six more weeks of winter....

...ha!

last Friday we got some more snow and Kiara cheered. Aidan too. they were alone in their enthusiasm. one thing for sure is that if there are still snow piles in the backyard in June....there just may be unified groans from everyone in our house!

at least the days are getting more obviously longer. i like to see the sun still in the sky at 4pm. the sunsets are also very pretty at this time of year.

we have had a few days' break with warmer temperatures and the kids have been able to play in the backyard mountains.



all smiles. until the snow got in her boots!



as long as Kiara didn't get in his way, he had big smiles on his face too.



it took all night for his winter clothes to dry out in time! i think i threw them right in the laundry. figured they were soaking, they may as well drip dry after being cleaned.



both of the kids have been growing like weeds in the past few months. i lost track of the number of times Kiara had wet socks in the last two weeks from snow getting trapped into her boots. we managed to find an incredible sale on a new pair. then i realized that she also needed longer snow pants. we had a two sided problem on our hands! new boots, larger snow pants and she is much more content to play longer.

i played a trick on them a few weeks ago. we set out their clothes for the next day and they leave them on their beds just before bedtime. after they were asleep, i swapped their pants. it had been a cranky few weeks and we desperately needed a good laugh. a good laugh was had. Aidan just figured he grew overnight and Kiara thought she shrunk. okay, maybe i was the one laughing.


i was proud to hear that Aidan and some of his classmates would be reading a special poem in their all school assembly today. it meant that Kiara missed an entire swim lesson, but it was worth it to be there.

he looks so grown up standing there with his hands in his pockets.



every kid, teacher and some parents were in attendance. approximately 700 students from K-9. he was a bit nervous, but he did it. even managed a bit of a smile.



can't believe this is the same kid who refused to participate in a little church Christmas concert when he was 2 years old. okay, i know 2 is young. but the same trend continued as he got older! i'm proud of him because i know that i could not have done this at his age. i could barely stand in front of my classmates...and there were only 10 kids in my class at the time.


well off to ballet class with Kiara. should be fun!

i-phone photos

the camera on my iphone4 is not bad. in fact it really impresses me for a phone camera. check these out.



yes. i had a birthday over a week ago. this is the birthday cake from Kristian and the kids. i think Aidan was secretly disappointed that the correct number of candles were not inserted. his concern may also be with his dad's ability to count properly?




okay. not an iphone photo. but a memorable moment! why is my hand pushing away Kiara's face? did i lose control of my arm muscles?




aaahhh. check out the photo from earlier. she wanted to blow out my candles herself. claiming it was HER birthday. that is one way to get her to 18 more quickly!



in a dark restaurant. from a distance because we were a large group. these are some friends that i hang out with from our new church. one of the girls i knew 21 years ago, back when we were brand new high school graduates living in the big city of Edmonton. another i was friends with her sister over 17 years ago while we worked together one summer. it turns out another one of the girls and i have several mutual friends. isn't it a small world?! and at least three of them have admitted that they also scrapbook. i hope we stay good friends for a very long time. they are a lot of fun! this photo was the night we went out to celebrate my birthday. a few of the girls couldn't make it, so are missing from this photo.


it was a good birthday. the past few have been quite difficult for reasons i won't go into. but this year held now unseen ghastly surprises for me. Kris apparently felt that he was outdone at Christmas by my bosses at Urban. (they gave me and a few other interested girls an amazing scrapbook tool - the Vagabond. seriously beyond anything i expected to receive. from anybody.) too funny! he figured he'd go right to them to see if they had any advice for him. it was really interesting listening to his tale. poor man. i think his saga of getting the perfect gift was a gift in itself. he really got creative in planning! to think he involved my bosses and to hear how they tried to help. above and beyond. i am very appreciative of all the 3 of them tried to do!! keep that gratitude in mind when you read the next paragraph!!

