Happy Belated Father's day

I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it would be a good present for Jason.  So we quickly took some photos before heading to Walmart to develop them and find a frame for them.  This way Jason could have something on his desk to see his girls.

Happy 1st Birthday Megan

Here is my monthly grow up photo of Megan at 12 months old

This photo makes me laugh.  It is typical for Megan to sit in her high chair with her feet crossed one over the other.  She looks so relaxed looking at the water bottle.

We were very simple with Megan's birthday.  Grandma and Grandpa Derksen had been down for a visit and had just left, so it was just us.  Angel food cake and strawberries was on the menu since this girl loves her strawberries, just like her mother.

 Big sister was just as happy about the dessert as little sister.
 

New Truck!

Our dear old 2000 Dodge extended cab has been for sale for probably over a year.  Since Jason doesn't need to drive to work anymore, it has been sitting for sale.  We let a friend use it for half a year while he waited for his truck to get fixed.  It's been sitting on the highway, enticing a few people, but just not making any good deals.  We bring it home for a week and it sells in front of our house.  Well, not really sells, but more trades and upgrades us. 

     We take this as a God story for us, because it's almost unbelievable that it could only be from God!

One week after taking it home and parking it out in front of our house, I notice someone looking at it one evening.  Jason gets a call at work from someone asking if he would be willing to trade our truck for their truck.  They have a 2005 Ford Powerstroke, automatic, quad cab with under 100,000 miles.  For a diesel, that's not even broke in yet.  They just bought it in March, but are moving to Oregon hauling a bumper pull camper.  They thought the truck sat too low to haul their long trailer, or something to that affect.  They liked that ours sat up higher and wanted to trade straight across.  They came over and everyone went for a test drive.  Jason really liked it and they liked ours, so before they changed their minds, we wrote up a bill of sale and swapped titles!  Thankfully, they had paid cash for it and there was nothing holding up getting the title.  We were dumbfounded.  Jason felt bad that they were getting our truck what with everything that was wrong with it.  You forget what is wrong with something until you sell it.  "Oh yeah, the a/c doesn't work." "That's okay." That was just one thing on the list of fixes we didn't want to fix.

     This thing is roomy! Compared to an extended cab with 2 car seats, we can really spread out.  It's also got a Bully Dog chip in it.  If you need some get up and go, it's got some POWER!  There are some cons to it, that were making us think of or even try to sell it.  It's only 2 wheel drive, it sits somewhat low, but it rides smoother than other 4x4s.  There are things that can be done to it to "over-ride" the cons, but that's all in time.  I think we're keeping it now.  It's our "Sunday go to church" rig :)  Thankfully, the sellers didn't have it very long, so it's in mint condition.  There are 2 small holes in the back seat from cigarette burns.  Yes, it did have a smoke smell to it, but we've had that taken care of and now it's clean.  They had some tacky stickers on the sides that looked more like scratches from far away, but I took them off along with the skulls on the front hiding a small scratch.  Much Better!  Now if we go to Canada in the winter, we can pack lots of stuff with no fear of it getting wet in the back with the topper.  It's funny and only God would do something like this, call it ironic if you will, but the topper is a Jason topper.  Yes, his name in on the back.  Are we meant to keep it?  Maybe.  Our truck was only worth $8000 or maybe $9000 and here we get a truck, free and clear that is worth at least double what we were going to get for ours.  Thanks God!  

Hi Grandma & Grandpa

Mom's working on getting some more things on the blog, but here's what we look like in case you forgot :)

April Showers or is it April Snows?

April showers bring May flowers.  No, not this year.  April 8th brought us some snow.  Not that we've had much all winter, but it was still a shock to the system.

Someone was very willing to go out and shovel the sidewalk with her Dora shovel

 April 20th, brought us rain.  

The next day brought us more wet snow.

May has brought some much warmer temperatures, much to all of our delight.  Spring has finally sprung.

4 yrs old!!!!

April 29th was a special day for us as Katelyn turned 4 YEARS OLD!  I had to remind her of her special day, and I got the biggest smile.  Pancakes have been a breakfast favorite and today was extra special, so we made extra special pancakes with strawberries and whip cream!  For her birthday present, I found her a pink backpack with sparkles.  She has been wanting a back pack for a while.  Any bag she can sling on her back is a backpack, or a packpack is what she used to call it :)

 I kept asking her what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday.  She wanted a pink princess cake.  This is what I came up with.  We had a pink cake filled with homemade whip cream and strawberries and covered with pink buttercream icing.  I printed of the 3 princesses she wanted, Sleeping beauty, Cinderella and Belle. She's never seen these movies but she knows her princesses.

We booked her party at a local play place that has opened recently.  We've been there a few times and for a few other parties.  We got the party room for a hour and play time with friends for 2 hours.  We can't book the whole place privately but we had it on a Monday morning and no one else was there, so it worked out great.  Jason was even off that day and was able to come.

Katelyn with her friends, Oriah and Sam. 

Megan getting in on the play action

Sadly this was the only shot of her opening toys and blowing out the candles that I got.  So disappointed, but I was busy serving everyone cake.  

2 hours and it was over.  Goody bags handed out, thank yous said and we were home.  I was more disappointed it was over than Katelyn was.  We had a good time with all her friends and spent the opening every gift she got and playing with them all.  It was a good day completed with pizza for supper.

Mother's Day 2013

Mother's Day 2013 

Megan's 1st birthday

The last few days, Katelyn randomly comes up to me and says, "Happy Mother's day!"  The love of a child is so sweet!  Megan is busy crawling around, finding her boundaries.  We now have a toddler on our hands!