Day 350...Sunday Dec 20

James Titus (Ty) turned one year old today. We celebrated together at his house.

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 252 - Tuesday, Sept 22

Day 7 of working on the root cellar.

I'm not real sure what Dan did today beyond building up one side wall in order to put a slanted roof on. He said he did other things, but I forget what they were.

Scott drove by on his motorbike and stopped in for a quick hello.

All the work Dan did when I was outside was on top of the walls.

After supper time, I went over to the Ritchie's to wish my BIL a happy birthday.

I forgot to ask him how old he is....but he is older than Melanie and younger than me - I know that. We had a private party - just Mel, Scott, and me - but he recieved a couple phone calls wishing him a happy day.

I am thankful Ken is my brother.

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 233 Sunday 08-23

We had a wonderful family day today.....we celebrated Daniel's return home as well as my birthday.

We were all happy to have the opportunity to meet and interact with Vinjelu's sister and brother-in-law, G & M

Scott wasted no time in getting over here to spend time with Daniel.....







Daniel was introduced to his newest niece......

It was great to get to know M and TK.....

And, of course, G......

One of the activities of the afternoon was picking raspberries - Dad, Jessica, and Victoria all took a turn at the berry patch with Jessica being the most serious.

A huge swarm of bees was spotted early in the day, buzzing around the barn. We were afraid they were going to take up habitation in the old hive in the barn walls which we had filled with insulation foam a few years ago. However, after 'resting' on the outside of the barn for a short while, they disappeared.



This photo is of the last small group of bees before they all flew away. Previously, the swarm had covered this corner of the barn about 12 feet high.......

Great Auntie Melanie and Uncle Ken brought over the 'Little Tikes' car, truck, and trike that Steven and Scott played on when they were little. Seth had been in the truck once before so he waited rather impatiently while Auntie and Uncle gave the vehicles a 'bath'.

These toys were a big hit with Seth and TK....and later on with Kaden as well.

Thanks, Uncle Ken and Auntie Mel!

Of course, since Daniel has been gone for 5 months (and he's lost 20 pounds), it was inevitable that one of his brothers would challenge him to see if he had gotten any stronger......

Andrew claims the victory but then HE walked away with a broken finger!


I was blessed with many lovely gifts, including these lillys from Jessica and Donny.....

.....and these roses from Rob and Lana and the kids......

It would not be practical to include photos from every aspect of our day on this blog, I'll just say that we all had a wonderful time enjoying one another. I was blessed by each and every person who shared the day with us.

We ended the evening around the fire - unfortunately, the temperature dropped to be awfully close to 0 C....... we were not very comfortable, but we are stubborn Albertans - it is AUGUST for goodness sake! If we want to sit outside at midnight, we WILL - even if it is only 7 C!

Although the air was pretty nippy, the sunset was very pretty and only signalled the end of daylight, not the end of the party.

Day 202 ~ Wednesday, July 22

Spent a hot, sweaty afternoon at Vinj and Kath's.....Taliah is doing great - she even slept for 3 and 4 hour stretches last night!

I was Trisha's birthday today and she spent the majority of her day taking care of Kathryn and Vinj and Seth.....prepping meals (mostly pre-made, thanks to 'the girls') and doing dishes. She and I (and Seth) also made a trip to WalMart to pick up a couple things for Kathryn.

We ordered take out from Boston Pizza (because it was too hot in the house to cook) and I picked up a couple Treatzza Pizzas from DQ as 'cake'. We sang Happy Birthday and she opened a couple cards.....then, she began to clean up from supper. I tried to help enough that she didn't have much to do.

We so appreciate Trisha's gift of her time (and the cost of getting here from Ontario) to Vinj and Kath. She is a great help to them at this time.

Day 201 - Tuesday, July 21

We had a birthday party for Jim at Vinj and Kathryn's house after Jim was finished work for the day.

Jim's birthday supper.....

Cuddles with Seth.....

Opening presents.....

Oh, he likes it!

Visiting with Kathryn....

visiting with Talia......

Visiting with Michael.....

The other kids were there, too.....just no photos of them with their dad.