A Long One....

Another great weekend comes to a close. This summer is flying by. It's all ready the middle of August. The mountains in Lake Louise are cappted with snow. Fall is just around the corner. Luckily, we're still getting nice weather in Edmonton. Not balmy, but no snow. I needed a break from the two week summers in the Rockies.

We didn't travel this weekend, but had another busy one. Friends and family came to visit and our change table, crib and stroller got broken in a little with all the babies. My parents, Curtis, Brandi and Jada came to visit Thursday night. We went to the Eskimos/Stampeders game for my dad's birthday, and it was a fantastic game! Jada was a trooper and stayed up for the whole game and didn't really fuss at all.







Brad and mom got to cheer for their Stamps a bit, but luckily, the rest of us got to leave victorious. Those two were much quieter on the way home...



And a shot of the newest Eskimos fan:



Friday, we visited and went for a walk to the park and then went for supper with Broc and Steph and Kale, Brad's brother, sister-in-law and nephew. The Benedicts headed home Friday night and the rest of us played grid crib and let Kale entertain us.

Saturday, we all went to the zoo in Edmonton and then hit West Ed for a few minutes, then headed home for pizza, ice cream and more visiting.

A Red Panda at the Zoo (through foggy glass):



And Kale, testing out Saskatoon's stroller at the zoo:



Sunday, Broc, Steph and Kale packed up and headed out and Lee, Keri and Caden showed up from Lake Louise. We had a good visit with them and then I spent some time putting away clothes in the baby's room and rearranging things a little while Brad mowed the yard and helped clean up.

Whew! Three babies under the age of one, four couples, one extra dog and Brad, Bailey, Saskatoon and myself were all in this house this weekend. Busy, but so good to see everyone and see how those kidlets are growing up!

Now I need to backtrack just a bit and share the Benedict family picture we took at my aunt's wedding on the August Long Weekend. Such a nice day for a wedding and the golf course was beautiful.



If you remember, a few weeks back, I shared a picture of Brad's side of the family... here's a recap:



A bit of a descrepancy in size between these families... I never thought of our family as small until I met his!

Great Deals

I stumbled across this neat site for anyone feeling the pinch of recession, or those who, like me, just love a deal :)

Peachy Cheap is a site that puts one scrapbooking item up for sale each day at huge discounts. In fact, some items are up to 99% off. Don't believe me? I've been watching and there are some great deals. The only thing to watch for is they're an American company and shipping to Canada depends on the weight of what you order. Could add a bit to your overall cost....

Updates and Crafty Things

I had another doctor's appointment yesterday. 36 weeks!! Unfortunately, my doctor had a busy day, and they were three hours late. He delivered 24 babies in 30 hours. Can you believe that? Something was going on in Edmonton, yesterday. Luckily, they called me and let me know, so I only waited for an hour and a half... I got in and out and everything is still going well. I have to go in every week, now, since we're getting so close.

Exciting!

Since we've been home for a few days, I'm nearly caught up on the house/yard work. At least the place looks reasonable. We got a new air conditioning unit installed yesterday, so I can last a little longer.

I spent a bit of time scrapbooking Sunday evening, but haven't gotten too much done this week. Here are a few older layouts I haven't shown yet.



I love this background paper from My Mind's Eye, and I think it was a perfect compliment to some of my favourite photos of Santorini. The pictures aren't anything special, just a reminder of how beautiful and relaxing the island was.



And, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Another simple layout. Slowly, I'll get the Europe pictures done and move on to other projects.

Tomorrow, my parents are coming up with Curtis, Brandi and Jada and we're going to the Eskimos/Stampeders game. Should be good, as long as the rain stays away.

Back Home and Staying Put For Awhile

We're home after a busy ten days of travelling, visiting, stopping at home quick, and then heading out again.

We spent the long weekend in Hanna and visited all kinds of family. Brad had been in PEI for work the previous week, so I picked him up Friday night and we headed to my parent's farm. Saturday, we visited my parents, Curtis, Brandi and Jada, and then went out for supper with some extended family.

We attended my aunt's wedding at a nice little golf course, complete with golf cart seating, and a golf course shaped cake on Sunday.

Monday, we celebrated our farm's 100th anniversary. Can you imagine? One hundred years have passed since the land my parent's house sits on was first homesteaded by our family?

Then, we spent an extra day at my parent's visiting and headed home Tuesday afternoon to put together the baby's room. It's starting to look better and better all the time, and it's filling up quick!

Thursday, we packed up and headed out to Buffalo Lake for four days of camping with Brad's family. We had a great time and even managed to get some sunshine and beach time in. Nice and relaxing. We got home Sunday afternoon and now it's laundry, housecleaning, and work. Got to make up for all this time away!

