The Utah Mountains

The four of us Beatties spent a week of December in Utah to visit some family and have Ryan spend some time with some of the "Focus" hot shots. It was such a great visit and it felt like we were able to stay busy and get everything done that we hoped to. We went into Salt Lake and spend some time at Temple Square, we went to a couple of Ryan's cousin's (Nathan) basketball games, watch his other cousin (Alyson) cheer and spend time with Wesley (yet another cousin), who is leaving for his mission the beginning of January.

Out of all these wonderful things I think the highlight for Ryan was when we was able to go with his Uncle John to the top of a mountain and help some guys carry their elk down. These guys had got themselves a pair of elk and once the elk had been killed, they needed some help getting the big animals down the mountains. Ryan and his uncle made the way up on horseback and met up with the others who were cutting up the animals so the meat could fit on the houses for the journey down, then they all walked down together. John was able to catch the moment with his phone and I wanted to share the beauty of the mountains with you:

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas morning started at my moms house where Santa had filled the stockings and left some things under the Christmas tree. A tradition the Moffat girls have is we all get the same pajama's to wake up with on Christmas morning. It's always nice to keep the tradition alive! Brayden was really excited to open all the little toys and trinkents in his stocking.

After some breakfast at my moms we headed over to my dads house for the afternoon and Christmas dinner. There we relaxed, Ryan took Brayden for a nice walk out on the icey lake in the back and finished with a delicious turkey dinner. Brayden and Sydney seemed to have such a great time, especially Brayden who is starting to understand the whole Christmas and Santa idea.

I hope that all of you had a great Christmas with your families. It was so nice to be around so much family for this Christmas! Now that Christmas has come and gone I guess the process of starting to get everything packed up and organized for the next stint in the Philippines begins!

Christmas Eve in Beattie Style

Well a very busy, very wonderful Christmas has now come and gone and the boxing day sales have started. We had a great Christmas Eve which we spent with brunch at the Beatties. The kids were fabulous all day, running around with the cousins. I think the only time that they sat still was when we put in "Frosty the Snowman for them to watch!

We decorated snow with food colouring, made gingerbreadmen and a house, had a candy cane hunt in the basement where the kids willingly gave back all their candycanes to do it all over again!

After dinner most of Ryans family made it to the live nativity done at the church and then back to house for own nativity put on by the little ones. It was a good, busy day and by the end of it the kids were exhausted! Brayden had just enough energy at the end of the day to leave a letter for Santa with a couple couple of cookies and jerkey before heading to bed.

It's Beginning to Feel Like Chirstmas

Although last year it was great to spend Christmas on white sands instead of white snow, there is nothing that better then a white Christmas of snow, with the fire place lit and the smell of a pine tree all decorated.

A family tradition for my family is to spend one evening before Christmas decorating our tree with very personal ordaments. Mostly ones that my sister Kaitlyn and I made while we were young, or gifts recieved in our stockings each year, it's nice to pull them out and remember the days of leaving cookies by the fire place for Santa! This year I am so excited to start these traditions with Brayden and Sydney. We took the kids to the mall and they got to sit on Santa's lap and tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. Brayden wants a monster truck and insists that Sydney wants a small small monster truck, haha.
Tonight Brayden and his Auntie Kait decorated a Christmas Tree cake with icing and decorations followed by all of us decorating my parents tree with all those personal memories. It's the best way to invite that Christmas spirit into the home!

Giddy Up

When I was a little girl I had this great horse where I could bounce up and down and it was like I was galloping in the wind. My mom kept it and Brayden spotted it yesterday in the basement so she brought it up for the little kids. The only problem is that I'm a little too big for it now so I couldn't join in on the fun :(

Happy Halloween

This year for halloween my kids had these amazing costumes!! A friend of ours from the Philippines made these spectacular outfits for my kids. Her name is Maryanne Domingo and she just wipped these up with her sewing machine in a week. Soooo talented! Brayden was Batman and Sydney was a Fairy Princess. It was really difficult for me to get a decent picture of the two of them since they were so excited to finally be wearing them but I have more coming from Ryan's sister Jessica so you'll have to be patient:

Brrrrrr, so COLD!!!!

When we first arrived in Canada Brayden couldn't stop telling me that he was "freezin' cold!" As soon as we got off the plane and into the terminal it was like we had been hit with a big chill. I had dressed the kids in winter clothes but I don't think that we were prepared for how cold it actually was... the sad thing was that everyone kept saying how "nice" the weather was!
The first week that we had got home we took a trip out to Ryan's family's place and the kids made bird houses with their Aunt Jessica. My kids were outside looking for perches in their shirts, hoodies and winter jackets while their cousins were outside in JUST their hoodies!! It has been quite the adjustment for us to get used to the weather.

One of the best things about coming home was rediscovering all those winter clothes that have been hiding in boxes for the past year. I had forgot how "hot" some of my old clothes were... the sad thing was that when I put one these amazing pair of pants no one even noticed how great I looked!!! Makes me wonder how silly I must have looked most of time when I have to point out how crazy my pants are...

