April 2016

Well, it's been a while again since I've blogged. With battling pneumonia and wanting to enjoy as much warm sunshine as possible, blogging has been very low on my priority list. Today is cool and cloudy, so it's the perfect day for catching up on indoor activities. In February, Blake completed a reading challenge of reading 20 minutes/day, so he received a coupon for a free meal at Boston Pizza. In April, we went out for supper so he could finally use his coupon that he had been asking about. When we were leaving, the kids all picked fake teeth from the basket of trinkets. There is usually at least one or more puzzles that are being worked on between the kids and me and Jared. These are the ones Jared + I completed in April, plus one that Blake did. Most of the ones that Jared and I work on have 1000 pieces. Occasionally we do a 500-piece one.They are a fun challenge and one puzzle usually takes a few days. Our church did something really neat at the end of March/beginning of April. We first had Humble Sunday where we were encouraged to dress down as much as possible and not do our hair or make-up and just become before the Lord as we were, without the things that make us feel comfortable or pretty. I was super blessed and although I felt exposed, I wasn't alone. The next Sunday we had Glory Sunday where we really dressed up as the bride of Christ and everyone was given paper crowns. At the end of the service, everyone went and laid their crowns down at the cross. I was teaching Sunday School that Sunday, so I didn't get to see the end of the service, but I was touched by what I heard. I wore my bridesmaid dress from my sister's wedding and my wedding tiara.

On April 15, my life changed as I got laser eye surgery! Going from not being able to see properly for 24 years to seeing 20/20 within 24 hours of the surgery was incredible...a total gift from God! It's also amazing how quickly I've gotten used to it, but I try to remember to thank God regularly that I can see. I LOVE IT!!!!

Every now and then, we get to see a glimpse of Blake's sweetness and this was one of those moments. There was no special occasion, which made it even sweeter.

The kids had their last day of Awana at the end of April, which included a family bbq and then a program. They had an open mike time where kids could come say one of their favorite verses that they had memorized during the year and to our surprise, Blake went up and said a verse! He is at times quite timid so I thought that was very brave of him! Here are the Cubbies (Haley's age group) and the Sparks (Blake's age group) doing some songs. Looking back, I can tell that the weather was cold as we got WAY more puzzles done in April than we've done in the past month. I can't promise I'll blog again any time soon but we'll see what the weather does and if I make time for it! Happy summer everyone!

February + March

My goal today is to finish up winter pictures and start into Spring, since we're just over a month away from the official start of summer! Kiera has been coloring some adult coloring pages and posters and I enjoy seeing what she comes up with!

She started gymnastics in the fall and it's been neat to see what she's all learning!

Haley likes Anna and Elsa hair tutorials and then she wants me to try them, so here was my attempt at an Anna bun.

I got a reflexology treatment from a dear friend of my Mom's and she had cracked skin, so she wore gloves. Haley thought Lois was cleaning my feet, so she went and put gloves on, too, and "helped" Lois. SO cute!

The month of February, Kiera and I went door-to-door many evenings and Saturdays selling chocolate. I went out with Blake twice, too, when Kiera was busy. Jared sold some at his work as well and my parents bought a bunch, so between all of that, Kiera reached her goal and sold 7 cases of chocolate! Her prize was a $90 snow racer!! :) My Mom started picking up puzzles at the MCC to do before they sell them to see whether or not there are any pieces, so Jared and I started doing 1000-piece puzzles since it would take too much time for my Mom to do them all by herself. The kids sometimes help, too and it's an activity we really enjoy doing together! This was our first 1000-piece one that we did. One for his wedding slide show I was trying to take a nice picture of all 3 kids and this is what I got! On March 27, Easter Sunday, Kiera got baptized, which was an incredible special day and we rejoice that she wants to follow Jesus! Haley wanted to eat ice but it was too cold for her to hold, so she came up with this: I figured I would take advantage of this cold, rainy day to catch up a bit on blogging since it's not a great day for sitting out on the deck! I just got some new piano sheet music and I hear it calling for me to come play, so I hope to post more Spring pictures another day! :)

Winter Adventures

I've gotten behind on blogging again, so here's my attempt to catch up! In January, we attempted to make Baymax. I later discovered that black food coloring runs all over the place when the weather gets warmer, so Baymax ended up looking like some scary space alien a few days later. I enjoy watching my kids play games together, when they're getting along and one isn't crying about losing. Spot It and Trouble are games that Haley can play and she enjoys them. I like Haley's form as she gets ready to pop the Trouble bubble. Enjoying some Daddy/daughter time...not sure what Kiera was doing with her shirt...

Haley decided she wanted hair like Vanellope von Schweetz from Wreck-It Ralph (which I don't think she has even watched), so I put a bunch of accessories in her hair instead of candy like the cartoon character.

In February, Kiera went to a birthday party where they hired the same face painter that we had at our house last summer and she got to take home a stuffed kitty. Can you guess the theme?!

February long week-end we decided to get away to Grand Forks for one night after finding a $70/night deal. We stayed at the Expressway Suites, which is a really nice hotel that's only 2 years old and it's across from the CanadInns. We ended up going across the street to the CanadInns waterpark for the afternoon. Unfortunately, our van got a flat tire right as we were arriving, so Jared had to spend time going to get that fixed while I was with the kids at the waterpark. He was able to join us for the last couple of hours and we were thankful that there was a tire shop open on a Sunday on Valentine's Day! There was also a BOGO deal at Qdoba's where we went for lunch plus kids eat free on Sundays at the Green Mill, so our lunch and supper on Sunday were quite discounted!

The rooms are quite spacious and the couch had a hide-a-bed.

The kids woke up bright and early on Monday morning, so we headed down to the continental breakfast around 7:30. They have the best free hotel breakfast I've ever had! Waffles with the options of syrup, whipped cream, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, English muffins, sausage, scrambled eggs, bacon, yogurt, fruit, cereal, pastries, oatmeal...I might be missing a few things but it was fantastic! After breakfast, the kids wanted to go straight to the pool, so we were the first ones in there at 8:30 a.m. There were color changing lights in both the pool and the hot tub, so the kids enjoyed that. The pool isn't huge but the hot tub is quite spacious. We went to Rhombus Guys for lunch on Monday before heading home. They have quite possibly the best pizza we've ever had! We've been there several times and have never been disappointed! I also like that the whole table is covered with paper, so the kids can draw to their hearts content while waiting for the pizza. The kids were exhausted and 2 of them conked out on the way home.

My Mom kindly had us over for supper before we went home and we managed to do this whole 500-piece puzzle while we were there, which began our journey of doing puzzles regularly!

Spring might actually be on its way soon (maybe) but I will try to blog again soon (maybe)! ;)