A good weekend in January

Last weekend we had the fun of Uncle Tim and his friend Mike coming over. 
And it was fun. Really. Truly.
Lots of laughter, craziness and enthusiasm from these guys.
Thanks Tim for also helping me get to the hospital with Rowan when his head kissed the stool, and to Mike for taking care of the other two so Andy could get the chores done.
And for playing Settlers with us.  It's pretty good for a 5 year old's ego when even he can beat you...
although we can just say you didn't try very hard;)
Thanks for fitting us into your ski trip!

Settlers of Catan match! 

Rowan proudly sporting his new look:)

Oma snuck some gifts in Uncle Tim's suitcase.  We doesn't love a new book? Thank-You!

Hobbies

Hello!!
It's January.
Which means (to me anyways,) it's that time of the year when there's not alot going on. It's the middle of winter so it's cold and the month is long (31 days).
So far we've been blessed in that no one has come down with a cold or the flu.  Except for me:) Go figure.  Three days of fever and I'm getting a little tired of it!  
So since I'm doing alot of dreaming and conspiring about what to tackle once I'm feeling up to it, I figure now is a good time to put together some of my "hobbies".
Here's what has been keeping me busy and inspired.

I fell in love with pillows of this sort online some time ago, and I found a yard of brown linen, which was perfect for me to make myself some pillows with coordinates from our hometowns.

Drapes for the livingroom.  Makes it feel just that much more like a home.

The bathroom that we got a new counter in finally got painted!  The instant feeling of relaxation from having my purple bathroom back might make you laugh, but to me, it was comfort:) 

And since there was leftover purple paint why not smear it over our bedroom right? 
Just the name of it is lovely... Purple Pashmina - by Beautitone.

(Bedroom before)

And while painting, why not use up the left over yellow from the living room in the other washroom?  To go with my horizontal stripes that I'm enjoying right now I thought an Anthropologie inspired shower curtain would something fun to sew up and make original. The light fixture was in need of some TLC too so thankfully the black spray paint had made the move with us and it was a quick fix.

 

 

 

French pleats

I found this soft Dr Seuss inspired {horizontal stripe} flannel online just in time for the boys to have new pajamas for 2014.

I love pouring over the Micheal Chang colour books for minutes hours at a time. You might be surprised I can even get anything done after all that time wasted dreaming colours. I love colour!

Ice

A bit of thawing...
A bit of freezing...
Some wind...
Bright sunshine...

Who knows what the weather is going to do here? It seems to be going up and down like a yo-yo.

It's interesting for us to watch.  One day it's so nice and balmy we are outside riding bikes, the next we are sitting by the big glass doors watching the rain/snow fly past the window horizontally.  (Did I mention the playhouse went flying by too?) 
I don't mind. We are all cozy at home, with no place we have to be.  

I've heard it said that it's boring to talk about the weather all the time. But I've also heard it said that we are blessed to live in a country where there is nothing worse going on then the weather! 
Interesting way to look at things.
What do you think?

With the thaw and freeze we got a bit of a puddle in the field. Yesterday it was perfect for skating on, and with aspiring skaters in the house, we packed up and headed out for some exersice.  It was so much fun for Andy and I to watch their eager faces totally give it their all.  I remember the good feeling of fresh air, ice and skating. 
Sweaty heads, sweaty hands, big appetites at lunch = healthy kids.
We are waiting for another freeze, maybe tomorrow.

A little late... but still...

...Happy New Year! 

My moms youngest sister is Lydia K. She lives with her hubby and six kids in Alberta, about seven hours north of here.  She married a dutchy, as did I, so we have a bit of a common bond (think dutch jokes, olliebollen, and of course dealing with the superiority complex that comes with, well, being Dutch. :)  Of course we have more then that in common, but its convenient that Andy and Hans get along really well, by marriage Andy is a nephew, but there is only a few years difference in age.
Before we had even moved here they had said to us "We will come for New Years!"
Of course, once we were here, we held them to it:)  And come they did. With all six children.  It was a fun fun time, lots of chatting and chocolate, games and giggles, kids and coffee.
H. and L., thanks for coming, and helping to ring in the New Year.  We can't wait to see you again! 

~ December 31st ~

Settlers of Catan! What a great game!

The babes got tired but did not want to miss out on anything. I put Rowan in bed and he woke right up again, wanting to be where things were happening:)

Tristan and Allen - same age down to the month, which is remarkable since they even look alike!

~ January 1, 2014  ~

 On new years day we headed out to see some local scenery - and got a bit stuck. They said it's 'cuz we are Ontario drivers:)

 

What a happy bunch!

Lydia and Joyanne

The menfolk!

And a creative time was enjoyed by all:)

They treated us to a take-out supper of Chinese food from the Hong Kong restaurant.

A little habit we have is reflecting on Psalm 90 the few days after first of the new year.

I will leave some of it here as encouragement and comfort as we all go forward in the year of our Lord, 

Two Thousand and Fourteen.

Psalm 90 : 1,2, 12-17(NIV)

Lord, you have been our dwelling place
    throughout all generations.

