Proud Parenting Moments

#1. Hanna calls from school and says she doesn't feel good. I go and pick her up but she has already thrown up. The teacher's aide is sitting next to her in the sick room and says, "Hanna really woofed her cookies." Luckily she did make it in the garbage and she was out of the classroom.

#2. We are sitting in tithing settlement with the Bishop. Carly is in my lap. She says, "Mom, I have a wedgie." I don't think the Bishop heard her as I tried to discretely fix her problem.

#3. Lucy brought home a newsletter from Kindergarten where 6 kids tell something that is going on in their life and draw a little picture to go with it. Today Lucy wrote, "My Dad's birthday is today. He is 24."

Oh, the Weather Outside is....

In just a few days, we went from pleasant fall weather to completely winter weather.

View on Monday

On Monday we were outside for a few hours riding the pony and hauling hay.

Carter leading Carly and Annie-Jo on Sparky

Annie-Jo and Carly

The next day it started snowing and snowing and snowing. Then we went into a deep freeze. Like plug in your car, iced house windows, wear complete snow clothing everywhere you go -30 C/-25 F cold.

View on Tuesday - same tree

Hanna wants to train Roxy to be a sled dog:)

So now it is back to much more pleasant winter temperatures and in comparison to the deep freeze, it feels warm.

So as our temperatures have changed, here is what's happening with us:

We watched Sarah's two youngest kids for a week while her and her husband went to Hawaii. It was crazy and fun, and it made our four kids seem like a really small and quiet amount to have in a family.

Lucy was in her first two rodeos. In the first one, she did goat tail untying. She rode her horse to the goat, jumped off, and took the ribbon off the tail. In her second rodeo, she did barrel racing on our pony, Sparky. Austin had to run with her to make the pony do the barrel pattern. It was awesome!

We were going to wait until American Thanksgiving to set up our Christmas tree, but we got anxious and put it up the Sunday before. I love having our Christmas tree up with our cowboy Christmas theme.

Country Trick or Treating

Yes, they do celebrate Halloween in Canada:)

We went trick or treating in the country where you have to drive from house to house. The first house we went to, the nice man said, "Country trick or treating is way better. You get lots more stuff."

We found that to be true. We only went to 14 houses and the kids' bags and buckets were full. They got lots of little gift bags that had a collection of treats, plus juice boxes, microwave popcorn, toys, play dough and the rest of the houses gave a handful of candy.

Lucy's loot

The weather was awesome, and the people we went to were really happy to have us come. I love trick-or-treating (and not just because of the treats:)

Our kids and Sarah's kids ready to trick-or-treat

Lucy, the cheerleader with a pom pom as big as her:)

Carly, Annie Jo, Kaden & Carter ready to trick-or-treat

Hanna ~ going to the masquerade

After trick or treating, the kids bobbed for apples at Grandma's.

Halloween at School

Everyone got to celebrate Halloween at school. Lucy had a kindergarten carnival. Jill & Hanna had a costume parade. At their new school, it is much more relaxed as kids can wear masks and bring weapons as part of their costumes.

Hanna in the parade

Lucy at the Kindergarten carnival

Jill and her 3 cool friends who dressed up like Quadruplets for Halloween.

Austin, the wild and crazy DJ for the school dance, went all out and wore an orange shirt and spiked his hair

Party in the USA

This summarizes my awesome weekend:
I got home from a 2-day getaway with my new Canadian friends to Polson, Montana.
Austin said, "How did you do?"
I said, "You mean with my shopping list?"
He said, "No, on the race."
I said, "Oh, yeah. We did go to the race. I did good. I matched my last time: 29 minutes 51 seconds."

Dixie, Kaylynn, Marilee, Barb before the race
(the Sisterhood :)

It was Barb's idea for us train and run in a 5k race. Barb is our inspiration because in the last year she has lost 89 pounds and ran a half marathon this summer.



The money raised from the Live Locally 5k race in Polson, Montana, this year went to Melinda Owens who is from Polson and is training for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team in Pole Vaulting. We got a picture with her so we can feel important when she is famous. She was so cute and kind with everyone.



After the race: Enjoying our spaghetti they served. They had little campfires burning to keep us warm and you could even roast marshmallows if you wanted to. They had a drawing for prizes, and I was the only unlucky one.



