California Dreaming

My new desk and bunny hut

2011-02-14T10:07:00.000-08:00

Here is my most recent project. I wanted somewhere to keep our computer and books so I decided to turn the spare bedroom closet into a desk. The project started small but like most this I do, my brain kept coming up with new ideas. Anyways what started out as a piece of stained wood as a shelf turned into this. I added a place to store my wine and a few glasses as well as some lighting above the desk and down lighting on the grass weave wallper behind the monitor. Also I was bored one day so I built a little "bunny hut" out of scrap pieces I had around the yard. Yes I also hand painted the bunny hut sign haha.

A few more house pics

2011-01-27T22:23:00.000-08:00

Here's a few pictures of our front yard landscape. Also a new playground for Sisi in the back.

Sienna's singing her favorite song

2010-10-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

Sienna singing her favorite song

Two more rooms painted

2010-10-01T18:00:00.000-07:00

Well we painted two more rooms in our new house. The bedroom we painted just this week and are really happy with how it turned out. We also painted the headboard, dresser, and night table that we already had. The other room we painted was the main bathroom. In the bathroom I painted the cabinet the same color as the furniture in the bedroom. The cabinet in the bathroom was a light oak which is kinda dated.

More photos of our new house

2010-09-10T17:18:00.000-07:00

So now that we've been in our place for a weekish i decided to post a few pics of progress so far. We've done simple fixes so far like paint and yard work. We still need to paint the halls, our bedroom and Sienna's room. The yard as you will see is mostly dirt for now. The people before us had all rock in the back, not even a bit of grass. I have been removing all the rocks to make way for some sod in the near future. We're very happy with the house and very blessed

Before, after some rock removal, still lots to do

Our new house!!!!

2010-08-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

Here is our new house in Hollister, CA. We are very excited to get into it this week and paint and do the floors. More pictures to come once we're in it.

Happenings and my 3 month before and after

2010-03-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while so i'll add a few pictures of things that have gone on. Also one of the biggest things happening in my life was my goal of losing 20 lbs since January 5th. We just recently celebrated Elizabeth's 29th birthday and had a special surprise visit from her parents. Sienna is doing good in gymnastics and is growing up fast. Anyways i'm heading to Las Vegas for Ben's 30th today so i'll just post pics cause i got lots to do.

I didn't want to post pics at first cause i was so humiliated by letting myself go over the last year. I decided i was really proud of myself for sticking with it and losing 21 lbs in 3 months so don't laugh at the before. This is a real before/after not like the magazines that are all photoshop.(I was gonna write before on the pic and screwed up and saved it with the black scribbly line, oops)

Sisi is 3/Gymastics

2009-12-04T12:37:00.000-08:00

Balance beam pro

Jump jump jump

Tada!!!!!

Hmm goofing off

Shhh

" OK cousin Lily your cute but seriously gimme back my purse from Grandma

Sadly this is the best picture I could get from a bunch of 3 and unders

Classic

Mmmmm

Post pinata explosion

Whack that thing! Take out all that toddler stress

Still loves the swing just like when she was only a few months *wips tear from eye*

She loves Thomas the train so this is our homemade attemp at a cake. Turned out ok

New Post? Whaaaaat?

2009-11-02T10:45:00.000-08:00

Here are sone random pics over the last little.

The random update

2009-03-17T12:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple thing's I've learned about parenting over the last year

What the heck have we been doing

2008-06-30T11:02:00.000-07:00

Well our last post was a long time ago. Since April we have just been doing our thing in Gilroy, and areas around. We have discovered that our favorite beach now is Capitola beach and Sienna's favorite passtime is by far Gilroy Garden's and the kids carousel. Elizabeth is enjoying her work and I am enjoying being a housewife. We had the Deringers down for a visit in May and that was a great time. Tomorrow we are having Tricia, Justin and Hunter for a week and a bit. After they leave a week later we will be in Victoria for a week for a visit and I will be helping at teen camp. We have had fun hanging with our friends here and Sienna really loves hanging with Juliet. We miss all our friends/family and are excited to see them soon. Also we are missing Mom/Grandma up north and hope we can see her sometime soon as well.

This and that, oh ya and some of those too.

2008-04-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

Since the last entry weve done a few fun things that perhaps you might like to hear about. If you would not like to hear about them you can skip down to the pictures at the end.....Still there? So weve been hanging out with this really nice couple in the building who have a daughter Sienna's age and a new little 4 week old. They seem really nice and we have a lot in common, she plays tennis and he plays basketball. The one thing he doesn't do is play Halo, so we'll so how close of friends we will actually be. We went on a mom's morning out with the kids to the childrens discovery museum, and yes I went, afterall I am a housewife. It was really fun for the kids and there was tons to do. It was kind of a Science World for little kiddies. We got seasons passes for Gilroy Gardens and have visited there a couple more times. Every time I go to Gilroy Gardens I like it more and more. The park is so more laid back than your normal theme park, there are way less people and it is so nice. It was originally a kind of buchart gardens and the this Bonafante guy incorperated a bunch of attractions in to it. We had our first bbq outside, we are not allowed bbq's so they have bbq pits all over and you use charcoals to cook with. I like to grill this way but sure do miss my propane bbq. We have visited a bunch of parks in the area which are really awsome. Gilroy has earned the most awards in California for it's parks. Other than that we have been just enjoying the spring weather and hanging by the pool. It has been pretty hot here already, the last few days have been in the 90's or 32 degrees. Hope everyone is doing well and we miss all of you. Sienna with her first pair of thongs, sandals that is.

Sienna and Juliet discovering at the Discovery museum

The gurls getting lost in the rock maze

Sienna searching for easter eggs at our Vineyards annual easter egg hunt

Gilly the Garlic at Gilroy Gardens

What have we been up to??

2008-03-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

So we've had a busy week with family and fun. Well since our last post we had Elizabeth's parents visit us for a week. It was great to have them here and Elizabeth was sooo happy to have them. The week they came was a pretty nice week weather wise. There were severeal afternoons spent pool side catching some rays and taking a dip. Sienna was sure happy to see G&G, it took her a day but after that she warmed up to them. One of the days we went to Santa Cruz to check out the beach, surf and walk the pier. The highlight of the week for me was my Christmas present from Elizabeth which was tickets to the Warriors Vs Rockets basketball game in Oakland. The Rockets were my favorite team but now I have to cheer for Golden State because we live here. The game went down to the wire and the fans were electric, Elizabeth's Dad was so excited he went streaking across the floor and got tackled by the security.

Of course it was Easter weekend so we went to church, which i won't mention the name of for fear of the pastoral staff catching wind and reading this post. For those that don't know the post I entered about "Football churh" got noticed by the Staff at the church and the whole pastoral staff read it. The pastor told us on the Following Sunday that they were glad we enjoyed it. That was an awkward momment.

Yesterday we bought our Season passes for Gilroy Gardens family theme park and spent a few hours there. It's great for Sienna and would be great for all you family and friends to enjoy if you came down(especially the ones with kiddies) Sienna had fun going on her first mini rollercoaster and got to drive a 67 corvette. Other than that were just having fun doing whatever we want to.

I'm back again

2008-03-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long delay in postages. We have finally got into our house and are settling in quite lovely. We are just loving our new house, there are still a couple of boxes left to unpack but the Kitchen/living room/guest bath are all set up. Our bedroom/ensuite are next on the list. Anyone who saw our Victoria bedroom knows how it was totally neglected but this time we have more room and can be more organized. I personally have been getting great use out of the pool. I tend to spend an hour os so before Elizabeth goes to work laying out catching some rays. Elizabeth likes her new hospital and enjoys the staff a lot. The hospital is well staffed compared to Victoria which creates a good work enviroment. Elizabeth is practicing her Espanol because because one quarter of the patients "No speak English" For a lot of the patients she needs to have a translater present to relay the message. The hospital is small enough that she gets to see all aspects of nursing, there is even some pediatric work which is hard to see. Me and Sienna are having a fun time playing Halo together and watching basketball. I love my time with Sienna she's so funny and makes me laugh all day long. Usually our afternoon consists of going for a long walk/playing in the park and possibly a quick dip in the pool.
We enjoyed having Shane here a couple of weeks ago, and had a good short visit with Ben and Sarah when they were here. Elizabeth got a chance to go to Sarah's baby shower at her parents house which was great. I got to hang out with Ben and some of Sarah's family. I even had my dinner paid for by some 35 year old stranger who turned out to be Sarah's 50 year old Dad(The years have been good to him, and her Mom too) This weekend Elizabeth's parents arrive for spring break(woohoo spring break) Elizabeth is pretty pumped to see her Mommy and Daddy.
We have met a couple in the complex that is about our age and has a girl Sienna's age. They just moved from Arizona for the same reason as us, for the adventure.They are more brave though they just had another baby this week. Anyways my fingers are cramping up so adios amigos. Here are a few pics of our home

Here's a video of Sienna singing and dancing

Should be getting internet early this week

2008-03-02T19:34:00.000-08:00

Should be getting internet early this week then we can update the blog again. stay tuned

We here in our place

2008-02-26T07:36:00.000-08:00

I'll just quickly fill everyone in on our situation, because I'm stealing wireless from some guy in our workout gym. We are in our townhouse now, and it is amazing. The drive down for the second time in 2 weeks was hard. It was long and boring. It was a good thing I had Shane with me because I would have hated it without someone else. We moved into our house the day we got here around 5pm. It's taken us a few days to unpack everything and start to get organized but slowly were getting there. Elizabeth finally starts work today at 10am just for orientation but it's good she's starting. Most of this week we've been going to Santa Cruz to take pictures of surfers and just to hang out there. Yesterday Shane surfed while I took pictures and Elizabeth played with Sienna. That's about it hopefully we are getting our phone/internet/cable hooked up this week. Talk to you all soon.

