The Boys...

Although the kids are busy now, I know that as soon as Jordan is mobile, the business will get stepped up a notch.
Jude loves kissing Jordan's toes. He'll say, "kees baby's boufs?", which means, "Kiss baby's feet?" "Boufs" comes from the winter when we'd help him put on his boots. Now he calls his feet "boufs" (boots).
Can't you just see the mischief in their eyes?! Yup, we're in trouble!!
Mummy & her boys (Abby took the picture...she's really likes to take pictures. I'll post some of her other photography soon!)

Our 10th Anniversary

On May 30, we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. We had no idea 10 years ago the trials and joys that awaited us. It's been an amazing adventure so far and we have been so richly blessed!



Our anniversary tree, a weeping birch that we planted in front of our home.

Rollie-Pollie Gomer Babies - Who's Who?

Cinderella

This is a song that Steven Curtis Chapman wrote about his two youngest daughters. It's a song about how our children grow up so quickly. We rush through so many moments with our kids to get to the other "stuff" that needs to be done. It's a song about enjoying the little moments, because one day the moments will be gone.

The Chapman's youngest daughter, Maria, was struck by a car and killed on May 21st, 10 days after her 5th birthday.

Here's to slowing down, reading "just one more" story, playing "kitty knight" for a little longer, cuddling more, dancing more, laughing more...

Here's to slowing down and enjoying our princes & princesses before the "clock strikes midnight"

My first stab at digital scrapbooking...

Jon bought me a scrapbooking program for my birthday. I wanted one of my first projects to be Jordan's birth announcement....

Big boys

We officially moved Jordan out of his bucket seat and into his big boy car seat yesterday. He's doing really well and even fell asleep yesterday on the way home from church. Jon is out of town this week, so I'm not sure what I was thinking when I suggested this move other than we've been putting it off for a while and his little feet were hanging over the edge.

I took all three kids for Jude and Jordan's appointment with our physician today. Getting them all out the door and into the van was no easy feat. While I was out, I put Jordan in the backpack and Jude in the umbrella stroller (or the cart at Walmart...yup, I did Walmart too after we had a McDonald's "picnic" in the van while we waited for Jordan to wake from his nap). At least 4 different people/couples stopped me and commented about how I "had my hands full" or that I "must be busy!!". They're right, but today was a really good day. It had its moments, but I really enjoyed the kids today. They are amazing little people.

So, Jordan at 6 months weighs 20 lbs 15 oz and is 71.5 cm tall (approx 28")

Jude at 2 years weighs 37!! lbs and is 35 1/4 '' tall

They're doing just fine :)

I've been trying to ease Jordan into the idea of sleeping in his crib instead of his swing. Last night he started off in his swing and the I transferred him to the crib after his late evening snack. He slept for about 4 hours in his crib :)

Tonight I started him in his crib and despite a couple awakenings, he's been okay (shhhing and giving him his little bear to cuddle seems to be working, at least for tonight! ) He's had his late evening snack and has been sleeping nearly an hour. I'm fighting a cold, so he may just be coming in with me when he awakes again (which I don't really mind...), but it's a start :)

Parent-Child Dedication for Jordan & Jude's B-day

We decided to do Jordan's parent child dedication at our church when the grandmothers could be there. It also happened to be Jude's birthday, making even more memorable. It's important for us for our children to know that we publicly commited to raise them in a God-centred, Christ-exalting home and our church family commited to pray for them and for us as parents. The passage Kevin chose for Jordan was Mark 10:14 "When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these'". His prayer (and ours) was that our children will always have the faith of a child and run to Jesus.

Abby made faces throughout and Jude was restless, but Jordan just gooed and smiled.

At least Jon and I were looking at the camera :)
Off to "Bots & Pizza" (Boston Pizza) for birthday "bugs & cheese"

Birthday Fun!

Jude turned 2 on May 25...yup, time goes by fast, too fast.

Nana was here again this year for his birthday which again let Mummy off the hook for the cake. I grew up with Nana's cakes. We just had to give her an idea of what we wanted and she ran with it! I was just going to bake and ice a 9 x 13 cake and put a road on it with some cars. Nana's "tuk cake" was more elaborate :)


Check out our web album for more birthday shots
Jude very much enjoyed his cake & ice cream!
Jude is still a little tentative about going up to the platform of the play structure so the group picture was not really his favourite part of the afternoon. We have several versions of this "shot" but we didn't get a very good shot of Abby or of Jude smiling. I thought it was a good idea at the time...

More play structure...

Jordan's first outside swing ride. Given that the majority of his sleeping hours are in the swing, he LOVED it!


"Daddy gwock-gwock Dude?" (Daddy swing with Jude?)

The "play structure" for lack of a better name!

With the shed gone, we had room to build the kids' play structure. Jon first had to build a retaining wall to support the soil previously supported by the shed :) We had planned to combine Jude's 2nd birthday party with the Thunder Bay kite festival at Chippewa on May 25th, Jude's actual birthday. The forecast was bleak all week so on Friday, I decided that we'd just celebrate on Saturday, at our house. We scrambled to clean up remaining debris to make the yard slightly more child-safe and Jon worked hard to finish the play structure enough for the kids to use at the party. It will have more boards at the bottom and a rock wall at the back when it's finished.

Thanks to all you family members who contributed to the play structure "fund" over the last year. The kids love it.
When Jude wants to swing, he'll say "gwocky, gwock?" ("rocky-rock"?)
Abby's favourite way to swing
Big sister pushing Jordan. She really is a big help (when she wants to be!)

Minneapolis

Mum & Lin (Jon's mum) arrived in Thunder Bay on Friday May 16. We left for Minneapolis on Saturday morning to visit some of Jon's family. Duluth and Minneapolis are very popular long-weekend destinations for Thunder Bay residents as was confirmed by the 1-hr wait at the Pigeon River border crossing. When we were at the end of the line, we were a half kilometre from the customs building.

We drove most of Saturday and arrived in the evening. The kids were wired after being cooped up for the 6+ hr drive. Sunday we met with family and headed to the Como Zoo & Conservatory where we spent the better part of the day.

Jordan hung out on Daddy's back. To Jon's disgust (he really doesn't handle spit-up/vomit well), Jordan spit-up at least a half-dozen times.
The kids and I on the train. We ALL had fun, although it does look like I'm having the most fun...
Watching the sea-lion show.

What we've been up to

Playschool ended on May 15 with a group outing to the "Imagination Station", the Children's Museum for Thunder Bay. Although I had heard great things about it, I'd never been there. It was FANTASTIC!! In fact, I half thought about the feasibility of renting the facility every Thursday morning to eliminate the whole need for set-up & take-down every week. All the kids were entertained for the entire time.

I'm a little sad that I won't be able to lead the ministry or teach this fall (I really need to focus on getting my internship and dissertation done so I can graduate before they kick me out!!) I'm praying for God to someone to run with the ministry and do more with it than I've even imagined. The Little Seedlings has been such a blessing to me. I truly will miss it (although the little Gomer boys will still be involved!)

Jude on the "fishing boat" at the Imagination Station getting ready to check the water with his binoculars
Jordan just hanging out as his happy self.










Abby looking down from the rainforest tree house.