Happy Birthday, Avril

This last Thursday (April 9) was Avril's 24th birthday. We had quite the little party. Avril's parents and her sister came, and my parents and my cousin Beth (they were passing through on their way to Arizona) stopped in, too. We had lasagna and cheesecake and good company.

Now I'm going to do a little tribute to her, not unlike what Mum does for her kids on their birthdays. It'll be a little different, though, because I'm only going back as far as I've known her.
I met Avril in the summer of 2003. She was 18 years old and fresh out of high school. She went to school in Foremost, Alberta for most of her life, but graduated from Stirling High School. She missed a few months of her senior year due to a bad case of pneumonia, but still finished second in her class. The above picture is one of her grad pictures, and that's pretty much how she looked when I met her, only she wasn't wearing a prom dress and didn't have those pretty flowers in her hair. She was the little sister of two of my friends, Dalin and Afton Laqua (brother and sister, not husband and wife). She doesn't remember meeting me. We didn't make a huge impact on each other at first.
This is the first picture of the two of us together. We weren't dating at the time. In fact, we were both at this dance with different dates. But it was posing for this picture, when I put my arm around her waist, that I first felt a little spark.
Near the end of March, 2004, after sitting next to each other at a play, Avril and I started a month-long stretch of flirting with each other. The above picture was taken at Avril's 19th birthday party. Her parents had given her a vacuum cleaner, and I was helping her put it together. While I was reading the instructions, she figured out how to do it on her own.
We started dating near the end of April, 2004. The above picture was taken during our courtship. Ain't she hot?
We got engaged on May 26, 2004. We were both living in Lethbridge, Alberta at the time. In fact, we were living there since we had met.
We were married on September 17, 2004 in the Alberta Cardston Temple. She was the most beautiful bride in the world. I know all husbands say that (all good husbands, anyway), but it's actually true in my case. We spent the first few months of our marriage in Stirling, Alberta.
This picture is from Avril's 20th birthday (April 9, 2005) in Stirling, her first birthday since we were an official couple. I made that cake, by the way. She's so adorable. This was also near the end of her college career.
Her convocation from Lethbridge Community College was in May of 2005. She graduated with an Office Administration diploma and immediately started working at North & Company law firm in Lethbridge as a legal assistant. Shortly after this, we moved into Lethbridge.
While we were living in Lethbridge, Avril gave birth to our first son, Kenneth, on June 2, 2006. It was a hard, long labour, but she got through it and naturally gave birth to the 9 pound 11 ounce baby with a 38 cm head.
Almost two years later, on March 24, 2008, she did it again. Alexander was an easier birth, in part due to his more reasonable size (7 pounds 15 ounces with a 36 cm head).

Avril is a wonderful wife and mother, and I'm so blessed to have found her. Happy birthday, Avril!
(This is the most recent good picture of Avril I could find. The batteries in our camera were dead on her birthday, and I forgot to have Afton upload the pictures from her camera while she was here. I snuck in some of her past birthday pictures, so that's something.)

My Family, 1990-1998

For those of you who don't follow my other blogs, follow this link to check out a post I made talking about my family. You'll like it. Also, shame on you for not following my my '90s blog. It's my best one.

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.