Happy Birthday Anna!

Here is our 3 year old tearing into some of her presents this morning.

She wore her new sweater dress and wanted to wear her "heels" from Nan and Grumps. Is this her third birthday or thirtieth???

We had Anna's friend Torrah over and did cake at lunchtime...that way some of the sugar might be worn off by bedtime :)

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

We decided that it wouldnt be right to not put up SOME kind of Christmas decorations so we invested in a teeny tiny prelit tree. Now we are NOT fake tree kind of people but this little guy is certainly festive and won't lose needles while we are away in Ontario!

Just another day in YK

Anna and I were looking out the window the other day and happened to see a "neighbour" out practising on the ice. He runs the dogs right past our house almost everyday. It was a pretty cool site and one of the many fun things about NWT!Now if we could only get him to give us a ride...

Could they be cuter??

The other day I looked out the window and saw these sweet little ptarmigans sitting on the dock below. When I looked a little closer there ended up being 8 in total. They were very hard to spot...I guess that's why they are white in the winter!
Here is a photo of the cutest bird of the north!

High Tech Santa

On Saturday we were invited to a client Christmas party for a local Yellowknife helicopter company. It was held at Aurora Village which is a really cool place just out of town. It has a tube slide, heated "tents" for aurora borealis viewing, and dog sled rides. Needless to say it was VERY cold here Saturday (we're talking high of -28) so we did a few rides on the tube, had some hot chocolate but then went into the lodge. The kids had a great time! The real highlight was the arrival of Santa by helicopter! I'm sure Anna will be talking about this for awhile!!

Halloween in Ontario

We travelled home to ONT for Halloween and the first two weeks of November. Tim spent the time working ALOT while the rest of us had great visits with family and friends. We did Halloween in Ingersoll. The kids were thrilled to be trick or treating somewhere where there wasn't snow!
Anna made a very cute and happy Winnie the Pooh!

Jamie on the other hand was not overly impressed with this outfit. They were such a cute pair however someday he may hate me for these photos!

October??

Yesterday I put the kids down for a nap and it was looking a little grey and cloudy out. I went about my "mom-type" business and realized that it had started to snow. IT DIDN'T STOP!! What I thought was a quick flurry accumulated to come cm's on the ground. I'm a wee bit afraid that this is it...winter might have arrived in Yellowknife!

Anna of course LOVED it and spent at least an hour on the porch playing!

Jamie on the other hand....not too sure!

What have we done!?!??!?!

Birthday Boy!

Well Jamie turned 1!!! We had a great day. He slept late, opened gifts, went to playgroup, had a party and ate a cupcake! Pretty big day for a little dude!
Here he is with a little help from his sister.

He really enjoyed his traditional birthday cupcake. He ate it like he had been eating them for years! NOTE that I forgot to wash his face before his dessert!

Fall is here

We had a great weekend this past weekend. We ventured down the Ingraham Trail and went on a picnic with the Davison clan. We chose Madelaine lake which had a great playground, fire pits, and lots of picnic spots. Of course it was a high to 12 degrees and we were the only ones there but we had a great time!
The birch tress are showing their fall colours on the drive down.


Of course I have to include photos of the kiddos having fun in the great outdoors. Jamie loved crawling around in the sand at the playground.

This photo takes me back to high school days...standing around the fire...drinking! Of course Anna and Jake were only drinking apple juice! :)

The Hike!

My dad came to visit last week and we had a great time with him! We saw lots of the Yellowknife sights that we haven't done yet. One of the best was a trip to Cameron Falls. We were told it was an easy 15 minute hike in. It probably would have been close to that without a two year old walking....it took us about 40 minutes to get to the Falls with ALOT of whining (mostly from Grandpa haha). The falls were beautiful and well worth the walk. It was a great day and Anna slept very well that night!

Kid Update!

I realise that I am terrible at doing updates so I thought I had better put some pics up of Jamie and Anna. The big news in our house is HE'S CRAWLING!!! That's right folks...it took him 11 months but he has now decided that scooting around is hard work and crawling just makes more sense. I'm sure it is really only a matter of time before he walks now.

Anna has been super potty kid and will have it completely figured out soon enough. She got a new 'do the other day. It was nice to finally find someone who would cut it short and not worry about cutting her "cute little curls". Here she is showing it off with puppy!

Lastly here is my new favourite picture of the two of them! Anna was very excited to take this picture, I'm not sure I can say the same for Jamie but I took the oppurtunity while I could get it.

