Meeting Baby Ben

It has been a full week.  My sister Teresa had her baby on Saturday morning.  She had a beautiful and very healthy baby boy.  I was so excited to finally get a chance to meet this very anticipated baby.  

Proud Auntie!

Benjamin Austin

Sunday Morning, we took the kids to meet their cousin.  I loved watching them see Ben for the first time.

Ethan who loves his Uncle Kevin, stuck close by Uncle side.  

Hannah was captivated.

Andrew stole a snuggle.

Finally before we left, Hannah got to hold Ben too.

This week also full because right after visiting the hospital we caught the ferry for Victoria and only got back last night. Stay tuned for some more pictures from out trip.

Mama said there'll be days like this.

I hate the way I feel today. One of those days where every time you turn around the kids are doing something else they shouldn't be. I don't want to have to say "get that chair out of the planter" one more time. One of those weeks when Andrew seems to working more than he is not, the kind where I can't phone him because he is in meetings all the time. The month when all my plans seem to dissipate faster than quietness I desperately grasp at. The kind of day when I cannot make the phone work; offices are already closed, line are experiencing unusually high volume so please stay on hold, calls that go straight to the answering machine. Days when everyone seems to be ignoring me.

And I could stay there, I could dwell on it and make myself more miserable. If I did I could probably come up with a longer list of grievances too. Instead, I am making a choice to focus on the blessings in my life and not just the general ones (for which I am thankful) but specifically, the things that happened throughout the day today, that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy, I'll think about these things (Phil 4:8).

Today, I got window kisses from two beautiful and healthy children, a 2 minute visit with a friend, a wonderful conversation with my Grandma and my sister Amanda.  I look forward to the birth of my niece or nephew (although I do think it is a girl).  I can't wait for the next 5 days and some time with Andrew.  I am thankful for the life Jesus gave me, and the calling he has for myself and my family.  The joy in knowing I am where he wants me to be, doing what he wants me to do.  

Letter W wrap up and X preview

I have really enjoyed watching Ethan participate more fully in the activities.  It is especially amusing with his growing vocabulary, he now says the sweetest and funniest things. Hannah and Ethan have there own conversations and I find myself eavesdropping.  More and more I am finding that I can sit back and quietly observe them while they are working.

Here is what I saw during our time with the letter W.

Playing with their letter box items.

Making pinwheels.

Decorating the letter W.

Gluing on some pasta wheels.

Finding the seeds in the watermelon play dough.

Here Hannah is playing the watermelon seed counting game, and Ethan sliding the pasta wheels on pipe cleaners.

Letter X Preview

Letter Box X:  Xylophone, and the letter x, and the x bean bag. 

Xylophone matching game.  

Match the colors, or to make it more difficult and flip the pieces over and match by length only.

Looking at x-rays. (source: My Homemade Montessori)

Dot and pin work.  (I keep including this because Hannah loves it).

Tic Tac Toe game. 

 Letter Maze ( from Carisa  www.1+1+1=1.com)

Funny Things I Say

Andrew has been gone all weekend at a conference, I found myself becoming a little loopy as the weekend progressed.  The kids (being kids) induce strange sentences to come out of my mouth.  Here are my favorite from the weekend:

Me to Hannah in the kitchen:  We don't pretend pee in the kitchen, actually don't pretend pee anywhere it makes me nervous.

Me to Ethan during bath time:  Don't hammer you sister.  If you want to hammer someone, hammer yourself.

On Your Birthday

This is what I was planning on getting you for your birthday:

1. A plant from IKEA to replace Annesia.  

2.  The hamper you wanted (that I borrowed).  Which ironically, is the same hamper I use to take my hamper pictures. D

Happy Birthday

May

I love the month of May, and not just because it contains my wedding anniversary (but it does add to it).  I love the weather, it has just the right amount of rain and sun so that I don't long for one or the other.  Everything looks so pretty outside and the days are long and full.  I was thinking to myself the other day that in the month of May I can say "Hannah's birthday was last month and Ethan's birthday will be next month".  Having a reflective moment, I thought I would have a look at some pictures of Hannah when Ethan was born.  Wow did I have a shock.  Here are some of the pictures I took just before and after Ethan was born.

This is the picture I took of Hannah right before we left for the Hospital.

Here is Hannah meeting Ethan.

In my mind, Hannah was such a big girl when Ethan was born.  In my mind she was no longer a baby.  When I look at the pictures I see my big girl.  But I was shocked when I watched a video I took of her after Ethan was born.

She looks so little in the video clip.  My sweet baby girl wasn't nearly as big as I imagined.  I showed some videos to Hannah this morning and she loves to comment about how different they look now.

 

Water Painting

I feel like I haven't been around much, and not for lack of desire for posting either.  Truth is I haven't been spending a whole lot of time inside.  The weather here has been beautiful and no surprise the kids are spending every available minute outside playing.  We haven't spent any time at all sitting at the table doing activities.  But I am not worried (all though I just about ready to get to the end of the alphabet and start something  new) but there will be time enough for that later (the rain will arrive again soon I'm sure).  For  the moment I am enjoying watching the kids play outside.  Here is one of their favorite activities to do outside; painting with water.

First they gave Ethan's bike a new paint job.

This was a lengthy procedure involving a lot of water.

Then the ground needed sprucing up.

Then of course things got a bit crazy when Ethan started painting himself.

No surprise to see Hannah "help" Ethan.

Mommy said enough is enough when they both started painting their eyes.

Wordless Wednesday

Mother's Day

I had a great day with my family today, we went to church this morning and while Andrew was still busy with Sunday school, I took the kids to a nearby park.  Turns out the geese just had all their eggs hatch, so we saw the cutest little goslings waddling around.  Afterwards, we had a great lunch at my sisters, followed by reading in the backyard while the kids played all afternoon.  Here are some of the pictures of the kids playing at the park (as well as the goslings).