My 2008 Picture Memories

IN A NUTSHELL

Well it's been another busy few months. Lily is already 5 months old and is such an amazing baby! Sometimes I can forget she's even in the room. She simply enjoys her playtime, eating time and nap time. How wonderful for me! I am very thankful! We went to Hawaii for a week with the our family and it was sooo nice to wear shorts and sandals for a week. The day we came home it snowed. Crazy or what!! I've posted a few shots of the kids.

Ryan is getting close to the end of his first year of school. Overall I think he has enjoyed it. He does fret once in awhile about the thought of going to school everyday next year though. I know he'll do fine. He catches on to things very fast and usually only needs to be shown something once and he's got it down. He loves his little sister!!

As for Jacob, well, he's mister social. He's almost always got a smile or snuggle for me at anytime of the day! Some days I need lots of those! He warms my heart. He will start preschool in the fall.

I've also been up to some quilting. I have 4 on the go. I finished Lily's crib quilt and had it quilted by a lady I know that has a long arm quilting machine. It turned out amazing. Well, I gotta get to bed. Just thought I'd do a short post so it doesn't say my last post was 3 months ago on Lovella's Blog. I was feeling a little exposed with my neglect to blog. I think maybe she did that on purpose to make me do a post!!! heehaaa!

Off to bed!

A VISIT FROM MY AUNT

Hey there! I really seem to be on a roll with this bloggin thing again! It's not like I have more time to do it but I've put a few projects on the backburner for awhile. Anyway, my Aunt and Uncle from Kimberley stopped by this week to visit us. I rarely see them but they came to see us when I was 7 months pregnant and now again. They wanted to see our baby girl while they were out to see my Grandma.

I grew up just around the corner from where we live now and it seems like just yesterday that I would be standing in the bathroom watching my Aunt Fenny put in her contact lenses and put on her makeup. She always seemed to wear more than my mom. I thought she was so glamourus! Bright shimmery blue or green eyeshadow and liquid blush was the big thing then. She had a special little greeny blue suitcase that she kept all her makeup and contact lense stuff in. I remember following her to the bathroom to watch her "put her eyes in" is what I think she called it. She probably wondered what the big deal was but all the same she would humor me and tell me step by step all the stuff she would do to clean her contacts before she put them in her eyes. I was mesmerized. Watching her put on her make up was just as exciting. Funny how that it's all still so vivid in my mind 30 years later.

Anyway thanks for stopping by Aunt Fenny and Uncle Ron. Hope you got your computer set up so you can read this!!

MY LITTLE GIRL!

I dreamed a long time about doing this. I love to bake with my boys but there was something about it this time that was different. The future flashes before me as I think that this was the first time of many that I will bake with my little girl. So much to teach, so little time!! We decided on banana bread with chocolate chips as this is a favourite among the men in the house. Lily was wide awake and so I thought I'd have her help me out a little bit. I had her on the counter while I was getting my ingredients together. She watched me for about 20 minutes as I mixed and blended and then decided she'd had enough. I think she figured it wasn't worth it for her to wait for it to come out of the oven anyway! So she took a nap!

MY HANDSOME LITTLE MAN!!

I just love this kid! He checks with me almost daily to make sure I think he looks good. He'll pick a shirt to wear and get it on and come looking for me to see what I think. He'll come up with a huge grin on his face and say "How do I look Mom?" He'll turn around so I can see all sides. He loves it when I gush over him and tell him how handsome he his! He'll humor me and pose for a picture anytime.

RYAN LOSES HIS TOOTH!! LITERALLY!

So it finally happened! Ryan lost his first tooth. It took about a week to wiggle it loose and then last Friday when Dwain was brushing his teeth Ryan went to spit the toothpaste out of his mouth and his tooth flew out and went down the drain. He was pretty upset as he was waiting all week to see what his tooth would look like. I almost cried too cuz I wanted to save it. Oh well, he's got another loose one already this week. We'll keep closer tabs on this one. He was sad he didn't have anything to put under his pillow. We told him the toothfairy would leave him a little bonus money under his pillow for pain and suffering. In the morning he came flying into our bedroom with his money totally pumped. "I got 8 coins Mom!!" "They were under my pillow!" he said.

