aquarium

Yesterday we went to the Vancouver Aquarium with Janae and had a great time. When we first got there Samantha ran from exhibt to exhibt squealing with glee and saying "wow!" Seeing the joy on her face was so fun.

auntie janae!

Tim's sister Janae is in town for the weekend and we are loving having her around!!

oregon coast

we spent a few days on the oregon coast camping with our friends/housemates Joyce, Calum, Finley and Connor, as well as another friend Dawn. we had a great time. Sam loved spending so much time outside. the coast was definately just as i remembered it (from childhood trips) - cold and windy but also beautiful!

tim, sam and faith checking out the waves
"mama my hand is dirty. help me please!"

24 weeks. the other day at the midwife i asked if it is normal to feel this big so early in a second pregnancy. she assured me that - yes - totally normal and that my question is one of the most asked questions by women in their second pregnancy.

joyce and calum took some great pictures - so when i get those i will post them as well.

bye for now :)

birthday bow

samantha doesn't have bows in her hair all the time now, like she did as a baby. but more and more she is leaving the bows/clips i put in her hair because she realizes it helps keep her hair out of her face. and i think she is beginning to enjoy the idea of dressing up. last year i had this bow made by my good friend Christina's sister-in-law, Tiffany. Tiffany makes some great bows! At least for the next few years I hope to capture a few shots of Sam wearing her birthday bow. Thanks again Tiffany!!

four generations

toot scoot

samantha was given a toot scoot from my parents and a bike helmet. she LOVED both!! but i think it is fair to say she has spent more time wearing the helmet than being on the bike. she loves her special hat!

glee

pictures from samantha opening presents on her birthday. :)

an almost two year old

these pictures were taken yesterday at the birthday celebration we had last night with gabe! he and tim went kayaking for 5 days around orcas island (but that is another post or two). we only took one picture of the four or us and we are all struggling. i may or may not post it later for laughs.

anyways - here is the birthday girl actually enjoying her cupcake (last year she refused to eat it).



sweet samantha jean - you bring us so much joy. it is a great delight seeing you grow and being your parents. you love to be outside, read books, watch disney movies, and run. you make us laugh everyday. you have a mind of your own and appreciate when others respect your personal space. our prayer for you today and everyday is you would continue to grow into a young lady who loves well, who knows Jesus and cares about the things He cares about. often your dada prays for you at the end of the day that Jesus would give you his dreams and your dreams would be His. we love you with all our hearts - more than we imagined possible. happy birthday sweet sam!

happy birthday samantha jean!!

two years ago today we welcomed to the world the greatest gift we have ever received!! born two weeks late - weighing 7 lbs 4 oz - Samantha Jean!! we were SO ready to meet her.

moments after she was born- i promise she is in there.
looking at each other - i think her neck is fine... i think i remember her making great effort to lift her head to say hi.
already crazy about his little girl


sam's first birthday - she has changed so much. the two canadians in our family - who love the fourth of july.
not on her birthday but around the same time last year... our first big family hike.
more birthday pictures from last year"


part two coming soon...

fun with dada!!

Sam and Tim hang out every Monday while I am at work. Tim is very creative, and I often come home to hear about the fun things they do together that only he would think of.
Tim set up a box fort for Sam. She loved playing in it, doing laps around the fort and coloring her fort.
these two love each other!! you can see sam is a little sick here but still having fun with her dada.
"dada - this is crazy!! mama never lets the house get this messy during the day..."
sweet girl!
yeah for mondays!!

lesson learned:

when you don't save pictures from your camera to your computer often - you find old pictures.

these pictures are from tim's parents' visit at the end of april (for tim's graduation). i think tim took some great pictures - enjoy.

playing with grandma on the tire swing -
sammy and her grandparents :)

walking to the park

more old pictures to come :)

downtown for Canucks game 5

baby...

GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we are very excited to announce we are expecting a baby girl. i can hardly believe it. she is healthy and measuring normal, right on track to be born at the end of October (or if she is anything like her sister - the beginning of November).

more than anything I am excited for what this means for Samantha. granted we are thrilled to welcome another girl, but knowing that Sam will have a little sister makes my heart glad. words cannot express how much i treasure my sister - and my prayer is for sammy and baby girl to have an equally special relationship.

also - i have been hesitant to share what we are calling the baby before she is born. tim decided it would be funny to name the baby - steve. well, unfortunately, the name has stuck. and now that we know we are having a girl - i think we will continue to call her steve, or more likely stevey. poor thing. oh well - sometimes these things just happen (right defense!).

sweet stevey - we love you! and we are beyond delighted for your coming into our lives. we pray you will love Jesus and that He will be your center. we pray you will love people well, especially those others may not see. we pray you will have a special relationship with your sister, Samantha. and we pray you will know you are loved so very much!!

oh and one more thing. i told tim just because we are having another girl doesn't mean i won't want to buy the baby a few cute things :) he seemed more or less agreeable.

to know or not to know...

this coming wednesday we have our 20 week ultrasound... the ultrasound that people regularly find out the gender of their baby. with sam we did not find out. with this baby we may... actually... find out.

i know - for some of you that know me/us well are a bit surprised. but as we have thought and talked about it we are leaning (not yet fully committing) towards finding out, if the little one will cooperate. with so much uncertainty in our life - knowing the gender of the baby would be one thing we know. in addition i thought it might be helpful for sam in her understanding of the baby to be able to talk about a little boy or girl.

so there you go. no promises. but i thought i would put up a guessing survey (on the right side of the blog) for fun. if you are the guessing kind - guess away. boy or girl?...

mary poppins!

in honor of mothers day my sister, mom and i went to see Mary Poppins. We had a great afternoon and evening together! and the show was fantastic!
at dinner

in front of the theater

not a very flattering picture - but the guy who took it got down on the ground - we couldn't believe it.

thanks mom and sis for a great night!