Our holiday

Well since we had to kill some time and had some holidays booked we decided that we would do a bit of travelling. We went to Kamloops to visit a friend there and it was so nice to see her. We went to the BC Wildlife park http://www.kamloopswildlife.org/ . We sat through a falconry show which was very cool and one of the small vultures actually flew up and sat on Oaksana's head. She was breathless and so was I.. (clearly cause I didn't take a photo!) But I did get this shot of this horned owl afterwards. Half way through the park there is a spray park, so the kids cooled off there as it was about +38C that day... yikes.

We also went to a wedding at Roche Lake near Kamloops for Todd & Stephanie and it was so amazing. I love weddings, they are so fun and always make me cry, and make me feel warm and fuzzy about how much I love Collin! The resort also had a pool so the kids swam all day long and had a blast.. and of course danced their buts off till they were so tired! So CONGRATS to you TODD & STEPH!

It was a good (much needed) break from our long summer.

The Vanderhoof Fall fair

It was here over last weekend and the girls had a good time. There was a parade through town (which ended up being rather short and late, hence the look on Millies face featured below!), with horses and the Vanderhoof goose.

After that we had dinner at my sisters house and then went out to the fair for a few hours. We say horses, cows, a big mama cow with horns, some birds, and of course there was a band. The girls had so much fun, dances their buns off to the celtic music, ate a BLUE sno cone, and petted everything! It's all over till next year.. enjoy the photos.

The big 3-0 for Sherbear..

Happy birthday girl!!!

Sherie Ellen Green is absolutely without a doubt one of my best girly friends. We've been best friends since we were just tiny kids. We went through a lot together growing up, sneaking out, getting drunk, partying, breaking hearts, getting our hearts broken, moving to Victoria, bombing around in our cars.

Sherie, you are a wonderful mother, and friend. I really miss not having you so close to me. I hope that your day is filled with every joy your heart can hold!

daddy's got a brand new....

QUAD.. http://http://www.polarisindustries.com/en-us/ATV/2006Models/Sportsman/Sportsman500EFI/

As you can imagine he is ABSOLUTELY GIDDY with excitement. I'll upload some pics of him riding soon.

Self representing artists..

Though I am sure there are a million that I could mention,

S.Scott http://stores.ebay.ca/S-Scott-Fine-Art actually lives in Fort St. John, BC and is a wonderful artist. I recently bought a piece of hers - it's abstract and I can't wait to find a place for it on my wall.. seen below,

The other who I am very fond of is Rob Havassy (though I don't know if he is self representing) http://www.robbhavassy.com/. His originals are great but a little on the pricey side, not worth wise - just my pocket book wise. Below is one of his pieces that I like.. which runs about $1850.00 so basically a pipe dream for me but.. ahh one can wish!

a photo of me..

now okay, admittedly I do not like photo's of myself as a rule. This one was taken today by a gentleman at my office who oraganizes and produces a photo staff org chart for new people. I had a look and - well, I don't HATE it so.. I thought maybe I should post it. Now all ya'll can see a pic of me that is not from 1999! LOL

Our 6th Wedding Anniversary

It was on Saturday. I tell you, if ever there was a year (or summer rather) that we'd ever wondered if we would stay married it would be this one. Living in the holiday trailer has proven to be ab "experience" that has definately strengthened our relationship.

Though our anniversary is 6 years we have been together for 8 1/2 years. And in those years we have,

• had Oaksana, got married, then had Amelija
• moved to Houston, Carstairs, Didsbury, Burns Lake & then Vanderhoof
• rented a place, bought a mobile home, sold, bought a starter home, sold, and now waiting for the acreage
• bought a 10ft holiday trailer, sold, got a 24ft holiday trailer, sold, got a camper, got in a fight, sold, bought a 22 ft holiday trailer!
• we've had 2 boats, and a hot tub = the one brown boat we still have
• ARE YOU STARTING TO SEE A PATTERN HERE??????
• we've had a honda civic, sold, honda accord, traded, subaru justy, sold, and now have a volkswagon jetta
• had a toyota king cab truck, broke, got a chevy, sold, and now have a white dodge
• had a quad that Collin traded for my B~A~B~Y blue VW Bug (bless his soul) , which we sold this year, and turned into the "ugly truck" snow plow
• we've travelled to Barkerville, Alberta (numerous times & places), the Okanagan

WOW - when you write it down like that.. it seems a bit nutty. BUT - it's been GREAT, I couldn't have asked for a better 8 years of my life. Collin, I love you - thanks for everything! I sincerely look forward to anything and everything that is to come. (and trade & sell & borrow & break)!!

This weekend we bought a patio set for each other & for our new deck. I got Collin some fishing tackle & a fillet knife, and the Mortons gave us a Peony for the garden! It was a great day, we really enjoyed each other & the girls. :)

surprise visits are the best ones...