RYAN TURNS 6 !!

Wow, Ryan is 6. Here is a picture of his cake. We went simple this year. Mom was tired and couldn't get more creative than this! All's good! Ryan thought it was great! He's already planning the cake I'm supposed to make for him next year.

Here's Lily in her party dress! Only trouble is is that she wasn't around for the party! (As you probably noticed she wasn't in the above photo) This is what she did the entire time!

These are Ryan's school friends! We made our own pizza's, played and smashed a pinata in the barn. They loved that!!!



This is after the pinata smashing!! Friends from Left to Right are
Jacob, Ethan, Freddy and Cole! They are all such great boys! I am pleased with the friends he has chosen!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!!!

OUR CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION

We had a blessed Christmas this year! We had alot to celebrate. We not only celebrated Christ's birth but our own son's birth and our new daughter. It's so amazing how each one is so unique. We are thankful for the family God has blessed us with.
Christmas Eve we attended service at our own church. It was our first Christmas in our new church building. It was nice. The kids loved it because they handed out goody bags afterwards. Even the big kids like us got one. Yehaaa!!
Afterwards we stopped in at Dwain's Mom and Dad's for a 1/2 hour and then came home to get ready for bed. The boys opened their PJ's and left out cookies and milk for Santa. They loved their Christmas pj's and were excited to get them on. (even though they tried them on umpteen times for me as I have been making them since June and had to keep measuring them because they are growing so fast!) Lily and I went a little different this year. I made her a pair of bottoms that matched mine.

Here we are Christmas morning!

Later we went to Dwain's parents for brunch and then came home for Turkey Dinner with my parents.
It was a wonderful day!

DWAIN BUILDS A HOUSE!!

I must say I am very impressed with the mansion Dwain built for Sophie our dog. He slaved away out there in very cold weather to build this for her for the winter months. Just before I took this picture I laughed so hard I almost blew the stitches out of my C-section. I hadn't looked at it till then and didn't realize how big it was. His dad actually came by to check the chickens and saw him working away at it. He told him it was big enough for the dog and him if he needed it!! Hee haaa! Funny Dad! I actual was thinking the same thing when I saw it. That's why I laughed sooo hard!!! Love ya Dwainer!!

THE CHRISTMAS QUILTS

Well the quilts are on the beds and the boys are psyched! This is their first night under them and snug as bugs they are!!

INTRODUCING LILY MARIE FAITH

It's amazing how fast nine months go! It seems as though we just found out we were pregnant and now here she is. Truly an unbelievable blessing! So far she is sleeping and eating well. Double blessing for mom!Here are the proud big brothers! Everyone is adjusting well and loves having her home!

Here she is in the special outfit Daddy bought to take her home in. I think Dad did a great job! I love pink and she looks good in it!

All for now!

Lori

FUN IN THE LEAVES!

It seems that the leaves used to fall in late September and they'd stay crunchy for weeks. The last couple of years it seems that the wind and rain come together late October and the leaves never seem to get the crunch here that they used to. Well wet soggy leaves or not, you can't let an opportunity to jump in a pile of leaves pass you by so yesterday Dwain raked up the side yard into a pile and the boys proceeded to jump, dive and bury themselves in an enormous pile of leaves. The giggles and laughter shared by the four of us is sure to imprint a permanent memory even in our smallest little person. I managed to get a few shots of the fun. Have a great day!

THE QUILTS ARE ALMOST DONE! AND SO AM I!!

