Santa's Visit and Christmas Day

Jasmine received a tricycle for Christmas from Santa which was the highlight of the holiday.

Santa had fun with all the children at the kids party but he especially seemed to enjoy time with Jennifer's mom who took the opportunity to make a few wishes of her own.

Christmas Visiting and Fun

Wave after wave of family and friends blessed us with Christmas visits this season. First, a Korean family we had the opportunity to meet came for a Lasagna dinner a few days before Christmas. The Korean man, Yong gil is a Christian pastor who has moved his whole family to Canada to work with aboriginal people in Burns Lake.
Then Matt's sister Lisa and Jennifer's parents arrived for a week of Christmas fun: cross country skiing, ice skating, hottubbing, eating, and a kids party with all our new PG friends during which Santa made a surprise visit. To top off our Christmas in PG, my adventurous uncle Robert hitchhiked his way to our house on Christmas eve from Fort Nelson. It was so great to have him join in the fun and to listen to all his stories. Mom and Dad left on Dec. 28 but Lisa stayed on with us to enjoy a visit with Matt's other sister Carolyn, her boyfriend Dean and his daughter Casey. Casey is 4 and she and Jasmine got along famously. They brought their sleds with them and so we had a great day of Snow mobiling with them out on North Fraser Road.
To top off our Christmas in PG, my adventurous uncle Robert hitchhiked his way to our house on Christmas Eve from Fort Nelson. It was so great to have him join in the fun and to listen to all his stories.

Jasmine's First Hair Cut

Ric's Birthday Party-Superhero Style

Our friends Ric and Kimi hosted their annual birthday bash for I think it was close to the 18th year in a row. Every year is a different theme and this year was Super heros and villians. Matt went as the Fortune Man with a bag of fortune cookies that he gave out to people and I was the Super Sonic Gin and Tonic Desperate Housewife. We left at 1am out of consideration of our babysitter but this group partied until 3:30am. So much for boring parents...this group partied harder than anyone I've seen before-it was so much fun! Most of the pictures I can't post due to extreme content but here are a few of the mild ones.

Winter Wonderland

Dave, Andrea and the McCalls witnessed the big Christmas tree lighting event at Prince George civic plaza last week. It was about -20 degrees and we lasted about 10 minutes standing out in the cold to see the lights and Santa's visit on the sleigh. That hot chocolate and Baileys just didn't cut it at that temperature! We've had SO much snow in the last week, the photos here are from 4 days ago, we've had about another foot or so since then. We can't see any of the swings on the swing set and the snow is so high on either side of the drive way that it is higher than the tops of our heads so we aren't even able to shovel it anymore!

Would you hire this crew?

"The guys" from Victoria have spent a couple of weeks up north helping with all the work that Dave and Matt have here. This is a shot of them at the mill last week. Danny, Dave, Matt and Jeff. What a handsome bunch...

A Horse Named Andy...

Whenever we visited the farmers market in Prince George, Matt would take Jasmine on a pony ride while I zipped around and got my shopping done. This is Andy the pony that is bearing her 36 pounds, led by Andy's owner "Grizzly Man".

When I ask Jasmine in the morning if she had any dreams she often replies that she dreamt about Andy the pony.

October in Victoria

Jennifer is finished her second residency at Royal Roads University and has another 7 months until she's finished her Masters program. During our trip down to the coast we got in so many visits with friends. These photos are from some of our visits: with pregnant Erin (17 weeks) and Heath(note: he is wearing a Halloween mask-really he is quite handsome!), to Goldstream park to see the salmon spawning, Dad Brandle's birthday, and dinner at Tracey and Pete's place.

Halloween Goonies

Once again we celebrated Halloween in Victoria during my 3 week residency at Royal Roads University. We took Jasmine (the ladybug) to the new and improved Westshore mall to trick or treat in the afternoon and then on to visit friend's houses. Matt and his sister Lisa took Jasmine to Metchosin firehall for the bonfire and she came home very tired and sugardrunk. The weekend before Halloween we celebrated with Nicky and Scott, Tracey and Pete, and Jennifer's family at Tracey's mom and dad's place for a bonfire. The kids had so much fun running around chasing the dogs and each other in the fields near the fire.

