House, Baby Steps, and Cousins

Our mortgage was approved, and so we'll be moving into our new house in Picture Butte at the end of April. We've already paid our last rent check, and now we get to make mortgage payments instead, which will be cheaper than the rent we were paying here in Three Hills.

In other news, Alex has taken his first steps. He started walking a week ago today. He's still shaky, and his record is six steps before going down, but we're pleased that he's getting there. He has also mastered the art of climbing onto furniture. Unfortunately, we don't have pictures of him doing either. All I have is this picture of him trying to climb onto a trunk:After several failed attempts at potty-training Kenny, he decided all on his own today that he was going to start peeing in his potty. He successfully peed twice in the potty this afternoon.
Earlier this week, we got a visit from Jenn, Anders, and the boys. They had been in Drumheller looking at the dinosaur museum, and they stopped in for dinner and a visit on their way home. Kenny had fun with Micah, Alex had fun with James, and Jonah, Sam, and Nathan had fun with Rock Band 2. It's always fun to see babies play with each other. It's not often Alex gets to hang out with someone his own age.

Alex

Yesterday was Alex's first birthday. We celebrated with homemade pizza and store-bought cake (I was at work all day; no time to bake).
Here's Alex enjoying his pizza.
Here he is blowing on the cake after the candle had already been blown out by his brother and father. He enjoyed the cake very much. Here is a series of pictures illustrating how much he enjoyed it:
After a quick bath, we gave him his presents. He got a Cars pillow from Kenny and a toy phone from Avril and me.
In other news, Avril spent last week down south looking for a house to buy in Picture Butte. Our mortgage broker said that we should be able to get a mortgage up to $170,000. We made an offer on a 1/2 duplex, and the offer has been accepted and the contract signed. Now we're just waiting for the mortgage to be approved. The house needs a lot of work (new shingles, new flooring upstairs, new appliances, new windows), so we're trying to get a little extra money on the mortgage to cover those costs. We're paying $138,500 on the house itself.

Picture Butte

I spent last week down in Picture Butte for what Dad calls a "job audition." And the audition went well. I awed them with my grant-application-writing skills, and they offered me a job as Assistant Administrator. (No, not Assistant to the Administrator.) Picture Butte is a nice little town 20 minutes north of Lethbridge, and the town's staff is fairly small. They have a great bakery, and a good golf course. I start May 11. Since I was offered the job, Avril and the boys have stayed down south to look for a place to live. If we can buy a place, that'll be great, but I've been told that banks these days won't give you a mortgage until you've been working at your current job for six months, so we'll probably end up renting Mum and Dad's retirement house in Lethbridge until we're allowed to buy. In the meantime, I'm living like a bachelor if bachelors had nice family houses. This involves eating poorly, playing Rock Band 2 really loud, being lonely, and sleeping great. Most of this week will actually be spent at the Local Government Administrators Association convention in Red Deer, anyway.

Pictures from Internship Wrap-Up

I received a bunch of pictures today from Alberta Municipal Affairs from the Internship Wrap-Up session.
The interns at the Alberta Legislature Building


The interns with Deputy Minister Ray Gilmore


Me receiving a certificate from Deputy Minister Gilmore

Internship Wrap-Up

After work last Tuesday, we went up to Edmonton for the last of three conferences for the Alberta Municipal Interns. I enjoyed meeting up with my fellow interns, and it's too bad that this was our last official time getting together. I will, however, see most of them again in two weeks for the Local Government Administrators Association convention in Red Deer. The highlight of the three-day conference was the tour of the Alberta Legislature Building. We got the public servants' tour, which is supposedly better than the normal tour. Having never been on the normal tour, I'm not sure what we got to see that most people don't get to see. I didn't have my camera with me, but I should be getting pictures sent to me by the people in charge of the Internship, which I will post here once I receive them.
When I wasn't networking, I got to hang out with Sara and her family. (Mum, too, but I don't have any pictures of her.) Above is Alex and Eloise watching TV from behind bars.
We had Swiss Chalet twice while we were up there. It's my favourite restaurant, and the closest one is in Calgary (gag!). Alex and Kenny were both being very cute. Kenny especially was not being his usual shy self and was showing off how cute and smart he is.
For any of you who follow Sara's blog, you already read about Kenny, Max, and Charlie playing tag, so I won't tell you about it again. Just enjoy the pictures.

We came home Saturday afternoon, and I went back to work on Monday. I had been working in Three Hills since the second week of December, and this is my first week back in Trochu in a while. I won't work in Three Hills again. The rest of my internship will be in Trochu, with the exception of next week, which I will be spending in Picture Butte.

On The Mend

It was a rough weekend. Everyone was sick except for me. Kenny got it first, then Alex and Avril fell ill. It was a pretty bad cold. Somehow, I haven't come down with it yet. It's probably holding off until I get to Edmonton later this week, as is the tradition. None of us slept well over the weekend, and there was a lot of phlegm flying around. The three of them seem to be in much better shape today, so that when I inevitably get sick, Avril can pick up the slack.

Since she's feeling better, Avril decided to do some housecleaning today, and the boys, of course, wanted to help. Here are some pictures. Excuse the photo quality; these were taken with my phone:

Alex Makes a Phone Call

I was sitting on the couch downstairs with Alex yesterday after work. He was having a fun time climbing and jumping around. Eventually, he saw the telephone on the back of the couch and grabbed it. I let him investigate if for a little while. Then he started pushing random buttons. I decided to take it away from him, and he put up a fight. We wrestled for it, and when I finally took it from him, I hung it up. It immediately rang. I answered it and the person on the other end said, "This is 911 emergency. We received a call from this number. Do you have an emergency?" Bad baby! Bad baby!