Merry Christmas: 2011 in review

It has been another long stretch since my last post, and since I have found December slipping through my fingers faster than I care to think about, I have decided that this blog will be a recap of 2011.  (This is also in lieu of Christmas cards, as that is one of the items that I simply did not find time for this December).  


2011 for the Betkes:


As you may or may not recall at the end of 2010 Aaron decided to start his own business.  We are pleased to report that one year later this has been an incredibly successful endeavour.  He continues to build self-framed metal buildings, primarily for companies within the oil and gas industry, but has started to take the occasional job on with a partner to increase the size and complexity of the buildings he can bid on.  On top of that he has spent the better part of December in Pennsylvania training an American contracting company on how to put these types of buildings together.  This has been a bit tough on the three of us left at home, as this has been Aaron's longest stretch away from home in the past 2 years, but we have managed and are eagerly awaiting his return tomorrow.  


I have also had some changes at work.  I continue to work at the Strathmore Health Unit as a speech-language pathologist, but this fall decided to try my hand at an all school-aged caseload.  This was a difficult decision, as I love the preschool age group, but I found that it was just too difficult to spend 7 hours of my day with other people's preschoolers, only to come home to two of my own.  Since the switch things have been much better on the home front, even if my caseload took a jump of 20 clients.  So I now provide service to 5 schools in Strathmore and surrounding area.  


Maria continues to grow and blossom.  She impresses me everyday now with her logic, reasoning skills and ability to take the things she learns in one context and apply them in other completely unrelated settings.  She amazed us this year with her performance in the Sunday School Christmas Pageant, not only performing her dance routine but by also learning and singing all the verses to "Away in a Manger".  I was simply hoping she would know all the words to the first verse, but after only 5 times through the song, she knew the entire song!  I was impressed.  She is really looking forward to Christmas this year too.  She is full of questions regarding Christmas, the meaning of Christmas, Santa Claus and various other aspects.  She has picked out the gift she would like Santa to bring her and talks non-stop of the "Breanne" doll Santa is bringing her for Christmas.  Should Santa be so kind as to grant this wish this year I am certain many of you will get the opportunity to meet "Breanne" as I have a feeling Maria will want to bring her with us on a great many outings in the new year. 




William will not stop growing...or talking for that matter.  Why I ever worried I'm not sure.  After all his mom is a speech pathologist who teaches the late-talker program at work.  Applying all those techniques to William has resulted in a 2 and a half year old who will NOT STOP TALKING now.  He comes up with new words every day, multiple times a day.  William also continues to be obsessed with Mickey Mouse and hockey, the latter being an obsession that began just before his second birthday after his aunt and uncle took him to two live Hitmen games.  As such, Aaron and I are hoping to get both kids on the ice some time in the new year.  We have also decided that we should cherish our "free" weekends now as we anticipate spending many a weekend in arenas in just a few years time, should this obsession continue.  


I think that about sums up the last year, and last few months, for us.  We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and hope that 2012 brings us many opportunities to catch up in person with many of you. 

Busy, busy, busy

How is it even remotely possible that my last post was done in April???  It's halfway through August and looking back we have been quite busy over the past few months.  So here comes a lengthy recap:

April: The biggest news here was the 2nd birthday of our not so little boy.  Where did the time go?  William celebrated with a small family BBQ and a visit with the little guy down the street (who is just a few weeks younger than William).  There were lots of presents, cake...you get the picture.  The biggest highlights for William: his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday card (which, FYI, takes months to stop working) and his two mini sticks.  He spent the whole evening of his birthday playing hockey and when he woke up the next morning the first thing he asked to do was "play hockey".  Things haven't diminished much since then, so Aaron and I have had some talks about opening a new bank account to fund what we are pretty sure will be years and years of winters spent in the arena.

In May we surprised the kids and took them to Heritage Park for a day with Thomas the Train.  It was quite windy and colder than we would have liked, but the kids were so happy.  William hardly noticed the cold (Maria did and made sure we knew it too).  The kids had a great time, but I think the real highlight of their day came later when they were each given a helium balloon at the Ford dealership when we stopped to pick up Aaron's new truck on the way home.

We also managed to get our garden built up and leveled this year, and despite the cold and excessive amounts of rain got the garden in.  Then it was time to sit back and wait to see just how much of what we planted would take.