Going to Victoria

2008-02-18T22:48:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note. I will be flying back to victoria tomorrow to get the moving truck and bring all our stuff down. I'll only be in town for a day and a half. Coming back with me is Shane who is coming down to do some surfing and hopefully help me move in a couch or two. Ayways there might be a lack of posts for a few or more days as I'll be busy driving and getting into our new house. Talk to you all soon.

Just another lazy Sunday afternoon.

2008-02-17T16:21:00.001-08:00

This will be a short one, I think. Being Sunday today we decided that it would be in our best interests to go to church. Some of us got going kind of slow so we were 20min's late, but for most of you that have seen us stroll into GT that's not a big surprise. Church was good there was a guest speaker, don't remember his name but remember everything he said of course. the last couple of weeks we've been scoping out the church for young couples with kids that we may become acquainted with. Elizabeth has seen a couple of top prospects but we don't want to act too fast, we don't want to look desperate. It's a whole mind game thing you know, you gotta throw out the vibe and see if someone throws it back. Really we're just trying to fill the empty void in our hearts for all our Victoria/Vancouver friends and Family. After church we decided to skip out on the visitors super duper get to know everyone, awkward time of fellowship, tell us all about you and your first pets name,what's your favorite food, would you like to join the choir, when can you give your testimony, here's your tithe envelopes lunch. Instead of that we went by ourselves to Mimi's Cafe and had a nice lunch. Sienna got a desert with her kids lunch called something dirt, which consisted of chocolate pudding, oreo cookie crumbs and gummie worms. Neadless to say she made some kind of mess. P.S. the reason I'm writing this @ 4:00 is because tonight is totally devoted to the great TV which will entertain me with the 2008 NBA allstar game for the evening. That's it, see ya.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

2008-02-16T20:33:00.000-08:00

Today being the start of the presidents day long weekend, we thought it might be a good idea to do something longweekendish. So we decided to drive 45min south west to Monterey and check out the aquarium. We got there around 11:30 and found parking and headed over to famous Cannery Row.Cannery Row is full of stores, seafood restaurants and other wharfy stuff. We arrived at the front doors of the aquarium to a 30min wait to get tickets. The tickets were 25 dollars each(children 3 and under free). We went in with high expectations because of all the great things we heard. The aquarium is simply that, a large aquarium of fish. Don't get me wrong it was neat and Sienna loved all the underwater glass tanks and the touchy feely zone. We were disapointed that there were no dolphins, seals, otters or anything. I guess we were hoping for more of a Sea World experience. Good grief the section called otter bay was a deck overlooking an inlet of water the otters sometimes hang out at(not today). The Monterey Bay Aquarium is a neat place to check out fish and a hundred types of kelp but I think the $25 admission should be more like $15 at the most. Now for all you that may come this way for a visit and are dissapointed at my review, feel relief that Monterey it self is a cool little town with lots of shopping, golf, Restaurants. Walking Cannery Row and Fisherman's warf is worth the trip.

Watch the very end of the first video, typical Sienna. The second video is the result of letting some stranger take a family picture for you.

Did you catch the very end of the first video. Well if you didn't Sienna falls on her face after the end of the video

picnic in the park and Social Security

2008-02-15T20:48:00.000-08:00

Today we were in Gilroy for the day. Elizabeth had to go get her social security number from the Gilroy office. I'm amazed at how easy it has been to move to the US, everything from the border to the California nursing license to a social security number has been quick and easy. After we got the SSN we decided to get some lunch and head over to a really nice park we saw the other day. It was a huge park with a big picnic bbq area for large groups. The play area for kids was quite extensive as well. I think this will be a fun place to bring Sienna to play because it will be close to our house and has lots of kids to play with.

Tonight was the start of allstar weekend for the NBA so I stayed home and watched that this evening and Elizabeth and Sienna went to the local Rec center for some sweet swimming action. In Victoria they had a toonie swim in the evenings, well here they don't have toonies so they have the $12 swim night. $12 can you believe that!!!!!!!! the pool wasn't even that big. That's it for today pretty uneventful. Not sure what the weekend holds for us besides the rest of allstar weekend. There is talk of heading to Monterey or maybe exploring some of San Jose.

Poor Sienna left by the tree at such a young age. Sounds familiar hey sis.

Don't worry mommy's here.

Valentines and Bank accounts

2008-02-14T21:59:00.000-08:00

Today of course was Valentines Day, the one day of the year to be romantic to your significant other. Today we didn't spend tons of money on chocolates, flowers or other gifts, instead we opened a US bank account(steamy). Even though we didn't go all out on gifts this year, we have grown closer in the last few weeks by spending time together. I've said it before on the blog, I am so thankful for the time that me and Elizabeth have spent together. After having Sienna it seemed as though it was harder and harder to get quality alone time together. With both of us off work we get to go to the park, store or even the bank together, sounds simple but it's great. I love my wife with everything I have, and I love Sienna just the same.
Her's a little video of Elizabeth and Sienna playing hide and seek.

Needles and ...

2008-02-13T20:51:00.001-08:00

Not much happening today, I'm sorry to say. This morning Elizabeth had to be at the hospital at 7:30 for a CPR coarse which she scored 100% on. Me and Sienna just stuck around the hotel a had breakfast in the hotel. The breakfast is actually not bad, every morning they have sasusage, bacon, hashbrowns, pancakes, waffles, french toast cereal and other treats. I usually stuff my pie hole full to overflowing and then have a late lunch. After Elizabeth finished the coarse we went out to the outlet mall again to check out another section, we have to familiarize ourselves with every store so when we actually get some money we will know where to blow it all. Speaking of blow, Elizabeth also had to take a drug test this afternoon at the hospital. They did a physical exam followed by the drug test. She met her boss and some other nurses on her walk around the hospital. It turns out that almost 50% of the nurses at the hospital are from Canada. The couple she met were imports from Canada 20 years ago and are still working there. After the hospital we hit Panera Bread again for supper and again it was amazing. We both will be thankful to have our own house again so we can settle in. That's it for now, don't know what's in store for tomorrow.

Santa Cruz and Chuckie Cheese?

2008-02-12T21:34:00.000-08:00

Today was the day we chose to check out Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is approx. 35 min away from Gilroy, and is accesible by going up and over Hecker Pass which is basically a mountain park. The drive is pretty nice, it reminds me of Golstream with all the trees. Santa Cruz is the Appitomy of California lifestyle, with long sandy beaches, great surfing, a huge drive out pier with shops and restaurants and a huge beach side amusement park. It is so beautiful there, I think I like it more than Santa Monica beach now. So as we drove to the beach this morning a light in our truck came on that sais "check gauges" and the oil pressure needle dropped off. of couse I start freaking out thinking that I would have to fork over hundreds of dollars to fix this car repair at the worst time possible. It turns out that after driving a couple thousand kilomiters you should probably check the oil at some point. I stopped at the first gas station and put a couple quarts of oil in and everything was hunkie dorie, go figure. Anyways the day at the beach was great we got some sun, watched some beach volleyball and surfing. I think that will be a place that we will enjoy going weekly this spring and summer, and all you guests will enjoy it as well.

After the beach we decided to drive back to Gilroy for some dinner. As we drove we spotted a world renowned restaurant for all ages. Chuckie Cheese called out to us like the sweet song of a Siren calling out to a fisherman. We've never been to one so we figured why not, Sienna will love it. Sienna did love it, a lot! We got her the salad buffett with all kinds of good treats for her but she ate nothing. We couldn't drag her away from all the other distractions long enough for her to stuff a piece of cheese in her pie hole. it's a great place for the kiddies and for kids birthdays, but I was counting the seconds after a few seconds being there. All in all another great day. Tomorrow Elizabeth take a CPR course and get a drug/physical test at the hospital. Me and Sienna get to hang for the day.

