The Olympic Torch Came to the Puddle

I am not a big fan of The Olympics, in fact I don't want to go anywhere near Vancouver when the Olympic are going on. However, this was a fun family event and did I mention FREE! We really enjoyed the entertainment and watching the torch make its way to the stage. This will most likely be a once in a lifetime event for our family. We got to see the mascots and Crystal had her face painted. The best part for Crystal was the fireworks.






Just think...in 22 years we will finish paying off the debt from Vancouver 2010. I think Calgary 88 just finished paying theirs off!

Cute Kitty Came for a Visit

Cute Kitty found its way into our house. Not such a good idea when Mike and Sean have allergies. This kitty has been hanging around our place for the last little while. We would see evidence of it's paw prints in the snow, but never actually saw the kitten until today. She's so cute. I wish we could have a kitten, but that isn't going to happen. So, this is the next best thing...having one come visit us(:

The Hills for our 5th Anniversary Weekend was a Blast!

We cooked pizza for the kids for dinner on Friday. Then they stayed at our chalet with Crystal so we could go out for a nice romantic dinner at The 1871 Lodge.

Sean and I getting ready to head out for Dinner at The 1871 Lodge.

Dinner was excellent. We both chose the special of the day. It was a bacon wrapped filet minon served with roasted potatos and root vegetables. It also included ceaser salad and multi-grain bread. Sean enjoyed a glass of Sleaman's Honey Brown and I enjoyed a couple of ceasers. They were really good, served with a pickled asparagus. They brought our steaks out on a rock and we finished cooing them to our liking. It was pretty neat because I've never done that before. We finished off with a piece of strawberry-rhubarb pie. It was a lovely dinner and we enjoyed having some alone time and reflecting on the past 5 years.

We all went tubing and had a blast.

We walked down to the teepee to see if the pond was good for skating on. We didn't end of skating. Too bad it would've been a lot of fun. But we were just too darn busy. We quite enjoyed soaking in the hot tub and swimming in the pool. We went tubing in the dark and had a great time. We pretty much had the hill to ourselves and it is way more slippery at night.

It was a fantastic way to spend our 5th anniversary and pre- celebrate Judy's 50th b-day. I'm so glad Rick & Judy were able to come out for the day.
A note to anyone who might want to stay at The Hills- don't pick Jan 8th weekend because they have the Dog Sled races there, which is good, but the dogs bark and yelp during the night and make it very hard to sleep!

Crystal's 1st day of Kindergarten (with us)

A few months past her 1st day of kindergarten, but here is Crystal on her 1st day of kindergarten in her new school. We had to go out and buy her school supplies with out a list. (thanks to Julie who has a son in the same classroom, but different days who quickly jotted down what they bought for their son) Then we had to buy her a back pack and indoor shoes. And of course a new outfit. That was something we did for our kids for their first day of school too as well as taking a picture before they headed out the door. Kindergarten is going good for her. We are very lucky to have an after school daycare program that she can attend. We are also truly blessed having a grade 7 student willing to walk her to school so that my kids won't be late for school since they are in high school and have to be there for 8:35am.
Crystal is fitting in very well in her new school. She is even invited to a birthday party already.

