The Long and Short of It.

The fact that Carathy is excited about an upcoming field trip was evident last night when I was tucking her in and she was saying her prayers......"Thank you Jesus" she prayed, "that our field trip to the pumpkin patch is on Tuesday. Please help the days before Tuesday to go by really fast and let Tuesday be really long. Amen"

Dream a Little Dream

This morning, Carathy woke up crying because she had a bad dream. When Steven went into her room and asked about her dream, she said that she had dreamt we were all at the beach and when we were packing up to go home I had asked her to carry Arinn. While she was carrying Arinn to the car, they got tangled up in some wire. The rest of us (not sure who all of "us" were) just kept walking and didn't stop to help her so she had to put Arinn down and then run after us, leaving Arinn behind. Thus creating the bad dream.

Steven comforted her and she eventually went back to sleep. Later when I was helping her get ready for school, she told me about her dream and how much she hated being left behind and that it was even scarier to leave Arinn behind. I started to empathize with her when she interrupted me and said, "Mom, that dream was scary but my second dream wasn't!" I asked her what her second dream was about and she said that it started out the same but when she got stuck in the wire, her and a friend hopped on their flying unicorns, caught up to us and used their magical wands to turn us into stone so that we HAD to wait for them. Then she could go back and get Arinn with no problems at all!

I wonder if dreams do come true in lands far, far away.......

Riding Bikes

Last summer Carathy really wanted to learn how to ride her bike without training wheels so we took them off and let her try. She got scared very quickly and gave up. When we went to Gem during the summer, Dad had offered Carathy $20 if she could learn to ride her bike well without training wheels before we left their house. She was excited about that but fell once and didn't want to try again so she had to leave the $20 there. This summer when we went for Debbie's wedding, Carathy decided she wanted to try again and this time she made it! She tried (with much coaxing) and managed to ride well enough to earn the "20 bill" from Grandpa. As an added incentive, Steven and I had added a new Webkinz to the prize if she rode her bike well so she was very excited to go inside and call home to Steven to bring her a new pink poodle Webkinz when he arrived for the wedding. After she got the prizes, she lost her excitement to ride and spent much time in the backyard just pushing her bike around. I asked her one day why she didn't just ride it around and she said that she was giving her friends a turn on the bike but secretly I think that she was scared. It got to be quite a fight to get her to want to ride her bike so Steven and I told her that we would be holding Curly (her poodle prize) until she decided to try riding again. We would have taken the $20 back but didn't really have the authority to do that because my Dad had given that one to her. Yesterday she told us she wanted to try riding again. We took her up on it, went to a park, and these are the pictures from that event. Needless to say, she rode, rode well, and even managed to start and stop all on her own! It was quite a good feeling to be able to tell her that she could have Curly back.

Caleb had never really had the chance to ride his bike, either so I got some pictures of that, too. His bike seat is a bit high for him but we had no tools at the park and forgot to adjust it before we left. He still managed to do well. He fell twice but both times he got back up and on the bike without any fuss. I wonder what it will be like getting him to ride without training wheels.....

My little girl

Off she goes!

This picture makes me wonder what she is thinking....

Getting so good at sitting on her own.




This is a picture that says a lot.....she looks quite proud of herself but yet......does she own a comb?!?

Steven helped boost her confidence by running along beside her.

Caleb getting braver by the second.



My little army guy. His helmet looks so big on him but that was the smallest helmet in the size that fits his head. I think it is a size 5-8.

My big bike rider!

Hmmm.

An Update For The Moser Family

I found this news report from a newspaper in Dawson Creek, BC:

D.C. crash kills Rolla woman
Friday, September 26, 2008
An accident near Dawson Creek has claimed the life of a Rolla woman.
At about 5:30 yesterday afternoon, a 3/4 ton truck collided with a Honda civic, at the intersection of the 219 road and Sweet Water Road.
Both of the vehicles left the road and ended up in the ditch.
The driver of the civic, identified as Kathleen Moser, 53, of Rolla, BC was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver of the truck was unharmed, and the crash remains under investigation.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Kathleen Moser "Casey" - 1954 - 2008 A Celebration of Life Service will be held on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 3:30pm at the Alliance Church, Dawson Creek, British Columbia Officiated by Pastor Richard Kelly and Gordon Miller Expressions of sympathy in memory of Casey can be made to the "Camp Sagitawa " Box 61, Moberly Lake, BC V0C 1X0 .

