Happy Halloween

Better Late Than Never

This year we celebrated Mike's birthday over some apple pie (he likes pie better than cake) and a Halloween party. 

A few days later we put on our pj's and carved our pumpkins. 

Even Elsie joined in the fun.

Campbell's pumpkin was a cat.  I am not exactly sure where his love of cats comes from but it runs deep.  Lets hope its just a phase.  j/k

Campbell is one of the nuttiest kids I have ever met.  I wish that he would share his kookie personality with everyone.  The missionaries came over the other night for dinner and he wouldn't say a word to them.  Once Mike asked a cahttering Campbell why he doesn't talk like that to everyone and his reply was, "because I don't like them".   So apparently, if Campbell talks to you its a compliment. 

Logan still doesn't like to get his hands dirty if he can help it.  This was his new approach to cleaning out the pumpkin.  When that didn't work he returned to his rubber gloves. 

Mike and I dressed up as Roughrider fans (the Canadian football team from Saskatchewan).  They are a big deal here. You Americans might not get it but our friends thought it was funny.  This picture was taken after I had already taken off my watermelon hat.  Mike made them and I must say I he did a really good job. 

      

All the kids had astronaut costumes and we failed getting a picture of them all together.  Logan dressed up as a fire fighter for the halloween party at church which is somewhat ironic because he has a new and very real fear of fire alarms but that's another story.  Anyway I think they are adorable and they had a blast trick or treating this year.  Between the party at church and trick or treating they ended up with a load of candy! 

Sunday Afternoon

Elsie is almost five weeks old now.  The time has flown by.  She is so sweet and cuddly.  I don't know how she stays calm amongst the chaos of her two energetic brothers.  Let's just hope her peaceful energy starts to rub off on them.  We are all so glad she is a part of our family, it is hard to imagine life without her.

Life around here is crazy but it is so worth it.

Time Flies

I don't know where the time goes.  I have so much to catch up on, and a million pictures to post. Elsie is already a month old, ah! 

While I was pregnant I would often ask the boys what they thought we should name their little sister. Penelope and Millie were their two favorite names.  When we brought Elsie home from the hospital the boys announced that if we could name the baby they could to...thus Elsie became also known as Penelope.  I stayed home from church the first few weeks after Elsie was born and from what I understand several people asked the boys what we named our new baby to which they of course replied, "Penelope".  It has caused some confusion but I think it is hilarious.  It has been four weeks and they still refer to Elsie as Penelope. 

The boys are so sweet with Elsie.  They kiss her, talk to her, and beg to hold her all day long.  This is a picture of Logan watching TV while holding Elsie's hand, so cute!  Whenever she cries the boys do their best to comfort her.  They scramble to find her binki, pat her on the head, hold her hand, or sing to her. 

When Elsie was two weeks old we went to get pumpkins on our first real outing.  Dutch Growers green house has a fun hay bale maze every year and the kids loved it.  We had a hard time keeping up with the boys.  This dead end allowed me to catch Logan for a quick picture.

They ran through the maze atleast three times.

After much deliberation we took home three wonderful pumpkins to carve. 

Elsie Eva Garner

She is finally here!  Elsie arrived Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 7:18am weighing in at 10 lbs 7 ounces and 23 inches long. I think she looks exactly like her dad but I'll let you judge for yourself.

Elsie in the hospital.

Here is Elsie just before we left the hospital the next day.

I am so glad that my beautiful mother was here to help out.  She is such a good birthing coach and a great support.  Thank you mom for taking care of us.  We miss you so much and wish your trip was longer!

Elsie went on her first walk around the neighborhood today.  Here she is all bundled up against the chilly fall wind.

The boys love their new baby sister.  When Campbell came into the room at the hospital he walked straight over to Elsie and held out his arms to hold her.  The boys kept repeating, "she's so cute".  I think they are going to be protective big brothers and hopefully she can mellow them out a little. 

She is so cute even when she is crying which actually isn't often.  It has only been three days but she is such a good baby.  We feels so blessed to have her in our family. 

 A Little Trip (part 2)

After Waterton we headed down to Great Falls, Montana.  We were so close to the great USA we just couldn't resist.  First we headed to an air show.  I am pretty sure we have become total softies since adjusting to the mild Canadian summers because I was positive we were going to melt before the end of the show.  Actually, Logan and Campbell didn't seem to mind they were too busy enjoying the airplanes. 

I think the Blue Angels were their favorite part.  It was pretty incredible watching all the things that these jets could do.  At one point Campbell ducked down when they swooped down past the crowd. 

Next it was my turn to have fun so we went to Target.  Oh how I miss Target!

Needless to say, it was a full day so that night we relaxed at our hotel, ate snacks, and watched a movie together.

 

Before we left we were sure to take our traditional jumping on the bed pictures.  Here is Logan.

Campbell loved jumping on the beds but wasn't super cooperative in the process.  Here he is in Waterton.  I guess he is more of a diver than a jumper. 

Maybe Campbell  gets it from his dad.

And here I am, lovely isn't it? 

It was a fun but short trip with a lot of driving but I think we all enjoyed ourselves and would love to do it again.   

A Little Trip

We had the chance to take a trip over a long weekend so we headed to Waterton National Park (the Canadian side of Glacier National Park).  To get there we had to drive through Southern Alberta so we made sure that we swung by Raymond, the town where Mike's mother was born.  It was a quick stop but we were able to visit the grave of James Heninger, Mike's grandfather.  We also drove by the house he was raised in. 

The Cardston Temple was right on the way too. 

The boys enjoyed jumping on the beds when we got to our hotel in Waterton.  It is our family tradition to get actions shots, don't worry there are more to come.

This is what we saw right outside our hotel room.  We saw wild life all over the park.

We road the bicycle suri to Cameron Falls.  The falls were beautiful but the boys couldn't have cared less, they just wanted to get back on the bike.     

We had so much fun touring around Waterton by Suri.  The boys said it was their favorite part of the day. 

Did I mention Waterton was beautiful? 

Here is a another view of Upper Waterton Lake (taken from the Prince of Wales Hotel).

I have had many requests to see more of my growing belly so here you go.  I have seven weeks to go.

The canoe rental place closed minutes before we got to Cameron Lake.  We were so disappointed but glad that we got to enjoy the view (We'll go next time Logan, I promise). 

It was a very full day, after we biked around town we ate a delicious lunch at a restruant on the lake then we headed to red rock canyon.  I wish we had pictures, it was beautiful.  The boys walked up and down the shallow riverbed throwing rocks and playing in the water.  Next we drove to Cameron Lake (missed the canoeing wah, wah) and then ate dinner at Weiners of Waterton (which I highly recommend).  On our way out of the park we stopped by the famous Prince of Wales Hotel and continued on to Cardston where we stayed the night on our way down to Montana.  It was truely a great day.