Merry Christmas 2011

We had a crazy busy last half of the year this year.  We babysat lots for a friend who has cancer, then we decided NOT to move to Ontario, then jumped right into lots of renovations.

That pretty much sums up why I haven't been around too much....

Wishing you the happiest and merriest Christmas season.

Hello STRANGER!

Wow, it's been sometime since I've seen you or chatted - is what I've heard a lot of these days.

Truth be told, we've been working through some personal things over this summer and I've just not been much in the mood for sharing personal 'going-on's' in our life!

It's been a BUSY, BUSY summer - don't know where it went!

When 'stuff' is going on in my life these days - it seems I am getting more private in what I want to share with the 'world at large' (namely my blogger buds, sorry). 

Life continues to be GREAT and the blessings and lessons continue to overflow, but for now (just like all summer) you won't see me around here too much!

Hope all is doing great - please feel free to post a comment to help me feel your love!!!

Introducing my dear friend, Monica

When I see this photo, I think of my sweet friend Monica's amazing qualities!

She is so strong. 

She is a fighter.

She is a wonderful mother....and

She WANTS to live.

That's right, you heard me:  she wants to LIVE. 

You see, she has cancer.  She found out about her adrenal cancer when she was around 20-25 weeks pregnant with her baby.  They removed a tumor the size of an orange.

Since then (May 2010), she's been fighting with all her might, all the while raising her 3 beautiful children (Isaac, Destiny and Evva).

While we were camping with her two oldest cuties, she got some bad news.  The cancer was spreading fast (2 tumors on her kidney, 2 on her liver and is NOT operable).

YET, she has still not given up on LIFE! 

She wants to see her babys grow and she is fighting hard!

I have grown to love this family so much and want to do all I can to help them out.  Last minute, the day before she started her agressive chemo I had this crazy idea of taking her families photos and we did.  Despite the rainy (and I mean heavy rain) forecast, we found a spot that was covered.  In the end, we didn't need to be in a covered spot because the skies cleared for all of 20-30 minutes right while we were taking photos.  All the children were cooperative and smiles and I was really pleased with the shots we got in the little time we had!  As soon as we began walking back to the cars, it started to pour rain.  God was watching over us that day, no doubt in my mind.

  

This is Evva (10months old in this photo) and her mommy

Isaac (10 years old) and his momma!

Destiny (8 years old) and her momma!

Danny, Evva and Monica.

When you think of my friend Monica, please say a prayer for her and her little family!

Mini vacation with friends

We took a few days to go to a Vacation Resort called Val Cartier in Quebec

 (about 20 minutes from Quebec City) - a MUST do park (and cleaner than Blizzard Beach that Noah & I went to at Disney)!!!

We invited Noah's friend (Isaac) and his little sister (Destiny) to join us, to let them have some good ole' fashion fun after a very hard year

(their mom was diagnosed with cancer and is starting chemo this summer).

It was their first time at a water park, so happy we got to experience it with these cuties!

Noah and Isaac have been the best of friends since we moved to

Grand Falls a few years ago.

It was quite interesting packing for 3 children (rather than just Noah).  Not only did we have more seats used up but this also meant we had less space to pack MORE luggage!!!  We made it (barely) - don't know how The Duggars do it!!!

This was the view from our camp ground - of most of the water park!  As I pumped air mattresses for our TEE PEE tent, everyone else admired the view!

We all went swimming, but I only lasted a short while

 because the water was TOO darned cold!

We taught Isaac & Destiny how to make a tee pee out of the wood to start a camp fire!

One of the highlights for Isaac & Destiny was brushing their teeth outside

- they had NEVER done that before!!!

OH the technology!!!  After our first campfire (the first night)...we all snuggled in our beds and watched a movie on our net book using some iPod speakers for all of us to hear!!!

Here's a pretty good view of our tee pee and camp site!  Jacques was making me some yummy breakfast - we started a new tradition (fry some onions, then add some canned potatoes, then some canned ham, then scramble some eggs in this mixture, then add some cheese!  OH MY YUMMMM!)

Here's a view of the inside of our tee pee.  In order to earn some $$$ for the arcade, we made them make a skit and perform it for us!  Hey, it was a win/win!  We got some quiet, they had an activity and they got money for the arcade! 

