Baby Matthew

Amelia (my sister) gave birth to Matthew this past weekend. He was a whopping 10lbs 2oz! It's all in his cheeks.

Congratulations Amelia, Dave and Josh!

Little Matthew is the 30th grandchild on my side of the family.

Long Weekend!

MAY LONG WEEKEND

We had the delight, nay, the privilege to go camping with our good friends the Kings,Knaufs and Salmons this past weekend. Yes, we let the Salmons come despite their lack of a "K" at the beginning of their last name.

Let's break down the numbers here so you can get an idea of what it may have been like.

Adults- 8

Children 6-8yrs- 4

Children 3-5yrs- 3

Children 2 yrs- 4

Dogs- 2

That my friends adds up to a whole lot o' fun!

And we did have fun despite the cooler temperatures (not unexpected in May) and occasional rain showers (again not a big surprise for May.)

We roasted marshmallows.

Grilled pancakes for breakfast.

Road our bikes (corrections... the kids bikes).

Raced.

Wiped out.

And enjoyed time with great friends.

We are already planning next year's trip.

Thank you Kings, Salmons and Knaufs for an unforgettable weekend.

We will bring our tarps next time so we don't bail early again. :)

Mother's Day

Mother's Day came early this year... early as in 5:45 am! My sweet, sweet early risers came into my room and told me they had prepared a mother's day feast for me. I asked if I could have 5 more mins of sleep. Almost 2 hrs later I came down to a plate of fruit, a plate of veggies, a mini cinnamon raisin bagel and granola bars. Too adorable! They did it all on their own. I am the luckiest mom in the world. Thanks for waiting for your lazy mom.

A special mother's day card made for me by Edwin.

Temple Open House and Dedication

I've been meaning to blog about this forever and have finally decided to bite the bullet and do it! One of the reasons I've been putting it off is because I FORGOT TO BRING MY CAMERA!! Stupid, I know.

In mid - April the kids and I attended the Open House for the Vancouver Temple. It was such an exciting experience. I remember being a little girl and envisioning a temple for our area. Of course I saw it built on east hill in Vernon but Langley isn't too far away.

It felt like a reunion. We saw so many of our friends from our days in Vancouver and area.

Here are the kids in front of our temple before we went through.

Greta looks thrilled, doesn't she!?!

We also had a chance to visit with Great-grandma Kilistoff.

At the beginning of May, I drove down to Langley with my sister Ardie because we had an early choir practice on the temple grounds the next morning. We had a sister slumber party with Maria- up from Utah, Sarah- fresh off the plane from Switzerland, Ardie and myself. The next day the rest of the family arrived. All of my siblings were there but 2! So fun! Ryan and the kids arrived later that afternoon.

After the choir practice we were hanging out at my parents place when I received a call from my mom. The button had fallen off on her blazer and she needed a sewing kit ASAP as the prophet was to arrive soon. I rushed over to the temple and helped her sew it on just in time. As I was about to pull out of my parking spot, President Monson, Pres. Uchtdorf, Elder Christofferson and company pulled up.

That evening we went to the Youth Temple Celebration. IT WAS AMAZING!!! I laughed! I cried! I was so proud of the youth. And so proud to know Shelly Murley and Linda (Rolfson). They put together something truly miraculous.

Sunday was the big day. I sang with the Cornerstone Choir. Our kids were able to see the prophet put mortar around the cornerstone. It was such a neat experience to be near our beloved prophet and enjoy his good humour and love.

We then were in the celestial room for the second session. ( thanks to mom and dad) My parents did a wonderful job with their talks. What an experience to spend most of the weekend on holy ground with the Lord's anointed. It also happened to be Ryan and my 9th anniversary. I couldn't imagine anywhere I would have rather been.

We look forward to returning to our very own temple soon.

Famous

I will post more about this weekend but I wanted to share a little blurb done by the Utah news crew covering the temple dedication.

Hope you can spot me :)

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=10623046&s_cid=E0002

Weary Weekend

Mid April we headed down to Vancouver as a family to catch the Temple open house and for the Pacific Dental Conference.

We arrived late wednesday night at a quaint little hotel near the waterfront right downtown. Lots of old friends were in the lobby! Such a fun reception :)

Travel worn we entered our hotel room. Let me remind you that all five of us were there. We opened the door to the smallest room I've ever encountered!!! We called down to reception for some more blankets to make a bed on the floor for the kids. There was only one queen bed. After about 1 hour our blankets or rather bed mattresses and fitted sheets arrived. I made up a bed for the kids which started at the side of the bed and ended at the door to the hallway. Just barely enough room for the three of them. No big deal... we didn't plan to spend a lot of time there.

In the morning, Ryan headed off to his courses and I packed up the kids and drove to Langley. We were able to go through the new temple!!! It's absolutely gorgeous!

Joseph loved the baptistry and Edwin's favorite place was the "recestial room".

Greta on the other hand really like it too but wanted to run around and explore. At one point she was hiding behind the door to the celestial room playing peek-a-boo and squealing at the top of her lung whenever I tried to pull her out. Another time I picked her up and she almost clawed my eye out. I had several scabs to prove it! Later I was trying to keep her quiet by pointing out pictures and asking "who is that, Greta?" She would respond, "Jesus". Then she yelled at the top of her lungs "I LOVE YOU JESUS!!!!!" I couldn't be mad at that.

We spent another squished night in the hotel enjoying the view of a cement wall that we could touch if we opened up the window.

The next day I drove out to Langley again as my parents were gracious enough to have the kids sleep over so Ryan and I could have a night to ourselves. We went to the most amazing restaurant, Lumiere. We ordered their 7 course meal! Then Ryan added on the fois gras and the cheese course. It was sumptuous and delightfully gluttonous. It also cost a fortune!

Saturday morning I headed out to pick up the kids as Mom was invited to speak at a Singles Conference at 8:30am. Ryan wasn't feeling great so ended up not golfing with his buddies. Joseph had had a fever the night before and it was pouring rain. I realized I would go mad if I had to spend the day in our hotel room with two sickos. We decided to head home.

It proved to be the best idea as Edwin threw up 4 times that night. Then Ryan was sick all the next night. Since then the virus has run it's course and we can now look back on our adventure in Vancouver with fondness.

I was rather disappointed that I didn't have a chance to spend any time with my girl friends. Thankfully this course occurs every year and we have big plans to have a girls get away. Right ladies!?!

Anyway... we have another big weekend ahead. I'll blog about it next week and post some pics.

Greta Turns TWO

Our baby is two today!

We love our Greta and had a great time celebrating HER! Since her birthday fell on Sunday we decided to party it up yesterday.

We went bowling...

Greta opened presents....

Ate cake...

The boys wanted to get Greta a fish for her gift. After bowling we all piled into the car and headed to the pet shop.

Meet our new fish...

Her name is Padme...

What!?! Hasn't this ever happened to you? You walk into a store to buy a fish and walk out with a puppy? No, well, that's because you aren't part of our family. Ryan, Joseph, Edwin and Greta are THRILLED! I can't say that I'm as enthused. I can't stop thinking that now we have a baby in the house for the next 16+ years. I'm so glad that Ryan is totally shouldering the load of training and cleaning up after the puppy.

Happy Birthday, Greta! You are our precious princess. We couldn't imagine how empty our family would be with out you!