Sac town

2008-02-11T22:24:00.000-08:00

Sacramento, right near Arco arena where the Sacramento Kings play
Mia Hamm? or Sienna Booth?
Sienna after finishing a can of Dora the Expolorer pasta

Today we had to drive back to Sacramento which is 1:45min north. It was kind of a pain but necessary because elizabeth had to get her California nursing license from there. The only thing let is to get a social security number, so she can get paid for working. Although the drive was long it was worth it because we found a great new restaurant called Panera Bread. I don't know if they have them in canada, i've never seen one, but we had an amazing soup and sandwich there. it's like a Starbucks/bakery/mom's cafe mix. Not much else happening today, tomorrow we are thinking of going to Santa cruz for the day.

Church and shopping, two great activities.

2008-02-10T21:14:00.000-08:00

Today we woke up and decided to go to the church that i went to when I came in December. The church is called South Valley Community Church. It's a very welcoming church of about 500 people we guessed. It is across the street and one block down from the Vineyards where we want to live. It has great worship and the pastor seems down to earth. Today was a bit different because the theme was football(for the probowl, which hardley anyone in canada even knows when it is). Outside as we pulled up to the church was 50yards of astro turf set ouot complete with yardage markings, goal posts and a lifesize Jerry Rice cut out. During the service they handed out 50/50 tickets for a draw to throw the football from 50 yards and get it trough a small hole in Jerry Rice's hands for $5000. This seemed weird to me too, but it was sponsored by a local company so it wasn't tithe money. Every Sunday morning the have coffee/lattes, donuts and other treats set up outside as you arrive, if this isn't reason enough to try a chuch I don't know what is(also today the gave out free hamburgers/hotdogs, pop, and chips). Oh and the service was fine too.
After church we headed to the Gilroy Premium Outlets to check it out. It is huge with more stores than you would ever hope for. To compare, the seattle outlet mall has 110 stores the gilroy outlet mall has over 145 stores and they are building a whole other section with 25 more stores. I think we'll be able to find what we need there. After that we came back to the hotel and went for a walk together, then elizabeth took Sienna to the park to play and I watched basketball. Another great day together. Hopefully this entry didn't bore you to death but I want to try to keep a record for anyone who does read this thing. Sorry no pictures hopfully next time.Watch this video and look at how fast Elizabeth runs down the slide.

We made it!!!!!

2008-02-09T20:11:00.000-08:00

Today we arrived in Morgan hill where we will stay for two weeks or so. We got here around 1:00pm and had to kill some time before our room was ready. Across the street is a huge soccer tounament going on. Sienna had fun watching that and running around outside. We also found a great park near by where we spent an hour playing with a bunch of kids and just enjoying the sunshine. It's so strange to be able to go out in a t-shirt in the middle of Feb. today was 22 degrees and SUNNY, you might be sick of me saying that but it's unreal to be here. our hotel room is rather large and the hotel seems nice. there are a few issues but nothing too major. We are both glad we don't have to switch hotels again tomorrow, although we will be sick of this one after two weeks. We will go check out our future home and some other sites tomorrow, nothing too much.

3:10 to Yuba

2008-02-08T20:21:00.000-08:00

Instead of driving all day and night today, we decided to split it in two days. After all we would be rushing to stay in a hotel for two weeks, so if we stay in one on the way what's the difference ?

Last night I decided that we would take a minor detour and head south east the Reno, Nevada. I was all excited because it looked kind of interesting and besides i could triple our funds for the month. In the morning facing another 5.5 hour drive I decided it would be wise to just head south and end up wherever we did. Reno is about 4 hours from Gilroy so If we did want to go there it would be easy. Anyways we headed over the Mountains in Oregon and Half way through the mountains we entered a snowy California. There was tons of the white stuff, not my idea warm sunny California. As we drove more we ended up in Chico and decided to stop for a rest and dinner. We hadn't got out of the car since Oregon and as we pulled up to the Target store we saw a girl wearing shortty shorts and a t-shirt??! We opened the door and felt the 20 degree weather and finally felt like we were in sunny California. We are having a great time together as a family and I cherish this time very much. I am so thankfull for this opportunity.

grants pass, Oregon

2008-02-07T19:55:00.000-08:00

Day 2 of our trip south. Today we went from Tacoma, Wa. to grants pass, Or. Today was a lot more driving than yesterday, 6.5hrs to be exact. We again drove I5 all the way with one stop for food and leg stretches. Sienna was amazing after our stop in centralia, She slept for 3.5 hrs and then woke up and watched a DVD(Dora the explorer) We got to Grants pass at 6:30 and booked ourselves into the Super 8. We really treated ourselves to a luxurious stay after last night. Actually the Super 8 is a lot better than the Days Inn. The hotel has an indoor pool at least. We went for a swim already and sat in the hot tub. Right now we're heading to the Sizzler across the street. That's all for now.

On our way to California

2008-02-06T21:27:00.000-08:00

So today we left for our move to California. We left later than i was planning but it worked out O.K. We took the 1:00 ferry to Vancouver and headed south. Our biggest concern was having all the documentation we needed in order. We heard of people being sent back at the border and all kinds of stuff. While we were going through the process a oriental family beside us got sent away, so I guess it does happen. First off the border wait was literally nothing. We drove to the peace arch and drove right to a customs dude, NO WAIT. From the time we pulled up to the border to the time we left was 15min tops. We immigrated to the U.S. in 15 min!!! From there we drove straight south on the I5. We hit Seattle at about 5:30 Ignoring all traffic warnings. My only plan today was to make it past Seattle to avoid traffic tomorrow. Sienna and Elizabeth slept the whole way from the border to our ghetto crack shack hotel(3 hours+). The hotel we stopped at tonight is pretty sick, I think the may even charge by the hour, I dunno. It's a Days Inn which we've had luck with before . Anyways it'll do us fine for the night and tomorrow we hope to be at the south end of Oregon. Weather here is rain/snow mix and 6 degrees, weather in Gilroy on the day we should arrive is mostly sunny and 20 degrees, can't wait. That's all for now, time to have a soda and watch some Nascar racing.

Sienna's first Birthday and Gilroy

2007-12-01T22:32:00.000-08:00

Today was Sienna's first birthday. My how the time has passed, it seemed like this last year was a total blur. Today just like the day she was born was a white snowy day. We woke up to snow on the ground this time she was able to play a little in it. Anyways I'll put up a few pictures from today and her small birthday party. We wish we could have had everyone over for a party but we just couldn't.

I want a Kitty for my birthday!!Pleeeease Daddy!!

2007-11-20T22:56:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to utube and a video of Sienna's new found independence....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GM-mHxxp78

Fall Time and Halloween, and Fashion Show!

2007-11-13T21:02:00.000-08:00

Proud Mommy and Daddy of our little Strawberry Shortcake.Well, the story goes...Aunty Tricia made the beautiful costume and so when we were in the mall some man stopped us and said, "You must stay for the costume contest with her". So, we did and she was one of three winners in the Tillicum costume contest!! She was so funny walking across the stage in front of the judges and I was trying everything to keep that awesome little hat on her head....Thanks Aunty Tricia!!

There she is!!

Sarah, Tricia and I went to the Watoto fashion show, thanks to Aunty Bev.It was a great time, oh and look at those fabulous cat walkers....

My baby girl, growing up so fast

Our little fish "Hunter" we went out to see the salmon with Tricia, Justin and Hunter.The kids did not even notice the fish.Oh except for the dead ones on the river side.

Look what crawled out of that log!!I'll take her home!!What do you feed these kind??

Walkies and Duckies and Peacocks??

2007-10-18T22:44:00.001-07:00

Sienna helping Daddy with her big head!!
Feeding the duckies at Beacon Hill
That is a really big duck

Dad get that thing out of here!!

Here is a couple of videos on utube of Sienna walking with her devices!! Thank goodness there are no babies in her buggies!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU1y73EN1Vg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mfB8HI80io

coco

2007-09-26T22:25:00.000-07:00

swinging sienna

2007-09-26T18:33:00.001-07:00

2007-09-24T22:18:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXzzhPqZXOw

Few pics of Nicole's wedding and stuff

2007-09-02T09:35:00.000-07:00

The Big Chill

2007-08-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

On the morning we were leaving for Chilliwack Sienna was a little excited and showed us her new trick of standing up.Which she now does on everything and also falls off of everything.Brian was a little excited too.

Ok dad here we go to Chilliwack I will direct you, ok?

mom, please can I ride up here?

Yeah, Grandma to my rescue

Reading, I mean eating my Little Pony Puzzle book from Aunty Becky

Well, see you guys later

Sooo proud of my little family!!

My favorite ride

Becky and Gavin putting their heads together on the tube ride...

Mom and Dad having a blast on the tube ride!

Again Daddy again, actually she started to cry..

Sorry I forgot to flip this one...Sienna's first time at the Waterslides.

Harrison lake with Grandma and Grandpa.

Yeah for the sun and Harrison lake with Grandma and Grandpa

Sienna trying to hitchhike at the ferries with her little red suitcase and hair.

Thank goodness Brian made a reservation for the ferry as there was a four sailing wait when we arrived.So, we had some fun in the 45 minutes that we had to wait!!

What a great time! This picture is taken inside the Harrison Hot Springs Resort, which we spent a leisurely time checking out.....

