah!

A Way to Help Those in Haiti

Pass it on, pass it on, Please, Please, Please pass it on.

If you have Air Miles you can donate points to the Red Cross - 200 points gives $25 to them for medical supplies, etc and you even get a tax receipt for your donation.

So if you don't have money to spare at the moment but really want to help here is a way you can do so.

Robert Louis Stevenson says

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

Just a smart piece of advice I stumbled upon that made me want to share.

We're Back..

So we just got back from a nice visit down to Arizona, Nevada and California with my parents. I now have the task of sorting through the 1000+ photos taken on the trip to put together our photo album. I did my best and managed to stiffle the fits of laughter when the other half said I should be able to pick the best 50 for our album. I'll let you know how I do on that one.

Anyhow I may or may not post more of the photos up here over the next bit but here are a couple of cute ones of little man that I just can't help but share.

A good time had by all.