Day 318 - Saturday, November 28

Drawing is one of the main activities that the girls enjoy every day. Being at Gramma's house does not change that. Here is one of Emma's drawings from her visit.

Day 317. Friday. November 27

The little girls stayed overnight with me tonight so their parents could work hard, packing, moving, and cleaning....transferring their home from the duplex to Andrew's house.

Day 305....sunday, november 15

We had special guests this afternoon and overnight......

Day 291 - Sunday, November 1

Emma....such a good big sister......snuggling Titus and softly humming "Brahm's Lullaby" to her sick baby brother.

Day 257 - Sunday, September 27

28 years ago today, our lives were blessed by the birth of our 2nd son...Michael Cameron. (To read my tribute to him, go to this link) The family gathered at Mike and Victoria's home to honor him and to celebrate.

Of course, some of my favorite subjects for photos are my grandbabies....

James Titus (aka Ty) is the epitome of cute little boy baby:

These are Victoria's 4 yr old twin brothers....Luke on the left and Joshua on the right. They are typical little boys - delightful.

My oldest grandbaby is not much of a baby anymore....she is growing up so fast - becoming prettier every day, it seems....

Elizabeth - whose newest nickname, bestowed by Seth, is "Bif" - makes a beautiful subject for photos:

Supper time, and some of the kids got their 'own' table.....Kaden was delighted to eat with his older cousins.

Mmmm.....Spaghetti and meat sauce.

Michael wisely removed Kaden's clothing before giving him a plate of spaghetti.

Kaden knows how to 'say cheese' for the camera - whether you ask him to or not.

Happy Birthday to you....Happy Birthday to you....Happy Birthday dear Michael....Happy Birthday to you......

Many of the gifts were wrapped in paper adorned with Santas, reigndeer, and SNOWFLAKES. We warned Victoria that if it snows in the next few days - we're blaming HER!

This could be the last photo of Ava inutero.....

I'm sure Victoria hopes so.

Day 256 Saturday, Sept 26

This is the day we harvested our potatoe crop - or most of it, anyway.

Rob and Lana, their girls, Daniel, Vinj and Kath and I worked from 10 a.m. till about 3 p.m to dig 6 1/2 rows of about 50 hills/row.

The potatoes are beautiful! Not a single one with 'scabs' or blemishes of any sort.

The potatoes started out in this same tractor bucket, as cut up seed potatoes. This is but one row of harvested tubers:

To see a photo of the seed potatoes in the tractor bucket, go to this post.




Daniel did a great job cleaning up the cellar in preparation for storing our harvest:

Just compare this photo with the one from yesterday!

Day 249 - Saturday, September 19

The organisation Vinj works for, "The Open Door", is an emergency shelter for youth at risk. They held their annual fund raiser this morning - the main event being a 'bed race'.

Vinjelu and Kathryn had been asked to perform on the stage during the day. I went along to look after the kids while they were singing. There was a pretty good sized crowd - two bleachers full of people - but the bleachers were a rather long way off, so I cannot judge how the crowd responded to the music.

Several people (mostly youth) came and expressed their enthusiasm to Vinj and Kath, though.

Taliah was a good little princess....sleeping through most of the afternoon....







Seth was also well behaved. He was quite fascinated with this clown.....

When his mom and dad were singing, Seth was singing, dancing, and clapping in his seat.....

Their performance over, Vinj and Kath went to Wetaskiwin where they attended a meeting for church before the actual church service. I brought Seth home with me.....to Melanie's birthday party.

The little girls introduced Seth to their favorite thing about being at Auntie Mel's....kittens!

Later on, the girls enjoyed Uncle Ken's hot tub.....

.....while Titus beat out a rhythm on the fire pit....

Oh yeah....the day was meant to honor Melanie - who was turning 48.

After birthday cake, we went out to sit around the fire pit.

Vinj and Kath arrived about 11:00 - just as I was ready to go home to bed.

I do not know what time they called it a night, but they stayed overnight in my guest room. Daniel also stayed here - in the trailer.

Day 237....Monday, Sept 7 (Labor Day)

We spent the morning working on clearing the laundry room so Jim could mop the floor several times (because the backup of the sewer is concentrated in that room). Actually, Jim and Daniel did the majority of the work - with Dan taking things outside to sit on the deck until the floor was clean enough to put it back. We filled the gabage bin while we were at it - by 'purging' somewhat. I was too busy working to take photos, unfortunately. (Yes, it is true....I do not ALWAYS think of taking a picture)

The afternoon had already been booked as a BBQ with Vinj and Kath, SheriLyn, and Barry and Judy (from church). In spite of a rather cool wind (which I did not appreciate), we had a good time - and good food. It was nice to share our home and visit with 'new' people.

Barry and Judy brought along their own 2 boys as well as the Anderson boys, so the girls had a blast! They played so hard they barely stopped for supper....in fact, I don't think they did stop, at all - I know Liz and Soph ate hot dogs on the run and Emma never did come get her hamburger.

Some photos from the afternoon.....

Day 235 - Saturday, September 5

Today, Daniel took the doors off the 'china cupboard' in the kitchen for me. I've been contemplating doing this for some time.....My hope was that it would open up the kitchen a bit, making it seem a little larger and brighter.

Except that the crystal seems a little 'exposed' to accident, I like the new look.







I wonder what deep thoughts are going through Daniel's head?









The girls and Seth played hard outside all morning.....leaping from trailer to trailer (well, the girls did, not Seth).....

And playing on the trampoline......

Seth was a little stressed at the 'dogpile'....I think he was worried about Sophia.....

Elizabeth was in top form, gymnastically......

The girls have begun to 'dive' onto the trampoline.......

Here is Emma doing a flip.....

Lunch time.....Kraft Dinner and Hot Dogs......

Time for Seth to have a nap - he slept for several hours on the bed beside Uncle Dan at the computer.....

The afternoon was filled with sounds of harvest - and the air was filled with grain dust as the Hutterites combined the fields around us - running 4 combines at once.......

Our sewer backed up, unfortunately, so the afternoon was also spent waiting on a Vac Truck to suck out the septic tank in hopes that an empty tank would take care of the problem. The Vac Truck did not get here before it was time to leave for church so Jim stayed back to work with 'Winston' (think Red Green). Since we still had no functioning toilets, the girls went home after church with their mom.