Lets start at the very beginning

It is my goal to update the blog much more frequently now that Byron and I have settled into our place, but there is so much to update you on that I cannot even for a moment contemplate putting it all into one post. That would take an enormous amount of time and I'm not sure that anyone wants to read a blog post that is a million words long and an equally large amount of photos. It'll take a few batches (and patience, I'm waiting for a card reader to arrive so I can upload the honeymoon photos). To begin with, wedding photos :)

Kelsey Scheickert flew all the way up from California to be our photographer and she did an amazing job. I'm really not sure how I am to choose just a blog post full, when there are over 650 to choose from!

For those of you who weren't there, we were married at Haney Heritage Village in Salmon Arm on September 3rd in an outdoor ceremony. Byron's Dad officiated the wedding, it was so special that he was able to do that for us! For your enjoyment (and mine, its incredibly fun going through the photos and remembering the details of the day), photos!

Benji helping with the last minute decorations before the Ceremony began.

Kelsey got the guys portraits before the girls arrived on site.

 They have so much fun together!

 But are able to be serious :)

My Mom and Oma, love this photo of them!

 Benji (D) did a great job as ringbearer. He was very serious about his job!

 Coming down the aisle to meet Byron!

It was so neat to have Byron's Dad officiate the wedding.

Our parents prayed with us just before we said our vows.

 First kiss!

Right after the ceremony Byron showed my his wedding surprise.

A '75 Triumph Spitfire!

 We had to take it for a quick spin before the official photos :)

His and hers ... parents first!

Everyone! Thats almost 50 people folks ...

My little sisters and I. The girls were flowergirls :)

The little boys weren't so keen on having thier photos taken until they were told it would be in the "cool" car.

My gorgeous bridesmaids.

 As a rule, wedding parties should always have this much fun.

Distracted as he was, they were not able to make off with Byron's car

Benji decided my dress was a perfect pillow after a hard day as a ringerbearer

Elizabeth Rebecca and I :)

 Best man and ...

 maid of honour speeches

you know, "that" shoe game. I think I won :)

 Keegan sang a favourite of ours, "Would you Go with Me", and nailed it!

 Possibly my favourite photo from the wedding. 

the families did an amazing job with the program. We laughed until we cried ... 

and then I cried again when my Dad sang "I loved her first" and made a music video

 cutting the cake

 he started it!

and was worse off for it :)

 first dance

The end!

Project 365 - Week 7

My camera has been taken a little bit of a (long) vacation. I ashamedly admit that while I have taken it with me on each one of my adventures this summer, it has spent most of its time sitting on a shelf, or camera bag. One trip that I did endevour to document was when I went to Vancouver Island with Jordan and David (and the kids!) for a week in June. They rented a gorgeous little cabin right on the ocean, we had a ton of fun!

{one} : Alien
Oops ... that should be Ayden. Except he looks like a little out of this world-ish in the far to large goggles! The house we stayed in had a variety of things the boys had never seen and were only to happy to put them to good use.

{two} : Schausages!
The whole crew. You might have to look a second time to find Hannah, but she is there! I took quite a few photos during the week, but funny how you rarely get 'every one' photos. This would be the only one :)

{three} : Calf
We visited a dairy farm one day, complete with a petting zoo. I would have taken this little fellow home, only David wasn't to keen on have a cow ride home with us. And I'm not sure what Byron would have thought had I had a cow in tow the next time I saw him .... So I wisely left the calf where he was :)

{four} : Ayden
He has this look down perfectly, and he loves to use it. He wasn't happy about me trying to take his picture, but I snapped anyway.

{five} : Alan and Ayden
Out looking for shells to bring home to Uncle Benj :)

{six} : Butchart Garden
Or the private boat launch and float plane harbour. It was a gorgeous little spot, a private little harbour right off the ocean.

{seven} : Proof
That I actually did get my feet wet while on the Island. I'm not much of a water person, but it was fun wandering the shores. We collected all sorts of interest specimens, I brought home a pail of shells and starfish for my poor land-locked family at home.

and while I haven't been using my camera the last little while, fortunately someone else has been!

