COURAGEOUS

        From the producers of "Fireproof" comes a sounding call to all fathers in their new release, "COURAGEOUS."
"The movie is about fatherhood and the title is one word: "COURAGEOUS." Four fathers who are all in  law enforcement-who protect and serve together-go through a terrible tragedy. They begin looking at their role as fathers...and they begin challenging one another to fulfill God's intention for fathers." reports Alex Kendrick, writer/producer.
This movie is a MUST see. Adam and I were privileged to view a screening of this movie. We laughed and cried and felt truly encouraged. Watch these four men challenge eachother as they long to be godly fathers and set out to make life-long impacts in their children's lives.
"COURAGEOUS" is saturated with Scripture and as these men seek to make their lives about courage rather than comfort, God is at the centre of it.
Forgiveness, integrity, accountability, and servanthood are all modeled in "COURAGEOUS" and it gave an accurate picture of the struggle of Christian living. The desire of the writers is that as fathers seek to serve and lead their families in love, through this, children will love their heavenly Father as well.
On September 30 "COURAGEOUS" will be shown in theaters across Canada. It is important that we are there to show the film industry that there is an appetite for wholesome and inspirational entertainment.
Pass the message on. Let's exceed everyone's expectations and have huge turn outs on opening day.
Believe me. The first time that you see this movie should not be from the comfort of your own home where you can be interrupted by phones, people, and the dog barking. Watch it on the big screen.
 You can click "COURAGEOUS" to watch the trailer and learn more about the movie.
Courageous will be shown in Brantford, Burlington, St.Catharines, Stoney Creek, and Toronto just to name a few on September 30.
                                                                       

forget planking- whooo's up for owling?

So, farewell planking & hello owling.
Owling is the new planking. You find a spot, crouch down, & open your eyes wide. What will be next?!
Toothpicking, but that has not reached the same hype of planking & owling because not to many people can stand on their heads.

This past summer we had a friendly competition with the cousins on Adam's side. It was their family against ours. We had to see how many different license plates we could find through out the summer. Driving was never the same. In order to see the different plates we slowed down on the highway to less then 70 km/hr so that the car that we went speeding by, could catch up to us. We drove at speeds that I cannot write down to catch up to the car that went speeding past us in order catch their license plate. Our kids were sure that they saw a different license plate & I weaved throughout traffic only to discover that it was only another Ontario plate. It really was a lot of fun & it made long car trips go faster. We came up with 32 different license plates including Alaska & New Mexico. Unfortunately the cousins beat us & came up with 42 different license plates. The slogans under the license plates are fascinating. Some of our favourites were Nova Scotia: Canada's ocean playground, Alaska: the last frontier, & Saskatchewan: land of the living sky.


This summer....

                                       Liam grew sunflowers this summer to give away and sell.

We had a babyshower at our house for my cousin who is expecting twins. It was all well until a severe storm swept through and caused everyone to abandon their plans of leaving for home. It was rather an uncomfortable feeling to have a room full of ladies sitting there & knowing that they would prefer to be in their home during weather like this, but they were trapped in my living room. And then the power went out, and of course we didn't have any working flashlights. Here we were sitting there in the dark & it started to get hot without the air conditioning on which is not a good thing for some of my aunts who are going through a certain season of life. The weather eventually calmed down & the guests made it safely home. That was a baby shower that we will not forget!

Every Wednesday night we have soccer at our church for the kids & it is a true highlight for our boys. Adam played & helped out with the older group of kids.

                            We had fun times on the boat. Thank you mom & dad for being so generous with it!

Nate became an experienced driver (in his mind) on the rider. Adam had to rescue him & his tag-alongs  from the ditch only once:z

                I had fun garage saling & came home with a few treasures including this beauty of a vase.

The boys played & played. Their imaginations soared finding nooks & tiny spots for forts & farms.

We went to Niagara Falls one Friday night to watch the fire works... except that they were cancelled. Even though it was disappointing we still had a good time. Our country boys were simply amazed at the  city surroundings.

And now there will be no more lazy days of hanging around. School starts tomorrow & so will routine.
Nate & Liam are excited to go to school but I am going to miss them & Andrew is going to miss his playmates.  We hope that your summer has been a time of refreshment for you too!

boys & their bathroom manners (or lack of)

There are times during the day that I just shake my head & I sigh.  I do not understand these sons of mine. Their bathroom manners are weird. Here are a few stories that I hesitate to share because they may or may not be normal stories. I do not know. I did not grow up with brothers.

