Baby Mercy Turns One!

Ah, the one year anniversary of Mercy's arrival to our world. We had a normal day, singing happy birthday here and there throughout it. :) Julia made up a couple different versions of "Happy Birthday" to sing to Mercy, and Sam thought it was his birhtday. All in all, we had fun. I made my favorite from 'scratch' chocolate cake and let the kids do the decorating. All i did was ice the first layer of chocolate icing, to keep the crumbs from sticking to the kids' ice-job. Julia used the icing bag, and sam did the silver ball distribution. :) i think they did nice work, and i know Mercy will enjoy it as her Bday gift from them.

Mama stopped by after work with cupcakes and candles. :)

Daddy came home a little early from work and gave Mercy a Birthday bath.

yeah.. like i said, a pretty regular, normal day. :)

My little baby is a year old now. wow!
Psalm 145:9
The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

psalm 28:6
Blessed be the Lord ! for he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. :)

wedding day!!

A beautiful day. Beautiful people. Beautiful words. Beautiful marriage. Beautiful hope.

:)

We had a good (long, tiring, fun, exciting, adventurous) day in the more southern areas of Ontario celebrating a very good friend's wedding yesterday. Julia was the flower girl (fourth time now - very professional. haha) and so we spent morning 'til night with wedding folk. :)

I love watching new love commit to a lifetime of choosing to love each other. It is a beautiful thing. Some favorite parts:
-the prayer for the meal, said by the grandfather of the bride. This lovely gentleman who has been married for 62 years now to his love. :) His prayer was very God honoring and sweet. :)
-Hearing Julia's song as she walked into the reception hall. :)
-remembering my own wedding day as i watched the couple's first dance.... (that was a major highlight of my day)
- listening to the bagpiper
-seeing the smiles. everyone was very happy for the couple. :)
-the slide show - i love seeing people grow through the years, and slide shows really make my heart melt at the beautiful thing that God grows in someone as they become what He wants them to be. :)

Rib Out-ouch!

Thank you chiropractor Don- my rib is back in!! Why oh why does it slip out ?????
Another question for my readers: why oh why did a 5 minute run leave me achy when an 80 km bike ride didn't???????
anyway... enough about me... on to my lovely family....


Volleyball has begun!!!
Dave is leading a team again this year. i'm so so so proud of him - organizing a sport he never ever liked growing up, but discovered he enjoys now!! And trying to get new-ish guys to join! Being bold and brave enough to lead a group of guys that may have more experience then him. :)

Julia almost finished her quilt for Aunti Ann today!! :) there are two sides of the backing left to hand stitch.... she did such a great job and really enjoyed the project! :)

more photos...

Some more photos of our busy weekend. mostly from the parade day.





THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY.

Look-a-likes and Tractor-Tykes

We have had a busy weekend of fun: Friday we visited Great Opa and i let him watch the kids talk and play in his room for a while. He is very tired lately i guess, so we didn't talk too much. There are so many stories inside of him that i'd love to hear though.... i love history. maybe next time.
After our visit, the kids and i took off to buy art supplies (what a great investment) and now we have paint again! and really nice erasable colored pencils and tracing paper and a sketch book. yippeee!!! Julia has spent most of the last three days at the table because of the new and improved tools for creating. :)


Then Saturday arrived and Oma invited us to join her and Opa in a journey to the local fall fair. We went right after breaky and walked with them to the main street of their small town to watch the parade - which gets a little shorter each year i think, but regardless of that, the kids all had fun. Tractors are a highlight of course. :) After a delicious Oma soup-lunch we returned to the fairgrounds to explore the buildings and the kid-attractions. This year they had a great little show called "The Funky Mama's" which we missed almost entirely, but it looked fantastically cute and groovy!! :) heehee!





The kids love having a cat. Julia is very responsible five year old, and she cares for the feeding and watering of our little beast. Sam is affectionate to a fault - and ends up harassing the poor thing with hugs and tugs and such. Mercy is fascinated.

