Happy Belated Eater!!!

Happy Easter to everyone!

I hope that you all had a great Easter and that you got to spend some time with family.

We had a houseful for Easter and it really was great to be able to play hosts in our new home for the first time. Marc and I both had our mothers here and Mireille and Madison were able to come as well. Unfortunately Jonathan wasn't able to make it because he was working, but we still had a nice time together.

Susan, Mireille and Madison's visit was short so we didn't get to spend as much time with them as we would have liked to, but my mother stayed until the following Thursday and it was really great to have her here for a week. We don't get to see our families very often now that we're in Calgary, so we really do cherish the time that we get to spend with them - it helps to take some of our everyday stress away to be able to have them close by!

Below are some pictures that we snapped during the weekend!

Enjoy!

Love,

Cathy

More Random Pictures

As you can see, the water in the rivers and lakes around here is absolutely crystal clear. It really is beautiful!

Teenage Boys!!! :o)

Hey.....lots of you out there have raised teenage boys (mom and mom and many others!) There are lots of great moments, but they seem to be connected by lots of arguing and hitting etc. Is there anything we can do about this???? Does anyone have any advice for us??? I figured we could reach out to our friends and family for advice :o) We did have a pyschologist tell us last year that it's a teenagers job to challenge their parents and redefine their boundries.....but does it have to be so stressful??? Alright, alright, I know that it's not always going to be easy.....

Like I said, any advice would be appreciated!

(Yes...that really is free roaming cattle eating
from a campground firepit!)

Over all, things are going well. The kids are really settling into the new house and are starting to feel at home here. Jeremy and Adam are both really liking the gas fireplace (so are Marc and I for that matter!) and both kids had their first lesson in laundry this weekend - they both washed and dryed their clothes from the past week. I think that I'll continue with that trend! We have lots of buttons to push on our washer and dryer, so for now they think that it's pretty cool......we'll see how long that lasts for! :o)

I don't have any new pictures to add this week, but I've decided to start adding some Alberta nature pictures to our blog. This really is a beautiful province (we can see the snow capped Rockies from our upstairs family room) and I want to share it with you all.

You never know, maybe it will lure some of you out here for a visit! We love to play host to anyone who wants to visit!

Baby Mountain Goat in Banff National Park

Everythings Going Great!

Hi there everyone! Just thought I would post a bunch more pictures! It's safe to say that we're all moved in and pretty much settled! It's been a lot of work, but definitely worth it! We love our new home and it really is starting to feel like home! For a while it felt like we were visiting in someone else's home, but it's starting to sink in that it's actually ours! We finally feel like we have some breathing space. We were very happy to have a great apartment to live in when we arrived here in Calgary, but it was definitely time to move on to something with enough space for all of us.


Marc had a birthday this week (he still doesn't believe me that he turned 39) and we had a pretty quiet celebration. He was quite sick and I actually worked until about 9:30 the night of his birthday, but Adam and I did make him a nice lemon poppyseed loaf (Susan....you know how much he likes lemon!) and he had a nice birthday.

Here are our latest pictures!


Here is a picture of Adam's room















































Buster in the upstairs hallway
This is the view from the family room upstairs











This is a picture of our Ensuite bathroom























Two pictures of our bedroom


































Jeremy's Bedroom Main Bathroom Upstairs

Another Picture of the House

Happy Sunday!

Hi everyone! Thought I would send out a note and show you another picture of our home. This picture is of the kitchen and dining area.

Things here are going well. We have had the boys this past week, so they've had a chance to settle in and get used to the new surroundings. One of the best things is that there is enough room for them to get out of each other's way when they have to!

Both boys have been sick this week, and it looks like Adam has strep throat. He's on antibiotics and is starting to bounce back, so things are looking up! It's been a rough couple of days!

Hope everything is going great for you all!

Love,

Cathy

We're In!!!!

Hello everyone! I know it's been a while since we've updated our blog, but we've been pretty preoccupied with the move.

