It was an outdoor wedding and blazing hot, but thankfully we were in a mostly shaded area, so no one fainted or anything!

After the rehearsal going smoothly the morning before, I wasn’t concerned at how the wedding would go. Lorelei had only met my cousin once before when she was a baby, so she didn’t remember her at all! Lorelei was happy to go with her and with the little ring bearer whom she hadn’t met before either! As Lorelei and the little boy walked across the grass, they started wandering off to the side in their own little world. We had to call them to walk down the actual aisle. I guess they were a little confused because there had been no chairs at the rehearsal and they COULD just wander wherever. Oh well, they did their job…they were cute!

We had a lot of fun leading up to the wedding as well because most of our clan all stayed at the same college residence, so we were able to meals together and spend time together. The girls especially enjoyed one particular cousin who came all the way from Switzerland!

The drive home took FOREVER! We left at 10:30 in the morning and didn’t get home until 10:30 at night! There was a LOT of traffic on the 401, so after inching along for awhile, we decided to take back roads. I’m glad we did that because, although it took longer, it was relatively stress-free! So we were beat when we got home, but it was worth it for the good weekend that was had!

Much of my life is spent doing childcare. Okay, all of my life is childcare, but on Monday and Thursday mornings I spend half the morning looking after other people’s children at New Tribes Mission. I help look after the children of students who are training to be tribal church planters. It’s a fun time for me because I get out of the house and my kids LOVE it. Every morning Lorelei asks if we get to go to childcare and both her and Delna get extremely disappointed if we don’t end up going, usually because of sickness.

It’s a nice set-up — there are three rooms side by side so I have one of my children in each.  I’m normally in with the toddlers, but every-so-often I end up with the babies and last year I was 3 days a week with the pre-schoolers — so I’m fairly comfortable in any of the rooms.  It’s nice for the children too because when they have the same workers fairly consistently, it gives them a sense that all is right in the world.  I really enjoy getting to know the children and their parents through this ministry.  Definitely a highlight of the week!

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!

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!

The police officer was kind enough to knock the offense down to 60 in a 50 km/h. It was on a fairly rural road, with homes only on one side of the road. The speed limit along there kept going from 80 km/h to 50 km/h and back, so I think he knew what he was doing, waiting for us at that particular spot.

Angie’s embarrassing moment was soon over-shadowed by one of Jason’s.

When we got to the hotel, we realized that when we had dropped Delena and Lorelei off at the sitter’s, that Jason had unpacked a little too much. Myelle’s bag was no longer with us. No clothes. No diapers. No snugli. Thankfully Angie had two outfits in Myelle’s diaper bag, which was still with us, and we were able to buy some diapers.

Embarrassing moments out of the way, we had a really relaxing two nights away in Wallaceburg, ON. Co-workers of ours, Wes and Brenda Dyck, were so kind to keep Delena and Lorelei for us.

While Angie’s favourite part about the hotel was the extremely large pool, Jason liked that our room came with supper one night, and breakfast both mornings!

On the way home to Durham, we were able to stop in and wish our mother’s a “Happy Mother’s Day” and do a little bit of shopping! Both Delena and Lorelei were thrilled to see us too! All said and done, it ended up being a very restful weekend, once we got beyond the shaky start.

Not losing any sleep over upgrading from a crib to a bed.

With the new baby coming, we thought we’d better step it up a notch in Lorelei’s growing up process.

First, get rid of the soother

Three weeks ago we decided it was time for the soother to go. I think we would have gotten rid of it regardless of the baby coming because this is about the time when Delena’s went in the garbage! I kept putting off the process because I knew she was pretty attached to it, but Delena helped me get it over with. I had told Delena that we would probably be getting rid of the soother once we came back from Nana’s (after our trip to Florida) and I hadn’t done it yet, so she kept asking me about it. Finally, I decided I would make it happen on a Thursday so that if crying ensued, we wouldn’t have to get up the next morning for preschool.

Well, it didn’t quite happen that way! On Wednesday, after Lorelei woke up from her nap, Delena asked Lorelei if she wanted to put her soother in the garbage. The answer, of course, was a firm shake of the head. A few minutes later, snack was mentioned, so the girls hurried towards the kitchen. Delena asked Lorelei again, while holding open the garbage lid, and this time, I’m sure with snack being on her mind, Lorelei quickly popped out her soother and in it went. Easy as pie! Of course, 15 min later, Lorelei was poking her head back in the garbage, but there was no soother to be found as I had quickly hid it while the girls ate their snack! There were a few days of tears, but she has moved on now.

Then get rid of the crib

This past weekend we decided it was time for the next transition –into the toddler bed! This one definitely would not even have been attempted yet if it weren’t for the baby coming, but we thought we’d see how it went. The first night went great! She laid down without a fuss. The next afternoon was a different story! It was Saturday afternoon, so Jason offered to listen while I had a nap. I went into the bedroom where the dehumidifier was running so I heard nothing! Jason fell asleep in the living room, so when he heard noises, he just got Lorelei up from her “nap”. It wasn’t until later that he realized that not enough time had passed for her to have had a nap! I also noticed, when I got up, that her bottom clothes drawer was totally emptied!

Bedtimes have continued to go fairly well, probably because it’s dark, but nap times seem to be more of a struggle. I think we may have to hide the diaper pail because we’ve caught her carrying around diapers in her room. I even discovered a diaper hidden under the covers at bedtime – a diaper I had already put back in the pail after I’d caught her with it in the first place! But, all in all, she’s doing quite well growing up!

What next? Potty training!