The boys have landed.

So its official. Dayton and I are foster parents. We have Kolby and Austin living with us full-time now. So big changes in the English house. I have now been over run by boys. One of my favourite times with the boys is Family Home Evening. The boys love my drawings, which are seriously bad, but they love to see the Bible stories by pictures. Its a competition after the lesson to get to keep my drawings. Only kids would like them. The games are also fun. Tonight we decorated ceramic animal banks. Trying to teach the boys to save money.

Kolby is the chicken, Austin the cow, me the sheep and Dayton is the bull. Fun times! One of my favourite things about the summer was seeing my family. Camellia, JP, Olivia, Jack and bump came to play with us all for three weeks.

We had the kids come and have a sleep over at the house, we went to the beach, we went to the corn maze, we watched a movie outside under the stars, we fed ducks and we laughed!

For Graham, I finally found the Wicksteed Park of Calgary. We went to Calaway Park. My little sister Sophia had never gone to a fairground before so was VERY nervous on the rides. Luckily we had Austin who was also not a daredevil so we let Steph take Kolby on all the fast rides while the nervous people handled the kiddies rides. We lined up for an hour for the Log Ride. Austin was not so keen on going on it but we convinced him he would be ok. So all six of us crammed into the log. That was when he saw that he had to go up. The tears, screams and nerves kicked in and I had to hold him tight and talk to him about how he couldn't get off the ride now, when suddenly we went down, the water came up and so did Austins laughter! In his journal he now claims this was his favourite ride.

So I have discovered that I have sooooo much to write but so little time as Dayton is anxious for some attention. So in other news which I will just gloss over:

Jeannette is pregnant with number 2! Yay! So excited to be an aunt again. She joins Camellia who has her third child being born in December. I should be an aunt again this month when my sister in law, Dayna gives birth. Daytons Dad had a birthday so we went and celebrated with the family, although we are going out this weekend for Beatlemania with him. Dayton and I enjoyed our front row seats at The Lion King! It was absolutely fantastic! We went to Globalfest which is a fireworks competition to music. Think I am drying up.......apart from one last topic! Sod!

Our house is also coming along very nicely. We got sod. Never thought I would get excited about grass but the thought of snow and mud was not appealing to me, so Dayton and I have planted bushes and shrubs to make our garden look pretty. Anyway till next time, take care!

Time Out for Graduating and Moving.

So after years of studying, stressing, debt, essays, exams and trying to balance work and school, Dayton finally graduated! Yay! The bagpipers led him in for the ceremony and his Mom, Dad and I sat and clapped when his name was called out. So happy and proud of him. His parents took us out for lunch to celebrate which was really nice as well. Dayton's Dad has a very dry sense of humour which always makes me laugh so I always enjoy hanging out with him. It's all over, at least I thought it was, but the studying, stressing, debt, essays, exams and trying to combine work and school start again in October as Dayton got accepted into a Masters program in Communication at Royal Roads in Victoria, BC.

Time Out for Woman was in Edmonton this year. So way back in December I was wondering what to get my Mum for a gift when I read the Time Out for Woman email and the Bruce Girl Road Trip was born! The highlight was Sheri Dew. She was incredible. So we all left inspired and enlightened. I seriously love, love, love being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I love that its a gospel that encourages you to learn and improve yourself. Told Dayton to get ready for next year as they are planning on doing a Time Out for Couples and that we will be there. :)

So we moved to Silverado. We both are VERY happy with our new home. It has tonnes of windows, so lots of natural light. I love my hard wood floor and the fact that I have lots of room. We had some amazing and fantastic people come and help us move and my favourite comment of the day was one of the Spanish guys say to my Dad, 'How does it feel to have a daughter living the dream?' I really do feel like it is a dream. After so long of living in suitcases, moving around and renting it feels so great to have my own temple here in Canada. We have lots of work to do. Fences, sod and furniture etc... but I am loving working with Dayton at making a place that people love to come to and that Dayton and I can relax in. Very excited for my little visitors Olivia and Jack in August. :)

So all the other exciting things that has happened so far is, I went to my Coldplay concert. It seriously was the best concert I have ever been to! They were amazing. Father's Day was great too, talking to Graham and Fay over in England! I really, really, really can't wait to meet my adorable and very cute nephew Jakob. Anyway got to go and watch America's Got Talent.

Alison in Wonderland

Has it really been two months since we last wrote? Crazy! So much to tell as well. So make sure you are comfortable for the epic entry.

So Dayton and I decided that we needed to get a little more cultured. So I found a great deal on tickets for Alice in Wonderland, the ballet. Neither of us has seen a ballet before so it was going to be a new experience for us both. Although I discovered that Dayton is going to get an experience that he had not quite counted on.

