Just in case you're still checking...

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!

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!

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!

Thanks, Mom and Dad for a wonderful, unforgettable time.

(p.s. for those of you with Facebook accounts, I posted the rest of our holiday photos there)

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.

Waiting for everyone to show up.

Joshua is currently the best poser in the family.

Waiting in line. They weren't quite as patient as they look. :)

Checking out the bears.

One super auntie.

Joshua shows the bear who's boss!

He relates strongly to things that growl.

It'll be a while before they get their drivers.

Hehe...they almost lost their lunches!

Nana couldn't resist renting the safari jeep. I think it paid off, Dad. :)

Regan on the camel she bailed from shortly after.

Josh trying to feed his hat to the camels.

Mr. Independent. Holding hands was not on the menu that day.

Totally captivated by the zebras. Me, captivated by their captivation.

Mr. Smiles (a.k.a. Drew)

Auntie Dana is always good for an adventure...like peacock chasing, for instance.

After the entire zoo, they still had enough energy for jumping high.

You are a wonderful Dad and Grandpa, and we love you!!

Summer Lovin'! (few words necessary)

A sunny afternoon with our friend Kiera.

Josh drinks any liquid he can find. It's a little scary at times.

Bubbles!

Josh is a super helper. :)

Snack time!

Walkin' time!

Going...going...

Gone!

Ellie dressed herself that day.

Josh washing my floors. :) And his hair.
I don't think he drank this stuff...while I was looking, anyways.

"A DAH!" (A truck)

Garage sale finds...a.k.a. 'treasures'. Nana's a bit of a sucker and buys them whatever they feast their little eyes on. :)

Cleaning a garage sale treasure.

Cleaning the front door.

Watering everything in sight!

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.)

(The new Joshua)

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!

2.
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:

(Ellie before)

(Ellie after..she wasn't much into posing that day :)

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!!

Youch!

I can see now why they call them WISDOM teeth - because it would be much WISER to keep them in! On Saturday I went under the knife and got all four wisdom teeth removed. I refused to think about what was going to happen ahead of time, and good thing, too. If I had known how hard this resulting week was going to be, I would have been a ball of nerves! My pride told me I was going to be one of those 'tough cookies' that was eating steak the night after surgery. NOPE! Apparently 'Jacki' and 'tough cookie' are no longer synonymous (if they ever were). The picture above was taken the day of the surgery, when my swelling was still minor. I slept most of that day and night, as the anesthetic took a loooong time to wear off.

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!

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!

Random fun:

The overwhelming enthusiasm of a little boy permitted to play with water!

What happens when Ellie combs her own hair. :)

Joshua + Sippy Cup = True Love

My favourite girl on this planet!
The messiest boy on this planet!

An evening at Southwood School park:




"Hey there. Like my soother?"


The perfect end to a great evening: Dairy Queen!


Mother's Day wiener roast in Sandilands:

Ellie making Nana eat her homemade pretend soup.

Doing 'guy stuff'.
My birthday pie!!! YUMMMMM!!!

Surprise, Nana!!

Writing out Nana's card.

These two are inseparable!

Quite pleased about the Dorito chips!

The adorable Drew!!


Ellie conning Auntie Dana into eating her homemade pretend soup.
Jon and Dexter.

Sweet cousins!

Ellie-isms Part IV

As Ellie grows she continues to distract us from the fact that we don't have TV in the house - because she is the entertainment! (along with her side-kick Josh, of course. I'm sure I'll be doing Josh-isms any day now with the amount of spunk, humor, and cuteness he is currently displaying).

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:

They had me giggling when "Zacchaeus" jumped into "Jesus'" arms.

And some other excerpts from Ellie's journal...

Mommy: "Ellie, what is your full name?"
Ellie: "Ellie Joy MRS. Balfour!"
Ellie's take on the four seasons: "Now comes snow, then spring, then fall and then GRASS!"

To Rob, upon finding my bra lying on my bed (while I was at work): "*Gasp* Look! It's mommy's BOOBY thing!"

One morning I turned on some praise and worship music to listen to. Ellie asked if I was going to listen to Brain Doerksen (Rob's favourite). "Nope," I replied,"I'm going to listen to Kathryn Scott." Ellie thought about this for a while and then said, "My worship leader is called RAFFI."
(Any old Raffi fans out there?)

One afternoon Ellie was playing pretend with Rob, who was feeling rather sluggish and wouldn't get off the couch. So Ellie improvised: "You can be 'Mr. On-The-Couch' and I will be 'Mrs. Mommy-In-The-Whole-Wide-World.'"

One can tell very easily that Ellie is a firstborn girl who has had no exposure to guns. She loves to play camping. And there's always a bear that comes along. Ellie bravely goes out to 'hunt' the bear (having heard the word 'hunt' before), and proceeds to jump around yelling "HUNT! HUNT! HUNT!" She's always a little unsure what to do with her hands. I love it. I wonder how long until Josh teaches her how it's really done? :)

Ever since she received one for her birthday, Ellie has had an unusual way of pronouncing the word "cash register". One day Ellie, Rob and I were all in the kitchen getting supper ready one when I realized that Josh was being very quiet by himself in the living room. "Ellie," I said, "Could you go to the living room and make sure Joshua isn't getting into trouble?" "I'll go see," says Ellie. So she took a few steps, peered into the living room and said,
"Nope!
He's not in trouble.
He's just playing with the CASTRATOR."

For Grandpa on his 90th Birthday

Hi Grandpa,

We're really sorry we couldn't be there for your party. Instead, Rob tapped into the poet within and made this little video in your honor. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Lots of love,
Rob and Jacki and Josh and Ellie
p.s. The quality is quite poor. We couldn't seem to get it to run any better.