Sarah's Birthday

Sarah's 19th birthday landed two days before the Office Season Premiere, and since we're all huge Office fans, we decided to celebrate by putting her present in Jello.  It was a big hit, as was the Office Premiere.  Happy Birthday Sarah!

Brother's Day

We celebrated "Brother's Day" on September 21st, because that was Max's 18-month birthday.  It was also his first day in nursery, which we were all super excited about.  Every Sunday he goes to Sunday School with Tyler (which really consists of them walking around or running outside) and then into primary with me for the 3rd hour while Tyler teaches Young Men's.  Every week he would be so disappointed that he couldn't go into the nursery with Lucy.  (And Lucy was still having a hard time going to nursery by herself).  So we figured nursery day was a good day to celebrate Brother's Day.  Max was so excited to go into nursery.  He and Lucy walked down the hallway holding hands and walked straight into the room without turning around.  That was the easiest drop-off for nursery I've every had.  And every week since has been the same.  When we got home from church, Lucy was able to give Max his present we'd picked out and the pictures she'd colored for him. 

 He really loves the movie Cars right now, so she colored him a picture of Lightening and Mater.  We got him some Playskool tonka cars that he LOVES.  It was a great brother's day for our sweet boy.   

Zenni

I am in love with a new website. It is called www.zennioptical.com and you can get a complete pair of prescription glasses for as little as $8. Tyler and I heard about it from a friend and decided we didn't have anything to lose, so we gave it a whirl. It took about 10 days for the glasses to get here and I am 100% satisfied. In fact, I think these are the best glasses I have ever owned. Check out the website. It's amazing! My glasses were $29.95 plus shipping and handling ($4.95). I'd say that's pretty reasonable.
I found the trick to getting a good pair was to search through the website and find a couple I liked, then going to an eyeglass place and trying on similar designs. You'll see that there are measurements for the size of the glasses, which are important. (Unfortunately, Tyler wasn't so lucky as the prescription sunglasses he ordered are too small...but at only $30, you can't be too upset). The website is so helpful as well.

Progress is my middle name

The work on the outside of our house in preparation for winter is in full swing. I have spent the week weeding, unloading two truck-loads of dirt around our house, buying trees, planting trees, and today we drove out to Balzac to buy a truck-load of sod and began laying. (ps. the truck has no A/C, so choosing the hottest day of the week to go was done out of necessity and not choice). I have done things this week that I have never done before, and am feeling pretty proud. I'm amazed at my drive to keep going when my body is clearly ready to stop. I've fallen into bed each night exhausted and woken up in the morning achey. I got so dirty yesterday shoveling that every time I scratched my head I got dirt in my fingernails and when I woke up this morning there was dirt all over the sheets and pillow.

This evening's ventures had me laying sod while Tyler was at his Young Men's activity. Max came outside to check my progress every once in a while and to take a turn on the new grass with his bare feet, something we have been unable to do on the farm up to this point. I'll have to check my work in the morning as the last bit of sod I laid was mostly in the cover of dark, so I have no idea how straight it is. It's coming along, and I'm looking forward to enjoying the finished product.

Before

Tyler and I are using these few sunny days in September to get ourselves ready for the winter. Winter out on the farm means a lot of time inside, as the drifts get so high that it is difficult to play outside much. It also means frozen pipes, and cold floors. This will be our 3rd winter in this trailer. We have slowly and surely made some improvements (all the indoor aesthetic renovations were made before we even moved in).

Tyler has also built the addition to create a bootroom/front entrance and a bedroom for us.

Our first winter here, I was pregnant with Max and we ended up having frozen pipes about 75% of the time. Waking up in the middle of the night because you have to go to the bathroom and having to walk the 200 feet up to his parent's house to use the bathroom was a pain. We had to shower up at their house everyday, do laundry and pretty much everything. We made some improvements by insulating the underside of the trailer and using heat tape, which has cut down on the frozen pipes, but it still happens about 25% of the time. Tyler's hoping to get all the plumbing on the inside of the house so we don't have to worry about it anymore.

We also decided we wanted to do some landscaping around our house so that the kids would have more area to play in. It's been slow going, but we've cleaned it up mostly. We spent time yesterday going to a few different growers in Cochrane to look into some shrubs and plants that we can plant around the house to add some curb appeal (mostly for ourselves). Here is some before pictures of our renovation process. I'll post some outside 'after' pictures when we get it all done. Hopefully it'll be before the first snowfall.

ps. I'm very proud to have a husband who can do these kinds of renovations on his own. Everyday when I walk down to our house and see the addition he built for me, I feel pretty lucky.