On chatting with a couple of my friends, I mentioned the ballet and how I had picked one that we knew the story too so that we could follow along, when Dayton commented, "We can follow along with the words." We all looked at him to see if he was kidding but alas, he was not. Dayton was not impressed that he would have to watch people speak to us through movement. :)

I made up for the ballet experience when I got us free tickets to see the Flames in a play-off game. Dayton is as crazy about hockey as my brother Graham was about football (soccer). So I was shocked that this was the first time that he had ever gone to see a play off game. I wish I could have gotten him tickets to see his team, the Canucks play, maybe one day........ the Flames won the game.

Dayton and I were best friends before we were married and so its hard sometimes not to include him on nights out. Girls nights ban him from coming out though. When you leave a country behind you not only lose some of the familiar sights and sounds that you are used to but you leave behind friendships that mean the world to you. Facebook helps you keep up to date with their lifes but things do change. I seem to have lucked out and found friends like I had in England only with accents. :0) Good food, good friends and good times!

Well we did it! We have passed the year mark of being married! I felt like a Princess with my Prince on the day that I got married and Dayton has managed to make me feel that way ever since. Dayton is romantic, caring, funny, selfless and very lovable. We decided not to do gifts for each other as we both really wanted to go and see the Lion King and so that was going to be our gift to 'us'. So we got up VERY early and lined up at the theatre for tickets. What a way to start an anniversary, we got front row tickets, saw some great friends at the theatre, got free breakfast and a free Lion King CD. The rest of the day we relaxed before going out for dinner. Now adding anniversaries as another of my favourite celebrating days.

Happy birthday to me! I love Birthdays! Dayton always gets nervous about getting me gifts but he won me over! Got me tickets to go and see Snow Patrol and Coldplay. On the countdown to the concert now. So I had a lot of birthday wishes and cards and gifts and appreciated each one! Thank you!

April is always the month that I seem to reflect on what is important to me and how I can improve, maybe because its Easter and its the month that I realise that I have been given so much. Dayton and I have been looking after Amanda's foster children on occasional weekends. In April we got the chance to have them for a full week. We survived. They are two very sweet boys who bring us a lot of noise, chaos, laughter and teaching moments. Colby and Austin always make me appreciate parents who are fantastic. I count my parents as my best friends. I know I did and still can rely on them. Families are great! I love my family so much that I moved all the way to Canada to be near them and got the blessing of meeting Dayton and adding to my family. Home to me is where family is. Dayton has a great family as well. Some have made me feel like I am a sister to them and for that I am very grateful. Got to go and celebrate Easter with the English's decorating eggs. Fun!

It was a busy week with the boys. The boys were in day camp and so were slightly tired when they came home but I think one late night and a trip to the zoo managed to exhaust them and us. We took the boys out to my parents for Easter and as always my Mum did a fantastic dinner, yorkshire puddings and all and then we feasted on chocolate. Hmm. I think my favourite moment with the boys was Austin making me a bracelet. I had to wear it everywhere. He was very proud of his efforts

Anyway I had better end my epic tales right now as I have more to write but will need to do it later. Going to encourage my sister to get the blog going now! Surely you must have come up with a title. Fay, my beautiful sis-in-law, we need more Jakob news! Its been a while.

Rankin Valentine

lol! So we wrote this post a while ago and forgot to post it! Whoops! What a great week we have just enjoyed! Alison had a friend who gave us free tickets to go and see the Rankin Family. Alison had never heard of them but accepted the tickets. It was a concert that was being filmed for a DVD so you never know, we may appear on the DVD. It was a fun night with great singing and Irish dancing.

Dayton's sister Amanda gave us a chance to go to Canmore for the romantic weekend for free. Our hotel was fantastic! With us both still suffering from bad backs from the accident it was brilliant to relax in the outdoor hot tub with the snow falling around us. Dayton had sent Alison Cookies by George to Alison's work as a surprise Valentine treat so we had lots of goodies to eat on our weekend. For Valentine's evening, we went out to an English style pub. Made Alison a little homesick but we both enjoyed the fish and chips supper!

Alison and Amanda (Dayton's older, wiser and fantastic sister) also went to see the movie, Shopaholic! Alison has read all the books and loved them but Alison would say that although the movie was cute it was a disappointment if you have read the book. They certainly changed lots of it!

Win box seat smash

So January started as a great month. Waking up in the Jacuzzi suite room on January 1st, which we would highly recommend for any time of the year. Alison got another phone call letting her know that she was a contest winner. We had gone to the Calgary Zoolights and entered the draw for a ride in a hot air balloon and Alison won. So we are planning on being up in the sky in the summer time when we get to take advantage of sun and a view of Calgary's greenery; not snow. We are both very excited about that!

