Here's a photo of the resort we stayed at...it's the Mayan Palace in Neuvo Vallarta..this view is from the pool looking up at the hotel. We had clear skies everyday all day long.
They had put up metal art nativity sets in several locations...I was impressed that it wasn't all Santa Claus and snowmen (artificial of course).
Abe amongst some bougainvilleas...we saw white ones, yellow ones, pink ones, fushia ones, red ones, orange ones, blue ones, purple ones...isn't he cute?
Here you can see some of the kids playing in the ocean...we really enjoyed the body surfing, and for our son-in-law, it was a first time. The waves were best in the afternoon, and we all got our fill of sea salt...blegh!!!
Can you see all the brush strokes? It looks like feathers...we see this almost every morning, after a colder night, on the window of our patio door. I think it's beautiful!
wow...time flies when you're having fun....well, even if you're not...I'm going from Thanksgiving to Christmas in one blog...that's pathetic but real. I'm putting in some pictures of a past holiday to give you all something to drool over...we are taking the family to Mexico...same resort as in these pictures, for our Christmas/winter holiday. We all very excited. And I baked pappanate (peppernuts) like my grandma's today...enjoy!!
Merry Christmas everyone!!!
These are the apple, rhubarb, and pumpkin pies...I use about 3/4 of the recipe of flour as whole wheat flour and cane sugar for healthier pies. They still taste delicious!!
These are pumpkin/coconut loaves...great breakfast or snack. They turned out really good.
Well, last week was our family's summer holiday, and it being end of September, it was more fall than summer, but we all had a good time. Clear Lake was beautiful as always....
So can you find your house? Do you know where this is? Matt took the girls up for a ride, and they took some photos from the air...
We started off this spring with one litter of kitties, 3 boys & 2 girls, and now have found 2 good homes and are down to only one girl at home with Mama Cat... but we're pretty sure that our other Momma Cat is expecting due any day now, so we'll be up to quota again for the winter.
I'm so proud of these shots that L took with my camera...I think she's done a super job of capturing different views of my 'regular' flowers. Bloom on!
this is a paper wasp nest..see the larvae inside?
I have 6 peony bushes, so I'm waiting to smell them as they bloom...hopefully soon.
My garden is starting to get visible. See the rows of onions & corn?
that big patch in the center is spinach that has wintered through, and we are eating already.
I'll probably be very busy with weeds, once it warms up a bit. 
Even our strawberries are ripening.
So that's what has been keeping me busy...taking pictures (ha! ha! ha!)....no, the gardening and flower beds.
Well, here's one of our kitties...I'm not sure if she has a name, as the girls are not out playing with her alot, and she has a sister, who looks alot like her. This particular kitty has had numerous furballs, and has lost some serious fur in patches because of the furballs. But she's tame and loves being where I am when I'm out of doors. I think her sister is busy up in the barn with some babies, but we're not sure.
I am sure that everyone who wants to or has to do any kind of gardening has had the opportunity to get out and get dirty fingernails. I feel like I have accomplished a lot in my flower beds and garden, but you can see the dandelions in the photo, and there are a million more all over the yard. I checked my garden yesterday, and almost everything is up; some of it's still busy pushing up the soil to get to the sun, but the carrots are not doing their job. Our fields are also up and looking green. But now round two starts...spraying for the weeds, and hoeing. I only do one of these...hoeing!!!!
The girls are in choir in high school and yesterday they had their spring closing concert, which I really enjoyed. The band and choirs have excellent conductors and sounded great. The rainfall this past 24 hours didn't amount to very much, but every bit counts, and it gave the plants a day to grow without stress from the sun.
These blossoms on our pear tree lasted a long time and now have finally fallen off. We're wondering what kind of pears we'll get this year, as they have been changing every year for the past 3 years.
Maybe I'll take some pictures of the crops and garden tomorrow. And post them here.
So, this is where it's at...my one flowerbed is full or trying to be full...of dandelions...and while they ARE a flower, NOT in MY garden!!! So, 1 1/2 hours later, I managed to uproot all of them in this section, but there's another 20 feet of flower bed that needs this kind of work. And I'm told that it's gardening not work...but after a total of about 9 hours so far (well, Janine helped two days so I'd have to add her 3 hours - make that 12 hours of digging) I think I'm getting closer to the
end.
It looks lots better without the yellow blossoms...doesn't it???
And I thought I'd put in some pictures of the flowers that are blooming now, that I enjoy and am keeping in the flower bed.
And this is our pear tree blooming...we don't know how it's going to re-act to the frost we had last night and last week...but it does have alot of flowers and they smell pretty good. Hopefully we'll have yummy pears to eat in fall.
Well, it's bean awhile since I've said anything here...'cause I thought my life was kind of boring to all the rest of you bloggers, but this past weekend, the May long weekend, I went on a working holiday. My sister asked for my help at a Christian Doctors & Dentist conference she was involved in (her job) and I got to go with my oldest daughter; we flew to Calgary and drove to Canmore Thurs. morning, and came home Sunday afternoon. We hiked up one foothill, and I was pooped! We went to the hot springs in Banff, a short ride north of Canmore. We toured the town a bit and the old hotel in Banff.
And we did do some work...registration, book sales...and met some really neat Christian professionals. But now it's back to the grind...gotta sharpen that nose...laundry, gardening, sweeping, chauffeuring, cooking, cleaning...but it's good to be home with my family again!
Well, by now you've noticed that I'm not the quickest to post something. Maybe cause my life's a little boring right now; maybe 'cause we're all busy, too busy to write/type or take pictures. This past week I've been working on the accounting for our farm...filing, sorting, cleaning up the 2007 paperwork, besides the laundry, cooking, cleaning, baking. Bible study was at our house this week, the twins had driver's ed on Monday, youth on Wednesday; Janine's started a job Monday at the law office in Morden, and was pretty excited to get her first pay cheque today. The cats are getting poofier and Freckles is just as always...energetic & busy. This bouquet was my birthday present from Abe and I really enjoyed them.
Well, we've added a treadmill to our household...and while we didn't make any resolutions, we are all going to try to work at our fitness...so the challenge is for me to cook well too.
And we've put the treadmill in the garage, in order to keep us cooler, and that we don't overheat right aways...
So wish us well...some of us NEED this, others want to...
