Stay at Home Mom

I found this article today in the midst of feeling a little sorry myself, a little uncertain of my role, a little bit at a standstill in my progression as a person. I thought I would share it for any other mother in the same position and so that I can remember and look back on it when I forget again.

Ada girl turned 4!

Ada is 4 as of yesterday and I just want to wish her a very happy birthday!! She was such a proud little birthday girl. Every time the phone rang she would say "It's probably someone calling to say happy birthday." And most of the time she was right!! She also wore a lovely little "Birthday Girl" ribbon to display her pleasure at having her own day. She is so good and so much fun. As she stood and listened to us sing happy birthday to her, I could see the satisfaction and contentment in her face. She knows she's loved and that brought so much peace to me. I hope my children always know how much they're loved. That's what I hope this birthday thing is all about for us - LOVE! Happy Birthday Ada... the sweetest 4 year old in the world :)

I am Thankful.

Well as you can see from my sidebar, I read Nie Nie. Today she had a post about the things she is grateful for since it is the American Thanksgiving coming up. So I decided to put up a few things I am thankful for in order to lift my spirits, overlook the bad, and show gratitude for all the wonderful blessings we have.
1. I am thankful for a Heavenly Father I can pray to and for this amazing plan of happiness He prepared so I'll be just that...happy.
2. I am thankful for Jesus Christ and that He suffered and died for me, but that He was also resurrected. To know that one day, because of Him, I will be resurrected and have the opportunity to live with my family forever.
3. I am thankful for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for a living prophet President Thomas S. Monson and for my congregation right here in Saint John...for the good friends I have there.

4. I am thankful for my amazing family. Not one of us is perfect, but we all love each other and stand by each other through the roughest of times.

5. I am thankful for Jason and how every morning he gets up early to head off to work for 7am. He loves me and all my emotions and psychoness! Well, he probably doesn't love those but he sees the real ME through them all :) He is a steady and devoted man. I am thankful for the amazing father he is and for the love he gives those two little girls. I am thankful for his good example in his devotion to God.

6. I am thankful for the best two little girls in the whole wide world! Ada and Mia and their personalities and all that came in each little package. I am thankful to carry them around for nine months, cry and sweat to get them out, and then hug and kiss them everyday. They are worth everything!

7. I am thankful to live in "Oh Canada" (as Ada would say). This place is great. I am thankful for the patriotic example of my mother and how she would cry whenever we sing "oh canada" on Remembrance Day or at church.
8. I am thankful for the power of repentance and to know that prayer and the Atonement of Jesus Christ can repair all wounds, wipe away all sin, and lift up even the darkest and lowest of souls. It is real.
9. I am thankful for good friends who like to go for walks and talk and have little children just like mine :)
10. I am thankful for music and the role that it has played in my life; for the deep emotions it has stirred with its amazing ability to reach inside my heart. I love good music and all that it has done for me and to me.

Please, if anyone is reading this, maybe you could count the blessings in your own life and even make a list of them on a blog if you have one. Let me know if you do. It's amazing what positive feelings we experience when we choose to count our blessings rather than mourn over our troubles.

Mia-moo...she turned 2!

Yesterday our little baby-boo turned 2 and it makes me realize how short life is as our babies get older and older everyday! As I sit here typing this, she sits on my knee and I love it when she's on my knee, looking at a book, singing, talking.... she's such a joy and so happy... I love her. Here are a few shots, both old and new, of our little darlin'.

The Adventures of Princesses

All Princesses know that it's important to wash your hands...

....and to brush your teeth. Especially if your going to consume large amounts of candy at your church Halloween party.

Be sure to relax with a little nick jr... every princess needs her free time!

And don't forget to sit & wait a little for that handsome knight in shining armour...but remember it could be a while.

And I don't know why Cinderella never thought to attach velcro to her shoes... when they fall off they'll simply attach themselves to your dress and your home free!!

Clearly this princess is a little more crazy:

She is not afraid to let her true colors show, even if she is royalty!

Happy Anniversary to us.... five years has flown but so much has happened that it seems like forever. We'll be going to Romeo and Juliet at the Neptune Theater in Halifax tomorrow.
I'm so grateful for all that Jay is. His steadiness and contentment for life has blessed mine greatly! I love you Jay! xoxoxo

Little Women!

