awe-effect

I have now turned the big 3-0...thankfully it feels no different and life goes on! Today I was surprised with 2 gifts ... can you smell these? My oh my! These smell amazing and look gorgeous on my table! Thanks to my SIL, who faithfully gives me a bouquet of flowers each year on my birthday! (she knows her beloved brother doesn't do that so much for me!)and this, well, look at this! this frame will be treasured for a lifetime and probably for generations! Thank You ALEXA for dropping this off today! Isn't it beautiful?this frame includes a photo of both my Grandmothers, my Mother, my daughter and myself! It's just spectacular! And, no, this is not an idea that crossed my mind as to what you were making for me last week Alexa, when you requested the photos of all of these people! Where'd you come up with the idea? I love it! Thanks so much!
Thanks everyone for the many blessings of words, encouragement and gifts I received!

May Madness

On the Weekend we got together to celebrate the 3 May-Birthdays and Mother's Day in one shabang... Happy Birthday Matt (today)!! And Happy Early Birthday Paul and Happy Mother's Day Mom! (no pictures of Mom though, hmmm.)

Beppe and ElijahMay and Ellen bought gifts for each of us too... this DVD for Paul from EllenMatt got 3 bathroom pieces for his brand-spankin'-new bathroom (2 from the girls)my huge birthday card from Carla and Paul... it sings "celebrate good times, come on..." - a hit for Elijah!my gifts from May (scrapbooking stickers, card kit, personalized keychain and 'friends forever' pic frameplaying baseball with Uncle MattGabi and me lounging on my new lawn chairthis was fun for Gabi

Long Weekend Kickoff

We started our Long Weekend as soon as the girls were out of school on Friday and headed out to the Lake. We invited my brother, Matt, to join us if he was free and he did as well as the rest of my Family! It was real beautiful weather but the water was incredibly cold still... which didn't stop half of us. fun little tattoo on Sam's bellyMay made the trek out to the dock like Dad didGrandpa and Gabi

snail

Finally we've been blessed with some warmer weather last week and throughout the Long Weekend! Hooray! Last week we spent lots of time outside... this is one of our findings and entertainment for the boys for a bit one morning - meet Mr. Snail

surprise!

Last night Jason and I were out at a FOTF Marriage Tour Night and when we came home there was this wonderful planter sitting here with my name on it... I opened up the card and to my huge surprise......it was from two lifelong friends from Saskatchewan! I was so surprised and so overjoyed! Thank You Jamie and Laurie from the bottom of my heart! I just love it! And THANK YOU to Alexa for doing the job of purchasing and delivering this to me yesterday! Sneaky, sneaky you three!

I thought I'd pay a little "tribute" to Jamie and Laurie. When I say lifelong friends, that's no exaggeration! The three of us have been friends since Nursery School!!!! When I moved here in 1987, we remained in contact through snail-mail... and the two trips my Family went back for a visit we were sure to hang out!
I found this picture of a little Sayonara 'party' my little school friends had for me when we were moving away... this is at Julie's house - do you remember it Jamie and Laurie? (Laurie's in the yellow and Jamie's is one of the taller ones in the back-left)And this is the last time I saw Jamie and Laurie... ten years ago at Laurie and Rolland's wedding in Alberta. My, it's time for a visit! (but we're working on that, right?!) Now we are all married with at least a few children! We keep in contact daily by the high-tech email and with these handy dandy blogs... I am so grateful for these two woman who encourage me, who love me, who are Women of God - and as M.W.S. "theme" song was, when we moved here, we are "Friends Forever". Thank you Ladies. God bless you richly! (maybe He'll bless you each with a plane ticket my way?! LOL)

Hell's Gate

We learnt last weekend that Hell's Gate Customer Appreciation Free Days was this weekend and so all week we had planned on going there for Mother's Day while we kept our eyes on theweathernetwork.com (LOL). One day it said cloudy with sunny breaks, other days it said rain... we went anyway! And it didn't rain on us but it was super windy in the canyon.
On our drive there through 6 tunnels and beautiful scenery:and sleeping children...
this is a look down at the little Hell's Gate "town" - accessible by the airtrammy boys are small, but this makes them look REAL small!gold panning, Ellen and Michelle (we "ran into" Alexa & clan there)us and our baby's on our backs in the wind, can you tell?!One Big Happy Family

Thank You Ellen and May!

Yesterday for Mother's Day, Ellen and May gave me beautiful gifts! Thank You Girls! May gave me lovely earrings and Ellen, a gorgeous double-heart necklace!

Hanging Basket Workshop

On Saturday we went to a local Garden Center to participate in a Mother's Day Hanging Basket Workshop. It was well-worth the trip over to this location... at $5 for each hanging basket, that's not bad at all! May was particularly into this because they don't get to or don't have(?) this opportunity there. The boys quite enjoyed themselves too.
They were to pick out 1 plant that went into the middle of the basket - one that grows tall. And then they were to pick out 4 more plants that will fill in and flow out of the basket. They each had a great time choosing plants!Samuel wanted his turn to carry the tray of plants over to the table:The girls went outside today after school and just gazed into their baskets and studied them. They are asking when it will grow; so I hope there will be noticable growth before they leave for home in just over a month! I am sure it will!

