Merry Christmas!!

From our family to yours, may this be a joyous and Christ-filled holiday!

Hands by Paul Brandt/Liz Brandt

It is the greatest story ever told

The prince leaves the palace and his noble throne 

To fight a battle for his subject's soul 

The fate of the world in his royal hands 

And it was an unlikely battle ground 

With the cows and the sheep and the shepherds gathered round 

As Mary held him her heart began to pound 

The weight of the world in her baby's hands 

Betrayed by the very hearts he came to save 

Father forgive them, someone heard him say 

Then like a gift, he gave his life away 

Held out to the world with his nail-pierced hands 

The hands that put the stars in place 

Bound by hands he made 

When people ask what Christmas means to me 

I think of the prince upon that Christmas tree 

I tell them about how his love set me free 

When he changed my life with a touch of his hands 

With his hands

Until next time...

I've Been Avoiding You

I know you think I may be kidding, but, in fact, I'm not.  I've been avoiding my blog for the last 3 or 4 weeks.  I should update it and I kinda wanted to...at least put some more photos on but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  Mostly, I just found myself having a little pity party and being in a very complaining type mood.  Now, I do believe in being honest about how you're feeling but I sounded whiny, even to myself.  It was just a little bit of everything....the weather (seriously, it rained or snowed big time every time that I had an appointment!)...the ENTIRE family got the flu (we were all completely down and out one day - all five of us - the kids even had temperatures ranging from 101.5 to 103.4)...and just being at the end of my pregnancy (after being sick, the heat sensitivity and itchiness that I know all too well kicked in).  I even had a friend who, when I told her the kind of mood I was in, said...go ahead, complain.  So I did and it really sounded just a little pathetic, even as I was saying it.  However, things have turned now.  Last Sunday I was sitting in church - I always marvel how I get the weirdest things out of church on Sunday.  Not usually what the main points in the sermon are but some other little tangent that I can't even remember how it relates to the service, usually.  Anyway, I was sitting there when it just struck me...suck it up...this isn't about you.  You are having yourself a wonderful little pity party like life is all about you and your convenience.  It isn't...it's not about you at all.  God gives you what He does for a purpose so move on.  And I did.  Not sure what the purpose of the tormenting pregnancy symptoms are but I guess I'll try to learn to take them on more graciously (and hope the baby's not late).  Paul had it much worse than I did and he still had joy (see Philippians) so I need to take that example and focus on the big picture and get my head off this earth for a bit.

So, there you go.  The reason I've been avoiding you and the solution to all my problems :)  Now I won't post any photos today...I'm off to watch a movie...but I'll try to soon.

Until next time...

Hello!! (hello, hello, hello...)

That's the echo you hear on my blog.  I can't believe it's been almost a month and a half since I posted.  I know I don't post that often, but still.  In fact, I've even had photos ready to post for a week or two and I just haven't gotten around to it.  Is anyone still out there?  Or is it just me and the friendly echoes?

I have no real excuses.  Life is busy and I've read a few books (which takes up my spare time).  Other than that, things have been pretty normal around here.  School is in full swing and so are music lessons for 2 out of 3 of my little men.  Yesterday I finally downloaded the photos from my camera and do you know I hadn't downloaded since mid-August!!  That's crazy for me.  Even when I don't post I usually take them off my camera sooner than that.

Today, I went to help out at school.  We had a parent work day and I cut lots of laminated stuff and got to visit and catch up with some lovely ladies that I know from there.  It's an enjoyable kind of day, I think.  Although, I got home at 4 and realized I'd planned to make soup for supper today.  That wasn't happening now.  Instead, I'll blog and maybe inspiration will come to me.  Or maybe not.

Right now, I'm sitting here just contemplating purpose and how that really lifts burdens and gives a certain kind of freedom.  If you, or your money, or your things have a decided upon purpose, it sure makes decisions a lot easier.  It makes it easier to say...that is not a priority but this is something worth doing or having.  I hate the feeling of not having that and just flying by the seat of your pants.  I know they're kind of melancholy thoughts, but that may be because I'm hungry, too.  Inspiration still has not come.

