Sheena and I have been busy over the past few months building a shed, doing yard work and land clean-up, among other things around the house. Right now, we have about half our cleared lot planted with grass, we're hoping for a lawn next year. For anyone doing landscaping, we'd definitely recommend hiring a bulldozer. It makes all the difference. Here's a couple of photos of our progress.
Lets get caught up with some photos of what the girls and us have been up to: **warning, long post!**
In August, we all headed to Cape Breton for Abigail's baptism. There was a 4H club fair at the Brook Village Hall grounds, with lots of animals and displays for kids to play with. Rebecca and Abigail met some cows and other animals up close and personal. Rebecca has now determined that all animals are 'baby cows', 'baby sheep', 'baby birds'. She's quite taken with them.
In late September, Sheena and the girls went back to the Sackville Fall Fair to take in some of the events. Rebecca was particularly taken by the horseback ride that she was able to do. When asked if Sheena wanted to put Abigail on the horse, the cowboy had said, "they can start riding at six months!". Needless to say, she said next year for Abigail.
Since moving to Belleisle, we've also had the opportunity to meet some of our neighbours. One particular neighbour which has become more and more welcome is a friendly dog (one of the neighbours' dog). 'Alpine' actually spends most of the days at our place lately, sleeping on our deck, running around with the kids and just hanging out. We've been in touch with the owners, who are fine with him visiting. We all love him (even when he brings a moose leg home and buries it in our freshly planted grass.)
Abigail has been crawling like crazy and is pretty speedy now. She's also walking with assistance and has tried walking with chairs and Rebecca's old walker for the past few weeks. She's excited to do it and getting better every day. It won't be long before she'll be running around outside with Rebecca and we'll really have our hands full. See Abigail's video on youtube.
Last week, Sheena and I took off for a night to Charlottetown. It was a little getaway for Sheena's birthday and a treat for both of us. Our visit brought us to see some of the Fall Flavours Festival which is a food festival for all of PEI. Best of all, it's hosted by our favorite TV chef, Michael Smith. Sheena has been cooking some of Michael Smith's recipes for a couple of years now and even adopted some of his pantry styles! We've loved his east-coast inspired at home cooking show, which gives a fun and relaxed way to cooking some of the foods we see a lot in the east -- as well as foods from elsewhere to add some variety. Smith's happy-go-lucky approach to cooking is inspiring and fun to watch and try for yourself. So, naturally, we had to 
meet him and planned to attend a book signing in Charlottetown. We met him (when he was almost ready to leave), but he spent some time to talk to us a little bit too as there was noone waiting around. It was pretty neat. The rest of our trip could be simplified to a couple our own of walking tours of beautiful downtown Charlottetown and a couple of times sampling some local food and beverages. :) One place we would recommend to anyone traveling is the Gahan House. Its a microbrewery pub, with great beer and gormet served food for pub prices. Unbeatable!
On the
2nd, it was Abigail's first birthday. Abigail was lucky to celebrate her birthday at different times during the day with different grandparents! We had some cake at Nana and Papa's in Moncton, then Gramma and Grampa from Cape Breton visited us in Belleisle for the weekend. Rebecca was lucky to have spent almost the entire saturday afternoon playing in the sandbox with Grampa.
That should get us all up to date, we promise more regular updates! Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
