Mini Golf

At the beginning of this month before the kids went back to school, we took them glow in the dark mini golfing. What a lot of fun. I had called the day before to see what time was the least busy and apparently no one else thinks it's fun to go mini golfing at 10:00 in the morning. The place is actually open until midnight! Who knew people were out and about past 9:00 pm?!?!?! We were there right when the doors were being unlocked and no one else showed up the entire time we were there. It was great to have the course to ourselves considering we had three young kids who found it very interesting to walk all over the place regardless of what hole we were playing on.

All three of the kid had a lot of fun. Austin pretty much played as if it was hockey. Very nice stick handling if you ask me. Victoria would hit the ball and then if she didn't like it, she would pick it up and try again. Or she would just keep hitting it until we told her to stop. Samara would pick her ball up from the start line, walk all the way to the hole and place it about two inches from the hole. Then she would proceed to hit it right into the hole and throw her arms up in the air in victory as if she just hit the best shot ever . . . every single time! Too cute. Needless to say, I stopped keeping score halfway through the first hole.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. (Better late than never).

I’ve seen a few other bloggers do a “year in review” type post and I thought it was a good idea so I’m doing the same.

January

January marked the official date of Samara becoming a Canadian citizen. Sort of the last step in making it all official.

January was also a huge month for our family as it was the launch of our new company – Carmtech Solutions. A very exciting, overwhelming, scary . . . but much needed change.

February

The first day of February marked the one year anniversary of us holding Samara in our arms for the very first time. This first year just flew by and it seemed like she had been with us forever.

March

At the beginning of March, Samara turned two years old. The start of independence!

This was also the month we completed our home study update and our file headed off to the Ontario Ministry for approval.

At Easter we celebrated the biggest sacrifice of all times . . . that God sent his one and only son into this world to die on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins.

March Break was a fun family time – a break from school and a chance to go on some exciting outings.

April

April marked a huge milestone in Samara’s life . . . she stopped sucking her fingers. This was sort of bitter sweet for us . . . as long as we had know Samara, she would suck her fingers all the time. A huge change and one that meant our baby was growing up.

Who wouldn't miss this???

May

May marked the month of our ministry approval . . . . finally! Our file was off to Ethiopia!

We also celebrated Mother’s Day in May.

June

In June we celebrated my birthday and Father’s Day.

Victoria had her very first violin recital. We were so proud of our little girl who is growing up so fast.

July

July saw us fishing , swimming, boating and playing at the cottage.

It was also the month that Samara got her first stitches . . . perhaps not the last.

Austin was well into soccer and we spent most Saturday mornings at the soccer field watching him play.

August

August brought a new addition to our family – our puppy Teagan.

I also finally completed Samara’s 100 good wishes quilt . . . what a great feeling!

In August we also enjoyed the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. What a treat to watch China, the country that gave us such an amazing gift, host this huge event.

September

September marked the first day of kindergarten for Austin and the first day of grade two for Victoria. My babies are growing up!

Mike participated in the ride for MS.

Samara got her ears pierced in September.

October

I participated in the annual 5k Run for the Cure in October – not an easy thing to do as I ran in memory of Marisa.

October saw us celebrating Mike’s birthday – we enjoyed the beautiful fall weather at the cottage.



We ended the month with some Halloween fun.

November

In November I ran my very first ever 10k race. A great feeling of accomplishment.

November also brought the flu to our house with everyone being affected except me.

December

December marked the one year anniversary since the death of my dear friend Marisa – hard to believe it had already been a year.

Austin turned five years old in December.

Victoria turned seven years old in December.

December also marked the birth of our Saviour at Christmas time – what a great way to end the year.

We have been truly blessed and 2008 was a great year but I’m excited that 2009 is here. We anticipate seeing the face of our precious baby this year and eventually traveling to bring him home to be part of our family forever. I can’t wait.

There are so many people I’ve met over the past few years that are finally going to be bringing their babies home this year too. I’m so excited for them and can’t wait to see so many families finally coming together.

May God continue to bless us in 2009!

Candlelight Dinner

A while ago Victoria and I were talking and something came up about candlelight dinners. She asked if we could have a candlelight dinner sometime so that's what we did on Monday night. The only condition was that we had to have something to eat that everyone likes. So it was agreed that we would have tacos. I'm sure this was the first time I've ever had a candlelight taco dinner but it was a lot of fun. The kids were very excited and it only took Samara a short time to realize that we weren't blowing the candles out right away like we did on Victoria and Austin's birthday cakes a few weeks ago! We even got to drink our milk out of special glasses as you'll see in the pictures below.

Beads

Victoria got some perler beads from Grandma for Christmas and it's been one of the best gifts ever! The kids have been playing with them for hours everyday. They love it. The only time I wish we didn't have them is when Samara decides to grab a handful (or more) and throw them on the floor . . . just because. They're not the easiest little things to clean up. Since Victoria and Austin are out of school for two weeks, it's nice to have something to keep them occupied.

New Hairdo

So we thought we'd give Samara a perm. It makes her hair look thicker and gives it some fullness. What do you think?

And just in case after all those pictures you think it's real and we're really that cruel (LOL!), I should tell you it's just a wig.

New P.J.'s

There's nothing better than cozy new pajamas and the kids always get at least one pair for Christmas. You can see in these pictures that Victoria and Samara were in very silly moods in their matching purple P.J's. Don't worry Austin, not much longer and you'll have someone to have matching P.J.'s with!