Welcome To The World!

Congratulations Daniel And Rebbeca!! This afternoon at 1:45 Becca gave birth to their first child, Michal (pronounced Mick-elle). Becca's water broke at 2:00 this morning and just short of 12 hours later gave birth naturally to Michal weighing in at 6 lbs 14 ounces and 19 inches long.

The brand new parents and their absolutely beautiful daughter!

God's newest little gift..........so precious and innocent and definitely looks like her daddy's side! Michal and I.....we got to have a nice long visit while we were there. She even opened her eyes a couple of times for us. Trevor having a turn........

Both mom and baby are doing very very well and are expected to leave the hospital tomorrow. We are so excited and thankful for the prompt, healthy and uncomplicated pregnancy and delivery that we were all praying for.

Dan and Bec, your daughter is lovely and we look forward to watching her grow and seeing God's will unfold in her life. We Love You.........

Happy Birthday Nubbin!

Last night Trevor and I went over to my parents house to celebrate my oldest younger brother Kevin's 20th Birthday. I've got to admit it was a little strange........he's grown up so fast and it's weird to think that's he's an adult! But nonetheless we had some good fun.

The Birthday Boy.......

When Trev and I pulled into the driveway, this is what we saw. There were another truck and another car that arrived after I took this picture. Quite the sight!!Kevin and all his friends enjoying each other's company on the deck. There wasn't a whole lot of room left for my parents and us so we spend most of our time inside.

Kevin's cake..........the candles do spell out a 2 and a 0 even though it's hard to tell!Kevin blowing out all of his candles.........much to his girlfriends dismay ;)

Trevor and Christy McClelland (I still love the way that sounds)We wish you all the best in the year to come Kevin and nothing but success with your new chosen career path. We love you so very much!

Happy Happy Birthday........

Just A Little BBQ At The McClelland's

So since the weather was clearly not nice enough to head out to the lake again we had a bunch of our friends over for burgers at our house. It spat and rained here and there but we had a good time. Some how Blue Collar comedy tour ended up in the DVD player and we all had a great laugh!

Luke and Tim........Tim is working as a forest firefighter in 100 Mile House right now but he misses us so much he comes back often to visit!

My dear hubby pretending to be using the BBQ.

Two of my girls, Kerry and Amanda..........
Cody, Matt, Colin and Christan hangin' out........

And Damno (aka Damon) enjoying his burger!Trevor and I had to leave early for a birthday dinner at my parents house (posting to follow) but we left Kerry in charge of locking up and making sure the place didn't burn down. We surely never tire of entertaining our friends and welcoming them into our home, as long as they don't wear their shoes on our hardwood :)

In The Waters Of Baptism........

We were are church a little early Sunday morning because my church dance team was has a bake sale to raise a little bit of money for new outfits and the like. Here is the whole team minus our leader Lizzy (who is vacationing in the Dominican Republic) and Becca (who is a week and half from her due date and was having contractions). You can't see it because the picture is too small but I was in such a hurry to write the signs above our heads that instead of "Holy Spirit", I forgot the second "i" and wrote "Holy Spirt" instead :)Our very good friend Chelsey was also baptised on Sunday. I don't know about you but there aren't many things that happen in an average church service that touch me more than a baptism. I hadn't ever met either of the other two people that were dipped on Sunday as well, but their stories brought tears to my eyes. And it's even more special when it's someone you know and care about. What made this baptism even more special is that Chelsey's husband Dustin stood on the other side of her and helped Pastor Mark baptise his wife.......so very special.
A new woman.........
We love you lots Chels and congradulations! We look forward to many more years of friendship and memories with you and your family. God Bless!

ConGRADulations Julie!

Right after the horse show Trevor and I drove straight over to the local curling arena where one of my bestest girls, Julie, was having her graduation party. Earlier in the week Julie recieved her high school diploma!

The Grad Girl in her pretty grad dress.........

When we got there the party was pretty pumpin'..........and it certainly didn't take Trev long too long to jump in on the action! He's here with Cody in the middle and Jeremy on the end.
The whole crowd dancing the night away..........
We were only able to stay for just under two hours as we both had to work the next day but we had a BLAST! Julie we love and we are so very proud of you. You worked so hard and deserve that diploma. We wish you all the best and much success and blessings for the years to come!

The World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions

Last Friday, Trev and myself and two of our friends got tickets to go see the Lipizzaner Stallions at the Cowichan Arena. I'd seen the show a couple years before and very much enjoyed it and definitely wanted Trev to see it.
It was our 11 month anniversary on Friday........my how time flies!

Amanda and Abigail, our companions for the evening! Abigail also saw the show when it was in town a few years ago.........
Here's all the horses behind the curtain pre-show preparing with their "mounts", as they were called. Some of them looked so sad I just wanted to run down and pet them! The announcer.........he had some weird name that we can't remember now.

