Toothless Princess

When Jaclyn started to get her teeth 3 years ago, we noticed that she had an extra tooth overlapping two of her front teeth. After the "three in one" as we started to call them came through, I brought her to the dentist to see what we could do to help her. I was told then by that dentist and then by two others over the last three years that she was too young to have her teeth removed or we should wait until she is older (6 or so) until we remove any teeth. 

Over this time I have lost track of her fat lips due to her teeth sticking out in the front. Then last Christmas she broke off a part of the extra tooth and I was still told to wait. 

I was starting to get really tired of hearing I had to wait until she was older while at the same time having my daughter tell me that her teeth were hurting her.

So in August I requested again to see a pediatric dentist. They called back when I was away and then within 24 hours of calling them back I had her in.  After taking a look, we were told that she needed to have them removed immediately (and should have had them removed earlier) because of the teeth basically dying from being too close together.  So she was soon booked in for the removal of her "three in one". Actually she was booked for the next morning!

After waiting three years to get a straight answer of when we would remover her "sick teeth" as she called them. I waited a total of three days from my phone call to the removal. 

Three cheers for pediatric specialist!!

Here are some pictures I took of Jaclyn while we waited for her mini surgery.

She was a real trooper through the whole experience. 

Here are some pictures of her now that her "sick teeth" are gone.

My toothless princess!

Toothless Princess

Hair

October is coming to a very quick end and there has been a lot going on around here, if only I had the time to write about them. I have all these blog posts that I have planned, but none written. However, I don't have access to a computer very often, so I will be trying to put some more posts up in the next little while when my husband is home.

For now I wanted  to post this picture of me that Chris took tonight. Over the years, do to time or finances, Chris has been willing to do some extra things such as cut my hair. He has done it a few times now, and this evening he dyed my hair for the first time. Unfortunately, I did not take a before photo. But before the dye, I had a lot of blond highlights throughout my hair, but I had roots that were over three inches so it was time for a change. This time I went for something a bit more simple (and less frightening for my husband, who was already nervous doing one color) so now my hair is all fairly close to my natural color and is all in the same color family.

Hair

Stumbling Into Grace: Confessions of a Sometimes Spiritually Clumsy Woman - Book Review

Stumbling Into Grace: Confessions of a Sometimes Spiritually Clumsy Woman a book review.

When I received the book Stumbling Into Grace by Lisa Harper I picked up the book and read this on the back of the book.  

“So, today I’ve been thinking about...things that bind us. The thought flitted around my mind and then landed for a while, likely because I was wearing a pair of too-tight jeans.”

This made me smile; actually it made me laugh out loud. After reading that one paragraph I was intrigued even more and was really excited to read this book and discover how Lisa uses her life experiences and her interactions with Christ’s love as a “part diary, part devotional.”

Throughout this book, as you read it, Lisa will have you laughing out loud, bring tears to your eyes, and smiling like a little school girl, but most of all it will show you how God’s grace is all around us and in our daily lives.

Each chapter of this book is broken up into five parts. The first part is where Lisa tells a part of her story, where she uses humour, uncertainty, trust and sometimes a little sadness to tell how Jesus has shown Himself to her throughout her life.
The section after that, has a specific focus on scripture relating to the life of Jesus called: Jesus and ________ (this part changes with every chapter).
After that, we get into a great section, which is one of my favourite parts, where she looks deeper into the passage. I love to jump into the background and find out more about passages so I really appreciate how she takes the scriptures and gives them more meaning and depth.
The final section is called Hope for Our Ongoing Stories, where she helps to apply the bible passage to our everyday lives. Then at the end of each chapter there is a section where you can either do a personal devotion time with questions or a group devotion. So as you can imagine from this list Lisa Harper manages to pack a lot into each chapter.