Nanoose Bay Camp 2007

2007-07-23T12:33:00.000-07:00

Ohhhh I like camp, mommy!!

It was supposed to be dodgeball the counsellors against the sports staff, but Brian just cannot help himself with his hops!! I think the sports staff dominated!!Better luck next year counsellors...

I love my little jacuzzi tub, where's the drinks and food?

This is how we do bathy time at camp, when it is not raining that is..

Grandpa rocking Sienna to sleep on the classic love swing

"Sienna come out of there and play now"

I love camp!!

What a beautiful little family!!

I think they are working those guys too hard.....

PLaytime with daddy in amongst his busy schedule of refereeing games and falling out of trucks(dad).

Grandpa letting Sienna get the hang of things in the cafeteria."Hmmm who's food can I get to the fastest"?

Sienna is sitting up very well now and she enjoys doing that instead of sleeping. All I could do was laugh!!

Well, see you next year.I am out of here!!

Fire Alarms and Great Friends

2007-07-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

Big smiles for an awesome weekend.Can't wait for Sproat lake and many more laughs and memories.

Poor girl, what are those boys doing to you??

Sienna having her first big bath at the hotel.She loved splashing and putting her face in the water!

I think Sienna is having a profound effect on Uncle Ryan and Aunty Elisa

Brian putting Sienna to sleep at our nine'o'clock feeding at the Olive Garden!! Yummmmmy!

The view from on top of the Space Needle!

Troublemakers, who let them in??

Sienna serenading us at the Cheesecake Factory.Yummy shepherd's pie and cheescake!!

There was really cool over head walkways to all the restaurants, theatre and shopping from out hotel. Us girls thoroughly enjoyed it!!

We stayed in the Hyatt Regency in Bellevue, which is a really nice little area.Our little monkey is now getting to the edgs of the bed as fast as she can...

Well, this weekend we took a little trip off the island.It was Sienna's first time going on the ferry boat and she quite liked it! The night before we went I kept having this dream over and over that she fell off the ferry so we stuck to the inside decks. I think I was a bit paranoid.We were not sure how she would do with the travelling and staying in the hotel and different surroundings. I think she did pretty good as we can say we would take her anywhere again. Although at the end of the weekend she ended up with a bit of a cold which is now gone, but mommy has one.Go figure.. Anyway here are some pics and a few comments.

Naomi's graduation

2007-06-15T23:38:00.000-07:00

so cool with my auntie becky!!

Sweet bonfire at mom and dad's!!

Philip making the children happy

Gavin going down Dad's sweet home made slip and slide

Sienna playing with her second cousin Isabella in the pool!"Where did you get your swimsuit from?"

Sienna's first pool time in the pool Granda picked for her.

Sienna enjoying her swing that Grandpa made her and Grandma enjoying laughing!!

Great Grandma's and Grandpa

The Five Mile Creek ladies

Well, well my youngest sister has graduated.Congratulations Naomi Ii cannot believe this time has come.I was remembering when we used to play Five Mile Creek/House and you would always be our little orphan baby and we would have to take care of you.No more little orphan baby now you can choose to be Kate, Maggie or even Paddie if you wanted!!All I know is that I am sooo proud of you and we really had a blast at your grad.

Visit with mom/grandma from Whitehorse!!

2007-06-04T10:22:00.000-07:00

Grandma's here!!!

Well this is a little behind the times, but here a a few pics from our great visit!There were lots of fun times with our funny babies!! At the Victoria parade with the Gulbranden's!

Grandma treating us girls, and Hunter out to lunch at Maddicks Farm!!Yummmmmy!

Sienna's Dedication

2007-05-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9TStE-I-qE

Eddy wedding slideshow

2007-05-08T07:29:00.000-07:00

This is a slideshow of the wedding I did last weekend. The quality has to be at the lowest in order to be able to put it on the blog.If it doesn't work you can also try http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=bebooth

Hunter Justin MacDonald

2007-05-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

These pictures are of Tricia and Justin's new baby boy. Hunter weighed in at 9lbs 4oz. They planned for a natural birth but due to situations beyond there control they got the word that it would be a C-section. Tricia was more than O.K. with that and not so secretly wanted one anyways. Anyways Everything went well more or less and they now have a very healthy baby boy. Tricia did great and Justin is doing great in the supporting role(waterboy). Pictures aren't the greatest because I didn't want to flash the baby over and over like I did with Sienna.

Times Colonist 10k run

2007-05-03T10:10:00.000-07:00

So this last weekend was the TC10K run, starring Elizabeth. I have never even been downtown to watch the event before so I had no idea how huge it is. A while ago I was asked to do the pictures for the Glad Tidings "GTeam", which was 61runners from the church. The day started out @7:00am with a team photo and the race was at 8:00am. The organizer for the GTeam had this great idea that I should ride a bike and have balloons flying off the back so everyone could see me and pose for a shot. Picture me riding a big yellow bike with matching helmet and four big green helium balloons waving behind me!!!!! The first thing I did was stuff the balloons in a garbage bag so no one could see them until I was down on Dallas rd. Anyways the run went great, Elizabeth came in right at 49min and she said she felt great. The star of the run was Nicole who came in at 45min!!! Way to go Nicole, the sponsors should be pouring in soon. Here's some pictures because my blog always needs pictures.

Sienna's hair is coming in quite nicely

2007-04-30T15:21:00.000-07:00

Petting zoo and stuff.

2007-04-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from our recent trip to the petting zoo at Beacon hill park last weekend. Beautiful day!!

Rolly polly Sienna

2007-04-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eBjTptdk_0

Random Sienna video

2007-04-18T11:26:00.000-07:00

This is just a random video of our little monster in motion.

Easter, Sienna and other random stuff

2007-04-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while since my last update, and in that time there has been Easter, birthdays and other stuff happen. Let me start with Easter at the Cowley house. We had fourteen people including My dad, the MacDonalds and 3 of Sienna's great grandparents. We had a great feast and a wonderful time of fellowship. On the Sunday the Brisco's surprised the family with a visit and we had a big tennis match on the Monday, lots of fun. I should say that on the Friday I reluctantly played flag football only to be undercut by the Noobie youth pastor of Ladysmith. I hurt my leg, back and he also stepped on my foot with his cleat and turned two of my toenails black. A long story short I was basically incapacitated for the weekend. After the weekend we went to the Keg with my Dad, Bev, Tricia and Justin for T&J's birthdays.
Sienna has also started teething and is a little fusy at times but she makes all kinds of wierd sounds and funny faces. Sienna also rolled completely over on her own this week which is pretty cool I guess. Anyways I'm not wanting to blab anymore so see ya.

Elizabeth and Naomi waiting for there chance at the "First annual Cowley/Booth/Brisco tennis invitational"

This is a random tennis ball but I like the picture(I'm a simple man).

Intense action in the doubles tourny
Elizabeth still has her sweet stroke.

This is the most freaked out Easter bunny I've ever seen.

That's better

Sienna having fun with a friend

Sienna in her Easter outfit checking out Grandpa cowley

Great Gandma's

All hail King Brian on his birthday!!!

2007-04-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

Today is one of the most special days of the year. It is a tradition that has been around for nearly three decades and is a time for all people to celebrate the birth of a powerful and wonderful friend. This person to which you should shower with many gifts and kind words is of course none other than ME! Let us take a moment of silence to remember all the great things I have accomplished on earth.............. Is that enough time, take as long as you need......... O.k. so I'm not as great as 95% of the world, but whatever, I have a b e a utiful wife, baby, family and friends. Yes friends you are beautiful too. Anyways thanks for letting me go one about my wonderful self.

Nicole and her dirty thirties.

2007-03-31T11:11:00.000-07:00

Last night our good friend Nicole turned 30!!!! It was a girls only night of fun and games. Elizabeth planned a scavenger hunt for about a dozen girls. The hunt involved racing all over Victoria in two seperate cars gathering clues to lead them to the end. Some of the highlights were ordering a "grande wamijamidingdong" at starbucks, wearing a thong while laying on a bed at the bay having your picture taken and having to do walk down an imaginary fashion runway at one of the stores in the mall with an odd outfit on. Anyways like I said it was a girls only night so I don't know for sure all the chaos that was caused, I do know that Nicole and everybody had a good time together. Happy birthday Nicole!

Hilarious!!

2007-03-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

This is by far the funniest thing I've seen in a while. Sienna loves the "Bumbo" chair we got her today.

Birthday Season(March edition)

2007-03-18T14:53:00.000-07:00

Last night was a night to celebrate the March birthdays of some of our friends and Elizabeth. I'll give you a quick rundown of the birthdays so everyone is aware. March 12-Elizabeth, March 19-Ben , March 21-Rayael, March 24-Naomi. April has even more birthdays with no less than seven, if I forget someone just let me know(leave a comment of when your birthday is so we can celebrate). Here we go April 1-Dad Cowley, April 2-Nicole (30th), April 4- Jeff , April 6-ME!!, also April 6-Shannon , April 11-Justin , April 13-Tricia. Anyways here's some pics from the Keg last night and Ben and Sarah's house for cake.

