one

so,the last year has flown by.until i was a mother myself, i thought that was a cliche. how did we get from this baby,

to this boy?



time just goes. this time last year we would have been discovering timbers heart condition. this was a very scary timefor us & now we are through so much of it. GOD is so good. next week we will meet with the cardiologist to determin the next leg of the journey which i expect to be low key. i took this and the last photo the last morning timber was a on year age. i love them. i am posting the ever popular 1st cake on the 1st birthday photo too.


and once back @ home timby thought that since he was now one he would just help himself to some grapes in the fridge. after all he is a big boy now.

zippidy-do-da

so,
as mentioned, we went on a church retreat. it had it's up's and down's, but we prevaled and had a good time away as afmily enjoying some pretty awesome sunshine, playing, good food, swimming, fellowship and learning. tough nearly every church member came home with either a cold, flu or both. we have had all three options at our house.


i am also posting in addition to the retreat photo's, some cute pic's ofthe kids in the bath. this weekend we will be celebrating timbers first birthday. how did that happen? we look forward to seeing some of you readers there.

goodbye october.

appologies to any of you who actually read this blog. i had good intentions of posting in october. and only ow have found the moments to do so. our october started with a rather disapointing trip to the great pumpkin festival in smokey lake. the good stuff was the pumpkin truck, the best popcorn, (that skylar can now eat!!!), and these wild displays all through town with hay and pumpkins.


we filled in some days with a trip to the park with forest and visiting the newest familyaddition, mckenzie siutor.



seeing as the month endson the 31st, i took a little panda & a fairy princess to the halloween party @ skylars play school. we then headed off to nakaman for our church retreat. (see next posting, coming soon:])

giving thanks for the memories

well, i will have to share eventually, so might as well get on with it. october has officially worn, stressed and saddened me out. more about all the events later. this entry is simply to bring attention to the the man i called papa, who left this world on thanksgving monday. both expectedly and suddenly. it is a funny thing, greif. it has blind sided me and krept suddenly into my everyday moments. i am most sad that he will never again wrap his arms around me or whisper in my ear. never again will we see his eyes light up when they look upon skylar and timber. at our yearly family gatherings, his sweet, silent presnce will not be sitting yonder, taking it all in. grief is selfish. i know he was ready, that he is better to have passed than to have carried on in sufering, yet there are waves that take me the place where all i can see is what we are left to miss. children allow you such oppertunity. looking at death trhough the eyes of my 4 year old full of questions is exhausting and comforting. it has allowed me to look deeply into the truth and the take refuge in the simplness of it all. skylar thought we ought to take our bed time story the the hospital to read it to old grampa and to say goodbye. that was the last time she saw him alive.

" mommy? can we go to heaven today? to visit old grampa?" the words of skylar the morning after he passed. if only it were that easy?!

gender not-so-neutral

We baught skylar a train set for her 3rd birthday, in hopes that jereme and her would spend quality time building tracks and zooming the cars. now a year later, that has happened maybe... a handful of times, and not on her own prompting. however, the train is getting loads of attention from timby. i have had these discussions with loads of my parent friends, how despite or best efforts to maintain a gender neutral play environment, boys will be boys and girls, well, girls. skylar loves to play fairie princess, and timber loves,LOVES, the train set. but i guess it is still a winning situation, since, as you can see, though Jeremiah loves cars trains and trucks to no avail, he is most excited to play princesses with skylar too!

september...say it with me, september

probably my favorite month. beautiful colours, warm sun but great sweater weather. lot's of celebrations and big milestones. i like the way the word september looks and sounds. our september looked like this...
*(technically august) a trip to calgary with gramma with a sunkissed stop in bowden at the sunflower corn maze.


*a quiet long weekend in cold lake. (needed after a frightening car accident.)


*then a relaxing day with the lovely lauren at the cabin. washing vieggies, playing in the yard, cooking yummy food and bathing skylar in the kitchen sink.



*september continues into a whirlwind week where skyli heads to pre-skool for a 3 day week which ends with her 4th birthday. we have a small-ish party at granaans & grampa's place.




*but itdoesn't end there. as of september 20th i have been married to this beautiful man 5 years. he took me to dinner and then to a B&B.

*and if that wasn't enough, timber learned to crawl (army style), we saw lot's of ethan and the twins, had papa stay at our house and spent lot's of time with the rozema-parkers before they go victoria.




all that and the month is not even done yet.

back on the blog.

ahhh, i have been trying to post for few days,but the site was not recognising my info.odd. buttodayit did, so here i am. and here is whatwe have been up to lately.
hanging out in the nice weather,


family camping trip with the davies clan,



a day @ the milners cabin paradise,





folk fest, folk fest, folk fest...




and a trip to cold lake.

though this has been our first summer "at home" in years, we only had this past weekend actually at home. we have been busy, and having fun. this week is schedauled for more fun adventures. i'll [try to] keep you posted.