It was sunny today, so we went to the beach!

But when we got there, it was just as misty and damp as the rest of the lower mainland had been all week. But somehow we didn't care. We knew the sun was shining up the hill and we were enjoying the beach. AH bliss!

Elisabeth and Andrew jogging.



Tink was so excited to be at the beach. For the first half hour or so all she did was pick up a rock, run the hundred metres or so to the water, throw it in then run back up and start again.

Davey was more discerning. He found clean rocks. Made them dirty. Then threw them in the 'bath' for a wash.


Even Andrew got in on the rock throwing. Really into it ;)



Someone had made a see saw so we had to make good use of it.


Davey's diner. Here he is collecting tuna salad for me.


This tree trunk was very green. You can't tell so much from this picture though.

The fog was so thick. It would have made for an awesome movie set....romance on the moors...only the moors on the ocean maybe?




This tree is so crazy. We always have to go and play with it.

Here's a closer look. It is VERY sharp!

Setting off towards the truck. Tink was a bit worried that we'd miss the road in all the fog. We didn't.


Two minutes up the hill and it was nothin' but blue skies, baby.

And back at home. While we waited for dinner to cook, the kids listened to Gap Christmas commercials and tried to memorize all the dance moves.

Long Time Coming...

Wow, I'm lousy with the blogging lately. What with Andrew being gone for the better part of a week, working, living life....I haven't been taking any pictures. I know. Crazy.

On Thursday Kathi had an unexpected day off. I was so excited because between the two of us, we only have one day where we're both off work. Which means it feels like we hardly see each other anymore. We spent it doing what we do best...wandering around Superstore admiring all the new clothes ;) Elisabeth got a cute new top.


This shirt, combined with some Etsy sites I've been stalking lately, have me dying to break out my sewing machine. So if all goes well tomorrow, Ashlie and I are going to go looking for a simple pattern for me to cut my teeth on. It's been a good 15 years since I sewed anything, but at the very least I can hem some curtains! Goodness knows there's enough curtains in this house that need hemming ;)

The kids are enjoying living on the compound. Davey has spent many days at Grandma's house playing with Rob and Dave's lego. In fact, some days it's almost impossible to get him to come home! And Rob and Dave seem to enjoy playing with him too.


Jade comes over to our house and watches the kids for me. They seem to love playing in the basement and watching the occasional movie upstairs.

Meanwhile, Tinker is enjoying all the pets. Apparently her favorite thing to do is lie on top of Ellie (Kathi and Cody's dog) stroking her. Ellie seems to like it too.

Davey is still obsessing over angels and their baby deliveries. They were watching something they other day with sheep in it (at Grandma's). Davey took one look at the sheep and started telling Grandma that Angels deliver babies and he does. not. want. any. more. babies. Grandma even tried to explain that the angels don't actually deliver the babies, but Davey didn't believe her.


Elisabeth is getting some molars so she's been a bit unsettled lately. She won't eat much other than pickles (good for chomping those sore gums on) and popsicles. Oh, and hot chocolate. Which I think she would live off of if I would let her!

She's also getting even more verbal. She can recount whole stories to you and do all the sound effects. Earlier this week she fell down the stairs to the basement and banged her head. She can tell me all about it, including how Ashlie picked her up and helped her feel better.

Not much else is new here. The house is slowly coming together. Every day a few more pictures get hung, or furniture moved, or boxes unpacked. I thought I'd have pictures to show you by now, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I'm still not satisfied enough to take any. Maybe this weekend...


The only other piece of news is that we found a webcam at XS Cargo. So dad, maybe we'll try it out tomorrow. Will you be home?

Andrew's IT Christmas Party

I totally stole these pictures from Kim's blog...she was the only person there with a camera this year, so I've been watching her FB profile and her blog for pictures :P All photo credit to her!

Well, after another jampacked week, we ventured out in the snow (yes, you read that right! We had another snow fall last night. At times it was white out conditions, but luckily it didn't stick here in south Langley. PHEW!) Andrew's department was too busy in December for a party so we had ours last night. It was probably the best party (in my opinion) so far, but then again, I really enjoyed the conversation at our table. Davey enjoyed the colouring and playing with Keith and Martha's son, Andrew. They had an orange balloon they would put over a light in the floor and pretend it was a campfire.

Elisabeth was minding her own business when Jared rushed over and gave her a hug. From that moment she was besotted. If he was ever out of her sight, she would rush around asking, "where's my baby?" Funny as I believe Jared's second birthday is this month, making them only six months apart! They were really cute together and I was astounded that this boy can actually put sentences together. He's not even two!! Rachel, I think you already mentioned that last month, but I didn't believe you. Mine apologies.

A little smoochy before she went home. ahhhhhhh true love. *sigh*

Goldilocks

Davey's hair is growing, and that means the curls are back. Tonight after his bath they were just so cute (I'm totally jealous of his hair!) that I made him let me take pictures.

He didn't mind. In fact he wanted to do more twinkly eyed pictures. I kept telling him to turn around and let me see his curls! Another thing we did tonight was watch Davey's new favorite videos. He's absolutely in love with my friend Cary's son Magnus. Or Bagmus as Davey calls him. Not really surprising since Magnus is one of the sweetest babies I've ever had the pleasure of seeing via blogland (I still haven't met him, shame on me!)

Tomorrow Davey starts the last semester of preschool. This school year is whizzing by too quickly...I really hope that (though I want the winter to be over) the spring will last longer than fall did!

More Snow (what else is there to talk about?!)

We woke to even more snow this morning. I honestly can't remember a stretch like this where we've had such continuous snow and had it stick around. We are definitely not equipped for this kind of snow out here. I mentioned yesterday how side roads don't get cleared. Andrew broke our snow shovel last week and we haven't been able to find a replacement in stores. It seems like we get one shipment of them and when they're gone, too bad.

Luckily, living on the compound the way we do, we have shovels we can borrow. And of course, there's always the beach toys. Here the kids are helping Andrew shovel the driveway. Now, I know it looks like we've never shovelled it, but we were doing a strip wide enough for the truck to fit through. We haven't done it since the shovel broke, just the concrete part. We have about 20-25 feet of concrete, then the rest is gravel.


Eventually, the kids gave up shoveling and just fed themselves snow. yum yum.

Oh, and Tink tried to start a snowball fight.

Yup, that's her past her knees in the snow. She's not a wuss.



Our big snow pile.

And guess what? That snow we were supposed to get this afternoon? It's looking awfully fluffy. Andrew shoveled the driveway twice tonight. He did it once, all the way out to the road. Then by the time he'd done that, the concrete part needed shoveling again.

But we can't really complain. It's beautiful. The kids love it. And we're lucky enough to have my dad's 4X4 for the winter. Still, I hope we get our usual rain back soon...

January 3 in the snow!

I have some kind of a bug, so while I slept most of today away, Andrew and the kids went back outside to play in the snow. Oh yes, it's been snowing all day!

The temperature has been close to freezing (as opposed to that stretch when we had minus 17 or colder!) This means it's much more pleasant for playing outside.

In fact, Andrew says that it's much easier to work on the fort because he can just cut blocks of snow right out of the snow (as opposed to packing them in a bin) and put them right on the fort.