'Hart" Warming Moments

A post, really? A year of pictures

2010-08-09T13:35:00.003-05:00

Well, I apologize to my readers for my lack of posts in the past year. Last year after I had Rachel I suffered from PPD and the blog became low on my list of priorities. Even once I was better, I was so far behind that catching up was just too overwhelming!

So I'm just going to put some links to pictures from the past year for you. And I will try to stay current from now on!

Here they are!

Eric went to Haiti in March to help Adoration Christian School with some building

APRIL 2010

MAY 2010

JUNE 2010

I promise that I will try to keep this up!

June 2009

2010-01-18T13:15:00.004-05:00

I'm going to try and finish where I left off and catch up! I believe we left off in June.

Aidan graduated from juniour kindergarten in June. He looks so cute in his cap!

Here he is with his teacher Mrs Kiosses

We celebrated Anna's birthday a little early because Aidan was going to be at Campfire on her birthday. We woke her up singing Happy Birthday! She looked a little confused!

Opening presents!

We had some very cute bunnies living under our slide! They were almost run over by Eric , but spotted just in time! The kids liked to check on them every day! Unfortunately they were gone when we got back from holidays!

Anna had a family party that afternoon!

Here's my beautiful three year old!

I'm so sorry!!!!

2009-12-04T16:16:00.001-05:00

I know, it's been ages since I have updated! And I feel really bad. In the new year I will catch up the blog, this month is just to busy...

Sorry!

Here's one picture to tie you over. This is a picture of the kids helping me make Christmas cookies!

MacDonald's

2009-06-30T12:39:00.001-05:00

Do you like MacDonald's, or do you give your kids happy meals....
here's an interesting blog post that I stumbled across today.

2009-06-24T06:00:00.001-05:00

Here is the last entry for now.

I have been busy sewing lately. I love to sew, I 'm just not that great and don't have much time to do it. ( I do hate mending though...why does Eric have to keep wearing through the knees of his pants and splitting seams open...)

One of the projects that I wanted to try was a little house on the prairie bonnet. I saw some little girls with some at the park the other day, and I asked where they got them. I guess there is this Mennonite relief sale that happens the last weekend in May, and I just missed it. So I searched the internet and found my own pattern! I made one for Rachel. I just have to adjust where the chin strap is as I'm not happy with where it is sitting on her head right now. But I still think that she looks adorable in it!

Here's a look at the bonnet off of her head.

I also made Rachel another summer bag as we just had one, and I like to have a backup in case she wakes up wet! I used my existing bag to make the pattern as my Mom had the pattern, and I didn't want to wait to get it from her. This was the first time I had done a zipper since grade 11 sewing, so thanks to some tips from my Mom, I got it first shot! I also found a video tutorial on how to do bias tape as I didn't remember how to do that anymore either!

With the leftover fabric I made some flannel washcloths to use for faces. With babysitting I always need lots and run out each week.
Fabricland was having awesome sales, so I went back and got 20 more yards of flannel to use to sew gifts in the future!

On Thursday the 18th, Aidan's class had their family picnic at the park at the arena next to the school. Everyone brought a little snack so their was tons of food, mostly junk though. Aidan and Anna spent most of their time eating! Aidan had 2 icecreams, a cupcake, timbits and who knows what else when I wasn't watching! Anna ate lots too....

They did play on the park for a while too.
Rachel was so good and just hung out in her carseat on the stroller the whole time while I chatted with other Moms!

Aidan made a cute newspaper for Eric for Father's day at school. He couldn't wait until Sunday and gave it to him as soon as he got home from work on Thursday! :)

Here is Rachel mid roll. She is a pro now and always rolls to her front when she is playing on the floor.

Dating a little while back, this is the card that the kids made for me for my birthday!

On Saturday Aidan found Eric's bandana for work and decided to be a pirate! He's beating up Eric with his sword. Aidan was giggling so hard he could hardly hit him sometimes!

Rachel turned 7 months old on Saturday. She weighs 16 pounds, 9.5 ounces. And she was 27 inches long.

Anna loves her sister! I can never do a photoshoot with Rachel without one of the other kids getting in there too!

That's all for now!

2009-06-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

I recently got out my lego from when I was little for the kids to play with. They are having so much fun with it! Anna will sit there for over 45 minutes and just put blocks on a platform. She was very proud of her creation!

We thought that maybe Rachel would enjoy veggies as she was't all that interested in cereal. But she didn't really care for that either.

She would rather eat her tray :)

I've switched to Nestle cereal now and she seems to like that much better, but won't eat it with veggies mixed in :)

We finally got around to putting some flowers in! May kinda snuck past us so we did it in June this year. We only planted tomatoes for vegetables, as we decided to get Eric's wisdom teeth pulled instead of paying monday to start square foot gardening.

The kids are using my new chair (which is soooo comfy!!) as a bus for all of their animals..again, I love a child's imagination!

Rachel loves to swing. Here she is in the swing at the park nearby!

Anna loves the swing too and she always wants underdoggies and to go higher!

I went with Aidan's class to Mohawk Park for their yearend trip on June 12th. Thankfully the weather was warn and sunny! Aidan had so much fun just getting there as we took a bus!

As we walked up to the splashpad at the park my ever cautious son says....I'm not going in there. So far part of it he just stood on the side watching everyone else. He lives vicariously through others we always say!

His teacher Mrs Kiosses was trying to get him in.

This was about as close as he got! One step at a time I guess!

2009-06-22T13:00:00.000-05:00

This is Rachel's 6 month photo shoot! I think that she looks like me when I was little when she smiles like this! At the date of this picture Rachel is not sitting by herself yet or rolling over. But she is getting much more content and smiley! We started solid foods about a week before she turned 6 months. She wasn't very interested in it, and to this day she still isn't. I offer it to her twice a day, and she kinda eats it one of the times. She'll get it eventually I guess!

She thought that it was pretty funny that I put her in the basket. I had to take the pictures quickly because she kept trying to get out.

A few days after she turned 6 months she rolled over for the first time! We were at my Dad and Mom's when she did it and she rolled from her back to her front, and then kept right on going onto her back again. Since then she has continued to roll from back to front, but has not done front to back again. This picture is of the second time that she rolled over, as I didn't have my camera at my Mom's.

Rachel is still enjoying the jolly jumper, she just loves to bounce, in here, or her exersaucer, or wherever she is standing.

On May 26th, my niece Kezia turned four! We went to her house for a little party!

Rachel just loves her exersaucer, and it's definitely her favorite place to have her independent playtime...provided her loving siblings leave her alone...

...which doesn't happen often. Aidan can't resist his sister. Whenever he sees her he just has to go up to her and hug and kiss her. She loves him too!

On May 29th we made the drive up to Ottawa to visit with Brian and Alanna for the weekend. We stopped in Warkworth to visit my grandparents on the way up and we arrived around 9ish. The next morning the kids were all up bright and early ready and eager to play with eachother! Here they are playing hungry hippo together.
Saturday morning the dad's worked on putting a gate in the fence and Alanna and I took 2 kids and went for a walk and did some yardsaling in the neighbourhood! I always love a bargain! I got a pair of almost new Robeez for Rachel for 25 cents:)

We gave Zachary his 3rd birthday gift while we were there...I think that he liked it!
And here is the handsome almost 3 year old!
On Saturday night, Alanna made us an awesome rib dinner which we also shared with Chris and Charlene. We ate after the kids were in bed, so we had a nice quiet dinner!

I've been trying to lose some weight lately, (I'm at 12 pounds so far since the beginning of April!).

ONe of the ways I find time to exersize in my busy schedule is to walk to get Aidan from school should Rachel's schedule that day allow it. I tryed out the bike trailer for the first time with Rachel as it is so much easier to push up the massive hill that we have in St. George.!

12 pounds down, 10 more to go until me goal!

2009-06-21T14:48:00.004-05:00

I'm falling a little behind in my updates, so I'm going to do a few little ones so that it is not one big one! I'll set them up to come out one a day for a few days!

I just wanted to share yet another picture of my adorable little baby...

Here is my Anna baby having a nap. I quite often find her in her bed like this! I let her start her quiet time with a book and she often falls asleep reading it!

We spent our May long weekend at the cottage again this year of course! It was not the warmest out, but thankfully we did not get too much rain, so the kids were still able to play outside a lot. Eric and Rachel and I did a lot of extra driving that weekend as we went back home on Saturday night, slept at home, and then went to Eric's installation the next morning at church ( he is now a deacon in our church) and then after church we went home, fed Rachel, packed a lunch and drove back to the cottage and enjoyed the rest of the weekend there.
Here are Kate and Declan 'fishing' off the end of the dock. You can see how high the water is this year. It is over the sea wall that was built 2 winters ago. I guess my parents picked the right year to do that as the water was so low that year!

My Mom brought her Wii and Wii fit along in case of rain and we had some amusing times with that! Here they are boxing! Which I must say, it's more fun to watch the people bozing then the boxing! My mom spends most of her time giggling that she can hardly fight! I love it!

The jobs to get done this year was getting the dock in...not a warm job that's for sure. Ken is the lucky one with the wet suit so he gets to be the one in the water!

The other job was to reshingle the boat house. The guys were speedy quick at it...mostly because they brought the compressor and air tools along!

One afternoon the kids were having a blast in the basement. This is a birthday party for Declan (who had just recently had his birthday) I just love the imagination of children!

An awesome music composition

2009-06-09T20:06:00.000-05:00

Here is an awesome music video that I came across on a blog that I read.

It is on YouTube...
I'm not sure how to actually put a youtube video in here, so I just linked it!

Happy Listening

2009-05-11T08:50:00.011-05:00

It looks like May is bringing us another busy month in the Hart household! Here's a few things we've been up to!

Aidan made a 3D farm at school. They have been talking about farms and 3D shapes, so his teacher combined them! He was very proud of it, and I think that he did a great job!

Here is a picture of my new niece Abriel. She's super cute and looks so little compared to Rachel! I can't believe how fast babies grow! (Although, Abbi did start out 2 pounds lighter)

We are expanding our front garden around our Maple tree. This is the one lucky garden that gets done this year...landscaping is expensive! Eric and Aidan are removing some sod to make room for some plants!.

April 25th brought us a VERY warm day, so of course my kids wanted to go swimming! We have a hot water tap outside for the hose, so we made them a nice warm pool to swim in. They had a hoot! Now Aidan asks every time the sun is out if he can go swimming! I don't think that we have ever swam so early in our little pool!

Rachel is becoming a lot easier with her grins now, and she is laughing a lot more too! I just think she's the cutest!

April 25th is also my Mom's birthday, so we headed on over for supper. Here is Rachel giving Auntie Mel a big smooch! I took my pictures, but my camera is dying, and inside pictures without window light are not clear anymore.

Rachel loves to sit in her Bumbo and watch me in the kitchen!

Talking with Daddy in bed. Rachel just loves faces, and she loves to hold them as she talks to you. Just watch out for your eyes!!

Rachel's serious face

Aidan and Anna are best friends and worst enemies! This is a best friend moment! Snuggling in my bed in the morning!

Aidan made me a mother's day present at school. It was a butterfly and a 3D flower! He was so excited to give it to me! On Thursday when he brought it home from school, he hid it under his bed, and then just 2 minutes later he pulled the present out, and said, let's pretend that today is Sunday and that it's mother's day already! So I got it on Thursday, and again on Sunday!

Here is the card he made for me at school. Do you like the picture of him and me playing a game? I had to ask him what the circles on our bodies were....the top one is our belly button, and the bottom two are our butt's. Boys.....

Another smile from my sweetie pie!

On Saturday Rachel got her first taste of rice cereal! She really liked it! On Sunday she ate it really fast, and today she did well too! She gets frustrated if I don't spoon it quick enough!

On Sunday morning was Abbi's baptism. Jodie's Mom was going to hold her for the baptism but she got a huge cold and couldn't come. So, Mike and Jodie gave me the honour of holding her! Thanks guys! She cried and I had to take her out for a little bit, but she did pretty good!

Sunday evening, after a quick supper at Eric's parents we went to the RBG Rock Garden's to see the tulips! Free after 6!
The kids had so much fun there! They were talking and smiling the whole time! We'll have to go back someday!
Here's Anna smelling a tulip

My favorite ones were the purple ones!

