A Parade, a ton of cookies and WARM HEARTS

Tis the Season to enjoy family and friends,

and we have been doing just that!

 

This weekend was the Santa Claus Parade in Fort Saskatchewan so we had our little friend Finley and our big friend Reanne (one of our fav babysitters) join us.  Such fun!!  We had talked about the parade and got pretty pumped the days leading up to it but that morning dawned cold and snowy, very Christmas-esque but not cool for standing outside with children.  We were able to snag a great parking spot so I just opened up the back hatch and let the little girls snuggle under a blanket.  It was pretty adorable!  This November has brought with it a ton of snow so there were big snow piles on either side of the road.  Some of the fabulous people handing out candy with the floats jumped on over the piles and handed the girls candy, so awesome!  When the local rep hockey team came down the street a young guy came right up to Reanne to give her candy for the girls (for the girls I am sure wink wink), love it!  A couple standing beside us unloaded all of their candy into the little dish the girls had, what kindness! They really made out well in the candy department and we still have Halloween stuff eek.   It was just a fun morning.  The best was that Stella would take a break from eating popcorn to clap when people started cheering. Her head would bob up and down between her dish of popcorn and the floats going by. She has become such a big girl, so engaged in the activities we do together.  I am sure that if it is warmer next year the girls will want to be running out collecting candy from the street.  I am thankful that this year they were cool with hanging out in the back of the pathfinder.

 Oh how we love baking!  Baking with my Grandma Hinko has become a family tradition.  We pick our favourite recipes, do shopping prep and then work away for a few days.  We each come away with a lot of baking and it is a blast working together in the kitchen.  We play Christmas music and catch up on life.  This year our cousin Beth, her son Ethan and her good friend Amanda and kiddos joined us, it was such a good time.  We even tried a favourite recipe of Amanda's and after tasting the final product it has been put on our yearly MUST MAKE list!!!!  Now that we've started baking I feel more ready for the season.  I love putting out a plate of special goodies anytime someone comes over.  I love spending time with family and friends doing special things that only happen at Christmas.  Oh and I really love my Christmas CDs, digging them out of the box brings excitement all on its own...let alone playing them!  Yeah for Christmas!

 

~ Mrs. P



The tree is up and Christmas is coming!

 

It is getting a little festive at our house.  We still have boxes to unpack but I can't help myself, we are starting our Christmas preparations.  Having kiddos make every holiday come alive more!!!  We have our outside lights shinning bright, wreaths hanging on the doors to great company and tonight the new 9 foot tree went up...decorations for it to come.  Mia is also working on decorations, oh how we love painting!  Our Stella girl is as crazy as ever and I just had to include this recent picture of her sticking her tongue out at me with her adorable spaghetti face.

 

We are slowly feeling more settled, getting more organized and are totally looking forward to Maui, then Christmas!  Bring it!!!!

 

~ Mrs. P



Shut in because of snow...

 

Living in Canada has many positives, however one negative is the crazy snow that sometimes happens.  Last week it got pretty crazy in these here parts.  Twice Alyson had appointments in the city and detoured over to our house instead of heading into Edmonton because the road was just seriously so bad.  Graham said the road to work was like driving on pure ice.....so we pretty much stayed home the whole week.  

 

What is nice on a snowy day? Baking! 

It was a week packed with banana bread, chocolate chip cookies, rice crispie squares (for uncle Jon) and finger jello (a new recipe that turned out great).  We called it a success in the kitchen and then watched at least one movie each afternoon because this momma was not awesome enough to venture outside to play. Ha! Actually feel a little bad about that.

 

The snow also made me think Christmas and spurred us on in our quest for a 9 foot tree. Found one, bought it and now it awaits set up.  Sweet!!!

 

Our ladies 'helping' in the kitchen...yes that is it, helping!!!

 

 We turned our back for one minute and this girl got into trouble.

 

This was what Kingston did in the snow, playing of course!!!

So wish they lived closer. (Just west Edmonton but still.)

Stole this pic from Leslie's Facebook because there was no driving last week.

What a handsome dude!

