Brothers

Brushing away the sugar bugs from Sugar High Sunday.
We love our sweet Easter Bread....

Paska

This is what happens when you start making Paska (traditional sweet Easter bread) at 8pm.
It was our first attempt. The recipe is old school. You know...add enough flour to make soft dough kinda thing. (yah..thanks for that. 10 cups later......)
We didn't let it rise long enough. It was already 11:30pm when we "finished" the final rise.
We set 3 timers and threw it in the oven for an hour and went to bed as neither one of us could muster the strength to stay awake that long.
About 15 minutes after the timers went off (one repeatedly every 10 seconds), we finally woke up to JOEL! Dan rescued the bread, but it was already too late.
Crispy Paska anyone?
 

Pears

We were at the vegetable store in Langley (yeah Ralphs!) the other day when we saw bags of pears on the clearance rack. $1.99 for a HUGE bag of pears.

So, the pears weren't pretty looking. But they are completely edible. Dan and I decided that we would can the pears since we had been rationing our pear supply for months. Joel really enjoys them and we were 3 jars away from completion. We grabbed 5 bags of pears to start. I kept telling Dan that he shouldn't leave that lonely bag on the shelf. Well, needless to say, 3 bags later, we ended up with a total of 8 bags of pears for a little under $16.

When we got home, we threw them all in a box to weigh them. We were surprised to find out that we had just purchased 50lbs of pears!!! That works out to 33 cents a pound! Steal! (Dan wants to note that grocery stores are currently selling them anywhere from $1.39-$2.48/lb)

We ended up with 56 jars of pears for a mere two and half hours of work. Not bad!

Shoes

Micah's favorite thing to chew on: shoes

You think he was a dog or something...

(better than Joel's affection for licking toilet seats)

Epic Meltdown

This is what happens when your two year old realizes that we are NOT going to Grandma's house.
Epic tantrum. Two seconds after this picture is taken, he threw the toy in protest.
He proceeded to scream and kick for a few more minutes until we promised to see Grandma again soon. That just lessened the screams into a whimper and deep sobbing. What can we say?
This boy LOVES his Grandma. A LOT.

Super JOEL

 

Dan-isms

Dan came home from work and saw this mess.
 He said, "It looks like Noah's Ark threw up in our living room."

On turning 30

This past Monday, I turned 30. Yep, the big 3-0. I have to admit, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Perhaps, because I spent most of the previous year stressing about turning 30.
There was a large part of me that felt like I should have my life together at 30. But here I am, a college drop-out with no long-term career. For some reason, I equated 30 with having a successful job. Nope, not for me!
But some wonderful people kept reminding me that I don't need to have my life figured out. I don't need to know what I want to do when I'm grown up. I have a wonderful husband and two lovely boys. And if I finally admit it to myself, I am doing what I wanted to do when I grew up. All my life, I wanted to be a mom. As a kid, I would play house with every stuffed animal and doll I had. I was always a mother to a large family. So far, the large family is on the back burner. Two is enough for now. But being a mom is one of the greatest blessings I have.

Yet, on my birthday, I was blessed even further.

I was blessed by a birthday greeting a few hours before my actual birthday, but in Korean time! Greg and Karmen sent me a happy birthday message so that when I turned 30 in their time zone, I already had a birthday greeting in my inbox. (This meant that on Sunday, one full day before I turned 30,  I already had my first Happy Birthday email!)

I was blessed by a surprise phone call from the Philippines. A truly encouraging phone message from Christina. Thanks for reminding me how blessed I am.

Later that night, I was blessed by a skype call with the Philippines! Getting to see the Barkman family was amazing. I have never laughed so hard about a flashlight or a coffee grinder in my life. Exactly what I needed!

I was blessed by an email from a friend (yeah Katrina) who had just returned from vacation, but yet took the time to wish me a happy birthday.

I was blessed by my mother who spent the whole day with me. She took me shopping for some new clothes (she may be the only reason I get to be frivolous!) She played with the boys in the park and stayed for dinner and dessert!

I was blessed by a surprise card in the mail box containing money just for me! Thanks Dad.

I was blessed by a great gift from my thoughtful husband! I love my new pepper mill!

I was blessed with well behaved children and lots of hugs and kisses.

I was blessed with a hand coloured card from Joel. So sweet.

I was blessed to not change any poopy diapers all day. (Thanks Dan and Mom!)

I fell asleep Monday night feeling truly blessed. Turning thirty isn't so bad...especially since I've got the greatest friends and family to support me.

Backyard Play

Sunshine=Backyard Fun

"CONE!!" (as in pine cone)

Always watching Joel intently, trying to keep up with him

Hockey! (Croquet, actually)

Micah's new laugh. He opens his mouth like this and breathes in and out. Super funny!

Watching his brother play!

All smiles for this little one

Mmmmm....dirt! Thanks for weeding little buddy.

Too cool for photos. Sitting on the fence.

Papa! Airplane! Papa!

Kisses for his brother...and an eye poke

Spinning in circles...we were both so dizzy afterwards.

Outdoor Play

We finally had some sunny days last week and we took full advantage of them.

We took our toys outside and ran around for a bit.

We rode down the little slope in our driveway on our ride-on toys.

Ohhhh!!! Fun!

Not on the street Joel!

Joel LOVES running around with this push toy. Best MCC purchase EVER! Literally every walk we go on, he brings it with him. Its nice though, since it folds flat and I can just throw it on the stroller rather than drag it around.

Micah likes the tricycle. We traded our large one for Asher's smaller one. Much better!

Joel can actually touch the pedals on it. 

Joel insisted we go for a walk. The parking lot just wasn't covering it.

The next apartment over has a nice slopped driveway. Joel wanted to go down. But he lost his toy on the way!

Micah likes being at home sitting on the cars. Good times!