I managed to get a belly shot for Veronica too, she said that she doesn't have many, so I got her!

They are beautiful gardens!

Here's our attempt at a family picture, too bad Rachel wasn't smiling!

In a little cave

Tulips in the sunshine!

That's all for now! I hope that you had a great Mother's Day, and that you have fun plans for the upcoming long weekend! I'll try and post about our long weekend next week!

2009-04-22T08:45:00.009-05:00

An another update so soon...I know pretty good! Now if only I could catch up on my scrapbooking! I have fixed the link to Eric's hand picture in the blog entry below, sorry it wasn't working..
Last week wednesday we added another niece to the family, Mike and Jodie were blessed with another cute baby girl! They came home on Sunday. I have not gotten to hold her yet because I don't want to give her my cold. :( I can't wait until I'm better so that I can get me some newborn snugs!! I don't have pictures yet either, since we haven't visited yet. I guess you want to know her name too...... :) It's Abriel Josie Hart. They are calling her Abbi.

Eric's Mom needed a picture of the three kids, so this is the one I got. Rachel was grumpy that day and I couldn't get her to smile, so this was the best I could do.

Brian and Alanna came down for the weekend last weekend as part of the surprise that we had all planned for Eric's mom's birthday. They came last Thursday evening! They brought with them their jolly jumper. Rachel took less than a minute to figure out that she could boogy in it! She loves it!

Aunt Alanna loves to snuggle with Rachel, and Rachel snuggled back! It was handy to have an extra set of arms in the house for the weekend!

Friday was a gorgeous day, so we gave the kids snack outside. They were thrilled!

Friday was a busy day of getting ready for the party! Here was the final look with the decorations. This is what Eric's mom would see when she came into Mike and Jodie's house!
Hanging from the banner is an outline of all the kids hands, including the ones still in the womb!

SURPRISE!!!! When we first yelled surprise, she wouldn't come inside at first, so this picture is a few seconds later. Boy was she surprised!!

Here's Mike doing a toast to his Mom!

Mom Hart with all her boys!

Two cousins in the womb! Alanna is 15 weeks...and Veronica is 30 I think.

Here's my crazy son with his crazy cousin Lucas!! They felt that it was warm enough to take off their shirts on Saturday! :) Can you tell how much fun they have together?!

Rachel turned 5 months old on Monday. I can't belive how fast time has flown by! We have had a few giggles now, so hopefully we will get some more soon. She is getting much freer with her smiles too! Overall though she is still much more serious than her older brother and sister. She still loves to stand and loves to bounce too. She is even able to scoot right off my lap! So I have to hold on tight when she is sitting there. She loves Aidan and Anna, and whenever they come near, she kicks and squirms and smiles away! It's cute to see!. Whenever you talk to her she always want to hold you face and kiss you, it's cute! She still is geting up at night much to my dismay, because Aidan and Anna both slept through at 8 weeks, I was kinda expecting her to do the same. But she has had so many colds, and thus wasn't eating well, I think it will take her a bit longer. She is now the last 2 days finally finishing her bottles, but getting up 2 times at night, so hopefully this is just a growth spurt. When she is well she just gets up once.

I got her weighed today at a neighbours house who has a scale, and she was 14 pounds, 9.5 ounces. I haven't measured her length yet.

I just love how her eyes light up when she smiles!

Anna loves her sister!

Watching TV together...no I don't let Rachel watch TV like this, this was the first time.

This is a face that we see often around here. It seems that everything to Anna is a huge deal and requires getting very upset! It can be very hard some days to remain patient with her!

Aidan and Anna call eachother best friends. They play together all the time and most of the time they get along great. And when they don't, one always says "...you're not my best friend anymore..."

Here are Anna and Rachel at 5 months, I thought that I would put them up just to compare...Anna was much chunkier in the cheeks! They don't look as much alike anymore! She looks more like Aidan, but my digital pictures for him start at 10 months...

I've just heard that Eric's Uncle Joe is in the hospital with pneumonia, so please keep him in your prayers!
That's all for now

2009-04-16T09:52:00.006-05:00

Well, I just emptied my camera onto the computer, so I thought I may as well put some of the photos up here.
About Eric's hand....he was very lucky and he only got a flesh wound from the chainsaw. There were a few cuts and they actually ran on either side of the tendon. We joke that his Guardian Angel is missing his hand so that Eric was spared his. Thanks to the Lord! Eric did take a picture of it which is here in the album Eric's Owy. WARNING: GRAPHIC SHOT OF HIS CUT WITH THE STITCHES, DON'T LOOK IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE!!! That's why I didn't put it here.

Here is Rachel on Daddy's shoulders. She likes this and is starting to grab his ears to hang on!!

Sometimes when we are eating supper, she will hang out in the high chair with us! She still needs blankets beside her so she doesn't fall over....or I need to put the buckles back in.

I love this shot...I call it my hairless family members :) Only cuz Anna didn't make it into the shot.

Here's my little man! I can't believe that he's going to be 5 this year!

We went to cottage for Easter with my parents. Aidan is playing chess with my Dad. Aidan doesn't quite get it, but he still has fun playing it! He just wants to get Kings.

Anna is coping the tree's face :)

Here's Rachel talking and smiling at her Daddy, she's so cute!! We love her if you can't tell!!

Apparently the cottage was just too busy for my kids, because on Monday they just couldn't stay awake.Here's a funny video of the kids with the singing fish at the cottage...too funny! Anna kept saying after 'The fish was talking to me!" Enjoy

2009-03-27T14:23:00.003-05:00

Wow, an update 2 times in a week, I must be on a roll!
Here's just a few pictures that I wanted to share..

This is Aidan after we wake him up at Gramma and Grandpa's house to go home. The poor guy just can't stay awake. Once we put him on the bottom step and he fell forward as he fell asleep again. Good thing his pillow was on the floor!

On Monday we had a busy day. I had 6 kids, my 3, Ziva, and Kate and Tim! It was nice to have Kate and Tim, even if it was only for a day! My kids were very happy to play with them again!
They all had lots of fun in the sand box! It was Tim's first time and he didn't want to come out!

Tim looking thoughtful...back at the sandbox. Everyone got out to play something else, so he did too...but he wanted to go back in!

This is Ziva, she comes to play with us on Monday's and Wednesday's. She is exactly a year younger than Anna.

Here's my sunshine!

Rachel 'helping' me with the laundry

Aidan LOVES Rachel. He says that she is his best friend :)

On a sadder note....Eric was helping his Dad cut down some trees with a chainsaw today...and he cut himself. I don't know how bad it is as I was not there. His mom has taken him to the ER in Paris. He cut his right wrist. He says that he can feel and move everything so that's a good thing! I guess it's also a blessing in disguise that he has no work for next week anyways, so that he has some time to recover. I post an update later once he's home and I know more!

March

2009-03-24T12:02:00.005-05:00

Time for another update!

March has been a busy month for us so far. It seems like there is always something going on or always somewhere to go!

Here's a picture of Rachel in the swing. She really loves it in there, especially if she has a blanky too! She's definately going to be a blanky girl like her big brother!

Anna is really into crafts lately. Except that her idea of a craft, is cutting paper into tiny little pieces, and then glueing them all on a paper! She can cut up paper for 45 minutes! Thankfully it doesn't take that long to clean it up!

Here's a picture of my kiddies! Rachel looks super cute in a headband, and Anna found her sunglasses in the couch and now she wants to wear them all the time!! And look! I'm actually in a picture for once! I made him take one as I am never in any of our pictures!

Rachel just loves to play with Aunt Alanna's toy! She gets so excited when she plays with this. In this picture it is the first time that she grabbed the toy. The only problem was that she didn't know how to let go!

Aidan is starting to want to take pictures. Most of the time he does pretty good too!
He took this one of Rachel and I.

Aidan loves his sister so much and was pleased to help me give her a bath!

Here's my little sunshine! Waiting to go into the bath after soaking through her clothes..hence the nakedness under the blankets!

On March 13th we went up to my Grandparents for Warkworth's Maple Syrup Festival.
We go downtown and catch a bus to the sugarbush. Anna was especially thrilled because she doesn't remember the last time that we were on a bus! When we got to the bush we had some yummy pancakes and sausages with maple syrup!
At the bush Eric was teaching the kids how maple syrup is made!

Here we are about to go on a wagon ride through the bush!

There was a bunch to see in town too. Aidan and Anna got to go on some ponies ( man do they ever overcharge that) But they loved it!

That afternoon we took Grandpa's Argo out for a boot to the creek. Unfortunately, we didn't return as happy as we left because we got stuck on a branch and smashed up the windshield.

My grandpa just loves his great grandchildren.

This is Rachel's first time in the swing outside. She was a little unsure of it and just wanted to eat her coat :)

This is her first time in the exersaucer. She loved it! She right away started to hit at the toys!

Rachel turned 4 months old on the 20th. She is 11 pounds 3 ounces...no change since 2 months old, so they are going to weigh her again in 2 weeks to check her growth. Her head and length did change though, so that's good. She didn't get her needles that day because she had a bit of a fever and a cold. So that will also get done in 2 weeks.
Rachel is still pretty serious, she has not yet laughed out loud. You can tell when she thinks that things are funny though, and does a silent laugh. She loves to stand up on our laps and is starting to try and bounce too. She also loves to play with the bug toy on her car seat. She coos alot, especially when she is playing!

Here's her doggy shot! She wasn't feeling well and it took me a long time to get a smile shot this time! But I did get one!

She's cooing in this one. She's so cute!

We also were getting sick of the loveseat in our livingroom, for those who have sat on it, you may have seen all the rips in the cushions. Zellers had covers for 50% off last week, so I picked one up...much to Eric's dismay. I think that it looks much better. Don't worry, I've cut the tags off since. I just wanted to make sure Eric liked it first.

That's all for today!

February Misc.

2009-02-20T09:16:00.007-05:00

We spend the Family Day weekend in Ottawa. We went up early(in lots of fog) because Eric had some training to do near Ottawa. We got to spend 5 nights there! We had a great time!

Here are my two girls hanging out on the couch in Ottawa.

I have recently cut Anna's hair. It was getting scraggly. Now that I have cut it, it is even curlier....which saves me from if I cut it straight or not! ( Maybe you can check it next time I see you Veronica, to see if it passes :) )

On Thursday while Eric was driving to his course our van started to make an awful noise. The ac compressor ceased so the van spent Friday in the shop getting it fixed enough so that we would be able to drive home. Our plans for Friday was to go to Snowflake kingdom in Haul Qeubec, so we had to postpone that. So Friday morning the kids made Valentines and in the afternoon we went sledding.The hill was super easy so going down was easy, and up was much harder! The kids had a hoot though.

Here are Zach and Anna waiting for their turn!

Eric and Aidan.

Eric and Anna

This picture makes me laugh! Anna is tickling Eric!

Valentine's Day morning:

Here is Aidan checking out his Valentine's!
Thanks for the chocolate Mommy! Our kids just love chocolate, so I gave them a chocolate Valentine!

Next was our Valentine's waffle breakfast! Looks good doesn't it!

The kids are decorating their heart shaped cupcakes!

We got the van back so we were able to go to Snowflake Kingdom on Saturday afternoon. The kids (and adults) had a alot of fun on the snowslides!

Of course we had to get some beaver tails!

Thankfully Rachel slept through most of it.

For dinner we had heart pizza's and a heart cake for dessert!

Alanna, this is to get you back for that tongue picture that you put on your blog a few years ago!!!
This is Alanna being a good with magnets :)

Sunday night we had a fire, some chocolate fondue, and of course Settlers!

We left Monday morning and stopped in Warkworth on the way home to have some lunch with my grandparents. We had a great weekend!

Here's my smiley baby hanging out in her bouncy chair. She likes to hold onto blankets when she is in there.

Whenever you hold her hands she to stand up! She loves to do it! Here's she talking to Daddy at the same time.

Rachel is 3 months old today. I can't believe how fast it has gone already. She has a cold right now, as do her older siblings. At least she doesn't have the fever that Anna has had all week, and Aidan the last 2 days. So she does look a little sick in her pictures.