I enjoyed every part of this book, I found that I learned a lot about myself as I looked at my life in some of the same ways I read about Lisa’s life and saw how God has given me Grace so many times even if I felt like I didn’t deserve it. It's as if I was taken on this journey while reading this book and Jesus showed me once again how much He loves me and gives me grace and wants to have a deeper relationship with me. 

I really loved this book and would recommend it to woman of all ages who are looking for a fresh look on the grace that Jesus gives us everyday. Throughout this book Lisa will use her life as an example of how we as woman can be stumbling through our everyday lives and how Jesus is waiting for us around every corner.

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Thomas Nelson Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for review. 

I am not required to give a positive opinion but I am required to give my honest opinion.

Stumbling Into Grace: Confessions of a Sometimes Spiritually Clumsy Woman - Book Review

Wedding Bliss

Nine years ago I met a wonderful woman who later became my sister-in-law. I have gotten to know her through the years and have been blessed to call her my sister. Tara is an amazing woman and real woman of God. We have been praying for the man that she would share her life with.

This last weekend we were blessed to spend the weekend with Tara and Ben as they were married.

Flower girl.

Ring bearer.

Love them!

We were there too.

We all had a wonderful time at the wedding. Both David and Jaclyn loved being involved with their aunt and (new) uncles wedding. 

Congratulations Tara and Ben we love you both and look forward to watching your love continue to grow over the years to come.

Wedding Bliss

Cupcake Creations

This last week David asked me if we could make cupcakes. We didn't have a lot on our schedule and I was having a "good" health day, so the children and I gathered all the supplies we needed and then had fun making a mess in our kitchen. 

This is what happens when mom gets a call as we are setting up.

 "Look mom, they are all separated!"

 Tasting chocolate chips....yummy

 The best part of making cupcakes

 is licking the batter

 yummy!!

 Me and my little chefs

 They even managed to pull dad away from his office for a snack

Final cupcake creation. David called it our "cupcake family".

Cupcake Creations

Craft Time

My kids love doing crafts. They get so excited every time there is another craft that I bring out. This time it was painting their own Dinosaur banks. David had gotten one for his birthday and we found another for Jaclyn to have one too.

 Both of them have their own plans for how they go about doing crafts, and they each had very specific idea's for how they wanted their banks to look.

 David was going for some sort of superhero/dinosaur mix. His dinosaur ended up wearing a superhero costume.

 Jaclyn's was a bit more free form "let's get as many colours together as possible" approach, but they all had to be in the "right" places. She was not impressed about suggestions to put some colours in spots that she did not want them.

This was the results of their creativity, as well as lots of fun. It was a fun morning project.

Craft Time

Do you like to Doodle?

I wanted to share some pictures I took this last week of my kids and their drawings. We have these little magna-doodles that we picked up last summer. Both of them love to draw over and over again and this is a wonderful way for them to draw and erase as needed. 

Jaclyn and her picture of a "funny man face"

David and his picture of Superman.

It has been amazing to see them really get into it and they have even surprised us with their skills.

Do you like to Doodle?

Friends

Here are two picture I took this afternoon of David and Jaclyn with some of their best friends Cole and Riley. The four kids were laying on my bed as they watched "Mater Tales".

This afternoon after the movie Jaclyn took my camera to take some pictures of her own. 

These are the clearest pictures I found on my camera. 

Her boys playing Lego.

 Jaclyn sitting with her boys.(David took this one)

Friends

Weekend at a Cabin

A couple of weeks ago the kids and I escaped for three days with a friend and her daughter to her family cabin. It was a wonderful little getaway! Both David and Jaclyn had a great time. 

The first thing David said while we were there was "Wow, this is wonderful, we will have so much fun here, its perfect".

Before we arrived at the cabin we decided to go to the beach. As we were starting to get ourselves organized at the beach I asked the kids if they wanted to stay for a long time and play in the sand or just a few minutes? David looked up at me and said "Maybe just a few minutes, we want to get to the cabin". Naomi and I laughed, so we stayed for only a few minutes. However I was able to get enough pictures of us there so at least it seem like we were there for longer then 10 minutes. 

