Cinderella and Carruthers

Friday night the girls were invited to their babysitters little birthday gathering... And I tagged along. Caroline offered to watch Amara so I could go to the party and watch the new Cinderella movie. It was wonderful! They did such a good job and stayed true to the original movie, we all loved it. Then we went back to the Anderson's for some dinner. The Carruther ladies were visiting the Anderson's for the weekend, so Saturday we took their daughter Jolie for a sleepover. A couple of years ago we visited them at their home in maple ridge and Danika and Jolie pulled an all nighter and never went to sleep and Danika was so tired the next morning she was crying and dry heaving and ended up sleeping the rest of the day! Needless to say we talked about that experience and Danika has said she will never do that again! We had a few good laughs. Saturday night the nagtegaals joined us and the Carruthers for dinner and then Tammy stayed for a hot tub. I sure love that thing!

The girls did really good and had a good sleepover! 

China Beach

The day before Sarah left we headed up to China beach after church. It is about 1.5 hours from our house, but it was so worth it! Once again it felt like summer weather... and there were people swimming in the ocean in their shirts and shorts! Crazy! We played on the beach all day and then Steve, Sarah and Danika went exploring and found a gorgeous cove with a waterfall in it! It was stunning! We hope to come back in the summer and do some more exploring as it looked like there were caves in behind. 

We brought out good camera and there were sooo many good photos so thought I would collage them! 

Steve and his best buddy... my handsome men! 

My wonderful Danika... always up for an adventure, she is soooo wonderful with Amara, and Amara continually hops on her back and yells, Giddy up!!! And Danika always complies! 

This little pip squeak is not one to be left behind! We no longer bring her stroller on our walks as she walks for 85% of the time and weighs only 23 pounds so isn't hard to piggy back when she does get tired. She LOVED the beach and had soooo much fun playing with her big sisters on the beach and running away screaming as the ocean was trying to get her! Love this little girl! 

So wonderful having Auntie Sarah out. I really, really enjoyed our visit together, and love this girl a lot. She is heading out to work at YWAM at the month and we are so excited to see all God has in store for her life!
Sadly there were no photos of Adessa on the good camera. She didn't want her photo taken, as she was too busy having fun! 

The Firehall

Already it is so nice having Sarah around, besides the obvious of her being so wonderful, I was able to go on a field trip with Adessas kindergarten class. I drove a few kids and we went to the Firehall. The girls had so much fun learning about fire safety and climbing in and out of the trucks... And it was a good refresher for me as well! 

Adessa and Ava. 

They each had a turn holding the fire hose... Was for sure a highlight for all the kids! 

When asking the group of kids if there were any questions, Adessa very confidently put up her hand and asked if they had a fire dog. Sadly they are only in the movies! 

The whole kindergarten class and their lovely teachers! 

It was a fun day! 

After getting home Steve and I ran over to check out a house that hasn't been listed yet. It was gorgeous and had everything on our checklist and then some... However the price tag was extremely steep, so now deciding if we can afford it or not and the decision is a hard one... We do not want to become house poor. 

In the evening I also went with our life group to go watch focus on the families movie "the Dropbox" Steve was too sick so stayed home. But I went and was on the verge of tears throughout the film. They did a fantastic job and I was amazed at seeing Gods gospel truly at work... A very eye opening, inspiring film and I pray The Lord continually blesses that family who started the Dropbox... I highly recommend it! 

The weather has been stunning and all the flowers are in full bloom, grass is green and spring is fully in the air! Monday we woke up took the big girls to school and went for a nice long walk. It was so special having my mother in law and sister in law here! 

So much fun with grandma and auntie! 

Monday night Meagan came over to babysit

And we went out to our friends pub in maple bay for dinner. Another gorgeous night and some big greasy burgers and fries.  

Beautiful last evening together! 

Tuesday I kept Danika home from school and we went to the maple bay beach to play for awhile. It was actually hot out and the girls were running around barefoot! 

Sarah was also supposed to fly home but called westjet to see the cost of switching her flight to stay an extra week and they actually credited her! So she is staying for one more week! It will be nice to have the extra help. The girls were all sad to drop grandma off at the airport, but we were so blessed by the wonderful visit! 

