Some catch up in pics

Here are some pictures of some of the things we have been up to in the last couple of weeks ... (and some cute pictures of my babies)

About a month ago we went to the recreation center in Red Deer, and it was AWESOME!!! The pool there is amazing and I really think it is worth the drive up. It is a pool that rocks for all ages! We were very impressed.

playing Quelf with friends!!!

Landon and his walker

I love going through my phone and seeing what pictures Evan has taken. This one just makes me laugh :-)

Reflections of Christ:
I am going to put a post up tonight devoted to how much I loved this exhibit, but until then I just want to say that it was OH SO MUCH MORE FUN because our friends came with us. The Manerikar family is the one that we turned to for support the week that Evan was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrohpy. They have been such a wonderful support team for our family. I adore their two children (both have SMA) and love watching them with our children. My eyes still water as I remember Ishan, Shanaya, and Evan racing in their wheel chairs in the church parking lot. It was Evan's first experience playing with other children in wheelchairs. Usually he is the only one in a wheelchair, and the other times we have been with the Manerikars he didn't have his wheelchair. The smile on his face as he played with them spoke more than words ever could. I am so much look forward to our future monthly dinner and play dates.

(I love this picture of Shanaya feeding Landon)

Hockey Games
We went to a Hitman hockey game with Justin's dad and some co-workers. It was so much fun and we are actually going to another one as a family tonight. :-) Evan loves going to hockey games and that is why I love it so much.

(here is Landon with Papa)

Landon is doing a new smile now. I haven't quite gotten to catch it on camera, but this is close! It is really the cutest thing I have seen yet!!!

These two pictures just make me smile
:-)

This girl ....

.... has been on my mind a lot recently! My beautiful sister Sarah is literally one of the kindest, most sincere, and beautiful people I know.

Sarah is the definition of kind!! She will literally give you the shirt off her back if she knows that you need it, and would probably give it to you if she knew you even fancied it.

Sarah is beautiful beyond belief and she has NO IDEA!!! She is the most humble person I know (no exaggeration) and unbelievably forgiving. She is 11 years younger than I am, but when I am trying to emulate a Christlike person I use her as my example.

She and I are kindred spirits. Her personality, likes, and dislikes are very similar :-) Sarah is such a special person and I love her more than she will ever know.

Lastely, Sarah gives the best hugs and can make anyone feel better just by being near her. I am so proud to call her my sister!!

sometimes things just don't go as planned

We were loading the boys up in the bikes to go on a ride for Family Home Evening and it just wasn't going as planned!!!!

Thankfully things eventually turned around! :-)

Go Broncos!

Well ... the announcement has been made and now I am going to make my own announcement.

I AM NOW A DENVER BRONCOS FAN!! (my in-laws will be thrilled :-)

The NFL draft was today and my Tim Tebow was the 25th pick in the first round of the draft. I have said all along that I will cheer for whatever team Timmy plays for. All I have to say now is ...

GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!!!!

FInished Projects and Heat

(I don't know why this is underlined ... sorry)

I could be classified as a garbage digger. I really feel one man's trash is another man's treasure. Sometimes it is just trash and sometimes it just needs a little inspiration. Most of my clothes are second hand, and some furniture too. There is a dump not too far from us that has a salvage yard. We picked up this picnic table and chairs for a very small donation and I planned to refinish them. I FINALLY FINISHED!! It is not the job of a perfectionist, but I think it is pretty darn good for my first job ... and I love them!!

BEFORE

AFTER

I was THRILLED to discover this in the front yard!!!!

I am AMAZED by this plant. I have a bit of a green thumb, but I have to say that this is a miracle plant!! I bought this beautiful poinsettia plant before Christmas and loved it. I watered the plant for the last time on December 17, 2009. We left for vacation on December 18, 2009 fully expecting the plant to be dead when I got back. We came home and sure enough the plant had no leaves and some of the stems were brown. I wasn't surprised, BUT imagine my shock when a couple days later there were some new leaves growing. I thought to myself "ok ... lets see what happens. This poinsettia plant sits in a dark corner, sits by a cold entrance, and I have literally haven't watered it since December 17, 2009!!!! Look at how it is thriving!!!!! Now it is just an experiment to see what happens if I continue to ignore it!!!

Landon wanted to be held all day long. He DID NOT want to be put down at all! I had some MAJOR overhaul on my house and ended up carrying around the moose like this ALL DAY LONG. He was as happy as can be and just kicked his legs constantly. This was a much better alternative to the screaming leech that was continually attaching himself to my leg. My back is yelling at me, but I am so happy to have been able to make Landon happy.

I am in love with these pictures ... can anyone guess why???

new life: new stories

EVAN:

this picture CRACKS ME UP!!!

Evanism's:

"hield" = (shield)

"full speed ahead" = (this is something he says every time I start the car)

we were in the store the other day and I was getting after Evan quite a bit because he wasn't listening, running away, and running into things (he was very tired and when he is tired he drives like he is drunk). Well he ran into me and he must have known I was at my wits end with him because he immediately says "Oh sorry, I is berry sorry!!" It was cute, at least he knows when to apologize :-)

I was getting Evan ready for his bath and when I took off his diaper Evan starts giggling and says "I be berry naked" I think he has an obsession with being naked because yesterday he was trying to take off his diaper. When I asked him why he was taking off his diaper he said "because I want to be naked!"

