Christmas Picture: Epic Fail

Enough said.

Shrinking!

Nathan was very alarmed and worried when he got up this morning, and when I asked him what was wrong he said, "Mommy, I'm shrinking because I need to read the bible more! We need to read it now!" He was remembering the shrink and grow song from church. So cute!

Snow Buddy

My little Nathan loves to personify objects; his cars and trucks, pillow, all kinds of things. Yesterday was the cutest one by far. We were in Rocky Mountain House for the weekend visiting Pete's parents for Christmas, and after church we went sledding. While we were sledding, Nathan found a clump of snow that was all hard and stuck together. He named it "Snow Buddy" and carried it around everywhere we went outside. When we went into the house for supper, Snow Buddy sat on the front step right by the door. After supper we went for a walk to go see some Christmas lights, and Nathan carried Snow Buddy all the way there and back. He was sad that we couldn't take Snow Buddy home (he would melt in the car!), but we left him on the front step at Grandma and Grandpa's and Nathan said an adorable goodbye to him as we left.

Power of Positive Thinking

I was having a conversation that Zack overheard, and his positive (and innocent) mind put a smile on my face:
Me - "It was such a piece of... you know." (Making a face.)
Zack -"Cake! You said 'piece of' and I think you mean 'piece of cake!'"

A Big Challenge

This past month I had probably the biggest challenge of my floral career; to make wheat look good. I was asked by some leaders at the church to make massive wheat arrangements for the October 24th women's breakfast. When I said that I would take this on, I didn't realize that it would be really HARD. Nicole, one of the ladies that asked me to do this, ran behind the Jespersen's combine (she honestly had to run) and had gathered rubbermaid bins FULL of wheat. My job was to make something "harvest looking" (whatever that means) that could be used for the podium and registration tables. All I could use were the bins of wheat, and then some blue and white ribbon and some fake sunflower-type things to add a bit of color. It took me hours to do; wheat is really hard to work with. LOTS of mess and wheat slivers and I'm still finding random pieces of wheat around the kitchen. But I got them done and I'm pretty impressed with how they turned out. The first one below is the massive long vases with tied-up bunches, and then below that are the ones for the platform. They don't look that big, but everything was HUGE.

Dressing Up!

Batman and Optimus prime pose with their stash of newly-acquired halloween treats!

Finally!

I finally uploaded more pics off the camera, so here's some random shots of the recent goings-on in the Heinbuch house!

Zack and Nathan spend a great deal of time drawing at the kitchen table - making cards for everyone they know is what they do the most (probably something to do with me doing that too!).

Above: Zack drawing a police chase, the police car of course is making the siren sound, while the car being chased is yelling, "Aaaaah!" Love it.

Below: Nathan's first ever attempt at drawing letters - the ones in his name! Not bad for his first try!

Nathan hams it up in every shot - he is way too fun to take pictures of.Nathan with the aforementioned baby giraffe... How sweet and innocent he looks, yet you can still see the stinker inside.

Zack and my friend Erie's daughter Tara. They love eachother a lot. It's adorable.

They look so grown up in this picture! I love it.

For my birthday I made some cupcakes and they turned out really cool. I'm kind of a dork, making cupcakes for my own birthday, but it was fun.

Baby Giraffe

Nathan loves little things. He loves miniature versions of anything; gravitates to the cuteness, I think. Nathan's favorite friend is his baby giraffe. It's about the size of my palm, and Nathan got it as a happy meal toy over six months ago now. Baby giraffe is the one that sleeps in his arms every night and Nathan loves to bring him places. Nathan makes him talk in this tiny high-pitched baby voice, and he tells people that although he personally doesn't like kisses, baby giraffe loves them. He makes baby giraffe kiss everyone. Once when my cousin Dale was over, Nathan hit him with baby giraffe. When we disciplined Nathan, he said that it wasn't him but that baby giraffe hit Dale. Hmmmm. Nathan shows his soft-heartedness when he plays with baby giraffe, and when he's in bed waiting to fall asleep I can hear him talking with baby giraffe. Last night Pete and I were in the living room after the boys went to bed and heard Nathan singing "Bicycle Race" by Queen in baby giraffe's voice.

Show & Tell

Last week Zack had his first show and tell for kindergarten. Every week they focus on a new letter of the alphabet, so their mission for show and tell is to bring something that starts with the letter of the week. The letter of the week was D. Zack thought and thought about what to bring, but he was sad when he realized that all the other kids would be bringing dogs, dolls, and dinosaurs - things that he didn't really like anyway. So we brainstormed together, and for show and tell Zack danced. I would have loved to see it. He made a sign that said, "Zack is dancing!" and he did a break dance for his class. He was so happy to have done something different and totally unique.

