Congratulations Joyce and Tony!

This evening I had the pleasure of watching my friend Joyce exchange vows with her new husband Tony. The ceremony was lovely and the reception was a lot of fun. It was great to see some people I haven't seen for quite a while. Joyce looked gorgeous of course. I am so happy for you Joyce and Tony. Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong!

Before and After

I have been needing to get my hair cut for quite some time now. My poor hair has been sorely mistreated. Chemicals and styling have taken their toll and I finally decided that scissors were the only thing that would solve my mangy mane problems. I made an appointment for Friday after work at 3:45pm. That would give me plenty of time to get from work to the salon. When I arrived the receptionist told me that the stylist I was booked with was running late and asked if I could come back at 4:30. My thought was I was hoping to be on my way home with my new do by 4:30. I thought about rescheduling but I ended up saying I would come back. So 45 minutes later I returned and was told by the same receptionist that the stylist was just finishing up and that i could have a seat and wait. After sitting there for 20 minutes I was really beginning to wonder what was going on. I spoke to the receptionist again who questioned the stylist who said 5 more minutes. 10 minutes later I was so close to walking out! In the end I finally sat down to have my hair cut one hour and 20 minutes after my original appointment time! I walked out another hour and a half later with much shorter hair. The stylist was somewhat inexperienced I think. It was the longest hair cut I have ever experienced. I also didn't leave with what I had wanted... It's not bad (for the most part) just not exactly what I had asked for. I like the way it looks better from the front than the back. In the end it's just hair, it grows.

Autumn Strolls By The River

I got to babysit Cadence and it was a beautiful day so we went for a stroll by the river. Her mommy met up with us after a while. It was an absolutely lovely time and I took some fun pictures to share.

Too cute for words.

Leaves are fun!

Look at those teeth!

A little tree hugger!

Love this picture!

Why did you put me back in here??

The smiles really came out when we met up with her mommy.

I love these two ladies!

And they most certainly love each other!

100 Years

Today was the celebratory service held at St. Stephen's Anglican Church to celebrate its one-hundredth anniversary. This is the small country church that my grandmother attended while she was still living. I can remember going with her occasionally when I was a little girl. I say occasionally because services are not held at St. Stephen's regularly. There is no heat or electricity and so services are held only in the summer, one or two Sundays a month. Last year the very first Christmas Eve service was held at St. Stephen's. We used propane heaters to warm the small church building. Today St. Stephen's was fuller than I have ever seen it. There were so many people that not everyone could fit inside. Many people stood outside while the service went on within. Regular services at St. Stephen's do not ussually bring out such a large crowd. After service everyone went to Merrill Community Centre (the one room school house that my dad attended as a boy that is now used for community events.) to share in a meal together and look over and remember the history of this small country church. It was neat to hear the stories and see the pictures. Another exciting event was the ringing of the new bell. The bell tower was not a part of the original church. I'm not sure exactly what year it was added to the building but there has never been a bell in it up until now. The week before the anniversary service the new bell was installed. They also had the stained glass window restored before the anniversary service. It was nice to be able to participate in this special event in the history of St. Stephen's.

My grandparent's headstone, in the graveyard of St. Stephen's

First Birthday Bash!

When I found out that Lisa wasn't going to plan anything special for Cadence's first birthday I asked if I could. So I got some decorations, baked a cake and told Lisa to invite people. I'm pretty sure she invited close to 2 dozen people but in the end only one couple came with their 5 month old son. At the last minute Lisa invited their "across the street neighbors." And so they came over and helped us sing happy birthday and eat cake. Lisa and Paul had prepared a lot of food but with the small amount of people we didn't eat much of it. Cadence loved the helium balloons, they were not only fun to look at but they were also fun to bat around. I think she got more amusement out of the balloons than any of the gifts she was given.

This is the beautiful birthday girl standing up in the kitchen.

I was having a little fun with static electricity. :)

This is the birthday cake.

She wasn't sure what to think when everyone started singing happy birthday.

Paul ended up blowing out the candle but she sure wanted to get her hands on that bear!