On our way to the race we ate lunch at Hu Hot (aka You Hot). We enjoyed our Mongolian food and our two-handed large glasses of water. Then we shopped and shopped and shopped in Kalispell. We bought lots of groceries and found some quality clothes. Marilee was the fashion consultant. Dixie was the clothes rack and would hold all of our items until we were ready to check out.

Quote Wall from our journey:

"I am mine own party" Barb
"The rule is if I am singing, you can't change the song" Marilee
"The rule is say 1,2,3 and then click" Marilee
"What's it like inside your head?" Kaylynn
"You know I can't guarantee we won't have to pay at the border - It's too much pressure" Dixie
"Don't do anything idiotic" Kaylynn
"Did I tell you how excited I am about my new clothes?" Barb
"Name the song... Name this singer." Marilee
"I am on my way to the race with my peeps" Marilee texting her kids; "Good luck piggy mama" her kids texting back
"Look at the Big Sky" Dixie
"Sorry" "Sorry" "Sorry" Barb
"Everything is cheaper in the states" Marilee
"You guys can go to that checkout. We are going to stay here so Julia can check us out." Marilee talking about the cashier at JCPenney who looked like Julia Roberts
"I have to try them on so I can see which ones work better with "my gift" Kaylynn

Kaylynn "drinking at my own risk"

10/10/10

What did you do on 10/10/10?

We went to Taber to spend Thanksgiving with Austin's sister's family and grandma and grandpa. So at 10:10 p.m. on 10/10/10 the kids all ran around the block in their pajamas and socks. Then we took this cool picture:




This is the pre-run Yoga in the middle of the kitchen floor:

Thanksgiving

This was the first time I have ever celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving. It is not near the event that Thanksgiving is in the "states." It is a bigger deal in the states because it is on a Thursday so everyone gets more days off and also because it is the kick-off to the holiday season. Having Thanksgiving on a Monday limits the travel time because you only get one day off. Anyway, we still had a fun day.

First we went on a morning run. Then we cut firewood. Then we played football:



I missed the first half of the game because I was inside making "buns." When I came out the game was tied 2-2. So after a while everyone decided the next point would win. So guess who caught the winning touchdown? That's right, it was me. It all comes from my days of Powder Puff football in high school:)

We were all good and hungry for a delicious Thanksgiving feast. Thanks to the Lees for a great meal and fun holiday!

Other Nunn news:

*Austin and I have both finished ALL of our Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching and it is only the 14th day of the month. I am certain that has never happened before.

*I can now hook up the horse trailer, catch the horses, load the horses, drive the truck and trailer, unload the horses, saddle the horses and unhook the trailer all by myself. I know it is quite the accomplishment and you all wish you could do those things too.

*Jill and Hanna were in their first rodeo last weekend and they did awesome. They were in barrel racing, pole bending, and goat tying. Jill also did breakaway. They loved it. They have a rodeo once a month for this circuit.

1st Day of Fall

Today is the first day of fall and I am sure it is the first day of the year that there has been no rain in the 7 day forecast. Just sun. Thank goodness. We might actually use the word hot by next week. We'll see.

We live right next to an Indian reservation so there are lots of Natives at the schools, and we have some met some really cool Natives. So yesterday Jill came home and said she had all of our new Native names (we helped her with a couple):

Carly BareBottom
Lucy LikestoWearShorts
Hanna LeavesaTrail (we always know where Hanna has been because there is a trail of stuff)
Jill LongintheJohn
Kaylynn GonnaStartaNewDiet
Austin RunningHorse

School lunches have also taken on a whole new meaning in our new life. First, I have two more people that need to take a school lunch, Austin and Lucy. I haven't had to make Austin a lunch for 7 years. Next, to buy a school lunch is $4 per person per day. That's really not going to be happening. Then to top it off, Jill brought home a note that said there was a student in grade six with severe peanut allergies so no one can bring anything with nuts. What? No peanut butter sandwiches. We have to get creative. I have started making muffins once a week (not even Jiffy muffins from a box). It really has turned out to be okay because we have to put some effort into being prepared for lunches, so we are not scrambling every morning to find something for them to take.

