Howdy Partner...

On Saturday, I had a combined birthday party for Jackson (5) and Cole (1) - I was all prepared to do two separate parties, on different days but then with having a funeral to go to last weekend, that used up the whole weekend and then this weekend, I didn't think my friends needed to come two days in a row, being that most of them had kids in both age brackets!!! Also, for Cole, I really just want a couple pictures that I can scrapbook someday! Ever since his birthday last year, Jackson has been talking about a cowboy party... so that's what we did and most of the kids dressed up too, so we had a houseful of little buckaroo's :) At our party round-up we had cactus juice, hot dogs, natcho chips, wheat salad and a horse shoe cake! There was a round of 'pin the tail on the donkey' and we made some snazzy 'lone ranger' masks!

Birthday Cole after enjoying his cupcake

"Rubber Ducky, you're the one..."

Cole's Sesame Street cupcakes - complete with Ernie's rubber ducky for the candle!

Jackson blowing out his big #5

The horseshoe cake - the sprinkles are stars & cows... nothing amazing but he LOVED it, so that's all that matters! (there's a sheriff badge in front of the #5)

Some of the deputy's waiting for cake...

Opening prezzies

Pin The Tail On The Donkey - Jackson got it first try!

Liam... after emptying a tube of glitter glue onto his mask :)

"Cactus Juice"

The biggest sandbox ever :)

On Saturday morning, before Grandma's funeral, we went to 'The Great Sandhills' with Doug (our employee) and two of Miles' cousins and their families. I had been in the area before but had never seen the Sandhills, other than the wedding pictures of Miles' older bro and wife. The boys loved traipsing through the sand and it was cute to watch Liam, who turned around to look at his footprints every once n' awhile!

First snowfall

After spending a sunny-ish weekend away (it was a bit chilly at times though) you can imagine our surprise to come home to a foot of snow on Monday night... it was in the forecast but was weird to see, being that we didn't get any at the farm. On Monday, I think it was +12C and the kids were all outside playing in just hoodies - meanwhile their friends at home were making snowmen and snow angels :)

No worries - the trailer IS winterized

The next morning - snow topped with fallen leaves! An indication that our fall season is still here!!!

A birthday cupcake

Little Coley celebrated his very FIRST birthday today! It was a rather blah day for the most part (other than climbing an entire flight of stairs for the first time) but after supper he got to mutilate a cupcake and then was treated to a few tranquil moments at the spa... the after-cupcake-bath (complete with brothers) and a manicure/pedicure! We have had a fun year watching our little man accomplish so many 'firsts' and enjoy his precious smiles, currently showing off four teeth! It is neat to see him develop his own little personality and watch as he starts to interact with others!

Special thanks to my neighbour for lending me three eggs at 5pm, when I decided to make a batch of cupcakes :) She said that she had just been talking to a friend last week, who had made the comment that, "you just can't borrow a cup of sugar etc from a neighbour anymore like you used to" and Andrea replied, "Louise and I do it all the time!" So... I'm hoping that our new neighbourhood has some great people in it too!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We headed out to spend Thanksgiving with Miles' family at the farm. The only pictures I really got of the weekend were of my 10 year old niece cleaning and stuffing the turkey :) It was very entertaining and these are just a couple of the many pictures I took of her! She was very saddened that the bird had already been gutted! RIP "Frank" (the turkey)

She wants to be a veterinarian someday and declared that this was her first 'surgery'

Remembering Grandma A.

Today, as we were all at Miles' parents house, we got a call to say that his maternal Grandma had passed away. I am thankful to have known her for the past ten years... when we were newly engaged, we flew out (from BC) to her 80th birthday party and that's when I met most of Miles' extended family. She had just celebrated her 90th on September 20th. This picture was taken May 2007 when we stopped in to see her last. (Miles saw her again early summer of this year though). Grandma was always full of spunk and had a good sense of humour, until the last few years when her mind and body started failing. Sounds like her funeral will be on Saturday.

September 20, 1918 - October 13th, 2008

Allergies

PEANUT ALLERGY - November 16, 2002

I came across this YOUTUBE video that displays how to correctly use an EPI-PEN. I have just renewed Ethan's and we've got one in his classroom and one in his backpack... I have a prescription in to get a couple more - the house, diaper bag... anyways, thought I would post this. Even if you don't have sound, which I don't right now either, it's worth the watch and could save someone's life! Just click on the website and it should come up no problem! Take the grey cap off the top and firmly press the black part into the outer thigh and hold....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF8Ulu6QMow

Ethan has a PEANUT allergy, which I discovered when he was 14 months old. I later had it confirmed by an allergy doctor, who tested just for peanuts because he was so young. We don't know the severity of his allergy and hope to never find out! We also found out this summer that he's allergic to dog saliva - unless of course that particular dog had been into a peanut stash somewhere :) Thanks for watching!

New Hooters....

OWL STAMPS that is! Silly people... sorry, I couldn't resist! I always think of the scene in the movie 'Dumb and Dumber' :) Anyways - back to the card... I made 8 cardfronts (for my upline swap) and this card. I used the new SU! set 'Owl Together Now' and the 'Autumn Vine' designer paper that is in the new holiday mini catalogue (October 1st to January 18th). I used the colours from the DP as my inspiration... Sage Shadow, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard and Really Rust. Due to the chaos around my house lately, my stamping moments have been very minimal - so it was fun to have an excuse to pull a few things out again. I really need to make some baby boy cards too - thankfully I made a stash of girl cards before summer :)

Five years....

Yesterday was Jackson's FIFTH birthday... and like every parent, we wonder, "where did 5 years go!?!?" We had a fairly mellow day since the weather was terrible and we didn't feel like going anywhere. On our way home from church, we picked up an ice-cream cake and out of the options given to him, Jackson picked pancakes and maple sausages for lunch! Then he opened two presents and the boys spent the rest of the afternoon playing with his new Kid K'NEX. We charged the Wii remotes last night, so they plan on playing the new George of the Jungle Wii game tonight :) As Jackson told my mom on the phone last night, "this is just my birth-DAY, it's not my PARTY!" His party will probably be the weekend after Thanksgiving and will be a COWBOY theme... something he's talked about since his birthday party ended last year!!! He's very torn about who to invite though because his church friends don't know his school friends! Cute!

FIVE candles...

We stopped by DQ on our way home from church and Jackson picked out this cake, and asked for yellow lettering - his fave colour!

Two boys... Ethan checking out his new baby! Little did we know that two more brothers were still yet to come :)

Bringing home baby... October 8, 2003

First Birthday (he had his first haircut shortly after)

I {heart} fall

On Thursday, after school, we went to the park (our 'new' neighbourhood) with some friends. It was a gorgeous day and hard to believe that it was October!!! I've come to the realization that I love aspects of all the seasons but for some reason, I am especially drawn to fall... probably because it is such a short season where I live and before you get a chance to even rake the leaves, snow is on the ground!

Some Scenics....