Merry Christmas

I wanted to share a little Christmas cheer with you from the boys. I don't usually like to hear such gruesome things are you are about to hear, but who am I kidding, the boys love it. Boys will be boys. It is funny how kids can hear a song sung by an older child a few times and remember it, word for word. Yet they can't remember to wash their hands after going potty when I swear I tell them a dozen times a day!! Here is to the little pleasures in life. Merry Christmas!

A family cross country ski adventure

I remember before Kevin and I had the boys, talking about the things we hoped to do with our children. Mostly we hoped they would share our love of the outdoors and would be interested in hiking and skiing. So you can imagine the delight we had on Sunday when we ventured out on our first family cross country skiing adventure (where the kids actually skied I mean!). We had found Harrison some skis and boots at a garage sale in the summer - they were practically brand new. Sam was using the plastic beginner skis we found in a second had store. We weren't sure how far Sam was going to make it being 3 and all, so Kev towed the trusty sled just in case.

We set out on an approximately 4 km trip, with a cabin at the 2km mark. The boys were super excited about the adventure and after fiddling with skis and last minute tips, off we went!

Oh how I love the quiet and stillness up there, mixed with the chatter of the boys and a Christmas song or two.

Now that they had mastered the flat, the boys wanted to try a little hill. There was a few spills.....a little of this....

A little of that........

Sam got tired about 1.5km in and decided to get into the sled. We were so proud and amazed at how far he went. Daddy tried to go over a little snow bank and made the sled tip. Oh dear!

Then we finally made it to the cabin and feasted on mandarins and chips. We started a fire and sat back and thought about what we had achieved. I was so happy to be spending such a memorable time with my family.

Did I mention that Harry skied the whole way? In and out! He loved it and I think he could have kept going!!! I look forward to many more wonderful times skiing with the kids and I wonder how much fun we will have down hill skiing. I will keep you updated! For now happy days before Christmas. I hope all your preparations are coming together.

Winter is here

I thought it was about time I shared where we are living. It has been snowing for that past few days, creating a truely winter wonderland. However it has been very 'dark'. So please forgive my dark pictures.

View of the house from the street

Our street

Sam and Harry playing in the yard at 4pm yesterday afternoon!

I also wanted to share some of Harry's highlights from his birthday. We found this fantastic wooden pirate ship in Nelson. The boys have both had so much fun sailing the seas this past week and it is fun to see where they take their imagination with it.

Harry also received some much awaited for Lego from his lovely Auntie and Uncle in Australia. Kevin, Harry and I had alot of fun working together to create his apartment building!! He really enjoys following the instructions and watching it slowly evolve. I can only imagine what he will build on his own when his confidence builds.

Nana also came for dinner last week which we think is a pretty special treat. After dinner all the boys were watching the curling on tv with Nana. Priceless little moments. Nana explaining what is happening, the excitement of a shot made and laughing at each others silliness.

And Cath, I know you will appreciate this one....Sam was eating a christmas cookie today, dropped some on the ground and then bent over and licked it off the floor!! Kev and I just looked at each other and laughed. What elso do you do in that situation!!

Moving madness

Phew! The moving is done, well for another few months anyway. I am so excited that our renter finally signed an agreement to move out by March 1st, however this means that we will have to move, yet again. We are hoping to renovate our new place a little before we move in, so come the New Year I will be busy organising flooring and other exciting things. For now, I am getting used to our temporary space and new schedule. It is so wonderful to be close to Harry's school and walk when we can. We are also in Glenmerry, the same suburb as our new house. I think this move was a little harder on me than I expected but this week things are feeling a lot better. In the past few weeks amidst all the moving chaos we found some time to relax still.

* Harry is loving learning to read and write. He is practicing all the time. Kevin was busy cooking dinner one night and Harry wrote this letter to my mum by himself. It really is amazing what children can do when they are interested.

* My friend took me on a girls weekend to Spokane, USA. It was the first time I have been apart from my boys for more than 1 night. I was a bit upset to start with but Kevin had a blast with the boys taking them skating, swimming, hiking and feeding them food that mummy doesn't usually allow! Leah and I went to see the Lion King, had dinner in a fancy restaurant (that didn't serve grilled cheese sandwiches!), I rekindled my love affair with Mojitos and we shopped for Christmas presents. It was a relaxing and fun time....just what this stressed out Momma needed.

