friends & cousins

These little women made me smile today at church when I escorted them to Primary. Their classes were seated across from one another and after Stella found her seat I turned around and saw that they were sitting like this.....oh my heart!

~ Momma P

the Wizard of Oz

We had a little family outing to the theater. 

Mr. P called me from work a while back and said that he could get tickets for the matinee and asked if I thought the little ladies would be into it, ummmm YES!  We have had a rather busy week full of fun, fun, fun and this was the cherry on top.  Our time as a family seems so precious as we go into shutdown mode.  Soon the big guy will only have one day off a week so we are treasuring everything we get to do together.

I sure LOVE these people!!! The women wore sparkle shoes and we all dressed a little spiffy.  Graham and I found the Cowardly Lion to be hilarious but the favourite for our little women was Toto, Dorthy's little pup. It was an awesome afternoon together as a little fam jam.

Graham and I slipped away after we tucked the little ones into bed and they were fast asleep, they didn't even know we had gone.  We drove back into the city to use up a Keg gift certificate we had :)  Whyte Avenue is just so fun and we enjoyed chatting over a great meal and chatting as we drove to and from, sure love my sidekick.

~ Mrs. P

Fuller House Party

This happened today!!!

cousin time

What a crew of cuties!

We had a morning full of cousin time!

Sooooo incredibly lucky that we get to see all four of our cousins quite regularly, lucky indeed.  The three littlest and I visited our local KidsFort. It was a blast. 

  Love getting to be a part of these little folks lives, love and adore them all so darn much!

~ Mrs. P

a beautiful day

Our weather has been spectacular for February!!!  With little cousin Max visiting this week some outside time was a must.  We ventured down to get the mail and really just spent the next hour or so playing outside.  The girls loved being able to climb around on the play structure without their massive snowsuits.  It was just a beautiful day!

~ Mrs. P

great grands

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow

If we are faithful we will associate with each other in an immortal and glorious state. … Those connections formed here, that are of the most enduring character, shall exist in eternity.

The same forms of relationship here will still exist beyond the veil; the ties here formed will grow stronger in the other life which is to come.

This week was wonderful for many reasons but one of the highlights was certainly that we were able to see three out four great grandparents. As we were leaving our Hudkins Gparents Stella called out for a group hug, so of course we all gathered and I quickly pulled out my camera. I also walked down the hallway with tears in my eyes because it is such a privilege to live close. 

~ Mrs. P 

the month of love

       

Clearly the girls and I like doing heart hair during the month of love.  

 I also love decorating and I adore the special little traditions we have in our family!

 

Stella and I hosted Joy School the two weeks before valentine's so of course we found some fun little things to do with the kiddos. Joy School absolutely feeds the 'teacher' need I have inside. I so enjoy the planning and having little friends in our home.  I realized that it was 5 years ago in January when Amelia was 2 1/5 and Stella 6 months old that we started a parented Joy School group. The time has flown by! It will be crazy that as Stella starts Kindergarten next fall Joy School will no longer be a part of our lives.  What a beautiful program it is!!!  I am grateful my girls could be a part of it.

 One of our cherished February traditions are the 'love notes' we write the girls! Each morning from Feb 1-14th they will have a love notes in their mail boxes, one from mom and one from dad.  It is such a special tradition.  They tape them up on their bedroom doors and last year it was well into March when they finally allowed me to take them down, clearly they loved it!

 What can be said about Mr. P other then I got pretty lucky! Are things perfect, nope BUT they are darn awesome!!!!  We have had a few weekends in a row where we have got away together for a couple hours, I LOVE when I get this guy to myself. It is almost like a flashback to our pre-kid days, except we mostly talk about our kids, I catch Graham up on all the 'kid' stuff that has been happening at home or I cry about our kids or wishing for more kids because I am a crier.  I also dig our dates because in a way it is a reminder that it will be just the two of us again someday and that we need to nurture that bond. It is very easy to get sucked into our kid/family/commitments/work stuff and let 'us' slip from the list of priorities BUT it is essential!!!! I am better when we have get to have time just the two of us.

 Graham and I exchanged a few simple things and then the morning of Valentine's the ladies woke up to a bit of loot.  (Amelia was not feeling so hot that day sadly) 

I was ready by that night to pack up the decorations and have our house be simple again. I LOVE holiday decor BUT I also LOVE clean and uncluttered spaces!

 

Lots of love here!

~ Mrs. P

homemaker

"The homemaker has the ultimate career. 

All other careers exist for one purpose only- 

and that is to support the ultimate career. ” 

-CS Lewis

My days are filled with much of the same, motherhood and homemaking. It is my choice to have it be this way. Graham and I both knew what we wanted our home to be like, modeled some things after the families we came from and changed a few things.  We still discuss our home and what we want it to be like here. It do things here at home that make it possible for Mr. P to do what he does at work (which right now is work a lot of hours on a big shutdown) and he is out there making it possible for me to be at home.  It is a sacrifice to be a homemaker, IT JUST IS. Working outside the home has sacrifice too.  Me choosing to be a homemaker is the right thing for us. Loved this C.S. Lewis quote and had to capture it here on our family blog.

~ Mrs. P

standing up for the family

I have been a little momma bearish lately.  You know how if you come across a bear cub you are suppose to scram because you know a protective momma has to be close. I feel more protective then usual.  

