Just in case you're still checking up on our blog, I'm sad (and kinda happy) to say that I won't be posting any more...for a while, at least. Our computer refuses to connect to the internet and we've decided we like it that way! Every month the amount of spare time we have becomes more and more limited, and quite frankly, I can't afford to spend that time on the internet anymore! So instead of the blog, I'll be sending a monthly update letter by snail mail to Rob's family so they can keep up to date with their only grandchildren. If there are any of you out there who are overwhelmed with grief by the prospect of not keeping up to date with the growth of our family and children, leave a comment....perhaps I can send you a letter, too. :) But you must be overwhelmed with grief or else I can't justify the postage.
Who knows, mybe I'll be back sooner than expected. I'll keep ya posted! Bye for now, friends!
Monday, September 07, 2009
Monday, August 03, 2009
A HOUSE FOR THE BALFOURS!!
Well I stole away to my parents' computer room so I could share our wonderful news with all our friends (our internet's still down):
As of last wednesday, we are finally home-owners!
In February of this year we began to pray for a house. And then we waited. And prayed. And waited. And then about two weeks ago we officially started looking...quite certain that God already had a house picked out for us - we just needed to find it.
On Saturday of last week we went to look at two houses. Both of them were alright, but they were over our budget, and they both needed a lot of work - two ingredients for disaster. After looking at the second house we felt a bit discouraged, wondering just how long this journey was going to take, and if there was actually anything out there in our price range.
So we went onto the yard of this house and were chatting with our real estate agent and my parents when my Uncle Ron and Aunt Jo drove past. They happen to live two doors down the street, so they waved us over to chat.
Very shortly into our conversation they shared that they had just put in an offer on a house that they loved. I eyed their house and with a hesitant hope in my heart asked, "How much are you thinking of selling your house for?" (and I was thinking much, much more than our budget.)
When they shared with us their asking price our jaws dropped - because it was EXACTLY our budget...only their house is bigger and better than anything we had imagined we could afford!
In fact, it's a 5 bedroom split level home!!
Within a few days, everything was settled...and we are the happy new owners of a home that goes above and beyond what we ever imagined. God is so faithful. Can hardly wait to have y'all over!!
p.s. We needed a washer and dryer for this house and recently began to pray about that. Today we moved our new washer and dryer - in great condition - which we paid FIFTY dollars for - to our future garage. FIFTY DOLLARS! We do serve an awesome God!
Monday, July 20, 2009
BC Trip
Wow, I must be in summer holiday mode.
It’s very rare that I have to report news from two weeks ago, but sadly, that’s the case today! It’s been two weeks now since we got back from our extremely WONDERFUL trip to Vernon, B.C. It was refreshing (as refreshing as a trip with two small kids can be), and full of family, friends and of course, fun!
The kids are blessed with two sets of wonderful grandparents. I am always amazed to watch them reconnect with their BC grandparents as though no time has passed at all. In this case, we hadn’t seen Rob’s folks for almost a year. Yet before we even left the airport on arrival, Ellie and Grandma were stuck like glue, and before bedtime that first night Joshua was asking to be held by Grandpa.
That being said, when I was sorting through the photos of our trip, I could NOT figure out how to minimize them to a number small enough to make a reasonably sized blog post. So I decided to simply post my favourite photos of the kids with their treasured BC Grandparents…two of God’s best gifts in our lives!












(p.s. for those of you with Facebook accounts, I posted the rest of our holiday photos there)
It’s very rare that I have to report news from two weeks ago, but sadly, that’s the case today! It’s been two weeks now since we got back from our extremely WONDERFUL trip to Vernon, B.C. It was refreshing (as refreshing as a trip with two small kids can be), and full of family, friends and of course, fun!
That being said, when I was sorting through the photos of our trip, I could NOT figure out how to minimize them to a number small enough to make a reasonably sized blog post. So I decided to simply post my favourite photos of the kids with their treasured BC Grandparents…two of God’s best gifts in our lives!
(p.s. for those of you with Facebook accounts, I posted the rest of our holiday photos there)
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Father's Day @ the Zoo
Father's day was a smashing good time this year. Due to the pajama nature of our home photos (and not much time to post this)...I'll skip straight to the zoo part of the day. We loved it so much last year, we decided to do it again this year! As always, the zoo was a great place for the kids to be cute and excited so that this mom could take a bunch of pictures. :) I think I may have forgotten to look at the animals.
Joshua is currently the best poser in the family.
Waiting in line. They weren't quite as patient as they look. :)
Friday, June 19, 2009
Summer Lovin'! (few words necessary)
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Growing up
Well, it's been a changing week in the Balfour household...for the two littlest Balfours, anyways. There's been three major developments since your last update:
1.
As of yesterday, at the ripe old age of 17 months and 4 days, Joshua finally became an official walker! Yes, I know I posted a video of him walking towards the camera AGES ago, but that's about all he's done since then. Not that he didn't love walking. He was quite obsessed with and persistent about going for "a WAW!" (a walk) many times during the day (particularly when outside) but would refuse to do so without my index finger squeezed in between his drooly little fingers. Everyone commented on how steady he was, yet he showed no signs of wanting to do it permanently on his own.
Well, Saturday while I was at work (of course!) the Lord answered a prayer I had prayed just that morning. Early in the day I had asked him for a miracle for each one of us (since God is in the business of miracles!), and for Joshua I asked for the miracle of confidence and a desire to walk on his own. I wasn't feeling particularly disturbed or concerned about him not walking, but I had a feeling he would be over the moon if he had a bit more independence.
