Katie

It's been over a month since I last updated. There were so many things that happened that would have been "blog worthy", but there's no way I can backtrack a whole month.
But there are a couple of things that I just have to share, both to do with my wonderful Katie.

Katie was aparently tired of having long hair and decided to cut it.
Katie's hair WAS all the same length. As I figured she grabbed as much hair as she could from the side of her head and cut to about her chin (about 4 inches)

She did very well at the hairdresser!! No fussing or wiggling as the lady cut about 4 inches off the back and blended in the front as good as possible

Before the cut her hair would have coverd most of the "C" on the cape.

After the hairdresser we went to Tim Hortons for a "picnic" lunch. She looks like such a cute little girl with her new haircut.

4th Birthday

We went to visit Jeff's cousin the weekend of Katie's birthday, so we had a little party there. We'll have an encore this weekend when both sets of grandparents are here too.

We were going to buy a birthday cake, but Katie wanted to have Christmas cupcakes instead. Works for me

Excited about her birthday gift. She had picked the hat herself when we went shopping. At the same time she also picked some Hello Kitty jewelery that I told her was for Christmas. She must have forgotten because when she opened all her little gifts she almost started crying "Where is my Hello Kitty jewelery???" She was ok though when I told her she'll get it later for Christmas.

Enjoying her birthday cupcake

Or at least the icing!!

We have our LMC Christmas party this weekend and after that things slow right down until after Christmas. We're looking forward to some downtime.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Another one bites the dust

This post is for my wonderful husband. Every Sept he gets the hunting itch and I think no matter how many times he could go out into the bush, either scouting or hunting, he would like to do more;)
After a successful hunt during our holidays he was going for antlers, not just meat for the freezer. When he caught the above picture on the motion and infrared sensitive trail camera he was even more excited to go out hunting.

During the shotgun season he was able to go out only once, but it was enough!!! He got a nice mature buck with a clean shot right into the heart (sorry to you sensitive people:).

Jeff's first buck! We were all very excited for him.

The girls were not at all squimish about the dead deer that Jeff brought home in the back of his truck. They wanted to climb in as well and did a thorough inspection of the body. For some reason they were fascinated by the fact that the eyes were still there and we had to keep telling them to not poke them, or touch the tongue, or other unmentionable body parts.

Katie was at school when we took Jeff's proud posing pics, but Maya had fun to be included in the photo shoot.

If you look at the tip of the left antler you can notice a small dip. Go back to the trail camera pic and you'll notice the same. This is a rare occasion that you get a picture of a nice buck and a couple of days later you actually get it. Way to go Jeff!!

It's NOT chocolate!!!

All you moms out there probably have an idea of what's coming, but I thought I'll share the "soo cute" moment first.
Our volunteer Otto was looking after Maya while Jeff and I were in a meeting this morning. Apparently she didn't like being left and was crying quite a bit, but then Otto put on a show and Maya was out cold after just a few minutes. I guess she was out of sorts because she was tired:) Katie was behaving nicely and was allowed to sit in on the meeting with her colouring book - she did great and didn't interrupt hardly at all.
After lunch it was nap time. I put Maya down and then snuggled with Katie on the couch and was reading to her. After about 1/2 hour Maya was crying and I went to check what's up....

The smell gave the crime away right off the bat, but I didn't anticipate the extent of the crime scene. Needless to say I was not happy. Maya was coverd also so off to the shower first. All the bedding and clothes into the wash and then the fun part. Scrubbing the %$@! off the walls. But it's all clean, the windows wide open to air out the room, and I must say that the girls played very nicely while I was cleaning.

So this was my day so far, how was yours??

Fall Clean Up

We took advantage of the beautiful sunny days we've been having and got pretty much all our outdoor work done over the last couple of days.
The girls were both big helpers, either by helping loading up the trailer, or by at least being happy and getting along most of the time.

All our summer play things, bikes, and patio furniture got loaded up and stored in one of the trailers on site. And no, Maya did not drive the lawn tractor, but she had fun pretending while I loaded everything up.

And off we go. The girls just loved being able to ride on the wagon.

After we loaded up the wagon a second time, this time with yard waste, we picked up Daddy who was busy splitting some firewood and we took the LOOOONG way to the place we dumped all the green waste.

Daddy and the girls had a lot of fun and enjoyed the sun while I got to play taxi driver. It was getting cold out though and I was glad to get inside and have a nice hot shower after a busy day.

How was your week? What are your plans for the weekend? I'd love to hear from you.

Halloween

We had a lot of fun on Halloween. I don't have a lot of time for this post but I thought I'll just share some pics.
Maya and Daddy did a Jack-o-Lantern while I was volunteering in Katie's classroom

Maya as a puppy (same as last year, but this year it fits)

Katie as a Mommy Jaguar

We shared dinner with our friends and then we had 10 kids head out for trick or treating

Doing a good job saying thank you!

