Party!

I'm doing these posts all out of order, but oh well, at least I'm getting them done. :)

Last Saturday we had a few little girls here for an animal-themed birthday party for Rachel. All the little girls came dressed up in their animal costumes and they were all very sweet. We coloured some animal pictures, made some puppets, played some games, and ate some lunch (meat and cheese, fruit and veggies, and animal crackers) and some kitty cat cake. Keeping the guest list quite small helped the birthday girl to not feel anxious, and her Mommy to not feel too stressed, so all in all, I think it was a success. :)

Evan took these pictures of the girls playing freeze dance and moving around the room like different kinds of animals.

Apple Barn

A couple of weeks ago we took advantage of a sunny Sunday afternoon and headed off to the Apple Barn. Unfortunately, so did half the population of Abbotsford! :) We still had lots of fun though. Evan had his friend Sam with us, and the boys spent nearly the entire time on the giant bouncy pillow. There are no pictures of them though because they moved way too fast!

We did manage to drag everyone away from the bouncy thing long enough to go on a hayride to the pumpkin patch

Lots of fun! Fall is a wonderful time of year!!

My Baby is 5!

October 30, 2003

October 30, 2008

Today is a special day because our baby girl turned 5 years old! I can't believe how the years have flown by. We are so thankful for the wonderful blessing that Rachel is to our family. She was the easiest baby, always content amidst the chaos. She has adored her big brother and sister from day one. Rachel is very shy in public so most people don't know her very well, but she really is quite a character! I think the best way to describe to you who Rachel is, is to post this list that the kids and I wrote today:

Rachel is. . .

Adorable, August-loving (August is her cat), artistic

Beautiful

Cute, cuddly

Dancer, Daddy-loving

Evan-loving, excited

Five! Fun, farting, friendly, frightened,

Gracie-loving, giggly, goofy

Happy, helpful

Ice-cream-loving, intelligent, insane

Jumping, jolly

Kind, kissable

Laughing, loving, loved, lovable, lovey

Mommy-loving

Noodle-loving, nice

Outstanding

Precious person, persuasive

Queenly, quiet

Rachel, raunchy

Smart, smelly, smiley, sweet, shy, sister, singer, silly, stinky

Truthful, ticklish, toot-master

loves Us

Very lovable

Wacky, wiggly

X-tra special

Youngest

Zany

You may have noticed a couple of themes in this list. The first is that Rachel is very loving. She really loves her family, her friends, her pets, and her toys and she expresses her love openly and often. It is not uncommon for her to crawl up on my lap several times throughout the day and say, "Mommy, I love you soooo much. You're super-dee!"

The other recurring theme in that list was mentioned with many giggles on the part of her siblings, but it really is true. It is quite common in our household for someone to notice a rather nasty odour and, after asking who is responsible, receive this response from Rachel, "heeheehee, scuse me!" :)

Happy Birthday precious Rae-Rae! We love you soooo much! You're super-dee!!!!!!!!!!

Fall pics

Fall has definitely arrived and I love taking pictures with Fall colours. Unfortunately, here in the "lower rainland" Fall weather often means wet weather and the leaves usually turn to mush before we have a chance to play in them. This year, when we saw the big pile forming under our tree, we took advantage of the first sunny day, and spent some time raking . . .

jumping in the pile. . .

burying each other. . .

and having lots of fun!

We did actually manage to bag up most of the leaves after we finished playing in them!! :)

New family member

A few months back, my good friend Kim told me that her cat was going to have kittens, and she asked me if we wanted one. I said, "Not on your life! We already have a cat, a guinea pig and a rat, we are not getting another animal." Then I went home and told my husband that he was not allowed to go to Kim and John's house for the next few months. You see, Ryan is the softy in our house when it comes to cats and I knew that he would love to get a kitten.

So, the weeks passed and there were no kittens at Kim and John's. Kim wondered if maybe her cat was just overweight. Then one day in August, we stopped by and the kids were bouncing with excitement and telling us they had kitties. Of course we went in and peeked. They were tiny little balls of fur with their eyes still closed, only one day old. I took one look, and my hard heart softened considerably. :) Imagine Ryan's surprise when he came home from work and I said, "Evan and Grace have their own pets, maybe we should get Rachel a kitten."

So laugh at me if you like, I certainly earned it. :)

Here is "Rachel's" new kitten, August - isn't she cute?!

