MY GRANDBABY & MY CHRISTMAS ELVES

Isn't this amazing!!! Look Luke!! Your cousin!!
Let's hope that you and he/she are sleeping through the night next Christmas.

Thank you Auntie Heather for bringing the ultrasound pictures and thank you and Paula for helping decorate the tree. It really is pretty even though we seem to have lost a box of decorations.
James, Heathery even went looking for your favorite ornament, had a laugh about what you'd last written on it and hung it carefully on the tree for you. Very cool. We love you to pieces Heathery. We're kinda partial to that Paula person too...
LOOK! AN ANGEL

Heather I promise to have the stags up by the time you're back.

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS

For any of you who read this blog you will remember that at the end of June I had my right 'great' toe fused due to arthritis. Well, last Wednesday (Nov. 28th) they did the other foot and I tell you if this surgery had been the first surgery I wouldn't have had the guts to get this one done. Sooooo painful it's been unbelievable. But it's all on the mend now and I have great pills, they must be as I've tried to phone Darcee twice on the remote. A couple of months and it should be perfect!!! And I'm being good and not posting any pictures cause apparently some of you (Don) have really weak stomachs. I watched the whole procedure though and it was amazing what they do and any guy would be proud to have all the power tools that Dr. Hill has.

Look! A mayor who shovels!!!

Needless to say Christmas will be a little quiet around here as I can't be up too much for awhile but we'll still have a great time. This weekend we ended up with a huge dump of snow that sure put you in the hohoho mood.

I love you JD

It was so pretty but it warmed up so fast that it is completely gone in the yard except where it was piled up from shoveling. It killed me not to go out and play in it. I can remember the days where I pulled Jamie up and down the street on her new snowboard...Now I'm sitting here anxiously waiting for her and Heather to post the new ultrasound pictures of our new grandbaby so be sure to check the link out tomorrow and see little baby Whatzit. They have chosen not to find out the sex and it makes it even more exciting. Jim said, "Well, you better start buying yellow." Yeah right, I've been buying yellow for weeks!

VICTORIA IN NOVEMBER

Ah, traveling with a smoker. You know sometimes this view can be just a little scary!

He did make a new friend though.

We stayed at the Fairmont Empress and it was all right but I doubt that we would stay there again. Who knew though that they would come with dance lesson.
Hey Macarena!!

I proved to Heather that I really am quite stupid! No Dancing with the Stars for me.
So much fun though.

Now this was the weird part of the room, a giant faux fireplace. The girls loved it though and the mantle was amazing. It probably had been an actual fireplace years ago.

This is the 'birthin' the baby' face. I believe we saw it on Linds a few times.
Anyway, if was a fun trip and so good to see James & Johnny & Heather but the best part was hearing little 'Wazits' heart beat!!

Whew!! First Big Storm of the Season!

And what a whopper! Just short of a 16' high tide and I thought we were going to lose the lighthouse light in the backyard, if not by a wave then by a log but the winds peaked and the tide peaked and then everything began to calm down. Jim and I were worried about Chris and Darcee's addition so we tried to get out there about 8:30 to give them a hand but got to the end of street and that was it. Kirk's beautiful old Ponderosa Pine was covering the entire road. We finally did get out there about 2 hours later and what a mess. The addition was fine though, they just ended up with a couple of trees down and a whole lot of drift wood all over the lawn. And what got me most was the rocks that pushed up as well. As we all threw logs and rocks back into the ocean their neighbor (the one that lives in our house) came whipping down his driveway in his BIG tractor and cleaned up his yard in about 5 minutes. There was serious envy going on. It's probably a good thing that we didn't get that house cause Jimbo would have to have had one and I can't imagine the damage he could do...

Anyway the sun came out and all was well and the next storm is supposed to hit tonight. Lower tides and lower winds though. Good thing cause they still don't have all the power back on in the valley.

The other good news (so far) is that JD is home from the pet hospital. He's been one sick kitty and he still has a long way to go. He went into complete kidney failure and we have no idea why. Could be food but then Oz eats the same thing and appears fine. We're still having trouble getting JD to eat but he's really picky and he's not liking the vet food so we're going to try something else today or it's back to force feeding. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. He is now the most expensive animal we've ever had!!!
We sure love him though.

So that's it for now and guess what it's not a bird!! Cute little guy, eh?

Burning Darcee & Chris' House

Okay, so we didn't exactly burn the whole house just parts of it! What fun! Actually it was just the bits and pieces left over from their on-going reno. It was a good thing too cause it was damn cold out!

The renovations are going to be amazing. The very, large fireplace is sitting there, the roof is on and the windows will be in soon. It's going to be so beautiful.

Other than that we haven't been up to much of anything. I've been trying to get out and take some photos and I've even got an exhibition going on right now (too funny, I always get talked into something I don't want to do). Oh well, it's over next Saturday.

This fellow killed one of my little robbins, sad but I guess he has to eat too.

And Jamie & Johnny Got Married & now...

• our infant is about 2.91 inches (7.4cm) and weighs around 0.81 ounce (23gm) - This is about the same weight as 4 quarters.
• If you could peek in again you may spot your baby as he begins to practice inhaling and exhaling movements
• Eyes and ears continue to move and develop
• Baby's neck is getting longer, and the chin no longer is resting on his chest
• Her hands are becoming more functional - Your baby may find it comforting to start playing with her fist.
• At this point all nourishment is received from the placenta
• On your next doctor visit you should be able to hear heartbeat with a Doppler by now - (Don't worry though if you can't, the heartbeat can be confirmed through U/S). Your baby's heartbeat is much rapider than your own and may remind you of the race towards birth that he is running!