 Its only 44 more days until the wedding!

Project 365 - Week 6

and she`s back ... to the blog world that is. Also to Salmon Arm if you would like to be technical about these details :-) I have had a rather eventful two weeks, I do not anticipate having such an eventful two weeks again until maybe a little bit closer to the beginning of September. Then life will become very  busy and wonderful and everything nice as I will be spending some quality time with my best friend and he does have the best ideas for having an exciting life.

{one} : Baby Kids
We always have lots of kids running around the place, but especially right now with the added 4-legged variety. I wish goats stayed this cute all the time. Unfortunately for these little guys, they will grow up to be ugly, stinky, and not very well liked. So we snap a picture to remember them by and in a few days they will be on their way to a new home .... Welcome to life on a (hobby) farm!

{two} : Baby Hannah
I seem to have left my Ellie-Bell in Alberta, but as long as I allow her to sleep, Hannah does not seem to mind being the subject of a few photographs. I really have the cutest nephews and nieces in the whole world. They are so equally cute that its really rather hard to say which one is cutest :-)

{three} : Books on a Dresser
The reading is better than the picture, because the picture is rather boring but the magazines and books are quite interesting.

{four} : Home Again!
Of all the kids, Esther just might be the most glad about being home in Salmon Arm. I think she found small acreage living a little cramping for her very (unique and lovable) style. Crisco seems rather content to have us home again as well, she hardly moves from the front door where she knows someone will be coming out very soon!

{five} : The Princess and the ... Prince
Well, a prince in disguise anyways. This is Rapunzel and Prince Charming, even though I tried to tell them that the hero`s name is actually Flynn Rider, Benjamin did not think that was nearly romantic enough. They were off to go build a castle I believe ...

{six} : Boys being Boys
Junur is fixing the waterfall on the pond, it faced the wrong direction so the plan is that now we can see it when we sit out on the deck. Philip has been helping him and he rather likes the responsibility. The last couple weeks with moving and everything Philip has grown up a bit more. He certiably is beginning to think of himself of one of the big boys, pretty soon I am going to have to start thinking of him as one too.

{seven} : Grumpy
Someone has the chicken pox and that same someone is not very happy about it. All the kids from Miriam down have gotten them but Anna probably has as many as all the other kids had combined. She is so spotted, poor thing. Hopefully it clears up in a day or so.

Project 365 - On hold

We are moving this week which means I absolutely refuse to participate in my project 365 this week. You understand right? I'm also far to sad about moving and happy about other things to concentrate on anything else right now. But you understand that too, right?

Project 365 - Week 5

I surprised myself this week. Originally I thought I hadn't taken any photos this week, but as I was looking through my pictures, I realized that I had in fact taken 73. Mind you, only a few are even remotly passable as photos. I'm just rather surprised that in the busyness of this week I managed to take any! Mom comes home tonight and Dad should be back in a few days as well. I think this is the end of my single mother days, but who knows? Maybe they have some other travelling planned!

 

{one} : Show and Tell

You can see from the picture they are very happy, what you cannot tell from the photo is why. So I shall tell you. Firstly they were colouring pages from Tangled, and secondly when they were done they were allowed to watch the movie. What better reason for such big smiles?

{two} : On the stairs

The colouring is not supposed to be there. It is in fact supposed to be at the kitchen table. However, the kids don't always do what they are supposed to do, sometimes they even do what they aren't supposed to do. A very good lesson I've been learning over the past few weeks of being 'mommy' is that its not worth getting in a huff about all the time. Sometimes, its ok to laugh at the oddity of children. Maybe your children are normal,but these ones like to keep me on my toes.

{three} : Little Sliver

I needed a photo to fill a spot. Thus, you get a small view of Rachel taking Doug for a walk in the beautiful sunshine. Its been wonderful. A few more days of this weather and hopefully all the snow will be gone. 

{four} : Four on a Chair

Obviously I did not take the picture. Last time I checked my arms were not that long. This scene has been more often repeated in the last few weeks than previously, its a good thing! The older they get, the less they like cuddling. So I'm not going to complain when three babies decide they all need some hugs at the same time.

