Yee-Haw!

Vacation Bible School was all of last week at the church. I was the leader for the 1st-2nd grade class, and Brad was in charge of the games station. Here's a picture of the daily opening assembly. All of the kids that you see in the picture were my kids (there were around 20 kids in my class each day).

Here's my class in the music station. We learned lots of fun songs, and December even learned some, too! She was in her own separate class/nursery group. I so enjoyed being the leader for these kids...it was a TON of fun! By the end of the week, my voice was super sore, though!

Here we are again in the story session. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the games station, but Brad did an awesome job at it, and it was by far one of the kids' favorite stations! The whole VBS week was exhausting but super fun!

Every Thursday night, Brad, December, and I go to worship team practice. We led worship for the first time on Sunday, and it went well! December is a trooper at these late practices, and she plays around while we sing. This is a picture of Brad getting the sound system set up for us.



This week is Calgary Stampede (a big, famous rodeo) week, and the church did a Stampede Breakfast on Saturday. Here we are, all dressed up. Brad's job was to hand out pamphlets and get to know the people who came.

December is really getting into this cowgirl thing! She's trying on Grammie's cowboy hat and loving it.

I think she looks pretty cute in a hot pink cowboy hat!

Giggling because Brad is tickling her

For the past months, we've been trying to get December to stay in the church services on Sunday, with varying degrees of successfulness each Sunday. Last Sunday had to be one of her WORST ever, and I was nearly driven to the point of insanity. So right after the service was over, I went right to the church library and took out this book. Hopefully Dr. Dobson can teach me some things!




December seemed interested in this book at first and tried to read it...




But you can see just what she thinks about this book after she looked through it!

Yesterday, Grammie went out and got the two grandkids some Calgary Stampede cowboy boots and hats! They looked adorable in their gear.

Giving each other hugs...I think December may enjoy this activity more than Caden does

Brad arrived home from work, and Caden & December went out to show Brad their new duds

This morning, she wanted her hat and boots put right back on again

Brad is hoping to go into work early tomorrow morning so that we can go to the Stampede in the afternoon. I hope that works out!

I have an ultrasound booked for Thursday afternoon, so I'm pretty excited about that. We could find out at this ultrasound if we're having a boy or a girl, but we're going to keep it a surprise. We think it's more fun that way. They often give you pictures of the ultrasound, so if they give me some, I'll put them up on the blog here so you can see the baby, too!

Busy, Busy!

Brad, December, and I are enjoying being in Calgary. One thing I didn't expect was how busy life would be here. A couple of weekends ago, Brad, December, and I joined Brad's Dad on a trip to Sparwood, British Columbia, where the town was having "Mining Days." There were fun things to do for December, Brad's Dad flipped burgers, and we had a great time. That's the town that Brad lived in when he was little, so he wanted to show me around a bit. That's where these pictures were taken. This is a MASSIVE mining truck that was actually in use at one point. They still use trucks this big, but this one is now considered an old version and is put up for tourists to gawk at. Doesn't December look miniscule beside it?!

Brad has started his second job at a factory. He's making the most of his summer and getting paid quite alot for this second job, but it also means that between his internship work and his job, he has absolutely no days off for the rest of the summer. I feel awful for him, but I am also proud of him because he is such a hard worker and takes care of our growing family very well! We are wanting to go to the famous Calgary Stampede, which starts on Thursday, but with Brad's crazy schedule, I'm not sure if we can fit it in.

All of this week is Vacation Bible School at church. I am the leader for the 1st-2nd grade class, and I'm enjoying it thorougly! I love that age group, and they are the most adorable little kids ever. Brad is the leader for the games, and that keeps him busy, trying to find games that any child from Kindergarten to 6th Grade can do and enjoy! These past couple of days, he has worked at his factory job from 6:00am - 9:00am, rushed over to church to do VBS, then gone back to his job from 12:30pm - 6:30pm. That's quite the crazy day! I'm very impressed with him.

We have also been busy setting up a Young Adults group for the church that December tags along to, setting up a Worship team (which will play for the first time on Sunday), doing preparations for VBS, and now finally putting it on, Brad's been running Sunday evening services and helping out with the morning services, etc. All of this has kept all three of us pretty busy! So I want to apologize for this blog being neglected, but I'm afraid I can only update it when there's time for it -- and energy for it, which is lacking as of late, with pregnancy! :o) This baby seems to be healthy and strong, and recently I started being able to feel him/her kick -- yay! Even while I'm writing, the baby is trying to say hello and is kicking. That's a great feeling and has to be one of the best parts of being pregnant! A couple of nights ago, Brad got to feel this little baby kick, too, for the first time.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to remember to bring the camera to VBS, and then I'll take pictures and show you the fun that we're having!

The Return of the Sun

December playing with Benji the dog and Felix the cat...she LOVES playing with cats, and Felix is very good around toddlers!

December playing the piano as Brad helps her, with Caden working on a speaker in the background

They both enjoy playing this piano, and they make lovely sounds come out of that instrument...

December playing with Felix again -- she throws him a rolled-up sock, and he chases it around the basement, which makes December giggle. I think the two of them could play this game for hours on end!

The sun has come back to Calgary again, and it's wonderful! We haven't seen substantial rain at all this week, and the babies love getting out and playing. As you can see, they've got LOTS of grass to run around on, which is great!

Brad's dad got this '91 Sunbird convertible in really nice condition, and he is graciously letting Brad take it to work and back to save on our van's horrible gas mileage. It's a nice little car!

Here's Brad fatefully opening up the car's hood. This simple action sure caused him alot of grief! It was a windy day, and after Brad set up the car's hood, the wind picked the hood up and threw it against the windshield. Thankfully, the windshield didn't break, but the long piece between the hood and the windshield (the part that the wipers rest on), got scratched and cracked! So Brad spent the rest of the night repairing the problem.

December pushing Caden around in the stroller

Can you see December's hair is a little bit curlier than normal? I had tried curling it with a curling iron, to practice for Matt (Brad's brother) & Tarena's wedding, where December will be the flower girl. Her hair did curl nicely, but I'm going to have to go about curling it a different way. It was neither easy nor safe to be chasing her head of hair around the bathroom with a hot curling iron in my hand!

Yesterday, Erin took me to the MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) group that she attends. They all went to the park, and we had a grand time! Here's December waiting for her turn on the beloved swings.

When she got in the swing, she was quite thrilled!

...and Caden really liked it, too.

Loving to Jump

December's favorite toy, by far, at Grandpa & Grammie's house is their trampoline! Both she and Caden just love jumping on it...



She has thankfully gotten better at actually staying on the trampoline, so we don't have to worry so much about her purposefully running off the edge of it like she used to.

Her favorite game to play on the tramp is Ring Around the Rosie, especially the "we all fall down!" part

Having fun with Daddy

This was December yesterday. She's wearing Brad's golf hat and holding the golf balls that Brad got from a golf tournament last Saturday. He went with his brother and dad, whose work sponsored the golf outing.

December singing "Baa Baa Black Sheep," which she just learned all of the words to.

Brad has begun his internship with the church! It looks like they're going to be keeping him pretty busy. He will be preaching all of July and August while the pastor is on vacation, and he'll be helping out with Vacation Bible School, doing visitations, leading a worship team, etc. This Sunday, both Brad and I will be playing for some of the songs in church. I'm also planning on helping out the 1st/2nd grade class for Vacation Bible School, which I'm looking forward to! December will be in the 2-4 year old class, and I'm sure she'll like that alot. I need to go and practice the piano again now, so hopefully it'll minimize the mistakes I'll make tomorrow! :o)