Hello everyone and Happy New Year (sorry that I am a little late with this greeting),
I feel like every time I update the blog that I am apologizing for it taking so long for me to do so. Time just seems to fly by and before I know it another month has gone by. In this case, it is not just one month but three. Eeekks. Therefore, this is quite a long blog with tons of photos. Last year, I started printing off my blog posts in a hardcover book, so this has now taken place of me printing off all of the photos that I have taken. I do this blog for all of you but also for us as a family to have a hard copy of our memories.
First of all I have included some photos from back in December. Below are some pictures of the girls at their school holiday performance.
In Sienna's class they each made gingerbread houses and then had to talk about what they made to all of the parents (another opportunity for them to public speak).
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| Sienna after a basketball game |
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| our Christmas wreath at 310 Lighthouse Road |
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| Sienna loses another tooth |
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| at the airport in Santa Barbara for our trip to Ontario |
Christmas in Canada. We spent the first part of the holidays with the Spence side of the family.
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| fun with cousins Finley and Adelle |
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| Christmas Eve |
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| spreading reindeer sparkly dust on Christmas Eve |
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| Christmas Eve pjs |
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| Christmas morning |
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| meringue making tradition that the girls do with their Nana |
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| having fun on the tree swing |
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| stone from the farm that Mom/Nana had engraved for Dad/Papa |
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| snowball fight |
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| walk on the farm |
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| Sienna refuses to walk one more step :) |
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| Jaeda looks almost as tall as Nana |
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| Nana and the girls having a race (Sienna got her second wind) |
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| back to London to see Grandpa and Grandpa Then back to Stratford for Ewen, Andrea and the kiddies' arrival  |
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| Uncle Ewen started a game where everyone would run through the snow and get back into the hot tub.....BRRRRRRR |
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| sledding at the farm |
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| sledding at Central High School (btw...it was so good to bump into you Mark there at the hill...thanks for helping push our sleds and that was before you even knew it was us) |
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| we walked out to the woods and went to the special place where we had buried Papa's ashes |
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being in the shed....so many memories Dad/Papa  
Back in Santa Barbara.....January 2013.....view from our bedroom balcony. 
Patrick and I went to the Santa Barbara Film Festival at the end of January. We went to see Ben Affleck get an award for Argo. Matt Damon flew in to present him with the award.
 
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| Ben and Matt |
First Friday in February celebration
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| Super Bowl party at a friend's house I received an email from a friend about this amazing Daddy/Daughter camping weekend through the Y. Unfortunately, within 1 1/2 hours the adventure turned into a bit of a disaster. Patrick called me at 6pm to say that the road he was supposed to turn onto was barricaded off. It turns out that there was a snow storm, so people couldn't make it up the mountain. We talked about him coming back to Santa Barbara but he said the girls wanted to stay in a hotel and try the road again in the morning. They drove to Ojai and had a fun night sleeping at the hotel. They attempted the journey again but it was still blocked off. Patrick decided to try it anyways. Fortunately, he did make it through and made it to the cabin. On the Saturday, they went sledding and played all sorts of winter games with the other families. On Sunday morning I got a call from Patrick to say that everyone had left the campground and he had a flat tire. I tried calling a local service station but they said the road was too snowy for them to try to get to them. I then called AAA and in the meantime, Patrick called to say that 2 guys had come out of the main lodge and had tried to help him change the tire but they couldn't get it off. Fortunately, AAA said they would send someone and try to make it through. Patrick called and the girls were crying, so he told me to start driving to Frazier Park, in case the tow truck couldn't get in (not sure what I was going to do once I got there, if the tow truck couldn't even get to him). Anyways, I started driving. In Ventura (30 minutes away) he sent me an email, saying to pull over because the tow truck said he thought he could get through. He then called to say that the truck couldn't get through but the guy walked in. Patrick said the guy came over the hill wearing a short sleeved shirt and carrying a tool box. Fortunately, the guy was able to get the tire off and change it. The 2 guys that were still at the campground agreed to follow Patrick out, in case he got stuck (especially with the spare tire on). Patrick said it was a treacherous but they made it out. He then had to go to a local gas station and have them put a proper tire on for the drive back home. He kept saying, "why would be live in California and want to go anywhere with snow?" I am quite certain he would be embarking on this type of adventure anytime soon :)     |
We had our dear dear friends the Jen, Chad and Jen come to see us. Chad also brought along one of his lovely colleagues from work, who he was going to a conference in San Diego with. We had a fabulous time together!!!! It was so nice to have friends here from home (Waterloo) to show them our new home. Thanks for being the first set of our Canadian friends to make the trek to Santa Barbara. We loved having you here!!!
