A little of this and that!

Marty had his 12 month shots last week...that's right he is almost 2 years old!! I'm way behind on the shots. I partly delayed them because of the autism rumors and partly because I forgot. Anyways, he ended up having 5 shots today:( So sad!! He had 2 shots in each arm and one in the leg. He was a real trooper. He cried really hard when the needles were going in, but when it was all over he was happy as a clam. He even said "tank you" to the nurse when it was all done! He weighed in at 26 lbs and 34 inches long. The nurse said he was 25-50% for weight and 75-90% for height. Sounds about right...long and lean, like his daddy!

I kept Megan home from school on Friday because she had a fever. It seems the sickness never goes away around here:( She had the fever for 2 days and then it was gone. She didn't have any other symptoms and she wanted to eat a lot...very strange! Anyways, she is back to normal now and was happy to go back to school today.

The kids all got Zu-Zu pets for Christmas...here the girls are "building" a house for the pets!

Megan is doing great with her new teacher. Her old teacher went on a teaching exchange to Australia and Megan has a new teacher from Australia. She has quite an accent, so I asked Megan if she can understand her well and she said yes!! Her new teacher seems really nice and great with the kids. They have a home reading program in kindergarten and they bring home a different book every night to read. Megan is now able to read simple books and gets better and better every day. She sounds out the letters and then makes out the words!! I'm one proud mommy:)

We are struggling a little these days with discipline with Gabby. She is one strong willed child!! She doesn't like to listen to us. She has been in time-out quite a bit lately. I said to Jeff we need to read some books on how to deal with her. At the same time...she is SO loveable!! She has a great sense of humor and is very affection. She loves to have fun and horse around, especially with daddy! Jeff and I were talking about how amazing it is that all our kids have the same parents and are raised the same, but their personalities are so different and you really have to raise each of the individually. Not always an easy thing! But, I wouldn't trade any of them for the world:)

I managed to got out for 2 girls nights last week!! One night with a couple of girls I used to work with and another night with some other girl friends. It was so nice to get out and have some uninterrupted adult conversations. I am so thankful for all of my friends...I think they are all pretty great!!

Gabby giving Marty a hug...Jeff's mom went on vacation this week for 2 weeks!! She is on a cruise with a friend of hers. I'm slightly jealous that she gets to go somewhere warm this time of year. But, we are looking forward to our family trip to Palm Springs in March...we're going to have so much fun!!

Marty is obessed with his blankie. I found him like this lying on the kitchen floor holding his blankie and sucking his thumb!

Jeff has been going to the indoor track in town to go running lately. It's to cold to run outside right now, so this is a good alternative. The only downfall is the track is across town. He wants to run the same 10km race he did last Spring. He came in 3rd last year and he wants to come in 1st this year!! He would like to do it in less than 40 minutes. I think last year he was around 41 minutes. The race happens the day after we come home from Palm Springs, so I guess he can run lots there. And it should be warmer there!

That's it for today. I've been really bad about taking pictures lately, I'll try to be better this week!!

2010 Memories...

I was looking through my calendar from last year and thought it would be fun to document some of our great memories over the past year!

I can not even remember what we did last New Year's Eve...but I'm pretty sure it didn't involve staying up past midnight!!

January - This month involved a bit of a sad memory because last January we lost Jeff's Opa. We were blessed to be able to spend lots of time with him last Christmas and he passed away shortly after. We will always remember him!! The girls talk about him often and even pray for him sometimes:)

February - I registered Megan for kindergarten and couldn't believe we had a child starting school. We also celebrated Marty's 1st birthday and Dad V.'s 60th birthday. We had a big birthday party for Marty with lots of friends and family!

March - Jeff and I went away for a night for the first time since we've had kids! We went out for a nice dinner and then went to a hotel...we were so excited to sleep in. Jeff also did his first 10km run in the campus to campus race. He came in 3rd place!! I was so proud of him. Kirsten and Malcolm came for a visit and we love hanging out with them and always look forward to seeing them again!

April - Megan had her first ballet dance recital. It was so cute watching all the little girls on stage!! We also celebrated Gabby's third birthday with a BBQ and lots of friends and family!!

May - We took our first big trip as a family of 5!! We drove down to Portland to visit Eric and Traci. We had a blast with them and enjoyed seeing their new house. The kids did surprisingly well on the long drive. Oh...and the shopping was great too:)

June - I started playing soccer with a new team, but unfortunately I pulled my quad muscle in the second game and was pretty much out for the rest of the season:( We also enjoyed lots of summer BBQ's and dinners with friends!

July - We went on our annual camping trip with our friends to Osoyoos Lake! It was SO hot. We enjoyed skiing behind the boat, eating s'mores, swimming in the lake and yummy dinners surrounded by great friends. Can't wait to do it again this summer:)

August - Ahhh...probably my favorite memory of this past year...our trip to Las Vegas!! We had such a great time with our dear friends and Jeff and I still talk about all the fun things we did there. It was so relaxing to go on a trip without the kids, although we missed them. I knew they were safe and happy with the grandparents looking after them:) We also celebrated my birthday in Vegas, which was a big highlight for me too.