(The old Joshua)
Wouldn't you know, later that afternoon Joshua began walking by himself at the park! At the end of the day when my little family came to pick me up from Hallmark, my jaw hung on the floor as I saw him walking the hallway of the mall...on his own! Life is already completely different. As I'm doing dishes or cooking supper Joshua tirelessly walks 'the circle' (through the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, back to the kitchen). When he enters he proudly yells "BOO!" or "HIYEE!". And as he leaves he yells, "BYE-BYE!" He seriously couldn't be more proud of himself. Today I went to the library with the kids, and for the first time spent a good amount of time chasing after a giggling Joshua, ripping up and down the aisles. I'm going to have to figure out a way to get the child to 'COME'...he's far too excited to listen! (any ideas out there? Ellie always stuck pretty close.)So, within two days of him walking, he figured out how to walk backwards, run, and walk with a juice cup hanging out of his mouth and something in each hand. He also enjoys walking over obstacles (like blankets) and stepping off small steps. Silly kid! Talk about waiting longer than necessary!
The next major development has to do with Ellie's hair. :) On Thursday morning Ellie and I were scheduled to go for a "haircut date" while leaving Joshua at a friend's house. Ellie LOVES going to the hairdressers, so I usually try to make an occasion of it. Well, Wednesday night I was thinking about this upcoming appointment and with a little nausea in the pit of my belly, decided that it was probably time to cut Ellie's hair short. The hair elastics I've been using (the only ones that stay in) have been tearing Ellie's hair, and she's also been harvesting a whole new crop of wispy shorter hairs that don't fit into any ponytail or braid...which leaves her hair in extreme disarray about 20 minutes after I try combing it! So I talked to Rob - and Ellie - and we all decided it was time for....A BOB! Here are the before and after pictures:
3. And lastly, and this one was the best thing of all! Thursday afternoon Ellie decided to ask Jesus into her heart! For those of you who might be unfamiliar, "if you confess with your mouth 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9) Somewhere along the way folks began using the term 'asking Jesus into your heart' as a way of choosing him to be Lord of your life. Well, after being at our friends' house that day (and Ellie heard Auntie Brenda explaining how her son Justice had asked Jesus into his heart) I suppose Ellie thought it was time to make this decision! I was downstairs putting Joshua down for a nap when Ellie got on the potty and sat there waiting for me to come back and wipe her bum. When I came upstairs she called out from the bathroom, "Mommy, Guess what! I asked JESUS into my heart!" My initial reaction was that she had simply been copying what she heard. So I went in and asked her, "What did it sound like?" And she readjusted herself on the potty so she wouldn't fall in, folded her hands and squeezed her eyes tightly shut and said, "Lord Jesus, please come live in my heart. AMEN. Like THAT Mommy!" And the angels in heaven celebrated...because that's what they do whenever anyone makes that best decision of their lives! I pray that little seed in Ellie's heart will sprout into a lifelong commitment to walking close with God, because that is what she was made to do, and there's nothing in the world that compares to the joy found in knowing Him!!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Youch!
The following two days I blew up till my cheeks looked and felt like they were going to bust open. I seriously looked like some sort of alien creature, or in Rob's words, "Like you let loose for six months and only ate frosting." Hehe! Someone called our house on Monday and talked to Ellie, who told them mommy was resting at Nana's house because, "her cheeks blowed up." I refused to get my picture taken on those days, because every time I looked in a mirror I felt like crying (and sometimes did). Anyhow, I didn't actually write this post to complain. I'm now on day 4 and am still swollen, but mostly just bruised and sleepy and somewhat drugged up. So I haven't had the space of mind to blog. Excuse number two, in addition to our internet still being on the fritz!
Will post more updates on the cute ones in the family when my brain is off drugs!
Friday, May 15, 2009
The sun will come out tomorrow!! (we hope)
Sorry about the slackiness in blog posts lately...but our internet crashed. And we're not trying to fix it. Some days it drives me absolutely mental that I can't look up the weather forecast or see pictures of Lisa's gorgeous new baby....but mostly it's been wonderful. I didn't think I spent much time on the internet, but I'm truly getting a lot more done without it! Naptimes are actually more refreshing without Facebook! Huh! Who would have guessed! ANYHOW, I'm at my parents' place now, and I will continue to post from here every two weeks or so until we decide to get the computer problem fixed.
For today I've decided to post all our happiest memories from the last two weeks. If I were to post pictures of today there would be SNOWFLAKES - that's right - SNOWFLAKES in the picture! We are totally experiencing Manitoba at it's worst! But we have had some beautiful days and some beautiful fun. (p.s. I just noticed that Joshua is wearing the same thing in every photo. No, these aren't all taken on the same day! The child can walk, but chooses to crawl. His little track suit is saving the life of all his pants :) Just in case y'all were wondering!)
Enjoy!
A Saturday's grocery shopping trip for picnic food and a morning at the park!
A Saturday's grocery shopping trip for picnic food and a morning at the park!
Random fun:
Joshua + Sippy Cup = True Love
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Ellie-isms Part IV
One of Ellie's favourite games to play (fairly regularly) is Miriam and Moses. Any time she spies an empty basket, the temptation proves to be too much for her. She quickly locates any willing candidate to be Moses (in this case, "Pink Piggy"), drapes her blanky over her head and becomes his big sister Miriam:
Another favourite activity is role-playing the story of Zacchaeus and Jesus (from Luke 19 if you're not familiar with it.) Usually it's Ellie who climbs up onto the top of the chair and yells for "Jesus" to come catch her (any one of us will do). In this particular case she decided Rob needed to be Zacchaeus in the tree:
And some other excerpts from Ellie's journal...
Ellie: "Ellie Joy MRS. Balfour!"
(Any old Raffi fans out there?)
"Nope!
He's not in trouble.
He's just playing with the CASTRATOR."
Saturday, April 25, 2009
For Grandpa on his 90th Birthday
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