our holidays.

Some of the pictures are sideways and for some reason I can’t get them to flip, sorry if your neck is sore after looking through all the pictures.

Dave and Levi Christmas Sunday.

Levi and his gorgeous eyes.

Mommy and Levi Christmas Sunday.

We celebrated our Christmas morning on Christmas eve morning so we could head out to Mountain View and surprise everyone that we came for their Christmas morning. I'm so glad we decided to do our own Christmas. It was just us 3 and it was so relaxing and quiet. We got to go at our own pace and just enjoy one another. It was a small Christmas for us but we enjoyed it more then any of our past Christmas's.

Levi unwrapped presents like a pro. We were absolutely amazed at how fast he got the concept and just pulled off the wrapping paper, because all he wanted was to eat it.

Levi crashed after he opened his presents. Here’s the gifts he received from santa and 2 of his great grandmas.

I got a bunch of clothes, and all that candy was in a scavenger hunt around the house. Then once I found it all I had to open them in order, Santa (aka Dave) had put them into a candy gram.

Dave’s big present was to be able to go snowboarding while we were out at Kimberly.

We couldn’t help but put Levi into his new sled while he was sleeping.

Christmas eve was one of the best days. After opening presents we got ready for the rest of the day and started to get packed for the cabin and mountain view. We headed out to taber at 3 to go ice skating on the outdoor rink. Then we headed out to barnwell to my aunt’s traditional christmas eve party. We had fondue for supper and desert. YUM! then we did a program/talent show and played a bunch of games. We got home around 11 and still needed to pack the rest of the stuff for our trip but were tired. So off to bed we went. Levi woke up at 2:30am to eat in the night and once he went back to bed I just stayed up and finished packing. Then I woke dave up and he loaded the car up. We left at 5:30am for mountain view to go surprise everyone. We got their at 6:30 and everyone was still sleeping??!!!! Needless to say we were both VERY tired and cranky after such little sleep. We watched everyone open presents and then just relaxed the rest of the day.

Sunday Morning after chruch we headed out to Kimberly to go stay at the cabin. It wasn’t as long of a drive as we were expecting so that was a big perk, plus Levi slept a lot of the time. We had an absolute blast at the Cabin! Dave got to go snowboarding with all the guys. We went into town to go explore all the shops and found one of the best thrift stores we have ever seen. Everything was in good condition or new for really cheap. I was finally able to find a baby food processor! We came home yesterday late afternoon and still haven’t unpacked. Who knew that relaxing could be so tiring? Now we have to find the motivation to unpack and do our laundry. Thanks again momma and pops for the cabin trip!

The pictures at the cabin:

Grandma & Grandpa Roberts with their 4 grandchildren in the pj’s from them. They are the cutest sock monkey pj’s!

Uncle Justin with the 2 boys.

Darren & Laura.

Auntie Lei Lani playing with Benson & Renae.

Uncle Justin with Micah. Micah has to be one the best babies, he hardly cries and I think that’s why justin was always holding him. Plus look how cute he is!!

Levi trying to kiss Micah.

Micah showing what he really thinks!

Our last night at the cabin the boys played cards into the wee hours of the night.

We had to get a picture of all these boys! Its one of my favorites from the whole trip. Look at all that rolly polly goodness. Benson (1yr old.) Micah (2 mon old.) Levi (5 mon old.)

Darren took a bunch of family photos and I can’t wait to see how they turned out.

first week of holidays.

Levi helping do laundry.

 Sitting up in the tub

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Getting ready to go skating.

Daddy pulling Levi on the skating rink.

First time eating big boy food – peas.

Not so sure of the taste.

haha – love this face!

We had a great first week off and now were excited for next weeks plans.

APREP - I passed!

Well, that's one more step done out of a long list of steps on the path to employment with the LRPS. I only had one class on Friday at 10:00 AM, and I had my wife and a bunch of my school friends show up to support me for my APREP test at 11:30. They waited downstairs while I went up to the Molson room and signed alot of paperwork which said I could run the test. After this, we all went downstairs to the gym where the obstacle course was all set up and ready to go. The Be Fit for Life is the organization who runs the police physical fitness exams for the LRPS and the RCMP. The lady wouldn't remember me, but the test administrator is the same one who ran my PARE exam when I applied for the RCMP back in 2009. Funny how our paths crossed again, huh?

Before we could run the test, we had to listen to the test administrators talk about each stage and watch them demonstrate how to properly do each stage. I was the third person in line to run the obstacle course. Each of us had to wear a 15 lb belt during this portion of the test. For those of you who watched the video in my last post, you will know what I am talking about. It's heavier than it looks to wear that belt! It didn't make a big difference for me during the course; I've been going to the gym religiously during the past couple of months, and it has definitely been helping me become stronger and have greater endurance. I am actually sad and feel like I am being lazy when I don't get to go to the gym in the morning! I love going now because I am seeing such a great return for all my hard work. I highly recommend everyone to spend some time on themselves in working out - it makes a big difference on your energy level throughout the day!