i should mention that he did not fail at Christmas himself. he completely and utterly shocked me with a very nice diamond necklace. diamonds that make my engagement ring look bland. my first thought was fear that i would lose it, or break it because it was soooo delicate. just what any worried husband wants to hear on Christmas morming, "what? why? i think you should return it!!" i did wear it that day. and as much as i can since. it did not get returned. his response was that we are better off than we were when he bought my engagement ring....so why shouldn't he gift me with something nice.

the funny part? i was telling my fashionista babysitter about this. {she is a Tiffany's girl and loves anything with bling and carats!} she shook her head and asked me why i couldn't have at least faked ecstasy over the gift. apparently a similar scene took place that same morning between her parents. yes, that girl is wise beyond her years. which is why she is our first choice babysitter!


birthdays are even more fun with my kids. Kristian always buys a card for each of them to sign. that morning he stacked the gifts on the kitchen table with the cards on top. i opened the cards before school, but told them we would wait until after school to open the gifts. we were running later than usual that morning! that drove the kids nuts to make them wait. they were so excited to celebrate with me.

usually i like to dress up and look my best on my actual birthday. not this year. put my hair in a pony tail. dressed in comfy clothes. Aidan spent the day in school, but i had to drop off and pick up Kiara at playschool in the morning. the rest of the time? totally lazy. it. was. the. best.



remember my previous post? the snow comparisons from November to now, and from last year to this year?

check this out:



here is just one of the snow storage yards in the city. in my own best guess....i would say that the hill is at least three times higher than i've ever seen it. i think the snow hauling trucks going down the road past the entry gate outnumbers the regular traffic 3 to 1. unbelievable.





until last week, this was our mode of transportation to school. the temperatures climbed above zero Celsius almost all last week. we also had rain. we also had a great deal of ice. then this weekend it snowed. life is not boring in the far north! at least not this year.



they re-plowed the path behind our home. which made the snow pile even higher. this pic is before they plowed. it isn't packed well, so it makes for quite the adventure to get into our backyard in this route.



no need to travel far to toboggan.



they may never be this lucky again in their little lives.

can you believe that all but 2 of the photos were taken with the iphone? makes for a great point and shoot!

on a positive note....typically....January is the coldest month. the days are getting longer, we're seeing more of the sun. groundhog day is nearly here. could we be lucky to have just 6 more weeks of winter?

on Friday, it snowed again. Kiara danced with glee. she is in the minority. was it any coincidence that i registered her for kindergarten on the same day? hmmmm.....sigh. that is a story for another day.

the golden globe in our winter sky

the sun came out today!

it has been so long, that we kind of forget what it looks like. Kris did some more shovelling. like another 3 hours worth. he decided that it might be a good idea to move the snow away from the house. thinking ahead to spring and the big melt.

so far the kids have 4 piles of snow. 3 of them aren't quite as high as this one, but still pretty good. i think they will be happy to be able to walk along a shovelled path and not have to break trail as well. 

the kids are pretty lucky to have so much snow around to have custom sledding hills and snow palaces in the backyard. with any luck they may never get to experience such fun again?

it really is a marshmallow world!

will it ever stop snowing?!

apparently we have only broken the record made in 1974. we still have several centimetres to go before we break the 1971 record. personally, that record can remain unbroken.




i snapped this yesterday morning after our walk to school. notice Kiara's feet do not touch the ground. i think the mountain of snow sitting at the end of our driveway is about 3 1/2 Kiara's high.

for comparisons' sake, i found these photos from last year and earlier in the winter season.....






the above 2 photos were taken nearly a year apart. notice the difference in the piles of snow?

i purposely did not adjust the photos. we have not seen. the. sun. for. days. it comes out in brief intervals to remind us that it does exist. then it goes back behind thick clouds.






in March 2010, we had a warm spell which melted some of the snow. then we had another spring snowfall. we had even been out bike riding the week before the snowfall. BUT notice the change in the height of the snow? the slide is really a joke right now.



watch the tree disappear.....






crazy!



oh, is that what grass looks like?



pretty....



and we thought we had a big snowfall at Christmas.



you can still see the plastic trunk protector on our apple tree.



we have all watched the snowdrifts grow on our rooftops. hoping our vents remain free of snow....and the trusses stay strong!



