More Stuff

Christmas is a wonderful time of year. For me, I have realized it is so much more than one day. It is at least a month! It's the one time of year people step out of their narrow focus of Me-World and try to share joy.
I'm also really feeling convicted lately about the lengths of our joy sharing. We aren't going far enough. We are getting so caught up with giving STUFF to each other (seriously, how many of us already have too much stuff?) that we are not helping the truly helpless. I even catch myself running through the mall getting last minute gifts, walking past the World Vision booth with it's orange-hatted volunteers, "too busy" or "too on budget" to stop. Horrible. I feel so convicted about this. If we put all of our billions of dollars we spend buying more stuff towards the truly needed, think about how the world would change.

A good article that got me thinking is here. Read it in it's entirety or don't read it at all. It's not that long.

I read a quote once (I can't find it now) and it was along the lines of, "If I stop buying things today, I could never possibly use up all the stuff I have right now." If you never bought another piece of clothing, could you wear out your clothes, all of them, until they were unwearable? Sheesh we have our priorities so messed up here, and it seems almost impossible to get out of the mindset of entitlement.

Here's to working on a change of heart, when the other part of me is thinking that I don't want to think about it!!

Jamison's Birthday Bash

My little guy is officially one! And I'm officially amazed it's been a year already. We had a heck of a bash! Lots of family and friends and yummy food. We did a potluck style dinner, I made sure we had a few basics, like big pots of chili, buns, and the plates and cups and drinks. Then everyone else brought amazing things and we ATE! I wish I had a picture of the spread.

I did a dessert table that had brown paper bags (I have a thing for brown paper bags) with colourful ties on them, cake pops, marshmallow pops, cupcakes, and chocolate moustaches. I had lots of fun!

The ties on the goodie bags actually were very handy for organizing them, I did purple ties for the girly bags, yellow ties for gender neutral, green ties for little boy and blue ties for older boy.

We did the party at David's grandparents church basement, which has a full kitchen, lots of space and benches and tables, perfect! I also set up a bunch of my toys from home to do a children's play area that I enclosed (not totally successfully) with benches to contain. And I also set up a table with sugar cookies I made, and plates and candy and icing for the older kids to decorate.

Jamison actually loved opening all his presents, it was too cute. Can't beat this enthusiasm!

One of my favorite parts of the party, my chocolate moustaches! Jade and I totally have the best movember 'stache!

Welcome Fall!

Well I have conceded. It's no longer summer.

We welcome fall in our house by going to our old road and hunting for chestnuts. It's like an Easter egg hunt, but without the chocolate.

Amaris has developed a rather interesting 'camera smile'. Yes, it's this little gem here:

Hmmmm. What can I say about that. She smiles like this almost every time I ask her to smile for the camera. Hilarious!

Mister Mister

My little guy Jamison is 11 months old now. I can't even believe it. I was reading through my blog and there is post after post with pictures and updates on Amaris, and poor Jamie has nothing.

Let me give the LD (that's Low Down for you less gangster people out there).
He is the most amazing baby. He rarely every cries or whines. We joke that when he does, it's just to keep in practice incase he ever needs it. He is a whirlwind of activity and never stops, he crawls almost as fast as I can walk. He eats more than Amaris does at every meal. He weighs almost 23lbs. He has strawberry blonde hair and dark dark pond water green eyes.

He laughs like everything is a joke, he clicks his tongue and pops his lips and waves like crazy man all the time. He is very verbal and 'talks' all the time, he has an incredible deep and raspy voice and it melts my heart. He says "Oh wow" and "Oh boy". And he says "Daan" for all done. I think he may be saying Mama too, but it's hard to tell what just sounds are and what they know they are saying.

Pinterest

There's a growing phenomenon in the blogging community, and I'd have to say, it's worth the buzz! It's Pinterest. And it's cool. At first I didn't understand the hype, but suffice to say after spending awhile on the site, I'm hooked!
It's such a super place for inspiration. Here's what I'm digging on it:
*Yes, it's all baby related. I'm nearing completion on Amaris' room, and just starting to get idea's for Jamison's nursery.*

LOVE the bright open windows, and dreamy breezy curtains. But the realist in me points out, would baby ever nap with all that energy streaming in!?

So far this is winning. Love the bursts of orange and gentle neutral base.

I so totally just brought a bunch of driftwood home in the truck this week for the purpose of hanging some type of mobile off it. Love this! And what a swell crib.

How darling is this idea? A baby footprint growth chart, doubling as super cute wall art!

Small Rant

Wow, talk about been awhile! Like three months awhile!
When I'm lying awake at night unable to sleep there are a few things I think about blogging. The big one is, I have a BIG, UGLY, horrible story about Jenner Chevrolet in Langford, B.C. and the 'service' there. I keep meaning to contact Better Business Bureau, or post a google review (I tried, but it didn't post for some reason, maybe it was too long and too full of colourful language? (Just kidding about the colourful language, but it was long)).

Anyways I'll post the longer version later when I feel like getting nice and worked up, but right now just to get the word out there, NEVER GO THERE WITH YOUR BUSINESS! They lied to our faces, double dipped from our pocket and our warrenty coverage, lied to the other dealerships trying to help us, GM head office, and tried to steal our papers proving that they were doing shady business! Sickening.

I can only imagine how many people went through the same thing and never found out they payed for something that Jenner also claimed from the warrenty coverage. Hello 'dollar dollar bill ya'll' for the employees. Sad faces for the customers.

David's Birthday

So I spent a week of cleverly hiding the planning of David's 27th birthday. I don't know what possessed me to do a surprise birthday, but I thought it would be fun. It was, but the anticipation and planning was a lot of work! So this is what David did, he went out shooting and firewood cutting with his boys. The photos are taking forever to get in the right order, so just accept the jumbled mess that was the jumbled day of his birthday!

David and his mom with the kids.



Oh Amaris, and the smushed window face.

David Jr. shooting, and my Dad, David Sr. having a turn.

Bear and Jesurun and the two trucks full of wood.

My beautiful table. Mind you, it looked better before all the mess of people eating happened.

Want to learn how to make the tissue paper pom poms you see in the pictures? Check it out!