A glimpse at 2009

January 2009 was a quiet month for us. We celebrated our 4th anniversary. We visited Crystal in 100 Mile and we talked to councilors and social workers about wanting to adopt. February we were only allowed 1 visit with Crystal. When March rolled around I spoke to the worker and said that we need more visits with Crystal and were finally allowed to take her to our place. During Spring Break we went to the island with Kels and Mike. We had a busy week planned with Mike's 13th birthday party. We went to Cyber City for arcades and mini-golfing. We had my sister and her boys with us, so it was a lot of fun. We also went bowling and swimming/watersliding at the wave pool. It was a fun packed week and we partied like it was the 80's. I think it was a very special birthday for Mike. In April we celebrated my Aunt Nona & Uncle Don's 60th anniversary. It was in Kelowna on Easter weekend and we enjoyed seeing all our family and friends there. I finally met Sean's Aunt Linda and Uncle Gabe. We took a tour of their B&B. What a lovely piece of heaven. If you are even in Kelowna you should check in. Gabriel's Corner is the name of the B&B. In May we ended up being quite busy. Sean & I took a foster parents course which rand 2 night a week for 3 hrs for the entire month of May. It was a good course and it opened our eyes to the need there is in our community. We took the course in hopes to foster to adopt our niece since there was no adoption worker hired for WL yet. We bought a gently used Dodge Durango. We needed more room and the Durango seats 7. 2 weeks later we sold my car and put the money on the Durango loan. Mike went to Vancouver with his grade 7 class at the end of May and that was awesome for him(: Oh I almost forgot...we listed our home for sale May 15th.We also were able to have overnight visits with Crystal. June was fairly quiet. We increased our overnight visits with Crystal to 3 nights every other weekend. Things were going pretty good for us at this point and we were told that she would be moving in with us very soon because they had a baby being born that needed a baby placement home and they might need to move Crystal to accommodate the need. That didn't happen, so we were promised her by the end of summer and we registered her for Kindergarten at the same elementary school my kids went to. July was a crazy month for us. We accepted an offer on our house and they wanted to move in Aug. 15th. We thought that was great because then we didn't need to re-new the house insurance at the end of August. So that Sunday we went house hunting. It was so hot and we looked at a dozen places.Some were very scarey, some were Ok. We knew we needed a big yard and parking for our 4 vehicles and the boat and camper. Sean really wanted a garage. I really wanted a house that didn't need reno's since we spent 4 years fixing up our old place. One place we looked at had tennants in it and the place was a mess. I don't think they had taken the garbage out in months and the floors were covered in dirt, gravel and animal fecies. Yuck! We did find a place that we both agreed on, but it wasn't close to the kids' school and was a bit out of our price range. The realtor showed us one last house that didn't have a garage, but had 2 driveways and a side alley access for the back yard. She was thinking that maybe one day a garage could be built there. Anyways we walked in and fell in love with it! So we made our offer and then another offer and it was accepted. The only problem being was we could not get into the new house for 6 weeks. More glitches came with the sale of our house but I trusted and left it in God's Hands. It all worked out. We lived with our friends in between homes. The only sucky part to that was having to move twice! During that 6 week period we went on holidays and we were able to take Crystal with us. We visited my Uncle in Vernon, we went to a wedding in Kamloops, saw my sister and my friend Robin (and their families) in Maple Ridge and then headed to the island for the rest of our holidays. We stayed with my parents and then headed to Sayward to see Sean's Mom. They just bought a new tow truck business there. And of course we went fishing but were skunked. We came back just in time for school to start. Crystal ened up not being able to move in with us because our home study was not completed, so she started kindergarten in 100 Mile. Our home study was completed at the end of Oct. We were all moved into the house at the end of September and my parents came to help. We had our 1st Thanksgiving in the new house and celebrated it with my sister and her family. It was -22ºC that weekend. We put in a new furnace a week after Thanksgiving. November was Fall Break and we had Crystal for 10 days. We started having here every weekend in November, so as you can imagine life was very hectic for us having to drive back and forth and gas was not cheap either. December was a very special month for us as we became parents to Crystal on Dec. 18th and she has been here ever since.
So what a year eh? A new vehicle a new house and a new kid! We are loving it all very much. My kids walk to school and can come home for lunch, we are planning a trip to Edmonton over Spring Break and we will all fit in the Durango. Now we are looking forward to our 5th anniversary and we are going to The Hills Health Ranch for the weekend. We thought that would be very fitting since we were married there. The kids love it there. Swimming, skating tubing and who knows we night even get in a hay ride this time(:
One last thing I wanted to say is that God has truly blessed us and we are very thankful(:

Happy New Year!!!

Plenty of great food to munch on



Non-alchohol wine and yet the kids said they felt buzzed. Too funny(: