Posting an update, as per request of being "sick" of the piano pics!!! LOL

(***Editing Note*** First of all I'd like to say that this blog is totally acting up on me! I can't seem to get it to do what I want and the pics are all weird shapes and sizes, sorry about that, I'll read up on what I did wrong and next time I post, hopefully it'll go a bit smoother.)

Well....as for the kids, there's not a terrible lot to post. Joshua and Jacob have seemed to settle well into their new school. Jacob REALLY loves his new teacher....he got a boy teacher and exclaimed to us the first night of school "Mommy, Mommy, I prayed and prayed that God would send me a boy teacher and HE DID!!!" That was so cute.

Joshua has a lovely teacher as well, Mrs. Doberich, he remembers her name by saying "Do be rich!" seems to make him laugh...he's such an entrepreneur already, isn't he? Anyway, he's making lots of friends, mostly with Grade 5 boys though, because of his friend from church, Ben, who is one year older than him. Josh is in a 4/5 split class, which doesn't thrill me, but we had that choice or a 3/4 split as they didn't have enough students in the English track to make a full Grade 4....the only part of switching them from the private school that I've been totally sad about is that he got put into a portable in a BRAND NEW Billion$$ school building....that part really sucked....but I trust the principal there, I really like him, he's a Christian and has very good values....so we'll see where the year takes us. His teacher has already started sending notes home about his inability to pay attention fully, so I know something is up, but it remains to be seen where it takes us this time around. That is my number 1 prayer for Josh this year, that we can find a way, HIS way of learning and make his schooling experience what he needs it to be so that he enjoys school again...he's not enjoyed it since Grade 1....oh for Mrs. Johnson to be back again!!! LOL She was amazing!

Lucas is growing and growing and growing....out of every last pair of shoes we own for him....so that's what I'm off to do sometime today....get the boy another pair of shoes....he's 16 months old and I'll be buying him a size 6 shoe!!! Crazy! Although, if he continues like his brothers did, this fact should NEVER surprise me! Joshua is almost 9 years old and he's wearing a men's size 7 shoe and Jake just turned 6 and is wearing a boy's size 4.....!!! Big feet in my family! One day, they'll eat us out of house and home, but for now, thank God that's not a problem! LOL Up at the top, you'll find a very funny picture of him "signing" his little heart out....oh for video of this! It was so funny listening to him humming his song and bopping is butt up and down, dancing away! Too cute!!!

I just got home from a MOPS Convention in Orlando, FL and had the time of my life!!! It is the 3rd convention I've been to (2 of the others were held in Nashville, TN) and this one seemed to really develope my Christian characteristics and leadership skills to a whole other level. I really had so much fun! We were so blessed to be able to bring 12 ladies in leadership from our MOPS group, we had 6 steering members, 3 mentor moms and 3 table leaders. The part I truly enjoyed the most was watching the women of this group, that have not yet been to an International event, see the impact that MOPS is making on the world. MOPS has a new tag line to go along with their new logo this year and it's "Better Moms Make a Better World"!!! Isn't that so true??? Society as a whole do not understand fully the impact that Moms have on this world as a whole.....in our homes, in our children's hearts, on our planet as a whole! Better Moms truly do make a Better World!!! This tag line will forever stand out in my mind! It's not to diminish the importance of Dads, they too make a world of difference, but when we focus on the Mom's of the world as a mission, we see the good and amazing work that God is doing in so many millions of families! Can you tell I'm totally pumped up for MOPS again? It truly is an amazing network of women, strong women, women from every walk of life and faith and background. It doesn't matter if you are a working mom, stay at home mom, single, married, teen, adopted, whatever your race or ethnic background, MOPS has a place for you! My prayer is that God works hard in Canada this year, to spread the wonderful word of MOPS throughout our wonderful country! There is no reason that with the size of Canada, we are stuck at less than a 100 MOPS groups around....and they are mostly just in BC and Ontario. There are so many families out there that could benefit from this amazing group! If you ever wanted more information about this group go to this website and you can find out about it's history, it's mission and how to get a MOPS group started in your area.... http://www.mops.org/

Ok, now that I made a big deal about MOPS, I'd love to show you some currect pics...(however, I can't seem to get the blog to behave properly, so all of the pics are up at the top! Sorry about that!)

The funniest of them all is this weekend (Thanksgiving Weekend) the boys yelled out "Hey Mom, we have something to show you!" I totally didn't expect it to be the big boy putting the baby on a dog leash!!! Man it was funny! Luke absolutely loved it, as did the big two of course, they took Luke-doggy on several walks around the house, giggling the entire time!!! Who knew, in MY household, this would ever happen!!! LOL (btw....it was a toy dog leash from Build a Bear, in Seattle, they built two husky dogs as their treat!)