Which One?

Today Caleb came up to me clutching his blanket and said in a whiny voice, "I miss my Grandpa." I responded by asking, "Which Grandpa?" He looked at me and said, "The Grandpa that comes with my Grandma."

Duh.

Please Pray

For those of you who might know Karl and Casey Moser, I need to ask you to pray on Karl's behalf. Last night (September 25th) Casey was killed in a car accident. I don't know many details but mom just called and said that Karl had informed them this morning. She was driving by herself and was hit by someone whom I believe ran a stop sign. This comes as quite a shock for a lot of people so I am just asking that you pray for Karl and their children (and grandchild). Casey was a beautiful person and will be missed tremendously. When I have more information, I will post an update. Thank you in advance for remembering to bring this family before God in prayer.

A Family Trip Out Of This World

Yesterday we took a family trip and went to the Space Center in Vancouver. It was a great day to hang out as a family and not be in a rush. We spent most of the day there enjoying the programs they offer and playing with the interactive games. Carathy really enjoyed the virtual simulator in which we took a trip to Mars. She was so incredibly scared when we started the simulation but by the time we were done, she wanted to do it again!

On the way home, we stopped at a Boston Pizza in Langley and while we were there, we realized just how long it has been since we ate out in a restaurant with the kids. While Carathy was enjoying the perogies that she ordered herself, she all of a sudden looked up and said that the "people in the kitchen must have been busy because they all made exactly what we wanted. That is kind of tricky. They must be tired." And then while Carathy was eating the rest of the dessert, Caleb said he was still hungry after finishing his whole plate of fries. Because of his allergies, he is very limited in what he can eat at a restaurant so we told him that we would not order anything else for him but he could have a few of the snacks that I had in the car. He seemed ok with that and then asked, "After I finish my other snack in the car, can we come back and say thank you for supper to the french fry lady?" Aww, my sweet Caleb.

We had a great day as a family and feel so incredibly blessed by our children.

The Truth

Yesterday Caleb and I spent some time reading from his children's Bible. He was looking through the book at the pictures and found the story of Jesus praying in the garden and a picture of the guards who came to take Jesus away. He wanted me to read him the story about the "fighter people" so we snuggled together and started reading. I described to him what was happening in the pictures and told him a simplified version of the crucifixion. When I finished, he asked me again why Jesus the guards took Jesus away to die. I told him it was because they thought Jesus was not telling the truth about being God's Son and that is how they punished Him. All of a sudden Caleb's eyes got really big and he looked at me with fear. He was silent for a long time until I realized that he thought that if he lied, he would be put on the cross to die. I then had to explain that Jesus died on the cross for us so that we wouldn't have to. I don't know if he understands it all but I know that he will think twice now about lying!

Life Lessons

Today was a beautiful day so Caleb and I decided that we wanted to go for a walk. I packed up the kids and headed off to the river. Caleb and I walked for an hour and he chatted the whole way. Interspersed with some whining, he did manage to teach me a valuable life lesson: "Don't ever, ever, EVER step in dark poo. That is fresh. Only step on the light stuff. Then it will be ok."

Don't ever forget that.

New Beginnings

This year, Carathy started Grade One. It is so hard to believe that it is already time for her to start going to school for full days. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting outside her preschool door waiting for her to finish her first day of school. The shy girl that started preschool is still shy but with a bit more wisdom and maturity. She knows a bit more what to expect at school and as a mom, I am a bit more willing to let go. It isn't easy watching her drive away in that big bus in the morning knowing that she will be in someone else's care for the day but I love seeing her becoming more and more independent.

Having Carathy gone during the day means that I get to spend more one -on-one time with Caleb and Arinn. Because Arinn still sleeps during the day, Caleb and I have more time just to ourselves. I am amazed at how much he changes when he doesn't have an older sister around to bug and fight with. He is very playful and is always telling me I am the "best mommy ever" and that he loves me "super a lot."

I think that this next school year will be a year of growth for all of us.

Do Goats Spit?

This morning while I was getting Caleb's breakfast of apple slices and cheese ready, he said, "Mom, my cheese is goat cheese." I asked him how he knew that it was goat cheese and he said, "I just know." He then continued on, "The goats spit out the milk and then we pour it out into my cup. Carathy told me that. Isn't that cool?"

I guess it is cool if you like drinking goat spit............?

Fun.......or not?

Lately at meal times, there has been a fight between Carathy and Caleb as to who gets to pray. In the past, we have usually let them both pray for the food but have recently tried to make them take turns because we found it to be a long process when we had company over. The other day, Caleb was having a grumpy day. When I say grumpy, I mean....GRUMPY! From the moment he woke up he was complaining about everything. His milk was too high in his cup, his apple wasn't cut right, HE wanted to put the apple into the bowl, Carathy was looking at him wrong, and on and on and on. By lunch time already, I had had enough. I was finally finished making lunch and the kids were washed up, the food was on table, and Caleb was standing there stomping his feet screaming some unintelligible words at me. After several minutes, I finally got him calmed down enough to find out that he had wanted to carry his own plate to the table. I told him that it was full of food that would roll off if he accidentally tipped it so I had just carried it myself and that when he was finished eating, he could carry his plate back to the cupboard. Obviously this was not good enough because the screaming and stomping started again. By this time, the rest of our food was getting cold and I am trying to teach him that temper tantrums will not get him what he wants so I told him that when he was ready to be calm he could join us at the table. I sat down and was just getting ready to give thanks for the food (because it was his turn and he was still in tantrum mode), and he was on his chair telling me that it was his turn to pray. I told him that if he was ready to be calm, he could go ahead. He bowed his head and said, "Thank you Jesus for all the fun. Amen."

I had to keep my head bowed as I couldn't let him see me laughing but I had to wonder........just what IS his definition of fun?!?

Peetey

From day one, Steven has called Arinn "Peetey." I started calling her "Sweet Pea" and he ended up shortening it. Now, she will usually look at you only if you call her "Peetey" and will be looking around for Steven at the same time.
These pictures were originally taken for my mom because she requested pictures of Arinn's new teeth. I started taking pictures and just couldn't stop. I didn't know which ones to choose for this entry, either, so I think maybe I will add a bunch. She is just so cute, I would definitely call her my 'Sweet pea."

Going to the PNE

On Sunday, we went to the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) in Vancouver. It is a bit like the Stampede - just on a smaller scale. We went with Steven's brother, Nathan and his wife Annie and their son, Jacob. When we left Chilliwack, it was quite rainy but we thought we would try to go anyway. When we got closer to Vancouver it was clear to us that the rain was not going to stop anytime soon so we stopped at IKEA to pick up some umbrellas (because we had forgotten ours at home) and made our way to the PNE grounds. It rained hard most of the day but we still had a lot of fun.

Racing tractors.

Caleb riding on one of the little tractors.

Carathy riding on one of the same tractors.

Caleb and Carathy touching a newly hatched chick.

Caleb watching "Peter the Giant." This is a bull that is shown around the different exhibitions because of his size. He is an extremely large animal! It said on the sign that he eats 2 1/2 bales a hay a day!

Caleb.

Carathy showing us how proud she is that she can pump water with just one hand.

You might think this is an interesting picture to put in the blog but I wanted to show those of you who have known how much of a struggle Caleb's allergies have been just how clear his face is right now.

Carathy entertaining Jacob

Stamping over the Lions

Last week, Steven was given some free tickets to a BC Lions football game. The tickets were from a customer at work and the seats were season tickets so we knew they would be good seats. On top of that, the Lions were playing the Calgary Stampeders. For those of you who don't know, I am a huge fan of the Stamps and Steven is a fan of the Lions and when those two teams are playing each other, we can have a lot of fun watching the games! We asked a couple from our church to go with us and when we got there we found out that we were in the second row. In all the times that I have been to see a game live, I have never been able to sit that close to the front. It was awesome!
We got a babysitter for our older two kids but we took Arinn with us. We bought her baby ear plugs and she was super happy to just sit on our laps for the evening. Because we took her with us, we got a coupon for a free lunchkit (given out to all the kids at the game) which we could pick up in the 4th quarter. When Steven came back from picking up the lunchkit, he looked like he had won the lottery! He was so excited to get it and decided that he was going to use it - not the kids!
The next morning when Carathy saw how excited he was about it, she told him that she wanted to take his picture with it and told him how to pose for the pictures. These are those pictures.