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| dinner at Lucky's in Montecito |
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| dinner at the Plough and Angel (San Ysidro Ranch) |
We got to Ellen in time and fortunately, we had been running a bit late so that when we got there, the chairs were all taken We got our VIP passes and decided to stand until they called our names. This worked to our advantage because we ended up being the 3rd set of people in line. It was an amazing experience; way better than I can even had imagined. Funny part of us going is that I had never even watched the Ellen Show. Since I hadn't watched it before, I didn't know that if you sat in the second row that it was the row that she dances down. Fortunately, we did get to sit in the second row but unfortunately, she didn't dance down it that day. The highlight of the whole day was to see both Jens so happy and excited to be there, especially Jen Beaupre since going to see Ellen was on her bucket list.
Here is a photo of us that someone took when they watched the show aired on tv the next day. If you go to her website and go to past episodes, we were there the day of Melissa McCarthy and Jacki Weaver (February 6th). The girls have watched in many times and according to them, the Jens and I are seen on the show 10 times.
We then went to Grauman's Chinese Theatre in LA to watch some stars arrive and walk down the red carpet for the movie premiere of 'Safe Haven'.
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| Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough |
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| Julienne Hough |
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| Fergie |
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| Derek Hough |
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| Colbie Caillat |
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| Cobie Smulders |
Jen, some friends from school and I hiked Romero Canyon.
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| Jenny and I at 'The Boathouse' at Hendry's beach for breakfast |
Saturday morning boot camp
Some photos of Sienna at basketball
Jaeda's 1st Crane School class trip (Cachuma Lake)
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| Jaeda with her new braces |
Valentine's party at school
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| the monkey bar girls RinCon for the annual surfing competition (Jen N.....you should have been there)!!!   |
Out on the Double Dolphin for a boat cruise to celebrate a friend (who happens to be from England) getting her American citizenship.
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| a few seals hanging out |
Jaeda had her second school trip to Anacapa Island. It was an incredible trip except for the swells for the first 10 minutes. I have never experienced anything like that in my life!!! The unfortunate part of the trip was that my camera got soaked just as we got to the island. They took us from the bigger boat to the island on smaller boats. One of the other parents and I were on the last run and a wave came over the back of the boat and totally drenched us. Unfortunately, my camera is wrecked and is still at the camera doctor (thank goodness I took insurance out on it a few months ago) but fortunately, my sd card was okay so I do have the photos from the first part of the day. We did get to see whales on our way home but I wasn't able to take any pictures.
