Little Bakers

I completely forgot about these pictures until today!! They were taken the day of our towns' Olympic Torch Festivities so we were all dressed in red for the occassion... haha! And of course I had my camera out in prep for the big day so I thought I might as well take some of the cutest kids in the world, helping mommy bake some cookies! =)

Glamour Shots by Atalie :)

Atalie was more than pleased when I asked her to help me take some pictures today! I am officially 25 weeks along today, which is only a few days short of 5.5 months!! I can hardly believe the time has flown by like it has... almost in the third trimester and I can't wait to meet this little one:) We've come up with a few solid names for a little girl, seeing as how that's what "she's" supposed to be;) However if all of a sudden our 32wk ultrasound shows a "he", we may have to scramble for a boys name. I'm not expecting a boy, mind you... but the way this one has been squirming around I would think its personality to resemble Aiden more than Atalie;) We shall see....!

Lactose too????

It looks as though we have another intolerance in the family. Atalie has been having digestive problems (typical symptoms - to the point where she wouldn't have much appetite and lost a couple pounds over a couple of months) so upon our doctors suggestion, we finally ruled out milk for a couple weeks. Sure enough, healthy as a horse immediately! During the second week I tried giving her different dairy products one day at a time: cheese - resulted in major tummy troubles; milk - also created troubles; yogurt - no reaction at all; and finally a few processed milk type snacks (Ritz crackers with cheese in the middle was one), to which she also had no response at all. She's been drinking Almond Milk (vanilla or chocolate - lucky girl!) and has been a happy camper for two weeks now! We're relieved to have finally found the source of her discomfort, however... (sigh) that means another ingredient to rule out of meals and snacks. I guess I'll be upping her greens for extra calcium and hoping the yogurt remains harmless! Goodbye pizza :( sniff sniff sniff... I read in this months Today's Parent magazine, that intolerances to lactose (lacking the enzyme to digest the sugar in milk) are often developed between the ages of 3 and 5 but are also commonly outgrown. Intolerances in general have also (somewhat rarely) been known to cause rashes, which is something we've been trying to figure out for years with Atalie! Since she was between her baby/toddler stages she's had a bumpy rash that appears quite often, all over her back and arms, sometimes stomach. It takes awhile to slowly fade, it isn't red and has never seemed to bother her, but after ruling out one shampoo/detergent/soap product after another, I've yet to find the solution. So perhaps this is it??? Maybe it will go away once and for all now!? We shall see. Whatever the future, I'm hoping her intolerance for milk fades away over time, and that it wasn't developed because we introduced it to her when she was quite young... she was 8 months old when she first tried milk. She loved it so much that she's been guzzling it ever since (no more than a couple glasses a day of course)! Hm. Food for thought anyhow... Atalie got this cute little hair cut on Saturday (probably a good 4 or 5 inches off!).

Property Assesments... garbage, I hope!

Columbia Valley Pioneer, a local newspaper, stated in one of its articles last week, that Canal Flats' property assessments declined the most in all of BC! Here's a clip but you can read the whole article HERE if you'd like. "The Columbia Valley’s sawmill towns of Radium and Canal Flats — which are still reeling from the downturn in the forestry sector — saw the largest declines in property assessments this year. The numbers released this week by B.C. Assessment offer the first glimpse of local property values since the global economic downturn took hold and the results show the Columbia Valley suffered more than the rest of the East Kootenay and the rest of B.C. Property assessments were frozen last year at 2008 levels in response to the global recession." Here are the numbers they printed for the Valley's surrounding towns: Canal Flats -20.9% Radiium Hot Springs -14.5% Invermere -11.% Invermere Fort Point -10.5% Columbia Lake -8.1% Timber Ridge -6.9% Panorama -4.5% Windermere -4.% Windermere Lakefront -1.7% Fairmont -1.3% ...to top things off, we won't even benefit from lower property taxes this year b/c our property value declined with the "average" rate for our area... and apparently property taxes are "driven budgetary requirements" (the District of Invermere is even comtemplating a 2.5% increase this year!). Wow. There's a bit of encouragement! I guess we're staying put in our house until we can at least get what we paid for it... hm.

