Six Months Old Already?

As I continue to have more children, I find that each additional child that I have gets older faster. I can hardly believe that my baby is 6 months already. There are so many things that I am enjoying about Zane. My favourite? He looks at me like he wants to marry me. Gazes, actually. I love it!

I have been acutely aware of Zane's gazes lately. There can be much noise, a million things zooming by us and much chance for distraction. When I am holding Zane in the midst of it, what do I see when I look at him? Him gazing right at me. With love and adoration. It makes me think of how I desire my relationship with Jesus to be. That's what I want in the middle of my busy life...to be so focused...on Him. When I am feeling rushed, sad, insecure, angry, whatever, I want to be able to look up and clearly see Him. Mmmm...hmmmm...

Wordless Wednesday

Dylan is 6

How does having two under-6-month-olds, two 2-year-olds, two 4-year-olds, two 5-year-olds and two 6-year-olds sound? I guess that depends upon your perspective. To my little birthday boy, it sounded f-u-n! Today was Dylan's 6th birthday. We went with a 4X4 theme.

The cake was a racetrack of sorts, complete with a dirt road (oreo cookie crumbs & licorice to line it), grass (green-dyed coconut), mudholes (chocolate pudding), a 'slippery' sign and little matchbox trucks, cars and tractors.

This was as soon as I announce that everyone could choose a car to take home!

There was a game of 'racetrack'. This meant running around to different stations in the house, pretending to be 4X4s. The louder the better. There was a carwash (spray bottle of water run by one of the parents), a tunnel, a flat tire (letting the air go crazily out of a balloon) and a gas refill (juiceboxes)! The children had a blast and the grandparents needed a nap afterwards! Me? I just needed a vaccuum cleaner to follow all of the chocolate-cake-crumbed trail around.

Driving their 4X4s in the cake!

My Little Brother's Big Day

My little brother, Steven, got hitched on the weekend. Steven & Jess have been together for eight years and they have a sweet, little 2-year-old boy, Riley. Jess looked so very beautiful and my children thought she was a princess!

Riley and their flower girl.

She's such a sweetie!

Jess and my boys.

I am just so very excited for you, Steven & Jess! I pray that God blesses your marriage and your family. Have fun in Cancun, guys!

Surprise!

I've got to say, I am not up for any Wife of the Year awards. I've got the best husband around and I am just not learning anything on the Being Thankful front. During my shower on Friday morning, I got to thinking that this was the last weekend before my 30th birthday. Of course! Dwayne was planning a surprise party for me - tonight! Well, I carried on my day...waiting. I spoke to a few friends and they were all going to be busy that evening. I was thinking, "Oh ya, busy all right...at my house!" Hee, hee, aren't I just so clever. Evening came and nothing, nada. I went to bed pouting. Dwayne asked me what was wrong and I let 'im have it. "How often am I going to turn 30? I'm the party-planner for everyone. Where's my party? You forgot!?!" On and on and on. Oh, I am cringing just recalling it!



Dwayne was full of grace. "I'm sorry. We've been so busy with landscaping and stuff that I just didn't think of it. I didn't realize it'd be so important to you."



Saturdary morning he suggested I go for breakfast with my friend, Bobbie. I did. We went garage sale shopping after and then I had coffee at her house. When I got home, I put the 2 smallest children for their regular naps and settled in to do some paperwork. Awhile later, Bobbie poked her head in my house to drop off some stuff that I'd forgotten there. I was on the phone and tried to get her to stick around but she seemed in a rush. When I finished up my call, there were all these children in my yard. I went out to see Bobbie and Tammy there.



"What are you up to?"

"Oh, nothing, just thought we'd stop by."

"Can you stay for a coffee?"

"Yah, I guess we could."



Still didn't figure it out. The party idea was long gone by then. My husband had just plain forgotten about me.



Then another friend showed up. Yikes! I knew! My first thought was that Dwayne had quickly arranged something out of guilt. It turns out he called them in April! He had ordered in special food from the market, including 2 large cakes and steaks for all. He barbequed for us and had everything all prepared. I felt like a big ol' lug! And rightly so!



Thanks so much, Dwayne! For the birthday party, too, but mostly for being so great! I love you!



I'll leave you with some pictures of the fun with the children after the meal.

I'm taking Kobe for a ride.

Dylan enjoying the ice cream cake.

Zane & I snuggling by the fire.

Tammy trying to ignore the camera.

Dennis giving up ignoring the camera.

My little sister, Amanda, with Bobbie.

My little brother, Steve, trying to throw my old butt off!

My crazy brother & his fiance, Jess. They are getting married this weekend. I am so excited!

Did you eat too much, Rod?

Isn't this such a great shot of Tristin? I love my camera!

I Can Only Imagine

A girl sang the song, I Can Only Imagine at church yesterday. I was raw with emotion listening to it. Go over and listen. Don't watch the video - sit back, close your eyes, listen and imagine.

A New Look For My Bouquets

We did an experiment to see how cut flowers and cut celery continue to drink up water. Both Dylan & I predicted that our flower would turn blue. What we didn't expect is just how blue they would turn and how we would be able to see so much detail! They were so beautiful, I considered adding the colouring to the whole bouquet!









The colour went right through to the middle. It's hard to show by camera, but it was stunning!

Springtime Fun

Yeah, it snowed this week. Last weekend, though, this was the scene...

Dylan (5)
Kobe (2)

Zane (5 months)

You can never go wrong with baby feet!

The 'Moms' decided to go for a ride. My friend, Liz, screamed the whole time. I love her!

Oh, and Bobbie, you knew I'd post this...no?

Okay, that's a little more elegant!

Landscaping

Dwayne has been a busy man working on our landscaping. It had occurred to me that I haven't taken any 'before' pictures of our backyard. Here are some, although he's done an enormous amount of work already.

Our whole lot was thick with trees when we started. He cleared a spot for our house and now he's been working in the backyard. He's thinned out the trees some more and cleaned out all the underbrush. The forests are very lush here with lots of underbrush and moss. Now that the brush is cleaned out, I hope the moss will grow back and make things really park-like. We also have grass and a garden to plant. We will be waiting a bit, though, as I woke up to snow this morning...in May?!

On the weekend, Dwayne & Dylan were pouring cement to make the pilings for the deck. Dylan ran out the next morning to make sure that it really had hardened and then ran back in to give us the good news!