Samuel's Birthday

Here is our 4 year old with his birthday cake. He may act shy, but I do believe he enjoyed the attention!

And he was able to blow out the candles but there were others who were willing to help him at a moments notice!

Esther's Birthday

Here is Esther's tray of birthday cupcakes. She wasn't sure what to do at all. She had three brothers and two cousins who were more than helpful!

Opening presents with mommy. She was so overwhelmed by the attention and presents. So far her favourite present seems to be the spoons from her tea set.

And what would a first birthday be without the birthday girl eating cake. She LOVED the icing and totally enjoyed the whole cupcake.

Super Excited!

I am super excited for a few reasons today.
1. Jono comes home this evening after being gone for 8 sleeps.
2. Esther turns 1 tomorrow! Where did the last year go?
and
3. Our friends K & J will be receiving their little guy this week if all goes well! I am so excited to see them be parents and see the plan that God has for this family of 3! And hopefully, I can fit in a visit to see them before we head out in March.

1st Santa Claus Parade of the season...another one this Saturday!

Lego robots by Samuel and Stephen - a picture just for Daddy since chances are they won't be around when you come home!

A rainbow on the walk to Pake and Beppe's after the parade in Harriston.

Super excited Samuel!

Stephen and Marie - candy catchers extraordinaire.

Jason and Silas - the little boy who would NOT wear his mitts!

Esther all bundled up to stay warm - not a peep with all the sirens.

The one who misses Daddy the most this time.

It's been a month, so I guess it is time for another post!

In completely random order....
Stephen listening to instructions on how to be safe rock climbing. He did very well for his first time. On a side note, the kids think that Aunt Kristy and Uncle Kris have the coolest house ever - they live at a camp!

Three pumpkins for three boys. Good work everybody!

The kids had two days off at the end of October so we went to the Science Center in Toronto.

The "rain forest" room.

The boys loved building tracks for the balls. It was nice and empty once all the school kids left!

Here is my favourite rock band.

Silas really enjoyed watching the fish. "Ook Mom! A baby fish! A mommy fish!"

Four in the car but who is the driver?

Stephen busy playing in the toy room. I do believe this was taken after he missed the bus for the first and hopefully only time.

My baby girl is almost one! She loves her banana and watered down juice first thing in the morning! Can you guess how she slept that night?

So much has happened ...

Dad is home so the evening wrestling sessions have started up again!

Esther loves to eat - most of the time!

The snow has melted and it was 18 degrees for Janice's birthday yesterday!

Janice bought Samuel a snowsuit today; so all the boys decided they needed to try their own on.

Samuel found my boots. Enough said.
On a completely different note, Jono and I now have our first niece! Welcome to the world Naomi! We can't wait to meet you!

This is what we woke up to this morning!

Some old pictures

I was asked by my sister-in-law to send her some pictures of the past year. So here are 4 - one of each kid. Esther sleeping with her Korean "pillow".

Silas driving a car at the London Children's Museum.

Samuel laughing with his bike - after he drove it down the hill!

And a self portrait of Stephen! What a love-able face!

With Thanksgiving

Jono got home last night. The kids were so excited to see him and play with him. They have been trying to get him caught up on everything that happened while he was away. Jono had a good trip. We do plan on sending out an update soon-ish to share more details. Anyway, it is good to have him home.
We do wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! We do have much to be thankful for, including you!

A short update

The past couple of weeks have been busy - no surprise there! Here is a brief recap.
Stephen lost another tooth during the sermon last Sunday. I think he might have screamed if it was bloody and there would have been a scene.
Samuel misses his Daddy the most but is super thrilled with my $1 garage sale find - a spider man outfit!
Silas is working on potty training - he is dry at night but still has accidents during the day.
Esther has cut her second tooth and had her first split lip. Thankfully it should look normal by the time Daddy comes home but we don't have any photos to show him.
Jono has been able to call us a few times, which is great. He has met with all 4 language groups and done some "work" with them. He heads back up to the city Monday morning to sit in on some checking sessions.
I have been "running" the show over here. Our women's bible study has started and I am co-leading a group for that. GEMS has started and I am also leading a group for that. Youth Group has started but Jono hasn't been going since he's not in country. Adult Education has also started and it has been very informative/heart breaking/stretching. It has been worth getting out the door early on Sunday mornings.
Thank you to all who have been thinking of us, calling and emailing us, and praying for us. It is all greatly appreciated and treasured. We can not be here without you all!

