A visitor from Winnipeg

When we got the phone call that Jodi was coming and needed a place to stay while attending a family funeral it was of course hard not to have some excitment in my voice. On a sad and serious trip it was nice to know that we were able to make it a bit easier for her to come and provide a happier side to the trip. Jodi, I know this wasn't easy for you, and I hope you know we loved your visit and think of you and your family often. Mark was sad the kids couldn't come and still talks about when "Joey's Mom" came. We'll wait to see if the summer allows for you to make it here as a family.
Kyla loved having baby Annie here to play with. Kyla was excited to see all the "baby" toys come out again as I had put most of them away. It was fun to play with the toys again. She loved sharing dolls with baby Annie and is here dancing with her. Kyla would walk holding tightly to the side of Annie's stroller as we went for walks and enjoyed our Mother's Day coffee at Starbucks thanks to Grandma Joan.

Thanks Jodi!! Amazing how a funeral can be a sad time and yet bring family and friends together. Glad you were able to be here with your family and cousins. The timing of your visit was much needed for me too. May was an emotionally hard month for me for a number of reasons and I totallyappreciated our long talks together and just having you here.

Mark and his bike

This is Mark at the Gardom Lake fundraiser. He biked the whole 5 km up and down the hills. Some hills he needed the extra push especially on the way back but he was the youngest bike rider this year and won a prize for it. Most adults; including Grandpa Wally bike the 70kms. For Mark's age and his distance we figure it's pretty comparable and impressive!! He was pretty proud of himself here holding his prize - his water bottle - a true highlight for him as he seems to be obessed with water bottles these days.

Mark's most recent news is that he lost his trainning wheels the second week of May. I thought I had a picture to show but I have a ton of video and no still photos. I tried uploading a video but have to try the youtube idea that the Gunther's and Duester's use so you'll have to wait for me to figure it out - I'm slow on the up hill when it comes to technology!!

We were prepared for a painful learning curve for Mark to catch on to the balancing of two wheels but he blew us away after figuring it out in less then 10 mins. Just ask Jodi Epp in Winnipeg as she was here as a witness.

Easter

Easter in Winnipeg was fun filled with cousins playing. It was bitter/sweet as we didn't get as much time as we had hoped to visit friends but had some much needed time with family. Saw a few friends but for sure missed alot too. Thanks to those we were able to spend time with and sorry to all those we missed :( Believe me it was very emotional leaving friends and family behind again for me.

The cousins had time dressed up, playing outside and inside and of course the Easter Egg hunt was also a hit. A quick day trip to the cottage to satisfy Mark and prove to him there are no frogs in April in Winnipeg as there is still enough snow to get stuck in - we proved that.

Also took a trip to the USA to the Thief River falls waterpark and a quick stop shopping in North Dakoda at Target and Old Navy.

Ray's toy

Ray and his new bike...


Yes, I have finally succumbed to the wishes that I have had for a very long time. I bought a motorbike this week. I have been wanting to buy one off and on for the last few years, but always cannot justify the price and operation of a bike, but now I am doing it anyway!!

I bought a 1986 Suzuki GS550, for those of you who know what this is, and it should be lots of fun. It is quite light with a low centre of gravity so it is very easy to handle, but still plenty quick enough!!

Mel actually has been encouraging me to buy one, and follow through with my motorcycle licence this year. It makes it a little easier in Kelowna with a nice long riding season and good weather most of the summer.

Ray and the kids...


Mark is really excited to have a motorcycle sitting outside our house and uses every excuse to jump on and pretend he is riding. Of course he would rather the motor is not running but that's no surprise! He finds the HORN the most intriguing part of the bike and I'm glad it doesn't work when it is not on!!

Kyla's just not quite sure as you might be able to tell that her face is not smiling and I'm having to hold her quite tight just to get this picture of the three of us!!

The future rider...

No, Mark will not be riding anytime soon and probably not even on the back until he is a little older and of course after I'm allowed to take passengers. (hopefully by mid summer)

PS. I know this blog is usually Mel's thing but she said I needed to write this one myself.





not as long as Grandma can say anything...