Family life marriage conference

Last Thursday night we picked up Steve mom and sister from the airport. Then onFriday after the girls were done school, Steve and I headed up to Victoria for thefamily life marriage conference. My thrifty side got the best of me and I didn't

Feel like forking up $500 to stay two nights at the empress so I booked the coast down the street through travelzoo for $80 a night with free parking. The first evening we went down to the restaurant and we shared a crab appetizer dish. It was fantastic! The crab legs could have been a bit meatier and our favorite crab cakes ever are at genoa bay... But it was still delicious, to sit in peace with my husband, stare at the harbour and enjoy food we don't normally eat! We were thinking how far I've come since we moved to the Island and I didn't eat any seafood! 

The Friday night we went to the empress to register and hear the first session, we were both pretty exhausted and Steve started to get pretty sick with a head and chest cold. 

Saturday the day was from 9-5 and we started the morning by going to a little gem of a restaurant downtown Victoria called Mo:Le and were there as they opened. They have excellent food! Then headed for a long day at the empress! For lunch we were able to go out with the Carruthers family as they were gifted the conference... So wonderful to catch up with such a dear family! 

Beautiful trees all in bloom! 

The Saturday we wished we had our room at the empress as my poor hubby would have liked to go sleep but he was a trooper and we went for the whole day. At one point we had to separate and go write each other love letters. I found a nice spot outside to sit and it was so gorgeous out! Sure felt like the hot spring sun! 

Steve wrote me the most beautiful letter, I was on the verge of tears. I am one lucky woman to have such an amazing man walking through this life with me! 

In the evening was date night so Steve and I walked across to milestones and enjoyed a couple of appetizers as we were still full from lunch. Such a nice time though and hard at the same time as we hashed out a few issues that we feel we never have the opportunity to talk about. We hit up the pool when we got back to the hotel and had an early night. 

I was wide awake the next morning at 3 am though and could not fall back asleep so I had the chance to take a long bath and read Gods word. There were some important things placed on my heart so it was a good time of prayer. Steve was pretty sick in the morning so we tried to sleep in a bit and missed the first session. But had a nice lazy morning and leisurely breakfast before checking out and going over to finish up the day. 

The view from our room... 

A few moments from the weekend. We had a nice chat with the "wannawafel" food truck and a tasty waffle. 

The Sunday morning sessions were by far my favorite. They split us up into girls and guys. I loved how honest and open the ladies were who were sharing. Steve found his session pretty week and actually challenged the speaker at the end on a few things he shared. We didn't love the speakers all weekend as the one was an ex nhl player and we felt like he was very showy and the other couple spoke really quickly with lots of actions and were very distracting and loud! But by the end we really connected with the loud couple and had an amazing time of prayer with them and they spoke some pretty powerful words over us and said we were leaders among leaders along with some other powerful and encouraging words. Very excited to see what The Lord has in store for our lives and our marriage. 

Overall we really enjoyed our time away together and what was brought out and were very encouraged to see how well we were doing in most areas and scoring the same scores on a couple of tests which was bizarre! 

But the speaker also said that since "we got it" we should never give up or thinking too highly of our marriage and to keep on fighting for it! 

We took our time coming home and were excited to see our precious baby girls! Grandma and auntie Sarah had a wonderful weekend with the girls and we were so blessed to have them so well taken care of. 

The Haircut!

We finally did it... Took about 4 inches off her hair and could have done more! However she was very upset and cried a bit at the beginning but when we got home and she washed it and brushed it she was thankful for the haircut! Now I just need to book a haircut every couple of months! 

Monday after school, our friend Dustin dollman offers drumline to the elementary students. Both the girls tried it out this week and they loved it! Dustin has a drumming classroom at the school, so it's pretty neat for the girls to get to use it! 

Monday night instead of our life group meeting to discuss our book we took a night off for fun and met at the bowling alley followed by DQ. It was so much fun! We were surprised by glow in the dark bowling and we tried out 10 pin. I am not a bowler- but was able to get four strikes! It was quite exciting... Thinking I should join a bowling league or something! 😉

A few of the glow n the dark ladies! 

We saw that strike sign quite a few times!