Stella Bella

So in the short amount of time Miss Stella has been a part of our family her name has evolved.

These are the names she has been known by chronologically:

TBA II

Miss TBA II

Baby Sister

Stella Charlene Polischuk

Baby Stewa

Stewa

Stewa Charlene

Stewa Bewa (Stella Bella)

Naming a person is serious business.

Such fun though when you also roll with a toddler!!

I just love when big sister talks to little sister and am excited to see what nic names they come up with for one another. ~ Mrs.P

Tribute to 2

I just had to post a tribute to my 2-year old's official p-a-r-t-y!!

So this chick is rather into dolls/babies/mickey mouse/pooh bear, frankly anything that she can mother, thus her party theme was born....

Auntie Alyson created this fabulous Ukrainian nesting doll cake and we decorated with a few paper doll chains. Voila, a party for our girl.

It was really fun watching her get excited as she opened presents this year. Amazing how much these wee folk change, it was only six months ago at Christmas where presents were still not so cool. BUT oh man does she understand now! She is one lucky little woman. It is so fun watching them enjoy things and kind of hard not to overindulge.

Oh how we love her!

~Mom

Cousins Rock

This week Grandma Hinko was still visiting so we covered ourselves with bug spray and all went to the park behind our house. Having more adults then children is always a plus when venturing out. Auntie Jenn was also here so we really out numbered the short people. It was such a beautiful day, even Baby Stella joined us. (see brown bump on my chest)

Cousins totally rock! We are fortunate enough to live near both of the cousins. Jacey lives in Fort Sask and Kingston is just a short drive away in Edmonton. With the birth of Stella, Mikel's Grad and my parents being here tons we've been able to have the cousins play together a lot. Amelia even asked about them this morning over our oatmeal, sadly I had to tell her it was just us today. I think the cousins will be good friends. I have fond memories of times with my cousins and am excited to watch this next generation grow together. Even as adults when we get together with our cousins it is so fun!

All but Stella swinging away the morning.

Tickling the ivories together. I seriously love this picture of them.
Everyone is crazy about baby Stella, you can see from her face she just LOVES the attention. hehehe

Oh these kids, note that Kingston is wearing Jacey's bib. Mia often requests to put one on too. They really adore each other.

The girls picking clover in Grandma & Grandpa's backyard. Such a sweet pic of the two ladies.

Family is awesome!

I am so glad that cousins were part of Heavenly Father's plan, such fun times.

~ Jenny

This Too Shall Pass...BE PRESENT!

The title of this post is not meant to be negative. I read it somewhere and have been thinking about it a lot lately. Stella is losing her 'newborness' and Amelia has totally morphed into a 2-year old - with all that entails :P The point is to enjoy it, all of it!

I found a quote awhile ago, printed it off and posted it up in my kitchen. It reads:

"Joy Comes in Moments... I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept...I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing, dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less."

Time goes quickly...I want to be present and enjoy my little women!

~Mrs. P

Stella's Blessing Day

Here I am in the wee hours of the morning taking the opportunity to blog about my precious little Stella's blessing. She is a joy! This week she started smiling at us, I LOVE IT. She nurses often and likes to be cuddled. My mom has said this is how she is ensures her one-on-one time with me so I have taken that attitude as I get up often with my sweet babe. Hence an early morning blog about her blessing.

It is crazy getting out of the house when the troops double in size but when we finally sat down in the chapel with a few minutes to spare surrounded by our family, I let out a sigh and felt contentment and joy. How blessed are we?! Graham did a beautiful job being a conduit for the spirit as her gave our daughter a name and a blessing. I felt the spirit. Stella Charlene Polischuk was wonderful the whole time and then proceeded to be cuddled to sleep by her dad throughout the remainder of the meeting. It was sweet to see her and Mr. P together , he in his suit and her in her beautiful white dress.

After Mr.P sat down he leaned over to whisper, "Can you believe I just blessed another little girl for us?". Writing it brings tears to my eyes. In our nearly nine years of marriage this privilege seemed to far away at times, but how grateful we are. The Lord has things planned out perfectly even if we do not understand it at the time. These little women are treasured. Stella is such a blessing to us. Her pretty face and sweet cuddles are soooooo enjoyed. It was a fabulous day!!

Wonderful day! ~ Mrs. P

LOVE...it's a sweet thing!

I am in LOVE!