Another really great thing about being home is spending all that time with my family! It's been so difficult for me to be so far away and not be able to come home and visit. Also Brayden has been loving spending time with family. One day we were driving out to the farm to see Kaden, his cousin and Brayden told me that Kaden was his best friend and that he was excited to see him. Then while we were out there he told his other cousin Ben that he was "so happy to see him!" Then while we were driving back to my mom's house I told him that we were on our way to Nana's house and Brayden said "I'm so happy mom." It was really hard to make the decision to come home so much earlier then Ryan but after hearing how much Brayden seems to missing everyone too, it makes me feel like I had made the right choice to come home.

The first weekend that I spent in Lethbridge we celebrated Brian's (my step-dad) birthday along with an apple pie for my missed birthday!! Kait came down from Calgary and it was great...YUM. It seems that ever since we've been home we've been lucky enough to be celebrating birthdays! Making up for lost time I guess but last weekend we had yet another birthday party for Brayden with Ry's family which included angel food cake topped with whipped cream and delicious raspberries!!! Oh how i've missed you raspberries....

Happy 90th Birthday Nana

On the 20th of October my Nana turned 90 years old! Most of the family made it to Cranbrook for the celebration which was so great, there were people there that I hadn't seen in years and years!

O' Canada

On October 19th Ryan dropped Meg, Brayden and Sydney off at the international airport in Manila for the long journey back to Canada. The flight from Manila to Vancouver was 12 hours, very long, and quite the experience! The kids were extreamly well behaved except for the fact that they only slept for around 4 of those 12 hours! Thankfully while they were awake they were quiet and stayed in their seats so we weren't too much of a bother to the other people on the flight. At the end of the flight the real challenge started. I had to get the kids and I through customs, get our luggage and meet my sister in the waiting area. The customs line went rather quickly and with Sydney strapped into the stoller my only concern was keeping Brayden reasonably close to me. After a couple of suspisious questions from the lady at customs wondering why we travelling without Ryan we were on our way to the next challenge; luggage. Ryan had put a clip on the luggage so all I had to do was clip them together and it would be like one large piece. Unfortunately the clip didn't make it and so I struggled to handle the stroller, our 2 carry one pieces and 2 big pieces with Brayden. Finally we got it worked out so that Brayden, with much difficulty on the carpet, pushed Syd in the stroller while I carried the carry on and other luggages. This seemed to working fine for us until I hurried ahead a bit to get into the line out of the luggage claim. I heard laughing and when I looked back I found Brayden slowly pushing the stroller with his pants around his ankles! The belt on his pants had become loose and couldn't hold up his pants any longer, he looked so funny standing there in his underwear taking these mini steps so he wouldn't trip on the pants bunched up at his ankles. Finally we were able to spot Kait in the crowds of people in the waiting area. This also proved to be a bit of a challenge for me as I was expecting to find it easy to find a little white girl in a crowd. Unfortunately I forgot that I wasn't in the Philippines anymore and finding a white girl in a crowd wasn't as easy. We then made our way to the domestic departures to check in for our connecting flight to Calgary when Kait made the comment how we wouldn't have a problem fitting all our luggage into her car, well it dawned on me that I had forgot to claim our carseat when collecting the rest of my luggage!!!! SO, back to the luggage claim I went.... Finally at 9pm we arrived safely to Calgary. From start to finish the journey took us about 26 hours so were all exhausted and very excited to see a bed. The kids were amazing for me and on their best behavior the entire trip!

Happy 3rd Birthday Brayden

Today was Braydens 3rd birthday and boy did he have a great day. He had phone calls in the morning of grandparents singing "happy birthday!" We had a birthday party at school, which was the best way to do it!! No cleaning, no decorating, come home to a clean house!! Brayden was lucky enough to have a Lightening McQueen cake with balloons especially dedicated to him! It seemed to be a great time and everyone who was there left happy.

After school as a family we decided to try out bowling. We've tried to go with Brayden a couple of times but both times the lanes were fully booked and he was really upset about it. This time we got lucky and Brayden was thrilled. Theres something about throwing a ball down a long aisle and knocking things down at the end of it that just got him excited. He actually didn't even mind throwing gutter balls most of the time, just being allowed to throw something that heavy was enough for him. It was a great time... for Brayden. Pretty slow moving for the rest waiting for Braydens balls to inch slowly down the aisle!!

Ecogarden Fieldtrip

Braydens class had a fieldtrip to the Ecogardens here in Bacolod this past week! The first attempt got rained out so he's been really excited about going for a while now. Sydney and dad stayed home to sleep so I got to go with Brayden. There were a bunch of different birds, monkeys, snakes, turtles, spotted deer, pigs and crocodiles. Brayden loved to touch the snake and was a little nervous about the turtles but there was no way he was touching the crocodiles.

They first showed the class the big crocs and started poking it with a big stick. Well this really mad it angry and it was snarling and trying to bite the stick and it sure would move fast!! After this friendly demonstration they brought out a smaller crocodile and asked the kids if anyone wanted to "pet" it. Well they were all terrified thinking it would attack their little hands, I can't remember any of Braydens classmates touching the little guy, even though it was missing the top half of its mouth!

