New Recreation Centre

This weekend was pretty uneventful. On Saturday, we all went to the eye doctor. Claire isn't due to get her eyes checked for another year, but she still got to enjoy the thrill of sitting on Charlie's lap while he endured the puffer thing and the new never-before-seen camera that takes the picture of the back of your eye and leaves you blinded for 30 seconds. I am just thankful that I got to have peace while telling the doctor if the letters on lens A or B were more clear.
After that fun, we went to Fatburger. I am deeply in love with Fatburger. The bad thing is we had just eaten there on Monday and when we ordered a worker came up to us and said, "you're back again? you're in here every week!" I really wanted to correct him and say that we hadn't been in there since BEFORE Christmas! But, I just laughed and told Charlie how embarrassing that was! So anyway, we were back in there on Saturday and yes, I hid my face from the worker and prayed he wouldn't come over to us and make a comment about how he just saw us Monday. Although I was tempted to just yell, "I AM PREGNANT AND CAN'T CONTROL MY CRAVINGS!!!" Maybe that's not the best plan either...
Needless to say, the hamburgers and french fries there are great!
After we ate, we went home and Claire and I had a nice nap. Then, I told Charlie we should check out the new Rec. Centre that was having its grand opening. I had been waiting and waiting for this centre to open because I had such high hopes that this could be the answer for cabin fever in the winter! So, we jumped in the car and promised Claire she would get to play on a playground.
The centre was huge! And very nice! It has several ice rinks and three restaurants and of course a track and equipment and all of that stuff. Claire was excited about the playground and we were too until we were told it was five dollars to play. Hmm...that seemed expensive for 20 minutes of play! But, you know how it is. You can't go back on your promises to your two-year-old. So, we paid the amount to let her have the experience.
We decided in a couple of years this playground will be perfect. Claire was a little small and scared of the climbing structure. See how wary she looks?

She was telling Charlie all done! He took her up to the top to slide down on the slide, but she didn't want to go!

By the way, the rules say no adults on the climbing structure...oops!
So, we checked out the blocks and Claire was in heaven!

We toured through the centre before we left to see the ice rinks and the huge water slide and wave pool. I couldn't take pictures due to signs saying not to and tons of workers walking around. But, I did sneak one of some cute little hockey players shaking hands after their game.

Aren't they cute? I do not have any dreams of letting any of my children play hockey. That just proves where I am from! I have seen so many tiny skaters since moving here and I still can't let go of the railing to keep from falling! I would rather root for a Tennessee or Kentucky basketball game! Ha!

15 Weeks

 
Pregnancy Highlights:
How Far Along: I'm 15 Weeks!
Size of Baby: The baby is the size of an apple!
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Not sure...I don't think anything yet. Although I did read today that I should have gained about 5 pounds..hmm maybe I have. I need to buy a scale!
Maternity Clothes: Not yet...but I no longer wear a belt with my pants, and they are NOT comfy anymore!
Gender: We will find out February 25th! I can't wait!
Movement: I have felt the baby move a few times. It is nice to feel that wiggle every once in a while.
Cravings: Cookies fresh from the oven (thanks Charlie!) and this week I also wanted a hamburger from Fatburger and chocolate ice cream!
Symptoms: I'm happy to say that I have been sleeping much better this week. I only wake up a couple of times at night and can go right back to sleep!
Best moment this week: I started talking to Claire a little bit about the baby in Mommy's belly. I know she doesn't understand, but yesterday we were talking about it and she said, "Come out!" and kissed my belly. So sweet!

15 Picture Recap of the Holidays!

Special thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law for sending me pictures from our trip home to the US for Christmas. If it wasn't for her...well I wouldn't have any! So, here is a recap from our trip!

Arriving at the airport!

That was a loooong day of traveling! We left Edmonton at 8:15am and arrived in Tennessee at 8:30pm! We did save a couple hours with the time change, but it still made an exhausting day. However, when we arrived we were sooo excited!

Our greeters!

The next day we went to see my niece and nephew in their Christmas Pageant. It was too cute! My niece was Mary and my nephew was a cow, and he even sang a solo!

After changing clothes we had to take pictures of their matching knot dresses that my mother-in-law and I made!

This is when I learned an important lesson. We were taking pictures and talking after the pageant and the performers for church started practicing. I knew the song they were singing, so I sang along. Well, they saw me and dragged me onto the stage to sing too! Lesson learned:  Keep your mouth shut or you will have to sing in your own microphone!

So, so embarrassed!

It snowed soon after that and in order to not be stuck at home we were taxied up the driveway in the 4-wheeler.

It was a fun ride!

