Christmas time

Christmas is mint. I love the last day of work before the big break, normally we work half a day on christmas eve but not so this year, the lack of snow this year has bin dissapointing but we made sure to enjoy whatever snow we got, a walk with family in fort langley and a walk/sledding with michelle and terry and kids. we have had lots of people from our church move into our area this year, there is now four couples only a few blocks away now, its cool running into people on the street or the local superstore. Me and Angelika both love Christmas i love snow and she loves to decorate the house, we are looking forward to hanging out with family and relaxing and enjoying Christmas, which as we keep telling madison is Jesus birthday. Hope you all enjoy your break and relax and get a chance to reflect on how blessed we are all.

Lukas turns one !

Today we celebrated Lukas turning 1, the usual cake and coffee and our parents over to celebrate. I cant help but look back over this year, i know Angelika would agree with me and say the first 6 months were lousy, madison was easy and lukas was not. Like all parents that are frustrated with a child you just need to look at them while they sleep to remember why your doing this. I still find it totally awesome i have a son, a boy, someone to pee in the trees with, someone to wrestle, someone to play lego with. I look forward to all these boy things and i can see the boy coming out already, he climbs everything,eats everything, smiles when you body slam him into the bed. he is my boy.

Wanna Box ?
His first Canucks Jersey

i say it in almost any picture involving Angelika but she is so smokin.

California

Thursday 10 am.  Wednesday 8 am. two times that are seemingly unimportant. The first is when my cousins were traveling back to their home in California. The Second is when i told Angelika that we should go with. 

After much begging and pleading with my dad (1 of my 2 bosses, the other was on vacation luckily) i was able to get the time off work, Angelika took a little more convincing but eventually agreed. Josh and Rachel (my cousins) were happy and suprised i manage to pull this off, so we set off for California. near the alex fraser bridge i got a call saying they had a flat tire. 1 hour later.

The Border. 90 minute wait to cross so we went to the duty free bought a bottle of water and cut down our time considerably (remember this if you ever take the truck crossing) as we crossed the border my cousins got pulled over and were delayed 4o minutes. We continued without them and would meet them in portland, that was at 12:30, some horrific traffic and a few cities later they pulled in at 9:30.

Okay its a new day, everything bad from the first day is behind us. this day starts good as our hotel has no breakfast and theres does, so free breakfast and a good start to the day. we have 8 hours of driving ahead of us and this day goes well, it is just long. one incident involves a cop and two minivans doing u-turn across three lanes in a intersection. my cousin saw the cop directly behind him but did the u-turn anyway following me as i attempted to find the I-5 again. A warning is all he gave and we were on our way. the second involves madison pooping her pants while swimming, luckily she is out of the water for this. 

Getting closer now the next day is a shorter drive only 6 hours or so, but we drive so efficiently that we skip our stop and just keep going to there home which adds about three hours. An awesome stop at the the California Pizza Kitchen for dinner and then we are home in Corona, California.

What an awesome week we had, went to the beaches and got nice and tan, jumped waves, attempted body surfing, went to the olive garden with 5 kids. Did some shopping with only one kid while madison shadowed Elise (my cousins 5 year old daughter). we hung out at home and played in the pool, my cousin josh cut my hair using a trimmer and i was so impressed we bought one and Angelika is now in charge of cutting my hair. We had a great time and were very impressed with the kids while driving, the tvs we bought for the way home definitely helped though. 

The drive home was boring compared to the way down  as we had an exciting destination and some adults to converse with before we went to bed. I think me and Angelika looked forward to the continental breakfast every morning. On the way home we did see a car pulled over and about 40 bags of marijuana laid out on the freeway, did i mention the 5 cop cars also. The scariest moment involved a pee break at some hick like gas station, As you head into the bathroom there is a an old cast iron tub with a full dressed up mannequin sitting inside, it shocked both of us and it was awkward peeing while it stared at me. 

Now that we are home it is time to get back to normal life, August was a good month as i only worked 6 days which was pretty sweet. Work is getting busy and side jobs keep piling up so its good to be home and get back in the groove. Hope everyone had an a awesome summer.

Summer

Vacations pretty much rule the purpose of my life in the summer, hence the lag in posting. Summer has bin very awesome for us. Angelika went camping with her sisters in osooyos and then two weeks later we all went as a family and had a great time, having a trailer with air conditioning certainly made the difference as it went above 40. Lukas is changing every so quickly, we beleive he has decided to skip crawling and just attempt walking, so he is pulling himself up on everything and can hold his balance for a few seconds before plopping onto his bum. there are so many pictures to post i have put them on facebook so you can view them by clicking here. more pictures to come.

Tuxedos and Nudity

We just back from a trip to edmonton with our friends Andrew and Rachel and had a really good time. We went without the kids and thought we would get to catch up on some sleep, that was a mistake as we went to bed really late every night, but it was well worth it. Me and andrew went to the shooting range in the mall which was a ton of fun, we also went to the canucks/oilers game in which we lost but we still had lots of fun as everyone around us was pretty funny. Angelika and Rachel went for a nice massage and shopped there butts off. Rachel got sick of hanging out with us so faked a nap one afternoon :) while the three of us went to the waterpark. We also took Andrew on his first roller coaster ride, we all had sore necks after the first ride and were pretty much done with the theme park. It was a great trip and it was nice to get to know our best friends without kids around. 

