Just because I love this picture!

When I look at this picture it makes me smile. This is how my girls usually are, dressed up in crazy clothes, hair undone, and just free. I love their expressions!

She really is cute, and I am so glad she is potty trained!
Can you see the moose? Not the best picture. We see moose every Sunday morning on our hour and a half drive to church. It makes the ride a little funner.
Can you see the owl? We call this owl corner and usually see a couple on the way to church.
The skates that we found for Maddie have to blades on the bottom of them and she still has a hard time staying up.
There was a forest fire a couple of years ago that burned a big part of the woods. But, this picture gives you an idea of how close the trees are to each other. Brad is working out in the middle of these trees. The road crews have to come in and clear out roads. They are ripping a ton of trees out. It is a bit sad. It is also a big job and pretty fascinating to watch. They have big machinery that gets the job done quite quickly. Environmentalists would not like what is going on here.
It really is beautiful here!
Curling is a bit boring and hard to figure out. But we still tend to watch for hours.
Hockey is always fun to watch.
There is an indoor park in the community center which we love.

I love it when they are nice to each other. We are headed over to the community center which is straight in front of us. The grocery store is on the right. Everything in town is within these couple of blocks.
Winter fun!


We are training her early and she is getting good.
Brad and I always say it's a good thing she's cute, because she sure is mischievous.

icy windows

When it gets cold here, the windows start to ice up. When it gets really cold here, the inside of the windows ice up as well. You have to go around and mop up the water that accumulates on the window sills when it starts to get warmer. The kids can look at the designs of the icicles in the glass. It is pretty, but could make you start to feel a bit claustrophobic.

teenager books

Aubree fell off my bed the other day and hit her eye on the corner of my night stand. I happened to overhear her telling the librarian what happened. She said, "I was playing a game with Madelyn on my mom's bed and she pushed me. I fell and hit my face on the table where my mom keeps her teenager books." I had to laugh at her. I don't exactly know what teenager books are, but I do keep my books and scriptures right there by my bed. This picture was taken before the bruising started.

Quality Falls

Brad didn't have work on Monday or Tuesday because the temperture was -40. They consider that dangerous here. Brad can not stay inside that long though. He gets cabin fever and starts to go stir crazy. So, he took Olivia and they hiked to Quality Falls. He asked me if we all wanted to go, but I am smarter than that. They were gone about three hours. Brad said that when they were getting to the falls his hands were frozen and didn't thaw out until he got home and drank his hot chocolate. Olivia, on the other hand, was hot. She has always been a little heater box. She told Brad that he could get into the car to warm up while she played outside. Her favorite activity was shaking the snow off of the trees onto her head. They had a great time!

Toonie Tuesdays

My kids love Canada and I think that it has something to do with the time we spend at the community center. They love it there. Brad and I love toonie Tuesdays when everything cost just one toonie (2 dollars).

We have now been in Canada for almost two months now. Brad is working on a wind turbine project. He is the geologist on the project. He pretty much stands out in the cold (freezing cold) all day long analyzing the core and rocks that come out of the ground. He seems to like it. He has grown himself a mighty fine beard to help keep his face warm. Sometimes, it is covered in icicles. He works with a great drill crew. The kids love them. They come over for dinner, go swimming with us, and show the kids around the site. They loved being spoiled by other people. The drillers always seem to have something for them, candy, glow sticks, money... In all of my drilling years, or I guess Brad's drilling years, I have never met a drill crew like these guys. Jake and Kirt are wonderful! One day they had my kids come to the site to get rides on the Marookas. Instead of giving the girls ride, they let the kids drive them. I was scared for my life at one point when I thought Olivia was going to take out a tree. Jake just laughed and let her continue to drive. We made it past the tree and Olivia was so proud of herself.

Canada has been a good change for us at this time in our lives. I have been able to focus on the kids. We spend all of our time together with basically no interruptions. (I do enjoy the breaks Brad gives me when he takes the kids out snow shoeing or sledding!) We get to spend our evenings being together as a family. We have been truly blessed to be together, in a nice warm house, and be able to experience this time in Canada together. The only thing I don't look forward to upon our arrival home is the Christmas decorations that are still up.