New House #3

Framing is suppose to be finished tomorrow. The windows and doors were delivered today and are sitting in the garage.....waiting :) It's coming along! My friend was kind enough to take this picture for me as my camera is broken. I had to mail it away to get fixed so pictures will be limited for a while!

Family Pictures

We had some family pictures taken last week. Hard to believe it's only the second time we've had family pictures done! I love how they turned out. There are many more but these are the only two that I managed to copy :)

Old McDonald Farm

This past weekend we camped at Old McDonald Farm Campground. It is a FUN place for kids! We camped with our friends (who also happen to be our homebuilder) Matt and Shannon Evans and their 5 kids. Spencer, shown below, is Ally's age and they always have a great time together.

The Evan's making a fish in the sand.

We thought this might be our last camping trip of the Summer :{ but Warren has plans for us to attend a dirtbike race in Bragg Creek the last weekend of September. Will there be snow? Perhaps.

Calaway Park

This past Saturday was spent at Calaway Park! We had lots of fun with Nana, Papa and Hunter. Grace ran up to Hunter when she saw him and gave him a hug. She also asked where Aunt Janae was! Grace was fearless and wanted to ride every ride - even those that she was too small for. Hunter and Warren went on the scary, upside down roller coaster while I accompanied Hunter on a ride called Chaos. Chaos it was - it felt like someone put me in a paper bag and was shaking me furiously. I think Hunter was amused at all my screaming.

Ally was a little put out that she had to ride the "baby rides" with Grace. She was mostly a good sport about it.

Unfortunately my lack of picture taking has resulted in no pictures of Nana, Papa or Hunter. One day I'll get better......

Ally and Grace

My friend, Dana, decided we should take the girls into a huge canola field and take pictures of the girls. It's nice to have a friend who has such great ideas :)

New House #2

The new house is coming along. I think they were hoping to be done framing this week but it will probably be another week. This is good because I'm being indecisive and procrastinating all at the same time when it comes to picking out interior things - this makes Warren happy......

Long Week!

The last weekend of July started with camping 25 minutes away from Olds at Westward Ho Campground with Ryan, Nicole and Hunter. Unfortunately this is the only picture I took. Gracie thinks she's pretty big cooking her own hotdog :) We had beautiful weather and wish we would have packed bathing suits as there were a ton of people swimming in the river. The girls had to play in the water in shorts and t-shirts.

We arrived back from camping on Sunday afternoon. I bathed the kids, packed the car and left for Medicine Hat 2 hours later. Unfortunately I did a poor job of taking pictures on this trip as well!

Grandma Shirl took us swimming in her boss's pond-turned-pool. The day was hot and the water felt great. I think Ally would have swam all day if we had let her. Too bad Grandpa Don was working. The kids had a great time feeding his fish in his beautiful pond although they did ask him if he could turn his pond into a pool and then they could swim with the fish.

What a beautiful backyard!!

We also went to visit Grandma Vi and Grandpa Ralph. Ally loves their garden! This is a great picture of their cherry tree.

Grandma let me take a picture of her! All three gals look beautiful!!!!

Of course, we also spent tons of time with Grandma Shelley as we went to the parade and took Ally on the Midway rides with Cousin Josh and Aunt Amanda. Ally and Josh were so fearless on the rides! Sadly, none of us took any pictures. Ally spent a fun afternoon making paper dolls with Grandma Shelley and picking berries from her garden.

We also went to the Redcliff splash park with Nana, Papa and Aunt Janae. It was a busy week!

We arrived home on Saturday afternoon and left Sunday morning to meet Warren at Hunter Valley. We arrived to rain and MUD. I wasn't sure I would even get into the place they had chosen to camp it was so muddy. We stepped out of the car and were almost eaten alive by mosquitos. But, while Grace and I hid in the trailer, Ally got her chance to ride on Warren's dirtbike with him.

In front of this mud puddle is a bigger mud puddle. A highlight of the time we were there was watching our friend, Jeff, drive his 1 ton truck (which had an eight inch lift) back and forth thru the various mud puddles until he actually got stuck. Of course all the guys were standing in the pouring rain, egging him on. Then, they pulled him out. Grace and I watched from the trailer. I took a picture but it was too dark. Oh, the joys of camping in the bush :)

We arrived home on Monday afternoon and that night, Ally said in her prayers, "Please help Mommy to not take me anywhere ever again." I know she had fun but sleeping nine out of ten nights in three locations might have been too much!

Ally

I'm so behind on blogging about our Summer but I want to take a moment and record the feelings that I have about my 5 year old. She will only be 5 for one whole year and hopefully I can capture who Ally is if only for the moment because, as I repeat to myself over and over and over again, it's only a phase :)

Ally drives me banana's 95% of the time. Warren always tells me not to let her 'push my buttons' because she does! Her favourite way at the moment is to ask my 20 times a day if I'm "happy" or "mad" at her. It drives me a little bit crazy. Every morning I pray that I will be kind, loving and have lots of patience for the day.

Ally loves; dirtbiking, any crafts (what a mess), her sister (most of the time), having playdates, snuggling on the couch reading books with me or Warren, camping, hiking, ballet and of course anything beautiful. This mostly includes flowers and beautiful outfits that she puts together. She loves to dress up and would wear her church shoes everyday if I let her. She is constantly encouraging me to dress up in my pretty clothes as well. I'm not stylish enough for her :) She fixes that by making me paper bracelets and necklaces. She tries to get Gracie to wear the paper clothes she makes for her but so far, Grace isn't interested. Lastly, Ally loves ice cream, candy, slushes, chocolate bars etc.... She has a sugar tooth like I've never seen before - well except for her Dad.

Ally dislikes; going to bed (grrrrr), cleaning her room and baths. I guess I should be happy that list is pretty short!

Ally has the most tender heart and is always concerned about other people. She is mellow and even tempered. Even as a toddler, she rarely had a temper tantrum. She is a sweet girl and I'm so glad that I get to spend everday with her!!!