Rachel is still getting up once every night to eat. I'm not used to this as my others slept through the night at 8 weeks. (come on Rachel, you can do it!) She normally goes right back to sleep though. She is a sweetheart! She is definately a more serious baby than Anna was, but still pretty smiley! We have not had any laughs yet. We took an ocean aquarium swing home from Alanna's on the weekend and that's her new favorite hangout. She just loves it! And since we have had it, she has not been crying all evening! What a nice change!

Here is her 3 months pics with her doggy! I managed to get smiles this month!

Here is her serious face. I love it, she's too cute!

That's all for now!! Have a great weekend.

January Misc

2009-02-02T12:59:00.006-05:00

I uploaded all these pictures a while ago, and now I have finally found the time to talk about them! There will be two entries today!

With all the snow that we have been having, there has been alot of chances to play outside. One day it was too snowy for Eric to work so he was at home. While Aidan was at school, he and Anna made this great snowman! Anna is giving it a big hug!

Gramma came to visit when my Dad was in the Dominican on a mission trip. Here is Rachel cooing and giving her big smiles!

We spent an impromptu weekend at the cottage with Arron and Laura. There was a lot of snow there!!

Even though it was tough to walk through it all, the kids had a great tijme playing with us outside! The wind lakeside was very cold so we played mostly roadside!

Aidan and Declan racing down the hill.

Anna's snowangel.

Hanging out in the snowpile!

Aidan and Declan made the area behind the couch their 'secret clubhouse' It was cute. We walked into the livingroom and we could hear them but not see them! We found them behind the couch!

Here is Rachel's 2 month photoshoot with her doggy. She can be quite serious so I had a hard time getting a smile out of her.

This one is too cute, I caught her in the middle of a sneeze!

Look Mom! I rolled over! She only did it one more time since then though.
Stay tuned for another entry and pictures of my beautiful family!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2009-01-07T13:04:00.013-05:00

Here is a shot of our Christmas tree this year. It's a blurry shot, but I like it like that!

Everyone knows that we had a lot of snow leading up to Christmas! Aidan and Anna had a lot of fun playing in it! It's too bad that it melted before we could build a snow fort though.

You can see how much we got the one day by the pile on our BBQ!

I had to make my yearly snowangel! I love when the snow is light and fluffy to do this!

I sat down to take a break from shoveling, and Eric shoveled me in! Of course the kids thought that it was funny so they joined in too!

On Christmas Eve we had Christmas part 2 with my immediate family, my Grandparents, and my Aunt and Uncle.
Here's Anna with her Auntie Mel, wearing the crowns from our Christmas crackers.

Anna was taking a turn being 'Santa' and handing out a round of presents!

Aidan opening a Lightening McQueen outfit from Aunt Lynda.He loved it wanted to wear it everyday for the next 3 days until I peeled it off him to be washed!

This has been how my late evenings and parts of my day have been.....boy can she get mad! They say crying peeks at 6 weeks...so here's hoping that we are getting past the worst! Isn't she cute when she cries though? It breaks her Mommies heart when she cries with gas pains.

Christmas Day we had Christmas part 3 with Eric's family at his parents house. Eric Mom and Noah led us in some carol singing!

Saturday the 27th was Christmas part 4. This was just with my immediate family, at my Mom and Dad's house. Aidan got the number one thing on his wish list from his Gramma and Grandpa....the Thomas the Train shed for his tracks! He was thrilled!

Here's Anna getting excited for Aidan's present too! She loves to play trains as well.

Rachel managed to open her eyes long enough to 'open' her present from Auntie Mel. She slept through most of her first Christmas!

On Monday the 29th we went out for dinner with Eric's family to celebrate his parents 35 wedding anniversary. We had a great time at Devlin's country Bistro...and some good food too!

Here's the boys:

Here's the girls!

Mmmm dessert!

We spent New Years Eve with a small group at Laura and Arron's house. We had a blast playing Cranium and Catch Phrase.

Hmmmm.....Can you smell the thinking going on??? :)

Here's everyone that was there....except the kids who were sleeping!

On the 2nd we took the kids skating at the park. Rachel slept through it (of course) all tucked in snug in her stroller.

Anna used the bob skates and did pretty good on them!

We bought Aidan some 'new'skates this year. He did ok, but gave up quickly because he couldn't keep his balance. Also may because it was really cold and windy!

On January 3rd we took the kids bowling for the first time. We went with friends from Brantford and their kids. There were 6 kids in all, so only they bowled. Aidan and Anna had so much fun!!! They just loved it! Here is Anna watching her ball go down.

Here she is quickly running for another ball!

Here is Aidan coming for another ball.

Here is Eric and Rachel having a snug on the couch. It's a blurry shot, but I actually really like how it looks!
Here it is again non-blurry.

Here are some pics of my little cutie. She started smiling at 5 weeks, and I've been trying to get a picture of it ever since.
Just missed it...

Here it is!

And just a short minute later, she looked like this....

Last night my Mom came for dinner. (my Dad's on a mission trip right now) Rachel had some smile for her and was trying really hard to say something to her too. We have had a few coo's already!

At Rachel's last midwife appointment 2 weeks ago, she was 10 pounds 1 ounce, so not quite at Aidan's birthweight yet! But I'm sure she's past that now!

Sorry it was so long! That's all for today!

Christmas Season

2008-12-21T14:25:00.007-05:00

Hey Everyone,
I hope that everyone is liking the snow falling outside, I know that I am! If it is going to be winter, then I think that there should be snow on the ground. I know that Eric thinks the opposite though as it makes it hard to work.

Well, on to some pictures.

Here is Aidan singing to Rachel. She loves it and just stares up at him!

On the 13th was St. George's Santa Claus Parade. This was the first time that we have gone. The kids really liked it! Here is Declan, Aidan and Anna waiting for it to start! Thanks for the warm scarves Oma!

Here comes Santa!
Last week Aidan's school's primary division put on a Christmas show. It was really cute! Here is Aidan, he was so funny as he was saying all the words but was totally zoned the whole time!

Look what Santa put in our stockings this year!

The kids check their stockings every morning to see if Santa has come. I have asked Santa to just put little presents in my kids stockings throughout December, and to let me give the bigger gifts :)
Here's the first morning that they found something!

December 19th was Aidan's first snowday. He was dissapointed to not have school, so I said that he could invite a friend over. So we called his buddy Matthew from school and he came over for a few hours in the morning. They lasted for about 15-20 minutes outside in the cold and snow!

After that they came inside to play, dressup being one the things they did!

On saturday morning we opened our presents! The kids were so excited, Aidan talked about it all week that after breakfast on Saturday we were going to open them!

Aidan opening a gift of clothes.

Anna got some dressup shoes which she has been wearing almost constantly since!This is the gift that Aidan made for me at school! It's an ornament for the tree.

This is Rachel's first Christmas!! And even though she has no clue what is going on, I still got her a little present. A hangy toy for her carseat, and some diaper cream!

Apparently if you give your kids underwear instead of toys, this is what happens!
and this...

Can you believe it?? Rachel is one month old already!! We have an appointment on Tuesday at the midwives to get her weighed. I'll update then with what it is! The last 2 nights Rachel has only gotten up once in the night! Good for her! Now she just needs to fall asleep in her own bed..... She had 3 really good nights in her own bed, but now she has a little cold and she's really gassy and is having a hard time settling down at night on her own.
Last night Opa and Oma, Eric's parents, came for a visit. The kids had lots of fun wrestling with Opa!
That's all for now! I'm sure I'll have more pictures soon, as we have a busy 2 weeks coming up!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Please pray for TIm!

2008-12-12T10:11:00.002-05:00

Please pray for Timothy Sommer today as he undergoes another lengthy surgery. For details, click on the link to his blog in my sidebar.

2008-12-10T10:10:00.005-05:00

Well, I managed to find some time this morning to give you all an update.... so here it goes!

Here's a picture of Rachel doing a little smile in her sleep!

Aidan and Anna love her and they always want to sing to her or hold her hand. Aidan really loves to hold her
Having a snooze

So precious!

Aidan and Anna are a firetruck!

Here you can see how much Aidan loves his baby sister!

On November 29th Eric took Aidan and Anna to go and get a Christmas tree! We decorated it in the afternoon. They had fun with the stockings!

Anna kept putting all of her balls in a row!

Snuggles with Daddy. Rachel has a little cold, so she has been sleeping with us when she can't settle on her own.

Here the kids are opening another door on their advent calendar.

Rachel was baptised on Sunday December 7th. My mom held her for the baptism.

Merry Christmas! Here's a preview to the picture in my Christmas card picture this year!

Today I dressed Rachel up in her dress again so that I could get some better pictures of her in it!

This is one of Anna, can you see how much they look alike??

This is Rachel again!

Rachel is doing well, she has a little cold right now, but other than that she is good. In her first week and a half she was not gaining any weight She was at 9 pounds for over a week. So my midwife came every other day to weigh her as we tried different ways of feeding her. I was already pumping as she wouldn't latch, so she already took a bottle. First we tried feeding her every 2 hours for 2 days, and she did not gain. Then we did half formula, half breast milk for 2 days, and she did not gain. Then we did straight formula for 2 days and she gained 3 ounces. Because I was pumping, we could see that my milk had no fat...so that was why she wasn't gaining. So now I give her 1 ounce formula, and 3 ounces formula for each feeding, and she is doing well on that! On Monday evening my midwife came, and she weighed 9 pounds 7 ounces. So hopefully soon she will be back up to her birth weight!

Well, that's all I have time for for now!

2 weeks till Christmas!

How's my day going?

2008-12-05T16:03:00.000-05:00

I'll post some more pic's of the kids later...when I have free time....maybe next year.....

Rachel Danielle Hart

2008-11-23T21:38:00.003-05:00

With thanks to God we welcome into this world our second daughter, Rachel Danielle Hart. She was born on Thursday, November 20th, at 11:44 pm. She weighed a whopping 9 pounds, 13 ounces. (thankfully she was 2 weeks early!!!) We were able to come home the following day at lunch time. We had to stay a little while at the hospital to make sure that Rachel's sugar levels were ok because of her size.

Thursday morning at an OB appointment (to get antibiotics) I was 4 cm. That day I was contracting quite a bit, but noticing a lot of movement of the baby. So after I picked Aidan up from school, I paged my midwife, and she decided that we should go to Mac just to make sure all was ok with the baby. We got there around 5. Everything with the baby looked good, and I was 6 cm, so she was not letting me go home! Thankfully my Mom had already taken my kids just in case! So by 7:30 I was starting to get active labour and she was born by midnight! She just made it to be born on the 20th!

And as you've been waiting for....here are some pictures of our cute little bundle!!

Here she is all snug as a bug at the hospital! I love how well the nurses bundle her there!

We are home....and look who already found her thumb!

Wide awake! She has brown hair, which is different for us and Anna and Aidan both had blond!

Aidan and Anna were so excited to meet her! Aidan's first comment when he was told he had a sister, was "That's Anna's sister, I was supposed to have a brother!" But as you can see, he is thrilled with her! He wouldn't stop grinning and wanted to hold her a lot! Anna already called her 'my Rachel'.
Our new family!

She has long slender fingers...something else Aidan and Anna did not!
Proud siblings

My midwife Lana came this morning for a check. Rachel weighed 8 pounds, 16 ounces.
After supper tonight we gave her her first bath at home. She liked it until we started to wash her!

My sleeping beauty!
That's all for now, I have to go upstairs and feed my little Rachel!

Amy.......I'm sure you like her name heh?? After we picked the name I was like....wait a minute....that's the names of both of Amy's daughters...... :)

2008-11-18T10:19:00.002-05:00

Hey Everyone,
I have about 8 minutes to give you a quick update about our lives before I have to go to my midwife appointment this morning.

Last week Monday evening my family made some more Christmas cookies! We made 17 dozen chocolate chip cookies with Christmas Reese's . Yum. I had bought Christmas M&M's, but accidently bought the mint ones, so I subbed them with the peanut ones that Eric bought me for a treat. So now I am done my Christmas baking! I made (with some help from my family) 6 pounds of fudge, 5 batch of cookie bark, 2 batches of shortbread, and 17 dozen Chocolate Chip!
Here is one of my silly helpers!