Rice Christians

We were picking up Zack from school yesterday with my mom, and his teacher was talking about my mom doing chapel for the kids one Wednesday. Nathan was thinking about this word that he hadn't heard before, and then it clicked and he said, "Like Snap, Chapel, and Pop!"

Sigh...

On the way home from taking Zack to school this morning, I asked Nathan, "What do you want to do with Grandma today?" And he answered in his cute little voice, "Love."

Assorted

Zack will not start a conversation with someone unless they are giving him their complete and undivided attention. If there's any background noise, if we look at something else, if we take a bite of our supper, Zack will completely shut down and will not start or complete his story. Zack and Nathan were eating lunch, and I was cleaning up some dishes. Zack obviously wanted to tell Nathan something, but Nathan was having some of his juice when I heard (punctuated with intensely sad sounding sighs...), "Nathan, I wish you would stop drinking so you could listen to me. Please stop drinking."

* * * * * *
Nathan has been noticing and commenting on people's fashion. I never thought that he would stop being busy long enough to notice what people are wearing, nevermind actually saying something about it. On Tuesday at the church, Nathan saw my mom at Daybreak (mom's group), and he said to grandma, "THAT's a cute scarf!"

* * * * * *
Nathan is corporate America's dream child. He wants EVERYTHING that's advertised on TV. Everything from the slap chop to toys to cereal. He is currently obsessed with Cinnamon Toast Crunch. After seeing the ad for it, we were grocery shopping and Nathan convinced me to get some. The commercials for it are pretty fun, and I'm pretty sure that the only reason he eats it are because of the ads:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRv52A0D_Vc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cl57urqb9E&feature=related
He remembers quotes from commercials and I can hear him saying them when he's playing by himself with his cars or dinosaurs...

New School Life

The start of Kindergarten for Zack has been the beginning of a new routine for us. After all of us have been sleeping in til 9 or 10 in the morning since the boys were born, it's been quite a change to get up at 7:30. Nobody really has any sympathy for that... And I don't blame them. :) But we are now fairly settled into our new schedule. Mondays, Wednesdays, and every second Friday are school days, and Tuesdays are Daybreak at the church. It works out well though - we leave the house at the same time for both school and Daybreak.

The boys are doing really well with the change... on the days that Zack goes to school... Zack loves Kindergarten so much, just as we figured he would. And Nathan LOVES being home all day with just me. He plays all day so quietly, and when he's not playing he's on my lap reading stories. On Zack's first day of school Nathan and I read the entire Munschworks treasury in one sitting! When the boys are together on Zack's days off, they clash quite a bit now... Nathan enjoys having free reign of the toys and my complete attention, and Zack enjoys being a "big kid" that goes to school and learns more. So Zack has gotten WAY more bossy because he thinks he knows everything, and Nathan doesn't want Zack to play with anything! Obviously we're still working on the co-operation...

The First Big Injury...

So guess which one of our boys went to the hospital for stitches today...

Oh wait, we don't have to guess. We all know it's Nathan.

We had just returned home from dropping Zack off at school when Nathan tripped and went headlong (more like face-long) into one of the front steps. He looked up at me and could barely cry - his entire mouth was full of blood and his bottom lip looked like hamburger. His top teeth were loose and his gums were bleeding, too. My poor boy. So I ran in and grabbed a buttload of paper towel and we were off to the hospital. I'm sure that once Nathan is an adult he'll probably have his own chair in the waiting room there... Buuuut anyway. It's amazing how fast the emerg people help you when you bring in a wailing and bleeding child! Once we were in the room, Nathan was wrapped up swaddle-style so that his arms were pinned and he stayed perfectly still while the doctor froze his lip and gave him three stitches. He didn't move a muscle the whole time, I was so proud of him. The nurses were great and gave him lots of stickers, so that made him pretty happy. I expected him to want to go home and lay down, but then he told me that he wanted to go show Zack his stitches. What can I say? At least the little guy bounces back.

First Day

So this past week was the beginning of a new era in the Heinbuch household. Zack had his first day of Kindergarten. He's been wanting to go to school for so long, and his day finally arrived. He was elated the entire day, vibrating when I picked him up from all the excitement. Our little family is growing up. The picture below is of him in his new classroom.

Happy Heal-a-versary!

Well, this month marks one full year of being disease-free! Hooray for that. I'm so thankful that I barely remember what it's like to go out to eat and NOT be able to eat anything on the menu! I'm so thankful that I barely remember all those years of being in pain. Thank you Jesus for one of the greatest gifts - my health.

