Wedding Bells!

I don't know how to describe Kaitlyn and Jordan's wedding day, other than MAGICAL!

 

 Sunne said it best when she exclaimed that no one in Germany will believe that there were butterflies flying in the air and foals frolicking in the field!

 

 

Kaitlyn was the most beautiful bride, along with the two most beautiful flowergirls!

(Julianna and Leighton)

 

 

My Mom was enjoying her last wedding with all her girls!

 

 

The amazing wedding cake was made by Aunty Sylvia!

 

 

All of our DIY projects came together perfectly!

 

 

Just enough of Mom's gladiolus lasted long enough to make it to the tables!

 

 

And to replace party favors we put together a candy table, inspired entirely by Kaitlyn's

sweet tooth!

 

 

 

 Congratulations Kaitlyn and Jordan!

 I hope you live happily ever after and that your fairy tale continues for the rest of your lives!

Love you both!

 

 

 

 

Last Fling Before the Ring!

My sister's wedding was coming up quick, we had just one week left till her walk down the isle and we decided to celebrate it with all of Kaitlyn's friends and family. 

 

To start the festivities we drove west of Spruce Grove to the Pembina River, where we would blow up our tubes/air mattresses and float down the river.....

 

 

 

 

 

Max was the only guy allowed!

(p.s. he didn't actually go down the river with us)

 

 

After a few hours and several spills into the river later, we made it to shore and started our way back to Kaitlyn's.  Here the party got started with some food, drinks, games and colorful attire!

 

 

 

 

 

Here we have(from left to right) 'Miss Fire'(Vanessa Fundytus), 'Miss Behavin'(Vanessa Warawa), 'Future Missus'(Kaitlyn Hoffman), 'Miss Chieveous'(Erin Hoffman), Miss Demeanor'(Myself), and 'Miss Conduct'(Sunne Bull)!

 

 

 

 

It was a great day and the night was even better!  All the girls had an amazing time, including Kaitlyn!  I should know; I was the designated driver and got to make 3 trips back and forth to the house to bring all the girls home!!!  Oh what a night ;)!

 

 

Family Fun

After our last camping trip we had a couple weeks to go before the wedding so we spent all the time we could with our friends and family. 

 

There was time for DIY wedding projects with Casey and Leighton, Uncle John, Kelly, Carter and Abby...

 

 

Slip and Slide with Jace and Jaxon...

 

 

We made a trip to Red Deer, where we visited our friends Liz and Kyle and met their daughter Jade....

 

 

Bonnie Bauer and her daughter Megan even made a trip to the farm to see us.  We got to introduce Max to baby Crosby, who was born on the same day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh Canada....Camping trip #2

I obviously had so much fun camping the first time with Max that I decided to go again!

 

My sister, Kaitlyn, was getting married on August 18th and her very good friend....actually her 'little sister'(Sunne), was coming from Germany to be here for the occasion(Just to offer a little more explanation for those of you who don't know; my sister lived in Germany for one year when she was 18 years old on a Rotary Exchange and she lived there with Sunne's family).  Sunne has been to Canada to visit us once before but it was during the winter.  This time we wanted to show her around and introduce her to some of the summer activities that we do here. 

 

As Kaitlyn and I started brainstorming, a plan came together.  I had been in contact with a friend of mine(Jolene) that lives in Vancouver and she was going to be outside of Prince George at a music festival.  Jasper is almost a half-way point from Mannville so we decided to bring Sunne and meet Jolene in Jasper where we could camp for a few days and see the sights!

 

Just like that we packed up the car and hit the road.  I was a little anxious thinking about how Max would handle another long trip in a confined space, nevermind sleeping in a tent?!?

 

My worry about the car ride was soon laid to rest.  Max handled the 4 hour car ride like a champ and was happy to sleep in his carseat or talk and play with me while Kaitlyn was driving.

 

 

The tent was a different story.  We only spent two nights in Jasper but that was enough because Max woke up screaming at 5am both mornings we were there!  Apparently he was ok sleeping in Mom and Dad's trailer but he's not a fan of the tent:/

 

 

The overall trip was amazing, I am so blessed to have such amazing family and friends!

I think that Jolene, Sunne, Kaitlyn and Max enjoyed themselves too!

And just when we thought the trip couldn't get any better, we saw a Grizzly Bear, a Bull Elk, lots of Mountain Sheep and a Mountian Goat before we left Jasper.

