A Good Day

My dad had offered a while ago that he would like to come down one day and do some work on our house to help Jared out.  Well, I took him up on the offer and asked if he would like to help me clean up all the scrap wood and other odds and ends around our house so we can get the landscaper in to level out our yard?  The day started out at the perfect temperature and slightly overcast so it wasn't too hot, there was also a nice breeze.  To help make the work go a lot smoother my mom came over to watch the kids, plus she had my sister's kids, so that means she had five little ones under the age of seven...despite all the bruises on my arms and legs from all the heavy lifting I am thankful I was outside!  Actually when all the kids get together they usually entertain each other and manage to have a good time.  My dad and I worked straight for four hours loading up scrap wood onto the grain truck to take to the dump and then we pulled the Big 10 over to the pile of siding and loaded it all onto the truck!  Wow, was it ever a heavy load, we probably should have pumped up the two driver's side tires because by the time all the siding was loaded onto the truck the back bumper was sitting on the ground!  When we finally stopped for a quick lunch we were pretty much done, I did keep suggesting that we should go in for a break but my dad kept saying let's just get this pile done...I know why he kept saying that, because we probably wouldn't have gone back out to finish.  The cement board siding is quite heavy and awkward to lift so we were only able to take two lengths at a time, it took us a good hour.  Despite the overloaded truck, the tractor getting stuck in gear, all my bruises (I think I will stay away from the doctor for awhile in case they ask questions about all my bruises!!), and my extremely sore back (my dad did keep telling to lift with my legs, I thought I was!), we got it all cleaned up and ready for the landscaping guy to come and work his magic!  I had such a fun time working with my dad, I don't think I have ever had the opportunity to work with him in this way, I know it helped Jared immensely, now he can focus on the bigger jobs, like siding our house!  As soon as he gets the grass seeded for the cows I think he intends on committing his "free" time to working on our house!

Last night I also had the opportunity to help Jared with some jobs around the farm!  Myrna is going to have the rest of her roof shingled next week so Jared and I loaded all the shingles onto the roof...well Jared loaded them onto the roof while I positioned the bundles better on the tractor bucket for him to pick up easier!  After all the heavy lifting with my dad the day before my muscles just wouldn't pick those shingle bundles up!  We also put house wrap on the north side of Myrna's house (last night was the third time house wrap has been put on that part of the house!!) because some ward members offered to put the siding on for Jared because they knew just how much he has on his plate right now!  I am so thankful for family, friends and neighbors.  Sometimes we do need a little extra help, and it is so comforting to know that there are so many people out there who are willing to give of their time, which in this day and age is truly a sacrifice!

20th Annual Airshow

Emry is a very inquisitive person and lately she has been asking me what airplanes look like up close!  Well, it just so happened that the airshow  was coming to Lethbridge the same week she started asking all these questions!  I mentioned to my dad that I wanted to take the kids and he said he would be in Nobleford that weekend working on his truck!  I told him what time we would pick him up without even asking him if he wanted to go with us!!!  As a kid my dad spent many summers going to airshows because my Grandpa was part of the Airforce, though he said the airshows were never as grand then as they are now!  We had a great time, dad took the kids into the big Hercules plane, the back end opens right up to haul tanks, supplies or soldiers.  They were in the line for about 45 minutes before they made it to the cock-pit.  Dad was worried about Calum freaking out stuffed inside that plane with all those people, but he did great and both him and Emry loved going into the cock pit to look at all the switches and dials and even looking out the window way up high!

We stayed to watch some of the flying shows too, we saw Zima Zima and the iconic Snowbirds!  An A-10 Fighter Jet flew right over us at one point making Emry cry because of how loud it was, her ears are so sensitive when it comes to loud noises, but it was really cool to see how fast it went.  The Snowbirds were neat to see too, the way they would fly at each other always looked like they were going to crash!  I remember going to the Airshow as a kid with my dad, so to go back again was such a great experience and brought back lots of fun memories!

Calum was afraid to sit in this little plane because of the Shriner man's hat!!