Then I also thought I'd throw in their first day of school pics too, since I was a bad Mommy and didn't post them when I should have!

I'll even try to find some pics of convention to share with you too, but NOT the nasty blackmail pic that Teri-Lynn took!!! Yuck!!! It was aweful!!! Who needs to see me snorin' logs while they are bouncin' on the bed tryin' to wake me up!! Yuck!!! LOL

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend!

Some recent pictures of the boys.

Luke is enjoying playing the piano with his Daddy...He really loves that...whenever he's cranky, Todd plays and it suddenly makes him happy! We are loving this!


Jacob lost his 5th loose tooth a couple nights ago and he's here posing with his empty spot! He's so proud of it! LOL

Joshua certainly is our little fish....he just loves being in the pool...you end up having to drag him out at the end of a day!

Summer has been a whirlwind and it's almost Jake's Birthday! Yeah!

Hey there everyone;

It's been a crazy busy summer with everything happening all at once! I've really got my eyes set on the countdown to back to school now though!!! I'm nervously looking forward to the new adventure our family will be going on this year with the boys in their new school. I'm really hoping that it'll be a great change for us and the boys will really enjoy it! Of course, I have my Mommy worries like any other Mommy about them meeting new friends and such...I am a little nervous about them not being in a Christian school anymore, but Cathe reassures me that this school is great too, so I'm counting on that recommendation! The boys are so excited, because we went back to school shopping and I let them pick all brand new everythings...pencils and markers and erasers and sharpeners and backpacks and and and and.....can you say guilt shopping? LOL

Jacob is doing his countdown to his birthday party right now! He has one celebration this weekend with Todd's family, and then his real birthday on the 29th with my family (and celebrating Dad's b'day too!) and then his friend's party on the 30th. He gives me the cutest little countdown every single morning when he wakes up! He's totally excited! He also lost another tooth the other day too...he's growing up faster than I can handle...he didn't stay little like Joshua did...Josh was still little at 5, not Jake man...he's more like he's 10 already! He is so funny....he really thinks he's much older than he really is!

We are also taking the boys on a real vacation this weekend too....our vacation plans kept getting screwed up this year for one reason or another, so we decided to pack them up and take them to Toronto to celebrate going back to school/end of summer. We're really excited about it, I think the boys will have a blast....we're even going to take them on the subway...I know, sounds lame to you and I, but I bet the boys go nuts over it! LOL

Luke is doing well...he's got a terrible summer cold right now, but on the bright side, he's walking a little bit more each day....still not walking solid...he looks more like a drunken sailor, but it sure is cute!

Hope everyone enjoys the remainder of their summer and I'll post some new pics of the boys soon!

Lucas is walking! At least a little anyway!

Hey there!

Well...camp certainly has overcome our lives this summer! Much more than I think either Todd or I ever thought it would! It's fun for the most part, but sure is a lot of work! I don't know how Gwen ever did it full time! That's 6 full time jobs far as I can see!!! The staff is absolutely wonderful this year (as all years) and I'm soooo thrilled to meet two wonderful brothers, Rick Walsh (summer director) and Jeff Walsh (chef). It's going very well up there! It's been a real team effort needed. The various committee members have really worked hard this year to be sure that the families and children notice very little change while we make our transition to Theresa as full time director in November. Todd is soooo excited to be able to work with Theresa and is really looking forward to seeing what she decides to do with Camp Kintail in the future. It's exciting, but darn, a lot of work! I'll be happy to see Christmas come this year I think! LOL

So I have some really exciting news to share! Lucas has decided to not only take his first little piddly steps at camp in June, but he took 6 - 8 little steps on his own this past week at Sprouts camp! It was toooo cute! The staff went nuts! Cheering him on and clapping for him! He felt like a genuine celebrity!!! LOL I think it's awefully cute now, but as I was reminded, he's easier to deal with and lots slower when he's still crawling! So, I'm not sure when he'll walk full out, but for now, this is really adorable! He still much prefers to crawl, for now anyway! LOL

Joshua went off to Explorers Camp the 3rd week of summer vacation and he really enjoyed that! He loved being there by himself, all but one day he said he cried because he missed us! I'm glad he did at least a little....makes me feel better that he still "needs" me! Joshua and Jacob went to Sprouts this year (actually just this week, Sun - Wed) and we were able to bring Ben and Matthew and Josh R. along with us this summer! I was sooooo thrilled that Cathe and Karleen were willing to send them! They all had such a great time! It was crazy! I kept checking on them, but sure enough....they were just fine the entire time! They has the time of their lives! It was tooo funny that Ben started a whole new tradition on one of the songs at campfire! It will forever be remembered by the staff! LOL

I am back up to camp for Family camp this weekend, but will be done our camps after that. I might go up at least for a couple more days of Music and Drama camp and Todd is staying for day camp too....so it's not officially over quite yet!

