Clara Turns Two

Clara's 2nd birthday. We invited the family over for dinner & cake.


Samantha put up some Dora & Diego window stickers and we blew up the worm balloons Clara had picked out at the grocery store. These instantly became swords for the boys.


Clara loved her birthday crown from Nursery. She refused to take it off all day, even at bedtime.

Hiding with Landon under the table.

Clara asked for Boots & Dora on her cake. Samantha helped me make a Mars Bar Oreo Ice Cream Cake.

A Little Catching Up

I finally made some time to get our photos from the camera onto my laptop and realized the many things I haven't blogged about in the last several weeks.

So, bear with me while I tell you about Clara's birthday (in September).

And Cross Country (which ended weeks ago).

And maybe even the house we moved into (back in July).

I'll try to keep some current stuff in there as well.



(Is Thanksgiving still current?...)

How Nathan Gets Out of Doing Everything

This is the conversation Nathan and I had this morning.

Nathan came into my room hoping to watch some cartoons but stopped when he saw my unmade bed.

Nathan: Mom! You should really make your bed.

Me: Yes, I should. (pause) Nathan, you should really make your bed.

Nathan: No!

Me: Why not?

Nathan: Because my favourite thing to do is not make my bed.

Preschool for Nathan

Three friends and I started a home preschool group for our three year old children who will be starting Junior Kindergarten in another year from now.

Nathan is so excited and has been loving going to Preschool each week. We went shopping to get his workbook and he was so proud - he couldn't wait to show Nana and Grandma!


He also has his own backpack and a pencil case filled with his school supplies.

It has been a fun group and I am happy for Nathan to have his own activity to go to, as he often seems to be left out of everything that his older siblings do.

Ironically, Samantha & JD have been asking if we could please host one of our preschool days on a day when they will be home from school so that they can help out with the activities.


Nathan was thrilled to have his own "Back to School" photo on the front step, just like the big kids, on his first day of Preschool.

Breakfast at the Cottage

Tomorrow is Clara's last day to be one. Before I burst into inconsolable sobbing, here are some photos from our most recent trip to the cottage.

Breakfast starts out with some toast and jam.


Clara sees me with the camera and starts making funny faces.


She shows me how she can squish me with her thumb and finger.


Then she pretends to ignore me.


Such a ham.


Wait a second. She checks to make sure I'm still giving her my full attention.

I take her out of the high chair and move her onto the yellow kitchen chair.

She isn't happy about the jam, butter, and crumbs smeared all over her face. I wash her off.


Mmmm.... Clean. Much better.




Please don't turn two this weekend, Clara. My heart is breaking right now. I don't think I can take anymore of this growing up. It's killing me.

Back to School 2010

The kids went back to school last week. They were somewhat more nervous about starting this year as they are attending a new school due to our move over the summer.

But the first day went really well and they all came home happy, which was wonderful. JD said one a scale of 1 to 10 his first day was an 11!




This is my last year with Nathan home full time as he will be starting Junior Kindergarten a year from now. He was quite devastated that he wasn't going off to school on the bus with the big kids this year, as he absolutely hates to get left out of anything. But he's been a good sport, always walking them to the bus stop each morning with Scott and then coming home and asking me, for the sixteen hundredth time, when it is going to be his turn to go to school.

Brett's Milkshake

On our vacation, we met some friends for lunch at Peter's Drive Thru.

Peter’s has the best milkshakes. They have several dozen flavours and you can mix them to make awesome combos. This year I tried raspberry chocolate. It was delicious.



Brett, knowing that we would be going to Peter’s, had been thinking about his milkshake for hours in advance. After deliberating between the many fruity possibilities, he finally settled on Watermelon-Strawberry-Lime.

We should have clued in that it might not be the tastiest combo when the lady taking his order raised her eyebrows up about two inches as she wrote it down.



When the milkshakes arrived, Brett took one sip, winced, and choked down the swallow.

He sat there for a minute nibbling on some fries. Then he leaned over and quietly asked me if he could please have a little money to go buy some Lemonade.



For some reason, I needed to try this milkshake. Seriously, how bad could it be?

Oh my. It was so gross. If you ever go to Peter's, please do not get this kind.

We will be teasing Brett about it for a long time.

The milkshake must have really affected me because I didn't take any photos of Brett while we were there.

Okay I took one. From behind.

Alberta Vacation 2010

We had so much fun out west this summer.

We flew to Alberta this year for the first time in seven years. Our kids loved the plane ride. Scott and I loved it too. Especially the part where we didn't have to pack our kids and bags into the back of our minivan and spend 30 hours driving across the country.

We almost missed our flight as the power went out briefly the night before and our alarm clocks were reset. Luckily Jesse had a nightmare at 4:30 AM, came into our room crying, woke us up, and we were able to make it across town to the airport in the nick of time for our very early flight to Calgary.

Here are some highlights worth mentioning:

My cousin, Kennedy's wedding to an awesome girl, Nikki. It was beautiful.

Jensen family reunion. My Mom is the oldest of 9 children and we had 57 family members at our 2 day reunion. Some activities included the Barnwell parade, games, rope-making, huge family meals, a fireside, and enjoying time together to get re-acquainted with cousins, aunts & uncles.

Trip to Waterton with the Samhuri family. Hiking Bear's Hump and trying to avoid the rain that seemed to be following us. We saw a black bear just outside of the park.

Jesse and Samantha learning to roller blade and ride two-wheelers at their Stewart cousin's house.

Meeting our dear friends at Peter's Drive Thru for lunch where Brett ordered a one-of-a-kind milkshake.

Many walks around the lake with several children following behind some combination of Buddy, and /or Pepper and /or Copper. Scott's siblings like dogs. So do our kids. Jesse told me yesterday he is saving up for one.

Hill Siblings gathering for a huge Sunday dinner complete with roast, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, the works. We appreciated Kim & Mark traveling quite a way to come see us!

Cookout in Taber park where we got eaten alive by mosquitoes but were having too much fun eating dinner, roasting marshmallows, playing Frisbee and baseball to leave early.

The men went out to shoot guns. It's becoming a Barnwell tradition with Uncle Eric. Jordana and I skipped out this year because we didn't want to show the guys up two years in a row.

Seeing Mona & Jarom who flew all the way from Singapore and are expecting a baby girl this winter!

Seeing Sami too, which makes twice in 6 months. That's definitely a record.

Seeing one of my BFF's, Robyn, for the first time in so long. I miss that girl!

I love visiting my Grandparents. My Grandma will turn 78 this year, and is still quilting. Her memory is amazing. She loves her family so much. My Grandpa is turning 87 next month and still rides his bike almost every day. He has an amazing vegetable garden and raspberry bushes our kids are addicted to. He loves his family so much that he weeps tears of joy every time we visit.

I think Scott would probably want me to mention the night he went golfing with Parker, Matt & Jeff. They had a lot of fun together and some good uncle-nephew bonding time.

The kids? Would probably say the best part of Alberta was seeing all of their COUSINS!

Brett's Baptism

Brett was baptized on Sunday, July 18. We were happy to have so much family and friends here to be a part of his special day.

Saving a Baby Robin

A few nights ago Scott came home and saw a baby robin on our lawn. The robin appeared to be hurt, and was struggling to hop around to safety, as he was too young to fly.

After deciding that a night on our lawn would surely turn the poor little creature into a midnight snack for a hungry raccoon, Scott suggested we take him to Salthaven.

It turned out to be the right decision, as they quickly assessed that not only was his left leg broken, but he had a cat or dog bite on his back as well.

Samantha was very happy to be part of the rescue team and got to sit up front on our drive out with the bird in a basket on her lap.