Amazing!

A friend e-mailed this to me & I just had to pass it along to everyone! Thanks, Carla!

(If clicking on the Youtube video doesn't work, try clicking HERE - let me know if this doesn't work).

Catch Up - Again!

I've been going through our more recent photos and wanting to post them, so here goes!

One Saturday in December, I was working so Jeremy took Daniel & Becca along with another friend and two of his kids to the Surrey Museum to see the Lego exhibit that was showing. It was SO neat! The kids (both young & old) had a great time, looking at all the intricate Lego displays. There was also an area where the kids could build their own creations with Lego. Here are just a few of the pictures Jeremy took. Oh and by the way, there will be a Lego exhibit at Science World in Vancouver, BC. Click here for more info.

This is a picture of Jeremy & I at his work Christmas banquet in December.
Here is Becca all bundled up & ready to play in the first snowfall in December (Daniel was still in school)! It was quite a process but she didn't complain and actually stayed outside by herself for quite sometime!

And finally, here are a couple pictures Daniel took.

The teddy bear is Becca's and is very special to her. In early December I took Becca to the firehall for a car seat safety check. We have been waiting for her to weigh 40lbs so she could get out of the Stage 2 seat & go into a booster seat but she wasn't quite at the required weight. One day I noticed that her shoulders were above hole for the straps so I booked us an appointment. Rebecca has been quite anxious to advance to a booster seat so she was all smiles when the fireman said she was tall enough for a booster! Although she didn't quite weigh enough, her height was sufficient. During the inspection, the fireman gave Rebecca this teddy bear. She slept with it every night after dressing it & putting a little blanket on it. Needless to say I was very shocked when she allowed Grandma & Grandpa (my parents) to sleep with it when they were here after Christmas! But no matter how much Grandpa asked, Becca wouldn't let them take the teddy bear home with them! It was so sweet!

The stuffed border collie dog is Daniel's first and only Webkin. While we were on our holidays in November we got the kids each a Webkin (another very special item).

Well, that's it for now. I have more pictures to post but I will post them separately.

Thankful Thursday - UPDATED

Here it is January 3rd, 2009 and I'm just adding pictures! Jeremy found the cord for transferring pictures from our camera to our computer. So I thought instead of creating a whole new post & having to describe each picture again, I would simply put the pictures in where they should be.

Hope you enjoy!

I have much to be thankful for today! I have been wanting to post all week, but haven't because I want to post pictures with it. I can't seem to find the USB cord to transfer pictures from our camera to our laptop. So today's post will have to be without photos - Sorry!

November 9th, Jeremy & I celebrated our 12th anniversary! That is the super-condensed version! Despite not having much time today, I will elaborate a little more than that!

Earlier this fall, Jeremy told me that we were going to go away for our anniversary. He didn't want to say anything until a day or two before we left, but because of my new business & my babysitting schedule, he chose to give me fair warning. I knew we were going from Friday night to Tuesday (it was a long weekend because of Remembrance Day), but that's all he told me. I had no idea where we were staying or what we were doing.

This is how the weekend played out for me:

• Nov. 7th, Friday night - babysitting kids go home; we're packed but so are the ferries. We decide to wait & go in the morning.
• Saturday morning (Nov. 8th) we (Jeremy, the kids & I) headed for the ferry
• Saturday noon, we met my parents at Walmart near their home & left the kids & their stuff with them; Jeremy & I left for Victoria for the night to celebrate our anniversary
• Saturday - on the drive to Victoria, Jeremy hands me Envelope #1. Inside it told me where we were staying for the night
• Saturday - mid-afternoon we arrived at our Bed & Breakfast Mountainside Luxury Resort & Spa (turns out it was very close to where my grandparents lived when I was growing up!)

