Christmas in May - Thanks Tom and Farzad!! :)

Micah Celebrates 1 Year of Livin'!

 So this Saturday marks 1 year since Micah Daniel Jacob made his entrance into the world during a crazy May rainstorm. I will never forget that moment for a few reasons: 1. It really was a CRAZY rainstorm - in fact, awesome would be a good word to describe it! 2. I really don't like surprises, and I knew I was having a boy, so I was extra excited to meet him! and 3. The presence of Jesus was so incredibly strong in the delivery room. Talk about experiencing peace in the middle of pain! It still takes my breathe away.

 This year, like all baby's first years, has had it's ups and downs, but mostly ups. Micah is a

joy and a delight

and has all of us madly in love with him. He is peaceful and independent and when crossed, has a temper like the rainstorm mentioned earlier. :) He enjoys pulling our un-nailed baseboards off the wall, throwing food on the floor and poking Joshy's eyes. He still army crawls, and it's impossible to lose Micah because he grunts wherever he goes (quite the workout). He gives the best hugs ever, and very occasionally regales us with his few words, 'Dada', 'Mama', 'wow' and 'ba' (balloon). He loves to dance, clap, laugh and WRESTLE!

 But most of all Micah likes to watch.
And around here, there's plenty of action!

Needless to say, Micah's life is worth celebrating, so this past weekend, that's what we did! (however, I will sheepishly admit that with every birthday party I plan, the less effort I put in. This particular party didn't even have a THEME. WHAT is HAPPENING to me?!)

 The weather cleared up right when my family arrived, so we hung out outside for a while. Here's Josh and his best chair/uncle, Jon:

My, they're in tune with one another!

 Josh will steal a snuggle whenever he gets the chance!

 My nephew Drew showing off his belly button. This kid makes me giggle!

Micah's friend Emily didn't want to leave her mom's lap for fear of bugs. That's what these long winters do to the poor children: they forget what bugs are.

 Ellie and Regan sharing some secret cousin humour:

 Those freckles make me want to kiss her!

We all shared a quick and easy 'faspa' type supper:

 And opened presents:

 Micah's stunned tissue-paper-heaven face:

 As always, the big kids had the most fun!

 And lastly, introducing Micah to the excellent world of cupcakes. He was too entranced by the singing to notice at first, though:

 "Hey, what is this? Feels gross."

 "Ewwww...."

 "Ma, are you sure I'm supposed to EAT this stuff?"

 "Yeah, okay, you've convinced me!!!"

 Micah, I love you more than words can say!

I am so looking forward to the ups (and downs) your second year will bring.

xoxo

Mommy

Happy Mother's Day, Grandma!

We wish you were closer so we could hug you! Instead we threw together this little song and dance to let you know how special you are to us! Hope you have a wonderful, joyful Mother's Day!!

A(nother) Season of Change

Well, this week marks exactly five years since we moved back to Manitoba from B.C... and for those of you who don't already know, God has decided that it's time to mix things up a little in our lives. Our close friend and pastor Andrew has decided to take on the job of Principal at a Christian School in a nearby city. It was a complete shock to him and to all of us...but sometimes that's just how God does things. :) So last week Rob said goodbye to his long-time desk job at Valeant, and on Sunday he had his first day as

team-leading

PASTOR

of our church, Calvary Chapel.

We feel so blessed and excited (along with a fair share of fear and trembling) to embark on this adventure together and with our much-loved church family. We are very aware that we are not able, but He is more than able!!

Our good friends Greg (and his wife Michelle) have been hired on at the same time (Greg as administrative pastor. We've never had one of those before!)  and our associate pastor Dave is also staying on staff...so we both feel surrounded and encouraged and well, quite stoked.

To all our praying friends and family, please join with us in praying that God would accomplish everything He wants to in our church and in our city as Rob learns to love and lead this congregation of quite amazing people. Our desire is to be faithful, to run this race well, and to see Jesus glorified!!

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!" 

Ephesians 3:20, 21

Funny child vs. Stubborn Mom

So Micah's figured out he's a third born child, and desperate to prove that he too can participate in the jolly chaos of the home, has adopted a new face:

 Boy does that face make us giggle!

He uses is for all sorts of attention getting...like when he's in the church nursery and spots me through the window. On one particular Sunday most of the row behind me was holding in their laughter as this little clown stared me down with this face. HOW could I NOT go pick him up?

He's also learned to use this face for evil and not for good by becoming the 'class clown', so to speak. 

