Good Morning!  Once again, it has been a while.  I'm not really sure why I don't feel I have time to blog as much since we moved.  Its not like we homeschool, have four kids, and lots going on or anything.  Anyways, I really, really want to get back into the weekly (or more) blogging thing so we will see how that goes.  Its one of my Spring Resolutions. Ever heard of that?  Me either.  I think I may have just started something....

Its Sunday morning here.  I was up, putting together my meal for our church potluck today and was about to go take a shower when Liam came up and told me he threw up in the night.  Liam is a little different in that he will not wake me up when he gets sick in the night.  Just ask my family from Christmas time.  He sometimes will get sick in his bed and sleep in it!  Yuck!  Anyways, he got sick in the night, but said he was feeling better.  But just a little while later he was throwing up again.  So Liam, Lexi and I are home from church this morning.  I will admit I was quite disappointed to not be in church this morning.  I love our church family and I love going.  But Liam needs to rest.  So I am blogging instead. ;-)

Since its been a while, lets update on all the family.

Liam, our big 6 1/2 year old is doing well.  He still loves school, although it is getting to be a bit more of a battle as we are nearing the end of the school year.  It also doesn't help that I think Spring finally decided last week to show up and we have had some awesome weather.  The high 50's and low 60's!  Perfect!  So he is wanting to play outside every chance he gets.  He has been riding his bike up and down the street (well, on the sidewalk), and playing with the neighbor kids.  There are quite a few kids on our street that are all our kids' ages, so that is neat.

Last month, Matt took Liam to his first pro hockey game.  They went with some people from church.  Liam LOVED it!  He still talks about it.  It was a special time with him and Matt.  I know Matt loved it too.

Liam has developed a love for reading (that's my boy!) and is excited that he now reads "chapter books."  He is currently into the Boxcar Children books.  My mom got him several and he is reading them all the time.  He also loves reading his monthly magazine, Highlights.  I often will find him reading to Leila or Libby.  He also loves to read his Bible.  All on his own he will spend time most every day reading some of it.  Makes my heart happy to see that.  We really do see the change in him since he accepted Christ as his Saviour.  Yes, he still disobeys and fights with his sisters and such, but there is definitely a change in him and I am so thankful to see that!  Even his prayers have gotten deeper and more like a conversation with God than just repeating what he hears Mommy and Daddy say.  I can see such a tender spirit in him and pray that never goes away!

Leila is her ever bubbly self.  She still is constantly moving, can - hardly sit still for more than five minutes.  She still runs, skips, or hops most anywhere she goes.  She like school okay.  But it is a daily battle with her.  She sort of reminds me of me.  She doesn't seem to have the same desire to learn like Liam does.  She does, however, love art and is very good at coloring and cutting and such.  I am often surprised by how well she colors things.  Its funny to see the difference in the personalities of your kids.  Liam couldn't care less about coloring, but loves arithmetic and science and reading.  Leila, on the other hand, hates writing and numbers, but loves the artsy stuff.  She is able to read small, three letter words and some two-vowel words and does a good job of it.  I sit there, listening to her read and think, "I can't believe my Leila-girl is reading!"  Time is going by very fast!

Leila loves to help me out and, as always, is usually not too far from me.  She wants to do whatever I am doing.  Although while I am doing it she often will say, "I don't want to be a mommy when I grow up because I do NOT want to do that."  She usually says it when I am switching laundry or putting something in the oven.  I tell her, "Sorry, babe, but no matter if you are a mommy or not, you are going to have to have clean clothes and eat food!"

Leila has been bringing up salvation a bit more lately.  Whenever the kids bring it up, we talk about it, and then we just tell them that when they are ready to ask Jesus as their Saviour, to come to Mommy or Daddy.  We did that with Liam for probably over a year until he was truly ready.  The last thing Matt and I want is to pressure them into a decision or give them a false idea of their salvation.  It has to be their decision.  We want the Holy Spirit to do the work.  He doesn't need us to do His job.  So we are just praying for Leila and talking with her about it all for now.