*Andrew - he was nicely playing in the living room when he gave a loud shout "I've got to go!' Before I could blink he ran past the bathroom & tore outside to my beautiful magnolia tree and proceeded to pee on it. After he was done, he came right back inside & continued to play.
If we are outside & he needs to go to the bathroom it takes him a long time to make a decision about which tree to go to. It takes him so long that I fear he will have an accident. I am sure that he thinks that he is doing that tree a huge favour by peeing on it. But we have come a long way from last year. In the nic of time I stopped Andrew from peeing on a fake tree in the house. At least he now knows the difference between real & fake trees!
A few weeks ago I asked Andrew what his very favourite part of Up North was (campfires, boating, fishing)  he quickly replied, "going to the bathroom."  whaaat?!

*I have had boys go on the toilet at the same time and do their job. They were very proud of themselves for that stunt. That will not happen again.

*And for the climax. Not long ago, the two oldest boys were becoming increasingly excitable. That is my new word for hyper. I told them to take it outside & if anyone gets hurt, not to come to me. You know how it goes.
Again, before I could blink, they are peeing. This time though, they are not peeing on a tree but on eachother...I flipped. I ran outside & told them to stop, but I guess that it is hard to stop mid stream. Apparently this is called "swords." They didn't know what to do & neither did I. Am I missing something because I just don't get it. I gave them two of the smallest scrub brushes that I could find & a pail of soapy water. I told them to wash themselves & to start scrubbing the patio. Surprisingly, they ended up having a water fight. (believe me, I did see that one coming.)  Did I do the right thing?  Did I over react?  Is this something that all young boys go through? I do not know. But I do know that scrubbing the patio/water fight kept them busy & out of more trouble until supper time & that is what counts.

celebrating 10 years of marriage!

We are so thankful to God for these past 10 years of marriage.
He has been our rock in times of much joy & during the times that we have
experienced sadness.

"Come let us bow down, Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker."  Psalm 95:6

Little did we know that the vineyard where we took most of the pictures would some day be grapes that we see everyday. If you look behind the big grape post on the left of the picture you can see the roof of our house & the barn.

                                            My sweet cousin Alysha is now our babysitter!

                       

On our anniversary Adam made a delicious breakfast for all of us, complete with orange juice in wine glasses, & strawberries & whipping cream to put on top of the waffles.
I was daring enough to try on my wedding dress. The boys thought that it was great fun & they wanted to dress up too! I have heard that after having children, your rib cage expands (?) - ( I could not do one clasp up on the wedding dress): YIKES

up north

    Look at all of these boys! Nine boys & one girl from two families.

Fishing in Candy Bay. This place is simply amazing. Instead of catching fish you catch candy. You can even catch candy that looks like worms! Our boys think that fishing in Candy Bay is a pure wonder.
Have you ever caught candy?!

          Tubing. Boat rides. Skiing. Fishing. Wake boarding. The boats never rested.

      Olivia & Andrew were inseparable. Every morning they would get so excited to see each other as if they hadn't seen each other in days.

Every year Mr. V treats us all to a huge batch of dutch pancakes. They are delicious & we devour them down in no time.

Off to the island to sleep there for the night.

Tyler soaked in lots of the attention. Between the cousins & aunts & uncles he did not lack. He is learning lots of new things & it is a delight to see him interacting with everyone.

Liam gave it everything he had to get up on those water skis. At one point he almost had it. I love the facial expressions!

Nate did make it up for a little bit. He looked extremely worried the whole time:)

Grandpa & Adam & the boys going fishing.

Nate & I went fishing with my dad for an evening, but he hardly had anytime to fish. We kept him busy with tangled lines, fish eating our worms, but we managed to catch some keepers for the fish fry!

We love up north. It gets you away from the phones & the business of life.  It seems like the fastest week of the year. No sooner have you unpacked that you feel like you are packing up to go home again. My younger cousins have grown up & they were a lot of fun up there. We were so thankful for them. They organized scavenger hunts for the little kids, encouraged them with water sports, pushed them on the swings,  and made it a lot of fun for everyone.

rathfon inn

The Rathfon Inn is an old, quaint inn surrounded by stone walls and it is situated on lake Erie.
We enjoyed spending some time there with Adam's family.
It is the perfect place to have family get-togthers and it is nice & close to home so Adam would work during the day & come & join us in the evening.

                                            The grandchildren love Oma's craft time!

Megan is going to be a teacher at our school this September & the kids adore her. They could hardly wait until she came over after work each day. She had them entertained for hours.

 Planking. Have you ever heard of it? It had everyone's creative juices flowing trying to come up with unusual spots to plank.  Kids & adults got in on the action.

What great times! Thank you uncle Ben & aunt Rini for arranging this!