A Devastating Turn of Events

Sept 9/12

Sept 10/12
THE DAY AFTER :(

On the early evening of Sept 10 (last night) we had a devastating storm rip through our area with winds moving in the 90-100 km/hr speed.  Lots of rain came with it and then the dreaded hail!

The wind shredded the overhang of our train station and knocked off its chimney as it flew to the other side

The mess to clean up, just so thankful it never flew into our house

All that this station has been through and it doesn't survive this!

Heavy blocks of the chimney

Skiing Videos

Jaren practicing his control going through the pylons.


Callan and Jaren practicing their speed as they race each other down the hill. I assure you Jaren did stop before hitting the day lodge! :)

Videos of Jaren Skating

He was starting to get the hang of it after about an hour of being out there.



This was one of our first attempts of the day after the skates were strapped on. He had been with Kevin the night before for about a 1/2 hour trying his hardest to stay on his two feet. He made quite an improvemet by the 2nd day!

Hemaruka Christmas Supper

A couple of weeks ago we had our annual Christmas supper at our community hall. Since there are a few children in our community the kids put on a little play and sang a song for a much appreciative crowd.

A raggy, torn Santa (Jaren)

Our Santa in his tux (any guesses???? :))

......Landen, OF COURSE!!!

One very sleepy Santa (Jaren)

Surfin' Santa (Adam)

Our farmer Santa (Zach)

The "REAL" Santa

Presents from Santa

Jaren scanning the crowd to see who was missing and to figure out who Santa is........he's no longer a believer ;)

Eyeing Santa up VERY carefully!

"Riding My Bike"

Landen FINALLY got the hang of pedalling a bike!! He realized this was a much quicker way to get around rather than "walking" the bike after Jaren! He was so proud of himself!

A Stormy Sabbath

What we woke up to on Sabbath morning...........

The cats got buried in their house in less than 2 hours.

At least we were warm in church.

"Sabbath is a happy day"

Our Sabbath school attendees!

And the storm continues....

A little video of Landen reciting his memory verse.

"Even a child is known by his actions." Proverbs 20:11

Practice Counting :)

We may need to practice a little bit more on the counting part! He loves his 1's and 6's!!

Our Acrobats

What these two monkeys won't do for fun!!! This particular move is called the bottle roll!

Mommy's Helper

One of Landen's favorite jobs to do is to help me wash and spin the lettuce. As soon as he sees the lettuce on the counter to be washed he's pushing up his chair to get in position to be his BIG helpful self!

More From Letniak Christmas

Our little performers

Kaitlyn, Jacob, Jenna, Jaren, Jonathan and Landen

Who's Having More Fun?

Yesterday was an extremely hot and windy day. In the shade it was registering 32 degrees Celsius. So to help us enjoy some of the heat we decided to pull out the pool again. Gotta do it before it gets too cold and turns into an ice rink. So out the pool came, in went then water and I don't know who spent more time in it Jaren or Tori. It was quite the entertainment between the two boys and the dog for quite awhile. I have come to the realization that Keesha, my old girl, is my dog and Tori is definitely turning out to be the kids companion (whom I do everything for!!) . It is so cute to watch her tease and torment the boys endlessly, although the boys do their fair-share of tormenting back!! I sure enjoy having the spirit of a young pup around for the kids but I also love having my senior dog around for my companionship! Dogs are wonderful!!

Tori and Landen

Jaren and Landen filling their buckets getting ready to splash Tori!

Watch if you'd like - they are of Tori and the boys enjoying the pool on a VERY windy, hot, dry day!

...And We're Off!!!!

For the last while Landen has only braved 2-3 steps between the couches or people. My mom and family have been determined to get him walking before we leave here and go home. Landen had his own little agenda though - he figured that he wasn't going to give Grandpa and Grandma the pleasure of having him walk until his Daddy arrived. I guess he figured that Daddy couldn't miss out any of the action.

Now we are off & running

(although crawling still seems to be a lot quicker and much easier everyone!!)

