pressing forward



This has been a HARD week!  My littlest girl has been fighting a cold and my big girl is getting up earlier and earlier with the sun, not very fun times at my house I tell ya. Our Dad is on Day 25 of his Shutdown which is roughly another 35-40 days, we miss him terribly but we are thankful for his good job.  He is a hard working guy and we love the morning surprises of Tim Hortons or Rice Crispies that he brings home.  We also love jumping on him to wake the poor dude for his night shift, the girls really love the jumping on him part!!!

 

Doing everything solo is hard, no way around it - HARD!  I have added admiration for families that are lead by single parents.  While my littles are such a blessing it doesn't mean it is without challenge, goodness does it have it's challenges...whining, fighting, tantrums (sounds very normal in writing actually ha!).  We are pressing forward.  I have had some great conversations this week with friends, received some encouraging texts and listened to a few really great talks from General Conference earlier this month.  I feel a bit better and am very grateful that our week will be ending on a better note than it began.  I am trying to keep prospective that sickness will pass and sleeping patterns are just that patterns that change.  I also had the thought the other day that I just need to smile.  Smile more!! 

 

We were lucky to snag a spot in the spring Rhyme & Story time Program and played around outside afterwards the other day just enjoying the long awaited spring weather.  I love Mia's nose scrunched smile, adorbs! I love this picture of my ladies.  They asked that I lift them up onto the big 'chair'.

 

~ Mrs. P

Spring has finally, sorta sprung!!!!

We have really anticipated spring this year.  I heard on the radio that in our area we recently passed the 6 month mark for having snow, WHAT???  BOO!!!!!!!   Don't get me wrong winter would be weird without snow, but we were ready for it to be gone awhile ago.   So with the arrival of the warmer weather this week we pulled out the rubber boats, bike, sidewalk chalk and had our first picnic outside on the deck with a friend the other day.  The fresh air feels so good, I love the rosy cheeks and smiles.  The vanishing snow does present its challenges when you have mud instead of grass, our poor pup Tula is having to learn how to use a piddle pad - a fake grass turf thing on our deck.  I am proud of our 10 year old girl because after 3 days and few treats for encouragement she went ALL BY HERSELF on the pad, what a good old girl we have.  Love that furry baby of mine.  She will get a new spring hair cut next week and she'll be all set for the new season.

 

Doing a little biking on our driveway.

Playing on the back deck, sneaking some cuddles with mom.  Mia took this pic, pretty good I think!!  We were playing Red Light/Green Light on the back deck and I had a moment of 'life is so good'...  except for then I remembered that Graham caught a mouse in the garage this morning ewwwww!!!  So life is pretty good minus the mouse.

 

I guess these boots are evidence of a good spring day!

~ Mrs. P



not to be forgotten

I often have the thought "need to record this so it is not forgotten".  I am not always good at doing it. So tonight as I did my post bedtime clean up I snapped pictures of a few things that I don't want to forget. 

 

FYI: As I wrote the last sentence I teared up!!!!! GOSH what a bawl baby I am!!!

 

I do not want to forget how much Amelia likes to walk around in my high heels. She is 3 going on 23 and although it scares me, I secretly love that she pulls these out to walk in.  She is always asking us to watch her somersault, jump or paint and today it was watching her wobbly walk around in my heels.

 

I do not want to forget how important 'baby puppy Stella' (yes named after little sister Stella) and 'baby' are to my ladies.  They get tucked in for naps, get fed, rocked and often I find my tea towels being used as blankets.  Also to be noted is that Stella put her 'baby' down here after Amelia because lil sis sure looks up/likes to copy big sis, it is beautiful.

 

Much gratitude pouring from my heart today as I cleaned up, much gratitude.  What a privilege to have these women in my life, to get to be their mother....a mother! 

Just a few simple, sweet things not to be forgotten.

 

~ Mrs. P

Famous Aunt

Recently Auntie Jenn had something pretty big happen in her life - she sold her first piece of art AND had it displayed in a local art gallery....COOLNESS!!!

 

 

Seriously so proud of the woman!  What a fun part of being an artist, having something you made be up for people to see. 

 

Of course as her fan club we had to go down and see where her piece was displayed and take some pics.  This is a BIG DEAL!

 

Sure do love that creative Auntie Jenn. Three Cheers for her!!!

~ Mrs. P

Fort Fun with Family

Extended family is so fabulous.  There is something wonderful about seeing your children shown love by people who care about them ALMOST as much as you do, beautiful.  I snapped a few fun photos during our week up north of my little people hanging out with family.

 

Uncle Mikey seriously rocks!  The kids literally flock to him, they always have such fun with the dude.  Smiles and giggles are usually the result of time with Uncle.

Grandma was the adventurous one helping our biking beauty ride down and then walk up the driveway on the princess bike.  Princess Mia would stop, press the button that played music, hop off her bike, do her skip/hop dance and then when the music stopped hop back on and continue peddling.  Seriously adorable!

Auntie Jenn also knows what my ladies love...painting!  There was some serious focus on the go in these pics.  They LOVE painting and it is such a special treat to paint at Auntie Jenn's house with all of her 'art teacher' gear.  They each created lovely pieces!

 

How awesome is extended family?! While we were up visiting each member of our family took the time to make my women feel loved and special. It was appreciated and I know that my women feel it. Every child deserves to have that kind of love shown them.

 

~ Mrs. P

 



Stubborn girls

 

Give thanks for daughters who are stubborn and headstrong, for we need more girls determined to take on the world.

~ Amy Eldridge

 

 

Our chicks are awesome and stubborn and funny and determined and beautiful and strong willed!!!  We are so darn blessed to have them.  I read the above quote and teared up.  Although there are moments of absolute challenge it really is a privilege to be their parents, to be entrusted with these precious spirits.  I often think that I am modeling for them how to manage emotions so I need to hold it together.  They are both determined women in their own way and it is great to be reminded that this really is a great quality to have.

~ Momma P



Fireplace fanatics

 

 A must-do when we visit Grandma and Grandpa's house is definitely having a fire.  It is always a request from the littles!!!!  We (they) made some smores and surprisingly each lady actually ate them all, usually Amelia is a lot of talk and not a lot of eating action.  They did so well with the smores that we could of almost bathed them again.  Such a fun tradition!

 

 

~ Mrs. P

Our Family Stay-cation!!!!

 

 

 

Our family is embarking on a 60 day shutdown/turnaround so I thought a little family fun would be nice before we lost our dad to Shell for April and May.  I surprised our family the morning of our reservation, we made arrangements for our Oilers tickets and headed into the city. We hit up the Train room in Fantasyland Hotel.  We ordered in pizza and swam in the Jacuzzi tub, such fun!!!  The night was a little rough, Stella sometimes has a hard time in different places and it was ROUGH!!!!  Like an upset little girl between 12am-6am...exhausting...but everyone woke up ready for a morning Jacuzzi swim and breakfast. 

 

Seriously do love these peeps!  

 

In the end it would have been a ton cheaper to just stay home and we would have all gotten more sleep BUT we made some family memories. As we were driving home in our sleep deprived, zombie like state Graham asks me if I have any more surprises for him, ha!!!!  No more surprises but certainly memories made.

 

~ Mrs. P



The Reason We Celebrate Easter

 

 

I am very grateful to know about my Savior Jesus Christ,

to be able to learn about His life and learn from His life.