5 Things

I have been tagged and told I need to come up with a list of 5 consumer products that I could not live without. There has been a lot of thought put into this, but I think I've narrowed it down. In no particular order:

1) Like my sister, I am a girly-girl, and although I can leave the house without putting on makeup (rarely), I cannot stand to go anywhere, or do anything until I have had a shower and blow-dried my hair. I am not one of those girls who looks beautiful when she emerges from the swimming pool, hair wet, sun glistening...nope, not me. So the blow-dryer is a very good friend of mine. My hair is wavy (not curly, wavy), and not pretty wavy. Basically, it's like bed-head all the time if I don't do something with it. And because of said wavy hair, the straitening iron has also become a recent friend/love.
2) Satellite TV. We've had it for about 3 years now, and I can't even remember what basic cable is like. Seriously, it's not like TV is that important to me (well, kinda), but I love satellite TV so I can watch the shows I love (like The Office) whenever I choose, instead of when our local broadcasting company chooses to air it (usually 9pm or later). We get the Western and Eastern feeds so we can watch shows as early as 6pm or as late 11 sometimes. It was particularly handy during the Olympics as there were multiple stations so we could choose which events we wanted to watch. I also like being able to press the info button to read the summary of the show, and the TV guide that shows me what else is on. It really saves on channel surfing.
3) Internet. Seriously, I love it. I love that every bit of information I could possibly need is at my fingertips. When the internet goes down (which it often does out here) I'm not sure what to do. Again, it's not because I'm on it a lot, but I just like having it available. Recently we had a fruit-fly infestation and the answers were a click away. I search (google) multiple times a day, for parenting stuff, recipes, gift ideas, you name it, I've found it on the internet. Plus I like email, blogging, and facebook for keeping in touch. (see #5 for more details).
4) MaryKay Satin Lips Lip Gloss. I love it. My friend Kristen introduced me as I was addicted to Blistex and have been for 12 years or so. The beauty of Satin Lips is it is not medicated, so your lips don't get addicted to it. I put it on in the morning and usually don't have to reapply for 8 hours. (Unless I've had a particularly chatty day). It feels good, there's no flavor, my lips look a little glossy but are not reflective or sticky. It's more expensive than a tube of chap-stick but it lasts way longer. I love it.
5) Caller ID. I'm sure this comes as no surprise to most that I am not a phone person. Also, if you call me and there is no answer, it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm not home (surprise, surprise). Caller ID allows me to decide if it is a good time for me and based on the person and the time of day, how long the call is going to take. If my tenant calls, I know it's going to be a long call, so I am able to judge whether I'm up for that much time taken out of my day. This is the other reason I like the internet. It helps me stay in touch with people, who I really do care about, and do want to talk to, but it's less invasive. (I hope no one is offended, but I imagine most people already know this about me).

So there you have it. I don't really have anyone to tag, but anyone else is welcome to make their own list.

The very Vest Family

Tonight for FHE we headed outside to help Papa with the gazebo he is building.  Lucy and Max wanted some Dad time so they joined in, but not before getting dressed for working outside in the evening.  They each put on their shoes, sweaters, and vests.  Then they each showed off their big muscles as they prepared to do some hard manual labour.  Lucy and Max's Labour consisted of walking over the gravel pile, playing with sticks, and basically walking around.  They enjoy being outside, and more importantly, they enjoy spending time with Dad.  

Eventually we headed back to the house where the kids and I played duck-duck-goose (which is difficult with only 3 people, especially when one of them is Max) and Leap Frog.  It eventually just turned into a laughing wrestling match between the two kids.  At one point, after Max had stepped on Lucy, she exclaimed, "He stepped right on my lung!"

Family Portraits

Just before holidays we went to get family photos taken. We took photos of the whole clan and then each individual group. We went to Superstore, where we've gone in the past, and they did a really good job getting us all in and through quickly. It took some convincing to get Max to smile and Jacob to be settled, but we made it!

Enchanted Forest

On the way to Vancouver we stopped at the Enchanted Forest to break the driving trip up a bit. It was nice to stretch our legs and enjoy the cool air. It was fun to look around at the weird and funny structures they have. There was a house built for pretty much every fairy tale you could think of.

Jacob Edward

On June 28, we welcomed the newest member of the Williamson family. Jacob Edward, son of Jason and Ali. He was an average sized boy, 7lbs, 4oz.
But in his two short months he has packed on the chub. We see him daily and everyday he takes my breath away with how big he's gotten. Here's a few picture of his first day.

Bear with the Oldies - Boys will be Boys

My mom grew up in a family of all girls...well, she has a younger brother, but he is so much younger, that she was pretty much moved out before there was a possibility of any relationship there. Tyler's mom has one brother, who is just a few years older than her, and a sister who is younger. My point being, that neither mother has experienced life with multiple brothers, and what that does to a family dynamic, and how they "get along." My brother, growing up, would wrestle A LOT. Sometimes in playing, sometimes in anger, but it was a quick way to get over a disagreement, or just to let off some steam. My dad, growing up with 2 brothers of his own, and experiencing many rug burns, noogies, broken windows, broken bed frames, etc, etc, had no problem with my brothers fighting, as he knew it was just boy stuff. Tyler's dad feels the same way as he grew up with a rowdy brother himself. He often joins in the wrestling matches even now. So when Tyler and Jason go at it, as they often do, their mom gets stressed (although now it's more because she worried about her furniture, and less about them). I say, hey, I'd rather Tyler be wrestling Jason than picking on me. I couldn't wait for Jason to get home from his mission so Tyler would stop trying to take his male-driven angst out on me.

Bear with the Oldies - Lucy's Birthday

I'm using Sarah's laptop today as she has some photos on it that she took with her camera that I haven't had access to, so these posts may be outdated, but I wanted to make sure to get the info on the blog. Here are some photos from Lucy's 3rd birthday party. She decided months and months before that she wanted to have a jewelry party. She wore her favorite dress and had princess cupcakes and wore jewelry.
She got lots of jewelry as presents and princess books and coloring things. It was a great time. They played pin the princess on the castle and had a dance party in the gym afterwards.