Finding Warmth

I am going to amaze everyone with something incredible news.  It is cold in Canada during the Winter! Who would have thought that so quickly we would have gotten attached to our thermal undergarments and tuques (beanies or caps) and ear muffs.  Let me just say for the record that ear muff are AWESOME.  And slippers.  The boys are loving slippers.  But honestly, the best way to keep warm- with the warmth that is all encompassing and lasting- is by spending time with those that you love and that love you.  So, in spite of the -10*F temps, our family has been quite snuggly warm this last month with the spirit of Christmas and Ethan's birthday to buoy and warm us.

Seth and Jeffrey we both selected to participate in the school/community art exposition this winter.  They has both enjoyed studying with a local, nationally celebrated artist and have tapped into a artistic side has impressed me.  They also enthusiastically sang in the school choir for their Christmas program. I guess singing is something that I take for granted.  Our boys love music and are not hesitant or shy about sharing it. (Seth can usually be heard from a mile or two away).

Ethan trying to open the garage door with Dad's shoes on.  10 minutes of good laughter :-)

The cutest raccoon in town

Thanks Robin for the outfit! I can't believe he can wear it already

One of our favorite things to do is explore the parks and mountains near by.  For Christmas we drove from Calgary to Jasper and it is truly a spectacular sight.  Pictures, at least mine, can not do it justice.

These icicles are really a frozen waterfall.  This is called the weeping wall and is about 1/2 a mile wide.

These guys came by our window to say hello.

Buried underneath the snow in the middle is the Athabasca Glacier

The blue stuff is part of the glacier peeking out of the snow.

Our family has a tradition of celebrating Ethan's birthday by taking a trip and seeing something new and this year we traveled to Edmonton to tour the Royal Alberta Museum.  It is fantastic!  The entire family enjoyed all of the exhibits and was the perfect size for the little ones, while also tantalizing us enough that we will return again.

The boys were pretending to growl like the puma. (Yes Dad, puma, not cougar, so no worries there :-)

This was one of the boys favorite displays- A giant dead rat! Really it taught about decomposition, but they liked the slimy rat being eaten by bugs.

Couldn't pass the butterflies without talking about Grandma Andrus and Pacific Grove!

Next year the boys want dad to get them a baby mammoth for a pet.  I am not so sure...

He was SOOOO happy to finally have his birthday

Love, love LOVE his enthusiasm!!

Life is not easy, and it certainly doesn't hold its punches but in the end it all works out.   Our family is blessed and we are thankful for the bad times, because it makes the good times that much warmer and sweeter.

Unexpected trip

Two weeks ago Bryant's grandmother, Lucille Pinegar Andrus, passed away.  We had the opportunity to travel and attend her funeral.  Elden, Bryant's grandfather, passed right before we moved and we were unable to be there so we felt very lucky to be able to attend these services.  I met Lucille once before we married and found her to be delightful and warm, sincere and funny.  She definitely had all the "S virtues" that are needed when you marry into the Andrus family : Lucille was sassy, spunky, sweet, severely stubborn, spiritual, selfless and smart in matters of the soul.  I will be honored to use the title "Grandma Andrus"- like her- if I can attain even a small portion of her good virtues.

Of course, being who we are, we could just attend a family funeral.  Since we were going to make the 15 hour drive, and no one anticipated we would, Bryant decided that we would go and surprise his mother.  Marba was not expecting to see us until next year at the earliest.  I think our surprise worked...

  The boys also cleaned up pretty well.  Sometimes I am worried that we look like a traveling hobo convention- it is challenging to keep little boys pressed, neat and clean- but this time we did ok.  Everyone had just received some new winter church sweaters and they were excited to wear them to Great-Grandma's  funeral.

On our way home, we tried to get a shot of the older four in a garden in Salt Lake City (Nathaniel fell asleep) but I guess after a few hours in the car there was not an abundance of brotherly love. However, for some reason, these pictures still make me smile.  A little :-)

And as anyone who has traveled with children know, it is inevitable that one (or more) of the children will take it upon themselves to become a human volcano.  Besides the smelly messes that result it also creates really cranky kids.  How to you solve that?  Throw the kids in a tub during the middle of  a snow storm and tell them to chase each other.  Voila!  No more cranky kids!

Highlight reel

Can you believe it is already December?  We thought November would crawl by slowly, especially with no Thanksgiving to celebrate, but it flew by SOOO fast.  Here are some highlights of the chaos/joy that we experience.  Also just some crazy random pictures.  Hope you are able to find moments of joy in the middle of your hectic schedules, as we are.  It is really making all the difference for our family.

This is a peek into the reasons why a seven year old would be wandering around the house at 4am

We found this lake about 40 minutes northwest of Calgary.  This was the last weekend before the heavy snows came.

You can see the lake is frozen but a creek feeding it is not

This guy was enjoying the warm-ish weather just like us

Nathaniel has discovered he likes pickles

What do you mean you don't like the practice for the Primary Program?

At least they are sharing, right?

Master of the tantrums

Taught the boys to love waterfalls....

This is what decided he want to do the next time we visit the waterfall.  Oh boy, are we in trouble :-)

Our official court jester