Decorating with the Reese's! This is the kids favorite part!

Look at all the balls of dough, waiting to be baked!
And the final result...lots of yummy, mouth-watering cookies....I just might have to go and dig one of my freezer..... :)

Another thing that we have being doing a lot lately is playing Go Fish. It has become one of Aidan's favorite games, and Anna is catching on quick too. Although she tends to blurt out if she has the same card as you before you can ask!

This is Aidan's baby puppy belly.... :)

And here is my belly at 37 weeks.

And I felt daring enough to take one without the shirt too....don't mind all the strechmarks...they are still from Aidan.

I have time to end with a funny....

The other day I was going to the washroom and I asked the kids to leave the room and give me some privacy. So Aidan went out and played on my bed to wait for me, but Anna goes out, pretends to scoop something off the floor and then comes back in. She then pretends to hand me what she picked up "here ya go Mom" I asked her what is was, and she said " its privacy!"

Gotta love 2 year olds!!

Off I go to my midwife now! I'm already 4 cm.....so I'm hoping that the baby will come soon! ( Although I'm scared for the process, I can't wait to see my little boy or girl!)

October

2008-11-02T13:40:00.006-05:00

Hey Everyone,

Here is my latest belly picture as promised. This is me at 33 weeks, two weeks ago. As you can see I am getting pretty big.

Strangers are asking me all the time if I am due anyday, or telling me that I look like I could go anytime. Sometime I get a little tired of people staring and talking...but what can you do! So right now I am 35 weeks, so that's 4.5 weeks until my due date. Time is going by quickly and there's still so much I need to do!! Right now I'm still working on finishing my Christmas baking. I tried making my bark on Friday....but apparently, PC milk chocolate bars don't melt very well.....so after wasting over 2 bars I gave up and I'll try again next week. I've never had troubles making it before, so hopefully that was just a bad day. All the presents that I've bought are wrapped, so I just need to pick up a few more things and wrap those. All the gear is washed for the baby, now I just need to dig our some baby girl and baby sleepers, and pack my bags. The list goes on to, but I won't bore you with that!

On to more pictures!
These two notebooks I made for Aidan's teacher as part of her Christmas present. Each one cost me less that 50 cents to make! They are composition notebooks that I got from the dollar store ( 4/$1) , and I decorated them with papers and ribbons etc that I had. They were fun to make and I think they look good!

My kids loved them so much that I used the other two notebooks to make some for them too.

Aidan had wacky hat day at school the other week, this is what he came up with. He drew all the funny faces himself but one. He had lots of fun making it and wearing it. The only problem was that he didn't realize that wacky meant silly....and he was wacking his hat at school and some of the balloons came off. I guess I'll explain it better next time!

Last saturday we carved our pumpkins as our week was going to be too busy to do it. Eric and Aidan picked a face off the internet to do on the big one, and I just drew the little one. This was the one that we got from Aidan's class trip to Brantwood Farms.

Anna was very curious as to what was inside!

Aidan scooping out his little pumpkin..

We also set up Anna's big girl bed that day. She loves to help Daddy with tools all the time, so we put her to work!

Trying it out! She loves it and her and Aidan are very excited to be sharing a room!
Naptime on Sunday was the first time that she used her big bed. She was very excited, but managed to fall asleep!
On Thurday the 30th, Aidan had a Halloween parade and party at his school. I dropped Anna off at Aidan's friend Matthew's house and I went to help out with the party. Here they are showing off their costumes to the rest of the school!

Aidan had his third swimming lesson this week. He was a bit shyer this week, and he didn't want to put his face in or blow bubbles. He is doing well though! Hopefully he'll put his face in by the end or I guess we will be doing Sea Turtle 2 again!

Friday was beautiful weather, so I made sure that the kids had lots of time outside! Anna just loves to swing and is getting very adventureous! Hopefully she'll never fall on her head!

On Friday our kids also went Trick or Treating for the first time. In the past we decided not to go, but this year we changed our minds. The kids had so much fun! Aidan was a dragon, and Anna was a purple crayon. She wore the same costume that I wore when I was little I think that I was in kindergarten when I wore it!

Getting candy from our next door neighbour. She made special little bags for our kids!

Sitting for a picture by the pumpkins!

"Look at all our candy and chocolate!!!!"

I dressed up to hand out candy too. This is a costume that my Grandma Bobbe made for me when I was around 8 or so.....it still fits, and I didn't even need to stuff it!

Take care everyone!! Hopefully soon I'll be able to post some pictures of our new little Hart!

Getting ready for baby, an Ottawa trip, a class trip and Christmas cookies:)

2008-10-18T19:04:00.007-05:00

Well the countdown is beginning...I have 7 weeks until my due date, and 5 weeks until I think that the baby should come out! So we have started to get some things ready! One of the first things that we need to do is get Aidan and Anna in the same room, so that all those kinks will be worked out before the baby comes. So, we needed to paint the free toddler bed that I got off of Freecycle. The kids helped and they had some much fun doing it! when we are done it will be all white. I didn't want the blue...as Anna is a girl....and I wanted it white so that any gender could use it. We should just have one more coat to do and then it should be ready for Anna! She's excited to have her own big bed.

I had a nice visit with my childhood, longtime friend Val last week Friday. She was due the day that we took this picture. I used the self timer, so it didn't turn out too great...maybe I should edit it a bit. Since then she had a baby boy, this past Wednesday. Samuel! I can't wait to go meet him!

We spent Thanksgiving up in Ottawa this year. It took us just over 8 LONG HOURS to get there... but we had a great weekend while we were there. I don't think we will be going there on a long weekend again though. We are so thankful that our kids are really good in the car on long drives!!
While we were there Lucas had his birthday party with his friend Sam. It was nice to be at one his parties as we normally can never make it.
Here is Aidan taking a swing at the pinata.

Cake time!

On Saturday afternoon we went for a short walk at a park. I can't remember what it was called. It has to be not a lot of walking, as I'm normally too sore, or it causes too much pain for me at this point.
Here is Aunt Alanna and Anna at the park.

I find that kids are always just drawn to water, so we didn't last at the playground long before we headed down to the lake. The kids all had a blast sitting on the dock, throwing lots of stones in and exploring among the rocks on the shore.

Our trip home took us just under 7 hours, but thanks to the Lord, we made it home safely again!

The next day Aidan's class was going on a field trip to Brantwood farms. I went along to help supervise the trip. Aidan had a lot of fun, even though he was tired from our weekend away.
Here is Aidan and his friend Matthew on the bus. They get along great, and Aidan talks about Matthew a lot. They have had one playdate so far and they play really well together!

Looking for pumpkins in the pumpkin patch!

Enjoying the bumpy hay ride....some of the kids gave me interesting looks as I held my belly on the really bumpy parts.!

Looking and listening to the 7000 Christmas Turkey's.

In the hay obstacle course. Aidan had a hoot running through the tunnels with the other kids!

This past Thursday Aidan had his first swimming lesson. We were worried that he might not cooperate, as that's how he normally treats new things, but he did so well, we were so proud of him! After I reminded him that there was a special table to help him touch the bottom, he had no problem getting in, and was even the first one in from his class! He even let the teacher help him swim on his back, and he blew bubbles! I was so proud of my little boy!!

Aidan and I had a birthday party to go to for one of Aidan's friends today. It was a dressup party! As my pumkin costume is at my Mom's, I decided to make my own! The kids thought it was very funny!

Today we also got a start on my Christmas baking, as I want to have it done before the baby comes. Today we make shortbread cookies. The kids had lots of fun cutting out the shapes and putting sprinles on them. Eric helped too, so it was nice family time!

Yes...I'm letting them have the leftover batter right out the bowl...there's no egg in it..... :)

The final product. The cookies definately aren't as pretty when kids help, but it's ok because they have so much fun making them!

Thats' all for now! Next week I'll try to post another belly picture!

91 and 90 days to Christmas

2008-09-26T09:13:00.001-05:00

91 Days to Christmas was about making your Christmas card list. I have my list from last year, with addresses, so I updated it and made a list of new addresses that I have to look for. I also addressed all my envelopes :) with the exception of those that needed new addresses!
Which, little did I know....was 90 days to Christmas job. Now I just have to finish finding addresses!

2008-09-19T07:40:00.002-05:00

98 Days before Christmas called for writing your gift list with suggestions as you what to buy for each person etc.
I'm happy to say that I probably did that 1 month ago already! ( I know, I know, sometimes I can be way too organized, but it helps me with stress to plan things in advance!)
And guess what! I'm already done my shopping for 3 people on my list!

Happy Birthday Aidan!

2008-09-16T12:44:00.009-05:00

I know that this post is supposed to be at about Aidan's birthday, but lets just start with a few other pictures first!
This is what I woke up to one Sunday afternoon. Both my boys fell asleep on the couch watching Planet Earth!

This was taken on Aidan's first real day of school. Anna and I went and did shopping on our own! She loves her glasses!

Here is Aidan smiling after his first real day of school. He had a lot of fun!

We are enjoying the warmish weather while we can by still going outside! Aidan was playing with chalk and he wrote his name all by himself without any help from me! I was so proud of him!

I came upstairs to see this one day. Anna told Aidan that she wanted to go potty. So he took off her diaper, let her 'go' ( she didn't) on the potty, and then was trying to put her diaper back on! So cute and helpful!

AIDAN IS 4!!!

Eric started work at 8 instead of 7 on Aidan's birthday, and he made us all pancakes! He made a 4 on Aidan's which he was thrilled with!

Present time! We got him a book, a shirt and a game!
That night I let Aidan pick what he wanted for dinner. Of course he chose pizza! We also had ice cream for dessert. We put a candle in his ice cream and sang Happy Birthday!

Party Day!
Aidan talked all year about wanting a fire truck birthday this year! Here's the setup!
The table.

Our 'flames'!

We started the party at 9:30 at the firestation! It is something that our local firefighters do for free! They gave all the kids hats, stickers, and coloring books!

On to the garage! The kids were awed by the big trucks!

Looking at a thermo meter. It is what they would yse to find people in a fire. The kids all thought that it was pretty cool!

Aidan was actually quite a grump at the firestation, but we did convince him to get in a truck even though he wasn't happy about it.

Anna however, we had a hard time getting her out!

The kids had fun running around between the trucks!

This is my attempt at a a group shot!

Here is the firefighter all decked out in all his gear!

The alarm that he wore to show that a man was down was too loud for some of the kids.....

Aidan's cake! He insisted that he wanted the truck to be ON the cake, not a fire truck cake! Easier for me!

Blow out the candles!

Opening more presents! I love his face in this one! He was so excited!

I had the balls again this year. We had to put them inside due to the rain though.

On Sunday afternoon after church we had a family party. Here Aidan is checking out his gift from Big Grandpa, as he calls him!

More presents!
Thomas the train! He's talking about Cranky the Crane for a while and was thrilled to get him! Thanks Gramma and Grandpa!

This is Anna being a firetruck using the flashing light center piece that I bought at the dollar store!

I can't believe that my little boy is 4 already! Boy does time just fly by!

Here's some more belly shots of me at 28 weeks!

That's all for today, sorry for so many pictures!

A little catch up

2008-09-16T12:21:00.005-05:00

Well, looking over my blog, it seems that I have missed some time in there.
So lets just venture back to August for a minute!
On the weekend of the15th, Brian and Alanna came down for a visit and stayed with us. On the Friday afternoon, the boys had a blast jumping and splashing and wrestling in the pool!

They were some dark clouds coming though, and we got the boys through the door and inside just before the hail started coming down!

On the Saturday, Brian and Alanna went to a wedding and Lucas spent the day with us! They helped Eric wash his truck and had a great time climbing around inside of it too.

In August we also did round 1 of potty training with Anna. After 2 weeks though, we got nowhere, and were about to go camping, so we put it on hold for a month or so.

On the 17th we celebrated Alanna's birthday at Mom and Dad Hart's house. We tried to get a good picture of all the kids...it didn't work so well. But at least they are all in one place!

