October visit from Nana!!!

My Mom (Nana) came for a muchly needed visit this month and was able to stay for a week.  We were excited to have her here!  We brought her to the open house Temple Tour for our brand new Calgary Alberta Temple!  She loved it and it was so special to have her with me in there:)  We spent some time shopping... ventured to Chinook Shopping Center in Calgary...than it was my 29th Birthday...Matt had to work that day, but my Mama wouldn't let me lift a finger all day:) than we had the most fabulous dinner at home that they spoiled me with.  We spruced up our living room (my mom loves to redecorate and always does some sort of painting/renos when shes here).  Mom painted our fireplace mantle black and it looks fabulous, bought and put up new curtains, painted one of the living room walls for some POP:) AND we found a leather couch on kijiji for $200!! Lets just say I LOVE our livingroom now:)  Another highllight was that Nana got to volunteer with me for Parks' Special Helper Day at school.  He was so proud to have his Nana there with him and he kept a close eye on her (it was pretty cute).  We love you so much Mom and you know you are always welcome in our home...we love having you and getting spoiled by you:)

Calgary Alberta Temple Open House with Nana!!

Out to lunch with the girls!

kids being patient with our Ikea Shopping Adventure;)

Nana making us curtains and working working working:)

Since the weather was rainy and not so great, Parks drew a pic of a sunny day and we had a picnic in the living room:)

My fabulous birthday supper...i love steak:)

Kananaskis in October

We went for a beautiful hike in October up in kananaskis.  This is usually a once a year/end of Summer kind of thing that we do.  We hiked the 7km Fullerton Loop with the kids!  It was a great workout and absolutely beautiful up there.  Next year my goal is to get out there ALOT more because we all love it and its free and so peaceful...its nice to be so far from all the business of life (half hour drive away).

September Birthdays!!

Early September Rob&Tammy plus their 5 kids came down to Matts parents for the weekend, Paul had just arrived from Utah aswell to hunt for a week! So we had a 'celebrate everyone's birthday' family dinner:)  Katie, Paul, Rob, Dad, Matt and Isabelle all had their birthdays in September!! We had a fun weekend together, Saturday Grant borrowed a friend's horse for the day and the grandkids enjoyed taking ride after ride:)  Sunday dinner was delicious followed by a lot of desserts:)

 Matt!!

Grandad!!

Paul!!

 

 Rob!!

 

Sadly I didn't get a picture of Isabelle and Katie with their cupcakes:(

So for Matt's actual birthday day on the 28th he got home from his night shift that morning and the kids and I jumped out and surprised him with a decorated house and a yummy breakfast ready to go.  We had a pretty laid back day together, than Matt had to go to work that night, so the kids and I drove to the Station with Matt's favorite Baked Smores...I'm pretty sure he felt pretty special;) We love you Matt!

 AND since Matt had to work the night of his birthday...he requested his wife go hunting with him the next night when he was off...and his wish was my command;)

AND to spoil him even more...we had to have a Sunday after birthday fiest with Matts favorites RIBS, mashed potatoes and strawberry spinach salad...with more cake ofcorse:)

Parks' 1st day of School!!!

Oh boy, you really don't have a clue what its like to send your first born baby to school for the first time until it happens to you!! very true.  Parks was beyond ready and excited to start pre-k.  He goes Tues/Wed/Thurs from 12:30-3:30pm.  He's grown up so much...and I didn't ever say he could;) When he was 2-3 years old he would go ballistic if I left him in Nursery at church for 2 hours...now he's an independent 4 year old that was like...'Love ya Mom, see ya later!'  so I let him go to pre-k and only started crying as I walked back to the car (where Matt laughed and Grace just looked at me funny).  I'm just so proud of our little guy.  Since than I've been fine, its been super awesome actually!  I carpool with two girlfriends, so only have to drive once a week.  Grace and I love our girl time together and than before I know it Parks is home:) 
*Cute little sidenote that I dont want to forget...Parks picked out his super cool outfit for his first day...he chooses his sweatpants and batman shirt...the even cuter part is that he asked to sleep in this outfit the night before so that he wouldn't be late!  Thats my boy:)

Ammo's big day!

