Monster Jam!!!

Part of Lincoln's birthday present was to take him to the Monster Jam show. When we told him, he was pretty excited. Keziah? Not so much. Well, to be more exact......not at all. I debated staying behind with her while the boys went, but I just couldn't. I love, love, LOVE this type of stuff and so I was not willing to pass up on an opportunity to watch the Monster Trucks. We told Kez that she was going, whether she liked it or not and then she will never have to go again if she doesn't want to.

Well, guess who loved it??!?!

She was very disgusted with Grave Digger and Zombie - wouldn't even watch them as they did their runs and tricks - as the trucks were covered in paintings of skeletons, blood etc. She has absolutely zero tolerance for that kind of stuff and thinks it is completely unnecessary to have that I couldn't agree with her more :)

Thankfully there were lots of others to watch and cheer for! Our favourites were the bus, Scooby-Do and Northern Nightmare.

But before we got to the actual show, we had to find parking and supper. We passed up on $40 parking and relied on our strong healthy legs to carry us from the $10 parking to the Rogers Center.

We munched on some yummy pizza, saw the CN Tower and then in we went!

 

This boy loved it too.....but showed it very differently. Knowing him, I should have known he would not be jumping up and down, cheering and getting all excited. Nope, he took it all in stride.....loving the pay loaders that had to rescue the trucks just as much as the trucks! The only clue that he was loving it so much was the fact that he sat like this the whole time - on the edge of his seat!

At one point, he did stand and use his Monster Truck hat to copy every move each Monster Truck was doing as they did their tricks. It was so cute to watch. If they jumped up, his hat went up. If they did donuts, his hat did donuts. :)

 

But on to the trucks.....it was a great show. Lots of down time and it is too bad that so many of them "broke" during the freestyle part (which ended the show earlier than we would have liked), but it still left the kids playing Monster Trucks since they got home. Here are some of the better pictures I was able to get:

 

 

Oops!!

 

Question for you: what do you think......did the truck below fall on its side or was it able to stay upright?

 

 

 

 

Hmmm, see anything wrong with Grave Digger?!

It was a late night, but a fun night for the kids. They loved it! And Keziah was very thankful that we made her go :)

A Glimpse

The following video has been swirling around "out there" the last couple of days, and I thought I would share it here in case you haven't seen it. I have talked before about the adoption of our children and the day they were placed into our arms by their loving birth parents. I have often stated that there were no words in the dictionary to describe the feelings for that moment. This video captures it well.

Hardly (if any) words are spoken in the video, yet so much is being said as the tears fall. If those tears could talk, each tear drop would say things like this:

• tears of thankfulness for the birth parents, for their gift
• tears of gratitude to God, for your gracious plan
• tears expressing our pleas to the Lord to be with our child's hurting first parents
• tears of respect for our children's birth parents for recognizing life, choosing adoption over abortion
• tears of shock - is this really our child? To keep??
• tears of surreal-ness: this can't really be happening - I am going to wake up soon
• tears of joy in how our child was created by a perfect and faithful Father
• tears of awe in how tiny a human can be!
• tears for the fears of the unknown ahead
• tears of happiness. Oh, the happiness
• tears of excitement of the future
• tears from all the years of wishing, wanting, desiring, hurting, disappointments, ups, downs, hopes and fears

Tears as opposed to words. Watch the video. It could very well have been Nathan and I sitting in those chairs.  But before you do,

Get a Kleenex

We are forever humbled by God's plan in ours and our children's lives. We continue to pray for our children's birth parents. And we pray hard that people who find themselves unable to care for their baby will choose adoption over abortion. Please pray with us about this.

Birthday Celebrations

As mentioned before, we were in Ottawa for a few days back at the end of December. That meant Lincoln's birthday was celebrated there. He was pretty excited to be in a hotel for his birthday!

About a month and a half before his special day, he put some of his toys on the table and said, "Mom, can you give these toys to me for my birfday?"

What kid does that?! Wants his own toys back as a present for his birthday? Not thinking he was too serious, I gave him a bag to put the stuff in and then I forgot about it. Later that day I remembered what he had asked, so I looked around for the bag. I couldn't find the toys he had selected or the bag anywhere near the other toys. Where did he put it??

I went into our office and into the closet, the closet where I keep gifts and sure enough, this is what I found:

This kid melts my heart! He was so serious about it all, really wanting them as a present. I didn't think he would be able to wait 6 weeks to get them back but he surprised me. About 3 weeks before his birthday, he was restless and groaning, saying, "I wish it was my birfday." I asked him why and he said it was because then he would get his toys back. I told him he could just get them and play with them, but he looked at me funny and said, "But mom! It's not my birfday!!". So he did not get them. What a kid.

So, we took them with to Ottawa to give to him on his birthday. We did get him some other things as well (we aren't that mean!), but the pictures will tell you his reaction to receiving back his toys. We hid his presents around the hotel room:

He had packed his mini hockey stick away for us to give him as well.....happy to have it back!

