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!!!!