Happy Valentine's Day!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

We had a lovely Christmas Eve at my mom's house and are now gearing up for a turkey dinner at our house. The cousins were in fine form last night as they examined my mom's decorations, stuffed their gullets with food, built forts and played with toys. Lauren wasn't as ornery as she usually is in the evening, so we actually got to relax a wee bit.

Santa was good to the kids. As you can see from the pics, Evan was given a bike and a helmet from the big guy. Some adjustments need to be made on the helmet, but it looks as though Evan will be sporting his Toy Story bike in the neighbourhood in the coming days! For now, he's happy going up and down our hallway.

Even though the weather outside is not frightful, I'm off to ask Scott to light a fire! Cheers everyone!

Our Lady Bug @ Four Weeks

Lauren is nearly two months old now and is changing every day. She is starting to display her personality more and more and will often smile. When she does, our hearts just melt!

Three weeks ago, our talented friend Kim came over and took pictures us. Not only did she help us out without a lot of notice, she displayed an enormous amount of patience and care. We are so pleased with the results.

Evan turned two at the end of the summer and is quite a handful! He's a busy wee bee. I take him to Strong Start and am thinking about resuming swimming lessons this fall. His favourite activities include playing trains, going for walks, playing with his friends and doting on his baby sister whom he refers to as 'Lauren Jamieson'.

Scott is busy with work and is excited that his financials are finally in order. Meanwhile, I'm busy focusing on survival!

Welcome Lady J.!

Scott, Evan and I welcomed Lauren Palmer Jamieson into the world on Monday, August 2nd. Luckily for me, she weighed in at only 7lbs and is a healthy wee thing (touch wood!). The delivery went as well as can be expected, but I did hemorrhage after giving birth. My doctor was able to get the situation under control without having to go to the OR and for this, I am eternally grateful. Save for being pastier than usual, I have recovered quite nicely!

Lauren is a delight and Evan is adjusting nicely to the new addition to our family, but is a wee bit over-zealous in his displays of affection towards his sister.

We are thankful for all of the visits, emails, phone calls, parcels, food and well wishes from our friends and family. Lauren is loved already by so many wonderful people. She's a lucky gal and so are we to have so many supportive people who care for our family.

Thank You Za Za!

Happy July 4th! June was cool and wet and July isn't any better so far. Believe it or not, it was so cold in the house today that we made a fire.

Evan is getting big, fast, and talkative. His Za Za looked after him part-time as Charlene worked and her influence on him is quite striking. Although Evan has always been quite polite and thankful, he is now uber grateful for everything. In fact, during our last trip to the grocery store, he was thankful for every item we placed in the shopping cart. He kept saying, "Oh, thank you mommy - thank you daddy - oh wow..." We know that Za Za has been working on this and her efforts have paid off and are much appreciated. We are so thankful to have her in our lives. She loves her Evsters and he absolutely adores her. Thank you Za Za for loving and caring for our Evan.

In the next month or so, Evan is going to have competition as his little bro or sis is likely to arrive. Charlene is doing well with the pregnancy - except for some headaches and the occasional hard kick from the baby. She's done with teaching for a year and is keeping busy with baby plans, Evan, and gardening.

I am still working on the closet doors and painting, and I'm running out of time. I'd rather be gardening than sanding, regardless of the weather. At work we're still struggling with working capital, but at least we finally managed to publish our financials. Our year to date (10 months) is $1.4M which should help us attract some investors.

Fun outings in the past few months include Fort Langley, Rocky Point, BBQ with Jason's family, and poker night at Shannon & Dean's. Most of the time we just enjoy exploring our new neighborhood with The Coops.

Easter at the Jamieson's

While it cannot be said that Evan fully grasped the concept of hunting for eggs, he certainly understood that the chocolates were inside the eggs. This slowed down his search to a large degree, but we're hopeful next year that he might keep up with his cousins in the egg collection department.

This is our first Easter in the new neighbourhood, and we're starting to realize that this area is absolutely fantastic. We moved in just after Halloween, but we did stop by during that night to see what we needed to prepare for in the coming year. Turns out that many of the neighbours decorate not only their houses, but their entire yards as well. I'm already saving up for candy for 400 kids. Easter is a bit more low key. A few houses host a childrens' egg hunt, however. The two families down the street have a hundred or so kids hunt for eggs in their front and back yards, so our kids got to search a few yards during the day.

I met Tony, my next door neighbour for the first time today. He was busy chopping up a huge branch that fell off of my tree into his yard during the recent windstorm. No damage to his house, thank goodness. Turns out that he's a controller in the YVR tower - and he knows of Andrew (the bagpipe guy) - my brother-in-law who works in the control centre.

On the family front, we're expecting our second child in August. We again will await the surprise of meeting Evan's little brother or sister. If a girl, we've got a couple of names in mind, but boy names are pending...

On the work front, Charlene is busy with part-time teaching, marking on her off days if Evan gives her any time. a2b Fiber consumes much of my time and energy, but progress is evident. Starting a business is the hardest thing I've ever done, but if it survives the next 6 months or so, we should be set for long term success.

Vacations are few and far between, and I'm glad Charlene has teacher holidays so that my lack of vacation time isn't so noticeable. My friends from Toronto/Edmonton hijaked me for a road trip last week along the Crow's Nest and up through Banff to Calgary and Edmonton. That was my first time through the pass - the mountains were awesome! Still, 13 work days off in 4 years isn't enough. Here's to more vacation time in the coming year.

Hope everyone had a great Easter.

Jamieson Family