The Newest Conlin

This is Colton, my brother Terry and his wife Jill's son. He was born in October and we will meet him for the first time in a week. Can't wait!!
I tried to forward some photo's on to many of you....but I guess it didn't work. So here are a few...

When the weather outside is frightful...

Well, this is some of the indoor fun we have on days like today. We will be back in the new year....

Thanks Jiji and Baba

We recieved some early Christmas gifts from Japan, and they are a hit!

A day in the life....

This photo just seems to capture what Tysei is all about at the moment. He desperately wanted to put his hand-me-down flames jersey over his pajamas and must always have at least one ball in bed with him. Last week he also wanted to sleep with a wooden car puzzle (thanks Toshi and Karen:) he loves it). Oh, what little boys are made of...

Back At it....

It's Christmas cookie time again.....

The Calgary Tower

We had brunch at the Calgary Tower last weekend and it snowed so hard we could only see white as the tower turned slowly for a (supposedly) stunning panoramic view of the city. Oh well, we'll take their word for it...

This is Tysei and Uncle Jim standing on the glass floor, checking out the cars and buildings below.



Tysei was fine and the suddenly got freaked out and started to cry. He froze and wouldn't move until I rescued him. Although a few minutes later he was back jumping on the glass floor with Kianah...

Kianah's Christmas Concert

Well, actually we have no pictures of the concert...but this was her right before we left for it. It was great as usual, and Kianah enjoyed singing and dancing on stage. Most of it was in Spanish...so I sat beside a friend that could translate. We took a video of the concert, so I will see if I can edit it down to show a shot clip.

Christmas Tree Time

We decorated our tree a few weeks ago. It took awhile with Kianah decorating and Tysei undecorating. This is how it looked after the kids were done with it....

Notice the bare top half......


We fixed that and put on the final touches. Ahhh....Egg Nog anyone?

December already

O.K. I know I am not as good at updating this thing this year, I guess that is what happens when you add another role....I will however post a few photo's from the past couple of weeks before heading to Ontario for Christmas.

Happy Holidays to you all!!!


SNOW......and lots of it. We got 15cm last weekend and doubled that this weekend. Last weekend was mild and great for playing outside. This weekend the forecasted high is -23. Yes that is the HIGH.

The Story of the Halloween Cookies

So I try to bake with Kianah once a week. It is always a last minute decision, and usually after the last dish is cleaned after supper. Shunsuke always gets that worried (or exhaused) look when the words "hey lets make_____", come out of my mouth. Our baking adventures always have a story. Partly because the littlest member of our family (aka Tysei), is too willing to help out (chocolate chips usually distract him long enough). But...this week Tysei is not to blame for our baking disaster. Here is our story....

Here we go..

Kianah takes her time to make each cookie perfect!!

Tysei and Kianah decorated their prized cookie. Although Tysei didn't get that the chocolate chips were supposed to be a face, and he kept taking them off and eating them...

However....the first bite got this reaction....not an expected one



But when we flipped the cookies this is what they looked like. Two entire batches of burnt bottoms....Did this mean mom staying up until 2 am to redo the dough, the cutting, the cooking?????

Ahhh...the final product. Even though it wasn't until the next day, the effort is always worth it!

A "shoe" Guy

Tysei loves to wear Kianah's shoes and stomp around the house. He prefers a purple wedge to the pink pumps. (Although it seems they get in the way of a good solid soccer kick...)

The Corn Maze

Thanksgiving weekend, we met some friends at the Calgary Corn Maze. The corn stalks were all dead, but the maze was still lots of fun with trivia, scarecrow word clues, etc. Tysei chased the goat and donkey around for a good part of the afternoon.

Sliding down a mountain of hay barrels.

Tysei and his new friend. He decided to pet this end after the goat tried to eat his sleeve...


Kianah and her friend from school

Tysei in the corn maze


You can imagine after this it was all "Oh mommy, I NEED a kitten so badly..."

I must admit, its amazing how good these two get along given different age, interests etc...

Happy Fall!

Yes, It has been awhile......There have been some big changes in the Murao household. I (Kim) have returned to teaching 15 hours a week (60%). Shunsuke has left his job and is home during the day with Ty and teaches a little some evenings. Kianah is in grade one and goes to school 4 and a half days. I think in some ways we are protesting how busy life gets by slowing down instead. We absolutely love all our time off together! I told Shunsuke that we may even get sick of so much family time...is it really possible? For now this is working for us...it may be short lived but at the moment life is Oh so good......

Last night we had some friends over to enjoy the Fall weather...it is a short season in Calgary!

Big Project....Little Helpers

Well we undertook a big project at the end of the summer. We put laminate flooring on our entire main floor. My mom and dad ended up having a working holiday....and we certainly needed there help!! It took about a week with lots of unexpected challenges!!

In the beginning...
The finished product....

All he needs......

Tysei was covered in hives for most of the summer, so eventually we ended up at the children's hospital. For three hours we stayed in this room with only a bed and TV. However Shunsuke was smart enough to stick a mini soccer ball in the bag. Ty kicked this little thing around for 2 hours straight. It saved us in more ways than one!

Kianah's 6th Birthday Luau

Yaa Hoo Stampede

Kianah was into the rides this year at Stampede. Much braver than her mom!! Tysei was introduced to the Stampede as well. I took the kids down to the grounds for the day with friends, but with two kids, no photos were taken! Shunsuke and Kianah headed down on a Sunday for more fun..

Summer 2008

Here are a few photo's from over the summer. It was a busy one....I (Kim) took two uni courses, so that ate up free time. During the day we were busy with summer-time activities. We also had vistors from Japan (Jiji and Baba) and Ontario (Grandma and Poppa). The summer flew by too fast....

Happy Dad's Day!!!

We had a fun and relaxing Father's Day. We played outside with the kids all day and planted a veggie garden. We finished off with a BBQ'd dinner outside and a nice long walk. Summer has finally hit Calgary!!