We kept telling the kids to look up at the planes in the sky not realizing why they were whining until Emry asked to use my sunglasses!  It was so bright their little eyes couldn't handle the light!

Zima Zima

The Snowbirds!

The best part of the day was spending it with my dad and seeing the look on Calum and Emry's faces as we looked at all the planes up close!  I think this appeased Emry's questions at least until something else piques her interest!

A Busy Week!

A friend of mine took a picture of her kids in a bright yellow canola field last summer and ever since I saw it I have wanted to do that with our kids!  A word to the wise...do not try and do it on the way to church on a dewy morning--or you will have to go home and change a mischievous little boys nice Sunday pants because he just couldn't resist sitting on the bare ground after walking through the dewy canola!!  I should have waited until the canola was up a little higher too!  But despite the minor challenges I think the pictures turned out great!

July marks a very busy month of birthdays for our family!  My younger sister's is on July 10th, my mom's is on July 15th, my niece Lily has hers on July 18th, my dad's is on July 19th, my Grandma Bev's is the 25th, and the newest addition is our teeny tiny nephew Jonas on July 6th!  I also have a few extended family July birthday's, but these few are the ones we see quite regularly!  Because my super sweet little sister was baling for her birthday we didn't get a chance to celebrate it, and then a few short days later her and her husband Buck were in a horrible car crash.  Thankfully she is okay but will have to endure a long and tedious healing process with two badly broken ankles.  So for my mom's birthday, Arren's daughter Lily's birthday and my dad's birthday we decided to have a little party right in Arren's hospital room!  It was a lot of fun with great food (Pizza from the New Club in Vulcan), a delicious dessert (a Raspberry Cheesecake Ice Cream cake from the Marble Slab) and great company!  I love my family so much and I am always so grateful for the many opportunities we have to get together!

These two cousins are inseparable!

The day of Lily's actual 4th birthday was spent at our house, we went to the Library for the Summer Reading Program and swimming!

We gave her this cute frog stuffy (Lily is as obsessed as Emry with stuffies), Arren calls Lily Lila quite often and this happens to be the frogs name too!

The July Birthday Bunch!  Dad, Arren, Lily and Mom!

Arren and Gilbert

When we feed Armin his food without him sitting in a high chair Jared has to pin his arms  down by his sides, he really doesn't seem too bothered by it!

To celebrate our pioneer heritage we had our annual Pioneer Potluck tonight!  The Young Women hosted it, they told of the heritage of some of the girls great grandmothers, it was really interesting to hear what these women went through to pave the way for us today.  I am so grateful for all those who have come before us and for the strength they had to have to face the many trials they were dealt.  The evening was a lot of fun as all our church activities are!  The kids had an absolute blast playing games (actually everyone young and old played the games together!), the games included a number matching game, a barnyard scramble for candy, tug of war and baseball!  

Calum makes his own fun--rolling down the hill!

Sophie Smith and Autumn Jackson

It was actually quite chilly this evening!  Emry so badly wanted to look like a pioneer, and she was so happy she had a jean skirt she could wear!

Despite the busyness and the stress of Buck and Arren's accident it was a wonderful week!  I will be able to spend a lot of time with Arren and for once she will just have to sit and relax instead of moving about doing odd little things while we visit!!  I look forward to what the rest of the summer will bring!

Swimming Lesson's Round One!

This past week Emry had her swimming lessons, she is in level 4, she did so well!  She has the knowledge of what to do for swimming safety and how to properly do each of the specific swimming strokes she just doesn't quite have the endurance, she is quite young for being in level 4 but she can't just stop lessons until she is bigger or she will forget what she has already learned.  So she will try level 4 again in August when Ashton, Bowen, and Liam come to do swimming lessons here at our little pool! 

