Monday, July 30, 2007

Birthday #1

We celebrated Toviel's first birthday on July 27th. And then we celebrated it again on July 29th, just for kicks, with some of our friends.

Toviel loved his birthday.
Toviel loved his birthday cake!
You can see in the first picture he has just gotten a small taste and he's thinking its pretty sweet. I believe it was his first taste of whipped cream, which is why he looks pretty excited.


By the end of his cake time, he was totally into it. He was grabbing fistfulls of whipped cream and laughing and laughing. He was plucking those strawberries off the cake and shoving them whole into his mouth, chewing what he could and then spitting them out when he tired of them. And by the looks of it, he ate almost half of the entire cake! Well, he is a growing boy!

Good mess, little Tove. You've made me proud!

Oh....and Happy 1st Birthday!!!

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Moving on up....North

So, it is official. Our house is up on the market. We are on the move again. It's the gypsy in us....can't stay in one house too long.
Our eyes are on Edmonton. Cris has accepted a youth pastor position in a church up there. The church is growing and thriving, so I guess that means Edmonton isn't as God-forsaken as I thought it was.

I think God has a sense of humor. Everytime we have gone up to Edmonton, I have had one consistent thought as we drove through it: "I am sure glad we don't live here!"

Now I am working on the next move already. I have told God under no terms will I move to Hawaii. No way, no how. Hopefully His sense of humor kicks in for our next move!

Playing with Fire(pit)


Elijah was playing in the firepit last week.
At the time, Cris was busy creating a beautiful walkway / patio in our yard and I was busy trying to de-clutter and clean the house and occupy our high-maintenance Toviel.
So, for sure....we were closely supervising him...totally. 100%. No doubt about it. C.L.O.S.E. supervision.
It didn't take Elijah long to realize his hands were getting dirty, so he came to the door and yelled, "Mommy!! Mommy!! I need to wash my hands!"
As I was taking his shoes off, I was telling him that his arms and clothes and face were all dirty too. I held him up to the mirror so he could see the soot on his face. FREAK OUT! That's what he did. My little clean freak doesn't like being dirty.
When I was washing his hands off, he was using self-talk to calm himself down. Then he turned to me and said, "It's no big deal, mommy. Just don't hold my face up to the mirror." Out of sight, out of mind I guess.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Influence

My first born is a happy mixture of myself and my husband.

At a mere 3 years old, he is emulating parts of us. Today Elijah displayed many of his daddy's characteristics and mannerisms to me. One of these such mannerisms made me giggle, and I'm still chuckling about it.

We were at a large local mall today. Elijah loves pressing the button beside the handicapped doors to make them open, and I encourage it because it's so much easier to get in the door with a stroller and two kids when it automatically opens for you.

As we approached the door today, Elijah said with excitement, "I'm going to press the button, okay?"

"Sure!" I said.

As he pressed the button and the door started to open, he stretched his arm out and pointed in the direction of the door. In a low, serious voice he said "I used my Jedi powers."

He is definately his father's son!


Then at the food court I pulled out an entire english cucumber, peeled and sliced and ready to munch on.

Elijah had polished the whole thing off before I had gotten any. Then he was begging for more cucumber, even though he had already stuffed the entire cucumber into his little 3 year old tummy.

He is definately his mother's son!

Monday, July 2, 2007

Farewell Dear Janey





I am so sad.









You'd think I'd be happy because I set out to do something and my task has been accomplished, but I am so sad....

...and feeling a little guilty.

I sold our car.

Like, just now....just half an hour ago.

Someone came to pick her up and she is gone. Our dear red 1990 Ford Escort LX. Her name is Janey. She has been a part of our lives for 10 years and 2 months. And we ditched her for a small wad of cash. And I mean small. BooHoo!!!!!!

We always thought we were going to drive her into the ground. I feel like I betrayed her. I totally sold out, for $400.

I even shed a few tears momentarily.

But we have a new addition in our family that will help us get over our loss. We purchased a 2000 Grand Caravan. We have joined the ranks of our fellow mini-van-owning friends, and now I feel like a real parent, doing parenty things like driving a mini-van.

But give me time, big Grand Caravan, to be excited about you, because I am grieving the loss of faithful Janey. Poor ol' faithful Janey.