Here I am at 25 weeks. At this point, I was measuring 2 weeks ahead. Hears to hoping that I go early!

Stay tuned for another post on Aidan's birthday!

100 Days to Christmas

2008-09-16T11:56:00.002-05:00

This year, as I am due early December with baby number 3, I want to have all my Christmas plans done by mid November. I came across this blog, and I accepted the challenge. Hopefully it will help me to stay motivated to have everything ready. I think that I'm well on my way already, as I have already finished making my 50 Christmas cards! And I am mostly done my shopping, at least for my kids!

2008-09-05T17:28:00.001-05:00

Eric talked to Ken today. Tim has received his isotopes, and now they wait for them to go through his body. I guess what happens, is that the isotopes sticks to cancer cells and when they scan him, it will kinda make whatever is cancer 'glow', and then they will be able to see if it is anywhere else! I think they have to wait 48 hours, so that's when the test will be!
Please pray that the test comes back with no more cancer then the tumor that they already know about!

Summer's last hurrah

2008-09-03T09:06:00.008-05:00

I have recently updated Timothy's blog. Click here to read it.

This past weekend we went on our annual camping trip with friends. We all had a great time, although we definately noticed that Ken and Shauna and kids were missing. Even as our whole group would sit around the fire, we could just feel that they weren't there.

We went up on Thursday morning, and stopped for lunch on the way up. We got there around 2. The kids were so excited to be camping again!! We were at the same camp ground as last year, The Pinery's. We even had most of the same sites! As for weather, it drizzled a little on Thursday, and was cloudy Friday, but still warm enough for the beach! Saturday, Sunday and Monday were perfect weather! Cool at night and nice and warm and sunny during the day for the beach!

Here is a picture of Anna sleeping in the trailer one morning. Two mornings she slept until 9! She was so busy all day that I can't blame her! Isn't it cute how she is sucking both of her thumbs?? She is also over on Aidan's side of the hanging blanket. Good thing he didn't squish her!

Here is a shot of our trailer. We were parked on the main site where we did all the cooking and had the campfires. It's a huge site!! Probably as big as three regular sites!

Here is another view of the site and the big tarp that we had put up to keep us dry from the rain that they were calling for. The site continues on behind there with another big tent, two cars, and lots of room for kids to play!

Hanging around the campfire, playing with Marie's tea set.

Beach Time!
The kids had sooooo much fum at the beach this year! They weren't too interested in swimming, but they had a great time playing in the sand, running in and out of shallow water, and playing in the one long puddle that ran along part of the shore. They also had fun wrecking everyone else's castles.
Aidan also pushed this dump truck around for hours!.

Anna loves to water everything at the beach! Especially castles, and holes that we dug for her!

The big boys played lots of frisbee.

The little boys played with lots of sand.

The big boys had a repeat of last year....moving the tree into the water. They actually got it in this year, though I think it was a different one. They had a small raft going with 3 or 4 pieces.

On Saturday Mike and Jodie and the kids came to visit us at the beach for the day and they joined us for supper as well. Aidan had fun playing with his cousins!

The guys made a car out of sand for the kids to drive in. They thought it was so cool! I think that it looks like it has fish lips!

Here's baby Cara looking all cute sleeping at the beach!

I guess that moving the log into the water was not enough for them....they had more testosterone left and decided that they had to stand up the tree. They couldn't quite do it on their own so two girls went out to help them!

Victory!

This isn't a very good shot...I should have looked closer at what I was picking..but on the right side of the picture you can see Ewout. He brought his guitar and the kids just loved to watch him play and sing songs with him! He was like a magnet when he brought it out!

Here's Anna napping in the trailer. She feel asleep watching people outside.

More beach time! Eric and Arron joined the kids in the puddle and Eric got a little buried!

Smores!! Always a hit with the kids!

On Monday morning Declan and Aidan helped cut up the vegetables for the omelettes! They were very proud of themsleves!

Tuesday morning bright and early, Aidan and I had an 8:30 appointment with his teacher at school! My little boy is going to JK. I can't believe how time has flown by. Anna was all upset and had her backpack on and wanted to come too! We just had a half hour appointment to meet the teacher, and then next week Tuesday Aidan will go all day with half of his class, and then the next Friday (his birthday) he will go all day with all of his class. He is very excited! When we left yesterday, he got all upset because he wanted to stay!
Anyone have suggestions as to what treats to send to school for his birthday?

I have another prayer request. My Uncle Brian was in the hospital with some heart trouble. He is home now and thankfully everything is looking ok.

That's all for now!

Timothy's own blog.

2008-08-23T16:07:00.002-05:00

Hey Everyone,
I've decided to start Tim's own blog so that we can track his progress on there, for those that don't want to read my normal blog. Click on the link below to be taken there!

http://timothysommer.blogspot.com/

Update on TIm

2008-08-23T07:45:00.003-05:00

Saturday afternoon: 4:50pm.
Hey Everyone, I had news earlier this morning, but we have been at a church picnic all day.
Here is Ken's text from this morning, around 10:30
" Timothy is doing well. He is able to fell pain in his feet and has moved his legs!! This a big answer to prayer. Please keep him in your prayers as he is having his breathing ube removed and for no complications as that he will be able to manage the pain as they wake him heavily sedated."

Shauna also sent out an email today that reads as follows:
"Hi everyone,
As many of you have heard by now, Timothy had been screaming for 3 weeks unconsolably which is very unlike him. I knew something was drastically wrong and took him the the ER which did not do enough investigating. By Tuesday he had stopped eating and drinking and could no longer move his legs. Anyways, yesterday at MAC he underwent an 8 hour surgery to remove a tumour from his spinal canal. Becky Hart has been keeping up with all the details on her blog. Please read them at www.harts.name and then click on Eric and Becky.
Tim has survived thus far but we are unaware of the extent of the damage to his spinal cord. Please keep us in your prayers and pray for a miracle. To date he is doing as well as possible under the circumstances. Thank you for all your prayers, emails, texts, and offers to help. We have 100s of people supporting us and at least 5 churches are praying for him! God is good!! He has given us a great sense of peace, even as we weep for our son. Praise God for our health care system which is giving him the best possible care.Please keep updated at Becky’s blog.

At this time we are still in the ICU where it is not feasible to have visitors for the next few days.

Thanks! Big hugs and kisses!

Shauna and Ken

Thanks everyone for the prayers for Tim and please keep them up!!

Saturday morning: 8:45am
Last night we received a text from Ken that Tim had his MRI and it showed that the doctors got all they could, and they don't need to open him up again. Now they just wait for results from the biopsy. Tim is in the CCU ( Critical Care unit) which is a step down from the ICU.
That's all for now!

Update on TIm

2008-08-22T07:10:00.003-05:00

Friday afternoon: 3:00pm
Eric just called me. Ken's dad stopped by his work after being at the hospital. Tim is doing as well as can be considering the circumstances. He is able to move his legs again which is a good sign. The surgery was 8 hours long, and it was done through his back. They had to take part of his spine away to do the surgery. Apparently they used a microscope and took the tumor apart cell by cell, but because they went through the back, they were still unable to get it all. The part of the spine that they took out will not go back in. So they are not sure of the permanent damage caused by that yet. Later on he may have to get that part of his spine fused. ( Shauna being a bone doctor must have just cringed at this) He is in the ICU at Mac and from what I understood, though I may be wrong, he will be in there a week. They are waiting for an MRI now to see how much of the tumor they got, and they are waiting for the cultures to come back to see if it was cancer or not. So they still don't know if there will be chemo. Ken and Shauna are staying in a hotel near Mac as the Ronald MacDonald house was full.
That's all that I have for now! Please keep praying hard to Tim's recovery and that the culture will come back with good results. Or, if it's the Lord's will that it is cancer, please pray for strength for Tim to get through the treatments, for Ken and Shauna to support him through that, and for Kate, who is probably feeling a little lost and confused through all of this.

Friday morning.
So yesterday at 3:15pm we heard that Tim was in Surgery. At 9:30 we were getting anxious about not hearing anything, so Eric texted Ken to see what was going on. Ken said that Tim was still in surgery, and that 2 hours earlier they had heard so far so good.
At 12:30 last night (I guess this morning) we got another text that Tim was out of surgery and that it went well. Most of the tumor was removed. It was not through the spinal card sheath which is a blessing. They will know in the next few days if there is any permanent damage, and in the next week or so they will know if chemo or radiation is required.
So please keep praying for Tim and for his recovery, and that hopefully it is all gone, and that no chemo or radiation will be required! Please also pray for his parents and family that they continue to have strength and courage to get through the next few days and weeks and months.

Prayers for baby Tim

2008-08-19T18:39:00.006-05:00

Update: Thursday afternoon.
Tim is in surgery at Mac right now. The tumor is around his spinal cord. The surgery is supposed to be very lengthy and very risky PLEASE PRAY HARD.

Update: Thursday morning.
A bed ended up being available at Mac, so they went there instead. Tim had his MRI this morning. I haven't heard anything else yet

Update: Wednesday evening.
Some time this afternoon they went to Mac. We just got a text from Ken that says that Tim has an adrenaline secreting tumor that is most likely malignant. They are told that he has an excellent prognosis. They are headed to sick kids in Toronto. There wasn't much other details so that's all I can say for now. We are assuming that they are going to Toronto for surgery.
I just got another text... Because the tumor is secreting adrenaline, he is not eating or sleeping. They are not sure it if is attached to his spine, but Ken suspects that it it as he is no longer moving his toes when you tickle his feet. He says that they are going to sick kids in Toronto after waiting a whole day for a bed at Mac. He needs an MRI and a full workup to see how best to treat it. About 2 weeks ago they brought him to the ER at MAC and that's when they first saw this tumor when they brought him in then, and the staff say that he should have had an MRI when they first saw it...( I'm thinking they must still be in Cambridge they way that he worded that those at Mac are idiots) Apparently the mass grew from 2.3cm to 3cm in 12 days.
That's all I have for now...please keep them all in your prayers!

Update: Wednesday morning: Last night I spoke to Shauna, Tim was in the middle of getting chest x-rays, and he is now on Morphine for the pain. They were trying to get his transferred to Mac ( they were in Cambridge) for an MRI. Please keep up your prayers!

Hey Everyone,
I just wanted to put out a prayer request for a baby of good friends of our, little Timothy. He's the little guy I babysit twice a week with his sister.
Anyways, the last 3 weeks he has not been himself and has been doing a lot of crying....ok, screaming, and seems to be in pain. So he has now been admitted, and they are running all sorts of tests to see what is wrong, and he is also on IV.
So please pray for Tim, that he's not in too much pain. Please pray for Ken and Shauna, that they may have the strength and courage to get through this, and also please pray for the doctors that they may figure out what is wrong!

Summer weekends!

2008-08-11T09:02:00.006-05:00

Last weekend we decided to take advantage of our lack of plans and the beautiful weather and we went to Webster's Fall's for a picnic after church! The kids loved it!

I was trying to get good enough shots to print for family, but alas my camera battery was dying, so the pictures are a little to blurry.

Looking down the hole in the tree!

Anna's new glare look. It's too funny!

This weekend on Saturday we went to Churchill Park in Cambridge for lunch.
Of course we had to feed the ducks there! They are very aggressive there and they take the bread right out of your hands.....even if you are not looking!

Anna was daring enough to give them a piece too!

Siblings....and friends!!

On Saturday afternoon there was a thunderstorm during nap/quiet time, so Aidan climbed into bed with us. He then fell asleep. And with both of them snoring I decided to leave :)

Have a great week everyone!

Another vacation...this time at the cottage!

2008-07-28T11:28:00.003-05:00

On Saturday, the 19th, we went to a wedding from one of Eric's co-workers, and then we headed straight up to the cottage!! We made it there for dinner time!
We spent the week mostly relaxing! We only had a few rain showers, most of the rain came at night while we were sleeping!
On the Wednesday we headed up to Campfire for a visit. It was a teen week...and they were running about 2 hours behind schedule that day, so we didn't catch much of the campfire as Aidan was with us. He found the teens a little loud!! We told him that if he goes to camp, that there would be kids his size only. He thought that that would be better! Unfortunately on the way there we hit a deer with our van. Thankfully it was not full grown, so no one was hurt, and the damage is not as bad as it could have been.
We were going to come home on Saturday, but the weather was too nice to leave, so we stayed until Sunday!
Here's some pic's!