Yellowknife Airshow

We spent Saturday out at the airport for the Yellowknife International Airshow. I believe that most of the city and surrounding communities were there....WOW...people everywhere! We came home with sunburns (the adults anyway), tired kids, and sore necks but it was very fun!
If you a bit of a Canadian TV geek like my husband you will be happy to know we got to see the planes and pilots from "Ice Pilots NWT". Here is a picture of the kids and I at Buffalo Air.

Anna has had a crazy love of airplanes and helicopters since we got here and today was her lucky day. She got to sit in a helicopter. She was thrilled of course!

Beach Beauties

It has been unseasonally warm in Yellowknife the past few days so we joined the herds of people at the beach on Thursday. The difference was that we went at 5:00pm and it was at it's peak time! The hottest part of the day seems to be around dinner and bedtime. We had a blast though. Lots of sun and fun and of course Jamie munched on handfulls of delicious sand! YUCK!

Fishing Day

Today was the first beautiful sunny day that we have had this week in YK so we spent the morning outside. We went out to one of the local lakes and tried some fishing. After I got Tim's lure stuck on a rock and Anna somehow got her Dora fishing pole tangled, Anna and Jake decided to go for a swim. The water was freezing but didn't stop the tough two year olds from splashing.

Jamie spent most of the morning try to eat stones so he had a soother in his mouth most of the time to try and keep him happy. He REALLY wanted to splash with the big kids until he felt how cold the water was.

WESA YK

Tim and Dave got a big box of WESA hard hats for the office yesterday. They decided that safety was so important to the Yellowknife staff that they should wear them at all times.

Happy Canada Day!

With the children decked out in their red and white finest we headed uptown today to watch the Yellowknife Canada Day Parade. The whole city was there and very patriotic...lots of fun had by all!

After the parade we went to "music in the park". Anna had a great time dancing and making friends while Jamie was just pretty happy to watch all the people walk by!

The people of Yellowknife really get into all the festivals and holidays. They love to be outdoors and are very friendly and welcoming!

Extreme flora

This is the beautiful wild rose that grow EVERYWHERE along the roads here. This one was coming out of the middle of a rock on the sand...talking about making the most of what you've got!

Bikers

My new fantastic MEC stroller also converts into a bike trailer so this weekend we took the kids out for a cruise! Anna was a huge fan and squeled with delight at every bump, Jamie on the other hand was NOT a fan of his helmet. I think it made his already large head even heavier but needless to say it was a good time and I think we'll do it again! :)

Just Like Christmas!

Saturday was a very happy day in Yellowknife....our stuff arrived!! The movers were here bright and early and out by 10:30 which meant that my happy children had an awesome afternoon looking at everything.
Here is Anna enjoying the "living" room. I think she had more fun when it was full of boxes.

When the unpacking was well underway we took some time on Father's Day to have a nice dinner on the deck and enjoy some bubbly. Thank you Elaine and Bob!

OPPS!

I apolise for my tardy postings! In the hustle and bustle of packing I managed to put the charger for the camera battery in the stuff coming on the moving van so my camera sits dead and I can't post any new pics!
The latest news is that THE truck is arriving on Saturday with all of our stuff! YAH! No more camping out on the floor and sharing our cutlery!
The kids and I have been exploring this fine city. We ventured to the grocery store and found it not too surprising! It was basically a "No Frills" and had a HUGE Joe Fresh section for kids clothes!! YIPEE! The most shocking thing has been the price of things like onions (Think $6.00/bag). Today we went into "town" and checked out the mall. Meg and I were slightly disappointed but between Reitmans and Wal-Mart I'm sure we can buy ourselves some clothes. We found the library today as well and it was GREAT....a wonderful children's section!
This weekend we may venture out to the dump! (I know that some of you probably don't want to be my friend anymore after hearing that :) ) The locals have a "salvage" area where people can drop off good items that they don't want anymore. I've heard rumours of people finding $800 Chariot strollers and full bedroom suites there. This I MUST see!!

It's really true!

This truly is the land of the midnight sun....we sat out having a few beverages last night and I took these photos at 11:53 pm. It was a beautiful evening and we had alot of fun enjoying the "day"light!

Home Sweet Home

The kids and I arrived in Yellowknife after quite an adventure getting here. We ran through airports in Amazing Race style speed and dragging screaming children behind us but arrived with smiles for our husbands.

Our apartment is beautiful and absolutely the best setting in town....the only draw-back...NO FURNITURE! The moving company seems pretty accurate with their estimate of June 24th and though we cross our fingers we think eating "picnic" style and sleeping on airbeds is the way of our future for the next 2 weeks!


This view is what makes living like squaters MUCH more bearable!

Tim is happy because they sell VB(his fav Australian beer) at the liquer store here. They also sell Strongbox in an 8 pack! This could be trouble!!!