Before the mountains were born
    or you brought forth the whole world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

    Have compassion on your servants.

Teach us to number our days,
    that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

 Relent, Lord! How long will it be?
    Have compassion on your servants.

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
    that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
    for as many years as we have seen trouble.

May your deeds be shown to your servants,
    your splendor to their children.
May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;

    establish the work of our hands for us—
    yes, establish the work of our hands.

Festivites - big and small

A little bit of this and a little bit of that made up the month of December.

First of all, we got our new Alberta license plate.  Out with the blue, in with the red. Weird feeling!

 Early in December the boys had a little Christmas concert with the SonShine Bible kids from church.  What excitement!  Can you spot Seth and Tristan?

Seth's line for memorization:

 "A heart would show mercy that came from above, 

to wrap the whole world in Gods perfect love". 

 ...a little closer up.

 After three nights of singing loudly in front of the mantel for Sinterklaas, Sinterklaas came. They were pretty concerned he wouldn't make it with all the snow we had that week! But he pulled through and the boys were ecstatic to find this pile waiting for them.

 (Thanks Beppe for the extra gifts! They've had alot of fun with them.)

 Watching Rowan is entertainment in and of itself. He is so excited to be part of everything!

 Seth and Tristan got a hockey net! And armour... which they happen to think is Hobbit gear. So now I have two little hobbits running around the house. Hours of fun!

Olliebollen! My favourite winter treat.

 We made them in the shop this year - I did not want to go to church on New Years eve smelling like a deep fryer, so thankfully, we have the shop:) It's hard to fill up the bowl with these two around!

A night away

After having such a good time, (first making the drive up to Calgary - then shopping and touring) we merrily put the address of our reserved hotel into the GPS.  Yay, it was only a few minutes away!
We were tired and hungry at this point, the sun was setting and the kids were eagerly waiting for the promised pool.  Murphy's Law though, had to kick in and the hotel we drove up to was...dark. Yes, pitch dark. So was the whole block it was on.  Oh help!! Turns out a transport truck had hit a hydro pole earlier that day and it was still in the process of being fixed.  They promised us it would be on soon - but I was not going for it.  After some phoning around we were transferred to another hotel of the same chain - 20 minutes down the road. One good thing - this one not only had a pool, but also a slide!
I must admit, our kids are pretty cautious, sometimes even overly cautious. But for some reason they thought the slide was meant for them.  Although if Tristan hadn't gone first I don't know if Seth would have gotten up the nerve.  Both boys can't swim yet so Andy caught them at the bottom of the slide - good thing too since the first time Tristan came out he was going so fast he was upside down and splayed like a gingerbread man.  He had no idea where he was going so fast - the look of horror on his face was quite priceless. Andy didn't see him coming and just managed to reach up to grab his leg and arm as he came flying out the end.
It took a while to wear the look of shock off his (and his mothers) face!   We cherish these family times with our boys. They are only little once, and making memories like these are precious.  
Our hearts are happy and full.

Tristan in the giant bath tub:)  Mmmmm. so warm:) 

Does Rowan look unhappy?  He is.  This kid loves water so much that having him loose was thoroughly hazardous.   Good thing we were the only swimmers - no one else to listen to his crying.

Devonian Gardens - Calgary

So much to share!  So many fun photograph-able things have happened!  (is that even a sentence or word? ). And our internet was down for the past week so now there will be blog overload!

The month of December was busy! Even we were surprised by how easy it was to fill the days, evenings, and weekends... us who don't even have family here!
The barns were emptied on December 17th, which meant a week of serious cleaning.  Hard and tedious work for Andy - good thing he doesn't mind at all! But once everything thing is scrubbed and shiny again, there are a few days off before having to get ready for the new flock.
It just so happened that we were empty over Christmas - NOT to be considered normal!  So we were really happy about that unexpected break!
We decided to make the most of it and go check out what Calgary had to offer while getting some items on our long to-do lists checked off at the same time. (moving creates l--oooo-n--g to-do-lists!)
If you ever have the urge to see what downtown Calgary has to offer we highly recommend the Devonian Gardens - a 2.5 acre indoor park and botanical garden.  You have to go find some (outrageously expensive!) underground parking close to the noisy, dirty train yards, but then you go above ground to the gorgeous Core Shopping Center, and from there... the indoor Devonian Gardens.
(Please forgive the photo quality - we left the camera behind and used our super smart phones (:  )

Mountains in the distance. (our gas pedal got stuck under the mat on the way up... I thought for sure we'd have to go the whole way at 147kms per hr. Talk about a quick way to get your heart rate up!)

Driving thru downtown... its really quite nice! 

At the entrance to the gardens:)

FISH!!! in the pond

Pretty interesting park for the kids!

 As I mentioned above the Gardens are inside the Core Shopping center, on the fourth floor actually.  I realize that I am blessed to have a husband and children who don't mind shopping... so there was nothing stopping me from checking out this beautiful building! 

 Coffee and Timbits were a must for this bunch of Canadians. ;)