It is SNOW fun outside

 I have always enjoyed the snow....looking at it through the window that is! Ha!! Having little people really helps you find joy in things perhaps you have forgotten or convinced your self you don't like.  It has been snowing quite a bit this week and the other day the snow was a bit sticky, perfect for snow balls.  Usually we are hustling to and from the vehicle but I promised some play after our excursion.

It was so fun to play and the ladies loved it!!!  I thankfully always have the camera in my purse and relive the joy every time I look at these pictures.  I seriously love them and their beautiful smiles!  I am so lucky that they are mine, well 'ours'.

 

 

 

In an effort to be in more pictures we did get a few goodies.

I just LOVE these with the ladies and I!

Interesting fact: I always comment on the beauty of falling snow, making the earth look so beautiful and white.  Graham always comments on the shoveling required!  Ha!  Oh how experience has us percieve things differently, not that we don't see the others' view BUT our first thoughts are always the same.  Really though, Graham now has a plow on his quad so perhaps he will start getting excited for snow.

 

~ Mrs. P

Belated 10 or an early Vday

An over night date, woot woot!!!!! 

Say what? We snagged a night away.

 

This past summer we celebrated our 10th anniversary, Stella was still nursing so she accompanied us to a friend's wedding in Victoria.  It will still a fun celebration but I wanted to have a night away ALONE, with my BFF/HOTTIE HUBS.  We were finally able to make it happen this past weekend.  I am calling it our early Valentine's gift! 

We have only been away a few nights, once when Mia stayed with Alyson and Jon just before Stella was born and the other time was when we scooted off to Victoria for the wedding this past summer, Mia stayed with Grandma Hinko but Stella came with.  Our recent night away was super fun and super special to just have it be us!  We had our most trusted babysitters Elyse and Reanne stay with our ladies for 24 hours 6pm-6pm while I whisked Mr. P off into the city.

So fun!!!!  It was fun because I had booked a hotel on Whyte Ave that we have previously stayed a time or two.  The hotel was modern and the locale could not be beat, Whyte Ave.  We use to stay there before kids, when we would come to Edmonton from Fort McMurray and not tell our family.  It sounds odd but we have a ton of family around the city so would always have visiting and errands to do and sometimes we wouldn't tell anyone, instead just spend time together.  Staying there was kind of a flash back to our old life, 7 years pre-kiddos...we did some fun stuff.  One BIG difference is that we pretty much just talked about our family, our girls... of course work and 2013 goals too.  It was fabulous to have a great sleep and wonderful to be able to just talk, talk, talk.  We had a blast together, hit up a music store, a book store and had some great eats!!!!

We were given advice early in our marriage from the husband from whose family we admired.  He was visiting with us in our newly married bliss and suggested we ALWAYS MAKE THE TIME TO HAVE NIGHTS AWAY TOGETHER WHEN POSSIBLE!!   We thought to ourselves "but of course duh", but now we are in the midst of real life and we get it.   He also said that getting away together wasn't necessarily common for our parents generation and certainly not the generation before that BUT to look at the world in which we live and the pressure on the family and marriage.   When we do make the time to have a date night, or make the time to attend the temple together we feel it.  We feel it moving forward with our everyday, we both feel more charged.  I know that I feel as though we are standing taller together, shoulder to shoulder as parents and partners.  It is totally worth every effort and $ to have time together.  For us, this 24 hours away was a perfect belated 10 year celebration and early Vday gesture of love to one another!!! We are definitely in it for at least 10 more, ok for eternity ;P

~ Mrs. P



Here Come the Oilers

The NHL season is finally underway and ...



 

So we clearly don't have the time to hit up every game the Oilers play and so have decided to share our season seats with Graham's friend from work.  However, we were able to attend the season home opener together, just Mr. P and I.  It was sadly not a game that ended in the Oilers favor but it was fun none the less. We were able to catch up with Ron and Julie aka 'Our Winter Family' (they have season seats in front of us).  It was a fun date, reminiscent of our pre-kid life!

 

 There were super cool ice displays outside the arena as we entered.  The whole area was just buzzing with excitement.  All hockey fans were crazed the night of the opener!!

