I don't even know where to start.

I went to visit Noah in the PICU yesterday afternoon. When I buzzed in, I was told that they were performing a procedure on him and that I couldn't go in.
Less than half an hour later I received an email letting me know that he had died.

Noah was such a precious little boy. He brought God's light to everyone who knew him, his family, and his story.

His parents are not only warriors who fought for everything that was best for him, but his mother also has a sweet, sensitive spirit that allowed her to be everything he needed.

My heart is consumed.

Noah,
You are loved. We praise the Lord for the time we got to spend with you; to be blessed by you.

To read more of Noah's story, please go here.

www.noahgrantjohn.blogspot.com

pray.

please pray.

www.noahgrantjohn.blogspot.com

so...

the summer journals have fallen to the wayside...well at least for the kids. I'm still working on mine. Looks like I'll just be doing the cool art projects with them, and that's about it!

But that's okay. Mine is turning into my own book of me for this summer, and that's just perfect!

I'm hoping to keep up with Declan's and Khai's...seeing as I'm doing most of theirs myself anyway...but we'll see.

So, I broke down and bought a bind-it-all. I'm hoping to get it on Monday, and then I can start all the cool projects that I've envisioned myself doing in my head. I can't wait.

PLUS...I think I'm adding a summer craft idea...I'll have the kids make a book, and then I'll bind it! I'm also hoping to figure out how to bind books with the whole needle and waxed thread thing too...but for now...I think the bind-it-all will be perfect!

Tomorrow marks the end of a VERY busy week. Other than breakfast with the in-laws at about 9 am, we have NOTHING else on the agenda. We're thinking we might go and look at furniture, if the lady ever calls us back about our credit that should be sitting there, but if we don't feel like it we won't!

Oh!!! and I bought socks to make sock monkeys this weekend too! My friend gave me the idea here: http://somethingworthsharing-thiessen.blogspot.com/

and finally....some pictures from our camping weekend at Hecla!

Thanks for stopping by!

Yesterday...

I went for allergy testing. THAT is what they did to me.

96 times they poked my arms!

Count them. 90. 6. times.

It was not the most fun experience of my life...and after all that, I'm only allergic to 2 kinds of mites, trees (yup. trees) and cats (how this one works I'm not quite sure seeing as I've had a cat for at least half of my life!) Anyway. That was fun.

These two....

started pirate camp yesterday. They had a ton of fun! (see previous post for cute parrot story)

This one is getting to be quite the monkey. Khai called me to tell me he was on the ladder of the bunk bed (though not before he was already almost at the top!) I grabbed my camera and made Khai stand behind him while I got this picture.

I had my grandma, two cousins, my sister and her hubby, my other sister and my parents over for supper tonight.

My mother feeding dekkie tea...well she started it...now he's feeding himself.

It was great seeing everyone, though I must admit I was a bit preoccupied as Justin is currently sitting in an emerg waiting room, waiting to find out for sure if he has a collapsed lung. (Our doc suspects, and wants him to go for an immediate x-ray, but he has to wait in emerg to get it)

Today's challenge : pray for someone you love.

Tomorrow's goal: clean basement before camp.

Thanks for stopping by...

me

okay...

technically it's still tonight, even though it's later than I thought I would be up!!

It's been a busy day today, and as I left my camera at Shannon's, I can't show you what I've been up to!

First day of camp for Khai this afternoon, he LOVES it. He's in Treasure Island camp (or as he calls it...pirate camp) and today they made a parrot.

I will post a picture tomorrow, but it says at the top "Khai's Parrot". They each had to pick a name for their parrots. Beside the colored parrot (which I might add he did very nicely) it says,
"Hello, my name is Brett".

LOL.

I laughed VERY hard.

Today's challenge was to write in your journal about what inspires you.

I will update for the last week tomorrow if I have time...my grandma is in from out of town, so I'll have to try and fit blogging in at some point!

Have a great night everyone!
me

alright...i just had to share this one...

Khai says , "okay Mummy, you can turn off the GPS now...I found my compass ring."

bad blogger. bad bad blogger.

So, I'm now back from camping. Those of you who know me, know how much I love camping on a good day (NOT) well, this weekend was NOT a collection of good days!!
It wasn't awful, but let's just say I'm glad to be home.

