Christmas day

Just a few photos from our Christmas Day afternoon walk, beautiful just like Narnia.
We ate a small bit of a huge turkey and all the trimmings, chilled, walked, played games and now we are waiting to skype with family then Rich & Jen should arrive for tea. A lovely day all round. And now it's snowing again looks like boxing day could be a sledging day!

Happy Christmas

As the sun is beginning to set this beautiful Christmas Eve we have snow on the ground and with the temperature currently at -13 and set to get to -20 tonight I don't think it'll melt! Yippeeeee a white Christmas, ok only about 2" but enough to have lots of fun.
David dealt with the turkeys on Thursday when the kids got a day off school for freezing ice. The smallest turkey was 20lb and our huge one was 35lb! As there is only us 5 for Christmas lunch we have plenty of meat to go round. Rich & Jen are coming later in the day and staying over till boxing day. We also have 3 other get togethers to attend this week so life will be fun.
Market was good today very busy from 6.30am till it closed at 1pm. I have a lot less Christmas cakes to eat up this year which is a bonus.
We are just heading out to our Christmas Eve service to start our Christmas off on the right note. Then the fun begins trying to squeeze the turkey in the oven, last minute wrapping and maybe as it's Christmas I could clean the house!
Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas where ever you happen to be this year.

Christmas is coming the turkey's getting fat....!

Our huge Christmas lunch


Our lovely tree only it's mother could love!


Rudolf cupcakes were a big hit at the market today.

Happy Christmas to you all. I posted a small number of Christmas cards this year and with the price it cost will be posting even less next year! Thank you for all the cards and prezzies we've already received these make us smile at a time when we'd love to see more of our families and friends. If anyone is planning a surprise visit to Harvey this Christmas can you let me know then I can have the beds made and extra baking done!
Our turkeys are now huge. We weighed the biggest one at 35lb a couple of weeks ago so when he's all dressed I'll need a big tin for him! David is working on his plucker for the lovely job this week!!!!
The markets are improving especially the themed cupcakes are doing well. I have had lots of orders and hope to have a big stall on Christmas eve to sell the rest of my Christmas cakes. I'm thinking of taking some time off the market after Christmas as it is very quiet and some weeks it isn't worth going and all the preparation time too never mind the stall fee, petrol and ingredients. It will also be nice to have a Saturday family day for once.
We got our Christmas tree this week. I answered an ad on kijiji offering free trees. Everyone laughed when I brought it home!!!! It isn't groomed at all but we love it.
The kids are at school till Friday lunch time then they get 2 weeks off for Christmas and so do I. David has some days off between Christmas and New Year so hopefully we can meet up with friends and if the snow settles long enough spend lots of time outside.

Fancy dress

Josh was Mike from Monsters Inc

Isaac was Pingu

Harriet was Rapunzel from Tangled

Richard & Josy's birthday, the strange thing on Richard's lip is his Movember tash!!!!! There's still time to sponsor him via his facebook page.

This week the kids have been busy making their own costumes for their youth club fancy dress party. They had a long weekend off school with a Parent/ Teacher interview day followed by a PD Day so Harriet went on a couple of sleepovers and the boys worked sorting cranberries- they dream cranberries now!
It was also Richard and Josy's birthday so they came over for tea on Sunday too.
I have 2 markets again on Saturday so hopefully these will be good.

Our house is well and truly warmed!

Dianne had a family party and ordered cupcakes for the birthday guests. This is Richard's 'Cricket' cupcake

Rudy's 'Moose that got away' cupcake

Miranda's 'Poincetta' cupcake

Josy's 'Pearl the chicken' cupcake

David's 41st birthday

Our eggs are the brown ones!

