Fall is here

Yesterday after church we took Ainsley & Fletch to the Provincial Park for a nice walk. It was perfect weather and a nice day to see the myriad of pretty fall colors.
But, of course, a walk wasn't adventurous enough - so Fletch decided to make it interesting for us. Upon first arriving at the park, one must first walk past the beach area and up a very steep hill to the nice walking trails ... so we did that ... and when I say steep hill, I mean so steep that you almost feel like you might fall backwards! I had Ainsley in the baby carrier on my chest, and Fletch was off leash chasing his ball. After a few minutes of walking Fletch disappeared into the woods .. we thought to retrieve his ball. Well, he got his ball and then decided to navigate through thick woods and steep terrain all in order to get down into the water! He made it down there and was swimming before we even got close enough to the edge to see him! Peter then had to navigate his way down to get him out of the lake. Ainsley & I waited patiently at the top, watching ... and accidentally scaring some ladies when we surprised them by emerging from the forest and back onto the path - oops, at least we don't look too threatening.


Eventually Peter and Fletch made it back up to us .. the amazing thing, I found out once they were back, was that Fletch somehow also managed to get down a 6-8 foot drop to the lake, after scaling the steep hill! What a crazy dog. He was not injured at all, but very wet. And, as punishment he had to stay on his leash for the rest of the walk! All drama aside, it was a very pretty walk complete with leaves and pine cones crunching under our feet - I love fall : )





Ainsley managed to stay awake for most of the walk, and was lulled to sleep sometime towards the end.



Team PM & Ainsley

A day in the life ....

These pictures weren't all taken on the same day, but they still portray a day in the life for our little Ainsley ... who seems to always be the subject of these blog postings now ; ) She kinda consumes my day, so you can appreciate me having a lot to say about her!

Here she is watching Baby Einstein ... she loves it and as you can see, she is quite intent on it!


More tv watching - she doesn't do it that often, I promise! She just looked so cute sitting there that I had to snap some pictures of the back of her little head - love that bald spot!


In the evening Ainsley & Peter have some play time. She & Daddy were practicing standing, though she was more interested in sucking on his fingers.


This was either pre-bath or just after bath ... anytime she can get those feet in her mouth she does. This was the first time she really figured out that she could grab them and munch away.


And, oh so cute in her outfit for church! She looked up and smiled at the perfect time.



We are enjoying fall in Cold Lake. I have to say that I am very impressed with the weather here these days. Crisp and sunny during the day - blue skies forever - and hardly a rainy day. The trees have turned color and the lake is very blue - it is quite pretty. I know that someday when we move from Cold Lake I will be sad to leave behind the lovely weather. Now, I might not be saying that in January - but Spring, Summer and Fall are so great here - I love it. And really, winter isn't that much different than anywhere else - except they don't plow the roads!!

Ainsley & I are off to pick up Peter from work.

Team PM & Ainsley

Funny Girl

Babies provide their parents with lots of things: poopy diapers, dirty clothes, drooly kisses, and best of all - lots of laughs. We are learning just how funny our little girl is .. it started with her pulling her blankets over her head when she slept. Well, she still does that, and its still funny! But nothing was funnier yet than me finding her sideways in her crib the other morning. She was laying there, awake, and looked at me as if I was the silly one. I'm still not sure how she got to be sideways, or how long she'd been that way! I'm sure sideways sleeping will become the norm as she gets older and moves around more, so it won't always seem as funny ; )


She has also discovered the artificial plant that is a centerpiece on our kitchen table. She was sitting in her Bumbo chair on the table while I was making dinner the other day ... I heard a 'thump' and turned around to see that she had pulled the plant over on its side ... pulled out some of the leaves and was chewing on them!! Now, we have to move the plant when she is anywhere near it. This picture was taken after I had sat the plant back upright ... and she found it again.


She continues to be such a joy and a blessing in our lives! She's a talker and a squealer and loves to play and be entertained. Its lots of fun having her around - especially now that she is sleeping 10 hours at night ... 8 was good, but 10 is better! Ainsley now weighs 14 lbs., 6 ozs.


Team PM & Ainsley

Cutest baby ever!

I'm sure everyone thinks this of their babies ... so I guess I am following suit! I have to say that its very hard for me to not post every single picture I take of Ainsley!! But, I try to restrict it to the cutest of the cute photos : ) I took these yesterday before a walk outside - I was trying to get her to smile at the camera.






And these ones were after I put on her hat ... it took some more convincing to get a smile!




So, after seeing these pictures - don't you agree that she is just the cutest baby ever?! ; )

Team PM

The Deck!

As of today, Peter has almost completed the deck. All that is left to do are the railings on the top level, and two small staircases from the bottom level to the ground. Also, next spring he will be filling in the space between the two tiers with lattice. We are pretty excited to get a little bit of use out of it before the cold weather comes! Fletch too enjoyed being allowed to go out the kitchen door and lay outside in the backyard.



