2017

Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be

In working or in waiting, another year with Thee.

Another year of progress, another year of praise,

Another year of proving Thy presence all the days.

Another year of mercies, of faithfulness and grace,

Another year of gladness in the shining of Thy face;

Another year of leaning upon Thy loving breast;

Another year of trusting, of quiet, happy rest.

Another year of service, of witness for Thy love,

Another year of training for holier work above.

Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be

On earth, or else in Heaven, another year for Thee.

Frances R. Havergal (1836-1879)

Wacky Hair Day

The kids are having a read a thon at school and this year's theme is dr. Seuss.  Reading a certain amount of books gained them a theme day, thus Wacky Hair Day.

Now, I'm not very exciting when it comes to hair.  Just never got into the habit of gelling the boys' hair and usually just put the girls' into pony tails.  But for a special day like this?  It's fun to get into spirit of it and make memories.

But we didn't have much gel.  So I asked my hair professional friend if it's true that I remembered her talking about using corn syrup in hair.  Yup, she confirmed, works like a CHARM!!  So, we're getting one less recipe of stropwaffle syrup out of our corn syrup bottle but the boys' hair did. not. move.  I should add that we "gelled' then sprayed with hairspray and dried it all good with the blow dryer.  Dertermined to outdo the rain!! The good news? It washes out better than gel.

Sam opted for crazy spikes in the front...

and a smiley face in the back.  but in real life it was actually kind of creepy and halloweenish....

Cody went for the ever popular mohawk although I've never seen a mohawk quite as rigid as this one... I could push down on it and it didn't move.  I informed Steve that with a corn syrup, hair spray, hair dryer combo he could probably build a house with no nails.  Not that it would do very well in Wet Coast weather....

He had ponies decorating the sides and back.

 Cam had a combine taking care of his wheat field.  Although he was very wimpy about the hair pulling involved with trying to move corn syrup through it, so his wheat didn't stand in very straight rows!!

We aren't very practiced farmers so we started by clipping straight up the middle instead of the outside rows.

 I laughed really hard when at supper Cara said she had spilt her chocolate milk while playing Red Rover.  Cara does not drink chocolate milk for anything! Why did she have chocolate milk in her hand??? Until I clicked in that she meant her hair had escaped the cup!  I'm a little slow sometimes!!!

The biggest lesson for the day was that by having all the lunches nearly ready to go the night before I had all the time I needed to get this done before the bus came.  Not that I've gotten anywhere for tomorrow's lunches. 

Bigger!

I knew I was feeling bigger with this baby than I had with the twins.  Tonight I went looking for proof.

21 weeks 8.5 years ago with 2 babies

21 weeks .5 week ago with 1 baby

I've told many of you that I'm bigger than I was with the twins!  And my dear Steve cheerfully informed me that we probably just have a chunky baby.  Obviously he's not the one looking forward to delivering!! :)

just to remember

I can't say any of our kids lack for healthy imagination but here are some of Cody's best since our announcing he was no longer going to be baby of the family.
5 min after getting the news of the baby..."Cam you have to teach me EVERYTHING I need to know about being a big brother!!"
This summer while at the swimming pool, patting my non existent baby belly... " Baby, you're SO lucky. Swimming night and day and NEVER needing goggles!!"
Then a few weeks later..."Mom do you think he's diving for sinkers?" (pool toys)
And this morning's. With the twinkliest of eyes and a barely restrained dimple..."I wonder what his birthday suit will look like? Will it have orange stripes?! Or maybe green stars?!" He'd make dr. Suess proud.

Halfway and so thankful for all the love this baby gets from family and friends alike.

A Day out of the Desk

Sam got to spend last week Friday with some of his school mates climbing in the gorgeous BC mountains.  I get blown away every time I look at his pictures.  And he sure didn't have a fancy camera to take them.  Just incredible!!

I didn't do the hike so I don't know too much about the pictures or the mountain peaks but enjoy the scenery from your computer chair!

 I'm pretty sure they hiked along the top of this!

 He really like the stone "statues" some other fun person had set up.  Cool birds!

 Victory!!!

 Still my favorite from the day.

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

Back to School - for faithful blog checkers!

Getting SO big. And so thankful they're healthy and looking forward to school.

 Trying to get everybody acting normal is almost impossible.  Cam's doing his hand on hip, chest puffed up look and just won't stand up straight!

 Sunny day, bus waiting activities... jumping shadows... and the boys in the very back ground who practice their math, or physics or whatever it is and try to estimate at what point to leave the driveway to race the oncoming vehicles and beat them to the next driveway.  All the teachers can be thankful that we at least get rid of a decent amount of energy before even getting to the classroom doors!  The neighbors???? They might not be quite as thankful.  Things are rarely quiet.

 Especially when you're fencing each other's shadows with baseball bats.

Swing!!!

And DUCK!!!!!

Thanks for persevering, Aunt Mary, and for encouraging me to get on this!  I would think this is a nicer sight than seeing that dinosaur over and over again!!

Groupon to the Rescue

Back in the fall we spent $30 on $100 worth of Castle Fun Park money.  It was a neat family night out!  One that we wouldn't have spent $100 on but was still fun to spend $100 worth!

Bit of mini golfing...

Lots of road racing :)

The good old "frogger".  I def remember doing this in our family living room with a joy stick and the old commoder 64 (??) when I wasn't much older than Cara nearly 30 years ago.

Batting cages - a huge hit ;)  Best part of that was probably when Cody knocked our socks off by taking a few wild swings to get into the swing of things and then proceeding to nail nearly every ball!! 

Maybe Cara's best part of the night was the remote control boats behind the batting cages.  I don't think I'll ever understand some things in life!

It might be a while (and another groupon) before we do that again but SO much fun!

Cowgirl Cookies

A couple weeks ago Cara went to a birthday party and came home with the neatest craft!

Cookies in a jar.  Take the mix and pour into a bowl...

Add a slightly beaten egg....

some melted margarine, vanilla, and....

Mix it all up!

Such a great thing to send home for easy cookie making time with a sweet daughter!!!  She was so delighted to do most of it herself.  Many thanks to Cara's friend Amy and her mom.  

Mostly her mom because she had to put up with the mess in getting the jars ready to go home!!!

A package

I was doing some clean up and I found this piece of a package that I've saved for most of our marriage.  I wish I had written what it was and who it was from.  It's about $35 in postage all little stamps.  And I LOVE calla lillies.  Always have.

Do you remember sending us this package?

Dear Opa and Nana

It is always SO  wonderful to have them come visit!

Snuggling on the couch....

 while Daddy reads "The Breadwinner".

 Some intense Payday at the kitchen table and

 Settlers of Catan in the living room.

 Strategic game planning between these two partners in crime.

Distance

We miss these two so much. Their visit here was for sure one of the holiday highlights.

 Cuties, the both of them.

Hebrews 13: 5 - 6 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we may boldly say:

“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”