HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We would like to you wish all of you a happy and healthy 2009. May the next year be full of fun, laughter, good health and prosperity.

We love you all. Have fun tonight and stay safe!

Kelly, Jason, Adysen & Presley

Emily's Rody Pony

As you can see Emily had a great Christmas!

Just thought I'd upload a short video of Emily on her new Rody Pony! She loves it!!

I've tried emailing this video and posting it on my Facebook page without any luck. Cracks us up!

We hope you all had a great time Christmas Day...let's see what New Year's brings. We're having a few friends over to play board games and EAT of course. I'm making a yummy martini called a Christmas Apple Martini (in the Masterman Family Cookbook). Haven't decided on the appies yet...any suggestions?

Wow, this thing is taking a long time to upload...what else can I write?? Whew - finished just in time!

Anyhoo, can't wait to hear all about your Christmas 2008 memories!

Chat soon, VAL

Merry Christmas!

We wish you all a very happy holiday.
Love,
Mark, Kama, Scott and Courtney

Wishing the entire family a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

With love,
Michelle, Russell, Jackson and Ryan

Consider This Your Christmas Card!

HO HO HO!

The tree is up, few decorations are out, and we even managed to get the lights on the house before it got too cold. Let the festivities begin.

What do you get a 9 month old for Christmas? She'll love the paper and boxes more than anything!

Our plans for the holidays is to kick back and relax. Deryck has taken a few weeks off work for the holidays - which is good because he has a bit of a head cold. Emily has had the sniffles for a few weeks now too. Yup, having two sick BABIES in the house isn't fun - and I don't know who is worse? LOL!! Anyhow, back to the holiday plans... Mainly we just want to putter around the house, do some organizing, junking out and stuff like that. Not much we can do outside at the moment with the weather being so cold. Would love to take Emily tobogganing. She hasn't even touched the snow yet. Maybe next week, we're suppose to warm up to -7!! Whoo-hoo!!

We're missing everyone. Still planning on making a trip out to the island April/May sometime. Looking forward to visits from all of you! Emily has changed so much - teeth, crawling and she seems to be developing quite the attitude! Here are some recent pics and a video of her "crawling", it's more like a 'belly crawl":

Yes, another blog that has taken me ALL DAY to write. Sometimes I start writing and don't get a chance to finish and end up not posting it at all. A couples weeks back I was thinking about Grandma and how thankful I am to have had her in my life. All the laughter, stories... That day I was wishing for the phone to ring and hear "Hello, it's just me" - of course not til after Young and the Restless was over! I've been meaning to just thank all of you for sharing such a special person with me - I feel grateful for all the memories.

We wish you all a safe and happy Holiday Season. Can't wait to see all your pictures of Christmas Day!! We'll be sure to email some pictures as well.

Love Val, Deryck & Emily

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Gail and I wish the entire family a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! We hope your holiday season goes well and 2009 is a great year for everyone.
We are looking forward to spending a relaxing stretch of time together, (finally), and will be joined in Powell River by Sara, Angie and Dylan which should make for a festive Christmas.
We also would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who joined us on our wedding day and for all the wonderful gifts we received, (which was not necessary but greatly appreciated). For those of you who have not yet received your thank you cards we appologize; we always seem to run out of time to sit down and finish those off.
Once again, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! Hopefully we get the chance to visit with at least a few family members this season!

Gail and Dave

P.S. Great job on the Blog Kelly!

Happy Holidays!!!!

Kelly, I made your Magic bars for a little Christmas party I'm hosting tonight and they are so yummy! Thank you for sharing that recipe.

I just had a wonderful visit with Brian, he got off the Coast Guard boat in Victoria on Wednesday morning and got a ride to Ladysmith with one of his co-workers. He stayed the night and then Leanna and the kids came down to pick him up on Thursday morning. I can't believe how big little Haylee is getting. It was awesome seeing Tyanna and Anthony as well. I hadn't seen them since the summer.

My Christmas shopping is finished, now the fun job of wrapping awaits. I'll be cooking Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve for just Russell, myself and the boys. It will be a quiet Christmas. We are looking forward to seeing Kama, Scott and Courtney on Christmas Day for Brunch. Unfortunately, Uncle Mark will be working, so we won't get to see him.