I love to watch Ada and Mia get all interested in my make-up bag. Ada looks for every possible thing that I might let her use and I explain to her that there are many things in there that she is not allowed to use until she is older. She loves my Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream and Mia loved a little make-up brush. I took a few photos of them to capture the moment:

Prince Edward has his own Island!!!

What a great weekend!! Ada and I watched the movie Enchanted recently (love it!) and the handsome prince in it is Edward. Well, what a lovely coincidence that we happened to be heading out on a trip to his Island!! It was a fun connection for us. PEI is wonderful.

We had PERFECT weather! The campground we tented at was PERFECT. The attractions were PERFECT. The Cows ice cream was PERFECT. The Anne of Green Gables Chocolates were PERFECT. Best PERFECT of all: being with the 3 most bestest people in the world. We had a PERFECT vacation, which led me to conclude that Heavenly Father really wanted this for us. He wanted us to have a good time together without any cares. He wanted to reward us for saving our money and give us a chance to use some of it on something fun just for us. A PERFECTly obvious tender mercy.

I love to see them holding hands. Mia saw Jason and I holding hands and wanted to hold Ada's hand.

Mia got right into the mud, face and all!

We stayed at the Cymbria Campground in Cymbria PEI, just off Rte 6 and not far from all the Green Gables loveliness. It was just an old fashioned campground, with a pool and mini golf. None of the showy stuff that completely takes away from the fact that you are outdoors and camping. We stayed 3 nights and our spot was lovely. Right across from the bathrooms, the playground, a sink to wash dishes. It was shady and private. It was quiet and great people around. I would highly recommend it.

Avonlea: the Village of Anne of Green Gables was a HIGHLY recommendable place as well. We had a blast. It's basically set up like her village long ago with many of the characters around town and shows throughout the day. They had an awesome music show (the actors/actresses are all musically talented). They had a parade, in which Ada got to hold Anne's hand while they marched down the road. It was so special for her and I am so glad she had such a one on one experience with such a great heroine as Anne. Anne and Diana both took the time to learn her name and made her feel very special. They were all I hoped they would be. They had a country fair in which Ada, Jason and I all got to run in the potato sack races. Jason entered the pie eating contest and WON! (he does love his pie!) Then they also had a pig race... hilarious! All of this plus many more shows and lots of things to do. Well worth the money ($40) and the girls were free (3 and under). The actor playing Charlie Sloane was awesome and hilarious! He could have had his own village and kept everyone entertained all on his own! They were all wonderful!

Ada and her new friends, Anne Shirley and Diana Barry.

Jason eating the pie...

...Jason winning the pie eating contest!!Jason on stilts at Avonlea Village...he was pretty good!

We attended church in Charlottetown on Sunday, saw the Greg and Jocelyne Veinot family, and had a great Sabbath day. The Charlottetown branch is lovely.

Ada on the helicopter ride

Jay and his thrill!

The girls and their thrill!

Sandspit was lots of fun and quite appropriate for our little family. The Merry-go-round was a big hit. Ada actually said her favorite ride was the Ferris Wheel which she went on twice. I thought that was pretty impressive for the age of 3. She even put her hands up in the air as it went around. Jason was a true roller coasterer and went on it all by himself! What a man! He said it satisfied his need to roller coaster for a little while longer, although it wasn't much compared to some of the other ones he's been on. Did you know he's been on over 40 roller coasters!? I'm afraid I will never reach that kind of number when it comes to those rides. yikes!

People... I loved our trip. I would go again this weekend if we could. It was great.

In September, mom and I are going to Time Out For Women in Hartford, Connecticut which I am really looking forward to.
Then in October, the girls and I are going on a week long roadtrip with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law and her family down to the states ( still not 100% sure where).
Jason says this is my season of travel, and that the apathy I have for travelling will disappear and I am going to hunger for our next trip! I kind of hope so. It was wonderful to get away!!!!

Spoon Full of sugar - Mary poppins

I have discovered that Mary Poppins knew exactly what I was talking about in my last post. So here it is enjoy for old times sake!!

