Zoom, Zoom!

The caterpillar. Just watch...

Playtime

So... as you can see, the big kids are are enjoying the "tickle trunk" just as much as the little kids! (again, the middle picture is one of Madeline's creations)
They also like to sit in the suitcase. I think this is the day that Madeline peed in the suitcase- it was just THAT exciting! Good thing it is made of hard plastic and nylon!
The little guy in the bottom right picture is Jenna's birthday twin, David. They are 1 1/2 hours apart. David has a little infatuation with Jenna. He follows her everywhere and wants to give her kisses and hugs a lot! It is kind of cute (he is just a very affectionate little guy). One day while he was supposed to be naping, all you could hear from the room was "Jenna, Jenna!!" It all started when they were babies...
He will be staying with us for 5 days while his parents take a little- much deserved- vacation . This will be challenging, but fun!

The rest of the house...plus a little cuteness!

So as you can see, the house is pretty big. Please also notice the large deck to the right of the picture. This is off the dinning area. The backyard has been going through a lot of changes. Apparently it was full of sick trees that our landlord had to cut down (either cut them down or let them fall on his house). There are little houses to the left of the backyard picture that will be torn down as well. The previous owner trained dogs for the RCMP and also had peacocks!!?? All in all, it is pretty nice to run around in! There is also hazelnut and walnut trees for the squirrels to snack on.
Now to address the gratuitous cuteness pictures of Jenna. The first picture is on one of our daily "adventure walks" as Madeline calls them (not today though, it is tooooo cold), and the second picture is Jenna being very proud and very coy with her o-so-jammy-face. I think she spreads the jam around like this on purpose! She is beginning to be a poser in front of the camera. She is also starting to form words a little more. We still are waiting until March 10th for the speech therapist to come for the first visit... (much longer wait list than Victoria). Although Jenna is not forming words with her lips, she is communicating better and better each day. We are using a lot of ASL (sign language) to communicate and she is saying words like please.."eeeeezzzee" while doing the sign. She also says Madeline "Nadala". (Try saying this out loud. You can see how it doesn't take lips to speak. She is adapting to her challenge). It is very sweet listening to her little voice... except when she is yelling or crying...
Anyway,
enjoy!

Our Fort Langley Home

So, here it is... looks pretty much like all the other houses we have lived in... notice the nice crown molding throughout with paint and decorative detailing... It is a late 1970's home, but some finishings are done to make it look older (in a good way).

Notice too on Madeline's bed there is no longer a safety rail. She's a "big girl now". She hasn't fallen out of bed once.

Off the dining area there is a large deck and behind that a LARGE yard (it's dark out now, so I'll get a picture on the blog tomorrow...hopefully)

Our landlord's (who live downstairs) are very wonderful! They are so accomodating and seem to love the girls. They have 2 little dogs of their own, so they are patient people. They are both around our age, so we connect well. He is even letting us have an organic composter! I am SOOO excited not to have to throw out perfectly good compost! (thanks for that mom). The recycling here is not as extensive as Victoria so that is a little annoying, but we'll just have to suck it up... (in Victoria, we could recycle pretty well everything except diapers, but they were working on that (a giant blender that grinds everything up then puts it back into the earth).
OOokay, on that note, look for pictures of the yard, front of the house and kitchen tomorrow...

Yep! He's the love of my life...

Madeline's Creation... I don't think I need to say anything else...

Christmas 2007

Well, hello all!!
We have been very busy the last month as we have packed, moved, unpacked, had lots of family for Christmas, Stew started his practicum and I helped my brother move by cleaning his old house with my mom. That is why there has not been a posting in over a month...
We all seem to be settling in well and we LOVE Fort Langley. We definately could see ourselves living here long term... but that is up to God...
Like I said earlier, we had family over to our house for Christmas time this year. My parents were down and Steve and Ali (with their baby boy doggy "Jake") came over. My parents came down for Christmas and also to help Steve move... They found life a little difficult as they had to spread themselves in 3! (this is the first time in a long time that all three of their children have lived in the same area). I am sure they found it very difficult to spend time with their grandchildren... *sarcasm*
In all of our packing and moving, we decided not to bring anything Christmas with us because we didn't know where we would be or what we would be doing... so, our tree was decorated very differently this year. I made garland out of popcorn and cranberries and Stew made paper chains and candy ornaments. We had a lot of fun being so crafty. The girls were very interested in all of the ornaments and would "lick" them, but they never disappeared... until we took the tree down and ate them...
And yes, that is a dumptruck. My dad has wanted the kids to have one for a long time. When he found this one, there was no question. It even makes the same sounds as the real truck including back-up beeper and horn. The girls love it. Jenna also received a "tickle trunk" of dress up clothes and adornments. Some were new and some were my old dress-up clothes. The girls...and parents... have some serious fun with it!

So, if you look closely at the picture of Jenna standing by the tree with a candy cane, you will see some branches outside. If you look further, you would be able to see Stew's school. It's that close! He seems to be enjoying his time there (all 5 days of it) and is getting excited now about taking over in February! He is so good at what he does and has such passion that I think the children are really going to like him (grades 8 & 9). There were some kids who were excited to see that he was back (from his observation period in October).

We live in the heart of the Fort and have enjoyed exploring. It is just a short walk to downtown and all the wonderful little shops. The atmosphere is really great. Apparently there are a lot of movies shot here but we haven't encountered that yet.
My mom and I also found her uncle and cousin in the cemetery just down the road. At first we couldn't find it- it was almost totally covered with grass. I came back a few days later and cut the grass away. It is nice moving to the home of my ancestory. (all 4 of my mom's grandparents, and some other relatives are also burried in Langley at the Murrayville site, and my grandmother grew up here too).
Anyway,
enough about my heritage,
I will get pictures of the house up soon... I can't seem to keep it clean long enough to take some pictures. Madeline and Jenna are too busy "exploring" their new home. It is truly a delight for the girls to have their own room!!!!!! I have found that there is less fighting and they each have their own space to get away from each other. Plus, we have our room back! When the girls shared a room, Jenna used to nap in our room otherwise NO ONE would nap... It is nice to go into my room to curl up and read or nap or clean! (what a novelty).