June 2016

2 blog posts in one week...that is a record for me, at least this year! In one sense, it's kind of nice posting from a few months ago because I had forgotten some things and then looking back through my pictures is kind of like getting a surprise gift! The month of June started off with a week-end away in Fargo, which was mostly ruined by the onset of pneumonia after I had spent the whole month of May with a congested cough. Right before that, I finished the most difficult puzzle of my life to date. Jared refused to work on it with me, so I did most of this jelly bean puzzle by myself. I thought it would be easy because it was only 500 pieces instead of 1000, but I was very wrong. It took me several weeks. Also, before I got extremely sick, I had the joy of watching Haley graduate from Preschool with one of her best friends!

This puzzle was a lot easier because of all of the writing on it. We did a huge chunk of it on a cold Sunday afternoon.

While I was in the process of getting better from pneumonia, in between my 2nd and 3rd rounds of antibiotics, I had the privilege of going on Blake's field trip to the zoo with his grade 1 class! That was a fun day and a gift from the Lord that I was healthy enough to go! This was my little group who I was in charge of all day. Unfortunately, I can't post their cute faces but I enjoyed spending the day with them!

The highlight for most of the kids was seeing the polar bear!

I see a Blake...

I can't remember if Blake's friend was pretending to sleep or pretending to be hit by the 4-wheeler.

Seeing the dinosaurs exhibit was really cool! For those of you who didn't see them, they moved and made noise, too. This was the highlight of my day...taking a picture of a peacock with its feathers in full display! I was SO pumped that the Lord gave me the desire of my heart! I loved all of the beautiful flowers! We quickly finished one more puzzle in the month of June. Kiera and Blake finished school and they got to pick supper that day, so we went out to A & W. :) Now I can start posting trip pictures!! For how sick I was in the first half of the year (a sinus infection from January - March, a bad cough for the month of May and pneumonia for all of June and part of July), I am SO thankful for all that I was able to see and do! God is good!

May 2016

I am so behind on blogging but that is evidence that we had quite a busy summer which we very much enjoyed! I want to post our B.C. and Branson pictures but I need to finish posting the Spring pictures first. I can't go out of order...I just can't do it! ;) Mother's Day gifts from the kids always makes me smile. Another 1000-piece puzzle completed, except for the missing piece Kiera had her gymnastics show

A rare picture of me with all 3 of them...and they picked me dandelions on Mother's Day, which Haley continued to do throughout the month of May ;)

We've done so many puzzles that we even have a favorite brand now: Charles Wysocki puzzles

Kiera completed level 3 in gymnastics! I'm glad she found something active that she really enjoys!

Haley's first school bus ride during her Kindergarten orientation

I had to help the kids with this dinosaur puzzle and it was actually very tricky to put together. I remember struggling with it. Blake started soccer for the first time We had a very warm May long week-end, so Blake invited a friend and we hit the beach for the first time this year!

Their "river" project

The kids were collecting snails. We finished off our beach day with a walk to Co-op for ice cream and we ran into friends there. :) The sunset during the walk home was beautiful! Blake finished the grade 1 home reading program! It was so neat to see him progress with his reading skills throughout the year!

One of the kids' favorites: getting bounced by Dad on the trampoline!

Haley found a caterpillar, which she brought inside to show me. I think it ended up dying in the container she put it in.

It looks like we had some really great weather in May, which I completely forgot about now that it's already turning cooler again! Now that all 3 of my kids are in school, I should have some more time to blog a bit more often!

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!