Anyway....it's getting late, so I'm going to go! Hope this finds everyone having a happy and healthy summer!

Lots of love!
Kim and the family
xxoo

Our new family picture!

Hey everyone:

I'm not updating this as often as I should I know, but this family picture was just taken on the weekend and I just love it! So I thought I'd share it with you! Hope you enjoy it too!

Not a lot happening new with us. The summer is coming fast, evidence of that is that work for Camp Kintail is getting busier and busier. Good thing is we love it and it's not that hard to do. The boys are playing soccer now and loving that. They play every Tuesday night (when we're not rained out) and they are really enjoying themselves. Luke is doing well too...he's had a little sickness here and there, but overall, he's doing just great.

Oh I guess the biggest news this week is that Todd has now officially gone back to school to finish his degree. He's nervously anticipating that too. Mostly just looking forward to it being over with and done.

Anyway...hope you all have a great week and hopefully I'll be on here again soon to post some more pictures!

Our pictures from North Carolina!

Our Trip to North Carolina!

Hi All....well Luke and I just returned from our amazing trip out to Wilmington, North Carolina to meet the girls from our board called the "No Drama Mamas", we all have babies in June, 2006. We've become so close that we decided to finally meet each other. It was so much fun! So many of these ladies were exactly what I expected them to be! So sweet and totally my friends! It was the most surreal feeling though...I felt like I have known these women forever and that I've known these babies since birth! It was amazing. We post pictures to each other all the time, and we totally share everything, so I'm sure that's why! It was way too cool to meet them all and I thank Todd for making it possible! He gave me this trip as a thank you gift to the last three months and I'm forever grateful for that! It truly was an amazing trip!


I have a whole bunch of pictures to show you, I hope you enjoy them. Luke was just an absolute angel on the trip, with the exception of the fact that he didn't "want" to smile for many pictures, the little bugger!!! He was playing with these babies like they were his best pals! It was totally amazing!

The first day that Luke and I were down there, we just drove around Cary, NC and tried to find Nan and Papa's restaurant. That was cool. We have some pictures of that too. Then we were tired, so we made the two hour drive down to Wilmington (which is right on the coast near Myrtle Beach). Fortunately because of our problems at the airport, Lukey was wiped out and slept the whole drive. We got settled into our hotel room around 10pm and went to bed to rest up for the weekend.

We got up the next morning and had a great time getting together all the little presents we brought for the Mommies and Babies we were about to meet. We had to borrow a big garbage bag to get the elephants out to Julie's house! LOL We loaded up the rental car and headed out to explore Wilmington...that is one gorgeous, but easy to get lost in little city! LOL Julie had directed me to a discount fabric store and to be honest, I thought I had died and gone to heaven, this place was HUGE! It was so cool. They had so much fabric it was crazy! I was able to really take my time in there because Luke was napping! Yeah! Then we headed over to Walmart to get some diapers and baby food.

Well...about 3pm we were back at the hotel just getting freshened up and there was a knock at the door and it was Krystie and her family and Leeanna and hers! It was so lovely meeting them! I had talked with them on the board and on the phone for so long, that it was fabulous to finally meet them.

Then we all caravaned (and totally got lost) over to Julie's house, where we met Julie, Jamie, Mariah, Janet and Christy and their babies. Some of the girls had their hubbies with them and some of their older kids too. It was so nice to meet them all. Julie threw us a seriously impressive Southern Barbeque! She had real southern chicken and hush puppies, which Luke loved! And something called 'BARBEQUE'...well apparently down there that means "pulled pork with barbeque sauce" LOL....our differences in cultures was so fun! They had a heck of a time trying to explain that to me! LOL

Anyway, the next day we went out to Wright Beach and sat on the beach visiting and having a blast watching the babies play in the sand. Mariah, who is a Photographer by profession, offered to do a photo shoot of all our families and babies. I love the pictures, they turned out fabulously!

Then that night we went to a restaurant called "On the Border"...that was interesting. It was a mexican restaurant and it was so overwhelming, I couldn't decide what to have. I ended up wiht a fajaita and it was great! Then because we didn't want to stop our visit...we camped out on their front yard for a while! LOL I think the staff thought we were nuts, but we got the best pictures there! We took some of the Mommies and babies all together and the babies with the Daddies! That was fun!

Anyway...all in all...it was a fantastic trip and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go and meet my new friends!