Well, I've been a busy girl. Last Christmas I posted a picture of the fabrics I got for Christmas. Dwain bought me fabric to make the boys Christmas quilts. I wanted to do something bright and cheery! Today I got them back from the long arm quilting lady. She did an awesome job! All I have to do is put the binding on them and they're done. These are my first professionally quilted blankets and I made them for the boys to use only for the month of December each year. They will be ready for their bunkbeds December 1st. I look ahead and someday see them on my own grandchildren's beds. It was fun because the boys are actually really excited about them. They have seen them transform from a bunch of fabric, to strips, to blocks, to rows and then a top of a blanket. They each picked their own flannel for the back. Lovella was kind enough to let me use her wonderful sewing machine she got for Christmas last year to monogram a special message on the bottom corner block of each quilt. "Handmade with Love for Ryan/Jacob From Mom, December 1st, 2007." Thanks Auntie! I actually have the 3rd quilt already cut out and ready to put together as I got enough fabric to make 3 quilts.
Go figure that one! Someone knew the family was going to grow!



Today marks my 4 week 5 days to go! The countdown is on. Lastweek I became a proud auntie for the second time. Check out Sweet Abundance in my favourite blogs to see my nephew Liam! He really is a little pumpkin!!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!

Well I survived!! My firstborn officially started school! This is Ryan on his first full day of Kindergarten. I had the same smile on my face as I took this picture but my heart was feeling a little different. I didn't have tears until I drove home by myself. The first couple of weeks were a little tough on me, yes me, but I am slowly adjusting to it. Ryan is loving it although sometimes he has had some anxiety he never complains and is doing well. I'm a proud mamma!! He is a very brave boy!

The month of September was a huge month of firsts for Ryan. He finally did it!! Ryan got on his old little bike without training wheels and rode for the first time without any help! The expression on his face was like he couldn't believe he was doing it himself. Look mom, no training wheels! "I can hardly believe it he says!" This time the smile on my face was as big on the inside as the out! Although I did almost shed a tear at the sight of him riding the bike too!

I'll see if I can upload the clip here.
I've missed alot of bloggin this summer. I wasn't feeling inspired or motivated to sit at the computer and write a post. But here I am now at the computer feeling driven to document my summer. I believe I am nesting as they call it!

We had a family holiday to Kelowna which was alot of fun as well as hosted two Japanese boys in August. They were totally awesome! They fit right in with us and the boys couldn't get enough of them. We are scheduled to host some short term students come the end of February but for now we are taking a break!

For Thanksgiving we made a thankfulness tree.

The boys each took turns saying what they were thankful for. Here's a picture of the tree! The list of thankfulness goes like this: Toy Cars (green ones), Food, Cookies, Sleepovers, my new fast flame bike, brothers, mommy, daddy, Ryan, Jacob, baby, cameras, blankies, and trees. Not a bad list. When Ryan was asked at school what he was thankful for he said BUNKBEDS!! I am so glad my boys love eachother so much! Sharing a room at 3 1/2 and 5 years old does not come without its challenges but so far it's working out to my satisfaction.

I also recently finished my fall tablerunner that I started before Jacob was born. 3 1/2 years sitting in my closet was long enough when I figured if I didn't finish it now it may well be another 3 1/2 years. So it is complete and on display!

Well I think I am caught up! That feels good! Have a great day!!

A GREAT DAY FOR A PICNIC!!

Lastweek we got our new camera so I've been having some fun
with it. I suprised the boys with a backyard picnic. Ryan and Jacob say it was the best picnic ever!
Our students are gone and we have the house to ourselves. How lovely to be just us again! I have posted a few pictures of the boys on their new bikes. They are mighty proud. We are hoping Ryan is brave enough to ride without the training wheels by the end of summer. He's gonna have to be cuz Jacob might be doing it himself! Have a great day!

SUMMER IS HERE!!!

So here I am again feeling guilty as I read everyone elses blogs and don't do a post of my own. Thought I'd give a quick update on life in what we call the fast lane. It has been quite a ride these past several months. Bringing on board 2 chinese students for a 5 month stay, starting a new job, discovering we were going to have another baby, 6 weeks of morning sickness (I'm not complaining cuz I have a friend who is just as pregnant as me and she is still soooooo sick), celebrating the last few days of preschool and meeting Ryan's new Kindergarten teacher, celebrating Jacob's 3rd Birthday and my 35th, quitting my new job, surviving the Fraser River NOT flooding, 10 weeks of learning how to grow kids God's way (7 more to go, yeeehaaa!!). There are so many inbetween things that I can't even think about it all.

