Winter Fun

With snow on the ground it feels like winter is really here now. Luckily we own a snow blower this year so if it is anything like last year's snow, Matt's back won't be so sore from shoveling...

Here are some new photos of the family from our recent trip to Victoria, my convocation from RRU, and our trip to see "great-nana" in Nanaimo.

Saige is 2 months now

9 weeks old and she's changed so much already. Dare I say it, she has been sleeping through the night for almost 2 weeks straight now (8:30pm-6:30am) and I keep thinking "When will it end?". She is a sweet little thing and full of smiles and now reaching out to bat things around, anything close enough to touch. Jasmine has been wonderful with her and so helpful with me, my biggest challenge is making sure her hugs are so enthusiastically given as she doesn't know her own strength.

The one photo of Matt, Jasmine and I was taken last Saturday in bed...and the little one said "roll over, roll over".

Sorry, I forgot about you all in my facebook frenzy...

So, it turns out that some people in this universe are not facebook users and actually check my blog regularly wondering why it hasn't been updated lately...hmmm, sorry about that. Bad, bad mommy blogger. Obviously, our baby has arrived, Saige Rianne McCall. She weighed 8.4 at birth, born on August 7 at 12:10 pm after a very quick labour and V-BAC delivery (if you don't know what it is, look it up, I'll spare you the details other than... I'm very proud of me).

Enjoy the photos.

Pregnancy Photos

While at Canim Lake a spontaneous pregnancy photo session took place. I'm still waiting for Laura's photos (she was the one taking most of the pics) but I'll post a few of Angie's here to give you a look at my 7.5 month belly. I'll post more of Laura's later...

Girl's Escape to Canim Lake

I and three friends that I had originally made in Quesnel (Angie, Laura, and Tracy) spent last weekend at Canim Lake which is 45 minutes west of 100 Mile House. We rented a private cabin on the lake for 3 nights during which we ate continuously (Thai, Italian, Mexican, plus lots of chocolate and not-so-good for us snacks), went for walks, slept until-wait for it-9AM, and watched movies, read trashy magazines and talked-talked-talked...it was unbelievable! So relaxing. The girls spent one afternoon painting my prego belly like a bowl of fruit, a creative process that is fast becoming a tradition (Angie had her belly painted as a Pumpkin with Josh and an Easter Egg with Isaiah).

Matt did a fabulous job on his own with Jasmine for 4 days, they visited the water park, went to friends for dinner, went for walks, visited Huble Homestead for a drum exhibit, and had some otherwise serious bonding time on a shared Father's Day weekend.

Time with friends

Angie and Robin, our friends from Quesnel, came to visit for a night last week with their sons Joshie (3) and Isaiah (1). We enjoyed a picnic in Fort George park with them and Angie's dad. Also, Laurie and Chris (who worked for McCall Environmental at one point) brought their new little one Ella (3 months) to visit from Burns Lake. Jasmine LOVED having a baby around and, apart from throwing a small piece of toast at her during lunch, did a great job interacting with such a small baby. This is promising for our future...

Ella, another friend of Jasmine's from playgroup and daughter of our friends Kristi and Parker, also came with her parents for dinner last Saturday (picture of Ella and Jasmine on the swing set). There was constant refereeing of two, two-year olds but we had a great time together...not much adult conversation but good food.

Weekend Camping at McLeod Lake

What a scorching weekend it has been!

Beautiful time at the lake with Matt and Jasmine, my brother Dave and his girlfriend Andrea. The bugs were insanely bad (check out the sky in the photo of Jasmine sitting on the boat-it is full of bugs) but the lake was equally insanely gorgeous. Jasmine woke up at 5:30am the first morning but let us sleep in this morning until 8am thank god. She has been doing awesome on her potty the last week with lots of dry diapers morning and during the day (thus the potty photo of her proudly peeing in the bush). I wasn't too uncomfortable sleeping etc. but didn't like having to get up and out of the tent to use the bathroom during the night. Matt didn't catch any fish but was able to practise his fly-fishing skills with his new rod.

David's Birthday

My brother David turned 26 on Thursday and by chance my cousins Shannon and Matthew were in town for firefighting training from Revelstoke. They joined us for cake and beer (nice combo), it was awesome to get a visit in. I don't think I've seen Matthew for 7 years or so, he looks so much like my uncle Robert.

This morning we met some friends from the playgroup that Jasmine and I go to every other Friday. Four families joined together for a picnic at Huble Homestead as it was the first weekend that they were open. As we were eating lunch someone notice a big black bear in the field, we all took a look and then everyone went back to eating. Only in the north do people view bears with the interest of a passing squirrel. When we got back, Jasmine and Matt had a little nap together on the couch. This is a very rare occurence which is worthy of a photo...

Trip to Edmonton

Last weekend we drove to Edmonton for 4 nights to spend some time with our family and my brother Gord and his family. We visited the zoo, bought Asian groceries at the West Edmonton Mall Asian market, went to the pool leisure centre in St.Albert (2 waterslides and a river), and enjoyed lots of great meals and even a evening fire with everyone at Gord and Denise's place. Mother's day we went to a park for lunch and paddled around a little lake in a paddle-boat. The kids had so much fun together and it was such a pleasure to see the cousins playing together. Time goes so fast and the kids are getting big quickly.

Spring in PG

My parents came up to Prince for Easter from Victoria and my brother Gord came from Edmonton with his partner Denise and children Ashley, Levi and youngest Brody. It was wonderful having all the cousins together and time to visit and play.

The pictures here include: the family at the laser tag facility (Denise won both games-she is a real sniper), Mom and Dad going down a slide at Bubba Baloo's, our poor dog Tio after being attacked by Jasmine and her stickers, all the cousins, and pictures of Jasmine and her Quesnel friend Joshua in their new rain jackets purchased by Angie (Robin was in Prince for ankle surgery and so their family stayed with us for 2 nights this week). April has been a great month so far!