Our New Present

As if we didn't have more amazing things to say about our good friend Kyle, he came by with a present for our family. We now have our very own 50cc dirt bike to ride around, and for the boys to learn on. He brought it over saying that he wasn't using it and that we "might as well have it." The boys will never fail to know that Kyle is the coolest person in their little world. It's super fun to drive, by the way. No clutch, just gas and gears... Oh, and brakes (but Nathan doesn't use those - he he).

Buggy

Nathan's pretty crazy, but he's so soft-hearted. He spends the afternoons in the sprinkler and kiddie pool "rescuing" the bugs out of the water. With careful care, he takes a pool toy and scoops up the little critter. After making sure it's alive, he puts it on his hand or arm and sits down - watching intently - until the bug dries off and can crawl around. He watches it and sings to it; a soft lullaby of "buggy, buggy, buggy" over and over again. So sweet.

A Week Of Everything

Last week we had an adventure. Pete doesn't get time off in the summer (disadvantages of working in the road construction industry), so the boys and I took a trip down to Rocky Mountain House. Pete's parents invited us to come down for VBS for the week, and so we came. I helped out for the first 3 days in the grade 4-6 class. I had a blast with the kids. I came back to Spruce Grove without the boys on Wednesday afternoon so that I could do wedding flowers on Thursday for Friday pickup, and then Pete and I came back to Rocky on Saturday morning. It was a busy week, but we had a great time! I ended up getting a horrendous cold on wednesday night, which didn't help so much on Thursday - my flowers didn't come in on time! I started Thursday night at 11:00pm, went to bed at 3:45am, got up with Pete at 6:00am, and finished just in time for the flowers to get picked up Friday morning. A little crazy, but at least I got them done.

When Pete and I went to hang out on the weekend, we all went fishing. Rocky Mountain House has the cutest little stocked fishing pond just for kids, and it's right in town. Pete's dad got some old tackle boxes for the boys, and they loved having their own fishing stuff. Way too cute.

Zack's Prayers

Zack has been praying so poetically lately, and it's just making my heart smile so much. Last week, when we were in Rocky Mountain House, Pete's mom was putting Zack to bed. We all prayed together and Zack prayed, "... and help us to love everyone in the world, even the people that we don't know." He has definitely expanded his praying repertoire beyond the "usual" (whatever that is!). Just last night Pete was putting Zack to bed and he prayed, "Help mommy and daddy to find whatever they need in this world, even if they're not looking for it."

Transformers

I was taking random videos outside while we were playing in the sprinkler and kiddie pool. This is Nathan standing still enough for us to actually somewhat understand his words:

"Transformers, more than meets the eye (although "the eye" sounds more like "disguise"). Autobots waging battle to destroy the evil forces of the decepticons. (Siren sounds) Transformers. (Transforming sounds) Transformers. (Transforming sounds)"

Leaf!

Nathan has the CUTEST voice on the planet. I love to hear him talk. My favorite thing for him to say is "Mitsubishi" because he says, "Moo-soo-beee-sheeee." I've always asked him around other people, "Nathan, what kind of car does mommy drive?" just to get that answer. Well, as of Pete's birthday, he's changed that. We were out for supper with some friends that night, and I wanted Nathan to say it. And as most little children, he never wants to perform on command. He was being really silly and just saying random syllables all night, and when I asked him what kind of car we drive, his eyes lit up and he said, "Leaf!" We all laughed and he continued with being his silly little self. We expected this to be a passing moment of silliness, and we still ask him from time to time. But ever since that day, unless we catch him REALLY off guard, he grins his silly grin and says, "Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeaf!" and starts laughing hysterically.

Feeling Young AND Old

We've always known that God has been taking us down the road to becoming marriage counsellors. We've been sitting down with couples (mostly friends) and been doing light counselling for a couple of years now, and although we are really young, Pete and I have been through training and courses to become marriage mentors with the church. We felt really awkward at first, being 26 years old and at a marriage mentors meeting with mostly middle-aged and older couples, but they welcomed us with open arms and told us that we were supposed to be there. So over the past year, we've been training and reading and preparing. The marriage mentorship program is basically more experienced married couples coming alongside engaged and newly married couples to be examples, to pray for them, and to offer the wisdom of their experience. It's like pre-marital counselling but not with a pastor.

We got our first official mentorees this Monday. We hadn't met them before they sat down with us at our house. They originally seemed surprised at our age (they're in their thirties), but they soon were really comfortable with us. It all flowed so naturally, and it was a really exciting time. I've never felt so young and so old at the same time. It was a mix of both weird and fabulous.

At Last!

We are (finally) proud to report that our little Nathan is in underwear all day now! It is so exciting, I've been jumping up and down! He just finally started realizing when he's peeing and pooping, so that's making our life SO much easier. I'm so proud of him!

Rhyme Time

I had to make sure I told this story...

