Our Summer "Home"

Yes we have entered into that realm of society that speaks of their "summer home" and how they're going to spend so much time there and have so much fun just relaxing. Except it's not really like that!! Yes we do have a summer "location" (read: land to lay our heads) and we will certainly be spending too much time there, but I have a sneaking suspicion that "relaxing" will play but a minor role in how our days are spent! We'll be spent! Knowing a bit about what we are up against this summer, we headed out to the property to "set up house"... so to speak!



So off we were! Dog and stuff in-tow and set to visit our future 'abode.'

Here's Miss K all excited and set to embark on a new adventure!

And here's how Avery spent her time!

And when all the books have been read and songs sung...time to bring out the silly faces!

We made it!!! So...close your eyes and wait until we get to the bottom of the drive-way! Ready... open your eyes!!

Here it is!!! Go on... get jealous!! right;P

So now that you're done drooling, here's a few pictures of the rest of our day! And, yes... I am serious! We are living here for the summer, but, as forementioned, there will be little relaxation and "summer home" simply refers to land to lay our heads! Definitely a change of scenery, but one we are embracing! After all, this property is the main reason we moved up here! It will be great for me and the girls to be outside so much and nice to be living where Daddy works! I am just a wee bit apprehensive about letting go of all my 21st century comforts! You know: microwave, Internet, washing machines, RUNNING WATER! Ah well, tis the season to rough it!! Anyone wanna come "relax!" Let me know - I'm sure we could squeeze you in to some of this open space!!

Me and Avery getting the lay of the land!

(like the sling?? get one here!)

Breaking in our stylish footwear!

Our newest form of communication.... smoke signals!

TIM-BERRRR!R

Re-arranging some living room decor!

Suffice it to say: Home Sweet Home!

And one must never forget...stake your claim!

I think she looks SO cute here in her long-johns! Almost like a pow-wow dancer!

Anyhow - that was our day! We are currently trying to get the blue house ready to put on the market and once that's done... hi-ho, hi-ho...it's off to the lake we go!! Seriously though, this property is gorgeous! Flat and lake-front! If you wanna nice place to lay your head let me know! You just might have to chop a few trees down or pound in some fence posts while you're there, but it'll be worth it!

Weather Wonders!!

I will refer to the weather as such because calling it schizo or ridiculous or crazy would, simply, just not be fair! So I have brought myself to a point where I will embrace the weather as it comes and relish in whatever it brings. (yeah right!)

Get a load of our evening yesterday, what we woke up to and how it looks as I am typing this! And then you tell me what you would call our weather up here!

This is Karys telling the snow to "go away" yesterday evening!

This is what we woke up to this morning... "lovely"?!?!

And...this is what it looks like outside at this very moment!

Now...I ask...what would you call it???

Holy Hair!!!

A day in the life of us Boschmanns - I've been stock-piling some pictures for a while and never really had the opportunity to fit them in anywhere... so here they are!!

The faucet has been turned on!! If you look closely, you can see the stream of drool! I remember this stage with Karys too, but it seems to be earlier with Avery?!

Karys being loved "Opa style"! He always teases her and she's getting good at teasing back! This is just a typical tickle-session!

And this face is what I see every time Jim makes an appearance in the room! Man does this girly love her Daddy!! Whose heart wouldn't melt from this face!

Our baby is growing up sooo fast...too fast in my opinion! But she also seems to be overshadowed by Baby Sister quite a bit! So in attempts to show her off as well... here she is helping... as usual... setting the table!

And after the work, comes play! Or, in her case, colouring! She also likes to practise drawing cats and "printing" her name!!

And after a long day filled with tickles, helping and creating, what's better than drying off after a bubble bath on Mommy and Daddy's bed, watching cartoons and...

Enjoying the comforts of being two: bottle, baby and blanket! (Yes, she still has a bottle before bed...heck, she's only 2!)

Oh right...in reference to today's title...get a load of this doo! Does she have a head of hair or what?!?

Yup - there's lots!! She's got her ever-increasing head of hair and mine... it will not stop falling out!! Anyone else experience this massive post-partum shedding??

And...when the babes are in bed and all is quiet, what better to do then try on one's new find?! This is a Columbia jacket that seems to be water-proof and insulated and you'd never guess where this menno found it! Sure gonna come in handy this summer at the lake!

In closing, I'll let you get a cyber-sniff of these puppies! Hands-down, the best and most beautiful bouquet received yet! Not for anything in particular either, which makes them even nicer!!