Kristian braved our garage roof to free up space for more snowdrifts. i was a bit worried he had frozen his brain and would try to climb to the second level. fortunately he did not!




the driveway was covered again right after clearing. i think he spent about 3 hours shovelling snow in total on Saturday. only to return and spend another hour on Sunday.







just last week Kiara had the "bright" idea to climb over the fence. using the chair. it worked. until she wanted to get back into the yard. i think she thought she could stand on top of the pile of snow on the other side of the fence... you can imagine her surprise. so she trudged through the snow to the gate. which Aidan decided to help her by digging a path in front of the gate. she would have been rescued by nightfall. ha! i came out and lifted her up and over the fence. using the very chair she had climbed over!

check out the snowpile on that little birdhouse.

ugh. such grey skies.




this is what our backyard view looked like yesterday.

it is snowing again today. big. flakes.

last week the temperatures were brutally cold. Aidan had a bad cold and missed the entire week of school. i'm just thankful that he happened to be sick the same week. between the snowdrifts and horribly cold temperatures, the walk to and from school would not have been exciting or enjoyable. it is warmer (slightly!) and most of the sidewalks have been shovelled.

yesterday took us to the doctor because of Aidan complaining about his sore ear for several days. (no infection, good news!) on the way home a car right behind us spun out and landed in the centre snowbank. amazing it did not get hit. so glad it wasn't us! and it was a 4x4, so it drove out pretty easily. in all irony, the vehicle behind it was a tow truck.

the day before i took our car in for an oil change. they discovered i had a nail in my tire. fixed before i had to deal with a flat. wow.

all true stories.

today is my birthday. this will be the last year i am 30-something. how did that happen?!! Aidan is feeling better, and wished me a happy birthday at bedtime and this morning. Kiara is now sick and is as grumpy as one could ever be. she proclaimed that it was NOT my birthday today. fortunately she lived. she finished her breakfast and is now quietly enjoying TreeHouse all by herself. and the peace is back. that's all i really need. although a hot beach and sunshine would be pretty nice too......

confused

i taught another class on Saturday. it was a pretty busy day. i also kept myself up late on Friday night. and Thursday night. by 5pm Saturday i was exhausted! the good kind of exhausted.

i also hadn't eaten much that day, so it was a treat to eat my supper in front of the television. it is a rare treat. then i promptly closed my eyes and had cat naps for the next 2 hours. by the time my down-time was done i felt so much better. a little reminder to relax at times like that and not worry about the work that should have been getting done.

when i started my little rest time it was cold and rainy outside. 3 hour south of us was already on their second day of snow.

when i rose from my fabulous quiet time i learned that the air turned even colder and the rain turned to snow. as Aidan put it, "there is snow falling and getting mixed up with the rain."



May 29. snow. it was just a few weeks ago that we hit 30 degrees Celsius and we had the air conditioning turned on. we smelled like sunscreen. we were enjoying any and every meal we could eat of hamburgers, steak and grilled suppers.



this is what it looked like this morning.

yuck.

our "plan" was to do some major yard work this week. the "weather" plans to rain. rain. with a few days of sun.

que sera?

farvel vinter!

did i mention that soccer season started on May 1? it was a nice day. it was still cool enough that Kiara had to wear a sweater under her soccer jersey....but warm enough to not be freezing if you were standing still. we were spoiled royally by a burst of summer in the middle of April. it is hard to believe that it was hot enough for water fights just less than a month ago.

Aidan had his first game on Monday. we nearly froze! we all let the kids play because we knew they were excited, but after 30 minutes they were done too. a perfect excuse to visit Starbucks and treat ourselves to a hot drink.