The first day of Emry's lesson proved to be quite the challenge!  Myrna was in Calgary, my mom wasn't feeling well, and Arren was in the field baling so I had no choice but to take Calum with us, something I was totally dreading!  The new pool has a beach type entry so of course as soon we get into the pool area Calum runs full speed into the shallow end fully clothed!  I took off his shorts and shirt and layed them in the sun to dry and then took Calum by the hand to ask the Lifeguards if it was okay if he played in the swallow end while Emry had her lesson, thankfully they said it would be fine!  I put Calum into a swimming diaper and told him quite sternly that he could only play up to the tall blue tower!  I was so proud of how well he was listening, he found some toy sharks, scuba divers and sea horses to play with, so I decided to nurse Armin.  Everything was going really well, or so I thought!  Once Calum saw that I was settled he decided to climb out of the pool quite a ways away from where I was sitting and as soon as his feet were out of the pool and firmly placed on the cement he took off for the ladder, I jumped up with Armin in my arms wondering why his afternoon snack was being interrupted, and tried to get to Calum before he jumped into the pool.  I didn't make it and I couldn't reach him from the edge of the pool either so I jumped in!  The water was only waist high on me but Calum was fully immersed treading water.  With Armin securely tucked under my left arm against my hip we grabbed Calum and pulled him toward the ladder, by this time a lifeguard got there and lifted him out of the pool.  She asked him over and over again if he was okay, and he kept saying, "I go simming!"  As I was walking with him back to our bag I told her he was completely fine!  I was so totally soaked, my jeans and half way up my t-shirt dripping wet!  Armin faired pretty well, only getting his feet wet at first and then becoming much more wet while I held him.  Thankfully it was a nice day because for the rest of the lesson we had to watch in our wet clothes. 

Calum is such a wild man, he is not afraid of things that could potentially be dangerous to him.  He is afraid of chickens and baby kitty's, mascotts, the moon and his shadow but not of the cows, or water or climbing absolutely anything he can!  Luckily tuesday Myrna was home and Calum was able to stay with her!  Wednesday was another adventure though!  I decided to take the kids swimming before Emry's lesson to see if it would tire Calum out enough to sit and watch!  Wrong again!  We spent an entire hour in the pool during public swim climbing up the ladder and jumping off the edge, I would catch Calum with Armin at my side.  Armin loves the water as much as Emry and Calum do, but because the heater isn't working quite the way its supposed to Armin's little hands and his lips were purple.  It was time for Emry's lesson to start so I took the boys to the locker room to have a nice warm shower.  This took up some time thankfully, so out we went to watch the last little bit of Emry's lesson, well so much for it being the end of the lesson!  We didn't take as long in the shower as I thought so we had a lot more to watch.  Apparently sitting did not sit well with Calum because again he ran full speed into the shallow end fully clothed!  This time I scooped him up and I took him and Armin to the van!  I decided to run a few quick errands in town while Emry finished up her lesson, which I should have done from the beginning but I really wanted to watch Emry too!

Calum is quite the boy and everytime I tell him what he needs to do and he starts to follow my instruction I feel that he is finally understanding what I am telling him and then he proves me wrong!  He definitely has a mind of his own and at the end of every day I am so thankful that he has survived another day!  I guess the good we can find in his lack of fear of the water is that the lifeguards will have no problems with him during his swimming lesson-well except for maybe keeping track of him!

Canada Day and Champion's 100th Celebration

This past weekend was Champion's 100th Celebration!  And part of it happened to fall on Canada Day!

The kids Canada Day t-shirts said "Made in Canada"