We had a fairly relaxed long weekend around here. We did some more gardening, translplanting, weeding, pruning, etc. We finally finished the dog pen for Oreo, and worked for the entire day yesterday on the girls' tree fort. We had finished that (well finished framing - we still have to get some plywood to sheet the thing) around; I dunno 1:30pm (or so). The cell phone rang and it was Joyce & Clint, Hilary and Marshall Magnus! They are Collin's Aunt and Uncle and cousins. We haven't seen them since last year at Ken & Gis' Anniversary party. I can't recall a time that they've ever been this way.. other than our wedding!
They are moving to Kitimat and were on their way with the U-Haul and everything and just stopped in! It was so cool. So we caught up over smoked salmon(which Hilary scrunched her nose at.. but Marshall L~O~V~E~D) & kokanee beer .. it was great. We already have plans to go their for Thanksgiving, thanks for the invite guys, can't wait to see you again!

Poor Noodle

Oaksana had a dentist appt today. She had a filling in a tooth and it fell out, and since then has really been breaking up and falling out. So she had to get it pulled. Because there was hardly anything left to grab onto, they had a really hard time, they have to give her 3 set of freezing and even then it wasn't helping. I have never heard her scream like that before, she was in so much pain. Poor thing. So much so that I almost threw up just being there - I can hardly imagine how she felt. And seriously you should have seen the size of the roots that came out of her gums. I know that she's gonna be pretty sore for the next couple of days. I will keep ya'll posted... geesh.. it's so tough being a kid!

Just being who they are

Just a quick note to celebrate how much I love my kids and their ever changing personalities. They can be so spunky, then serious, then bust out laughing! Here are a couple of pics of them just messing around being themselves!
Oaksana making binocular eyeballs with napkin rings!

Miller just sippin' her chocolate milk!

Oaksie - showing off her fancy shoes.

and Mil just hanging around - eating saskatoons!

Swimming lessons

Last week the girls finally had their level 1 swim lessons. I have always worked during the summer months and not been able to take them, but this year my mom and sister offered to take them. So I went on their last day and took some pictures and watched their lesson and got there graduation badge! Thought I'd share with you all.

Building a tree fort together

Well, have been working on a tree fort since last weekend. The girls have been planning this for as long as I can remember after seeing the property for the first time. Millie wants some of it a certain way and Oaksana wants her a diefferent way - it's so cute listening to them plan it out. So Collin and I built the bottom frame and the girls have been doing all of the floor board nailing - they are having a great time. (We are working on our patience, as TRUST US - watching & waiting for little girls to hammer can take some time!) But well worth the wait to see how proud they are to be doing this themselves.
So yesterday at lunch I took the truck to the dump - there is always a massive wood pile there that has tonnes of good wood. And I scrounged around and found a few good pieces of plywood, some fence boards (that I think we will put as a finishing touch on the fort patio), and there were boards there that were shaped and had been painted like circus tent tops! The girls thought those were super cool. And there was also a board that had a bunch of horses hand painted on it so I got that as well so we could cut out the good pieces and use them as decor!
Collin shook his head and all the "CRAP" I brought home but... I think once we have it all together on the fort it will look great! I will of course post pictures as I take them! Have a great day.....

Sum-Sum-Summertime

This weekend was record breaking H_O_T in Vanderhoof. I think it was almost 35 degrees (which for us is scorching). We spent most of Saturday chasing the shade around the yard. We had a nice BBQ with some friends and partied until early Sunday! Haven't done that in a while either!

This picture is of Oaksie, Millie & Brendan on Sunday after a little walk down the road with Collin & Oreo.. they had lots of fun!

This one is Oaksana riding with "just two wheels, MOM" at my parents place. And this is actually my original bike.. love the banana seat.. it was and is the best bike ever!

















And little miss Miller, watering grama's plants.. having a great time!

Blocks for CANCER

A local quilt shop is putting together a couple of quilts to be raffled off with the proceeds going to the Canadian Breast Cancer Assoc. Each quilter could buy materials from a select bunch of bolts, make, and donate a completed block to be added to the quilt and this one was mine.


Just handed it in today! It's a flip n' stitch pattern.. I like how it turned out.

the fire pit

Last night we had a relaxing night roasting hot dogs for supper, and chiling around the new fire pit that we made.. it is in the North part of our new yard and has proven to be a lot of fun. I took a pic for nastalga sake and thought I'd like to share...

This is nice pic of Collin too - roasting him and Oaksana their "seconds, please" dinner! And finally - the girls, constantly are playing babies and they have a play stroller from Gisele and they use their old one from when they were babies and walk their dolls of choice up and down the driveway, and through the garden, and to the fire pit, and around the shop, and to the front of the house, and to the hothouse.. it just never ends.. it's really cute and keeps them occupied for hours. This was last night..

a friends dog's puppies

my friend had her Shitzu bred and she had 4 pups.. they are so cute. I really want one although I know that I don't need another animal. .. they are just so sweet.