We are down to 5 more days until payday. 85 down, 5 to go. Something I hope we never have to do again. THANKS to everyone has been generous to us and given us aid!! We appreciate you.

Jill gets to go do Baptisms for the Dead for her first time tonight. She is excited. It is a tradition around here for the parents to come on their daughter's first time, so I get to go and help Jill and Austin will baptize her. Plus, we are taking some family names from Karma. It will be great!

Let the sun shine!!!

Oh, Canada

What were we thinking?

September 16 - Catching the bus: FOG

September 17 - Catching the bus: SNOW

People tell us that this is not the usual weather pattern. We are trying to look on the bright side of the weather we have experienced so far:

We have not had to use the word "hot"

I only turned on a sprinkler twice in the 3 months we have been here and our grass is totally green

None of us have had hay fever/allergies (which we usually do in August and September)

Still....... Snow? Not cool.






In other Nunn news, Jill turned 12.

It is crazy to think I have a daughter who is as tall as me who is going to Young Women now.

On her birthday, it was the Leavitt Fall Fair (a.k.a. ward party), so she invited 2 friends to come with us.

First, we went to Mountain View to buy penny candy.

Then we went to the Fall Fair. It was great...hot dogs & corn, cotton candy, ice cream, games, fish pond prizes, etc. It was a great birthday party.

Carly is TOTALLY 2

Carly loves to wear funky clothes and change outfits often. Lately, she will only wear dresses to bed. Before this stage, she wore her swimming suit and life jacket at all times.

She follows me around all day while the kids are at school and talks and talks.

We are happy to report that she is successfully potty trained!! I hope to never buy another box of diapers.

14th ANNIVERSARY
Austin and I celebrated our 14th Anniversary.
First, Buck & Martha took us out to enjoy a steak dinner in Lethbridge a few days before our anniversary (with some gift certificates they got for Christmas - it was nice of us to convince them to finally use them.)

On our anniversary, we rode horses, fixed fence and put in a new floor in Grandma's laundry room. Then Buck & Martha took us all out to Chinese food in Raymond.

Austin did buy me red flowers.

It was great, but we are hoping for a greater celebration next year!!!

A New School Year

Another school year has started and so far everyone is happy!

Jill & Hanna like their teachers and have made friends. I am glad we were here for the summer so they could meet friends at horse camp and basketball camp. So far school in Canada is going great!

Jill (Grade 6) & Hanna (Grade 4)
First Day of School
(notice I didn't say 6th/4th Grade, we are Canadians now)

One of my favorite new features is that Jill, Hanna and Lucy get to ride the bus, and we get front door service. I am standing with one foot in my door when I took this picture. The bus comes right up our lane and around the loop to pick our kids up and drop them off. They are the last pickup stop on the way to school so they don't have to be on the bus for very long.

Lucy's first day of Kindergarten

Lucy goes to school all day Tuesdays and Thursdays and every other Friday. She has been so excited all summer about starting school, and she loved her first day. Her teacher is Mrs. Allred, and she is going to be awesome. The first day Lucy came home and I took out a big packet of papers I was supposed to look through and they were half soaked. Lucy said she couldn't get her water bottle lid on all the way. Then I am looking again in her backpack and pull out a slimy piece of candy. Lucy got a cookie at school with a Hershey's kiss on it. She took off the Hershey's kiss and put it in her backpack to save for later. Darn water bottle.

I didn't take a picture of Austin, but his first week of school went well also. On Friday afternoon after a week of his new job, he was telling me that he really likes the school and the kids and the teachers, and that he does have a few ideas that he will implement over time to make it even better.

Thank goodness for a good first week of school in a new country:)


In other news, we went to Taber Cornfest with Austin's sister Sarah and her family. We really had a fun time.

Lucy, Kaela, Jill , Julia with cornheads


Carly and Lucy on the dragon roller coaster ~ Carly did not love it


Sarah and Julia getting ready to ride the Salt N Pepper Shaker

Carly & Carter flying in their airplane


Lucy & Kaden in their airplane

Carter, Kaden, Lucy watching Carly & Annie Jo drive around and around

We also watched an awesome motorbike show where these crazy guys rode their bikes up a ramp, jumped over a truck, did tricks in the air and landed on another ramp.