 "Yay!! Thank you, mom, for my dinosaur!! I missed it!!"

 

A tool cat from daddy! He LOVED this present and tells everyone this is what he got for his birthday.

 

 "What is this?! I don't like it, mom. I only like cars, trucks, animals and dinosaurs. I do not like this."

The night before, we went out to a store where he could pick out a piece of cake. I wasn't about to transport a cake/cupcakes all the way up to Ottawa. Lincoln was just as thrilled with this idea!

And of course, we had to eat the cake for breakfast. Don't you get to eat whatever you want whenever you want on your birthday?! But first, we sang......much to his delight. Not.

 

 

Once the cake was inhaled eaten, we packed up and he spent the rest of the day in the car as we drove back home. He was treated to McDonald's on the way home, but other than that, the celebrations were pretty much done.

And now we have a 4 year old. Crazy how time flies. But we are so thankful for the 4 years we have had with this blue-eyed blessing.

Happy New Year!!!!

I know, we are 9 days already into the new year and I am just now wishing you a happy new year. But really, when you think and realize that there are still 357 days left for 2016, 9 days is still 'new'. If we were talking of a 9 day old baby, you'd still say s/he is a newborn. So I say the same with 2016.

So, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Have any goals? Any commitments? A word to keep you focused all year? Plans? Aspirations? Hopes? Desires? Fears? 

I don't do resolutions, yet we introduced them to Lincoln. This was him almost 4 years ago....

....and this is him the first day of the New Year:

Can you tell what his new year's resolution is? It is said that only 8% of people stick to their New Year's resolution. So far, Lincoln is in that group. It has been over a week since he has started to wear band-aids on his fingers to help him to stop sucking them, and he has done incredibly well. So well in fact that the other day I forgot to put one on and he didn't suck them all day!!! That's unreal! Fingers in his mouth were his trademark! But believe me, we are enjoying the lack of saliva everywhere now. We do take the band-aids off at night, so he still sucks them then, but we are just tackling the day time habit.

Before I continue on though, let me give you a glimpse as to what has kept us busy the month of December...so here goes a photo dump:

Lots of gift-opening, first with Opa and Oma Helder

 

 

 

Keziah had "dress like your mom/dad" day at school:

At the local nursery there were some animals: sheep, llamas, ponies and a camel, which we were allowed to feed

Keziah would have nothing to do with feeding the animals, and stayed faaaaar away from the camel (can you see her below?!)

She rode a pony though:

If he is not puzzling, he is enjoying Lego:

I heard lots of giggling in the other room so I snuck in and took this picture. I love these moments.

Keziah also had pajama day at school!

Keziah is really starting to print and sound out words. She is very phonetic, meaning, she will read and print how it sounds (this means sight words can be disastrous if they don't phonetically make sense, like "my") . So for instance, she has already told us that we spell her name wrong and should be spelt this way: Kezeea. She may have a point......

I found this on the counter the other day.....how special is that?!

December was pretty warm overall, which meant we could keep on BBQ'ing. It getting dark early did make it difficult but nothing a flashlight couldn't fix!

Puzzles, puzzles, puzzles. While he still loves his cars, puzzles have ranked pretty high lately too

All decked out for her Christmas program with her school!

More gift-opening

 

 

Teaching Lincoln how to work a remote control car.....Nathan loves it that he has a boy! Good thing his wife knew his love for remote control anything, so she surprised him with a remote control helicopter  :o)

Lincoln's first face he has drawn - we are working on his fine motor skills!

Lots of baking was done.....and eaten :o)

I found myself on the adult colouring bandwagon....and I love it!!

No snow for us in December, but lots of mud!!

While his fine motor skills are somewhat lacking, his intelligence isn't. He knows most of his letters and numbers (and no, I do not sit and work with him on this....he is just quick to pick things up). Although he can't make numbers and letters with a pencil, he is able to find other ways: Look mom! I made an "8"!

That helicopter I got Nathan? Yeah, it's what he chases the kids with to get them into bed sooner :o)

Boterkoek faces for my nieces and nephews.....a December tradition

Nathan had some time off around Christmas, so we made sure to visit his dear Oma

 

Christmas Day was spent the same way on Thanksgiving Day - around a campfire, roasting marshmellows!!

The gorgeous full moon on Christmas Day over the lake by my parents' cottage

Just before New Year's Eve, we spent 3 days in Ottawa (for a reason I will write about on another blog post). We arrived in Ottawa without a speck of snow anywhere. That night it started and didn't stop til the next afternoon, leaving Ottawa covered in a foot of the white stuff!!

 

The kids had fun in the hotel, especially swimming in the very chlorinated pool, and then going with Nathan to the Children's Museum.

 

 

 

 

 

I may or may not have set off the fire alarm at the hotel.....good thing I had some helpers to "shoo" the smoke away!

And that was December! We celebrated Lincoln's birthday in Ottawa as well, but that'll be next time....I think this is the most photos I have ever put on one blog post. I sure hope you don't have dial-up for internet.......