Update on Zoë

Zoë is a busy girl with preschool 3 days a week, and swimming lessons. She looks forward to those days as she's not one to enjoy staying at home for long periods of time. She is excited about the snow, and a great helper for daddy to shovel the driveway.



Zoë's friend Saryn that lives so close and birthdays only 2 days apart, Zoë gets very excited when she has a play date planned.

These are the pictures of Neil I used on the slideshow, in no particular order.

Pops 1946-2010

Wow, the last couple weeks have been a blur, not quite sure where to begin...

The day after Halloween, Lee got a phone call at work saying his dad had called his brother Jesse to take him to the hospital. We knew he wasn't feeling well a few days prior so it was no surprise to hear he was headed there. When Neil was getting out of the vehicle he collapsed and his heart stopped beating, the doctors weren't able to get it started for 5 minutes. During that time, with no air flow to his brain it got damaged, but we didn't know to the extent of it. There were countless hours spent at the hospital while they did tests and we hoped and prayed he would wake up out of his coma. Unfortunately, there came a day when the decision was made once we knew he either wouldn't wake up out of his coma, or wouldn't be able to function how he'd like, to take him off of life support. He lasted 6 hours off of life support before he peacefully passed away surrounded by family.

The next day we had lots of family come over to our house while the relief society from Mckenzie Ward brought over TONS of food, some family members even surprised us coming from Coutts, AB (Their mom passed away two months ago from cancer who was Neil's very close sister). The past week has been working on funeral arrangements and I did a slideshow to play during the luncheon after the funeral service. We just got back from the burial ceremony in Cardston and a catered luncheon from hutterite's.

Neil will be greatly missed, especially from his grandkids. Zoë and Dreyton loved to sit on Pops and tell him what they have been up too. If the kids were hyper or cranky he could calm them down where they would just lay on him for what seemed like hours. They loved to cuddle with him.

Neil and Carole would make Zoë feel so special taking her on playdates to parks, or even to go to Costco with them where she usually came home with a special present.

Even though Neil did dialysis daily he was always there for birthdays, holidays, and events or just being at the lake to spend time with us.

Halloween

Zoë getting ready for preschool where she got to wear her costume



We went to two trunk or treats this year which added up to a TONNE of candy, it was alot of fun and the kids had a blast. Dreyton went as Shrek, and Zoë had three different costumes (superwoman, tiger, and pirate).


While I was at work, Lee and the kids carved a pumpkin

We handed out mini decks of cards for Halloween, the kids were so excited to hand out the cards to kids who came by.

The loot

Corn Maze

We went to the corn maze on Saturday, it was lots of fun.

Going on the train

Going through the smaller maze, you try to find 5 boards while you go through the maze, put the color chalk on one of your fingers and then at the end from the pattern of colours you put on your hand you are supposed to pretend to be something, we were sharks

they got something new this year, which are big inflatable pillows. Kids could get some good air from jumping on them



Watching the pig races





My dad's birthday was on the weekend, so we had a ham dinner at our place for him on the Sunday.

New Job

Now that I have gotten my first paycheque i'll let you guys know I got a job.
It is part-time, and lots of flexibility to work around my schedule.
I am a part-time property management assistant.
I work for a lady that owns about 15 houses/basement suites that I take care of, doing walk-ins, walk-outs, showings, bookkeeping, scheduling to get things fixed etc.
When I go to her house once in awhile, I take the kids and her nanny watches them while they play with her kids.
I am so excited about this job, as it is something I enjoy, and it will be a good asset to learn how to do bookkeeping being a stay-at-home mom.

Fire

Lee, Nana and Pops took the kids to an open house firehouse Saturday. They got to look around, and go in the trucks.

Learning to show proof early

I get out of the shower and see Dreyton has make-up in his hand and I look to Zoë next to him and ask if she put make-up on her brother, she said she didn't and showed me the pictures she took to prove it.

Zoë taking a picture of herself proving she's taking the pictures

A continuous battle with me and Dreyton trying to get my phone back

Daily Surprise

Zoë and Dreyton love to play with the video/camera option on my iphone. I love looking through them daily and seeing the pictures/videos they took that day. Here are a few they have taken

Zoë sneaking away with my iphone in the basement, busted....

Dreyton blowing kisses

Dreyton took this while I was napping, definitely a RARE occurrence.

It looks like I was smiling for the camera, but I never knew that he was taking pictures

I took this picture while we were playing at the park just before picking up Zoë from preschool. Dreyton refuses to sit on the swing, this is the only way he will go on it. He has a huge fear of rides and apparently a swing is close enough to one for him.

Lee has been doing corporate challenge competitions this week. Saturday was family day where they had face painting, inflatable slides, balloon making etc.


While we were there Lee competed in tug-of-war pulling a semi-truck, his team won gold. It's kinda hard to see, but Lee is in the very front with his orange hat on.

Zoë's first day of preschool

Zoë loved her first day of preschool, she has been waiting for this day for many months. She is used to going to different kinds of classes so this wasn't hard to get used too.
It is only a few blocks away from my house which I LOVE, compared to any of her other classes which have been about 10 minutes away.