Libby.  Oh, my Libby-cakes.  She is a busy little girl.  Thankfully, we haven't had a marker-on-wall incident in about a month.  But she still gets into enough mischief.  She's always busy doing something, but still follows me around everywhere.  She is talking in a lot less gibberish and I can understand most everything she says now (although not everyone else can...).  She loves her Princess dolls.  She has four that she always wants with her - her Ariel (which actually sounds more like Eeyore when she says it), her Belle, her Princess (which is Snow White), and her Mommy Princess (which is Sleeping Beauty).  Took me a while to figure out when she would say that she "wanted her mommy" that she was not talking about me, but her Mommy Princess. ;-)

Due to the bedroom situation in this house, all three of the older kids are sharing a room.  And for the first several months of us living here she would wake the other two up each morning by turning on the light.  Libby is the early riser of the family, where as Liam and Leila sleep in much longer if not disturbed.  Well, I finally figured out (I'm kinda dense sometimes) that I just needed to rearrange the furniture in a way where she can't reach the light.  Problem solved!  Although now we have another
problem - its called the sun.  We are quite a bit farther North here than we were in NB, and now that it is spring, we see the sun much more.  As of now, it gets light around 6:30ish and is still light until about 9:15 ish.  And its only April.  I asked someone in the church and she said that come mid-summer, it will still be light at 10:45 p.m.  What?  I knew this would be the case, but was somehow hoping it would be different. Having it light that late isn't my most favorite thing.  The kids seem to have a harder time going to sleep and Libby wakes up way earlier when it is like that.  So, after some great advice, I got some black garbage bags and taped them to the windows in the kids' room and that has made a HUGE difference!  Woohoo!

Libby also loves to sit with Leila and watch her school with her.  I don't mind this as long as they aren't goofing around.  Yesterday Libby asked me if she could watch Leila's school.  I told her no, Leila wasn't watching it then.  So then Libby said, "But I'm Leila Claire!"  She spent the next few minutes trying to convince me that she was Leila so she could watch school.  Ha!  Cute!

Our little Lexi-bug is busy, busy, busy as well!  Now that she can walk there is no stopping her.  Her current favorite toys are: the broom, my tupperware, books, toilet paper, Libby's potty seat, and the potty brush.  Oh, and my baking supplies, as usual.  I think I spend a good half of my day getting her out of something she shouldn't be in.  I know this is common for this age, but she is WAY busier than any of the others.  I really think she thinks she is older than she is.  She wants to do everything the others do.  And gets very frustrated when she can't do it.  She has learned the trick of throwing herself on the floor crying when she doesn't get her way.  Ya, that doesn't work for us.

She is still a Daddy's girl and loves to give kisses.  All you have to do is say "kisses" and she will pucker up, make a smacking sound with her lips, and sometimes even say, "Mmmuuaahh."  So, stinkin cute, I tell you!  She LOVES music and the second it comes on she will start bouncing her head and dance.  It is too funny to watch her shake her little tush!  I will have to try to get it on video!

As for her nights, she still is up at least once a night, usually two times.  I have discovered she has some allergies/sensitivities which are affecting her digestion.  I think I need to get some testing done, because it is hard to figure out what all upsets her belly.  So far we know dairy and strawberries affect her greatly.  She can, however, drink goats milk so that is what she is on.  I am thinking of trying out almond milk, but want to do a little more research on that.  This is all new to me, as neither Matt nor I, nor the other three have any problems.  I do think that her belly is affecting her sleep some, so the sooner I figure this all out, the better.

Matt is doing well, busy with church.  He still is really busy here, but its a totally different busy than he was back in NB.  It is so nice to have another Pastor to help carry the burden and not have everything on his shoulders.  Matt really is in charge of youth and young families.  He has started a Sunday School class which I am loving.  Youth group is going great.  He started that up from basically scratch when we first came and now we are running about 20 consistently.  We are reaching out to the young families and trying to build, encourage, and minister there.  He is really looking forward to the golf courses opening up, hopefully in the next few weeks.  There are quite a few golfers in the church, so I know he is looking forward to going to the course with them.

I am busy with just the normal household stuff.  Not too glamorous but my calling for now.  I was asked to share my life story last week in church.  For some reason, I was SO nervous!  I am not usually very nervous when I speak in front of people, but I was this time.  But God calmed my heart and I was able to share all that God had brought me through and all He has done for me.

I guess this has gone on long enough.  I have lots more to share, but will save that for the next time!

Until next time...

I've Got A Confession

I've been a "bad" mom lately.  I've been very frustrated with my children.  I've lost my temper.  I have raised my voice way above where I would ever want to admit.  I've wanted to scream.  I've just up and walked out of a room where they all were and told them that I will come back a little later.  I've had a hard time with the parenting thing, these past few weeks.

Maybe its because it is still so cold outside that we are stuck indoors a large part of the time.  Maybe it is because we are all still adjusting to a new place.  Maybe it is because our sweet 14 month old still does not sleep for more than 4 hours at a time.  Which makes this one exhausted momma. And the incessant whining, bickering, and fighting from the other three is getting to me. Maybe it is just because I'm a sinner, my children are sinners, and we are all trying to live in the same house, sinning together.  Whatever the excuse I could throw at you won't change the fact that I have just plain been struggling.  I've had to apologize to my children for how I have been.  I've been irritated with myself for my struggling.

