I love spring. The melting of snow. The warmth of the sun. The awakening of plants and trees from their dormancy. The grass turning green. The newness of life.

The thing is, we’re still waiting for those things here in the Great White North! I shouldn’t be surprised. The last week or so brought some snow. And winds. Together. I’m not sure how much snow we got, but enough for our car to get stuck in it. Twice. In two days. That is a first for us, after 2 winters here in Canada. And, I had to trudge through a foot or more of snow in our back yard to take this picture:

The plants are getting ready to look alive! I took this one from our front window on the first day of snow because it was too cold and crazy to go outside:

You may not be able to tell from the picture, but over a foot of snow built up on our railing. Funny, yes?

Spring will come. Or at least summer will come. In the meantime, we’re just trying to enjoy the pretty white stuff a little longer. And, we’ll be traveling around TX this spring, so I’ll get to wear my flip-flops soon enough!

I think this video (link below) is going around through email, but when I come across a good thing, I feel like I gotta’ share it. Here it is if you haven’t seen it. We all know how much I love to hear kids sing!

It took us nearly 16 months to make it to this momentous occasion - our 100th blog post! I have thought a bit about what topic would be worthy of the big 100. I want to blog a recipe, maybe a movie review, and some other random blatherings, but for these purposes, I decided it might be fun to include you behind the scenes of our little spot here on the web.

I don’t pay to much attention to our blog stats, but I did a little digging to find out what you readers found most intriguing. (These stats are based on the number of people that actually click on that post).

The prize for the most often viewed post goes to this one. It got the most comments (29) and the most views (250).

The prize for 2nd most-oft viewed post is a three-way tie and goes to this one, this one, and this one.

The prize for 2nd most worthy of your comments goes to this post.

Our blog has been viewed nearly 16,000 times. And with around 500 total comments, that means we have a lot of lurkers. So let us know you’re here already! I can’t believe we are that interesting, but we do have sweet families and friends that try to keep up with us while we live far away. Thanks for coming back. We’ll do our best to keep you posted!

Most people tell us that Evan looks like Joe and Maren looks like me. They don’t look a lot alike!  Here are pictures of Evan and Maren at about 3 months:

What do you think?

Life is full of little blessings. I try to notice them.

Remember them. Enjoy them. Thank the Lord for them.

This week has been especially full of sweet things.

Fellowship. Friends. Laughter. Prayers. Hugs. Chocolate.

I made a cake and some cupcakes for a party:

A friend brought us some tulips:

Maren turned 3 Months old:

And Evan asks to hold her all the time. These two are really beginning to “play” together, and it makes me happy:

I say it often, but we are so blessed.

By now, you have probably heard about the hype surrounding Oprah and her statements regarding spirituality. I can’t say that I’m too surprised - she has been treachorously misguided for a long time now, but the video (below) is truly alarming. The sway that she has over people all across the globe is terrifying when it comes to matters such as these. What makes it difficult for many people to second-guess Oprah is that everything else she does seems to be “good.” She advocates love, kindness, goodness and peace. While these are principles found in the Bible, we must be on guard for anything that does not point us to Christ. (1 John 4:1-6):

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.”

Fellow believers, if ever there was a time to study God’s Word and be on our knees, it is now.

We’re back, friends! Joe ran into some problems when changing our web host. But we’re back in action, ready to bring you all the latest and greatest from our family. More posts soon!

Some weird people don’t like bananas (ahem, JD). But we love them and eat them almost every day. Sometimes, they are better to play with than to eat…

And sometimes, this mother has to take pictures before telling her little boy to get his feet off of the table and stop playing with his food. It was quite the conversation!