The past couple of days...

Some of the goings on in the past couple of days...

Sully with his buddy Levi - trying to keep cool in the heat of the afternoon

we had supper at friends of ours the other night - they live on a private lake...it was beautiful!

Matt and Sully went for a quick dip

Sully is on the move!  He is a crawling machine!  This picture is the first day he started moving - believe or not he started in that rubbermaid - trying to retrieve a cheerio that was in the corner :)

our new baby gate - IT'S BEAUTIFUL!!!!  Matt made it...he has some serious skills!

Trish and I attended the play Joseph and the Technicolored Dream Coat in Chilliwack

this guy loves to stand with "no help" 

oh his cuteness...

and finally - what have we been up to lately...kitchen renos!!!  pictures to come when everything is done...hopefully by the end of the month - it has been quite a process but so far we are very happy with the results!

Let's Go On a Date: August!

Date Card - just across the border there is a great fair in August - however, life plans have changed and we will now be in Oregon when that fair is on - so it was off to our own local fair instead!

checking out the exhibits

Sully especially liked the animals!

Matt getting educated

Auntie Trish met us there!

Trish and Matt waiting in line for our supper - we ate from a Ukrainian Food Truck with handmade perogies!

our little family - sweating together at the fair

we went to the rodeo finals that night - I have never been to a rodeo - it was both fascinating and terrifying :)

the fair wore Sully out - he was out like a light before we even got out of the parking lot

I took Sully home to bed and Matt and Trish stayed for an evening outdoor concert featuring Jars of Clay - perfect weather for an evening concert!

Cooking with the K's - Homemade Grilled Pizza

It has been HOT summer - if the oven needs to be on it must be turned off by 10am as to not make our house into a even hotter box than it already is!  We were craving some homemade pizza but wouldn't dare turn on the oven to bake it and so it was time to finally try grilled pizza and it was SO SO GOOD!!!  The BBQ stone was key to our operation.  And a little secret if you are going to try it - wait till the end to put your cheese on :)

Akre Reunion

The last weekend we were in Saskatchewan we travelled to Outlook for an Akre Family Reunion.  What a special time with family!  It's crazy to think of all of the people and families that have been created all because Grandma and Grandpa fell in love!

The Crew - 67 out of 76 I believe (and 2 more on the way!)

our little family

the original 7 - now all married with kids and grandkids of their own

It was a fun weekend...

playing horseshoes

playing

eating - Akre's know how to eat - so much good food ALL weekend!

love these two!

lots of time to fellowship!

snuggles with Uncle Dan

Grandpa Akre was a John Deere man - so in his honor this tractor was parked at the end of the driveway the entire weekend

bonfires at night

On Sunday morning we had a church service of our own - Matt lead the family worship team

and Dan spoke - so fun to get to hear Dan speak - he has a gift!

Dan spoke about how so many times in the bible people would build an altar as a reminder of the good things that God had done for them.  We broke into small family groups and talked about all of the miracles and good things that our family as been blessed with and then we made an altar in remembrance of these things - very cool - we have much to be thankful for!

family laying down stones and telling stories of the good things that God has done!

our altar of stones

 One last thing to do before we left SK - take a picture with the beautiful canola field - there is so much beauty in a summer on the prairies!

What a treat to see most of the Akre family - I am thankful to get to be a member of such an awesome group of people.  It was neat of Saturday night some of the uncles and cousins put on a concert - I just sat back and watched - when family gets together there is such a force that binds them it's like no time as passed since they were together last - there is such fun and love in this family - all different generations enjoying being together - enjoying family! 

Sully's Dedication

What a special time this Sunday afternoon in Lloyd was for our family!  Since we first found out about being pregnant and being blessed with having a child we knew that this child was not our own.  Sully is a gift to us - we have been blessed with being Sully's parents and will provide his earthly home, but he is God's child - and He is the ultimate Father.  That being said, we wanted to have a formal time to dedicate Sully to the Lord.  A time that we, along with our family, would be able to pray over his life and as parents make it known of our desire teach Sully about Jesus and raise him in a way that he will know God's unending love and desire to have a relationship with him! 

We were blessed to have a large portion of our family all together at once for Sully's dedication (we were just missing Auntie Becca and Uncle Nathan - the down side of having family so far away)

it was very special for us to have my dad lead our time!

Matt and I wrote a letter to Sully - in it we told him of a life verse that we picked for him

we assigned different aspects of Sully's life (future wife & family, career choice, hobby's etc) to different family members to pray for - we asked everyone to write out their prayers so we can keep them for Sully to be able to read and return to as he grows

and how else do we remember significant moments in life then with a good photo shoot!

Uncle Dan & Auntie Hailey

Great Papa K - we were so blessed to have Papa share in this day with us!

4 generations of Kaminski men - praying that the great legacy of strong Christian men lives on!

what a special treasure that both Matt and I have grown up in such amazing homes with amazing parents - we realize how rare this is now a days!

Sully's Papa, Nana, Grams & Gramps

this picture makes me smile - can you tell that he is well loved on?!

We do not take our role as Sully's parents lightly - may we be found faithful!

Sul's life verse:

"Be strong and courageous...The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged" 

Deuteronomy 31:7-8

We love you Sullivan Richard Kaminski - thank you Jesus for this amazing gift!

Let's Go On a Date: July

Date Card...

When I was making these cards up last November I knew that we would be traveling home in July and I assumed that my parents might be willing to babysit their sweet grandson for the night - I just didn't know what our date would entail.  But, as we got closer to heading home, we both talked about how fun it would be to go to the Calgary Stampede again - and so our July date decision was made!

The stampede is known for all of the crazy carnival food they have (like deep friend butter?!) unfortunately for Matt his tummy was not feeling 100% before we got there so the only fun food he had was a snow cone - still good though!

love dates with this guy!

after spending the afternoon walking around exhibits, the fair grounds and watching entertainers we ended the evening with the chuck wagon races and the grandstand show

the show is advertised as the greatest outdoor show on earth and it lives up to that name well

this year did not disappoint - it was a GREAT SHOW!

It was a fantastic day - great weather - good fun all with my favorite person!