September was a very FUN month!  We started the month off with finally booking Ammo's ear cleaning surgery...he has had ear infections on and off for the past 2 years!  We were expecting the bill to be between $300-$400...killer, but I saved up from lashes.  We dropped him off at 8am ( i warned them that he is nowhere near a kennel dog and appologized if he barked like an idiot the whole day)...at 3pm Matt went to pick him up and overheard the receptionist talking about how bad this one dog was with barking until they gave him the tranquilizer...hmmmm...turns out our bill was only $130 because he was sooooo drugged out of his mind (from the lovely tranquilizer) that the vet didn't need to sedate him at all.  They did the procedure while he was awake!  When Ammo got home, he was totally out of it...he could barely stand and couldn't control his drool or anything.  He hadn't eaten all day (which is his favorite parts of the day)...i put the food in his dish...and nothing.  It was so sad to see him like that..and i was kinda mad, but happy that we saved money.  Finally by 8pm he was snapping out of it and was able to walk around normally, we fed him by hand and than once he got that yummy goodness in his mouth he gobbled it all up himself! happy day.  I'm a dog lover, can you tell;) 

Lying in the front yard stoned out of his mind!

to do list:catch up on blog posts!

I just haven't been in the mood to blog lately...hense missing ALL of September, now its October 1st and here i am:)  So at the end of my last post i said we'd go back up to Tie...we ended up staying home for Matts 4 days off...and haven't been back to the lake since!!sad. It was really nice...Matt finished the fence, we went to the zoo and saw the penguins for the first time this year (we try and make it a once/year thing) AND we got a new trampoline (the frame was given to us, so we just bought the mat and pads!).  The kids absolutely cannot get enough of our backyard, it is literally a whole new room to our house!  We decided to splurge and bought a new BBQ and patio set...and because it was end of season sale we got both for just under $200!  We ended the month of August by going to the Cardston Temple...it had been awhile...quite awhile! We both were so happy to feel that sweet special Spirit again.

Eating our Icecream at the Zoo

Jump, jump and jump some more!

Enjoying the new patio:)

The obsession of bearded dragon lizards began...

Home for 3 weeks!

Its been 2 1/2 weeks of just being HOME:)  The lake life is wonderful, but sometimes its nice just to be home for a bit.  I've eased up on doing lashes everyday which is nice, I'm definitely not taking anymore clients...the money is wonderful but being able to spend time with the kids is way more important to me!  I  have 10 clients each month and with losing a few it is way more manageable now... I've had more time for relaxing (and not always having to keep my house clean for clients..lol) Matt went back to Tie with the young men that he teaches for their boys camp, so I was husbandless for 3 days, but we kept busy with play dates.  Nash and Vida birthday parties...Matt got back in time so we could all support and watch Rob waterski in the Nationals!! we went to the spray park, bike rides...Matt had to leave us again after being home for 2 days (he was at work both days too), but his grandfather passed away and he wanted to support his Mum, so he drove with his dad out to Vancouver and flew home 2 days later.   Soon after he was home we went on a horseback riding trip with Tommy and Randea and it was so fun!  The kids rode horses by themselves in the coral than the adults went for a ride around their property...it was a great morning and nice to just hangout.  For the past 2 days that Matt has been off, he and his dad have started putting up our (free) chain link fence!!! This is a BIG deal for us....Ammo being able to just be free in the backyard without tying him up will be heavenly...also the kids can go out and run around and play without me having to be with them...also heavenly.  We are thinking we will get a new fabulous trampoline...as awesome as getting the free one was...it was free for a few reasons.  We need pads and the bounce isn't up to Matt's standards..haha so we'll pass it on to Matt's parents to have at there place.  Our fence is 6ft tall!! haha its kind of funny...no deer will be getting in that's for sure!  and if someone wants to climb it to steal stuff than that will just be funny!  We are grateful none the less, it has saved us a lot of money.  I'm so excited to start fixing up our grass and enjoying the extra space!! 4 more sleeps until we're back to Tie!!

It is so fun having the Byam's living 10 minutes away...Parks loves hanging out with Nash and Drew!

Here he is at there place riding a motorbike all by himself for the first time!!!

playing and no fighting!!

 

The kids and I spruced up our front garden with wood chips and some garden decorations:)

 Play date with Baron!

Rob entered into the Nationals Water skiing Competition!

We are trying to get Grace to use her run bike, but she's more concerned with all her accessories;)

The kids and I had to do some doggy sitting Griz and had a fun time biking through the sprinkler!!

kiddos patiently waiting for the fence to be finished...