He has arrived!

Just to let you know that Jono called during dinner to let us know that he had made it to the guest house in Abuja! Praise the Lord for safe travels so far. He will head up to Jos in the morning. We are all doing well on the home front. There will be a lack of pictures in the updates as Jono took our camera with him. Sorry-o!

Laundry and Esther

I am still trying to decide how to "do" laundry. Do I do a load a day and feel like I am always doing laundry? Or do I do it all on one day and have all this folding and putting away to do at once?


And Esther, she is crawling all over, has cut one little bottom tooth and seems to be working on another, and likes to cruise around furniture and people's legs. Where has my baby gone?

First Day of School

In reverse order, here are the boys getting off the bus after their first day of school.


All four of them sitting on the front steps waiting and waiting and waiting for the bus to come. I thought we did pretty good getting 5 out of 6 dressed for the big day.


Silas wanted his picture taken too!


Stephen decided that maybe mom was right and he should wear a sweater.


Samuel was so excited to go to JK. The first words out of his mouth that morning were "Is the bus here?"

Kris and Kristy's Wedding

They are married! They walked out to bagpipes - or a screaming cat according to Stephen.


I liked the way my "little" brothers had to duck to get into the tent! Why didn't I get some of that height?


Here are 5 little monkeys having popsicles on the back porch after the rehearsal BBQ.

Pictures to prove we are still around! (not in any order)

We finally convinced Silas that it would be a good idea to shave his head like Daddy and Stephen. He definitely looks a lot older now!

Here is team Heroic. They took on team Daddy in a game of soccer. It was wonderful to be able to spend a week with our neighbours from Nigeria. We will see you all in March in Jos!



For Stephen's birthday, we went to the Children's Museum in London, ON. Here is a picture of the boys making me lunch in an old fashioned kitchen.


Here is our newest driver in the family. We put Esther in here one day when she was fussy during dinner and she loved it! She is even able to get it to move around the yard!

Yes, we are alive!

Feeling like it is taking all we have to stay afloat. Life seems really busy - or we make it really busy. We have been in our new house for a month now and JUST found the camera charger. Maybe soon we will get around to posting some new pictures on here. The kids are all well. Stephen turned 6 last month, Samuel had his last soccer game, Silas is teething and talking a lot, and Esther is crawling all over the place. Jono leaves again next month, so probably when he's gone, there will be more posts. That seems to be the way it goes. We are off later today to meet some wonderful friends and camp for the week in WI. See you when we get back!

Stephen's Second Soccer Game and more

A proud mom over here - Stephen scored 3 goals tonight in his second soccer game. I think he takes after his father! The part I liked to see the most was how he cheered just as much for the other kids' goals as he did for his own! He even learned about "kicking it to the other team after they get hurt" - sportsmanship!
Many thanks to Pake and Beppe for watching all 4 kids today so I could go to London and visit my friend and her new, tiny baby. It was good to be able to visit without kids! Please pray for them as they have a long road ahead.

First time to school and first soccer game.

Stephen went to school for the day to meet his future classmates. He had a great time and his favourite part was doing high jump.

Here is Stephen in his first soccer game. I totally forgot his black shorts! BUT I did remember everything else. And Daddy, he looks like a mini you on the field!

Silas and Esther have been real troopers to go with us to practices and games. I am getting a lot of use out of my new stroller too!

Indoor Soccer

Gotta love jumping jacks.

Stretching is important...

So is circle time to get instructions.

We enrolled the oldest two in a 4 week indoor soccer program before we found out we were staying. Driving 30 minutes once a week is not my idea of fun, especially when one child does NOT want to participate.