The Whidden Family

Decked

Yesterday we put up our tree. The kids had so much fun doing it this year. I think every single year just keeps getting better as the kids get older. They are so excited for Christmas.

We also went to the Kids Christmas Party for Jared's work. I am always impressed at what a great party they put on. A big supper, a Magician, Santa and presents.... for 1000+ employees and their families. They go all out every year, and it is amazing.

Great gifts, hey? They were super excited. I woke Carter up for school this morning, and he had that huge sled in bed with him all night :)

The Day I Turned Old.

Last week I had a birthday...

Mr. Handsomepants surprised me with the most amazing present ever:

I feel so inexperienced taking pictures with it though. I would love to take a photography class so I can know what words like "aperture" and "macro" mean. I am very excited though and can't wait to have a new hobby to research :) Any tips???

It was a great day, but why wouldn't it be with my 3 sweeties?!

Could I possibly love them any more? Nope.

Random things that made my day.

* Waking up to 15cm of snow overnight. I'm not a big fan of Winter but it sure looked beautiful.

*Sitting inside and watching vehicles outside slip and slide and spin tires trying to get up the hill in front of our house.

* Watching "Glee" and they sang my current favorite song, Forget You by Cee Lo.

* (this was already posted as my Facebook status, so I apologize for the repetition for some of you)This morning at the gas station, I saw a man who was (no word of a lie) DANCING and SINGING at the top of his lungs. When I commented on his cheeriness, he threw his hands up in the air and exclaimed, "It's the first big snow of the season!". Then he inhaled deeply, looked around, and whispered, "It's beautiful!".... Not even kidding. I thought I was being Punk'd. Looked over my shoulder for Ashton Kutcher.

* Hayley and Riley (the girl we babysit) played "Kittens" all day today and were sticklers about only communicating in Meows. So entertaining!

* I was making supper this evening and Carter came over and asked, "Mom, what are you making?". I told him what I was making and then he goes, "Oh good, I thought you were making a magic potion".

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul...

Before Halloween, my Mom sent the kids a package in the mail. Inside were some letters, Halloween treats, and these funny little glasses...

Thanks Grandma for the endless entertainment!

Happy Halloween!

Trailer Love

I haven't been feeling too wordy lately (is it obvious?)... so I figured I would post pictures of our trailer. In mid-August we sold our little tent trailer and bought my parents trailer. We got to camp in it 4 times before finally winterizing it this past weekend...it made me a bit sad that winter's coming and we can't use it for several months now :)

I love this trailer so much. I can't even explain how nice it is to be up off the ground and warm while camping. And since it has running water/shower/stove/fridge, etc we can actually take it places and it's like our mini hotel room :)

View of the table, which folds down into our bed. kitchen to the right, bathroom to the left:

Triple bunk beds at the other end:

So there it is! We are so so happy with it and can't wait to start camping again in....February...? What? Too early?

Going Dutch

So this weekend we got a PUPPY!!!!! Definitely not a spontaneous decision, everyone knows we have been discussing this for years now, haha. I think the final straw was seeing all of Jared's brothers getting puppies that made us jealous ;) He's a Border Collie/Australian Sheperd X and he is so sweet. His name is Dutch and even though it's only been 2 days, he already feels like part of the family.

To say the kids are thrilled would be an understatement. They are so in love with this sweet little guy already. At our Thanksgiving meal, we took turns saying what we are thankful for. Pretty sure you can guess what Carter and Hayley said!

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to all our family and friends!

Only in BC...

I'm sure everyone's familiar with the popular "inter-office memos" that get sent around via email. You know the typical "please claim your old rotten tupperware containers out of the staff fridge" or "each employee will recieve 104 personal days per year. They are called Saturday and Sunday". Ya know, that type of thing...

Last week, Jared fowarded me this email that got circlated in the office where he works:

To: Fording River Email Users
Subject: Mud on the Windows

In an effort to stop big horn sheep from smashing through the windows and landing in somebody’s office, we are applying mud to reduce the window reflection.

The rams are in rut at this time and see their reflection in the windows. They issue a challenge by tilting their head and of course their reflection accepts the challenge. So far they have smashed several windows.

Please use understanding and patience in this attempt to deter the animals. This is a temporary measure only and should be a very effective deterrence.