View from our room

The Parliament buildings in Victoria, BC

• I rested a little, showered & got ready for our evening out; Jeremy presents me with Envelope #2 telling me where we were going for dinner; Jeremy puts on his new suit (he looked awesome!)
• We go to Il Terrazzo Ristorante for dinner. We went there on our honeymoon & both LOVED it! If you're ever in Victoria and looking for a great place to eat (it's a little higher priced & not as suitable for children), definately check it out
• Saturday early evening, during dinner - Jeremy presents me with Envelope #3, telling me where we were going after dinner
• Saturday evening after dinner we walk to the Royal Theatre to watch a perfomance of the Victoria Symphony & El Viento Flamenco. It was like Celtic dancing meets Spanish music - excellent!
• After the perfomance we head back to our B&B. The next morning, Jeremy presents me with Envelope #4 telling me where we were going for brunch.
• Nov. 9th (Happy Anniversary) Sunday morning - brunch at Samuel's by the Park
• After brunch, we attempt shopping for a bathing suit for me with no luck
• Sunday afternoon we drive back up Island and meet my parents & the kids at my aunt & uncle's (their kids planned an open house to celebrate my aunt & uncle's 25th anniversay).
• Sunday early evening, my parents & the kids leave early from the open house to drop some things off at another aunt & uncle's; we leave shortly after and meet my parents & the kids at a swimming pool (my parents have time shares in Parksville so they can use the pool there whenever they want for free).


• Sunday evening my parents take us out for dinner in Parksville to celebrate our anniversary
• Sunday evening, dessert time for the kids - the waitress brings the kids their desserts & hands me an envelope!
• Envelope #5 - "Actually, there is one more thing!"
• Inside the envelope:

Dear Leanne,

You are the wife a man can only dream of having. You have walked with me through some of the hardest days of my life and some of the best days of my life. You have encouraged me, loved me, supported me, and embraced my inner being with deep love & great affection. God has blessed me beyond what I deserve by giving me you. What words or actions, pledges or wonders could I ever do to express the deep gratitude of love I have for you, my best friend.

I have worked on this anniversary since January of this year, looking at ways I could show my appreciation for all the work you have done and all the love you have put into our family. I hope our time in Victoria achieved my desire to let you know how much I love you and how much I appreciate all that you do for me and this family.

BUT, as I said, I could never do enough.

I have arranged for us as a family to spend the rest of this week, until Sunday, at Pacific Shores Nature Resort. I told ___ & ___ (babysitting parents) that you are not available this week and the Epicure party you booked for this coming Thursday has been re-booked for the following Thursday. I have arranged with Daniel's school for him to be away as well and have brought his work to be done.

What do I have planned for this week? Nothing. I have talked with my family about us being here and we can visit them through the week and do whatever else we want to do. This is our family vacation in honor of you and all you do for us as a family. Thank you, Leanne."

Needless to say, the tears were flowing down my face! So in the end, what I thought was going to be a weekend on the Island with Jeremy & I gone for one night, turned into us staying for the entire week! I was completely shocked!

That week was SO good! It was the first time we, as a family - Jeremy, the kids & I, had ever had a holiday by ourselves. When we have holiday time, we always go to visit family. Even when we went to Saskatchewan a few years ago, we travelled with my parents. I am so glad they were with us, but there's also something to be said about just being by ourselves with the kids.

We had a great week hanging out just the four of us. We took the kids to a movie, I finally bought a new bathing suit (yeah!), we played tourist, took pictures (sorry, I still can't find the cord), relaxed and visited family. I loved it! Each evening I'd sit in the living room, look out the windows into the darkness, look at the lights reflecting on the ocean water & sigh. It was so perfect.

My Dad - I love this picture!

Daniel's photography

Cousin time

Family Time

It's been good being home again, but I think I could have stayed another week! Maybe next year!

Thank you to everyone who played a part, in some way or another, in planning this surprise for me. I was completely shocked and amazed at all the details that went into it!

To Jeremy, THANK YOU! I don't know how else to say it! You touched my heart in a very deep way & I love you more than I can put into words. I am SO thankful that God brought us together. Two people who grew up on the Island, with common friends, going to the same church camp at the same time, but not meeting till years later...God's ways are perfect! I love you and I'm looking forward to the next 12 years and beyond!

