Merry Christmas!

One of the blogs I follow has a Christmas letter blog. I thought it was a great idea, so I hope she doesn't mind me using her idea (thanks Sarah). I am also not organized enough this year to mail out cards. So here is our Christmas card/blog/letter/message to you out there...



Merry Christmas! This year has been a roller coaster for us. It started out with the privilege of caring for my Aunt Carolyn who was very ill. Emerson and I spent 3 days a week with her for a total of 5 months. At the time it felt like so much time out of our busy lives but now it feels like it wasn't enough. She passed away in May. I miss her terribly and think about her everyday. She was a beautiful person and I consider her to be my second mom. So the first half of the year was really spent with her.

The second half of the year has been settling into a new home. We had been feeling that a move was in our future for probably the last 2 years. The crime in the area we were living in was rising and I wasn't happy with the school district we were in. We wanted to do some upgrading to the the house before we put the house on the market, as the market is not great for selling right now in Calgary. We thought it might help make our house stand out from others. In January Dean's jeep was stolen right off our driveway. We knew then that that was our clear indication that we needed to make a move. So we worked like mad horses to paint and get the house ready to sell. Dean's mom came for a visit and we put her to work painting and changing light fixtures. The house never looked better - I kept thinking: "why didn't we do this sooner, so we could enjoy it more!" Well the house went up on a Thursday afternoon and by Friday evening it was sold. We had just under a month to find another house and so by the following Monday we had found our new home. Definitely feel that God's hand is in our lives. We now live 25 minutes east of Calgary in a 'hamlet' called Langdon. It has 1.5 schools. A post office, a doctors office, a dental office a couple restaurants and a bakery. We are really enjoying it here. Dean loves the piece and quiet and I love the sense of safety and community out here. Emerson loves the back yard. Most of the house lots are built on 1/4 acre lots - so lots of yard. The previous owners left their wooden play set in the backyard, which is great fun for him. On the first evening we arrived as we were sitting at the table eating our pizza Emerson pointed out the window and said: "Can I play at the park?" :) The house needed and still needs a little TLC. Dean's summer was busy building new front steps and doing minor repairs around the house. I built and planted a small flower garden in the front, which was so fun - we'll see if they all come back next year :)


Dean is now a scout leader for the 12-13 year old boys. Scouts Canada is the program the boys follow at their weekly meetings. He is enjoying the activities and is looking forward to some summer camps. Dean has a bit of 'cleaning up' to do but always has entertaining stories to share when he comes home from the activites. He has pulled out the smoker BBQ quite a few times this summer. One of our favorites was a 'bacon bomb' he made this summer - just what it sounds like... bacon, pork and sausage. Delicious!


Emerson turned 3 in November. We had a space themed party for him and invited a few of his little friends over. Someone asked him the other day how old he was. He replied: "I'm 3. I just had a birthday!" The person then asked: "What was your favorite present that you got?" Emerson thought for a second and replied: "I had all my friends there... there was Sophie and Caleb.... and Brenna and Clayton... and Christopher too." He is a social butterfly - loves nothing more than to play with friends. He is excited to start school. We thought we would start him in January but with the new baby coming and still trying to iron out the potty training I think we'll wait until September. He loves playing with the other children at church and we are sure to have frequent play dates with his friends - hopefully that will stave him off until September :) He is a very smart little boy. Loves counting and singing the ABC songs. Dad has been teaching him a nice repertoire of jokes. His favorite one to tell is "Why'd the chicken cross the road?"


I of course have been busy growing a baby. I am very happy to be pregnant again and the baby appears to be growing well. I'm excited to have a little baby around again. I miss the gentle cuddles a baby brings. Those opportunities are fleeting with Emerson these days - usually only when he gets hurt or isn't feeling well. I am able to keep my hours at work part-time, working only 2-3 evenings (or weekend days) per week. I really like the people I work with and feel grateful for the convenience of the job. I'm looking forward to mat-leave though - it will be nice to have evenings with Dean at home and return to relaxing Saturday mornings.