In lieu of inspiration, I will now post some photos.  They're from June.  Seriously.  June.  I have long ago given up the idea that I will ever get caught up on all my projects, but maybe one day I will get caught up on some of them :).

June 1 - My anniversary gift came today!  It was very exciting to get my very pretty purse/camera bag.  And I just love it, too!

June 2 - My sister and parents were up and Xander had a ball game.  It was a gorgeous day so we decided to make a morning of it.  We played at the playground and then had a picnic before the ball game.

June 3 - Multiple photos - again!  Evan had his wind up tournament (though in the middle of the season).  His whole team got these little ball tags as a kind of medal.

We also celebrated my father-in-law's 61st birthday (though a few days late).  Jonathan thought it should all be for him, since it was last time!

June 4 - The butterflies are out!  We had one hatch - I believe this is in Evan's box.

June 5 - My cute little cookie monster with his sucker!  Since it's blue, I can only deduce that it is one we received from the doctor.  However, at this point in time, I think he had found it in my purse and snuck it out!

June 6 - Watching the butterflies!  So much fun to see them hatch and move around and even fight each other.

June 7 - I went on a field trip with Xander's class to the Science Centre.  The kids had a lot of fun in the bubble area, as they always do!

June 8 - Off to Calgary for a Beth Moore conference.  I went with several ladies from church, one being my sister-in-law.  Here's proof we were there.

June 9 - One of the benefits of being in Calgary...Olive Garden!!  Love their food so very much.

June 10 - We were home again and Jason just had to show me this drawing by Jonathan.  Apparently, he drew it and declared it a shark.  For a while there, he was incredibly fascinated with all things shark!

June 11 - SaskEnergy is working to make our neighbourhood a safer place :).  Due to soil shifting and old infrastructure, we had a couple of explosions last year.  They have finally got to checking our lines and had to dig them up.  The boys just loved watching the big machines at work!

June 12 - Must have been a Tuesday - clean up day around our house.  Evan wanted to try his hand at vacuuming so I figured, why not?

June 13 - Time to break out the BBQ.  My dear husband has gotten so much more willing to BBQ, even when it's not that warm out.  It really is a lovely (and tasty thing).  (And by BBQ, I mean grill.  Real BBQ is great but it's not what we do).

June 14 - Off at Toys 'R Us (or, rather Toys For Us as Evan calls it!!).  Time to buy a certain niece a birthday gift.  When we came out of the store, we were met by this beautiful rainbow.  What a lovely sight.

June 15 - Two photos again!  This was Evan's kindergarten orientation day.  He got to go to kindergarten for an hour in the morning to see what it was like.  He had a lot of fun and made this picture of, I believe, an angry ladybug.

Later on, the same day...birthday party time.  Dear little Erin turns...I don't know...however old she is.  I can't even keep track of how old my kids are ;).  I'm sure it said on her invitation.

So, there you go, half of June is gone!

Now, I think I will go have a s'more ('cause I can) and watch some Top Chef Masters.

Until next time...

Fleetingly...

That really is how time seems to go.  Especially as I'm on the other side of childhood now.  It seems so crazy to remember when a school year was an eternity and summer seemed to last forever.  Now, I look at my kids and think, how can they even get to know their teacher in such a short time and where on earth did the summer go?  Today was the first day of school here.  My oldest is in grade 2 and my second boy just started kindergarten.  Wow.  The oldest isn't home from school yet but I hope his day went better than his drop off.  Evan came home full of smiles and reports that he'd made lots of new friends (not that he can remember any of their names).  I get nervous every first day of school, too, but I always have and it always turns out fine.