For more pictures, and more details...click here!

Let the vacations begin...and Happy birthday to my Anna baby!....

2008-07-18T09:50:00.005-05:00

I can't remember if I said this in my last post, but we said farewell to our minister and his family on teh 28th of June with a strawberry social. He will be going up to Ottawa and will be missed!

We ended up at the cottage after the strawberry social, and we stayed until Tuesday...which was Anna's brithday!

On July 6th, we had Anna's birthday party at home. We just had a BBQ with some family. Anna had a hoot and kept singing Happy Birthday to herself!

On July 11, we got up at 4:45 and headed out just before 6 to go camping in Algonquin park at Rock Lake! We stayed there until the Tuesday. We went with all of Eric's family, and despite the few bouts of rain and all the bug bites, we all had a great time!

On July 16th, I had my ultrasound! Everything looked really good. This time we did not find out what we were having! I'm anal about being prepared for things, and I have both gilr and boy stuff, so this time we are going to be surprised! The picture of my belly was taken yesterday. Yesterday I was 20 weeks which means that I am finally halfway! Last week I weaned myself off of the diclectin and the first day was a little rough, but now I'm ok as long as I eat and rest when I should.
For pictures, click here . There were so many this time that I put them all in Picasa, for the dial up users.

Let the summer begin!

2008-07-04T14:36:00.005-05:00

Summer is my favourite season of the year! I love warm (not hot) weather and sunshine!
We kicked off our summer this year at a pool party! It was with a Bible Study group that friends of ours belong too! The kids had a lot of fun swimming!

This picture is of Eric tossing Anna in the air. She just loves it and giggles away! As soon as she is down she says "gain!"

Aidan likes the pool, but being his timid self he needs lots of support to swim around! My goal this summer is to get him kicking around in a life jacket, and used to the water. Then maybe he will be all set for swimming lessons in the fall!

Anna's first time down the slide! She was unsure the first time, but then she wanted to go again and again!

Watermelon football!

Warming up in the hot tub after!

We've had a number of rainbows lately! Here is a double one that I caught out the front of our house.

Aidan and Anna like to be super hero's together, Anna says it " buper bewo"
" Look mommy my toes are painted!"
I asked her if is she wanted her toes to be pink like Mommy's and in wonderment, she says " Yah!"

Summer's first taste of freeze's

One of Anna's favorite things to do is to paint with water! Here she is making a masterpiece on the fence!

This month we had to say farewell to our minister who is moving to Ottawa. This is the painting that the congregation had made for him It is our church! Jodie did a great job! I'll post more pictures of our farewell later.

Here I caught Aidan trying to teach Anna how to use the potty! How cute! We are going to wait until our holidays are over for that.

Here are some pictures of our flowers! We didn't do any landscaping yet this year, but we did plant lots of flowers!

In the bottom we are trying to grow upside down tomato plants

That's all for now, I have some more to tell you yet, so I'll try to post soon!

My poor Anna baby...

2008-06-23T18:34:00.004-05:00

has an ear, throat and lung infection :(
She has had a bad cold, croupy cough, and fever off and on since Wednesday, so Eric took her to the clinic this afternoon. ( I had 5 kids, as I always do Monday afternoons and couldn't go). She now has to have steroids, an antibiotic, ventilin inhaler, and advair inhaler....he said motrin and tylonol around the clock too for pain. My poor little girl!
At least it's now and not while we are on holidays this summer! Let's hope that she is better by her birthday next Tuesday!!

2008-06-17T09:41:00.008-05:00

We spent the may long weekend at the cottage again.
This year there was something new for the kids to enjoy! My parents had a sea wall put in so that the ice would stop taking away more shoreline every year! On it are some steps that make easy access to the water. The kids had so much fun playing there and got soaked! It wasn't very warm, so after a while they were freezing and we took them all inside for some tubs!

The workers however made a mistake and the dock did not fit in very well..... I hear it's been temporarily fixed for now!
As we all have more kids we have to get more inventive where they sleep! This year Aidan and Declan got to share a mattress in the 'office' together. They loved having a sleepover ever night and did very well together. We told them that when they got up they could just go into the sunroom to play. One morning they did that. Ken got up at 6:45 with Tim and said that they were already up and playing....so no one is really sure what time they got up that morning! They were pretty tired that day, so we think that it was pretty early!

Eric had his 30th birthday while we were at the cottage. This is the cake I made him....all chocolate his favourite! It looked better before Eric dropped it on the floor. And it looked worse after it was rocked off of the washer and dryer when they were running!...still tasted good though!

Aidan no longer has regular naps. He just has quiet time. I often have a nap while he has quiet time and sometimes I get up to find him sleeping!. In the picture below though, Eric sent Aidan to his room before supper and when he went to talk to him he found him like this!

On May 24th we did some planting of flowers in our planters. We didn't have the money to do our landscaping this year, so we are just sticking to flowers. Here is Aidan helping to fill planters with top soil. He used the red pail to put the dirt around the trees!

Anna is tickling Eric with the leaf of a plant :)

On May 26th Kezia, our niece turned 3! Here she is hanging out in a tree at her party!

Here is Anna all cute in an oufit from Gramma!

On the 26th we had Jay and Veronica over for dinner and the evening! They brought their dog Bailey...so cute! We also played a great game of Bocce in which Eric and I kicked their butts!! It's hard to play with 2 kids and a dog who always want the balls!

On May 27th, my birthday, we had the last day of MOPS, a mom/play group that I go to.
Here are the ladies at my table from left to right.... Amy, Janet, Carolyn, Rachel, Heather, Christina, and Shauna! We had a lot of fun chatting this year!

After MOPS we went to Churchill park for a picninc! The kids had a great time there

This is a picture of me at 13 weeks pregnant! I am now 15 weeks (16 on Thursday) As for how I'm feeling, I've been having good days and bad days. Today is a bad day..... . I'm still on Diclectin. I went off of it for a week when I ran out, but I ended up losing a pound and a half that week and spent much of it on the couch. Hopefully I will start to feel better soon!

With the nice weather we have been having, we are outside more often. Here the kids and Kate and being artists on the deck and fence. They love to be able to colour everywhere!

Here's my pretty Anna baby! She's wearing clothes that Gramma and Grampa bought her! She's all dressed up for Kate's birthday party!

In the hot weather we had we filled up our pool! The kids love and beg to go swimming all the time! Eric got in there to cool off too!

Here is another one of Aidan falling asleep during quiet time!

Eric's parents and his Aunts from Holland came by for a visit the other day. Aidan convinced Opa to come into the playhouse with him!

Here are two of Eric's Aunts from Holland. On the left is Tante Nel, and on the right is Tante Ria

Here is a shot of my scrapbooking desk. Eric's dad just built me the hutch. I'm still trying to get everything where I want it but it's coming! And I love it!

I also have one prayer request for you...a friend of our family is having a really long and important surgery today, Mrs. Sikkema. If you could keep her in your prayers that the surgery went well, and that her recovery will go smoothly!
That's all for now!

Happy Early Birthday to Eric!

2008-05-08T14:22:00.004-05:00

On April 25th, my Mom's Birthday, we totally floored Eric with a surprise party for his birthday!!! ( Thanks mom for all your work, and thanks to everyone far and wide who came!!!)
We had about 45 people come out for the event! Eric thought that we were just going to my Mom's for her birthday, which we were, but little did he know the surprise that waited for him! He didn't know what to think! People were there from Pennsylvania, Warkworth, Windsor and Ottawa!!
Eric's actual birthday is not until May 19th, but that is the day that worked well to have it! I'll post his surprised face when my Mom emails it to me.

We have transplanted our clematis's, the kids just love to help with the watering!

Anna and Eric have a special relationship, which is very obvious in Anna's face! She sure loves her Daddy!!

Reading books on the couch together!

I got some clothes off of freecycle today! I looked through all of them as soon as I got home. Then I put them all nicely back in the box and went to make lunch. The next time I turned around..Anna decided that she would like to look too! She took them out one by one, held them up, and then put them to the side! It was so funny to watch her copy me. Then she chose a shirt and some pants and tried to put them on on top of her clothes...she was so excited about them. So now she is wearing purple pants with hearts and flowers on them, and a bright blue shirt with green flowers...nice! But she worked so hard to get them on!

And.... we have some news!!!!

NUMBER 3 IS ON THE WAY!!!
That's right, we are pregnant again! I am due the first week of December. So far, not good. I have been feeling pretty awful. I have only thrown up twice which is a miracle....but I'm feeling awful 24/7. It's hard for me to function a lot of the time...which sometimes makes it hard for me to be excited. About a week ago I went on Diclectin (sp), which at first worked for the sickness, but made me a little groggy. Yesterday though, it seems to have stopped working, and I'm feeling awful again. SO hopefully that will go away soon!! I've also been extremely tired, but that's normal.
I'll take a belly picture in a few weeks ( yes, I'm sticking out already...I'm only 9 weeks along...

Have a good rest of your week everyone!

Spring is finally here!

2008-04-21T09:50:00.006-05:00

I'm so happy that spring is finally here! And so are my kids. We are outside every day!

Here are the kids at the park near our house. This year Aidan is no longer afraid of the slides! And I'm so happy for him that he realized how much fun they are! Anna loves to run up and down this ramp. I tried her in the swing, and the first time she was scared and wanted out. But I tried her again at home and now she is loving it! Aidan still refuses to go on the swings.

Here are the after shots of our basement I promised you! Unfortunately, it is not always this clean as the kids play so much down here!
This is my piano's new home, it's the first thing that you see when you come downstairs. They had to bring it down with no equipment due to a mistake in the stairs.....getting it out is possible, but it's going to be hard!!

I'm standing in front of the piano, facing out to the east.

Here is the same way, next wall. The first set of doors is our locked toy closet where I keep the toys I rotate, then there is a door for the unfinished bedroom, the a door for an unfinished bathroom!

Now I am standing on the opposite side facing the stairs.

Another view.

This is the kids favorite part about the basement! The playhouse under the stairs!

Spring also has us outside teaching Aidan to ride his two wheeler. He's a little unsure of himself so we are going to keep working on it to build up his confidence. It's hard to teach him because our road is a hill!

Anna is eager to learn the tricycle, but she's still a little short!

On April 5th we celebrated Eric's Uncle George's 80th birthday!! He's the one in the blue shirt!

We are spending a lot of time in our backyard too. The kids are loving the sandbox!!

Peek a boo!

Anna loves the slide!

Eric is a pest and tied Anna's tights together....she thought it was funny though!

Eric's up to his antics again and put Anna's hair clips in his hair!

This is Anna's first time getting into trouble with the toilet paper! Good thing I caught her before she flushed and the second half of the roll ended up in the toilet too!

As spring comes we also get the sunset back in our backyard! We can't see it there in the winter! I just love the picture that God paints for us each sunny evening!

That's all for now!
Take care everyone!

and...

HAPPY SPRING!!!!

Some videos

2008-03-31T12:51:00.003-05:00

Here is video of Anna sledding when we were in Ottawa. If you listen closely you can hear Aidan crying as he didn't like to be at the top of the hill by himself

Here I am going to find Aidan in his snowfort.

Sorry it's been so long!!

2008-03-31T11:48:00.011-05:00

I know that it's been a long time...but I have been scapbooking instead of blogging again. I'm so far behind that I have to keep at it!

Here is the long awaited after pictures of our new house. I meant to put these up a long time ago, but I wanted to finish taking all the pictures first. I still haven't done the basement....so I'll do that the next time we clean the playroom!

Here is my kitchen

Our Eating area

Here is a shot of the living room, standing near the front door.

This is the main bathroom( first door on the left)

The hallway

Here is my mud room/ laundry room. This is the one room that we wish that we had made bigger. It's a little too tight in there.

The livingroom, I'm standing in the eating area.

Our front door.

Anna's bedroom ( first door on right)

Our bedroom

Master bath

Aidan's room

Our backyard

The back of the house.