I had the boys with me in the car and we were running errands. Zack and Nathan were each taking turns picking random words and then saying what rhymes with them. Most of the time the rhymes involved making up new words, and it was really funny. And then it got funnier. Well, Nathan suggested that Zack rhyme with "kittens" and Zack said, "I know what rhymes with KITT-ens! SHITT-ens!" I just about peed my pants.

Upgrade

Pete and I were watching TV when a super low-budget commercial came on for "Ferrari Driving School." The voice talked about all the vehicles they'll teach you how to drive, and the end of the commercial had the president of the driving school out in a parking lot talking. Pete and I laughed SO much when the caption appeared with the president's name, Mr. Pinto. How ironic.

Proud Mommy

Yesterday we had our friend Kyle over for supper, and my heart smiled so much at the love my boys have for Jesus...

As we sat down to eat, right before we prayed, Zack said to Kyle, "Kyle, I know something very sad."
"What is so sad, Zack?" Kyle asked.
"You don't know Jesus." Zack answered sadly.
"You're right, I don't." Said Kyle.
"He lives high in the sky..." Zack started slowly.
"Maybe that's why I don't know Him." Kyle said.
"But He lives in my heart." Zack finished.

Then later, as we were putting the boys to bed, Nathan wanted Kyle to pray for him. Kyle looked at Nathan and said, "But I don't know how."
Nathan quickly sat up in his bed, and said, "Here's your lesson. Fold your hands like this. Then say: Dear Jesus, play hockey, Amen. That's it!"
So I said to Nathan, "So you're telling Kyle that all he needs to do is say 'Dear Jesus' and whatever he's thinking about, and then say 'Amen'. Right?"
"Yep! That's the lesson."
So Kyle reluctantly said, "Okay Nathan, I'll pray for you... Dear Jesus, please protect Nathan while he sleeps. Amen."
"Thank you Kyle," Nathan said, "I love you."

I love that my kids aren't afraid to say what is so hard for adults to convey. Thank You God for teaching Kyle the simplicity of prayer through my little boy.

Birthday Weekend

It's amazing how many people have birthdays from April through July! In our household, it's 75% of us (he he). It's crazy how fast the birthdays come - it's three quick booms, Zack then Nathan then Pete! This weekend was Pete's birthday. He had his birthday off (they made the guys work Canada Day and then gave them friday off for a long weekend - good trade!) so he spent the whole day with his friend Chris tearing apart his car (literally - there's no front end left, body and engine parts) to get it ready for Pete to turbo-charge it and add other cool racing parts like an intercooler and straight-pipe exhaust and other grey-area-barely-legal parts to make it go faster. So after he spent the day doing what he loves, the 4 of us went out for supper at Red Robin (Zack and Nathan's favorite restaurant) with Chris and his fiancee Brandy, and Kyle. We had a fun time and we were determined to make Pete as embarrassed as possible (HE says that...) and the waitress was happy to oblige - even some of the cooking staff came out to sing to Pete! It was hilarious.

The next day, keeping with the theme of the day before, Chris took Pete to the Rocky Mountain National drag races where from 8:30am to 11:00pm they got to watch crazy cool vehicles and eat steak. A true man's day (mind you I wouldn't have minded going at all...).

Yesterday we spent the day together and went to my Grandpa's 80th birthday party at Kinsmen Park. We had a great time, and Pete even brought his unicycle. The hills were sooo steep though - I've got some painful video footage of him wiping out. After that we came home to put the boys to bed and have some friends over and eat some cake. A great end to a fun weekend!

On Father's Day weekend we got Pete a pretty cool present for both his birthday and Father's Day. And what does Pete like better than car parts. So we got him catback exhaust for the car (which is nice - he gets to put it on, and I get to drive it!) which was received with so much excitement that it was installed the day we picked it up.

So Happy Birthday to Pete, my amazing husband that I love more and more every day.

Four Than Meets The Eye...

Nathan's birthday party was a success! We had an awesome time. Pretty much everyone gave Nathan something that transforms, so most of the pictures I took are of all the party guests concentrating on transforming the toys. Nathan is still wearing his party hat, even though the party was 2 days ago. He's the kind of kid that is so fun to watch at a party - he gets so excited about everything and everyone. He can't hold it in! Especially as the centre of attention!

My Boys Are Talking

I just got off the phone with Amanda, and was telling Pete about the conversation I had. I mentioned something about people going to the ballet, and the boys were listening in. Nathan asked what the ballet is:
Me - It's a type of show that you can go see with lots of dancers up on a stage.
Zack (interrupting) - And it's VERY, VERY boring.
It's funnier when you realize that I'm pretty sure Zack doesn't know what a ballet is either.

~~~~~~~~~~

We were at a leaders bbq at Beulah on Friday night, sitting down for dinner at a table with the four of us and my parents. Nathan looks over to my dad, scanning his name tag:
Nathan - Look, a "T" and an "I" and an "M." (Gestures with his hands out to the side) That's IT?! Just three?