Then, on Friday we went out to celebrate Charlie's birthday. He requested this little Mom and Pop diner, and I think it is now becoming a tradition to go there. Just so you know, they specialize in Ostrich Burgers and from what I have been told, they are really good!

Then, we had cookie cake! Thanks to my Mother-in-law for those trick candles..they were hilarious!

While we were home, we also checked out the Speedway in Lights. They put up tons of lights to see, and even let you drive on the speedway!

Before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve. We always get together and eat breakfast and open presents.

And after we have opened a million presents and destroyed the sun room, we took off to see Santa!

It was a super fun time at home! We left Christmas Eve to spend a week with my parents who live close by. Claire loved seeing her Lou and Gramps (and Rocky the cat was a huge hit, even though he wasn't as enthusiastic as Claire!)
The night before we left we had Claire's birthday party. I have never seen her so excited! And then we left the next morning. It is hard to believe that we won't be back home until next Christmas! But, then we will be taking a new baby with us! Time will fly by, I'm sure!

Return to the Ice Festival

This time we made it! We were so happy to wake up to much warmer temperatures! It was around 34 degrees...and while that may not be too warm, it felt great!
After we parked the car, we started walking and then it hit us that we weren't sure if we were going the right way. Charlie turned to an elderly couple behind us and said, "do you know how to get to the ice festival?" Okay, so those of you who know my sweet husband know that his accent is very east Tennessee-ish so when he said ice it didn't really sound like ice to those poor Canadians. They looked all confused and he repeated himself and they kept looking confused...finally the man looked at his wife and said, "what is he talking about?" and she said, "i don't know. something about an asp festival..?" Don't worry I was able to step in and use my less-east-Tennessee-ish accent to straighten out the whole situation. (This really reminded me of the time Charlie asked some workers in the dollar store if they had any kites and they could not for the life of them understand what he was talking about. And at that time we were still living in Kentucky!!)
Anyway, we got in line to pay and I was surprised when we were told to kick the ice block before entering the park to remove the dirt off our shoes. (You should see the mess that is the roads, parking lots, and sidewalks!)
We were really impressed with the sculptures! They were so intricate!

Buddha...

We took Claire to ride down the little ice slide. Next year we will put her in some ski pants, even though she didn't mind getting her jeans a little wet.

Fun!

Buddhist god...

Lost in the ice maze.

This is a warrior fighting a dragon.

Chinese vase for good luck.

Charlie's favorite...a transformer holding a car.

And next year, Claire will be riding this awesome dragon slide. They had special mats to ride down on and it went super fast. If I wasn't pregnant, I probably would have tried it out!

Neat, huh?

Claire and me in front of a castle gate.

We really enjoyed looking at the ice carvings and just being outside! After we finished we stopped by the farmer's market. It stays open year round and was full of tons of good things to eat!

Hopefully the weather will stay warm so we can spend more time outside next weekend!

14 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:
How Far Along:  I'm 14 Weeks!
Size of Baby: The baby is the size of a lemon!
Total Weight Gain/Loss: Not sure...I don't think anything yet.
Maternity Clothes: Not yet...but I think I will be soon!
Gender: We will find out February 25th! I can't wait!
Movement: I have felt the baby move a few times. It is nice to feel that wiggle every once in a while.
Cravings: Cheese, Yogurt, Mac and Cheese, Rice, Cookies fresh from the oven (thanks Charlie!)
Symptoms: I'm having trouble sleeping. I toss and turn a lot, and my side (which used to be) is not comfortable anymore.
Best moment this week: Deciding on a name if the baby is a boy...I'll let you know in February!