Anyway, Merry Christmas! The scripture I have been thinking a lot about this year is Luke 2:14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." We hope you feel peace and are able to offer (and receive) some good will this Christmas season!


Love From,
The Doll Family.

We've got a bun in the oven!

Yup that's right... ETA March 2012. No baby bump photos yet but hopefully soon. I don't tend to look pregnant until much later than most lovely looking pregnant woman. I think that I just look like I've eaten too many donuts or something. We are pretty excited to meet our new family member!

As a side note I convinced a friend to come over and help me make homemade buns today. First time ever making them and they turned out beautiful, if I do say so my self. I'm so proud! Of course if I try to make them on my own again they probably won't turn out so well, right?.

Golly... it's Halloween!

Here is our little Mickey Mouse. Dean tried to teach him to talk like Mickey. Saying things like "Golly" and "Gee-wees" or laugh Mickey's little laugh. His naturally high pitched voice helped.

It was homemade costume of course and had a skeleton twist to is - more for dad though. Dad thought he should be a Jedi, or a Transformer or Superman. My response was that he doesn't even know who those characters are yet! Anyway here are some photos from Halloween night.



It was pretty tough to get decent pictures of Mr. Mickey here. He was too excited to stay still I think. Here are a series of photos. I'll let you decide what I was telling him... I think the facial expressions are pretty self explanatory...

This is what most of the pictures ended up looking like...

Finally he holds still and agrees to keep the costume on...

Examining his loot at the end of the night...

See Ya Later Sis

My little sister moved out to Prince Edward Island last month. We did some quick family photos before she left. Here is a silly one of my sisters and I...

Saskatoon Berry Picking

In August a sister in our ward told us she had 5 acres of saskatoon bushes and welcomed us out to pick as much as we wanted. Dean took Emerson and met another family in our ward to go berry picking one night while I was at work. They brought home 2 gallons!! So now we have lots of berries in the freezer for pie and Dean made 8 jars of jam - all on his own! Not really a surprise to those of you who know Dean. He is much better in the kitchen than I am. Although this summer I did can peaches and make strawberry jam (and both turned out successful).

Anyway as you can see Emerson had fun cleaning up after getting dirty that night...

Emerson's 1st Camping Experience

So we decided to take Emerson camping for the first time this summer. Dean and I love to camp. We've gone at least once every summer since we were married. We usually bring our bikes, a good book and lots of yummy campfire food. We love to camp in Kananaskis at the Peter Lougheed Provincial Park. Its got lakes, is only 1-2 hours away from home and has lots of trees. The down side is that because its in the mountains the weather is unpredictable and it gets really cold at night.

When Emerson came along camping somehow seemed very intimidating. We thought we'd brave it though. I'll make a long, cold, wet story short: a trailer is a must for our next camping adventure. Emerson had a blast though. His favorite thing to do was throw rocks in the lake. We brought his little mickey mouse stuffy and he carted him along every we went. He also enjoyed sleeping with mommy and daddy in the tent at night. And reading bedtime stories by flashlight. As you will see by the pictures it didn't rain for the whole 4 days... only for about the first 2 days (which was more than enough in my opinion).


Braving the rain and cold to go throw rocks...

A glimpse of blue sky one evening...

Warming up by the fire with none other than Mickey Mouse...

We drove into Banff National Park to try and attend church on Sunday. Traffic into the park was insane and the parking in town was even more insane. We didn't end up making it in time. So we decided to not let our $20 fee, to get into the park, go to waste and went for a walk and had a picnic lunch that we had brought. These are some pictures when we stopped by the Falls...

He was crazy about smores...

Hanging out with Mickey in the cup holder...

Nanton Days Pictures

Here are a few of the pictures from our trip to Nanton and the Museum. You can read the previous post about Small Town Days fro a little more info...

Excited...

Waiting intently....

Covering his ears while still trying to hold onto the bag of popcorn...