Katie and Johnny showing Lyle a.k.a. Papa how to use the controls for the Wii system. I understand that Johnny beat both Mike and Papa in bowling!



Lily and her Daddy.



Liz and Jojo.


Liz and her kids saying bye to us at the door.



Donald is hanging out waiting his turn to play with the Wii (a video game system that encourages active participation i.e. you hold the controls and mimic the actions required in the game. For bowling, you would actually use your arms to send the bowling ball down the lane)

Connie and Cora are hanging out.

David is showing me his Batman moves!

This is a self portrait of Katie and her Papa!

Whalen, David and Jojo are enjoying their pizza lunch picnic style - under the kitchen table :-)

Lily is wearing a headband that Katie wore in 1999 to her Aunt's wedding!

The two girls just hanging out.

Lily is sitting on the couch with Katie and Jojo.

Papa and his grandkids; he's holding 2 1/2 month old Cora, sitting beside 9 year old Johnny. 7 year old Katie is holding 6 month old Lily. 1 1/2 year old Jojo is drinking from the purple cup while 3 year old David is hugging Papa from behind and 2 year old Whalen is hanging out on the top step.



Jojo and Katie on the couch watching Johnny, Anthony (Con's husband) and Mike playing with the Wii system.

Corner of Main Street and Centre Street in Beeton where there is an outdoor rink for skating

Main Street, Beeton

Beeton Public Libary (where Mike works on his thesis four days a week)

I just uploaded 403 photos from the past three days! My niece Katie helped me out today taking some photos. She is a talented photographer - sometimes the camera just doesn't do what she'd like! We've got Lily on Oat cereal now. I'm not a fan as I don't get the sense that she is loving it. Part of me just wants to bring out the veggies and let her go at them, but I'm going to try to stick with the cereal for another week or two then I'll bring out the good stuff!

Today we went over to my sister's place. It was Mike, Lily and myself, plus Connie and her family visiting Liz and her family. It was a fun afternoon. Katie even got Lyle (a.k.a. Papa) to play Wii bowling - quite the sight!

I've also included some photos of Beeton. It's a village of approx 4,000 people. My family moved here in 1986 when I was 9 and then I returned 20 years later with my own family at 29! I love being here as I'm close to my sisters and get to spend some time with them, but also the actual town. We have shops on the main street, a local grocery store and a Shopper's Drug Mart. More importantly is that when I walk with Lily we know the people. The clerks at the store interact with Lily and comment on how much she's grown and they ask how the family is. This is important to me as I want to live in a community, not just in a house. I want Lily to know the importance of knowing your neighbours and the qualities it takes to be a good person. I love that Lily gets to be near many of her cousins (two of her cousins, 6 1/2 year old Ryelin and 9 1/2 month old Olyvia live in Lumsden, Saskatchewan) and that each week we get to hang out with friends and their kids, or her cousins. It's been a great way to spend my maternity leave!