Catch Up

Jeremy is out for the evening and the kids are in bed. So I thought I'd update a little before starting my movie.

Before Christmas, a friend from Bible school was out for her grandma's funeral so a group of us decided to get together for a little "girl's nite out". Each of us were unit-mates (lived in the same unit) during my first year at Columbia Bible College. The only one missing was my roommate, Elisabeth, who lives in Germany.

First we met at a local restaurant, then because it happened to be the time change ("hey, it's not as late as we thought...!"), we headed back to my place for a little further catching up. Jeremy was there so he got to reminisce with us as we looked through old year books.

Here are a few pictures of our evening.

Me, Laurali, Dolly, Lisa & Misty

Dolly, Lisa & Misty

Me & Laurali

Family Time

A couple Sundays ago, we went to The Apple Barn here in town. Daniel had been in Kindergarten for a field trip but the rest of us had never been. We met some friends there from our new church and had a great time!

The kids went up and down the slide and through the little maze over and over again. We laughed and cheered so hard when Jeremy & our friends went down a very steep, windy & not-so-wide of a slide! I was wise and decided to stay on firm ground (okay - I was probably a little scared & I'm not that adventerous!).

It was a beautiful sunny, October day. It was good to be out in the fresh air and enjoying some time with new friends. It felt like old times (hanging out with people we know)!

Here are some picutres from our outing!

Perfection!

The sun is shining, the air is brisk, the kids are playing outside, it's quiet inside & I'm enjoying a cup of hot Mulled Cider! What could be better than this?!

Life in Pictures & Ideas Wanted

Last week we had a real heat wave, at least it felt like it! One day when Daniel got home from school (I love carpooling!) this is what he looked like! Talk about wild & crazy hair!

All hot & sweaty after playing on the playground after school!

What goes through your mind when you see a picture like this?

If your answer was "clippings from a hair cut" you would be correct - well, sort of...

Becca ~ the willing participant

Daniel ~ The Culprit
The end result

Did you see it? The hair is cut level to her ear. Daniel cut off about 3"! Needless to say, we weren't too happy. Especially because we had just finished telling Daniel & Becca to put the scissors away after they were trying to cut a stuffed puppy's fur. Sigh! We'll probably take Becca in for a haircut this weekend to see if anything can be done to make it look a little better. And while we're at it, we'll get Daniel's crazy hair taken care of too!

Now on to today's adventure! Daniel lost another tooth! We were at Costco having lunch with my Mom. She was on her way through to the Interior for a "Music for Young Children" conference. Because of the short time that we'd have to visit - and she wanted to fill up at Costco (gotta love cheaper gas) - we met at Costco and had lunch. While eating his pizza, Daniel's tooth popped right out! I thought it was pretty cool that Grandma was there for the special occasion. Here is the happy boy!

Now for wanting ideas.

I am planning Daniel's 7th birthday party. We are trying to save money so I'm thinking of ideas for having his party at home. But then it could rain & who wants 10 kids running around in a small house with no playroom? So we might end up going somewhere.

What I am wanting ideas for are the birthday cake. I only have limited time but making the birthday cake is something I really want to do. Any ideas how I could make / decorate Daniel's cake with little effort & cost? I'm thinking something along the lines of Space, Cowboys & Indians (we're reading the "Little House on the Prairie" series so he's interested in this), airplanes/jets/rockets, pirates (nothing yucky), treasure chest, castle (knights, etc). I saw a wonderful idea of doing a treasure chest with cupcake pirates, with the chest overflowing with candy "treasures" but most of the candies I looked at today contain peanuts (or traces of). One of the boys Daniel is inviting is allergic to peanuts and I want to be sensitive to the allergy - making it so he can eat everything we offer.

Any ideas? Please leave them in the comments...I'd love the input. I'm planning to start on the cake as soon as possible. Thanks in advance!

Thankful Thursday

I couldn't wait for this morning to come, so I'll just get right into it!

