A few firsts

Soooo much to catch up on!!! Where does the time go?!?!

I can't believe Megan only has 2 and a half months of school left...and next year we will have both girls in school full time!! I'm not quite ready for all these changes. Although, Gabby is so ready for school, she is going to love it.

About a month ago, Gabby had her very first ballet recital. It was pretty much the cutest thing ever!!! She was so serious and nervous being in front of a crowd. She did great and now she wants to be a ballet teacher when she grows up:)

Her ballet class...



The Recital...my friend took better pictures, I just haven't gotten them from her yet!



I have all 3 kids in swimming lessons right now. The girls love it and are doing awesome in the water...Marty on the other hand is not loving it so much. He cries when the teacher holds him and just calls out mommy, mommy, mommy!! He likes the water when we take him to the pool or in our hottub or the bathtub, so I'm wondering if he just doesn't like his teacher or it he wants me to be in the water with him. Anyways, I'm sure he will get better over the next month or so(hopefully!). On the way to swimming lessons, he says "I don't want to go on my back, I don't want to got under water!!" It was like he was preparing himself, poor little guy!

We had some wonderful house guests come for a visit a few weeks ago! It was so great to have Malcolm and Kirsten come up for the weekend. Although, the time always goes far too quickly. I love that we can just hang out and there is no pressure with them. We are so blessed to have them in our lives. Thank you for making the effort to come see us. We love you guys!!

While Kirsten and Malcom were here, Jeff ran his very first 1/2 marathon. This was the same event that got him hooked on running three years ago! He came in 8th place overall and 3rd place in his age category. We were so proud of him!! We got to see him at the start line, at about 16 km mark and again at the finish line. He was hoping to do it in about one hour and 28 minutes and he did it in one hour 23 minutes!! Pretty amazing if you ask me:). Lately he has been talking about qualifying for the Boston Marathon...so we will see where that goes!

Almost at the finish line...

So proud of him...

Getting his medal...


I started running as well, just over a month ago. I need to get in shape for my upcoming soccer season! I have been running with my friend at the indoor track and then also doing P90X about 3 days a week. I feel a lot better and my body, especially my legs, feel stronger. I am planning to do an all womens 5km run this summer. It should be fun!! We had our first soccer game of the season last night. It felt great to get out again. We are now in Division 2 and last year we were in Div 3...so I wasn't too excited about moving up. But, we only lost 2-1 last night, so maybe it won't be too bad.

Pirate day at school...

This past weekend, we had a great Easter! So thankful for the hope we have in a living God!! We were expecting my brother and sister in law for the weekend, but they were last minute unable to come up. My sister in law just got a new job and we are so excited for her!!

We walked up to a great park near our house on the weekend and did an Easter egg hunt up there for the kids. They had so much fun!! Then the kids played at the park and my mom and I played some tennis. I am really enjoying tennis...I really suck at it...but, I love it:)





We had dinner at our place that evening and then the next morning we went to the Easter service at church. That in the afternoon, we went to my parents for Easter dinner!! So yummy!!

Easter Sunday...

Oh, also all weekend long we worked on our front yard landscaping!! It is almost complete. We have been wanting to change up the landscaping since we moved here...but everything is a process in an older home. We finally decided to do it this year. We are really happy with it!

Before, I don't have a great before picture of all the weeds and ugly bushes, but here is the front of the house...

During...


Oh and we also painted the front of the house this past weekend. It rained a bit during the day, but we got it done. We are really happy with color. Now we need to paint the staircase and do some trim around the door and windows. We had a front loader bring a few huge rocks for the landscape over the weekend. Most of the neighbours came over to watch the rocks being placed! We put the house number on the large rock and Jeff put in spot lights for the number that shine up from the ground.


The house projects continue...

This is what the house looked like when we moved in over 9 years ago...

Here is it today...

Today is my dad's birthday and I want to wish him a very happy birthday!! Thank you for being such a wonderful father to us and an awesome grandpa to our kids. We all love you so much!!

That's it for today! Thanks for reading.

Three

I know another month has gone by, but finally I have a few minutes to sit down and write a post with some pictures!

Happy 3rd Birthday sweet boy!!

February has been a busy month already. We made and decorated some Valentine's cookies. The kids love helping in the kitchen and especially decorating with treats:)




Gabby trying on my new hat! I love it!!


Marty's trying on daddy's new helmut!!

Jeff has signed up to ride the Gran Fondo ride from Penticton to Osoyoos this summer. It is a 160km bike ride! He absolutely loves to bike, so he's pretty excited about doing it. He is also planning to run a half marathon for the first time this Spring. He has been running quite a bit through the winter. Last weekend he ran with his friend and they did 24km...that is the furthest he has ever run! I'm pretty proud of him:) I wish I had some of his motivation...

Then we were making lots of Valentine's cards and cupcakes for Megan's class. I saw this idea on pinterest to make mini cupcakes and put them in a cup. We made one for each of the kids in Megan's class. She wrote out all the Valentine's cards herself and she did a great job. She was so excited to give them to everyone!