My birthday

So a few people asked why I posted about Mark and not about me. Yep, we all still have birthday's the kids just usually get the bigger celebrations. Mine is not a big number until next year so wasn't too over board this year. I guess it was still emotional a bit for me as I thought a lot about life; dreams and goals, where I'm at, and my spiritual walk.

The week of my birthday was horrible. I had one request for the Saturday - no throwing up, no diahrea, no pee accidents - NO BODILY FLUIDS!! It almost worked. Kyla was so excited to get food after having a week of not feeling like eating or not keeping anything down, she stuffed her mouth full and gaged. Almost made it.

Anyways, we had a fun night and the picture shows it - Thanks to Montana's.

Mark Turning 4

Mark celebrated his 4th birthday a few times. With Grandma Joan here in February we had an early birthday celbration and opening presents. In March on the 17th he recieved his present from Grandpa Dyck in the mail and opened that, and the next day he had his party with 10 friends and finally his actually birthday we went out for lunch with extended family. Wow this boy is loved!!

Here's just a few snap shots...
Birthday cake took 2 hours to decorate - my first time.

Pinata was created with the help of Grandma Joan - thanks. Too bad we made it too thick for the kids to break.

Soccer hop from Auntie Marianne was a hit by both Mark and Kyla

Scooter from cousin Kaden has been fun to ride outside!

1, 2, 3, ....

Kyla is busy practicing her vocabulary which is full of noise. Some are becoming more distinct but not full words yet. We don't count "cook, cook" for cookie but you can understand what she wants. Counting 1, 2, 3, She is here busy lining up her many stuffies and giving them all a drink of milk before bed. A typical game at any time of day.

Mark on the other hand is count ZZZ's as he is "doing" a puzzle. He was crying and sure that he didn't need a nap and yet fell asleep here in the middle of doing a puzzle and today in the middle of a tantrum. I would say 90% of the time he doesn't have naps these days but on days that he does it's obvious. Quite time is full of puzzles, books, computer time and the odd time as here - Sleeping.

Winter??

As we watch the news we see that friends and family are still enjoying the fun of the COLD, COLD winters across the country. We are enjoying the colour of green showing up in many places. I saw my first signs of flowers poping through the ground today. Now, I know we might not be out of the clear for another possible snow fall but with temps. rising to reach +12 by Saturday we are very hopful that Spring is on it's way.

We have had other changes to watch each time we look out into our backyard too as condo's are now blocking our mountiain view. Oh, well.

Up the Mountian

UP, UP, UP we go and the look on Mark's face as we get higher and higher is worth the trip. The Gondola is a new experience to the kids. Kyla's first time and the first time that Mark actually remembers.

We went up the mountian to enjoy the beautiful weather and try skating out for the first time with Mark. We got up there early and took a ride up the gondola then headed back down to get laced up for skating. Friends arrived late so it lasted longer then expected but it was GREAT!!
Mark used the bars very well. We took turns helping him and letting him try on his own. Very impressive for the first time. Definately one Winter activity to be repeated in the future!!

New Years Resolutions

New years resolutions are garbage. No one ever mets them, and really we set ourselves us for failure most of the time. I have life goals that I would like to achieve but nothing that I would place a time restraint on really. The only one exception came a year ago when my cousin Josh wrote in his blog that he and his friends had challenged eachother to count the number of books they read that year. I took on the challenge. I am not a reader. Nor would the books I read compare the the "Hemmingway" type of books Josh reads. You probably guessed from all my blogging I am a horrible speller. That is thanks to my Grade 7 year of education when the school decided to cancel all grammer lessons. Seriously no joke, we had none. The following year they realized what a mistake they made and fixed the problem but this is beside the point. I have not been a reader most of my life. My goal this last year was 12 books. I surpassed it and read 20!! Yeah for me!! With two kids, work, home life, friends and all, I am pretty proud of myself. My goal this year is 24. I actually enjoy reading now.

Winnipeg Winter???

