Malia's "Happy, Happy to You!" Finally!!!!!!!

I haven't had time to post much lately, its been too busy. I plan to post things from Christmas in the next few days, but for now I must post Malia's birthday! It is much too important to wait until I've posted Christmas stuff!


Malia's birthday, or her "Happy, Happy to You", as she would say finally arrived yesterday! She had been begging for her birthday ever since Morgun had his. Almost every day she would mention that "my Happy, Happy to You loooong time!" The day began with much excitement! I decorated the cake and put up balloons. Malia played, licked icing and practically danced around the house! In spite of all the excitement she did have a long nap, much to my amazement. We picked out a butterfly cake and it turned out well!




Friends of ours, Wayne and Ruth, Jaidyn and Ty joined us in celebrating. We decided to keep the affair fairly low key so as not to overwhelm Malia. Malia had difficulty blowing out the candles, but managed with help from Papa, who held her closer, and Jayden, who helped her blow!

Yummy! Malia had first choice in picking what part of the cake she wanted and picked a cupcake.

Malia giggled and squeeled as she was opening her presents! This was a change from Christmas Day. This time around she had a better understanding of how things work. I also think she realized that she is just as important as the boys are. Its almost as though a weight was lifted as we celebrated. She kept saying "Oh my goodness!" and "Awesome!". She also keeps saying "I a lucky girl!" It really blessed our hearts to see her so excited! I thank God every day for this child! She has such a joyful spirit one can't help but smile!

More giggles!

We gave Malia a little Asian Corolle doll. She opened the gift and immediately kissed the box the doll was in. I didn't catch the kiss on camera, but did get it on video! Precious!

The chest with dress up clothes was a hit!! All the other kids were almost as excited as Malia!

The pretty little princess with her doll!

Homemade Ornaments, etc

I meant to share this photo a few weeks ago, just before the river froze. It was very beautiful to look out the window first thing in the morning and see the mist rising from the river. We joke that the gravel pile in the distance is a mountain, making the scene that much more enjoyable! :) Somehow this scene reminds me of God's peace and goodness. It fills my heart with all things good!



We have a tradition in our family of making an ornament every Christmas! This year we made a snowflake, which turned out to look more like a flower. As the boys get older I'm amazed that they are still interested in these crafty creations. And yet once again, they did a fantastic job and loved it, although I did end up finishing Morgun and Malia's. I was amazed that Malia could easily get the beads on the thin wire. As you can see she was very proud of herself!





Malia continues to learn new words and use them appropriately. The other day she told Morgun he was "stupid". We explained that it was inappropriate and she appologized. A few minutes later, I asked her to wash her hands which she did not want to do. She grumbled as she went to wash her hands and said "Mama stupid!" Needless to say the consequences were greater this time. I know its about exploring language and boundaries, and yet it is a little annoying and a little funny at the same time! This girl definitely has personality!

Copy Cat

My brother, Andrew came home from Rwanda last week, after being gone for 5 weeks. Malia has always liked Andrew, but has kept her distance. She would smile at him from across the room, but refused to go to him. The other night Andrew came over for supper and before I had time to say "hi", she was dragging Andrew around by the hand showing him her Christmas tree and anything else she could think of. All evening she kept going back to him and even began talking like him. Andrew described his trip as "amazing". Starting that evening, Malia has started describing everything as "amazing!"





Malia loves to do what the boys do. When she naps she thinks they should also be napping. If they wear slippers, she wears slippers. If they wear their bathrobe, so does she. The only bathrobe she has is a hand me down from Morgun. Its so cute on her, I'm thinking I won't bother buying her a different one!




A few weeks ago, Malia and I were having lunch. We were sitting side by side having a tender moment, touching heads and kissing. She looked at me with her big beautiful brown eyes, filled with love and a soft smile on her face and said "Shut up!" I couldn't help but laugh! She must have heard the boys say it to each other and misunderstood what it meant!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas. . .

Our household has been hopping with the kids making gifts for each other, shopping, decorating and baking. I've done about 98% of my shopping, and have wrapped everything I have bought so far. We decorated a gingerbread house again this year with great difficulty. Yes, it came as a kit, but somehow I still managed to get a somewhat odd looking little house. The kids did the decorating and thought it looked very good! I love the effort and concentration that goes into the decorating!








Christmas is my favorite time of year, and over the years I have collected a variety of decorations. Perhaps one of the reasons I like the season so much is because it helps hide, at least a bit, the ongoing construction in our home. It just make the house look that much nicer!
In the first years of our marriage money was tight, so we were creative and decorated our tree with popcorn,homemade gingerbread men and bows. I still love this tree and put it up in my basement every year!




This tree sits in our living room and is a more traditional tree. I love the shiny gold!




This must be my favorite tree! It has a snowman theme, and I've enjoyed collecting items for it over the past few years. I love, love snowmen and my kitchen, which happens to be blue and yellow, is the perfect spot for this tree!





I hope you're all having as much fun as we are getting ready for Christmas! I thank God for sending His Son, Jesus so many years ago! I love celebrating His Birthday! Merry Christmas!

"Out of the Mouths of Babes"

Alex is a thinker and tends to worry over little things. It can cause some behavioural problems and stress. That's the negative side of his personality. The positive side is that it makes him very loving and sensitive to the needs of others. Last night Alex was talking with Martin before bedtime and shared that "I was scared to go to China, but I'm glad we did! I'm ready for us to go again!" He meant that we should adopt again! Tonight he prayed that if God wants us to adopt again that He would show us and we would know what we should do. He melts my heart!

