Wrapping up 2011

It has been a great year, and now we're ready to ring in 2012! We'll probably celebrate tonight by drinking some sparkling ginger ale and going to bed nice and early :)

George is back to work for another shift. Remember when we first announced about our move to Canada? Well here is the truck again...this time with George and Sawyer in front! George actually drives a different style called a Komatsu 930E, but they are pretty similar in size. Starting in May the mine offers tours throughout the summer. We're excited to go up there and see what George has been up to.

These trucks are monstrous!

On George's days off we enjoyed walks, play doh, toys, bath time, finger painting, ice-skating and just being together!

One feature I really like about our condo is that the bathrooms have really deep, comfortable tubs. Here is Sawyer peaking over the edge.

He'll hate that I said this when he's older, but I think he looks so pretty in this picture :)

Finger painting - here is a link to the recipe I used to make it at home. So simple, so fun! And now we have some art to decorate our walls.

Sawyer LOVED being out on the ice with papa. I was talking to a lady there that had two younger kids and asked her when she started them skating (18 months!) and as she was leaving she gave me a pair of skates her kids had outgrown for Sawyer to use. So nice! I can't wait to try them out on him next time. Jody and Calan came to play too. Calan was a persistent little guy and kept getting back up to try again.

Sawyer taking a break from the ice. Such a happy boy!

Wishing you all a happy, healthy, prosperous 2012!

May all your goals come true :)

Christmas Card 2011

Snail mail Christmas cards escaped us this year, so instead we sent out an email. I'm sorry if you didn't get the email...you can leave me your email address in the comments section so I can include you next time :)

Dear Family & Friends,

We’ve had a wonderful year with many exciting changes! It wouldn’t be life without change, right? We started out the New Year by traveling to Washington to visit George’s family. It was so fun to get to introduce Sawyer to many of his relatives on the Bates side. Then in March we were able to gather with most of my family in Colorado and hike to a bear den where my brother does research on black bears. Our job was to snuggle the bear cubs while they worked on the mama bear. Very tough job J Throughout the summer we got outside to play and hike and got some camping in at Zion and Jackson Hole – still fun even with a baby J In September George accepted a job working in British Columbia driving some of the largest trucks in the world at a coal mine. It has been a good change for our family, and nice to see progress paying off debt. George is still actively looking for helicopter pilot jobs, but for now things are working out. In October we found out that another baby boy will be joining our family in late March. Sawyer and the new little guy will be 17 months apart. We’re SO excited about our new addition, and anxiously await his arrival. We’ve loved the experience of being parents. Sawyer has taught us so much and we sure do have a great little boy. He is very patient with us and gives us smiles and loves all the time. Sawyer has grown so much over the past year and is such a joy in our family. He is very busy and usually very happy. As I write this letter he is sitting next to me playing with play doh.

We’ve had a ‘white’ Christmas here in Canada, and it really is a wonderful time of year. On this day we remember that the Savior of us all started His Mortal Ministry as the most vulnerable and precious of creatures. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given…and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

Merry Christmas to all!

Love,

The Bates Family

George, Liz, Sawyer and BB

Merry Christmas!

The night before we flew up to BC, I recruited my family to help make a felt Christmas tree for Sawyer. Everyone was great and freely donated their creativity. Sawyer will go to it throughout the day and rearrange the ornaments. It's nice to have a tree that he's allowed to touch :)

This is the first Christmas in our married life to have a real, live, tall Christmas tree! We were spoiled by Jody (George's bro) and Alison. They cut the tree down for us, so we just had to go over to their balcony to trim it and pick it up. They also supplied all of the decorations, since ours are still in Utah. It made such a difference in our condo and Sawyer loves it!

We celebrated Christmas on the 21st since George went back to work Thursday and has to work on both Saturday and Sunday night. To start teaching Sawyer the true meaning of Christmas, the night before we watched a short video portraying the Nativity and also read from Luke 2. We had fun singing Christmas carols too.

Christmas morning! I had so much fun being Santa Claus. Holidays are so much better with a little one to share it with :)

Sawyer with some of his loot.