PS- THE STAMPS WON!

Visitors in August

My mom called me one day and asked if it would be ok if she brought my grandma and Aunt Nancy to visit. Grandma had never been to visit us here in BC so right away I said, "Yes!" They got here on a monday afternoon and right away on tuesday morning, I decided to take advantage of the fact that they were here. I had been wanting to paint the foundation on our house for quite a while but I didn't ever have a large chunk of time to put into the project. I figured that since they were here, they could help me with the kids and I would do my paining. After all, they were mainly here to see the kids, right?!? Not only did I get the foundation painted that day, I also got the sandbox sanded, primed and painted, too!
On the wednesday of that week, my sister Kim and her boyfriend, Jon came to visit, too. So, for a day and a half, we had 10 people staying in our little house. We had a houseful but it was fun and the weather was great so we spent most of that time outside.

Arinn........before.....

......during.......

....still during........

.....and after.

My crazy kids after a full day going between the sand box and the pool.

The foundation of my house with the new paint on it. It sure makes the plants look good.

One morning during breakfast, we looked over and found Arinn playing in Grandma's purse.

Carathy reading Grandma a book.

Arinn sitting in one of her favorite spots.

Grandma and some of her great-grandchildren.

My handsome boy.

Four generations.

Aunt Nancy, Caleb, Grandma, Arinn, Mom, and Carathy.

Power of Prayer

This summer, Carathy went to VBS for a week and she came home from there with a new understanding of prayer. Since then, whenever she feels like she needs help with something or she thinks someone else needs help, she will pray about it. I was especially proud of her when we were visiting my parents in Gem right before Deb's wedding. My dad had been trying to get some haying done for a few days already but had been forced to wait because of evening thunder showers making the hay too wet to bale. One evening, we were talking about an approaching storm that was looking like it could deliver some hail as well as a large amount of water. As the storm came and the large drops of water began to fall, we all stood at the window and watched. As the storm started to fade and we knew that the worst was over, Dad made a comment that although we did get a lot of rain, he was thankful that there was no hail that came with it. After being silent for the majority of the time, Carathy said, "I know, Grandpa. That is because that I prayed and asked Jesus to not send the hail. He answered my prayer!" I was so proud of her for taking the concerns of someone else to God!

The next evening, we watched as yet another storm approached and with this storm, the hail did come. It wasn't severe but during that time of the year, even a little bit can make a difference with the quality of a crop. As we all stood at the window that evening and watched the white pellets bounce off the ground, Carathy looked so sad. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "I prayed again for Grandpa's field and that Jesus wouldn't send the hail but this time He did. He didn't answer my prayer. That makes me sad."

This was a great time for me to be able to explain that God doesn't always give us what we ask for but we should still ask because we never know what will happen until we do. My answer seemed to make sense to her and she still doesn't hesitate to stop what she is doing and pray for the rain to stop so we can go outside, for Steven to get home safe, or just to thank Him for giving us a fun day.

Family Day at Othello Tunnels

One weekend this summer, we decided to check out the Othello tunnels near Hope, BC. It was a beautiful day to go and Steven and I had not been there since the first summer that we were married. We got there just after lunch and left right before supper. It was a great, relaxing day and we had a lot of fun with our friends Andy, Ronni, Emily and Alex.

Caleb with his snack of the day....blueberries.

Carathy and Emily climbed up this little rock ledge. It sure makes them look small!

The river.

Caleb being a "king of the castle"

Carathy and I.

Our sleeping beauty. This is how Arinn spent most of the day. She woke up right at the end so we could take some family pictures.

Caleb really enjoys playing with Steven's sideburns when he is sitting on his shoulders. I am not sure if this is something that Steven particularily enjoys, though.

Scenery.

A picture of us walking into one of the tunnels. The girls were a bit scared because one or two of the tunnels were quite dark but Alex absolutely loved it.

Our famiy portarait. The first one since before Caleb was born.

My boys making funny monkey faces.

My boys.





Andy and Alex enjoying the river. I love the colors in this picture.


My thoughtful-looking son.

Steven and Arinn.

Our sweat pea.

Arinn and I.