Through the Eyes of a Child

Since the start of the new year, Jaxon comes over on Mondays. One of his favorite things about the day is going on our walk with us. We head down to the park and hit the trail.

At first we were amazed at how much he seemed to enjoy the walks...after all, he just sits in the stroller while the two of us talk and catch up on the happenings in our lives.

 But then I realized it's because there is so much to see and although I am always watching as we walk, with Jaxon along I try to see things through the eyes of a child.

 We look for squirrels stopping to eat in the leaves....

 ....up in the trees.....

 .....and jumping from tree to tree(so far the record is the sighting of 6 on one walk!)

 And of course because we walk around the pond, there are birds of all kinds to see as well.....

 ....he never seems to tire of seeing them, either on the path,

or in the water.

It's refreshing, to see something that has become so familiar as we walk it through the seasons, year after year, through the eyes of a child. Once again I am reminded of the beauty all around us! I can hardly wait until the ducks and geese have their little ones....what fun our walks will be!

My Furry Friends

Heather and Matt aren't the only ones enjoying warmer weather and feeling the sun on their faces these days while on a winter vacation with his family! Their dog, Tikka, is loving it at our house, especially when we go on our daily walks. I had a good laugh today when I told her to sit so I could take her picture and she jumped right up on this park bench and looked at me!!

I realized as the two of us walked today that I miss my furry friends...our dog Sheba and our cat Snowball were part of our family for many, many years. No one greets me now when I come into the house after a day at the office. There is no excited animal to say good morning when I come down the stairs in the morning. No purring cat to cuddle while watching tv on the couch.

So for this week I am enjoying my furry friends....Tiks and Kiki as Kai calls her. Tiks gets so excited when I grab the leash and I have to admit it would never occur to me to go for a walk on my own if it would not have been for her today.

So today I enjoyed the sunshine as we walked.......it was fun seeing her enjoy the water.....watching an eagle in a tree high over the pond....seeing ducks diving for fish....a squirrel scampering up a tree...all because of a dog to take on a walk. I don't know who enjoyed it more, her or me!

Signs of Spring

 They peek through the bark mulch

reaching for the sun

tiny signs of spring.....

The snowbells on the left tried once before
and were snowed on

so they are trying again.....

the daffodils are trying to prove
that just maybe they can bloom in February

here at the coast anyway.....

The tulips aren't far behind

even though they shouldn't be in bloom until March

but who cares.....

for today they are signs of spring

it can't be far away

the hope of longer days

more sunshine.....

I love spring

so I'm watching  hopefully

for more signs of spring.

Beauty All Around Us

 

As I spend time each and every day looking for things to be thankful for, I am learning to stop and see the beauty all around us. It means slowing down, taking a break from what we have to do or hurrying to get to our destination, and just taking a deep breath.

 When I do that, I am in awe of the beauty......

 ......as I slow down and enjoy the journey.

 Suddenly it is the little things that bring joy....

......like the hoar frost on the trees.

Suddenly a drive that we have taken dozens of times before becomes a thing of beauty.....

 

......and we slow down long enough to enjoy the journey and appreciate the beauty all around us!

So it is with our lives, we need to slow down and take a new look. What do we see in  a new way? What is there that we need to be thankful for?

I am thankful that God is showing me His gifts...every single day! As I stop to write down my thousand gifts for 2012, every day I see His beauty all around me.

It's in the Genes

This week as we sat watching Jamie's Grade 8 Basketball team in their playoff games(yes, we still spent Valentines' Day in the gym after all these years!) I had to chuckle. I could remember well when it was Jamie's team we were watching, or the Grade 8 Boys team that Heather managed(they actually won the Fraser Valley's that year!), or Jody's team. But now it was my son's team...and he is the Coach, and an awesome one at that according to all reports. I love hearing that from the parents of the boys on the team, how much they appreciate him and how he coaches their sons.

But after the game it was time for the next generation of Basketball players to pick up the ball....and I couldn't help but chuckle. It truly must be in the genes, because there they both were, Aidan and Jaxon dribbling the ball in the gym.

Oh there were other people still in the gym, teachers, students...they all knew the boys' names since they are there watching almost every game that their Daddy's team plays. But that doesn't bother them. It was their turn now.

So they practiced dribbling the ball from one side of the gym to the other, and then they spotted the hoop. They both tried to get the ball in the hoop but it was just too high for Jaxon. But Aidan...well it's still high but that didn't stop him.

 

The first time it doesn't go nearly high enough but he tries again....

and again...

 and again until finally it goes in, just once! But that's enough!

Now that he made it once, that was just the incentive he needed to keep trying over and over and over again. After all, it's in the genes! So you just have to keep working on becoming a better basketball player, even if you are only 5 years old and are playing on a High School Gym Basketball Hoop!!

My Valentines

 

I'm so blessed with my  Valentines old and young.....but today I just had to share pictures of the little valentines that bless my life....From our Amazing Aidan.....

 ...our cute Caily

......our joyful Jaxon

......our lovely Lexi

 

......our bouncy Bear(aka Kai)

......our beautiful Bria

......our huggable Halle.

These are my sweet valentines.....

The Princess and the Bear

One of the perks of having daughters that live far away is that when we feel like we just need to get away, there is always a place to go! Last weekend we took one such getaway and headed north to see the Northern Princess and the Bear!

 

Kai could hardly contain his excitement when we finally arrived(he had been waiting and watching)

Showing off how good she can stand up! She was pretty impressed with herself.

It was so fun watching her respond to Dave....

....they had so much fun together!

It took a few minutes for Halle to warm up to us, but after that we got lots of smiles out of her.

Who can resist these smiles?

We couldn't get over how much she had grown in the month since we had seen her last.

Kai is growing up too...here he was trying to clip his nails. Couldn't quite figure out how this worked!

He decided that my water bottle was his 'coffee'!!! Can you tell that they drink a lot of coffee in travel mugs in their household? We had to laugh! When it was time to leave he was more upset that I was taking 'Kai's coffee' with me than that we were going!

Of course there was time for reading......

.....and we had to make sure we got lots of cuddles in since we only had a couple of days with them.

And she does love to cuddle!

Kai loves playing on our iphones....

....what wonderful memories!

Thanks for providing us with a Bed and Breakfast complete with cuddles for the weekend!