Faux Hawk Family...

As promised, here are some pictures of my clean-cut guys! All three of them were looking scraggly and now they look so much better! Huge thanks to Ellie for the haircuts!

Here's the fun one; we decided to faux hawk them all for a quick pic! See how thrilled they looked! Oh well, at least they're good sports!

Faux Hawk Flair!

Lukas, Bob and Ben all went to get their cut yesterday (long overdue, I might add). This is Lukas minus about 5 pounds of hair! He looks so cute! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch Ben or Bob before they left this morning so I'll post those later!

A Little Family Time...

While my parents were here, we were invited to have Thanksgiving dinner with my Dad's cousin, Dianne and her husband Fred, his aunt, Verdella and her husband Earl, Don and Kathy (also my Dad's cousins) and their children. I've only met Verdella at my wedding and I've never met the rest of the family so this was a great day! The food was amazing (and I didn't have to make any of it!) I was privileged to enjoy my great-aunt's famous apple pie. It was wonderful to meet these family members I heard so much about and I hope we'll be seeing more of them in the future! Thanks for a memorable Thanksgiving!

Fred and Kailyn

Earl, Dallas, Dianne and Verdella

The Narcissistic Wall of US!

We have a very SMALL living room. That being said, we also come from very LARGE families. We were trying to decide where to hang our all our family pictures...and since we couldn't decide who's family to put in the other room, we put them all up together. It could be a little overwhelming when you come in our front door but, this is our family and we love them!

We put my family the right and Bob's on the left. We put our parents on the top, then all the kids, a mixed group of pictures and a whole family picture. Again, I know it's a little overwhelming but I think it looks good! Unfortunately, because of the placement of our window, I couldn't get a clear picture.

Field Trip - Westminster Pond

Today, I went with Lukas and his Junior Kindergarten class to Westminster Pond, a conservation area. The class was able to explore the trails outdoors and then move inside to work at play stations with bugs, animals and insects. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves but they were REALLY tired on the bus ride back to the school.

Lukas checking out the "life of a frog"

Lukas looking through a microscope.

Halloween Preview...

Halloween is Bob's favorite holiday--he loves to dress up, go to parties, decorate the house and carve pumpkins. Today, we had the Sister Missionaries over for dinner and Family Home Evening. Bob decided to carve the pumpkins tonight which was really wonderful because one of the sisters is from China and has never carved a pumpkin before!! Bob was in his glory teaching them how to carve pumpkins and going over the history of Halloween. We had a great night!

Bob's two-headed creation...

Kailyn Art...

Here's a new picture from Kailyn. She is very creative--I never know what she'll come up with next! She loves to draw and color whenever she gets a chance. Last night, she couldn't sleep so she stayed up coloring a Princess Aurora picture.

Year of Color?

This is not a Year of Color picture (even though I should be taking some to catch up with everyone). These are my favorite shoes. My sister, Kati, and I have been looking for beads to match my shoes for months! This week, while I was working on another project, I found some!! This is my new necklace with my favorite shoes!!

Niagara Falls

Today we ventured out to do some sightseeing at Niagara Falls. Christa loved the name, of course, because it sounds like Viagra. The drive out was beautiful and so was the weather. We were all soaked from the mist coming off the falls but it was amazing to see. Here's a few pictures from the day.

Grandpa, Kailyn, Bob, Ben, Lukas, Christa & Zoe

Christa & Cheryl

Christa & Zoe

Cheryl, Kailyn, Lukas & Bob

Mom & Dad

Wiped out at the end of the day...

Appleland Station

Yesterday, I was a parent volunteer for the Jr. Kindergarten's first field trip--Appleland Station. It was a beautiful apple orchard just outside the city. They had a train, a pumpkin patch and Sand Mountain (which is just what it sounds like, a huge mountain of sand with cement tunnels and play equipment). I wish I had a camera because the setting was amazing! We learned how to make an apple tree, how bees pollinate the apple blossoms and the proper way to pick apples. I ate an apple that I picked off the tree! We had a great day! This is a pic that was snapped by Lukas' teacher while we were on the train.

