Poor chap...

How can you tell Aiden has a big sister? That's how.

Sandpoint, ID

We went to the Sandpoint (Idaho) for a night over the weekend to meet Kevin's parents (from Seattle area, not Sandpoint), as they haven't had an opportunity to meet Aiden yet and it's been 9 months since we last saw them!! It was so good to see them again! Nana & Papa with their 7th Grandchild! They never come empty-handed;) Atalie gets a new baby!

The deck that Kevin built:)

Kev's been hard at work for 4 weeks straight (off regular $paying$ work, that is). He completed the deck on Thursday and put up some trim today - it's really coming together! We also picked up a bath tub at Home Depot and finally decided on our heating source. We were originally thinking baseboard heating b/c it's the cheapest (budget budget budget) but seeing as how it's a small house to begin with, they would take up a bit more room space (not to mention don't look terribly attractive). So we're going with an Electric furnace. Also we've decided to put in a fireplace as opposed to a woodstove (likely anyways) as it is more practical considering we framed the house for a fireplace and we'd be saving space (a wood stove has to stick out from the wall so we'd have a huge void space sitting behind it where a fireplace was meant to fit). It's tricky trying to stick to a budget while considering the fact that this is for us, utimately, an investment.. so we're trying to upgrade where we can, for the purpose of re-sell, without spending alot of money. Our quote for putting in heating was actually the same for a fireplace as it was for a woodstove anyway (due to having to put in an HRV system for fresh air with a woodstove) so we thought, "what the heck aye?". I'm just waiting to get the final word from our heating guy regarding the wood-burning aspect of this fireplace. I know woodstoves are fantastic for long burning time and I don't want to be constantly stoking it, as it will be our main source of heat during the winter. Anyway, I won't bore with more heat-related details. Here's some pics: (The picture below was taken on Thursday, before the trim went up)

A little video trial...will it work?

I haven't figured out (I'll take help!) how to get the actual video on my blog so the links will have to do... also, I haven't figured out (again, help!) how make "enter" work when typing in this thing - what the heck aye?!? I have endless run-ons and it drives me nuts!! Atalie holds Aiden Atalie & Daddy on trampoline Blanket Time I took some advice and tried copying the words in the box on YouTube but there was nothing saying "embed" anywhere. Hmm.... help?

Banff

This was an evening trip we made a few weeks ago with our friends Devon & Ethan. Dinner and a walk downtown is always a treat in Banff:) You'd think it would get old - yet it doesn't. Why is it kids instinctively know when they are in a store full of candy, even if they've never seen the stuff before???

More Coaldale Pics

This first one is kinda cute. We went for a walk with the family and I couldn't resist (it reads, "Don't Pee On Me"). This is what you would drive up to if you had called 903-22nd Avenue your home for 20 years... home, sweet home:) Of course, returning to our home in Invermere is just as sweet! Just a couple o' kids... ...oh wait - here's the kids!

Pics from Coaldale

Here are some jems I rounded up from the week spent here in Coaldale, Alberta. Above you'll see us huddled together, all sick and looking it too; below you'll see Atalie, sick but making the best of it;) ha! Below, more happy moments with Grandma:) Aiden gave us endless smiles inspite of his stuffy nose!! The cheery autumn pics were taken when both Atalie and I were feeling much better and ready for playing;) It was her first time playing in the leaves, as she was too little last year - she caught on immediately and was THRILLED to finally be outside!!!!! It took Mom an hour to rake the rather large pile of leaves you see below... ...a more "Attie" size pile of leaves;)

Coaldale - a holiday?