We spent the last weekend of summer just hanging out around the house.  We went down the the Dragon Boast Festival for a bit (not as exciting as I'd hoped - the kids definitely liked the chuck wagons better) and took the boys bike out for a ride - trying to teach them both.  We walked the bus drop off and went to music lessons and stuck a little bit of last minute shopping in there.  It really didn't seem like enough, though.  This morning came way too early.  Now, Evan gets a day off and I hope it will be easier to get Xander on the bus tomorrow.

Anyway, here are the rest of May's photos (I know, I know, at this speed I might catch up some day!).

May 16 - A friend of ours (from our Care Group) brought these back from Hong Kong for all the ladies.  It's a foot crack cream and, let me tell you, if you've ever seen my feet you know I could use it!

May 17 - Well, I guess there are a few pictures of me in here :).  I was making Jonathan's birthday cake and aren't I just adorable?  This is what happens when you test the VERY blue icing you are making.

May 18 - Once again, this is a two-picture day...mostly because we had Jonathan's 2nd birthday party on our anniversary.  This is Jason opening up his anniversary gift (which he thought we'd order that night but I had already done so :) ).  I got him an iPhone, which he'd been wanting for a LONG time.  So now his joke is that he has the most expensive cell phone ever with the cheapest cell plan ever.  And it's true.

We also celebrated Jonathan's second birthday that day.  He adores Cookie Monster and I wanted to make an easy cake so a giant cookie seemed appropriate.  I had extra batter so the Cookie Monster cupcakes turned out to be a nice accent.  Also, he went through about 3 vests that day but every time one got dirty, he insisted on a new one!

May 19 - The big boy gets his bed.  Jason went down to Madison's to pick up Jonathan's mattress so that he could now have a big boy bed.  He hadn't been too thrilled about sleeping in the crib or play pen for a while now.

May 20 - Long weekend celebrations at the farm.  The kids have a blast running around outside all day and stuffing their faces full of marshmallows.  It's always finished off by a fireworks show.  This is one of my better photos from that night.

May 21 - I just thought it was cute.  Jason and Xander were playing Super Mario Galaxy and Xander was wearing his matching shirt.  So I took a picture :).

May 22 - Trying to make Xander's hair last until Jessica's wedding without a hair cut.  I'm cheap that way.  I figure if I'm patient and pay a bit of attention at the salon, I can trim it up a bit.  I didn't even do too bad a job.

May 23 - FedEx...I actually discovered where they are in the city and went out to the airport to send something to my brother.  In fact, I had to return home because I'd forgotten something and then drive out to the airport AGAIN.  I can't remember exactly why, though.

May 24 - Getting ready to place the caterpillars.  Every creature deserves a pretty home so the boys decked out the boxes in preparation for moving the critters.

May 25 - SaskEnergy - for some reason, they're trying to make sure the neighbourhood doesn't blow up.  They came and did a bit of worked and staked out the lines so that they could dig up the easement. I just checked a couple days ago and, not only did they NOT kill the rhubarb, as I had hoped but they actually SPREAD it and there was another plant out our door!!

May 26 - Off to the bank we go.  Xander made his very first deposit of his savings into his very own bank account.  A big day for the young lad.

May 27 - Race day!  Not sure which race this was, exactly, but the boys don't seem to care.  They always want to watch the race, but mostly end up playing while Dad ATTEMPTS to watch the race!

Yeah, yeah, I missed May 28th...it was a Monday and probably boring...or I was tired and forgot.  That seems to happen a lot lately.

 May 29 - Hmmm...I wonder what we are doing.  Looks like t-ball to me!  This may have been a game that I took Evan to, while Jason took Xander to his.  It has that look to it.  That would also explain why I have fewer photos of Xander playing ball.

May 30 - Our caterpillars are all cozily cocooned and about ready to move into their new homes (that's Jason's job, by the way!)

May 31 - Today I was obviously at Xander's ball game...can't you tell by his professional stance and equipment?  Well, there was a little distraction in that there was a small hill by the field where the boys (Xander and his teammates) discovered they could have a lot of fun rolling down the hill.  Post game celebration, I guess! :)

There, I am not completed May and it's just about time to go watch for Xander and his bus so I guess it's just in time.

