Monday, February 27, 2012

Fantastic Weekend

Okay, so some parts of it might not have been all that fantastic, but overall I'd say it was:). I was all ready to upload some pictures when I discovered that I left my camera at the church in my Sunday School box. Oh well...
Our weekend kinda started on Thursday. Scott had an appointment in Oyen to get his eyes checked. He needed to be driven home after they dilated his eyes, so ALL of us enjoyed going on an adventure. We'd driven through the Oyen area, but never been to the town. We stopped at a park and played for about 30 minutes. The wind made it quite chilly, so we headed to find some hot cocoa after that. They had a nice little convenience store that offered just what we were looking for. We had about 30 minutes until his appt., but headed over a little early. They took him in almost as soon as we arrived. There was a BIG playhouse with books inside the clinic, so the kids REALLY enjoyed the waiting time. His prescription really hasn't changed much since we lived in B.C., but at least we can replace his glasses now. They have a couple chips in them and it'll be nice to have a spare pair again.

Friday morning we left around 8. Everyone woke up early, due to being SUPER EXCITED! We make it to Saskatoon about once a year or so, which means this is a big deal. Elyssia Loves to go to the city. The boys just like having adventures. Scott had arranged for a couple of the stores to have things at the counter for pick-up, which really speeded up the process. I was able to get a Fabricland membership and purchased some material for making each of the kids(and the girl's dolls) pajamas. Looking forward to that project, but not until I finish the last two curtains and painting. Some friends had given us a gift card for a store that we didn't have in town, so I had fun spending that in Saskatoon and finding a bit of something for everyone. That included breakfast for Saturday morning.

From the outside the Saskatoon Inn looks quite a bit like most hotels. Once inside though, it's definitely a different story. There is a pool in the center, which I actually consider a deterrant to our ever wanting to use it. Cause who would want to have everyone that walks by staring at them:). Probably just me, but we didn't include it in our schedule of activities. Those that did go in said the water was cold. They had Botannica gardens in the center, as well. Very pretty. I'll have to include pictures when I get the camera to give you the full scope of things, but Elyssia's declaration of, "This hotel is grand!" was quite accurate. We ended up in a room with a king size bed. I'd thought that we might need to request extra pillows, but there were six on the bed, so that wasn't necessary. We could see planes taking off from the airport outside our window, but didn't hear much noise-wise.

Scott registered us and we took turns going to look through the curriculum. One big blessing was that we ended up paying $50 less than expected for the bulk of it. That left a little extra for other things. I'm thankful that there weren't as many tables to look through as the at the Alberta one. We never would have had time to see it all. We ended up just ordering cds of the sessions that we thought would be helpful instead of trying to sit in on them.

Friday night we got together with the Hammonds. We met them the first year we moved to Saskatoon and I've enjoyed getting to know them over the past couple years. Mostly through phone calls, but also the occasional visit. We were planning to just stop in and bring dessert, but they asked us to come over for supper too. The kids had lots of fun with Josh and Sarah and their collection of animals. The food was delicious and the fellowship was wonderful.

Saturday we knew there was a storm coming, so we checked out of the hotel early and only made one stop on the way home. There were a couple places where it was hard to see through the snow, but thankfully we arrived home at 1:30 and got to enjoy watching the rest of the blizzard from inside our nice warm house!

Sunday was pretty good. We were thankful to see most of our church family and see how they'd fared during the storm. There's quite a bit of snow, but it's sunny outside and warm in the house.

Today I've been prepping the girls room. It's all ready to go now, so I only have to wait until the go to bed before I start painting. I have several ideas of things to do after it's painted, but haven't completely decided, so the unveiling will probably be towards the end of the week. Until next time.....

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Family Day Weekend

We couldn't have asked for nicer weather this past weekend. This year was a bit different though. Darlene, Kirk's fiancee, came to our place for the first time. We had a blast! So much fun and LOTS of pictures. Darlene takes fantastic pictures and you can copy and paste this link to see some of them.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150556626990976.379080.653210975&type=3&l=ff0ca0384f

I tried posting them, but the pictures are too big and they loaded quickly on facebook. The first couple are ones I took. The ones of superior quality are the ones that Darlene took.

We had a lot of fun, ate lots of yummy food, played Apples to Apples and just enjoyed having the time to sit around and chat.

Elyssia was back to normal for their visit and we're very thankful that she's stayed that way. We're having her take the medicine til it's gone, just to make sure that her stomach is completely healed.

I think the hardest part of the visit was when they left. Elyssia cried more than I've ever seen her cry before. Almost made me cry... Thanking the Lord for all His blessings.

Yesterday was all about getting back to some semblance of a schedule. I think we did pretty good:). Today was a bit busier. We had a couple friends over to play. I think they enjoyed it, even if the boys were a bit on the tired side.

We're heading into a couple more busy days this weekend. I'm praying that the little bit of snow we got today is all that we're getting. It will make our travels a lot easier.

