An early Birthday:)

Yip Yip! Kevin surprised me with an early (by 10 days) Birthday on Saturday. A party, that is! I don't recall ever having had a surprise party before, never mind a party at which the only purpose was to celebrate my birthday (since being a kid that is). The Christmas/New Years season is a busy one and it seems difficult enough to remember all the ingredients for the turkey dinner, let alone be able to remember, plan, and find people to come celebrate a birthday in the midst of the hubbub. I guess Kevin thought I needed a special day. And I loved it!! I'll throw some pictures of the party in here while writing about my fantastic day! The day actually began with some chores: Kevin finished off some Christmas gifts we've been making while I thoroughly cleaned the house (and was very glad I did when I discovered he had invited 6 people over later!). Then he arranged for a babysitter (our wonderful friend Sandra!!) so we could head out on a date - which I might add, was last had on our Anniversary 7 months ago, and before that was likely the previous Anniversary - life had been busy until moving into our house (and Grandparent-I mean babysitter-less!)... ... we went to the Eagle Ranch Resort for an amazing lunch! Seriously, if any of you ever come to Invermere, GO HERE! It's a beautiful chalet-style building with a great view of the mountains and lake below - georgous! The food (and service) is fantastic (even the price is reasonable, though not necessarily cheap)!!!... ...then it was off to the Kicking Horse Coffee cafe (in the KH factory) for a mocha and cheesecake. Mmmmmm!!!!! Possibly the best mocha I've e-v-e-r had (that's right, eat your heart out Starbucks)!! I'm also more than happy to support this company, as they are local and have quality, organic, fair trade coffee beans! Anyway, we drove into town for a little window shopping, then headed home. I was under the impression, of course, that it was back to life with tired kids and making dinner as soon as we stepped in the door ~ ~ however I opened the front door to an amazing aroma (!) and couldn't quite figure out why or HOW Sandra had been making dinner for us while we were gone. She explained that her boyfriend Vince had decided to come over and make us spaghetti. I was shocked but delighted, once again, at the thought of another effortless and amazing meal! :) :) ..... ... it was about the time that I walked into the kitchen that I turned to see Kevin's expression, which left me a little suspicious and very confused. He had a goofy grin on his face which he was obviously trying very hard to hide. I later learned that he had been standing infront of an infant carseat, in an attempt to hide it from me:) Sandra quickly cut in by asking, "Is there a fan on in your bedroom or something? I didn't want to go in or anything, but I keep hearing a ticking noise." Without thinking twice I said, "Really??? Oh, well you can go in there, it's okay!" and headed into my room to check it out. And as you can guess, there were my friends, jumping out from the dark to yell "SURPRISE!!!" and scare the crap out of me. It worked! I couldn't believe Kevin had pulled something like that off, and been able to hide it for over a week! I am truely impressed:) Thanks to all my wonderful friends (and husband!!) for the day! These last 2 pics are of the next day. Atalie is helping me make a lasagna for a simple, homemade, freezer dinner for Nana & Papa during the holidays to come:) Beautiful in Balloons:)

Whew!

I was a little surprised to see long, thick ice crystals covering the outdoors today!! It was beautiful! Initially I was heading out to clean the inside of the truck while the kids were napping and I wasn't really looking forward to the task at hand (our one vehicle happens to make use as a work truck for Kev when it's his turn to carpool and the dust just piiiiles up sometimes - I actually had an opportunity to look nice for a Christmas dinner tonight so I thought I better go without dust on my nice dress pants!). So when I stepped outside and really stopped to look around, I realized that the fuzzy white substance I saw from a distance through my kitchen window was actually massive chunks of beautiful ice crystals!! Whoda thunk?! I GOTTA get out more often;) The above pic is one of our 5 cedar shrubs which the deer have taken quite a liking to. Perhaps they'll leave em alone for a few days! Rrrrg. There's just not enough time in the day to get to the hardware store and buy some burlap to wrap those poor, dying cedars in!!

Good Lord!!!!