A Week of Visiting

I had a fantastic visit with some family last night. My aunt and uncle and two cousins from New Brunswick are in Alberta for a few weeks, so they came up and brought my gramma for a quick visit. This was the first time any of them had seen our new house and a good opportunity to catch up, as I don't get to see any of them often enough. We also went out for a fabulous supper and met up with my other aunt and soon-to-be uncle and another cousin. All sorts of relatives!

This weekend, we're off to Hanna to continue catching up with everyone for a wedding, a little celebration for our farm (which was first homesteaded by Benedicts 100 years ago) and some visiting. Should be fun!

I thought I'd post a few more pictures of some of the crafty things I've been working on:



a layout featuring a photo from Florence



The outside of a birthday card



and the inside

Hope you're all enjoying your summers.

Summer Heat Wave Scrapbooking

It has been so hot these past few weeks. I can't complain, because we had such a cool spring, but I must say it's cookin' in our house! Because of the heat, I've been spending a lot of time in our basement with a fan trained on me. Since I work from home, I can sit in front of the fan on the computer during the day and in the evenings, after my dog walk, errands, and supper, I park myself back in front of the fan reading or scrapbooking.

Speaking of scrapbooking, I haven't posted many layouts lately, so I'll try and post a few over the next couple of weeks. I have actually been getting some Europe layouts done and have even thought of going to Costco to get more pictures printed. Crazy, I know. I put the layouts that I've got completed in albums last night and I have three albums worth all ready, with more to come.

Here are a few of the newbies:





I think I'll do a fast mini album of Ottawa next. That's my project for after I finish the Europe album and inbetween all of the weddings, visitors, work, and trips that seem to fill up every moment of the summer. Perhaps that's wishful thinking.

And now, to catch up:

Our garage sale was pretty successful. We didn't get rid of everything, but I'm hoping I can call a charity to come pick up the rest. I may be making a substantial donation to the Salvation Army this week....

I also got my prize from Just Cre8 in the mail this weekend. I won a little challenge at their last crop and got a whole pizza box full of goodies. Yay! And I've all ready used some of the alphabet stamps on the layout below.





Now, I'll leave you with a copy of the Higginson family picture we took a few weekends ago. This is only the immediate family. Yup, just Brad's parents, brothers and sisters, spouses and their kids. Huge, eh?!



Can you pick me out? Hehehe. Bright green and super pregnant... easy to spot. The funny thing was, Brad looked at it and said, "Man, my cheeks look chubby in that picture." Really, your cheeks look chubby?

Just a Reminder....

Garage Sale this weekend!!!

16530, 67A St.
Friday 4-7 pm and Saturday 9 am-5 pm.

There are some good things for sale, some brand new in boxes and lots of scrapbooking goodies: kits, loose papers and embellishments, and lots more.

Hope to see you there!

Getting Ready and a Garage Sale!

Last weekend we picked up a ton of goodies: a stroller, change table, shelving unit, and a rocking chair, all for the baby or the baby's room. Brad has since been spending his evenings putting everything together and making a styrofoam-y mess of the house.

As we buy more things and build more things, we've realized we need to get rid of some stuff to make room. So, this weekend, we're having a garage sale!!
You really should stop by if you're in the neighborhood. There will be everything from brand new fish fryers to scrapbooking supplies (loose goodies, entire scrapbooking class kits and more) to sporting equipment to household goods. You should stop by to check it out or just come say hi.

16530, 67A st.Edmonton
Just north of Londonderry mall
Friday 4-7 pm
Saturday 9 am - 5 pm

Other updates....
I went to a wedding shower for my aunt last night, which was fun. Lots of good food and good visits, plus I got to meet some of her new soon-to-be-family, which was nice.

We're down to bimonthly doctor's appointments now, so it's getting close. Everything is looking good. Baby Saskatoon is kicking like a soccer player and my belly seems to be stretched to the max (but apparently, it will keep growing).

Another reminder... stop by our house for a garage sale Friday and Saturday!

Another Weekend Down...

Our summer seems to be a collection of weekends spent travelling from place to place, with a few days of work in between. It's passing in a blur, and with summer passing quickly, it means baby is getting closer. Yikes... are we ready?

This weekend, we actually only had one night away from home (a rarity for us lately). We spent Friday night shopping for a stroller and then grabbed some pizza and some movies and just had a night to veg out and enjoy our cool basement.

Then, we were off Saturday morning. We loaded up the car, the dog reluctantly got in his kennel in the back (after he apparently had a conversation with Brad about our need to travel so much) and headed to Airdrie. We stopped in to see Brad's troopmate, Dave's new house and had a bit of a visit with him and then left Bailey with him over night. Then, we were off to meet up with some friends from Lake Louise in Calgary on our way out to a wedding in Bragg Creek. The wedding was absolutely beautiful! Our old neighbours from Lake Louise, Martin and Carrie got married on her parent's ranch south of Bragg Creek. Beautiful location, beautiful day, great food, great company, good music.... good day all in all.