On a sad note... There is a family that I know would appreciate extra prayer right now. Their name is the Cretzman family. They are missionaries headed to Cuba. A couple days ago they had an accident on black ice. Their 3 year old, Azlynn didn't survive and Lana, the mom, had to have surgery. The dad and baby are fine. They were one the side of the car that didn't take brunt of the hit. I really can't imagine what they're going through right now. Please pray for them. Healing physically and emotionally. The Lord has already seen one person saved through this tragedy and we pray that many more will come to know Him during this time.

Til next time...

Friday, February 10, 2012

30 x 30

30 things to accomplish before I turn 30... I mentioned doing this when I had my 29th Birthday, but never got around to posting the official list of things I wanted to do before I turned 30. I'm going to post them on the side of my blog and put an * next to them as I complete each one. I'll try to post about them as well, but we'll see how that goes. Only about 4 months left to go. I'm actually looking forward to turning 30. I'm wondering if I'll really feel any differently than I do now. While in the 20s I've still felt like I was about 18 or 19, so maybe I'll see myself in the 20s now:). So, check in every once in awhile to see how I'm doing.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Still here...

We've been really busy this week with house renos. Lots of painting going on. I've found that I really don't like the prep work, but the actual painting is quite fun:). It leaves little time for blogging and I think I'm going to wait a bit to post pictures. It's done for the most part, but I'd like to get the pictures back up and a few more things before the big REVEAL:)))). I'm LOVING the new color! It truly makes a HUGE difference in how things look. We also need to pick up at least one lamp. The other one wasn't working, so it's now lawn funiture. Those living in the country know what I'm talking about. This morning I looked out the window and Elyssia had turned on the lower light and was sitting under it. She truly looked like a little homeless waif. It made me laugh though. She'd gone out to feed the cats and decided to stay awhile.

The weather here has continued to be nice and sunny. LOVING this winter. I don't think I can say that enough. It seems so much like Spring and the little bugs seem to think so too. The boys saw a ladybug crawling around at the church. That was a surprise. Aren't they supposed to be sleeping?

Today was quite enjoyable for many different reasons.

- Addie slept 10 hours straight last night:)!
- Elyssia finished school quickly this morning.
- We headed into town and Scott watched E and K while I took the boys and Addie on a date to A&W. Addie slept the whole time and I had a lot of fun with the boys. They both took turns ordering their food, they remembered their manners and were complimented by several people while we were there.(This is not always the norm at home, so I was thankful that they were on their best behavior).
- I was able to take all 5 shopping and we enjoyed good behavior for that too:)!
- There was time to bake Lemon Crinkles and enjoy the sunshine this afternoon.
- We had a delicious supper.
- The kids fell asleep right away when we put them to bed at 7.
- The curtain I made is now hanging in the 2nd guest bedroom(now I need to make 2 more for the other one, plus one for the girls room).
- I got a second wind, which enable me to post this, but I'd better head to bed now.

Most of all I'm thankful for my salvation, family and friends. I'm Really Thankful to have another day to live for the Lord and enjoy the family and friends that He has blessed us with.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Video

This is the first time I've tried this, so hopefully it works. If you copy and paste the link below it should take you to a video of Adelaide that I uploaded on Youtube. It's still a really slow way to upload, so if anyone knows a better way, please let me know.

Please ignore the mommy voice I'm using when I talk to Adelaide. It sounds ridiculous:). Love this little chatterbox though<3.




http://youtu.be/-HUa3sz2ME0

Keeping My Word

I try not to wait too long before posting pics, if I've mentioned in a previous post that I will do it soon. It's too easy to forget:). So, here are the pictures that I mentioned.
Toad in a Hole(Valentine Style)


The kids with their Valentine bag and goodies.

Scott's Valentine Bag with Heart shaped Brownies!

Cinnamon Applesauce in a Heart Pan

A Valentine treat for our bird friends.

Heart Shaped Waffles

The Clipboard I made for Elyssia.

Valentine card for Elyssia's friends(Heart Cookie inside).

The little bag I sewed for Kiersten's kitty to ride in.



I also have one extra project that I did, but it's a gift and that person might see it on here. Soooo, I guess I can just have fun with this one. It's really hard for me not to give the aforementioned gift to this person early because I'm really pleased with how it turned out and want to see if they like it. For now, I shall suffer and those with very curious natures shall suffer with me:))).

Friday, February 3, 2012

Up too late...

and no nap today... Yikes, I really should be in bed right now. I feel the need to blog though, so I shall delay my departure to dreamland just a wee bit longer:).

I really have to say that this week has been amazing! A friend of mine is writing things she's thankful for and asked others to respond. Maybe she wanted us to write on her blog, but I decided to put it here instead:). This week we've had Awesome weather. Thank you Lord! I'm not saying it was hot or anything. We had beautiful sunshine and the kids played outside 4 out of 5 days this week and we had fun surprising Scott with special treats. School seemed to go faster too. I'm loving the progress that Garrison is making in his reading. It's different from Elyssia, but I'm thankful that he's coming along nicely. One difference with him is that he will read to Scott and I, but doesn't want to read to others. Not sure if it's a lack of confidence, but hopefully he'll start sharing it with Caleb and Kiersten. I know they'd enjoy it.

