The hunter ...

The hunter ... his dog .....





& the famous Moose Cookies!

Calling the Canucks ...

All of you hockey fans know that the Canucks lost another game tonight .. well my son is a huge fan of this great team and he was not happy that they lost ... so what does a 2 year old little boy do about it .... he calls them of course ...

Ryan and I were downstairs tonight playing hockey with Linden (like we do EVERY night) .. when Linden stops and picks up his cell phone (no he doesn't have a cell phone yet .. well he does but it doesn't work, don't tell him that)

Ryan - What are you doing Linden .. who are you calling?

Linden - The nucks

Linden - "Nucks you gotta ate aster ... oot more .. no more osing! .... then hung up!!
(Translation) - "canucks you gotta skate faster ... shoot more ... no more losing!

Then he dropped the phone picked up his hockey stick and started to play again .... Ryan and I just sat in silence ... did he really just do that .. ?? Maybe he won't be a NHL player .. he might just go right into coaching!!!!?????

Some misc pics

Good ....










Crazy ...










Just plain scary ...

Catch up!

First of all I would like to tell everyone that I have been reading all of your blogs but cannot comment .. blogger doesn't like me right now sooooo like the "queen" I might have to make the switch to new blogger??

I have a lot of catching up to do with my blogging pals .. I know that you're all sooo excited to hear what I've been up to .. you're probably sitting on the edge of your chairs ... well hold on ...cause here it comes ...

We got our christmas tree a couple of weekends ago .. always a fun experience since my husband will not allow us to have a fake or cultured tree ... nope we get to drive around for hours and hours in search of the PERFECT christmas tree .. Linden thought it was very fun .. of course we couldn't leave home without his "hunting hat"so the bucks don't see us .. and his "gun" which is AKA - a watering nozzle (you know those gun looking things that you water your shrubs and outside plants with) ... he basically shot every tree, squirrel and bug that he saw. After roughly 4 1/2 hours we finally got our tree .. and you're all probably thinking we just threw it in the back of our truck ... hell no ... we strapped it up on the ol' ENVOY!!! REDNECKS ... Nope!!!Oh and as for it being the "perfect tree" ... most might not think so but the memories of getting it makes it pretty special!

Rednecks??? .. I made sugar cookies the other night .. most would use the traditional cookie cutters for Christmas .. the angel, gingerbread man, snowman, bells ... not this family .. we use Linden's favorite cookie cutter ...that would be the MOOSE !!!!!!Yep, "P" when you come to visit you can eat a Moose cookie .. and if you're really lucky we might even BBQ you a nice steak or two!!!

What else is new .... took Linden to the "skate with Santa" .. he liked it of course ... he's totally into Santa , just loves him .. shhh don't tell him but our good friend "R" is going to dress up as Santa and come to our house on Christmas Eve ... I think Linden will love it and I'm sure Santa "R" will like the Christmas cheer he'll receive when he stops by!

Ryan and I braved the shopping mall last Saturday ... it's was messy .. took us 20 minutes to find a parking spot, not kidding ... Ryan was very good ... very patient .. which was very unusual! We got MOST of our shopping done .. there are always those few "hard to buy for" gifts that you leave till the last minute ... and with only 3 more shopping days left Ryan still has to find something for his Dad..... in Vanderhoof?!?!?!

After a hard day of shopping we ended up staying over night in PG and went for dinner at the "SHO-GUN" with our good friends "S & J". We had a wonderful time ... specially when "J" and I started talking about my pre-stagette night when my Dad treated me and my bridesmaids to dinner .. memories ... tarable flirting with the cook .... tarable wearing a certain someone's fur coat .. we were laughing sooo hard that we had tears flowing down our faces ... good times .. good times ..
After a couple of bottles of wine ... a couple shots of SAKI and a few bellini's we were off trying to find something else to do ... it just happened that there were a couple of Christmas parties going on in our hotel ... sooooo "S" and Ry decided to join one ... picture "S" and Ryan casually walking up to the bar .. buying some drink tickets and mingling with complete strangers ... surprising enough someone thought they recognized them cause this man came right over to "S" and Ry and said "Hey .. how's it going .. haven't seen you for a long time" Well that was their in.. they headed into the banquet hall and started to talk up the older ladies .. good work guys .. Needless to say "J" and I were too shy to go with them so we snuck off to the Caddy and had a great night!

Sunday Ryan, Linden and I volunteered to help deliver baskets to the needy .. it was a real eye opener to see how some people live and how they are struggling to make ends meet and to raise children with no money ... when you knock on a door and see a beautiful little girl with big eyes watch you as you bring in hampers full of food ... all I can say is how lucky we are .. it was kinda neat to deliver a basket and get a huge hug and invitations to come in for tea or to meet the kids .. most of the people we delivered to were soooo grateful and couldn't say thank-you enough .. it's was very heart-warming ... we will be adding this to our Christmas traditions !

