It's not every day you get moments like these. Moments of quietness. And with that, the moment passed. Na, it's still pretty quiet in here, Jamin just walked up behind me and said "boo" and "did I scare you?". I just put the two youngest boys down for a nap. They don't always nap at the same time. In fact, lately Ethan has been having a nice long nap in the morning and early afternoon but by the time I get Aaron to sleep, Ethan is waking up or soon will be. So today, they are napping at the same time. We'll see how long this little break will last. But for the moment, it's mostly quiet.

So I know, I haven't been blogging much lately. In my defense, the last couple of weeks have been busy and if not busy then someone's been sick around here. We've been to Winnipeg to have our pictures taken, then back to Winnipeg for Christmas shopping and to pick up pictures. Then to Austin to spend a Sunday afternoon at a dear friends baby shower (hi Lyla!). What a sweet little boy they have and what a nice afternoon it was. I got to hold a wee little baby!!! And then on Monday we had Jamin's birthday party. Then Tuesday Tiffany had an Avon party. (if you get the chance to go to one, you should, it's nice to see some of the products they have before you order) Tuesday was also the start of our not so fun week at home. To keep a long story short, between fevers, coughing, healthlinks, coughing, fevers coming back, healthlinks again, more coughing, a trip to the doctor, antibiotics, a Christmas party and of course more coughing, I think we're on the mend now. Trust me, you don't want me to bore you with the details of the last sentence.

So hopefully you'll hear more from me in the next little while than you have in the last month or more. I will try.

Yesterday we celebrated Jamin's 5th birthday! I can't believe that 5 years have gone by already. He's grown so much and learned so much over the years. Jamin has been a real blessing in our lives and is such a joy to have around. My life wouldn't be the same without him. Happy Birthday Jamin, we love you so so much!

Here's the pics, finally!

Before:

After:

It's been done for a while. I'm just late with the pics. What a job it was. Thank you to everyone who had a hand in helping us! Jeff's Uncle, his dad and my dad helped us a lot and we couldn't have done it without them. And Steven and another one of Jeff's uncles helped with the cement work too. Thank you so much everyone, we appreciate everything so much!

A little bit of everything

Here's just some random stuff that's going on around here these days.

Our house is finished, finally. It has been for the past week or two but I've been lazy and haven't posted my pictures yet. I will.

Jamin has been walking into the school all by himself for the past couple of weeks. I had to bribe, I mean reward him, to finally go in on his own. It's wonderful. I now only have to unload my van full of kids when I pick him up.

I got a new area rug in my living room. Again, I've had this for a while, but I haven't been blogging lately.

I've been recruited to be the Sparks Director for our AWANA program in our church. AWANA is a club for kids and we meet every Friday night. We do games, learn bible verses and have council time (singing and a message) and the kids can earn shares(AWANA money) and use it at our AWANA store. The Sparks are kids from Kindergarten to Grade 2. They are a great bunch of kids and I've found I'm attached to them already. Jamin is in Sparks this year. He's having a pretty good time I think. Kids older than Grade 2 can go too, I just happen to be working with the Sparks.

I've taken up knitting, well sort of. I started a scarf and I haven't done anything with it for like a month. Maybe I'll have forgotten how to even do it by now. Maybe I'll post a picture if I actually get it done.

It's 1:15 in the afternoon and my TV hasn't been on once yet today. It will be come 2:00 cause that's when Days of Our Lives is on. It's kind of nice having the quiet. Well, almost quiet. I can hear the kids playing in the basement. Jordan is over playing today and it sounds like they are having a really good time. But that's the kind of noise that I love. Happy noise.

I need some ideas for my flower bed. I know, it's going to be winter soon. But I need to make a plan so I know what to do with it for the spring. It's full of hostas right now, which I love, but I need something else. Anybody got some ideas? It's a full shade area so I'm limited.

You can tell your kid watches too much TV when he starts reciting commercials. Like, "we should get a blizzard, they're only $2.99" or "mom, if you want to look really beautiful, you should get bump-its". Really? Do I really need bump-it's? There have been more, but I can't remember them.

That's about it for now. Hopefully I'll get some pics on here soon.