Saturday, April 25, 2009

Saturday...what we we've been up to...

This morning started early with a run to Bellingham with my sis-in-law and Mr. Weston. We did a quick return to WalMart and then headed over to Target for a quick run through there. The next stop, was the fun stop...Lowe's Garden Shop! We were in plant heaven. We were both able to find what we needed for the spots in our yards that were needing a little help. We had plants in the back of the jeep and plants up next to Weston. It was a great time!

We left Bellingham and headed for the crazy town of Lynden. I say crazy because everyone is out and about in this town. There are so many things going on here...garage sales (lots and lots of them), Dave's Sporting Goods is having a Gun Show event, and then there are those who were out doing what we were doing...plant shopping. We stopped at VanderGiessen's Nursery to get the final pieces of what we were needing and then headed over to True Value and Ace Hardware to scope out what they had. Ace was actually filling people's planters for them.

When I returned home, I found that Jason had put together the new barbecue. I got to making a grocery list because of course we will be using the new bbq tonight! Alyssa and I headed back out to get the propane tank filled (we would never want that to run out in the midst of grilling) and then off to Safeway for some groceries. We had become Mother Hubbard around here so it was a much needed trip. We got some very fun things for dinner tonight and we are very excited about the possibility of eating outside. (Please sun...stay out!) I realize that it is not the warmest day out but we can all put on a sweatshirt and enjoy the outdoors!

I have so many plants to get planted but I'm trying to get the inside of the house under control right now. Jason has gotten quite a bit accomplished outside but knows to leave the flower beds to me. I know just where I want things and I enjoy doing it. I'm hoping for some nice weather this next week so that I can get everything accomplished. We have only this next week to get the things on our list accomplished to meet our goal for the For Sale sign to in the yard. (More on that later.)

I better get back to getting things done around here. I have the steaks marinating and need to get veggies ready next. I have a few loads of laundry that are calling my name too...laundry, does it ever end? Hope you are all having a fabulous Saturday!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Birthday Celebration

Yesterday was my birthday and it was a great day! It started out with a little celebration down at McDonald's with great friends, coffee at my house with my dear sis-in-law and her boys, and lunch at my house with my mom and sister...excellent salads from Fairway Cafe. Wow, that's a lot of celebrating in just a few hours. The rest of the day was spent at home and then four hours at work. Yes, I worked on my birthday so that I wouldn't have to work this weekend. My wonderful husband surprised me with a hanging basket for my birthday. I also had a message on the answering machine when I got home from my dear friend in Arizona, she was singing to me. (Sorry I missed your call Becky, I was at work.)Tonight, Jason and I went out for dinner to Kyoto's for my birthday dinner. It was a great time and excellent food! I love watching the chef's cook. They are so talented. I have a few pictures to share of our chef. It was hard getting good pictures because our seats were facing the windows but I did my best. I didn't want to move around to much as we were sharing a grill area with another family.Here our chef is preparing the onion volcano. It was pretty cool!
These flames got pretty high.
After dinner, we went to Lowe's and purchased our Mother's Day and Father's Day gift. We have had the same barbecue for 12 years and are constantly putting new parts in it. We decided that it was time for a new one and I had been doing some shopping around so we had an idea of what we were going for. I am so excited for us to get the new barbecue together and fired up! We will be doing a lot more outdoor cooking this year! I will post pictures of the new grill once it is put together.
Tomorrow morning I am getting up early to do a little early morning shopping with my sis-in-law for plants and a few other things. I can guarantee there will be a coffee stop at some point during this trip!

My list of 35...