I'm hoping to see my Mom and Dad before Christmas. They will be celebrating Edna's Mother's 90th!!!! Birthday in Vancouver on December 11th.
I'm looking forward to Jackson's Christmas Concert this Wednesday. The boys are so excited for Christmas.

Love to you all,
Michelle and the gang.

23 more days

Yah! I love Christmas. It is so much more fun now that the girls are of the age to really enjoy it. The whole anticipation is exciting. Hope your Christmas plans and preparation are coming along nicely. Things are crazy around here, but somehow it always seems that way.

Just wanted to check in to see how everyone is doing? Hope you are all enjoying your December.
23 more days until the man in the red suit shows up. Hope you've all been nice this year!

Take care, we are thinking of you.

Kelly & family.

5 Minute Magic Bars

These bars are a must when it comes to Christmas baking. So simple, so easy, so delicious. It has to be one of my favorite recipes because you literally just throw the ingredients in the pan, toss it in the oven and voila....magic. Truly delicious.

MAGIC BARS

1/2 cup butter, melted

1-1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs

1-1/2 cups of sweetened flaked or shredded coconut

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup of chopped pecans

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and have a 9x9 baking pan ready. I would lightly grease the sides of the pan.

Melt the butter and pour into the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the graham cracker crumbs evenly over the butter. Sprinkle the coconut over the crumbs. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the coconut. Sprinkle the pecans over the chocolate chips. Finally, drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over all ingredients. Do NOT mix the ingredients together, just layer them.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 mins or when the topping is a nice consistent golden brown.

SIMPLY DELICIOUS. If you haven't managed to eat the all, make sure you refrigerate. Also freezes well.

Hope you enjoy!

Fall Is Here

It's getting chilly out here! I think Halloween was our last warm day, we reached 17 degrees that day. It was perfect weather for trick or treating too. We got the porch all decorated and pumpkins carved the night before. Of course Emily didn't get the whole point of this Halloween business at all - maybe next year. All in all she was great amusement for us and the neighborhood.

Of course she got dressed up...we called her our Little Ill-mannered Flower. As soon as the Halloween decorations came down, the Christmas lights went up. Deryck figured we'd better get them on the house before the weather got way too cold...it did snow today!

We look forward to the Christmas holidays. Okay, we look forward to the turkey dinner and stuffing ourselves silly! Can't forget Grandma's Sweet Potatoes and Apples!! The shopping is pretty much done - yaahoo! Let's just see if we can get things mailed off in time to make it out to the coast.

Anyhoo, I started this post this afternoon - it's now 7 pm! Time to get Miss Stinky-pants to bed.

Thinking of you all, VAL

Stamping/Card Making

Deep in the crawl space hides a little oasis of stamping/card making supplies. I have my table and chair, my bins with all of my stamps, inks, embellishments, papers, tools, etc. I hadn't been down to my stamping area in some time but have recently gotten back into it. I forgot how much I enjoyed it. (The crawl space is a quite large and I can almost stand up in it and it is heated as well so that makes it quite comfortable...just in case you were picturing me lost somewhere underground...) The only problem with going down there is the kids know where I am. LOL. Addy LOVES to make cards so quite often we both go down there, but when Presley is old enough to want to do this, we are going to have to find another place. There isn't room for all 3 of us around my table.
I thought I would share a couple of cards I have been working on. Hope you like them.

Halloween at the Cattermole's

Halloween was so wonderful this year. Of course, I always enjoy it. What's not to love....decorating the house, getting all dressed up and at the end of the night coming home with loads of "FREE" candy! My kind of fun. It was especially fun this year because the weather was just perfect and both the kids were sooooo into it. In fact, they didn't want to stop trick or treating, however I couldn't fit one more treat in the huge bag we brought with us.

Presley was quite funny, she reviewed every piece of candy she got while at the person's door and most of the time told me she "needed" to eat it right away.