Tuesday morning we woke up to this:




i heard Aidan comment about enjoying winter, but hoping spring would be back tomorrow. nothing like being an optimist!

later that day they enjoyed a perfect snowball fight with the neighbours.



they played like this for at least 15 minutes solid. considering their ages, that was impressive! you know what else was amazing? not a single tear or complaint.

on Wednesday, the snow was still here. Aidan and his kindergarten buddy played in the snow with his rescue heros. on one side of our house we still don't have a fence....so you could see their tracks into the neighbours yard. when i looked closer it looked like they were even in the next yard...but i can't be sure! the next morning the largest snowman i have ever seen was sitting on their deck. i need to take a photo of that sight. soccer was cancelled. obviously. but it was the first day of their swimming lessons, so it was nice to kind of get accustomed to the new schedule gradually and see how much time we will really have between swimming and soccer.

on Thursday Aidan and Kiara decided to build a snowman. i think they both still need some help with this. it appears that the snowman is laying down and watching tv. interesting. while they worked i stayed in the house and worked on a project i had started earlier, and made supper, and got ready for an evening out...never a slack moment? one of the times i checked on them i saw a lone snowball fly from another yard. and another. and another. i can't remember how many landed before they looked up! our other neighbour was in his hot tub and chucking snowballs at them. i did not get a photo. ha!

as i mentioned i had been working on a project. i have a class coming up at the end of the month, so i need to get the layout prepared as soon as possible. i was hoping to get it done by Friday so that i can bring it to work with me and move on to the next project! i am such a slow scrapbooker. it has been a challenge to find time to work on it this time around too. finally i got to the point where i could see my "plan" for the pages and just needed to put it together. to my relief and joy the kids allowed me the time to do this during the day! they played in the basement for at least 2 and a half hours. happily. not a single disagreement or fight. i couldn't believe how much i got accomplished.

at one point i had to take something to the basement and spotted them in the craft area. suspicious looks on their faces. "hi mommy. don't look!!! please" greeted me. all week Aidan has told me that he has a secret, and how special Sunday will be. i had some guesses what they were up to. then they started to make trips upstairs to borrow paper punches and pop dots. he came to me and his eyes were huge. "are you really excited for Sunday, Mommy? you only have 3 more sleeps."

so, i'm not sure how much of the special Sunday plans involve their dad. i've tried to find out from them, but they are being very secretive.

today the snow is still here. some green grass and leaves poking through the drifts.

tomorrow they have soccer photos scheduled. hmmm... the weatherman says warmer weather will be with us for the weekend. but soon enough for it to melt and dry the ground?

i've always stuck to the "put out your plants on the May long weekend" advice. so nice that we are getting closer to that date. let's hope that we can finally put the snowpants, mittens and shovels away until November.

for real

we had a beautiful weekend. it was sunny. fairly warm.

the snow finally diminished enough to allow the dead grass to poke through. the kids have had their fair share of splashing through puddles. it took their boots nearly 3 days to dry after their last romp!


then we awoke to THIS on Monday morning.






you can see that a bunny enjoyed making tracks all over the yard. when our darlings saw the footprints, they decided it was "the Easter Bunny". it was definitely a busy bunny.



on Sunday afternoon we decided to get the bikes out and test out the paths. it is our first spring in the community and so nice for all of us to walk out the door and have the path right there. i still am in disbelief that just a year ago many nice spring weekends were spent going from show home to driving the streets looking for "good" areas. we all agree that the bike ride was the best way to spend an afternoon!



Kiara is willing to try anything new. love her adventurous spirit! i am crossing my fingers that we have left the uglyness of the 3's behind and can embrace the entertaining aspects of the 3's. there were so many days when we really wondered if that sweet girl would ever return to us.



