new blog to check out

Be sure to check out Tim's sister's blog at http://www.lisasawatzky.blogspot.com/ It proves to be random and funny and you don't want to miss out. It's also a link called "Auntie Lisa" at the left side of our blog page.

Blizzard at the Thiessen Farm

Tim's Aunt Rosemary and Uncle Russ live in Hepburn, just a little North of Martensville, and gave us some photos of their yard after the blizzard last week. Russ is standing about 5 ' away from their house . It was like the wind made a path around their house and then dumped about 6-12' of snow on the entire yard.
Russ is standing on the ground here. The snow swirled around to be about 8' tall here.
They said it was like cement. You can walk on all of the snow on their yard and not fall through.
They had to have a tractor with a large snow blower thingy come and plow them out.
Making caves in the snow - don't worry, there's no way this tunnel is going to cave in for quiet some time. They had to use a shovel to carve it out because the snow is so compact.

15 year upgrade!

We have had our 91 Chevy Lumina for the past 2 years and it has been a really great car for us. We've done no major repairs and it's never left us stranded! But if you know Tim at all, you know he is always researching cars...fuel mileage, reliability, safety, cool factor... So after months of research, we've decided on an 06 Hyundai Sonata GL. I was fine with our Lumina until I drove the Sonata for a few days and then got back into the Lumina. WOW! The Sonata is pure luxury! It has command start, and remote locks which are my favourite features in the winter. For Tim's sake I'll mention that it has a V6 3.3L engine with 234 HP, ABS and 6 air bags. It looks unassuming but it's really big inside and the trunk is enormous.

Updates

Nadia is doing so well in her bed. She still sleeps through the night and even though she peeps in the early morning she still goes back to sleep until 7:30am. Yeah! I'm so pleased she is doing so well and wow does she ever love her bed. But really, it is too cute! This is the reverse side of her quilt.

Also, I'm now in my 16th week of pregnancy. I'm no longer nauseous and not as tired so I am very pleased to be in the 2nd trimester. A few days ago I felt the baby moving, but nothing more since then. So I guess I get a little more time before I'm an all day jungle gym again. But really, I don't mind. My friend thinks we are having a boy because the baby's heart rate is on the lower end of the scale. The theory has proven accurate for her first 2, but we'll just have to wait and see. (The baby's heart rate was 140) If you have a guess at what we're having, (boy or girl) I'd love to hear.

Blizzard

Yesterday we had a blizzard! All day long it was blowing snow, making white out conditions. In the morning it didn't look too bad, but as the day went on it just got worse and worse. Visibility was about 1 cm. Tim was one of the few who worked a whole day because his friend just got an SUV with 4x4 and he had to test it out. So our car got plastered with snow on 1 side. There was about 10" of snow plastered to the side of our car. Even the engine was coated. I know this because I had to open the hood this morning to find the plug for the block heater. We had such bad drifting snow that some roads were completely impassable. Our friend's road had a drift about 5' high across the entire road. Because of the extreme drifting everywhere, all of the highways surrounding us where closed and 3 of the major thoroughfares were also closed in Saskatoon. You know its extreme when Saskachewanders don't go to work!
This is the tree outside our living room window - plastered with snow. It was really pretty until the wind got stronger and took all the snow back off.
Yesterday was about -25 with wind chill of about -35. Today after we woke up I notice it was -33 and the radio was saying it was -42 wind chill. Yikes! I have no desire to leave the house today!
Here's a photo this morning of across the street. The same direction as the first photo, but this time no blizzard. Our poor car is still sitting there. We finally plugged it in - so maybe it will start tomorrow.

Big Girl Bed

So today we purchased the last piece of Nadia's bed, the mattress. Grandma made the quit, and I made the pillows. Nadia helped to take down her crib and make her bed. She just wanted to lay on it, but then she got into the spirit of putting sheets on. She was really excited about the whole thing...for about an hour, and then she was onto other things. I think she forgot it was there once, because she went into her room and got very excited and shouted, "Ohh, bed". She used to look so huge in her crib and now she looks so small in her bed. She's been sleeping through the night consistently so we hope she doesn't fall out and just wakes up at the regular time tomorrow morning. I am very excited because this means we are 1 step closer to being ready for our new baby! Yeah!

Christmas Highlights

We did our Christmas gift opening on Christmas Eve - because we knew Grandma and Auntie would spoil her. And okay, we gave her 1 on Christmas Adam (the evening before Christmas Eve). Nadia loving her new books. And her ladybug and other insect apron. And really cute clothes.

Nadia loved this blue turtleneck so much she had to wear it right away. And she was very excited to open a kitty cat that looks just like Oma & Opa's kitty. It name is Linnea, so Nadia has shortened it to Nea. And of course, sheer excitement over the new Veggie Tales.

We went to Grandma & Grandpa's place for Christmas day. Nadia opened the red rocking moose first and then she was done! She just wanted to rock. We managed to convince her to open another gift which were the ladybug magnets - 18 of them! So then she had a blast putting them to bed in a little box. You can also see Nadia likes to keep her ladybugs in a row. And the quit Grandma made for Nadia's new bed. She dove onto it and we almost couldn't get her off she loved it so much. Thank you to everyone who gave Nadia so many wonderful gifts.