February Firsts

I'm calling this blog 'February Firsts' for lack of a better title.

No too many extraordinary FIRST-ish things actually happened in February. Rather, a bunch of very ordinary, often insignificant, "life in the day of a mom" firsts happened...and a couple really cool ones.

So 'firsts' it will be. :)

Please sit back and enjoy our  month of firsts:

1. We went skating at the outdoor rink for the first time. Well, two of us did. The rest just came along for the ride. Uh....I mean slide.

I love it that Rob loves taking them skating.

Ellie has become quite comfortable on the ice. :)

 2. Micah discovered the cutlery drawer for the first time. This keeps him by my side while I do dishes (as opposed to in the toilet or on the piano). This is a good thing. :) The other thing he loves is if I give him a bowl of suds and a spoon (or in Micah lingo, "bubbo" and a "moon").

 3. Elianna got her FIRST report card!! When we told her it was report card day she asked, "Is that like a credit card?" Well, kinda...no. Not really. But we're super excited that God has wired you for school and you couldn't be doing any better!! What a great first report card experience!

(We're going on five consecutive years of her dressing crazy...I think it may be permanent!)

 4. Josh and Micah created their first masterpiece together. This is the first time Micah didn't try drawing on the table for fun. He thinks outside the box (and paper) that one does!

 5. Ellie and Josh gave themselves numerical value for the first time. Josh was worth 25 cents for the day...

 ...and Ellie could be bought for just 10 cents! I snatched up that deal in a quick hurry. I think I'll keep them. What a great deal.

 6. Micah started telling on himself for the first time. This is actually an answer to prayer.

I asked Jesus to increase Micah's conscience so he'd have a better awareness of when he was doing something dangerous or naughty. The very next day I heard, "Mooooom! Mooommmm!!!" from another room. There was Micah standing with a pencil in hand, ready to draw on some furniture.

Within a day I hear again, "Moooommmm! Mooommmmm!" and there's Micah standing on a table, yes, tattling on himself. On a different occasion I hear Micah calling right before he was going to put his hand in the toilet...again. And yet again when he was smearing his food all over the place, and continues to rat himself out daily. Coincidence? Not at all. Jesus loves to get involved with our children. I am always amazed by His creative ways of answering prayer. :)

 7. Ellie and Josh decided they liked tomato soup for the first time. And that it tastes better through a straw. And even better when out of the same cup! Whatever floats your boats, kids! :)

 8. Bapa braided Ellie's hair for the first time. I'm not really sure how that came about. All I know is it made her day. What a great Bapa.

9. My kids suddenly became 'broccoli monsters' for the first time. Man did we eat broccoli. Unfortunately, the phase has already passed. Next up: asparagus? 

10. Micah started singing and playing piano simultaneously for the first time. He puts on quite a show, if you can decipher his songs. (Favourites include 'High', also known as "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and "A a apple", also known as The Phonics Song.) Micah just loves the 'nano' (also known as a 'piano').

11. We put together our very first bunk bed with LOTS of really helpful help from the kids. :) Currently Ellie and Josh are enjoying it to the max (Josh doesn't even mind that he's in a pink bedroom for the time being)...but as soon as Micah's a bit older it'll be the Boy Bed.

12. Ellie and Josh had their first chance to hold a newborn during this particular pregnancy. I think it's safe to say that baby number 4 will NOT run out of cuddles. (This little guy is Casey...a super cute little heart melter!)

13. Our yard was COMPLETELY covered in snow...and REALLY covered...for the first time this winter! It was beautiful.

The kids loved it, and were even a little overwhelmed at times by the sheer amount of snow trickling down their backs and sneaking into their boots. Micah would lose his balance and fall over, then quietly say, "woof woof" and crawl away, almost as though he was trying to salvage some dignity by pretending he was a dog who MEANT to fall over and crawl. Hehe!

14. Our sewer backed up for the first time, a blessing in disguise. We had been praying about wether or not to redo our bottom level for some time now. It hadn't been touched since 1960 and was affectionately dubbed, "the dungeon"...a space we didn't really use for much besides storage. TOO MUCH storage. So since the back up we've been purging and tossing and are getting ready for a complete renovation down there. We're going to rip out a wall and turn two small nearly unusable rooms into one large master suite (reading nook included!) for Rob and I, and give the kids the top level floor of bedrooms. This will enable our family to grow to six with room for everyone to sleep! And it's even a little bit covered by insurance. :) Here's Ellie, thrilled to have been given one of my old bibles I discovered hiding down there...a pink one, of course. How cool to hear her reading Proverbs to her brothers while I make breakfast!

15. And lastly, Rob and I are currently on our very first extended getaway since having kids! Thanks to my precious, irreplaceable mom and dad who are watching the kids, Rob and I have the chance to rest/relax/shop/read/cook/walk/talk/sleep/drive around in Minneapolis for five nights. We feel spoiled rotten! We're staying in a cute little apartment and doing pretty much whatever we feel like doing when we feel like doing it. UNHEARD of!

We even went and bought Rob new glasses...on a whim...because he needed them...and we had TIME!

Doesn't he look sharp?

Today is our last day and that's good, because we're really beginning to miss our chatty little cute-faces at home. So today we'll go visit John Piper's church (for the first time, in case you're taking notes) and take in some downtown shops...and then home we go tomorrow!

OH! WAIT! One more first!!

16.

This month, our

very favourite first

was seeing our tiny baby's face for the very first time.

And finding out, for the very first time,

that we are having a GIRL! :)

The whole family smitten. 

So thankful to Jesus for all His blessings!

Fabulous FOUR!!

Every year I tell myself, "Keep it simple, Jacki."

Every year I can't seem to do it. 

I LOVE using birthdays as an opportunity to show our kids - through celebrating - how glad we are that they are in our lives.

Joshy turning FOUR was no exception.

So try as I did to keep it simple, we still ended up with three celebrations

...and I'm not sad about it at all :)

January 2nd

Because Josh's birthday is so close to Christmas, we don't ever throw him his party that day. However, to leave the day empty just wouldn't be right....especially now that his big sister can read a calendar and delights in giving countdowns to big special days. So we played lego and went sledding and threw him a little family party.

Ellie decided it should be a 'dress-up' party...so this is how she dressed:

Fancy, of course.

Josh, however, heard 'dress-up' and came to dinner looking like this: 

Dressed like a puppy. :)
This puppy got to choose our meal, and chose hotdogs, french fries, and veggies (this kid loves his veggies!!! Fills my heart with joy! :)

 Micah came dressed up as...himself.

We actually don't do gifts for our kids birthdays (more on this later), but decided that since it was so long until we were going to take Josh on his birthday date, he should have something little to open on his special day.

So we got him a gun.

Rob likes it too.

Josh didn't mind that his mom is no cake decorator.
It was chocolate, and that's all that really matters.

We love this boy. This year I'm realizing how great it is that he was born 2 days overdue.
Had he been born 2 days earlier, he would be going to school this fall....and I'd miss out on a whole extra year of hilarious views on God and the world, super sweet encouragements, and some of the best hugs ever.

The Date

So like I was saying, we don't really get our kids gifts for their birthdays anymore: we create memories instead. So about a week after Josh's birthday we took him on his much-anticipated birthday date, just Rob, myself and him...

To the MUSEUM.
He was so totally excited. He grabbed a 'map' (wasn't really) and became our self-designated tour guide, following the arrows on the carpet with great gusto, leading us through the museum, and stopping only for displays that were exceptionally interesting.

Like the buffalo:

The butterflies (at this point he wished Ellie were along):

The fossils:

And the DINOSAURS!

I forced him to stop and look at this one, because I think it's cool:

Then we reached...the BOAT.
Joshy morphed when we got into that boat.
Not only was he then our tour guide, but also became 'Captain Jack Sparrow' (for the record, he has no clue who that is) and stayed in character for the remainder of the museum.

We've actually never been through a museum (led by a marching, four-year-old pirate) so quickly. 

So we went downstairs and thought we'd try out the science centre, not totally sure if Josh would be old enough to enjoy it.

He was old enough.
So many things there seemed as though they were made for a kid wired just like him.

Time for dinner! Rob and I chose the Salisbury House, not so much for the food, but for the fact that it sits on a bridge over top a river. Totally a Josh thing. (However, there are no parking lots on this bridge so it was one coooooooold walk to the door!!)

Totally blurry picture, but it captures the essence of the meal. We actually got there 5 minutes before closing, and thankfully had a compassionate waitress who didn't want to wreck a four-year-old's special birthday meal, and let us stay. So we had the restaurant pretty much to ourselves.

What did Josh choose? Hotdogs (again). Gourmet in 4 year-old land! :)

Wanting to do one last special thing, and knowing Josh's love language is SUGAR, we stopped at a donut joint for dessert.

One terrific date with one terrific kid!!

The Party

Originally Josh decided he'd like a birthday party with the theme, "Bulldozers at the zoo." HA! Try making a cake of that!! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Balfour (who sent him some pirate lego as a gift) he changed his theme to PIRATES.
Friendly pirates, of course.

Here's him and Ellie decorating a pirate poster for the wall, exuberant about the party to come:

Josh's birthday party day prayer at breakfast: "Dear Jesus, I pray we have the greatest day, and that all the kids will have lovely times and the greatest journeys. Amen."

I could not have said it better. :)

Very thankful for a dear friend for providing the (wonderfully done) cake!

The finished wall masterpiece:

Party time! I told Josh he could invite four friends (plus cousins) since he was turning four. He chose William, Emily, Maybeth, and Abigail...all siblings from one family, all of them like brother and sisters to him. 

One happy pirate!

I was so thankful Rob took over the treasure hunt, and even made a treasure map, burnt edges and water marks included.

Did I mention he's really good at pirate lingo?

Cake time!

Josh received some stellar dress-up clothes as gifts. 

Micah didn't want to be left out of the dressing-up fun:

Even Nana was a sport, letting me decorate her face. 

All in all I think that was the funnest (and loudest) party we've ever had!

We love you to pieces, four year old Josh!