We're not sure who the family was that we adoted this year but I'm positive they stood in disbelief as the person delivering their stuff brought in 5 rubbermaid containers ... full of winter boots, toys, remote control cars, coats, wrapping paper, detergent, and all the food you can imagine!!

As you all know I LOVE this holiday .. I love that it's a time for family and friends to get together ..(I'm not like my sister .. I love company and the more the merrier!!) I love that it's a time to go shopping for OTHER people ... I love that it's a time of endless hours of wrapping .. I love the hussle and bussle .. love decorating in festive colors .... love Christmas lights and of course Christmas carols .. those are playing loud and proud in my truck .. including the famous "I want a hippo for Christmas" ...love the eating (until January and then the guilt sets in )... love all the Christmas shows on TV .. love the Christmas Cheer (drinks)... love that when I leave a store people say "Merry Christmas"... to sum it up I LOVE CHRISTMAS and everything that goes with it!

Getting so excited for Christmas .. only 4 more sleeps ...

Visit with Santa

Linden and I went to see Santa with our good friends ... "JoJo" and her daughter ... Linden was sooo excited but I really didn't think he'd like to sit on Santa's lap all my himself ... but yet again he proved me wrong.

There we stood in the line to see Santa .. the little blue and white elf (aka. Santa's helper) comes over to us and Linden puts his hand out to hold hers and follows her right up to the jolly old guy .. he climbs up on his lap as if it was his Papa's and looks right at Santa with a big smile .. I was sooo proud of him. He smiled the biggest smile and the picture turned out faulous. Then ..... Santa asks ....

Santa: What do you want for Christmas Linden?
Linden: a dun (gun) and bullets!!!
Santa: With a puzzled look in his eye repeats -What does Linden want for Christmas?

At this point I'm thinking to myself ... Oh lord .. I truly am raising the next DAVIE CROCKETT

Mom: Well Santa he wants a gun and bullets ... his Dad is a hunter and he ...
Linden: want to oot (shoot) bucks ..... then proceeds to do the shooting noise ..

Ahhhhhhhhh... his father would have been so proud!!!!!!

As for Santa's reply: Santa doesn't give guns for gifts you'll have to ask your Daddy!!!!

Tradition

Tra-di-tion (noun) = the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, esp. by word of mouth or by practice: a story that has come down to us by popular tradition.

Christmas is a time of traditions! Everyone has their own traditions ... This year I'm starting a new tradition in our little family ... there is a program in Vanderhoof called adopt-a-family and I feel that it's something I NEED to do. My Mom and I are adopting a family together this year and then next year we'll both take on a family. Since we're doing this together we've asked for a family with 3-4 children!

We just got the profile of our family, it's a family of four .. a 11 yr old boy, a 8 yr old boy, a 5 yr old girl and a single Mom! We get to buy whatever we want for them! The Mom gives us a some hints of what the kids like ... the 11 year old boy loves hunting ... ironic or what?!? There a very few rules .. you can buy whatever you want, food, wrapping paper, gifts, clothes, shoes etc ... one rule, we can't wrap anything, this is so the parents can see what the kids are getting and they get to wrap the gifts themselves .. you dont' have to buy anything for the parents but Mom and I will .... I'm so excited about this ... it's neat that the family doesn't know you and you don't know them .. it's a way of giving and not having anyone feel like they need to return the favor. So many people have done such nice things for me and my family it will be nice to "Pay it Forward"

Why do I feel the need to do this you ask ... well my family consists of just the three of us and most likely always will so I feel since it's so small we should help a family that is less fortunate then ourselves! Spend our money on people that will really appreciate our gifts of food and clothes!

I will post a picture of our "adopt-a-family's" gift basket when it's done and let you know what we bought! If anyone knows what the "in" toys are for boys aged 8-11 please leave me a comment, it would be greatly apprecitated!

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The Road to Creston and back ...

It was a long haul but didn't seem that bad as we were on a charter bus watching movies and eating and eating and eating .. time seemed to pass fairly fast... that is if 18 hours of driving can go fast!?!?!
Our team played terrible which would explain the 16th place finish .. aka LAST PLACE .. yes my friends we travelled 18 hours for our team to take dead last .. 0 and 8 ... basically the team crawled on the court, rolled over and played dead! Okay it wasn't quite that bad, some of the girls played pretty good but they never all played good at the same time. Frustrating .. oh and we couldn't go to the Kokanee brewery cause "it wasn't an appropriate school field trip ... translation we had one religious girl on the team that wasn't allowed to go so we all had to suffer! Our hotel was very old and had that moth ball smell to it .. yucky! All in all things didn't go that well in Creston .. but we made it home safe and that's all that matters!