Not sure if Ben was pretending to smoke or what here, but I'm sure he will appreciate the picture

Top Ben, middle Rayael, bottom well you know.

My cousin Roy and Renee's Baby Anders meets Sienna for the first time. These two babies were in the hospital and the same time but didn't have a chance to meet.

Elizabeth's 26th Birthday

2007-03-12T22:48:00.000-07:00

This last year has been a huge year for Elizabeth. She graduated as an RN, got her first nursing job. found out she was pregnant, hade Sienna and much much more. Elizabeth is truly an amazing woman and I have to say that I am so proud of all she has done. She is a great wife, friend, and mother. I find myself everyday thanking god for blessing me with such a great companion. Here are some pictures from her birthday and a couple others.

I had to censor this photo because of partial baby nudity.

2007-03-06T11:23:00.000-08:00

well,on sunday the weather was a bit more like spring so we headed up to the playground with Sienna!!The next little while is quite busy for us so there should be some more frequent posts.Sienna now weighs 12lbs 4oz.We have also decided to end our coffee table dinner era and begin family table time era.Doesn't Sienna look lik e she fits so nicely in her highchair??!!We are having sooooo much fun with our little giggle monster these days,what a blessing!!!!!!!!!!

New Quilt!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-02-20T11:19:00.000-08:00

So, for Valentines Day my little Sienna recieved a really special gift from her Grandma cowley.Who is soooo talented in making quilts! Sienna already has two play quilts, but this one is her special quilt and she sleeps on the soft, purple side every night.These pictures don't do the detailing justice, but you can see just how cute it is.Look how cute that little girl is , by the way!

Jolly Jumper!?!?!?!

2007-02-14T20:49:00.000-08:00

O.K. so were kind of psycho parents that push our child to do stuff she shouldn't do for a little while. Tonight Valentines we just had a nice night at home with our little family. Just for kicks we decided to put Sienna in her jolly jumper and see what happened. At first she just did a couple spin moves which were impresive(to us), then she actually started to sort of push up and kind of bounce. It was really cute(to us). Hope everyone had a great Valentines and enjoyed time with your loved one. Bye

Sienna gets more beautiful every day!!

2007-02-11T20:44:00.000-08:00

Sienna has to learn how to party, she's such a light weight.

Sienna has been such a blessing in Elizabeth's and my life. We couldn't have imagined a more beautiful, well behaved and hilarious baby. We are so thankful for here personality which is starting to come out now and for her health. All is going well with us. The days are such a blur, I wish we could add a few more hours to the day. I guess if I stayed up past 9:30/10:00 it might help. Elizabeth is doing great. She is running a few times a week and looks amazing although honestly I do miss that little belly sometimes. I thought it was the most adorable thing when she had it(but I know with the belly comes another little one, so.....I'm good). I have been booking more wedding's for the summer and fall and can't wait to be involved in all those wedding's. Our landlords are putting the house up for sale come March or April so we will be looking for new accomidation fairly soon. If anyone has a lead on a 2 or 3 bedroom place for reasonable let us know. Well your pretty much caught up with us so that's all for now.

Brisco wedding Slideshow

2007-02-04T22:44:00.001-08:00

Just thought I would put this Slideshow on the site because I've had a few people want to look at it. The quality is the lowest quality so that it would fit on the page but at least it gives you the idea. This summer I have a set of Engagement photo's to do as well as 5 and a half weddings. Hope you enjoy. Just click two times in the middle of the video screen to play it.

Mix of the last few weeks

2007-01-31T19:09:00.000-08:00

Well a week ago my mom was here for two weeks to see Sienna. She came and stayed at our house and helped us out with the daily chores of parenthood. We got to go out on a couple of dates as Mom took Sienna for a few hours. It's nice to know Mom will be back in May to spend time with Tricia and Justin's baby. Some pictures below are from the museum...yes the museum!

Also today was our little Sienna's first set of shots at the clinic. they had to give her 4 different needles 2 in each leg. It was actually quite heartbreaking to watch because it hurts alot. Sienna went from happy to screaming.

This is the dedication dress Tricia made for Sienna. It's pretty impressive. Lucky Pastor Ron.

Little chubby wubby sienna

2007-01-20T17:24:00.000-08:00

Here's what you look like 7 weeks after you have your first child. Something to look forward to.
Grandma Cowley
GREAT grandpa Nettleton
GREAT grandma Nettleton
Well you know who this is.
...and this.This is a picture I took at Matheson lake the other day. I thought it was pretty...kind of boring...but pretty.

California Dreaming

2007-01-09T19:37:00.000-08:00

California Dreaming

Hello all ! Well, here we are in the 21st century-oh yah we have been for the last seven years I guess.Well, it is now 2007 and as you can tell this is not Brian writing, but the one and only Elizabeth or Beth or my newest title"mommy".AHHHHHHHHHHHHH I cannot believe I am old enough to have this title and whoever entrusted me with this I do not know. No, I am not making this a regular, new occurence of writing on our blog, just because it is a new year or something.I just wanted to make a secret contribution at this moment in time. Brian is out at Basketball tonight and our little angel is sitting in her swing (thanks Aunty Elisa and Uncle Ryan) sleeping soundly!! Oh shoot, she is getting so big and grown up.Well, the actual purpose of this post is to say a big thank you to all of our family, friends, neighbors and landlords. I want to say that I have been overwhelmed with the excitement and giving of time and gifts to our little Sienna and to us as a little family.I am so thankful to the Lord for each and every one of you and how God has specifically placed you in our lives for this time and season. Every one of you have touched ourlives in such a special way-people bringing meals, throwing baby showers,visiting, phone calls-holding Sienna from 3am to 6am(Mom Cowley) it moves me to tears at times thinking of how good we have had it with our awesome little girl.How come God decided to bless us so much with such great people and a healthy, beautiful daughter?? I am so thankful and I hope to tell each and every one of you to your face as well as on here. One person I cannot miss thanking is my wonderful husband who is the biggest and most wonderful blessing in my life.I could not have dreamed up a more perfect man for me.God has given me the best gift a woman could ever ask for and that is a wonderful,faithful,trusting,patient, funny, hot, loving, godly, husband who has turned out to be the most wonderful daddy!! Thank you Brian keep up the good blog!! I love your pictures:)I love you:) Thank you everyone, for putting up with my sappy, heartfelt blog entry.

More Christmas

2006-12-29T09:17:00.000-08:00

These last two are from Dad's breakfast Christmas morning Here's the Cowley clan Christmas dinner This is Godzilla baby ravaging the poor people staying at the Christian singles resort.
"Where's the tanning bed."
Sienna had a rough Christmas, so Christmas day she had a cold drink and promptly passed out on the floor.

Christmas !!!!!

2006-12-28T23:52:00.000-08:00

This Christmas was amazing. We had so much fun with family and friends doing so many things. Our gift exchange at Nicole and Jeff's was a big hit like usual, the baking didn't hurt either. This year we spent Christmas eve at the Cowley's, came down for Breakfast at My dad's and then headed back up to Ladysmith. Mom will be coming in early January so we are excited for that. Over the holiday we ate lots of food played lots of poker and watched hours of Lord of the Rings. I'm glad I had from the 23rd to Jan 2 off to just enjoy the season with family. We got more than what we could ever need and then some. Thanks to all our family that sent Christmas cards and for all the gifts. We haven't had much time to send thank you cards so thank you. Here are just a few of the many pictures we took.
These are the lovely ladies from the gift exchange night

This is Chistmas eve building our Gingerbread masterpieces, which actually turned out pretty cool.
This is the ladies Road to Avonlea inspired scene. Pretty good.
And this is the men's Christian singles resort complete with marshmellow limosine, cobblestone walkways, rockwork around the pillars, a palm tree out front, a tiki hut, pool,paved driveway, grass yard, 4 decks, and also mince meat tart planter boxes(because what else are mince meat tarts good for).
Opening stockings early Christmas morning.

Took a while!!

2006-12-16T15:25:00.000-08:00

So I haven't updated for a while due to our busy lives. I was back at work this week and at night it is quality time with Elizabeth and Sienna. Anyways since the last post we have been doing Christmas type stuff. We have done some shopping, had a Christmas gift exchange and other Christmas type things. We are looking forward to Christmas and all the festivities. My favorite things this time of year are sitting by the tree drinking Hickory Farms coffee with the lights and fire log dvd in the background. Also I enjoy spending time with family in Ladysmith playing games and watching movie. One of my favorite things is the breakfast my dad puts on for all the Booth family. This year will be special because of Sienna and also Mom/Grandma Riseborough will be here for a couple weeks. Here's a couple of pictures of days gone by.

This is a pretty bad picture but it's kind of cute at the same time.

