The Big Catch Up Post... Part 2...

December 21 marked a pretty big birthday for Jeremy!  The trouble with a birthday so close to Christmas is that it is hard to round up lots of people for a big celebration.  We decided that we will have a big party for him in the summer and that we would have a quieter celebration on his actual birthday.  We started the day with coffee with some of our best friends and then in the afternoon we went to a local greenhouse to ride their Christmas train and do a scavenger hunt.

 From there we went to Mission Springs Brewery for supper. 

 Thank goodness for kid friendly restaurants!!  The kids had a ball playing with the "wiki stix" that our waitress gave us.

 After supper we went home for cake and a movie.

 Our Christmas Eve tradition is to open presents from Papa and Grandma.

 Yay for Christmas Jammies!!!

 On Christmas Eve we also enjoyed hosting an appy night for friends and family.  We spend most of Christmas day at home enjoying our family time before we headed over to Gramma and Grampa Konrads house for turkey dinner. 

When Christmas holidays ended we weren't ready for our school routine, but it didn't take long to get back into the swing of things.  Just this last week the whole school went skating... Skating day landed on Wednesday so our whole family was able to go.  Jeremy spent the whole time skating with these two:

 I spent the whole time chasing Luke and his little buddy all around the arena...

good times for everyone!

The Big Catch Up Post... Part 1...

Okay... I would like to apologize to my blog followers (a.k.a. Dad and Mom) for the long gap in posts.

I am going to quickly catch you up and try and do better with keeping this thing current.

 

Going all the way back to our school's Fall Fair... each student does a potato entry and this is what our kids came up with for this year.  Sam placed third for his class and Maarti took home the second place ribbon for her division. 

 We spent Thanksgiving in Osoyoos... we stayed in a warm, cozy hotel while Papa, Grandma, Uncle Shawn, Auntie Susie, Ty, Levi and Carson camped across the lake and endured sub-zero temperatures.  We spent our days hanging out at the campground with them, don't let the sunny photos fool you... we were freezing most of the time!

 

 

 Our boy Luke had a birthday!  I really should do my usual birthday interview here, but Luke says "Yeah" to pretty much every question we ask him so I figured it wouldn't be too interesting anyway.

 

 Meet the Konrad Posse:

 By the time all the Halloween parties were over at school everyone was already so close to a diabetic coma that we skipped trick-or-treating and opted for a movie and an early bedtime instead. 

 

Our photographer friend, Judi, called us up one day and said "Tomorrow is supposed to be gorgeous... lets get your photos done!"  Our whole shoot was about 20 minutes long and we got a pile of amazing photos!  It was so quick and painless and we are so happy with our photos!

At the end of November we looked at our calendar and realized that if we wanted a Christmas tree before Christmas Eve we had to get it before December even started.... so on the last Saturday of November we headed out (in the pouring rain!) to the tree farm.  We found a pretty good tree and all the spiders living in said tree were happy to have a warm place to spend the holidays... Arghh!!

 Ballet Recital... one of our favorite events of Christmas!

 Sunday School Concert... another highlight of the holidays!  Luke even got to take part this year... and by "take part" I mean stand on the stage and do absolutely nothing even though he was doing all the actions for weeks prior!  Oh well... he was totally cute anyway.

 And... finally.... A Snow Day!!!!  Snow equals Big Time JOY for a couple of kids I know.

Okay... stay tuned for more... IF I can get the photos off the camera... We recently had to extract a few coins from the SD card slot on the laptop.  Bah!!!  I suppose we can't get too mad... that hole has a striking resemblance to the coin slot on a piggy bank and he is only two!... But still... Bah!!

More Cute...

The kids discovered the ashtray in the back of car yesterday which launched us into a whole conversation about smoking and addiction.  When we were done Maarti pipes up "It's just like me... I want to stop eating watermelon, but I just can't!"

Cute

Earlier today we went to pick up our car from the mechanic.  As we drove to the shop Maarti was debriefing about today's ballet class.

Maarti:  Mom, did you know that Miss Jen prayed at ballet today.

Me:  That's so cool.  What did she pray about?

Maarti:  Well, she said if there was something we wanted to pray about we could put up our hands and she would pray for it and I put up my hand.

Me:  What did you ask her to pray for?

Maarti:  That our car would have a good time at the chiropractor.

Another Birthday

I can hardly believe our boy is 7! 

Where has the time gone and is there a way to slow it way, way down?!!