Christmas 09

We were fortunate to have a (somewhat last minute) Christmas get-together at Mom and Dad I's place in Lethbridge! They were there to renovate their house (which a "kind" rentor tore up while living in it) so we took full advantage of their presence and spent some time together during the week previous to Christmas. I misplaced my camera so Mom was kind enough to email these to me:) Here's a few: Papa plays with Tyler and Aiden as they check out the Nativity scene. Kids table at Christmas Dinner!! Present opening 2009 is about to commence...! ...full speed ahead!! ;) Mom and Dad I's house in Lethbridge (above). Then it was back home for Christmas with the Dyck side of family at our house! We felt so fortunate to see both families this year:) Here are some more pics: Atalie opens her pony present. Aiden got everything train-related this year! Grandma D reads one of Alice In Wonderland to Atalie. Grandmpa D translates Ikea into the common tongue in hopes to assemble Atalie's animal barn/tent. Grandpa was kept busy assembling and playing;) Jana and Tyler hangin out with the kiddos, first thing in the morning. Not a great pic, but we had to buy a bigger table to have our family over for Christmas - our Cmas $ was put to practical use this year;) Attempting to build a gingerbread house... didn't want to stick! Aiden sneaks candy for the gingerbread house... ! Kev and I took the kids for a walk while the others took naps and enjoyed the peace. The pics below obviously didn't turn out, but I put them up anyway... bowling for my 29th Birthday at The Valley Alley! It was a lot of fun!! Opening gifts back home with friends, family and icecream cake!!! Mmmmm... We were also very fortunate to have finally SOLD our truck and purchase a van!! We made the exchange inbetween Christmases with both families and extended our drive home to go up through Calgary (to pick up the van). It was a busy two weeks!!! Never thought I'd enjoy having a minivan but there ya have it. Anybody can change;) Haha... anyway, for anybody curious, it's a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan SE (I think it's an SE??). The big plus that we were looking for we got - a DVD player for the kids!! Also, the middle seats are buckets, not a bench. Much easier to get to any munchkins in the back! Yay:) Sorry, no pics yet. It's the same colour as our truck was though.

These are the days...

...the days when I pick and choose what I'd like to eat without consulting the gluten-free side of my brain; when I can head out to the movie store (located in a back alley garage - small town remember) to rent a chic flick without having to consider a more masculine opinion on the film; when I can watch my TV program Friday night on the Plasma and not be confined to the old small bedroom TV instead b/c a hockey game is on at the same time and my hockey-craved husband "can't even see the puck" on the small tv (how did he get by for the first 30 years of his life?! haha!). However... these are also the days when I get to clean up the toys/house at the end of the day but without a helping hand; when I have to put on my snow suit and trudge out the door to gather my own firewood once I've burned up my indoor stash; when I don't get a break from the kids during the nightly bedtime routine; when I try to store away all my thoughts during the day, only to try recalling them all in a short phone conversation later that day when my other half calls to say hello and goodnight (not so good at remembering things!). Yup, I'm home alone for six days -- the longest yet actually! Kevin's boss didn't have work for him during the Christmas break so Kevin is in Creston, helping out a friend instead. That means he's also officially done year three of his schooling! This pic below is of the two of them trying to finish up our friends' parents roof the last time we were in Creston visiting. At the end of this week I'll be packing up the kids and picking Kevin up in Cranbrook to head to Alberta for a few days. We have an ultrasound Friday morning, at which we'll find out the gender of our third munchkin!!! We're pretty excited about this weekend - it's the first time we've both been away from the kids overnight (two nights infact - we're leaving them at my parents place)! We're staying with a good friend a visiting a couple others. We'll also attempt to do a bit of shopping, see a movie and hit a gluten free restaurant. Can't wait!! We're then staying a couple days longer in lethbridge to spend Christmas with Kevin's family and help his parents out on their house renovations. We should be back home with a day or two to spare and prepare for Christmas with my family --busy busy! I really look forward to all of it though!!