This year the girls went in their same costumes as last year. I knew Addy would want to be spiderman again but I had this super cute monkey costume for Presley to wear (left over from when Addy was her age) but at last minute she decided she wanted to be Pooh Bear the Bee again. Only thing is she thought she was just a bumblebee and that Pooh Bear wasn't part of the costume, so when we'd go to people's houses they would say....awww look at Pooh Bear dressed up as a bee and Presley would say back....I'm not Pooh Bear you silly billy, I am just a bumblebee and laugh at them. It was quite funny.

A couple of times through the night I ended up losing Addy (well not really losing her but...) she had found a couple of friends trick or treating on the street we were on and told me we needed to catch up to them. I told her we eventually would but let's hit every house we could (*wink *wink). Apparently that wasn't good enough for her because all of a sudden she was off running with her friends and their parents and Presley and I were left to trick or treat alone. :)

We all ended up having a great time and I have REALLY enjoyed eating all the little chocolate bars that came home with us. Good thing the girls are still young enough that they don't mind sharing with their mom and don't really notice when half the bag of treats have been eaten either....lol.

Hope your Halloween was just as fun.

Hello Family,
I just thought I would share with everyone that Jackson scored his first goal in hockey Saturday morning. I wish I had my camera with me because the look on his face when he scored was priceless!! He started hockey in the middle of September and I can't believe how quickly he's improving his game. I signed him up for a rec skate class on Thursdays and I think the extra 45 minutes of skating is really helping him. Ryan wants to start skating too, but I have to go to Nanaimo for the classes and do you think they have a level one and a level 4 at the same time? Of course not!
The boys had a hoot trick or treating this year. Ryan was always at the back of the pack running and yelling, "wait for me guys".
Lots of love,
Michelle

Staying in touch

Hi everyone! Thought I'd let you know what Tom and I are up to in the hopes that we will keep getting more of us participating in the blog. It's so great to hear whats going on with every-one.There's a huge gap in the grapevine. Ken, I hope you read this because this might be your only happy birthday wish from us.Tom and I both have minds like sieves,so remembering on Nov. 3rd is a little iffy.Happy Birthday Ken! I learned a new word from the radio today. Technophobia.It means you can't do anything fancy with a computer (or a remote control or change the clock in your vehicle). I think I could be infected by this disease and that is why I won't be sending you any of our latest pictures. Other than that, we are both well and keeping pretty busy. Lately we've been thinking about what we might do to prepare for retirement. Well, my retirement at least.Tom might not retire until they kick him out. Seriously though, we'd like to move.That means we probably should do a few updates to our house in order to sell it more easily. First thing on the list is the kitchen.but...what to do?So in order to get a few ideas we've been out looking at new homes. There's been this event called The Parade of Dreams going on for the past three weekends where you go look at the show homes from all different developers.And what fun it has been for the past two weekends! The only problem is when you come home and have a look around,you get totally dissatisfied with what you've got! Oh well, maybe if I washed the windows. Yesterday we were out shopping for an updated kitchen and today we were trying to get over the technophobia and mapping it all out.with an on-line program. Still not sure if this is worth doing. Anyway,I think Tom and I might rethink building a whole house to retire in.That's about it for now. Hi Jack and Edna. Hope you're happily resettled at home Ken and Allison. Is everything o.k.at Mark and Kama's? Not suffering too badly from empty-nest syndrome? Hope you're enjoying married life Dave and Gail. Love the pictures Deryck and Val. And everybody else,have a hug from us.

Tom and Linda

Howdy from Lethbridge

Hello!

Finally, I get a chance to post something...I hope!

Emily is growing like crazy, she changes almost daily. Still not crawling, but that's perfectly alright with me. Most weeks her and I go swimming - she loves it! She quite comfortable just floating on her back or splashing a group of older gentlemen in the hot tub. Yes, she's a character. We also go to the library for Rhyme Time - not too sure if she likes it yet...it can be pretty chaotic in a room full of screaming babies!! On Thursdays we get together with a Mom's group (something I said I'd never do) and the kids play while we eat and chat. This week we are meeting at a corn maze - check it out at Robin Pick Corn Maze.

I've been enjoying my time off (from day home) and spending time with Emily. Couldn't imagine having to go back to work and leaving her with someone else - nope, not for me! I'm hoping to start the day home again soon, just looking for the right client. I'll possibly have one starting next week - little boy the same age as Miss E.