* Oh the joy of setting up the Christmas tree and decorations. It is so exciting with the boys being that little bit older now and explaining where all the Christmas ornaments came from. We got our tree from a friends farm and it is just perfect. Thanks guys!

* We celebrated Gail's birthday in early December. Melanie and I made her a frozen yogurt cake. It was pretty yummy and easy to make. I got the recipe from a book my mum gave me years ago "purely Golden Door". She got it at this amazing retreat called the Golden Door and they had a cook book filled with their yummy low fat treats.

almond and fig torte with mango & tropical sorbet
Torte
¼ cup carob powder
1 cup apricots
1 cup died dates
½ cup of shelled whole almonds
1 cup best quality dried figs
1 teaspoon orange zest
½ tablespoon orange juice
2 litres of low fat sorbet/frozen yogurt (2 different flavours, 1 litre of each)
1½ punnets blueberries, frozen

Method:
1. Blend almonds, apricots, figs and dates in a food processor until resembling rough breadcrumbs. Add zest, orange juice and carob and blend for a further minute.
2. Remove and place mixture between 2 pieces of greaseproof paper approx 40cm x 40 cm.
3. Using a rolling pin, roll the mixture to a 2 mm thickness.
4. Remove the top sheet of baking paper and cut 2 discs to the diameter of the spring-form tin you are using.
To Assemble
Cut a piece of greaseproof paper to cover the bottom of the spring-form tin. This dessert is made upside down in the tin. Firstly, lightly cover the bottom with frozen blueberries, then spoon 1 litre tub of slightly softened sorbet on top of the berries, add one disc of fruit and nut mixture on top of the sorbet and freeze for 1 hour to firm up the sorbet. Repeat sorbet, then fruit and nut disc and freeze for 4 hours. Remove from mould and turn up the right way. Garnish with extra tropical fruit and mint leaves!

* The boys took me on a hike last weekend to their new 'spot'.

You see, while I was away they were exploring the mountain that backs onto our soon to be new home. They have picked out the perfect spot for a cabin that daddy is going to help them build.

We explored a place beside it too that they have named Monster Rock Gully. It was a fun but very cold hike! I think the thermals are definitely coming out of the box this week.

I am sure there is much more to recap on but that is all I can think of for now. It is great to be back and I so look forward to hearing from you all!

Moving...

Hello my beautiful friends. The move went really well and we are now in our new rental house. Phew. I have been experiencing major technical difficulties here though but hopefully the lovely technicial scheduled to arrive this afternoon can fix all my internet woes. I look forward to talking to you all really soon.

Another move

Yes, another move today after only 6 weeks. I am obviously exhausted and still spinning from the decision but trying to focus on the positive. This morning we awoke to a winter wonderland after it snowed all yesterday afternoon and night. I am thinking it isn't going to make for a pleasant moving day for us but the kids will be occupied making snowmen and having snow fights! I was going to take some photos when I woke up but it appears the camera has been packed!! Not to worry. I will write soon and let you know how it all went. Wish me luck!

Halloween and a new friend

It all started with some pumpkin carving. A real boys delight, pulling the mushy, messy guts out to the pumpkin and the delight of watching his face being carved.

The fun we all had dressing up. Actually I think Kev and I may have had more fun!!!

And being with the whole clan at Halloween is priceless fun. (My boys are in the Spider man outfits at the front!)

I also wanted to quickly introduce to you the newest member of our family.....Bill. (Dad he came to us with that name...sorry!) Bill has been settling into our family very nicely. Buddy is slowly getting used to this smaller version of himself and is not quite as anxious as before.

And Sam, well our little animal lover is, well, in love!

Autumn surprises

Autumn really is my favourite season and I think the boys feel the same. They love it when the fallen leaves stick to the windscreen on the van, then squel with delight when they flutter off as we are driving along! Their other favourite game lately has been catching the falling leaves and/or throwing them up and catching them.