Then Dayton got tickets through work to a Flame's hockey game where we were lucky enough to get box seats! Wow, the food and drink flow in them. We hardly watched any of the game as we chatted and ate our way through the evening. The Flames won against Hilary Duff's boyfriend's team (Mike Comrie) the Islanders (Dayton was secretly upset about this, being a Canucks fan)!

Then to end the month we tried to do a good deed. Stephanie (Alison's sister) was heading to San Fran for a month and needed a ride to the airport so we offered to help. Our vehicle was packed and ready to go. For the first time in our married time together, Dayton suggested going to the mall. Not for shopping though, his work had students in the mall with displays so we all decided to go there before the airport.

When we were stopped at a red light we heard a huge bang. Then we were suddenly hit and thrown forward. Dayton was sensible enough to keep his foot on the brake so that we did not go into anyone else. The rest was a blur. Fire trucks, ambulance and police all attended us. Dayton was taken away by ambulance. Alison spent what felt like ages hanging around the crash scene as police reports were written up for the three car crash. Richard and Jeanette Bruce came and rescued Steph so that she could still catch her plane. So January 31st evening was spent lying on our couches nursing sore necks and backs.

So February is shaping up to be a month of insurance wars. Stay tuned...

Two weeks in three paragraphs! (Hopefully)

Sophia turned 9 on the 23rd of December. The English family had their gingerbread house gathering that evening, so Christmas Eve became a double celebration. All the Bruce family that live in Canada came to our little house and we ate birthday cake, read the nativity, sang 'Happy Birthday' to Sophia, watched her open her gifts and then we all opened our Christmas gifts. Then because we had all eaten too much we all watched The Grinch before all retiring to our respective homes to rest for Santa visiting us.


Dayton's Mom had kindly made us matching stockings which we hung on our fireplace until Santa filled the stockings with lots of goodies! Christmas Day was lovely. We spent it with the English's. We got so many gifts! New shirts, coats, chocolates, DVD's, CD's, cookbooks and tupperware. Boxing day was equally as nice. We went to the Bruce's for a roast dinner. Hmmmm! Dayton is starting to get addicted to the Yorkshire puddings. Alison's Mum's cooker caught on fire on Christmas Day but she still managed to create a dinner that we all loved.



Happy New Year! Dayton had come home one day going on about a competition that he had to email in his New Year's resolution, which was 'to balance his life better'. Alison felt this was a boring answer and that no radio station would make that answer the winner. So she emailed in that her New Year's resolution was 'to laugh more' and she definately laughed more when she won! So for New Year's, we won the Presidential Suite at The Executive Royal Inn for a night, complete with a jacuzzi. It also included tickets to a Western Ball, so Dayton and Alison got to two step in the New Year with Alison's cowboy boots. The surprise of the night was that Alison's Aunt and Uncle Angela and Andrew also went to the dance so it was fun catching up! The best part of the New Year was toasting it in with our sparkling apple juice in the jacuzzi! So thats it for 2008! It's Family Home Evening night so its time to make the goals for 2009. Be better bloggers is one of them of course. We are really enjoying reading our family and friends' blogs and keeping up to date with you. We wish you all the best for 2009!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas......

Fashion is completely out of the window now that the weather is being so crazy! So this is our constant look when outdoors. But the weather has not stopped us from having a great weekend and starting to feel the excitment of Christmas. (And for Alison's family reading this - you may not see her blue jacket much longer, as one of the presents that she is not supposed to be aware of is a new winter coat.)

So we had the joy of having the missionaries from church over for dinner on Friday. Because of the extremely cold freezing weather we are enjoying, they were allowed to stay at our house a little longer than normal. So Alison enjoyed reminiscing about her service in the Scotland, Edinburgh mission with the Elders. The Elders just enjoyed the fact that they had someone who talked a lot and that they were not knocking doors in the minus conditions.

Then Saturday, it was our Christmas present to Dayton's parents. Mother Tuckers, an English family favourite for resturants was booked and we all went and enjoyed the "cold" salad bar and the great dinner (The cold was a play on words! Outside did feel warmer than the first seat we sat at, until we finally got moved!). We had purchased box seat tickets to go and see Robin Hood and his Merry Men at the theatre. It was a great production and hopefully the parents enjoyed the night and the company.

So tonight, we were blessed to be reminded what the season is all about as we went to the Nativity Pageant. Airdre Stake are putting it on this year and we were hoping to see Dayton's brother Anton, who was one of the important carpark attendants, but as always we just missed him! Its so lovely to be reminded of the humble birth and sacrifice that occured to start our Saviours life in this world. Once we got past the -30C that we stood and watched the pageant in, we felt the warmth of the spirit reminding us, how blessed we are to have a testimony of Christ. To know that this season is not just a day but a lifetime of trying to become like Him with His help. He is our salvation!