Shots i like....

Just going through my crazy amounts of pics from our party tonight and stumbled on these two that chris took at the breakfast table this morning......

Thanksgiving 2010

New Song......

I can't stop looking at his hair.....i liked his song.  Weird, the video doesn't come up for my own screen, but i can still press the play button at the bottom...do you see it?

Nice Fall Morning......

I have a nice new routine on tuesday/thursday mornings before Chris heads to work at 9....i walk through these beautiful trails beside a river in town and talk to my dad on my blackberry. When i got home this morning, my husband had a fire going and my youngest all fed and dressed......lovely man.

So here i sit, eating peanut butter and jam toast reading a book called ' the me i want to be; becoming God's best version of you'.

Only 2 pages in, i found two paragraphs that i loved;

'Every once in awhile you do something that surprises you and catch a glimpse of the person you were made to be. You say something inspirational at a meeting. You help a homeless man no else notices. You are patient with a rambunctious three-year old. (!!!!) You lose yourself in a piece of music. You fall in love. You express compassion. You stand up to a bully. You freely make a sacrificial gift. You fix an engine. You forgive an old hurt. (!!!!) You say something you would normally never say, or you keep from saying something you would normally blurt out.

As you do, you glimpse for a moment why God made you. Only God knows your full potential, and he is guiding you towards that best version of yourself all the time. He has many tools and is never in a hurry. That can be frustrating for us, but even in our frustration, God is at work to produce patience in us. He never gets discouraged by how long it takes, and he delights every time you grow.'

Sometimes i get frustrated by both (a) how busy we can get, and the next moment (b) how we can have absolutly nothing going on and i am so bored. I am learning that life is a series of 'moments'....if you don't like one moment, just hold on and wait, because the next moment may totally rock your world!!

And every moment has the potential to slowly bring you towards the person you really want to be.

What i love.....

Want to know what i love?  I love jazzercise.

Want to know why?

I love it because each time i go, just as we do in school, i always go to the same spot.

So do a few other regulars.....

And sometimes, there are wicked songs

where i know ALL the moves, as do my neighbors

And just for a moment,

I look in the mirror at the 3 or 5 of us dancing, in sync,

and i think 'i am in the best dance video....

..and i am totally rockin' it!!"

I live for those moments because most of the other moments,

I am a gigantor with 2 left feet....

Fun, relaxing day with friends.....

I love these days.....you know, fall days....not much on the agenda but to enjoy our kids and laugh together with a cup of hot chai in our hands!

 Little Elliot loves when his friends mathew and david come over, and i love when their mom comes too!

We talk, we play, we run, today we took lots of pictures.....it was a beautful day.

Did i mention that we run?....well, Elizabeth runs.....like a supermodel....incredible, really.

Just like she is......obviously!

The Many sides of Chris.....

This is my best friend....he is a deep river......

Something to look forward to!

This was a big weekend!! However, i am having trouble finding the time to hunt down all the pictures from this great retreat that Chris was part of!  but here we are in the photo booth!  Please, pay no mind to the sneaky cotton candy stick lurking in the background, i have no idea how it got there!

More pics to come of this incredible weekend....but maybe at a later date!  but on other news.....i BOOKED out trip tonight!!  Yup....battled it out with Avion and got our points to cover 2 tickets, and we had a credit from westjet for that weird time we didn't realize our passports were expired!  So, almost the whole thing was paid for! Oooohhhh...now its feeling real!!

best place on earth....with the best boys on earth....

Seriously, the title says it all!  I haven't appreciated living here in the early days as i do now!  I am married to the most creative, talented guy - he has built a big swing from the top of the dryshed!  Here we are, testing it out!! 

 I love that isaac is turning out to be a kid who LOVES rides! adventures! thrill!  It makes me excited for places like Disneyland, carnivals, anywhere we go that has rollercoasters!  It makes me even MORE excited that there won`t be 3 guys watching from the sidelines as mom runs to every thrill ride!! 

 Elliot, however, bless his heart, prefers the sidelines.....to run and play to his own hearts content!

Chris and i took the quad over to the garbage tonight while the kids slept (don`t worry, neighbors were listening for the kids)....and i just had this overwhelming thought `this is the best time of our life, isn`t it`

Life these days.......

This is where we are at:

 Happy, healthy, busy......

