Edmonton in winter

I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago when we went to the Festival of Trees.....they show Edmonton in winter...including the frozen river.......as wide as it is, the river freezes over....normally not until January though. This year has just been very cold.

Alhtough it is safe to drive on lakes and ponds here (yes in SUV's etc) it isn't safe to go on ice that is on moving water - like a river.....yet every year idiots do! A few days ago a dog fell into the river through thin ice and disappeared - emergency services were called and went onto the ice to help but their boat type thing got stuck.....so then men were going out onto the ice to rescue their colleagues etc - dangerous! For a dog! Yes I LOVE dogs but still it was dangerous for the rescuers - because of a stupid dog owner - keep your dogs away from the river this time of year!

The other pictures show the Edmonton skyline with its office blocks - not sure they are tall enough to be sky scrapers but they make an attractive skyline with the river - and Lloyd works in several of these buildings - he has to walk between them for meetings each day.......luckily most of them are on the pedway - an underground passage system which means you don't have to walk outside in the cold!

Another pic is of 75th St which is quite a major road in Edmonton...it shows how the city clears the streets of snow........

Our little friends

Our Black Capped Chickadees on one of our feeders......they stay here all winter long despite how cold it gets and they are a delight to watch!

We have peanuts and sunflower seeds in our feeders..the Bluejays pull out all the sunflower seeds and drop them...just so they can get to the peanuts.....the chickadees eat both!

This feeder above though is one we made. It's a coconut shell and we have stuffed it with bacon fat mixed with bird seeds......they love it :)

Home Economics 101

Susannah LOVES housework....I think its her favourite thing to do! Today she changed Sam and got him dressed, dusted, cleaned up the kitchen and then asked me to show her how to do laundry....she also looks after her pig - cleaning up after her etc etc

She also helped me bake cookies today!

All this comes from her - not me.....

I wonder if she will enjoy it as much when she is older and HAS to do it!

clearing the driveway....

Here is Lloyd on his quad getting ready to clear more snow from the driveway.....

He is adamant that he needs a tractor though as the quad just doesn't cut it in the deep snow!

I've had enough mommy!!!

Sam when he had had quite enough of sledding!!!

a few sunsets for you.......

sunsets from home...........

A foggy start to the day.....

This low fog was hanging over our land this morning and I thought it would make for some nice photographs....I wasn't dressed though so had to make do with taking some through the windows!!! They aren't great but it was very pretty!

My snow angels

Susannah and Abigail........my snow angels :)

Sledding with Mom!

And here are a few of me sledding too :)

Sledding with daddy.......

Lloyd joined us for a while and had fun too :)

snow much fun!!!

This afternoon we went out sledding while Lloyd cleared some of the driveway. Then Lloyd came and joined us for a while....it was snow much fun!!! :)

feeling better

I started taking my iron again two days ago - I feel so much better already - why do I stop taking it? Why do I do that to myself? I end up tired and feeling low....but when I take it I feel fine! Lloyd is always nagging me to take it but really I shouldn't need to be nagged.

Take your iron Jane!!!

Almost there

We are almost done with our Christmas shopping - we have got the food - will get the last of it tomorrow (apart from the fresh stuff of course) and we have almost all the gifts now - two more to get I think and then we are done :) I am so glad :) Tonight I am going to get everything out and check through it all and make sure the children have the same amount.......then I can wrap and be done with it :)

Lloyd and I spent this morning Christmas shopping together and we were so lucky that everything we needed was in stock :) Scholars CHoice said they had sold out of all of one thing and then the girl ran out from the back and said she had found one :) I told her she was an angel :)

Well, I promised Lloyd a cup of tea when he came in from clearing the driveway so I had better do that! He took Sam out with him on the quad and they use the plow (plough???) to clear the driveway.

Off to make tea and start dinner!

The table.....

One of the reasons that I wanted a larger family, was that I had this image in my head of our big family sat around a huge table on special occasions - especially Christmas Day. Well today we got a step nearer that dream! Today we bought a new dining table and 8 chairs.......The table is very long - Lloyd will need a megaphone to speak to his Dad during dinner :)

Our table will arrive this week and then we can say bye bye to the nasty yucky one we have now - the one that desperately needs restaining and has so much glue dried and stuck to it that it constantly looks yucky - and it has paint and all kinds of stuff all over it!!!!

I can't wait for the new table to arrive!!!

Happy boy :)

Chris's friend is sleeping over tonight...Chris bought the Smackdown 2007 game today for the playstation - with his birthday money from August. He is happy :) So he and his friend will no doubt play that all night lol!

On Thursday Chris made supper - he made French toast......this is his specialty. I've attached pics of him cooking. Lloyd was out for his Christmas meal with work on Thursday evening but he came home early :)

Last night (Friday) Lloyd and I went out for dinner together and then did some shopping at Kites and other Delights. Thern we came home and watched the last half of Trading Spouses - wow it was just so sad...the wife didn't learn anything and her poor husband and daughters - it was just so sad!

I also sat and watched My Boys last night and I think I have found a show to watch regularly! I don't really watch much tv - haven't watched a regular show for years......well apart from Little People - Big World of course!!!! But this one was really good - I can imagine Susie being like PJ when she is older!!!!! Kind of girly but one of the lads too ;) I guess that comes from having big brothers lol!