Lately

It seems we've been really busy as of late, but don't have many pictures to show for it.
I had a rare night out a few weeks ago and went to the Spruce Meadows Market with my sister, mom, grandma, cousins, aunts and any other lady who wanted to join. We usually go to Millarville, but decided this year was ideal for a change in venue. Soup and buns were enjoyed at mom's house to get the energy level up and then the caravan headed for the South. We had an awesome time. I didn't purchase a single item, but enjoyed browsing with my mom. She bought me a yellow scarf as party of my belated birthday present. (belated because I was sick, not because she was neglectful). We had the most fun stopping in a shop full of hats, scarves and hairbands from NYC. They were all cool vintage styles at high prices - so none of us was in the mood to purchase, but it was like dress-up for ladies. What a blast. I noticed a hairband and just thought, 'hey, why not try it on.' I loved it. At $65, I wasn't about to spend, but enjoyed the look and decided that I could probably make it for a lot cheaper. I ended up making something similar with supplies bought at the dollar store and Michael's and was quite satisfied with the result, but again, have no picture to show for it. Here's one of me at the Market though:The following week I met up with my sis again for a day-long salsa-making extravaganza. She makes it every year and I asked her if I could participate this year, as I've never really canned anything besides peaches before, and salsa is a little higher on our favorites list. We spent the day chopping, food processing, stirring and tasting! A lot of tasting. When dinner time rolled around we weren't even hungry in fact. Here's the big pot of awesome, and the final result. Looks pretty amazing hey? I'd say that's pretty good for two great girls in only 5 hours. The kids hung around with us too that day and enjoyed giving Ben, my parent's dog, a bath with Bumpa.
The next day we decided to set up another big project and cleared out Lucy's current room, in order to paint it. Half pink, half blue. We've decided the kids will share a room here pretty quick in order to make room for the new baby. They were very excited to go to Canadian Tire and pick out their paint colors. We cleared the room fairly quickly and got into the blue right away. Both kids were right into it and spent the entire day at our sides. By the end of the day, we tossed them in the shower to get cleaned up and ready for dinner. Afterward, Lucy laid down on the bathroom floor in her towel and said, "I'm just going to lay down for a minute. I feel like I haven't been able to lay down much today." Tyler and I had a co-workers wedding to go to that night, so the kids watched a movie with Grandma and Papa and then headed to bed exhausted. I felt pretty much the same as the kids and could have gone to bed pretty early, but tried to make small-talk and stay alert at the wedding reception.
Finally, at the end of our busy weekend came Sunday...which almost never seems like a day of rest. After church we decided it was a perfect day to set up the Christmas tree. A littler earlier than usual, but the kids were pretty excited to do it. When we pulled the stockings out, Max immediately put it on his foot and said, "Look mom...a stocking!" At two, the time between Christmas is so wide-spread and his only reference to stockings of the past 12 months has been to see his mom and sister put them on their legs every Sunday for church...so I guess this just made sense to him. I've always loved our tree and decorations. Thanks to some generous people at our wedding, and some creative returns on duplicate items, we ended up with a few gift cards to The Bay and Pier One, where we picked up our tree and all our decorations and a pretty great price and we've been satisfied with them every year for the past 6.So that's pretty much what's been going on here. We've also been busy with church callings and I hosted another jewelry party last week, but again, no pictures. Thanks for stopping in and checking up on our lives...hope you enjoyed the update.