Friendships

When deciding what to write I looked for a quote that would define our friendship with Jaymi and Jared.  I couldn't find anything that was just right.  I know I have posted about them (or you!!) before but I don't think that anything I have said really expresses our gratitude for their friendship.  We always look forward to the time that we get to spend with them.  It is never for a long time but we can always continue like we have never been apart.  I have never had a friend that has stuck by me like Jaymi has.  I have watched her grow over the last few years into such an incredible person (you always have been).  I really admire her involvement with the church and community.  And Jaymi, Jared is such the perfect husband for you!  He is kind and caring and I can tell just how much he loves you.  I am glad that when we get together, we don't have to force the 'boys' to spend time together or give them some sort of dialogue to talk about!  It just comes natural to them.  

I did find the following quote that I want to leave with.

"A good friend is hard to find, hard to lose, and impossible to forget..."

Summer Storms

On August 10 we had a pretty large hail storm go through our area.  It's hard to watch it through the window damaging the crops and you cant do anything about it.  Here are a few pictures from that storm.  They were taken about five minutes after it stopped hailing.

 What was left of my onions.

Our patio table.

Summer

All I can say is Wow!!  This summer seems to have just flown by.  There were so many things that I wanted to do with Natalie this summer.  So many things I wanted to accomplish but yet the boxes beside my to-do list sit there empty.  I suppose there is still some time considering that summer break really doesn't mean much to our family yet!  So I am going to tell you a bit about our summer and will add pictures later as I decide which ones to post.  

This summer has been one of firsts.  There is the obvious 'Natalie's first summer' but she has developed so much more than just that and has passed so many milestones.  Just this week she has started to crawl.  She had done it before but nothing substantial.  Now she seems to have the idea down but would much rather prefer to walk.  When she is not over excited she will walk from one to another but as soon as we tell her she did a good job she starts to get wobbly out of excitement.  Then just this morning, I went to get her out of her crib and she was sitting there just waiting for me.  This was the first time that she has gone from laying down to a sitting position by herself.  My days are generally filled with incoherent blabber but that is all part of the learning experience.  As soon as we get into a group setting she usually goes completely silent as she is taking everything in.  She is still a very shy girl and seems to feel the most comfortable in my arms.  I don't mind it all so much but sometimes I would like a break!  Natalie's meal choices have expanded considerably and she absolutely loves french fries!  Along with firsts, a big one for her was meeting her Grandma and Grandpa Paetkau.  She is still a little unsure but that will come with age.  She took her first road trip to Winnipeg Manitoba and then on to Kenora Ontario where we spent a weekend in a cabin with the Paetkau family.  Also just recently we have added a kitten into our household.  It seems the mice have decided to move back in so we needed to take action in some way to help our situation while we make decisions.  Also we got to visit two of my sisters in their new homes!  

I don't really have much to say about Dylan and myself.  We just feel so incredibly blessed to have her in our lives.  When situations and other things in our lives bring us down, we can look at her and it seems to give us a completely different perspective.  

I guess that is the general overview.  Once I find some more time I will post pictures with stories!

Nine Months?!

Natalie is about to turn nine months.  Nine months, can you believe it?!  The last few weeks have been amazing to just watch her grow and learn so many MANY new things.  We spent a week with her cousins and that started everything in motion.  She saw what they were doing and immediately wanted to try to.  Well, so it seems!  She is starting to attempt crawling, but hasn't got the hang of it yet.  She has only made it about two feet.  I think she is a little intimidated by the many head dives she has taken from the hands and knees position!  Her walker is still one of her favourite places to be.  We are still taking as many safety precautions as we can so she stays safe.  She would much rather just sit and play on the floor than to be held.  She can sit there for hours just playing, talking and dancing to the music!  She will sit there and spin on the spot and scoot forward a little bit at a time to get to a toy that has gone too far out of reach.  She has 6 teeth..... four on top, two on bottom.  She is going through this stage where she has to feed herself.  We are trying to work through it but it takes a lot of patience and creativity.  Welcome to parenthood I guess!  As for Dylan and I, we are doing pretty good.  Busy but good.

Here are a few new(ish) pictures!

Who knows what she was thinking in this picture?!

Her vibrating teether

The yellow thing she is holding is the upright part of the stacker rings.

The threads must feel good on her teeth!

The joy of being a mom

In the front carrier

Chillaxin' by the campfire

Hmmmm....

So, recently Natalie has been a little off. Not necessarily grumpy but just off. She hadn't been sleeping as much and she had lost a little bit of her appetite. Then the other day mom and I were in Calgary when I noticed that I could see four teeth. That is not including the bottom two she had before. They are not all quite through yet but you can see them. The first one on the top to come through was the second one on the left and the second one to come through was the right middle. So she looks a little funny right now but the other teeth with catch up so I am not to worried! When I get the chance to get a picture I will post it but as for now, you will just have to imagine seeing them! She chews on EVERYTHING so I know the others will come pretty quickly!

VBS

So today I decided that before we go camping this weekend I should take some time to update our blog! So I am taking time out of my busy schedule to give an update! Once again this year I was in charge of planning our Church VBS program. We decided to keep it simple and it ended up being more simple than we had planned on! Our theme was VeggieTales which the kids absolutely loved. We chose the first three videos of VeggieTales so not many of the younger kids had seen them. We printed the lessons off of the website so that part was planned for us. We came up with crafts, snack and games and away we went. There were a lot of volunteers and not very many kids (max 20) so we ended up doing everything together except for the last day we split the younger and older kids for the crafts and games! Overall it was a really good three days. We had a lot of fun! I really enjoy planning this sort of thing even though I sure am glad it is over for the year!

Here are some pictures of our crafts that we did. I can't put any pictures of the rest of our time because I want to respect the privacy of the people that were there. I never asked them for permission so I will just stick to the crafts!

Day 1 - Where's God When I'm S-scared

Daniel in the Lions Den

Day 2 - Are you My Neighbor

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Day 3 - God Wants Me to Forgive Them?!?

The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

To and Fro

The other day Dylan and I final set up Natalie's swing. At first she wasn't too sure of this thing that kept bringing her closer to mom than take her away quickly. Once she figured out what was really happening, she was fine with the idea! Now every time we take her outside, she usually ends up in the swing for 5-10 minutes. The dog and cat come and sit right beside or in front of her and she of course LOVES that. The dog will lick her feet and she will giggle. At first I was disgusted by this because lets face it, Spencer is after all a dog and not a very clean one at that. Being a Chocolate Lab, he finds all sorts of dead things with his keen sense of smell and has to bring them to the yard as a trophy. We just make sure we wash her feet as soon as we get in. Thanks to Marv and Loretta for the swing! It was an excellent baby gift idea!

Our Little Tike!