But God brought me a great reminder this morning, oddly enough, through Facebook.  I got up this morning, and sat with my kids as they were watching Doc McStuffins.  I had my iPad and was browsing through Facebook "just to see what was happening in the world."  And that's when I saw a post from one of our friends.  They had commented on a page of some couple who were announcing that their precious, nearly 1 month old baby, was now home with Jesus.  Immediately my eyes were filled with tears and I was ashamed.

From what I can gather, this baby girl was this couple's first child.  And due to complications (placental abruption, I believe) the baby at birth had gone 9 minutes without a heartbeat or oxygen.  She was revived, but had brain injuries.  She was kept alive for about 20 days, but last night, God took her home.  The post said that she was in the arms of her mommy and daddy when she left this world.

My heart aches for this couple.  Even now I can barely type because of the tears in my eyes. I do not know this couple, probably never will.  But the pain and ache I feel for them is nothing compared to what they must be feeling.  I have been lifting them up to God in prayer ever since I saw that post.  Praying for strength and comfort.  For acceptance and growth spiritually.

It was through this post that God touched my heart and reminded me to take a step back, look around, and be thankful.  Be thankful that I am surrounded by 4 beautiful children who are healthy.  Be thankful that I can look into the bright blue eyes of all 4 of them and tell them, "I Love You!"  Be thankful that I can pick them up, squeeze them tight and kiss their soft cheeks.  Be thankful that I can smile at them, and receive a huge smile in return.  Be thankful.  To just be thankful.

Then God reminded me of this post I read a few weeks ago.  This sweet mom has a precious daughter with many health problems.  Her daughter is completely dependent upon her parents for everything.  They can't carry on a conversation with her.  They can't enjoy the experience of their child running and jumping into their arms.  They can't experience all the "normal" childhood stages like others.  And yet, she has a very positive attitude about it all.  Oh, I know she probably has her bad days, but still, this post made me, again, stop and be thankful.

So why am I writing all this?  Its not because I want any sympathy or whatever.  I am writing this for a reminder for myself.  To be thankful.  I have been struggling lately.  I am exhausted.  I sometimes do feel like screaming.  And all those feelings will come and go, off and on, over our parenting experience.  But I want to remind myself that, yes, I will struggle.  But when I do, try to remember to stop, pause, and thankful God for His blessings.  To hug and kiss my children as often as possible.  To play with them.  To sit  down and talk with them.  To listen to them.  To spend time with them.

And to pray for those who are aching for children gone on whom cannot do any of those things with here on earth.

Until next time....

What's Been Happening You Ask?

Well, a little of this and a little of that.  Its funny.  I love to blog and am almost constantly "blogging in my head" but to actually find the time to sit down and actually do it is another thing.  It's terrible, too, because there are so many things that happen and go on that I want to record (which is the main purpose of this blog), so I feel as if I am letting things slip by that I will one day wish I had written down!  I am really going to try to do better for sure!  For my own sake! (aren't I selfish! :-) )

So anyways, on to what's been going on.  We have been busy with our lives here in Alberta.  Church is going well - Matt's busy with youth group and the young families.  This past Sunday we started a new Sunday school class for young families and had 9 come out for it.  We are excited because that is more than we were expecting!

I had a birthday a few weeks ago.  The big 31!  Whoa!  When did that happen?  I tell people in my mind I am still about 21 years old.  Then I realize how tired and sleepy I am and remember that I am no longer in my 20's.  Bummer.

For my birthday, Matt took me away for a night in the mountains.  We stayed in a resort "hotel" type thing and it was beautiful.  We had a suite that was absolutely beautiful!  It had a full kitchen, two bathrooms, two bedrooms, a fireplace, and washer/dryer.  Very cool.  Definitely will be going back to that place again!  It was a nice relaxing day/night and was nice to have a night off of "mommy duties."  Some friends from the church here stayed with the kids and they did great.  Except Lexi kept them up a bit at night.  But that is nothing new!

The kids are good.  Mostly healthy, for now.  Libby and Lexi are fighting colds, but nothing too terrible.  Liam and Leila are still plugging away at school.  We aren't taking any more days off (at least not planned ones) in order to finish the first week of June.  I am NOT a fan of school way into summer.  I need the break and I think the kids really need it too.  They need to just be kids and go outside and play (if it ever gets warm and stays warm!).