Anyhow, back to the APREP.The pass time for running the obstacle course is 2:10. I was happy to see the administrator mark 1:26 down on my paper! I couldn't believe I ran that fast! It was great to see that number and to know that one stage was done and there was only one stage left to do. The other half of the APREP test is to do a 20 meter shuttle run, or "Beep Test". This is also described on the CPS recruiting website from my last blog post. I was a little nervous about this stage, not that I normally wouldn't be able to finish it, but that my legs felt like jello from running the obstacle course. Because I was near the first of the pack in running the obstacle course, I was given extra time to rest before I had to run the beep test. The passing stage for the beep test for the LRPS is stage 7. You basically run back and forth between two lines which are 20 meters apart. Every time the CD player beeps, you have to be across the other line. After a stage finishes and another one starts, the beeps become closer together, which means you need to constantly be increasing your speed as the time goes on. I was told the beep test we were being tested on sets each stage up to be completed in one minute; that equals seven minutes of running getting progressively faster. As I got to level 3.5, all I could think of is, "I'm half way there, don't give up now!" This wasn't just some test for my gym classes, like the ones I have had all semester; this was essentially my career on the line. There was no way in the world I was stopping before I hit stage 7, cramps or no cramps!

It was a really good experience to run this test. I think the reason I loved running it was because it was great to see my level of fitness improving. It was also fun to have the recruiting officer, his assistant, a patrol member and two detectives from the LRPS there to watch us run. My guess is they were coming to see the "possible recruits" in action. I'm hoping the next stages of the application go as smoothly and great as today's did. I'll post some more of what's going on when I hear the next step in the next week or two.

santa's com-ing tooo town, {well he did come to town.}

It was our ward Christmas party last night and we had such a fun time. It we had such a great day! Dave ran the Aprep and he will blog that later. Levi and I went to go watch. It was suppose to start at 11:30am so Levi had woken up at 7:30am yesterday and still had not napped by the time we got to the college. There was so much excitement going on that he didn't nap the 2 hours we were there. soon is it was over he feel asleep for 10 mins in the car. We ran errands for a few hours and he was awake the whole time. When we got home at 3:30pm Levi had still only napped for 10mins, so we assumed he would nap while we were home. Nope only for another 10 min nap. Once we got to the ward supper at 6pm, his eyes were so red and he was just exhausted but again, so much excitement going on that he had to stay awake to watch it all. Santa came to visit at 7:30 so by this point levi had been up for 12 hours. Also I should mention how many times he puked yesterday, he doesn't spit up, he pukes!! like a good 8" - 10"  diameter on the floor, or a better explanation if he pukes on you he will soak all layers and some. So he had puked at least 10 times before we made it to the christmas party. While we were there he puked every where. You'll see the evidence all over his overalls. The reason he is puking is that the pharmacist hasn't filled his medication that helps keep the acid production down and puke production down.

So here's him waiting in line with so much joy!

 This is with Santa, he is so tired we barely got a smile out of him once. He just stared at us.

 You can see the wet overalls, but we just about caught a smile here. We were joking it would have been funny if he pulled off his beard, or puked on Santa. Glad he didn't could have traumatized the other children.

Lethbridge Regional Police Service

Well, for those of you who don't know already, I submitted my application for the Lethbridge Regional Police Service on Wednesday morning this week. I had been working on it for the past week or so, spending a little time here and there looking for phone numbers, addresses and remembering lots of information from my life. I am really excited to be applying for LRPS because I am getting really excited about starting my career. My interest was sparked in submitting my application early when the recruiting officer of the LRPS came to my law class a few weeks earlier and mentioned the LRPS was going to be hiring new members in May, 2011.

When I spoke to one of my instructors at the College, he recommended that I submit my application. He explained to me that if I submitted it now, by the time they hire the new members in May, I will have three out of my four semesters completed at the college. He went on to explain that during recruit training, most of the courses taken would cover the materials taught in the fourth semester of the Criminal Justice program. The only thing I would have to do to receive my diploma would be to do a couple of classes through distance learning. This is one of the reasons why I felt that now was the right time to apply. I have worked too hard towards my education to not receive my diploma, even if the reason was to be hired on with an agency.