"Tractoring"

For Landen's birthday we bought him a JD tractor like his brother so they could go "tractoring" together. Since we have turned Landen outdoors in this warmer weather this is what he does ALL over the yard. Thankfully I have 2 more eyes to watch him cause he goes quite the distance and manuevers the tractor around like a little pro. Soon he won't need the tractor to support him walking, he'll be motoring on his own.

Landen's New Found Love

As mentioned earlier Landen absolutely goes crazy for someone to talk to him on the phone. This was taken the other day when he was talking to his Grandma Sparks. She didn't know that I was recording it so this may be a little surprise to her. See Mom, he truly does talk!! We may have a business man on our hands who will sit in his office all day making some sort of deal over the phone or he could be our next farmer with a cell phone permanently attached to his ear as he is combining!

Landen and Grandma Sparks' telephone conversation

(04/15/09)

A Real Good Friday

My sister Randi came to visit us this weekend and spend a few days entertaining the boys. They sure enjoy someone else around to play with and "bug" throughout the day besides boring Mom! On Friday we had a fun-filled day with decorating Easter eggs and baking some Easter sugar cookies. We then got to spend the afternoon outside as it was very warm and sunny.

Landen enjoying the "breeze" blowing his hair around as we took in some vitamin D!

It is funny to watch Landen. He has picked up a real infatuation for our telephone. So anything that he sees that even slightly resembles our phone he puts it up to his ear and starts to talk (in hope that someone will talk back to him on the other end). So on our deck he picked up a cord from the electric dog bed and carried on quite the conversation with himself. By the time I was able to try and record it he was done or was always turning away from me! Anyways, I caught a few seconds of him so watch if you want to. Not the best quality!! :)

Fun Times at Galaxyland & the Water Park - West Ed. Mall

Rather than putting the kids through the torture of shopping in the mall for 2 1/2 straight days we broke up each day with something special. The first day we were there we took Jaren to toddler time at the Galaxyland Amusement Park where he got to ride on endless different rides for a couple of hours. Once again his most favorite of all the rides was the Dragon Wagon! The next day for the afternoon we went to the WaterPark and all of us had a blast on the water slides and in the wave pool. Pictured below is The Screamer which I stupidly dared my sister to go on with me and she actually said "Okay, let's do it!" :( So of course I couldn't back down now. It is a slide that has a drop of about 84 ft - let me tell you I sure won't be running up those stairs to do that one again anytime soon! I'm just glad that I could find my swimsuit once I was spit off of that thing!!! I'm getting too old for these dares - next time I'd better keep my mouth shut! ;)

So here are a some pictures of our time at the park - I can't wait to see my family again and create more wonderful memories! It was fun! Till next time!

These are a few pictures of Randi and I literally dropping from the sky on The Screamer - Randi's on the slide to the right and I'm the one on the left!

Our Mr. Chatty and the Dancing Machine

Landen & Mommy

This morning Landen was in such a happy chatty mood that I had to grab my camera and try to record some of his conversation and delight.

Once again sorry about the quality - one of these days I will figure out how to download from our actual video camera. At least you get the idea if you choose to watch! :)

Then Jaren was in a great mood today as well and was my little dancing machine - Sabbath is such a wonderful day when we are able to get refreshed for the next week ahead. I think we were well rested and refreshed yesterday from the way the boys were acting today! I am soo thankful for EVERY Sabbath!

A Little Bit of Talkin'

This is just a little video I took with my camera of Landen talking, cooing and smiling a bit (the quality isn't the best but it gives you the idea!!). Each day it gets more and more - it is so wonderful to be interactive with him and have him recognize me and my voice. They grow way too quickly!

Our Own Chatty Cathy

When Jaren plays he is ALWAYS non-stop talking so I thought that I would try to capture a quick moment of our chatty fella. He is 27 months old now and it just amazes me with the conversations that we are able to have with this little person. Life in all is such a miracle!

(I apologize for the qualitly of the clip - I still have not figured how to download videos from our actual video camera. This was just taken with my little digital camera)

Because I Am the Mom

Too true - for all you mom's out there I'm sure that you can relate! Enjoy!