~~~~~~~~~~

Nathan's prayers are usually telling Jesus how excited he is about specific upcoming plans. Up until Friday of last week, he spent the three weeks telling Jesus, "Dear Jesus, I'm going to Trevor, Tyler, and Caleb's house on June fifff, and we're going to play toys there!" Now that June fifth has passed, he tells Jesus about how excited he is to go to Grandma and Grandpa Heinbuch's house to sleep there and play toys. I'm not sure he gets it when we repeatedly mention that we're not going there until AUGUST! He just makes sure Jesus knows the plan.

Tales from the babysitter...

I needed a babysitter on Friday when I went to the women's retreat, so Erie came for the few hours before Pete got home from work. After a while, I got the following text from Erie:

Zack said, "You get to hang out with us! But if you leave we will be sad and the police will come because we can't be on our own."

Driving And Talking

Over the last couple of weeks, Nathan has begun a small obsession with healthy food. He constantly wants to know if things are healthy (he pronounces it with an 'f' instead of the 'th'). So whenever he eats we hear, "Are (insert whatever we're eating here) healthy?" And then we reply whether it is or not. If it's unhealthy, we tell him that it's not really good for our bodies and we shouldn't eat a whole lot of it, but it sure tastes yummy. Pete let Nathan try some cream soda last weekend and after getting his question answered that cream soda is definitely not healthy, Nathan said "But it sure is yummy!" He now knows the basic idea of whether things are healthy to eat or not, but he still asks every time. We were driving with my mom yesterday past Mac's, and he said "Grandma, we get a slurpee? Slurpees are not healthy, but I like them. Slurpees are yummy!" And Nathan's pronounciation of the words "Sur-pees" and "Hew-feee" are the most adorable part.

We were driving to Edmonton yesterday in my mom's car, and my mom and I were listening to the boys talking in the back seat. I couldn't even handle the cuteness.
Z - Grandma, you know who I'm going to marry? Christie Lee from my sunday school class.
N - And I going to marry Allison (a girl from class, too)...
(Pause)
N - Zack, are you going to miss me when I marry Allison?
Z - (Sadly) Yeah... (Long pause)
N - (Excitedly) You could come WITH me!
Z - Yeah!

Turning A Corner

The last two weeks have been the start of a change in my boys. They are getting older, more independent, asking deeper questions, and becoming their own little people. The change is so big in Nathan especially. Although he's a pretty crazy kid, Nathan has changed to 2 different "gears" in his playing. He's got his usual running and being busy, but now he has this independent and focused side. He is TOTALLY into Lego (the small stuff) now. He spends hours building things and playing with the people. Our day usually starts with him begging me repeatedly to get it all out for him. Then he asks me to build a house for him. Once I'm done (after many times repeating, "Are you DONE my house?"), he goes for it. He adds things on, he makes the little Lego people live in the house and talk to eachother. For hours all is quiet except for his adorable little whispering of the conversations in his world. It's the same for his cars and trucks - they all talk to eachother too. And then we go play outside and he is back to his busy, loud, active self. I must say I am LOVING this new stage of his life - it allows me to be a part of his play more. It's great.

FIVE??

Well today, April 29th, Zack turned five. I'm still processing that I have a five year-old child...

Crunchy Taco Skills

We had to run an errand yesterday and in the car (both there and back), Nathan repeated the phrase "Crunchy Tacos" the ENTIRE trip. Sometimes adding the word "skills" at the end. I often wonder which wheels are turning in his head to bring about this kind of result...

Cookies!

This past week I spent the better part of four days baking and decorating sugar cookies for the Wee College graduation at church. They turned out really cute!

Commercials...

So just in case you don't think that commercials get through to your kids...

Just recently discovered that we had it, the boys like to watch a channel we have called Teletoon Retro - a station that has all the old school cartoons; Bugs Bunny & Tweety, Alvin & the Chipmunks, The Raccoons, Flintstones, Jetsons, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Super Friends, and more... Unlike the Treehouse channel that doesn't have commercials, Retro has lots of them. I don't necessarily care whether there are or not, but it's definitely had an effect.

We were at Canadian Tire yesterday, and were walking down an aisle with cloths (dish cloths, towels, etc). Out of nowhere Zack says to me, "Mommy, 'Sham-wow' is not available in stores!"

Today Nathan randomly sang, "Harvey's makes your hamburger... a beautiful thing!"

My mom and I were talking about it (as she heard Nathan sing this and was laughing!) and she was reminded of how Josh and I used to sing commercials for LifeSavers candy.

