A snowy day....oh wait...I meant 'a snowy WEEK'!

our stairs on Tuesday morning.
Promise eating the "cold"
Toby learning to walk in snow....until he couldn't! By Tuesday afternoon, he was buried and could no longer move in it!

Greetings! It has been an adventurous week! It started with a light snowfall on Friday and included a WONDERFUL visit from our friends, Amber, Kayla and Jenna. We met these three precious ladies in the Philippines about two years ago. They have been on a little bit of a visitation tour of the West before heading out on the field again. Amber is headed to India and Kayla and Jenna are headed to Sierra Leone.

We were so blessed with their company on Saturday and were so thankful they made time in their busy schedules to visit us....despite driving all the way up from Oregon and hitting snow here in Abbotsford!

Then Sunday night, the snow decided to show itself more powerful and a few more inches fell. We were able to get outside to play on Monday (Daddy's day off) as a family and even try to drive the highway towards Richmond to get Tim's camera fixed....alas, we only made it to Langley and had to turn back towards home as the snow was too thick to see through....

Tuesday, Tim had to take my van to work as his van has stinky tires on it and would likely end up in a ditch, so we cancelled two doctor's appointments and our women's bible study was cancelled....we got some time outside....it took well over 30 minutes to get the kids "suited up" for snow for less than 10 minutes of snow fun....

so, here we are, Wednesday morning and it's still snowing.... -11 degrees Celsius and the wind is blowing so hard you can only see about 5 feet in front of you. :) It's an inside day.

I measured the snow this morning.... 11 inches and still falling. The drifts get up to an upwards of 18 inches....this isn't sledding snow...Toby gets buried too fast now....and it's too dry and soft to make snowmen....

However, we did get some sledding and snowball-throwing in before the snow took its blustery, cheek-burning turn. Tomorrow is supposed to be light snow and moments of sun....then rain on Friday afternoon through Sunday....ewww....slushy and flooding?

For now, it's beautiful.

Please be praying for Tim....he is heading up to the next level of responsibility at work and with the addition of being short-staffed, he is a busy dude. He is taking on the role of assistant manager in so many areas, but still has to maintain the role of answering phones and customer relations all while interviewing for new positions. It's amazing and wonderful that they trust him with such responsibilities after only being employed there for 9 1/2 months, but it is also daunting!

Thank you for your prayers. He is doing a great job, but certainly feels inadequate....which I guess is good because it means that the Lord can be mighty in his weakness.

Be blessed.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! 2012 is sure to be rich with growth if it was anything like 2011!

Here's the last of 2011....pictured above is promise and me getting ready to blow out the candles on my birthday cake the day after Christmas....no, I am not turning 2 years old, but I did have two candles....notice that one of the candles is the number 3. I am 31. Just so there's no confusion. :)
Promise and daddy made that cake for me. And thanks to my dear friends, Arnica and Liv, I even got 3 princesses and two dwarves on my cake. :)
Yes, Promise and daddy were very careful to measure everything perfectly...and the cake was magnificent! While they made the cake, I took down all the Christmas cheer from our house....yes, the Bedford Falls cityscape was demolished and put into boxes.....the garland removed, the Christmas tree de-christmassed. Got it done in one day! WAHOO!
Christmas day yielded a grand and wild party with all the Stewart cousins pictured above. :) Micah, Hope, baby Grace, Toby, Promise, Lila and Justice played so very well together and the noise level was deafening....just the way we like it. Promise got very special pjs from Grandmastina and other precious treasures...

Toby and Promise got new slippers on Christmas Eve....they NEVER take them off....Promise is convinced they are "ballet slippers" and claims that they make her dance. :)
Just before Christmas, we got a surprise visit from Promise and Toby's favorite person in the world!....TEAGAN, babysitter-extraordinaire. She and her boyfriend, Leighton, came over for some pre-Christmas festivities....it was so much fun!
And the Monday before Christmas yielded a very precious gift....Tim's best friend, Paso, and my friend, Laurenn, and their son, Zeke, welcomed a beautiful baby girl into their lives...Amelia was born perfectly and beautifully into her daddy's waiting hands (and midwife) on the morning of the 19th. Laurenn's labor was amazing and though very difficult, Laurenn was a champ and after having a cesarian section with her first child, had many prayers answered with this normal vaginal delivery. She was a labor QUEEN!

And all the more special....I got to be her doula. :) This was my first birth since being back from the Philippines and I was so honored to be a part of it.....so grateful to take part in Laurenn and Paso's joy and thrilled to be in a birth room again.

But I was also reminded as to why I am not a practicing midwife right now! Being on-call is tough when you have two toddlers dependent on you and a hubby that work 6 days a week for 12 hours a day! And 36 hours without sleep is just not right in my world. And the muscle and back pain! I had forgotten about THAT! Sigh....perhaps midwifery is still supposed to be on the back burner for a few more years.

My parents made a surprise visit to us for New Years...Promise went ballistic and Toby was in utter shock. We had a wonderful meal together and then Toby and woke up the next morning with strep throat and the flu. So my parents became nurses for two days as they took trips to Walmart for meds and Promise out for lunch to give Toby and me some much-needed rest. They took off Sunday morning, much to our disappointment....perhaps another trip is due in the near future.

Tim is loving his job and working hard...Promise is lovely....Toby is just now getting a bit better from his awful flu/strep virus and I am seeking.

May 2012 be full of transformation from the inside out.

Be blessed.