August is a very sweet kitten, but the only problem is that our 8 year old cat, Anna, doesn't really think so! There has been a fair amount of hissing and growling in our house since we brought August home 2 weeks ago, but I think Anna has finally realized that this little interloper is sticking around and she might as well get used to it.

Cute cousins

Serious . . .

and silly!

Dear Friends

While in the Okanagan, we had a chance to visit with some old friends. It's not that Jim and Reta are old (though for the record, Jim is older than Ryan by over 9 months), it just feels as though we have known them forever. Ryan has been friends with Jim for over half his life, so that definitely counts for something!

We're glad that Jim and Reta have relocated back to Vernon after living in the cold north for a few years, because it means we will see them more often.

Reta and "Big B" :)

Sweet little Danica

Danica and Rachel having a snuggle while Grace looks on.

Happy 90th Grandpa

On October 3, my Grandpa Labrum turned 90 years old. We made a quick trip back to the Okanagan to celebrate with him. It was good to see him and others in my extended family whom we haven't seen in ages.

Surprise Grandpa!
Grandpa with 3 of his 4 kids


Grandpa and his oldest Grandchild, Jay

Posing with a few of his 21 great-grandkids (and Aaron and Sandi's Colombian exchange student.) Group shot - yes my son is rolling his eyes, but it's better than the ones where he's pretending to pick his nose!

Birthday cake AND Birthday pie!

Ashley helping blow out the candles - it's a good thing there weren't 90 of them!

Debbie, Carly, and Cindy

Carla with the youngest of her 6 kids, Chad and Carly.

Reading the birthday cards

Thanks for turning 90 Grandpa so we could celebrate with you!

Sleeping beauties :)

I love to go in and look at my kids when they are asleep and I even take the occasional picture of them because they look so adorable and peaceful when they are asleep. I have seen pictures my parents took of me when I was asleep too. But none of them looked like these pictures I had to take of Rachel when we went in to check on her and found her asleep like this:

Or this one we took of Evan:

I moved his arm after I took the picture so that he didn't wake up with a sore elbow and a handprint on his face. :)

I'm way behind and doing mega posts in one sitting to try and get up to date, so this is a post about something that happened in mid-September - which explains why everyone is dressed in summer clothes!
Ryan and Kevin proved that they love their wives by taking 6 children to the Othello tunnels for the afternoon so Nora and I could make a humongous batch of salsa. The men and the kids had a great time at the tunnels and we made some very yummy (if I do say so myself) salsa! Mmm, now I'm craving nachos! :)

Melissa

Those of you who have been reading my blog over the last 6 months know that there have been several posts about the deaths of loved ones in our extended family. It feels like we have experienced more than our share of sadness and loss recently.

Unfortunately our family suffered another heartache this past month when my cousin, Melissa died tragically at the age of 24. I have been struggling with the sadness and shock of Melissa's death over the last weeks but I read a verse in Psalm 119 yesterday that reminded me where I need to find my comfort.

"My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word."

I definitely don't understand this tragedy but I do believe that the God I love can be trusted even when I don't understand, and that He will provide me with strength if I but ask Him.

I wanted to post a couple of pictures of Melissa as well as the letter I read at her funeral.

Me holding Melissa




My brother and I with Melissa (on my shoulders) and her sister, Lindsay.

Dear Melissa,

I remember the day you were born. I remember the phone call and how excited I was when my parents told me that I had a new little girl cousin and she had a head full of red hair – just like me! I knew right then that you were special!
I remember lots of visits with you when you were a little girl – a little ball of energy, chasing Aaron around and trying to steal his hat. Everyone called you Missy and it suited you. You were such a mischievous, adorable little pixie. When I got married and moved to Abbotsford, I lived closer to you, but you were becoming a teenager and had your own busy life so I didn’t see you as often. I regret that but I am thankful for the times we did have together, visiting at Boundary Bay and the somewhat annual birthday get-togethers at your Dad’s place. One of my favourite, more recent memories is of you playing hide-and seek with my kids at Ernie and Debby’s house in Cloverdale.

There are so many things I wish I had the chance to tell you Melissa. I don’t want to wallow in regrets and what-ifs but I do want to tell you this most important thing – that you are loved. By me, by the rest of your family, by your many friends, and most importantly, by God. I don’t pretend to have all the answers about why this tragedy happened to you Melissa but I know without a doubt that you are loved by God and that He is saddened, just as we are by this pain and sorrow. That is my comfort as I grieve the loss of you, my dear cousin.

I miss you Missy Jean.

Love from Christa