It keeps them entertained all afternoon.
But alas, look what we started to see on our trip to Kelowna this weekend.....snow minged in with the glorius Autumn colours.

And then yesterday it happened.....we got our first snow fall. Sam came running in to the kitchen, face beaming and said "Mum, it is real snowing now. I am so happy!!!" and turned and ran back to the window. So I guess winter is Sam's favourite season now.

The kids were eager to have their 1st play and 1st snow ball fight for the season. I had my 1st fall down the icy stairs this morning so my 1st hasn't been a good one. I am however looking forward to all our winter activites, and going skiing as a whole family.

I think for now I am going to take my weary tush and sit in my comfy knitting chair and finish a scarf I started almost 7 years ago with my beautiful grandmother. There is only a few rows to go and it will be lovely to give it to Harry. I started it before he was born and he will get it just before his 6th birthday. I sure hope my other projects won't take that long!!!!

Happy snowy days.

My latest sewing project

I was very excited to make this birthday banner for my niece for her 2nd birthday. The pattern is from Amanda Blake Soule's book "The Creative Family". I loved making them and I am looking forward to making some for the boys now too. They are a great project to learn to sew on and there is things that I will do differently next time of course, but that is all part of the learning experience!

I made a little bag too for her to keep her banner in. I made it a triangle shape to remind them of what is inside. I had a lot of fun making it especially as I got some help from Kevin's grandma. It is so nice to spend time with her and even nicer when we have a project to work on.

Happy 2nd Birthday Arwynn...

Tradition and a strong family bond

I would like to introduce to you Grumpy Guy.....

While he may be a strange looking fellow he is a very much loved part of our family. He originally belonged to my husbands grandfather. When he sadly passed in early 1999 Kevin and his cousin Jodi both expressed interest in becoming Grumpy Guy's new owners. Kevin decided that as he would be travelling overseas for a few years that he would send Grumpy Guy to Jodi with a note, offering to share him. They would each have the pleasure of his company for a couple of years and then send him back. This has been going on ever since and we just received Grumpy Guy back in our home. He still contains the original note Kevin sent Jodi, a photo of the two family's from 1988 and a new note that Jodi composed updating Grumpy Guy on the past 10 years.

I love that they started this tradition, that their family love is strong and unlike most family's, instead of feuding over a piece of memorabilia, came up with a new, fun family tradition. The best part is that the kids were interested in the story and it sparked some lovely conversations between us all. I think it is a great way to bond and I would love to hear what traditions you have in your families. So I will leave you with this beautiful image of my niece Arwynn doing her Grumpy Guy impression.....priceless!

Welcome to the 'cottage' and.....

Firstly, thank you so much to everyone who sent emails or left comments during my absence. It was so lovely to read your well wishes in such a trying time. We are through the worst of it now and I feel content with how things have worked out. They are still not how we had hoped but at least we have a roof over our heads and are all together, warm for the winter.

Here is where our plans went a little sideways. We are unable to get into our new home just for the moment so we have had to rent a house, no lets call it a cottage so it feels more like a holiday! It is a gorgeous, old 'cottage' on the hill just outside our little town.

At present (before the snow flies) we are parking on level ground to the house, just near the garden shed. However when it snows, we will be parking down here.......

Yup, down the bottom of this flight of stairs. I can just see me now with bags of groceries, crying kids and snow covered stairs!!!! Are you laughing yet?

Lets cheer things up a little and go inside.....first stop, the living room.

A small but cosy space. I can see myself snuggled on my chair knitting the winter away.

My new 'nook' in the kitchen where I can work and oversee the kids at the same time.

Upstairs there is 3 bedrooms, a bathroom and laundry. The boys keep asking why did they build that bathroom upstairs but it does comes in handy in the middle of the night. We have had to store most of our belongings and just kept the bare essentials here. It will certainly be an adventure this winter and boy will the kids have a blast toboganning down these hills!

I also wanted to share some very wonderful news indeed. My niece was born on October the 9th, beautiful Iris Tierra. Well done Melanie and Ron. I know you will cherish this precious little bundle.