And some pictures!

Wow- an update after many many months!

I'm not sure if I even remember how to update our Family Blog. It has been so long, I'm not even sure where to begin!

Well, I'll begin with Kaelyn. Our daughter is now 2, and such an amazing little person. Each day she amazes us with her talking, her memory and her little personality. She loves imaginary play at the moment, and we love watching her play when she gets into the "imaginary zone" as we call it. It's so cute!

Jason is now permanently working as a Probation Officer in Salmon Arm. He loves his new job, the people he works with and his office. The only thing he'd like to change is the 45 minute commute!

Which brings us to... selling our house! In January we decided to list our house with the hopes of moving to Salmon Arm. It's been on the market for three months, and we've had 7 showings and 2 Open Houses. As anyone knows, it's challenging to maintain a spotless house when you've got a little one at home! We've also looked at several houses in Salmon Arm, and have fallen in love with several houses only to see them sell of be pulled off the market.

So after a lot of consideration we've decided to pull our house off the market. We love our home in Vernon, and I still enjoy my school where I teach. They've been super accomodating and understanding with me since I've returned to work after mat leave, and they don't bat an eyelash if I leave the school 1 minute after the bell rings to pick up Kaelyn at Day Care. Also, Kaelyn loves her Day Care so much, and is so comfortable and happy there. All in all, the only bad thing about Vernon is that Jason has to commute. And he is a trooper! In this market, we are grateful to have our jobs and to have a nice home.

Anyway, thanks for reading if you got this far! I hope to keep our blog updated more regularly, preferably more often than once a year ;)

~ Katie

A few more pics...

I can't figure out how to add more than 5 pics at a time, so here are a few more pictures...

December is here!

Well, we're all settled into our new house and loving every minute of it. It's hard to believe we once fit into a two bedroom condo! It's great to have the two floors, and now that the snow is here we're loving the garage. We'll love our yard once Spring comes along, too. Our next door neighbours have moved in already, and they have a toddler and baby at home. Thankfully they are super nice, and we've already shared a couple bottles of wine with them! Anyway, this house and neighborhood will meet our family needs for quite awhile :)

Kaelyn is now 9 months old. She is the cutest baby ever in our opinion, and even cuter now that she's sleeping better at night! Kaelyn has been the perfect baby from Day One, but we were always given a slight reality check once nighttime came. Kaelyn goes to sleep really well, but loves to wake up every 3 hours ALL night long. This was fine during the newborn days, but now that she' approaching that 1 year mark we were hoping she'd end this night waking habit. So she's been sleeping much better at night these days, something we're grateful for because I'll be returning to work in 4 months! She's also a very happy "sitter" meaning that she can contentedly play on the floor for a long time, but has no interest in crawling yet. Every day Kaelyn and I have several "tummy time workshops", and she stays on her tummy for awhile but prefers rolling as a method of transportation ;) Oh well, she'll get to crawling when she's ready I suppose.

Other that that, Jason and I are looking forward to Christmas. I'm always a sucker for Christmas, but this year I'm so excited for it. I think it's partly because I'm not doing choir at school this year (this involves pracitising x-mas carols starting in October) and also because it's Kaelyn's first Christmas. We are keeping our fingers crossed that Search and Rescue remains quiet this holiday season, as it has been for the past few months. Usually this means there will be a lot of searches coming up, but let's hope not.

I hope all is well with everyone out there! Have a great Christmas, be safe, and take care of yourselves :)

love,
Katie, Jason and Kaelyn

All moved in!

We are moved into our new place in Vernon! We're sooooo happy that's it's finally done. There are still some things that need to be finished (we currently have no blinds, screens, phone, and some paint needs to be touched up) so Kaelyn and I are hanging out in Kelowna until that gets finished. We're hoping to be moved in a few days to keep Jason company! It's starting to feel more like a "home" now that our own furniture is in it. Some rooms are bigger than we thought, which is nice! Anyway, we took some pictures of the new place this weekend. We'll add more soon!

- Katie

I can sit!

Back from Tofino

We had a great vacation in Tofino last week. Kaelyn traveled incredibly well, and she really liked her new "big girl" carseat which gives her a bit more wiggle room during the car ride.

She loved the ferry, and I think her favourite part was watching all the kids play in the kids play area. We also discovered that ferries have a "Parent Room" which is basically a little room, away from all the noise, with a change table, a door that closes, a bathroom, and a chair to nurse in. It even had a window to look out onto the ocean. Needless to say, as soon as we found this we took full advantage of it. Kaelyn had a little nap there, too. Kaelyn is going through this wonderful phase where she smiles at absolutely everyone, and doesn't discriminate at all. It was really apparent on the ferry, and there must have been a dozen people who stopped to talk to her and comment on what a happy baby she was. Kaelyn had big smiles for babies, toddlers, old unsmiling men, teenagers with multiple face pearcings, young moms, women that were Grandma's age, everyone!

Once we got to Tofino, we realized Kaelyn was getting her very first cold. She was a trooper during the day, but the nights were a little rough for all three of us. One night in particular she woke up 6 times! After a visit to the local pharmacist, we discovered the amazing invention that is called Infant Dimetapp. This worked wonders for helping her sleep better!

Jason's family was able to join us for 3 days as well, so that was really nice. We went for lots of walks on the beach and got together for meals. It was nice for Kaelyn to be around all 4 grandparents at once!

Back home, our house in Vernon is pretty much finished. We went there yesterday to have a look around, and we're just thrilled with how it looks. The building crew has been amazing, and they have done a great job finishing it up. The developper is not so amazing, however. We just found out that he has not even registered our strata yet, and that needs to be done before we move in. Apparently this process can take a month or longer. We were hoping to be moved in on October 12th, but it might be closer to the end of the month or even November now. It's been great staying in Kelowna, but we're ready to be in our own place again.

Anyway, were glad to be back in the Okanagan and looking forward to Kaelyn's first Autumn. :)

love,
Katie, Jason and Kaelyn