Sunday, December 16, 2007

The last few weeks

I have a bunch (lots) of pictures from the last few weeks. I'll post them starting with the most recent.

Today we had a lot of snow - so much that church was cancelled this afternoon.
Anneke's bright red cheeks from the cold!



At the begining of December we made a gingerbread house. The kids had fun helping.
The finished product.

It was even more fun to eat it though (a week or so later). After eating all the candies they were sucking the icing.

Look at that tongue!



After finishing my quilt that's hanging on the wall now I made a bag with fabric I bought in BC when I was with Alisa. It was a lot of fun - I think I'll make another bag (or two...or three!).
With some of the leftover fabric I made a headband for Anneke. I had seen the pattern for it online somewhere and wanted to try it out. It worked great - I think I may be making more of these too :)



A few weekends ago, the last weekend of November, we drove to Cornell where Conrad is doing his post-doc. He had to do a presentation so we decided to all go and then drive up to Ottawa afterwards and spend the weekend there. It worked out really well. The weather wasn't great and on the Friday evening when we were driving from Cornell to Ottawa we ended up staying in a hotel. We had a really nice time in Ottawa with Chris and Charlene and also got to visit with my cousin Linda and family.
Taghannock Falls, Ithaca, NY. This is only a few minutes away from the University. It is a beautiful place! The pictures are really light - the sun must have been shining right at the camera.
Tessa was very intrigued with Helena
On Saturday Chris and Conrad took the three oldest to the War Museum while Charlene and I stayed with the little ones and spent some time with just the two of us. It worked out great!
Driving home again. It was a pretty tense drive with snowy roads but we made it home safely.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Finished!!

Yes, I am finished the quilt I've been slowly working on for the past year! It feels very good to have if done and hanging on the wall. It warms up the room and fills in the spot where our piano was. I'm pretty happy with it overall - I learned a lot along the way. But...if a beginner quilter ever comes to me wanting to do something like this for their first big project I think I would deter them from a pattern as intricate as this. :)

Saturday, November 17, 2007

The first snow

Yesterday morning we woke up to the first snow of the year. It was just a little bit but the kids played in it for a couple of hours. So much fun!


We said goodbye to my parents yesterday. It's always hard to say goodbye but we had a really nice week with them. A few pictures...
Tessa remembered Opa and Oma from the summer time and gave them lots of snuggles over the week :)
We went to St. Jacobs on Thursday. One lonely horse and buggy. It was a pretty cold day to be driving far in that.
We spent some time at the lego store for the kids after we walked all through the market
On Friday we went to pick Conrad up from school so Dad and Mom could see the University.
The view from Conrad's office.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Look what I found!

Or, rather, "who I found"...

After I had put the kids to bed I went down to the basement for a while. I heard Lukas come out of bed so I called up to him and told him to "Get back in!" He complained a bit but then I never heard him so I assumed he went back to bed. Well, 20 minutes later I went upstairs and I was about to go check on the kids when I almost tripped on this little guy. I can't believe he fell asleep there. You'd think it was more comfortable in bed!

Friday, November 9, 2007

Fast forward a few weeks...

There hasn't been anything too exciting over here the past few weeks. Let me think... Conrad's sent off a bunch of applications for jobs for next year. We'll wait and see what comes of that. I'm almost done on of my quilts. Yey! I'm just stitching down the binding and then I'll be finished! Oh yea, I've almost forgotten already, Conrad and I went to Statford a couple of weeks ago for a night. It was really nice. We stayed at a B&B and watched "Oklahoma". The play was great!

Today my Dad and Mom are flying out for a visit! We'll see them Saturday or Sunday because they are in Toronto for a day first, and then they're here for a week. We're looking forward to that!