These pics of Mercy show how much she is turning into a little Julia - with all her black hair turning blond. Now... we plod through another day of dave working... and tomorrow he will be home with us again! yippeeee!! :) We try to keep busy on the days dave is gone, so that when he 's home we can relax and have family time... aw. lovely.

Thanks to a wonderful babysitter, dave and i have been getting out to ride as often as possible lately as well... last night we zoomed around town and came home via the riverside as the sun set. aaaaah. did i mention we have a great baby sitter? She is so sweet, last night she refused pay (as she has a lot lately when we are gone for and hour or so). Sometimes i get to pay her with a fresh baked pie... i like the barter system! :) hahaha.

Sam...Sam... Sam?

So as i noticed the clock ticking nearer to three in the afternoon i thought of my little boy, so sweet and goofy, playing up in his room just like he does every afternoon. I figured his quiet play time was long enough for today and i wanted him to join us again for crafting, and dress up time.

I called... and called... and called? sam? "you can come down now"

Only to find him so so so sweetly in his bed, bus and teddy nearby, and his dear tractor blanket too. :) Man, this little guy has me wrapped around his finger. i love little boys (and girls ahah) but there is a charm about my second born that draws me to his little heart... i can't explain it yet.

The pic of the trains on the floor.... that is what keeps Sam entertained for up to 2 hours alone in his room for "quiet time" which he loves LOVES, being the introvert that he is... and he gets excited about quiet time especially since the trains came to live in his closet. :)

Hey. go to Grovesharklite and listen to Tim Hughes, such beautiful worship music!

Pinery Bike Trip!

Tired. Sore. Happy.

we finished our two day camp trip today, and now i'm ready to SLEEEEP. Dave and I rode 80 km on sunday and nearly died...not for real... but man, i am out of shape. and four hours of biking left me wobbly.

What a great challenge though, we loved the work (mostly) and it paid off (totally) with a great time with friends.

yippeee for good travel buddies. great talks, jokes, bike rides to the beach, etc. :)

then today, we asked J and P to drop us off closer to home (since we knew we couldn't do another 80km trip so close to the last one... sore bums...) and we did only 25 km today which was perfect.










Oh.. yeah... we started the day on sunday by blowing a tire only 5 km from home!! hahaha. i was concerned about the bad start to the day... but everything else went just fine! haha.

Special Visit

Holly has always been a special cousin and friend. today i was able to visit with her for a little while again. what a blessing. God is good. It is so cool to hear holly speak wisdom and truth .... where is the little cousin that i used to run all over the farm with, building forts and causing trouble? Oh, she is still in there... ahaha. always ready to pull and prank or make you laugh... but there is a depth to her that i love getting to know... that i love hearing.... i love watching people grow .... so cool.

Boats. Boats. Boats.

The Ville De Quebec.
A Visiting Canadian warship that we were hoping to tour yesterday, but due to various circumstances missed out on. :( I walked to the waterfront today to watch it depart. How exciting!! Now i am definitely planning a Maritime trip for our family to visit some Navel stations, boats, or something!! soooo neat. this Crew and Ship were involved in the confrontations with pirates off the coast of Somalia a couple years back.


As we waited to go to a school family BBQ, we watched this huge Laker pass by... wooooow. I can't get over the size of these boats. This one was sooo long that seriously, you only see half of it in this picture.



Cute kids. Sick Kids.

On the first full day of school for Julia my two other children were sick... of course. so, no celebration of getting lots done, or feeling free during nap time... mostly just wondering how to get them well again...buying more cough syrup (the natural honey-based kind that works)....putting kids to sleep...cuddling etc.

So...that is okay. i will have a lot of days of productivity ahead...today was just not one of them. But the up side is: JULIA LOVES SCHOOL of course. And has a wonderful teacher and class!! :)

Brampton-Toronto-home-oh my!

We spent the night at our friends' house on sunday of this past weekend, and went to the Toronto Airshow with them the next day. What a wonderful trip!!

:)

More talkie later.
too busy right now!!