And, of course, I have to post some recent pictures of Ainsley. She will be 4 months old tomorrow!! I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I can't believe how fast she is growing and how quickly the time goes by. She is so cute and so funny and we are so thankful for her! She loves to talk and play and be entertained - and I think she is starting to like having her picture taken too, which is good because it happens alot! Here she is before church on Sunday in her 'Guess how much I love you' dress (based on the storybook with the rabbits).



Yet another shot of her sleeping with the blanket pulled up around her head - too funny!


Team PM & Ainsley

Bathtime photoshoot

These pictures were so cute I had to post them! We had a photo shoot during Ainsley's bath/after bath time last night so here are some shots from that.






Now, isn't she the cutest baby ever?! We think so ; )

Peter is back to work

Today is Peter's first day back on the job .. he has a busy day ahead of him! In the last post I mentioned that he was lead FTE on 6 fleets of aircraft, but its actually 8 fleets! Needless to day he's going to have a lot of work on his plate, but he enjoys the work - mostly the flying : )


Here is a video of Ainsley jumping in the Jolly Jumper ... its pretty fun to watch her, she just loves it! In fact, as I type she is jumping and squealing and having a great time : )

Back in the swing of things

Hi everyone ... I apologize for taking so long to post a new blog entry, I know there are some of you who have been waiting and waiting ; ) Needless to say, we have been super busy since coming home from our 8 week holiday. We had a great trip and it was so great to see everyone, but it was nice to get back to our place and our routine. Although, we were both pretty homesick for a few days once we got back to Cold Lake. Our friends here were excited to have us back and to see how much Ainsley has grown - its been really nice spending time with all of them again.

So ... since we've been home we've been working on our yard. When we first came home we were surprised and a little horrified to find a weed forest all over our property! Some of these 'weeds' were more like trees and were as tall as me!! We honestly didn't think they would grow in the hard clay, but they did and we spent 2 days pulling weeds. Peter then worked on the deck for the rest of last week and has the top tier finished. Earlier this week we found out about a really good deal on topsoil, so we had that delivered and since then we've been raking the rocks and sticks out of it and getting our property graded so we can put down fertilizer/grass seed today. I don't think either of us realized how big our property was until the topsoil was spread - its huge! Its been a lot of work, but its going to be so nice to have grass and deck all done for next summer.





Ainsley making her contribution to the backyard.


Last week the weather was HOT and its supposed to be hot this weekend again, but the last two days have been pretty cool - so we've gone from shorts and a tank top to jeans, a sweater and hat.



Ainsley has been growing like a weed as they say ... she had her first round of shots last week and was 12 lbs., 1 oz., and 23.5" long. She is in the 50th percentile for her weight and length so she is just average. Hard to believe that she is almost 4 months old! She has become a very chatty/laughy/squealy baby and loves to stand up and talk to me face to face. She has even learned how to rollover from her front to her back. But, her latest favorite thing is her Jolly Jumper - she absolutely loves standing in there and jumping! She can spend up to a half hour in there jumping before she's tired. The other day she even fell asleep in it! It was the funniest thing and thank goodness I had the camera handy!!


She is still sleeping very well at nights and also for her naps. She now likes to have a blanket around her face or her head when she sleeps ... we often have to sneak in and move it off her face after she's asleep. Here she is napping in her bouncy chair with the blanket pulled up over her face!


In fact, she likes to pull alot of things up onto her head - she's so silly : )


And, as with all little girls - dressing them is half the fun! Here we are on our way to church last Sunday ... as you can see in the pictures, the headband didn't last too long.




Peter goes back to work on Monday. He is looking forward to it, but he also knows that its going to be super busy. He will be the lead Flight Test Engineer for 6 fleets of aircraft! Hopefully he won't have to travel too too much, but he's pretty sure that he'll be away a bit here and there. I am looking forward to starting some fall activities with Ainsley including a playgroup and maybe even swimming.
Now that I've gotten caught up with the blog I'm sure I'll be updating it regularly again : )

Team PM & Ainsley

Heading home

Well, 'home' isnt' really how I think of Cold Lake yet, especially now that I've been back in Ottawa over the summer : ) We are heading back west tomorrow - this time through Canada. I hope we see at least one moose, but I also hope its not in the middle of the road in front of our car. The side of road would suffice.

We had a really good time in Halifax, it was busy, but we got to see alot our friends and family in that part of the country. We visited Peter's parents in their new home in Indian Harbour Lake, and then stayed with Peter's aunt in Halifax. We also visited his grandparents cottage near Pictou and spent some time at Camp Evangeline ... sleeping in a very small cabin! At least it was only for 3 days. Ainsley has travelled really well and we haven't had one bad night with her on the whole trip! Even in the tiny cabin ...

While at the cottage we had a campfire on the beach. Ainsley was mesmerized by the flames for hours - she just sat on my lap and chewed my finger!



I'll add more pics and stories when we get back home ... for now, I have to go finish packing!

Team PM & Ainsley