Be faithful in the small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

~ Blessed Mother Teresa

Our crazy life!

Over the last few weeks our family has been sick on and off with Mom being the worst. This weekend it was my turn! Mom and Dad are a bit under the weather as well. So it's a nice quiet weekend here. We have had a few different things going on that I wanted to share with you all...

Life with Alexia is wonderful. She is very cute and always seems to have a new thing to show us! She is very smart for her age....

Her first time coloring (at our house)

Saying "hi" to Clare

Outside with her buddy, Ralph

Wednesday we had a large snowfall all day and part of the night. We ended up getting close to 10 inch. at our house!

My friend Tannis lent me a book last week called "Arms Of Love". What a wonderful book! It was truly inspiring. It's a book about two people who are very different. She is a lovely young Christian lady who is a photo journalist. He works at the same TV station and uses any woman he wants... until she comes along! It's about courtship from a Catholic perspective. He does come to the Lord and changes his life completely....

A good read

Big news!!! My Aunt Gwen, Uncle Robin, cousins Mary and Leah moved to the area last week! Nathan is in school near Toronto and Natalie is in the U.S. for music school. My Uncle was a pastor in the Guelph area for 11 years. They were out west before that. He took a job as pastor of Cedarview Alliance church in Barrhaven. They won't have a house for at least a month so right now they are living with my Grandparents across the road from us. I will tell you guys more as the story unfolds...

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. Enjoy the sunshine!

Brad Paisley Concert!

Last Sunday evening January 30th 2011 our whole family and my friend Tannis went to see Brad Paisley in concert! There was two opening acts as well, Darius Rucker and Jerrod Niemann. We had a fun evening listening to some groovy country music including my favorite country song "I thought I Loved You Then" by Brad Paisley.

Tannis and I before the show started

Shawn and Scott

Mom and Dad

The stage before the singers came on (after they came on it was impossible to get a nice picture with all the lights going)

Brad Paisley singing

It was great fun to go see Brad Paisley live as we have always enjoyed his music. Also at the end Carrie Underwood came out on the stage to sing a few notes with Brad! It was neat seeing her in person.

"One thing I love about coming up here", Brad Paisley joked during the evening, Are all the Tim Horton's you have. I have never seen such national pride in a donut store".

Josh Groban - You Raise Me Up

Beautiful - This song will raise you up!

Sunrise Yogurt Pancakes

1 cup flour

2 tbs. sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 eggs

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup water

2 tbs. butter or maragine melted

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl.

Combine eggs, yogurt and water in medium bowl. Whisk in butter. Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until moistened.

Preheat griddle over medium heat. Grease lightly. Pour individual spoonfuls onto griddle. cook until bubbly and tops appear dry...turn and cook for about 2 minutes.

Psalm 27:4-5

"One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling, he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock."

Psalm 27:4-5

Christmas, New Years And Some Updates

Hello everyone, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! I know it is very overdue in coming but you will see why...

We had a nice Christmas here as a family. Christmas Eve was spent getting last minute things done and making a nice family dinner. We had an early dinner and then drove to Ottawa to go to Mass and a Christmas Eve party at the residence were Scott lives. We also picked up a friend that Scott had met at school. Her name is Anastassia. She is at school for piano performance. She is a lovely girl, we got along very well. She was not able to go home until New Years so we had her at our home for Christmas. It was nice to get to know her. We had to leave the party early to get to our church for midnight Mass. It was a busy evening! Very fun though...

Christmas day we slept in a bit.... then had Nana and Papa over for a Christmas brunch. After we had eaten we opened gifts and had a relaxing afternoon. In the evening we had dinner at Nana and Papa's house. A classic Christmas dinner, turkey and stuffing with cranberry sauce...

December 27th we drove down to Guelph to have a family dinner with Mom's three brothers and their family's. Nana and Papa drove down for that as well. December 28th and 29th was spent visiting more relatives in Dorchester and London. We stopped off in Erin (north of Brampton) to see long time friends on the way home for a short visit. That was our Christmas! A full and fun time...

Anastassia with us three kids by the tree after getting home from midnight Mass.

You are probably all wondering where the Christmas pictures are... my camera broke about six weeks ago. Dad and I brought it into the store where I had bought it only two years ago. They said that to fix it the cost would be over $150 dollars. I think I will end up buying a new camera. I really miss taking pictures!

Our computer is in the shop too... haha, all of our technology is usually down at the same time. So there is going to be a low amount of blogging for the next month or so. It had broken before Christmas but there is a long wait to get it looked at. Shawn kindly lent me his laptop to use.

Our days have been filled with the joy of having a baby in the house. Alexia is a sweetie that is for sure... she keeps us busy!

Last night Mom and Dad taught us how to play "euchre". We are trying it out again tonight. I think Shawn and I should be able to pick it up pretty quickly... we hope so anyway.

Have a wonderful week everyone ~ God Bless.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3.16

More Then Just A Facebook Friend

Post written by Chris at "A Cloudy Mirror"

I'm sure this has never happened to you before.

You meet someone at a party or some other event and when you get home, you have a friend request on Facebook from this random person with whom you had a five minute conversation. Do you accept or reject the request? Thankfully, there's always the third option. You can ignore the request entirely and hope the person forgets about you. Not that I've ever done that before…

Now if you're anything like me, there are probably a few people on your "friends" list that you hardly see. Maybe you don't even talk to them at all. You'll check out some of their photos and comment on their status updates, but you don't really have an active friendship. You may know a lot about them, but you don't really know them. At the heart level, you have no idea what's going on inside.

If there's one thing that we as humans crave the most, it's relationship. Part of the reason why Facebook is so appealing is because we all want to be connected. We want to know what's happening in people's lives. Social networking has enabled us to stay in touch with hundreds of people with only a few clicks of the mouse. But to what extent can it really help develop authentic relationships?

For the longest time, that's the way it was between me and God. He was just a Facebook friend. I first accepted his friend request when I was only five or six. Then I began following his updates. I read all about the amazing things he had done through people like Joseph, Moses, and David. I talked to God occasionally, but I really didn't get to know him all that well. I knew a lot about him, but I didn't know him. I didn't know his heart.

Over the last eight months, I've come to know God so much more intimately. As he's revealed his Father heart, I've begun to understand the width, depth, and height of his love. It's not about what I can do for him, but about what He has done for me through his son Jesus. I don't need to perform for God because he already accepts me. And I don't need to worry about the crap that life throws at me because I know that Father will take care of me.

God doesn't just want you to know stuff about him… but to truly know him. To know how much he loves you. He wants to be more than just a Facebook friend.

Christmas Is Coming!

It's a snowy wet day outside and the trees are weighed down heavily by icicles. Inside it is nice and warm by the wood stove as I type. I have missed blogging lately! As our family computer is still "out of order", Dad kindly lent me his laptop.

Dad bought some pretty blue Christmas lights to put along the front of our house! We haven't had lights for a few years... we are enjoying their friendly glow.

I have been doing the in class portion of my Drivers Ed since last week. I will be done on Wednesday. After Christmas I will be doing the in car portion. I am enjoying it, there are a lot of things that are good to know.

I have been learning Christmas music the last few weeks on the piano! "Angels We Have Heard On High" and a new one that my teacher Emily gave me, it's called "Christmas Is A Time To Love". It's very pretty. Shawn is learning it on the guitar to play with me too.

Baking will start this week (Lord willing!), I am hoping to make the family favorites as well as a new recipe or two. I have set up the wrapping center to start wrapping this week as well.

Have a wonderful 3rd week of Advent everyone!