So, that's it from this end... nothing exciting I know... but it's life and we are quite enjoying it right now! Counting our blessings...daily!

Get with it Dixon!

Yeah after a title like that and what JUST happened, I really do have to get with it! ARGH!!!!!!!! I was this close the pressing 'post' and with some slight of my finger (NO idea what) I was able to delete my entire post and not even have it in the draft section! Don't ask me...

Today's title has to do with the fact that it has been so long since I last blogged, and when I saw that I mumbled to myself "You better get with it Dixon!" You see, I still am Christina Dixon in my head! You think the Boschmann part would sink in eventually, I mean it's been 4 1/2 years!! Nonetheless, I am me and that's what I mumbled, so...here I am...attempting to get with it!!

Basically this post will be picture-based in hopes to display a sampling of works courtesy of our new camera!!!! Yes, that's right, we finally have a camera from the 21st century!! You see, our other camera was previously my uncles and he purchased it when digital camera first came out, and we got it after he had used it for our wedding, so in techie-years that thing was a dinosaur!! Being that that camera was the only reference I had of digital cameras, I was under the impression that all other digitals (other than SLR's) had a 5-10 second delay once pushing the take-a-picture button (there's gotta be a more technical term for that!) How on earth is a mother supposed to catch any spur-of-the-moment shots with a hindrance like that one?! Anyhow, needless to say, our new beauty has little to no delay and is nicely satisfying our picture-taking pleasures... and then some! This puppy has options coming out of every orifice of its plastic being... many more than I will ever learn about! Even if I do eventually get through the novel that accompanied it!! Man... do those 'how-to' books know how to make me feel like I'm reading Chinese...

So here's a few pictures taken from the keener camera (referred to as such because I feel like a loser-student again, back in SFU when I had to take that dreaded math course! Honestly... reading this camera's hand-book is, to me, like looking in a math text! My eyes glaze over and this haunting voice in my head starts to whisper "HA...you...get this?!" - sorry... total tangent, but that's a sore spot for me, I hate feeling stupid!) Back to the pics...

Kool Kat Kare-bear with her new fairy shades!

Smiley Pants enjoying some rays!

Karys...proudly showing off the fact that she can jump with her hands in her pocket and hold her baby - three things at a time!!

Miss Avery's favourite way to hold her feet!

And... when I finally found the time to take these creative pictures I was extra excited to have our new camera to take them with!! I had the same creative urge with Karys around this same age...so I was glad to be able to do it with Avery too!!

Holding onto Mummy!

Looking this cute sure is tiring!!

And my personal favourite...

So that's it for now!! I have to go and figure out how I am going to deal with our Little Miss who figures it's okay to tell her Daddy to "Go away!" hmmmmm...the joys of girls:D I know her spunk will prove to be admirable as she grows up. Right know we're just trying to figure out how to steer it in the right direction!

:*)--Humbly, I admit that my 'lost' post was found...once I scrolled down the page... did I mention I hate feeling stupid...

All in a Weekend

Well, that went fast!! I guess the notion is true - time flies when you're having fun! This weekend was jam packed with good weather, good food and good company! So here's a re-cap! On Friday I was able to go and pick up my treasures at the local "paint your own ceramics" shop in town! Earlier last week my mom and I went for a few visits to this little store and painted a few keep-sakes for the girls and for Jim's up-coming birthday! Seeing as how this is quite the tiny town we live in, we were not too sure how long it would be before we could pick our treasures up due to the fact that there needs to be a full kiln; however, we were pleasantly surprised to hear our stuff was ready on Friday!! These are the plates that I made for both girls...

And this is the cup the girls "made" for Daddy's birthday!!

We plastered K's hands on the sides of the mug and A's foot print right in the middle! He was pleasantly surprised Saturday morning when we gave it to him!! And I was glad to see how well all the pieces turned out:)

So, Saturday day was filled with enjoying the weather and getting ready for Jim's birthday dinner! Thanks to Mr. Sun we were able to enjoy a lovely BBQ of short ribs (something Jim has developed a love for thanks to our visit with the Neufelds!) and thanks to Betty Crocker, we were able to enjoy a modified version of Bonnie Butter Cake. Jim likes cake, but he loves cupcakes, so... voila!Yummy treats for my hubby! It was an enjoyable day and I feel blessed to be able to celebrate with him another year of life, another year together!

