Canadians, hearts and family fun

As some of you may or may not know. My sister in law aka my best friend and her family moved to Canada over the summer. Not just Canada but the furthest Eastern tip of the continent. Talk about trying to get away from it all.
So the reason for my latest blog absence was a good one. The canucks(what we will call them from now) Came in on the 10th. We had already had a busy couple of weeks planned for them but we also had a family emergency at the same time.
My father in law had congestive heart failure and was in the hospital. First off.. how amazing is God that he planned for the Canucks to be down here while dad was going through all of this.
Dad was scheduled for Open heart surgery and came through it wonderfully. He is at home resting and doing great.
We also had our Cypress Calling baby shower. Where we shower mothers in crisis pregnancies. This always is an amazing opportunity for us to witness and to show Gods love.

We also had to fit in some play time so we had play dates with some of our mutual friends. It was so awesome having my Sis in law here.
We even braved the mall with 4 kiddos under 4 and a teenager!! And guess what? The kids were angels. We were at the mall for at least 5 hours and God bless them those kids were just perfect. I was so shocked and inspired that I just might put my fear of going to the mall by myself with the kids behind me and venture out one day. Though Christmas is coming soon so I may have to put that brave move on the back burner for while.. I am inspired but not stupid.

Every year in October our family rents a beach house in Surfside(near Galveston) And we stay there for about 4 days just enjoying each other company and basking in the beautiful weather and family fun.
Well as you know Ike came through 6 weeks ago and he made other plans of our beach house.. like construction plans.
But thats ok.. the Schoens did not fret. We relocated our family fun to the Grandparents farm.
But after Dad was put in the hospital and scheduled for surgery we decided against it.

That did not mean there would be no family fun for the Schoens.
We had very important birthdays to celebrate!
So Last Saturday the whole Family and close friends came together at my other sister in laws house and we celebrated The twins 1st birthday, Ashleys 14th birthday and Micahs 10th birthday!
As usual it was awesome seeing the family. And as usual we brought back with us a little party favor disguised as a Stomach flu!
Sunday morning before the sun came up I was in the bathroom and I ll spare the details but it was not good.
Then D woke up the same way.
I was the only one that was vomiting, lucky me. Until the kids started getting sick that night!
It took 10 days, Loads and loads of laundry, baking soda and lots of elbow grease by the time that little party favor left us. But thankfully we are all healthy now! I cant wait to see what we will catch at Thanksgiving ;)
It was a busy time with the Canucks here but it was the best time and I cant wait till they come down again in December. I miss them dearly!
I will post pictures in a new post..