The start of winter

Jen gave Rich old man presents for his birthday hence the tank top and flat cap!!

Josy on her 1st birthday with Grammy Carol, Auntie Amy and cousin Robin

Harriet & Maeve's snowman at Danny and Karens last weekend

the view from our window this morning

the lovely warm log fire we bought

an order for a house warming party

Josy's flower cupcake

Richard's canoe cupcake

Typical we move to Canada and look forward to lots of snow this winter and Whitby gets as much as us and is much colder this weekend!!! The difference is life doesn't stop the same, snow ploughs and gritters keep the main roads moving. The side roads are done later but because every vehicle has to have minimum of all season tires and most have snow tires you can get through quite alot of snow it's the ice that can be a problem. Snow seems to fall quickly here, a couple of times this week I came out of work at lunch time and had 2-3 inchs of fresh snow to clear off my car. It's great we hardly see the kids, as soon as they get off the school bus they play outside!

Christmas decorations are up everywhere (except our house!). I've even got 2 Christmas cards too!! I took part in my works Christmas play on Friday which was lovely but really wierd as it seems ages away yet. David's brother Steve is coming in 2 weeks time to spend Christmas with us which will be great.

It was Richard's 30th birthday yesterday and Josy's 1st birthday too. We went to a cake and icecream party in the afternoon and the boys had a 'Risk' party at night.

We are really happy at 'The Meeting Place Church' and are enjoying getting to know lots of the people there, it will take us years to remember everyone's names we can just about manage everyone at our Life Group now!

We went to Parent teacher conferences for the kids this week. They all got fantastic report cards and had lots of very positive feedback.

This week looks nice and quiet on the calendar so I may start Christmas shopping and maybe write afew cards. I have 2 markets on Saturday to bake for later this week.

November in picture

Bonfire night at Rich & Jen's

Cupcakes for my stall

David now looking really old!!!

David's 40th cake made by Harriet (very yummy)

David's birthday cupcakes with cows, worms, rabbits, geese, chickens and computer mice!

Josy now walking

Maeve playing with Harriets toy worm

Isaac showing off his new winter coat

Icicles before Harriet collected them

Harriet collecting icicles to put in my freezer!

David is 40!!!!!!

Today has been the calm after the storm, it's been a lovely snowy day with a beautiful drive to church this morning followed by Jen & the girls coming for lunch then just chilling all afternoon and skype with family and friends. Life is good.

Since I last blogged David has turned 40!!!! Ha ha. We had an open home for his party and invited family and friends. With it being a public holiday for rememberence day and the fact that we'd only been here 3 months we did worry that it might be a quiet time! It certainly wasn't with around 30 new friends coming and squeezing into our little house. Thank you for all the cheeky cards and well wishes from the UK too!
The new chainsaw has been well used since then and our woodpile is looking much more healthy.

As you know bonfire night is usually on 5th Nov and we'd been invited to Rich & Jen's but the rain was at it's worst so it was postponed a week until it stopped. It was a lovely evening even if the bonfire was rather wet and took some persuading to light!

My business has officially started trading on the market. Last Saturday Josh & I had a pitch outside which was good. I can't believe how the adrenaline kicks in when you're so tired from getting up at 4.30am and spending hours setting up the stall I thought I'd be ready for bed but I love chatting to the customers. There have been lots of positive comments so far and business cards taken. Thursday, Friday have been the Christmas in the market from 10am-9pm each day. I had a tiny indoor pitch and was quite frustrated being behind glass shelves so I couldn't talk to the customers, despite that I did quite well. Saturday we arrived and started setting up outside on our pitch when we were offered an indoor spot!!!! phew it was freezing and by 11am snow was falling thick and fast, let's pray an indoor spot keeps popping up each week if not Josh & I are the 2 blobs under the canopy wearing all the clothes in our wardrobes!! I found the dollar store sells toe warmer pads that last for 6 hours, I must say this is the best dollar I spend each week! Even though Fredericton is a city it is such a small town atmosphere, everyone knows everyone else and is so friendly. So many people come to find my stall and obviously know who I am and lots about me.....wonder how long this celebrity status will last?!

