if you can believe it

Here it is. my quilt top. It took me forever to decide how I wanted to put it together but here it is -- two weeks later. It went really fast once I decided on a pattern and then we (Carter, Logan and I) all got sick and it got pushed to the side for other necessary things.

Take a peek: It's all Mary Engelbreit fabric a that I had collected over some time. I do need to rebaste it cuz it puckered a bit in the back while pinning and then I'm tackling machine quilting for the first time. I've gotten myself a walking foot, understanding that this will make the job a bit easier but I definitely will gladly accept any advice any of you might have in this area! (sorry about the poor images. I was really struggling with my camera, the light, the black fabric and Carter's need to be all over my quilt that day.)

winter play

Bikes and sand toys are year round around here. I guess that's how northern Albertan children play outside. Snow shovels are still the favourite though! Enjoy -- they did!

brand recognition

It's what they want, right? Big companies want us to recognize their little logo and away we go: thinking about them, buying their products, promoting them. On Friday, Carter demonstrated that this goes far enough to reach even four year olds.

As we drove south on Hwy 14, past the Petro Canada refinery with it's giant logo on the side of the massive oil storage containers, Carter pointed (I'm thinking especially at the maple leaf part of the logo) and said, "Mom, that is Can-dada and that is where we go to play hockey."

And so it is. game on.

he is four

I'm a week late in posting Carter's birthday pics but here they are. It was a Spiderman day and there are still Spiderman balloons dangling from the ceiling in my kitchen.

Spiderman cupcakes and a really cool Spiderman candle.

It's tradition: everyone (who wants to) gets a turn to blow out the candles(and spit on the cake, I suppose. There was very minimal spitting this day-- even though it may look otherwise.)

A delicious Spidey cupcake over a fabulous Spidey tablecloth. It really is so easy to get carried away with all the Spiderman birthday items available. I did my best to control myself and still impress my four year old.

A very awesome Hot Wheels set from Grandma and Papa.

What little brothers do. (a very big 'cheese')

and we're back

We've been missing! but pile up a really busy week, followed by a week of a very sick household (Mike even had to take a day off to take care of the rest of us!) and a fabulous extra long weekend celebrating Carter's fourth birthday with a visit from Papa and Grandma.... I think we're back into routine again.

Here's what we've been up to:

playing with new wooden blocks from Opa & Gramma Buikema.
Opa made the blocks out of discarded wall studs from
my Mom & Dad's house after their kitchen renovation.

lining up McQueen and his team for a big race

reading stories with Papa (specifically: Walter the Farting Dog)

shoveling all the new snow for Dad (they do a good job, don't they?)

a little face

Here she is! Our third little one and a little sister for Carter and Logan. It all seems much more real when there's a face to look at, doesn't it? I'm hoping you can all see her head on the left with her hand above her face. See her nose and below her mouth is open with her tongue sticking out... Think what you will of that -- but she'll fit in just right!

what Carter said

We all know little ones say the most amazing things but this one astounded me yesterday.

Every evening when the boys see the headlights from Mike's truck come up the driveway they run to the kitchen and wait and wait for him at the baby gate. This position gives them the best view of the hall to the back entrance where Dad will soon enter. As soon as Mike is in the door there is a fury of two little voices yelling, "Hi Dad!" as well as a report on the entire day's activities in about thirty seconds. (This is Mike's favourite part of coming home after a long day of work.)

This is what we heard from Carter last night as Mike got out of his steel toes and winter coveralls: "Oh, there's Dad in his best suit."

Where/how do they come up with these things? I must write more of them down...