Wonderful Man

Yesterday was a very special day - the 33rd birthday of the sexiest man alive! Now I know you're thinking that you haven't seen his face on the cover of any of those magazine's but that's because I really don't want it widely known that my husband is the world's sexiest man or we might have crazy women knocking on our door day and night wanting to take his picture. :) However, to indulge those of you who really want to see a picture of the sexiest man alive, I have included a few in this post (since I know none of you are crazy women).

So here are some pictures of Ryan doing what he does best: working, playing, sleeping :) and being the best Daddy and Husband we could ever have.

I truly am thankful to be married to such an amazingly, kind, loving, giving, serving, trustworthy, honest, hard-working, wise, thoughtful, humble man. He is my hero, and I am thankful that I get to spend the rest of my life loving him!

Happy Day After Your Birthday Honey!

I Love You!!!

Colby's birthday

On November 15 we got the pleasure of having a quick visit with Aaron, Sandi, Colby and Ashley. The circumstances of their unexpected trip here were sad (they came down for Sandi's Grandma's funeral) but we were still glad to be able to celebrate Colby's 7th birthday with him.

Daddy Date

Last weekend, our church held a Father/Daughter bowling night. It was a little too late for Rachel to go so Grace got to have a special date with her Daddy. You can see from this picture how excited she is!

Here they are, ready to go.
They had lots of fun, their team won, and Grace can't wait to go bowling again.

Visit with Papa

We had a nice little visit with my Dad last week when he was on his way to visit Grandma in Victoria. The kids all enjoyed spending time with Papa playing checkers, chinese checkers and sequence, and just snuggling.

Fun in a box

I just had to include these pictures. Rachel got a Cabbage Patch Kid from Papa and Loni for her birthday. She likes the doll but she loves the box!

Lynn Canyon

A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I went on a field trip with some other homeschoolers to Lynn Canyon, where there is a suspension bridge and ecology centre. We went there because of the suspension bridge, thinking it would be a good way to wrap up our unit on bridges. Lynn Canyon is free, unlike Capilano suspension bridge which is outrageously expensive. However, when we got to the park (an hour and a half drive), we discovered that the bridge was closed for repairs! We were definitely disappointed but, because we went with a group we were booked to go on an "ecology tour" through the surrounding park area. This turned out to be a trip well worth taking, despite not being able to cross the suspension bridge. The ecology centre there had all kinds of interesting and educational displays for the kids and I to enjoy and learn from.

The guide, Talya, was really great with the kids and taught us all kinds of interesting things about bugs, birds, animals, and plants. Did you know the needles of the western hemlock tree are edible? They don't taste great but if you're lost in the forest and you're starving and you can identify a western hemlock tree you've got it made! :)

We got to walk through the forest and collect some forest specimens to make "forest perfume." Here are the kids doing a special dance to shake up their dirt, leaves, and sticks to make their perfume!



All in all, a fun time of learning. I would recommend Lynn Canyon to anyone - but call ahead and make sure the bridge is open first!!

Fort Langley

Well since I'm blogging like crazy I might as well get right up to date and tell you what we did yesterday. It was such a beautiful afternoon yesterday, so we decided, very last minute, to go and check out "Douglas Days" at Fort Langley. November 19, 1958,was the inauguration of the Crown Colony of British Columbia, when Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie, the newly appointed Chief Justice, swore in James Douglas as the first Governor of the Crown Colony of British Columbia. Because this happened at Fort Langley, they were having a parade and free admission to the fort in order to kickoff the 150th year since the birth of British Columbia.
We just started a new unit on BC a couple of weeks ago so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to mix family fun with homeschool learning. It turns out I was right! :) We had an awesome time and learned all kinds of things about our Province while we were at it.

Here are a few shots from the parade

Then we went inside the fort, where the kids had fun being lookouts from the walls

The blacksmith was demonstrating his trade. The kids really enjoyed that.
Checking out the furs and learning about the fur trade.
Here they had a little booth set up for the kids to practice trading. On one side they had a box of furs and on the other there were blankets, dishes, clothes and tools they could trade for. Awesome hands-on learning!

Evan's favourite thing was panning for gold because he found 2 pieces of gold (painted rocks but still exciting!!)



Posing as one of the witnesses to the ceremony of the inauguration of the colony of British Columbia
There was a display of native artifacts.


And Evan got to use a quill pen and ink to sign his name in the guest book
I am ashamed to admit that in 11 years of living in Abbotsford, this was my first trip to Fort Langley. I will not wait another 11 years to go back!

Better Late then Never

Wow, I haven't blogged for a long time. I have been busy, busy, busy but I had a lovely weekend away this past weekend (thanks for the fun times Cynthia) and am feeling very refreshed so I thought I would take a minute to do some updating.

This post is way overdue but I thought there might be a few of you (Grandparents) who would want to see our cute kids dressed up for Halloween.

Here's Evan the cowboy, Grace the pink poodle and Rachel the kitty all dressed up and ready to go.


And posing with Spiderman (aka Sam), the giraffe (aka Jake), and the fairy princess (aka Lanae), before they headed out trick-or-treating.

Thankful for chaos

This is a different kind of post than my usual pictures and journal of our family activities. I have had the kind of day that I need to vent about and so I will submit you all to a recap of my crazy day and the lesson I learned through it all.
A summary in point form of my day would look something like this:
- Mommy who woke up with a throbbing headache (which didn't go away even after the ibuprofen and tylenol)
- Whiny 4 year old
- Anxious, clingy 6 year old
- Eight year old who won't stop bugging said 4 and 6 year old
- Get school work done early so we can leave the house by 9:30 a.m.
- Art lessons
- Make deposits at 2 banks
- Lunch in the van
- Trip to the library where it stinks because they're painting the children's section
- Dead battery in the van
- Run to gymnastics in the rain
- Get a ride back to the library and wait for someone who owns a vehicle parked next to me to come out and jumpstart the van
- Get home in time to help 8 year old finish his school work before 3 more kids get here for me to look after (said 3 kids are wonderful by the way Elise)
- Make dinner in time for Husband to arrive home, eat and rush off with oldest 2 children to Pioneer clubs
- BREATH


In our home we have a tradition of asking everyone at the dinner table, "What was your favourite part of the day?" It is a great way for us to fill Ryan in on what we have been doing and to give each person a chance to tell about their feelings through the day. Tonight, Ryan asked me first to tell my favourite part of the day and at first I couldn't think of a single good thing to say. Then I realized that we were all together as a family eating dinner and it was a fairly peaceful time. As we went around the table and the kids and Ryan shared their favourite parts, I thought of others I was thankful for: I met a lady at the kids' art lessons who is new to Canada and had a wonderful time talking to her and getting to know her. Grace worked really hard on her math and language arts today and got it all finished before we had to leave for art lessons! Now, Rachel is in the bath and Ryan and the older 2 are gone, so the house is quiet and peaceful. Just before I put Rachel in the bath, she was playing with this Blue's Clues toy that tells you the name of the letters when you push the button that has that letter on it. After each letter, the voice of "mailbox" says, "Do you want to play again?" and each time, Rachel let out a hysterical laugh and said, "YEEESSSS!" It was quite comical and entertaining and as I watched her I was suddenly aware of how much I have to be thankful for. I have three healthy children who really do love each other and behave well more than half the time :) I am married to the world's best husband (argue if you want but I know it's true!) I have friends and family who love me and support me. And my headache is finally gone! I am thankful to God for His reminder to me that there are many blessings in my life. If I turn my heart toward Him, He gives me the ability to have a sense of humour about the chaos that might otherwise drive me crazy! :)