Ben

This is Ben. He was named after the Steelers quarterback. He has been so much fun and is quite the snuggle dog. Shane says that he is not the smartest dog; however, we don't care. The kids and I say that what he doesn't have in brains; he makes up for in looks!

Mackensey reading to Ben. She loves to read out loud to anyone who will listen.

Winter Fun - Maybe Not!

Well, they were predicting snow, and just under predicted a bit. We had 14 inches! Mackensey enjoyed the snow for a little while. It was wet and deep and hard to sled on. I talked her into a snow angel.

Conor said he officially hates snow after spending hours (literally) of digging out our driveway and cars. He was not able to sled due to his knee and wondered how he could use the knee to his advantage to get out of shoveling but no such luck.

Our power went off at 2:00 in the morning and did not come back on until 2:00 in the afternoon. Thank goodness for the fireplace or we would have been freezing! I boiled hot water on the stove to make hot chocolate. Mackensey said, "This is just like the pioneer days!" I told her that this is not even close. Both kids were quite annoyed that they had a snow day from school but no tv or computers. My poor children - I remember Scott and I out sledding for hours (or so it seemed). I remember sledding down into the woods banging into trees. Oh those were the days!!!!!

Beautiful Day at Cherry Point

We just love to go to Cherry Point every chance that we get. The winter can be very rainy and dark here, so we took advantage of a beautiful Saturday. The mountains are so beautiful.

Mackensey is such a Daddy's girl (which she should be). I just love both of these pictures!

I just added the picture below to show everyone Mackensey's hair. She wanted highlights, so she saved some of her Christmas money and had them done. They look very cute and not too old. However, I am in lots of trouble when she is a teenager if the hair coloring has started already.

December

It has been a busy time of year and the holidays are just about over. I am sitting here looking at the tree and all of the Christmas decorations thinking that it is about time for the dreaded take down. We have had a terrific holiday and as always are very blessed. It is still hard not to be around family for the holidays, but we have started to settle into our own somewhat traditions.

December began with school Christmas concerts and drum recitals. The kids are very musically talented and really enjoy their programs. Conor is in grade 8 band instead of grade 7 and he totally stole the show at his school's band recital. The band teacher let him have a drum solo, and let's just say for most of the kids just learning instruments - he impressed them as well! Mackensey's class played their recorders and sang - "Waving Flag."

December also began with a quick trip into the states to "walk around the flag pole" in order to renew our status in Canada. It is quite daunting, and I always stress about it. But all in all it was a pretty painless trip. Shane has to tell Mackensey that she is not to say anything at the border because she always wants to give too much information. He told her that she would have to go back to TN. She thought for a visit would be great, but she really wanted back into Canada because this is now her home and she loves it here!

Baking cookies, picking out our tree at the tree farm, getting a puppy, and Christmas morning serving lunch to the homeless and those that are in need were some of our wonderful Christmas memories.

The kids were so blessed with wonderful presents and money from grandparents, aunts and uncles. Thank you everyone! Highlights of the presents were Mackensey's new room. She got a new bed and new accessories for her room. I only have the picture of the bed and not the full done room (we went shopping after picture - room is now turquoise - funky lights, fuzzy rug, and added wall art). Shane and I were up until 2:30 putting the bed together. He was a good Dad especially since this is not his forte! Conor got a new crash symbol and a boom stand for his drum kit. His instructor said that we have to keep adding pieces to his set because his talent is out playing what he has. The next piece is a china symbol for his birthday. And as we said before the kids got a puppy for Christmas. His name is Ben and he has been named after the Steelers quarterback. When he gets into things, he gets called the full name! It is so funny to see him answer to it.

It is hard to believe that the year is almost over. We want to wish all of you a Happy Holidays and many blessings for the New Year. We love and miss you all!

October/November

View from our back deck
First Snow - we have more!!!
Conor's position for a week with the ps3 remote in his hand!
An ice machine - pushes cold water through pads - was such a blessing to have.
Taking the wrap off for the first time.