Festival of Trees

On Friday Malia and I had the privalege of going to the Festival of Trees at the Western Development Museum to see the displays and to listen to the Osler School Choir. Alex is a part of the Choir and enjoys singing with all the other kids. I think the reason he likes choir is because he adores the director, Ms. Bodnar who also happens to be his teacher!




Malia loves wearing dresses and skirts. She shines when she's all dressed up!




My beautiful girl! I love red on Malia!



Malia was mesmerized by this display. Very fascinating indeed!



Sometimes it's very difficult to get a good picture of a little girl that has a mind of her own. I did manage to get a few decent shots!



And for all you Rider fans, they even had a Rough Rider tree! Yeah!



And a Rough Rider gingerbread house! Go Riders! Go!

Payback!!

I finally got to go a way for a week-end! By myself! Fun! Fun! Fun! I flew to Abbotsford to join 2 of my sister-in-laws for a week-end of girl time and shopping! We had a blast! I left Friday and came back Monday. Malia handled my absence very well even though she kept asking for me and had a few meltdowns. She even slept well at night! Now that I'm back she thinks it's payback time! She has been crusty and pushing the boundaries all over again. Silly goose! She wants lots of hugs and "Mommy time". I can handle that, its just been very busy with Christmas coming and just catching up. However, the break was well worth it!

Malia loves to listen to music and spends lots of time on the couch listening and sometimes drawing.



Malia has started drawing or rather scribbling on paper. It makes her feel very important and grown up! She loves to spend time with Morgun. They play very well together.

Morgun's 8th Birthday!

My baby boy is 8! Its sad and exciting at the same time! Sad, because I never get to spend enough time with Morgun, exciting because he is becoming such a gentleman! Morgun adores his older brother, and will generally pick the same things Alex picks, whether it's clothes, toys or birthday cakes. I usually insist that I make a different cake for each of them. This year Morgun REALLY wanted a ship as well and I couldn't say "no" to a boy with beautiful blue puppy dog eyes. Morgun gave detailed instructions as to where each "lego guy" should be positioned. As you can see the drama on this birthday ship is indeed captivating!
I think this cake turned out a little better than Alex's. I used a different icing, NutriWhip with a couple tbsp of icing sugar added. It was much easier to ice this cake and it didn't look all dry by the time I served it. And its not disgustingly sweet!







Malia loves cake and enjoyed the boys' birthday partys, even though it was very noisy! She has become obsessed with her birthday and couldn't understand why we were not making a cake for her and buying her gifts. Every day she would cry when we told her she would have to wait. After about a week she finally understood that " Malia's Happy Happy to You long time". She still talks about her birthay numerous times a day. And she loves to point out that "Morgun and Alex birthday all done!" I love this picture with the icing all over her face and even coming out of her nose! That part is rather gross, but thats life!

Sour Skittles

Malia continues to explore new foods. Candy seems to be relatively new to
her. Like every child she LOVES candy. Here she is trying some sour Skittles. I knew she would have an interesting expression and she did not disappoint! :)




As you can see, she is very comfortable in front of the camera. I'm so glad she no longer asks what I am doing every time I am taping. She would say and do the cutest things, but as soon as the video camera was pulled out, she would stop. Malia loves to watch videos of herself and begs and begs to watch them again and again.

Alex's 10th Birthday!

It's hard to believe that our oldest is 10! Double digits! Scary! Time does fly and I feel that every day I am desperately trying to make the most of every moment and make as many memories as possible. Alex loves to read and experiment. The fingerprint kit was a hit!



I have tried to convince our boys, over the years, that a bought cake would be much nicer than any creation I could come up with. I have never been able to convince them that this is true. So every year I make them a cake of their choice. This year Alex wanted a ship with lego guys on it. Shouldn't be too difficult. Right?!? Well, lets just say the ship encountered some rough waters and leaned a little. Although, Alex never did notice.



I couldn't be prouder of my boy! Not only is he handsome, but he has a huge heart and works hard to be God wants him to be!




The cake tasted delicious! Of coarse Alex was the first to pick which piece he wanted and picked a part with his favorite mint candy.

To The River

Wow! Amazing things DO happen! Two posts in 2 days, not bad! It will likely never occur again. :)
I finally convinced Malia to sing while I was recording. She loves to sing, listen to music and "play" the piano. She has an incredible nack for picking up the tune to any song she likes. She is constantly asking to listen to "Sing, Sing, Sing" by Chris Tomlin or "EIEIO" on her kids CD. She absolutely loves the singing in church and her favorite music is definitely worship music! She is amazing to watch during the worship service. Its like she is worshiping her wonderful Maker. I had never seen a young child so innocently worship God, even though we have taught her very little in that regard.

We have a Hannah Montana CD in the Tahoe and every time we drive she asks to listen to the song "Butterfly". In this video she is singing "To The River" by Brian Doerksen.

Costumes! Oh the FUN!!

I'm a little late in posting pics of our kids in their Halloween costumes. We spent the evening with friends, carving pumpkins, decorating cookies and, of coarse, eating!
Malia was a very cute little ladybug! She didn't carve a pumpkin, but she loved decorating cookies and was upset when we didn't let her have as many as she wanted. She continues to love food, but for the most part has learned there is a limit.










Alex loves carving pumpkins, even though they're gooey and gross!

The snarly pirate, Morgun.


P.S. Apparently some people think I don't post often enough, so I'll try to post more often. Its always the last thing on my list. And as its always been my days are usually very full. Anyhow, if you (you know who I'm talking about!:) ), would make some comments I may just be inspired to post more often! :)