Summer Photos 2011

Sienna @ 3 1/2

Liam @ 16 months

Happy Holidays!

We finally got around to getting a Christmas Tree today (thanks, Don!), and decorating a bit for the holidays. For some reason, the beagle wanted to sit under the tree for a little while, so we snapped a shot. So the laser-eyed beagle would like to take this opportunity to warn everyone that they'd better have a very Merry Christmas... or else!

Life at 30 Weeks

Time is flying. I just finished my semester at BCIT, and if all goes well, I should have my Associate Certificate in Applied Web Development. I'll take a break next semester, since we could have our little addition anywhere between mid-January to late February. Wifey is at 30 weeks now, and the baby should be about 3 pounds at the moment. It's hard to believe that the baby will probably be double the weight by the time it comes out! Below are pictures of 20 weeks and 30 weeks.

20 weeks

30 weeks

"Li'l Boom Boom" has been keeping us quite busy. We've been getting ready by taking prenatal classes, buying some of the essentials and preparing the room. I finally put up the crib, which our friends Tanya and Duncan graciously lent us. Things are progressing nicely, but as you can tell in the pictures, our oldest child is reminding us that, for the moment, she's still the baby of the house...

Ultrasoundness

It's been forever since I've updated this thing. Work, school, and life have just been too busy. But here's a little something that's worth blogging about. We went to get the ultrasound done today, and it was quite something to see the little one move, and to see its little heart beat... Or at least we think it was a little heart beating! Slowly it's becoming more and more real.

We got to see a head, body, two arms and two legs...

So far, so good! :-)

Happy Holidays!

A picture from Christmas Past, but one of my favourites none-the-less. Featuring two of my favourite girls.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!

Freedom - Week 1

It's hard to believe it's been a week since the "End of November" crew was let go. I was at the company for three months shy of seven years. Lots of mixed emotions on the last day. On the one hand, there was a bit of relief, as responsibility was lifted off my shoulders, a bit of happiness for the opportunities ahead, and ,of course, a tinge of sadness for the parting of ways. I got to work with exceptionally bright, talented, and fun individuals that worked extremely well as a team. Many times, I've been happy to see people "come through" during crunch time, and help out those that needed it. We had one hell of a team, and one hell of a run, didn't we...

Here's a few pics from the End of November bash:





People that had left earlier even came back for this event, including Michael, Hallett, Martin, Mladen, and Geoff who is pictured below with Vivian:



Here's a pic of Jason's desk, Mr. QA Tech Lead, where a lot of us stopped by to harass him with our questions. Sadly we won't get to do that much anymore. He took some extreme measures and moved to DC to avoid us. But at least there's always Messenger.... hehe...



This pic was from the beginning of November, on Marty, Joel and John Li's last day. A pic of our much decimated Stability crew. I gotta give a special thank you to my Stability crew... I can say with all modesty that we were Awesomely Awesome. Yes we were. Go Team!




It still hasn't sunk in yet that I'm not working for a few months. I'm sure it will kick in at some point, but for right now, it feels like a vacation filled with lots and lots of studying, from which I am currently procrastinating to update this blog.

For the part that felt like a vacation: we took an excursion to Seattle. Spent way too much money at Tulalip on the way, but at least got a little bit of Christmas shopping done. Of course part of our spending went to ourselves. I bought the best hoody ever. Fleece lined and everything. Here's Emma modelling it:




We also went to a pretty crazy mall in Seattle, which had some high end stores including Restoration Hardware, Tiffany's, Coach, Max Mara on the bottom floors, and some full size restaurants on the top floor. We had dinner at the Thai restaurant there. Then we checked out the Movie theater that was also on the top floor, and saw the best Bond movie yet - Casino Royale. The movie theater was huge. The screen looked double the size of our Silver City ones here, and the seats reclined! It was pretty sweet....

As for the studying: I just finished my first course in the Applied Web Development program at BCIT. Below on the left side of picture is text book for the HTML/CSS course I took. I wrote my final yesterday, and I think I did ok. Though I must say, I hate writing code on paper with pen. Too many damn attributes and values to remember. And how many people actually have the damn Doctype declaration memorized... And yes that was on the test.

For the rest of December I get to study for the second part of the Canadian Securities Course, the textbooks which are on the right of the picture. Having already taken and passed the first exam, I can say that it will undoubtably be much harder than the HTML/CSS course.



At least I have my trusty guard dog to keep me safe while studying. Here she is, being ever alert and vigilant.



Back to studying...

November Snow

It's late November and over the weekend we got over a foot of snow in some areas. The regular chaos of car accidents and power outages ensued. Some of this has melted now, but measuring the snow in my backyard we still have a good 6 inches of icy snow.



The roads are pretty icy still, especially around our place. We live in "The Neighbourhood Foresaken by Ye Salt Trucks". As you can see in the picture, there is a nice little layer of ice on the road. I was trying to walk wifey to the busstop this morning and slipped on the ice, while carrying the beagle. Since I didn't want to drop the beagle while falling, I hit the ground a bit harder than I would have liked. The bone in my left forearm feels a bit sore, but hopefully I'm not brittle enough to have broken anything other than my pride. Besides, I've been drinking lots of... Malk? Aw man! (Sorry, Simpsons reference there)



There's lots of positive to this snow as well though. The dogs are loving it. And I'm sure wifey enjoys the occasional soft snow ball to the back of the head too. If you see me covered in bruises in the next little while, I must've fallen down some icy stairs...

Here's a pic from yesterday, when we were playing with the dogs after shoveling the driveway.



One strange thing about the snow, is that Emma no longer cares where she does some of her business... She`s happily going on the deck. As you can see in the picture, she walks the same area in the snow, and leaves her yellow mark. I guess she figures as long as it is on the cold white stuff, it is ok. Needless to say, we'll be giving the deck a good scrubbing in the spring, though with the Vancouver rainfall as of late, the deck should get rinsed out pretty good anyway.



I carved out a new trail for her and hopefully that will encourage her to go on the grass again. Perhaps a belly and groin pressed against cold snow hasn't been conducive to good bathroom practices for her. Time will tell if she takes the new path.



Enough drivel for now. Hope you're enjoying the weather!