The good news is that we're finally in our new home and LOVING it!!! We're still in the process of setting everything up, but we're getting there. I'll have lots of pictures as we get things set up, but for today I just have one picture for you (in a room that's pretty close to being set up) It's of our family room, which is upstairs on top of the garage. We had all of our new furniture delivered earlier this week and you can see some of it in this picture!

Our home phone is connected again now (with the same number) so we can be reached at home again!

Hope you all are having a great day!

Love,

Cathy

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas!

Hi there everyone! I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Christmas. We had "Chistmas Eve" on Saturday night with the boys and Jonathan, Mireille and Madison. We had our Christmas morning on Sunday morning - it was a lot of fun with the three kids! Here are some pictures of our Christmas for those who couldn't be here to celebrate with us!







Here is Madison mesmerized by her new Easy Bake Oven from Grandma and Grandpa :o)











Here is Adam opening up a board game from Gram Coffin.....nothing like catching him mid expression! :)




















Jeremy opening the Transformer that he really wanted - thanks Gram Coffin!
















We have had a wonderful Christmas and I hope that you all have an equally wonderful Christmas!

Love you all! Cathy and Marc

Merry Christmas!

There.....I said it.....Merry Christmas. Not that I have a problem with "Happy Holidays", it's just nice to hear Merry Christmas every now and then without the fear that someone is going to take offence!

We got our Christmas tree this past weekend with the boys and they had a lot of fun putting the decorations up. Here are a few pictures - we even have a picture of Santa Simpson!!!






















There is more progress on our new home as well! We have our official possession which is January 26, 2006! We are looking forward to moving into the first house that we have built together! The lastest thing is that all of the ceramic tile has now been laid - here are some pictures!

Happy Hunting Marc

Marc has had a very successful hunting season this year with 2 deer - we will have tons of meat for the next year, that's for sure!

Here are a couple of pictures

We're getting closer to move-in day!

Hi everyone! We're getting closer and closer to move in day! We still don't have the official date yet, but it looks like it will be mid-January, barring any unforseen major delays! Here are some updated pictures!

The first one is the view of the kitchen from the dining nook (The pantry door still has to be stained to match the stain of the cabinets)

The second one is a view of the newly installed stair rail. This is also waiting for stain....

Finally, the boys and I were busy this past weekend doing some Christmas baking. The kids had fun decorating our sugar cookies....here are some pictures of their creativity!

More House Pictures

Here are more pictures of the interior.....first of the living room area, then of the family room that sits upstairs over the garage. This is the room with the three windows that you can see from the front of the house

New House Pictures

Hi everyone! I've been to the house with a camera again and I thought that I would share the latest pictures! It's starting to get quite exciting now - there's always something new that's been done when we go to see the house. It's keeping Marc quite busy, checking up on the work and making sure that everything has been done properly! I'm some glad I have him to check up on things.....I don't know a whole lot about how things are supposed to be done when building a house!

First, here are a few pictures of the exterior of the house now that the siding is complete. (YAY!!!)


















































I'm also going to show you some pictures of the inside. First, here is a view of the kitchen/dining room















I'll have to add the other pictures on a second post....It won't let me add any more on this one!!

Happy Birthday Madison!

Happy birthday Madison! Ponies, ponies everywhere! There is certainly no shortage of My Little Ponies for Maddy! She had lots of kids at her party and she had a ton of fun. I thought that I would share some pictures so that everyone who couldn't be there could at least see into her day!

Happy Halloween!

The kids had a good halloween night. Marc and Jeremy went around the neighborhood and Adam went to another subdivision and went with a friend. Although Adam had to come home early because he wasn't feeling well, he still managed to get quite a bag of loot! Between him and Jeremy, we have enough candy in the house to last for quite a while.

Here are a couple of pictures from Halloween night. You can tell that the boys are getting older....no more cute costumes! They find scary costumes much cooler now!