1) My Lord and Savior who died for my sins and loves me...He is my strength and His word is truth.
2) My amazing, GODLY husband, Jason, who loves me unconditionally. He is the man God chose for me and I love him very much!
3) Brenna, my oldest daughter, she loves Jesus and is becoming a beautiful young lady. I love how she is beginning to enjoy doing some of the same things that I enjoy.
4) Alyssa, my youngest daughter, she loves Jesus and will always be my snuggle bug! She will never turn down snuggle time. She loves to give.
5) Ethan...he will always be my baby boy! He brings such life to our home and completes our family.
6) My mom...the woman who raised my and is always there for any of us and willing to help.
7) My dad...though I only had him for fourteen years of my life, he taught me a lot during that time.
8) My wonderful sister who is always up for a good walk and has given me a beautiful niece! She is my life long friend.
9) My dear brother who reminds me so much of my dad, always willing to help...my personal electrician.
10) My amazing sister-in-law. She has the best name ever and will never turn down a coffee time. She is always willing to just sit and listen when I need to just talk.
11) My nieces and nephews that I have the privilege of caring for, loving on, spoiling.
12) Amazing friends...always there to listen, up for a pop or coffee, always around to help.
13) Our wonderful church family.
14) Three of the greatest pastors ever filled with Christ and always ready to share the word of God. I love that they preach directly from the Bible.
15) Our Christ Group...we have all become so close and have gotten to know each other so well. We have kind of formed our own little family.
16) Our home, which is truly been from God.
17) Our income, as tough as things get, our God always provides and there are so many people out there losing their jobs.
18) The plans that God has for our family...even though we do not know all of the details, we rest in Him that all things will work out according to His will and not ours.
19) Our great neighbors...the kids always have someone to play with and they all get along so well.
20) The sunshine...it's amazing how much better the days go when the sun is out.
21) Coffee...I struggle getting through my days without it.
22) Spring...I love the beautiful colors it brings and the signs of new life.
23) Food to feed my family...there are so many hungry people in our world and it saddens me to think about all the hungry babies out there.
24) Healthy children...every day I seem to hear about yet another child with a life threatening illness.
25) Nap times! It brings peace to our home every day and a chance for me to take a break and catch my breath and get ready for round two :)
26) Quiet evenings...great times to just be together as a family and not worry about anything else going on around us.
27) Label makers...the really help make organization a little easier. I love to label things!
28) Spontaneity...it makes life fun and adventurous.
29) Listening to my husband play the piano...he is so talented and amazes me every time he sits down to play. I just stop what I'm doing to listen.
30) Blogging world...this is such a great way to stay in touch with people I don't get to talk to very often and share with them what's going on with our family.
31) Scrapbooking...traditional and digital...it is a great way to remember the special events that have happened in the lives of our children and family. If you haven't started, get to it! I love every minute of it and my kids love to go through their photo albums.
32) I can send my girls to school each day and know that they are going to have a great day because of the amazing teachers that we have this year. Having teachers that pray for your children specifically is absolutely amazing and very rare.
33) Ice cream...it's a staple in our house and is a comfort food for me. I love that Jason and I can sit down together at night with the carton and one spoon and share some ice cream together. I look forward to this time!
34) Random acts of kindness...whether it's me surprising someone by giving or doing something for them or someone surprising us by doing/giving something...it just makes everyone feel good about life.
35) I get the have dinner with my husband tonight, out, away from home, child-free! I love date nights!

**I realize that some of these may be silly but it was fun to do...thanks for reading!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

PRAY FOR KAYLEIGH!

You have probably noticed Kayleigh's button in the right hand column of our blog. It has been there for quite some time. She was making great strides, but has taken a sudden and serious turn for the worse after a surgery she just had a few days ago. PLEASE include her in your prayers. I could not imagine going through anything like this as a parent. Lord, please be near Kayleigh and her family. Father God, I pray that your healing hand will be upon this precious baby girl. Give the family strength as they go through this time. Amen.

A look around the yard

So, I thought I would share with you just a few pictures of how the yard is shaping up. We were able to get the grass re-seeded and just in time for the rain that they are forcasting.

This is the flower bed along the sidewalk leading to the front door. I love how the climbing hydrangea is so bright and green. I also noticed that there are a lot more buds on it this year. We have only had one or two little spots that flower...this year there looks to be more...yeah!!!
This is my flowering fountain that I plant every year. The pots themselves are beginning to look tattered but it gives them character. I usually put a geranium in the top pot but last year I put the gerber daisy and loved it so much that I repeated that look this year.
We have tulips blooming throughout the yard. They are different shades of pink, red, and yellow.
Here we have one of the two planters in front of the garage. I just love how something as simple as this brightens the house up as you pull in.
Yesterday, I wrote about the blooms on the lilac bush. Here is a glimpse of what is to come. This bush is loaded and I can't wait. If anyone is wanting a start of a white lilac bush...let me know.
This is what excites our family the most...apple blossoms. The trees are full of blossoms and I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of them. Of course, the apples won't be ready until September and October so we have awhile to wait.