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| a bunch of lazy seals or sea lions (still can't tell the difference) |
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| beautiful pelicans |
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| the girls looking at the swell coming our way |
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| we saw hundreds of dolphins |
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| think this is a sea lion |
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| Jaeda and her small group looking for sea anemones |
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| Sienna at gymnastics My mom came to visit for 3 nights. We had a great visit. Sadly, Patrick's Grandma died. He flew back to Canada for the funeral while my Mom stayed with us. |
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Mom took us to see the Beauty and the Beast ballet. This is them walking through the parking lot. Sienna has become like Jaeda in that she is walking and reading everywhere we go :) lunch at Mollie's (one of our favorite restaurants in Montecito)  lunch at Nordstrom's cafe  walking down State Street  a trip to the BEST ice cream shop in the world-McConnell's Some photos of us at Butterfly Beach      Four Seasons Hotel across from Butterfly Beach Sienna's first school trip to the touch tanks at the University of California-Santa Barbara       a closer look at the braces :)  my Friday morning workout before boot camp (track and the stadium steps)....LOOK AT THAT VIEW....One of my favorites :) Patrick left for China yesterday, so I took the girls to the Polo Club to see about joining, mainly for their pool  Sienna and I went to the park by the University while Jaeda did volleyball 
I am not much of a celebrity follower and it drives my friends that are, just crazy. I don't really know who is who and I could be sitting right next to someone and not even know it. For all of those of you out there that love celebs, this is who we have seen and/or met so far, besides the celebs that I posted photos of above: -Don Johnson (Miami Vice) at the girls' school -Billy Baldwin (Alec Baldwin's brother) at Jeannine's Restaurant in Montecito -Andrew Firestone from the Bachelor....the only season of the Bachelor that Patrick and I ever watched (he and his lovely wife Ivana and I were in a small group for boot camp) -Robert (director/producer of Forest Gump, Back to the Future, Polar Express, Flight and many more) and Leslie Zemeckis (actress and director) -Bob Greene (author/creator of many books including the 'Best Life Diet'. He was formally Oprah's personal trainer) -Ellen DeGeneres and Portia which is the best story. Just 3 days before we went to see the Ellen Show, Ellen and Portia were coming out of a restaurant in Montecito. Jaeda and I went over and introduced ourselves, told her that we were coming to see her show and showed her Jen B's bbm photo that was a photo of Ellen with the countdown of how many sleeps until the show. Some other updates: -back in November my cousin Carrie from Texas was in the area for work, so she came over for dinner. It was the first time the girls had met her and they loved her (not just because she spoiled them with gifts). They always talk fondly and frequently of their "cousin Carrie". The girls desperately want a dog so that also makes Carrie very popular with them, since she has MANY :) -next weekend the Jones family from Upton House School (their daughter was in Jaeda's class) in England, are coming to visit -the following weekend, the Ringrose family from Upton House School and our neighborhood (their daughter was in Sienna's class) in England, are coming to visit -the following week, my cousin Anna from Washington State is hoping to come visit -the girls are now on Spring Break for 2 weeks So as you can see, our life continues to be full but in a fabulous way. We have so much more time together as a family with Patrick not traveling as much and we spend a lot more time on the weekends just on our own. We continue to miss our families and friends from everywhere we have lived but we are very happy here in our new little life. We are super excited about our new house and things are moving along very quickly. The construction started on February 11th when the last of the 5 tenants vacated the property. I (with the help of an amazing designer) have made most of the major decisions at this point (plumbing fixtures, interior/exterior doors, windows, door hardware, fireplace design, hardwood floor, tile, counter tops, appliances, house design, landscape design, lighting design etc...must mention a huge thank you to designers/decorators from home for their help, Monica Heinrich, Erika Friesen and Jen Beaupre for their professional input and also thank you to our friends around the world that have given us so many helpful tips, shared photos with us etc). Right now I am working on the lighting fixtures, paint, cabinet hardware and window coverings. I am including our most recent Picasa photo album to show you photos from the start up until now. It might not be so interesting to many of you but I know that there are some of you who love remodels and are often asking for updates so here it is :) In 6 weeks, the construction company had the house completely demoed inside, framed all of the rooms and other spaces, demoed the back patio and front yard and have installed new water heaters and furnaces. Currently, the electrical and plumbing is all being replaced. Besides a few stressful moments/decisions, I never knew that I would love this process so much. The contractor keeps telling me that they have never worked with anyone so organized and the designer told me the other day that I should be running a company :). Funny but no real surprise to all of you :) I am sure I am secretly driving them all crazy!!! https://picasaweb.google.com/ Anyways, that is all for now. Hope everyone is happy and healthy. Lots of love from the four of us to all of you. xoxoxoxo |
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