Heavenly

Fresh strawberries are always heavenly, but when you get one that looks like Angel Wings....

Winter Pics

We were hit with another round of winter. We woke up one morning to this glorious, wintery scene. When you see something as beautiful and peaceful as this, it almost makes winter bearable.

But with the snow, came the task of shovelling our new, LARGE driveway. This picture only shows half of the driveway!

I'm Back!

Here is a massive 'catch up' post. Things have been a bit chaotic the past few weeks. Read on and you'll know why! I also hate to admit that I am about 4 months behind on my 'real' journal writing. It is so much easier to sit and type out an entry rather than hand write it, but I am determined to keep my personal journal going. (Well, maybe I'll just finish the bound one I have now and then publish my blogs into a bound book. We'll see....). It's good to be back....

The New House...Finally!

To say that the last 17 months have been a trial, would be a gross understatement. We thought that building our dream house would be a fun, exciting experience, but it was anything but that! Wayne played the role of general contractor as he was constantly on the phone to the trades and the real contractor to find out what was supposed to be happening then and what needed to be lined up next. Progress was made, but then something would go wrong and would set us back.

Well, we are happy to report that the house is done! We moved on the last day of January. I had said that it had better happen before February and it did...barely! We hired a couple of movers to load our dozens and dozens and DOZENS of boxes, 5 sofas, 5 beds, 6 dressers, a crib, a piano, a fridge and 3 big screen tvs, as well as other odds and ends. It took about 7 hours and two loads!
Thankfully, we had my parents and our friend Deb Duncan help us for the entire day! Wayne's parents kept the kids overnight the night before so we could finish packing and move without them under foot.
So, was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY! Now what are we going to do with all of our free time now that we are not having to hound the builder or the trades?!

My Baby is ONE!

My sweet Baby Bean celebrated his first birthday on January 25th. I cannot believe how this past year has flown by! I am so in love with Sawyer and I could not imagine our family without him. He definitely has his own personality, habits and quirks.

-He loves to suck on his blankets to sooth himself. His blankets are now referred to as 'sucky gin-gins' (that means blanket in Chinese).

-He loves to run his mucky hands in his hair at supper time.

-He would rather feed himself big-people food than eat baby food.

-He loves to look under his legs.

-He finds all of the tissue boxes around the house and empties them out for us.

-Azia nicknamed him "Beaner, Beaner the Vacuum Cleaner" since he crawls around eating everything and anything off of the floor...no matter how crusty!Happy Birthday, Sawyer! We love you!

It Wasn't Planned this Way...

We have 3 kids' birthdays that all fall within 4 days of each other. I don't know how it happened but the last week of January is chaotic for our family. Sawyer turned 1 on January 25. Parker turned 6 the next day and Emmy turned 11 on January 28. That is 3 birthdays in 4 days. If they all came when they were supposed to, their birthdays would've been spaced out a bit more!

I wasn't too sure how I could swing 3 birthday parties while we were getting ready to move. Parties at the house were obviously out of the question as our house looked like a disaster zone for the better part of the past couple of months! So I decided to rent one of the public pools and have a private pool party. Emmy invited a bunch of her friends and Parker was able to invite a bunch of his friends. We had some light snacks prior to the swim and let the kids open their presents. This was Parker's first 'real' birthday party with real friends and real presents...not just a family party. Emmy decided to collect food donations for the food bank instead of asking for presents. (We've done this since she was 8...picked a charity to donate to). Of course a bunch of the girls still brought her gifts which she was very grateful for.

The kids swam for an hour. I LOVED having the pool all to ourselves. I think everyone had fun. We made the kids' birthday cakes so that each guest could take it home with them. Emmy wanted her favorite cake - dirt cake complete with gummy worms and Parker wanted a train cake. I think they both turned out great and I got a lot of compliments on them.

2 kids, 2 parties, 1 night and no mess at home to clean up!