Vacation and other fun

We had a good time off last week. We didn't really do much except for the first weekend.
Friday afternoon I headed to P-ville to drop the girls off at grandma and grandpa and then after supper headed over to my friends house to my semi-annual scrapbooking weekend.
It was so nice to spend a weekend working creatively without being interrupted by girls or having to cook or plan anything. We scrapbooked away until 2 a.m. on Friday night, all day Saturday (earlier bedtime this day maybe around 11 p.m.) and then on Sunday until 5. Thank you Shelley for hosting us once again.

I am the only digital scrapbooker, but I still enjoy getting together with all the other ladies. I work on our family year book that has become the annual Christmas present for both sets of grandparents and for us. The girls like looking at them every so often, especially the ones I made for each of their first year.

While I was dropping the kids off, Jeff went out into the bush and had a successful hunt!!! I was so excited to hear that he had an awesome start for his vacation. Today he went to cut it up and we are looking forward to many a venison dinner.

Now that we have meat in the freezer Jeff is out for what he calls a hat rack. Trophy buck only from now on.

The other day Maya did not want to settle at night, so we closed the door and let her cry for a bit. After a short while she settled down and we figured that she went off to sleep. When we checked on her before we went to bed this is how we found her:

She must have been very tired that she didn't climb back into bed, but just half craweld under it.

Aunt Brenda, the blankie that you gave her for her first Christmas has become HER blankie. Katie never attached herself to any transitional object, but Maya sure does like her blankie.

Katie had a family Pumpkin carving day at school last week. We had a lot of fun measuring, exploring and then carving her pumpkin.

Katie drew the eyes and the mouth and helped empty out all the seeds. We were supposed to count the seeds, but I stopped after 130 (less then half of them counted)

We are looking forward to Halloween on Monday and I'll try my best to take pics and put them on the blog for you.

And another week has come and gone

We've had a busy, but a good week. I think one of the highlights was my Tues morning ladies' Bible study back in Elmira that I've decided is worth the 45 min drive. It is so nice to still feel at home at our old church and have good friends there. My low was probably yesterday when I was crying my eyes out because sometimes parenting is just so hard! I'm sure all you parents out there have had moments like that. I told Jeff that I can't even have a mental/emotional breakdown without getting interrupted by my kids. But really the girls are so wonderful and I love them both so much!
Katie being her mischievious self

She got a hold of my camera and went on a photo hunt

Sneaking up on Maya

Getting closer....

Gotcha!!

Maya got to practice for halloween. She was wearing the same doggie outfit last year, but this year it actually fits her.

Having a cutie moment. She steps onto the little car to reach the books and then sits down and reads quitely. (That happens maybe about once a month - all the other times she doesn't slow down long enought to sit and read a whole book)

THE RABBITS

This is our 3rd batch of baby rabbits. Blackie had 9 little ones and they are now at the perfect cute stage. Their eyes are open and they are starting to come out of their nestboxes.

The girls being very good and gentle.

Their attention span is fairly short though so the rabbits don't get smothered too much

Jeff's shed is finally operational. We have 6 large cages plus the one with the mommy and babies (outside). In a couple of weeks when the babies are weaned we'll process our older rabbits to make room in the shed.

I have no idea why, but this is how Katie watched a good part of her show this morning.

RETREAT

This weekend we had another church for a retreat. We've really enjoyed spending time with them and eating their yummy food:)

The weather was just perfect today for a wonderful picnic lunch under a beautiful fall tree.

Spending some time with my girls. They grow up so fast! It won't be long before they'll be able to read their own books, so I'll enjoy the time we have snuggling and reading together.

Tomorrow we are heading out to Jeff's parents for a couple of days and my brother Marc will join us on Monday for Thanksgiving dinner. We're looking forward to some special family time. Maya and Katie have been asking to see Grandma and Grandpa all week, finally we get to say "Yes, today we're going to see them!"

This and That

As usual we're busy with not much to show for, but usually we have fun, often the kids are playing nicely, often they're not. But such is life with young children. This post isn't really about anything, but giving glimpses of some of what we've been up to.
Daddy has a way of playing with the girls. I tend to just sit down and read a book with them between doing other stuff, but I know the girls love it when Daddy gets on the floor with them and plays. Lots of fun playing horsies.

Some of my entries to the local fair. Very happy about my first price for the banana bread. Jeff got a 2nd and 3rd for tallest sunflower and biggest sunflower head. I also got 3 more 3rd for my Zopf (bread), zucchini loaf and zucchini relish. The price money was just enough to pay the entrance fee to the fair. Even swap, works for me.

Wed. mornings Maya and I go to our church for coffee hour and quilting. Maya usually plays quite nicely before everyone else gets there for coffee, then she is a little social butterfly and entertainer while the gang is there drinking coffee and eating treats, and then after when I go back to quilting she usually watches a kids video. It works quite well.

This is the quilt we're working on right now. It is so cute. Very month has a little picture. If it were for sale I would love to get a quilt like that for each of the girls. Maybe when they're a little older. All we do is doing the sowing together, the patchwork is done by someone else. Who knows, once the girls are both in school I might take up the patchwork part of it too. And yet I have a feeling that my days will be busy even when both girls are gone for the day. And anyway that's another 2 years away. For now I'll enjoy the Wed morning and leave the rest to dreaming.

Anyway, it's time to go feed the family. I hope you have a great weekend.