Speaking of our kids we were very happy to see them again and madison couldnt let go of Angelika for quite a while. We are glad to be back and happy that the sun is shining again. I posted a couple sweet photos of our son posing nude and wearing his first tuxedo.

Shopping Trip

Madison was allowed to take her shopping cart to superstore with Angelika, she absolutely loved it and was motoring all over the store.

Can i call it potty trained???

Can i call madison potty trained?  She is now 2 yrs and 4 months and is FINALLY staying dry throughout the day.  She doesn't tell me when she has to go, but seems to hold it until i put her back on the potty.  Only time she doesn't make it is when we are away from home for a couple of hours.  So???? Can i call it potty trained?  Or do i have to wait a little longer yet?
Madison and Lukas play very well together.  Madison waits for Lukas to look at her and then she entertains.  And he always watches to see what she's up to next.
Lukie is growing sooo fast.  Still smaller than the rest of the kids his age, but he is good on his tummy as you can see, only gets up once between 4-6 in the morning and is such a happy baby when he's not tired or hungry.  Getting to be so much fun to be around.   
We all just celebrated Michelles Birthday in February and for a week if not more, Madison thought every day was her birthday.  So we heard the song 'Happy Birthday'  many times.  She's got some other things that she constantly says as well.  One is 'Dokey, Dokey.' and we can't get through to her that its 'Okey Dokey'.  She's finally singing 'Jesus loves me', 'Running over', and  'My God is so big' on her own, as well as some of the alphabet and numbers 1-10 (only forgetting the 5)  She also walks into a room, closes the door and hides, but then can't get out again. 

Otherwise, Jake and I are going to Edmonton with another couple coming up in April.  You may be asking why we are going there?  Just a weekend away from the kids and Where else for such a low price can you get all the entertainment you want in one building?  Oh, and there is an Oilers home game against the Canucks that weekend. We'll let you guys know how it went when we get back.  Should be good though.

Madison and Lukas Dedication Letter

Mom and I are here today to make a promise to the both of you and to Jesus Christ to raise you knowing the love and grace of our Lord. Not only do we promise to teach you, but also show you through our lives how to have this relationship.

Madison, our months before your birth were a blessing and test to our faith. But you were a perfect healthy baby, unlike what we were told to prepare ourselves for. And you have been such a joy and blessing to have with us in everything we do. We chose Psalm 25: 4-5 for you as a verse to always come back to as you grow up. It says :  

'Show me your ways, O Lord, Teach me your paths;

Guide me in your truth and teach me,

for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long '

Lukas, you are still quite young and have been quite a challenge with your strong will, but every time we look at you and see your smile and hear your noises we are reminded of Jesus continuous blessings for you. I chose psalm 73: 24-26 for you :

You guide me with your counsel, and afterward You will take me into glory.

Whom have in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

God has given us both of you as a gift to raise and care for and we will do everything to point you to Jesus with his guidance and the help of our family and friends. We pray for both of you that you will one day accept Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior and that you may be a light to the people around you. That even as you encounter hard times, that you wont hide this light, but use it as your strength and your guide.

Progress. it is a good word and i can finally say that my basement is worthy of that. everything is drywalled and taped and this morning in my underwear i went and sanded down the walls, my white face and dustfilled glasses only added to the look. Life at home continues to be awesome, with a daughter who everytime i walk in the door after work asks me "Are you dirty ?". Lukas continues to be more alert and more active, giving us tons of smiles and really getting into colors and shoving his hands down his mouth, we think he might be teething or will be quickly he also is starting to turn onto his side. Angelika got a new haircut and went shorter and she looks smokin hot with her new dew. Work has bin steady but we have done no new jobs since mid december, so it looks like we might run out of work soon, what this means im not sure, maybe time off or maybe time to find another job, on a sidenote dont you think its time for a new bathroom ? 

SWAT

6-1 so far, go canucks. Anyhoo last week there was a swat team in our neighbourhood, i was working outside and heard over a loud speaker that "the house is surrounded, we have a warrant", i came to the front and sure enough there were cop cars blocking all the roads in and out and about 4 very large suv's with guys standing around. Eventually they all ran in and stormed the house. Not sure what they were after but it was an interesting afternoon.

The forecast calls for snow tomorrow, either it will dump like crazy or it wil be nothing at all. Im always in favor of the word dump when its followed by snow. its bin way too long to try and update what has happened since last time, so here is a summary : snowed,wroked,snowed,stopped working,snowed,christmas,snowed,snowed, canucks start losing. now its the end of january and that is where we stand. Life at home is getting alot better with Lukas starting to fall asleep at a regualr time and sleeping till 4 or 5 in the morning and then back down till 8, he varies occasionally but we are quite glad he is getting on schedule. Madison is becoming much more challenging, and just needs alot of attention to keep her out of trouble. she is as cute as ever though and keeps us smiling. enjoy the photos.