Aidan was drenched.

what normal boy could resist the deep puddles?! the raincoat came in  quite handy. i also have photos of him with the puddle water dripping from his face.

he too had some pretty terrible days when he was 3. like any healthy kid, he still has his own challenges!! he and his buddy from school have been excited for weeks now because of a field trip to study dinosaurs at the museum. yesterday they even decided to wear dinosaur t-shirts so that they would match. cute! then my dear child discovered this morning that i would not be going on the field trip with him. given his already tough morning, the fact pushed him over the edge. apparently he had visions of he and his buddy, together with their mommy's having a grand ol' ball of a time. it is a wonder they didn't decide our wardrobe as well. so, yes. still some days that are challenging.


well, Kiara and i have enjoyed a relaxing remainder of our morning. we both have the sniffles and have quite the chorus of sniffs and coughs going on. lovely.

i am nearly done prepping for my class on Thursday. the busy patterns of the papers was a challenge to me and stumped me on how to combine them in a pleasing way. as a result i ended up using all but a few scraps of paper. the back of the layout is interesting as it is taped together to be held into place! it stumped me even further when i thought about how i was ever going to teach it and make sure that the cuts were described properly. enter my thoughtful boss....with the suggestion that i pre-cut as much as i can. it was more work, but i think it will make the class run much more smoothly! now just to hope and keep my fingers crossed that i made the right cuts!!

i have the montly dt layout on my desk ready to be glued into place. i can't wait to see how it looks when it is done. beautiful, beautiful papers and embellishments.

then i can start the fun of creating the next monthly layout class. it has been tough to do my other work. i know i say this every month...but this one is going to be so awesome! fun and messy. i am soooo lucky!


now to just stop the snow and bring on consistent warm sunshine and air!

joy

the weather around the globe has not been so wonderful lately. crazy temperatures happening all over the place! somehow the cold arctic air is moving around this part of the globe and leaving some really pleasant temperatures. aside from the amount of snow on the ground, the air felt much more like it does in March. that added some joy to our day!


we headed out of town to celebrate some birthdays. Kristians' niece and nephew were born in two separate years...but just 2 days apart! his niece had her birthday on Saturday and his nephew had his today. i'm sure their parents know exactly what the weather is like typically on their birthdays....but i think it was the most pleasant weather that i can recall having.


it meant an afternoon of sledding. without the risk of frostbite! yay!!!





Kristian took Kiara down for a run. i'm not sure why, but she is held that cord up high for every run down the hill. that's my girl.


Aidan just loves to go fast.


our niece. taking one of the jumps. i wished i had the vantage point to capture the look on her face. no matter. this gives it's own set of detail. look at the air she got!



i would say that this is the first year Kiara has enjoyed the snow. i suppose part of it is realizing that it comes and goes every year. it wouldn't surprise me if she chose to live somewhere more temperate as an adult. she is a smart one. this is also the first year that she really got into the sledding. maybe there is hope for her.



i think we had a few adults who had gone for too long without skiing. especially this one. he tried out most of the sleds like this. only once did he try 2 saucers...i'm sure you can guess why. time to plan a ski day. or weekend.




this is my favourite shot of the day! only because of their expressions. i got a few really good ones of this ride down the hill. i think they will make a fantastic scrapbook layout. {grinning} seriously. how can you NOT smile after looking at those faces?



both of the kids still managed to fit into last years' winter gear. except for their boots. these coats will definitely see their fair share of wear. i just love how the colour in this coat and her hat works so well with the snow and the lighting. they are growing like weeds, so this will definitely be the last year for this coat. if she slows down her growth or spring comes early. i guess i better keep my eye out for a good hat for next year...if only for the photo opportunities. ha! actually that hat will match the next coat perfectly. pink and brown.


so i've been thinking of my goals for the next year. my word for the next year.

i've decided on 'strength'. i don't want to lose the growth i've gained. i definitely love the blooming that has happened. i need those blooms to lift my spirits! now is the time to stay strong and become stronger.

more on that later.


for now...if you live in Canada....enjoy your day. if you live elsewhere...stay warm!