Miss Tula our Furry Baby

Last week we hosted our first Joy School (a mom run co-op playschool) and one of the little boys told his parents that it wasn't Amelia's house, but Tula's house.  Apparently Tula made an impression on him. You can't really visit our house without being aware that she is there, although almost 11 years old any action at the door brings the pup out in her.  She has really rolled with the changes in our house the last three years or so, house guests, new babies and losing her brother Tony (litter mate).  I snapped these pics of her a little while ago after her hair cut.  When she gets her hair cut she smells soooo good, her fur is sooooo soft and you can just tell that she feels darn good about herself.  It is totally like when we get a hair cut and feel a little spiffy. 

She is awesome!  So good with the girls, she puts up with a LOT of physical loving from Amelia and I'm thinking soon here Stella will be trying to reach for her. Poor girl endures a ton but I am convinced she uses a visualization technique...she visualizes meal time under the kitchen table/highchair and the awesomeness that is. She is just such a good pup and I had to give her a little recognition!!!

~ Mrs. P

A little bit of me in 'em

This was the look that was around our house this week.

 Miss Mia is totally into her silver sparkle church shoes!  She pairs them with every outfit and it warms my heart.  It is times like this that I know she is my child....warm socks and a bit of sparkle on her feet, highly impractical. Yup, she's my girl!!! 

I often get that the girls look like Graham and his side of the family, seriously like... All.The.Time.  But then there are times when I know I am their Momma.

 Love me those sparkle shoes and the girl who wears them AND the girl sitting all by herself.

~ Momma P



Built in BFFs

I love my siblings!

It is one of the hopes I have for my girls, that they too can consider their sister a BFF.

A few recent snapshots of our little girlies! Love them and their sister love.

Growing up my mom would say to us that in life the longest relationship we will have is the one with our siblings.  If you consider your parents are roughly 20-30 years older and will likely pre-desease you and a partner you don't generally meet until you are 20-30 years into life BUT your siblings....they are with you for the majority of this life.  She would remind us of this in the heat of some sibling battle, not always effective usually exactly what you didn't want to hear.  A great philosophy though.

Crazy to think about right?! Now that I'm a little older, man it totally makes sense and is motivating to work at those sibling relationships. They are with us for the long haul.

I always think too, they know my 'stuff' and not just my 'stuff' but our 'family stuff'...everyone has it, but with your sibs - no explaination necessary because hey they were there too!!!!!

I have just been thinking about my sibs lately and how gosh darn glad that they are here with me trucking through life.  I really do hope that my little girlies can have the same kind of relationship with each other.  Eventhough in my family each of us are TOTALLY DIFFERENT, we are alike in many ways and such a support to one another.  Ok, I am getting a little emotional here. I just had to write a post up about this though because goodness these guys are great! 
So glad we come from the same fam.

Just a sibling pic from Amelia's First Birthday!

Water Park Sister & Babe Photos

Dec 2009         Jan 2012

I have to record a little shout out to my SIL Jenn, she is fabulous also!  It is wild to think we've been sisters for nearly 10 years. I know she too has my back with anything life could bring.   We have gone through some tough stuff together as a family but have done it together.

My married in sib...Jenn



Kind of a more serious post but it has been rolling around in my head for awhile because I have been feeling such gratitude for my sibs lately.  Also, just putting in another pic of my women because they are so cute in their matching leggings!!!! I totally have a legging obsession, no seriously I do!!!!

Cuteness!

Ode to Siblings ~ Mrs. Jenny Polischuk

Sister to Alyson

Sister to Leslie

Sister to Mikel

Sister to Jenn

Doing Something for Self...the theatre perhaps?! I think so.

Beauty and the Beast ROCKED!!!

I love me a good love story.  I love the theatre.  I love attending the theatre in good company.

For Christmas one of my gifts from Mr. P was a ticket to see Beauty and the Beast at the Jub Theatre. I joined my sister Alyson and her Mother-in-law Emily. Such fun!  We got dressed up pretty and headed into the city to have dinner before the show.  It was such a good time!

