Memories of a Year Ago

On a cold, snowy winter night a year ago this week, I received a phone call from my oldest daughter, with tears and fear in her voice. "Mum, the baby is coming, he's six weeks early. Can you come and stay with the boys." Of course, of course. Lloyd was out of town so I was on my own. I didn't even change out of my pyjamas but threw some overnight things in a bag, put on my coat, boots and gloves, and headed out to Lacombe after midnight, an hour and a half away. What else would a mother do?

Jenny's 4 boys (11, 9, 5 and 2) would be all right until I arrived there - they were all in bed asleep. Jenn and Anders had to head to Red Deer to the hospital before I could arrive.

Alberta's highway QE2 is not a pleasant drive in the winter, partially snow covered and dark. Luckily it's 4 lanes all the way. Once I was on the road I realized that no one knew where I was, in case anything happened. I pulled over and called the one daughter who I knew would be up working in the wee hours of the day at this busy time of year. So at least Sara knew what was going on.

I couldn't sleep once I got to Jenn's place and checked on the boys. I lay on the couch waiting for a phone call from Anders. It finally came about 2 hours after I arrived at the house. The baby was born safely and he and Jenny were doing well. Little Jammers (James Anders) was under six pounds, not the robust 8 and 9 pound babies Jenny was used to having, and was put into an incubator right away and hooked up to tubes for feeding and monitoring his breathing and other functions.



Anders got home just as the boys were stirring in their downstairs bedrooms. After talking to me for a minute or two he went down to tell the boys what had transpired while they slept. I heard the low murmur of male voices, then Jonah's excited "You mean he's born already", then a few minutes later "and Grammie's here too". They were an excited bunch that morning. Those boys love babies and were looking forward to having another brother, just not so soon.






I got to see the baby the next day - the first of ours to be premature and a bit sobering to see the tiny little body with tape and tubes on his nose and sprouting from all over it seemed. I was able to hold the precious little boy for awhile...such an emotional time. The prognosis was good from the start though so we tried not to worry too much. The family's main concern was getting him home for Christmas, and he ate and thrived so well that he made it home with a day or two to spare.





And just look at him now - a beautiful 1-year old boy, growing and developing at a wonderful rate with no apparent ill effects of his rush to get into this world. We're so glad you're here Jammers. Happy Birthday precious boy.

Max's Cake

...continued from yesterday...this is Max's robot cake. Very impressive and did it ever taste good. This is the only picture I took of the festivities with my camera. I used Sara's for the rest of the pictures so she'll blog them when she has a spare minute.


Amid all the fun and excitement we almost didn't notice Elly get up and walk clear across the family room floor...all by herself! By the time I noticed, I was frantically trying to get Sara's attention so she could watch her baby that I didn't think to focus and take pictures, even though I had Sara's camera in my hand. I'm sure she'll do it again though. It's so exciting when a baby learns to walk.

Max in the Kitchen

It seems all I've done lately is document grandkids' birthdays. Max's 4th birthday next week will be our last before Christmas. Then it starts again with Kenzie's 6th on Dec. 29. Anyway, I stopped in at Sara's place today just in time to see Max helping make his birthday cake for the party tomorrow. He was so excited to be allowed to crack eggs and mix the cake.


He did a one-handed egg breaking using the lip of the bowl. The other hand got in there pretty quick though.


Then he added the oil ...


...and the water...

And finally he got to use the beaters.

I'll have to take a picture of the finished masterpiece tomorrow. He wants a robot cake so I'm looking forward to seeing what Sara comes up with. Stay tuned.

The Birthday Girl

I didn't have a chance to post these pictures of Elly's birthday celebration with me before heading for Pigeon Lake on Thursday.


This snowman cake was for her family party that I wasn't able to stay for. It was quite impressive.


Elly is the first child I've known who very carefully removed the card from the envelope before getting all involved with the gift.


