Brightening Things up!

 Before the paint job.

 After.

After. I can't believe how much it brightened things up and the room looks bigger now. The dark wall made the room look really narrow I find when I look at the pictures. I'm happy and thankful that Ken likes painting. It's amazing how painting a room can totally change things up.

Isaac turns 3

Isaac's cake. Super easy and fun! I love looking for cake ideas whenever one of the kids Birthdays is approaching. Next Birthday is Emma's, that should change ideas up a bit.

Daddy helping Isaac paint his craft dinosaur.

I love my husband! 

 

Train! Isaac's favorite thing!

I love this picture of all the little girls being little mother's to Isaac.

• Isaac turned 3 on Feb. 17. We had a party a few days later with a few buddies.
• Bonus: it was over the break so Daddy was home and as you can see he was quite involved.
• we made a craft, read some books, blew bubbles outside, ate cake, and opened presents.
• Isaac got money, a new train, cds,  birdhouse kit, a sound puzzle, a leapfrog laptop, and a semi truck
• Friends: Isaiah Vander Heide, Shawna Harthoorn, Cara de Boer, Danika MacKay

• Isaac at 3: is taller than all 3 of his brothers were at 4. Height: 3 1/4 feet Weight: 38lbs.
• still has a big nap every afternoon
• has two blankies that we trade off with. We are working on weaning him off of them other than nap/bed time.
• has started sitting with us in church and is doing really well
• isn't potty trained yet and he is HUGE. Mama is procrastinating a bit on this one.
• he loves trains and buses. he calls trains....Train-A.
• has tubes in his ears and has had his tongue tie snipped.
• is getting speech therapy for being speech delayed.
• he loves Emma and plays with her all of the time. For being such a big boy he is very gentle with her.
• loves going to the playground which we don't seem to do enough these days
• loves helping mom whether it is making cookies or doing laundry
• loves having baths
• is very reactive which can easily lead to melt downs. We've gotten better at predicting when he might melt down and now we seem to overcome them.
• he shares a room with Luke but the two of them never talk to each other. Weird? When we put them to bed and when they get up, not a peep comes out of that room until they've entered our room.
• has a love-hate relationship with books. Unpredictable whether he will sit and read with me or not.
• he has long thick eyelashes and all the ladies always comment on them.
• he's starting to count and sing the alphabet song.
• Up until 4-5 months ago he was a boy of very few words. He just seemed content to do his own thing and didn't demand a lot of attention. He would observe others but didn't pay much attention to them and wasn't very interactive. We could have easily labelled him as a dream child to deal with. So easy! Had a huge afternoon nap, ate his snacks and meals when I gave them to him, went to bed well and always slept thru the night. He came along wherever we went and didn't say much. He has been through a lot for a three year old in terms of appointments. He does qualify for funded preschool if we want to send him next year so that's been on my/our minds a lot. Thankfully we have some time yet to figure out what we want to do, we can reassess where he is at in 6 months time and pray about it.
• in the meantime we celebrate each milestone and achievement like we've never celebrated before.
• We love this boy with all of our hearts, he has left us perplexed with his speech delay and strange behaviors at times but we love this unique and smiley friendly giant! Happy 3 years Isaac!

Sleeping Beauties!

I sure love kissing each of these kiddos before I go to bed at night. We are so blessed! Love them so much!

Project Complete.

Made this bag with Tracy and Tia over three different classes. A talented lady, and a very patient lady in our church taught us how to make this bag. I never would've been able to make it on my own, that is for sure.

 I plan to use it as a travel on bag for our trip to Hawaii and also for NS this summer.

 I love chevron anything lately. I found a pattern on line to make a cosmetic bag and thought I would make one to match. This I made all by myself. Don't look to close at it.

The inside is lined with protective plastic that wipes clean if anything spills.

Hawaii Trial Run!

Pete and Ken venturing into the wild.

Ken's having a fall.

Pretty deep even with snowshoes.

Nothing like a Pina Colada.

Love this picture, and the view, and I especially love the model!

Sisters! Love this girl!

Yup she's gonna kill me for this one!

It was so beautiful snowshoeeing in the woods. We made our own trail and explored for 2 1/2 hours.

Good thing we didn't get lost, we only had 3 beers and pina colada and mini eggs to survive.

My favorite picture. Remember we were at the river earlier and then we climbed up to this cliff edge overlooking the river. What a view!

 

Conclusion:

 

We went to the cabin for a trial night and left our two nieces home with all 5 kids. It was a bit of a practice run for our Hawaii trip in 5 weeks time. They survived, we survived and I think we can all handle it. In just 24 hours I had such a great time. Stayed up late, played games, snacked, slept in till 8:30am. I know, I know it was awesome! Went for a walk, had a soak in the tub, big breakfast, snowshoeeing, steak dinner. This girl can relax when I have the opportunity. Look out Hawaii!

January busy-ness

JANUARY HIGHLIGHTS

• brought in the New Year at the cabin with Mom and Dad Leffers
• Hosted a Staff Social at our house
• I started assisting with storytime at Bible Study. Our church has over 80 kids under the age of five. Our storytime consists of 3-5 year olds and totals 25+ kiddos. Very busy!
• I started a Hanan worshop on Monday nights for parents with kids who are speech delayed. It's from 6:30-9:30. I'm really enjoying it and learning lots. The things I have learned so far, Isaac is responding well to. It is also really nice to connect with other parents who are struggling to communicate with their child.
• Luke started having one on one speech sessions every Friday morning with Mrs. Webber.
• Had some sewing dates with friends. Stay tuned to see the finished products.
• made my first ever turkey which has fed us numerous meals:turkey pot pies and turkey burgers
• Sam and Luke saw the Ears, Nose, Throat Specialist and are both scheduled to have their tongue ties snipped in March.
• We started taking Isaac into church.
• Isaac had one on one sessions with my course instructor Jo and also with Cindy - behavioural specialist.

January Recap

 Emma and Isaac love playing together as long as Emma plays with the toys Isaac selects for her.

Not much girly stuff in this house yet.

 Andrew and his buddy Noah dressed up for twin day at school. Andrew on the left.

 Emma is a very flexible little girl. This may be a cause for concern. We are waiting to be scheduled to see a specialist.

Sam and his cousin Andrea were twins on twin day.

Isaac is always eager to lend a hand when I'm baking especially if he gets to lick the beaters.

Luke grumpy but fighting hard not to smile.

Luke helping bake cinnamon buns.

Out for a walk.

My five kiddos.

Little Miss Emma.

Before her 2nd haircut.

 

 After! So cute!

I found a hippo game at the thrift store. Isaac kept stealing the marbles. Stinker!