Winter update

We are now halfway through February and longing for spring! It has been cold again and, apparently, Ainsley & I missed a week of warm weather while we were away in Ottawa. Sadly, a few days before we were to leave for our trip to Ottawa, Peter's Grandmother passed away in Nova Scotia. He quickly made arrangements to fly down there, and got on the same flight to Ottawa that Ainsley & I were on. It was good to have him there for Ainsley's first flight. She did so well and didn't seem bothered at all by the changing air pressure. She enjoyed reading the emergency landing instructions with Daddy.


We had a great trip and got to see lots of friends and family. The first weekend there we drove to Barrie with my Mom & Dad to attend my cousin's wedding. Several of my family members were there who had not yet seen Ainsley, or only saw her when she was much younger. It was fun showing her off and she was a very good girl at her first wedding!




My parents certainly enjoyed spending time with Ainsley and seeing how much she has grown and changed since they last saw her in August.


Ainsley had fun exploring her Grandparents home, and learned some new skills while we were there including hop/bellyflop crawling - its a very unique way of getting around ... but it seems to work for her. She also learned how to get back to a sitting position from laying down, which has added to her new found mobility skills ... and is keeping Mommy & Daddy (and Fletch) on their toes! Ainsley got quite spoiled while with her Grandparents in Ottawa .. lots of clothes and a giant stuffed panda bear!



Of course, she made sure to keep lots of time slotted for napping ...



It was nice to come home too ... Peter took 3 days off last week so we had lots of family time. For Valentine's Day, Ainsley had a special outfit to wear for the day. She also got a pink bear from her Nannie & Grampie Connolly with a recorded message just for her.



Ainsley & Daddy were happy to be able to spend some time together again.


And, of course, Ainsley & I are back to having our usual fun during the day when Daddy is at work!






Tomorrow Peter is having surgery on his hernia ... they will place a netting over it to keep it from popping out again. He will be under anesthetic so I have to be there to pick him up when he is done. He'll then be off for a couple days recovering; we're hoping the surgery will go well and he won't be in too much pain afterward. We'll let you know how it goes!

Team PM & Ainsley

Finally, some winter we can enjoy!

We have had a very cold winter here ... unseasonably cold. It is frustrating to see -25 everday, and then notice that the average daily temperature is supposed to be -12 or so ... I was not pleased for several weeks. But, finally, we've had some respite from the frigidness and we were actually able to get outside and enjoy ourselves. On Saturday we took the 'kids' to the Provincial Park for a walk, and then stopped at a lookout for some hot chocolate. It was such a nice day that we were peeling clothes off as we walked. During our stop Ainsley had her first taste of snow.





Before our nice Saturday, we had quite the week! I drove to Edmonton last Monday to pick Peter up from the airport. On the way down I started feeling sick and proceeded to be sick for the next 5 hours or so. Initially we thought it was food poisoning, then, the next day after we returned home Peter also got sick. Not fun at all ... then, just as I was feeling better I hurt my back! I actually had to crawl for a day or so because it hurt too much to stand up straight. This was very annoying to me, I hate not being mobile. And I especially hated not being able to properly take care of Ainsley. Peter was feeling better by this point and was taking care of us both. Thankfully he had the week off so he was around all day.
A few pictures of our girl from the last few weeks ...




Yesterday morning Peter left - again - for Dresden, Germany. He was supposed to take this trip before Christmas, but it got postponed. He's doing some testing at Airbus and then returns home on Saturday.

In the meantime, Ainsley & I have some playdates lined up and some swimming and lots of other fun stuff : )

Team PM & Ainsley

Baby in a box

I just had to post these pictures. Ainsley was watching me take down the Christmas tree and other decorations last night. I put this box on the floor and she was fascinated by it ... and then I wanted to see what she'd do if she was in the box!





Team PM & Ainsley

Oh the weather outside is frightful ...

And, if we had a fireplace, I'm sure the fire inside would be delightful ... but we don't : ( Its actually very nice and sunny out today, but c-o-l-d ... too cold to be doing much outside. Incidentally, the other day we drove over to the base to go to the rink ... on the way in, we noticed that the digital billboard was listing the temperature as -127 degrees Celsius!! ... now, it might be cold here - but not quite that cold!!

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2009! Peter has been off since the 19th and we've been keeping very busy. The week before Christmas we spent some time baking cookies so we could deliver them to our friends and neighbours. We made shortbread cookies, holiday cookies and some chocolate balls.




Then we took our little 'Santa' out and made the rounds!




On Christmas Eve we went to our church's candlelight service. Afterward we were invited to a party at a friends house. The boys went out and played road hockey, while the girls stayed toasty inside and played a board game. It was rather chilly out, so when the boys came in from outside they were a little frozen ; )



Christmas Day we slept in until our usual 8:00 am ... its nice to have a child who is still unaware that there were many waiting presents for her under the tree. Ainsley was certainly the star of the day - she was very fortunate to have a lot of nice presents sent to her from family, friends - and of course, some from Mommy & Daddy too.




That night we went over to the Colbourne's for Christmas dinner. After dinner some other friends came over and we had a little sing-a-long while Corey played his guitar ... that was really nice! Ainsley was getting tired so she lounged around and relaxed while we sang.


On Boxing Day we took Ainsley for a walk in her new sled that she got from her Grandparents for Christmas. We also drove around Cold Lake to try and find some crazily decorated homes - this one took the prize!