To save the snowman cake for the party, we put a candle on a cupcake and let her blow it out. Actually, she didn't even try to blow it, but following the example of her big brother's first birthday, she pinched the flame out. Ouch!


She had no problem eating the cupcake though, starting with the frosting of course.


Think she enjoyed it???

Home Again

I got back from the weekend scrapbook retreat at Pigeon Lake a few hours ago. It was every bit as fun as I had expected. The weather was beautiful, bright and sunny with no sign of snow - very rare for this time of year. We arrived on Thursday night and stayed up past midnight laughing and visiting and doing some scrapbooking.

At supper time on Saturday Mickey got a phone call from her husband saying that their daughter-in-law was in the hospital in labor, so she and her daughter Andrea (who was also at the crop) drove back to Edmonton so Mickey could be present when the baby was born. Andrea was back at Pigeon Lake in a couple of hours but Mickey stayed away all night and was back at our retreat working away before Emily and I got up and made our way to the cropping room. Mickey's new 8 lb. grandson, Charlie, was born safely and all are doing well.


Emily and me at our work table.


Two sets of mother/daughters - Emily and Me, Mickey and Andrea.


The birthday girls - Kim (store owner and organizer of the retreat, in pink), Laura Lee, and Amber all had birthdays in the past couple days (it was actually Kim's birthday) so one of the scrapbookers had this cake made for them.



And Santa paid us a visit, handing out treats to everyone. He and I were very well color coordinated.


Some of Emily's wedding layouts. She's doing a lovely job with them.


My main project was a small album for grandson Anson. This will be a Christmas present for him. His mom says he loves looking at pictures of himself so I gathered up a bunch I had and put them together in this album.

It was a great weekend. We've already booked our room at the Inn for the one next October.

Weekend Retreat

I'll be missing Elly's first birthday party today but it just can't be helped. Mickey, Emily and I are headed to Pigeon Lake, about an hour south of town, for a weekend scrapbooking retreat. This will be our third retreat in Pigeon Lake and we look forward to them for months. Lots of preparation is done, deciding what supplies to take, what pictures to work on, packing, etc. Here's some pictures from last year's retreat. There was plenty of snow last November...not so this year...hoping it holds off till after we're home.


The main building of the lodge, where we have a large work room that'll accommodate a couple dozen scrappers and all their attendant paraphernalia. The back wall of the work room is floor to ceiling windows overlooking a large deck and acres of woods.


The second building, where our room is (Emily, Mickey and I always share a room), as well as the spa, hot tub, fireplace lounge, etc.



The townsite - it is very quaint with several good restaurants, one in particular which offers wild game and organic vegetables, free range chicken, etc. Our favorite eating place. There is also a scrapbook store there for those essentials that we might have forgotten to bring, like adhesives. Always fun to browse in when we feel the need to escape the creative mode and stretch our legs.

This is Mickey standing on the boardwalk/bridge between the two buildings.

So you'll have to excuse me if there's not another blog posted for a few days. I'll be enjoying some serious R&R in an idyllic rustic location with lots of like-minded friends. We usually stay up till past midnight scrapping, grab a few hours sleep, then get back at it, taking breaks during the day as we need them. A great way to spend a weekend. See you back here on Sunday night.

You've Come A Long Way Baby

A year ago today Eloise Patricia Hardwicke-Brown joined the family - the third child in her immediate family and the 14th grandchild in the MacKenzie clan.


It's been a busy year for the little girl - she has her own passport and at the tender age of three months made her first international flight to Arizona with her Mom and Grammie. She's a seasoned traveller now, having flown to Kelowna, BC with her Mom and siblings in August.

She also participated in the first MacKenzie family reunion in June where she already was the big cousin to James and Alex.


Now at the ripe old age of one year old, she is a force to be reconed with - motoring around the house, climbing stairs, turning her mother's computer off while Sara's busy working on it, terrorizing the cat, and learning to walk.

Happy birthday sweet girl.