Pushing Oats Around on the Floor

I treasure the moments of motherhood when I can laugh at situations! They make the day easier and it's easier to laugh next time too.
Mia found two 2L ice cream containers full of oats and acted like she was going to get into them and make a big mess. Clever me thought, "Oh, she can't open those!" and continued on the computer. Well a few seconds later (seconds!) I glance down and she has at least 2-3 cups on the floor already and is going for more. I tell her no and she instantly knows it's time to sweep (one of her favorite past times). I get the broom and allow her to sweep a little while I frantically look for her toy broom. I come out to find her pushing the oats all over the place. I run back to the bedroom to look for her toy broom in hopes that I can get back before too many more of the oats have been scattered all through the house. I can't help but laugh about it all and wonder what she thinks I am doing when I sweep. I wonder too what she thinks about the many things I do around the house and if it's really all a game to her, which would explain why she loves to help so much.
Wouldn't life be great if we could all look at life and the seemingly everyday things we do as a child does - for fun and entertainment. Certainly sweeping would be a great deal more fun if I did it because I enjoyed pushing stuff around on the floor with a long stick and straw on the end of it. Or washing the dishes was done simply to get my hands wet and play in the bubbles and use a cloth to wipe things. Or doing the laundry was done because it's fun to put the money into the little slots and push the button to make it go and to get to pour the soap into the big washer. I appreciate so much the little things that my children enjoy. They are simple and good, just like I would like my life to be.

The Foggy Fog

The flowers to the right are a pot I made up for our living room window. It is amazing what a pot of flowers does for a room! I love them.

Never before have I been inclined to thinking that the beach on a foggy day would be a good idea. But yesterday, as Jason has every Monday off, we decided to take a family day at New River Beach (an amazing place!). It was beautiful in town, but as we neared the beach there was a crazy wall of fog hanging there... as if it was waiting for us!! We had our doubts about going, whether it would be nice enough. But I remembered my good friend Aleisha saying that she liked a cloudy day at the beach because it wasn't so hot and sunny. It was more comfortable. So we got out of the car and headed for the beach... it turned out to be a super day! The fog hung around for the whole 3 hours we were there but the sun was there too so it was just great! The girls had a blast! The waves were crashing and smashing and we had so much fun. We almost lost Ada in the waves once: she lost her footing in the sand as the wave moved back out away from the shore. Jason had to run and pick her up before the next wave swallowed her up. Ada and I both got buried in the sand and Mia kept lying down as if she wanted to, but always got up before we could do it. Jason made a sand turtle... he's so creative like that! We had a lunch... it was just a super time. One of those family times where you come away just feeling grateful and Peaceful... especially since the girlies are almost instantly sleeping in the back seat and hubby and I get to enjoy the quiet on the way home.

Just want to put a sweet congratulations out there to my mom and dad for their 30th wedding anniversary! They have been in ups and downs and through it all are a shining example to me of sticking with it.. they recently had a little get-away to Maine and I am so glad they had such a good time. I love them very much!

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

I wanted to post this for any of you who haven't watched it or would love to watch it again. Motherhood is amazing! I am so thankful for Elder Holland's message and especially for Heavenly Father's trust in me. Enjoy!

molasses and me

Well... it's just one of those lets-stay-in-all-day-cause-it's-raining-and-Mia-has-a-runny-nose-and-I-don't-feel-like-going-out-anyways days! And frankly I don't mind those days. Sometimes I get going doing too much and don't take time just to be home and do "stuff".

In my life, molasses and butter on homemade bread could be closely comparable to chocolate. I LOVE it! We had some today on the loaf of bread I made last night and I had left the molasses unattended on the table... top off. Well, while I was working on a little project on the computer, the girls were making themselves at home to the loaf of bread I made. Mia tried to enter the Guiness Book of Records for the most plastic baby spoons put through the hole of a carton of molasses. Thats right... I came out to the kitchen to find her stuffing spoons into the hole. I just had to laugh....laugh and laugh!So funny. And as I attempted to get all 7-10 spoons out of the sticky molasses I had to laugh some more. I guess what made it funnier was that it wasn't her first stunt of the day. Earlier she awoke from her nap and decided to pick at the poop in her diaper. Fortunately I got to her before it got too bad.

