He is Risen

All pure JOY and PEACE in my life comes from my FAITH in Jesus Christ. Through Him I am extended GRACE for weaknesses, the HOPE to endure hard things, inspiration to show KINDNESS and the promise of eternal life with my FAMILY 💕🌷Happy Easter 
#becauseofhim #princeofpeace

Oilers Playoff WIN

We had a date and it was INCREDIBLE!!! Us and the Oilers at Rogers Place. The crowd was wild and we won with two short handed goals!!!!  Graham was like a kid Christmas morning.  I have not had a night at the arena like that.....ever.  It was super fun to share it with Mr. P!

~ Mrs. P

Marching on into April~ random thoughts

Time marches on and there is just no stopping it.

Spring is on its way and that makes us all super happy!  The girls wore their Easter dresses we picked up when in Utah for Spring Break.  The bright colours certainly helped us feel like the promise of warmth has to be around the corner.  We are all ready to ditch the snowsuits BUT this is Alberta and last year we had snow in May so I am not putting them away quite yet.

I can also scarcely believe that we are thinking about birthday party themes and planning for the girls to turn yet another year older.  It is so darn bittersweet!  These gals are becoming these unique little women and it is such an honour to be their mother and help them through life, I just hope and do a lot of praying that I can be the guide they need.  Graham and I are beyond grateful for them!

Did I share about our trailer and the mice last summer?!?!?! I think I blogged about it, dang I am still a bit nervous to go back in there. Hoping to bring the trailer home soon BUT we have mice all around our yard, in our shed - yuck!  We have however started planning a few camping weekends.  I also have a super talented friend that has a similar trailer to us and has encouraged me to ditch the 90s floral print.  They recovered their trailer couch and table cushions so we are going to attempt to tackle that this spring once we haul our trailer back home. She promised to hold my hand for the process.  I also found cool wallpaper to cover the nasty floral stuff (Fun Fact: Graham and I like doing wallpaper together). Couple these redo plans with the nice blue bedding my mom bought for the trailer during the evacuation, it will be like new. Right? I won't remember the traumatic mice event of 2016.  Right?

Visitors out the ying-yang at our house.  It is a good thing, it really is!  Having friends and family in our home is lovely.  We are pretty thankful to have our home, a place where people hopefully can feel welcome and comfortable. I had wanted to keep a a tally of how may guests we have coming through and how many nights we hosted but I didn't start that in January sadly.  Just to record here for most of April we have different guests!!!!!  It is pretty fun. 

To accommodate guests we have decided to get Amelia a double bed.  Then great-grandparents won't have to do the stairs when they come to stay. I am pumped because any chance to update a space gets me all excited and happy.  We have been on the hunt and I think we have narrowed down our decision. More to come.

Our pup is growing and we just love this little fur ball. Of course animals are work but boy is she worth it! She has had a few puppy playdates now because we want to help her be a good, social dog.  Some of the challenging behaviors with Tony and Tula had to do with them being litter mates and thick as thieves but the other part was that we were young, ignorant owners.  Trying to raise a more well behaved dog this time.

Also on the animal front, we currently have chicks in the incubator in our den.  We have 24 pretty little eggs growing away!!!!

Life is good.  Perfect no, but good.

~ Mrs. P

our little yogis

The women are big fans of GoNoodle and CosmicKidsYoga, both are on YouTube and both get the ladies active and smiling!  I snapped this picture of them in their meditative pose.  LOVE it!

~ Momma P

littlest cousin

 When the littlest cousin comes to visit you teach him all sorts of big kid things like how to do the stairs and how to comfortably watch movies.   So sweet seeing these three together!!!!  Max even cried for Amelia at bedtime, sad for him she had already been asleep for a few hours (she goes to bed early).  I love the statement that 'cousins are life's first friends' so rad. 

~ Mrs. P

Oilers in the playoffs

To say that our house is excited for Oilers playoff hockey would be an understatement!!!!

The dad of this family is hardcore and this has rubbed off slightly on the ladies.

~ Mrs. P

Salt Lake Road Trip

Salt Lake City is 1745km away, we drove there and back over spring break.
Our ladies are becoming fantastic little travelers.

We had a stop in Medicine Hat on our way down and crashed with the Jacober family.  It has been pretty rad to see our little ladies growing up together. They have such fun and it was nice to be able to visit with Amy and get the tour of their beautiful new home.  Graham and Jeff hit up a Tigers game, it was a fantastic night!

Our plans to go to Yellowstone were foiled because the park actually wasn't open yet, winter snow apparently closes the hiway through the park until early April, respectively.  We will plan to see Old Faithful another time!  We did however adjust our drive to see the gorge at Twin Falls and the Salt Flatts west of Salt Lake City.  They both proved to be pretty cool detours.

Oh, and of course I love me some TARGET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When we decided to head south we were unaware that to attend general conference you need to be eight years old.  We decided to head down to SLC anyway, we knew it would be good. Driving in we had eagle eyes for the spires of the temple.  When we arrived and found our hotel the windows drew us again to the spires.  The view of Temple Square was beautiful and peaceful.  We were able to visit the Church History Museum and then had dinner at the Nauvoo Cafe in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  There were so many points were you can't help but feel the spirit, feel the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I hope our little ladies will remember those feelings.

Stunning, stunning view.

Again, a stunning view....those smiles and the Salt Lake Temple behind them.

After dinner at the cafe we were told that the view from the 10th floor of the JSMB was great and it was!  There are missionaries everywhere eager to share the history, share the gospel.  Beyond words how great it was to be there with our little ladies.

This lady and this art are the reason we decided to travel to SLC.  This spring when Amelia turns 8 she has decided to be baptized.  We are incredibly proud of her and the sweet young lady she is.  She has a good heart and boy does she already have faith.  She knows that prayer brings comfort!  She knows that Jesus laid out the path for us to follow!  Super excited and proud of her.

I was so eager to visit the Christus and have the girls be there with us.  We were also able to watch a video on Families and it made me so grateful that I have these folks with me. The gospel of Jesus Christ is true it brings peace and gives me direction.  All good things in my life stem from the gospel and the guide that it gives me.

We returned home in time for a concert and to be able to watch General Conference at home.  In a few years we will road trip south again and all of us will be over 8 and able to attend a session of conference.  I was touched by this quote;

"Look to Chirst for STRENGTH, BALANCE and HEALING" 

- Yoon Hwan Choi

~ Mrs. P