Then, Sunday morning we met up with a bunch of Lake Louisians for breakfast and a visit, headed out to pick up Bailey, stopped in at my grandparents for a quick visit and some snacks and headed home (with a quick stop at IKEA).

Phew!

A few shots of the wedding:









And Steph, Broc and Kale, after Kale's first hike in Waterton last weekend:

Summer Fun With The Family

Another long weekend with the family, this time, we were in Lethbridge visiting Brad's family. We saw so many people! There were like thirty people in Brad's parent's house at any given moment. We got to meet some neices that we'd never even met before, which was great, plus, we got to see neices and nephews that we haven't seen in five years and Brad's brother and girlfriend who we haven't seen in almost four years! Plus, all of the regulars :)

We celebrated Brad's dad's 70th birthday on Sunday and had a fantastic BBQ. I think he really enjoyed seeing everyone and getting the whole family together. We even got some pictures (I actually don't have a copy, but I know there are a lot of them out there) of the WHOLE family.

Thank you to everyone who gave us early baby gifts, I spent my lunch break looking at everything and this baby is going to be spoiled! She (man, I hope it's a girl now that we have an entire wardrobe set up for a little girl) will be the best dressed baby in Alberta.

We got back late last night and are now trying to settle back into the work routine today. This weekend, we have a wedding, but we're only going overnight, so we get a little longer break between events. Whew! The weekends are almost melting together this summer. This week, the house needs to be cleaned and the yard needs to be weeded, mowed and just cleaned up in general. We're going to try and get ready for a garage sale in the next couple of weeks, too. Out with the old. Need to make room for this baby's clothes!

Birthdays, and baby updates

We spent our long weekend at my parent's farm in Hanna. It was so great to get away and relax and visit.

We had a surprise birthday for my dad on Saturday, which went well. Miraculously, the surprise was kept until just before the party started, so he just had enough time to clean up before guests started arriving. It was fun to see all of the neighbours and some of dad's college buddies. Lots of reminiscing.

We got lots of time with Curtis and Brandi and Jada, too, which was great. We usually seem to miss them or just catch them for a few hours, so we got a good visit in this time.

I just got back from a doctor's appointment and everything is going well. Saskatoon is right on track. Two months left.... And we're wrapping up our prenatal classes. The second last one is tonight. We are learning about baby health today. Should be fun.

This weekend we're off to Lethbridge for Brad's dad's birthday and some more visiting. Should be another fun one.

In a few more weeks, we have a weekend off, so we're planning a garage sale :)If you're in the area, you should stop by. There will be all kinds of goodies for sale...

Okay, more Ottawa pics:

Brad and I playing at the War Museum. We're all about hands-on displays...





The library in the Parliament building, inside and out. This is the oldest part of the building, the only part that survived a fire.

Summer's In Full Swing

I keep writing about how busy we are, but it never seems to slow down! Yes, we had another busy weekend, but it seems like the busy is stretching for months.... we just never slow down! At the moment, we're pretty much booked right up until baby arrives. She better not be early, or we'll have to reschedule.....

I picked Brad up from the airport Thursday night and I finally get to keep him around for awhile, which will be nice. I put him to work Friday and we got so much done, I was impressed! I had a huge list of things that needed to get done around the house and we got it all done, except for one! Brad fixed our toilet (which required inventing new curse words and numerous trips to Rona), and we installed a gate for our backyard, mowed the lawn, weed whipped, pulled dandelions, weeded all the gravel trim around our yard, watered everything, did a big grocery shop, cleaned the house top to bottom, and got ourselves ready for the company arriving that night and the BBQ we had Saturday. Seriously. We were moving.

Now, our company has come and gone, the house that was once so clean now needs to be recleaned, but the toilet and the gate held up, and we had a great weekend with friends. I even sat on my butt a bit on Sunday and scrapbooked. Haven't done that in awhile! Dirty floors be damned, I just cleaned them, I refuse to reclean them so soon!

This week, we're planning on extending our weekend to make it super long. We're taking Thursday and Friday off to add to Canada Day Wednesday. Should be good!

And, with a break in sight, I'll leave you with some more shots of Ottawa:

Aren't these poppies massive? Maybe you can't tell from the photo, but they were huge!





The Parliament building as the sun went down:



The War Memorial, across from Parliament:

Home Again

This summer is so busy! I probably shouldn't have gone to Ottawa last weekend, but it was fun, so everything else can wait :)

Even though I had work at home, we had a great weekend, saw some friends, ate good food, did the tourist-y thing, enjoyed the sunshine and the beauty of the city and quite likely enjoyed our last little weekend getaway before the baby arrives.

I'll show a few pictures throughout the week, since we took alot. Even though we were only there for a few days, we always seem to take photos. Hmmmm... more pictures to scrapbook before baby comes.