 Sam wanted a Home Hardware themed party for the longest time

and then once summer hit he decided that a boating party was the way to go. 

So... off to the lake we went for an afternoon of tubing!

 

 We had a great time with our friends and family!

 

During Sam's birthday week he was off to soccer camp which is always a highlight of his summer.

 The day before Sam's actual birthday we celebrated at home with some of our Irish family.

 Sam's actual birthday turned out to be a very busy day, but we were able to sneak in a bit of time at a nearby playground.

And there you have it... the week long celebration of Sam!!  He is certainly worth all that celebrating and more!  Sam is caring, thoughtful, helpful, sensitive, friendly and just a lot of fun.

We are so crazy about you Sam!  Thank you for blessing us and making us smile every single day!  We love you so much!!

 

 

Birthday Interview:

 

Favourite Movie - Wreck It Ralph

 

Favourite color - blue

 

Favourite game - monopoly and DS games

 

Favourite story - Up, Up, Down

 

Favourite Bible story - Daniel and the Lion's Den

 

Favourite verse - Hab. 3:19

 

Favourite food - popcorn

 

Favourite animal - leopard

 

Favourite thing about school - recess and lunch

 

Something you are saving up for - a car

 

When I grow up I want to be  - a car wrecker or work with Daddy

 

Something I liked about being 6 - going to the Vancouver Aquarium with my school

 

Something I am looking forward to  - Thanksgiving holidays at the hotel

 

If I had a million dollars - I would buy an entire city!

 

Something I really like - Snap Circuits

 

Something I really don't like - girlie things

 

Someone I really admire - Wayne Gretzky

 

Something I wonder about - how people make cartoons

 

If I could say something to the entire world I would say - "Jesus loves us!"

 

Canada Day 2013

It's becoming a bit of a tradition... Canada Day in Enderby!

The day starts with a parade.  This year Papa had five of his tractors in the parade.  Jeremy and Sam the extroverts of the family LOVE this!! 

After the parade all of the members of the Shuswap Pioneer Collectors Club were invited to the farm for a BBQ, tractor pulls and lawn mower races.  Not everyone in the club collects tractors and a few nice vehicles showed up at the farm too.

Canada Day turned out to be blistering hot... so hot that not very many people wanted to be in the heat and enjoy the tractor pulls.  There were a few die hards though!

And one more special treat of the day... some of our Irish cousins were there!  These two are only 12 days apart and play so nicely you would never guess they only see each other once every two years.  It is so fun to have cousins that are counted as besties!

 

Spring Catch Up

Phew... We made it through one Very.  Busy.  Spring!!! 

Our Spring has included:

 

A Superhero Dance Recital. 

(Of course our favorite dancer was Maarti!)

Sports Day.  Maarti's Preschool was invited to join Sam's school for the day.  All the preschoolers were assigned a "Big Buddy" and Sam took his roll of looking after Maarti very seriously.  Good job Sam... you made us proud! 

Luke's favorite event at sports day was buckling up all the straps on the stroller.

Our spring also included two unexpected trips to Enderby.  Sadly, they were to celebrate the lives of two very dear people to us.  Granny and Uncle Harold passed away within 5 weeks of each other and though we miss them we are happy that they are with their Saviour who they both loved so much.  I think my brother said it best:  " 'We do not grieve as those who have no hope!' but we do cry a little".

 

Despite the circumstances of our trips, we did enjoy our time with family... it is always so rich to be together.

Papa's tractors are always a hit!

Sam is growing up and, as promised, Papa taught him how to drive the lawn tractor.

Luke also had a lesson...

In how to ride a Buckin' Bronco!!!

He's well on his way to 8 seconds!

Thankfully... it hasn't gone to his head yet and he still knows he needs his Daddy.

On father's day we had a picnic,

Flew a kite (Made especially for Jeremy by Sam),

and went to a car show.  (Jeremy will be disgusted that I'm not posting any pics of the cars, but it's my blog, so tough bean-er-inos!!)

Maarti graduated from preschool.  She had a great year and can hardly wait for kindergarten.  She has certainly blossomed this last year... it's hard to believe that this same girl spent much of last summer crying about not wanting to go to preschool at all!!



We have had a super wet couple of weeks, but that's okay... nothing popcorn and a movie can't fix. 

Love these three in their jammies!!

And now it's summer... I think!!... come on Mr. Sun... we're waiting for you!