September - Our official 10 year anniversary!! We didn't do anything exciting on our actual anniversary because we had already celebrated in Vegas. Curt and Annie came for a visit and we always have a great time with them. I'm pretty sure we had a wild game of charades with them! Megan started school and had a bit of a hard time adjusting to it at first, but she has a great teacher and has made lots of new friends! Loren also came for a visit and we always love seeing him:)

October - We had a big celebration as it was our church's 50th anniversary! Lots of old friends and family came out for it. We had Megan's first parent/teacher interview and of course, she did great and her teacher said she was a delightful child! We are so proud of her. The girls started swimming lessons and Gabby was a little hesitant at first, but was more brave every week. They can't wait to back for more lessons now.

November - We celebrated Jeff's birthday and my mom's 60th birthday! We had a big surprise birthday party for my mom and we were excited that my brother came out for it too. I am very thankful that my mom lives so close and we get to spend lots of time with her!

December - This month we had lots of busyness! We celebrated Jeff's mom's birthday by going out for dinner and then having dessert back at our place. I'm also very thankful for my mother-in-law who lives close and blesses us in so many ways! We had Megan's first school Christmas concert and it was absolutely adorable. And our very dear friends welcomed their baby daughter into the world. I am so in love with her! I actually feel like she is a little bit my daughter too:)

And now we start a New Year...2011!! I am so thankful for all the blessings God has given to us and look forward to all HE has in store for 2011. May God bless you richly in the coming year!

Our pastor spoke on this passage yesterday in church and I think it is a great reminder...

The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day. I say to myself, "The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!" (NASB) Lamentations 3:22-24

A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Another Christmas has come and gone...and it always seems to go by so quickly! We had a wonderful Christmas. Here are some of our memories and lots of pictures... Daddy and Megs on Christmas Eve...

Christmas Eve we went to our church service and then my parents and Jeff's parents came over for appies and presents! The kids opened their Christmas pajama's and the girls opened their big gift from all the grandparents and us...a doll house! They loved it. We didn't take it out of the box until the morning and then Jeff put it together.

My parents got these super cute necklaces for the girls...I love them!

We put out cookies and milk for Santa before bed. In the morning, the cookies and milk were gone. Megan asked Jeff if he ate the cookies or if Santa did and she didn't want us to trick her. So Jeff told her that Santa was not real because we don't want to lie to her. She has never really been into Santa before this Christmas and I think it is because of her friends/teachers at school. We have always talked to her about Christmas as celebrating Jesus. Anyways, we told her it is still fun to pretend that Santa brings presents and not to tell her friends that Santa is not real!

The argyle vest that Marty is wearing was a hand-me-down and then I found these matching socks, I couldn't resist buying them!

CHEESE!!!!

Christmas jammies...

After the kids were in bed on Christmas Eve, the adults played some games and ate some more food!

Christmas morning Jeff put together the doll house for the girls and then we opened more presents. The kids had so much fun!! Marty didn't really get what was going on, but he had fun just playing around. We just hung out as a family for the morning, and then in the afternoon Jeff took the girls downtown and they road bikes for a little while. It was such a beautiful warm winter day! I stayed home while Marty napped and I got ready for Christmas dinner!

Wifesaver for Christmas morning breakfast...

Opening stockings...

The girls each got a pair of swimming goggles in their stockings!

Putting the doll house together...

Jeff and I had decided to only get each other something small this year(like $20)...well, I think he went over the budget, a little!!!

We had our parents and some friends and Jeff's grandpa over for Christmas dinner. As I mentioned before, it was my first time doing a Turkey and I think it turned out pretty good! Although, I had lots of help from my mom's:) We had a wonderful dinner together. I feel very blessed to have such a great family and friends.

The kids table at Christmas dinner... for some reason I didn't get one of the adult table:(

On Monday, Gabby was not herself:( She was very pale and lethargic and I was worried about her. So I took her to the walk in clinic and she had tonsillitis. Poor little thing! She didn't even complain about a sore throat or anything. The doctor put her on antibiotics and she was doing great by the next day!

Then in the afternoon we headed to Jeff's parents place to see Eric and Traci. They have been here all week and we have really enjoyed spending time with them! We spent the night there and played lots of games and ate lots of food. We hung out there the rest of the day and it felt like Christmas that day, especially with all the fresh new snow outside.

In the late afternoon we went to the bowling alley. Megan has been once before and it was Gabby and Marty's first time there. They loved it!! Marty was not feeling great, he had a cold, but I think he still had some fun:)

We went over to some friends house one night, had a birthday party another night, did some shopping, Jeff and Eric took the girls sledding, the list goes on and on...and then next thing we know it's New Years Eve!

Eric took these pictures when they took the girls sledding. It's SO nice having photographers in the family:) I love these pics...

We spent New Years Eve with Jeff's family and we had a delicious fondue!! We fed the kids dinner first and waited until they were in bed to have the fondue. After dinner we played games and then we headed to bed just before midnight. I can't remember the last time we stayed up past midnight on New Years Eve...it's just not as exciting as it used to be, especially when the kids still get up at 7am:)

Eric and Traci did some family photos for us while they were here. Unfortunately, we didn't get too many pictures because it was SOOO cold and the kids did not want to cooperate:( But, they did get a few good shots...

Marty is NOT happy here, he does NOT like the cold:(

This picture melts my heart...love these kids!!

So now we get back into our "normal" routine! Megan goes back to school on Tuesday and Jeff goes back to work Tuesday as well. It has been nice not having to take Megs to school every morning and get all the kids dressed and packed up. We have been enjoying the relaxing holidays!! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas:)