I have a little list laminated and up on my bathroom mirror, it is entitled 'A Healthy Mom'. It says;

Eat Right

Exercise (all of the carrying and lifting I do covers this)

Do Something for Self

Do Something with Spouse

Serve Another

A friend had mentioned this list just after I had Amelia and I've often thought about how essential each of these things are for both our physical and mental health.

So getting to hit up the theatre with great peeps, totally something for self and totally AWESOME!

~ Mrs.P

Oldies and Goodies

Julie & Dan's Wedding Sept 2011

Brandi*Jodi*Julie*Me*Amy

There is something so comforting about old friends.

The fact that they know all your old stories, the good, the not so good and loved you through the bad style you had in high school. So comfortable, easy to slip back into the fun banter and be reminded the reason you became friends. 

The other night Brandi, Jodi and Julie were in Edmonton.  I braved the crazy snow and drove in to meet up with them. Jodi's little girlies Kamryn and Kori were there too...adorable.  I am bummed that I never took a pic of us all.  It was such fun to catch up on life.  Travel, work, husbands and kidlets were the hot topics, good times.  I hope our little ladies will be fortunate to make good friends. I feel so blessed to have girls near and far that I know I could call for anything and I sometimes do...potty training to recipes to their frank opinion on things.  When we had both Amelia and Stella it blew me away the love that came at us!!!!  Cards, gifts, facebook msgs, people rock!  Super cool to know they were excited for us and just had to share the love. Even the comments people write about our blog, so nice.  Mr. P has good friends too and his dudes are pretty rad also! We are lucky.  One of the rotten things about being an adult is the limited time available to just hang out. You know, work, laundry and all the other boring adult stuff we have to do.  I guess the pro about being old is that you can drive to meet them (because you own a car) and you can afford big stuff like weddings (Graham gets to head to Cuba this spring).  I am grateful for all my 'old' friends, we are actually kinda literally getting 'old'...they are goodies!!!

~ Mrs. P

Oil Obsession

I contemplated even writing about our weekend because...  

I fear our family may have an obsession. 

Yup, you guessed it with the Oilers!!

If I were to look back over the last few weeks I am pretty sure there are at least two, perhaps three blog posts regarding hockey and two for sure about our team the Oil.  Goodness, what a hardcore fam we must appear. 

Funny story.  My little sister Leslie commented to me that Mr. P's facebook status is either about hockey or his girls, I think she nailed it.  We are likely his two favourite things!! So what can I expect, of course we would make it a family activity to attend the Oilers Skills Competition. It was actually pretty fun!  Amelia was totally digging the popcorn and was pumped about wearing her jersey.  Oh and Miss Stella, poor Miss Stella...we have ear protection but somehow they ended up getting in with the costumes n toys and I couldn't find them, poor little woman didn't have them and it took awhile for her to adjust to the noise. All in all a good day though! 

Really look at the smile on Mr.P's face, seriously his two favourite things; us and the Oilers!!!!

~ Mrs. P

to create...

 I have recently been feeling this urge to use my sewing machine, delve into the supplies in my 'PEACE' room aka craft room and just make some of the projects I've had waiting for me. I finally sewed up the pillows for our couch, the fabric was only hanging around for 4 or 5 weeks before I got to it.  One thing I am trying to do this year is have a little more balance in my life.  Allowing myself to work on selfish things even if the house isn't perfect...I am beginning to learn there is a new perfect version of our home anyway and it involves random baby dolls, stray books and endless loads of laundry.  I previously felt that I couldn't do 'my suff' until the 'house stuff' was all done. Well, that logic is a little flawed because there is always something I could be doing around the house. So I am really trying to allow myself to have a creative outlet without guilt.  Goodness the feeling after I make something is so darn good.

FYI

Pillows by moi

 Legging made by my talented cousin Addie - my ladies have matching pairs!!!

Growing up my mom sewed and made beautiful things ALL THE TIME! It was mostly dresses growing up and now she is hard core into quilts but she would always say sewing was her therapy. I get it now! I love the quote above because it so eloquently describes creating.

~ Mrs. P