This house actually had a short range fm transmitter playing music in time with the lights (which flashed, blinked etc. to match the tunes), and in between songs the owner of the house explained how/why he did this to his home! It was like nothing we've ever seen before .. very entertaining!

Our holidays were made complete by a sleighride we were invited to go on on the 27th. It was a nice day - only about -14 and sunny. We stopped partway through the ride and had venison strips grilled for us over an open fire, as well as hot chocolate. It was very nice - and exhausting for our little Ainsley : )




I would include pictures of our New Years Eve .. but we didn't do a whole lot. We were supposed to go to a party at a friends house, but Ainsley was sick and running a fever so we stayed home.

That's all for this time - I'm sure there will be more adventures soon :)

Team PM & Ainsley

Back to blue

I missed the old blue template, so we're back to that ...

It is cold in Cold Lake today ... -40 with the windchill ... good day to stay indoors with a baby who has a cough. Except, we had to go OUT doors this morning at 5:40 am to drive Peter to the base, so he could catch a bus at 6 am to drive to the airport in Edmonton. Not good ... at least Ainsley & I were able to come back home and go back to sleep until 9:00! She's such a good girl letting Mommy sleep in ; )

Peter is on his way to Germany for the week, he'll be back on Friday afternoon. Then, he is off until the second week of January! Oh, and did I mention that when he goes back to work he will be starting off the new year with surgery?! Yes, he has a hernia ... which apparently he's had since he was a teenager. He can remember feeling the bump inside his tummy, but it was never an issue. Last weekend though, he played road hockey and took a few too many hits to the stomach I guess. He was in pain all weekend after that, and finally saw the doctor and base surgeon on Monday ... they were a little surprised that it had gone unnoticed, especially since he is aircrew - technically it would be okay if something happened to him mid-flight because someone else is responsible for flying the plane! Anyway, the hernia will be repaired soon and hopefully we won't have to worry about it again.

In the meantime we are planning on enjoying a nice fluffy, white Christmas here in the west. We got quite a bit of snow last weekend so the ATV's are put away and the snowmobiles abound! Snowmobile parking at Tim Hortons' now open .. seriously. The roads have been pretty slick lately and I've been passed by several skidoos while cautiously driving into town!



We wish so much that we could be closer to our family this Christmas, but we're pretty excited to begin our own family traditions with Ainsley and watch her tear open her presents (and then eat the wrapping paper!)

That time of year ...

I am so behind in my blogging! It has been pretty busy around here. A few weekends ago, Ainsley & I drove to Edmonton to pick up Peter when he got back from California. We had a fun weekend shopping at WEM and eating out!

Last weekend we went to the Santa Claus parade in downtown Cold Lake. There was quite a turnout, the streets were lined with people and there were lots of floats too ... we were impressed! The neat thing about small town life is that, though there were alot of people out for the parade, we still saw several people we knew and their families.


On Saturday night we put up our Christmas tree and decorated it, while drinking eggnog of course. Ainsley enjoyed playing with what soft ornaments I could find for her to chew on and throw! Then, on Sunday we went to Moose Lake Provincial Park and went for a very long trek through the woods ... we were exhausted afterward, with the exception of Ainsley who got to nap for most of the hike :)

(They relaxed while I decorated the tree!)


This weekend the Christmas celebrations are starting. I have a Christmas dinner on Friday night with the girls ... then we have a Tacky Sweater Party to go to on Saturday night ... and then Sunday is the church Christmas potluck. The list continues ...

I am excited for Christmas; Ainsley already has a pretty good stash under the tree, and its going to be lots of fun watching her tear away (and probably eat) the wrapping paper.

Speaking of Ainsley - she is growing so much. She is 7 months old as of yesterday, and weighs 16 lbs., 3 ozs. She is sitting up and clapping, and able to put small pieces of food in her mouth by herself - with Mommy's supervision of course! She is also getting very good at handling her pink sippy cup and likes to drink her water from there. Also, she seems to be getting close to waving, but we're not sure. She & I will be heading to Ottawa in late January for a 2 week visit - I am very much looking forward to that! It will be interesting to see how the flight goes however ... I will be one of those people on the plane going back and forth down the aisle with the baby to keep her entertained! She is just the best little girl, sleeping very well (up to nearly 12 hrs. straight at night!), happy most of the time and curious about everything!!




I will try to keep up a little better ... not as much spare time as I used to have ; )

Team PM & Ainsley

Winter is here!

I think its safe to say that winter has come to Cold Lake. We had a bit of snow a couple days ago, and then got some more today ... about 8 cms. altogether. Fletch is loving it - and so am I - now when he comes in from being outside he's just wet, not muddy!

Today Ainsley had her 6 month immunizations and her flu shot. She did pretty well - just cried for a few seconds when the needles went in; almost made Mommy cry too!
She is up to 15 lbs., 11 ozs. and 26" long! She is growing so quickly! She is able to sit up on her own now for a few seconds at a time, and is rolling over lots.

Here are some shots of us getting ready to go out.





Ainsley is learning to sit up on her own ...


She likes to lunge at the camera though, and doesn't know how to stop and ends up rolling forward on to her tummy!


She has also figured out that when we pull out the camera, its time to smile and put on a good show!



She's a keeper : )

On Saturday Ainsley & I are heading to Edmonton to pick up Peter at the airport. Its been a long two weeks without him! Although he's been having a pretty good time away (he's on a night vision testing course in California), he misses us too. He said that a baby was crying in the restaurant he ate breakfast in this morning and it made him miss his munchkin : )

Team PM & Ainsley