While I was busy getting dinner ready and others were busy barbecuing and visiting, my lovely daughter was busy teaching her company how to have "so much fun!" I couldn't bring myself to stop her once she started making this mess, she was in her glory! And when the time came for me to clean it up (she was distracted by a new movie courtesy of Gram), once she remembered what she had been up to, she walked into the kitchen and said "Hey...where's my mess?" Oh it sounded so cute! And made the mess all the more worth it! In other news, Avery is now four months old and I will never blog about her sleeping habits again!! Right after I posted about her sleeping through the night, all patterns ceased! We are back to learning how she works, but she continues to be a joy in our lives! Here she is with her two comforts...'Gram' and her thumb!Here she is holding her bottle (albeit, for only a second), my what a big girl!And here she is in her excersaucer...something she's still trying to figure out, but enjoying the new position - upright, rather than reclined or laying down!

So...suffice it to say, we had a great weekend! We love having company and would love it if you wanted to come for a visit! But as for right now...we're beat! And I'm off to join the rest of my house-hold.....

Out of the mouth of my Babe!

Well, this will indeed be a short one. My mom has arrived and we always seem to be uber-busy while she's here! So now that they are all sleeping I thought I'd take the time to post while I can and mention that I can't see posting as frequently while Mom's here:)

My Mom and the girls - the only picture I have of them all together! Yup...that is MY mom, contrary to what you may think! Many people assume she's Jim's mom:)

Anyhow - back to my title! The other day while I was getting Karys ready for bed, she was sitting on the potty and said "Mommy come sit me!" *translation - "Mommy come and sit next to me."* I usually leave her alone to do her business because she loves to just sit and chat! But this time I sat and chatted! She rambles on about her day and her 'babies' (dolls) and reminding me to leave her door open when she goes to bed (because now thanks to "Franklin" and "Little Bear" my daughter is officially scared of the dark and is sure there are monsters in her room! Booo Treehouse!) Anyhow as we were sitting I just thought I'd take an opportunity while it was there! Now, Karys knows about God and Jesus as much as a 2 year old can, but that night I just thought I'd mention a little more.

Me: "Karys? Did you know that if you ask Jesus into your heart that He will stay with you forever and you get to go to heaven?"

Karys: "Yeah...heaven"

Me: "And if you ask Jesus into your heart He loves you so much that He will listen and then you get to go to Heaven...and that's where Papa and baby Eden are!" (repetition is key with 2 year olds!)

Karys: "Baby Eden...Heaven"

And that was it - she was done and ready to get off the potty and go to bed! So off we went and into bed she got! "Well I guess that didn't really compute with her," I thought, "Oh well, better lucky next time!" And then...as I was leaving her room, Karys said "Jesus my heart!" and I said "Yes Karys Jesus can be in your heart!!" And she replied "Me so cited" *I'm so excited* as she snuggled deeper into her blanket! And out I walked, holding back tears! Why do we do that?? Why when something moves us so much that our hearts well up and tears form in their little ducts, do we blink them back instead of humbly letting them fall and embracing the truth that moved us? I don't know why, but I am going to stop that now! I am going to make a conscious effort to embrace those moments and the tears that accompany them!

So...the next night, when Daddy was putting Karys to bed he thought he'd try and tweak a memory by asking her where Jesus was. She sat there and thought and then said "Umm, under my bed!" Well...it wasn't the response he was hoping for, but she's right isn't she?? He's everywhere!

"Sexerdizing"

I love it when Karys first wakes up from her nap, she always comes out so sleepy fresh, hair everywhere, happy, and ready for the rest of her day! She still naps every day and, if I'm lucky, Avery will nap during that time too! But when the time is coming to an end I am ready for them to wake up because I get lonely! It is crazy when they're awake and doing things/demanding my time, but that's what I'm here for! So when they're both sleeping and I have gotten done what I need to do I am ready to be needed again!

I love it when - around the 2 hour mark - a little voice begins to emerge from closed doors and after a while of "waking up" play with her "babies" starts to say "Mommy... are you noowww??!" (Mommy where are you?) To our benefit, even though Karys is in a "big girl" bed, she still will not get out of bed until we come and get her or call for her to come and see us! So... in reference to my title I called to her today to come and see me and, as always, she is so excited to be up and ready to play! She comes running down the hall and stops by my legs, looks on the the floor and points to my pilates mat with a grin on her face! Usually it is put away before she gets up so I guess she was excited about something new in the room?! She runs over to the mat and says "Mommy, me sexerdizing!" Yes Care Bear - you sexerdize all you want! Just always let me be a part of it!

