Here they are - 2 of my precious "grands"

smiling in the new loft built to make room for the new addition to the family.

They are 5 now in just over 800 square feet - that's including the loft!

And very content to make it all work - as it does. They have proven that a family does not need all the stuff that fills our larger homes. The children have plenty of play space and toy storage, Dad and Mom have both made sacrifices - getting rid of some things and putting other things in storage but they have succeeded in making their home a welcoming, warm and open place with room enough for all who come.

And here is the newest one- checking out his admiring grandma.

I spent 3 days and 4 nights with my son, DIL and grandkids, helping out however I could. Mom needs to take it easy for awhile to recuperate from her C section so I lifted kids, put toys away, made beds, grocery shopped, drove Nate to preschool, made meals for the freezer and baked a few goodies. It was wonderful to have the time to spend with my DIL whom I love and admire so much for her patient way with her kids. We have had so many great talks about parenting, cooking, marriage, friendships, and spiritual things and I was blessed once again by her warm and generous heart.

It is also amazing to me to see my tall, gentle son being such a terrific husband and father - so loved by his wife and children. God has truly blessed him with spiritual wisdom and we are humbled by his godly example.

Grandprincess is 2 1/2 now and is at the age of testing mom and dad's limits but those big dark, dark brown eyes just melt me into a puddle. Here she is swinging in the hammock while singing along with Nana " Rock a bye Ella in the tree top.... when the wind blows the hammock will rock..."

Nate is 4 1/2 , a real helper already - a great conversationalist and is fascinated with his baby brother. He loves to hold him - although he always checks to see if he is "poopy" first - and can hardly wait til he grows enough to play with him.

_______________________________________

Sunday we are leaving for Edmonton where we have a booth at the Oil Sands Trade Show.

It is definitely worth the time and money spent to take part in these trade shows as we usually only need to make one or two sales to cover the cost of participating. We always come back with a long list of contacts - many of which result in sales later. It's hard work getting everything together, packed up into the truck, then unpacked, set up and then packed up again and driven back home to once again unpack.

I fill the role of "go-fer" ("Will you go for coffee? Can you go find more brochures?...") and help with recording contacts and putting together information packets while Rick and Harv draw in potential customers and do their sales pitch. I love watching my men work and am so proud of their technical knowledge, their integrity in sales and their dedication to customer service. It's made them very successful in what they do.

These pictures are fom last year's show. we had a lot of compliments on our booth. Rick did all of the gaphics for the booth and they equal or surpass the professionally done graphics in the other booths. We look forward to having another good show this week.