Today I am thankful for:

• My wonderful, sweet, thoughtful & amazing husband
• Free Cycle/Full Circle
• Blessings that God gives us - just because
• My "new" patio swing!

Now for a little background! We are signed up with our city's Free Cycle (in our city it's called Full Circle). It's an internet-based "organization" with which people can post "Wanted" and "Offer" ads. All items must be given & received for free. The idea is to keep as much stuff out of the land fill as possible.

We have received a couple items already through Full Circle (click here to read about those). This past spring/early summer, I posted an ad on Full Circle requesting a patio swing. Because of the reaction my skin gets when it's exposed to the sun, I wanted to have a patio swing with an awning so that I could sit on it in the backyard, keep an eye on the kids and not get itchy in the process. I didn't receive any responses at that time.

Yesterday, someone was offering a patio swing that needs a little repair to the cushion & awning material. I forwarded the e-mail to Jeremy asking what he thought. He quickly dismissed it as not a good idea because of the repairs that would need to be made to the fabric. But I didn't want to give up that easily so I e-mailed the man back, asking if the swing was structurally sound. I never received a response back and the next thing I knew, the man had posted an e-mail stating "the patio swing has been taken".

My practical side said, "Oh well, maybe next time!" And that was the end of it. Or so I thought!

My wonderful, amazing, thoughtful, sweet...did I mention amazing?!...husband had taken matters into his own hands. With a couple of loving white lies (okay - they were rather blatant lies), he e-mailed the man himself and said he would love to take it as a surprise for his wife (me!). The man was concerned because I had already e-mailed him asking questions about it. So Jeremy (he's so smart) suggested the man (who happens to be a Christian!) send out an e-mail stating that the item had been taken. So that's what the man did; that's the e-mail I received which led me to believe that I had lost out on this opportunity for good.

Well, the next part of the story is pretty cool. Our next door neighbors were receiving some "new to them" furniture from their friends and we were taking our neighbors "finished with" furniture. As a stipulation (with a smile), our neighbor said we could have their funiture if Jeremy brought a truck home from his work to help them pick up their "new" stuff. So of course Jeremy obliged! He helped bring their old furniture over to our garage/rec room (it looks amazing now, by the way) then helped to pick up their "new" furniture. After all of this work, Jeremy told me that our neighbors' friend, Ian, needed help moving a couple things, so Jeremy had to go back out. No problem, I thought! Here's a great opportunity for Jeremy to connect with more non-Christians!

As it turns out, Ian didn't need help with anything. Jeremy took advantage of having a truck from his work and went to pick up the afore mentioned patio swing! He very quietly brought each cushion and piece up the back stairs onto our back deck. I was oblivious to the whole ordeal. When it came to moving the main frame, Jeremy enlisted the help of our new tennant. Together they quietly snuck it up the stairs and set the whole thing up.

I was sitting in the living room flipping through channels on the TV when Jeremy walked in. I asked how it had gone helping Ian. He said that it went well...there was some extra stuff on the back deck. What?! What extra stuff? Don't we already have enough furniture? Okay, I'll come see what's on the deck.

This is what I saw (well, actually I could barely see it because it was dark out and we don't have any lights on our back deck):

My FREE new-to-me patio swing!

For other Thankful hearts, visit Iris at Sting My Heart.

A Blog Award!

I have received my first blog award! I'm so excited!

It was generously given by Nancy over at Olive Leaf Ministries. Nancy has been doing short encouraging devotional videos on her blog these past few months. Her story is worth reading and I encourage you to check out her blog. Click here to see her blog award post.

Thanks for this award, Nancy! Some of my answers are the same as yours - we have similar values!

Here are the rules:

1. Mention the blog that gave it to you & comment on their blog to let them know you've posted your award
2. Publish these rules
3. Share 6 values that are important to you and 6 things you do not support
4. Grant the prize to 6 people

What I value:

1. My personal relationship with Jesus Christ
2. My husband's vision & encouragement
3. Time at home with my children
4. A good dessert, steamed milk & conversation with friends
5. A good book
6. God's beautiful creation - I just love flowers & sunsets!