The new novelty Christmas cakes

'Happy Feet' cupcake order
We had a belated house warming on Nov 11th as it's a holiday and it happened to be David's birthday too. As with all these things you have no idea how many people will come particularly as we are perceived as living out in the sticks, it was pouring down and we've only been here 15 months. Well we were delighted to squeeze 53 visitors into our little house. These were neighbours, friends from work and church, family and extended family. We had a great time and I think the animals were well and truly petted. A big thank you to all who came and please come again. We received a number of lovely gifts the most Canadian being a build your own snowman set with everything you need except the snow! Harriet is still waiting to use it as the snow we had this week was just a sprinkling.
We now have eggs......well one chicken has started laying (Harriet is sure it must be Rhonda!. The eggs are tiny and brown.
This week has been mad week with Christmas in the Market in Fredericton. I shared a stall so I could pop out to work in the afternoons. Unfortunately it wasn't as profitable as last year but it was worth doing even if you don't get much sleep! The Christmas cakes are back on sale with a new design for this year.
David is doing API support at work now in addition to the normal support. Ask him what this means not me!

Bonfire Night

To keep up with good old traditions Rich & Jen had their annual bonfire night. I introduced them to bonfire toffee which was a much bigger hit than the pea and ham soup I tried to tempt them with last year! It was a beautiful evening and a good time was had by all. Isaac and Josh missed out and instead went to a youth conference for the weekend and a big sleepover.
The snow we had last weekend has gone and we are back to the lovely autumn weather with morning frosts and bright blue skies. It's hunting season at the moment so anytime you walk near the woods you need to wear bright orange so you're not mistaken for a deer. Isaac has been out with a friend and brings me offerings of partridge.....it actually tastes good!
This Friday is remembrance day which is a holiday so we decided to hold a belated house warming so everyone can drive out to see us in Harvey. Come and join us from 2pm onwards! It is also David's 41st birthday.

October 30th 2011

Look at what we woke up to!!!!!

The piggies have arrived!

David won a prize by entering a free giveaway on a friends blog, he gave me the girlie bag and he ate the chocolate goodies inside!

Bessie

Deidre

Penny

Molly

Max is just a wee bit jealous

This week has been fun with our new piglets arriving. We have 4 Berkshire girlies who will be the mummies of our bacon and chops.

The turkeys are also in their outdoor pen and we have more baby rabbits due this week. All fun at our place at the moment.

Celebrations all weekend

The turkey & chicken shed
'Christmas dinner!'
Harriet's chicken Rhonda in her nesting box

The leaves now on the floor not on the trees
On this afternoons walk

Our chickens and turkeys are now very happily installed in their new shed. David is still working on the fenced area for them.

Isaac & Josh's soccer team actually won a game on Friday!!!!

It was our friends 40th birthday party on Saturday night so it was a 4.30am rise for all of us as it was market and David was working an early weekend shift, followed by a very late night.

Tomorrow is Jen's birthday so we called in today for lunch and a lovely walk in Wollerstock park. Tomorrow is a leaving party for friends from church who are emigrating to Australia and Thursday David and I are going to a presentation evening in town. A busy week!!!!

Thanksgiving photos

The whole gang after our Thanksgiving Supper. Kevin & Dianne, David, Josh, Isaac, Harriet (Suz taking photo!), Kathy & Becky, Gordon, Rich, Jen, Maeve & Josy, Rudi, Amy & Robin and Matt, Amanda & Zac
The Woollins
Rudi & Robin on the motorbike!

Happy Thanksgiving

It's that time of year again when at least 1 weekend a month is some celebration which forces you to eat vast amounts of delicious food! This weekend is Thanksgiving and as we look around we have lots to be thankful for so it's an easy one to celebrate. We are spending it by selling lots on the market, finishing the chicken shed, collecting and chopping wood and eating what I'm sure will be a lovely turkey dinner at Kevin & Dianne's tomorrow. David has to work on Monday unfortunately but I'm sure me and the kids can occupy ourselves.

We've eaten some of our home grown chicken and David has started to fill the freeze with yummy rabbits. Our freezers are bursting with goodies as most things are harvested from the garden except the odd leek, Brussels sprouts and still lots of apples.

As I mentioned last time September was glorious with temperatures up to 30 degrees, October came and brought with it a distinct chill, we've even had to light the fire a couple of times and put an extra blanket on the beds as temperatures fell to -3 degrees. The kids also had a few flakes of snow fall at school on Thursday! Then this weekend we've gone back up to 25 again!!! No wonder we've all been full of cold.