Before we got to the cabin, when we talked about the trip, Jaclyn and David weren't sure as to what exactly a cabin was (having never been to one) but they sure were excited to go. 

As you can imagine, having now experienced the fun of a cabin, they have already asked me more than a few times when we can go back up.

Weekend at a Cabin

Do you have a small business?? Do you need advertisement or Money??

If you are living in Canada and already have a small business or are wanting to start up your own business like Etsy, a bakery, photography or coffee shop then here is a way you can get free advertising and money to start-up or expand!

Grand Prize: One Grand Prize of $15,000 cash + 6 months of free advertising on CentrSource.

Secondary Prize: $5,000 cash + 3 months of free advertising on CentrSource.

There are over $40,000 in prizes to be won. 

Weekly Draw for an iPad 2: Everyone who votes gets the chance to win an iPad2. (you don't have to have a business to vote)

It's really simple to enter. All you have to do is enter you business information and what you offer and then have your friends and family vote for you!

Remember the contest Ends July 31, 2011.

Do you have a small business?? Do you need advertisement or Money??

I have a 5 year old!!

Five years ago yesterday I gave birth to our son David.

On that hot day five years ago our lives forever were changed, with the birth of David.

Now both Chris and I new that our lives were about to change after all I was pregnant for 42 weeks. 

 Even though we thought we were ready to become parents, while as ready as we could be for new parents. Nothing could have prepared us for such an amazing adventure like being David's parents.

Some of the things that I have noticed about David over the last five years are that he is curious about everything, he cares about other peoples feeling, he wants to be the best big brother to Jaclyn. He is also loving, sensitive, funny and creative. He loves to use his imagination and often becomes Batman, Buzz Lightyear, Spiderman, Green lantern or any other superhero at anytime. He still likes to cuddle!

He also doesn't like surprises, he would much rather know what the surprise is and act surprised then actually be surprised. 

9 days old

5 years old

Happy Birthday David!! 

I am happy that God chose me to be your mom, I am blessed everyday by you and I look forward to many more birthdays with you and watching you learn more about the world around you and discovering life!

I have a 5 year old!!

Best Friends!

Best Friends!

Book Review: Principal of the path

Guest Post by my husband Chris

The Principal of the Path By Andy Stanley
Why is it that smart people with admirable life goals often end up far from where they intended to be? Why is it that so many people start out with a clear mental picture of where they want to be relationally, financially, and professionally and yet years later find themselves far from theyr desired destination? Why do our expectations about our own future often go unmet?

It is these questions that Andy Stanley focuses on in his book Principles of the Path that we received to review from Thomas Nelson Publishing.

I have appreciated other books from Andy Stanley in the past and was quite excited to have a chance to review this book. Overall, this book was good in premise, but not quite there in fallow through. The thought that began this book, to illustrate and explain how the results that we get in life are most often a product of a series of discisions and ways of doing things that make a path to those results. This is certainly a very important realization, and as a pastor I have met and had discusions with many people that need to better understand that fact. As simple as it is, it is amazing how all of us can decieve ourselves in seperating the many smaller choices and paths we put ourselves on from the results we get ourselves into, and often that leads to a lot of complaining, both to others and to God.

The problem arrises in that instead of developing this idea into a fully rounded book and working it all through, it was kept at the basic level of development and surrounded by personal stories and other re-iterations of the same idea.

Now, this by no means should be taken as a reason to not read the book, or to have one on your shelf for when you find that person who trully needs to hear that basic truths of this book, it just means that you need to keep your expectations in check, and to be ready to do a lot of the work yourself in bringing it to a fully developed point, which might be twice as good in the long run.

So pick up a copy, and start thinking about the paths we are on, and where it might go.

I give this book a 3.5 out of 5

 

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Thomas Nelson Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for review. 

I am not required to give a positive opinion but I am required to give my honest opinion.

Book Review: Principal of the path