Our chinese girls will be leaving us next Thursday very early in the morning. This will be a huge load off my plate! Friday I will get my UltraSound. We are quite excited as we anticipate what the sex of our baby will be. We should know in a week or two! We have decided not to tell anyone what we are having until later in the pregnancy. I think we will let our family know before the baby arrives but we really want to keep it to ourselves so I hope we don't get bugged too much. We want to just enjoy knowing for ourselves for awhile.

Tonite I did some sewing. I have started the boys PJ's that I make them for Christmas every year. I make them 2 pairs and they wear them all year. I'm going to attempt to make a pair of maternity capri pants this weekend. I hope it's a success. I'll post a picture when I've accomplished this task. I'll try to do it for my 20 week profile shot! Heehee!

Well gotta get to bed. Have a great day everyone!

ONE WHITE SOCK!!!

I had to just do a quick post tonite because Ryan made me laugh. The last several nights he's been going to bed with just 1 sock on. I wasn't aware that he was purposely doing this but lastnight again, I noticed he had just one sock on when I went to tuck him in before I went to bed. I pulled it off and covered him up. Well tonite after the boys went to sleep Dwain says to me, did you notice Ryan's been going to bed with 1 sock on at night? I said, yah, I take it off when I tuck him in a bedtime. We both chuckled. Dwain says, tonite he did it again, he says he wants to see if he can make it through the night! What a goof! Seeing as he doesn't know it's me that takes it off at night, I think I'll switch the white sock for a red sock when he's asleep tonite and see what he thinks about that in the morning!! Heeheee!

I'M WHAT?!?!

Oh people! Here I am totally dedicated to reading all my friends blogs and so today I run across my name on someones link list. So I thought, wow, it's been awhile since I even looked at my own blog so I clicked on my own link only to find 5 new comments. Too funny people!! Aunt Lovella, what could you possibly be waiting for me to say! Hmmmm I wonder!!!
Well I guess I can let the cat out of the bag!
The last 3 months have been somewhat of a blur. Getting 2 new 10 year olds in the beginning of February has proven to be more than I can handle. A new job with a month of full time work in training and all the other responsibilities that go along with 4 kids is really taken a toll on me.
Obviously God thinks I can handle a little more because what I didn't know when I started my job was that I was 3 days away from becoming pregnant! Yes I said it! The big P word! I hadn't even put in 3 days work! We only found out a few weeks ago because I was feeling so sick and it wasn't going away. I still feel green around the gills but at least I know why! I am hoping it goes away within another week! Today isn't such a bad day!
This morning we decided it was time to tell our boys. They have seen me laying on the couch alot the past few weeks and have been repeatedly told they can't hop on my tummy or come jumping at me while I'm laying down. So I got Ryan up on my lap this afternoon and Dwain had Jacob. I asked Ryan if he'd noticed me layin around alot. He's says "not really" . I'm thinking oohh good! He doesn't think I'm a lazy lump! Anyway, I told him that there was something very special growing inside of me and his face lit up like a firecracker! He knew right away what I meant and he just started giggling. He immediately started rubbing my tummy and was talking to the baby and telling it he loved it. It was sooo special. For the next hour he kept tackling me with hugs of excitement and has been including the baby in our activities today. I am sooo happy he was so full of joy! Jacob on the other hand is sort of oblivious but I think he knows too cuz he's watching Ryan.
So by the end of the first week of November we will have another addition to the family.
May we ask for your prayers for a healthy baby and pregnancy. This baby has surprised us all and I was not exactly doing all the good stuff you should be doing before you get pregnant because we weren't trying to. I know that God's hand is in this all and today it really has sunk in and become more of a reality seeing how excited Ryan is about it. Please pray that I will be able to avoid or at least manage the Gestational Diabetes with my diet if it comes my way as it has with the last two pregnancies. I am getting an MP3 for my birthday in June so that I have something to listen to when I am on the treadmill but I haven't been on it more than once in the last 3 weeks because of the nausea. Please pray that subsides soon too!
So there you have it! God definitely likes to keep me on my toes. He's gotta be laughing to himself thinking, "And you thought YOU had it all figured out didn't you!!"
Yah, I guess I thought I did! I'm almost 35 years old and sometimes he still chooses to WOW me to get my attention! OK, You Got it Lord!!