"Micah!" I say sweetly, secretly...okay, not so secretly... hoping Micah will learn to talk one day because we ignore him so often, "Micah, say MA. MA. Mama. Say Mama!"

Micah:

"No Micah, that's super cute and silly, but say 'Mama'. C'mon! MAMA! Mama!"

Micah:

He gets us every time. He's been doing it for two weeks and we still laugh.
I truly thought that he'd forever think that the goof face and 'mama' were one and the same ...

Until yesterday. He said it! "Mom. Mom. Mom." He had a plugged nose so I wondered if that had something to do with it and it was some sort of fluke.  He still has a plugged nose, and it could still be a fluke, except he says it when I pick him up and he hugs me and touches my hair and says, "Mom. Mom. Mom." And suddenly all those wiggly diaper changes and sleepless nights and shnotty noses and food on the floor and puked on shirts are just WORTH it. He knows who loves him.
Mom.

True, I'd prefer 'Mama' or 'Mommy' or something that indicates he's 11 months old and not a small, army-crawling teenager, but hey, beggars can't be choosers! :)

And so...stubborn mom wins again!

P.S. That was supposed to be the end of this post...but then Micah added a new element to this act.
Ladies and gentleman, I give you
Funny Face Meets Dinner and a Nasty Cold Virus! :

 Check out the snot mixed with spaghetti sauce. Yummy.

Dinner is great, Ma! Just great!

 I love you to the moon and back, Micah!

One very quiet Quiet Time...

Yesterday after one very quiet Quiet Time, I saw this little face smiling at me through the window of the toy room door:

I went and had a good belly laugh privately and then put on my best stern face and went downstairs. Josh was hiding behind the couch. He has a decent conscience.

When he popped his head up all he had to say was,

"Yeah but Mommy...I wanted to be a lion!"

(Note: It was washable.)

(One more note: He did it again today.)

Micah on the Move!

Well, this post (like all the upcoming ones) is a little overdue, since Micah's been on the move for nearly a month. Ever loyal to the Balfour way of doing things, he's late at learning to move, and he's adopted the army crawl as his means of doing so.

I actually don't mind one bit that he's a slow learner.

Because he's really mischievous!

Outlets and staircases, for instance, are his favourite.

He's starting to rock on all fours now, and I know I'm going to be in real trouble when he actually starts crawling!

Yesterday I let Josh and Ellie each play with ONE marble on their marble race track. That equals TWO marbles. Easy to keep track of, right? WRONG! I ran upstairs to get something, then ran straight back down and said, "Where's your two marbles guys?" We found ONE.

And I looked at Micah.

Who smiled at me with a slightly bulging cheek.

Little Stinker.

Yes, folks, Micah's on the move.

And so is his MOM. :)

Poetry

Finally! I figured out a way to get a video on my blog! In celebration of this accomplishment, here's a video that makes me giggle every time I watch it (but I'm his mom): Josh, reciting a poem with a severely plugged up nose.

Party Time

Since Ellie's been talking about her 5th birthday party for at least half a year, I figured it deserved a post all its own. After much deliberating, Ellie and I agreed on an Easter theme for her birthday party this year. (Thanks, Dollarama, for putting your Easter things out insanely early! You saved us from the inevitable fairy/princess theme!)

I think it was all Ellie hoped it would be!

It was really tough for her, but Ellie finally picked 5 of her many beautiful friends to invite (I'm not a huge screaming girl party fan..5 seemed reasonable. Selfish? Maybe!)

Regan, Ellie's "best cousin" and a sure friend to have hours of uninterrupted fun with!

Erica, fellow princess and a precious spitfire of a girl!

Chloe, special friend since near-birth and fellow classmate at our homeschool co-op.

Acacia, only 3 1/2 but going on 5...just as chatty as Ellie and super sweet!

And last but not least, Alexandra, another sweet friend since birth and

always sure to make up a game Ellie didn't think of. :)

The day before the party Josh received this purple shirt as a gift. Recently he's declared that pink and purple are his new favourite colours. So he fit right in, no problems.

After some Easter egg painting and an easter hunt (too busy to take pictures!), we opened gifts. Ellie couldn't have been more pleased with the gifts her friends kindly brought. She was especially pumped that one 'somehow' knew to bring the fake flowers she'd been hoping for:

It was almost magical watching the expressions on her face!

After all was said and done, Ellie turned to me and said, "SEE Mom? I TOLD you this would be the best birthday party in the whole world!!"

Phew! Mission accomplished! :)