Lunch Date with K-man

 Planned a date with cousin Kingston and Auntie Leslie at Chuck-E-Cheese.  The pizza is actually ok and at this age our peeps are pretty content with sitting on rides, get this - with out even putting a coin in!!!! Yup, cheap dates!!!!  Amelia even said to me, "I don't like when this moves.  I don't like this very much."   Haha would rather just sit on big chunks of plastic, whatever it was fun!  Kingston would hold Stella with protective big cousin arms and she would just sit, taking the sights n sounds in.  We definitely missed the Bird Girls, Alyson and Jacey!  Dang 5 weeks is a long time, but it will be amazing to see what Jacey is doing once they come back home.

They have this booth that takes a pic then sorta sketches the photo.   Awesomeness!!!!  They turned out soooooo darling.  The first one we did Stella moved her hand at the moment it flashed but I loved Amelia's expression in it so we kept both.  Probably my favourite part of the whole date!

Fun, fun!!!

~ Mrs. P



Doing her part

We went to visit my grandparents, the girls' great-grandparents last week and it was lovely!  Their home is so warm and inviting.  I am helping with a family project and my assignment is to scan all of Grandma's scrapbooks, it is a process and I barely scratched the surface but I was pleased with how much I actually got done while Stella napped and Big A helped Grandpa.  Love these pics of Amelia 'helping' pick up garbage!!!! It kept her busy, she was able to be outside and she spent time with her great-gramps....super precious!

Darn lucky to live close to family, wonderful to visit them.  Oh and Graham loves when I go visit too, Gramma always sticks a loaf of homemade bread in my bag!!!!

~ Mrs. P

Rainy Day

I am hoping that April showers bring May flowers....at least this dreary, cold wind, on/off rain will be worth it!   After enjoying time outside all week we were sort of getting use to it.  Sadly, not venturing out today.  So we made some squares, worked on some laundry, learned about blocks (not just building either but how to blow in them) and did some more painting on our toilet paper family.  Bahahaha these toilet paper rolls are almost ready to head to the recycling bin so I decided to photograph them first.   Amelia let Stella hold the roll we called 'Stella' and a bit of tasting occurred, yuck!!!  A fun activity that Mia just keeps coming back to.  We even had to make a Tula, pretty funny.

Love it when the girlies play together, they look so darn cute!! 

Perhaps stay in the house days aren't all bad.

~ Momma P



Reminders

Some day when I print out this blog I hope that my little ladies will read it and have two things happen.

 #1 have memories come flooding back to them about our family life

#2 take a few of the lessons I have learned into their hearts and perhaps not make the same mistakes

I have been listening to some great speakers lately, having a refresher on the talks shared during General Conference (which happens globally twice a year at church). 
I have to say I've been in a bit of a funk!  I see fam and friends all around me facing tough stuff but my own struggles with potty training, house selling and a shutdown working husband still seem hard.  Yes, we are still working on going in the potty and yes, the hubs is back working 6 days a week/13ish hrs a day....BOO I say!!!!  Keeping the house in tip top shape, ahhhhh craziness! 
I do have much to be thankful for but gosh I don't always live out my days as I should.
I would usually consider myself a positive person but just haven't been feeling it, so seeking out good insight from wise folks seemed like a good solution.
  So as I've been listening to good speakers I am collecting some new thoughts for our bathroom mirror and here they are;

One of the great discoveries of parenthood is that we learn far more about what really matters from our children...we come to recognize the truth in Isaiah’s prophecy that “a little child shall lead them.” ~ Boyd. K Packer
(Ok Mrs.P  CHILL OUT and follow Amelia's lead more)

This divine privilege of raising our children is a much greater responsibility than we can do alone, without the Lord’s help. He knows exactly what our children need to know, what they need to do, and what they need to be to come back into His presence...As children learn and act upon what they learn, their understanding is expanded, which leads to more learning, more action, and an even greater and more enduring understanding... They become part of the solution to our family challenges and make a positive contribution to the environment of our home and the success of our family.
 ~ Cheryl A. Esplin
(What struck me from this msg was that Mr. P and I are not in this alone, which I do know but the reminder was nice.  Also that learning is a process and that each little person is a unique individual with their own path, again I know this, I'm a teacher but good to hear again. )


Everywhere people are in a hurry...at the moment she heard the doctor’s diagnosis, she knew immediately that she would spend whatever time she had remaining with her family and friends and with the gospel at the center of her life, for these represented what was most precious to her.
~ President Thomas S. Monson
(Trying to live each day focusing on what is most precious to us instead of hurrying through a to-do list.)

REMINDERS ARE GOOD!!!!