What I do not support:

1. Disrespect
2. Teasing
3. Whining
4. Violence
5. Abortion
6. Sushi (okay, I just don't like it!)

I wasn't sure what the name on the award meant, so I translated it on-line (may not be a completely accurate translation). "Premio al Esfuerzo Personal" = Prize to the Personal Effort. So I chose some of the blog writers who I feel deserve a prize for their personal effort in blogging.

I pass this award on to:

Lysa at Proverbs 31 Ministries
Susan at Penless Writer
Melissa at Mel's World
Leanne at Impressions
Yvonne at Life as a Gronau
Kristen at Janzen/Larsen Family

Catch Up

Here it is the end of the first week of a new school year and I haven't done a post about Daniel's 1st day back to school! So here is his unofficial "First Day Back to School" post!

Here is my little boy, who is not so little anymore, proud to be in Grade 2!

Daniel - almost 7yrs old

And to top it off, if you didn't notice from the picture, Daniel lost another tooth a week or so ago. It's his top front tooth. We were at McDonald's and his tooth became extra loose. I asked him if he wanted me to try to gently pull it out. He agreed, so with little effort, his tooth popped right out! He was so excited!

Another sign my son is growing up!

Our Holiday in Pictures (Part 3)

I'm realizing now that we took a lot of pictures on our holiday! That just means I can do more pictures and fewer words! If you haven't seen the first two sets of pictures, click here for Part 1; click here for Part 2.

The first set of pictures are from our day trip to Carp Lake for fishing, swimming & just hanging out. We arrived just in time for lunch so quickly roasted some hot dogs for lunch. After lunch, we launched the boat into the water and Ernie & Jeremy took Daniel, Becca & Kathleen out for a ride & a little fishing. After a couple of hours, they returned with one small fish that Kathleen caught. Although our kids didn't catch anything, they were excited just to be on the boat!

Ernie let Daniel & Becca take turns steering the boat.

They couldn't stop talking about it after!

Jeremy taking time out for a little fly fishing

Daniel ready to explore the lake

Mid-week we adjusted our plans. Jeremy & I had wanted to head further north to visit Jeremy's brother, sister-in-law & four girls but scheduling just didn't work out. So instead, we all (my sister & family, parents & us) headed south to Barkerville. If you have never been to Barkerville, I highly recommend going. Click here for Barkerville's website.

There were a number of these little guys eating popcorn that people had dropped on the ground

Taking a break from all the walking
(Dad, Ernie, Paul, Douglas & Daniel)

All the employees are dressed up in period clothing

One of the pictures Jeremy took at Barkerville

This church is the only building I remembered from the last time I visited Barkerville - many years ago

At the end of our day at Barkerville, we all said our sad good-byes. Poor Becca cried for at least an hour after we left. Over the almost 2 weeks that Daniel & Becca had been in Mackenzie, Becca really bonded with Kathleen. They were almost inseperable. But the time had come - Karen, Ernie & kids still had to drive 4hrs back home that night with terrible weather looming on the horizon. We had about a 2-3hr drive ahead of us as we headed south to Williams Lake for the night. Mom & Dad have long-time friends there so we usually stay the night as we pass through. We were fortunate enough to hit the bad weather on the way down too - thunder, lightening and heavy rain. At one point, Jeremy pulled over because he couldn't see the lines on the highway! After a bit, we continued on, driving slowly. Mom & I were doing whatever we could to keep the kids calm (and try to keep Becca from starting to cry for Kathleen again). We sang church songs, played games, told stories, anything!

The next morning, we loaded up the van and continued on our way home, this time with more favorable weather. On our way, we stopped for lunch at Horsting's Farm Market. If you're passing through Cache Creek, and the farm market is open, it is definately worth stopping for.

A picture of the Horsting's apple orchards
We used the distance for Daniel to expel his energy!

Jeremy - taken by Becca

And that is the end of our holiday! We are thankful for a safe trip and all the fun we had. 'Till next time...!