And guess who's now making a fuss, the bucket only works for so long! Now that I've resorted to one-handed typing I'm going to have to cut this post short. Until next time...

Miss you all, love Val & Emily (aka Miss-Cranky Pants)

I'm late as usual.

Helllo Family!
This is an excellent idea so thanks to Jason and Kelly for doing the work! I'm late getting on this site but don't often rush home from my computer job to jump on to another one. Trying to remember the last update I got from anyone but other than the odd phone call or wall post on Facebook..... I don't think I'm really in the loop. We ended the summer with Rick's family coming to visit... yep.. almost all of them, then his work truck and trailer got stolen, (of course he had almost all of his hunting gear and our camera in his truck too.) We got the truck back after a week and the trailer too (although that was a write off after the theifs joy ride through an apple orchard! lol) Everything is now either fixed or replaced (except we're still waiting for the new trailer to arrive) Rick and i haven't seen a lot of each other in the past couple of months since open season started (hunting) He looks forward to getting out all year and I look forward to the quiet! lol Now he's started taking both boys, not just Cody so I can start reading novels again! ( by the way.. highly recommend a Thousand Splendid Suns!) Cody got his first deer this year. (ew)
Brayden isn't too fond of grade 5 since the homework load just doubled from last year, but Cody on the other hand is loving being the oldest in middle school (although at 6' 1" he looks 17! and not 14) The boys are both keeping busy - soccer and taekwondo for Brayden and swimming, basketball and editor of yearbook for Cody. I understand now what Kama was talking about when she said she should just slap a checkered logo on the side of her car and paint it yellow! No such thing as just coming home from work and that be it anymore. lol
October has been a busy month for all of us - I've done a couple of road trips for work so far, am off to Castlegar for 3 days tomorrow and will be in Vancouver the 29th-30th. Rick is working on extending and rebuilding my parent's patio @ their cabin at Idabel Lake most weekends and now the pressure is on to finish before snow flies... so that's where he is now....
I'm looking forward to Nov 8th weekend though. Lorri is driving up to my house the Friday night so we can fly out together to Vancouver, meet up with mom and shop our faces off stateside for 3 days. woo hoo. It's supposed to be a Christmas shopping spree.... but I'm a little too giddy to play by the rules. Christmas is @ mom and dad's in Maple Ridge for us this year so we can just leave our goods there and not have to pack much before hand. (I'm not usually this organized!)
Then that's it for the travelling until March when our family, mom and dad, and Lorri & clan take off to Maui. We've been planning this trip for 3 years and can't wait! especially since the weather is getting colder now! Well... speaking of weather, I'm off to rake leaves before it gets dark. Thanks again Kelly and Jason - I hope to hear from everyone on this blog. Great way to keep in touch. Love you guys!
Karen

Weekend is here...hooray!

Finally the weekend is here! This past week seemed to be soooo long. The kids were almost the death of me at times...lol.

Jason and I started our weekend out by hiring a babysitter for the evening, so we could attend a pub night with some friends from the preschool. It was very nice and at the same time so incredibly strange to be actually out in public together...at night....with no children! The only unfortunate part about both of us going out together is that the next morning comes and neither of us wants to roll out of bed at 7am with the girls. I made J get up though...hee hee. I had bootcamp this morning (not recommended after going to the pub the night before) so I told him since I had to work hard at bootcamp I was able to be the one to stay in bed the extra 15-20 mins. It seemed to work in my favour so I may have to use that excuse again.

As for today, the girls and Jason are outside planting some bulbs while I am off to run some errands. We are setting up tonight to carve our pumpkins and roast the seeds...yum! And tomorrow we are decorating the outside of the house for halloween after we watch Jason's soccer game. Should be fun. Let's hope the weather stays nice so we can fit it all in.

Hope you guys are able to get some fun family time in the weekend as well and a wee bit of relaxation too!

Take care. Hope to hear from lots of you soon *wink*wink* I am beginning to think I am may be the only one on here..... lol :)

Thanksgiving postponed???