All the horses lined up at the beginning of the show.
They performed lots of different sequences and maneuvers and some dressage as well........
This piece was done to some big band music from the 50's and the horse was covered in sparkles and had glitter braided into it's tail. And this little bow.......doesn't get much more adorable!
They also did a salute to all of the Canadian soldiers who had part in saving a herd of Lipizzaner's from destruction near the end of the World War II.

Another sequence........my camera was taking horribly blurry pictures so I had a very small sampling to choose from!
I played around with the color settings on my camera as well and got some neat shots.

As you can see on the ground the horses did so well until near the very end when it seemed one after the other was relieving itself on the mat.....not so cute.
The End............

To be truly really honest the show wasn't quite what I remembered it to be from a couple years ago but I still really enjoyed it. It's just amazing what they can train these horses to do and the very subtle and mostly unnoticeable cues that the mount gives the horse and makes it steer this way and that. And the air that they get during some of the jumps was huge. I did get some shots but they were all blurry of course! It was just nice to spend a night out with friends and enjoy some great entertainment........there's something about it that really refreshes me.

Until Next Time...........Aloha and Mahalo.

Prettiest Floors In All The Land......

It's true, we NOW have the nicest floors around. Trevor and I finally got around to hiring someone to re-finish our very tired and weak fur wood floors. It was a week full of eating our dinner on our bedroom floor and locking our poor little boy up in a room all by himself but it was well worth it! They turned our positively fabulous.

Here's what I came home to last Tuesday evening.......as well and quite a bit of dust!

This is what you see right at the threshold of the front door........I tried to take the after pictures as close to the befores as I could so bear with me and enjoy!

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTERBEFORE

AFTERBEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER

We had big of a dust up with the company because we weren't satisfied with the final outcome so they guy came back on Saturday and re-sanded and re-coated the whole floor again which left us much happier. It's shocking even for us to see the before and afters as to how tired the floors really were. The re-finisher came back again today to check up and informed me that the dark inlaid trim that you see around the perimeter is actually purple heart wood, some of the most expensive wood there is. We had originally thought it was mahogany but because of the darker stain that was on the wood it appeared darker than it was. We are SO very pleased with how it turned so amazing and to say the very least we now have a no footwear on the hardwood rule in effect immediately! We also had the counter top company come it today to do an official measurement for new counter tops in the kitchen and both bathrooms and once that is done we are going to replace our carpet upstairs and the stairway. Thanks for reading and coming along on our renovation adventures with us!

Aloha and Mahalo...........

Father's Day Part Two

On Monday, Dad and Mum Mac came over from the mainland to have a visit and to celebrate Father's Day. Trev got dad a BBQ accessories kit........Elmo quite enjoyed the wrapping paper part of the present. He's gotten so big!!Trev's parents have also recently upgraded all of their kitchen appliances and since their old stove was white (like all our appliances) they brought it over for us to have!

Here is our old one.........BEFORE

And AFTER........such a gorgeous cook top since we are very good for turning on our elements and setting of the smoke detector!The full picture.

After a little moving and lifting admiring our new deck, we headed off for Victoria. Mum and Dad had gotten tickets to see the Titanica Imax and then to view the Titanic museum exhibit. We had great time and I personally learnt some things I didn't know. It was quite sobering to get an idea of what those aboard the Titanic's maiden and only voyage went through. The really neat part about it was upon entering the museum you were handed a boarding pass with the actual name of one of the passengers, their age, why they were travelling and who they were travelling with. Then at the very end of the exhibit you found out whether you survived or not. I was a 29 year old travelling 3rd class with my four children and all of us perished as did dad. Trev and mom survived. After leaving we took the block walk to the inner harbour and enjoyed the sunshine!

Trev and I......Mum and Dad.......

Trev and his parents strolling along. It was so warm and sunny!

This sailboat/yacht was moored in the harbour. It's mast was 175 feet tall and the boat was 134 feet long. It kind of look like a cross between a giant cigarette boat and a sailboat.

A shot of The Empress.........I think that if I was ever forced to live in a big city (I'm NOT a city girl) I would live in Victoria. It is so beautiful and green and full of life.

These two guys yelled at me to take a picture of them while I was taking the picture of the Empress. So I did..........

We had dinner at Milestones on the wharf........

We truly had a wonderful day with mom and dad. It was so nice to just walk and talk and spend time with them. Thanks again and with all our hearts for the stove, and for the museum and dinner. Thank you and we love you!

P.S. Our floor re-finisher guys said they were aiming to have to floor done today but when I got home it hadn't been touched (grrrr). Be sure to check back for before and afters and our night at the Lipizzaner Stallions.

Aloha and Mahalo!