Karys and Baby...sexerdizing!

A Post in the making...months ago!

I have been meaning to get around to sharing some household happenings. These events took place when I was a non-blogger and I documented them thinking "If only I had a blog!"

Since moving up here we've definitely noticed a difference in the air (drier) and the water (harder). And, in fact, for the first 4-5 months Karys had chapped lips. I'm not talking a bit red and some chap stick would help. I'm talking layers of flappy skin coming off her lips - aided by her sitting and puling it off! Anyhow, when the weather got a bit colder, Karys came down with a runny nose and it just dripped! Non. Stop. The poor girl had me chasing after her with a dreaded kleenex all day; so much that when I would ask her if she needed her nose wiped she'd quickly run her finger along her top lip in attempts to wipe all the gooey goodness off and say "no, all gone!" Needless to say, her poor nose took quite a beating! So one day while I was getting dinner ready and she was happily playing by herself, I noticed her saying "Bee-bah, bee-bah, mommy me did it! Better now!" And you know when you hear talking but what they're saying isn't really registering. Well I knew she was talking about a band-aid (bee-bah) which she loved to pretend with. But I also knew she couldn't open them herself and so didn't really pay attention to what she was saying. Until she came walking into the kitchen all proud, repeating herself saying "better now mommy!" And she looked like this...

The poor girl knows you put band-aids on your owies! You can't blame her for trying!! And you can even see her chapped lips if you look close:(

I've never thought of Karys as a particularly sneaky child or even one who is that curious. She usually goes about getting into thing that she knows about and doesn't explore beyond that! So around the same time as the band-aid episode, when stuff is continually running out of her nose, something else happened. My daughter loves peas - in any form, frozen before dinner, or cooked during dinner. One night while I was getting dinner ready she asked for some peas in her bowl. So up she got into her seat and happily she ate...frozen peas! Good girl, keeping busy while Mommy gets supper ready! I put the full plates on the table and went to tell Jim that dinner was ready. While I am walking down the hall back into the kitchen Karys is saying something to me... "Mommy, nose" What a good girl, now she's telling me when she needs her nose blown! So I reach for a kleenex and she says "Mommy? Nose?" (Don't you love those two-year-old question/comments!) And I turn to look at her holding a pea and questioning whether it should go in her nose! "No silly, you don't put peas in your nose do you?" I ask, and she obediently answers "No!" Kleenex to nose I ask her to blow and something shoots out into the kleenex! What the???

So to my utter shock, she wasn't asking me if she could put peas in her nose, but rather telling me that she had put them there and look how many fit!! Man...what's a mother to say?! "Hold still while I get the camera!! Where did you put those peas that you never put them again??"

Et voila...lesson learned! Four peas fit into two nostrils and you never do that again!

In other news...we just got back from an enjoyable weekend with some friends! And something that struck me and my friend was...a 2 year old is a 2 year old! Well...girls at least! There were a 3 month old (Avery) a 13 month old, two 2 year olds, and a 4 year old - all girls! Poor hubbys... but they love their girls!! And you'd think that with all the hubbub, one would keep busy ie: out of trouble! But Karys kept putting herself right in line to get into trouble with the other 2 year old! Whenever one had something, the other had to have it. But if the younger/older one had something, it was perfectly fine! She was such a tease too! Purposely holding out something she knew the other wanted, only to wisk it away at the last moment! The dynamics of my 2 year old never cease to amaze me - especially when in company of others! I can say she's like "this," and she pull out some alter-ego, unmistakably opposite from how I had described her! So although we enjoyed ourselves with friends we hadn't seen in a while, I was humbled by the actions of my daughter! And...very thankful that both girls managed to deal very well with the 4 hour drive home!! Avery actually slept the entire time in the vehicle and woke up conveniently to go shopping and be fed, only to fall asleep again once we were back on the road!

In closing, I'll simply mention that my receding hairline has returned! Anyone else out there shed like an animal a few months after giving birth??? I remember something similar happening after having Karys, but this has come about much sooner and with more gusto than what I seem to remember! And...as much as I wish someone would just say "April fool's" to me and turn up the thermostat, it was -12 this morning, and that's no joke! Please Lord, bring on the melting! This snow has gotta go! And so must I! My content little babe isn't so content at the moment! But she did sleep until 8:45am again this morning!! Yippee!!