Oh My God!!! Could I be any more excited. That's not really their little fetus 'Pam' but there might be a real picture on their 'Bun in the Oven' blog tonight thanks to Auntie Heather. So now we're really wishing we'd gotten our other house but if nothing else at family gatherings
we'll keep the Port Augusta Motel in business.

Yup, I'm really happy and this baby will be only 3 hours away!!! Well, that is until they move here and Nana can spoil her rotten!!! Just kidding, I'll spoil all of them rotten!
Hmmm, now we just need to get Uncle Danny & Auntie Jenny here. I'll have to keep working on that. Mind you the jade markets are amazing in Tainan!! Jamie would go crazy!

More Summer Fun

I love this picture of Dan, we headed out on Ceara a few days after the wedding and Chris and Darcee showed up with their SeaDoos. It was so cool seeing Dan and Kyle just step off the swim grid onto them and then roar around the boat. Scott would have loved it!

We couldn't talk Linds into letting Luke go for a ride so Kyle decided just to eat the baby.

We also couldn't talk Jenny into taking one out (me either for that matter) but the boys sure seemed to have fun.

One thing Jenny does like though is cats. Don't you love the way Oz is almost bigger than her?
Jenny, you are so cute!

After Linds, Kyle and Luke left we decided to check out Mt. Washington and take the chair up to the top and walk back down (good thing Dan has a good sense of direction or we'd still be up there). It was great though and a gorgeous day.

Behind them you're looking at Georgia Strait and the Coastal Mountain Range.

And, of course, you have to have a picture of a Whisky Jack if you're going to be up the mountain.

Poor Aunty Pat is still limping. We were so worried about Jenny and she beat us down.

Good times...

5 days in Vancouver is enough!

THE NEW CONFERENCE CENTRE

Home again, home again, jiggety jig, or something like that. We just spent the week in Vancouver and although it was fun we really like being home in our little old house on the water. We've pretty much given up on the whole moving thing and it might be a little sad but we decided we'd just do a few much needed renos here and stay put. The first being new windows and new wallpaper in the living room. Jim doesn't know about the wallpaper but considering it's falling off the walls it might just be about time (probably wasn't much of a selling feature). We're going to put the same Vera De windows in that we put in the kitchen and family room so it should look gorgeous. We also just ordered new carpeting for Danny & Jamie's old rooms. I can just hear them saying, "It's about BLOODY time!!" And then the stairs and railings (which are, apparently illegal). We can't have all the little grandchildren falling onto their pretty little heads. It's all rather exciting, not as exciting as tractors and goats and having Darcee and Chris next door but it's all good...
Now there's going to be some photos (imagine that) and some aren't very good but it's all Kyle's fault (I sooooo love you Kyle). Anyway I digress, Kyle was looking at the internet (another surprise) and informed me Canon had a new SLR camera out. Now I have a beautiful camera but oh this new one!!! And the amazing thing is it's cheaper than my old one was plus I didn't need any lens just the body. I had no intentions of getting it but turns out the dental clinic needed a good camera, in fact I was just there taking pictures of some gentleman's teeth. So Jim and I are walking down the street and he pops into London Drugs and buys the new one for me and the office gets the old one. Very cool!! A win/win, other than the fact he might never see me again. It is so incredible Kyle, you would love it! The sensor cleaner is amazing !
So here are a few pictures from the first 24 hours. I love the one of Jim.

Such fun! Unfortunately the weather is absolutely terrible this weekend so I can't get out but hopefully the rains will quit soon and I can get out shooting. We had amazing winds yesterday and it's still blowing so we're heading down to see if the old boat is still floating. We've got some people interested in her so would kind of suck if it was on the bottom..
Then it's cleanup time for the yard. What a mess, the wind and rain has flattened everything. It's all good though as the gardens hung in for the wedding and that's all that mattered.

Family, Weddings and More

Jamie & her bridesmaids arrived on the Wednesday before the wedding, Kyle, Linds & Luke and Danny & Jenny arrived on the Friday.
It started with a rehearsal party/dinner here Friday night for around 35 or so and carried on from there. We had the most incredible weather for that week, so lucky considering it clouded over yesterday and is pouring today and poured the entire weekend before. Jim cooked 50 or so burgers and Johnny's sister & mom provided all the salads. It was great and the yard looked amazing all lit up.
Then came Saturday & oh what a day!! And oh what a beautiful bride. I know I'm rather prejudice but really she seriously knocked my socks off and her dad.This is her just as she was getting ready. Wait til you see the dress.This is over-exposed but this is the arbour we had made for the wedding. Unfortunately you can't see the gorgeous butterflies that Aunty Pat bought to decorate it. It really did look stunning.
We had over 100 guests and it wasn't crowded at all. Jim & I were so pleased with everything.
So the rest of this post is pictures, enjoy...

I will post again tomorrow and get in some family pictures but my family is getting a little tired of me playing on the computer...On second thought I might just give up Blogger and just do Facebook, so much easier!!!