and the walls have colour!

Well it has been awhile (again) since my last post. Ry is in school again and working. I am working as well. We both work on Tuesday, so Owen gets to hang out with Daryl (aka dee) for about 5 hours during out overlap time of work. He really enjoys that time as he thinks daryl (and sandy) are the coolest.

we discovered an 'open gym' 6 blocks from us. owen is in love with it, and it's nice for ry and daryl, too, because there are basketballs to play with. It's open on Tuesday and Thursday. There is a family open gym on Sunday that we have yet to visit. It has been a good discovery as the winter is now beginning to feel long.

owen is in the process of being potty trained. He is now at the point where he completely gets the whole peeing in the potty thing, and he is very excited about it every time it happens. He doesn't like to wear diapers. Usually when we go out places now, when it is not for a very long time, he won't go pee until we're back home. He doesn't love going to the potty when he's having fun, though. I think that is a problem for a lot kids - the potty isn't quite as exciting as his cars. But he's getting it and hardly has accidents anymore. At first, as incentive to use the potty, we would give him a balloon every time he would pee. Now he doesn't need the incentive so much so we've cut that part out (unless he asks for it). There is a picture below of him with balloons and that is the story behind the amount of balloons.








And here (finally!) are some pictures of our apartment. I got a couple rooms painted, making me feel better about posting these. I was not going to post pictures until we had a mattress for our futon, but I decided that it doesn't matter. The frame is big and unattractive, but you get the idea. We've made a couple places to sit on it with pillows, and it serves as a functional clothes-drying rack.

bathroom:







Our dining room (wallpapered when we moved in) [with our clothes drying on the rack], and our living room & front hall:

play the 'tar

as owen calls it, he played the 'tar tonight. first he tuned. then he sang, oh boy did he sing (warning: 2nd video is immediately loud).

so this is christmas . . . a late report.

though i know it shouldn't matter, i cannot put up photos of our new place until i have it in better order & done-ness. I will post pictures of our new abode soon.

That being said, there certainly is a lot that has happened since i last posted.

We visited Rachael, Andy, Tegan and Leyna at their new Mississauga residence. It was so lovely to converse, drink nog&rum, watch our children not only play, but get along really well. It absolutely was sad to only have one night's stay with them.






We then continued by train to the next Christmas celebration: Christmas at Tibben Farms. This was really relaxing and enjoyable; it was super to reconnect with relatives and old friends. Owen loves Grandma and Grandpa (though he cannot say their names: they are both called renon which is his word for what he cannot pronounce). Owen grew comfortable fast though he played with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Glen and Aunt Heidi best when we were not around. But this gave Ry and I great opportunity for some time to ourselves. We had a great time with my family. It certainly is painful having families spread far apart.
The game Owen played with my mom: the white dots are pins and the red thing a chair - potentially prick-full, but he's a careful boy.
And the awesome barn: build by my dad.






We journeyed back to Minneapolis only to move, the next day, to St Paul. We have our apartment close to Ry's school. We've been enjoying setting up home & rediscovering things we owned that have been packed up for a couple years.

The day after we moved friends from Winnipeg drove into town to hang out for New Years. It was super fun to have people stay with us, to host so soon at our new place. We had a blast celebrating together and ringing in the new year with song, champagne (spiked with creme de cassis!), and the ol' year-old christmas tree burning -- all down by the lake.


That weekend we had our Christmas celebration with Ry's family. It was really great to be with them again, and to see Lillian and Owen play. They are obsessed and in love with each other! They kept one another amused, and in turn we were entertained. We spent a relaxing and enjoyable day together; there was no set plan for the day, we just soaked in each others' company.

(you can see i did well documenting our Christmas with photos at the beginning . . . and sadly not at the end.)

it's december?!?

so big change: we are moving. our time of living in-house with ben and jen is coming to close. this is a sad event that i suppose needed to happen eventually, only it has arrived a little quicker than foreseen. Ry has been feeling the weight of his almost daily commute to St Paul for homework, school time and work. A lot of what we do centers in St Paul and so we've decided to locate ourselves there. We are excited to have a place of our own, as well as the prospect of not relying on our car for daily life. There is a park, grocery store, beautiful walking street, window-shopping shops, Ry's university, Ry's coffee shop (2nd home), and many friends are all within walking distance! Our apartment, in a 5-plex, is on the upper level which will take some time to adjust to, but owen loves the steps. We'll have 2 bedrooms and a small office so Ry can a paper-writing place to call his own (also will function as a room for guests;). Oh, and the bathroom has a heated floor and a claw foot tub! It's a beautiful apartment though it needs a little love, like a fresh coat of paint, and some good decorating (erin is helping me here).

