The Santa Baby Project....

What would a Baby's first Christmas be without photos? I love doing these photos with my kids. Lachlan was a real cutie. Enjoy!

They get along so well...

I just love how Preston and Lachlan get along. Preston loves to hug and cuddle with Lachlan and he doesn't seem to mind it most of the time. Lachlan is really attached to his big brother. That's because he's also his main source of entertainment LOL! No matter what Preston is doing he'll drop everything to come spend a little time with Lachlan playing peek-a-boo or running around the basement making him laugh. Here they are spending a little quality time on Mommy and Daddy's bed.

And who is this under our tree?

Well you guessed it. Mommy's free time of know where little Lachlan is, is coming to an end. Sigh. Oh well, it's fun watching Lachlan trying to get around backwards (the only way he can go right now). And what fun would it be if we didn't get stuck at least a handful of times under our tree?

Our First Gingerbread House...

So this year Marc wanted to buy a gingerbread house to make with Preston. As I have had many unsuccessful attempts at creating a gingerbread house I told him it was "his thing". Apparently he's way better at creating them than me LOL! Great job honey! Here's a pic of Preston pretending to take a bite out of it (not the best photo, but you have to be quick with him so it's as good as it got LOL!). He thought it was the neatest thing ever.

Baby it's cold outside...

Preston, Akida and I went outside to enjoy the new snow. Finally Christmas is on it's way! It was windy and the snow was blowing, but after Preston got used to that he had a blast running around in the snow. And with no sun shining I was able to take some pics of the tracks he left in the snow. It was great!

glad that's over with...

Ok...so Marc and I are not halloween people. We live for the Christmas season and have lots of plans for our new home. Decorating is going to be so much fun this year. The discussions have already started and we are looking forward to having a decorated house since we kinda didn't decorate a house at all last year since Marc was in Oxbow and I was in Virden. All of our stuff was somewhere in between in storage and most was not dug out. I think if Marc has this weekend off we'll be starting the Christmas baking (part 2) and bringing in all the boxes and totes. I can't wait to organize all of the stuff. I've had the upstairs living room empty and waiting...

Anywho, just thought I'd post the ONLY picture that I have of the boys together in their costumes...Enjoy!

Keeping busy....now lets try and finish some stuff...

I have been trying and trying to finish a very large canvas for my room, but it seems I never get around to it and when I finally did, I am still stumped on how to make the leaves on it. So instead of sitting and staring at it I put it aside and finished Preston's dinosaurs for his room. I've only wanted to finish them for about 2 months, but I finally sat down this afternoon and finished them. Now to get a piggy bank plug for the triceratops and then into his room they go they go...

So I started sewing...

and I've had a couple of friend ask to see my projects. So here's the first one I completed. It's a neck pillow for Preston just to get me started back into the "sewing of things". I've been playing around and sewed some mats for a mini album and also fixed Marc's velcro on his work gear. I'm so proud of my little "Suzy Homemaker" self LOL!

So we've been crazy busy out here again...

since the last time I posted I've been trying to get my scrapbook space organized and under control, running the house hold, taking baby photos for my sister, helping my mom with scrapbooking events at her store and preparing to open a scrapbook store of my own out here in Alameda. It's going to be a lot of work to start it up and I'm really going to have to push hard to get everything I need done before the ground freezes, but I think it's do-able : )

Preston, Lachlan and I go out twice a week to the Expressway Family Centre to play with the kiddies and meet other mothers with new babies as well. Preston really looks forward to going each time. When we drive up he says "trains?" as that's always the first toy he plays with.

On top of the daily busy-ness I have also started going to a sewing class. It was a blast and I have a list of things that I want to do so I'm going to learn as much as I can from Sandy Danziel, the wonderful lady volunteering her time to teach everyone.

We are going to have a super full house this weekend while the guys re-shingle the roof (even for a large house like this one). There's going to be people everywhere! I'm totally looking forward to it though as Preston will get to see all his cousins (hopefully) on Marc's side of the family.

