Ken & Shell 2013 Hawaii

 Happy Couple! Kid free.

 Just before I got knocked off my feet by a huge wave.

 Hale Kimo - our vacation home

 Ken enjoyed a few snoozes on this hammock.

 Our beach access.

 Our beach.

 Beach bums.

Hang'in loose.

 Eating one of our many delicious meals together.

 hmmm...who's this?

 Steak man!

Ken and I enjoying breakfast together outside.

Whale and surfers directly in front of our house.

 Mr. Monk Seal.

Boys having a good time.

Thanks to Mom and Dad Leffers!

 Ken and I on a breakfast date at the local bakery.

whoo hoo!

Mama and Daughter with their smiley eyes!

 Ang!

March Perks

March Perks:

• Boys Overnight Ski trip. Ken, Paul, Andrew, Sam, Ethan and Noah.
• Thrift store shopping with sister in laws for Hawaii and out for appetizers.
• Emma - crawled up two stairs.
• Andrew and Sam went to a Hurricane's hockey game with friends for a birthday and didn't get home until after 10pm.
• Pizza at Mom and Dad's with almost all of the family to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary.
• Hockey season is done for the kids.
• Sam and Luke went in for day surgery and had their tongue ties snipped. (Luke went in smiling and came out smiling. Sam had a rougher time. They snipped more and had to put a stitch under his tongue. He also got sick from the gas mask a day later. )
• Andrew lost his two front teeth.

February Highlights

Some Highlights:

1. Staff went out to dinner together.
2. Cabin get away with Mom and Dad and Ang and Pete.
3. Ken took the boys skiing at the cabin while I stayed home with Luke, Isaac and Emma.
4. I took Isaac and Luke swimming for a special outing while Emma was babysat.
5. Isaac's 3rd b'day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Sunny weather = hanging outside lots more.





Isaac turns 3.

Breakfast time.

Guess who is pulling herself up in her crib?

Emma's pretty dress that Auntie Mel made for her.

Cruising around.

Everywhere...

Progressing to the push toy.

Book Character Day.

Hanging out in the country.

 

Miss Sporty.

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!