Optimus the Sweetheart

When we were walking through the church parking lot on Saturday night, I was holding Nathan's hand. We were heading in for the Easter service, and I was wearing my white flowy skirt. Nathan looks up at me and says, "You're beautiful, Ratchet."

Zack's Drawing

Zack was just coloring at the kitchen table.
Me - Zack, what are you drawing? (Expecting something simple...)
Zack - A chrysalis, mommy. And when I'm finished coloring it, the butterfly will come out!

Just a second ago, Zack showed me his drawing. And there on a tree branch with leaves was a chrysalis.

Auntie Again!

Well, my brother Josh and his wife Jenny and their son Forest welcomed a baby girl into their home yesterday afternoon. Soleil Magnolia Zapf was 7 lbs 12 oz and was 19 and 1/2 inches. I can't wait to see this new little one. Click on their blog link on the right column for their post and pics.

A Long Time Coming

This past weekend was by far the best in a very long time. Pete and I have been talking to my parents about the boys having a sleepover with Grandma & Grandpa, and after scheduling conflicts it finally happened. We dropped the boys off on Friday afternoon, and the boys were elated to find out that they would be having supper AND sleeping there AND having breakfast, lunch, and supper too! We all met on Saturday night for church where Pete and I took the boys back home. It was wonderful. The boys couldn't have been happier to be there (I think Grandma was pretty excited too!), and Grandma even made them special meals that they LOVED. They will be talking about it for a long time! Pete and I were so happy to just de-stress from a high energy lifestyle - we had a leisurely evening and slept in late, went out for a quiet brunch and went on a beautiful walk. We didn't realize how badly we needed to just spend time together without all the craziness. It was so fantastic to just be US for a while. I think the boys and I were getting sick of eachother... But it felt so much better once we had a break. Thanks mom and dad for giving us more than you know!

Coloring

I'm not really that good of an artist, but at least my kids don't think I'm that bad... We were coloring/drawing with crayons on the kitchen table yesterday, and the boys wanted me to draw fish. So on seperate pieces of paper I drew them each a little fish in a fish bowl with rocks and seaweed and asked them what they wanted in the fish bowl. Nathan wanted a castle, and Zack wanted a ferris wheel. Then I asked them what to name their fish. As I was finishing Nathan's picture, I drew bubbles coming out of the fish's mouth, so he wanted to name him "Bubbles." Great name. Then Zack told me he wanted to name his fish "Phone." No reasons given, just wanted that name...

Family Cake

One day last week I really felt like baking, and I wanted to make cupcakes but ran out of wrappers. So I baked a cake and Zack asked me to decorate it. I asked what he wanted on it, and he said our family. After hinting that it might be too hard to draw our family, he said a tree. So I combined the two and came out with this. The boys wanted to know the occasion for having cake and I said, "It's not for anything, it's just cake for our family." Since then the boys have constantly been asking for "Family Cake."

"A Bad Day" by Zack

The long-awaited book has arrived. Written and illustrated by Zack (with Grandma's help writing it down).

And, here he is... the author:

I Want To Be...

After supper, Zack thoughtfully said, "Mommy, I want to be a truck-rider with a big load on the back when I'm big and older... Maybe sixty-four."

Lunch Conversation

We're having lunch today, and Zack was looking at his hand quietly... Then he looked at me and said, "Mommy, guess who just Facebooked-ed me on my hand computer?"
"I don't know Zack, who?" I replied.
"It was Auntie Manda," he said, "and her car broke down and is on fire! So the fire truck has to come and blow off the fire!"
"Where did her car break down?" Asked my mom.
"At the Hostible (Hospital)!"
"Really? Then what?"
"Then we'll take it to the car shop and get Auntie Manda a new Jeep that's orange with flames and a mad face. Then when she goes to the hostible she won't crash."

The End.

Hmmm....

Our Family

Amanda took this one of us, and I just love it. We were at my friend Erin's wedding. It's also where the kissing picture is from too!

More Pictures!

So here are some more shots of the past few months. Let's see what we've got! Here is the long-awaited picture of our beloved Scarfy the snowman. All I had were baby carrots in the fridge, so his nose is a bit small, but other than that, he worked out nicely! Say hello, Scarfy!

And here is our friend Petrol that we salamander-sat over the Christmas holidays. Nathan still misses him every once in a while. It was great having him around.Here is the IKEA art easel we got the boys for Christmas. Two sides for two times the fun!

Here are the boys at Monster Jam with their ear protection. I just love the way they squish Nathan's cheeks!

