Amy

Well, 2006 began with an exciting journey to Calgary, in late January. Nathan and I had many adventures together. Here he is enjoying the Calgary Science Centre.


We journeyed to Banff with our friends Ryan and Sarah. And we saw MOUNTAINS!


When we returned, the weather seemed to finally conclude that it was indeed winter and thus it should get about the business of being cold. So it was. In our typically defiant Hills manner, we explored the Kortright Conservation Area on one COLD Saturday in February. Nathan thrives on new experiences and loves to be outdoors. Emily loves being outdoors too, but isn't as much of a nature-walker, yet. I don't think she'll have much choice though!

However, she does enjoy her play-doh.


While trying to survive the winter, I worked on Easter outfits. I'm not sure I'm going to continue this tradition of working toward a set day to get new clothes done for everybody. It was a little crazy, working on Emily's dress (didn't get a picture of it...but it was embroidered cotton, a simple highwaisted dress with a sash), Paul and Nathan's ties, a skirt for me and producing the Easter service at our church. Yeah, it was a little crazy.
Some of you are smirking right now. You know me too well. But the ties look nice, don't they?

Then, we discovered a little girl who would sit still while her aunt french braided her hair. How lovely!

Nathan and Emily have grown in their enjoyment of punny humour and silly antics. They are quite a pair, and we have had to reign in mealtimes to mere chewing and polite requests. But sometimes, with a sly look between us, Paul and I indulge!

They also absolutely love posing for pictures and taking them. We have about 6 disposable cameras in the house where Paul emptied out the film and rendered them useful, even going to the extreme of drilling holes to enable the flash.
Oh! There are those smirks again. You know him too well!


We all love reading. We have read a lot of Berenstain Bears and Thomas the Tank engine throughout the beginning of the year but have moved on to chapter books. One series, that we worked through initially as part of Nathan's kindergarden homeschool curriculum, was the Boxcar Children, book 1. We are currently awaiting book 5 from the library. Nathan has also taken to learning about knights and medieval interests as well as the ever popular boy topic - SPACE. It's an interest Paul shares, so he got Nathan up early one morning, just to watch a launch. I was a little grumpy about it, because I had hoped they would get me up so I could see the important part and they didn't. But they taped it for me!

I believe I might have a budding drummer. Don't tell, but I've gotten him a pair of real drumsticks for Christmas. Maybe now I can get my chopsticks back, and he can cease breaking his plastic screwdrivers! Note the set up of the drums...the wooden bead toy, stool, Ikea stool, upside down plastic bin and peanut butter container are all part of the set up. This picture was taken in July and he still is setting up his drum sets all over the house. Only now, he's getting territorial and, at times, it takes a clever bit of negotiation to regain use of the containers for their original Mommy-declared purpose!



Then there's his trumpet.




Ah, memories of the summer. We had a fabulous one, though Paul was working extra-long hours on a project for much of the summer.
We enjoyed what we could and took as much time as possible picnicing at a local conservation area, checking out the planes at the airport, heading up the CN tower, ferrying to Centre Island, exploring various modes of GTA transportation and walking along the restful paths of Black Creek Pioneer Village. One darling quote of the summer is from Emily, "Mommy, someday I want to go back on the rocking train, rock, rock, rock." She very much enjoyed the subway. She loved it so much that one day when we were sitting in our respective outdoor chairs, she lined hers up with mine and asked if I could be the driver of the rocking train, so she could pretend to be getting on and off the subway.


On one of those rare Saturdays that Paul did not work, he gave me the most beautiful gift. This picture is one of my favourites of the year. It's a very happy picture. Yes the kids are cute, but the GRASS, well, it steals the SHOW! Lovely, lush grass. I still love looking into the back yard (yes, I will call it a yard, cuz it has GRASS!), even though it's not so lush and is somewhat faded to brown. It just meant that we used our back yard this summer. The kids spend as much time as humanly possible in the outdoors and we escaped without any sunburn. Save for Paul, poor man.

Another favoured kid activity, year round, is visiting Grandma and Grandpa B's home in Corbyville. The highlight of most trips is getting to sit on the tractor.

Now, Emily really likes the tractor, but she adores play parks and Belleville has an absolutely beautiful one. It is a giant ship and we spent one blistering midday there, swinging and climbing.

