tis the season {new CHRISTMAS decor}

I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the holidays!!!!

Every year about this time I have oodles that I want to document on the blog but about a bazillion different Christmas activities we are doing like most people...blogging sometimes takes a back seat sadly.   Added to our usual traditions, concerts and parties I was actually hired (as in someone paid me) to help decorate their home for the holidays. It was unreal!!!!  I have never helped anyone for money before but it was both nerve wracking and fun. So the last week and a half of November I was busy working on that, while simultaneously getting our house decorated. The client was pleased and through my shopping/DIYing/secondhand store looking for her home I ended up creating a few new things to add to our own home.  A friend came and took photos so I will blog those once I get them back.  I really want our home to be clean and uncluttered but I love a lot of 'things' and lots of them are meaningful so not everything gets put out every year.  I am super pleased with the additions to Christmas decor this year though, a few are likely to become musts.

Snowman mugs and a Hot Chocolate Station: I saw this idea and promptly had to copy!! Since the picture below I added the words "Baby it's Cold" in vinyl to the jars.  The girls think it is the coolest thing ever! The mugs were a great find at Value Village, you just never know what gems you might find there :)

HOHOHO: This marquee was a must buy, it is the coolest thing ever!!! I thought it would look so rad on the ledge in our house next to the globes. Then I had this vision of a tacky light up Santa up there too.  Alas the Santa I found just didn't fit up there. I am pleased with it's final spot though.

  

Santa: Generally for Christmas I like to focus on the Savior but the HOHOHO got me pursuing the magic of Santa a wee bit. I have been on a second hand store/Value Village roll.  This Santa was $7...a steal! It is old and worn and perfect next to my vintage wood sleigh which was a great find last year for $10. I love a good vintage piece.  Graham and I made the believe sign.  

I was also so pleased to see the fresh wreaths were out last week and promptly picked some up for our front door. Hanging fresh wreaths is right up there with Christmas cards for me, seriously love them.  I LOVE making up our wreaths and I added two little baskets of greenery beefed up with some of my red and gold supplies (I have a bin I pull out with random supplies). 

Such a little pleasure for me!

 We put the tree in a different spot this year but we had such a great time decorating it as a family. The girls were ever so patient because we set it up one weekend, I worked that whole week on the client's home and then finally the following week we turned on some Christmas music and got things looking pretty at our house.

Wood wreath/Christmas Word Sign: So the wreath we hung up on the fireplace isn't fancy BUT I wanted it simple and am pretty happy how it looks 10ft up. The Christmas word sign wasn't planned to be on our mantle, I put it up there to hang out till we pulled out all of our other decorations but it totally ended up needing to be there this year :)

 Mat: I might have an addiction to stenciling on mats. I taught a class for our Super Saturday at church last week, helping ladies make entrance mats. So easy and so cute...I think!

 New Chalkboard Message: This board isn't new BUT the message is! I really enjoy changing our chalkboards up. It is such a pleasure for me.

 

I have other plans but we will see what else I can convince my husband to help me with and what I can carve out time to create.  Our big girl just came down with the flu :( home from school and said her tummy was hurting and it started, yuck! Poor girl. Hope it doesn't make its way through our family.

~ Mrs. P

Charlie Brown

My Dad is a big Charlie Brown fan and I didn't learn until this week that Graham is too! There is something so charming about Charlie Brown, his friends and oh Snoopy, I won't even start on the loyalty and love that dog shows. It has been a wonderful week full of family time, I am so thankful that Graham planned a get-a-way to the mountains.  He also really wanted to take us all to see The Peanuts Movie and we made that happen today!  I had a big to do list and my little family has helped work through that these last few days at home so we could go enjoy a movie tonight :)  Going to the movies has become a special family activity that I think we all enjoy.  The girls and I got the kids packs so we each could have a cup to take home, such fun.  We have also visited McDonald's once a week :( ugh BUT we have had fun collecting the Peanuts characters. Amelia even started illustrating the characters, perhaps we will have another Charles M. Schultz on our hands. We are going a little Charlie Brown CRAZY!!! I am ok with it. Chuck rocks!

You just can't help but feel good.  

There is something so wholesome and good about these characters.

~ Mrs. P

Banff Break

BANFF BREAK

The mountains are beautiful and there is always a peace that enters the soul in their presence. It was Fall Break this week (a mighty fabulous addition to the school schedule might I say) so we road tripped it south into Banff for a few nights.  I love adventures but Mr. P is great at encouraging me to just go and enjoy, I had started a long to do list on my phone of things I wanted to accomplish over the break.  We went and we had such fun.

 

 The ladies enjoyed their first snow of the season in the shadow of a stunning mountain range. We like to stay at a great family resort and the girls were able to simply walk out the door and right into the forest, no worries as their dad was with them :)

LAKE LOUISE

We did a day trip to Lake Louise to check out the Chateau with the girls. The view was spectacular as always, stunning with snow!!! We haven't been there since before the girls joined our family.  We drove past this beautiful Lodge that Graham and I had stayed in on one of our trips and spent a few minutes reminiscing. The night before as we cruised the streets of Banff bundled up with our little ladies we passed a few scrumptious restaurants that we had also enjoyed in our pre-kid life....we had pretty great experiences during that time BUT nothing compares to experiencing the mountains with our girls!!!! We ate at the little deli in the Chateau and chose the Old Spaghetti Factory the night before because we knew the girls would enjoy their meals there. The time will come where we take them to those crazier restaurants and enjoy them together, for now we roll with things that are fun for people 4 & 6 :)

This guy is a darn good Daddy! Pretty glad we have him.