Catching up: Monster Jam Shots

So here we are at Monster Jam. Above is Nathan on Tyler's (Kyle's brother) quad. He was so busy being on cloud nine that he wouldn't even look at the camera! Below are Pete and the boys taking in the sights at the pit party before the show. And below that are the boys with "Arachnaphobia" and his driver. Just in case you didn't think that Monster Jam is a white-trash event, take a look at that mullet and I'm sure you'll change your mind! :)

Zack's Big Eyes

As I was doing some data entry yesterday, I told the boys that they could pick a movie to watch. Zack picked the Incredibles, and after he put it in he came to me.
"Mommy, the Incredibles has some scary parts..." Then Zack added, his eyes getting bigger and browner, "But I won't feel scared if we have popcorn..."

The Perfect Gift

Last week Pete had Kyle over, and we were all talking about how much Nathan likes Optimus Prime (seems to be in every conversation these days!). The next morning hanging on the front door was an Optimus Prime gift bag with a stuffed (and transformable!) Optimus Prime inside. On the bag was a note that said,
"Dear Mini Optimus Prime,
From your biggest fan, Optimus Prime.
P.S. - Transform and roll out!"
Nathan hasn't let go of his new best friend yet - little Optimus has gone everywhere. :) It seems that this winter has had a theme; our friend Kyle and just how great he is! What a blessing it is to have such amazing people in our lives.

A New Era

So I registered Zack for kindergarten yesterday. Wow. I was cuddling on the couch with him today, and we were talking about him going to school. I said, "Zack, what am I going to do when you go to school? We won't be able to cuddle."
"Don't worry mommy, I'll come back every day to cuddle with you."
*sniff*

Optimus Prime

Well, my little Nathan has an obsession. Even though he has never seen Transformers movies or anything, Nathan thinks about and talks about and pretends to be Optimus Prime. All the time. We told him that the movies and show is a little too scary for him, so he'll have to watch them when he gets bigger. He loves to play with the toy Optimus at my parents' place - it belonged to my brother when he was little! We bought him a shirt at Wal-mart with O.P. on it, and the second it comes out of the dryer he wears it until it's unbearably dirty. Then he asks me about it until I do the laundry again. Every day Nathan wakes up and tells us, "I'm Optimus Prime Nathan." He has tried to find out as much as he can about Transformers - he looks at the toys in the store, asks as many questions as possible, and we found Transformers fruit snacks. He clutched the box of fruit snacks from the aisle to the cashier, then the cashier gave it back and he hugged it all the way home. He has decided to name our family after the other Autobots. Zack is Bumblebee, daddy is Ironhide, and I'm Ratchet. We went all day today with those as our names. We were on our way to Costco, and Pete and I heard Nathan talking to himself in the back seat...
"I'm Optimus PRIME! Optimus Prime walks like this: BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! I'm going to sing an Optimus Prime song. (Pause) Optimuuus Priiiiiiiiiiiiiime our heeeero! Heeeee's a cooool robot!"

Our New Hero

So the boys now have a new hero (but still second to Kyle, of course!) and it's Kyle's brother, Tyler.

We had Kyle over one evening, and as Pete and Kyle were turning on the TV to play some Wii, there was a commercial for Monster Jam happening in Edmonton. Pete said that we'd love to take the boys to go see the monster trucks. Well, it just so happens that Kyle's brother Tyler tours with Monster Jam in the "Quad Wars" portion of the show. So Kyle told Tyler that we'd love to go, and next thing we knew Tyler showed up at our house with 4 free tickets and pit passes for all of us. Wow! So yesterday we got to go to Rexall Place, meet all the monster truck drivers and quad drivers (the boys ran right up to Tyler and hugged him - so cute!), AND see all of the monster trucks up close. Then we had a picnic lunch in the car and went back in to see the show. They had ear muffs on that Pete grabbed from work, and they were completely mesmerized by the trucks. We got to cheer for Tyler to win the quad races, and cheer for the Batman monster truck. It was great! Once our computer comes back, I'll post some pictures of the boys there!

So needless to say it was an amazing day, and what a blessing it is to have friends that treat us like their own family! Thank you Tyler!!

Nathan the Optimist

One day after a particularily harsh freakout from Zack, I saw Nathan come up to Zack on the couch. Zack's eyes were red from crying, and he was still pouting from being angry. Nathan came up close and looked into his face and said, "Zack. Don't be mad. Don't be sad. Be... Happy!"
It didn't really help Zack, but it was really cute.

Convicting

Allow me to be serious for a moment.

At daybreak (my mom's group at Beulah), I decided to take a study called "Lord, Change My Attitude." I would highly recommend it. It's pretty in-depth, but very amazing. The first week was very convicting, and made me so aware of things.