Let me start off this post with a sigh. Excuse me..... ***** s i g h ******! Well I don't know what he can possibly do next (or at least in a 24 hour period). Aiden tripped on the first step on his way downstairs this morning. I caught the initial trip out of the corner of my eye, rushed towards the stairs to see him tumble the remaining 10 or so stairs and ran down the stairs to scoop him up and offer my condolences. Poor little guy must have caught his lip on the carpet going down and ripped his gums just above his top front tooth... blood and tears covered his sweet little face!! He doesn't cry for just anything either. It has to REALLLLLY hurt!! To top that off he already begun the day somewhat miserable. He had four immunization shots yesterday afternoon and didn't wake up terribly happy about that this morning. Then when he woke up from his fabulous 3 hour nap this afternoon.... yes, he catapulted himself right out of his crib and onto his head. How do I know? B/c he was in his crib and then I heard a very loud "THUD" from the basement and ran up to discover him laying on the floor, once again covered in blood and tears. So Mommy to the rescue - scoop him up and offer some more sympathy (even though this one was 100% mischief and nothing I could have prevented). The first tumble he took I tried distracting him from the pain by taking him to his room and asking him if he'd like to watch a movie (LOVES movies, just like his parents and sister!). His response was adorable... covered in tears and sobbing away he says, "moo mooooo" for movie. He only ever tries to say "baba" for bottle, "mama" for Mommy and "dada" for Daddy. I guess that movie meant alot to him:) So I tried it again second tumble around and it worked like a gem. Currently he sits on the floor with a snack watching "Stuart Little" with his sister:) Poor little bup (our nickname for him)!

We took the kids skating at the local rink yesterday - first time! They had a blast - especially Atalie when we took her out of the Chariot to "skate" around in her boots! We realized at the end of our time there that she didn't have a helmet!! Oops~~~ Next time! She did REALLY well too. I think we'll look into getting her some used bob-skates. She was so excited to go skating even though she'd never been - she only knew that Daddy goes skating when he plays hockey during the week. Anyway, here's some pics: OK so he DOES play hockey... which is a good excuse for being faster than me, thus the kids preferring he push them ;) A GREAT way to get a stiff back! Try it some time! No, she didn't fall down and isn't afraid like her face might express... she wanted to be pulled around like this and was thrilled;) Yes, this was what happened when we got off the ice and headed into the changerooms to take off our skates and head home... "I dooon't wannnaaaa goooo h-h-h-hooooome!!" "I want to skaaaaaate!!!!!" The only thing which calmed her down (and immediately!) was asking her if she'd like to invite her friend Zack to come with her next time (we invited him this time too but he couldn't). She was so excited about it that she told the next stranger who came into the room, "Zackary wants to come skating with me!!!!!" :) Hear that Zack? You're officially invited again next Sunday! ;) Aiden took advantage of the fact that I left my dirty, snowy boots out to dry... We made popcorn and watched a movie together after skating:) If you're brushing your teeth around Aiden he will BEG you to brush his too! Funny guy loves to have his teeth brushed:) He'll say, "eh! eh! eeeh!" and point up at the cupboard until you get his toothbrush out too.

Well, little munchkin #2 has struck the tub (no pics this time, sorry!). I mean, 10 minutes after putting him and his sister into the bath this morning I hear (from the next room - not far), "NO AIDEN!! NO!!! YOU CAN'T POOP IN THE BATH TUB!!!! MOMMY, AIDEN IS POOPING!!!!" Sooooooooo....... I take them both out, put on some rubber gloves and attempt to remove the soggy chunks from the water - I look to my right to see Aiden standing on Atalie's little potty, looking downward, his interest switching from what I was doing to what he is now doing: peeing allllll over the potty, tub and floor. ?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OK. Alright, well I can relax now. It can't get any worse now that they (mostly Aiden) are covered in poopy pee water and splashing around on the tile floor. I Vim'd the bathtub, filled it up again and scrubbed them down with clean soapy water. 2 minutes later Aiden didn't really want a bath anymore anyways so he came out. After all the baths had been had I sent them to the table for breakfast and continued to Vim the rest of the bathroom until it was sparkling clean. Now, all that was for what?????? Someone please tell me!

Decking the halls!

We decided to put up the exterior Christmas lights and tree yesterday since the following day (today) would be December 1st... an official begin to the C-mas season! Kevin worked on the lights outside while I got to work on setting up our steal-of-a-deal tree (but that's another post). The kids were sleeping so we took full advantage of our free time and got to work straight away! Tree is UP and lights are IN:) That only took a couple of hours... usually it's Kevin's job b/c he's much more patient and very diligent! However I took my time and did a pretty good job;) My little helper arose from her nap with great confusion and excitement for all the happenings around her:) Atalie did great... but I broke an ornament! Laminate presents somewhat of a(destructive) challenge at Christmas time! ~ oops ~ She was a BIG helper:) I had to re-position a few ornaments which were hung on the same branch, or too close together, a couple of times but otherwise she did great and absolutely LOVED decorating the "so pretty" tree!! DONE! "yeay!!!!" Aiden woke up from his nap to find a big tree in the space where he usually plays Peek-a-Boo from behind the chair. None the less he was more than thrilled with this new game of "touch every ornament you can reach". Atalie was more than thrilled to show him each ornament at their level:) This years tree decorators!!