A Little Picasso

This is one of Lukas' newest creations. He titles this one, "The Caterpillar and the Cookies". All of the sudden he went from scribbling to drawing semi-recognizable images. When he draws, he uses lots of paper (thank goodness for recycling) and of the 10 pictures he drew, he chose this one for the fridge. I had to take it down to scan it and he immediately noticed and was really upset that his picture was not on the fridge.

This is one of Kailyn's self-portraits, of course she dressed like a princess. Kailyn has always enjoyed drawing and coloring. She loved when my Dad would visit because the two of them would often sit and draw together.

Our Family Picture

Our Family

School's Back!

I've been hearing complaints that my blog hasn't been updated in a while--it's been about 6 weeks and due to a crappy Internet connection, I've been unable to do any updates. My deepest apologies for my negligence.

September has been exciting so far. Kailyn has been accepted into a french immersion school and has made lots of new friends already. She's getting right back into the swing of things and has also mastered riding the bus again! Lukas started Jr. Kindergarten. He's attending school every morning from 9:00-11:30--which isn't the greatest but I think it's probably the best for him. He went with me to meet his new teacher and check out the classroom. Every day he comes running out of the class and says he's had so much fun. Then when I ask if he wants to go back tomorrow, he says no.

Bob is now working a little closer to home which is great for all of us! We actually get to see him now! We also have our nephew, Ben, staying with us until his family moves out here in January. I am so happy to have him here. (Not just because I'll have a live-in babysitter...) Kailyn and Lukas have really enjoyed having him here so far and follow him around.

We're looking forward to Christa and Zoe coming out here for a visit at the end of September; then my parents will be coming for Thanksgiving! We love to have family come and visit. Hopefully, we'll be able to get a camera soon and post some new pictures. Don't give up on me! I'll try to post again soon!

Run Around

So today I went into London to pick up a few items for our new place...I left Zurich and drove to London. Then I decided to drive out to a town called Ridgetown to look at a really cute couch and chair. The directions I had were to drive about an hour west on the 401. Well, I drove an hour west on the 402 (which you can see is very far from where I was supposed to be). Then I decided that since there was someone waiting for me, that I should drive down there anyway. Another hour later, I finally hit Ridgetown. After that adventure I drove back to London and then up to Zurich. It's amazing how one little wrong turn can be so far off...

A Month in Review...

Wow, almost a whole month has past since our arrival to Ontario. It has been a roller coaster ride to say the least. We've been taken in by Bob's Aunt Ann and Uncle Bob in Zurich (which is a 45 minute drive NW of London). Bob's Aunt is a Pastor for the Lutheran Church and so we've been staying in the parsonage. They have been wonderful in every way. Initially, we tried to purchase a house but some unforeseen road blocks have detoured us for now. We'll be renting a beautiful little duplex starting on August 1--however, our belongings are still in transit from Calgary and Ann and Bob have taken off for a much need vacation so we're house sitting here for a couple more weeks. Hopefully the moving company will be able to deliver our stuff this weekend but it's more likely that we'll get it next week.

Bob has had a very good interview and we're still praying that he gets the job. It would be perfect for him and allow him to use both his geography and biology degrees (which would be nice because we spent so much $$ to put him through school).

Thank you to all our family and friends...for your prayers and karma and good thoughts, for your letters and phone calls. I miss my family and friends so much. Feel free to send care package anytime!

XxOOooX

Finally Some Photos!

Thanks to Dee-Ann our family (my parents and siblings) had our first EVER family pictures taken. I have to admit, I was really worried because it rained all day until about 30 minutes before pictures. We didn't have a back up indoor place to have the pictures taken and I'm moving on Monday night to Ontario. Lucky for us, there was a break in the weather, long enough to do the pictures...then it rained again. Dee-Ann was wonderful and did a fantastic job (as you can see). Big thanks to her hubby/assistant, Scott for the direction and management of people. Thanks again, Dee-Ann!!