The first week session was about complaining. Complaining is expressing dissatisfaction with a circumstance that is not wrong, and about which we're doing nothing to correct. It was really eye-opening to read in the old testament what God felt and did about His people's complaining. The writer then talked about what we are telling God when we complain. It's so easy in amongst the goodness of life to get caught on one thing. When we complain about that one thing, we're telling God that He's not enough. We're telling God that although we have tremendous blessings from Him, He's not powerful enough to take care of it. God doesn't want His children to complain about their lot in life. "Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, 'It is well, it is well with my soul.'" That song went through my head a lot that week. God uses our hardship to perfect our souls, and when we complain about it, we're basically telling the Master of the universe that He's not doing His job. Ouch. So next time when we're thinking, "My life is ruined!" it might be time to thank God for what we do have. Which is SO much.

More Recapping...

So here we are. More random things on our lives for the last little bit.

* * *
Last Saturday as we were all hanging out in Zack's room, we were all playing and the boys were getting dressed. Then, after some time, Zack said to us, "Mommy and Daddy, I'm going to sing a song to you. It's the 12 days of Christmas, okay?"
Looking at eachother with a questioning glance, Pete and I said, "Go for it, Zack!"
Then Zack proceeded to sing the ENTIRE 12 days of Christmas without stopping or stuttering. Pete and I gazed at him, our jaws on the floor! We hadn't sang that song since Christmas eve at my Grandma's house, and at that time he didn't know beyond the second day of Christmas. We asked, "Zack, that was AMAZING!!! How did you learn and remember that?"
Nonchalantly, he replied, "I just practiced it in my bed."
So now he is very proud to sing the song to anyone willing to listen. It's pretty amazing. I still can't believe he can do it. The "Fiiiiiiiiiiive Gooooooooolden Rrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiings" is my favorite.

* * *
I should give you an update on the truck... It's still dead. It's engineless outer shell is sitting in the yard at Pete's shop, and now he's gone through 2 engines that had the promise of working but turned out to be duds. Luckily we still have a few more options we can explore, and hopefully we can figure them out without losing too much more money! I have no idea what we'd do if Pete wasn't a mechanic! Thank goodness he is! :)

* * *
Still no computer. But the computer news is good! My cousin Dale is amazing with computers. In University computer engineering, he was the one fixing his classmates' computers. So I called him and he came over to see our ailing piece of hardware. His diagnosis was much better than we thought, so he took it home and it should be as good as new with all my old pictures and info too! Yay Dale! :)

* * *
The boys are doing awesome - Nathan is still doing crazy and cute things all day. He's still nuts about his cars, but he'll do anything if he gets the chance. Zack is starting to read now as well as write, and we're registering him for kindergarten soon (aaah!).

Random Recap

Well, lots has happened, and the reason I haven't reported most of it is because our computer crashed - ouch!! So hopefully I can get it fixed, and if not we'll be stuck for now... So here's a couple of random cute things to tide you over until I can post some pictures and get a computer back!

* * *

On Christmas eve, we were all having a conversation at my Grandma's house during supper. Zack heard me talking about my dad's grey hair, and he said, "Mommy, why is Grandpa's hair grey?"
"Well Zack, when people get really smart, their hair turns grey."
Thinking that this was a sufficient answer (not to mention a complement to my dad), we carried on with supper. After we opened presents, Zack was playing with a new puzzle that he got. He was doing so great, and I commented that he's so smart. Well, Zack turned to me in dismay, his eyes filled with tears, and he said, "But mommy, I'm NOT smart. My hair's not grey, so I can't be smart." And then he started to cry. Oh dear.

* * *

Well, the inevitable happened, and after a year and a half of being with us, our poor truck Harold died. His crankshaft broke in half and broke the engine block in the process, so Pete has been frantically finding parts to rebuild a new engine so that we will be back to two vehicles soon. It's sad that he's spent every free day of Christmas holidays doing it, but hopefully the new engine will be together soon!

On another slightly frustrating note, because of the constant cold temperatures of below minus 20, our pipes have been freezing! This results in our bathtubs (the lowest drains in the house) filling up with raw sewage, and Pete freezing his butt off outside under the house with a heat gun on the exit pipes. *sigh* Poor Pete - not the Christmas vacation he imagined!

* * *

We had a whirlwind Christmas - 5 straight days of dinners, presents, and family! It was busy, but we all had a great time. The boys sure got a lot of presents - clothes, toys, a new bike for Nathan, a regulation sized hockey net for Zack, an art easel, marble works, to name a few. Pete and I both were spoiled with wonderful gifts as well - my top three favorite gifts are:
A Waffle Iron (now that I can actually eat them!)
A Sewing Machine
A georgeous star necklace with swarovski crystals
Pete got lots of tools (yay), clothes, and some fun video games that all of us can play. We had a spectacular time with everyone, and we are still getting over it! :)

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Hope you have a great New Year, and I'll try and keep everyone up to date soon!