I'm also exhausted. We got back at 3:30 and I'm on my 4th load of laundry.
So, I will blog tomorrow night!

Sweet dreams all,
Me

It was brought to my attention today.....

That I did not post this picture.
Khai's first suit. ADORABLE.

I use WAAAAAAAAAAAY too many exclamation marks.
drives me nuts re-reading what I've written.
hmmm. I'll have to do something about that.

Tuesday

Today's challenge is to do something nice for someone you know. nice and simple. write down what you did, and the date!

Looking forward to today. We're having a friend over for Khai to play with, and his mom and I are great friends too, so it will be nice! I'm just hoping that it's warmer out there than it looks!

I may be back later with some photos, but we have to finish packing for camping, so it may not happen until tomorrow!

Have a great day!

Monday.

A new day. And thus far...a good one!
Went this morning to get Dekkie's glasses. Went to Clinic Optical... and it was SUCH a great experience! They had just the one pair of frames that would fit Declan (but very few places have small glasses...they usually have to special order them when they're this tiny!) and these are them!
The picture is not the greatest, but he didn't keep them on long enough for me to get a better one....

Most of the time the glasses were here.....

Or here...

So yeah., I really don't know how well he'll wear them, but he needs them, so there we go!

I cannot stress how great of an experience I had there though. Such great people, such great service. I loved it!!

now...summer journal time...

today's challenge is an easy one! Write down your 10 favourite songs.

and a random picture from today...

Shy feet.

Many people don't know that I'm shy. but. i. am. very shy. my heart beats very very fast when I have to deal with new things/people/situations. i get very grouchy when I'm anxious or uncomfortable. Most people think I'm a b$%#* when they first meet me, because i don't do well

with first meetings.

anyway. i realized that I stand with my feet like this when I'm nervous or shy. LOL...so i took a pictures so i could scrap it for my Book of Me...(Check out the My Scrap Shoppe blog for details on the Book of Me)

oh, and I've added pictures to yesterday's post, so you can see the finished products yourself!

Sunday...

taught the kids how to make stamps today. Got the idea off of a website awhile ago, and then talked to my sister (who does graphic design for a living) and she told me where to get the supplies etc...and turns out she had mentioned it to me a long time ago, and I'd just forgotten!!

It was the day of 'k's' today! Kelsey, Kyle and Khai are the only ones who were here to make the stamps...Justin was working and Brett didn't come over. Kyle had a good time, and I was TOTALLY impressed at how his stamp turned out. It was great. Kels wasn't feeling well, so she didn't finish hers...she'll do it when I show Justin, Magda and Brett how to make theirs.
Khai did ALL of his by himself...

He drew it, and carved it out...

and I LOVE how it turned out.

This one is my stamp:

Here's how my stamp looks on paper!

thanks for stopping by!!!

i'm baaaaaack....

so, here are a couple photos of our pages from yesterday's challenge. Mine is the only one that is complete as of now...but you'll get the general idea.

Khai and Brett both decided to do stars instead of flowers...and why not? they have points which they can write their attributes in, and it's more "boyish" than a flower. In any case, they preferred the star, and as it is their book, I saw no reason to argue!!

Brett stitched his own,

and I stitched Khai's for him.

They both need to do the writing (well, Khai will write his name, and I will do the rest) and come up with their 5 words.

I also need to make one for Declan...

And, here's mine.
I did a flower. I embroidered everything (words included) and then machine stitched it onto a page from an old book (incidentally, the book was called Late Bloomer by Fern Michaels....I thought the name was kind of funny given the flower :) ). I then used Heidi Swapp's Bark Acrylic Paint to dry brush the outside edges. Then I wrote in pink " i am. i do. i have. i love." in the top right hand corner, and the date in the bottom left.

So. That's that!!

night all...i'm off to sleep.

Saturday!

So far, today has NOT been great.
Tell me, does "letting it all go" mean to stop caring? Because I'm not quite sure how to separate the two....and, if I stop caring...then what is the point??

ANYWAY...enough of that!

Today's "challenge" to my kids, was to simply write down in their journals the thing (or things) that make their hearts race. The things they get either excited about or scared by. Anything that makes their heart leap into their throats or beat wildly.