For those of you who want to see the pictures I had posted earlier of building the house, click here.

On February 16th we took Anna to get her first hair cut. We just got it trimmed everywhere to help it grow in a little thicker. She did really well!

That evening we had some our friends over for a Valentines dinner. We all had a great time, especially the kids.
Aidan and his friends all wanted to sit on the same side!

Here we all are.

Playing dressup!

Anna got new boots and a dress from Tara. She loves them both! She would wear the boots all day if I let her. She is always going to get them and putting them on!

On the weekend of February 23rd, we made the trek up to Ottawa for a visit. On Saturday morning the Museum of Nature has free admission. We took advantage of that and went on over. the kids had a blast!
Lucas and Aidan are digging for dino bones!

This was one of Anna's favorite rooms. When I wheeled the stroller into this room she said, while pointing all over " agaso busa meno WOW!"

That afternoon we took the kids sledding. Anna loved it, but Aidan wasn't so sure after he got snowed in the face going down.

Anna and Zachary playing together.

On March 1st we had a surprise party for our friend Shauna. She was turning 7, leapyear baby. We got her good!

Here is the face Anna makes when she's not getting her way....I have to try not to laugh...

Some of our days are busy for me now. On Monday afternoon I have 5 kids in the afternoon. The biggest hit with the girls is Tim. Anna just loves babies! The little girl beside Anna is Trista. She comes 3 afternoons a week.

This winter we have gotten way too much snow. This was after the last big storm. The drift on the deck got higher than the table.

Anna loves to help her Daddy whenever she can.....yes Eric is doing touch up paint, because no, we are not done painting yet...grrr!!!

All the snow in the front

Aidan in the latest snow fort. This one broke about 20 minutes later on Eric, as he was trying to make it bigger.

Anna just loves to colour. Especially with markers. If you look closely in this picture though, you can tell she misses the paper sometimes as it's on her face and hands. Good thing I have an old table and the markers are washable!

We headed up to the cottage with my parents for the easter long weekend. It was nice and sunny so we spent a bunch of time outside. Aidan and Anna loved to climb the mountain on the deck! Aidan would say that he is king of the mountain!

This is my crazy daughter. She makes up laugh all the time!! She put the hat on herself and insisted that we put the goggles on. She ate her whole snack like that!

Baking cookies with Grandma!

Our igloo made by packing snow in the recycle box. Every time I dumped one Anna would say "tada" like Grandma taught her to do when making sandcastles last summer.

Isn't she cute! She's saying "see, see" It's hard to catch her in a picture now because she always wants to see even before I'm done taking it!

Whew!
That's all for now! Hopefully I won't take so long next time. Sorry for all the pictures dial up readers! It's just easier to tell our stories this way!

Until next time!

A new blog I found!

2008-03-05T10:43:00.002-05:00

For all you card makers...

I just found a new blog called Sheetload of Cards. Every month they publish a free e-zine ( online magazine) that offers sketches with instructions and samples to look at. To celebrate all the hits that their blog has had, they are having lots of contests If you are a stamper, go download the e-zine and enter their contests!

Valentines Day, etc

2008-02-15T12:19:00.007-05:00

Hey Everyone!
Here's an update on my Grandpa, he is no longer in ICU, which is good! He is doing ok, he has a lot of pain and has been having trouble keeping food down. Please pray that he will be able to do this soon, or else they will put the feeding tube back in, which would be a step backwards!

My kids love to dress up! One of the favorites right now is dressing up to go to work like Daddy does. So here are our little construction workers!

Anna is also dressing up to go somewhere here. I'm not sure where, but she said bye and walked away. She always insists on wearing her hat backwards! It's cute!

Aidan loves books, and always has. Now he reads the ones that we have read to him time and time again by himself. He has them all memorized. He actually gets a lot of the words right on each page too! It's cute to watch!

Here are the kids making their Valentines craft. We painted two hearts, I cut them out and then then I will staple the two together leaving some space open on the top. Then the kids will stuff them with cotton balls, and then I will staple them closes and attach a string!
Notice their matching shirts? They are size 16, but I got them for free from our Children's Place in Brantford when it opened. I figured that they would make good paint shirts instead of using Daddy's work shirts.

Here is our heart shaped pizza! We are hoping to make this our tradition. A candlelight pizza dinner as a family!

Here are some pictures of Anna's crazy here. If I don't put it in ponies, it looks quite messy. Tomorrow morning we will be getting her first haircut! Hopefully it will help! We will go to First choice as the first cut is free and they give them a neat certificate too!

I am a member of the Resource Library in Brantford. It is part of the Ontario Early Years Center. For $20 a year, I can sign out toys, books, games, etc. I can have up to 7 items, and I can have them for two weeks. Yesterday I got a toy that I have been waiting to see there for a while...it's a rollercoaster that the kids can ride on. Aidan and Anna love it!!! They were so hyper all afternoon and spent most of the day on it. I moved it downstairs now where there is more room!
Here's some video's of the kids enjoying it! The second video is the better one.

I also just have to tell about my night last night. It wasn't very fun.

10:00 go to bed, everything was normal. Eric and I chatted for a while and then went to sleep around 10:45

12:30 I woke up because Eric hit me with his elbow and then I discovered that I had to pee NOW. Not normal for me, but expected because I had two cups of water before bed.

1:30 AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I woke up as Eric's elbow settled beside me as he was leaning over, only to see two big hands coming at my head, and grabbing it on either side...like it was a ball or something. I must say that I came very close to screaming! It scared me so much!!! I woke up with my gasps and apologized for scaring me so much. Then he rolled over and promptly started to snore again. Eric has done a lot of weird things in his sleep but this was defiantly the scariest!

1:45. I'm still waiting for my heart rate to slow down so that I can go back to sleep.

2:02, the last time I saw before I fell asleep again.

2:30 hit Eric to get him to stop snoring so loudly. Eric rolls to his side and stops

4:00 Eric wakes me up sleep talking. something about turning right.

5:00 Aidan comes out of bed, he has to pee.

6:20 Alarm goes off, time for Eric to get up

7:00 Eric comes back in the room to brush his teeth and give me a hug

7:20 Anna cries....but I didn't get up, and she went back to sleep until 8:15

7:30 Aidan comes in my room whining for breakfast, we get up.

So...even though I managed to stay in bed till 7:30, I had a very restless night ( woken up 10 times, not counting the times I wake up to turn over) and I'm tired!

Anyone have advice for what to do with husbands who do so many weird things in their sleep?

Update on my Grandpa

2008-02-06T12:50:00.000-05:00

I just talked to my Mom about an hour ago. She is still in Peterborough with my Grandpa. The first 48 hours after the surgery are critical so they are going to stick around until tomorrow yet. Also because of the weather though.
My Grandpa is stable and is awake more now. He has a tube in his mouth so he can't talk but he has been finger spelling to my mom. He also had a 'bath' this morning which is a good sign that he is quite stable. They also have him out of the restraints. I guess that they do that so that he wouldn't rip them out when he first woke up and didn't know what was going on. They aren't really sedating him anymore either. The incision is very large, from his chest all the way down past his navel. So that will take a while to heal. He will be in intensive care at least for a few more days, and in the hospital for at least a week.
We are very thankful that he is stable so far!! Please continue to pray for healing for him!
Thanks
Becky

Prayers for my Grandpa

2008-02-05T13:35:00.001-05:00

My Grandpa was rushed to the hospital with an abdominal aneurysm early this morning. They brought him to Campbellford by ambulance at about 4am this morning, and the rushed him to peterbourough for surgery. They think that it ruptured at about the time the ambulance came.
Right now he is in intensive care under heavy sedation. He lost a lot of blood so they had to give him lots. He also is in a lot of pain, so that is why they are keeping him sedated. He is so heavily sedated that he is also on a ventilator to help him breathe.
Please pray for him that he will recover quickly and that he will be ok.

Also an update on Timothy.
Here are Shauna's words:

Well, this week has been quite the whirlwind for our family starting last Wednesday evening. On Sunday night Tim got a cough and a runny nose. He had been eating less, lost his voice, and getting more sleepy and his jaundice seemed to be worsening. By Wednesday night he was quite floppy, very yellow, (even his tears!), and he stopped waking to eat, and even refused to eat. So we took him to the ER in Cambridge. They took him in right away where he underwent MANY tests including blood work, a chest film and even a lumbar puncture! How awful! Poor little guy! They suspected meningitis at first and were VERY concerned about him. Even to the point that we went over his “chances”. Tim was then ambulanced over to McMaster. What a little guy on this huge stretcher and attached to so many wires. Ken and I followed in the car. We got there at about 6:00 am having missed a whole night’s sleep. He was in the pediatric ICU under close care until Friday where he got “beat up” every 2 hours by the physiotherapist who had to percuss his chest, sides and back with an instrument and then suction out his lungs thru his nose. How horrible, him screaming and turning purple.
By this time they knew he had the RSV virus. A respiratory virus and also thought he had an “overwhelming bacterial infection” such as pneumonia. All the bacterial cultures kept coming back negative. He was on 4 antibiotics and antiviral at first and slowly got weaned down to one. He was also dehydrated and was given a saline solution thru IV. He was connected to so many wires and even oxygen in his nose because his O2 saturation kept dropping.
By Friday at 11am he got a room in the peds ward where he no longer needed one on one care. I now had a cot in the room to sleep in and could stay overnight. The nurses at Mac were phenomenal and we couldn’t have asked for better care. We had over 100 people praying for us at home and church and I continued to adjust Tim at C1 every couple of hours to boost his immune system and help him get better faster. We were told he would be in the hospital a minimum of 7-10 days when all in all, he got to go home after a total of 3 ½ days! Praise God! We have seen the awesome power of prayer and we thank God that he chose to save his little life. What a blessing Timothy is to our family!

Tim is recovering at home with a nasty cough and needs to stay away from kids for 7 days.

Thank you all for your prayers and concern,

Love, Shauna, Ken, Kate and Tim

Thanks for your prayers everyone!
Becky

SNOWMOBILING!!!!

2008-02-04T13:16:00.001-05:00

This past weekend Eric and I went snowmobiling! Eric actually booked it a while ago without telling me and arranged babysitting and everything! However, I did manage to get it out of him a few weeks ago!
So on Friday afternoon we dropped the kids off at my parents house for the weekend. ( Thanks Mom and Dad) They had a great time there.
Then we headed up to the cottage. Eric was off because of the snow storm, so we were able to go up early. We thought it might take us a while because of the snow.
This picture is the conditions that we drove in most of the way to the cottage! It took us about 4 1/2 hours to get there, and that was stopping twice in Fergus, once to visit Jay at work and one at Timmy's.

Here we are driving. We took my Dad's car because it had snow tires. Don't worry Mom, I counted to 3 and Eric only glanced at the camera for the split second it took me to take the picture :)

This picture is a bit blurry, but it shows you how the trees were all covered in snow on the way there.

At the cottage! Hurray! When we got there we had to blow out the driveway before we could drive in. And guess what!!! I actually used the snowblower! That's a big deal for me as I'm not fond of big and noisy machinery.

The next morning we headed into Big Daddy's in Owen Sound to pick up our sled. There was a bit of a mix up and they only had one seater sleds left for us. We figured that that would not be so comfy for the next hours, so we spent extra to get a brand new 4 stroke yamaha sled. It was a 2 seater and had handles that had warmers in them. It was a FAST sled.
Here we are getting suited up to go. There was no storage on the sled, so Eric was trying to eat a cookie before we left. Unfortunately for him...he couldn't get the cookie inside the helmet!

Here's a few of one of the trails that we were on. The snow on the trees just looked awesome. Just like a winter wonderland!

On this path the groomer had not come yet so we were breaking our oen trail. It was neat to see the ski's cutting through the snow.

Here is a picture out behind us of our tracks.

I took a picture of us in the mirror. I think it turned out neat!

Here's where we stopped for lunch. I know what you're thinking....we thought it too. But at that point my feet were so cold that they hurt. So we decided that if it was warm and somewhat clean, we would eat there It was actually a cute place inside with a lot of character. So we ate there. Eric's food was good, but I ordered french toast and it was so mushy I couldn't eat it. So the cook made me pancakes instead. They were good, but my appetite was already ruined by the french toast. Eric had an omelette.