Feels like Winnipeg here. As I go for a walk pulling the kids in the sled I take a look around. We just had 7 inches of snow at one time, the snow blowers are out in full force and everyone seems to be either stuck or driving extremely slow. The only major difference here is that our temperature does NOT have a zero after the number. We are just -4 nor -40!! That is a pretty major difference if you ask me. Amazing how our bodies adjust though. We think this is cold and yet how did we ever survive Winnipeg winters before!! I know, we wore more then our fleece coat and a sweater! Anyways, we are enjoying the snow here just the same. Here's a few shots of how much fun we're having.

Many Christmas celebrations

The many Christmas celebrations over this last month are finally all done. We celbrated Christmas 4 times which was nice in some ways - spreading out the gifts and spending time with family not trying to fit in time with everyone all on the same weekend. Too many late nights and not enough sleep yet so much to be thankful for and so blessed by everyone. 1. With Grandma Joan and Auntie Marianne.
* sleding
*picked out our tree
* decorated the house and built the gingerbread train.
* skate board and vacuum were definate hits. There was no comparison to any gift that gave the reaction Mark had when he opened the vacuum.
A week later we celebrated again with Grandpa Dyck and went to the living Nativity production at our chruch. The animals and actors are always amazing. The "Little tikes" Castle and hotwheels were the hit of this weekend as well as the game "Blockus" which I think we have played over a dozen times since. Mark plays it like Tetrus so it's an all-around family game.


The following weekend we went sleding with friends and had a big bond fire up the mountian. The best part of that day is the once a year chance to ride the snow mobile.


Our family Christmas was simple, Christmas eve service, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and opened gifts then went to sleep over at Grandpa and Grandma Peters' place and play games with the family. Stayed there for Turkey the next day and more family time and our 4th Christmas was Boxing day with the Peters.

Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year.
Hope your season was fun and filled like ours!!
Our family letter is always a New Years Letter so don't worry you didn't miss it - it just hasn't been sent yet!!

A Kyla story...

The two things you will find Kyla wondering around with are Stuffed animals (dolls) or Shoes!!

This is a very typical girl. She will carry her animals around or as here in the picture pile them all around her and snuggle up in them or rest on them. Dolls she loves to cuddle and hug and push in her doll stroller, although she has tried a few times to sit in the doll stroller also and tiny as she is it is not made to hold her mear 21 lbs. Shoes she will carry hers around everywhere hence why it's always hard to leave the house on time finding shoes for her and now she has discovered trying ours on and loves that. Here she is sitting in the box we call our "Shoe box" as it's where Kyla's and Mark's shoes are suppose to go at the front door but Kyla likes to sit in the box and play with all the shoes.

A recent discovery of her's was quite funny. I was droping Mark off at school and put Kyla down to help Mark and she turned around to find the cubby holes for the kids full of shoes. I saw her turn to look at me and I said "no Kyla" and the next moment she had grabbed a bunch of pairs of shoes and pulled them out of the cubbies on to the floor with her. The smile on her face was priceless and you had to laugh!!

Halloween

We are not usually promoters of this holiday and we really didn't encourage it but the kids do dress up. Acutally Mark went to a Noah's Ark party at school and Halloween night not trick or treating anyways. The kids love to dress up so that part is fun and harmless. Mark was a Pariot again and Kyla was a bunny. He later dressed up as a caterpillar and a dragon too.
Mark also went to a Princess Party and was a knight but called himself a Prince. He said
" I'm the prince and I'm going to marry all the princesses"!! Cute thought.

Thanksgiving

On the way to see family we had a great stop in Calgary visiting friends that we cherish dearly. A couple that we appreciate and yet see so little. It was wonderful to watch our sons play together running around the farm, playing with toys and chasing the dog. Thanks Marya and Devin for letting us crash your house for the night!!
Kyla wasn't so sure of this cat but little did she know the next day she would be in a house with 3 of them. She is definately a dog lover!!




We had a great family time this Thanksgiving. Thanks to Marianne for allowing the families to invade her domain. Or should we really say Thanks to the cats as all 3 were over come with children in thier space if not chasing them.