Celebrate Julene

well, tis the week to celebrate turning 30!! Today I had a surprise Tea to go to in honor of Julene turning 3o this year. She will turn 30 this summer, but will be off her furlough and back abroad on Missions with her Family then; so her Mom and Friend planned this wonderful afternoon for her today! I was so happy to be a part of it! We met at a quaint little tea shop downtown for, you guessed it, tea(!) and dainties. Too fun!
Here is Julene and I...
and here are 4 of us that went to Elementary School and High School together: Angela, Julene, Anita and I...(I know, I know, I am wearing the same shirt as I did last night to Elijah's tea...I just bought it on Wednesday along with another top, but the other top I'm not sure if it will do the trick...so I wore this one again today. Oh well! It sure is fun to dress up a bit! I'm enjoying all these little outings I've had this past week - more than usual, that's for sure!)
Happy Birthday Julene - it was a pleasure to spend the afternoon celebrating your life!

Mother's Day Tea

Last night Elijah's fantastic preschool hosted a Mother's Day Tea for all the age 4 classes and either a Mom or Grandma. I was the lucky date of Elijah last night! I just had a most marvelous time with him!

When we arrived, we picked up a little ziploc baggie with the Mom's name spelled out in it, in beads. Our first task together was to use these beads and coloured ones at the table to make a bracelet for me. So much fun! (this is right up my alley, if you haven't gathered that!) Kinda funny though and I should take a picture of the bracelet, but the letters put into my baggie spelled my name, well almost... I had zz's in my bag instead of n's, so my bracelet reads "Jezzifer", but I'll wear it anyway!

We coloured a sheet together and had a choice of dessert or a taste of both: strawberry shortcake and/or Skor Cake. Elijah and I both chose Skor. Mmmm.

While the children practiced next to sing a few songs to us Moms, the Moms went into another room and watched a video clip of a Woman Of Faith speaker and dramatist, Nicole Johnson... the clip was something along the lines of this title "having a princess heart in a not-so-fairytale world". It was great!

Then to top of an already wonderful evening, the 3 classes of 4's treated us with some lovely singing and actions! Bless their little souls."M-O-M-M-Y, M-O-M-M-Y...and Mommy is her name-o"

Longer Out Than In ~ is what they say

oh know, my baby is 10 months... I've seen a few newborns in the past week and it tempts me so much to want to snuggle one of them, they are just so small compared to Gabi - which Ellen and May said to me last week "Mom, Gabi is a little girl now, not a baby".
She cut 2 teeth in her 9th month, both bottom middle ones.
She wants to furniture walk, wall walk, hand-walk more than crawl.
Not sure what else to report about (for my sake)... she doesn't sleep all night and due to teething, she has spent several nights in the swing, all night long while I am nearby catching zzzz's on the couch. Fun times, but this is nothing new in this household, so whatever!
Gabi's hair is growing like crazy in the last month or so... I don't always have it up, as you'll see in the photos below.
Oh, she gives kisses. If you say "Gabi, give me a kiss" she'll kiss you. It's so adorable; especially when it's the boys saying that!
Gabi is a little sweetheart! Here she is this past week:

At Grandpa and Grandma's last weekend having a little cuddle with Uncle MattA turn with Auntie Carlatearing up the tissue paper from a gift I received on Saturdayand here with Erin on Wednesday. Alexa had the girls standing up for some reason and I couldn't believe my eyes. We always knew Erin was bigger, but wow, THAT much taller?! Unreal!Happy 10 Months Baby Girl!

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

"mmm-marvelous. A company welcome. Best served warm."

1/2 cup Butter or Hard Margarine, softened
3/4 cup Sugar
3 Large Eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour (I used 1 cup white and 1 cup whole wheat)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup Low-fat sour cream

Crumb Mix:
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp. cinnamon
6 Tbsp. butter or hard margarine, softened

3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, optional

Cream butter and sugar together in bowl. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Add vanilla. Mix.
Stir flour, baking powder/soda and salt in separate bowl.

Add flour mixture to batter in 3 additions, alternately with sour cream in 2 additions, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Crumb Mix: mix brown sugar, cinnamon and butter until crumbly.

Add nuts. Stir well. Spread 1/2 batter in greased 10inch tube pan (I use bundt pan). Sprinkle with 1/2 of crumb mixture. Drop remaining 1/2 batter by small spoonfuls over top. Smooth as best you can. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 crumb mix over top. Bake in 350* oven for about 45minutes, until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Taken from Company's Coming "Breakfasts and Brunches" by Jean Pare, page 13

Pitcher of Orange

'very refreshing for anytime of day, especially for breakfast'

Frozen concentrated Orange Juice 6oz.
Milk 1 cup
Ginger Ale 2 cups
sugar 1/4 cup
vanilla 1/2 tsp.
crushed ice 1 cup

ice cubes, per glass 2-3

Combine first 6 ingredients in blender. Process until smooth. Pour over ice cubes in glasses. Makes 5 cups.

*I double this recipe using 1 container of OJ and doubling everything else. I figure a doubled recipe of this serves 6, from past experience.

**Source: Company's Coming 'The Family Table' by Jean Pare, page 19

finally, a trip to the lake

Okay, I've said this before, but with this whole global warming stuff... where's the warmth? We are being jipped in our part of the country... we have had but a half-dozen nice Spring days. At least today was one of them... and so we headed out to a local lake. The kids, all of them except for Gabi, went into the lake ankle-deep.

May and Samuel
our friends were at their cabin at this lake for the weekend, so they walked over to visit for a bit... here's Tyson, Donnovan [twins, same age as Elijah], Elijah and Samuelwe're in hoodies and the boys are in their trunks only... it was warm when the sun shone directly on us, but when the breeze came up it was chillyand no fish yet this year... maybe by the time we get to the lake again - we showed the kids the waterslide park at the lake and said that we'll go there in June...the car was filled with 'hoorahs' and 'yeahs'we have outside plans for Mother's Day too, so let's hope the weather is appropriate!