BBQ with the Birds

After months of being away or back and forth from home Mr.P gets to stay in Fort Saskatchewan! No more visits to Cold Lake, woot, woot! In celebration the Bird family had us over for a BBQ. We adore hanging out with them and wish the rest of our family was closer so they too could just hang out at the last minute, someday perhaps we'll convert everyone to the eastside.

It was wonderful to visit and laugh (which you always do with Alyson and Jon) but the highlight was watching Miss Jacey Bird. Firstly, she has previously hated grass with a gag and choke kind of hate but as the picture shows when we tried again she was fine with it! Secondly, the thing that still makes tears come is that I stood her up to walk over to the swing set where Mia and the neighbor boy 'Bill' were playing and SHE LIFTED AND BENT HER KNEES!!!!!!!! Typically the bending, stepping movement is done with the help of Alyson or her physio/OT people but today the motivation was so great that she literally lifted and walked forward with me just holding her hands. It was amazing, seriously the highlight of our week!!! We were able to capture it on the camera in video which is awesome. It gave us just another huge reason to celebrate the day!

~Mrs. P

Great Grandma Hinko's Kindness!!

We have been so lucky to have Great Grandma Hinko staying with us while Mr. P has been away for work. Grandma has been wonderful! She agreed to come and help me 'just in case' TBA II decided to come early. I am sooooo grateful!!! Grandma helped me prep the nursery, make a wack of meals and let me nap. The thing that I have loved the most though is seeing Amelia and her Great Grandma together. Grandma has taught her a few new songs; a sweet Ladybug tune and a Yummy in Your Tummy song. Grandma has given her every bath since arriving, no big pregnant belly leaning over the tub. Grandma will blow endless bubbles for Amelia to pop. Grandma gives great hugs and kisses before bed. Grandma has just been awesome and will be missed!

I love the shots of Grandma and Mia. This white bench pic was actually taken the day we picked up Grandma at the bus. It was a beautiful spring day and we enjoyed many spring days with Grandma over these last few weeks. We introduced her to slurpees and may have converted her!! hehe It has been so nice having Grandma with us, we love her so much and will miss her a ton.

~Jenny

A Great Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year Amelia made me a bouquet of flowers. It is not the taller arrangement that was Great Grandma Hinko's from her boys. Amelia made the smaller, artificial arrangement in Nursery today. The best part are the 5 butterflies that she put into the arrangement. So sweet, love that girl!!!!

The greatest gift though....French Braids!!! I have tried a few times to braid the little woman's hair but today ta-da they stayed and she wore them to church. A beautiful gift to a mother who loves to do hair. Oh how fun my girl is.

After years of this day being so bittersweet I have learned to take joy in mothering; weather literally being a mother or not or having your mother close or far. ~Mrs.P

TBA II's Nursery

I am pretty excited that our new babe's room is ready! Her first quilt from Grandma Hinko and teddy bears from Daddy all waiting and ready just for Her. Oh how we can't wait to meet Her!

Book case is full and waiting to be enjoyed.

Rocking chair and cradle in place. Check!
Lamp and table painted. Double check!!
Picture frames waiting to be filled.

Dresser filled with her sweet smelling, newly washed baby clothes. Cool antique truck and vintage doilies. Check!

We are seriously pumped and feel so thrilled to have another little person joining our family. I have so enjoyed thinking about our little TBA II, dreaming about her and who she is. I am so excited for Amelia, she gets to have a sister. Sister's totally rock. I feel beyond blessed. The plan is that Monday May 30th @ 10:30am she will come. So the plan is, we will see how things transpire.

With much excitement and a full heart! ~Mrs.P

Crafty Projects!!!

Since my energy has sort of returned I have finally finished a few projects and have a few more swirling around in my head. We'll see what I am able to accomplish in these last 23 days!!

Wow the time is drawing near for TBA II to come!

This sweet pink visor was not made by me BUT I bought it so I could copy the pattern and plan to make a few for some of my other favourite ladies. Isn't it sweet?! When we found out we were having another little woman I had visions of matching adorableness and this visor has a black matching one that Amelia and TBA II can wear next summer.

