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. ;)

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

"And suddenly there was the the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying;

"Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased."

 Luke 2:13,14

Greetings from our home to yours this Christmas season!!

xoxox

Let it Snow!

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!
While heartily singing this line from the carol, I stumbled upon the realization that the first verse really hits home right now. 
Let me expand.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful,

• temperatures here last week of -35C. 
• The sump pump water outlet had a chunk of ice in it, which means water backed up into our basement all night, which also means we woke up to carpet that had to be ripped out, baseboards taken off, etc. etc.
• It was so cold, there was ice inside the house on the windows. Cold was radiating from the walls.
• After attending Bible study we were thankful to have the truck to get us thru the hard drifts, and make it home safely..until we tried to get into our own driveway...where we got nice and stuck.
  
• Somewhere down the highway there was a power outage which affected our farm. Instead of having Three Phase power we had Two Phase, which means the house was fine, but we woke up (another morning) to the barns loosing their heat and having no water.  The generator didn't kick in due to there still being some power. Since the block heater wasn't heating the generator anymore, when we did want to start it, the generator was too cold and needed and hour and a half heating before it started.  (A great way to meet the friendly neighbours in a hurry!!) 
• We were switching phone lines around so the barn alarms never went off, alerting us.  Stress.

But the fire is so delightful

•  It is.  I count my blessings in the evenings, sitting cozy warm by the fireplace, with my loves all around in bed or right with me, filled with food and healthy.  God is faithful.

And since we've no place to go 

• We don't exactly have alot of friends kicking around here right now where I could go to visit and the city is an hour away.  But the friends we have are so welcoming and good to us!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

• experienced our first chinook over the weekend and most of the snow is gone... so... it may as well snow some more!! 

Crazy photo! I wonder who would have taken that? ;)

Visitors (again!)

You know you live in the wild west when....

 ...your sister comes over with her boyfriend, whom we have never even met yet, and brings along a gun for your kids.  Seriously? A gun?  It's just a bb gun, so it can't even hurt a kitten, but it's the red neck thought behind it that I have to get used to.

 (Thanks a bunch though - it provides endless fun and it's good for his imagination!)

  Ruth-Ann lives 7 hours north of here so they drove down for a weekend which was pretty special.  We took them to Grassy Lake which is somewhere around here (people use directions like "Go three kilometers north, two west and turn by the smiley face sign).  So it's around here somewhere. 

It the place where the Bow River and the Old Man River meet, to become the South Saskatchewan River (Andy and geography - he fills me in with all the stuff that I have learned to care about!).  It was a very fascinating landscape this time of year.   The sun glistening between the coulees, the stunted trees... we want to go back next summer! 

  We are reading "Little House in The Prairie" aloud to the boys, and this place really reminds me of where the Indians would camp, catching prairie hens and where Pa would come to get his logs to make their house - dragging them from the creek bottom up to the long blowing grasses where their farm was... Our whole family is delighting in these books right now... feeling right at home:)

  My sister gave me some tips on how to cut Seths hair, so in turn I took some pictures of the her and Ben.   Cute couple eh? ;) We are so thrilled they live in Alberta too, albeit 7 hours driving-thru-nothing away (you know some people think the world is getting too full?? Come out here! You will think again). 

Visitors

Mom and Dad came by for a quick visit, since they were in Neerlandia for a wedding anyways.  Lets just say this was a little detour;)   We were really glad for the opportunity we had to show them where we live!

As special as it is for Opa and Oma to come, the boys were beyond excited for Uncle M. He slept in our extra room and it's still called "Uncle Micah's room".  Thanks for putting up with all the rambunctiousness and little boy play Micah! You are the best, and we all love it when you come over!

 It's always quite a job for me to get the boys dressed up to take some pictures for our Christmas cards. It's not the dressing up that is so hard but it's the staying neat and smiling part that is so hard. With mom here it was the perfect opportunity to get an extra pair of hands on board.
It didn't go real well,
I got alot of duds.
From my Dudes.  lol.

Ok, ok, Felicia's attempt at humour;)

But here's a few since they do make me laugh knowing what all went on behind the scenes...
I thought yogurt covered raisins would help calm the situation down but instead turned out to make things worse..

Rowan refuses to sit still...

...Tristan was trying to strategically hand him the raisins...

...MORE MOM!!

*we'll try it this way...*

(Nothing worked)

Seth and Tristan tired so hard...  Rowan was not getting it...

...may as well all join in the fun!!

I think anyone with small children will understand.

The Everyday

Old man winter is on his way, making for alot of inside time. It takes a bit of getting used to... being in the house so much.
So we do crafts, bake, read stories, make forts, and generally hone our "lets find something to do" skills.
Here are a few {too many} pictures of our ordinary, everyday life in November :)

Rowan reading while watching the others have a bath...nothing like starting while you're young!

Sunday afternoon ritual - chips and coke after the second church service:)

Hard at play! 

Quite the track they had going!

Masks for craft time (mommy does the cutting, the boys do the gluing :)

I love how much concentration they put into making Rice Krispie balls!

It's always a treat for them when I let them "do" my hair.  Even Rowan has to get right in on it!

My little happy clown! I am so biased, but I really could just smother this man with snuggles!

Trick or Treating in the kitchen (it worked - they got marshmallows!).

Popcorn making time! In their own words:  "Lekker"!!!

Another month went by, 

four weeks, 

31 days.  

Moments in time which bring so many lessons, joy and tears. So much to be thankful for.  So much to learn from, grow from, experience grace from.

In short:

Every week again we look back and stand amazed at all that has been done. All that has happened, and how fast time is flying. 

Every week again we are thankful for Sunday. A day of rest and worship. To be refreshed spiritually and physically.

Every week we eagerly look forward to see what the week will hold and to enjoy it and work hard in the tasks God gives us.

Thank-You Lord.

The Good and the Bad {news}

First the good news:
Our new neighbours gave us two adorable kittens. They had 12 that were ready to be placed and we were looking for mousers.  I took the boys there and let them each pick out their own kitten.  We wanted two for a couple of reasons.
One so that we can get kittens.
Two so they can keep each other warm.
Three so there's not so much fighting about who gets to hold it.

Turns out Seth is scared of these little critters since he really is quite a sensitive little guy, and the first time he picked one up it clawed him good and hard on the hand.  So Tristan gets to play with two.

Meet "Rocky" (Seth's by ownership)

Meet "Snow Lion"

I let them come in the house one evening so Rowan could get his fair share of playing with them.  And it was quite amusing for all involved.  ;) 

Only problem is, is that once you let kittens in the house they think they should come in all the time.  So now there's this problem that when we open to door they slither in between our feet and try get in the front room.  This has proven to be fatal for Snow Lion, which is the sad part of this story.  Poor Seth, slammed the door on a cold day only to have the kitten in the way.  A few hours later it succumbed to it's injuries, and we all had a bad day due to this unfortunate event.  :( 
Seth generously offered his own kitten to Tristan who turned it down with the words "It's ok! I wanted a puppy anyways!" .
He might have to wait a while before we are ready for that!