The kids had a great time outside. Boys riding bikes, throwing leaves and just playing!! (Don and Ray did take the boys mini golfing but I don't have photo's of that.)
Kyla was outside there too and went for a nice walk with Grandma - first time they had seen Kyla walking!!

Thanksgiving dinner...Supper is always a challenge in our house so why would Mark be any different here!! Auntie Marianne came to the rescue and had a race with him. Poor Marianne had the torture of her own childhood being at the kids table the longest and now as an adult she is back at the kids table!! We love you Marianne!!!











This following photo was taken by a up and coming photo expert!! It was taken by a 5year old!!
Thanks JOEL!!



Well that is our summary of Thanksgiving. It was a memerable experience. Another year gone by and THANKS to all our family and friends for being apart of our lives wether!!

October Update

It's been awhile since I last updated this blog and I appoligize. I guess that means life has been busy here. Among my work 3 evenings a week, Ray working all day and coming home to be Dad with the kids by himself, playgroup & take-a-break starting at church, Mark's Preschool, and trying to have a family life and see friends the time just flies by.

We went apple picking which provided us a lot of apples for free but after 16 jars of apple sauce, 8 pies, 4 crisps, there is still a box full of apples to do something with...










Mark's first day of Preschool...








Some how we find those quiet moments and capture them on film.
THERE WAS NO ADULT INFLUENCE IN SETTING THIS PICTURE UP!!
Here Mark and Kyla are both reading thier Bibles on the kitchen floor. Mark was matching his Bible pages with Kyla's.

PIRATES BEWARE!!

CAPTAIN MARK HERE TO PLAY!!
Pirates are a hot topic in this house. Not too sure when it all began but in the last few months it's been very HUGE!! Maybe from Peter Pan, or Dora when we went to the live show and Mark saw the Pirate piggies stealing the treasure, when we went to visit cousins Joel and Josh and got swords and a treasure chest from McDonald's and went to a Pirate birthday party all dressed up like Pirates. Many stories chosen from the library have Pirates in them and now the latest and most fascinating toy in the house is a Pirate ship donated by friends who are done playing with it!! It has 5 pirate men, a large Pirate ship with a cannon that shoots 2 cannons rolling across the floor, a small row boat the Pirates use to get closer to the treasure or save people with and binoculars that the pirates use to watch for people. At first with the pirate men shooting I was not so impressed but when I talked to Mark that we don't shoot people he said "but mom it's shooting blueberries at you, so you should open your mouth to catch them their delicious!" Oh, the joys of innocent play!! We have tried so hard to not have guns and the sort in the house for play but it is so hard with boys they use anything as a sword or gun even if it's just their finger and nothing else.
Boys will be boys as the saying goes!!
Ahy ahy captain and tally ho!!

The hole

Here is the actual hole size now that Ray has framed it in, removed the 5 studs and rewired the lights and fan. A lot more work this time but all completed within a weekend so very impressive. Next comes the molding just like the other hole. It really brings a new look to th room and hopfully we'll get a nice picture for the other wall in entrance way. It has been great to look throught the whole to say hello to peole coming in or goodbye as guests are leaving without all standing in a small enterance way!
Sorry I didn't take the picture until now. This last weekend Ray was gone on the men's retreat and I tried overcomming my fear of heights and painting the entrance way but I couldn't complete it and left 1/2 of it still for him to do. I don't know; something about being home alone with the kids sleeping, climbing up a ladder when I am already afriad of heights! I just couldn't do it. Also, each time I seemed to move the ladder the kids woke up in nightmares so it really wasn't worth all the up and down to try again for a second coat. Ray will just have to do it himself some time. So for now here is the update so you don't think we just left the wall with 2 small holes (hey Mel!!)

Another whole in our wall!!

More wholes in our walls!! Ray has been wanting to do two windows in our walls all along and I have been hesitant. Once our first whole in the wall was done I loved it. It brightens the whole living room. After going to a neighbor complex that is currently under reno's and I saw the half wall from the living room to the entrance way I realized Ray was right and it would look great. So we knocked out another whole in our wall yesterday. Wiring will add a bit more time to the project this time but I am very excited.

Mark loves to say "Surprise" to the people coming in the front door!!