another birthday

this little baby turned 4 today. my littlest boy, my sweet evan is now a whopping 4 years old. i remember jensen was 4 when evan was born! and now our evan is 4. wow! and he is just as adorable now as he was then - seriously....



this last year with ev has been especially fun for me. with jensen and burton both in school all day, it has just been paige, evan, and i at home. and it has been a great experience for me to spend so much time with evan. we play bakugan's, transformers, animals, pets, finding eggs, and all sorts of other made up games. we color, do stickers, make stuff, play video games, read books, draw, snuggle, watch movies, go to the library, go swimming, and ride bikes. evan is my number one helper, whether we are grocery shopping, running errands, or just hanging out at home. he is always up for a snuggle and loves to give me, his mom - who, for whatever reason, he adores! lucky me!!! - special things (which are hugs and kisses). he thinks i am the best mom because i let him be in charge and make up the rules when we are playing. evan has a handful of imaginary friends that he likes to play with and talk on the phone to - annika and stephen (they are both boys) have been around for about 9 months now. others, like zeebee and coleman, have just recently joined the group. he talks about these friends as if they were real and sometimes brent and i wonder if they just might be? we sure hope not as annika and stephen are both 48 and live in australia. evan constantly makes us laugh with the grown up things he says. and also makes our hearts melt with his big brown eyes and sweet and sincere personality. he really is a blessing in our home and we love him to pieces!!!


happy birthday evan!! or, as evan said today, "happy furball!!" apparently that is how you say "happy birthday" in spanish.


p.s. funny evan story - this last week evan and i picked up decorations and a pinata for his birthday party. he was so excited that he wanted to have his party that day - i think it was on thursday. we weren't having his party until saturday (yesterday) and i kept telling him that we couldn't have his party that day. finally, after asking a million times and getting the same negative response, evan looked at me and said, "mom, if you tell me one more time that i can't have my party today, you're fired."
nice.

nuts for bolts etc. blog in the works

so, i will be creating our own blog for nuts for bolts etc. in the next week or two - as soon as i find the time to sit down and do it!! but, for now, this will work. we posted some more pictures of some new flannel we just got in on our facebook page and flickr site. click here to view (the last 7 pics are the new ones)! my mom and i are getting together this coming weekend for jensen's baptism (yay jensen!!) and paige's first birthday (that came fast!!!!) and will be sitting down, finalizing our price list, final checking our inventory, taking pictures, and getting ready to open our online store!! we should be good to go by the second week of may!!! YAY!!!!!!! i am nervous and excited! i guess if we don't sell anything, we will just be stuck with some really great fabric that we will have to use - i guess there are worse things:)

TTFN!

more pictures

so, more nuts for bolts etc. pictures as promised!! i added a bunch more pictures of fabric we have just ordered. click here to view. also click here to see samples of the finished products we will be selling.
please feel free to leave comments so we can see what everyone thinks!!
ttfn

our fabric obsession

my mom and i have a common obsession with fabric - we LOVE fabric!!! after becoming frustrated with the lack of canadian websites selling high quality, unique, fun, and vibrant fabric we decided to launch our own, legitimate online fabric store.
after much discussion, deliberation, paper signing, and planning, my mom and i (along with the artistic talent, vision, and input of my 2 beautiful sisters) are starting our own online fabric store. we will be selling hard to find, high quality, beautiful flannel, fleece, and minky fabrics. we will also be selling hand made children's wares, such as receiving blankets, taggy lap quilts, ribbon dolls and lizards, and really adorable ponchos for little girls.

click here to see some samples of the fun things we will be selling!! we will be adding more pictures as we receive shipments of ordered fabric to sell and as we make more stuff!

we are planning on launching our online store in may so stay tuned for the website link!!!

my sweet boy

jensen turned 8 on monday. my first baby is 8...wow! and what a delightful young man jensen is growing in to!

i remember being pregnant with jensen. i always wanted to have a boy first. i loved having an older brother growing up and i wanted all of my subsequent daughters to have an older brother to watch out for them (little did i know at the time that we would only have 1 daughter at this point and she would have 3 big brothers to look out for her - ha!). as the little baby inside of me grew more and more, i knew that he would be a boy and i was so excited to meet my precious son.

