Halloween 2018 - Pigs and Kangaroos

The kid who, for weeks, said he was going to go to school in a tank top and tell people he was "an American who had the right to BARE arms"...decided it was too cold for that, and he'd have to explain himself every time ... decided that perhaps "HEY!  Want some Pot?" may be a good costume too?  Mittens was the only interested one in this costume ....

A few minutes before they both had to leave for school, Chris brought the boys to the program bus where all the costumes are kept.  Isaac settled on being a PIG, and Elliot, who has known what he has wanted to be for a month!, was a "Kangaroo who wears Heeley's"!!! 

Corn Mazes and Taco Trucks!

Amanda met Elliot and I at the park and ride - this 'Best Scout Leader ever' was taking a van full of boys to the corn maze for Scouts ..... Elliot had the best time...I bought him a new pair of boots for tonight ...their team WON ... whatever race they had in the corn maze, it was his scout team that won ... so he was pleased when he got home all muddy and happy!

And Elliot is quite pleased with his little Taco Truck he has made for Mittens.  Please note that Taco's and catnip tacos are on the menu...

Marg has a birthday

Marg turned 69 on Sunday ... so we all met for dinner at Romeos ...we were missed a few but laura stopped by with a gift for Marg between her taxi driving her kids around .... very nice dinner ....

We had taken the kids to Victoria after struggling through the New Life service that morning ... time with people in the lobby after was the best part, I think we were one of the last to leave!  In Victoria, we were picking up some more basswood for Isaacs carving as he has been commissioned to carve out Jolene's family for Christmas as gifts, so that's cute.  And his phone is trashed, so Anna Welle had just gotten a new phone and gave him her old 5 ... AND it came with an otterbox, so that is suitable for this boy .....

Where do they come UP with these faces???

This face is better!!!  Happy Birthday to his grandma!!!

The 'before' shot before he got her attention ;-)

Love my family ....

I often feel pretty panicky lately when the vision of Isaac turning grey and going unconscious comes back into my memory because I just love our time together as a family. I remember thinking “is this the end of this chapter? Am I down to only one child?  Is that’s what is happening here?”   

So though I have always been thankful for my family and grateful for our time, I find every morning that we all wake up, I exhale and think “awesome!! We have another day”. 

The night of Kelly’s shower, we all got back together - Elliot had been at Dylan’s because scouts was selling poppies, Isaac went to a new youth group and I went with Rachel to the shower.  

These are just my favorite people in the world. Pretty grateful that they are all mine ;-)

Friends and knitting .....

Nikki turning 43 tommorow!  She is a a day and a month older than me!!

We walked my favorite trail and took in a craft sale. Ate chocolate cake and drank coffee. Watched movies and knitted!!!

Then Jolene came over after Nikki left and took up the post!!  Same blanket and same knitting project but the chocolate cake was changed to wine ;-)

Oh and Chris came home with 40 pounds of mushrooms!!

Kelly is having a baby!!!

She wanted us all to get together since it had been awhile - so JL being the sweet friend she is, planned a surprise baby shower. 

Half these women were at my own baby shower!!  See the big yellow gift bag to the left ?  That was given to me with Isaac and I wrote all over for Kelly and filled it with advice and words of love and encouragement ....

And Court is expecting her 3rd at around the same time as Kelly so that was fun!!

It’s been pretty fun to watch this girl fall in love, get married and now getting really to have a bay girl!  All the dreams are coming true!! 

Pro D day .....

He’s carving and enjoying Olivia’s company. They played sky landers for a lot of the pro D day on Friday .....

Elliots very first Scout Event!

Elliot went with Amanda and Dylan to his first scout event on Saturday !  They all headed to Wild Play for their high ropes course!  

He did well. Climbing high and making it quite far .... Amanda behind him and Dylan ahead of him ...



This was my favourite shot - especially since they didn’t know a picture was being taken. Please note Elliot concentrating so hard and Amanda smiling with a pretty proud look on her face as she watches him. 

Isaac buys his first set of carving tools

With his own money!  Here he is talking to a fellow carver about his thoughts on the set he is about to buy. 
He was pretty happy that we found some bass wood at Lee Valley. I bought that for him but he purchased his own tools.  



He’s getting pretty good!!

Elliot signs up for Scouts ...

Well, he wants to be done piano and wants to trade it for Scouts .... piano is still is discussion but we’ve signed him up for Scouts with his friend Dylan. Amanda is the leader and we did a test drive last night. They hiked in the dark, made fires and ate marshmallows .... he’s in.  

Give the kid a marshmallow lol

Burrito family

Elliot’s enjoying some sewing projects these days!  He’s building a burrito empire. Here is last nights baby burrito.  

He’s still sleeping beside me ....

I know the the difference between him just turning over and when he’s seizing.  I know what the cycles of his breathing sounds like through the night. I think there are times he holds his breath or doesn’t breath or breaths so quietly I have to poke him.  How can he sound like Darth Vader one moment and then no noise the next?

He’s gone from seizing every twenty minutes after falling asleep to none that I can tell last night.  I think he’s regulating on the new dose and time protocol we’ve got going.  He’s really wanting to move back into his own bed while Elliot loves sleeping in our room. He feels safe, he says.  Isaac has teen retreat next weekend and he wants to sleep at camp.  We’ve told him we’ll see how this week goes, but it appears we’re on the upswing of this brutal month long chapter.  So that’s good. 

Thanksgiving weekend in Kelowna 2018 - Saturday morning

Well, we all made it to the park near Vernon for our 9am family photo shoot .. here are some of the silly ones we just caught on our phone that morning ....

Look who found his Halloween costume a little early this year!!

(P.S., it’s Elliot)
Got to love a dad who keeps all his costumes in a big yellow bus for program !