Weekend Recap

Well, the snow has finally let up! I kind of want to hold my breath after saying that...but so far today there is no snow. And we are having a heat wave! Right now it is 17 degrees! It has been stuck below zero for so long I might break out my shorts and flip flops!
Over the weekend we were determined not to be stuck inside like the weekend before, so we went ahead and got all ready. Then, Charlie decided we would drive to the end of the neighborhood and if the roads were bad we would go to Wal-Mart, but it the roads were okay we would go to the big mall. Lucky for us, the roads were fair. I wouldn't say they were okay by any means. Not knowing where your lane is and having to follow the tracks made by the cars in front of you does not mean the roads are okay. Anyway, we headed to the mall. When we arrived we made up our own parking space, since the parking lot was covered by six inches of snow. That was an adventure!
It was fun to be out of the house! I have managed to make it out one day each week by myself (though not yet this week!) and it is really stressful to worry about the roads and possibly getting stuck somewhere, so for Charlie to be with me I thought I was on vacation.
We ate in the food court and Charlie got some kind of taco from a place you have never heard of (he said Taco Bell is better!) and I got KFC. Who knew they had chicken fries? And they were good! I kind of thought about cafeteria lunches as I ate them, but I managed to happily eat them all and enjoy them...which is saying a lot since being pregnant has caused some difficulty in the eating department.
Then, we took Claire to GalaxyLand to let her ride a few rides. That has to be the best part about the mall and having a two year old. She is free and happy to just enjoy three rides.
So we shopped a while and I tried on maternity jeans that made me look like I stuffed garbage bags in my backside and then we went home.
I guess Charlie was feeling adventurous after that because he talked me into going to the ice festival after church on Sunday. I packed fleece lined pants and snow boots for Claire and after church I took her in the bathroom and bundled her up. We thought we were ready!
I got out my directions and we drove a few blocks to the festival. We parked and asked a passerby where the festival was. She told us two blocks on the left. So, we started trudging through the snow. Let me just take a second to say..IT WAS COLD! Minus 5 outside, with snow and wind! We made it ONE BLOCK (half way there!) and Charlie turned around and looked at me. I admit I was dragging behind...my Emu boots are not a great substitute for snow boots. He asked if I was ready to go back to the car. I was proud I was still going! But, we turned around and went back to the car. Claire had her face buried in Charlie's coat and when we put her in her carseat she started crying. It was the most miserable I have been since moving here! My face was numb and we all were shivering. So, we drove by the ice festival instead! We think we will make it this weekend (it is supposed to be around 30 degrees). And so, that is how we ended up eating at Tony Roma's instead of seeing the ice festival!
And that was a true Canadian weekend! ha!
P.S. here is what Gus's trench looks like now...look closely and you can see where he used to be able to go straight!

Guess what?!

Claire has a special announcement to make...

We are excited that we will be adding a new member to the family in July! God has definitely blessed us!

So much Snow!!!

We have just survived our first Candaian snowstorm. I feel like I deserve a blue ribbon or something! I haven't seen this much snow since maybe 1998, and I'm not sure Tennessee was hit with this much then. Anyway, the fun started on Friday afternoon and didn't stop until sometime late Saturday night. It is hard to know how much we got, but I would say it is close to a foot. We still have October's snow on the ground, so everytime it snows it just adds to what was already there.
Claire has enjoyed the storm. She has watched Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast and Charlie came back from the store with Snow White today. He said he thought it would be good to have three movies in the rotation, but I know he just wanted to watch Snow White again!
I am  glad we were stuck in all together on the weekend. I would have worried if Charlie had tried going to work. He said the roads were really bad in our neighborhood....so even snow tires have their limitations!

This is the view out our upstairs window before we went to bed last nigh.

Gus, on the other hand, hates the snow. He has been sent out to potty and a few times in the last couple of days and he couldn't make it hardly down the stairs. He just turns around and looks at you like why do you put me through such misery? Poor dog...
Charlie tried to help him by digging him a trench this afternoon. It even has two different routes! So, if he decided he would rather potty by the side of the fence....now he has options!

Checking everything out.

Don't you wish you had a nice trench to potty in? Ha!  

I now have a TWO year old!

Claire's new love lately has been Sesame Street. It's funny because I thought for the longest time that she would never be able to sit still and watch a tv show, but suddenly she can stare with her mouth open for an hour at Sesame Street. So, what theme would be better for a birthday party?
We celebrated the night before we left with family. It was so much fun, and I have never seen Claire so excited! She went on and on about her birthday cake and her cousins coming and how she wanted to tickle them! Isn't that funny?

Can't celebrate without an Elmo cake!

After the guests had arrived, we ate dinner together. I got the joy of sitting at the kids table this year. Just so you know, you could only sit at that table if you were a boy or a girl. Whew! I am so glad I fit into one of those categories!
Then, we headed downstairs to open presents. I admit that Charlie and I were a little worried about the presents. We had already packed our suitcases and weren't sure if we could manage to fit anything else into them. But, we have smart family members. Claire got many clothes, small toys, and things that collapsed flat.

The tent was a huge hit!

After we had destroyed my parents living room, we went back to the kitchen for cake. My SIL took lots of pictures of everyone posing with Claire.

Claire, Mommy, and Daddy

Claire and her cousins...she had stopped tickling them for the moment!

My parents with Claire.

Charlie's parents with Claire.

Claire with Auntie and "G"

Claire and her Great Grams

It was a great party! Claire stayed up way too late and by the time she was in bed, we gave up the thought of ringing in the new year at midnight. Instead, we toasted at ten o'clock and went to sleep. Charlie and I had to get up at three (yes, THREE!) to be at the airport for our first flight. Thanks to all the family that joined us to celebrate Claire's special day!