Music Through The Ages

We had a Ward Music / Talent night last Friday night, called Music Through The Ages. It was really a lot of fun, they had performances starting from the 1950's all the way up to present day. Tracy and Tona (my cousin) and 2 other ladies in the ward sang the "Lollypop" song (see video), and Lexi was one of the puppies for the "How Much is That Doggy in The Window" song (see video), sung by one of the primary girls. We had everything from lip syncing to Rockband and High School Musical performances.

Lexi's Birthday

It was Lexi's 5th Birthday on Sunday, so she decided she wanted to have a party with her friends from Church on Saturday and then have the Family comeover on Sunday. She invited 4 girls to come over and they had a great time. they decorated foam crowns, and went out side and played on the bouncer she got last year for her birthday. Then they had lunch (Bp&J sandwiches cut out like hearts, Tracy's work), and then they opened presents and had cupcakes. It was fun and we had just the right number of girls there.

On Sunday after Church we had the Family over for a BBQ and more birthday cupcakes. Everyone made except for Jeremy who had a prior commitment in Brooks that day. We all had a nice visit and Lexi was really excited about the gifts she received. We gave her a new bicycle as she has outgrown her old one, and she was really excited about that.

Some Good Advise

So we took my good friend Ben Howe's advise and decided to head down to Southern AZ for a get away from the cold. Tracy's parents graciously flew all of down to Phoenix and then pick us up at the airport and drove us to their retirement park in Yuma. They have a friend there (Gae) that agreed to let us live in her house for a week while she went to visit her son, which we were very grateful for as the trailers in the park are only single wides and we all wouldn't have fit in Tracy's parents place.

We had a great time, the weather was awesome in the 90's+ all week, we spend every afternoon at the pool (which the kids loved) and it cooled down just enough at night to sleep good. We went out to the desert to go 4x4 one day which was fun, and we also went down into Mexico (Los Algodones) for a day to do some shopping.

The time was of course too short especially since we came home to a snow storm Saturday night that brought 6-12 inches of snow in Calgary and surrounding area.

An exciting weekend...and not all good excitment!

We had a bit of a roller coaster weekend, first Tracy called me on Friday afternoon and said that she was taking Catilyn to the hospital. Caitlyn had been sick for a week or so with the stomach flu and also a bad cold, and she wasn't getting any better. When Tracy took her back to the Dr. he told her to get her over to the emergency room asap. At the Strathmore Hospital they gave Caitlyn an inhaler to help her breathing, and then said they were going to give her an IV and send her to the Children's hospital in Calgary via ambulance, as she has pneumonia in her right lung. Well that freaked us out a bit, so Tracy went with Caitlyn, and I took Lexi into Mom's house and then met Tracy at the Children's. I'm actually glad they sent us to the Children's because the doctors there were very good. They checked Caitlyn's x-ray and checked her breathing and said she wasn't as bad as Strathmore thought. We think a lot of it had to do with the fact that Strathmore gave her some antibiotics which had kicked in by the time we got to the Children's. Anyway they sent us home with the inhaler and some more antibiotics and said to just watch her, and if she gets worse to bring her back. Well She was a completley different little girls on Saturday, she was happy and wanted to play, and was a lot better.

Saturday night we had a Chili Cook-Off and Hoedown at the Church, and I volutnteered Dad, Rena, Jeremy and I to play during the dinner portion. It was really fun we got to jam for about and hour while everyone ate, and then we got to eat and watch the rest of the program. Mom, Rachel and Rex, and Tara and Alissa came out, Tracy and Caitlyn stayed home just to be sure Caitlyn was getting over the sickness. We had a good time and the day ended off well.

A Beautiful Winter Weekend

We had a beautiful weekend, the tempurature was +9 and we took advantage. After getting all of our house work done, I took Lexi over to the frozen lake in Strathmore to go skating. This is only the second time she has really been on skates so I wasn't expecting too much, but she did really good. She even made me let go of her so that she could do it herself, which she did quite well, I was very impressed. I've included a short video of her.

Christmas...A success

Well we had another great Christmas this year, we spent Christmas Eve out at Michelle's house where we had dinner, played some music and the kids exchanged gifts. It was a fun time and we even had a visit from Jolly Saint Nick (a surprise that Auntie Shelly arranged, she's tight with the old guy).

Christmas Day was spent at home where the girls opened their gifts, and I spend the morning putting Lexi's new "doll house" together. Tracy made ham and funeral potatoes for lunch and Grandma and Grandpa came out to join us and to see what the girls got for Christmas.

On the 27th Mom and Dad held a Family party at the church where we played games and some b-ball, and then mom and dad bought dinner for everyone. We were able to take a picture of everyone as we all the family there (except for Daniel who was sick). I've included the picture that we took, this is the version before I have photoshoped Daniel in, I still need to get a picture of him so I can add him in, gotta love technology.