After lunch our feet had mostly warmed up so we set out again! The trails looked so nice with all the snow on the trees! It really made it special!

This was an area of open water that we had to cross. We crossed it before lunch but we weren't going fast enough and the back of the sled started to sink. My boots were wet! Thankfully they are good boots though, and the insides stayed dry. It was pretty scary though! On our way back, we went a lot faster across it and it was a lot better, we weren't wet at all.

More snow on tree pictures. I took this one while Eric stopped to pee....again. I had to go too, but I held it as long as I could . Then when it was my turn it was quite the process! I won't go into details....but lets just say, I almost had very cold and wet cheeks!

This was my favorite section of trail. The trees we so low here it was like driving through a tunnel. We had to duck in some places. Very cool!!

Here's Eric on the sled. Look at the trees in the background, don't they look neat?

Here's me on our sled. By the afternoon I wasn't so scared anymore and drove it more often. I actually went 85 once! Thinking back I realized that I was scared all morning because of the dumb things that Eric and Ken used to do while I was on the back of their old sleds!

Around 3 we hit a really bug gully and I hurt my wrists and put my back out, so we only went on for a little longer. We returned the sled around 4. And now I can't wait until me chiropractor appointment at 3:30 to make me feel a little better. I'm in a lot of pain in my neck and back.

After sledding we went to East Side Marios for dinner. It was so yummy!! We got our dessert to go and enjoyed it later that evening. We were both so tired that night though, we were in bed by 9:30!
The next morning we got to sleep in as much as we wanted! It was great, even though we only made it to 8:20.
We headed home after church in the afternoon.

What a great weekend despite the pain that I am in now!

Have a great week everyone!

My little boy is growing up!

2008-01-31T12:36:00.001-05:00

This past Monday I registered my little guy for Juniour Kindergarten! I can't believe that in September, my little guy will be going to school already!
We showed up first thing on Monday morning and met our friends Laura and Declan there. Aidan acted as he normally does in a new situation...shy. But he shows that by being ornery. So he refused to wear his crown that they made for him and get his picture taken. But as I was filling out forms, I guess that he decided that he was settled in and announced that he was ready for his crown and his picture! I was shocked but went with it!
After we were done all the forms we got to have a tour of the school. I explained to Aidan that morning that we were just going to look at the school and that it wasn't time for him to go yet. Our first stop was the kindergarten classrooms. He got to meet Michaela's (his cousin's) teacher which he thought was neat. He was thrilled as he walked around and saw toys, and painting, and a sensory bin with GREEN sand. He was ready to get right in there and start to play! He was rather upset when I tried to explain to him that we were just looking and visiting today. Then we toured some more of the school. We saw the library, and there was a colourful carpet and big pillows to read books on there. Aidan thought that it looked rather nice, and that he wanted to sign out some books to read right now! So again I had to explain that we were just visiting. Soon after that we were done. We started to head for the door to go to the car, and Aidan lost it. He was so upset that we were not staying to play! Hopefully he will be that excited to go in September! I'm not sure who will cry harder when he goes, me or him!

Also a prayer request for you today.
Baby Timmy got a bad cold and he is at Mac now. I don't know any other details...sorry!

Have a great rest of your week everyone! I hope that none of you have the cold that I have right now...it's a doozy!

I know....finally!

2008-01-24T13:08:00.000-05:00

Ok. I finally took the time to update you all on what's going on in our lives! I've been neglecting my blogging lately to catch up on some scrapbooking. Now I am done Anna's baby album! Now I just have to catch up on 1.5 years of family pictures!

Sorry to those of you with dial up....I loaded a bunch of pictures!

Lets start with my Anna baby. Here is just a cute shot that I got of her, sucking her thumb as always, I think that I am going to have to start saving for braces....

Here are a few pictures from December 15th. This is the Hart family Christmas at Mike and Jodie's house. A bunch of us went sledding in the cold windy weather. It was fun but my kids didn't last long, so I didn't get to sled much. We also sang some carols together. It was nice. I played the piano and Noah played the violin for a few songs. Jodie also played her recorder ( I can't remember what it's actually called) After a yummy dinner of lots of appetizers, Mike started a fire in the fireplace downstairs and we all had some yummy chocolate trifle down there.

This is the baby that Anna got from Opa and Oma for Christmas.

Aidan got Muck, to replace the one we lost at the cottage. He was thrilled!

The next day was a snowy day. This is what my door looked like. Church was canceled that day due to the storm. We have Brian and Alanna over that day for coffee and lunch.

We also opened our family presents that day. Aidan was thrilled with his new Thomas DVD's!

Anna got a box of Winnie the Pooh books

Aidan got another train set. He loved it and we had to build it right away!

Anna got a magnadoodle! She loves to colour but she always ends up eating the crayon, so this is a better option for her.

December 21st. Christmas dinner and presents with my family. My mom made a great lasagna with goat cheese for dinner! Mmmm.
Here's two of my Santa's!

Doesn't she look guilty? She got into the chocolate....

We got fleece sheets for Christmas, so we had to try out Mom and Dad's to see what they felt like! Very cozy!

Christmas Eve: Robertson Christmas. We were supposed to go to my Grandparents for Christmas but it didn't work out so we went to my parents instead. My grandparents couldn't make it though.
Here's the yummy dinner My mom and and aunt made!

Anna got his big doggy from my Uncle Al and Aunt Lynda. She loves cozy animals, so she loved this!

Playing in the snow! Eric dug a snow fort out the bank in front of our house. The kids liked it. Anna is not too crazy about being bundled up so she normally doesn't last too long outside.

We hosted a new years party at our house. We had a western theme and encouraged people to dress up. Here's our family of cowboys and girls!

Everyone dressed up It was fun to see what they came up with. Jodie and Mike won first and second prize for best dressed.

Introducing Timothy James Sommer! He came into the world on December 30th, 2007. He was about 2.5 weeks early. He weighed 8 lbs, 13oz. Isn't he cute! Ken, Shauna and Kate are very proud.

On New Years day we got lots more snow. Eric used the reach machine to make another big pile on our lawn. Then the snow fort got a roof! The kids thought that it was great! It was a bit of a tight fit!

Here's another guilty look. Lately Anna wants to play at the table with Aidan. If she can't reach something she will just crawl right on. Busted!

On January 4th we had one last Christmas party. My grandparents were able to come! So we have Mandarin take out for dinner and then more presents!
Anna got a little peoples house and a tea set. She loves them both! I now drink lots of pretend tea!

Anna got 3 John Deere Machine! A digger, and loader and a grader. He was absolutely thrilled! All he wanted for Christmas was a digger like his cousin Lucas!

Anna had lots of fun playing in the box that her presents came in!

Aidan being a goof getting his PJ's on!

More snow fun! How do you like Eric's snowman with the belly button!

Anna loves the slide in the winter too! I think that it's a bit more slippery in the winter!

We ordered a food order from Direct Fine Foods. This was all the pantry stuff that we got, and my freezer is packed full too! So far so good! very yummy meat. If any of you want to guve it a try, just give them our name when you order!

Last saturday we took the kids to the skating rink at the park near our house. It was really cold so we didn't stay too long. But Aidan had lots of fun! He used the bob skates that I got on freecycle so that he didn't fal too much. He also loved to run around on his boots and slip and slide!

This is Eric and Anna playing ( i know i won't spell it right) Olika, Bolika. It's a dutch hand game that she thinks is hilarious!

Whew! That's all for now!!

Prayers for Eric's family

2008-01-13T19:51:00.000-05:00

We received some very sad news from Holland today. One of Eric's cousin's there has sadly taken her own life. Please pray for her family and all Eric's relatives as the mourn her loss. Please pray for comfort for them during this time.

For Sale: WASHER AND DRYER

2008-01-11T10:42:00.000-05:00

I have a:

MAYTAG commercial duty washing machine, about 9 years old. Needs a new seal but still works.It's a super capacity and has 7 cycles. It's a top loading and it's white.

GE Encore Dryer. It's an off whilte colour still works great. It has 6 programs and 3 temperature settings.

$200 for the pair or best offer. Will separate. Can Deliver!
I will throw in my leftover tide as my new machine requires a different detergent.

So if you want them, or if you know anyone who does, let me know!
becky@harts.name

I know that I haven't posted in a while, but I will try and do so soon!

Merry Christmas!!!

2007-12-24T09:16:00.000-05:00

From our family to yours!

Christmas trees, cookies, and more

2007-12-11T14:40:00.000-05:00

Well everyone, I unloaded my camera again...so that means that it's time for another update!

Eric's finger is healing really well. He has not had a lot of pain at all which is really great. It only hurts when it gets too cold, which is a good warning for him to go warm it up to make sure that it doesn't get frostbite. He is down to just a fingertip bandaid on it now which is much easier for him to work with.
Shauna still has not had her baby, which is good. She did however spend yesterday in the hospital again in labour, or so they thought. She was not dilating so they sent her home.
We have had not a lot of fun around here the last week. Eric had the flu too, right after his surgery. Anna has had a nasty virus, and Aidan has it now too. Aidan's is croupy and he has had a couple 'episodes' as they call them, where he can't breathe. So far we have managed to stay out of the ER!

On to the pictures!

This is my wonderful husband being a goof while playing games with Aidan! Our kids are so lucky to have a father like him!

On December 1st we went out to a Christmas tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree. Here is a picture of us all bundled up. It was chilly that morning!

Eric had to use a saws all to cut it down, as he only had one good hand at the time to do it.

Anna was very unimpressed to be put down in her snowsuit so she was crying and Aidan was consoling her by putting his arm around her. It was cute!

Anna sure is Daddy's little girl!

Time to decorate! Both kids had lots of fun helping out!

Anna was tickled pink with the Christmas stuffies that came out with the decorations! Especially the moose that sings!

Eric helping Aidan put the star on top!

The final look. I took this with the night exposure and no flash because I thought it made it look more cozy!

Eric had the great idea to hang our stockings off the railing. They look great there!

On the 2nd we had our first snow storm. Eric took Aidan GTing in the back yard. He wasn't all that thrilled with it though. He would much rather dig with his shovel and use his dumptrucks.

Eric went and got the reachmachine from work to clear the driveway. Great idea hun!

Here's my sick little girl. This is quite something for her to just lie there as she is normally go go go.

Santa came to our house last Saturday to make his first drop into our stockings. The kids were thrilled with their Dora and Deigo plates!

Christmas Cookie time! Last saturday we made shortbread cookies as a family. The kids both had a lot of fun helping to cut the shapes out and putting sprinkles on them!

Here is Anna still not feeling well and actually lying down on Eric! He was thrilled!

Aidan finding an interested use for one of the Christmas presents from his friends. It's supposed to be for toys, but he thought that it was perfect to crawl into!

That's all for now!
Have a great week everyone!

Update

2007-12-01T18:23:00.000-05:00

Well apparently Shauna's baby can't make up it's mind, and he or she decided to stay inside a little longer...which is good! So Shauna is back home now and resting. The plan is to induce her at 38 weeks due to her gestational diabetes unless she goes into labour before then! So lets keep praying that baby Sommer decides to wait!

Baby on the way

2007-11-30T18:32:00.000-05:00

Well, that last I heard, Shauna's contractions had started again and they were 1 and 1/2 minutes apart. They weren't going to stop it this time. The baby had turned so that is good. Please keep praying for them as this is so early and the baby will likely be in the hospital for a while.

Baby update

2007-11-29T18:40:00.000-05:00

Well, they got Shauna's labour to stop and right now she is on bed rest and staying in the hospital until at least Saturday. Let's keep praying that her labour does not start again!

Another Prayer request

2007-11-29T13:17:00.000-05:00

It seems to be the week of prayer requests.
My good friend Shauna is 33 weeks pregnant and she went into early labour last night. They are trying hard to stop the labour and have given her steroids for the babies lungs. If the labour doesn't stop she will have to have a c-section as the baby is sideways. Please pray for her that they will be able to stop the labour so that they baby can be older before she or he comes out!