Above is a sewing project I've had cut out for awhile. It was Mia's Easter dress...it finally got finished a few weeks before Easter. I forgot to snap a picture of her after church, post church usually means grumpy/hungry and we never get it together early enough for a pre-church photo shoot. I was happy with how it turned out, it is kimono style so wraps around her so fun!

For Young Woman's and our yearly New Beginnings activity we found a wonderful poem about embracing who you are now and going out to face the world. It was of course much more eloquent then my brief description but the last line of the poem talks about putting on your purple hat, walking past the mirror without judging yourself and going out with your head high into the world. So what did we do for our Young Woman? Made them hats of course! The hats were made from men's t-shirts, most hats were either grey, white or brown but all had purple flowers on them. I modified the measurements to make a summer hat for Miss Mia and

she digs it.

My most favourite recent project is this sweet bag. I had seen the idea on a blog I follow and thought the adjustable strap was genius. The fabric was darling and given to me as part of my Christmas present from sis-in-law Jenn. I was totally pleased with how it turned out and Mia is fan which makes the effort worth it.

She even wears the bag to get the mail.

So I've been sorta crafty around here! Having little girlies will do that to you I think!!! ~Jenny

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

Doesn't this picture below just say "I'm so excited it is Easter!". Hahaha a true Polischuk expression. It really was a wonderful weekend, with time spent as our own little family, with Graham's family and with mine...fabulous!!

On Friday we had a date with Graham's Grandma for an IMAX called Born to Be Wild. It had baby Monkeys and Elephants and was a hit with Amelia. We checked out the various exhibits and again it is so neat to watch Amelia experience things for the first time. This is one of the great blessings of being a parent. Graham's sister Jenn was with us for the weekend and snapped a family pic of us as a family of 3, only five weeks left until we are a family of 4!!!! Graham has surprised us by coming home a day early from Cold Lake.

The bunny visited our house Saturday morning and again so fun to watch our wee woman. She was way more into celebrating the holiday then Christmas a few short months ago. She totally got into the egg hunt and had a blast as we had meals with family over the remainder of the weekend.

Graham will be away for work until TBA II arrives at the end of May so along with celebrating Easter we worked on preparing the nursery. Picture frames are up, furniture set up and painted. All that is really left to do is wash baby clothes and then have babe come home. We are excited!!

One of my favourite points in the weekend were some sweet moments Graham and I shared with Amelia as we looked at pictures of Jesus Christ and talked about the last week of His life. I love that she knows who her Savior is when we show pictures. Although finding eggs, eating turkey and spending time with extended family was great, the moments we shared talking about Jesus Christ really was my favourite part of the weekend.

~Mrs.P

Just Mia, Mommy and TBA II

We are soooo on the countdown at our house! Counting down the 6 weeks until our new little Miss arrives and counting down until Daddy works in town again. Right now I am thinking 'gosh this pregnancy went fast' even though a few months ago it seemed to be going so slow. What a blessing, what a tremendous blessing!!!

This past weekend Graham and I were able to do some running around and check off a ton on my pre-baby to do list, I feel now like we may actually be ready in time. We have one more weekend together and then Mr. P starts his shutdown in Cold Lake. We plan to move all of the heavy baby gear into the den which is becoming our nursery. My sis-in-law Jenn is going to help with a bit of painting. I am so excited to see the final product and welcome our new one home.



I am currently at 33 weeks and have certainly hit that spurt of energy that some books mention. Graham even commented to me about my drive to purge and be productive....this is sooooooo not indicative of the pregnant Jenny that has been around for the past 7 months. I am running with it prepping for babe and trying to treasure my alone time with Mia.

This pic was snapped when I poked my head into the den. Miss Amelia sporting her favourite Elmo dress, stylish hat, just chilling and reading. She has loved books since she was a wee babe and I am thrilled to see her enjoy books, picking out what interests her at the time. It is so neat how certain books won't be touched for months and then are suddenly the 'go to' book that we read over and over. She is a fun woman. Still getting over being sick and totally morphing into a toddler....in EVERY WAY!!!! Even though some things test my patience, I love it. Love being a momma and so enjoy her strong, precious, tender spirit. I tell her often that I am glad she came to our family, we are so lucky.

Off to shower and dress the woman for Rhymes and Storytimes. ~Jenny