The weather hasn't been too bad.  We seem to hover around 30-40 degrees during the day and go below freezing at night.  We did get several inches of snow over the weekend.  I love winter but I have to admit, I am starting to crave some warmth a little bit.  And playing at the park.  We have one just around the corner from us, but have only gone once since its not that fun when most everything is covered halfway or more in snow.

Some other things that have been going on will be easier to explain through pictures.  Here we go....

Lexi is learning to drive...

For Duct Tape night at youth, Matt made this handbag out of duct tape...

We are all enjoying the comfy new recliner we got on clearance....

We've been sporting our new Calgary Flames shirts...

We played in the snow at church Family day....

 Some of us like to get into Mommy's baking supplies and eat chocolate squares...

Sometimes we get some wildlife visitors down our street...

Matt, Libby, Uncle Sean, and Cousin Charlie went to 

West Edmonton Mall (similar to Mall of America) while rest of us were home sick...

This is a hurricane machine

Do you think they have enough tickets?

Watching the penguins (the animals, not the hockey team.  Ha!)!

Matt and I got a picture of ourselves - first one in, well, a long time! 

I got to see the BEAUTIFUL Rockies! I love me some mountains!

 Liam had a few lines in a kids program at church.  He did great!

 Leila learned how to take pictures on my iPad.

Batman, Spiderman, and a Storm Trooper(I think?) came to dwell with us.

On nice days we go outside and play with the neighbor kids....

 Libby likes to eat spoonfuls of sugar....

And draw on herself with blue marker during the night...

So, yes.  We are busy.  But having a great time!

Until next time....

Romatic Ideals

Well, tomorrow is Valentine's Day.  The "Day of Love."  Or, for us this year, "Duct Tape Day" (we have youth group on Thursday nights and this week is everything duct tape.  Its lots of fun!).  And in case you are wondering, yes, Matt is going to youth group on Valentine's Day and I will be home with the kids.  And yes, I am totally okay with that.  Seriously.  There may have been a time in my life when I would have thought that was terrible - not spending Valentine's evening with your special someone.  Which leads me to the purpose of this post - how my ideals of romance have changed over the years.

When I was in high school, I would spend ample amounts of time talking with my sister, friends, and even my parents about what I thought was romantic, or what I wanted my husband to do/be like.  I would daydream about cold winter nights - bundled up under a blanket in an open carriage ride looking at the gleaming Christmas lights in the falling snow. My guy would be there, whispering all the sweet things people whisper about on carriage rides.  I dreamed about getting engaged in a hot air balloon (really, I did!) overlooking the beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains.  I dreamed about breakfast in bed every Saturday, long walks in the evenings holding hands, my man always saying things like, "my life only began when I first met you!" and other silly things like that.  I dreamed about cuddling up on the couch watching Pride and Prejudice (cuz we all know every guy LOVES to watch all 6 hours of that one!).  I would imagine that once I was married we would wake up every morning (with smiles on our faces, minty fresh breath, hair perfectly in place and no sleep crusties in our eyes, mind you) and snuggle a good 10 minutes before getting up to start the day.  I would dream, plan, and dream some more.

Those things are all romantic, and nice, but its not what gets my attention anymore.  Instead, its the offers to let me go rest and take a nap when I am tired.  Its the doing the dishes so I don't have to.  Its the, "I'll be in charge of supper tonight." Its the changing the poopy diapers.  Its the playing with our children and making them giggle with delight.  Its the look across the dining room table that says, "We are so blessed."  Its the working together to train our children to do what is right.  Its the reading a Bible story and singing together as a family each night before bed.  Its the praying together as a couple.  Its the hugging and crying together when our hearts are burdened and we want to be there for each other.  Its the random texts that just say, "I love you."  These things are my idea of romance.

You see, I used to think romance was just all the things my husband would do for me.  But now, I realize it is more than that, its also the things he does with me.  Oh, yes, I do love the surprises and things he does just for me.  But more so I love the things we do together.  The family we have created together.  The life we have together.  The love that we have grown together. Together.  I love being together.  I love learning more about God, ourselves and life together.  That's what is romantic to me.

It was Valentine's Day, 9 years ago that Matt and I had our first "official" date.  I was excited and a little nervous.  But in looking back, I somehow knew from even that early stage that this was the guy for me, the one I wanted to be with.  It was never a doubt.  I am so thankful for my husband and the life and love we have grown since that time.  We haven't had the perfect life.  We both have made mistakes, we both have learned a lot.  God has taught us so much by bringing us through some trials.  But I am so thankful for the man I have had at my side through it all.  I truly did marry my sweetheart, the love of my life.