So there I was at 9:10am running out the door (late as usual) for my Saturday morning bootcamp (since I have a hamstring injury and cannot run, bootcamp has become even more important in my life) I get to the truck (wishing I had previously warmed it up) and low and behold it will not start...Ahhhhh....grrrrrr...Thank goodness Jason was able to finally get it going, so off I went. After bootcamp, same thing....not fun, but I talked very nicely to it, gave it a swift boot (jk) and it started again. I rushed home so Jason could quickly get it to Canadian Tire for a new battery while I got the girls and myself ready for a birthday party we were bound to be late for now. We get them buckled in the truck, put on our Curious George soundtrack (Jack Johnson singing...nice) and things are lovely again...until I notice...no gas! Yikes. I gently explain to the girls no gas means no party and we pull over to fill up...well a 1/4 fill...lol. Just pull into the parking lot of the party and receive a phone call from Jason on my cell that now the hot water tank has burst and his parents are in Arizona and no plumbers are answering and oh wait...it's a long weekend! At this point I am laughing hysterically because it is Thanksgiving and I am supposed to be very thankful and I am not feeling so thankful at this moment. lol :)
Thank goodness we have gotten it all straightened out, Jason found a plumber ( I won't even tell you the cost for it to be repaired ...on a long weekend...and he would of done it himself if it weren't a gas hot water tank). So no hotwater until late tomorrow afternoon and no turkey for me until Monday. Ahhhh c'est la vie!

I must say that I am thankful for everything in my life...even the mishaps this weekend, at least they made for a good laugh.

Hope you are all enjoying your lllloooonnnngggg weekend. And if anyone is planning on dropping by, drop in on Monday that is when the water will be warm again and the turkey will be served :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello family,
I just wanted to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you Kelly for getting our family blog going. I miss Grandma and Grandpa more than words can say. Honestly, I'm dreading this Thanksgiving and Christmas, the firsts without Grandma. I know Grandma would hate to see me so sad, so I will try to be in good spirits.

I love you all very much!

Big hugs,
Michelle

Thanksgiving 2008

I can't wait to be sitting down at our little dinner table as we get ready to dig in to a wonderful turkey dinner. I am actually salivating as I type this...mmmmm. Wish we could all be together for a big Thanksgiving dinner this year. That is one thing I always remember about my childhood is enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner around Grandpa & Grandma's big dinner table. So much fun. I remember Grandma always trying to get me to "try" a brussel sprout but finding it still on my plate at the end of the meal...or maybe it "magically" disappeared into Duffy's mouth (no wonder he liked me so much...lol)

We will be thinking of you as we head into this long weekend. If anyone wishes to surprise us this weekend feel free to drop on in and celebrate with us. We have an extra bed with your name(s) on it.

Kelly & Family

Well we are doing great as it is now leading to another winter. I just got of the ship on Tuesday and it was a long trip for me this time.I missed my family a lot. I am enjoying my self in the Coast Guard but the long time away from home is hard. It is a lot of work for Leanna and she is my hero. She does such a good job keeping the house hold going. So this trip off I am going to spoil her big time LOL. We really need to get into a house so give us a call Jason LOL. Anyway hows every one else doing?

I think this is a great idea !!! I miss Grandma so much. She is always on my mind, I so want to call her all the time and that is were it hurts the most for me. I miss her story's and the love she gave to all of us. I know I will never get over her leaving but at least she is in a good place with Grandpa now.

Miss you Grandma

Brian

October 8, 2008

Gramma would be happy to know that you created this Kelly. You did a great job. I am working on Gramma's quotes and will be trying to have the booklet ready for Christmas. I didn't have my computer working for a while so will also start scanning in her pictures. Not sure if I will have that ready for Christmas.......can't believe how time is flying by this year.

Looking forward to more posts and pictures.............love those pictures!!

Love to all

Edna

Christening the blog

Ahhh...the first one to post on our family blog...so exciting.

This blog has been created in loving memory of Grandma and my hopes for it is that it will be a place for our family to come and reconnect with one another, share stories, pictures etc and just stay in touch with one another. Grandma was always the life line for all of us and now that she is gone I think it is incredibly important that we do this for ourselves.

I'm looking forward to stopping by Tula's Corner to see all of your posts!

Enjoy your day.

Kelly