All is calm...

It is unusually queit here this morning. Josiah is at a birthday party (Tim is with him). Annah is wrapping me some Christmas presents (for next year :)And Samuel is building a tower with the mega blocks.

When I downloaded the pictures from our camera I was surprised to see that there were 145 pictures on the chip when I knew I had only took a few pics since last time I deleted the camera chip. Then I remembered yesterday I let Annah take some pics witht the camera and I guess she really got into it. She took pics of various items and people. Here are a few samples of her photography : )


We had a nice Christmas. This year we deliberatly planned to have a quieter Christmas since we did not know if baby #4 would show up during this time or not (obviously did not :). While I like lots of people and holiday bustle around Christmas it worked out nicer then I thought. The children had a great time too. Here are some photos of them opeing their gifts Christmas morining.



Overall it was a very enjoyable Christmas. I hope all of you did too!

On another note sometimes this past week or two I feel like people are regarding me a ticking bomb ready to go off or something :) Even if they do not ask, the unspoken question is "No baby yet?" Nope, no baby yet :)= All along I have not been sure of the exact dates since due to breastfeeding my cycle was not regular when I conceived. All along I have known it would be Dec or Jan and at this point looks like it could be Jan. 2012 is a good year, right? Anyway aside from being a little impatient, I am feeling really well. Not even any swollen feet or backache, just sore ribs where the baby likes to kick me. This could possibly be my most active baby yet. Any guesses as to whether it is a girl or boy? I will certainly let everyone know when he/she makes their debut. No worries, it will happen!

Getting ready for Christmas...

Over the past week I have done some Christmas things with the chidren. They are really into the whole Christmas thing. Here are the two oldest- very proud of the tree they helped decorate.

They were so enthused they decorated their room too!

I had a Christmas party for the children and had some of their friends over. One thing we did was dress up and act out the nativity story. Here are all the "wise men" trying to give baby Jesus their gifts. One even brought a stuffed kangaroo as a gift!

Some of the children who came who dressed up to act out the story of the birth of baby Jesus. It was very funny to watch them act it all out. I think though that their favourite part was getting all dressed up.

All the children decorated cookies. Here are Josiah and his friend Drake, with their decorated cookies. (That is not blood on Josiah's forehead. A few hours earlier Tim took him for a haircut and he came home with red gel on his bangs).

The children decorated this gingerbread house. In past years I have made the gingerbread myself but this year I am trying to take it easier because of the upcoming baby so I bought this one :)

Everyday they make me or their dad christmas cards and gifts. The funny thing is that they want us to have them right away not on Christmas day. They also like to make things to mail their Grandmas.

I am getting excited about the upcoming birth of our fourth baby. He or she should make their appearance sometime this month or in the beginning of Jan. I am doing very well but starting to feel very ready to meet this little one :)

Getting into the Christmas spirit...

So today we finally started gettting into the whole Christmas thing. I have friends that decorated at the begining of November but I prefer to wait till December to start. So today we started by making some Christmas cookies which the children throughly enjoyed doing.






Now this weekend I think we will get a tree :)

I am back!

I have not been posting for a few months but I think I will get back at it. We all had a great summer. We spent a lot of time outside.
In fact the children and I are still spending a lot of time outside especially since this past week has been so gorgeous. I am trying to get as much sun and fresh air as I can in hope that it will carry me through the long winters we get here.
My gardens did really well this year and we had a very abundant harvest. Nothing like being able to go out into your own backyard and pick fresh tomatos or beans. One very cute habit that Samuel got into was to go outside and pick me a tomato and bring it in to me. As you can see he was so proud of himself and amazingly he never brought me a green one.



Samuel has grown so much in the past few months and is starting talk in sentences now. He also wants to do everything that his older siblings do.



Samuel also still gets into everything though :)



OK. Tim wants some time with me now so I will go. I guess this was mostly about Samuel but he is pretty cute :)

My children like to help around the house and yard. They especially like to assist me when I am doing a job or special project. Some recent examples are when we all picked beans in the garden, cooking pancakes for supper, or cleaned out the van. Here is Josiah helping out when we planted the gardens.

