4 Years of Bliss!

We have been married now for 4 wonderful years! (Been together for almost 10 years...wow). Our love grows stronger and stronger each day. Its cheesy to say, but I really do love him more eachday. We've had our ups and downs, learned to pick our fights and remember that communication is always the way to go. A great quality about Matt is that he never gives up! If I am being difficult and hard to understand, he will work through it with me instead of choosing to get mad and walk away. I do the same with him and i KNOW that that is the reason why we are so strong. We are best friends. Tell eachother EVERYTHING. Look forward to the end of the day when we get to see eachother. We find that words are getting harder to find as the years go by to describe how much we mean to eachother. This year I made him a slideshow and that, to me, speaks a thousand words about our relationship. Sacrifice is another huge part of a great marriage, for almost 9 years of our relationship, Matt choose to live in Ottawa with me and my family. Even though it killed him to be so far away from his family and friends, he did it for me. Now after 9 years, it is my turn to sacrifice and leave my family and friends. The only way Matt could get his dream job as a FireFighter was to move to Calgary, lucky for him (and me) this is where his family lives aswell. It was the right decision and I know that our marriage will be stronger because of it. We are so grateful for the Lord's hand in our life and that we choose to be sealed together for eternity. Hel. 10:7 whatsoever ye shall seal on earth shall be sealed in heaven; That is one of my favorites from the Book of Mormon.

All Moved In

We have been having a great time living here in Okotoks so far. On Friday June 12th we got pocession of our house! I picked up the keys at noon and celebrated with Caitlin and Kristi while Matt was at work. Thanks again girls for your thoughtfulness and for helping clean:P We moved in to our new house on Monday June 15th after painting prior on the friday night and Saturday all day!! Thank you so much to Matt's Dad, who is a painting machine!! Matt's Mum, his sister Barb and her daughter Rachel also stopped by and gave a muchly needed helping hand. Thank you so much to you all for giving of your time. We really appreciated it. On Monday Sue and I started and finished painting Parks' room, it looks great! I am grateful for the helping hand Mum. Move-in night was long and not so fun, but Matt, Ben and Grant pulled through and helped us in a huge time of need. A special thank you aswell to Matt's Mum for keeping Parks happy in the process. We are so blessed to of found such a wonderful home in such a short amount of time. It is such a peaceful area, we are surrounded by paths and parks, we even have a little pond area beside our house where kids catch frogs:) For the past week and a bit I have been climbing over boxes trying to unpack things and keep Parks happy at the same time, every mess I clean up Parks makes a new one somewhere else:) It has not been easy. But there ARE worse things in life. I'm kinda getting use to my routine of either unpacking or playing at the park:)
We ordered some new carpets for the house thanks to my wonderful parents:) thank you again! The current carpets are white...our dog is brown...we have a 1 year old boy running around...it was a no brainer! They are muchly needed.
For Father's Day Matt really wanted to go up to Tie Lake for the weekend, so his wish was my command:=) I'm glad we went, it was a good break, especially for Matt who has been working so hard. He is in week 6 now out of 11 for the Fire Fighter Training, 4 guys have been fired, 2 quit due to illnesses and 1 guy just didn't like it so quit. Luckily Matt is still top of his class, he cant believe he is getting paid to do this job. I am so lucky to have such a hard working, dedicated husband/father. He's out the door at 6am and home usually by 6pm, and even though he is exhausted from his very long day, he always makes time to play with his son, offers to go for family walks AND he'll even hang a few pictures for me...ALL with no complaints. Parks and I are so grateful to have you, Matt. Everything you do is for our family. We love you so much.

Parks Jumping

Happy Birthday Dad!

I hope the video put a smile on your face. It sure does with Parks, whenever he is upset I play it for him:-)

While I was putting all these pictures together, it really made me realize what an incredible Papa and father you are. You are always there for us. Always willing to sit and listen, babysit or teach something new (and confusing) to Parks:) We are so lucky to have you! How else would Parks have discovered his love for cheezees. I think these photos speak for themselves. Parks loves you so much and is always very willing to say 'Papa'. I know it is because of all the love you have given to him throughout his first year of life. You are the reason bath time is his favorite time.
We miss you so much! and wish we could be with you on your special day.
Hope you had a fantastic day, a yummy dinner and a relaxing night:) You are the best father in the world!
Love Christine, Matt, Parks, and Ammo
xo

A FireFighter and A House!

