Surprise party for Mom!

Last Sunday we had a surprise party for Josh's mom! It was really fun. Danie and Dave with most of the planning but Danie ended up being sick that day so I jumped in and helped where I could while Dave (Dad) took her out to lunch. Everyone showed up and we had a fun time waiting to surprise her!

 

Danie wanted to contain her germs so she Skyped in on the gift opening!

Mom's birthday

Last weekend I got the chance to go to Tuscon with Josh's mom and sister for his cousin's bridal shower. It was a fun trip and we had a great time! Sunday was Lynette's birthday and we got home to this beautifully decorated house!

Josh took credit for the swoopy crepe paper even thought he didn't help at all. =P

We went out for dinner at Dion's (Where Annie and Ari work - one of our favourite pizza/sandwich places). I got the waitress to take a picture with all of us in it!

Annie doing her Kung Fu Grasshopper move!

Finger Painting

Today the kids tried their hand at finger painting! It was funny because I thought Jacob would have a hard time as he hate having his finger messy at all. But he did great! They both did. Avalene made a little big of a mess but nothing major, and they both expressed their own artistic abilities!

Here is Avalene... "smiling" =)

Jacob played with me and had snack while Avalene enjoyed herself.

I'm seeing the importance of each kid getting to spend time by themselves and with me on their own. They are together so much I think it would benefit their development to spend time apart from each other. Avalene does much better with someone else so I'm trying to let her be with me more just hanging out, and Jacob does very well playing alone. But I'm trying to balance doing things with each of them but making sure they don't feel neglected!

Haha poor Jacob. He actually has his very own blue boy easel but I didn't want to haul it out and switch them just for the few minutes he would have been using it.

Jacob & Avalene singing

This video was taken on March 1st, the kid's 3rd birthday.

I have been their nanny for well over a year now and it has been a challenge and a blessing to me in many ways.

I learn new things about each child I care for and they show me new things about myself.

My goal by the time I finish with these guys is to be able to talk with them.

February Events

Well it's been a while since I've posted. It's been nice to stay in one place for longer than 2 weeks since all my traveling in December through February. So this past month I've been settling back into a routine and getting some fun things done. =)

I made this book box using a book I got for about 23 cents. I actually did finish it and cut the pages down to the bottom and glued all the sides together. It looks great and is nice for storing things in discretely!

We did a project (further down) where I took pages from the book I made into a box and soaked them in coffee then baked them. So Josh wanted to do that with his notebook pages and use them in class!

 

Yummy snacks for Bible study

I painted our little tables black, they used to be a light wood but didn't match the rest of our kitchen very well. They look great and classy now and match the other things in that room!

 I've been wanting to do this project since we got married using cereal boxes to put pictures on as a boxed canvas. So I did that finally and they turned out beautifully!

 

This is a concept we've been learning in our Bible study. Deep down men want to be respected, and without respect they will react without love, and that creates a cycle that can be difficult to break.

These are Josh's vows

My vows

And inversely the deepest desire of every woman is to be loved. And without love she will most likely treat her husband without respect. So Josh and I have this daily reminder to love and respect each other hanging over our bed.

We did another project and Josh was a great helper. ; )

Cereal boxes again

We're so sick of looking at this ugly breaker box and the little picture we had was only coverint about 75%...it looked very silly.

I used the pages from the book I made into a box and dyed them with coffee and then baked them and glued them onto the cereal box with Mod Podge.

We made big piggies in a blanket with hot dogs and crescent rolls! Yum!

We had a date night that included Dr. Who and churros. Good date.

A few weeks ago Dave & Lynette went out of town for the weekend and all the kids except Wes were at a youth retreat. Wes went to a lock-in at the church but I picked him up Saturday morning and he spent the day with us. You can tell the Reber's are not particularly warm blooded. =P

Here is some potato bread I made recently - definitely the most active yeast I've ever worked with! It rose three times and the last time I think it about tripled in size.