On the ferry
Crossing the border onto Washington (took 70 minutes - ugh!)

Well (I think I begin my blog a lot with this word!), once again I am playing catch up. This has become the story of my life. Here is what has been going on -

Halloween: Mackensey had strep throat and was very disappointed that she could not trick or treat. She did go to our churches Trunk or Treat and still made out quite well with lots of candy.
Conor went with friends. They pushed him around in a wheel chair that had a boom box attached to it. They played a song about "Keep on Rolling." He had a bandaged head and dressed like an old man. His friend Jayden was so great to push him around. I wish I had pictures, but I had to drop him off way inorder to get to Trunk or Treat.

Surgery: Conor had knee surgery on November 9th. He was a trooper, but he woke up in a lot of pain and quite upset when he woke up in recovery. They called Shane in and he was able to calm him down. As long as Shane had his arm on Conor, he was ok. Conor missed about a week and a half of school, but he is back to school and doing well. He is still using two crutches at school but we have him down to one at home. Please continue to pray for complete healing.

GEMS: Mackensey belongs to a girl's club at church which I am coordinator of. We went to Washington state for an area wide girl's conference. It was Mackensey's first time on an extremely large ferry. What a day. The conference was about 4 hours and it was an 18 hour day for us (ferry ride, border crossing, travel to place, border crossing, ferry ride, van break down and then home). The girls were troopers and it was fun.
Thanksgiving and Snow: Today is American Thanksgiving and I have spent part of the morning and afternoon shoveling snow. It feels like Christmas! I haven't given in and decorated for Christmas yet. We celebrated Thanksgiving on Wednesday evening with our couples group. We had 28 people including my family. I cooked two turkeys at the same time. I have to say I am getting better at this! Although, if I had my rathers - someone else could cook it!

I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the parades and the football weekend! Love you all!

Port Renfrew and Stuff

View of Duncan from Mt Prevost
First and Last Game of the Season
Port Renfrew
Maple Bay (5 minutes from our house)
Tide Pools at Botanical Beach



Picnic Lunch on way to Port Renfrew

Picnic Lunch on top of Mt Prevost
Cherry Point Beach (15 minutes from house)

Cowichan Bay (10 minutes from house)

Maple Bay - Remembering Jael (4 years)


Well, it has been ages since I blogged. I have both sets of grandparents wondering what is up. It seems that once school starts and all church activities are back in swing that the days and weeks go by like a blur.

So, I will catch you up on activities before school. Nanny Woodlief came to visit the week before school started, and we found some new places to explore. Friends of ours told us about a place called Port Renfrew. Here we hiked to the Botanical Beach. There were tide pools all over the place with lots of sea life to explore. To get there was an adventure in itself because we took the scenic route which was an old logging road. We pulled off to the side of the road for a picnic lunch and wow the scenery was beautiful.

Nanny also got to see Conor play football. Unfortunately it was his first official game of the season and it was his last. Conor was playing terrific and then he got clipped from behind by his own player and tore his ACL. Conor is out for the year according to the orthopedic surgeon. His scheduled surgery is November 9th. Right now he is going to physical therapy to keep his knee loose and the muscles strong. Not playing football has been so hard for him. He was practicing and playing football 4 times a week and now nothing. He is still playing drums, but the inactivity has been really hard on him (and I must say - mom as well!!!).

Nanny left the day that school started and it has been crazy ever since. Mackensey is in Musical Theatre and GEMS girl's club and Conor is playing drums and has youth group every Friday night. We are busy with two Bible studies a week in our home, MOPS, teaching school, Kids Town, GEMS and the list could go on.

We just had Canadian Thanksgiving and we are gearing up for our very large American Thanksgiving with our couples Bible study group. We have decided to make this a tradition despite the fact that it is a lot of work. So, I will close this blog by saying that I will try to do better at taking more pictures and updating the blog more.

Finding the Words

I usually blog around this time, but I just can't find the words this year. We will release four balloons tomorrow (Sept. 1) in her memory. She will always be in our hearts.