Beautiful Fall

The cupcake plate which I painted at the clay cafe, I use it on my stall to display muffins!

Harriet's guinea pigs
Some of our many baby rabbits
Our chickens which should be laying next month
Not a very good picture of our growing turkeys
Doug & Hilary brought us a fly thingy for our door, we still need it with all this warm weather.
David's nearly finished his chicken shed, it just needs a roof.

Life has soon settled into a routine here David is working full time but has to do some shifts each week either early or late and one out of about 8 weekends too so that gets complicated! The kids are all enjoying school especially the boys playing soccer...one day they may win a match it's getting closer! Harriet likes her new school too but would prefer to be out playing with her new guinea pigs in the barn. She has 3 guinea pigs which we got from kijiji cheap to replace Nibbles we had to leave with the Pages in Whitby. Log onto her blog to see them for yourselves!!!!! mypamperedpiggies.thelavers.com

They came with normal names and she renamed them pretty girlie names!

September has been the most beautiful month, it's been really warm in fact we're still wearing shorts today. The fall colours are here with the gorgeous reds and oranges and so many fruit and vegetables I can't keep up with storing and preserving everything my freezer is well and truly full and I have many examples of jams, jellies, chutneys and pickles in my cupboards.

I still work 12-4 each day and spend the rest of my time being a housewife and baking for Cute as a Cupcake which is doing quite well at the moment. I've got Christmas in the market booked in November sharing a stall with a friend so I can go to work. The advantage for this is I don't have the same restrictions I have at the market so I can paint, sew and knit etc, I've made a number of hats and broaches this week and have searched for lots of other fun patterns to try out. Next week I'll start the fun job of making all those Christmas cakes I hope to sell too so all my 'free' time is well spent!

I am back on the teaching and TA supply lists this year again, last year I only got 3 calls for TA work so I was pleased when this year they've introduced an automated system which calls everyone eligible to take the work and the first to respond gets the job. I got my first call today at 5.30am!!!!!! what a wake up call for us all. Unfortunately I couldn't take the work with already working afternoons so it reminded me to update my status to available mornings only, but I was very encouraged that I got a call so soon and hope I may get one again.

We had a party last week with friends of Richard's up the road from us, he is a vet and we were invited to take our roosters which were ready for a chicken killing party! They are now in the freezer and a good time was had by all, well the washing up was really calling me inside so I just had to stay mainly indoors!

I managed to step on another snake while walking in the woods last week, I think they're hunting me out. It was Moose hunting weekend last weekend so we saw the usual carcass draped over trucks driving through town. The kids also saw a baby one in the middle of the road after dark the other night when the hunters aren't allowed to shoot.

Back to school....after 10 and a bit long weeks...yippeeeee

Eating out at Montanas!


Some of these could be our piggies soon

An afternoon at Magagudavic Lake
The gang at Kings Landing










Baby turkeys
Max in his favourite place!

On Tuesday 6th Sept at 7.51am the number 75 school bus came to pick the Laver kids up for another year at school. We now have 3 children in Harvey High School! After the usual first day nerves everyone came back happy, the boys tried out for the football (soccer) team and both got in so we now have to go and buy the kit as they've grown out of the last kit they wore in England.

We collected the turkeys last week which are funny little things.

We also went to visit our piglets which are very cute at the moment.

Doug and Hilary arrived safely on Saturday night so we've had fun exploring the area with them. We went to our church on Sunday and then had lunch at Montanas. It was a lovely warm day so we went swimming in Magagudavic Lake (yes even Hilary went in!) then visited our friends the Warringtons to see the piglets and other animals on their farm.

Monday was an agricultural fair at Kings Landing so we went and joined in the fun. There were lots of competitions to join in with so the day became very competitive with Doug being the overall champion in the Pulp Toss, David & Doug coming 3rd in the cross cut and Suzanne getting a 3rd also in the Pulp Toss. In the domestic's competition Suz won the washing clothes and dishwater toss with Hilary in 2nd place then the tides turned and Hilary won the yarn ball winding and knitting competition with Suz getting a 2nd. There were others in the competition honestly! It was all good fun and certainly made for a memorable day.