and so, this advent season is a little more stressed than usual. Stressed is the wrong word. I would like to be able to take care of all details about the apartment now, and have all things I need to do before we leave for ontario DONE however that is not possible. So, I am making myself feel stress while there actually aren't the circumstances. Oh well. I will putter away at what i can control and be content with that. we move into our apartment the day after our flight back from ontario so we plan to be packed before we leave. we'll see if that happens...

ry is writing and writing and writing his final papers. we leave for Christmas in Ontario on dec 16 and we've decided that he really must be done this semester's class work by that point because there is no way he will have time while we're away.

Come the new year, I will pick up a third day at work. This feels fine at this point; i certainly have been spoiled to only need to work 2 days. But with having our own apartment comes more financial need. And so I will work one more day. Also: Sandy now works at my office! yay! and so, my job is sandy-erin pleasant. perfect.

owen has been doing well with this whole cold-weather thing. i wasn't sure if he would be okay to staying inside more (he spent SOO much time outside while it was warm), but he's been doing fine. Also, he really loves playing outside in the cold. He also is a-okay wearing mits, tuque, and boots. He actually loves his boots (i think this is partly because boots = outside). He rides his bike outside, though i do see this option coming to an end soon, as we just got a little dump of snow last night. Parks are still fun for him, even though he slips around on the ice and snow and his arms and legs are more padded and thus harder to maneuver and control. But he just wants to play play play.


We drove to Winnipeg one weekend, to visit Steph. It was a good time, and a lot road time. Lucky for us, owen is a good traveler.




my apple pie




cozy & enjoyable thanksgiving (US)

autumn

a few random photos from the past while. our autumn has been fun, full of lots of adventures outside, birthdays, visiting friends, and good time spent at home.

He LOVES parks, especially slides.





When Ry was a boy, he had a teepee, his size, to play with. That has now been passed on to Owen, who mainly uses it now to put his new teddy down for night night. This process involves whispering and tucking in with is blankie.








Owen is in love with apples; he eats them whole, and down to the core. Also, raw carrots and cucumbers are a favorite. The carrots must be raw, though. Cooked vegetable (unless pureed) are not okay.

Owen's birthday was on October 8th. He really enjoyed opening the present we gave to him.


Turning TWO seems to have made some changes in Owen's disposition. He's way more outgoing, and he has times of serious craziness. He has an easier time being with other people when we are not around.

This video is an example of his craziness. he did this about 10 times, until i made him stop. I was afraid of him smashing his nose, or breaking a limb.

The Slide

Owen is obsessed with this video! He asks to watch it all the time. Not kidding. And when he watches it, it's not just once, but as many times as we will allow. He smiles at the same spots in the video every time he watches it. It's hilarious.

a whirlwind september

What a month this has been! It was kicked off by the rouleau's staying with us for a while. That was a treat! It was amazing to be able to relax and just spend time together. A couple days after they left, I say goodbye to Owen and Ry, and flew to France. I was away for 8 days, helping my boss put on a workshop. It was a good experience, and super enjoyable to have personal relationships become a part of my job (rather than it just being me and the copier). Erin was there with me, and we had a lot of fun together. Her fiance, ben, came on the scene at the end of the week, and we had good time with him and exploring the beautiful city of Beaune. On the final day of the conference, a sinus cold settled in on me; i felt terrible, but i was so grateful that the cold held off until my work was over. the next day i flew home. And WOW was it ever wonderful to be with ry and owen again! I missed them so. But we weren't home for long! We all hoped on a plane in a couple of days, to fly to St Stephen for a week. It was really great to be with our friends there. We miss it out there! We never made it to ocean, but we were able to reconnect with a lot of people, as well as see some of what we love about New Brunswick. Now it is the last week of September. My job for the week is done, and Ry has some hours to put in tomorrow, but then we'll be able to relax. It is so nice to go through mail and paperwork here and feel organized again. Travel is fun, but i certainly do feel scattered around and thinly spread at the end of it all.
Our church retreat is this weekend, but we're only going for one day. We are excited to get to know more people at our church; it's a slow processes, getting acquainted and establish relationship, but there are amazing young families that we foresee future friendship.






Here are some photos from my time in Beaune, France:





Here was our 'station', the "SCC Initiation Workshop" registration desk.



One of the reasons that I'm happy to be home: