Gabe and "The Repeat Song"

After I took some video of Lily and Jake talking in the nursery, Gabriel asked me to video him. So I suggested he sing a song. He initially wanted to sing the Spiderman song, but then he picked "The Repeat Song' from Sunday school. He is just absolutely adorable!

Lily and Jake in the nursery

Lily and Jake were "talking" in the nursery tonight. Not to each other ... just "talking". So cute. Jake is just a couple of weeks younger than Lily. I love it when they get to play together. Gabe was my helper tonight and did such a great job. You can hear Lily louder than Jake (of course, being the girl!!) but he did some jabbering of his own.

Luke, AJ, Victoria & Lily

Here is a picture of Lily in the laundry basket. The kids were pulling her around the livingroom like a boat. She absolutely loved it.

This Big Bird says "Peek-a-boo" every time a shadow goes over it. Lily is playing peek-a-boo with Big Bird. If you cover his eyes, when you take them off he says it.

Luke is reading Lily a story, but I think she would rather just eat the book.

Poor Jake. Every time Lily gets close enough she is pulling on his clothes. Jake is just a couple of weeks younger than Lily, so it's so much fun watching them together.

Here is our sweet baby sound asleep in her crib.

My Flowers

Here are pictures of some of the flowers I have in my flowerbeds in the front and side of our house.

This is suppose to be a hanging basket, but I have it on a stand. I spoke at a ladies' meeting for Brian & Rachel Johnston - Gospel Light Baptist Church in Richmond Hill, Ontario. The theme was "Seeds of Kindness" and a lady gave a demonstration on how to make your own hanging baskets. She had the basket and all the flowers. She showed how to place them, etc. Then she gave them to me. So I planted it and surprise, surprise, it actually looks great!

Actually this climatis is in the backyard sharing the ground with the children's gardens. I wish I knew how to tie it up right. A lot of it is just along the ground.

This one lily plant had 34 blooms on it - unbelieveable!

My mom got this Easter lily for our church for Easter '08. We brought it home with plans to plant it, but it completely died before I got around to it. Finally I thought I'd try and plant it anyway - it certainly couldn't hurt. It came back up a few months later with 2 plants instead of 1 and this year 3 lilies came up with a total of 6 blooms. Not in time for Easter, of course, but that's okay. They're so pretty.

The Children's Garden

The children had let the weeds take over their gardens, so Jeff (such a kind-hearted soul) weeded their garden while they were at my parents' house overnight. I think the vegetables actually have a chance now!


We have had a mini salad with Luke's romaine lettuce and used AJ's spring onions in two mealsso far. Victoria's carrots haven't been ready yet and as soon as the dirt isn't so muddy, AJ has a lot of green beans to pick for Lily!

Port Dalhousie

I took the four kiddos and met Lynn Tourangeau and her boys, Caleb & Joshua at Port Dalhousie today. They have a 104 year old carousel that you can ride on for 5 cents. Lily just absolutely loved it. Her first ride was on a non-moving horse and then she moved up to a moving horse and loved every minute of it.


Our two handsome boys having a great time on the carousel. Big independent boy Luke paid the whole 25 cents for his own rides!!!




Here's Victoria taking a ride.....




Caleb, Victoria, Luke, Lily and AJ waiting patiently in line for another ride.

Our sweet little Lily-girl - she is such a precious little munchkin.

Victoria buried AJ in the sand. Here they are with Joshua.

What a beautiful day at the carousel/playground/beach/lake. The weather was gorgeous and the children were so well behaved and a wonderful time was had by all.

Lily is 11 months old!

Our sweetie pie Lily is eleven months old today. For the first time today, she did the "wounded soldier" crawl. Not really crawling, but just pulling herself forward with her arms. She's such a cutie.

She's been sick lately with double middle ear infections, but is now back to her happy little self. For a couple of days she didn't eat much, didn't sleep much, but just wanted to be held. Poor little munchkinezie! I'm so glad she's feeling better.

Here's a cute picture of Victoria and Lily watching a movie last night. I think Lily was more interested in the strings on the blanket, but it was little girl cuddle time most of all!


Here is a picture of the older kiddos eating breakfast yesterday morning. For once on a Sunday morning I didn't try to do any housework and all my church work was done ahead of time, so I didn't feel rushed. I made them egg cups for breakfast.....of course, we ended up having company over for lunch, so the three older kids and I made a mad run through the house picking up the few things that had been left out!

Then of course, I couldn't leave out this cute picture of Lily in the laundry basket. I know I have a picture of Luke in a laundry basket at close to this age, but I don't know if I do of AJ and Victoria. Poor middle kids -- always chopped liver!!

Our Week at the Cottage

We had a wonderful week at the cottage on the Oxtongue Lake near Algonquin Park. I have lots more pictures than these, but there are still a lot here. Hope you enjoy them.


Luke and AJ - very excited about our vacation! This is at the Harvey's in Orillia on our way to the cottage.

Jeff and AJ - Jeff doesn't really love to have his picture taken, but he had a very well-deserved break and had a fun, restful time. I'm so glad.

Me and Lily - even she looks excited, I think!

Yea, here we go!

AJ and Tor-Tor!

Luke might be just a LITTLE bit excited - ya think?

Lily's very first time in the lake. She just loved it.

They all went into the water just as soon as we got there. The weather was absolutely gorgeous on Saturday. It's a good thing they did, because the weather was the nicest that day. Every other day it rained, but not all day. It didn't stop the kids at all. I don't think they missed a day in the lake.

Jeff with Lily and the boys in the paddle boat.

Getting out of the lake and gonna get dried off for a bit.

I love this picture. It's Jeff going down the slide. It's been a very long time since he's had this much time to have fun and relax.

I had red polish, Lily had pink, so Victoria wanted both!

Victoria wanted me to post pictures of the nail polish that we used.

Everyone's got pretty toes for church!

Takin' a break after her very first time in Oxtongue Lake. What a cutie.

She has all those toys, but would rather play with the lotion - oh, well!

Getting ready to go canoeing.

A bit closer picture of Lily snug in her adorable little lifevest.

The other canoe with Jeff, AJ, Lily (yes, she's there if you look carefully) and Victoria.

Me facing my fear of people staring at me and had a great time canoeing with the family. SO glad I did it.

AJ playing in the lake.

Lukey in the kayak.

She had the best time at the cottage. Lily is such a good, happy baby. She just LOVED going in the lake, too! Wasn't the least bit scared, either.

My all-time favourite picture of Lily. So cute with extra sunscreen on her little nosie!

Doing chores even on holidays - what a good girl, Victoria!

Luke, AJ & Victoria working on one of their many sandcastles.

Roasting marshmallows by the fireplace.

Mmmmm.

The girls playing with the horsey before deflating it to get packed.

A sampling of the fudge we found in Dwight, Ontario. Don't ever buy this, because you'll automatically be addicted. We were assured by the store owner that they DO ship it if we want. The chewy praline was the favourite of Jeff and me.

Right before we left I got this picture of our cottage. We had such a wonderful time. We're really hoping that we get to come back again next summer and stay in the same cottage. It was just perfect for the 6 of us.