Life is good.
I have a ton of goodness in my life, a ton of blessings to be thankful for!
Three of which are named; Graham, Amelia and Stella.
~ Mrs. P

PS. We do have an offer on our house woot woot!!

church = feel good & cute photos = feel good

We had a little photo session after church on Sunday because I never did capture the ladies cute Easter outfits for our family photo memories.  After the fun it also occurred to me that this may be some of our last shots in front of this house. Although I am super pumped up for our new place it made me a bit sad.  I always say to Graham that this house just seems happy when you look at it from the street, dorky but I really do think it has a happy vibe.  Anyway, it was a great Sunday and we froze time by snapping some pics.

 

 Church was just what I needed this week. 

 I totally had a selling house/husband working lots breakdown on Saturday.  Frustration, tears the whole bit after rushing to get the house perfect, getting the dog, the ladies and myself out the door alone again. The lessons at church included spiritual & physical preparedness and repentance....all of which gave me the internal nudge to focus on and be better at.  I also came away thinking; I can not control how much notice I get for a showing, I can not really control my 2 year olds natural curiosity or interests (all of which seem to emerge in the 30 min before we need to vacate the premises)  BUT I can control my attitude, my demeanor!  Wouldn't you know it Monday night we got an offer on our house.

Ya our family is pretty darn pumped!!!! 

 ~ Mrs. P

How can we resist?

These eyes and this toothy smile, they get me every time!

I am pretty sure those pearly whites showing are the cause of our baby girls recent turmoil.   In moments of AHUUUHHHH, I try to think gosh it is her poor little mouth and it must be painful/frustrating for her.  I just need to work on remembering that at midnight.

  Oh our sweet girl!!!! We sure do love her.

~ Momma P



A Classy Gran

Each of my Grandparents ROCK! 

I feel lucky to have known all four of my grandparents and three of my great-grandmas. 

This past weekend we attended a Dinner/Silent Auction fundraiser for Conductive Education, a program Jacey is attending and for which this event would raise funds to help bring to Alberta. It was a FABULOUS success btw!  An added special touch to the evening had to do with gramma Hudkins, for starters the woman has style.  Such great style in fact, the clutches Leslie and I used that evening were hers, yup the nearly 75 year old gramma is rockin the accessories.  I also wore a ring she had given me when I completed university.  It was just super cool, so of course had to photograph it! I hope I can be as awesome as my gramma.  She has impeccable style and class, above all she handles life with grace seeking to live a life pleasing to the Lord.  The woman is to be admired. Glad she's my gramma.

~ Mrs. P 



Big Girl Bed for Big A

Pretty monumental event around the Polischuk house.  Big A  aka Amelia finally moved into her big girl bed. BTW 'Big A' is an ironic nickname given to our petite girl by her dad.  The big girl bed has been months in waiting.  We literally have had this bed since last summer but Big A was still just doing so well in the crib, we left her.  It is kind of exciting and sad all at the same time.  The transition went pretty smooth and the girl seems so BIG now, tear.  I picked up some fabric this week to make Amelia a quilt for her bed, the hearts are cute but don't really go with her room. Oh an of course a throw pillow or two. Yahoo sewing project :)  I think Miss Stella is also pumped to have some space to roll around, bye-bye cradle hello crib for baby girl.

Love the lady's face and the pride, also the shy 'ok enough pics' hands over face moment is pretty sweet too! Love this chick!!!



The sisters seem to make a Polischuk party happen in any bed, at anytime.  Pretty happy they like each other.  And goodness, we really like them.

~ Momma P



Dating the Husband

I am a fan of dates with the hubs.
I love my little ladies but it is sooooo nice to spend time with the hubs, without them!!!  We always come back home saying to one another 'man you really are fun'!!!  I love how dates remind you that hey you like one another.  When the girls are grown and gone I am pretty sure we are still going to be fans of one another.  I also read that a babysitter is cheaper than a divorce...ohhh.  We have awesome sitters and feel totally comfortable leaving our ladies with them, even when our babe is being Stella-rific.

For Christmas I scored a date with Mr.P and Coldplay, it was great!  Perhaps the most entertaining concert, the crazy stuff they did just kept a coming.  Shooting confetti, balls bouncing in the crowd, wrist bands given upon entry that lit up, just a bunch of coolness going on.  Love that they thanked us for coming out on a Tuesday night. Ten years ago when I was in university they played the SHAW and I was sad to have missed them but a decade later filling REXALL, it isn't surprising.  I really dig artists that express appreciation, a band that has been around and accumulated some great tunes.

Weirdly cool!  Played part of their encore in the audience, pretty rad!

 Fun night with Mr. P

~ Mrs.P



Easter

It was a busy but good Easter weekend. Lots of extended family time!