The reaction to the news of a Royal wedding was funny, Canadians are so excited and keep asking me if I'm looking forward to it! At least it's real life instead of the obsession they have with Coronation Street.

David has been away on a church men's weekend which he really enjoyed. He's also been polishing up his old rabbit culling skills at the Warrington's farm!

We had an invite to Jen's Aunt and Uncles (Karen & Danny) house yesterday for a bonfire. As David was away me and the kids went and had a fab time in the snow.

I must say snow tires are wonderful, you obviously still need to drive carefully but they really help to grip the road. We've all got the snow gear now too so we should be able to stay warm outside as well as inside.

This week I'm a rabbit in the daycare Christmas play, we've got parents evenings for the kids, it's Rich's 30th and Josy's 1st birthdays, I've got some orders to fulfil for the market and I've got a Pampered chef party to go to too.

Let it snow!

I've been searching round all the charity shops in Fredericton for snow gear for us all. Ski jackets, ski pants and snow boots are very expensive so I've had my eyes and ears open for bargains. We've now all got pants and boots and just 3 coats left to find, our Whitby coats will have to do for now!
My car had 2 flat tires in 2 weeks. It's so funny putting on the spare tire which is called the donut, it's tiny and really thin and only meant for getting you to the garage and definately not fast or long driving. I got the first tire changed trying to eeek out the time till I had to purchace snow tires, when the second one went I relented and changed to 4 snow tires- not a cheap day!
Josh has always said it would snow in October (even when we were baking in 40 degrees heat!). Well we woke on 31st Oct to SNOW!!!!! Yes the real white stuff, we had flurries for 2 days but it didn't settle. Since then it's rained and rained, it's a good job it wasn't snow or we'd be buried under about 6 feet of it by now. Today we woke to snow flurries again but it was bright sunshine by lunch.
I've gone practical for David's birthday and bought him a chainsaw! He came last night to choose one and has been playing with it today getting our woodpile abit healthier!

Rainy November

Our stall at the forum

snowman design

Christmas tree design

Holly & Ivy design

stars design

Harriet's artistic pic

sunset over Yoho

Cupcakes for staff weekend away.

I haven't forgotten about the blog...honest just busy at the moment.

2 weeks ago I went on a fun night away with my work to a lovely log cabin out in the sticks. Now I'm working some of each day except Fridays so I can bake for Saturday markets if I get a pitch each week.

The past 2 weeks have been totally focused on 'baking for 'Christmas in the Forum' in Halifax. I managed to baked 180 different sized Christmas cakes in 3 sizes and 4 designs. 21 slabs of sticky gingerbread and 138 fruit scones. Sue and I set off when I finished work on Thursday lunchtime and arrived in Halifax by teatime. We spent all evening setting up our stall then booked into a lovely hotel called Chocolate lake Hotel. We then had 3 trading days with thousands of customers filling 3 huge buildings. It was really fun, we got fed up hearing the sounds of our own voices (I know most of you won't believe that!) and our feet and legs ached really bad. One of our neighbouring vendors came across to see what all the laughter was about on our stall!!! (we think that was a compliment!) The show was 10am -9pm so we basically went straight to bed after sitting with our feet up and eating tubs of icecream! It rained all the time so much so that the van flooded and Sue had fun packing it so nothing got spoilt. Overall we did quite well, I sold out of scones, most of the gingerbread and half my cakes. As I said my first Fredericton market could be this saturday, I have to apply each Tuesday and I hear if there's a spot by Thursday. If not I've got a 2 day market the week after called 'Christmas in the market'.
It's David's 40th birthday on Thursday and because it's rememberance day it's a bank holiday each year. We're having a party for him at 4pm with some friends and family coming. Pop across if you can!