This little guy is my favorite.. he is the most brown out of all of them.. and he is very spunky!

These are the 2 females.. cuties too!!

And finally the last male.. oh who am I kidding - they are all so adorable...

Oreo, le pooch

I haven't posted a pic of the family pooch in ages, since she was just "wee" and now she is so big! Going to get fix-a-roo'd here in about 10 days. Isn't she cute? She's a really good dog, minus being scared of her own shadow and having amazing stamina to bark at the wind! We love her nonetheless, she is part of our clan.

Fires, Fires, everywhere...

Well it's officially Fire Season in BC. In Vanderhoof, we haven't had temperatures like this since 1992. And it's breaking up into some nice lightening storms.. thus.. fires. http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/protect/ And so.. things are busy at the forest service, I'll try to update some photos as they become available..

home on the range

Well this is the camp we call home.. it's actually not been too bad, we have plenty of time to do yard work, talk, play, and just settle down.
This pic is of Oaksana in her bunk bed, everynight she listens to her walkman and sings along so loudly that we all get to enjoy the songs. It really is cute! She is growing up so fast.. and so wonderfully!

the canadian beauty...

Now, I know - all of you ladies are wishing you were me right now. If only your husband had found this "steal-of-a-deal" at that garage sale before Collin did, I know, it's gonna be hard on all of you to contain your excitement. And look and the interior in this beauty, SSSSSweeet. And everytime it brings an ear to ear grin to Collin's face, no matter what! Yes, that's right.. I guess I love it too. It's ugly, it's loud, but... it's ours!

Not much to report these days...

Let's see, we are moved into the YARD of the new place, each new step closer to actually moving in seems to tide us over just that little bit more! We have the holiday trailer parked in front of the shop for now. We have been having fun.. so far.. despite the 10sq ft that we have to live and breathe in!! We spent some time on Saturday reorganising the shop so that we now have a living room & dining room set up. So we have a bit more space. It is nice.. and always so cool in the shop. Collin also bought a new GEM.. and when I say GEM.. I truly mean GEM. It is a acreage dodge... red cab, rust with white box, clunky, junky, passenger door does not open, rip in the seat, snow plow bouncin' off the front, tail gate fallin off... GEM!! It is sweet.. even scarier so.. you should have seen the ear to ear grin on Collin's face as he reved that gorgeous beast as it puffed blue smoke out every orface. *sigh* Yes... I know.. this is my future! It's a damn good thing Collin agrees that it is just for the yard.. DOES NOT EVER NEED TO GO TO TOWN! Flashbacks to when my dad used to drive me to school in the shitty "banana boat" truck and honk the horn when he saw me.. I am still scarred from that! I'll have to post some pictures.. you'll all get quite a laugh. Last night we went out for dinner and had a nice enough evening.. it was hot yesterday and supposed to be hotter today.. possibly 30+ C. Whoohoo..

muscles -- hurt--ouch--

Well we are about 93% moved out of the house. We worked our butts off, and thank to our good friend Paul we managed to get everything moved but the Washer / Dryer & the top bed matresses + maybe 6 more boxes. It sure feels good to have that much done. Now we have until Saturday midnight to finish the laundry, move the finals & clean the house.

Collin is an amazingly hard worker.. I am so proud of him!

We went to the new house all day Sunday and did yard work for the people who live there now.. they are unable to keep it up and are always away on Sundays so we worked there for about 5 hours - it looks so good and they were so pleased when they came home to see how the yard looked. Mr. Morton said "Ahh, now yer just makin' us think that we should have been keeping it look this nice over the last 5 years."

Holiday trailer.. here we come!

What a lovely offer

We were recently approached by a gentleman (at a wedding) who is a professional photographer. He introduced himself and asked Collin and I if we would let him take photo's of the girls as he said they were absolutely beautiful. (and yes.. we asked around, he used to work with the Bride and is not a creep!!) He said that he will wave his $150.00 sitting fee, if we would just allow him to post them on his website. www.azphoto.ca

How nice... Collin and I were of course taken aback from his offer, but very complimented as well. I am just setting up an appointment with him and will keep you up to speed on their "STAR STATUS"!! Ha, ha. Check his web.. he takes nice photos! Maybe the little munchkins will be on there someday!

random house pictures

the raised beds..
the back deck..
the green house..

the wood shed..
the north yard..
the living room..
the north view..
the swings..
more raised beds..

The four Hague cousins...

This pic was taken over the weekend when we were at a friends wedding. The girls get along so well and had an absolute blast.. especially dancing at the (much anticipated) wedding party!

This is Kennedy & Millie.. so cute..

And of course.. our favorite extended cousins.. Tykara & Shelby (hope I spelled those right!)