 

Dear snow,

You are so beautiful, yet sucky to drive in.

How I love that you make things white and lovely.

I appreciate the urge to bake and have soup upon your arrival.

I also love that it means Christmas is coming!

Thank you snow.

 

Love ~ Mrs. P

Mice in the garage, Husband working a shutdown...but must blog Halloween

It has been CRAZY at our house since my return from Vegas...

 

* We discovered mice in our garage (my toes curl just writing this - I am utterly disgusted!)  The garage still contained many boxes and it now contains many traps with poison :(

* Graham is working an unexpected shutdown at work and just worked through his second weekend, no days off insight boo!

* Have some darling pictures of our ladies and cousin Jacey form Halloween, so I am going to post them to make myself smile.

 

 

We carved up our pumpkin with the Bird girls.  Both Jacey and Mia got right into it this year pulling out the 'guts'.  We roasted the pumpkins seeds but sadly neither really like them, ah well more for us!! 

 

We tried on the costumes and had fun playing in the basement.  Jacey looks beautiful, Mia was being silly and Stella was being all serious!

 I think they all look the same age in this picture.

 

On Halloween night it was cold, super cold!!!  We picked up our friend Nathaniel and headed over to Jacey's neighborhood to hit up some houses because there are literally like 3 inhabited homes on our street.  We had made up 25 candy bags and left them on our door step, only 5 were taken. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of all of the kiddos together, it was seriously cold out and we were just focused on keeping mittens on!!!  After 7 or 8 houses we called it a night.  The girls looked so darn cute stuffed into their costumes with winter jackets under, adorableness!!  Alas Dad missed the 'trick or treating' but caught part of the fun...seeing our kiddos all jacked up on the candy and the excitement of the night!

 

 See...totally jacked up and excited!
(Thanks to the Jacober Girlies for hand-me-down halloween shirts.)

 Oh these crazies are awesome!

 

~ Mrs. P



the songs we sing...

I have been thinking about the songs we sing our little people. Why? What? The meaning if any?

 

I purchased a neat quote off of etsy.com that highlights a verse of a lullaby that my Gramma Hudkins sang to my mom, my mom sang to me and now I sing to my girls....it is quirky, yet so special...

"I love you 

a bushel and a peck

a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck"

It is cut out of wood and painted red, super neat and very meaningful. I plan to hang this on my family picture wall.

 

We have other songs we sing before bed.  Amelia has her favourites and makes requests, that Graham or I must sing.  The most popular one we changed the words of 'Are You Sleeping', it goes...

"Amelia Ann

Amelia Ann

 You're so cute

You're so cute

You're our little sweetheart

You're our little princess

Yes you are, Yes you are!"

This has now been adapted for Stella Charlene. 

 

Another bedtime tune that is a regular we have can go on and on and on,

it is to the tune 'London Bridge'...

'Mommy loves you Stella Charlene, Stella Charlene, Stella Charlene

Mommy loves you Stella Charlene all day long'

The person giving the love is changed each time and we seriously have made it go on, and on, as in our dog Tula, cousin Jacey, Grandma and Grandpa all have love to give.  So good for chilling out in the rocker!  (Stella and I especially did/do A LOT of this!!!)

 

A classic for the vehicle is 'I am a Child of God'  a beautiful children's song from church.  It has a calming power to it.  Just today we sang it for Stella who was being all emotional and over tired (dang daylight savings).  The words are thought provoking, especially when singing is sometimes the alternative to spazzing...

"Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,

Help me find the way.

Teach me all that I must do

to live with Him someday"

 

The girls and I have attended every Rhymes and Story times Session offered in our community since Amelia's birth, with exception of this fall because of moving and such.  It has been great to learn new lullabies, finger plays and action songs.  So worthwhile!!!!  There is a special power that music has, magical almost!  Music just gets in our heads and those kiddo heads too.  This week Mia and I were playing in the den and she tells me, "her name is Molly and she is a singer in the band".   We have been listening to the Beatles lately, hehehehe "obla de obla da"!  Crazy what they observe and soak up.  Music man, pretty powerful stuff!!!