1st Grade Field Trip

This week is the Milk Maker's Fest at the Northwest Washington Fairgrounds for all of the 1st grade classes in Whatcom County. Today, Alyssa's class had the opportunity to participate in this event. As you can see from the picture below, she was pretty excited to be there.
Our class started out on a wagon ride and had a list of things to find throughout the fairgrounds. The kids had a lot of fun looking for all of the different items. Those involved with putting on this event do a great job and were very creative with where they "hid" these items.

Here's Alyssa with her very best friend, and cousin, Kylie.

The kids had 6 different stations that they participated in and 3 of these stations were just sitting and listening to people talk. Our class ended up having these three "talking" stations back-to-back. They did amazing! They were all so well-behaved and great listeners.

At the last station, the kids got to "milk" a "cow" after learning about the milking machines and how they work. Of course, this was the highlight of the day! They were having fun trying to race against the person on the other side.

I was so thankful for the amazing weather that we had today. I was also very thankful that my mom was able to have Ethan so that I could attend this event with Alyssa. I love doing field trips with the kids.

Next field trip, Padillo Bay on May 8th with Brenna and all of the 4th grade classes. I'm really looking forward to this! It will be an all day event and some place that I have never been to. We will be praying for another day of good weather.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Spring is here!

This past weekend was just the start of the great weather here in the northwest and we took full advantage of it!

Jason got home from work early on Friday so we loaded Ethan up and headed off to get my grandma's truck and then went and got this great dump trailer from a friend of ours. Our final destination...Smit's Compost. We picked up two yards of compost and dumped it in the driveway and started getting it spread over all of the flower beds. We got the majority of it completed before Jason had to leave for a ministry council retreat.

Shortly after Jason left, the kids and I went for a walk, the girls rode bikes, with my sister and her girls. We walked down to the park and the kids got to play for awhile. It was such a beautiful evening. The kids had a blast and we started to head back to our house just as it started to cool off.

Saturday morning, Jason had to leave early again for the retreat and I headed outside to finish getting the pile of compost spread. Of course, we ran out and will need to get another small load to finish off the back fenceline but the flower beds look great. The new compost down has really made everything POP! I am so excited about getting the yard whipped into shape again this spring. Oh yeah, I also got all of my planters filled. Here is one from the patio. I will have to add a picture of the "flowering fountain" pots that I have by the front porch. I'm just trying to keep everything simple this year.
Today, we went in on an all day rental of a thatcher. We were last on the list so that it would arrive to our home just as Jason was getting home from work. The timing was perfect. My brother arrived about 5 minutes before Jason. I cannot believe how much thatch we pulled out of the yard. I actually got a picture of my wonderful husband hard at work. I think the worst job was all the raking we had to do later. We filled two yard waste cans and 21 garbage bags.

The next step is to re-seed and watch the lawn become beautiful again. I can't wait for the lilac bush to start blooming. I love the smell...I'm seeing lots of "buds"! More pictures to come later of how the yard is shaping up.

I LOVE SPRING!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter

We hope that you are all having an amazing Easter Sunday...even with the rain. We had a wonderful Easter service this morning and then brunch. There was so much food...our church secretary is amazing at planning these types of events and makes sure that nobody goes unfed.
When we got home from church, we gave the kids their Easter baskets. It was fun to watch their expressions!
We are now off to the Silves Family lunch. I think the egg hunt will be indoors this year. The kids will be checking everyone's pockets and shoes.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

He has RISEN!!

Easter is here and it is time to celebrate our Savior! He died for you and for me!

Last night, we began our Easter weekend by attending Good Friday service at church. We sang some great worship songs, Pastor Ken had a wonderful message to share with us, and we closed our service with communion. It was a great reminder of what the night before his crucifixion may have been like. If you have never seen the movie "Passion of the Christ", I would highly recommend it! It is a very descriptive movie of what Easter weekend is all about and what our Lord and Savior did for us. He died on that cross for my sins and for yours!

Today, we have enjoyed a day of family time just hanging around the house and this evening we colored eggs and the kids are now watching the Donut Man Resurrection Celebration movie. It is a great movie for young kids, so Ethan is enjoying it a whole lot more than the girls. The movie tells the story of what Jesus did for us on the cross and how he rose from the dead and is now ALIVE!