It has almost been 3 weeks since our big move to Okotoks! I miss my family back home like crazy, thank goodness for Skype, emails and of course the telephone:) Matt has almost completed his first 2 weeks of Firefighter Training and LOVES it! Only NINE more weeks to go before he gets on to a Station. It is really long days for the both of us right now, but it will pay off soon! I'm so proud of him, he doesn't like to brag so I will do it for him...:) He is one of the top guys in his class! He ran the longest in the 'beep' test (out of almost 40 guys!) AND stayed at the front of the pack during their 4km run. Ok i'll stop now:-) So while Matt was busy becoming a firefighter last week, I BOUGHT us a HOUSE! We found our house the 1st week we arrived here and than I made it all happen:) I had no idea how much paperwork would be involved, its crazy! Anyways, it is really cute. It's in Okotoks right beside a natural reserve with bike paths & walkways! It only has 2 bedrooms but is so spacious, it has a cathedral ceiling when you walk in which makes it look way bigger than it actually is:) and has a huge unfinished basement, which is what we wanted. It's awesome! Our closing date is in 3 more weeks, on June 12th. We had to be out of the house we are staying in by the end of June... What a blessing!
Besides that we have been doing lots of visiting with friends and family, we went to our first 'Boil' that was sooo yummy, Parks and I went to the zoo for the 1st time on Friday and Matt's parents had their Annual Family Car Auction this past Saturday. It went really well, everyone has the option to work in the Auction. Matt's job was to drive the cars in and out of the ring to get bid on...Tammy and I had the job of babysitting 10 of our nieces and nephews...it was busy, but surprisingly easy:) Thank goodness for 'snugli' backpacks and strollers! Parks has been spending lots of time with his cousin Morgan, she is one year older almost to the day, and is visiting for 2 weeks from Utah. They are both learning how to share:-) There is a great rec center here in Okotoks... Caitlin, Kristi and I brought our kids swimming the other day, it was very cute. We wish we would have brought our cameras! All is going well...besides wishing Mom and Dad, Jeff and Robyn were here to share in all the fun. I love you guys.

My Hunky Hubby!

Parks loves being the demo for all Matt's new rope tricks

It's a picture of a picture, but it's still OUR HOUSE!!

At the Zoo with the Gang!

Here is Parks with all his redhead cousins:-)

Playtime with his Auntie Kristi

We made the MOVE!

It has been one week now since I arrived here in Okotoks, Alberta. It ended up being quite stressful the day we planned to pack up the truck and move...mostly because our booking was LOST and they didn't have a truck for us!! Oh yes, it was awful. We had no choice but to accept what happened and wait until Monday to get another truck. Meanwhile, Matt and his dad were flying out from Calgary Friday morning thinking there was a packed up truck ready for them to drive...but there WASN'T, so we cancelled Matt's dad's flight because his work schedule could not be changed. Therefore, Matt lost his 39 hour driving partner!
We packed up the truck on Monday morning with some fabulous family&friends of ours who helped us out in a huge time of need. Thank you. I dont know how my dad managed to fit all our stuff into that truck, it was so packed you could just close the door:) haha! you are a master mind Dad! Luckily, Matt's best friend, Brady, was able to fly out from Calgary Monday morning (thanks to Matt's parents:)) and drive with Matt to Alberta! We owe Brady BIG time:) Thanks again! Matt and Brady arrived safely in something like 31 hours...the longest they stopped was for 10 minutes apparently. They are crazy! One slept while one drove. They made record time that's for sure. All i care about is that they are home safe and sound now. So back home in Ottawa i had to extend my stay by a week aswell as Ammo's, so the flights got changed. Christine couldn't fly with me because she had to work, which was understandable. I was given a whole row to myself with Parks, so we had a great flight! Once we got Ammo on his flight (second attempt) he was fine. First time he got rejected cuz his kennel was too big for the plane! haha! I can laugh about it now. He got to Alberta safely...he was a bit squished in a smaller kennel, but survived:)
So now we are here living in Matt's parents old/sold house until the end of June. It is going great, now we start house hunting...