Another favoured pastime for Emily is hiding items underneath the back cushions of our couch.

Weddings. They are so much fun. This year Paul had the honour of standing up for our good friend, Al and his new bride, Nadine.

It took the entire summer. But he's riding a bike.!!! He loves it! He did not want to move up to training wheels. But he was too big for any of our trikes. So, with much coercing, he allowed us to get him a two wheeler with trainers. And after a few tries, he's quite comfortable and confident. Though it is now obviously winter, we recently took advantage of the warm weather and went to the library, he on his bike and Emily, in tow, behind me, in the wagon.

In August, we began working with a homeschool curriculum with Nathan. As much as I thought I would thrive on the set schedule of it all, I'm learning that I'm much more of a free spirit. Thankfully, so is Nathan. He enjoys our spontaneous learning moments, as well as working through workbooks. His favourite time is listening to us read, whether it be science-related, literature or biographies. He also is finding it thrilling to learn to read. I'm astonished how quickly he's progressing.
Emily wishes to do school too and I see in her the ability to handle much more than I give her. My challenge for the coming year will be to see her as she is and not to limit her to activities typical for her age group. For instance, as we walked to the mall yesterday, I was going over the months of the year with Nathan. When we came home 5 hours later, I heard HER reciting, "January, February, March. April, May, June. July, August. September, October." and she would start over, having missed the last two. Or sometimes, she added them in as an after thought.

That's smoke! And I'm now 32.

Early in November, we took in the Royal Winter Fair as a family. We enjoyed the SuperDogs show and the sheep. We also took advantage of the Kubota exhibit to indulge our tractor-crazed children.

In November, we have both kids' birthdays. Emily had her first real party with little girl friends running around enjoying our camping party. We set up the tent in the basement and did camping like things. For Nathan's party, we indulged in medieval festivities, complete with jousting practice, with small plastic muffins as targets, and daddies as the valiant steeds. Nathan's cake was the requested chocolate cake with jello boats in the moat and a chocolate bar drawbridge.

Even with the exciting approach of Christmas, Nathan and Emily still manage to have their regular tea parties. It has been a busy last two months. Even so, Paul and I have managed to sneak away to Stratford for a play, accomplish the requisite Christmas shopping and play many games of our new-found favourite game, Carcassone. I must admit, there are some details missing from this extended post but you can alway check out my other blog by the link over there on the side.

In the past two weeks, Emily has started toilet training (doing well) and Nathan is showing signs of finally being able to give up his nap. So, as the year winds up, it seems we are gearing up for a grand entrance into the new year, free of diapers and quite possibly, free of naps, almost free of Paul's latest project (check out his blog post) and full of excitement of what is yet to come. I hope you're seeing God's hand throughout our year and in our posts. We certainly do.

Getting ready for Christmas

Our home traditions are much the same as past years, but with much more enthusiasm, if that were possible. The kids yell out the subjects of our advent candles (Jesus' family, Shepherds, Wise Men), and they hop up and down in excitement when they put the pieces into the advent calendar. One highlight of the season is our Christmas tree. We managed to make it a family endeavor with all 8 hands fluffing the artificial branches, 4 small eager ones decorating the bottommost portion with vigor, 2 large one reroping the lights to where I (sorry, Paul!) wanted them and 2 soft paws finding some fun thing to bat at now and then. We are having a lot of fun anticipating Christmas this year. We took the opportunity to help at the Knight's Table with the entire family early this month. The Knight's Table is Brampton's only soup kitchen. We also have taken some donations to it and the kids are very passionate about being able to provide for those with less. We also took a trip to Zellers where Nathan and Emily chose some toys to donate to a child. It's amazing how they look at Christmas differently after we take some practical opportunites to live out the love of Jesus.

Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog. We hope you enjoy reading about our year, through our different perspectives. Please take the opportunity to leave a comment. We'd love to connect with you and hear what is going on in your life. We are really excited to be taking some new steps in our lives. We are beginning to seek out opportunities to give, serve, love and help others. Got any ideas for us? Feel free to pass them along or share what you're passionate about too.

Have a blessed Christmas. May you have many joyful moments throughout the New Year. Love, Amy (and Paul, Nathan and Emily)