Happy Birthday Kade!

Kade turned 4 years old yesterday. In some ways I think to myself,"I can't believe it's been four years since he was born," and in other ways, I tend to think, "I can't believe he's only four" - he seems older than that in a lot of ways. But we were all very excited when the birthday came. We've been doing a countdown for about three weeks, so we were good and ready. We didn't celebrate it in any grand or spectacular way, but we made it special for the kids and they had a fun day. When asked what Kade wanted for supper, he insisted on cake every time. We did finally get him to think beyond the cake and he requested chicken, peppers, and salad. Hmm, make a meal out of that! Anyway, we managed and it was good. What do we love most about Kade? (besides everything:)) We love his bright and easy smile. We love his cozy moments when he crawls up on our laps to just cuddle or read a book. We love the way he is sensitive, and kind (yes he has his moments). We love how he will sit for hours and listen to a tape, or read a book, or play with his lego men. We love how he is really starting to love and pick things up when we read the Bible. We love how he loves life and shows such energy. We even love his pokey, lackadaisical attitude -- just not all the time. Anyway, Kade is a great kid and we are very proud of him and love him ever so much!

We got a few lego men for Kade to add to his collection. It was definitely a highlight. The boys spent most of the evening building and playing with them.

The facial expression says it all!

March Memories (since it is April already!)

The writer of Ecclesiastes writes,

"To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven:"

For the month of March, our families translation might continue,

"A time of snow and a time of no snow,

A time of cold and a time of getting warmer,

A time of sickness and a time of health,

(and we all took turns for that one, just so we could draw

it out really long and as a result, really appreciate our time of health!)

But as we enter April (okay it's already 1/3 done), we are really enjoying both good weather and good health and for a while anyway have determined not to take them for granted. It's easy to fall back into a pattern of complacency, but for now it is new and exciting and we thank God for our health and for the beautiful spring temperatures He sends our way.

But since this is my "March post" I am going to have to start off with some snow.

These pictures were taken at the beginning of March on a beautiful sunny and snowy day. We had lots of snow on the ground and therefore a nice soft cushion to land on.

Here is Kevin in great form.

And Kade with his umm not so great form?
Standing atop their jumping platform and looking rather patriotic if I may say!
These next shots were taken at the hill in New Sarum. We took the family out one night after supper for a promised night of sledding.
Kylie doesn't look the most impressed, but in reality it was much worse!

She is not a big fan of the cold!
The boys preparing for takeoff. And the sun set so beautifully as we were finishing up.

When Josh and Steph had Owen, we got the joy of having Jeremy over for a week. Kade just loves Jeremy and they had lots of fun together. Kade's favorite pasttime this winter was playing "guys" which are actually LEGO Knights. Kade plays this for hours on end, so Jeremy was roped into accompanying him on his adventures. This was fine. They had lots of fun together -- the first fifteen times. After a while, Jeremy thought there might possibly be other things to do and decided to play outside with Kevin. This was the only time there was fighting -- over who gets to play with Jeremy. We really enjoyed having him over. He has such an easy personality and comes up with the most interesting and humorous things! It's definitely a fun age, and fun to watch the boys interact.

Okay and now we get into a bit of spring. We got the camera out before church because Kylie was looking so cute. (we seem to do that a lot:))

As I said, we do that a lot - here are some of our favorites!
She absolutely loves spaghetti!


Ahh yes - not all the moments are necessarily because she looks so beautiful! But we still think she is pretty cute - even when she has all kinds of supper gook in her hair and on her face!