Oot an' Aboot

We braved the cold, dark, dreary winter weather this evening... Ok so it wasn't actually that bad :) It was a cool, crisp evening and although it does get dark early these days (I think around 5:00??) the kids were hyper and we needed to get out! So without further ado, we got out the winter clothes, bundled em up and sent them outdoors! :) Aiden loved the idea of being free to roam around in some fresh territory but that quickly ended when we strapped him into the Chariot for a walk around town. Anyhow it was a good stroll and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it once we got walking. Attie decided to be like Mommy this week while colouring. "Mommy!! I'm wearing lips!!! Look, look!!!" she hollared, with a big purple grin:) She has a little tube of Bob the Builder chapstick and calls it "lips". We went to our friends' birthday party for their Son last weekend. Atalie has been good friends with Zack since we moved here two years ago. Infact, they are more like siblings than friends - through thick and thin;) They are NEVER shy around one another, as you can see here! Hehe... so stikin cute! I'm not sure what this next picture is really of...? I think she was posing for a photo b/c Aiden had been getting alot of attention during that moment and she was more than ready to steal the spotlight;)

This little piggy...

When Aiden tastes something he really likes he just keeps on stuffin' it in. In this case we have perogies, mennonite sausage and broccoli. His mouth appears to be full but - he goes for more. And manages to stuff it in somehow, somewhere... Success!!!! Then there's Atalie:) She doesn't get dirty. Don't know how but she always manages to avoid it.

"I wanted to speak directly to you but you were afraid of the fire. God is raising up a generation of people who won't be afraid of the fire..."

Have I done this before??? I don't recall having posted a music video before... nope. Well here's the first. I was thumbing through my list of friends' and familys' blogs when I came across this Christian artist. I have my standard albums and artists that I listen to but I think that living where I do has secluded me somewhat (ya think?) from many things. Good Christian (lemme emphasize GOOD) music is one of those things. This guys name is Jason Upton and the song is called Burning. I'm guessing most everyone has heard of him except for me so perhaps you've heard this song, or another version of it, already. I really appreciate his sincerity and willingness/ability to pour out his heart with his voice. This song touched me b/c I've been thinking alot lately about my kids and the generation to come and all that they'll face. They've been on my heart in a special way and I can relate deeply to this song, particularily the first 35 seconds. Insanely Powerful! The rest of the video is basically elaborating on those first 60 seconds. One comment I really liked which followed this video was this, "Instead of being bothered by the repetition embrace it and let it resinate on the inside of you into the depths of your very being and allow God to speak to you and to change you through the ministry of this gifted mans music...be set free...be changed...encounter the love of God! BLESSINGS & MUCH LOVE! " Go and have a listen. There's not much to see in the video other than his face so you can continue reading while listening if possible... whatever. I've got lots more to say on this yet. I had a heart's cry before I was married and thinking about having kids. I knew that God was beginning, or rather continuing in a magnified sense, a generation of warriors: Children unafraid of what lays ahead and within. I've since had a growing desire to know this for myself and live/teach it for/to my kids. If I close my eyes and try to visualize what my heart is feeling, it looks a bit like a child staring out into a world of chaos, not a whole lot different from the one we're in now, and seeing empty hearts which he/she craves to reach. I see fearless eyes glowing with love and radiance b/c the Holy Spirit is so very alive and willing to work anywhere they step and to anyone they speak to. I see some of their friends and strangers accepting this love and I see others rejecting it. I see them looking past the issues seen by eyes and heard with ears, and instead into broken hearts. I see them crying for the hearts of their friends, be they homosexuals, christians, mormons, muslims, or whatever. I see my kids facing our challenges with more intensity yet more power and less fear. I sense my own will being tugged at in giving my children up to God for His will, not mine. I will gladly give them to Him b/c I trust Him and I know his will is perfect... though seldom easy. His love is perfect. Saying is always easier than doing. Yet it seems essential to say something aloud before being able to do it.

Curtains and Cookies

The final look. Woohoo! It's great to walk around the house at night w/o wondering who can all see you at that moment.....aaaaah:) Attie and I had a girlie day yesterday:) I didn't have the little girl whom I usually babysit b/c she was sick last night (nothing I did!!) so it was a nice day to spend just Atalie and I (and Aiden, but he slept alot in the morning). We whipped up a batch of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, then decided to officially ring in the wintery season, which was quickly covering the ground in a flurry outside, by making hot chocolate... which of course was followed with a small bowl of popcorn and a movie (Curious George - a unanimous decision).

Faux Kevin

I had to do Kevin too. He's gonna die when he sees this after work. haha!!! For a quick link and explaination look at the next post titled "Faux Kendra". Regular Kevin (isn't he handsome?!) Baby Kevin - the first baby with an ability to grow facial hair! hahaha!!! Child Kevin Manga Cartoon Kevin Feminine Kevin El Greco Kevin Afro-caribean Kevin