  Ohhh and the arena, Rexall arena will soon be a place in Edmonton history.  Just last week final approval was granted for a new arena in our Capital city.  With the young, talented team the Oilers have and a new arena on the way, what an exciting future for hockey in northern Alberta.  Does that sound a bit hard core?  Well, I am married to a dude who is TOTALLY hardcore!!!

 

Go OILERS!!!!

~ Mrs. P

Edmonton Symphony Orchestra for Kids

 

Oh Facebook can be a good thing....a friend posted that she had two tickets to give away to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra: Symphony for Kids and was anyone interested??  I didn't even know this existed and totally jumped at the chance to take my big girl.  It was a wonderful afternoon.  We got spiffied up and headed downtown to the Winspear to watch the performance.  They had activities in the lobby surrounding the theme FLAMENCO!  So Mia and I made a fancy fan and then found our seats.  There were Spanish dancers and a group Compania Azul that accompanied the orchestra for some songs.  It was sooooo good!!!!  Just over an hour so the perfect length for kiddos.  Even though we had two seats Amelia spent most of the show sitting on my lap which I think we both enjoyed! A good day, good memories.

~ Momma P

Making Happy Memories in the Midst of Laundry

Some silly snaps of happy laundry 'helpers'.  Yes, that is right 'helpers'.

 

 

In all my geekiness I am reading a book called 'The Happiness Project' by Gretchen Rubin and it is awesome.  It has inspired me in a ton of ways and really has me thinking about my children, how do I help them develop healthy habits of being happy people? She focused for a year on learning to be more HAPPY!  It almost sounds silly but the research she shares and the insights she gained are fascinating.  Something that has recently been a light bulb to me is my obsession with photographing our ladies BUT here is the thing - people who have pictures of happy memories AND look at them frequently or are surrounded by pictures of happy memories are more likely to focus on the good memories instead of the depressing memories.  This was added incentive to keep capturing the sweetness of our days, our ladies and all of their silliness.  Incentive to work on my family albums and get them printed and then enjoy looking through them (which they totally do).  Anyway it was a good light bulb moment,  I want to help my women in anyway possible to be happy people.

 

Rubin also talked about taking the time to enjoy the things, sometimes little silly things that bring our children joy.  Again a light bulb,  I try to be present and cherish them but striving to look at things through their eyes is a good goal.  I want to try to put aside my adult agenda a little more as I try to rush through my to do list... instead, stop and enjoy the soft pile of clean laundry. These pics of my girlies also made me think of this quote from President Thomas S. Monson;

Mrs. P

The Sibling Battles Begin

 

Oh how angelic these ladies look, sitting together having snack at their little table. 

Well, we recently had a monumental event at our house...the first real deal, screaming girls, sister fight and it was over this darling red tea set.  I thought it deserved a blog post.  I have been having trouble uploading pictures to blogger and it is driving me crazy but of all the recent happenings in our home I thought this would be something that would make us smile when we read about it someday.

 

The fight went down like this;

1. girls playing downstairs while I was cleaning the kitchen

2. I hear screaming and ask "what is up?"

3. Screaming continues and I start the march down to the playroom

4. Come upon the screamers both with a super grip on the red tea pot

5. Negotiate, discuss turn taking, model vocab

6. Ha, so it begins!!!!

 

Distraction and trading of toys are no longer an option for the big sister.  Stella is fully aware what she likes and doesn't, apparently she will stop at nothing to make it known. 

 

 It makes me smile that both of our girlies are firecrackers in their own way!  Challenging at times but brings a smile after the smoke clears.

 

Love these ladies so darn much! 

What a pleasure it is to watch them grow and see their personalities develop.

~ Momma P





Happy New Year

H  a P p Y         N e W         Y e A r ! 

New Year's Eve was actually spent travelling up to Fort Mac to join my parents who had brought up Alyson and Jacey a few days earlier.  But we just had to do something special that night.  We made some hats and had some fun snacks to make it special!  Grandpa worked during the day so waiting until he got home at 8:45pm was the goal.  The kiddos looked adorable in their hats!  Fun times!

 

Love crafting with these peeps!

~ Mrs. P