Kels and Con in action...

The kids are quite enjoying their paper route. They were quite pleased with their first pay and cashed in on some nice tips. Keep up the good work guys!

Big Changes at the Homestead

Dad, Brian, Wade, Kevin and Steve all helped in the re-shingling project. Kels, Connor, Mags, Trent, and I started the shingle clean-up. Thankfully Aunt Mare, Uncle Doug, Nicole and Carole came to our rescue and finished up. Thanks everyone! It looks beautiful!

Well, the roof was replaced, the house was cleaned and "de-cluttered (THANKS AUNT MARE!), the for sale sign was pounded into the ground and the first showing was yesterday! Wow! Lots of change. I'm happy for Dad (& Nicole) that they are moving into a smaller ranch just around the corner from us. It makes much more sense. However, I'm a person that doesn't like change, so part of me will be sad to see our old "home" go but another part of me knows that it isn't the "home" we all remember. It doesn't matter how much time goes by, I still envision my Mom standing at the kitchen counter whipping up some muffins or entering the garage and the smell of cookies welcoming you, every time I go there and that will remain with that house (and it's painful each and EVERY time.) I guess the best thing for all of us (especially dad) will be to move on to a new address and leave the many years of love, happiness and good times we had on Marlene. It's a huge step of acceptance for us all. Life never stays the same and regardless of whether you like it or not, you have to roll with it, accept the things you can't change, rely on God's grace and remember He has a plan for us.

WAY TO GO GUYS

Kelsey has made the first cut on the girls volleyball team! WOOT WOOT! What a busy life you lead babe, piano lessons, GEMS, a paper route, an active social life and now school sports...you GO GIRL!!

Connor placed 8th in the Longwoods Cross Country Meet today! BRAVO! He was up against approximately 100 other boys in his group...you did well for the Huskies and almost made your mama cry (I blinked the tears back as I saw you running towards the finish line, cheering you on)! Now onto the Thames Valley Meet! Connor helps Kels with the paper route, takes guitar lessons, runs X-Country and has recently become a CRC Cadet.

What a blessing to have healthy children that can take part in all these activities. We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving (& at all times) Thanks be to God for all these undeserved blessings.

Looking forward to a big turkey dinner here on Monday, 14 adults and 9 kids, should be lots of fun and lots of food...pics to follow!

HAVE A

BLESSED THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELSEY!! - September 30th

Kelsey turned 11 today...I can hardly believe it! Every birthday of every child, I re-live the day they were born and incredibly, it all seems so vivid. Kels was born with a mop of black hair and big blue eyes and now as you can see she has turned into a beautiful pre-teen!! Slow down time!!

Connor, Kelsey, Alisha, Steph and Chloe ready to eat the ice cream cake (Lauren was on her way but absent from the pic). After supper Connor headed out with Wade to play video games and catch the new movie "Open Season." The girls had a blast, an evening filled with games, crafts, mud masks, make-up, foot facials, movies and food.

Mags and Nicole testing out the foot fixer.

Making our "SPA slippers", relaxing and trying out some mud masks...

Lauren modelling her slippers, freshly painted nails and pj's, aren't the slippers adorable??

Trent showing off his (and Mags) slippers!

Time for some shut eye!

Hip Hip Hooray Connor!

Connor all ready to run at his first official Cross Country Meet. It was a beautiful day and loads of people came out to run and spectate...(10 schools?)

Connor in action, sprinting the last leg of the race and passing the runner in red to come in 4th overall in his age group! Woot! Woot! You made us proud Con!

His cheering section surrounding him; Bri, Mags, Trent, Aunt Nicole and Wade (and me taking the pic) . Now onto the regionals next week...i'll keep you posted.

Maggie, Maggie

Our little nature nut, holding her pet toads. At present she has 4 toads and a caterpillar in captivity. Nothing seems to freak her out, worms, centipedes, crickets, you name it, she'll pick it up and become it's friend.

On another note, we went to see my mom at the nursing home the other day and Mags (of course) had to use the bathroom; instead of trekking down the hall to the public washroom, we used mom's semi-private washroom. Maggie was sitting there taking in everything around her, the raised toilet seat, the bars to aid in getting up etc. After she was done and we were washing her hands she said "I want to try those on!" I looked around and saw nothing to try on and gave her an odd look and she pointed to a container housing a pair of someone's DENTURES!! "THOSE!" she said. I laughed so hard! Just had to share it!

FIrst Day of School - September 5th

Looking good on the first day of school. Hard to believe that Kels is now in grade 6 and Connor in grade 3!

The Last Hurrah...

Some clips from our last week at the trailer...the Labour Day weekend ended with a family reunion, baby sister Nic returned from the west and came up to the camp with Kevin, Carole, Ashleigh and Baby Jaden on Sunday and Mom and Dad toured up on the same Sunday afternoon. I hope that your legs weren't/aren' t too cramped up from sleeping in the back of your Tribute K & C!!! Hopefully it was worth it??

POINT EDWARD

Trent couldn't take his eyes off the "pirate ship" and as you can see, Mags was more interested in getting her picture taken. (lol!)

Our annual fries under the bridge and boat watching...

Here we were watching a Tugboat pull out a barge. It never ceases to amaze me how blue the water is under that bridge, hence the name eh? BLUEwater Bridge...

A DAY AT THE BEACH

The Fishing Derby 2006 - Colleen, Kels and Marla. Congrats to Colleen (& Steve) for confirming her pregnancy to us all and to Kelsey for winning 3rd prize for an 11 inch bass in the derby! Booby prize went to Connor for the smallest fish...5 inches!!

Good old-fashioned fun. An afternoon of sackraces, wheelbarrow races, 3 legged races, balloon toss, egg toss etc.

Sarah, Marla and Kelsey (and all the others) await the prizes!

Our family did well, especially Brian and Steve who won the horseshoe tourney! Brian even managed to get a double ringer (yup I know Steve, you did it last year!)

Labour Day 2006 - closing up the trailer, Connor was quite proud to be covering the A/C. Both Dad and Grand Dad giving instructions...

Bye Lakewood and Lakewood friends, hope to see you next spring D.V. Above all we thank God for the wonderful summer we had with family and friends and for the safety given to us on the countless trips back and forth the past 3 months. God bless!

Where has the summer gone?

It seems like just yesterday we were packing up the van to head to the trailer for the first long weekend in July and here we are, heading into the last week of summer vacation!! What a wonderful summer we have had both weather-wise and vacation-wise...I guess that's why it has passed so quickly! We have one more week to enjoy our trailer before we close her up for the winter (oh i don't even want to say the word!) Labour Day is always a sad day for me...saying goodbye to lots of people until the spring (D.V.), going back to schedules and routines, making lunches, doing homework, waking up early, seeing the days grow shorter...however once you get past the first week of school, get into a routine and accept the fact that summer is over, you can begin to revel in the beauty of fall and look forward to Thanksgiving...kind of a gentle transition from one glorious season to another...

At the fishing hole...

At the water park and the trailer

Vacation Bible Camp 2006 - Our classroom

I Corinthians 13 - Sharing God's Love

I was assigned to the 5 year olds, we had around 9 kids everyday in our class (7 boys!) It went really well aside from the fact that by Thursday (today) I'm exhausted! The kids are very "enthusiastic" but it amazes me how much they pick up even though it seems they are preoccupied with other things. Looking forward to the closing program when my class will be singing for their parents...i love hearing little kids sing and they are quite excited to have their moment to shine! So impressionable at this age, hoping and praying that the seed was planted in their hearts and God will nurture it as the kids grow!

Calgary cousins come to visit