Birthdays, Spring and Other Things

Hello spring!  How magnificent it is to head outside without having to layer the kids with ski pants, jackets, mitts, toques, scarves and the like.  We have had unusually warm weather here for March - we were warmer then Arizona for a bit this month.  In true Winnipeg fashion, everyone was out in shorts, flip flops and trips for Slurpees were in order.

The kids activities have ended for now - swimming lessons are finished with all three girls moving up to the next level, Danica ended her skating lessons with a surprising pass and Emily wound up her first year of ringette with a terrific wind up party at Kid City.  Soccer starts in a bit and so will the grown up activities of softball and Ultimate frisbee.

Work has been going well - a nice mix of learning new things and process improvement that I have been enjoying so far.  I have also started to make use of the gym facilities at work.  Just before I left on maternity leave, the last of our complete overhaul of our building was finishing up and along with those renovations, came a brand new, state of the art gym was put in.  Three days a week I take part in bootcamps, weightlifting and other various classes that are offered - all for free.  How sweet a deal is that?

Peyton and I both celebrated birthdays a few weeks ago.  It's hard to believe that a year has come and gone.  She has started to move now - I enjoyed her disinterest in getting from point A to point B but I knew that wasn't going to last forever.  She has started crawling and has progressed rather quickly to walking with the help of the furniture (or vacuum cleaner as the case may be) and has tried a few tentative steps on her own as well.  She likes to side shuffle when you are holding her hands too.

We have spent a fair bit of time enjoying our season tickets to the Jets.  How fun it has been to experience the NHL back in Winnipeg.  The atmosphere in the arena is incredible!  We even managed to score some top notch seats that my work was offering and we sat right behind the visitors penalty box.

Here are some shots from Peyton's birthday:

Waking up on our birthday morning.

Gifts from Mommy, Daddy, Emily and Danica.

We are looking forward to spending some much needed time over spring break relaxing and taking a trip for some cross-border shopping and a much needed visit with some of my favorite Americans.  We had our annual camping meeting to plan out our trips with friends this summer as registration opens up soon for that as well.  And of course, we are very much looking forward to heading to this place this summer in Wisconsin Dells for a much needed reunion between us, the Hrehirchuk and Karsten family's.

Time For An Update

Time has flown since I last posted.  We celebrated a wonderful Christmas season with family and rang in the New Year with friends.

We spent a good portion of Christmas Eve day with Greg's family opening up gifts and stockings.  With seven grandchildren and ten adults it can take quite a bit of time to get through it all!  Here are some pictures of the fun we had:

Christmas Eve night we spent at home, read books and put out cookies and milk for Santa.

Christmas Day we went to church, then came home for a quick lunch and my parents came over to open gifts.  That evening, we went to my extended family's for dinner.

 Boxing Day we had family pictures taken with the van Leeuwen side of the family, celebrated my sister-in-law's birthday and had yet another family gathering that evening.

And finally, a few other shots from the month of December:

Little Jackson Zachary made his appearance!

The end of this month sees me returning to work and starting a new position.  I am moving from the external reporting side of things at my company and embarking on a new role that involves internal reporting.  My entire career has involved preparing reports and financial statements for outside parties.  I have proven to myself that I can do this type of work and it is time to branch out and create a more well-rounded resume.  I have accepted the position of Manager Promotional Pricing and Rebate Recovery.  In a nutshell, I will be responsible for the collection and recording of almost $30million dollars a year of revenue.  I have been charged with learning this new role and then improving it by creating new processes and systems to bring it into the new millennium.  Big job but a great resume boost.  Greg will be taking on the challenge of staying home with the girls for the last three weeks of my paternity leave.  It's going to be a great opportunity for both him and the girls to be able to spend some quality time together and I think it might even give both of us some appreciation for what it is like to be in the others shoes!