Out in the Snow with Daddy

"Cheeethe"

My Little Snow Bunny

First ever play in the snow!! She loves it like a true Canadian.

Now that Ben has entered the sweet world of the iPhone....we are hoping to update this blog plenty more!

Early Sleeper

This is how Ben found Aubrey this morning at 650am. She slept until 8am here...I'll take this over her waking us up too early!

La Rochelle, France

Time Out

Above : Sitting on her "time out pad" for getting a little too creative with her art skills. You should have seen the walls. I particularly love the toe art :)

SO we have taken a little T.O. from blogging...it has been a fun and busy summer for us, and the fall really has been no different. For starters, some of you may or may not know, but we are expecting baby number 2 in April 2012 :) (Too much wine in france will do that to you.) We are thrilled! Aubrey adores babies, so the arrival of this little baby will be lots of fun. According to my dream last night I already had the baby - naturally - and was amazed it didn't hurt at all! Huh. Pretty sweet. I was also in an unknown city and couldn't find my way back to the hospital to see my baby. Very confusing dream indeed.

Ben has started his new job and is loving it. Aubrey is back in swimming lessons, and we are enjoying that....and I am starting pottery classes on Monday nights. So yeah! Just enjoying getting temporarily settled in Canada until we can do our REAL move in a few months to North Dakota!

We hope you are enjoying the beautiful Autumn weather!!

Catching Up...

Well we survived a month of traveling from country to country after we had left Australia the night of Ben's SBS graduation in June. Australia - Spain - France - Canada - USA - Canada. Of course there are loads of photos, but I am still working on getting those up and posted. Today it is Bordeaux, France.

We had a wonderful time in this most beautiful city. It is clean and the rows of old buildings are beautiful and breathtaking. Aubrey had a great time running around the huge misting "mirror" along the river with all the little french children and people cooling off. Bordeaux is known for it's wine...and unfortunately we didn't get around to doing a wine tour. Next time.

Here are a few pics...the rest are on my photography site!


Ben and Aubrey dancing with the "Tango Bordeaux" folks.


Aubrey enjoying her 2nd Gelato (her first was in Madrid with Brian and Kate). We would get her natural yogurt flavoured...not very exciting but she LOVED it!



Since then we spent an amazing week on the Lake with our good friends, Matt and Johnni....and our little girls had blast getting to know eachother. Photos coming soon!

Now enjoying our time in Alberta reconnecting with some amazing friends and family!
Thanks for stopping in! Sorry for the lack of posts, i will get caught up eventually, i promise!

France Trip!

If you have wanted to see updates of our France trip...I have been updating my photography blog with photos pretty regularly now that we are in one spot for a while. You can see them here.

Right now, we are staying with family and friends in the adorable little town of Clisson, France. My older sister, Lindsay, is getting married to her wonderful fiance Dav tomorrow. Dav is from here and it has been really fun to meet his family and friends and try our best to communicate in one another's language. We have been enjoying a lot of French food and culture while we are here, and it is really cool to reunite with family after our long time away in Australia.

Last night we had a "pairing" at Dav's mother's 200 year old apartment. It was really fun! We had 3 courses of different cheeses (there are about 500 varieties of cheese in France!!) that were beautifully paired with a different wine to complement that course. The finish was a gorgeous dessert she made...chocolate mousse and the best tiramisu i have ever had! Pictures coming later for the pairing party.


At Carcassonne.


Our hotel in Collioure...I loved it!


Make sure you check out our Barcelona pictures too....

Madrid

We have had a wonderful few days visiting our friends who are currently living and working in Madrid, Spain. Brian and Kate have been so wonderful to bless us with their hospitality and take us around the city to their favourite coffee shops and tapas bars! It was the best way to recover from the jet-lag and LONG trip over here from Australia. Today we leave for Barcelona and I think we are all acclimated now!

Aubrey has LOVED hanging out with "Ba-ba" and "Tate" (Brian and Kate). They have gotten a lot of cuddles, kisses and holding hands from her!

Yesterday Kate took me to her favourite shopping spots and let me shop while she watched Aubrey...who entertained other shoppers. At one point while trying on shoes, I looked over and Aubrey had on ladies shoes, necklaces and accessories and was going up to people, waving and saying "hola" over and over again...needless to say the ladies love her!

Thank you B&K for a fantastic time!!! We can't even tell you enough how wonderful of a time we had with you two. You have such a gift of hospitality, thank you for your friendship and the energy you put into making sure we experienced some great things in Spain!








Aubrey kept saying "wow'd" (loud). The busting of busy Madrid was at times a little loud for her!


"Cheese"


At the Crystal Palace


At the Market

Brisbane-Hong Kong - Frankfurt - Madrid

After a long day of packing and cleaning, catching a little bit of Ben's graduation, listening to Aubrey scream the whole way to the Brisbane Airport, and a long night of flying, we have arrived in Hong Kong. Just about to board our flight to Frankfurt...but i thought i would get a few pictures up on the blog of the last days in Australia!


Aubrey helping me pack. Every thing i tried to put away, she would find a new interest in.



had to go to Under Water World one last time to see the baby Hammerhead Sharks, and also to say goodbye to "Memo" and "Goji"




bruce the shark




Seal Show at Seal Island



Okay! Almost time to get ready to board!!

2 Weeks Left in Australia!

I cannot believe I am already saying that we leave the Sunshine Coast in 2 weeks. These past 9 months have been wonderful (not always easy, but wonderful for the most part!). The little Missy is 20 months old, saying new words every day, and constantly brightening up our lives with her giggles and cheekiness.

It took nearly the entire nine months here, but she has finally warmed up to all the SBS students and staff and she loves to be the center of attention with them now. We wish we had longer with this great group of young people who love our sweet girl. They have all been SO good with her and made it their goal to get to this point with her. In the beginning she was pretty shy and overwhelmed with all the big people and new faces. It is great to see her so comfortable and playful with them all now!

A couple weeks ago Aubrey started "skipping", and we couldn't really figure out where she had learned that until one of the SBS staff girls saw her doing and was like "awww I taught her that!" It was pretty cool, I think it was the first thing someone had taught her outside of our home. She is definitely at the age where she is observing so much and learning from others.

Ben is working hard to finish his last bunch of books in these 2 weeks while Aubrey and I just try and enjoy every last day by taking trips to favourite parks, Underwater World, the beach, and of course to see friends.

This week I have been doing a lot of study on Jehovah Witness beliefs. 2 young women approached me at the beach the other day, and told me how much they love teaching the Bible. Of course this isn't the first time I have encountered a JW, and I am sure you have had one or two at your door before too. However this is the first time I have been really interested in what they are taught. The more I read and learn, the more God is breaking my heart for them. The less annoyed with them I feel, and the more love. I realize how much they have been lied to, and how the foundation of their beliefs is incredibly flawed. It is pretty easy to disprove, however I have learned that they have been taught to be very closed minded and to not think for themselves. I have learned that it doesn't do much good to just argue what the Bible teaches with them. If you really want to reach them, you have to try and get them to start thinking for themselves and resist the temptation to do any "teaching" yourself. If you are interested in learning more, check out this site I have found really helpful in understanding where JW's are coming from : www.towerwatch.com

Okay, here are a few pictures from the other day!



You'll have to jump over to my photography site to see more of them.