The things that make my heart race are/were:

my first kiss with Helmut
planning Helmut and my wedding
giving birth
seeing Brett skateboard (he's so good, but it makes me nervous watching :) )
when I'm about to say something that I know I have to say, but don't really want to
watching Khai's piano recital
seeing Justin get honour roll (and graduate)
when Kelsey confides in me
that first moment when I knew I was in love with Helmut (but I didn't tell him because I didn't want to say I love you first), and being scared he didn't feel the same way (my heart beat fast for DAYS until he finally said it)
seeing Declan do something or discover something for the first time.

I will post pictures of completed pages later tonight!

I'm off to get Declan into bed. Khai has a very high fever and isn't feeling well, so I'll snuggle with him until bedtime, and then Helmut and I need to eat dinner too (we fed the kids already Mum...and yes, they had protein) ;P

I'll be back later!

Today's challenge...

is near the end of this post!!

We just got back from a skate park/starbucks run. FUN TIMES! We went to the skate park first, where I got these pics. Khai is doing SO much better on his skateboard, but he still alternates between the scooter and the skateboard. Declan gets mad whenever Khai wants his skateboard back, but we find other stuff to do, so it all works out in the end. Some of Brett's friends were there, so I tried not to follow him around too much taking pictures, but I did manage to get a few really good ones!!

Now for today's project!

I got the idea here:

http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/2009/05/weekend-creative-naming-your-petals.html

and here's my take on it!

Instead of drawing the flower...I'm getting each of my kids to embroider the flower on a piece of plain white unfinished canvas. Some of them will draw their flower on the canvas before we start, with pencil, and then just stitch over top.

The canvas is cut to the size of our pages in our books. We will then sew (probably by machine) to a piece of white cardstock and hole punch it accordingly.

In the middle of the flower will be their names, and each petal with be something about themselves.

You get the idea.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the kids come up with for this one!!!

I have photos of the challenge to post, but I'll have to do that in the morning!!!

Last night....

Kelsey went upstairs to get something and asked me for something else...so I went into her room to drop it off. This is what I found...

Kyle (Kelsey's boyfriend) and Justin all sitting, surrounded by their summer journal kits, working on yesterday's challenge.

It made my heart happy!

The gym bag....

So, my niece showed me this VERY cool gym bag that she had made in home-ec this year at school, and Brett asked if I could teach him how to make one. Mine varies a little bit from what my niece had done, but the premise is the same!

We stopped at the fabric store on the way home from the skate park at the forks, and I picked up some "skate like" material. Brett wanted to make them sort of "patchwork" so they chose two of the three fabrics I'd purchased and this is what we made!! (Well, Khai finished his, Brett decided to play video games in the middle of making his...so he'll finish later :) )

Brett wants the drawstring on his to NOT be attached to the bottom of his bag (which is not a problem) ...and at least that way they'll be able to tell them apart a little more easily!

They may also embroider something on the solid red part of the bag as well.

FUN TIMES!!

Summer Project....

So, last year was the first year we made summer journals (my kids and I). It was so much fun putting them together, but not as much fun being diligent in writing in them. So this year, I came up with 62 "challenges" (little things for them to do)...one for each day of July and August, so that they have something specific and finite to do everyday. I'm going to post each days challenge, and hopefully some pictures of us doing whatever it is we're doing!

The point of this year's journal is for them to learn something about themselves, and the world around them!!

And here they are! The only one missing is Magda's (justin's girlfriend) because she took hers home with her!

I have to admit, I think Kyle's is my fave. He's Kelsey's boyfriend, and he did the craft ONLY because he knows how much Kelsey loves crafts. Can you tell which one is his?? (here's a hint...he called it "Kyle's fun book of Frustration" ) LOL.

As today is July 2nd, I'll be posting 2 challenges for today.

Challenge #1....take (or have someone else take) a picture of you. Print it, date it and put it on the first page of your journal.

Challenge #2...write down your height, weight, hair color (dyed or not), eye color, shoe size, clothing size etc. Basically, describe your PHYSICAL attributes. As much physical info about yourself that you can come up with. Get your brothers and sisters, mum and dad to help you.

Well...I'm off to teach the kids how to make a gym bag!!

I'll post pictures later tonight if I have time, or tomorrow when I post the next challenge!