Mia and I made these Easter lilies to discuss the concept of the Resurrection. These flowers are buried in the ground as bulbs and then in spring they bloom.  This is to remind us of how Jesus was laid in the tomb and then came forth Easter morning.  We found an Easter board book, read it and made these lilies to remind us that the holiday was not just about chocolate and the Easter Bunny.

The Easter Bunny did visit and left some sweet goods!

Both Mia and Stella were excited.  The Bunny brought Mia her first Barbie, a Cinderella doll and her first nightie...such cuteness.  Stella was spoiled too with some new books and a ball.

Sadly no pics of the ladies in their Easter outfits (they had two each because I couldn't resist). Each meal we had was kind of a gong show as our babe Stella is teething.  Good times though, good times!!!

Love the faces as they check out their loot!

- Momma P



Egg-cellent Activity

I think that I have written this before but I'll say it again, creating traditions with my own little kidlets is something that I looked forward to and now love about motherhood.  It warms my heart thinking and hoping the Polischuk Peeps will grow and cherish the things (sometimes dorkie) things we do as a family.  So with Easter almost upon us I picked up a few supplies, boiled a dozen eggs and we spent some time decorating.  Amelia really enjoyed it, Stella watched intently at a safe distance from any dye or breakable eggs.  Mr. P even got home in time to catch the tail end of our egg-stavganza, consequently I am even in some pictures!!!

We used some bags and poured in some dye...tie-dyed was the supposed out come.  Our not so much but still fun and totally contained the mess AND could mostly be done by little Miss.

Elastic band and then soak in the dye aka food colouring. This was less her, more me and resulted in dyed fingertips. Pretty cool.

Oh the classic crayon then dye.  Pretty popular, except she kept wanting me to do the colouring.  She may be a tad bit of a perfectionist.

Oh sponging on the dye.  This technique/supplies came in a kit and was messy but very doable and hands on for our lady.  She really got into it, but sadly we only had a few eggs left to do at this point.  Good to remember for next year.

The end result.  I have them in a pretty basket on our kitchen table now. We are pretty proud of them.

We only had one casualty which occurred early and was recycled into an egg salad sandwich.  It was a success. Pretty pumped up for the egg hunt this year...thinking Amelia is going to totally be into it!!!

I love this pic of Stella, little pointer out.  She was watching and spent part of the time chomping on an extra plastic cup.  A fun day!

Mrs.P

Pumped Up!!

Last week the ladies of the house were down and out with colds n fevers, this week we are all back ready to tackle life again.  We are pumped up!! I am thinking we feel this way for a few reasons....We had Mr.P home for 3 days this past weekend and it was wonderful to have his help since everyone, including myself was a sickie. Just love this dude, love having him around and love to simply spend time with him. We purged out our garage and storage room to help our house show better, it felt awesome to get rid of stuff!!!  We also watched General Conference from home, which is a world wide broadcast our church does twice a year.  I just love, love, love sitting on my couch in pjs and being spiritually enlightened. Two of the awesome insights gained;

It is also mostly SPRING outside, hardly any snow! Yahhh

Easter is also just around the corner and this makes me happy.  I have been thinking about how we will talk to Miss Amelia this year about the real meaning of Easter, it is pretty heavy stuff. 

Life is good!

~ Mrs.P

Boxes vs Toys

Oh why do we get sucked in spending a ton of money of expensive toys when really they are so happily amused with boxes. Such fun was had with these boxes.

~ Momma P

Baby Board Book for Sweet Stella

Stella is 10 months old, THIS IS CRAZY to me!!!

The time has flown by.

She is a lot like her older sister, diggin the books. This makes me smile.

When Amelia was this age the online scrap booking program I use, Heritage Makers had a special on board books. I freaked out because they were sooooo cool.  Of course I made one for our Miss Amelia. Sadly, two years later they no longer offer the books :(  Luckily I found another company, Pint Size Productions that does.  The books are very different, but my girls are different and it turned out just as nice.  Stella likes it and that is the important thing! We were very excited to get these in the mail. I always get two copies of each book I do, this way the ladies can 'handle' them as much as they want and I don't stress it because I have another pristine copy safe in my bedroom.

I just love, love that they each have 'Their Story'.  When I was younger I loved hearing the story about the night I was born.  My parents had gone to a Barry Manilow Concert (my dad grudgingly attended last minute when my mom's friend couldn't go), the tickets were in my baby book.  Later that night my momma's water broke, dad asked if she wet the bed...nope!  My mom shaved her legs and they headed off to the hospital, later I joined the family.  LOVE MY STORY!

Amelia's book is totally different and equally lovely.  I had fun creating these for our ladies.  It is something I hope that they will continue to enjoy, I know I do.  Each time we read them together I am reminded of special the circumstances surrounding their arrivals.  They are our precious miracle babies and we totally cherish them.

~ Momma P