Another pinterest idea...these are amazing!! So easy to make. Just square pretzels, a hershey hug and a smartie. It's the perfect mix of sweet and salty:)

And this past weekend we celebrated Marty's 3rd birthday!! I still can't believe my baby is 3!! It makes me a little sad to see how fast he is growing up.

Marty's birthday morning breakfast!! Megan had a pro-D day on his birthday, so it was great to have her home too. Teddy Bear pancakes and I let them decorate them with a few chocolate chips...they were in heaven:)




Marty's gift from us...a fireman uniform!



We had a Fire Truck Theme party. He loves fire trucks and gets so excited when we see one! Jeff painted a little brick wall for the background and I think it turned out pretty good.



We had homemade Mac N Cheese and Sausages(Marty's favorite meal)! And some appies and, of course, cupcakes for dessert.



We had 14 kids and 10 adults for the party! And that is with 3 families not able to make it. We had a full house, but it was so much fun!!

Shortly after the party, Jeff and I weren't feeling so great. Last weekend Megan had the flu and Gabby had it during the week...so I thought we were over it. Well, we weren't so lucky. We were up a lot during the night and felt awful and just hung around the house trying to recover yesterday. But, today we are both feeling pretty good!! Thankful for that:)

So that's an update for now! Hope there are still a few readers out there:)

Finally....

I don't even know where to begin!!! I know it's been forever since I've wrote anything. I just haven't really been interested in blogging. I love reading other people's blogs, but it's sometimes tough for me to get going and actually write something or post pictures. I hope there are still some of you readers left out there...

Gabs got a haircut...

Church Christmas concert...

Megan all ready for her school Christmas concert...

Megan has her school Christmas concert at the beginning of December. She wore her special "candy cane" dress from Grandma & Grandpa V. Her class sang a song and said a little poem. It was really cute! Because of the teachers strike, it was only during the day, so Jeff was unable to come because he was working. So I took lots of videos, so he could still watch her.

We had a wonderful Christmas with family!! Both of Jeff's brothers and their wives came out this year...and we had an extra special new addition to the family. Eric and Traci had a baby boy, Arthur James, just 10 days before Christmas. We were so grateful that they made the trip up here with a newborn. I LOVED snuggling that sweet little boy, he is such a blessing to our family.

Christmas Eve, we all went to the early service at church and then all of Jeff's family and my parents came over for dinner and the evening. It was so nice to all be together!

My "dog" wrapped Christmas gift from Jeff!


Holding cousin Arthur for the first time..




Christmas morning, we spent at home, just our little family. The kids loved opening their presents and just playing with them. I had made our breakfast the day before, so I just had to put the caramel French toast in the oven. In the late morning, we headed over to Jeff's parents place and opened more presents. We had lots of fun!! Then we had an amazing Turkey dinner and headed home for the kids bedtime.

Playing with his new car garage!

We celebrated Christmas with my parents on Boxing Day! Mom made a delicious brunch for us and then it was more present time. We just hung out and relaxed and enjoyed our time together.



Funny story! My mom opened her gift from my dad and she pulled these pants out of the box...

My mom very kindly said, "oh, what size are these?"...we burst out laughing, they were a size 18!! My dad said the sales lady was helping him and she had picked out the pants and they were supposed to be size 10.

**Eric took lots of pictures at Christmas and now I can't seem to get them onto my blog, I will try again another time.

Jeff was off work most of the week and it was SO nice to have him home! I was able to go out shopping one day with my sis-in-law and we had fun. I am so thankful for our families!!

Jeff was so thoughtful and bought us tennis rackets for my Christmas present. We had talked about starting to play tennis last summer and so this was great. Although, we can't use them just yet! There is a great park up by our house that also has a tennis court, so we thought in the summer we can play some tennis while the kids play at the park!! I find it so much easier to exercise in the summer, I'm just not a big fan of the winter:(

I'm trying to think back to before Christmas and remember things that happened. We had some family photos taken in the fall that we used for our Christmas cards this year. Our good friend is a photographer and she took these for us. We are really happy with them. The kids were really good for most of the shots, but Marty doesn't like to sit still and pose of photos!



Just before Christmas, my friend lost her husband to a heart attack. Megan and her daughter are really good friends at school. I have gotten to know her over the last year or so. We get together for playdate's and just to chat. I got the phone call early one Monday morning from a mutual friend of ours. I was completely shocked! My friend had just lost her dad three weeks earlier and she was really close to him, and then to loose her husband. My heart just aches for her. I was able to go over to her house and be with her that first day and I actually managed to see her every day for the week, just to be with her. And some amazing ladies from our church provided meals for her family everyday. I know this was a huge blessing to her. I've never been through this with a friend before, so sometimes I'm not sure what to say or do, but I'm just trying to be there for her right now. She has two daughters, ages 6 and 9. So, if you think of them please pray that God would give them comfort and strength as they go through this journey. And that maybe through all of this that they would find Him!

On a different note, my parents leave for 2 weeks in Mexico soon and then Jeff's parents are going to Hawaii for a month!! I'm starting to get a little bit jealous of all these people that get to go somewhere warm during the winter. I would love to go on a vacation, but a vacation with the kids is just not quite a vacation...maybe when they are a bit older! I'm thinking our next vacation will be to Disneyland in about 3 years.