Any questions, please give me a shout.
Senior Environmental Officer

Um...okay. Not your typical office memo, hey?

Lately

Golfing:

Isn't he such a stud???

My first sorta Triathlon (it's blurry, Hayley took the picture):

Baking with my sweet little cupcake:

Park days!

Enjoying the Fall weather and scenery:

Fernie Half Marathon with my teammate:

Arts and Crafts. Every. Single. Day:

Quadding with friends:

We have been busy busy, but with so many fun things! Sorry for the lack of updates, I will try to do better... TRY being the key word here.

Pumpkin Festival

We took the trailer camping in Lethbridge this past weekend. It was fun to camp at a site with full hookups and get to know our new trailer a bit better. *In case I forgot to mention, we sold our little tent trailer and bought my parents 5th wheel. The first time I used it, I practically turned into Princess Jasmine singing, "A Whole New World", haha. Point being; it's much much better.*

We met up with some friends and took the kids to the Green Haven Pumpkin Festival. There was lots to do for kids: horse carriage rides, petting zoo, face painting, bouncy houses, sand box, giant pumpkins, and pumpkin pie! The kids had fun, but you'll just have to take my word for it since I snapped very few pictures.

We also took the kids to watch the horse races at the Exhibition Grounds, something we used to do when we lived there when Carter was a baby. The kids loved picking their horses (usually based on their favorite color) and cheering loudly for them as they raced.

We saw so many old friends and family there. It was so nice to have a relaxing couple of days there to do some fun things and catch up with people.

Our Baby Girl Turns 4

Today is Hayley's birthday. She woke up this morning asking to look at herself in the mirror to see if anything was different now that she's 4. She had a good hard look and concluded she looked the same. She is a sweet little girl who lights up our lives and makes us laugh every day. I thought of a few random things that I always want to remember about Hayley right now...

She takes after her Dad and makes up random words to songs all the time. Her two most common tunes she uses are "Popcorn Popping" and "Zippity Do Da". If you've never heard her making up words as she goes, it's actually quite the talent. We just sit and listen to her in awe at how she is able to think up new words and phrases (rhyming, and the right amount of syllables) just off the top of her head.

She has recently started having nightmares. The first time it happened to her, I went into her room after I heard her crying and asked her what was wrong. She replied, "Underneath my pillow there's bad stories and they're making me very sad!".... Saddest. Thing. EVER.

She still says certain words very strangely and we usually don't correct her because a) we don't notice anymore or b) it's cute. Lots of people comment on how she talks. Examples?
"Brother" sounds like "Broller"
"Different" sounds like "Dar-furnt"
"Carter" sounds closer to "Quarter"

She has so many nick names. Hayley Boo, Hails, Hayley Bayley, Hailsey Bails, Bayley, Bails, and a few other random assortments of gibberish that are far to silly to write on here. At this point, she pretty much answers to anything.

She loves animals and whenever she sees one her voice gets about 50 decibels higher.

She still has ridiculously tiny feet. Her feet right now, at age 4, are one size larger than the size Carter wore when he took his first steps. At 10 months. I am not kidding.

She eats the strangest things. Her 3 favorite snacks are: hot dogs straight out of the package, red peppers (I just cut her off a huge hunk and she munches on it), and dry (uncooked) spaghetti noodles. Random.

She's so so sweet most of the time, but can all of a sudden turn spunky. Walking back from the park one day, the nice old neighbor man asked her "Did you have fun at the park?" and she yelled back at him "OF COURSE WE HAD FUN SILLY!". Or she tells me things like "Fine. I'll come to the store with you but just don't try to talk to me."

Happy 4th Birthday Hayley! We love you!

My Little... Princess...?

Those of you who know me well know that I LOVE having a girl. I love doing her hair and dressing her up. The day she was born had a bow glued on her head by the time she was only 2 hours old. In all honesty, I would love it if she looked like this every day:

But let's be serious, most days she looks like this:

(the only skirt she likes wearing is camouflage)

Last weekend we were shopping in the states, getting some school supplies and new clothes for the kids. Both kids needed a new pair of runners, and we let them choose which kinds they wanted. There were tons of cute girly ones, pink, purple, butterflies, Dora, etc. These are the ones Hayley picked...