Caleb is doing really well with his workbooks. He's very excited about them and very disappointed when I don't have time to work with him.

Kiersten is being super snuggly lately. I think she's struggling a bit with the others having school. I try to give her color papers and take reading breaks with her, but she still seems to be irritated. She's quick to find things that are hers and say, "mine". Totally a 2 year old thing:) She was really funny today though. She was on the porch and Garrison kept telling her that she was hurting the kitty. The cat actually seemed to like that she was holding it. Maybe she was squeezing it a bit tight, but I didn't hear any protests from the cat. I told Garrison that if the cat didn't like it, it would probably scratch Kiersten. He left her alone after that and Kiersten was content holding the kitty like a baby.

Today was an extra special day. Scott brought home Chinese food(the first time we've had it in over a year) and.... A SEWING MACHINE:). Yeah, I'm sure I'll get a lot more accomplished with a working sewing machine than trying to do it by hand. It took a bit to figure things out. After the first attempt I came upstairs and Scott asked, "Did you finish your first quilt yet?" Funny guy:). Garrison seems to have his sense of humor. He replied, "no, she just made it go ---. Insert a funny sound there. The bobbin thread wasn't in the center and it bunched making a funny sound. Garrison thought it was hilarious. So, I waited until all the kids were asleep to go back down and sew without the audience. It went much better.

*I was able to make a little purse for Kiersten with some of the scrap fabric that I had. A friend of mine said that she has quite a bit of scrap fabric that I can have to practice on. I'll have to see about getting that from her before I can do too much more, but I do have a couple things I can repair and enough fabric for a couple more small projects. If anyone knows a good website for kids patterns, please let me know. I haven't really checked around much, due to the fact that I really wasn't into sewing, but something has changed and it's suddenly a really fun thing to do and it should also come in handy with the girls clothes. There aren't a lot of girls skirts and dresses available around here, so I think I'm going to be making most of them from now on. We've been blessed to have quite a bit given to us and also to find it in the Thrift shop, but knowing how to sew will be quite valuable over the next 15 years of so. Plus, Elyssia LOVES to sew and is always begging me to help her make something. So, that is one MAJOR blessing that I'm excited about.

I have a couple of videos and pictures of Adelaide, Valentine projects and the other kids just being their cute little selves(don't think that's a word:). I'll wait til I have more time to post them though. Until then, I'll just let you imagine how cute they are:).

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Emily's Posts: Photos!!!!

Emily's Posts: Photos!!!!

Here is a link to a blog that I've been following for the past year. I know the Houston Family from Preacher's Conference in Yakima and the one visit that they made to O.H. when I was still there.

This recent post of hers is Amazing. It expresses a lot of our thoughts about children and is a great encouragement to us to be faithful in raising up the ones that the Lord blesses us with. I hope you enjoy the post, I know I did:)

If you have a bit of time, please remember my oldest brother Jason in your prayers. He's in India right now. Safety while he's there and a safe flight home.

Good Night Everyone!

A Good Head Start!

Technically I started Valentine's projects yesterday. Tonight I can say that I have 3 complete(5, if you count the cards I made). We're enjoying all the extra activities and crafts. Garrison and Elyssia made cards for Scott and Scott surprised me with a gift today, without me even telling him about my plans for a month of Valentines:). Here are pictures of my first couple gifts:


A delicious Cherry Pie!



Valentine Sugar Cookies(the extras are for our Ladies Tea on the 11th).


A Candy Sundae and card for Scott.

And for an extra special treat I made Oreo milkshakes for the kids and they drank them through heart shaped straws their Nana gave them last year.



We had another gorgeous day today. It wasn't warm, but the weather was crisp and clear and the kids played outside for about an hour this afternoon. This morning I took Elyssia and Adelaide with me to CoOp for their 10% off day. Extra Foods doesn't have their sale until next Monday and we were running low, so this worked out really well. Adelaide slept through the store until we got to the checkout. That helped me to get through the store in about 40 minutes. I think we might've done it in 30, but I didn't see a couple items on my list and took longer to select a couple things, due to being unfamiliar with the brand/price. Can you believe that a small package of ground pepper cost $7. The cashier told me that I had picked the cheap kind too:). I think I might just get it from the dollar store next time. I had budgeted $2.00 for it. Silly me. I obviously haven't bought pepper in a long time. If we hadn't been completely out I probably wouldn't have bought it yet. We did come in quite close to the amount I had decided to spend. I think we were $5 over. I blame the pepper:))). I went to the dollar store after that and saw that they had a thing for $1.00. Does anyone know if there's anything wrong with the Dollar store kind. I'd definitely choose to get the cheaper kind unless someone could tell me it's really bad or something.
Anyway, the first day of February has been quite pleasant. Scott came home after working a half day and played with the kids for a couple hours before heading back to town for a meeting. The house is now extremely quiet, due to 5 little ones being asleep. Love those little ones to pieces and thank the Lord for sharing them with us. I'll enjoy a little more quiet time though and then head off to get some sleep too.

Happy February!