And just a heads up for anyone in the Virden area on Friday September 25. Ceramic Corner is holding it's first monthly scrapbooking crop from 6 - 11 and I'll be there. Call and book your spot as space is limited.

~Alicia

Just playing...

So last week Preston had that opportunity to spend some time with his cousins in Baldur, Mb. And while the so called "cat" was away, Lachlan and I had a chance to play around and do a little mini photo shoot. Here are a couple of the photos we took. Enjoy!

Ok, so it's been a while again : ) This summer has been insane!!! We've been so busy running around doing this and that it's been non stop. And there's so much I still want to do / get done before summer ends. Anywho, thought I'd share a couple of pics from this past weekend...


Preston playing with the kitties at the farm. He loves cats and even though my parents seem to think one can come home with us I've said no a million times over. I don't want a cat in my house at all and either does Marc. I love the fact I can play with them at the farm and then leave them there LOL!


These kittens are perfect Preston size for mauling, hauling and playing with. They don't even seem to mind. Those kittens were hauled around the whole farm the whole weekend. He even hung out with them in their "house" which was Taz's old dog house. He can fit through the doggy door it was hilarious!


And of course being out on the farm I have to take a few pics of the yellow machinery that my dad keeps "collecting" LOL! For those of you who don't know we love our Minneappolis Moline tractors.

Enjoy!
Alicia

Our New Home...

Here's a couple of pics of our new home in Alameda.

Oops I did it again

That's right. I've been so busy the last month and a half that my blogs have been forgotten about so I'm going to give a quick update now and hopefully within a week I'll have some pictures and stories to post : )

Now, let's see...

I took my two boys to Clear Lake June 21st to enjoy a day at the beach and then go to a Wedding reception for one of my good friends from high school Natalie. She got married on the east coast and her family held a reception in Manitoba. I had a blast! I won a bet I made like 10 years ago (Tracy is expecting twins and she said she would never have kids!) All it took was the right guy to come along : ) And then I was able to catch up with some other high school buddies as well so it was great.

We moved into our new house in Alameda, SK on the 26th of June and have been unpacking, re-arranging, and doing those little needed things to fix up our house (closet organizers, towel racks, door stoppers, blinds & drapes...you get the jist). I'm finally starting to get my scrap space organized as that was the last thing to work on other than my office. I have started scrapbooking again and I've missed it so much!

My high school reunion was on July 4th so I headed back out to Virden for that. It was lots of fun. Lachlan and I spent some time at the park in the afternoon, went to the high school tour (man has it changed!) and then we went for supper at the Legion and then I dropped Lachlan off with my parent before the social. It was great catching up with some old school pals and I even found out that there are quite a few in the Carnduff / Oxbow area which was neat.

Marc's parent were in town the week of July 5 - 12 to camp at the Alameda Dam. They ended up staying overnight one night during the week because of a thunderstorm warning. Man that wind was blowing hard. It was scary. It never seems to fail when they go camping, luckily they could come over, which Preston loved. And then on the weekend Marc and Preston went camping there with them so they could go fishing. Lachlan and I came to visit on Friday night and Saturday morning / early afternoon and then headed back home. Unfortuantely I have been having pains in my leg that made me opt out on the camping trip. It was just too painful to sit on a camping chair or even to attempt to sleep on an air mattress so I passed on the opportunity.

I know there are other things that we've done in that time as well, but there's just too much to remember so I'll leave it at that for now and I'll try to post some pictures soon of our new house and what we've been doing as soon as I can. As for right now, I'm going to enjoy the nice weather we've been having and take some more pictures of my busy life.

My favorite flower...

It's that time of year that my most favorite of flowers are in bloom. The sweet smell is so strong in this town. Everywhere you go it seems that every yard has them. That's right Lilacs. My favorite is the beautiful purple ones (which is so funny for those of you that know me because I am not a fan of the color purple). Here are a few photos of my fav flower that I thought I'd share with you all. Enjoy.

