Happy Anniversary Will!!!

It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart
Without saying a word you can light up the dark
Try as I may I could never explain
What I hear when you don't say a thing

The smile on your face
Lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes
Saying you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand
Says you'll catch me where ever I fall
You say it best
When you say nothing at all

All day long I can hear people talking at loud
But when you hold me near
you drown out the crowd
try as they may they could never define
What's been said between your heart and mine

The smile on your face
Lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes
Saying you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand
Says you'll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best
When you say nothing at all

The smile on your face
Lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes
Saying you'd never leave me
The touch of your hand
Says you'll catch me where ever I fall
You say it best
When you say nothing at all

by Alison Kraus

played at our wedding June 28, 1997.

Can't believe it's been 14 years.

They have not always been easy - our 14 years together but I'm glad you were there and that we went through everything together.

Thank the LORD that He has breathed a growing love, increasing patience and a underlying joy that is complete in Him.

Thank you Will for being "the one" whose 100% confidence in me has always blown me away especially when I had no more confidence in myself.

We can only thank God for that restoration but He used YOU to build me up.

I love you so much!!!!!

Love Always, Gloria

Blast from the Past and Haircut

June 6 2011 - Nadia Lynn Faber
May 1999 - Aleana Janelle Faber
We found a picture with the same hat but not the same hat AND dress.

Pretty smiles for Daddy.

The exersaucer is lots of fun but I don't like it so much now that I am moving everywhere!!
This was taken on one of the FEW hot days we have had.

Peter is such a good older brother. Mom? I love you AND I love the baby. He would tell me when I was expecting. Now, he says "Mom? I LOVE Nadia...why aren't you allowed to marry your sister again?" I am now chopped liver :).

This is Peter before his summer haircut.

Trying to get a good before shot was difficult.

But an after shot was even harder. "Do you mean this close Mom?"

"Do you want me to dance for you?"

"Show my neck muscles?"

This is what we saw in our backyard at 7 one morning.
The kids were at the window for about 5 minutes enjoying their antics. Here the one guy is rolling in the grass. Must have had an itchy back...hay, I know what that is like!!

Foraging in the flower garden for what??? Worms??? Not sure.

They look cute, but I know from my SIL that they can be little devils. I am sure she remembers...

Random Happenings

Family BBQ at Uncle Jake and Auntie Lee's.

Notice the little hand at the bottom? Will thought it was so cute.


This is what happens at the BBQ - I love it!!

Our kids LOVE the family BBQ.

It's always been for Opa's birthday. This year he celebrated in heaven.
I'm glad we still celebrated too.

This is another picture of the girls' quilt. Check out the previous blog for more on that.

Aunti Lee - happy with her quilt.

So glad she has it!!!

This was taken about three weeks ago already.

Look, Mom!! I can stand!!!

Aren't I a big girl trying to grow up so fast?

Ethan's project on Pumas.

I really loved how he worked on it consistently and didn't leave it til the end.

It was a great lesson to him that with good time management stress is dramatically reduced.

Good job Ethan!!

Matthew's Canuck fever sign. He cried when they lost and started cutting up his sign he was so disappointed. We had to have a good talk about that.

I have a video of this and it's so cute but with the new camara we have yet to figure out how to down load the videos. Hopefully soon!!!

I want to be like my big sister!

Reap What You Sew - Sewing Projects April-June 2011

Sew....I found this quilting store in Lynden, where my sister lives. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? All good I'm thinking. The first time I didn't buy anything but found out about their fat quarter sale in April. 25 for $25. Pretty good deal. Plus, the fabric spray is half the price there as at Fabricland. The next time I visited ma soeur I stopped in and stocked up on some colors for some projects I have going. Now that I am typing I realize that I didn't photograph the orange and yellow prints. I'll show that next time.

The pile on the left is for the quilt in our bedroom (ongoing project that I need to just GET DONE!!) and the one on the right is for a new inspiration that I can not say too much about. What I can tell you is that I hope to make a variation on the Wishing Well pattern.




Here I'm just playing around with the camara and the light etc...

I love these prints.

I also love how they fold these fat quarters into triangles at this store. So cool!!!

Here are the pants that I sewed up for Nadia. Aren't the turtles cute!!!

Thank you to L. for the pattern.