Cake Anyone?

We celebrated Jasmine's 2nd Birthday while we were down inVictoria early in September. We had a party for her at a park on the Gorge waterway so that the kids could play on the swings etc. while the family and parents could enjoy the sunshine, food and fresh air. Other than having her family and friends there, I think Jasmine's favorite part of the whole day was the helium balloons (4 of which she let go and watched with delight as they climbed high in the sky). Her birthday cake was a big number "2" decorated with M&Ms which spelled out her name.
I love this picture of Beth, Noah and Jasmine. It typifies the day: Beth's face is so dirty she looks like she ate more dirt than cake, Noah is red cheeked from running around, and Jasmine looks stoned on sugar. They sure had fun!

36 pounds but at least she still fits in a basket

Jasmine is getting so big, so quickly. My friend from Stroller Bootcamp told me the other day that at 2 years of age, most kids are half the height that they will be as adults. Yikes! Jasmine is set to reach 6 feet if this theory is correct!

At least she can still fit in her toy basket...

She is putting together full sentences now and everyday she stops me in my tracks when a new word will pop out of her mouth. Yesterday she was teasing Matt during a bath by saying, "My Dada's name, Tio. My Mama's name Buddha". This statement was followed by fits of laughter, mostly her laughing at herself.

What really makes me laugh is when she puts a whole bunch of verbs and nouns together like, "Uh-oh, my water go? Up high table me no happy. Mama help." I have to give her credit for starting to add modifiers and tenses to her words like "teasing" "eating" "higher". Sometimes I wonder "Where did you come from child?" and then I smile with pride...

Friends Come to Call

Our friends Angie, Robin and their two sons Joshie (almost 3 years old) and Isaiah (5 months) came to visit us in Prince George last week for dinner. By coincidence our other good friend Sukh Parmar was in town from Terrace and so he joined us too. It brought back good memories of the "good-ol-days" in Quesnel when all of us partied together, though minus all these little munchkins our parties were more relaxed and not so noisey! Ahhh, how times have changed...

Going to the Chapel

Matt's cousin Erin and her now husband Jordan got married last Saturday in Vancouver. It was a rare McCall occasion to visit distant relatives like Matt's uncle Brian from Montreal and his sister Carolyn who is living in Fort McMurphy with her boyfriend Dean. Matt and Jennifer enjoyed a 24 hour date while Jasmine stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Brandle in Victoria. The wedding was an elaborate affair at Morgan Creek Golf Club complete with a chocolate fountain for dessert, a Catholic ceremony, and gorgeous orchids everywhere.

Pictures posted here include one of the three McCall men: Doug, Neil (Matt's dad) and Brian. Jennifer and her sister-in-law Lisa are also pictured.

Victoria Whirl Wind Tour

We just returned from an 8 day trip to Victoria during which we celebrated both Jasmine's (2nd)and Jennifer's (29th...errr, 32nd) birthdays. We packed an unbelievable number of activities into that short trip including a Great Big Sea concert (thanks Nicky and Scott for the B-day gift), Matt's cousin Erin's wedding in Vancouver (thanks mom and dad "B" for the grandkid sitting), 3 mornings at the beach with Jasmine, a trip to Nanaimo to visit Jennifer's cousin Alina, Metchosin days fall fair, dinner out for Korean food, 2 BBQs, and much more. It was a wonderful, though exhausting visit and we are now trying hard to adjust to the cool PG fall weather. I'll be pulling out my winter clothing from under the stairs pretty quick!

Just a Cute Closeup

Little Jail Birdie is Set Free from Behind Bars

We dragged one of Jennifer’s mom and dad’s old single mattresses back with us to PG from Victoria. Jasmine had become quite adept to hurdling the side rails of her crib and we were naturally worried that she would not always land feet first. And so with much sadness we disassembled her baby crib and moved her into her “big girl bed”. As you can see from the picture, she has found more uses for the bed than simply sleeping, particularly when she has Uncle Dave as an audience. We’ve pushed the bed up against one wall to prevent Jasmine from falling out when sleeping (has happened twice already) and stuffed pillows under the opposite side of the mattress. It ain’t perdy but it works…