April 2011 pt.3

The Randomness of life
This month I had the priviledge of doing a prego photoshoot for my dear friend Hannah. Even though this pic doesn't show her incredibly large belly (as she was expecting twins), this was my favorite pic from the bunch!On April 28th Fayleah Reagh and Eden Beverly had joined the world and mom and dad couldn't have been prouder. We had a great time taking the kids in for a visit to see the new arrivals and enjoying dinner with the kids after the visit. Josh and Hannah are some of the most kind and loving people you could ever meet! They are making absolutely incredible parents!

Another favorite picture I took, although on a different spectrum was this next one. Brennan was on a crazy Spiderman kick, loving everything and anything spiderman. Crazy enough I walked into the room and caught him with a red marker trying to become spiderman...Good thing the marker was washable!


This month was also the Bike rodeo for Davin down at the ice rink. He was right inbetween sizes for bikes, and wouldn't let me talk him into riding the smaller more secure bike. So he climbed on the big BMX and could hardly touch the ground. At every stop he almost tipped over, but he was sure excited to participate in the course that the RCMP had put together. Here he is getting the pre-ride lecture with his class by the town by-law-officer.
April is the wrap up for Nathan's Badminton team. He teaches early morning at the Jr. High 2-3 days a week, for the month of March and some of April. April brings Zone's and Provincials and an early morning pancake breakfast on the last day. But not only that, it gives Nathan the opportunity to school a few Jr. High kids in a couple in school tournaments....He's still got it!

I have had a chance to catch my girls together a few times lately and it has been priceless! Taylor has been such a big help with Briley. She changes diapers, preps bottles, plays games, cuddles, reads books, and just loves to spend time with her little sister. As Briley has been crawling this month Taylor has spent a lot of time down on the floor following her around on hands and knees. They can get pretty crazy together, but they sure clean up nice!

April 2011 pt. 2

Waterton Lakes Lodge!!!

Last year Nathan and I took advantage of Waterton Lakes Lodge 2 for 1 winter deal and absolutley loved it! We Figured that a good getaway in the winter helps cure the wintertime blues and breaks up the monotony of the cold white months. This year we convinced our friends Shannon and Cody Toone to join us. We couldn't be away from the kids for 2 nights, so we did 2 rooms for the price of one. We headed up on Friday right afterschool and got settled into our rooms, then rented ski equipment and drove up the Cameron lake road to do some cross country skiing. This was my second time ever going and I absolutely enjoyed every minute of it! This post is going to be filled with a bunch of pics to commemorate the outing and the beauty of Waterton!
On the right is Cody and Shannon at the very beginning of our cross country skiing adventure!
Below is me looking down the trail (roadway) to Cameron Lake.

The next two pics are of each couple once we had reached Cameron lake.


I was amazed at the amount of snow that was up there in comparison to everywhere else. This was one of the outhouses that is open during the summer!

And of course if you know Nathan and Cody at all they have to find a way to challenge themselves during any adventure. This was the slope down into the parking lot that they decided they needed to test their telemarking skills on!
I guess cross country skiis weren't meant for telemarking! But they sure made for a good laugh!

Apart from some sticky snow on the way back making it a little more than frustrating for both of the guys, and one or two falls throughout the trip it was an amazingly beautiful adventure!
We figured we had better get one more shot before heading back down to the Lodge for the night!
After skiing we had dinner at Vimmy's Lounge and sat by the fire to warm up. The food was amazing and totally filling, yet we went back to our room to play games and EAT MORE snacks until we were stuffed!
The next morning we had a wonderful breakfast in the Lounge. Then went back and gathered our things and checked out. Since we still had sitters at home for a few more hours we decided to head back to the lounge to hang out and play games.
Both Nathan and Cody are very into Chess, both running chess clubs at their respective schools, so of course that was one of the games of choice for them while Shannon and I chatted away and exchanged laughs!






What a terrific getaway with terrific people! Something we will have to make a yearly tradition of. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to get away for a little bit, but not wanting to go too far from home!

April 2011 pt.1

I think I realized how much happened in April as I was going through pics for this blog entry. So I think I might break it up into a few smaller entries! To start with I want to focus on the growth of my little kiddlies! I found these two pictures which sum up Brennan lately: from Attitude
to Angel

He has such a way of being so kind and gentle. Giving so much of what he has to others. Always making sure that everyone has a snack if he wants one, or a piece of candy, or a drink, or whatever it is he thinks about. He never wants anyone to be left out. This kid is one of a kind.
Briley has been growing so much and with that growth comes exhaustion! I caught her here more than a few times this month!

I was able to take Briley and Brennan to the Library Tales for Tots, early in the month. We were lucky to catch it on a day when they were giving carriage rides! It was a little chilly, but such a blast!


Briley has started crawling over the last month and the kids have loved following her everywhere. They think she is just amazing and hence, she never gets much time on her own. Here is a great example of her crawling practice with all the kids supporting her:

This month was the beginning of spring in our area, which means gopher hunting! It means time out at our favorite place: The Ranch! Nathan's "Aunts" (Susan and Marcheta- whom we lovingly refer to simply as "The Aunts") are living on the family ranch while his Uncle Ricks runs the cattle. He is always welcome to help with the rodant issues they have out there, so we take our guns out for target practice on the menaces. This year Nathan bought the kids a single shot Henri rifle to learn to handle. They mostly only shot at our stationary target. But they had a great time learning the ins and outs of gun safety.

When I think of it the Ranch should almost have a blog post of it's own. Why? You might ask? Well, probably because so much happens out at the ranch! Here are a few pics to illustrate my point: early on in spring the ranch is always dealing with melting snow spots and water.
Water+4 year old curiousity=
Thanks to a mom who always packs an extra change of clothes in her "Go Bin" and amazingly prepared Aunts (who had a pair of yellow gum boots just his size for an Armour of God primary presentation) we were good to go again!

Shortly after pulling onto the road after Brennan's trip through the mud we came across a heffer who had just given birth to this little one. It was a great chance to talk to the kids about the birthing process and why there were "stringy things" (as Davin put it) coming ou the cows bum! Man all the opportunities the Ranch allows is amazing!!!