For those of you who don't know what is involved in applying for a police agency, I thought I would share a little about what it entails. There are several components of the hiring process. They are mostly similar to the steps which I took when I applied for the RCMP, but Lethbridge has some differences. Before submitting my application, I had to get my eyes and ears checked to make sure everything was still working properly. I was starting to wonder about my ears, because Levi sure has a set of lungs on him! I'm so grateful my eyes are holding out as well! When I had them checked, the optometrist said I technically have 20/15 vision, so I was pretty happy about that.

Other things I had to list is all the places I have lived in the past 10 years, all of my current/past roommates, all of my immediate family members and their information, my employment records for the past 10 years, my credit history, drivers abstract, references, photocopies of all my important documents from school, and a whole lot more I can't remember right now; it's a huge list! To top it off, there is a 65 page personal disclosure form which every applicant fills out which essentially asks you to tell the police service about every mistake you've ever made in your life with regards to the law. This takes forever to fill out! Having to think back on literally a lifetime of experiences and articulating exact dates, circumstances and reasoning was a huge task!

Last Friday, I took the Alberta Communications Test and the Alberta Police Cognitive Abilities Test at the College, and I am so glad to say I passed them! The ACT was not too hard; it was almost all about spelling and grammar, and during my two semesters at Lethbridge College, my English is actually my strong subject. The APCAT was a little trickier. There were alot of things to memorize and think through.

Since I have submitted my application and I have passed the entrance tests, the next step is to run the Alberta Physical Readiness Evaluation for Police test tomorrow at 11:30. I am nervous, but since I have been going to the gym on a regular basis over the last month or so, I am confident I should be able to pass it. The intimidating part is I have never practiced it before, as the municipal police agencies of Alberta have a copyright on the actual test and will only allow applicants to run it. If anyone is interested in seeing what the APREP is, check out this link: http://calgarypolicenews.typepad.com/cps_recruiting/videos/#tp . Click on the video that says APREP video link at the top of the page.

Well, that's kind of where I am sitting right now with the application process so far. The next step, as far as I know, will be to go for my Personal Disclosure Interview and then a panel interview in front of three to four officers who will question me about my experiences from my past and how I will be a benefit to the organization. That's not intimidating at all!

Well, that was sure a mouth full to get out! If I rambled, it's because I was rushing to get this out before I have to be off working on something else. Nysha suggested I should start writing on the family blog so people know what's going on with my application. If you've got questions, or anything you don't understand, I would love to answer them. I like being able to share with others what is going on in my classes or with the application process, because most people I know have never had the opportunity to learn it. Hopefully I'll be writing another post soon about what's happening next.

the family blog.

this is now just simply the family blog. where we brag about our boy and us. we keep in touch with alot of family this way and this is just going to be about our family from now on. no crafts or rants or tirades. i bet your excited eh??? i am starting my own blog where it will be just about me (nysh) and my crafts, experiences being a mother and things that catch my interest. so this will go public again. sorry for all the ups and downs. it will all make sense down the road i promise.

our world has changed.

Things have changed {for the better}.

Levi USE to scream every time he woke up. NOW he wakes up so smiley and happy.

Levi USE to hate the car seat. Still hates it but NOW falls asleep in the car. This is huge! It would take us 3 times the amount of time it should to get anywhere because he would cry the whole time.

Levi USE to cry a lot. NOW he’s so content and happy most of the time ( minus the times his 2 bottom teeth are bugging him ). Thanks to some wonder medicine. Darn you heartburn, how can you effect such a little boy??

Levi USE to have to be swaddled, bounced and rocked to fall asleep. NOW just these past few days he’s starting to fall asleep on his own.

Levi USE to take a soother. NOW he sucks his thumb, melts my heart every time.

Levi USE to go to anyone. NOW he knows who mom and dad are, and plays a little strange when he can see us and someone else is holding him.

Levi USE to jibber jabber.Which wasn’t bad but NOW he jibber jabbers, giggles, laughs and screams happily.He is the most vocal little 4 month old I know.

Couldn’t ask for a better little boy. Things have really improved this week. So excited to report to the pediatrician that things are improving thanks to the medicine for Levi’s acid reflux. At first we weren’t sure but after a day of forgetting the medicine we can now say its helping.

Ps. I have made 4 batches of ginger snaps this week for neighbors, visiting teachers, family and ourselves of course. Plus were doing some gifts homemade. One gift I’ve been making I thought was going to be simple, I spent over 6 hours on yesterday. Can’t wait to see their face when they open it. We are doing Christmas morning just us 3 and can’t wait. We are starting our own family and want to start our own family traditions. 

What was your favorite tradition growing up?

the perfect day.

Levi helping me make ginger snap cookies.

This is how Levi spends his day! Some how he’s always in a tent.

 

He got bored of the bouncer and so onto the playmate. He is a mover and he’s quick.

Nothing says Merry Christmas like a fresh batch of homemade ginger snaps. Thanks Laura for the recipe!