As I finished with the molasses stunt I turned around to find Ada with my sunglasses on and using a glasses case as a microphone... again I had to laugh!
It's just one of those days where you feel pretty content staying in and the wackiest things seem to happen and children begin crawling the walls and you. Ever been there??

Some recent events:

Here's the gang taking a little test in the truck before we leave our home of four years and the only home our kidlets have ever known.

Jason is officially a graduate of the NS Agricultural College with his degree in Environmental Horticulture.

The happy graduate - such a relief!!

This is the cake I made for him for graduating.... I had him go out and clip the little "trees", but didn't tell him why. I thought it turned out pretty good!

Little Mia-moo at Sullivan's Pond in Dartmouth on our last visit to Dartmouth before we moved.

So excited to be here!

Being in Saint John has been so great this past month! The contact with friends and family has increased immensely and its nice to drop in at my parents or go for walks with my good friend Aleisha.

Last night mom and I and the girls went to Costco here in Saint John for the first time. It is wild!!! So many people and SO MUCH STUFF!! I can see why people spend hundreds of dollars every time they go there. Mom and I committed that our visit there last night was only just that: a visit. So we spent very little money (other than a bit of birthday money I had been given that was burning a hole in my pocket.) I got some nice shirts and a black fleece zip-up. The girls got some jammies and we got just a couple of grocery items. I will be going back I think, but definitely with a plan.... that place is dangerous!!!

I started keeping a journal for each of the girls that includes entries of everyday events and thoughts that I have about them, things that they say, etc. I have found it has made the world of difference for me. With some of the things I wrote about in my last blog entry (nie nie dialogues, book: Contentment, Inspiring Insights for LDS Mothers), this journal keeping has enlightened me and been very satisying. I think it has brought me closer to God as a mother, appreciating the children he has given me and all they mean to me. I highly recommend this journal writing experience because it's wonderful. I haven't bound myself to writing every single day as that can get discouraging if I don't do keep up. But I do it whenever I find the opportunity. Last night I had a flood of thoughts about Ada and it was wonderful. Children are amazing and so many things they do are sweet and worth remembering.

Back Home Once Again

I recently turned 29. I felt it was a very significant birthday for me in that I feel I've grown. Well, not just in years but spiritually and in what I understand my purpose is as a mother and a wife, a daughter and a sister.
I've returned to Saint John, but I am not alone. I have brought with me my faithful and devoted husband and two amazing girls. Jason is in his new job as a skilled parks worker for the city of Saint John's leisure services. He is enjoying it and I believe will go far with it. Ada and Mia are loving the city and the closeness of friends and family. Although we have left behind some amazing people that we love, we have also begun to renew some of the relationships that were once at a distance.
So here we are and hopefully for a while.

ada: mommy, I don't want to leave this world.
mommy: you mean in Truro?
ada: yes.

I know the move was a bit of a change, but our children are young and adapt well. They find the good in life and go with it. As long as they have love and care they do just fine.

***

Sentimental, I know, but I find it hard to wash the windows and mirrors where little hands have left their mark. On the mirror of Ada's dresser is a little hand print that I've left there since she was less than a year. Can't wash that!! And last night I noticed how dirty our front window is, but quickly realized it was from all the little hands that supported little girls trying to look out at the Grampy they love and the Papa they love. Probably should wash that...and will eventually. But if my windows are a little smudged with finger prints it's out of love and it brings a warm reminder of my love for my little girls.

***

I recently found the Nie Nie Dialogues which if you don't know is the blog of the woman in the new "Mormon Messages" video "My New Life". She and her husband were in a plane crash and she was burned severely. I have found her perspective and experiences, the way she copes and sometimes finds it hard to, a very refreshing and motivating example and have drawn from her strength. And even before her accident she kept her blog and reading it has helped me and have enjoyed reading about who she is, how much she adores her husband, her children.

Another resource I have drawn from is a book my parents gave me for mother's day called Contentment: Inspirational Insights for LDS mothers. This too has given my view of motherhood a fresh perspective I continue to work away at studying the scriptures and making them my priority. They are the ultimate guide for whatever you need. I know that's true.