When we moved

Since my digital camera is still out of commission, I've searched the archives for some photos that received limited distribution.

These pictures show the girls reaction to our new house in Calgary. Sarah is hanging by the door of her new bedroom, and Alison is jumping for joy in the breakfast area. I think they like the new house, don't you?

Puppy in the Snow

If only we could bottle the pure joy Rustle feels when he gets into the snow.

He runs, he jumps, he rolls, he leaps, and he bounds. He is even learning to catch (and eat) snowballs. He has a hard time waiting the 2 seconds it takes me to make a snowclump big enough to throw at him (darn dry Calgary snow), but he is learning to sit and wait because a snowball is a HUGE reward.

It's a dog's life.

Toothless Wonder

This is Alison's missing tooth. It's teeny, it's tiny, and it has created a large gap in her smile. It fell out last night, just before bedtime. Just in time to put it under her pillow and collect a whopping $2 in exchange for the former chomper.

We hope the tooth fairy enjoys the teeny, tiny tooth.

Lake Louise

We went for our first day of the ski season today. There was a World Cup race on and we got to see some racers, as well as ski down the mountain. Lots of fun.


This is a picture of the girls on the gondola. We only went up the gondola once today - its a long way down the entire mountain for Miss Alison, so we just went back up the chair for our subsequent runs. We stopped to watch the end of the racing, and Sarah noticed that the gondola had stopped running. We were glad we weren't on it then.

Then we got home and found out that the gondola had yet to restart. They waited until 5:30 to start lifting people out. We are REALLY glad we didn't get back on it!

Hopefully they'll get that all fixed up before we go back next weekend.

The Goblet of Fear

Sarah and I went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last night. It was lots of fun, but even though we had read the book and previewed a scary scene, Sarah was still quite upset a couple of times in the movie. First, in the exaggerated dragon scene, which didn't match what either of us had imagined, and in the scene she had already watched on the internet.

Alison, on the other hand, was upset that she didn't get to go, so I took her to Chicken Little today. Frankly, I found that much scarier. Being a Disney film, I had to explain why one of the parents was dead, and I had a kid on my lap while aliens blasted characters into dust.

It may be some time before I have the energy to take these two to a movie again.

Princess Party Pictures

The pictures are in! The old film dependent camera has done us proud, and we can now share the joy that was the Princess Party.

Here is Princess Alison.


The ladies cast a magic spell to become Princesses.

They played games...

did crafts........


and ate cake. Yum!

Sarah update

Since we haven't heard much about Sarah lately, I thought I'd confirm that I have not forgotten her. We may notice an abundance of Sarah posts around her birthday, too.

Sarah is still lovely and smart and playing with her friends as often as possible.












Here is a beautiful picture of Sarah and Rustle on the first day of school. (Yes, that is Alison sneaking in at the window. She didn't get to go until the next day.)

Happy Birthday!

Well, our little girl is 5 years old now. She says she only feels a little bit different. No outwardly visible signs of change, even though she is a whole hand now.

She had a big day - so much so that she was tired by 12:30, and ready to sleep on the chair at the restaurant where Daddy took her to lunch. But she got a second wind when we got home and Greg was ready to do a puzzle.

She had all her favourites for dinner - shrimp, salad and ravioli (all separate, they don't taste good together, apparently). Blew out a candle on a brownie, and then we pulled out the big time excitement - presents.

Alison took in quite a load of loot. She was quite pleased with all the beautiful clothes, trying on most of them as she went. She played a lot with the Barbie, the prince and the horse (once Mom could get it all out of the packaging), played a tune on the xylophone, and took some pictures with her new Bratz digital camera.

All in all, a great day for Alison. She'd like to thank Gramma, Grampa, Nana, Papa, Mary, Ed, Lucas, Jack, Sam, Susie, Wojtek, Alex, Mackenzie, Mommy, Daddy, Sarah and of course, Rustle, for helping make her day special.

The last day she's four

On this last day of being four, a little birthday retrospective of the littlest lady of the house.

Poise and Elegance

This is Alison practicing to be a princess. Beautiful, isn't she?

Next step - a FLAT book to practice her posture.

Princess Party Part 1

Alison had a lovely princess party this afternoon, with 7 little princess friends. It was lovely, the children had tons of fun, and the loot was more than generous.

Photos of this glorious event will be delayed a few days due to the damage done to my digital camera by the princess in question. The old-fashioned, film-dependent camera was pulled out of storage, put into action, and we must now await the results.

We should only be sitting on the edge of our seats for about a week. Thank you for your patience.

The incredible growing puppy

Looking at Rustle now, you must think, "Hey, that is a large dog!"

But it wasn't always that way.

May 2005 - 2 months

July 2005 - 4 months

October 2005 - 6 months - Check out that tail!

The best laid plans

Sarah had big ideas for her Halloween costume this year. She was going to be a bat - no, make that a VAMPIRE BAT!

So, crazy woman that I am, I set about making a vampire gown, cape, and got some wire and panty hose to fashion kid-sized bat wings. We bought vampire fangs that had a special compound to mold to Sarah's teeth for comfort, and black hair spray for the extra spooky effect. Then we found a hairband with perfect little bat ears.

But the ears weren't comfy, the fangs weren't comfy, the wings (attached to the cape) bugged her. The hair band, you guessed it, wasn't comfy. The black hair spray was stinky, and faded.

But at least the gown fit.

Would you get on this bus?

Everyday I send my children to school on the 7:41 bus. Usually I am running ahead, flagging down the driver while two girls straggle behind.

They think they have the best bus driver ever. I'm pretty sure they do too.

The bark is bigger than the bite

I know dogs chase sticks.

I know dogs chew sticks.

But I don't think Rustle knows that this log might be a bit big for him.

Buh

"Mommy, how do you spell, 'buh'?"

"Buh isn't a word, honey. What do you mean?

"How do you spell, 'buh'?"

"'Buh' as in what, honey? Buh-loney, buh-loon?

"'Buh' as in 'buh-bye.'"

Are we having fun yet?

This is Sarah playing (?) with her friend's Tamagotchi. She says that it's fun.


I'm really not seeing it.

An announcement

Alison has been quite a prolific writier/artist lately. It's gotten so she can no longer just give me a masterpiece, but must also formally announce it.

Where are the girls?

So what do you do if your puppy is a bit hyper and chasing you around the kitchen? Why, hide in the cupboard, of course.

No more cone of silence

Today is a day to celebrate . The stitches are healed, and no longer must the puppy sport the evil cone of silence. Bring on the giant rawhides!

However, he will always have the title "Neutered Male" on his official documents.