I find myself in Coaldale. Infact I've been here now for 7 days, with 2 remaining. I packed up the kids and headed East with my parents after they were done visiting us over Thanksgiving weekend. I came for some time away... perhaps I had a bit of a holiday in my mind when I pictured "time away". But it's been just the opposite. I will try not to go into too much detail, for I fear giving everyone else the headache I've just gotten rid of myself. It was a bitter sweet reunion with my Alberta home. It's always nice to drive into the prairies again (Kevin would say otherwise - he's a BC man thru and thru) - the sunsets are huge, the sky is bluer than blue, the air feels big! We arrived Wednesday just after midnight, which apparently screwed up my son's perfect (really, it was good!) sleeping schedule; then Atalie woke up the next day with an incredibly sore mouth (an I-tooth is coming thru - excruciating apparently), and a fever of 39 degrees, which continued for 2 more days; Aiden in the meantime, had developed a stuffy nose which prevented him from sleeping at night and would frequently wake up crying b/c he couldn't breath well; my Mom helped me take the kids into town so Atalie could see a doctor (finding an open clinic was an effort in itself, never mind pinning her screaming-self down on the examining bed to let the doc look down her throat) and get her some antibiotics for her developed throat infection; the next day she woke up crying, red bumps everywhere and itchy, puffy eyes - apparently my daughter is allergic to Penicillin... we head back into town to the clinic to get a prescription for new medication and preceded to drive to 3 different pharmacies to retrieve it; I then spent a good hour or two that day, making phone calls and visiting the local bank branch regarding our mortgage (I won't mention the name of the bank, though it is tempting) to get a hold of our bank representative in BC b/c she hasn't been returning our calls or dealing with our loan increase properly for the last 2 weeks and we have a $16,000 bill due that day, only to receive a negative response that we won't be receiving help from the bank to pay for this rather large bill - oh well... more important things to worry about in the car anyways (crying, hungry things); meanwhile, I'm getting very little sleep, am suffering a sinus cold and have an increasing headache, for obvious reasons. My saving grace has been parents to help (when they can, mostly evenings) and Kevin, who came down to visit unexpectedly, for Saturday evening and all day Sunday! :) Infact, only today do I feel almost myself and mostly caught up on sleep. Aiden has also taken better to sleeping at night and Atalie is almost herself again (except for teething). Thank the Lord!! The next 2 days will (hopefully) be spent doing "holiday-ish" things, like visiting family and going for walks to the park. Then on Saturday we'll head to Calgary to meet Kevin and spend a day making decisions on interior house things (cabinets and flooring at Ikea - yeah!!!) and meeting up with my 2 good buddies for dinner at a delicious restaurant - again, yeah!!! Then head home - home, sweet home. I'd like to put up a few pis of the week here so far, but I'm tired and need to go to bed. I'll get to it eventually;) I'm sure you can understand. Goodnight! (hmm... I guess I really did go into detail.. guess I needed to vent again!)

the roof is on

Here are some pictures of the house. We worked like mad men over the weekend and I worked hard last week to get the roof shingled. I don't think I will ever do it again. I'm really glad it's done

A long looong loooooong night.

Let me give you (though you may not be interested, I need to vent!) a rundown of last nights events. 9:45pm - Contemplating going to bed but Aiden remains awake 10:30pm - Make it to the bedroom in an attempt to put Aiden to bed 12:00pm - Aiden falls asleep 12:13pm - Aiden wakes up and fusses (hasn't pooped all day) 12:30pm - Aiden falls asleep 12:44pm - Aiden decides he's hungry 1:05am - Aiden falls asleep 1:15am - Aiden wakes up and Mom has had enough - he comes into bed with us 3:30am - Dad puts Aiden back into his crib b/c Mom is uncomfortable 3:35am - Atalie wakes up miserable and crying (she's sick) 3:40am - Dad gives Attie Tylenol and brings her into our bed 3:45am - Aiden is hungry again but falls asleep in his crib after eating 6:20am - We all wake up b/c Atalie is wrestless and Aiden is hungry again 6:25am - Dad puts Atalie back in her crib, Mom changes Aiden's diaper (finally pooped!) 6:45am - Aiden poops again 7:25am - Dad gets up for work and comments on how our kids must be conspiring against us 8:30am - Aiden wakes up to eat yet again 10:23am - Mom gets up 10:25am - Aiden is hungry 11:01am - Mom finally gets to eat breakfast and shower:) I figure I got an interupted 8 hours of sleep at the most and Kevin, a meager 5-6(?) hours... he's currently on the roof attempting to shingle. Good thing he's got angels!

Thanksgiving Weekend

My (Kendra's) family came for Thanksgiving this year:) We put them all to work however;) Mom made lots of food and did lots of dishes, Dad did electrical and Tyler helped with building the chimney and papering the house (they both helped Kev put the windows & doors in as well). Here's some "around the house" pics: Lots was accomplished this weekend, as I mentioned... the chimney was framed in, the walls were papered, the electrical was started on the main floor and the windows & doors went in. Our "answer to prayer" roofer turned out to be a dud (completely unreliable, to make a frusterating story short) so we've convinced Dad to stay another day to help Kevin put the shingles on tomorow. Woohoo! Thanks Dad!! Here's some house pics: