Busy Week!

Hi Folks! Sorry for the late post but this is turning out to be a very busy week. Rob and Ellie are in our friends' wedding this weekend, so it's only going to get busier! We'll post more about that next week, but in the meantime, here's a (somewhat lame) Balfour video to keep you entertained :) Enjoy!

Valentine's Day

Hey All! Did you have a great Valentine's weekend?
Mine was...interesting.

Friday night it began with a trip - by myself! - to the mall in Winnipeg to try and find a dress for an upcoming wedding that Rob and Ellie are both a part of. Perhaps this wasn't really part of Valentine's day, but it's a cool story, so bear with me. :)

My old black dress wasn't fitting quite right since the kids were born, and the only other one I own is my maternity dress. No thanks! So it was high time to find a new dress...something I was not looking forward to. It's not much fun shopping for something that one doesn't really enjoy wearing, you know? ANYHOW, before I left Rob and I discussed my budget and he gave me quite a high number just in case I ended up having to buy new EVERYTHING (underwear, etc.) along with the dress. I told him not to worry, that I was aiming for a dress around $50.

So I got to the mall, asked God to please help me out, took a deep breath, and then hit just about every store that might have a dress in it. To no avail. I tried on three dresses but they all sucked. All the salespeople seemed too busy to help. Finally when I got to the last store I desperately prayed, "Jesus, please send someone to help me! Apparently I don't know how to find a dress on my own."

And then I started at the beginning again, at a store called Smart Set. Wouldn't you know, someone (finally!) came to help me...a young saleslady. I'm pretty sure she'll never forget the look of desperation on my face when I told her my plight. She didn't seem too concerned. In fact, she looked almost excited to help a poor special needs shopper like myself. She led me up to a rack of dresses I hadn't seen on my first trek around the mall and said, "How about this one?" And pulled out a dress that...I actually liked! And in my size (which is almost impossible to find)!
So I went to try it on, and as I hung it on the peg in the wall I noticed the price tag: $50.00. Not $49.99. Nope. FIVE. ZERO. Exactly the number I had told Rob. And I knew that yet again, God had answered His child's cry for help. In buying a silly dress, of all things. He really does care about the small details of our lives.
So, not only does this dress fit like it was sewn for me, but it's MODEST and I won't have to worry about flashing people as I chase after Ellie all day. I also got a camesole for underneath, a necklace, pantihose and new shoes all for about $100. Hopefully it stays in style for at least 10 years, because that's about how often I'd like to go shopping for a dress. :) Unless, of course, the shopping trip goes like this one did.

So Saturday I worked all day selling cheesy white teddy bears holding red hearts to expectant boyfriends and tired husbands desperately hoping that they were buying their women the gift of their dreams. It was interesting taking note of all the different attitudes these men held towards romancing their girls! Some were obviously begrudging the fact that they were in a gift store. Others were downright nervous. The best ones had a twinkle in their eye and said things like "Every day is Valentine's day with my wife!" Okay. There was only one that said that. Anyhow...

I was curious if Rob would have anything planned for our Valentine's evening, seeing as he was preaching the next morning and his sermon wasn't done yet. We don't usually put a lot of effort into Valentine's day, so I wasn't expecting much.

We got home and I found out that Joshua had made me his very own special Valentine's gift - a broken lamp (thanks Joshua)! And Rob had done his best to make a Valentine's meal for the family...a casserole which is now affectionately called, "Fiasco Casserole." You see, the broken lamp incident happened right in the middle of the casserole preparations...resulting in some ginormously overdone noodles, some rock hard ground beef...and well, I won't get into the rest. I totally appreciated Rob's effort. :)

It's an interesting thing, being married to a teacher/preacher. Rob, knowing that he wasn't going to have any time to do anything for Valentine's that night but still wanting me to feel special, quickly threw three old sunflower seeds from the top shelf of our cupboard into an envelope. Then he scribbled, "Happy Valentine's Day" on the outside. He could have just said, "Don't worry, Darling, I have something planned for us for tomorrow". But instead he told me to put the seeds in a cup of water...and that if I was patient, they would grow. (i.e. he had three things planned for Valentine's day, but I'd have to wait.) Perhaps a bit of a half-baked illustration, but I would certainly give him points for effort! :) He is a very sweet guy.

So Sunday I got my first "seed". Rob took me out for dinner to our favourite local restaurant and we had a wonderful time talking about deep and not-so-deep things, and later after we put the kids to bed we watched a movie, something we haven't had time to do in a loong time. It was perfect. Apparently there are two more seeds to come yet, so I'll have to let you know what they turn out to be!

Yikes. This is turning out to be a long post with very few photos. Apologies to my more visually-oriented friends out there. Here's a few pictures to make up for my long-windedness:

Ellie and I spent a lot of time writing out her Valentine's cards, and I was very surprised when (I guess after practicing her name so many times) she suddenly did this:

I had to coach her which letters came in what order, of course, but what a neat milestone to witness her reaching!

I didn't find time this week to bake my all-time favourite cookies, but was super blessed when my mom gave us a whole bag full of them for our Valentine's treat!
The kids were pretty pumped, too.

So anyways, I'll leave you with a few of Ellie and Joshua's 1 and 3 year photos (taken by a friend) that are currently being sent to all you Balfours and Fargeys along with Ellie's valentines!


P.S. comments have been few and far in between lately so I'll leave my quiet friends out there with a question to answer: what was your favourite part of Valentine's Day this year?

A weekend away!

This past weekend Rob and I had our first weekend away from the kids since Ellie was born! A good chunk of the adults in our church (123 people) packed up and went to a retreat centre called Wilderness Edge, in a town called Pinawa (about 1.5 hours away from where we live). There are no words to describe how amazing this weekend was. Even though I got barely any sleep, I came home super refreshed...there's something to be said for having all your meals cooked and cleaned for you, and for not having to worry about feeding anyone but yourself! But besides the obvious refreshment that comes from a little break from parenthood, the most refreshing thing was that God's presence was absolutely tangible the entire weekend. He spoke in amazing ways and touched a lot of hearts, including my own. I have a feeling life might not ever be the same.

Rob and I also thoroughly enjoyed having a whole chunk of time to ourselves.We used our spare time on Saturday afternoon to go for a walk. Rob had it set in his mind that we needed to tromp through a field of snow. "It's too deep!" I insisted. "Look, you can see the grass sticking through the snow", says Rob. "Those are small trees," I says. But being the submissive wife I am, I follow Rob into the snow and proceeded to fall flat on my face because the snow was actually up over my knees. Hehe. That's my body print in the snow behind me in this picture:

This is a picture of Rob being sat on by me in the snow as punishment:

After we warmed up we spent the rest of the afternoon playing games with friends:

This was the "old folks" table. My parents are sitting towards the back. :)

Later we spotted a deer in the parking lot outside. Apparently Pinawa is full of them.
The food was delicious...but there were some mixed feelings about seeing the actual pig before we ate it!
Whenever we got homesick we grabbed a few hugs from the most adorable Ezra Micklefield.
And I think only the people who were on the retreat could have a true appreciation for this photo. This is one of our pastors, Dave, throwing me a chocolate mint. Dave has a thing for chocolate mints. (It hit me on the arm about one second later.)

As great as it was to be away, we were downright excited to be back with the kids again. There's no place like home!

My Birthday Party (Joshua's take on it all)

Hi everyone. I'm here to tell you about my first birthday party. My mom saw those frog napkins at Hallmark where she works and figured she'd throw me a frog party. She even drawed frogs on my cupcakes, but they didn't look much like frogs to me!!The day before my party daddy surprised mommy by decorating the house while she was at work. He sure knows how to make her day!

We got bored waiting for the party to start so Ellie gave me a most excellent birthday gift to help pass the time! A DRUM! Daddy is teaching me new skills every day.

Then the party started. For some reason everyone kept wearing these silly glasses. First my cousin Regan:Then my crazy uncle Jon...

And Ellie too. I think the glasses got stepped on and broken by the end of the night. Which is good, or they probably would have stuck them on me too.

Uncle Jon is one of my favourite guys in the whole world. He's got lots of skills....like wiggling his ears and making the best faces in town!Auntie Karla, Regan and Ellie had fun watching videos of Regan.

This is my little cousin Drew, who is pretty cute if you ask me! We're going to wrestle together one day.

And then it was SUPPER TIME! My favourite time of day. Ellie and Regan got to sit at their own table...

...because our apartment is a little squishy.

We had one of my best foods - SPAGHETTI! Here I am getting tired of waiting for my cupcake.

Uncle Nathan got tired of waiting for his cupcake, too. I'm not sure WHAT exactly he did to my Grandpa...

But Grandpa sure didn't like it!!

Finally, CUPCAKE TIME! The glowy thing on top was awe-inspiring.

I didn't know if I was actually allowed to EAT this messy goodness! Everyone kept taking pictures so I just kept on smiling.

Mostly I just sticked my fingers in the icing. It felt reeeal good.

After mommy helped me get some in my belly, I started to feel really full...

Enough, I said! Enough! And no more pictures, either!!

Ellie liked hers better. Mostly she just ate the icing, though.

And finally it was PRESENTS time!! Regan and Ellie were very...uh...helpful.

I think Mommy and Grandpa both have a thing for 'capturing the moment'. It must be genetic.
I liked all my presents, but especially my new police car from Nana and Grandpa.

Sometimes the best presents aren't presents at all! This lion birthday card was super fun to pull to pieces.

Boy, was I ever tired after that. What a great idea, this whole 'birthday' thing. I think I'll do it again next year!

Birthday Footage

I posted these two videos primarily with Rob's family in mind. For the rest of you friends (who are mostly young moms), I truly don't expect you spend 12 minutes of your (limited and valuable) free time watching my kid's birthday footage. :)

First is a video of Joshua (and mostly Ellie) receiving the gift you sent, Susan. (It's kind of funny how excited Ellie gets about the fishing rod, even though she's using it upside down and it's not working :)



This is a video of Joshua's party. The only people present were my immediate family, since our apartment is pretty much too small for any guests beyond that!



We wish you could have been here, Mom and Dad! xoxo

Happy FIRST birthday, Joshua!

Well, it's a little late, but it probably will be every year. We decided to push Joshua's birthday celebration back to the end of January so that everyone could have a chance to recover from Christmas first. Having a birthday on January 2nd may not be the biggest blessing Joshua will have in life as (outside our own little family) it'll probably get overlooked regularly. But January 2nd will always be one of my absolute favourite days and I'll never forget it:

What an amazing thing to have a son. This little guy was the perfect fit into our little family from day one.
The year has not been perfect, oh no, it hasn't.
Although Joshua has a pretty laid-back disposition, the last 12 months have been laden with thrush, numerous colds, the flu, difficulty teething, slow mobility and other things that have created many scenarios similar to above. Nope. We've had our fair share of tears this year!
But Joshua's early and most excellent smile made it all 100% worth it!!
And the smiles have only increased in size and number and so have the kisses we can't help but smother him with!

This month as I've thought about Joshua's birth, my heart has been truly celebrating. I am convinced that God hand-picks who our kids our going to be not only for what they will be and do for His glory, but also for what they do to their parents! Because Joshua has not always been a happy boy, I have learned a new level of patience and unconditional love. God has spoken to me so often through Joshua's tears about how to draw close to people when they're broken instead of turning away. God knew I needed a boy who prefers and learns baby sign language much more quickly than words, so that I would begin to think more about what comes out of my (rapidly-moving)mouth and see how much value there is in silence. God also knew how much JOY Joshua's exceptional smile, giggle, and sense of humor would bring to my heart. Joshua, you will never know how deeply we love you. I thank God for the gift you are to us every day.

p.s. I was going to post Joshua's birthday party photos today too, but it's gotten late and I'm fighting a cold...so I think I'll wait until later in the week. Check back Thursday or Friday for the long-awaited "devouring of the cupcake" video and photos.