I guess it passed the taste test.

I didn't think about making a chocolate one in order to make her face look more messy. There are some crumbs there if you look close enough.

After eating cake she got to open presents. She wasn't extremely into it.

Lisa ended up opening this one. Cadence tore the paper but only a little.

Turned out the tissue paper was the best gift of all. The little blue shoes were part of my gift to her.

Happy First Birthday Little Girl!!!

It is so hard to believe that a year ago yesterday my little niece Cadence was born. In some ways it seems like just the other day. But when I look at how much she has grown and changed I can hardly believe that it's been only a year. The picture on the left was taken on September 5th 2006 and the one on the right September 5th 2007. The picture on the right might be a little deceiving. It looks like she could be walking but she hasn't hit that milestone yet. Currently she is quite content to get everywhere she needs to go on all fours. She is crawling very well and she likes to pull herself up on just about anything. She'll even walk the length of the couch while still holding on. She knows that the walker on the other hand is not stationary and so will only stand beside it and then sit down. I don't think it'll be long though until she's motoring around on her two little feet.

A Family Picnic

A couple of weeks ago my Auntie Jewel left my mom a message saying that she wanted to plan a play date for her kids and mom's kids. I found this highly amusing because mom's youngest is 22 and Auntie Jewel's oldest is 3 now. Anyway, I was excited for a play date! :) Auntie Jewel and Lew brought Sarah and Josie from Prince Albert on Wednesday, August 8th and we had a BBQ. It was a lot of fun! I even got my dad to hang up the hammock that I brought him from Brazil 4 years ago. This was the first time it had ever gotten hung up.

Here's Michelle and "the monster" as I like to call her hanging out in the hammock.

Mom and I, laughing a lot!

Me, Sarah, Auntie Jewel and Josie.

"Hmm, there's an interesting view from up here."

Michelle and Sarah

I wonder what she's thinking at this moment...

Beautiful blue eyes!

Cousins, Dirk, me, Michelle, Josie and Sarah.

Josie sitting on her mommy's lap.

Having a good visit and looking at pictures.

So cute!

One last good-bye cuddle with Auntie Crystal.

Cadence

I returned from Brazil on July 23rd. I spent my first week back in Canada in Weyburn hanging out with the worlds greatest grandma!!! Unfortunately I have no pictures to share of my time with her. Shame on you Pamela!!! Grandma and I spent a lot of time looking at photos. We looked at photos of Brazil and we looked at photos from when she was a little girl right up to when my mom was a little girl. Something I realized while I was with grandma for that week is that I am very much like her. For the longest time I have said this expression, "Lord love a duck!" and I've had no idea where it came from. One of the last times I was at Grandma's I discovered that she also says it! This time around I discovered that Grandma is jumpy just like I am. And something that I've known for along time is that she and I share a love for taking pictures. It makes me very happy to know that my grandma and I are alike. I couldn't think of a better person that I would like to have things in common with!

When I got back to Saskatoon one of the first things I did was go and visit my best friend Lisa and her beautiful little girl Cadence. I've said it before and I'll say it again there is nothing that I would rather post on my blog than cute new photos of my wonderful niece! And so it is once again time to share cuter than cute Cadence pictures. These pictures were taken on August first.

Cadence with the doll that I brought her from Brazil.

Kind of a fun pic I think.

Momma Little and the Little girl.

Cadence tried on one of the outfits I brought her from Brazil, a very cute summer outfit.

This dress is big enough that she'll be able to wear it next summer.

Trying to figure out how to get her brand new Brazilian Havaiana's free of their hanger.

Baby Havaianas, too cute!

This look is saying "Doesn't this woman ever get tired of taking my picture??" And the answer is, "No, I don't!" :)

She's cute and she knows it!

As much as she teased me with looking like she was going to crawl before I left for Brazil she never did. Now she is crawling all over the place and pulling herself up on everything. As long as she's got something stationary to hold on to she'll walk around. She goes along the length of the couch quite easily. I give her another two months before she's walking without any aids. She's growing so quickly. My little Little is getting big!