Tomorrow, we will attend church service in the morning. I love the worship songs that we sing on Easter Sunday and Pastor Craig will have an amazing message to share with us. And then after service, we will have brunch with our church family. We will have lunch with the Silves family tomorrow and the kids will get to join in on an Easter Egg Hunt...they are very excited about this because my aunts fill the eggs very full of candy.

I hope as you all go through your day tomorrow that you too will remember what our Lord and Savior did for us on the cross and that he rose and is ALIVE!!

Here are a few pictures of our family coloring eggs tonight. Enjoy!



Sunday, April 5, 2009

Birthday Fun

We had a great day celebrating Brenna's 10th birthday. We headed into Bellingham and let the kids have some fun at Build-A-Bear. They each picked out a new outfit for their bears...the girls had certificates to spend there and we wanted Ethan to be able to get something for his bear as well. From there we headed over to "Justice" to browse around...this is Brenna's favorite place to shop and the store we got part of her gift from. We made a quick stop at Costco to grab a few things to get us through the week and then headed over to Billy McHales. We had called ahead to let them know that we would be there and requested to have Brenna's name up on the Birthday Train. As we walked in, she made the comment, "It would be fun if we could put my name on the train." Didn't she have a surprise when she saw the train. The hostess was so great and stopped the train so we could get a picture of Brenna below her name tag on the train.
It has been forever since we have been together as a family in a restaurant. Ethan is finally to a point where he can sit still long enough to wait for his meal. We had a lot of fun being together and spending time together.
Brenna ordered Corn Dogs for lunch.
Our server was great and made sure that she had a group ready to sing to Brenna and had an amazing sundae in hand for her to enjoy. She even brought enough spoons for the rest of us to get in on the ice cream action. (Our server is the gal on your right.)
Here's Brenna with her amazing sundae...there was a giraffe on top of the sundae next to the cherry.
I made this cake that I found on familyfun.com. It was a fun cake to make and Brenna was thrilled with it...that's always a good thing, please the birthday girl.
Brenna got some great gifts. Thank you all who were there to help us celebrate. You helped make her day GREAT!
MAKE A WISH!!!...HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Our baby is 10!

As of 5:02 this morning our firstborn turned 10 years old. It is so hard to believe that she is 10 already. We have a big day planned for her. We went to church last night so that we could make today all about her birthday. We all woke her up at 7:30 singing Happy Birthday and videoing. We started that at her 1st birthday and haven't missed a year. We've had donuts for breakfast, a request from the birthday girl, and we are now just hanging out for a little while before we get everyone ready and head to Bellingham for a little bit of fun and lunch. We are having our families over at 3:30 for a party...chocolate fountain, cake and ice cream, gifts and singing. Brenna was so excited that the sun was out this morning when we woke her up...that's one birthday wish granted!
Here's a picture to share of her just after we woke her up singing this morning.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Finally...the scrappin' slumber party

It was a great weekend! A room full of food and women and some amazing fellowship. A room full of wives and moms getting memories of their families into photo albums. A time to reflect back on how good God has been to all of our families.
Here are my friends Molly and Sally VanKooten. They were working on a wonderful gift for a family member. Sally's niece had triplets in October and they have been to visit a few times and are now working on putting together a book of their visits and will continue to add to it with each visit. This is a gift that they will be giving Heidi when she and triplets are here for Easter. What a great gift! Oh yeah, my dear sister-in-law is also in this picture looking at some of the pages that Molly and Sally had completed.
Tanya and I took a break from our projects to visit and see what some of the other ladies were working on. Here, Carmielle is cranking out the cards! She completed 9 sets and there were 15-20 cards in a set. This lady is amazing. She does most of the prep work at home...cutting down the cardstock, etc....and then comes and assembles. Carmielle gets the prize again for actually "working" the most hours. She goes non-stop and takes about a 60-90 "nap" in the middle of the night. Tammy was working hard on an album for her husband. It was fun to see the pictures of his trip.
Saturday morning, we had some "new" faces join us and replaced those who could only be with us Friday evening. It was fun to sit and visit with Kari, Beth and Angela on Saturday. We worked until 5:00 on Saturday evening. It was a great 25 hours of scrappin', eatting, a little bit of sleepin', and fellowshiping.
It was great to get home to see Jason and the kids to show off the pages that I completed in Brenna's album...13 pages to be exact.