Here are a couple pictures of our littlest girl. She's growing up so much, a little stinker.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Graduation

Yesterday morning Conrad graduated and officially received his PhD! It was a long and boring ceremony but he walked across the stage and was hooded by his own supervisor, which was really nice. It’s a bit strange because he was done months ago and now he graduates so it’s a bit anticlimactic. We had a few people over tonight to celebrate – we had a good evening (chocolate fondue ...Mmmm…. don’t you wish you were here for that??) We plan to go away next Friday for a night too which we’re really looking forward to. I hope you all have a blessed Sunday!

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Toddlerlogical

The other day I over heard this conversation between Anneke and Lukas:

A: "Do you want to play house Lukas? I'll be the Mom and you can be the kid, but the Daddy's not here because he's dead."

L: "No! I want to be the Dad and you can be the kid and the Mommy's dead."

A: "That can't be Lukas because Daddy's are older so they die first."

Now that, folks, is what I call Toddlerlogical!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Exciting mail, free fabric and a finished project!

One day last week I went to get the mail and this was in it:

Not very often do I get something fun like this in the mail! This already made it a great day but then later in the afternoon the courier came to the door with my order from ConnectingThreads! What an exciting day!! I had ordered lots of thread as I didn't have much cotton thread. I bought a neutral set, a bright set and a few extra of the natural. In the sets they were only $1.59 per spool of 1200 yards and separately they were $1.99!! I don't think you can get that anywhere else. I have to thank my sister for telling me about that place. Anyways, in order to pay only $7 for shipping I bought a charm pack (what a hardship :) ) and some 1/4" tape.



This morning at quilting JW had brought a whole bunch of fabric she didn't want after cleaning and sorting her fabric closet. I found a bunch of stuff to build up my collection! First some fabrics that I know one day I could use for a quilt...

Then two pieces of a bright, tropical print that I thought would be really fun for some beach dresses for the girls, or maybe even backing on my bright quilt one day. We'll see...

The last pieces are an orangy-peach and green of the same fabric. My first thought was skirts or summer pajamas for the girls...



This last picture is of my "nephew" Ben. I had promised to make PJ's for his birthday back in April but I just finished them tonight! I guess it's better late than never and it's just in time for the cool weather. I was glad they fit! Isn't he cute?

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Thanksgiving

This past weekend we had a special day to be celebrate Thanksgiving. I believe that everyday we need to be thankful and live out of thankfulness for Christ's saving work. It is nice to have a day to be reminded of all the things we should be thankful for and to realize again how abundantly we have been blessed. We spent Sunday evening with friends from church and on Monday we had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with relatives/friends. The strangest part of the weekend was the weather. It was so, so hot and humid and felt like the middle of August. It didn't feel like we should be eating a big dinner. Conrad and the kids even went for a swim! Yesterday it cooled right down though and now it's only 10 degrees so hopefully we get some nice, cool, fall weather.

Yesterday I got to see my best friend! She was visiting her family for a few extra days after the weekend so I went with the kids for the day. It was really nice, especially to see eachother's kids again. The part that always feels funny is that you feel like you should be talking and catching up because it's been half a year but because we always talk on the phone we ended up not talking about much of consequense yesterday. I think we talk better on the phone :) I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures to share but I'll post some when C sends me some.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Crafts, Duplo and the beginning of Autumn

I think one of the best parts of being a Mom is watching your kids be creative. Anneke and Lukas love to colour, draw, cut and paste. It is amazing to see them learn how to control a pen or felt and then start making shapes, people and so on. Last week We got some huge pieces of paper from a friend and the kids spent over an hour making some wonderful posters. It was a big mess but definately worth it!

This is our family that Anneke made

Lukas drawing beds :)


The kids, Tessa included, love duplo. We have a lot of it, some bought new, a lot given to us and some really good deals at the second hand store. Hours and hours of fun!
Lukas playing knights (who do you think started that one??)


On Sunday after church we went for a walk around the stadium, by the river which is right across the road. I forget that the river is so close by. It was a beautiful day and the trees are just starting to turn colour although that's a bit hard to tell on the pictures. We saw lots of Canada Geese. Does that mean they're on there way south already?