Until next time...

Where Has Summer Gone?

Well, I know it's been forever since I've posted but somehow I thought I'd have more time this summer.  Between painting, car races, weekends out of town, VBS and just trying to get some chores done at SOME time, the days have flown by!!  We are in the middle of VBS and it, in itself is exhausting, never mind doing it while I'm pregnant and tired, anyway.  Today we had 319 kids...it's crazy.  Plus, we're using a new system in registration and it's just a little chaotic at times.  But, I did manage to get a few photos together from....eek, I think I'm on May...so I'll share them with you and we'll see how far we get!

May 1 - Ball season starts!!  This year, Evan gets to play too.  This is his first t-ball game.

May 2 - Spring really has shown up.  I noticed that the hedges were finally covered in spring leaves.

May 3 - I finally got to use my stove for its intended purpose.  For the very first time, I cooked two different things at two temperatures in one oven.  YAY!

May 4 - The beginning of date nights!  Jason's sister agreed to exchange date nights/babysitting nights with us each month and it's fabulous knowing we'll get a night out without having to search for and pay a babysitter.  This is the day we babysat.

May 5 - SaskEnergy came to call.  Since our neighbourhood had many gas leaks and a couple of explosions the past year, they are inspecting and repairing all the gas lines as needed.  They informed us that they would be in the easement that is fenced into our yard.  We had to remove this rotting deck (which needed to be done anyway) but thankfully, the fence stayed in tact even with their big machinery.

May 6 - I think I mentioned that it was ball season.  Apparently, that also means rainy season.  Xander's first ball game was cancelled due to the wet stuff.

May 7 - Allowance day!  (Well, whenever we remember at the beginning of the month, anyway).  Xander gets allowance and has to save some of his money, give some to church and then he can spend the rest.

May 8 - Ah, finally!  We got to play ball!  Little League actually has nice diamonds so they cancel ball more often than t-ball but Xander did finally get to play.

May 9 - Once again, I forgot to take a picture.  As you can see, it must have just been a typical Wednesday!

May 10 - It's amazing how fast they grow up.  Xander decided that he was going to write up the memory verse for the week.  He copied this from the Bible all by himself.

May 11 - Two year photos are coming up!!  Time to take Jonathan for a hair cut.  This was the first time he'd ever gone to a salon.  My cousin had cut his hair at our house before this.  He loved it, though!  Especially that blow dryer.  Seriously, most kids hate the blow dryer but Jonathan kept wanting her to use it more.

May 12 - I had to figure out what he was going to wear for his photos.  I didn't want to use the exact same outfit as his cousin photos so I just found this adorable vest to go over top his pink shirt (which he loves!).  When I bought it, h asked about the hanger and when I told him it was to hang the vest up, he immediately took it to our room and our closet to hang it up!

May 13 - This was Mother's Day.  Here I am with my three boys.  Xander had a ball game and afterwards, we just had a picnic at the park and then I played with my gift, a remote control for my camera.

May 14 - It's always fun when the boys bring me "flowers" in from the yard.  Evan picked me this cute little yellow one on this day.

May 15 - Did I say ball season?  Yep, more t-ball.  Jason out in the field helping Evan learn to at least go for the ball :).

OK, so I got some of May done.  But, it's supper time and I'm still a bit tired so that's all I'm up to today!!

Until next time...

Time to Go...

On vacation, that is.  But first, I will post two photos for you.  One of the wedding cake I made and one of the cutest little ring bearer ever :) (and I'm not biased - but I am so proud of how he did).  Also, here is the link to our travel blog if you want to follow along!

First: the cake.  It turned out pretty well, though there were some flaws (major and glaring to me, but not likely to anyone else).

Then: the very serious ring bearer.  But still, there he is!

Until next time...