Things that have made me happy this week . . .

1. A surprise date with Marc for tea:


2. Ty: (Of course!)
3. A great visit with my Dad!

4. The view from Chilliwack Mountain:
5. Pictures of my niece Maria:
6. Ty laughing


7. An e-mail from our former tenant in Edmonton. We had major sewage issues when we first moved into our house in Edmonton, all of them in the basement where three very patient first year university students lived. These sewage issues involved sewage backed up into the bathtub and sewage all over their floor. I (and Bethany, Amy and Chandra)have fond memories of Marc hosing down their laundry in our backyard that had somehow become covered in poop. I also remember Bethany and I walking down the icy winter roads with a wet vac filled with sewage looking for an open sewer drain to dump it into. Bethany is now a mom and has her own tenants and sent us an e-mail this week saying they had poop problems in their basement in the first few days of having a tenant. Marc and I had a good laugh and reminisced about our Edmonton house and being first time land lords cleaning up poop and cigarettes in our basement. We feel for you Bethany and pass the methane fueled torch to you! Oh the memories.

Crazy Child

As mentioned in a previous post, Ty has a new picture taking face. He does it all the time. And when I say all the time, I mean ALL THE TIME!!!! As soon as he sees the camera he looks at it and makes this face. I think it has something to do with the light that comes on first (although he does it with my iphone too and there is no light on that one) but I also think he takes after me and my love of making faces for the camera. Crazy kid!

I took this set tonight:


Here's a couple more:


There are some pictures of Ty not making faces. Here he is brushing his tooth for the first time. He has also discovered drawers. Uh Oh!

extreme makeover: home edition

after four months in our new house our kitchen is finally the way we want it. we still have to hang a few pictures and hooks, but looking back at the before shots, the difference is striking.

here is the kitchen and living room when we looked at the house this past summer.

now here is the same space in the winter after much work.

here is an example of the pink tile so beloved by the house's original owners. floor, counter and backsplash. also around the fireplace and in the window wells.

the new tiles come in lots of colours, but no pink.
kylie came up with the idea and the colours for the backsplash, but we had professionals come in to tear out the old tile, cut out and replace the drywall and then install a backsplash more in line with our sensibilities.
it sounds weird when you describe it as a bunch of colours of tile randomly placed with a bit of stainless steel thrown in for sparkle (or flair... we have at least 11 pieces of flair). but we like it, and we're the ones that count i guess.

tyrn likes it too.

now on to the garage. my goal here was to come out with a burst of constructive energy early in our tenure on little mountain, creating an effective work space in the garage to facilitate projects elsewhere in the house and yard. it took a little longer than i had hoped, but after turning this space:

into this space,

it was much easier to turn this side of the garage into efficient storage.
building the shelves was extremely enjoyable. 2x4s and wood screws are like lego for adults; with the added pleasure of a cordless impact driver. it was nice to have the island cabinets from the original kitchen to remount and store cleaning products, toxic chemicals, painting supplies and lightbulbs in.

we still have lots of room on the shelves.

in closing i will offer two pictures of our latest pastime. watching ty take my toque off.

it is just a little bit longer than his arms, but he is getting the knack.
other than playing with ty, our days lately have been spent working, running in the woods with niko, organizing the house, reading, cooking tasty meals and eating lots of chocolate. can't complain. it was even sunny today. life is good.

Catch Up

We have been neglecting our blogging duties as of late. I am getting over my "man cold" (Marc's words not mine, that he quickly "ate" after seeing me incapacitated on the couch vomiting and coughing up a lung) ;) and we are getting used to the January days of rain. We haven't brought our camera too many places lately. I even forgot it when I went to Lethbridge just after Christmas. Ty enjoyed lots of time with Grandma and Grandpa and cousin Maria. (Oh and Uncle Brad and Auntie Raquel too!)Here are a few pics of my trip there:


While I was gone, Marc got lots done around this house. Including this: Look familiar?


Ty received a new car for Christmas from my mom. (Hopefully I won't be typing that after his 16th birthday!) I didn't bring it home with me because of its size. Although my mom did ask if I could bring it as my carry on. Ummm no. ;) Ty was so excited to see his car in Chilliwack when he woke up from his nap. He's a crazy kid! (Not so much a baby anymore!)*


*I must admit after re-reading this I noticed that my predilection towards brackets is out of control this post!!! Send help.

country roads

malak aleki maka*

Merry Christmas everyone!!! The G family of 3 celebrated our Christmas in Chilliwack this year by ourselves. We had a really nice week this week paired nicely with visiting and enjoying decorating our new house and eating the 3 C's. (I'm sure many of you are familiar with the 3 C's at Christmas- Chocolate, Christmas baking and Cheese!!!)

Lights at Minter Gardens
Visiting
"Come on Santa, let's go for a ride!"

Marc and I and Ty went to church last night then came home, put Ty to bed and had fondue and opened presents. If you look closely you will see what was supposed to be brie fondue transformed into a brie pancake. ;)
Before Church we attempted to take the obligatory in front of the tree shot with the camera. It's a good thing we have many years to perfect these!

On Christmas Eve, UPS came through and delivered the stocking my Granny knit for Ty. Thanks Granny, we love it!! You can't see it in the picture but his name is knit in green on the top.

For Christmas this year, Ty gave me the gift of starting to make faces for the camera:

*This post was supposed to be the second post about Hawaii but I got carried away with Christmas pictures. We are enjoying being a family of three this Christmas and feel very blessed this year!

**I bought Marc a remote control helicopter for Christmas and didn't realize it came with missiles and he is currently shooting me with them. If this post seemed hurried and disjointed, blame him!

Check this out!

Our friend Duane who took our great family pictures this summer is raising money for our brother in law Lowell. Lowell is legally blind and Duane is trying to experience what Lowell experiences by wearing modified glasses for two weeks. Check out Duane's blog and explanation of his initial plan here and updates here.


On another note we are back from Hawaii and entering Christmas craziness!!! Check back for more pictures soon.