 

 

Vermilion Fair

I haven't been to the Vermilion Fair in years and when I was offerred the opportunity to take my little cousins, Carter and Abby, my niece, Leighton and Max.....I jumped on it!  I remember the fair being a lot of fun when I was a kid so I was excited to see how much fun it would be to watch these kids enjoy it!

This was the spinning, Strawberry ride....I don't think Leighton was feeling as good as Carter!

 

 My sister-in-law, Casey, came too and it was a good thing because it was tough trying to keep track of the three kids that all wanted to do different things.  There was the rides, the petting zoo, face painting and games!  I told Casey it was a good test run to see how many kids I want to have! :)

Grandma Joyce was with us for the whole afternoon and mom managed to sneak away from work early to join us too!

 

 

Oh Canada....Camping trip #1

When we arrived in Mannville, the Mytz farm was going to be our home base until Kris arrived on August 10th.  There was no time to settle in though, because the first weekend we were there we were off to the lake for the annual Warrilow camping trip.

 

We made it to Camp Lake on the thursday and we were staying till sunday!  It was an amazing way to start off our holiday.  All the Aunties/Uncles and cousins were fixated on Max and it was lucky for me because I got a much needed break from carrying him around.  Packing him on three planes over two days was a lot of work!

 

It was also great for me to spend time with my niece Leighton(blonde hair) and my cousin Whitney's little girl, Juliana(curly hair).  They both love to pose for the camera!!

 

We had amazing weather and enjoyed swimming in the fresh water.  The year-long wait till our next camping trip will be too long!

 

Oh Canada....we missed you!

On July 15th Max and I left the Nevis airport and started our journey home to Canada.   We arrived in Edmonton on the 16th. 

Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Kaitlyn were patiently waiting.  For Kaitlyn, this would be the first time she got to hold her nephew!

From here, our travels took us to Spruce Grove where we visited and Max got to meet some of his Aunties and Great Aunties on the Warrilow side.  Then we were off to Mannville.  This is where we would spend the majority of our vacation.  Baba and Gido were happy to see Max again and Auntie B and Jace and Jaxon were even more excited to get to meet Max for the first time too!

 

With more than 5 weeks at home Max and I were looking forward to enjoying the Canadian summer and hopefully some down time to relax.  Little did we know that those five weeks would just be enough time to fit in visits with most of our friends and family, a couple camping trips and a couple weddings!

There's something in the water

Now that Max is a little older, we have been more comfortable taking him out into the Caribbean sun.  It's been a real connundrum because sunscreen isn't recommended for infants under the age of six months but to take my little `ginger` baby into the sun here without it could be called child abuse.  A few weeks ago, we spent a couple hours at the pool with some good friends and Max stayed in the shade the entire time and still ended up with sunkissed cheeks! 

Obviously I had to do something....

But I was curious about the sunscreen so I grabbed my 'baby' sunscreen to see what was in it.  Have you ever looked at the list of ingredients in your sunscreen?  What is Isohexadecane?  Dibutyl Adipate?  Tocopheryl Acetate?  Phenoxyethanol?  Methylparaben?  Ozokerite? and the list goes on and on and on.  When it comes to our groceries we try really hard to eat healthy and when I check the list of ingredients, if I don't know what it is.....then it's probably not good for us.  So I was thinking, why should sunscreen be any different. 

So for now, we will just have to protect Max from the sun ourselves and treat him with some good old Aloe Vera when he needs it.  A little bit of vitmin D is good for all of us.

Here's some pics of us enjoying the sun setting over the Caribbean Sea!

I can`t figure out if Max loves the ocean or he just likes being naked in the ocean

'He's the whitest Nevisian I've ever seen'

I would like to introduce everyone to our little Nevisian baby......Max Avery Poliakiwski.  He was born on April 19th, weighed 6lbs 14ozs and measured 21inches long. 

He arrived safely after a long labor and many thanks go to my amazing friend Tanya and my wonderful husband for helping me through it!  The next few weeks went by in a blur as we were learning how to be parents and trying to share our new bundle of joy with Baba and Gido and Grandma and Grandpa.

Since then, Max has been growing.....

...and growing......

.......and growing!

Max and I have been vernturing out as often as possible here.  We have been to the beach, the pool, out for walks and playing tennis.  The locals at all our regular spots always look forward to seeing Max.  Just this week we were downtown and a local lady walked up to see him and couldn't believe it when I told her Max was born here.  Her exact words were actually "He's the whitest Nevisian I've ever seen!"