Also since then, our baby turned one! Myelle had her first birthday on March 30. That same week, only a few days earlier, she decided that she was done with the whole crawling stage. She still will crawl every once in a while, but our little one-year-old walks all over the place. She really likes crawling up and down our stairs too and tries, desperately, to keep up with her older sisters.

She was the typical child as far as cake-eating goes and had it all over her face as the pictures show. What the pictures don’t show is all the neon-pink icing that is smeared into her nice white church stockings! You’d think I’d remember by the third child that I should remove all clothing for the cake event! Thankfully it all came out in the wash!

The next thing on the calendar was Easter. This past weekend we had a four day weekend. Something unusual happened…we didn’t have ANYTHING planned for Friday OR Saturday! We had two days in a row with just our family. Okay, so there was ONE little thing planned –an Easter Egg hunt over at Delena’s school. We took the neighbour girl with us so I stuck with her and Delena while Jason had the two younger girls in a different section. They all came home with a basket of goodies, and, of course, they got to see the ‘Easter Bunny’.

The two days were cold, but sunny days, so we went for a family walk the one afternoon and played in the park and the next afternoon we drove up to Walter’s Falls and walked the trails there. We need that relaxing time as the next two days were filled with people. On Sunday we drove down to Jason’s mom’s place after church. We re-celebrated Delena and Myelle’s birthdays, as well as, a few other family members birthdays. There was LOTS of cake to be had, plus an Easter egg hunt which provided us with plenty of chocolate.

Monday was my family Easter which was turned into a surprise 40^th birthday brunch for one of my cousins. We ended up having close to 30 people and my cousin was completely surprised. What a great way to end the weekend!

This week is Norm’s first week in the office. Norm is my new co-worker. We are sharing an office, so we appreciate your prayers as we settle into what that means.

On the weekend a co-worker in the office let everyone know they are moving on the end of May. They were tribal missionaries in North Asia, then worked in the home office. They were with NTM Canada for some 16 years I think. So they will be leaving a hole.

Tomorrow some co-workers are going to Toronto to invite some Chinese pastors and elders to an NTM informational event on April 24th. I am involved in promoting this event on the 24th. Please pray that I keep balance with all that I am responsible for. Yesterday was a little overwhelming.

Thanks for praying!

On the long weekend in February, after a lot of preparation, Jason, along with co-workers, hosted a Chinese youth group from Toronto. The group arrived late Saturday night and stayed until Sunday after lunch. Everyone had a great time.

Friday night they did some role-playing where they ate some things they didn’t recognize. Then Saturday morning they talked about the importance of communicating clearly across cultures. After a few brave souls went tobogganing Saturday afternoon, everyone spent the evening in a tribal hut around a fire talking with Pete Humphreys, a veteran missionary, about the challenges to planting a church in an isolated tribal group. The Sunday morning, Angie’s brother, Sean, wrapped up the weekend with a challenge out of Habakkuk.

All weekend long, the youth were exposed to NTM and tribal church planting!

Jason is still up in the air with his health.  He has a Dr.’s appointment on February 17, so please pray that we would get some direction from the doctor. In the meantime, we suspect that Jason has Crohn’s on top of the Celiac Disease, so we’re trying to limit his fibre and his stress.  He’s been doing very well at not opening his laptop at home to do office work and is taking time to read for enjoyment and I think it is helping some.

Delena recently brought home a certificate saying that she knows all her letters – upper and lower case.  The teacher has also started sending home little readers.  It’s so fun to see her recognize words!

Lorelei is at the age of potty-training.  She’s very consistent at telling me when she has to go, but she doesn’t like to tell anyone else if I’m not around, so we’re working on that!

Myelle is SO close to walking!  Just yesterday, she took her first steps!

Here she is on her way down – if you didn’t know better, you might think she knew how to dance already!

We spent Boxing Day with Jason’s Mom and all his siblings.

Then the 27^th we were back at home in order to have Jason’s Dad over to our place. Each day came with a turkey dinner and, of course, there were lots of leftovers to follow! It was also nice that Jason could have a few days off between Christmas and New Years where we didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything!

New Year’s Eve we were home with a few family members and we managed to make it until midnight! It was a short night though with church in the morning!

The next week we had a nice surprise and my cousin was able to come for a visit with her two boys. We’ve stayed at their place a number of times, so it was nice to have them to our place for a change. I got to take them all for the winter version of the ‘Jungle Camp’ tour. I think the kids just liked building the snowman at the end of the tour. They didn’t really care too much for trudging through the snow, but at least they all slept well after that!

Yep, the bridge can hold their weight!

Julie and her boys had never been to Jungle Camp

That week there was also free skating each afternoon at the Durham Arena, so we decided we should attempt to take all the kids skating. Ever been skating with a 1, 2, 3, and 4 year old? That doesn’t even include Myelle! Jason and my brother both came with us to help and it still took us a half hour to get everyone’s skates on! That left us with a half hour to skate, but that was enough. Thankfully some friends were at the arena and one of them graciously watched Myelle on the sidelines and another one helped Lorelei out quite a bit. By the end of the time, the kids were just starting to get the hang of things and we forgot our camera, so we decided to try again the next day.

Lorelei showing us how it is done. Not bad for being the first time on skates.

eventually Delena did catch onto how to use the pilon

Our second round of skating, Jason stayed home with Myelle and just two adults took the four kids. Again, a half hour of lacing, but the allotted skating time was longer, so we could actually be on the ice for a full hour. This time we took lots pictures and the kids did a lot better!