We were all in the bonus room and Evan starts yelling (I'm only about 4 feet away) "Landon has something in his mouth". I went over and sure enough he did, I took it out of his mouth and thanked Evan for telling me and for being such a good big brother and he responds with "Awe ... you're welcome"

Our baby sitter told me that when they watched "cloudy with a chance of meatballs" that at the end the main character tells his dad that he loves him. She said that Evan looks at her and says "I looove my Daddy"

This last sunday I was talking to a friend after church ended when I look up and her three boys and another little boy in our ward were sitting in the front row with their arms folded. I thought that was interesting since church had ended then I looked up to the front of the room. Evan was at the front of the room in front of the music stand waving his finger at them saying: "you all sit down, I teach you! Sun-beep, Jesus want Sun-beep!" (for all who don't know, there is a song in our church we teach the little ones "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam" I am guessing they sang it in nursery, because all day Evan has been singing "Sun-beep!" It was too cute to see Evan take command of all these boys :-) I guess he is a natural born educator. :-)

Every morning Evan says that he dreamt about "The bear over the mountain". Most of the time the bear is black, sometimes he is red, but he is always big. That is usually the extent of the story. Today when Justin went in to get Evan this morning the conversation went like this:

Justin: How did you sleep

Evan: berry good

Justin: what did you dream about

Evan: bear over mountain

Justin: what was the bear doing

Evan: getting leaves

Justin: what did he do with the leaves

Evan: he eat them

Justin: then what did he do

Evan: he had beebees (babies)

Justin: what were their names

Evan: C-Bo and ZeeFa

Babies might be on his mind because one of his fish just had babies!! It is so fun to see the circle of life in your own room. Evan quite enjoys his new baby fish and we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of some more. I love having a fish tank, it can keep me and the kids fascinated for a long time. I just love to sit and stare at the new baby fish, they really are quite a miracle.

do you see our babies at the bottom??

LANDON:

This little boy is such a dream! He is 8 months old (which is crazy) and he literally gives the BEST bear hugs ever! He is starting to climb the stairs, and can walk with support. We got him this little baby walker and he does a really good job with it. He is extremely social, which I know is part of his sleeping problem. Landon isn't afraid of anyone!!!!

Landon is the crankiest happy baby ever! What I mean by this is he literally one of THE HAPPIEST BABIES I have ever known. His face radiates with joy, and he is laughing and smiling constantly. He shakes with joy and knocks himself over just because I walk in the room or look at him. Then he gets hungry, tired, or angry and he becomes the incredible hulk :-) Have you ever seen an 8 month old throw a full on tantrum ... it is really funny!

Landon's favorite things right now are opening the cupboards and pulling all contents out. He stands there and just smiles and laughs. I love watching him learn and explore. He loves his brother Evan and always wants to be on top of him, which sometimes Evan is not a fan of. His other very favorite thing is the computer. He is constantly trying to hit the key board and will throw major fits when I won't let him. (is it bad that I think it is amusing when he has a tantrum?)

He is starting to grow out of his clothes again, and I just can't believe how big he is now. Landon is almost 24 pounds

I feel terrible that I haven't blogged for so long!!! Normally I am not this bad. The problem is that most of the things I want to say I would like to post pictures to go along with it. I haven't downloaded any pictures and then it is night time and I forget. Hopefully I can get on the ball and do that tomorrow.

Something I do want to say is that lately I have been very weepy concerning Evan. As you know, to say that I am a VERY emotional person would be a bit of an understatement. I often get emotional when it comes to my kids.

We have become quite settled in our life with SMA, and we are happy! We deal with the crisis moments as they come and try to not let our minds wander too much around "the bad". Mostly I am fine but for about 2 weeks now there are some major fears (that I have had from day 1) that are always in my thoughts. There are many experiences in life that I don't want, but that I can handle (even if it is a lot of work and money), but there are some experiences that I just don't think I could make it through. The problem is that it is those trials that are very real possibilities in my life now.

Hopefully these thoughts will get pushed to the back of my subconscious again, and until then I will continue to cry often and hug and kiss my children the most I can.

LAST DAY OF VACAY

Our last day of vacation we woke up, packed a little, and walked to Beacon Hill Park. What an amazing day!!! The park itself is beautiful, full of wild life, flowers, and lakes. We spent the day chasing ducks, petting goats at the petting zoo, eating lunch by a garden of tulips, and playing on the playground. After our morning of play we went back to the apartment, took naps (everyone), finished packing and went to the airport. On our way home from the park Evan says to me: "Mama, this was a wonderful day!"

At the airport we ran into some maintenance issues!! The bolts on Evan's wheel chair all came loose and the mechanism to put the chair into manual mode disconnected. When we got to Victoria the airline was so kind and brought up a mechanic who helped us figure out how to take it apart and fix it. Now we know in the future what to do :-) I was just so impressed that they would take the time to find someone to help us and that the mechanic was so kind to take the time to figure out HOW to fix the problem.

All in all this vacation was VERY much needed and we all loved our time spent in Victoria!! Enjoy the last of the pictures and I will begin blogging about our normal lives now. :-)

Watching TV as the rest of us get ready

Baby Moose with a Moose on the TV screen in the background.

God really knew what he was doing when he created the world! I love all animals and think they and the nature they live in is just beautiful ... that includes US!!

Evan and Daddy (I just think this picture is beautiful)

Evan chased birds for about an hour!!!

getting ready to fee the birds

I had to stand up ... I DID NOT want to be eye level with the geese!

the petting zoo had 45 baby goats when we were there. Some of them were only 3 days old! These sweet guys were so addictingly cute!

FUNNIEST PICTURE EVER!!!! This little goat really wanted this little boys attention!

The spots down my pants are either mud, duck poop, or sheep poop. I like to think it was mud!

This next series of pictures brings me more joy than I can even express!!!!

long day!

Evan showing off his pirate ship!

BUSY WEEK!

Landon is now a master immitator! He waves and claps ... this will keep him occupied for quite a while! He is also babbling a TON and squeals with delight!

FLYING HOME
the boys did so great! We didn't get home until 1:00 AM