In June we deceided to try our hand at camping as a family.  As I am a rather miserable tenter (I'll admit it) we decided to rent a trailer.  The reason for this was two fold: to determine whether or not the kids enjoyed camping enough to make a trailer a worthwhile investment, and to determine what features are "must haves" for us as a family, both now and in the future.  (FYI: this worked and we are in the process of looking for a trailer of our own now).  We took our first camping trip to Lumby, BC (with a couple overnight stops in Golden).  This trip allowed us to try camping while still visiting with family that we hadn't seen in quite some time.  Maria also got her first taste of "thrill rides" at the Midway for Lumby days and she seemed to have a blast.  Disneyland, here we come (in a few years...anyway).   The kids were happy to spend time with their cousins, Benjamin and Scott, as well as Grandma Betke.
Then, just to make sure we were busy enough we headed to Edmonton (one day after returning from camping) to celebrate Aaron's Nana's 95th birthday.  The kids were good, and seemed to have a good time, but I can honestly say that they were quite traveled out after that trip. At least they had some good times with their second cousins.

July: So after a very busy June we decided to take some down time in July and stuck close to home.  We used weekends to take the kids to the zoo and Calaway park, as well as taking time to work on the yard.  Maria and William are quite the little gardeners and are very happy (as are we) with our garden yield this year.  We have been experiencing a rather continuous streak of warm weather (mid to high 20s) this year and the garden is readily making up for it's late start.  We have also discovered, once again, that William takes after his namesake, as is evidenced in the picture to the left.  The boy will wear boots with any outfit (granted Grandpa Willie's trademark was cowboy boots with shorts at the beach...but you get the idea).    

That brings us to the first half of August and our second camping trip.  This trip was for just the four of us and by the end of it Maria and William were having such a good time they didn't want to go home.  Aaron and I rediscovered our love of Williamson Lake campground in Revelstoke, BC.  Camping (with spacious sites), lake, beach, fishing, canoe rentals and high 20s daily = amazing family vacation.  Maria got her first go at fishing and was with Daddy when he caught his first fish this year (which she promptly made him throw back).  We spent two days at the beach; Maria in the water, William playing in the sand...and Mommy managing to finish one book and half of another.  I'm pretty sure camping just took a flying leap to the head of our yearly vacation plans.  So yes we will be buying a trailer, and yes we will be looking to share some of our future camping trips with friends and family.  So enjoy the pictures and I will try to have another update much sooner than this last one (no promises though...with the weather being so nice I spend very little time in front of the screen on my days off).



Long Overdue

Okay, okay, I know, I have been horrible at this in 2011.  Here it is April and I'm just now making my first post of the new year.  There have been some changes in our house this new year (and the tail end of last) and it seems to have affected my ability to get posts on here (I have cut out much of my computer time, therefore I haven't thought to update). 

The kids are growing and changing almost daily it seems.  Maria celebrated her 4th birthday last month with her first ever "friends" party.  She then followed that up with attending her first, non-family, birthday party the very next day.  She loved both.  She also participated in swimming lessons, attempting Sea Turtle for the 4th time, in March.  But this time she succeeded in placing her head beneath the surface and thus graduated to Salamander.  We were so proud of her!  It's hard for me to schedule many extra activities around work, but I think the plan for the fall will be to try skating, swimming and possibly dance.  We'll see what Mom and Dad can handle.  For those wondering, Maria will not be attending preschool this fall though.  Our dayhome provider doesn't transport the kids and I can't easily fit drop off and pick up into my schedule.  Besides, our little girl is socialized 4-days a week, knows all her upper case letters, can stay inside the lines while coloring and can spell a number of words (Mom, Dad, William, Maria) without help.  I know she would enjoy it, but then again they only have so much time to be kids before school is upon them.  Why not let them enjoy it?

William is definitely a little man now.  Since January he went from a vocabulary of barely 10 words to 2-word phrases in just 2 months.  He is trying to talk all the time now (much to Mommy's relief) and is developing quite the personality.  Unfortunately for Mommy, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  William is strong, stubborn and independent.  This is translating into a number of daily tantrums (short-lived, but loud) prompting Maria to use phrases like, "William is really pushing his luck, isn't he Mom".  However, in between these quests for independence come many, many moments of laughter and amusement and I wouldn't trade my adorable little man for anything. 

Aaron's work venture is thus far proving very fruitful and this too has been a blessing upon this house.  My work continues to be steady and continues to provide me with challenges and successes.  Now to just make time to update this site on a more regular basis....