Settled in at home

2006-12-06T20:29:00.000-08:00

Well Sienna is 1 week old tomorrow and is doing amazing. She is really smart(as smart as a 6 day old can be) and is learning every day. She already has a really strong neck and lifts it up all the time and moves it easy. This is a good thing because that is the thing I worried most about a little baby. She learned to use the bottle this morning which is great because it buys Elizabeth a bit extra sleeping time. Sienna has an interesting habbit when you change her now. Pretty much you have to use two diapers when you change her because she thinks it's funny to poo and then just as you take the diaper off and turn to put it in the disposer, she lets another one go. We love all the little sounds and movements she makes. The only time she cries is when she's hungry or naked(just like her dad). Most of the day she sleeps and it is fairly random. We haven't been able to figure out her pattern of sleep yet, all we know is this simple formula: Change diaper=feeding=sleep. We've gone out already with her to Red Robins(she had the "Ham bacon cheesin' up great chicken burger", with fries). We've also gone to wallmart and The Empress to look at the Christmas trees. I haven't taken too mant more pictures but here are a few.

This is our friend Sarah's work Christmas tree at the Empress
This is Sienna's first boyfriend Colby. I know I know, your thinking he looks too old for Sienna. Although he is a craddle robber he's a very nice young man. They have a great relationship going, his mom won't let him touch Sienna for fear of him pulling out her eyelashes and Sienna can't see yet so it really is a two way street.

Some more Sienna pictures

2006-12-04T23:17:00.000-08:00

Day one at home!

2006-12-02T15:03:00.000-08:00

So today is Dec 2 , which some of you know was our actual due date. Today is also special because we came home from the hospital today at 11:00am. The nurses were all surprised that we wanted to come home so fast, but couldn't stop us because everything went perfect from start to finish.
The morning of Sienna's birth the nurse came in at 7:45am and said it was time to head over to the O.R. By 8:20am Sienna was out of Elizabeth and was getting cleaned up by the nurses. The C-section went really well but the epidural was a bit of a different story. The anesthetist had some trainee with him that morning and decided to have Elizabeth be the guinney pig. The needle was put in her spine but was too high or too strong because it travelled up into Elizabeth's lungs and chest. With her chest paralized she couldn't breath on her own and passed out which created a bit of chaos. The doctor's had to give her an antidote and start the c-section right away. So with all this going on I had no clue, I was sitting in the waiting room with my scrubs on ready to go in. The nurse came and said I better get in there quick. I through on a mask and entered just as the cut her open and were ready to pull Sienna's head out. I sat beside my wife and held her hand and heard" lets pull the head out". I peaked over the curtain and saw the doctor with his arm in Elizabeth as he pulled out our little child. Imediatly i looked the the weiner that I excpected to see and there was nothing. I thought he was partially deformed but soon came to realise that my little guy was a precious little angel. I broke down in tears(of joy)and listened to my childs first sound. She looked so gorgeous, she wasn't red or purple and she wasn't blotchy at all. The next words I heard were "look at that red hair". Red hair...red hair...don't worry she doesn't look like Ronald McDonald. It's more strawberry blonde.
After Elizabeth was sewed up Sienna immediatly started eating. She didn't need any coaxing or anything. That is how our little child has been since day one. She has eaten none stop and is so good and healthy. She eats every hour but usually once during the day will sleep for four or five hours. We hope that trend is during the night. Sienna is so good with people and doesn't cry at all if people hold her. I'm tired now so i'll sign off for now.

Sienna Elizabeth Booth

2006-11-30T15:41:00.001-08:00

I don't have long cause I have to head back to the hospital to tend to my wife and child. We finally had our little child. Sienna was born today November 30 at 8:20am. She weighed 7lbs exactly and is 20inches long. We love her so much already she is absolutly gorgeous. I'll put more on and tell you all about the day after we get home from the hospital. Here's a few pictures.

Sienna Elizabeth Booth

2006-11-30T15:41:00.000-08:00

Due date and time!!!!!!!

2006-11-28T21:11:00.000-08:00

For those of you who care to know we now know the date and time of our babies birth. It is scheduled for Thursday November 30 8:00am. That's this Thursday morning!!! We're ready as we ever will be and can't wait to see this little one. The next entry I put on might very well have a picture of our new son/daughter. That's all for now, if you have any ideas on names for the baby let us know.

Christmas Tree/Snow day

2006-11-27T17:35:00.000-08:00

Today I started the day off at 7:00am like normal. The difference was the dump load of snow we got over night. I went out to my work van, started it up and headed out. I thought I was doing pretty good considering I made it all the way up our road and around the corner....well almost. As I turned the corner my stupid van took a slide one way and then the other. After I came to a stop I realized I was in a ditch and not going anywhere. My van was completely sideways and blocking half the road. I went home and grabbed a shovel and began digging an area around my dumb van. Long story short I got my van out, drove it home and got in my jogging pants for a snow day.
We decided to take advantage of the day and decorate for Christmas, Tree and all. I love our tree and think that the house looks better than ever for baby's first Christmas.

Some people have been asking and wondering about Elizabeth and where we stand. The latest is that we've decided and have informed the doctor that we don't want the manual baby flip procedure(I'm sure there's a scientific term for it). We don't want to risk anything going wrong during it, no matter how small the chance. We are going forward with booking a C-section and still praying that baby flips on it own when it's good and ready. If we have to do a C-section than you can bet on the birthday being some time this weekend. If the baby flips last minuite than we will be waiting for contractions to start and for Elizabeth to go into natural labour. That's as specific as it gets for now. I'll keep you posted.

Christmas Banquet and Snow.

2006-11-26T13:53:00.000-08:00

Friday we headed up to Ladysmith for some sweet Christmas banquet action. It was a lot of fun, laughs, and great food. We had turkey and ham at the same time. Elizabeth's dad was MC and Naomi was the musical lead, her voice was quite angelic.
So after the banquet night we woke up to 6 inches of snow on the ground. It has been snowing ever since. That was Ladysmith which always gets more snow than Victoria. On our way back to Victoria we thought that it would be just rainy and wet here, but not at all. Victoria got some snow as well.
This is the Durango outside the Cowley house. I must say that our new truck dominates the snow. I drove all the way back to Victoria in 4H and didn't have any problems. We also drove all around a Christmas tree farm today along snow covered dirt roads with no problem.

This is the malahat. Not a plow in site. By the way my pet peave is little stupid cars trying to be heros by going on the malahat and holding up all the traffic by sliding around and spinning into the ditch.

One last thing is that we did, was get our Christmas tree today, but not from the tree farm. We ended up getting it from Home Depot and it's really fat and nice. I'll put pictures of it after we decorate it, maybe tomorrow.

Welcome to my crib!!!!!!

2006-11-23T22:57:00.000-08:00

Tonight we got the crib for our son/daughter. It's beautiful, white and really cute. We are so thankful for it and can't wait to lay the little one down. I'm really tired so i'll go now. Not long now!!!!!
Me putting together the crib. Obviously.
Here's me realizing I should have put the crib together in the bedroom because it wouldn't fit through the door. I had to take it apart to get it in.
This is mom getting practice. Elizabeth is going to be a great mom to our lucky little child. She is so loving all the time no matter what ,and I am so thankful for her.
Dad and Bev bought us the crib/mattress and bedding set, they went kind of overboard but we are thankful for the gifts. I noticed I said "thankful" a few times tonight it must be 'cause of USA Thanksgiving. Later.

Elizabeth in all her pregnant glory

2006-11-20T22:53:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of Elizabeth I took tonight. I was trying to get some cool maternity pictures but this was the only one that turned out half decent.

New due date?? could be...

2006-11-18T00:46:00.000-08:00

So we went to our ultrasound appointment today @ 2:30 at VGH. Everything with the baby is healthy and strong except for one little thing. The little stinker decided that it was going to do the old flip over trick and go all breech on us. So it's butt is down south and with only 2 weeks to go until the due date the doctor says it's most likely not going to flip back around. Long story short, we can pray that the little brat turn around or else C-section. Elizabeth wanted to avoid it at all costs but since she can't birth a baby bumb first we will probably be having the baby next Friday or soon there after. They do the C-section at 39 weeks and she is 38 right now. Maybe send out a few prayers our way for what ever happens in the next week. Thanks. We did get another picture of the baby at the ultrasound. The kid looks like it has huge lips and a wide nose. It is 6 lbs and has long legs. Soon we will see once and for all.

Really exciting entry!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-11-16T13:41:00.000-08:00

So today is a great day. Something so rare and awsome happened that doesn't happen very often in Victoria this time of year. Sunshine!!!!!!! We saw the sun for the first time in a long time today. The ground was actually dry for a change. I had to take a few pictures to remember this special moment.
This is BLUE sky. Not grey or white but blue.
This is the sun

This is dry pavement.

Moving on to more lifechanging matters, Elizabeth had another doctors appointment today. It turns out that Elizabeth's little frame is causing the baby to be cramped and the Doctor wants to make sure everything is O.K. I guess Elizabeth's belly isn't growing as fast as the baby's little body is. They are sending Elizabeth for another ultrasound just to make sure all is well. The Doc says things are fine, the heart rate is 148 and it feels good in the belly, but better to be safe than sorry. We could end up having another baby picture soon!!!! You all will be the first to see the picture.

