A little video clip...

I found this online and thought it was pretty neat. Even if you don't understand Dutch (and they are just saying numbers so it's easy to follow), it's a thought-provoking clip. The blog post by Donald Miller that goes with it is interesting too.

An Incredible Reminder of How Short Life Really Is

Vacation planning?

PS- Just to clarify, we have no plans for vacationing outside of Newfoundland this summer..(maybe Bronwen does?!). We just want to stay put and explore our own province this year. The book was from when Brian went to Greece and Cyprus for a conference  a few years ago.

Easter Weekend (part of it) in pictures

Despite the weather, we enjoyed a lovely Easter here in St. John's. 

Here is my family watching a show.. Bronwen was pretty relaxed. She likes the Amazing Race just like her dad and grandma.

This is the weather which we woke up to on Good Friday. It snowed all day.

I made hot cross buns as has become a tradition at our house. Bronwen helped me.

Dough rising in the oven.

Sleepy morning face!

The finished product. Unfortunately the plastic wrap which was covering them stuck to the rising buns (even though I oiled it :(. So they were a bit flat.. but still delicious.

Good Friday breakfast.. hot cross buns and coffee! (and nice Easter cards on the table :)

Easter treats from our neighbours, watching the weather while they still can.


Our Easter ham made by Brian... glazed with homemade marmalade.

 Getting the broth ready... yum!

We had some friends over for ham on Friday night. Sunday was very cold and windy, but we made it to church to celebrate the resurrection... He is Risen! We spent the day cozy inside and celebrated with some friends from church and school for dinner on Sunday night.

This Easter Sunday I thought a lot of my family in Ontario... it would have been my cousin Chelsea's 24th birthday on that day. It seemed significant that the first year she was not on earth to celebrate her birthday, her birthday was on Easter Sunday. Jesus left the tomb and death was conquered. Chelsea is in heaven because of the resurrection. We have hope because of Easter... because of Jesus.

Almost halfway!

This morning we had the joy of seeing our little unborn baby in 'real life'- I had my 19 week ultrasound.

Bronwen came with us, and spent almost the entire 50 mins (it took a long time because a student did the ultrasound first, but then the tech basically had to re-do it to double check everything) playing with my wallet.   And we got to see our little 'sprout!'

They check the major parts make sure that everything is in working order. So we got a good look at baby's head/skull, face, nose and lips, spine, limbs, hands and feet. And got to see the heart beating away and kidneys, stomach and liver inside. We are very thankful that the baby appears healthy so far. I had recently read about a couple of mothers discovering that their baby had a heart defect at the 20 week ultrasound.... so it is always at the back of your mind, wondering if everything is okay. Thankfully that little heart was beating strongly and healthily, you can even see the little chambers and heart valves moving on the screen. And apparently baby has an excellent set of kidneys.

It's amazing to see all of those little parts formed in there already. Now, there's just a whole lot of growing to do over the next 4.5 months!

actually got a cute little button-nose profile shot... this was not the case with Bronwen as you can see  at the end of this post!

for you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.. all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be..

- psalm 139

More birthday fun

Last Thursday was my 27th birthday. I had a lovely day, and here are some pictures from our celebrations..

Brian made pancakes for breakfast. I love special breakfasts. Now that I am working most Saturdays, we often miss out on our weekly 'Saturday breakfast', pancakes or crepes with coffee. So it's nice to have bonus days ;).

There was pear hazelnut gratin to go with them, and whipping cream! The gratin is baked pears, soaked in orange juice with hazelnut crumble on top, and ginger jam in there too. It's really good.

Bronwen loves whipped cream.

Looking out the window.

That afternoon we went to our weekly moms group with the ladies from church. Here is Bronwen just hanging out with some of her buddies..

'Hey, call me!'

 Little explorers.

Everyone on the couch. Bronwen is the oldest one here... the youngest two were born in December. Cuties!

Birthday flowers from Mom and Dad Claus- thank you!

Happy faces after nap.

Brian also made me a special birthday dinner, which I forgot to take a picture of because it was so delicious.. salmon and risotta and fancy salad, yum!

It was a great day.

A couple of videos

Here is our little lady this afternoon. Sorry about all of the zooming at the end of the second one... I forgot that I couldn't take a picture mid-video.

(I've decided to just put my Bronwen-videos on this blog too- now that there are less of them.. plus, new-baby probably won't get their own blog so trying to start being more equal now ;)

Afternoon tea

I am sitting here drinking a lovely afternoon tea and Bronwen is napping. We went to the library today and it tired her right out. So many books to pull off the shelf! (though, she didn't pull off too many). So many people to smile at! Such a nice open space to run free in! And downstairs in the kids library, so many other kids to look at! And, a box of raisins to find on the table and half-eat before her mother noticed. Well, I hope they weren't too stale, or contaminated.

I added a fun little pregnancy ticker for those interested parties. I find it interesting when they say, "-- days to go!" as if every pregnancy has a definite end date. After Bronwen being born a full 9 days past her 'estimated due date' I am fully preparing myself for this one to do something similar. That way, I'll be really surprised if he/she comes early, and hopefully not as impatient if he/she doesn't!

We are going to leave the gender of this baby a surprise. It's a pretty common question people ask though- 'Do you know what you're having?'. Yup, yup I do. A baby! I think that it is an amazing moment when they say, "It's a boy! or 'It's a girl!' and wouldn't want it any other way. I can see how some people might like to know, for planning purposes or curiosity's sake, and I don't fault them for that.

But it's a really, really fun surprise. There aren't too many surprises like that in life.