On our last night, we told ghost stories (or scary stories).  I told them of a flactuating man who pumps air mattresses for little girls (Jacques).  It ended up being such a funny 'scary' story that all of us were laughing so hard we were crying!  They didn't know what flactuate meant, so when I told them - did we EVER laugh!

What a great time away - but by the morning we came home Isaac & Destiny were SOOOO excited to get home to see their momma!  So glad they came with us!

Road trip to PEI

What an amazing last minute get-a-way to Prince Edward Island!

The daughter of our best friend (who has been through so much in the past couple of years), needed a friend (or so I thought) to be with her as she celebrated her daughters high school graduation.

So OFF we went on our road trip!

First stop, to get some gas we noticed these really cool moths.

They were EVERYWHERE...we found them kinda fascinating!

 

Getting closer to the ISLAND and a view I will NEVER grow tired of:

CONFEDERATION BRIDGE

the bridge that joins New Brunswick and PEI.

Noah, our little photographer took this cute photo of Krista and I!  

 It's always a blessing to have photos of you and your friends! 

Thank you, Noah!

On the way back from Krista's we made a pit stop for some of the
World's BEST Ice Cream (oh, and Canada's BEST too)!

 

And cool enough to find out that we could take a Factory Tour! 

 We had to wear these little hats to show we were on the official tour!

(kinda felt dorky, but what the heck)!

The t-shirt Noah wanted the most was actually in print while we were there:

COW OF DUTY

Black Spots

Noah's favourite game right now!

Now to enjoy some yummy ice cream!

When leaving Krista's on Thursday afternoon, we went to visit my dad. 
That was interesting to say the least.  Nice visit though!

Then we made a pit stop in Moncton to visit Noah's best friend - OWEN. 
It was Owen's last day of school and he had received his 'grading' present that the boys THOROUGHLY enjoyed:  BB Guns

I will never get tired of driving through New Brunswick - beautiful scenery!
Great road trip - yet again!

A special Graduate!

We took a last minute trip to Prince Edward Island, mid week towards the end of June to be with our best friend to share in her daughters graduation!

By the end of the evening, I had taken over 450 photos - so as you see, she was growing tired of me snapping in her face!  TOO BAD, Brit!  You only graduate from high school once!

All in all, during the L-O-N-G ceremony, Noah did pretty good. 

He got up to wonder and as you can see (from a distance),

he was super bored!  lol

But we survived and made it to the "P's" to watch Brittany receive her diploma

and watch her mom cry!

I can't believe how grown up she is...

we've known Brittany since she was around 2 years old!

Now that the ceremony was over, can you tell someone is a happy camper!! 

Some special shots of the proud Mom, graduate and Grandmother. 

Oh and some 'special' shots of my lil' man who was

dancing at this point because the whole event was

O-V-E-R!!!

CONGRATULATIONS BRITTANY!

Busy Times, Happy Times

This summer has been CRAZY busy.

Considering our summer started May 15, it seems so long since it began.

We've been having so much fun.

A little re-cap going back to the beginning of June!

Every Wednesday, Noah and I decided to dedicate our day to 'doing something nice for someone'.

Cookies are always a nice little care package....so that it was....we made LOTS of cookies and delivered them with LOVE to friends who needed 'pick-me-ups'.

This particular day, there was a pesty fly that wanted to try some of our cookie dough. 

Noah was NOT going to let that happen!

 

Going to one of the little petting zoo's is always fun when we have left over bread and fruit!

This day was no different, well - that was until the Lama SNEEZED on me

(look on my glasses - CHUNKS - eeewwww) 

This little guy didn't want any of our yummy food...dandelions were good enough for him!

On our way there, we grabbed a neighbour to come join us!

These poor Guinea pigs are 'drinking from the bottle' pretty early in life!! lol

Check out the bottle "Jack Daniels"!

Then we decided to take a day trip to Edmundston...

just me and MY boy!

to see an old historical site

and have a picnic by the water.

Then there was another road trip to Fredericton to one of our favourite places:

SCIENCE EAST (for Noah) and MICHAEL'S Craft Store (for ME)

Having just a little fun with the boa!

The weather this summer has been STRANGE....

 

I still have to send this one to McDonalds corp, how cool is this! 

More picnics at a cool park just across the border on the USA side! 

Who can forget this day with SO much rain

(actually, this is a common occurrence this summer).

Noah decided to 'go swimming' on the road with all the water draining down our road!

We sure had fun doing day trips before the public school was out....