1st baby shower. Ever!!!!

2006-11-08T23:05:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth was surprised tonight with an unexpected baby shower at Nicole's. We had planned to go over to J&N's for some desert, so she thought, but showed up to a house full of ladies. This was a small shower with a bunch of close friends of her's, not the full blown family and friends shower that usually go on. Elizabeth did pretty good, she got a bunch of essentials for when the kid first arrives. Thanks to everyone who was there and thanks for the great gifts. It makes me stress out a little bit less knowing we have diapers and poo poo wipes.

As you can see Elizabeth's still little belly is quite a bit bigger. We have 3 weeks to go until our baby's birthday. Shoooooot. I'm o.k. Seriously.......I'm totally not going to have a panic attack or anything. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

It's cold wet and dark!! We dream of California

2006-11-05T13:51:00.000-08:00

This weekend was a really wet rainy cold gross weekend. Sometime I can't stand the rainy winters here. Victoria in the summer is the best, Victoria in the fall/winter... not so much. Friday night Elizabeth couldn't sleep much because of the baby and I couldn't sleep much because of vomiting, so early Saturday morning we headed out for some fresh air. We wen't to Goldstream to check out the Salmon run. I don't know if we were early or late but there wasn't to many. The one's that were there were big suckers though.Here's a couple of pics from the morning.

Elizabeth update

2006-10-28T00:02:00.000-07:00

Here is sweet little Elizabeth at 35 weeks. I think this is as big as she's gonna get so all you hoping for a 70 pound gain, sorry. She has gained 24lbs overall though, which is up from what we had thought before. Everything is still going well and Elizabeth is fealing fine. Beth has put her Maternity leave notice in for Nov.15 to be her last day of work. I will probably take a week or two off when little Pablo comes along, maybe more I don't really know. Not long now!!!
What a beautiful Mom to be

Very scary pumpkin carvings.....well not so much.

2006-10-27T23:37:00.000-07:00

Tonight we spent the night hackin' away at a couple pumpkins for halloween. Ben and Sarah came over and we carved and had roasted pumpkin seeds mmmm. Personally I felt that my pumkin was the best one but you all can be the judge. Pumkin #1 Ben's oriental man vomiting.
Pumpkin #2 Sarah's horrifically scary kitty cat. Notice the frightening heart shaped nose.
Pumpkin # 3 is my Halo 2(it's a video game for you not in the know).
Last but not least is the most wonderful, splendid, fantastic one of all. It belongs to beautiful Elizabeth. It is a picaso inspired self portrait of herself as a pregnant mother to be. Some may not be able to notice it right away but you obviously don't have an artistic mind.
If you still can't see it, it's a side profile of a pregnant lady but she's headless.Oooo scary!!

Something for us,something for baby.

2006-10-22T17:15:00.000-07:00

Here the pic of our new TV finally. We were using a wee 19" for a while but now we have our 42" plasma hdtv. Our place seems a lot bigger with the TV on the wall, it really opens up the space. Anyways more importantly I also painted the baby room this weekend with the help of Chris Driebergen. He did all the hard work like cutting in and the trim and I just rolled it on. The room looks so good with the green with bright white trim. The colour is called Christopher Robbins Swing made by Disney. We got a change table Friday also white, now were just waiting on the crib and we'll have the room pretty much done. We're getting pretty anxious to have the baby and see what it looks like and how it behaives. Elizabeth is doing good still, She's gained 24 pounds and the baby's heart rate is 130 which means BOY. The baby is also apparently quite long(21"), no surprise there looking at it's parents. Anyways 6 weeks and counting, but if the baby comes when I expect it to it will be only 4 weeks. I just read what I wrote and I really write in segmented sentences don't I. Oh well who care it's my blog. And I. Will. Write. How I . want!!!! See ya!

I'm thankful for...

2006-10-11T22:30:00.000-07:00

We hope everyone had a great thanksgiving weekend, and you stuffed your faces with Tryptophen filled turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy and spiced stuffing. We had the privilege of having 2 turkey dinners, One @ the Lindoffs and one @ the Cowleys. We didn't get any left overs which is the best part but oh well.

Here's the fellas trying to put together a table and chairs the Brisco's got for Rebekah's birthday. I didn't actually take very many picture on the weekend so I don't have any to show, sorry. Well this entry is boring me to tears so I'll go for now. This weekend coming up is our 8 hour marathon lamaze class. Wish me luck, hopefully I won't puke/pass out or cry.

Update on Elizabeth is..... nothing's changed. She is very healthy and so is the baby. The whole pregnancy has gone very well and we are coming to the end. I figure this would be a good time to announce my guess for the due date. I guess November 17 @ 11:55PM exactly. That's right two weeks early. We would like to hear your guess for the due date if you guess correctly you could win a weekend of your choice of babysitting. Let us know your guess via comments.

New Ride!!!

2006-10-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

So with the baby on it's way our 1991 honda accord just wasn't going to cut it. The car was more than good to us over the last while but it had 340,000kms, no muffler, a cracked windshield, and it started to blow blue smoke. We went to this KIA dealership where Elizabeth's old boss works now(She's the daughter of the owner). Long story short we drove a couple vehicles and fell in love with this 1999 Dodge Durango. It is a tough looking truck but stylish enough for Elizabeth. Elizabeth was the one who found it by the way. Anyways, it's a bit of a gas guzzler considering the V8 5.2 litre magnum engine. We love it and are happy to have a reliable nice car finally(We also got a four year warranty with it).

It's been a while!!!

2006-09-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

So it's been some time since our last blog entry. Sorry. We've been really busy lately and haven't had much free time. Let me fill you in on the haps. Two weekends ago we got our first couple of new baby accessories. The first one being a new jogging stroller for Mom and the baby(Dad probably won't get too much use out of it). Elizabeth looked at a few and didn't like this or that with all of them. The one we found has everything she could ever hope for and more, her life is complete now.

As you can see if our baby looks anything like a basketball it will be a perfect fit.

The next thing we got was not bought by us, oh no, it was a gift from our friends Ry_n and El_sa. It's a great gift and we are very blessed to have such great friends. It's a motorized swing set for our little one. It has multiple speeds, has several calming nature sounds and plays some sort of kiddie music.

This is really a mixed blog entry. The next portion will reflect our last weekend in Vancouver. We went to Vancouver on a whim, just expecting to have a good time with our friends R&E. when we got off the ferry we saw more friends Rayeal Michalski and Kim Richmond. After chatting for a while we went to Brad and Kim,s place to hang out. We stayed there until about 1am then cruised back to R&E's to retire for the evening. Next day was ABC for breakfast and shopping for new clothes. Elisa and Michelle(Lindoff) had tickets for the Mariah Carey concert that night, which they purchased month's ago. Elizabeth was in search of something to do that night because it would mean hanging with the boys otherwise. We thought why not see if there were anymore tickets to the concert. We found the last ticket in the section the other girls were in and bought it. $101 dollars later the girls were together watching one of the all time greatest divas ever. I though that was pretty cool, and I apologize for using the word "diva". Anyways I've bored myself with typing so now I will bid you all farewell. Elizabeth's feeling well and strong, the baby is healthy and normal, and I am me. Life is good. 68 days and counting until little Mohammed or Latisha comes into our lives.

Our last holliday without Jr.

2006-09-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

Well this trip to California was just what we needed. We got lots of sun and heat, the temperatures hovered around 35-37degrees. We did lots of stuff and we still had lots of time to relax, which was what it was all about. So the first day we got there we got our rental car which was a Chrysler 300. This car is big, wide and sucks gas big time. We loved it.
Our first day we went to Newport beach, our favorite beach. We spent the afternoon soaking up the sun and just relaxing from the flight.
After the beach we checked into our hotel which was a pleasant surpirise. The hotel was nothing special, it was a Holliday Inn near Disneyland. The great thing about it was that it was really clean and the service was awsome. That night we headed off to Downtown Disney which is a bunch of Restaurants, shops and entertainment. We ate at a Mexican place called Tortilla Joes, it was a good spot to people watch. The next day we went to San Diego via the coast highway. The drive down presented many nice beaches one of our favorites was in San Capistrano.
I'm gonna speed things up a bit by point forming the rest of the trip. In San Diego we spent much time lost trying to find the Wild Animal Park, who knew 30 miles south of the park would be Mexico?? That day was cool but really hot!! 37 degrees hot. The park was really interesting. The next day we went to Disneyland/California Adventure all in one day. We weren't going to go there but how could we pass up the 50th anniversary, Mickey just wouldn't have it. Dinner that night we stuffed our faces full of Red Lobster goodness and sat by the pool. The next day was Santa Monica and the BLVD for some window shopping. We sat on the beach and checked out the pier. Dinner was Olive Garden, enough said. After dinner we cruised back to Anaheim to catch an Angels game that was sold out except for our $120 tickets we barley got the morning of. The game was awsome. There was a collision at the plate, extra innings and Anaheim won by a homerun in the 10th inning, sweet!! The next day was spent with room service breakfast and siiting pool side until we had to pack up and go home. The trip was good maybe 2 days too short but good non the less.