As well as helping Tim and I with what we are doing the two older children each have their own chores in the morning. Besides making their beds and cleaning their room, Josiah does the chickens and Annah odd jobs like sweeping the porch.


Both the older two have started to do more cooking in fact they keep asking to cook something! Yesterday we made pretzels and here is Annah when she made devilled eggs. I helped a bit but it is surprising when given a little guidance what she is capable of :)

Here Annah is so proud of the end result. She was especially excited to give some to her dad and when he got home she went running out to show him.
I believe it is important for children to learn to be good workers. It is important to grow up knowing how to work and having a good work ethic. How better way to learn then by their parents when they are young so it grows up being a part of their character? Also having the mentality that they are a needed and important part of the family helps build a strong sense of indentity. As children get older they can truly be an indispensible part of the family if they have been taught to help out in many ways. I am already amazed at how helpful the older two are. And Samuel tries :) Plus look at the last picture of Annah- nothing like a happy feeling of accomplishment for a job well done.
What are your thoughts? Do you think chores good for children

Enjoying Summer

I know I have not posted in awhile but we have been so busy enjoying the summer that I have not had time to post. With such a long winter here you have to take advantage of the sun while you can.

Memories

When I was a child my beloved Nana (my dad's mom) sewed us a lot of different things. One of her specialties was double sided jumpers that you could wear on either side. While the other day when I was going through some of my things I found one of these jumpers I had saved. It fits Annah perfectly. It brought back a lot of memories seeing it.

Children and gardens

Some pics from a few weeks ago of the children helping me plant some of our gardens. They all love to help me garden :) Right now the two older ones are watering for me (though from the sounds of it Josiah just sprayed Annah with the house.)

hiatus

So as you have probably noticed I had taken a break from my blog the last few weeks. I decided to take a break from a lot of the "extras" I do since I am so worn out from this currant pregnancy. With all my pregnancies I have been very tired the first trimester and this coupled with low energy and constant naseau leads to little being done. Thankfully as I head into the second trimester I start to feel to much better. So now I am starting to do a little more. For the past couple months most of my energy that I had went into my children and husband, even my house went downhill. But we all survived and I am very happy to be feeling better. This past week I have started feeling the baby move which is one of my favourite marks of pregnany as it makes everything more intimate and "real". So I should be here more now :) (I hope, lol).

Grandma

Recently my mom was over here from BC for a visit for three weeks. The two oldest had a great time with her here and miss her now that she is gone as do I. Too bad Canada is so big. I also should have taken more pics of her while she was here.

Tim's Graduation

Tim has graduated with his Masters in Business (MBA)! After two years of studying hard at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) he is finished.
Here he is after having recieved a special award for having the second highest GPA of his graduating class (4.1 GPA)! Way to go Babe!!!

Samuel and I, my mother and Tim's parents were on hand to see Tim graduate.

Here is everyone in the auditorium. All the people in the middle were graduating either with B.A.s or Masters. This was one of three graduating ceremonies. Altogether the ceremony was several hours long. Tim is one the other side.

Tim waiting to go onto to the stage to get his diploma. He was very stoked! (It was not this dark at all- my flash was just having issues).

Tim recieving his diploma and being "hooded" (lol, is that what it is called?) by the Dean of UNB.

Samuel with Grandma! This is my mom who was over from BC for a wonderful three week visit.

After the ceremony out in the sunshine.

I am so proud my husband! He worked very hard for all this. He is very smart and good-looking too :)

Birthday!

Happy Birthday Tim! My wonderful husband is now a year older. I made him a chocolate cheesecake and here is Josiah helping him blow out the candles.

Blessings.

The Bible states that children are a blessing from God.
"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!" (Psalm 127:3-5)
Well Tim and I have been very blessed indeed!!

The handsome five-year-old son!


This beatiful daughter!


This ever-so-cute baby boy!


AND....
We are excited to be recieving ANOTHER blessing sometime in Dec/Jan!! :)

Thank-you God :)