As you can probaably tell I ended up using flannel - I couldn't find any jersey cotton that I thought would be good for a baby girl. They are alittle big but they will fit her nicely for camping and in the fall.
I may make some more now that I know what I am doing. It took me two hours but next time should be easier.

Here is the quilt that Aleana and her second cousin Leah worked on for Family Fun Night.

I love all the bright colors. They did all the planning and decision making, and most of the sewing. I ended up sewing most of the buttons on because we just plain ran out of time at the end to get all of us together. This was such a fun project and it was such a pleasure for me to witness how well Aleana and Leah worked together. The way they encouraged one another and built each other up was something I did not even have to facilitate - they were already doing it!!

Good work girls!!! Not one relational glich through the hours we spent together just some seams that needed ripping but in the end aren't relationships more important to keep together?

I will always smile when I think of this quilt and I am so glad that Auntie Lee bought it because this way it stays in the family too. A nice family heirloom.

No pattern, just two girls and their own creativity.

Matthew wanted a plant in his room - we picked an African Violet. He is so happy with his plant - I guess it's his nurturing nature. It replaces the fish that flopped.

This is a bad picture of the curtains I sewed for the boys room.

This is a better picture. I copied the curtains from Ethan's room and I was happy at how fast they went together but I find them a little ruffly for a boys room. You can't see it on the picture but the fabric is denim print - I thought that would add to the boy look.

What do you think?

Sock Puppet Creation

Matthew had a day off from school so he decided he would help Peter make sock puppets!!

They had lots of fun.
So far, Will has not noticed that some of his socks are missing :).

Once he reads this, he will be in the know.

I had no stuffing on hand, so they recycled the stuffing from another sock puppet creation.

What's that called?

Ingenuity? Environmentalistic? or Dutch genes?

Nadia is now enjoying the kick and play piano (it's lasted 10 years !).

It's really cute to hear her sing when we sing at supper. It's probably the last time in her life that she will be able to reach such a high pitch.

Enjoying some love!!

Nadia loves cheek to cheek.
Mommy does too :).

Not the french kisses so much.

Zoo Trip - May 2011 - Matthew's Grade 1 class

Back in May (yes, I am behind big time with pictures) I went with Matthew's school to the zoo.

It is good to see the world through the eyes of children for a day. They had lots of fun.

This picture belongs on the bottom, and was taken at the end of the day. The next photo is the start of the day, don't ask how that happened - sigh.

One of the first birds we saw wandering around when we arrived. A white peacock perhaps?



This little girl was so good all day long. She did not cry once!!! Too much to see and too many people to smile at.

A gobble gobble and a cockadoodle doo.

This little guy came along. He was really good too. It's an excellent place to go for running.

Ohhhh was he tired at the end of the day.

One day, I will find a peacock feather!!! (not attached to a peacock)

A contemplative moment.

Hippos are hilarious!!! I loved watching them.

They liked being together.

Next, we went on the bus in the bear sanctuary. We were really blessed to see lots of them because they had just been fed along the road.

It was a beautiful warm and sunny day. One of few that we had in May.

Concentrating very hard on eating.

Some boys from Matt's group with Peter goofing around on the aligator statue.

After all the school kids left, we stayed at the zoo because I needed to nurse Nadia and I promised the boys we would see the turtles and monkeys again.
While I was nursing Nadia, this peacock came right up to me - I wondered what it would do but it just sort of looked at me, checked us out and wandered away.

Getting closer...

and closer...I sure love that color!!! Such beauty God has created!!!

I'm not sure if this is Amryn or not, but I did think of baby Amryn when we saw the giraffes.

Giraffes are amazing really. They have really cool valves in the blood vessals in their necks. Imagine if they didn't, every time they bend over all the blood from their neck would cause such high pressure on their brains that existence would be impossible. Isn't God creative?

Aren't giraffes cute?

Okay, giraffes are cute but my favorite animals are turtles.

Not the most adorable but in cartoon they can be really cute.

Trying to get a decent picture out of these two is like trying to get water out of a rock!!!

Mom, would you just take the picture already?

What are those guys doing? I'm just going to have a nap now, it's been a long day.

Taking a picture, of me taking a picture.

The boys seemed to love the statues of the animals the most.

Take a picture, take a picture!!!

I accidently deleted the gorilla shot. Here's the last one at the exit. This pose took forever because certain people did not want to leave the zoo.