California and New wheels!?!?

2006-09-01T10:05:00.000-07:00

So tonight we head off for the sun soaked beaches of California. This is probably our favorite place to travel to(mine anyways). I know it's not very exotic but that's me. We're just heading down for the long weekend plus 2 days. It'll just give us enough time to get some more 30 degree weather in and see some of our favorite spots. I'll for sure have some pictures to show, but now that I'm a big wedding photographer I don't know how these travel pictures will turn out, it's not my specialty you know.
On another note, I've been selling stuff on usedvictoria.com at a pretty good pace. I put 3 things on(xbox,computer,TV)and they all sold within days.The TV I will have for a little while because I sold it to a friend. Anyways yesterday I decided to try my luck at the buying thing and picked up a set of wheels and tires for the Honda. They were pretty cheap and it kind of shows but for the cost of what I sold my xbox for, it's a good trade off. They are really dirty and need to be shinned up but they should be ok.

Beth's beautiful bountiful baby belly!!!

2006-08-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

the tummy is progressing lovely. Notice the shirt says"COMING THIS FALL". these are Elizabeth's first maternity clothes from Old Navy.

More Mayne Island PIcs

2006-08-27T09:33:00.002-07:00

My Island Adventures

2006-08-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

This thusday and friday for me(Brian) were spent ferry hoping between Victoria/Saturna/Saltspring and Mayne Island. I don't mind these days because it usually means 2hrs work for a 10hr day. Thursday was Saltspring island which I had been to a couple times before, once last week actually. It was nothing out of the ordinary and was a gorgeous day to travel. After my job I stopped for lunch at this restuarant/cafe on the water that I always go to over there. The good thing about these jobs on the island is that the ferries are few and far between so I have a chance to look around and take some pictures.
Friday was Mayne island, never been didn't really care to ever go. I had to be on the 5am ferry over which meant I was up at 4am to get out there in time. I actually love beeing up really eary like that when it's quiet and dark. Anyways I got on the ferry and got over there not knowing what to expect, but it was a pleasant surprise. I found all kinds of neat places, and a beach that was really nice. I'm over my writing quota so here are some pictures.
This was on the way to Saltspring Thursday, I love the rays of light coming through the clouds.
This was on the ferry to Mayne island. The colour of the sunrise turned everything orange, the boat, the water and the trees on the shore.
Some old tractor sitting outside and old farm house. It kind of shows the lifestyle of the poeple on the island. I went to a little bakery that was serving breakfast after my job and it showed me that poeple like living in their simple small town ways. I ordered my omlette and coffee got out my debit card, "sorry we don't have debit". The lady said "you can eat your breakfast and the go down the road to the atm and pay after"!!!!!!! that would never happen in Victoria at a place you've never been. When I got my coffee, I just grabbed a big old mug out of the cupboard and poured it myself. Long story short it was kinda cool.

Some wedding sampler photos

2006-08-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

New Toys

2006-08-13T20:06:00.000-07:00

So I got a couple of new toys for my camera this week. One of them is a 3x telephoto lens for the end of my camera. The other is a 0.38xultra wide angle lens with macro. I tried out the macro lens and ended up with some cool close ups . Obvoiusly i'll put a couple pictures to show you all. They may bore you or not but there going on anyways.

Baby update sort of!!!

2006-08-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

So Elizabeth is in her 24th week and is starting to grow finally. It seems like she will grow a lot in the next few weeks and months so maybe we'll update with belly pictures as we go now. We are still so excited and now we just want the kid to be born to see what it looks like and how it behaves.
This week we also booked our last trip to California as "DINK's"( Dual income no kids) We will be going down Sept 2 to soak up the sun and just relax. We plan to head down to San Diego because we've never been yet. We'll take in a baseball game and check out some other sites down there. We are also going to go to our favorite beach Santa Monica. This year is going to be a lot more relaxed than previous trips, we aren't hitting all the theme parks this time. I hope to take a bunch of pictures down there so you can be sure you'll be seeing them on the blog.
This coming Saturday is Rebekah and Gavin's wedding in which I will be the official photographer, Pardon me while I throw up....... I'll be honest I am getting nervous because it is such a big thing and I have never done a wedding before. Oh well there's a first for everything!!??!!?? Here's a couple of pictures to satisfy your viewing pleasures.
Here is litlle Elizabeth at 6 month's pregnant. She doesn't look huge yet by any stretch of the imagination, but soon....
I have been getiing up at 5:30am a couple days a week and going to get some early morning shots when the lighting is good. This one is on the breakwater all by myself around 5:45am last week. Elizabeth really likes it and said I should put it on the blog site so here it is.

More Pics

2006-08-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

Sproat lake pictures

2006-08-10T17:08:00.000-07:00

This site is acting stupid so I'll have to put more pictures up later.

Sproat Lake long weekend

2006-08-08T15:13:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was a weekend we look forward to every year. Once a year we get the chance to use Elisa's parents place on sproat lake, past Port Alberni. It's such a great place up there with every summer experience you can think of. It has camping(if you consider a fully functional RV with kitchen bathroom and cable TV camping)a fire pit, a gorgeous lake, and a boat to take full advantage of the large lake. We went on Saturday afternoon, picked up Ryan and Elisa on the way through Ladysmith and arrived around 2:00 in Port Alberni. We loaded up on food and goodies,, and got there just in time for dinner. That night we took a spin on the boat and just relaxed around the fire. Sunday we got up and made bacon,eggs,maple sausages,and toast before we got going on our big day. I'll just add that the weather was hovering around 28 degrees the whole weekend so we got a lot of sun. So Sunday morning Ryan and I went to put gas in the boat before we headed out. As we were at the gas pump I leaned over to pick up the spare gas tank and heard a "clink" sound on the dock, I bent down and saw that the water was rippled around where I was standing. I reached my hand in my pouch pocket and realised something was missing, that something was my keys which had the car/house/van and various other work related keys on it. So my keys just sank to the bottom of the lake which was pretty bad because I didn't have spares for some of them. After we filled up the boat we headed back to get the girls. We needed to get something out of the car so I asked Elizabeth for her keys as mine were 30ft deep in the lake. We looked around and couldn't find them anywhere, we ripped apart the trailer,garbage,clothes and anything else we could find, nothing! We finally went and looked in the car and there they were in the back seat, all the doors locked every window up.
To make a long story sort of short I used a trusty coat hanger and jimmy'd the door open.
Anyways we got away and did some boating some swimming and some sunbathing, it was a good day. We then went to a restaurant called "Aquadisiac", there's a long story of how crappy that place was so I won't go in to it. I will say that we had alligator that night which was good until we got the bill. Monday we went to Coombs on the way back and saw the goats on the roof and then had a swim at Elisa's parents pool. It was a great weekend and we created lots of great memories!!!!!!!!!!!!!pictures to come!

Teen Camp 2006

2006-07-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

Another year of helping at Nanoose Bay has come and gone but not without some more great memories. I was helping doing sports staff again which I really like, for the most part. Elizabeth was up for a couple days at the beginning and a couple at the end, hopefully next year she can be there the whole time. There were about 280 teens at the camp plus all the staff to run it, which is pretty normal numbers for Nanoose. The first few days were o.k. weather wise but the last 2 or 3 days were up around 34-35 degrees. This year was a little different for me because one of the sports staff members who takes all the pictures for the camp sports and awards became ill. Due to his illness I stepped in to take the pictures for 2 days of sports as well as all the banquet and awards pictures. I got to use probably 7000-8000 dollars of camera equipment for those few days which made me almost giddy. All in all it was a great camp with lots of laughs and lots of fun, I wouldn't want to spend 1 week of my holidays any other way. I have around 450 pictures of camp but I'll only put a few on the blog.
The great and mighty sports staff Me taking some pics and getting some sun while I'm at it.
Elizabeth getting a picture from one of the many awards she won in the past, this one was mvp.
This is me at the awards banquet, it's quite the event. It even has paparazzi and reporters.

The big day!! First Baby pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-07-06T13:55:00.000-07:00

Today was the biggest baby day since we found out Elizabeth was pregnant, ultrasound day!!!! This morning at 10:00 was exciting, we got to see our first pictures of the baby. We got to see about 45min of the baby moving around and got 8 pictures of the baby to take home. It was so neat to see little ______ laying there and adjusting his/her body in different ways. The baby moved a lot more than we thought, Elizabeth couldn't feel it move at all. We Didn't find out what the sex was, even with mild pressure on my part to know if it was a Boy or a girl. Either way I'm cool with it. We have a couple of good pictures so hopefully you can make out the shapes.

Picture 3 clearly shows that we have a classic case of thumbsuckingalatosis.

Picture 4 shows how flexible the baby is obviously taking after his/her father.