It would have been a pretty minimal Christmas in the presents department, but we lucked out because Elkford has a transfer station, which is basically a free thrift store. We scored all of his toys there, yes! Some of them even came with batteries...makes it hard to beat :) After playing with toys for quite a while we enjoyed some holiday buns for breakfast.

It was a very Merry Christmas indeed. So blessed to spend it with my little family. I hope all of our family and friends have a most joyous Christmas!

Papa's Homecoming

This song from my childhood comes to my mind when I see Sawyer perched at the balcony door watching and waiting for papa to come home from work.

"I'm so glad when daddy comes home, glad as I can be! Clap my hands and shout for joy, then climb upon his knee. Put my arms around his neck, hug him tight like this. Pat his cheeks, then give him what? A great BIG kiss!"

Sawyer watching for papa to come home.

Sawyer also loves watching the three deer that hang out below our balcony. And pregnant Liz doesn't mind hanging outside in the cool air.

Pobresito :(

We arrived back in Canada Monday night. It's WONDERFUL to be back with our George. We sure do miss him with all this back and forth business. Someday we'll be 'settled' :)

Our poor little Sawyer came down with a fever Tuesday afternoon. He lost his appetite as well, but was drinking plenty of fluids so I wasn't too concerned. We weren't able to get a thermometer until Thursday night and I when I took his temp it was 103.1F :( That worried me, but tylenol kept bringing it back down, and fortunately this morning it was down to 99F and he was acting more like himself. I'm glad we didn't have to go see the doctor today. Poor little guy has never been so sedentary and snuggly. We definitely watched our fair share of Baby Einstein. His mama and papa have been enjoying all the snuggles, but we're sure happy to have our happy, busy Sawyer back on track!

It was odd to see him lay around like this for a couple of days :( It's so sad to see your baby sick...I can't imagine something more serious, when just a fever makes me cry because I feel so bad for him. I'm glad he still has his lil tummy even after no appetite for a couple days!

This is how I found Sawyer and papa last night, haha.

Love these boys ♥

Geodesic Dome Greenhouse

Back in August, Grandma Lewis headed to Alaska for a month, so grandpa decided he'd build a greenhouse to fill his time. It is a geodesic 4V dome.

Here is the photo progression of most of the different phases.

PVC pipe from the plumbing store...measuring and cutting.

Prepping the base of the dome, making sure it's level.

The gluing begins!

Grandpa speeding through.

Almost complete.

On to painting - green was the chosen color per Kaden's request I believe.

Look at that concentration!

Sawyer was a BIG help :)

Break Time

Getting set up to wrap the dome in plastic.

All smiles before the shrink wrap began...

George and his shrink wrap 'gun'.

The first go round we didn't have one piece of plastic big enough for the whole dome, so we were trying to meld plastic pieces together. This didn't work very well. Here George is pondering what our next move should be.

Grandpa ended up buying a piece of plastic large enough to cover the whole dome. That worked much better!

Grandpa and Grandma Lewis melding the plastic to itself around the bottom of the dome.

Sara's turn using the 'gun'.

David and Abbie, pictured above, sealing off the bottom of the dome with foam piping.

A glimpse inside the dome.

And here it is...the geodesic dome greenhouse! It's a fun structure to have in the backyard, and I think the dutch door adds a nice touch.

Everyone in the whole family got in on this project, although grandpa lead out and got 'er done.

Now it's really winter and this is what the igloo looks like :)

O Christmas Tree

December 1st came and brought with it snow and colder temps...just in time for Christmas! We had a small day excursion up second left hand canyon to find a Christmas tree for Grandpa and Grandma Lewis. We also enjoyed some sledding and a nice walk.

Great gully for sledding.

Grandma with 'the tree'

This is how Sawyer sleds :)

Watch out, here comes Kaden!

Uncle Chris and Sawyer. I was spoiled with all my family in town because I never had to carry Sawyer.

I didn't get a very good 'after' photo of the tree, but we had a good time decorating. It was fun to see ornaments from our childhood that I hadn't seen in years. Sawyer has been pretty good keeping his hands off the tree and ornaments. I think it helps that the tree is poky.