Our Backwards Backyardigan

We spent the last 10 days staying at my parent's house while they were on vacation in Oregon. Yes, that's right, the 16-year old and 23-year old needed a babysitter. We got a pretty good dump of snow while we were there and Tyler, Dude, Lucy and I headed outside before dinner one evening to shovel. Lucy enjoyed helping using Grandma and Bumpa's Bob the Builder Shovel, but enjoyed even more going for a ride on dad's shovel and for a walk afterwards. She enjoyed being outside so much that when Tyler stopped by the house at one point to see about getting her some different gloves (as hers were soaked through from playing with snow) she protested because she wanted more. And even after being outside for an hour she was sad to come back in. Her fingers were icy cold, but she didn't seem to mind. The next afternoon Lucy and I headed out for another walk (avec Ben) and played in the backyard for a while where she discovered icicles. Again, she was reluctant to go inside.

That's definitely one thing we've noticed about living on the farm is we are unable to enjoy time outside as much. I know it sounds backwards and you'd think that by living on 53 acres we'd be able to enjoy MORE time outside, but it's just so windy up here that Lucy really doesn't enjoy it. Most of the time as we're heading out the door she'll say "windy" or ask for her mittens. She gasps for air when we're outside as she hasn't quite mastered breathing in the wind.
I guess we'll have to make more trips into the city where she can enjoy the 'fresh air'.

Welcome to the World of Will

Tyler and I have decided that even though we live in the boonies, we can still participate in modern technology. Here is our first entry on our blog. They will get better.

Christmas Craze

Christmas is over, but an entry dedicated to those few crazy days is needed. Tyler, Lucy and I went to our ward on Christmas Eve and enjoyed the Christmas program presented by the Cochrane ward. Then we quickly headed over to my parents' house for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner and 'hanging out'. After stuffing ourselves on some of the world's finest food creations (roast potatoes, stove-top stuffing and gravy, being a few of my favorites), we shared a Bourne-family "twelve days of Christmas" song that Tyler and I wrote, and everyone else headed to the Heritage Park Nativity, while our family went to the Mundy's for the annual Christmas Party. There, we visited with all of Tyler's extended family and participated in the usual gift exchange. The family is getting so big now that a fun exchange of gifts turned into a 2-hour event. At the end of that party we headed back to mom and dad's for the night. it was pretty late and by the time we got there, all other children had gone to bed and Lucy headed there pretty quick too. The adults stayed up for a bit attempting to play a few games, but instead ended up sharing stories of when we've been the most scared. How does that topic always come up late at night?
The next morning, we arose at a decent time (8:30am) as we had to wait for Trevor G to get home from the Fire Hall. The chaos began, and 2 1/2 hours later the mountain of presents were opened. We all settled down for a delicious meal of pancakes and got little ones back off to bed for a much needed nap. Again, the adults played games and got ourselves somewhat cleaned up.
After Lucy's nap we headed to Williamson's to exchange gifts with them and have their traditional Christmas Day dinner. Much of the same fixings. Mmm-mm, two days in a row!
We slept in our own beds Christmas night. On Boxing Day, I headed out to the mall to get my hands on a few deals and Tyler and Lucy went to the Cochrane chapel with his family to play volleyball.

It was a crazy few days, but fun to spend time with both family's. Christmas is getting so big, we'll have to start hosting Christmas morning in our own home soon and visiting all the relatives here and there.

Setting up for Christmas 2006

We had a fun time setting up the Christmas tree and letting Lucy participate. The Christmas tree box had been sitting in our living room for a couple of days and I had to keep telling her we had to wait for Daddy's muscles to open the box. Finally, he waiting was over and we opened the box and set up the tree. She kept repeating throughout the process, "Wow, cool!"
She enjoyed the lights and helping to put decorations on the tree. Each decoration she tried to put on the tree she would put on the same branch so it got pretty weighted down and we had to redistribute the decorations onces she was done. She ended up getting pretty goofy as the night went on when she realized that we were interested to see how she was reacting to everything. It became a bit of a show.
Surprisingly, Lucy was really good about not touching the tree or decorations once it was all set up. We had a nativity set on a low shelf for her to play with as she was fascinated with the baby Jesus and Mary.
She didn't take too well to most Santa decorations this year, but was more interested in Frosty and Reindeer.

Most of her Christmas excitement was centered around seeing Christmas lights everywhere we go and singing Christmas songs. It got to the point that she would start to request which color of lights she wanted to see next. "How 'bout....green ones." At one point we were driving around in Cochrane viewing lights and we came across a house that was particularly well decorated. We looked at it for a few minutes and then started to drive away. Lucy piped up right away and said, "Dad, turn 'round please." So we went back for another look. How can you deny such manners.

Video Scavenger

The Deacon's were in charge of the joint activity in December and Tyler and his boys planned a video scavenger hunt. All the kids seemed to really enjoy it and we had a lot of fun coming up with difficult tasks for them to accomplish and take a picture of. Here, we see one team going through the McDonald's drive-thru without a car. Other tasks included getting a picture at various landmarks in Cochrane, giving a hug to someone who needed it, taking a picture with the whole team in a tree; and creating a human pyramid.

Some have claimed that Tyler might have been called to be the Deacon's leader, because he has a similar mentality...hmmm?

G'day Mates

Scott, Janie, Sarah and Janeen headed over to Australia on November 2nd for a bit of a vacation and to bring home another Uncle for Lucy. Jason has been serving in the Australia, Brisbane mission for the last two years and has served well at that. It's time for him to come home and start on something new. They had an opportunity to participate in many activities while they were in the land down under and came home relaxed and slightly darker.

Lucy was a bit nervous of her Uncle Jason at first and we had to keep reminding her that he was Daddy's little brother. We had a family breakfast and afterwards Jason played with Lucy and her fish and made up a song for her and she was hooked. Now they're buddies and they can't get enough of each other.

Baby Boy

It's a boy! At our ultrasound we decided to find out what we were having, although we had a pretty good idea it was going to be a boy as I had been feeling quite different with this pregnancy as compared to the last. Lucy's getting pretty fascinated with the burgeoning belly and likes to hug and kiss it. She seems pretty excited about the prospect of a baby brother, but we'll see if that holds up after a few days of not being the center of attention. She's pretty good at sharing, so hopefully it'll go well.