Little sleep but lots of LOVE happening.

I am still hanging out in Fort McMurray with my parents and brother. Graham has come up each weekend. I could NOT have survived the last few weeks with out them all. A kidney infection and new baby wowha, family support is wonderful!

I've been thinking a lot about LOVE and how with each new person that joins our family our heart just expands. I've also been thinking how because we LOVE our family so much we selflessly serve them. I have experienced these two kinds of LOVE recently.

My other recent LOVES include:

...staring at my sleeping baby curled up so sweet

...watching my big girl laugh and have fun with her awesome uncle Mikey
...towel dresses after bath...nobody does this better then Grandma
...sweet cuddles after a bath, smelling sooooo good

...Mr.P and his ladies!!!! I REALLY LOVE this!!!!

I am in LOVE!

Little Stella is almost 4 weeks old, wow the time is flying. I am trying to savour her sweet newborn sweetness; her curled up body, how small she is and her tiny thighs....all of these things are changing fast. Although I've had a few fuzzy/challenging days I am thankful for the LOVE I'm shown daily and those in my life that I can LOVE!!

~Mrs.P

Miss Amelia turns 2!!!!!

Isn't this chick so awesome?!

We simply adore her. She is hilarious, kind, gentle, beautiful, smart and frankly just wonderful! We don't know how we got so lucky to have her be part of our family.

Miss Amelia's birthday fell on a Friday this year and we celebrated quietly as own little crew. The big bash will follow in a few weeks with our extended family. When she woke up we had everything set out on the kitchen table for her, a Uniqua balloon (The Backyardigan's character she likes), some new colouring books and Finding Nemo (a movie she pulls out whenever we visit her cousins and inspired by our Disney world trip earlier this year). Daddy made blueberry pancakes that are always a fan favourite! Of course blowing out a candles was important and the hat - oh we mustn't forget the party hat!

She enjoyed the attention and excitement!!

We enjoy her!!

* Amelia loves to 'get the mail' this is a request uttered daily. It is nice having Daddy home these past few weeks because she can put on her purse, hat and go out the front or back door to make sure our box at the end of the street is empty.

* Amelia still loves reading!!! This brings my teacher heart such joy. The power of good literature as a teaching tool, immeasurable! The fun of discovery through reading, exciting! It is interesting already to hear her talk about things that we read once in a book, not something that we specifically taught her just something we read. We will never have TOO MANY books and our library pass is worth every penny. I love this pic of her and Grandpa Hinko reading on the floor. He read to us at night growing up, such good memories I hope for my children to have.

* Amelia is a fan of creating/crafting/colouring! She has gentle hands which she uses to create things. Literally hours will be spent at the kitchen table colouring, painting, 'stumping' as she calls it (stamps) or creating with stickers. She is also a huge fan of being outside and enjoys
painting with water or drawing with chalk. Any spare minute we have we'll sneak out onto the front porch to draw with chalk. This is a happy place for both her and I. I recently spilled a drink out there and she reminds me often....have I mentioned she's got a great memory!!! :P

* Amelia is currently a fan of her babies! These babies range from her baby doll that Grandma Hinko got her for Christmas, to her Elmo, to her Minnie Mouse or as the above picture illustrates even Winnie the Pooh. Lucky for her Mommy and Daddy recently brought home a real baby for her. "Baby Stella" gets a ton of love also!!! This was perhaps the best gift we gave you this year. As a girl with sisters I know that they rock!

* Amelia has the best facial expressions!! Awesome expressive eyes are truly the window to her sweet soul. Showing her emotions and making us want to snuggle her sweetly. The picture with her and the smoking ice cream just makes me smile. Graham and I were laughing so hard enjoying her experience this, so fun. How rad is this chick, with little peepers huge, full of surprise and anticipation. Oh how we love her!

Two years ago our hearts grew beyond what we knew possible, Amelia Ann joined our family! We knew that being parents and making a family would be great but we had no idea just how wonderful it would actually be. Amelia has blessed our lives!! There is so much more I could write about her; a kickin vocabulary, sweet folded arms for prayers, singing songs, requesting songs, furrowed eyebrows in classic 2 year old style and her lovely hugs! I wrote a ton in the journal we keep for her but wanted to capture a few of her 2 year highlights here on the blog.

Two years in - WE LOVE HER!!!

~Love Mom aka Mrs. P