December, January, February, and what, March!

Well it has been a long time between posts, but I'll attempt to catch up now.
Hayley arrived on the coldest day we have had here, -28 degrees. We thoroughly enjoyed the snow globe world that the weather provided us. It is nice to experience it the once, but can understand why people here don't embrace with joy the snow, it makes life just that much harder. We had Christmas day here with my family and our friends Terry, Darlene, and Brittney. It was a fun day. Christmas Eve, we went to Trinity Baptist, who put on an amazing service. It completely floored me. Even Nyah was mesmerised. It included puppets and birds on long poles sweeping over the audience. It told of creation, the fall, and new life found in Jesus. Beautifully portrayed. Bec arrived a couple of days after Christmas, and we let her recover from the journey for one miserly day before having a new years party at our house. Also a very fun night, full of food (thanks to all the cooks), sing star (oh my!!) and finishing with us all sort of missing the new year moment, and all the little boys having a hot tub and making snow angels. Then our family head off before us to Jasper and we met them in Banff. They had a fantastic time by all accounts walking on a glacier and going in some ice caves. Unfortunately there were avalanches on the road we were meant to take, and had to be diverted. Some of it was pretty scary, the dark, snow drifts, the wind, driving, no other cars around, the Rockies massive beside us with all the avalanche signs abounding. 14 hours of driving later we arrived in Banff. Next day we went to Lake Louise, and the others went iceskating. There was a pretty ice castle on the lake too. Nyah, Dad and I went inside the famous hotel to warm up and look longingly at the swank dining area with the arched windows. That night we went to The Grizzly House for 'supper' (how Canadian am I!!!!). We went full out with the touristy thing and had the exotic plate hot stone meal. We had fondue (vegetable one much nicer than the cheese one) and an assortment of cool meats. We had shark (Sort of funny as we eat it all the time in Australia), Alligator, Rattlesnake, Ostrich, Frogs Legs, Buffalo and Venison. The snake was really tough, but definately the meat to boast about having tried. Next day we went to Calgary, and Dad and I took the kids to the science centre while Raoul worked. Kids really enjoyed it, I enjoyed the interactive room that made music as you stepped on different areas. Much easier than attempting to play the piano, that's for sure. Next day we did the trip home, with only one avalanche delay. It is a beautiful trip through the Rockies. Check out the photos (I took a couple of hundred :-), much better than words to describe. The girls went on with their trip to Toronto, Niagara, Quebec and Montreal, finishing back with us 2 weeks later. We had to say bye to Hayley first as she had to get back to work. Bec next, and finally Dad and Amanda. Goodbyes are not good. Unfortunately after crying for a full day and packing and repacking their cases, Amanda and Dad got to the airport and lined up and were then told the airport was snowed in. So back we went home. We were lucky that Darlene and Terry had also helped get us all out to the airport as Darlene was able to help (in a major way) Amanda rebook all there hotels and flights home. Two days later it was much easier to say bye. We really enjoyed having them all here, and feel priviledged that they could take the time and money to see us. . . and Canada! Since then we have just been getting back into the rhythm of our life.
Nyah is 21 months old now, and becoming very much a little girl over baby. She loves the "Wiggeddedegelles", dancing, talking on the phone, twirling, reading books, doing 'school', the John Denver song 'Sunshine on my shoulders', wearing dresses, cups of tea, playing with her dolls, Ollie, and porridge. Caleb is 7 and a half. He loves snowboarding, especially on blue runs, is reading (Yah!!!), clearing the driveway of snow, The Suite Life, Ripleys believe it or not book, talking useing skype, actually just talking(!), salad, the dollar store, ribs, and writing in his journal. Elijah is 9 and a half. He loves anything with a screen, Club Penguin, iceskating, tobogganing, tricking us, jokes, pokemon, friends, going in the hot tub, spicy bagels, soccer and reading. The boys miss there friends from Tasmania alot. Raoul's business is going well over here, still looking for office space to settle in though. Homeschooling is continuing to go well. The main reason I haven't written much is that I feel like our life is just schooling, cleaning, cooking, and cleaning some more, the same as at home! So feel free to write to us, it may prompt our thinking.