I Miss October

I miss October and its warm weather. November and these minus degree temperatures are making me depressed. I miss being able to go outside in only a sweat shirt. I miss playing outside and not hearing "Mooooom! It's cooooold!" I miss seeing the grass and leaves - I hate snow!

We took advantage of October's warm weather as often as we could. Which included a last minute day trip out to the acreage one Sunday. Just our little family went out and spent the day playing in the leaves, playing on the playground, riding dirt bikes and having a weiner roast. It was an awesome day.

(As promised a long time ago - a picture of Mark's "awesome" bike. lol)

Logan: "Mom!! We got air!"

Mark: "Logan! What part of don't tell mom didn't you understand?!"

Yummm... hot dogs and marshmellows roasted over an open fire.

Sooooooo glad I packed a change of clothes for each kid!!

Twick or Tweet

I don't think its a big secret.. Mark hates pumpkins and the mess/work that comes with carving them. And every year I promise Mark "Next year we wont buy/carve a pumpkin, I promise! This is the last one." But then every year I still end up bringing one home, and guess who ends up carving it? And doesn't he looked thrilled?

This is why I break my promise every year... this kid. He LOVES it!

This year he and daddy argued quite a bit about what their pumpkin should look like. Logan wanted to attempt a very difficult Spiderman design - but lets face it, neither Mark or I are very artistic people, so we tried to get him to settle for the traditional pumpkin face.

Finally they settled on a "spooky" face and started carving.

And doesn't Logan looked THRILLED with the end result?

The night of Halloween...

After watching a Halloween episode of Dora the Explorer, Katie kept saying that she wanted to be a ghost. Too bad for Katie this little bumble bee number was already bought last year.

And true to Logan's nature, he INSISTED that he HAD to be Spiderman. But not just any Spiderman.... Black Spiderman!

We didn't have too high of expectations for either kid trick or treating wise. In the past its been a struggle to get Logan to go to more than 5 houses - and this was Katie's first "real" trick or treating experience. We thought she would HATE it as she is afraid of EVERYTHING! But she loved it! She was a natural! She ran from house to house, climbing the stairs by herself and yelling "Twick or Tweet". When we tried to make her sit in the stroller for a bit she cried "Noooo! I want more candy!!"

We met up with a very pretty Payton dressed as a butterfly.

And a very cute Jaden, who didn't seem to overly care that it was Halloween.

Enjoying their loot at the end up the night before bed - and boy did the two of them rake in a lot of candy!

The Perfect Hitmen Game

We went to watch the Hitmen take on the Portland Winterhawks - it was double exchange night, so we got to exchange each one of mom and dad's unused season tickets for 2 tickets. I guess not a lot of people knew about double exchange night as there was hardly anyone there. That, or maybe it was the fact that it was a weekday night.

But, it didn't bother us that there wasn't very many other fans there. That just means more chances for us to be on the jumbotraun! Logan and Katie were both on the big screen multiple times through out the night.

AND, we got Farley almost all to ourselves! We were lucky enough to get GREAT seats (2nd row, right behind the goalie) and it happened to be where the zambonie AND Farley came out. Farley came and "talked" to us a lot. Logan had a LOT of stories to tell him.... poor Farley.

Initially Katie liked Farley. She gave him high fives and said "hi". But then Farley started to tickle her...


It wasn't long after that Katie to decide she no longer liked Farley.

Despite bringing out all their best dance moves, and some of the only kids there, poor Logan and Katie were crushed that they didn't win the "Dance for Your Dinner" competition. But at least they were contestants and made it up on the big screen.... again.

We saw a lot of action from our seats... to bad it was always the Winterhawks scoring. The Hitmen lost 7-1.

Even Farley was getting pretty ticked off.

Farley brought both Logan and Katie a surprise during the last period. For Logan he brought blue cotton candy - something Logan had asked for all night, but was continuously told "Only Grandpa buys Cotton Candy, and grandpa's not here".

And he tried to win Katie over by bringing her a plush Farley.... I don't think it worked.

In the end it was the perfect Hitmen game. We really couldn't have asked for much more. Well, maybe a win on the Hitmen's behalf.... and it wouldn't have hurt to win the 50/50.

Poor daddy - the mule horse - carrying both kids back to the car.

Too Big! Go Away!

Over the last week I have read so many beautiful things written by family members and friends about Connor. Things that have made me laugh out loud remembering that special little boy, and things that have brought me to tears wishing he was still here.

I wish I could write words like those. I wish I could put all my emotions and feelings into sentences and produce something beautiful and worthy of Connor. But the truth is, I've discovered that in circumstances like this, I can't. I can't find the right things to say (and more often than not, end up saying something awful by mistake and wind up putting my foot in my mouth.)

I've been very blessed to have been Connor's cousin. He was the only other red headed grandchild, and because of that I always felt a small, but special connection to him. I will always remember his funny "Connorisms" and how he would destroy our basement everytime he came over :) I'll remember the "love taps and kicks" he'd give in grandma and grandpa's crowded living room (and how even Katie had learned to walk around the coffee table to avoid being loved by Connor) I'll remember how he used to cry out "HEY!" from the back seat of the van when you drove by a McDonalds or playground. How the giggles would spill out when he just looked at my sister Robyn - (I agree Connor, she really is just that funny looking!) A particular trip to Burger King and how he wore his paper crown all the way back to our house.