The parliament building from across the river:



Brad and I in front of the centennial flame:


(With a little belly shot-Week 29 folks!)



The parliament building cenre block:



And, a shot of the Ottawa River:



It's a really great city, green and lush with lots to see and do. It's probably one of Canada's prettiest cities. I highly recommend it.

When I got back, my parents came up for a visit and helped me with some chores. My mom came to my prenatal class with me, since Brad is still in Ottawa for a few more days, which was nice. It was good to have someone to share a grimace with during the videos.

*Sigh* Now, back to work.

Ottawa Bound

I'm just heading out the door to catch a plane to Ottawa for the weekend. Brad's there for work, and we found a bit of a seat sale, so I'm going to fly out and meet him for a few days. Neither of us have ever been there, so we're going to have a tourist-y weekend and see all the sites. Should be good.

I sent Bailey to my parent's farm, so he's getting a little holiday, too.



He's all shaved and ready to go. The city is so boring compared to the farm.

And, a few shots of the baby's room. Just so you can see the colour. I painted it two weekends ago, but I may do something more with it later.... not sure, yet.



Brad got home just in time to roll a few swipes on the wall....



And Preggo in action. It's blurry because I am now a super painter.

Will post some pics after the weekend. Hope you all have a good one!

Back in the swing of things

Another weekend to recover from...

We made it back from our girl's weekend to the States in one piece and with a truck full of stuff. Got lots of steals and had far too much fun.

This is us in Ross. While we shopped, we picked out some fantastic outfits for each other... the lady in the fitting rooms even had to ask us to be quiet because we were laughing too loud.



Yes, we're in our twenties and we're playing dress up.

While we were gone, we missed a scorching weekend up here, but it sure made the plants grow. We got a teeny bit of rain last night, too, which has helped. I love having a garden. It's much easier here than it was in Lake Louise.

Wednesday Write Up

I spent last weekend painting the baby's room. We chose to paint it the same blue as our bedroom. I know, not very traditional for a girl, but she'll get her fair share of pink and I think we might try to do something more decorative later. Once it's done I'll put some pictures up. I guess I'll put some up of our room and the bathroom I painted recently, too.

I got my hair cut yesterday, which is so good. I've been just letting it grow forever because I didn't know what to do with it, but it was driving me crazy and it never looked good, so I headed to the mall and got it chopped. I like it. Cooler, simpler and it looks better, too.

Since we've been so busy, I haven't done much scrapbooking. I did win one of the challenges at the Just Cre8 crop a few weeks ago, so I'm looking forward to getting my prize in the mail. I won something last year too and I got a great prize. I love good mail.

I participated in another 'tag' game at Just Cre8 and made this layout:



You guessed it. Europe. This was on Rhodes Island, in Greece. Simple, but still nice.

This weekend, I'm heading out for a girl's weekend. Yippee!!!! Should be fun. A little shopping, eating out, exploring and catching up. I've been looking forward to this.

First Prenatal Class

We had our first prenatal class last night which was really good. It was two hours, but was super informative, so it seemed like it went quicker. We got to see an example of what a baby looks like in utero. The 'example baby' was 22 weeks old, which was neat, because our baby is currently 25 1/2 weeks old. Our baby is just a little bigger than that one.

There were alot of couples in the class, but we get divided up into a few different groups in the coming weeks. Lots of the couples are about as far along as us, so we're hoping to meet some new people and learn from everyone else's experiences. Interesting..... One down, five to go.

Okay, a few more layouts:





These were, yet again, challenges from the Just Cre8 Crop. It was a very productive crop for me. I got lots done and had fun! But, I still have lots to do. The joys of digital cameras and two photo happy travellers...

If you took part in the Just Cre8 crop and liked it, or if you missed out and wished you could partake in another one.... There is an interesting online crop coming up this summer with Creating Keepsakes. Click here for more information about it. It's free to sign up, and there are sure to be some interesting classes. Check it out.

Also, you've probably heard about the demise of a few of the biggest scrapbooking magazines in the industry, but if not, prepare to say goodbye to Simple Scrapbooks and Memory Makers. They are no longer going to be publishing their magazines.

Weekend Update

Another busy weekend here in Edmonton. Brad was teaching a course Saturday and Sunday, I finished up the bathroom and used up the last of my yellow paint, for better or worse. Then, some errands and cleaning, a bit of scrapping, dog walks in the sunshine and yard work.

I've been working on a bit of a pregnancy journal/scrapbook lately and thought I'd show you a bit of what I've been doing.







I'm having fun with it, and I think it will be a neat keepsake. Maybe even a heads up for what their own pregnancy might be like... who knows. That's looking a lonnnnggg way down the road, but still. I'll try to keep posting updates of what I include in the journal as we go.

We start prenatal classes this week, which I'm really looking forward to. Should be fun!