I have been thinking more about my role as mother and Graham as father, the sacredness of those roles.  The divine nature of those roles and the family. How it Heavenly Father's plan, not an idea formulated by man and it isn't bending to the ideas of man. I want to demonstrate my belief in that to my little women, I can only describe my feelings again as protective. There is just so much joy to be found in family.

The winds may blow and the storms may swirl but our little family can be strong in the walls of our home. There are my momma bear thoughts for the day!

~ Mrs. P

phases {thiers & mine}

It dawned on me as we were cleaning up toys for the 100th time this week I may forget what the girls were 'into' so I quickly snapped some pictures.  The princesses and castles have been around since Amelia's potty training days, so that is nearly 5 years now and they are still played with daily!  Those peculiar little things with eyes are Shopkins and they have somehow become a very crucial part of the princesses lives....or so I have gathered when I pop into check on the girls. It is fun to hear them playing pretend, creating little families or attending balls. I love it that they have wild imaginations!

Way before we had kids we were drawing up house plans with an architect and he said that children want to be where their parents are, he had five children of his own so who were we to argue.  Even if you have a nice playroom down in the basement or have toys up in their bedrooms they will likely want to be close to you when they are little.  This advice has proven to be very true of our girls.  The den in both this house and our last have really been the primary play areas.  Just recently, as the girls are getting older and being that our basement is so open to the upstairs that our little women venture down there. They ONLY go down together, rarely alone but up to this point they would only go down if I was down there too....growth!

Having my babies growing is crazy!

 In the midst of some challenging behaviors or bad habits, either the kids or mine, whatever the hard thing is, it can seem endless but it never is, it usually passes.  My mom has said to me that things come in phases, so I have really been trying to live in the phase, see the positive and know that it will come to an end. Just as there was a time they would only play near me sometimes right at my feet in the kitchen, that phase has past and they go off to the den or their bedrooms or to the basement - when they are together ;) I am no longer right there.  

Currently our girls will come and climb into our big king bed with us sometime during the night.  This happens almost every night but Mr. P and I both know this is a phase and it will not last forever, we decided to just embrace it. This morning Stella rolled over to face me and put her little arms around my neck and said she "sure loves to snuggle me".  Although there are times I would like to be able to stretch out in my own bed, these precious moments of morning snuggles won't last forever.  AND we only have two kids that will come climb in, we don't have a big brood so in my moments of sadness and longing for more children, this goes on the positive list of only having two :)

I have been organizing pictures as I have a scrapbooking weekend with a girl friend coming up.  My eyes couldn't help filling with tears as I clicked past pictures of a two year old Amelia painting at the kitchen table sitting in the booster seat, the seat I had to lift her up into and strap in so she wouldn't fall. Oh she still loves being creative, but back then she was learning to hold a tool in her hand that would make beauty, she was just beaming with pride.....ugh my heart and then so many pictures of Stella strapped to me in the sling. That little woman spent many, many hours of her first year of life chest to chest, bouncing with me where I could pat her little bum and kiss the top of her head.....phases that seem to have gone by so quickly when I look back.  The booster seat now used by cousins when they come over and the sling have I lent to a friend. Time passes.

Currently they are really 'into' using their markers and scissors. Since I am trying to be positive about their phases I will say they are learning how to sweep because there are constantly little pieces of paper on my floor :)

~ Momma P

rapping about kindness at school

Each month the school has an assembly and today the music teacher put together a series of awesome performances on KINDNESS, encouraging the kids to be Bucket Fillers, not dippers!

 All of the grade ones did a rap, twice actually and it was pretty adorable.

Such a good message!

~ Mrs. P

wise words for our day {President Kimball}

 I have spent the last two weeks writing letters, making phone calls and reading articles so I can be informed on some government guidelines that were recently released.  The government expectation is that schools create policy from the guidelines and then implement it. The frustration and challenge for me, and many others is that the guidelines well meant to be inclusive have some very concerning points. I have always felt that to be treated equal doesn't necessarily mean same.  My heart has felt heavy!  While I absolutely teach kindness, inclusion and compassion in my home and strive to live this way myself I simply must step up and speak up.  A good friend sent me the following quote and it has been an encouragement in a world that seems to be getting darker and darker.  I have felt emotionally drained but it is a new week, a new day and the month of LOVE so I will press forward and smile.

 

"As parents read the newspapers and magazines and see what the world is trying to teach their children, they should become all the more determined that their children not be damaged by such sin and error. Parents should then provide the home life, the discipline, and the training that will offset and neutralize the evil that is being done in the world. As children learn of the ugly things in the world, they must also learn of the good things in the world and the proper responses and proper attitudes.²⁰

Some years ago we visited a country where strange ideologies were taught and “pernicious doctrines” were promulgated every day in the schools and in the captive press. Every day the children listened to the doctrines, philosophies, and ideals their teachers related.

Someone said that “constant dripping will wear away the hardest stone.” This I knew, so I asked about the children: “Do they retain their faith? Are they not overcome by the constant pressure of their teachers? How can you be sure they will not leave the simple faith in God?”

The answer amounted to saying “We mend the damaged reservoir each night. We teach our children positive righteousness so that the false philosophies do not take hold. Our children are growing up in faith and righteousness in spite of the almost overwhelming pressures from outside.”

Even cracked dams can be mended and saved, and sandbags can hold back the flood. And reiterated truth, renewed prayer, gospel teachings, expression of love, and parental interest can save the child and keep him on the right path.^21" 

^{~ President Kimball}