 

 My girls bustin out tunes on their wooden spoon microphones, 

then Miss Stella jammin on her cardboard guitar. 

We rock pretty hard around here!!

 

~ Momma P



Mr. P turns 33

Happy 33rd Birthday our Big Birthday Boy!!!!

 

 

 His special day started out much the same as any other 13hr shutdown work day but once he got home, look out we got the party started in our pj's!!!  The girls and I created a little 'birthday in a box'.  It was full of some small things he digs;  itunes card, beef jerky, golf balls, Oilers sticky notes, new socks and a 6 pack of Diet Coke. (He recently bought a new TV for the bedroom which is his big gift to himself.) I had wanted the balloons to be helium filled so when he opened it they would come flying out but alas the lady wouldn't fill them because the girls had been playing with the balloons trying to blow them up.  It turned out cute anyway.  Both ladies did some drawing on the paper and eagerly anticipated daddy's arrival home.

 I am usually a cake buyer but have recently been trying to get all domestic in the kitchen so Amelia and I made cupcakes and decorated them up.  We used EVERY colour of sprinkles we owned and one bottle went flying across the kitchen, funny now but not really in the moment.  She was pretty proud of the end result.  It was a fun night, we hope he felt special.  Amelia told him before he opened his birthday box to close his eyes and make a wish, she then had him do the same thing before he blew out the cupcakes...funny girl.

 

Had to high-five a successful candle blowing!

We totally love this guy!  The day I arrived home from Vegas he started a shutdown and will likely be working the rest of November up until we head to Maui early December. 

Yep, that is right Maui!! Wohoo!!!!!   It will be a great way to relax together as family and kick off the holiday season.

 

~ Mrs. P



Vegas Baby!!

 

 

A girls weekend recently happened, woot woot!

Amy and I took off to Vegas.  We aren't what you would call 'wild' so the weekend was restful and pretty tame.  Neither of us are gamblers either so we didn't even play, we just sat down and each took pictures ha!!! We did however see an AWESOME concert, Garth Brooks.  It was just him and his guitar, in a small theatre - seriously soooo good!  I am a fan but Amy LOVES the dude and rated his concert 3rd in her life after the birth of her children, her wedding day and then Garth currently resides in the number 3 spot of great life experiences.  So funny, but a very good concert!

 

There was a lot of chilling out, taking our time and just visiting.  Wonderful!  We arrived late Friday night on different flights, checked in then grabbed food and abruptly got on 'Vegas Time'.  Each morning I slept in, Amy tried and then we enjoyed leisurely eats...both of which don't happen when your kiddos are with you (sleep ins or leisurely eating).  We both missed our people but it was only a few days and our wonderful men took care of things on the home front.

 

Love these pics of us with the characters.  It was like Amy was a magnet to street performers, she tried to have a stay-away vibe but it backfired.  Hilarious!  I posed with Elmo because my little Stella has recently become a fan.

 I was trying to do an Elvis lip, it didn't work out!!!

 

I just made Amy pose here, she would never!

Fun Fact: The first time Amy and I went up the Eiffel tower was actually together in Paris during a trip in High School, almost 15 years ago.  Amy suggested we go up the half size Vegas version, a fun redo of Paris.  Such a good idea!  If I had our grade 11 travel club pics in digital it would be proof that we look EXACTLY the same! Yes, that is right EXACTLY the same!!



 A LOT of shopping took place.  Mostly for our girls and family or Christmas but we each made a few personal purchases.  Here is Amy posing with her stylish new purse.  BTW a new purse was loooooong over due for the girl and where better then Vegas to find a new one!  I can always influence Amy into getting rid of 'old' stuff.

 

Ohh the yummy crepes we would snag for breakfast-lunch!! Vegas time remember!

 

Just us.

 

It seems so high school to write BFF but she is an old friend, a good friend, a treasured friend!  Many life experiences have been navigated with one another.  We were each others Maid-of-honour and really our friendship feels a lot like sisterhood, solid, enduring and always without judgement.  I feel darn lucky to have her!

 

~ Jenny