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!
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. 
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.....
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!
's plants.. having a great time! 
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. 
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..
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...
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.
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.. 
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!
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!
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..
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!
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!
the raised beds.. 
the back deck.. 
the green house..
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!)
The new 4 wheeler for the kids.. I bought it off e-bay and Collin got it set up Thursday night for the girls. 
Oaksie is much more excited about it, but Millie likes it too. Just a few pictures, it is so cute to see them on it!
This is jus
t a few pictures from our drive home from the lake, Jolanda - although I know you are in your "deer hating" phase, I thought you'd still like to see these! They were right beside the truck... guess my hubby is just a better DODGER!!! J/K
This one is a look south onto Francois Lake.. it is so pretty though in the background you can see all the Mountain Pine beetle damage to the park area.. :( damn beetles.
And finally... this is an unnamed island that we buzzed by on the boat, we set 2 ling lines but ended up on catching one ling cod.. mmm.. yummy!
Well Millie is having such a rough time with Oma and Opa being gone. Last night she just poured her heart out and cried and cried about how much she missed her "Oma".
Millie: "My favorite thing about Oma is the way that she always snugs us on her lap, she is so good to cuddle with! I also miss how nice she visits and always sits in her rocking chair to talk, and she make the best gingiesnap cookies. I wish she was here... I want some of her homeade bread cause she makes the best bread.. and even CRUST."
Jen: "And what do you miss about Opa?"
Millie: "Well I always remember that he can never find me when I hide under the bed!"
So cute... It has really been alot harder on her than imagined. Oaksana was wondering why Millie had been crying so much so I told her all of that, she said.. "Maybe Millie is just thinking that Oma might die soon and it is making her real sad... but she doesn't need to cry..."
They are so innocent but still know so much. *sigh* Can't protect them forever, I guess!
