Two

Happy Birthday to my baby boy! Mr. independent turned two today. Don't ask him for help, because he'll say "No, I do it!" He is determined to do everything himself. Except potty train, apparently, but we'll work on that. He even very neatly puts toothpaste on his own toothbrush.

He knows shapes, colours (although gets mixed up sometimes) and speaks very well. He is just as silly as his brother, hamming it up with silly faces and noises. He loves climbing, dancing, and pretend play. He'll offer everyone cheeseburgers from under his highchair restaurant. He loves "driving" everything. As long as he can straddle it, it's "I'm driving a tractor/motorbike/car/truck!" Nothing is too big or too small to be used as a vehicle.

Cheeseburger? Here you go.This morning's entertainment was watching a grader and skid steer at work in front of our house.Then we baked a birthday cake.Talking to GrandmaYay, cake!What the? Fire?! Fire is bad!Yeah, you get it, big bro!Yay, cake!

Snowplay

They kept calling me to come and see them slide on the playhouse. So I abandoned my chores and to-do list, put on some boots and played outside! It was such a gorgeous day, brilliantly sunny, with loads of perfect packing snow to work with.

Very happy snowman.Hello snowkitty.

Moved

the only original hardwood is the stairs - old, but still good!

It's been a week since we've had possession of our new house! Last Thursday afternoon a friend and I headed over to see if it needed some cleaning. And did we ever have our work cut out for us! We were there for three hours and still didn't get everything done.

On Friday Stu and a friend moved over a bunch of boxes to clear out our storage room and make some space for more boxes that I was still packing. Friday night we attended a pro-life dinner in town. There was a great presentation, and it was nice to get away from the stress of moving for a bit. The speaker, Jojo Ruba, also did a presentation at the school, which from what I hear was also fantastic. If you ever have the opportunity to hear him speak, definitely take it!

Saturday was the big day. Everything else went out. I frantically packed the rest of the kitchen stuff while the guys went back and forth with the trucks. Another friend helped by cleaning the kitchen while we took the fridge and closet stuff over, then came back for the rest of the cleaning. Cleaning two houses in two days is tiring. Thankfully I had help, and we have been so thankful for our church community. I can't imagine not having the support system that we do!

Not all of the boxes are unpacked yet and things are still a little disorderly, but we're getting there. I've gotten over most of the initial panic and anxiety of wondering where everything should go, what I should do first, how I'm going to get everything done, etc... I think I burned myself out with all the stress over the move as I can't seem to get over the exhaustion! I'll just have to keep going to bed early to catch up. :)

And now, I look around and I'm amazed at how much we have. There is so much space, a large deck for lounging, and a wonderful backyard for the boys to play in. And trees! (I love trees. :)) God has blessed us with everything we need and so much more!