Day 313...Monday, November 23

Rob and Lana went to the hockey game. I got to spend the evening with their kids (and Seth). Once Ty was asleep and supper gotten out of the way, the girls and I played a game of 'Life'. The girls were in top 'silliness' most of the time.

Day 277....Saturday, October 17

Obviously, since I had Seth overnight, I also had him for the day today.

When he woke up, I brought him into bed with me for a morning cuddle. When we got up, I turned to make my bed. He ran over to where my flipflops, slippers, and shoes are sitting in the bedroom. He picked up one of my flipflops, ran back over to me, set it on the floor beside me and said "shoes". He then ran back and got the other one.

As I was getting dressed, he explored Papa's side of the bed. After being told he was not allowed to play with the things on Papa's bedside table, he turned to come toward me. Jim's cowboy boots distracted him.

"Papa" he said as he stepped into the boots, which come up to the tops of his legs. He did not try to walk in Papa's boots, but stood there grinning for a minute or two.

Thankfully the weather has warmed up and the snow is melted so Seth could play outside for awhile. He loves being outside.

Here are just some of the things he did in the yard:




Jumped on the trampoline.....he can actually JUMP on it now.






His favorite outside toy is hands down Papa's tractor.....

He also discoved he could climb onto the snowmachine and pretend to drive it.....

He took a turn on the swing......

And discovered the pail of charcoal beside the fire pit.....

He filled his little hands with burned wood and made little piles on the fire pit wall......

He threw the miniscule pieces of black wood......

Put handsful on the picnic table and then spread them around......

Oh yes, and he tasted it, too!

He was also quite interested in the dog's pen......he even got brave enough to go inside.....

He checked out what was in that blue bowl that the puppies were drinking from.....

So much for a busy boy to do at Papa and Mama's house!

Day 276 Friday, October 16

I was not feeling too good today....maybe I'm getting Jim's cold. Nevertheless, I agreed to take Seth for the night and next day so Kath could get some studying and housework done. They had had an extremely busy week - out most every day and evening - so she hadn't had time to keep things picked up and in their small apartment, it doesn't take much to become quite untidy.

Anyway, I went in for Seth but had to wait for him to wake from his nap, which afforded me a visit with my daughter and Taliah.

At home, Seth and I had fun.

Supper....chicken nuggets and apples for him. He dipped the apples in the ketchup!








After supper, he played in the kitchen....jumping, climbing on the stool, and playing with Papa's magnets on the fridge.

Then, Seth led me to the piano where he serenaded me for awhile.....

After awhile, he pulled me over to sit at the piano and motioned for me to play. In spite of the fact that my piano (oops, I mean Lana's piano) is dreadfully out of tune, I played for him. He laughed and pulled out one of the chairs from the child-sized table that sits beside the piano. Seated, he began to use the table as a drum. We had a fun jam session.

The toy box was our next stop where he pulled out a ball. It was a small one that his little hand just fit around. He held it in his hand, reached his arm way over his head, and kind of jumped as he pushed his arm forward. It took several trys before he figured out how to let go of the ball. So funny.

We played 'catch' for quite awhile, then, when I figured he was tired out from all the playing, I put him to bed.

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.

Day 234 - Friday, Sept 4

Kathryn and Vinjelu asked us to come for a visit today......they wanted to be sure to have some time with Dad before he gets called to work and they 'don't see him again for months'. (we can only hope he gets called and there is that much work)

Of course, Jim spent some time walking Taliah, using his 'Grandpa hold'......

Our hosts:

Seth loves to hold Taliah.....

Jim and Seth had fun racing through the small house, Jim pushing Seth in his 'car', Seth giggling hysterically......

Seth and Papa 'read' some stories (about Seth and Taliah) out of these books, which Papa taught Seth had to be treated gently 'like a baby'.....

Now, they found a story book where there were pictures to go with the story.....(in other words, a children's book)......

No visit to the Muyaba's is complete without a photo of Taliah......

When we got home, Robert had brought the girls out for a few days at the farm. We had also brought Seth home with us so Kathryn could work on cleaning her house and catching up on laundry while Vinj was at work tonight.

There was a beautiful painting on the clouds after supper.....

Everyone came outside to enjoy the pretty sky - and play on the trampoline.....

A 'zoomed' photo of the sunset.....I liked the silouette of our neighbor's barn against the orange sky....

While the kids played on the tramp, Jim and I explored the garden and found this gigantic turnip.......

It is so big, it probably will not taste very good.



After the garden excursion, Grampa played a favorite game with the girls........(If I take my computer to Rob's this afternoon, I'll download a video of this game). Riotous laughter always ensues when Grampa is the 'monster'.

Finally, it is bedtime......but Seth's bag was without a sleeper. That would not have been a problem but he had to sleep on the floor of our room (rather cold) because the playpen was at the church after being at Vinj and Kath's for TK. Vinj and Kath took it to the church the other day when they were working there so that Seth could nap. When we left their house, Vinj had already gone to work and he had the key for the church. SO......I dug out a sleeper that belonged to Uncle Michael for Seth. Great Gramma Hutch had had it for at least 20 years (LOL) after she had fixed the zipper. She returned it to me a week or so ago. Lucky for Seth.

A full day.

SIDENOTE: While we were at Vinj and Kath's, Andrew was in our basement looking for a tent to take on a camping/quadding trip this weekend. He informed us that there was water on our floor. Daniel made sure the pump was running and by the time we got home, the water had been sucked off the floor. Problem solved (we thought)

Day 132 ~ Wednesday, may 13

A good day - saw almost all our kids today, beginning with Mike, Tor, and Kaden.

Michael worked at leveling the new dirt in his back yard....see, Tor, he WAS working!

Later, Mike and Victoria went out for awhile and we got to spend time with Kaden....

He tried to walk in his daddy's shoes.....

While Kaden napped, Grampa (and Gramma) read....





We left Edmonton on time to get to Emma's Soccer game. It was a little on the cold side but Ty was all bundled up - he was probably the warmest of any of us.






'The guys' talked more than watched, I think. Well, during practice, that is. During the game they did their part by cheering loudly.

Day 60....Monday March 2

Lana needed to go to the doctor this afternoon. Since the girls have been pretty sick, I offered to come look after them so she didn't have to take them with her.

Emma and Elizabeth were anxious to show me the Wii baseball game their dad had rented.

Liz can sure swing a 'bat'! LOL



Since Lana did not expect to be long, Titus stayed home with us.....he was a good boy.

Sophie waited patiently for the baseball game to be over so we could play "Go Fish".