WHAT WILL WE DO TODAY MOM?

So this morning I wake up to my 5 year old. He climbs into bed and snuggles up real close and says "Mom, it's still really early in the morning but you can get up now. So what are you going to do with me today? What do you want do mom? I love those moments. All he wants to do with his day is be with me. So it looks like my day is already planned.
I am hoping that the sun will peak out later this afternoon. I would like to get out in the garden and do some weeding and get the kids picking up the sticks on the lawn so that Dwain can mow it. I think I'll make it a game.

I wish I could take some pictures to post but our camera doesn't work properly anymore. We are hoping to get one in the next few weeks. I definitely don't want to go into spring and not have any pictures of the kids.

Yesterday I worked at the bank. It was very busy for a Monday! I was over .01 cent at the end of the day. I quickly found my mistake and corrected it but was a little annoyed with myself. It's the perfectionist in myself. It was worse that is was only a penny and not a larger amount.

This afternoon I will be taking the girls to the bead store. We plan to spend a couple hours there making some jewelery together. Bonnie wants to buy an MP3 player so we will probably be on the hunt for one of those also. The boys and girls went to gramma and granpas yesterday while I was at work and the girls picked allot of flowers. They brought them home and decided to make a garden in the sandbox. I wish I could take a picture of it . Perfect rows of flowers planted in the sand. Primroses of all colors, daffodils and even a maple tree twig. They spent a couple hours planting all these cut flowers. Lastnight they bought some makeup in the toy section of Walmart. I had to glam them up lastnight. Today they have their hair caked with sparkly glitter. They think they are models. I'm just playin along.
Well have a nice day everyone!

MOM IN TRAINING

Well it has nearly been a month since my last post. I'm sorry to say that blogging has just not been a priority the past few weeks. I tried to get into my blog earlier but I tried for 10 minutes and couldn't remember my own password. I don't know what the problem was cuz I had no trouble now.
It has been a long 3 weeks for me as I have been in training at my new job at the bank. By the end of this week it will have been a month since I started and I will have worked near 100 hours above and beyond my regular job as a Mom. Needless to say, I am extremely tired. Despite the fatigue, I know I am really going to enjoy being a teller when I go to 2 days a week starting next week. Codes and different kinds of transactions are really making sense to me now and I am happy to announce I have balanced at the end of every day! Yahooo!
It has been quite an adjustment for everyone, but with lots of help from Gramma, the boys fared well in the adjustment.
This past Saturday we joined an 18 week seminar called Growing Kids God's Way! We both think that this will be an eye opening and great learning experience for both of us. A definite worthwhile investment we thought. We were informed that there would be a fair bit of homework each week and practical application. Dwain's wasn't too happy about the homework part!!
Last Thursday we had a little accident on the farm. Dwain was lowering the lawn tracker from the second story of the barn and the steel forks that the tractor was sitting on folded and the lawn tractor fell from the second floor upside down on the concrete below. It made quite a mess and was very mangled. We think it is a right-off but we don't know yet. Insurance is in the process of assessing it. We are hoping so because even if it gets fixed it it will never run the same again. We're cheering for a new one. I am so thankful that Dwain wasn't hurt or that someone wasn't watching him from down below.
Well, gotta get to bed. I'm not the night owl I was a month ago. It's already past my bedtime.
Bye for now!