how we loved our baby jensen! he was such a sweet and happy baby. and grew in to an adorable little boy...

and now a handsome, young "almost" man.

jensen has fabulous, brown eyes - just like his dad. he continues to approach life and learning with an insatiable curiousity and inquisitiveness. jensen is a lover of all things to do with animals, bugs, and nature and is still determined to be a zookeeper when he grows up. he is always thinking of something (just like his mother!) and has an amazing imagination. jensen is kind and tender hearted. he loves hugs and kisses (still!! i hope he never grows too old or "cool"). he is a good example to his younger brothers and adores his little sister. jensen is SO excited to be starting cubs and is looking forward to earning every badge:)

jensen will be baptized at the end of the month. brent and i are so happy with his desire to be baptized and with his understanding of what this means. jensen is a special boy and i feel very blessed to be his mother - to learn from him as i try to teach him. to love him. to have him as my son.

we all love you so very much jensen.

love

i love my camera. i love taking pictures. and i love when i look at a picture i took without really thinking about it and i get a result like this

or this

and i love my beautiful daughter. my adorable and precious paige.

you make my days so bright with your endless snuggles, kisses, noises, smiles, giggles, and grins. i love everything about you.

i love you paige.

spring break 2010

our kids had their spring break from school a few weeks ago. we spent most of that time at my mom and dad's farm and we had so much fun, as always, spending time with them here are a few highlights, in no particular order:

*burton learned how to drive the rhino (a 4 wheeled utility vehicle). i wasn't sure how comfortable i was with that - until i sat in the passenger seat and had him drive me around my dad's field. i must say, he was very cautious - not the wild child he typically is - and did a great job. i had to remember to breath as i flashed forward 10 years - picturing 16 year old burton behind the wheel of a car, as i sit "calmly" in the passenger seat. i also questioned the wisdom of introducing burty-burt to motorized vehicles as he buckled himself in to our van yesterday, while accompanying me on my grocery run, and asked me, in all seriousness, "can i drive?"

*i took the boys to a place called the hot pot studio with my mom, sister, and sister in law. they have unfired and unpainted pottery pieces that you can pick out and paint. they then fire them for you and you pick them up and take them home. it is a great place. anyways, while we were there, evan was talking nonstop, about anything and everything. it was hilarious. at one point, my mom was asking for color advice for the garden gnome that she had chosen to paint. evan gave his color suggestion. my mom thought it was a great one and told evan so. she also told him that she should just save herself time and ask him any time that she had a question because he is so good at answering them. he reminded her that this is because he is a scientist. goading him on, i asked him:

- evan, why is the sky blue?

- ummmm, i don't know that one.

jensen and burton then eagerly supplied their "scientific" answers. then evan said:

- mom, ask me another question.

- evan, why does it get dark at night.

- oh, i know that one. because Jesus turns out the lights.....on His whole body.

!!!!!!!! when he noticed that we were all trying VERY hard (and failing miserably) not to laugh, he said:

- scientists aren't funny guys.

seriously....how could you not adore this kid??

*the boys spent a lot of time upstairs, in rob's room, with rob and andrew. they wrestled, played video games, and did "man" stuff. my mom went up one night to check on them and made a comment about how they were all hanging out in the "man cave." burton looked at her, straight faced, and said:

-so, get out.

nice that the teenage boy attitude is manifesting itself at 6. how excited am i for the teenaged burton?

*it was my big brother's 30th birthday party the day before we left. it was fun to be there with everyone and celebrate steve! how i love my big brother!! and am very glad for the friendship that we have developed as we have grown up and become adults...not that we weren't friends when we were young:) i have just come to value him more and more as the years pass. only bad thing - with a 30 year old brother and me next in line, my turn is coming fast!!!! good bye 20's...almost!

all in all, it was a fun trip. brent was able to join us for part of the time. and i really missed him when he wasn't there. i came away from mom and dad's feeling very grateful that i have such a wonderful family there - brothers, sisters, mom and dad - and very happy that i have such an amazing man to return home to.

life is good. click here for our spring break pictures.