 Could this picture of our beauties get any more posed? Hahaha they had fun exploring.

THE WHYTE MUSEUM of BANFF

Of all the times we've been to Banff we've never gone to their museum and we were so glad we did.  They had a beautiful gallery and a super interactive museum, seriously such fun for the kids.  There was a meltdown (which hasn't happened in so long) but gladly the woman was able to turn it around after a short break in the car. Parenting is full of reflection and I wish I had handled things different, isn't life an exercise in managing our emotions? The Museum was a blast!

 

No visit is complete without seeing some wildlife, always cool.

 THE HOT SPRINGS

So so wonderful so spend our last morning at the hot springs.

It was pretty cool to be in the warm water with snowflakes falling all around us. It was a pretty wonderful way to finish off our mountain trip.

 

I am cheesy but the thing I love most about the week was being together. There is nothing better then having chill time together in a beautiful place! So many little moments. Goofing around, reading, making rainbow loom bracelets, card games and lots of just plain chilling out. Yeah for Fall Break!

 Also it was pretty nice after the girls went to bed to just have some time with this guy. All rustic and romantic in the mountains, yep it gets even more cheesy here with the Polischuk's. 

 ~ Mrs. P

birthday boy {36}

Our favourite guy had cause for celebration today, he turned 36!!!!!!

He is the most important dude to all the ladies in our house. He put in a request for tacos and cheesecake so I got all domestic today making that happen. Work was crazy and hectic today so the poor guy got home late from work but we were ready and waiting.  There was some serious excitement (mostly by our little women ;)  He humours me and wears the birthday hat.  He opened a few gifts, we ate some yummy dessert.   I put the ladies to bed while he yielded a few birthday phone calls.  A great evening!

 

So glad this man is ours.

~ Mrs. P

looking back & moving forward

Wohoo we are on the homestretch to Christmas now that Halloween has past.   The Christmas season is my favourite!  We will honour our Veterans and military on Remembrance Day November 11th but then bring on the holiday tunes and decor.  Lots to look forward too but first I have had a few thoughts floating around that I wanted to get out.

Last week marked a year since losing our baby because of a tubal pregnancy, it was sad and the year has passed quickly yet slowly.  You simply move forward in faith, what else can one do?  The alternative of anger and bitterness is just too dark.  In October there is a day dedicated to Pregnancy and Infant Loss, I am grateful that people can talk about it or read about or have quiet moments and just remember.  I feel like this loss has changed me, it just has....in so many ways. 

I saw this this poster and yes, this thought comes.

I wonder what our family would have been like with another little person?  I wonder who they would have been?  How Stella would have been as a big sister?  The girls love babies, I bet they would have rocked it. 

We took this picture last Thanksgiving after church up in Fort McMurray, I didn't know it yet but I was pregnant. It is a special picture to me, a family of 5 for this small window in time here on earth.

Each month since has been filled with hope but never the result our hearts desire, we are not pregnant, we may never again and that is a reality I am working through. Our baby making may be ending in a sad way BUT oh we have had two BIG HAPPY endings.  Amelia and Stella are the lights of our lives, the joy they bring us can not be described! This past year has been a reminder that we do not control this aspect of our lives. Many people can plan the number of children, the months they hope to conceive or give birth but we can not.  We all have 'things' and fertility or infertility, frankly just not easily making babies is one of our 'things'.  So I have to choose to be thrilled for my friends as they announce pregnancies, because I truly am and I have to choose to smile as I explain and educate others on our situation when they ask. We have been married just over 13 years and all of those years but that first year we have been 'trying', that is 12 years filled with 12 months...and we have been given two miraculous little girls (so minus a few months) but the rest has been filled with longing.  Our girls rock and we have been very blessed indeed but still planning our family has been a process for me and for us, learning to leave it to our Heavenly Father.  My heart grows weary with our monthly disappointment and it may sound bizarre but I am actually looking forward to menopause hahaha!!!! 

So taking the moment to acknowledge and remember this part of our family story and then pressing on.  Even though we have two amazing miracles our heart still longs.  

~ Mrs. P

be like her

 

This woman is inspiring!

She has been out of commission for nearly a year but has persevered with grace and an attitude that has been inspiring. Gramma Hudkins is definitely one of my heroes!  She had back surgery just after Thanksgiving and has been essentially home bound since things went array with her back last December.  She always looks for the positive and strives to maintain her independence while at the same time showing humility when she does need help. Truly one of my heroes.  We snapped the above picture when we went to visit her at the hospital after surgery. Amelia read her a story and we hopefully made her evening go by with a smile, with our goofy little girls :)  The other night while visiting her at home the girls and I got to work on her legs and feet, rubbing them with cream and it was such a sweet service to give her. So so so many times she has served me and my little family.  If I am half the woman she is I will be happy with my life, love this lady.

~ Mrs. P

practice, practice, practice

There is a lot of sqweeking and tinkling that happens in our house. 

I hope that there always is!

Amelia has her violin lesson with Hazel and Stella has her Music for Young Children with Miss Jennifer, accompanied by me. It is pretty awesome to watch them grow and work to develop their talents :) Makes a momma proud.

Also to be noted practice doesn't always happen with happily obliging children BUT mornings have proven to be perfect for Amelia while Stella and I take a few minutes during the day. So worth the effort.

~ Momma P