The game begins...

so we've put an offer in on a house and had a counter offer already, and have put another counter in to them. Now we're just waiting to hear back and see if we could possibly have a home by the end of the month.

Marc and I are both anxious and can't wait. We are so hoping to get this place. We just want to try and get back to a normal life again. I thought this renting thing would be fine, but we just want our own little slice of heaven. So keep your fingers crossed everyone.

Before heading off this weekend...

Yippee!!! I'm going home for the weekend! By home I mean Virden. I'll get to see my family which I haven't seen since Lachlan and I got out of the hospital. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone. My sister's been working on her house and I can't wait to see what she's done.

Unfortunately Marc won't be able to come with me because he has to work on another rig (he's not too happy about that, but that's the way it works out here).

But I thought I'd share some photos of the beautiful apple blossoms in our yard. It's so neat. Our door we use to go outside is around back, but as soon as you step on the porch you can smell them. The tree is on the front of the house. It just smells like spring here.

Doin' a little laundry...

HA HA Get it? I had to run and pull a load of laundry out of the dryer and I brought Lachlan with me as he was a little fussy and I wanted him to stay quiet while Preston was down for his afternoon nap. It definitely made for a fun little everyday photo shoot...

Take some pictures ya'll

So I'm finally getting back into the swing of things and I've started taking more pictures again. I've missed playing around with my camera and snapping shots of daily life as well as special moments.

I've been trying my hand an some cute baby photos and thought I'd share a couple. These ones are with daddy. I've wanted to try doing these photos and since Marc was around on Sunday we finally did them. Hope you like them as much as I do... I know they are definitely going to make their way into a scrapbook somewhere.

Start getting inspired...

Hey All!
Happy Mom's Day to all the wonderful ladies out there. I hope you enjoy your day as much as I have. Lachlan's happily sleeping, eating, and playing on his mat while Preston is happy to play with all his new toys he got from his birthday party yesterday when Memere and Pepere Talbot, Tante Marilynne, Niomi, and Calum came for a visit for the day. Preston wasn't too happy when memere left, but he'll see them next weekend camping.

I've been organizing, cleaning, moving around stuff in my house to make some room for everything and everyone. Still have lots to do before I can say it's a success, but it's definitely a start. I'm also starting to finally get used to having two boys around with different schedules that I'm starting to get inspired to get back to scrapbooking and cooking!!! My scrapbooking is definitely a work in progress as everything I have is now finally in Oxbow, but it's in the garage, basement and my new very small scrapbook room. I'm still digging around looking for everything, but I am getting some projects done. Now that Lachlan is only waking up a couple of times during the night I am also wanting to cook more. The past month has been quick meals and kinda tacky : ( I hate not cooking meals from scratch. I really have a blast doing it. Now all I need is a very large kitchen attached to my scrapbooking room and we have the ideal start to my dream house LOL!

On top of all of that I am trying to get more practise with my photography as I would love to make a business out of it. I've been taking lots of baby photos of Lachlan and playing around with my camera. I'll have to post some of the pictures I've been taking lately.

Anywho, just thought I'd post an update for all you gals who still read my blog. Be sure to check out my scrapbooking blog too as I'll be posting within the next week.

~Alicia

Well it's been a long time since I've posted and so much has happened since then. We sold our house in Brandon, I lived in Virden with my parents for a couple of months while finishing up working before taking maternity leave at the end of January and then Preston and I finally moved to Oxbow to be with Marc. From there, it was a cold and quiet winter but with spring starting to show up and the snow disappearing the newest member of our family has come and been welcomed by all.

Lachlan Henry was born on April 7 at 8:55PM. Weighing 8 pounds 10 ounces and 22 inches long.

Preston was thrilled to have a new baby brother and is very attached to him. He loves helping out and loves to hold his brother. It was so sad that when Marc and I left to go to the hospital Preston was our little man, and when we came back 4 days later he was our big boy. He changed so much in those 4 days it was so strange. He looks so grown up now compared to his little brother.