Not a terribly interesting post tonight.....not too much to say, actually.  Fall teen retreat is this weekend, so chris is currently working til midnight on average getting everything ready for tomorrow.  He has the work ethic unlike anyone i have ever met...i sure love him.  I miss him, but am so proud of him...his passion...his excitement for this place.....he is quite wonderful.

Thankful for family Part 3

The day started out with mom and i kayaking...and then we all met up to go bowling!!  Unfortunatly, it was right at Jacks naptime, so we were missing one whole family!! 

 The team consisted of: Rainbow Man, Ben Ten, Sharona, Mr Ice Cap, Apple Pie Guy and Water Woman!

 Mr. Ice Cap concentrates....

 Happy to be bowling? 

 Sharona and Apple Pie Guy {aptly named as he spent the morning on YouTube learning how how make his first apple pie for this evenings dinner!!}

 The 'before' dinner shot!

Dad pulled out the train set from when he and Ron were kids.

 Dad and his brother Ron......

 Apple Pie guy = SUCCESS!!!  {can you see Elliot watching him down in the corner? so cute!}

 Dad and Isaac finish their pumpkin!  umm.....it had a few too many!

 They were both quite proud....

 But i have a feeling dad was a little MORE proud ......

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving.....so much to be thankful for!

Kayaking with mom...

It was dark when we started walking down the driveway with the kayaks on their carriers and a cup of coffee in moms hand.  We launched off the beach down the road and were expecting a nice calm paddle, sort of like this picture below:

 What we ended up with was this:

Well, not exactly!!  I don't know Okanagan lake very well, but what started as a bit of a rough ride turned into a scary adventure in a matter of a few short minutes.  We made our way out to the point and saw rain up ahead so we turned around and headed for home.  But the wind picked up so quickly that we had to fight the waves and the wind from sending our kayaks out into the middle of the lake!  It was fun for awhile as the wind was blowing us the direction we were paddling.....but then it wasn't so fun as i fought to stay near the shore.

I had a few moments of fear as i was padding, one of those moments was when i turned around and saw a huge wave land on my moms kayak and her kayak became parallel to a huge wave that threatened to tip her over! She yelled over the wind "what do you think?" which i took as code to "lets get outta here!!"...so we made our way to shore.  She was a little behind me and had i tried to follow her, i would have crashed into all the boulders that were along the shore....so i took a chance and docked a little further down which turned out to be a nice sandy 4 foot exit onto a mansions beach!!

We now had to figure out what to do...so her in her little sandles and me in my water shoes, we trekked out of there towards home...through bushes, over rocks and logs....it was a real adventure!

As we got to the bottom of our driveway, up drove dad!  He had picked up the kayak carts from the beach we launched at and arrived just in time to drive 2 sea-tossed woman up our steep driveway.

It was a fabulous morning!!! And all before 9am!!

Thankful for Family Day 2

Davidson Farms in Vernon was first on the list for our family this weekend.

 There was feeding of goats.....

 There was hanging out in trucks......

 Hiding behind teepees.....

 There were also duck races, thanks to grand dads deep pockets! { i think i remember telling isaac to find a floating pine cone! {cheap mama!!}

 Taking it all in.....

 My folks......

 Picnic in the Orchards.....

 Look at Jacks tolerant face.....love it.

 Captain America.....

 Beautiful......

 Fooling around in the beautiful spa...dad stayed in the car, i think he thought he would be embarressed?

 We like to take pictures in the bathroom....nice reflection hey?

That was our day before Carrie had to leave for work...the night consisted of Chris and Brad taking in the hockey game, Dad and i painted Carrie's office at work....homemade pizza for dinner.....it was a great day.

Thankful for Family this weekend....Night 1

We arrived around 5 on friday night...met with moms running open arms yelling 'you're HERE!!!!! i'm so HAPPY!!!'.....pretty nice start hey? And dad has been working hard trying to get a bathroom into the basement (where we like to stay cause its nice and dark...but i guess they were tired of finding our nightly pee patches out in their garden!)....so as soon as Chris arrived, he and dad worked on cutting the door out and getting the frame put into place....look how happy chris looks! ah....a project!

 Mom had the table set so nicely....including Jacks new friend 'Dorothy'

 Chris cooking up the Chantrelle mushrooms for dinner that he had picked the day before......they were a hit with the fam.

 The other men carved up (well, one carved, one supervised) the prime rib.

 hey jack "Cheers!!"

 Carrie got a lovely key chain.....

Yup...thanksgiving has begun!