I'm very thankful to Uncle Jerry and Auntie Geraldine for sharing him with us all - for allowing us to be there with them during his last few days. For allowing us to be there when he left to be with our Heavenly Father in heaven. It was very powerful and moving, and something I will remember for ever.

My Goof Ball

Logan's new head wear

Logan made this little number at preschool the other day - nice face Logan!

They were learning about the very first Thanksgiving and how the pilgrims asked the Indians to come and join them for a feast - at least thats what we can gather from the bits and pieces Logan tells us. Logan is LOVING preschool. I was worried he would become bored with it after the first two or three weeks, but no.... every single morning he comes running into our room and asks "Do I have school TODAY?!?!" Now I regret putting him in only two days a week, rather than 3! Every time I pick him up from school I ask him, "What did you learn/do today?" And I usually get the same answer "Uhh... I don't member". But slowly throughout the week bits and pieces come out. He tells us random bits of information that Mark and I can only assume he learnt at school. He sings new songs neither Mark or I have ever heard before (that again, must be from school, that or this kid is a musical genius!) He tells us funny stories about what his new friends Theo or Jacob did that day, and how Esther got in trouble. Oh, and he ALWAYS is sure to tell me what the other kids had for snack and how he wants the same thing next time!

This is Logan's new FAVORITE piece of head wear... his dirt bike helmet!!

Mark bought an incredibly old and geeky looking dirty bike off of someone he moved a couple of weeks ago. It's like a 1977 yamaha two stroke something or other... very lame if you ask me. But if you ask Mark, its the coolest thing ever! (I'll be sure to take pictures on Saturday when we're at the acreage for Thanksgiving). Since Mark sold all of his dirt biking stuff a couple of years ago he began scouring kijiji for a used helmet. Nothing too fancy or expensive as the bike was practically free and will be used mainly for just putting around the acreage. He found one online that looked like a good deal, so we all jumped in the car and accompanied him to go see it. Good thing we all decided to go, because the seller also had some kid helmets they were looking to get ride of at the same time. So Logan was lucky enough to come home with this awesome fox helmet - now all he needs is the bike/quad!! :)

Logan's First Day of Preschool

Logan started preschool at the beginning of September. He was so excited. He wore his backpack around for days getting ready.

The typical "First day of school" shot - you'll see a lot of these over the next 20 years.

Posing infront of his "class room" - the lovely portables.

Examining all the cool toys preschool has

Logan and his new best friend, Jacob.

Logan LOVES preschool. Every morning he comes into my room and asks, "Do I get to go to school TODAY?!"

What we've been up to all Summer...

Seeing as how I've barely blogged all summer long, I figured its time for an update!! Here's what we've been up to all summer long!

We've spent a LOT of time in our own backyard. The kids love our little swimming pool, and have spent many afternoons swimming.

We did manage to go camping one weekend. We pulled our trailer out to Mt Kidd in Kananaskis for the annual golf tournament. Even though there was half the amount of golfers/campers there this year, we still had an AWESOME time. The kids loved playing by the river and doing all your typical camping stuff.

We spent many weekends out at the acreage. There our children/dog can run wild and free. Every time we went out there we had excellent weather and good company.


On one of our acreage trips we drove down the road to the Dog Pound rodeo. The Vanderveen family has been going to the rodeo for several years. It is always a lot of fun and lots of action.

We were also kept very busy this summer with softball. Two years after the disolving of Team Moses our friends once again banned together and formed a new team, Scared Hitless. However, this year they didn't join the Christian league, but instead opted to play in the same beer league that Good Times (another team from our church) also plays in. The competition was much stronger in this league than the CCMS. Scared Hitless won about 1/2 of their games, but still had a lot of fun each Sunday.

Logan and my mom went to Vermont for 10 days at the beginning of August. My Aunt Donna and Uncle Ray live on a dairy farm there. Logan had a ton of fun and was never homesick.

We drove out to Little Bow Lake to spend the day with my grandparents and little cousins. Ever since I was very little my grandparents have been taking all their grandkids on "fishing" trips every summer. I don't think we actually ever did a lot of fishing. I just remember swimming in the lake 24/7. My kids LOVED the lake, and big grandpa and big grandma were kind enough to let Logan stay for 2 nights with them as well.

A lot of our weekends have been spent with family and friends. The pictures below are from various weekends hanging out with the whole Vanderveen family in my parents backyard. (Most of them from my grandma's birthday).

Our Calaway park passes haven't gotten a ton of use unfortunately. We've been twice, and I still hope to go one or two more times before summer is over. We went early this week with Mark's mom. It was a super hot and busy day. The kids weren't on their best behaviour, but we still had a lot of fun.

So now you know what's been keeping me away from the blog. Hopefully now that summer is coming to an end I will have more time to keep this updated!