One of the biggest changes we've noticed with Brayden since we've enrolled him in school is he's become a lot more outgoing. He was so shy and clingy, whimpering if someone just looked at him. He seems to make friends more easily now, especially with his classmates. His teachers have noticed he seems to have made a "best friend" shown here, Vance:

The fieldtrip ended with the kids having the oppertunity to paint a figurine, Brayden did an excellent job painting his little hippo orange! It was really nice to see Brayden interact with his classmates and to see the friends that he's making. He seems to really enjoy the time playing with his friends!

The School For Creative Beginners

Last week we enrolled Sydney at the same school Brayden attends, she starts in January when we get back from our Christmas holidays! I'm so excited since they'll be going to school at the same time, it gives me 2 hours a day to do whatever I want....
I was checking out the new school webpage when I noticed that Brayden and his daddy made it onto the pictures section of their page!! You'll have to browse through the pictures to see what Brayden has been up to so far this year but it's such a great school! My favorite of the 3 pictures Brayden is in has Ryan and Brayden painting his "My Kid Walks All Over Me" shirt.

Masskara!

Bacolod city is famous in the Philippines for it's annual Masskara festival. It's a month long event that attracts tourists and Filipino's from everywhere! I've seen more white people here this past week then I have for the entire time we've lived here (11 months now)!!
I've been told that the word Masskara has been taken from two different words; 1. Mass-meaning large crowds of people (duh!)and 2. cara (spanish word used for 'face')-which is the total theme of the festival. Beautiful, big, bright masks on all the faces!! It's actually themed by a smiling mask because of the "Negrenese" people's happy, smiling spirits even through the ups and down of the sugar industry on the Island. The festival started in 1980 to help celebrate Bacolod's Charter Day which is on October 19th.
On the activity schedule is a little carnival that is scheduled the entire festival (Oct 1-22), parades, street dancing, a Masquerade Ball, drum beating competition, and costume shows. Sounds like a good time!!

Happy Birthday Ryan

On Friday we celebrated Ryan's 28th birthday! It was a casual day spent relaxing and trying to stay dry. With all the tropical storms and typhoons combing through South East Asia, our little area has been getting hit hard with wind and rains. A lot of the friends we've made are trying to stay warm and dry while mini rivers run down the dirt paths leading to their homes and trickling water coming in through the cracks. Thankfully we've been able to stay safe and dry in our subdivision. On Ryans birthday he came home from work on the motorbike wearing a garbage bag with holes cut out of it for his head and arms, haha. He's becoming a true Filipino!
Ryan has been putting in quite a bit of hours at the office since we got back from our trip so he requested pizza, cake and a movie with the family which sounded great. For his birthday gift Ryan was able to pick out a remote control helicopter which Brayden seems to think belongs to him. They have been having a great time flying and crashing it around the house, Ryan has taken it into work and is anxiously waiting for the weather to become nice so he can test it outside...

Bangkok, Thailand

Our full day in Bangkok was a fullfilling one! We were on our feet from 10am until we got to the airport around 9pm. The kids were amazing sports as usual which made it easy for us to travel the sites and shop, shop, shop!
We started our morning at Chatuchak Weekend Market which was just as great as the day before. The kids loved the attention and the crowds! It seemed that there was never a shortage of something to look at! From there we hopped on our first Tuk-Tuk (took-took) ride which the only way I can explain is a cross between a Filipino jeepney and tricycad. It was great, and although I'm sure we were way overcharged it was worth it.

After our Tuk-Tuk ride to Central World Mall downtown Bangkok we went inside for some lunch. The best part was dessert, I had a raspberry frozen yogurt... RASPBERRY! My first raspberry anything in almost a year. It was delicious, my mouth is watering just thinking about it! After lunch and letting Brayden run off some of his energy we were ready to continue exploring. The best part of the entire mall was the Ronald McDonal we found!! It's nice to know he's so universal:

We went outside to get ourselves another Tuk-Tuk so we could explore the city sites and outside in the mall plaza were a couple of Buddhist shrines where people were worshiping. They were beautiful and had roses surrounding the bottoms of them and lit incense burning.

From the mall we drove around the city it seemed multiple of times. We stopped off at a "Government building" where they sold beautiful Thai artworks and crafts made of crocodile and ostrach leather, ceramics and woods. From there we drove around the King and Queens palace and then to a Buddhist Temple.We got out of the Tuk-Tuk at the Temple and bought some corn kernals from a silly lady and fed them to all the pigeons that were hanging out. Brayden loved it but Sydney seemed to be a little freaked out by the swarming birds!!

The best part of Bangkok for us was when we were walking down the street and there was a couple of elephants just hanging out! It was so cool. Just crossing the street like a person! We got to feed them sugarcane and hang out with them for a bit:

All in all I think we got everything out of Bangkok possible, it was so great and unlike anywhere we've been yet! Loved it.