Royal Tyrrell Museum Mosaic

Christine joined our family outing to Drumheller today and a good time was had, by all!

Lovely day for a ride down by the river

I just love, Love, LOVE this sweet face!

Baby & Wedding Shower Mosaics!

August 21 - Erin's wedding shower held at Erin's maid of honour's home. (The big photo is the beautiful bride to be, and her proud mother, Marg.)

August 15 - Bynne's baby shower - both events were timed a week within each other so that Teresa and Sarah wouldn't miss out!

The Calgary Zoo & Prehistoric Park!

Danny reads Curious George to Brynne

Brynne kicked her feet and waved her arms through the entire book of Curious George! She LOVES it when people read to her!

Sarah, Danny & Teresa help pick Saskatoon Berries!

Day 3 and we went berry picking, and within hours the berries were converted into jam!

Sarah's first S'More!

To round off day 2 in Canada, we had a backyard fire, roasting marshmallows and Sarah was initiated into the Price family tradition of making delicious s'mores.

The English have arrived!

Teresa (Andy's mom), nephew Danny and niece Sarah arrived on Saturday...and Teresa finally got the opportunity to hold her first great Canadian grandchild.

Sunday ... their first full day in Canada was a busy one. Brynne's baby shower was today. I woke up early (6:15) to bake a banana loaf before breakfast for the baby shower. Upon rising, I noticed there was a puddle of water in the guest bathroom, a result of the the toilet overflowing! Not a great way to start the day... but the problem was soon resolved, thanks to some fine plunger action! After baking the banana bread, I whipped up a batch of homemade buttermilk pancakes (Martha Stewart's awesome recipe) for breakfast, served with home-made saskatoon berry syrup and of course, the regular standby, pancake syrup! After breakfast, it was off to church.

Above: The watermelon "baby carriage" filled with fruit salad and other goodies for the baby shower.

While the shower was happening, the boys went to the Calgary Archery Range and timed their return perfectly with the end of the shower, returning just in time to make dinner!

Andy enlisted some help from Danny and Sarah who acted as his "sous-chefs" in the kitchen, seen here, ready to whip up a huge batch of meatballs!

Nanking Cherry Jelly

Last night I picked these cherries at my friend Lori's house, with a whole lot of help from her, her daughter Amanda and 3 of Amanda's friends. After having picked 8 litres of wild saskatoon berries, picking these cherries was a breeze! These ruby red delicacies are somewhat tart and make absolutely delicious jelly. Tasting the remnants of the jelly clinging to the pot brought back many happy memories of jelly making from the Nanking Cherry trees in our yard of our Mountview home ... 13 years ago! Thanks Lori!

Morning Play Time with Nana

photo taken this morning.

The big day will soon be here!!

just two weeks to the big event!

a little iphoto booth fun!

Rachel reading to Brynne

Just a short snippet of Rachel reading some of the books Brynne has received as gifts, to her. Andy and I believe reading to your children is one of the greatest gifts you can give your child. Growing up, our children will tell you that one of our favourite family pastimes were trips to the local library. As a result, both of our children love reading and we know this tradition will be passed onto our grandchildren.

It's amazing to think just how much babies and children learn from the simple act of reading to them. They hear new words, hear different expressions and emotions and soon they will learn words ... and eventually imitate the sounds they hear, even the inflection of your voice, when they "read" back the story you've read to them a hundred times. Language development is rather amazing, when you think about it! Brynne will certainly learn that reading is a valuable skill, worth learning.

Saskatoon Berry Picking!!

Yes, believe it or not, there is more going on in my life than taking adorable photos of Brynne ... this morning I made 4 batches of peach jam using most of the 20 lb case of peaches my mom brought back with her from BC last week (yummm) and then headed out this afternoon with Andy to pick Saskatoon berries - they are deliciously ripe and a little messy to pick, but well worth the effort!!

Brynne Mosaic - Weeks 2 & 3 in Calgary

Happy Birthday Rachel!

July 27 - We celebrated Rachel's birthday in Banff on Tuesday, meeting up with Tyler who was working in Banff. Lyden and Erin met us for supper, stopping for a brief photo outside the restaurant. Lyden totally looks as though he's giving his best "Robert Pattinson" imitation!

loving moments like this

over the past 2.5 weeks

Brynne Mosaic - Week 1 in Calgary

Two of my most favourite people in the whole world!

love, love, love this photo of Brynne and her Poppie taken today!

Brynne has feet like her Poppie!

When Brynne was first born and we saw the photo of her foot (below), we couldn't help but see the the similarity to Andy's feet! It's been said that individuals whose 2nd toe is longer than their big toe are known to have a strong personality ... certainly true of Andy .... guess we'll have to wait and see if that is true of Brynne!

Poppie has the knack!

Brynne was fussing a bit during dinner Thursday evening so Andy asked for Brynne to be passed to him so he could demonstrate (to all present at the table) the best position to calm a fussy baby. She immediately settled down and quite happily fell asleep and stayed in this position for a good 15 minutes until dinner was done!

Uncle Lyden holds Brynne for the 1st time

The kids arrived from Vancouver around 5:45 pm last night and Rachel's first order of business: Promptly place Brynne into her brother's arms!

Wall Banner for Brynne

Today I created this banner intended to hang above Brynne's crib in her room but in the meantime, I have fastened it to the outside of her playpen in our spare bedroom!

Whoa! Hello Wallace!

Rachel took this photo of Brynne last week ... while not her first photo shoot with Wallace, it does appear from her expression that she has only just become aware of his existence!

My special girls!!

Got some great news last week! Rachel, Tyler and Baby Brynne are coming to Calgary this week!! Can't wait to see them!

Such expressive eyes!

Oh my sweet grand-baby Brynne, seeing you brightens my every day!