{five} : Ellie, again

Yes, I realize that I've had a photo of her every week and she doesn't even live here. But thats what happen when cute people come to visit me and I'm trying to take a photo everyday for some silly project I'm doing. I take thier picture because this cute person is very easy to take pictures of.

{six} : Pinwheels

Its been 4 weeks since I posted anything that I've created. I've rather surprised myself in this regard. In the scrapbooking circles they call this a sneak peak. If you want to see the rest of the card you have to look at the Polkadot Door on May 7th for the full view.

{seven} : Imitation

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. If so, I'm honoured. The biggest reward I can give these guys is permission to come and craft with me. I find it kindof funny that they enjoy it so much, but I'm glad they do. The company is nice. 

Project 365 - Week 4

I'm enjoying doing the project, but part of me dislikes it for the very reason that its very easy to look back and say "its already been 4 weeks!" Which is what I'm doing today, looking back over the past entries. Could someone please tell me where the month of March disappeared to?

I started out really, really well this week. So well in fact that three of this weeks photos are from the same day. ahem. I'm working on getting the picture a day thing back on track 'cause I kindof fizzled out this week.

{one} : Between the Pages
So we went to the library ... again. Hurrah for me I brought camera card! I've been there more than once a week since I started my visits and as long as I'm here, I think its a habit I'll keep up. I've read quite a bit in the last few weeks and its wonderful to be reading again. I almost forgot just how much I like curling up in a corner with a good book. Its rather like riding a bike .... you never really forget though.

{two} : Shark!
Oma and Opa brought Isaac a shark home from holland that was a little less bright than it maybe should have been. But he fixed that, and the kitchen table, floor, and chair too. They are all a little more colourful after his painting experience :-)

{three} : Under the .... lily pad?
I'm really not sure what the plant is supposed to be, but I'm quite certain that Miriam's little lady is adorable. I have no idea what to do with all the little clay figurines I'm collecting from my sisters, but they are so cute! Its fun to watch as the little ones imitate the older siblings. Rachel is very engrossed in her clay making, and the little girls are always copying her designs, and usually adding a splash of something, quite their own.

{four} : Crazy lady
That would be Anna, but you might not be able to to tell because the picture is more than a little bit squashed. I didn't want to crop it anymore because then you wouldn't see her awesome hair, which is the whole reason for the photo. But left as it was, it didn't fit, so I squished it. You might have to squint to see the photo properly :-P. We spent a little bit of time on (an absolutely gorgeous spring afternoon) the trampoline. Really, it does wonders for hair.

{five} : Ellie and the Penguins
This would be the last of the photos I took on the day I was at the flemings house. Sarah was gone and I took possession of her camera. Whether she liked it or not, she now has more than enough photos of Ellie, but as she's the baby of the family, I don't think Sarah minds .... This little penguin game is adorable and the kids have so much fun with it. Underneath each penguin is hidden a little coloured 'egg'. I don't know what the point of the game is, but I love watching them play it just the same.

{six} : Upside down
Benjamin was very happy to instruct me in the taking of a photo the other day. I asked the kids what they thought I should take a photo of, and he yelled the loudest, so I took his picture.

{seven} : Might Machine
It doesn't show up so well at this size, but he has the most adorable little grin on his face in this picture. Mom tested (most of) of the sounds on the new machines that he got for his birthday, but didn't try the last button. It plays some rather interesting, annoying, loud, and upbeat music, and each one of the kids is fascinated with the shape of that button. Benji likes dancing to the music too, but I don't have a picture of that yet.

this is a(n) ....

...."I can't sleep so I'll post a picture, sort of middle of the night, when I should be in bed sort of post."

Mom knows I like christmas tree ornaments, she also knows I love traditional things, which I think must be the reason she brought these home for me from Holland. Its nice to have a Mother who knows me so well, isn't it? If it weren't already only April, and if there wasn't still snow on the ground I just might be tempted to wish that it were the time of year when its right to have these out. I can't help but feel that a bedroom doorway doesn't quite provide the right backdrop ....