So, this Valentine's Day, I am thinking on all the things my special someone and I get to do together - every day.  That is so much better than any of the things I used to always think about.  Because it is real.  So, my ideals of romance have changed.  And I am glad.

Thank you, Matt, for loving me, for marrying me, and helping me see what is really, truly romantic.  I love you.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Scenic Saturday - Our Move

Over the next week or whatever, I will post some pics of our lives recently.  Today is devoted to our move out West.

This is a pic of the kids their last night in our house.  They got to "camp out" on the floor in Liam's room since everything else was pretty much packed.  They thought it was fun, but I will say it brought a lump to my throat.  I loved our house there and we have many sweet memories in that place.  We brought both Libby and Lexi home from the hospital to that house.  Many good and happy, as well as sad memories.  It made me tear up.  It was hard to leave, but made it easier knowing that God had great things in store for us as we were following him.

                                   

This truck came with two mover dudes to pack up all our stuff.  Can I just say it was SUCH a blessing to not have to worry about driving all our things all the way to Alberta?  Our things were loaded onto this truck, taken to a warehouse, then loaded onto a big moving truck with several other shipments.  It took them almost 2 weeks to get our stuff to Alberta.

Packing, in my opinion, is a good form of modern day torture.  I hated pretty much every single minute of it.  I was SO glad to see the truck pull away with everything so it could be out of my hair!  Pretty sure I don't want to do that again for a very, VERY long time!

 We were still pretty loaded down in the van.  It was full of our clothes for the travel, food so we wouldn't have to eat out all the time, toys, books, school stuff, blankets in case we got stranded somewhere in the snow.... you get the idea. And I was constantly climbing back and forth from the front seat to the empty middle seat to tend to Lexi and the kids.  I got my exercise for sure!

Yes, I still made the kids do school while travelling.  I shudder to think just how much farther behind we would be if I hadn't done this!  Plus, it helped pass the time for the kids and cut down on the whining.  Somewhat.

We were sitting at a gas station filling up somewhere in Pennsylvania (I think - it kinda all runs together now...) when I noticed this sign above the ICE machine.  Its hard to read but it read on there, "Healthier than Homemade."  This struck me funny because 1 - I had never thought of ice as "homemade" or not before, and B- I had never thought of it not being healthy.  What some people advertise just to make a sale....

 So, you could TOTALLY tell we are from the country when we came upon the big cities.  When we would see the big tall buildings the kids would be yelling, "Whoa!  Look at that!  Look at all the buildings!  Wow!"  Especially when we went right by Chicago.  I did the "touristy" thing and tried to get some shots of the Sears Tower (or whatever it is called now).  That's hard to do in a moving vehicle!

We can't really complain, though.  We have great travellers and, although there was some whining, they were generally VERY good.  Even this little one who HATES her car seat!

Part way through the trip, we stopped at our friends house and stayed a day and two nights there.  It was a nice little break from the road and the kids got to have fun with their friends!

So, our last day travelling we went through a small town I think is called Brooks.  Anyways, you can sort of see it off in the distance.  But you don't have to see it to know that it is there.  You see, this is the location of the largest slaughter houses in Canada.  Oh. My. Goodness!  I almost threw up is smelled SO BAD!!!!! And you could smell it for quite some time.  How in the world people can live near and work there is beyond me.  It was horrible!

 But this sign, "Welcome to Ponoka" was a very, very welcome sight!  It had been eight days of travel.  We had driven more miles than it is from one side of the USA to the other. We were tired of the car.  Tired of hotel rooms.  Just plain tired.  It was very exciting to pull into our new town.  We were so ready to begin our new lives.

We were in Ponoka a little more than a week when the moving truck finally came.  Oh, it was an exciting afternoon, let me tell you!  It was like Christmas - the kids were so excited!

And then I had the joy of UN-packing everything I had packed.  That's not too fun either.  But I like it better than packing.

 And, of course, we had to have a Christmas tree since it was just about 2 weeks until Christmas Day.  Matt actually surprised us while we were not home and put up the tree and some decorations.  What a great Daddy!

Almost two weeks after moving it was Matt's birthday.  Some people in the church had us over and I made him a cake - one he requested.  It tasted good but did NOT look anything like the picture.  Mine never do.  Probably because I have no patience for that kind of stuff. The man sitting next to Matt is Carl.  He is the head of the search committee and is the guy we were in contact with throughout the whole hiring process.  He is a very good man and we are really enjoying getting to know him. (Sorry pic is so blurry!)

So that, in a few pictures, was our trip.  It was a good time together as a family, but I know that none of us wants to do that again anytime soon!

Until next time...