I'm back.....

Where to start from..... It's been a while.  Really I didn't have a lot of intentions of starting this back up again as it's been so long, but here I am, a Saturday morning with a millon things to accomplish and I'm on the computer instead.  It probably helps that Mike and Carter have headed out to the farm this morning to pick up a rototiller and I'm on my own in a quite house.  It's all in an effort to better prep our garden for next year, this year - epic fail.  Bad soil..... it's our excuse anyways.  

Here's a picture account of what we've been up to the last few months:

Loving being closer to the farm and all the family and fun it involves

Spent a week in July road ripping it to Seattle with my sister and crew.  So fun.... and probably won't do that drive with 4 kids again anytime soon :)

A couple weeks later spent a week in Idaho with the same bunch.  Probably my favourite place on earth.

Did a camping trip in Montana with the Balderson's, a camping trip to Waterton with the Bullock's, and back to Waterton again for some Dahl cabin time.

....And back to Waterton again and again.  Can't get enough of this place in the summer!

We've been busy transforming this.. to this... to this... and still have a lot of finishing left to do.

We've been able to make some fun trips to Calgary and loved being able to tour the beautiful new temple!

And biggest of all have been working on growing this little thing!  We're due end of April and couldn't be more excited!!!

Farmer at Heart

I was away this weekend (has so so so much fun in Montana with my sis and cousins!) and the first thing Carter told me when we spoke on the phone was "hurt da cow mommy".  This boys been educated on the process of branding....

It's been a while.  I don't know if anyone ever comes here any longer but I thought I'd share few things that have made me happy to be living in Lethbridge.

Walking to Church

Bike rides or walks to our neighborhood park

Our neighborhood (Little C is on my mother's childhood tricycle)

Though we're still busy inside with reno projects, all the warm weather has us excited to be working in the yard and beautifying it!  A plus to our older home is all the plants and tree's that came with it.

Lilac bush - can't wait until this blooms!

Clematis

A happy spot for Carter

(don't worry that this picture was taken at noon

and yes Carter is wearing his PJ top, no pants, 

and gumboots)

I'm pretty sure every impromptu family photo op will be taken 

in front of this tree

(And do you like our RV parking pad?  I'm pretty sure that 95% of

older homes in Lethbridge have these.  Guess we need to buy an RV....)

Growth from our garden (our first one we've ever planted!)

Mike building this this morning around an old tree stump 

(a little disappointed that our ally neighbors came over and asked 

if it was going to stay - do they think we just built it for kicks?)

Honeysuckle bush


I'd love to paint the exterior of the house but seeing as we just did this last summer at our Calgary home it won't be happening anytime soon here.  I'm thinking painting the siding white, the brick a slate colour, and the exterior doors navy would look pretty fabulous.  Add it to the "to do" list I guess.... haha.
Another major bonus of being down here is the proximity to a lot of our family.  I've loved being able to have my brother's come to dinner,  Mike can meet his sisters for lunch at the hospital, and really the farm is a second home for Carter.  On a bit of a sad note we said goodbye to a beloved family dog this week at Balderson's.  Dogs live a great but usually somewhat shortened life on the farm.  Duke had been in the family for just over 5 years and will be missed dearly.  So glad I snapped these photo's the other weekend.

How sweet were these two together?!

Dumpload of IPhone Pics

 Chocolate Fondue!

 Baby Kittens

 I didn't snap the pic in time to show how he had lined up ALL our shoes on the top of the boxes.  After this was taken he proceeded to stand on top of the boxes and say "Look - I taller!"

 Where Carter spends most of his day.  (This was "gifted"to us from our sweet neighbors.  I need to go through and downsize on the amount of trucks!) 

In a fire truck at the Children's Fair

On your mark, get set, go!

What we were up to this past weekend....

Turning this curly mop...

...into this. 

I tried to just do a "little trim" that went horribly wrong. The result were the buzzers and a 1/2 inch guard being busted out :(  Good thing he's still happy.

I (Well really Michael - with my direction) made this...

$3.80 people.  Bodda bing bodda boom.  It's old barnwood from the farm and a borrowed can of chalkboard paint (and really a whole basement of tools at our disposal). It's covering up an old phone box in the wall that we were too lazy to drywall over.  I guess people in the 70's used to always hang their phones on the wall....

Mike kept plugging away at this.....

Our fourth level was completely unfinished.  Mike framed out the exterior walls and has installed insulation - just in time for the energy rebate to still be applied!  Next up we're going re-paint the cement floor and paint a racetrack on it for Carter.  I'm probably more excited about this than he is (and may just bust out my own bike in the winter to loop around it).

And we painted this....

...to this...

...to this.

Mike actually sprayed it out when we were doing the main painting of the house but I finally got around to painting out the brass surround.  Hopefully someday when we go to sell prospective buyers don't cringe over a painted fireplace!

Anxious....

Is it bad that it's only February and I'm already counting down the days until warm weather and Waterton trips?

We're Alive

Ah - where to even start!  We've been living in Lethbridge full-time since the beginning of January and have been living in our house since the middle of the same month.  We've somehow managed to get ourselves into another reno project but things don't seem nearly as overwhelming this time.  (Less to do?  More space to live in?  Experience?  Who knows!)  We again were so gun-ho to get started that we failed to take any decent before shots.  We're nearly finished "phase 1" - which included new carpets in the upstairs and downstairs, new paint and trim, and new light fixtures.  In the summer we're going to tackle "phase 2" which is addressing the mainfloor floors (we have carpet under our kitchen table - ugh!), and either a kitchen redo or upgrade.  I'll have to post some pictures as we go along.  We absolutely love the neighborhood and had 3 seperate neighbors stop by today with treats for us!  It's also nice to have a park to play at too that doesn't have broken beer bottles and shopping carts in it - ha!  With that being said we REALLY miss Calgary as well.  All the fun things to do, our friends and neighbors there, our ward, and my sister!

 Mike taking a Martinelli's work break while reno-ing

 Our temporary bedroom - Carter loved the mattress in the living room!

 Making himself at home during the carpet install

This kid LIVES to ride his bike to the park

Mike is staying busy with work and his PhD, I'm working 2.5 days myself, and Carter is adjusting like a champ to life in Lethbridge (minus the dramatic drop-off to the day home - breaks my heart!).  We  really are grateful for how smoothly things have all worked out and are excited to be living back home in Southern Alberta.