It was so much fun!  Friday, Canada Day, Jared and I took the kids in for the pancake breakfast and while Emry stayed with Grandma Debbie and her cousins Jared and I took the boys home to check the cows.  Well, when we checked the cows three of them were out!  So Jared and I herded them back into the field, it actually went quite smoothly, until we found out why they were getting out!  When we moved the cows down to the grass we didn't have the water hooked up yet for them, but because there is a slough through the middle of the field we knew they would be okay for at least a week.  Well, life gets busy and the water still hasn't been completely hooked up and there happened to be water sitting in the ditch on the other side of the fence where the ground was quite soft!  The cows started to push through this section of fence to drink the water and eventually lifted a post right out of the ground.  After Jared and I got the three cows back into the field we went home and changed and brought the Jeep and post pounder out to fix the section the cows had lifted.  When we got back there were two more cows out, we left these two until after we had the fence fixed.  We added some posts in between the existing ones to strengthen the fence and once the cows realized they couldn't push through anymore they wandered off!  Jared and I decided we had to do something about their water situation until the water was completely finished and hooked up so off we went again back to farm to see what we could do!  Jared put the 800 gallon tank onto the grain truck with the sides off and started to fill it, it takes just under 4 hours to fill!  We then drove it down to the sand with a rather large trough we borrowed from Buck and filled it for the cows!  Jared had to sing in the 100th Celebration Musical so we had to leave before we were sure the cows would find the water.  After the Musical we drove by the cows and they had just found their fresh water, they slurped that water down in no time.  Every night we have to bring the truck home and fill the tank, and throughout the day we have to go check the trough to see if it needs to be filled, the 800 gallon tank can fill the trough 4 times, still not quite enough for the cows in one day but because the slough is out there they are getting what they need!  Actually this is my job for the week while Jared is away at Helaman's Encampment!  It was fun learning how to drive the grain truck, I feel like I have become an honorary ranch hand!  So anyway, sad to say we didn't do much in town for the celebration that day!  We did take the kids into the fireworks that night at 11pm, and they were fabulous!  The best I had seen in a long time, whenever there was a little pause between blasts I was sure the fireworks were over, but every time I was surprised!  I felt like a giddy six year old oohing and ahhing with each explosion of colour in the night sky!

Buck and Arren with their "extra" child!

Uncle Jason and Armin

The weather couldn't have been any more perfect!  It truly was the best parade I have seen in a long time!

My Favorite part of any parade, the Bagpipes!

The Ladies of the Champion Post Office (Roxanne Middleton)

The Flitton Family Float

The Champion Congregational Float

Our Church Float--I Want to be a Missionary Now

The Champion School Float

Maryssa and Grandma Debbie

Emry, Grandpa Glen and Calum

Becoming Spiderman, and not too sure what to think about it!

Peek-a-boo!

Guess what Mom and Dad, the bunnies are for SALE!!!!

He keeps asking to have his spiderman head back on!!

All my mom's grandkids!

He won't use a soother, but he will use his big toe!

Grandma Debbie, Emry and Armin

Patiently waiting for the potluck to start on Sunday

Jared and Calum in the big tractor!

The next morning I was going to do the Family Fun Run but I wasn't able to because I had to get the church float ready for the parade and I wasn't sure how long it would take me to run, because honestly I haven't exercised or ran for so long I was sure I would die half way through, and then who would get the float ready?  Our church float turned out so nice, and the best part it was so simple!  Beverely and I went over to mom's and she used the cricut to cut out letters for us to glue onto black paper, and I asked the Missionaries to sit on the float with two girls and two boys from our ward (they were dressed as missionaries too!), Tanya helped me put balloons on the four corners of the trailer and Beverely and I found some old posters made a long time ago, that had pictures of members from our ward placed on a map of where they served their mission!  It really did look good and I was so happy we took the initiative to put a float in to represent our church!  Jared and Calum drove a tractor from John Deere, and Calum loved every minute of it!  Jared said by the end of the parade he could see people pointing and laughing at them, he wasn't sure of the reason until he looked down at Calum and instantly knew the reason why, he had fallen asleep and his little head was bobbing up and down, Jared said it was a good thing he was in a seatbelt or he would have most definitely been on the floor!  They both wore their yellow John Deere t-shirts and cameo shorts!  It was so much fun!

My Auntie Di with Armin

Best Buds!

The rest of the day on Saturday was spent doing fun things with the kids.  There was a Japanese Acrobat act, face painting and a petting zoo!  They had a blast, and so did we seeing their little faces light up with all that was going on!  It is a weekend I won't soon forget, and so much hard work was put into making it a real success!