Dance Class

Emma started dance class today (in Mountain View)!  She was SO excited to get to dress up and wear her tap and ballet shoes.  She has the cutest little class, ironically, all of them are from Cardston!  Miss Stephanie is great with the girls and it was fun watching them learn.

Sister’s Weekend!

I love being able to spend a weekend with my sisters and mom.  There is nothing like just getting to be ourselves and being crazy together.  My mom and I met Mindy and Shauna in Fort Macleod yesterday and then met up with Melissa at the Calgary temple.  Unfortunately, Rachel couldn’t get there until afterwards for dinner.

We did a session at the Calgary temple (a first for a lot of us). It was neat to be able to do the work for five of Lennard’s relatives too.

As we came out of the temple, we had a sister going in take a quick picture of us (missing Rachel).  Then, we had some Activity Day girls outside handing bags of cookies to those of us leaving the temple!  It was such a sweet gesture.  The cookies were a ‘touch’ hard… but it’s the thought that counts!

We met up with Rachel at the Olive Garden for dinner.  I was so hungry by then that I pretty much inhaled my food!

After dinner… the craziness started!  lol.  It’s never dull with all of us together!  Jumping on the beds, getting inventive with shower caps, playing cards, eating more snacks that any of us care to admit.  It was a blast!

We finally all crashed for the night and were up bright and early… so early that the malls weren’t open when we got there!  oops!  Thankfully, Costco opened within ten minutes of us getting there, so we shopped there first.  Of course, the best part of the toy aisle is seeing if you can get all the toys on at the same time!  Ha! Ha!  I’m sure there were some employees glad to see us leave that aisle!

We headed over to the Cross Iron Mills Mall afterwards and had fun checking out all the different stores.  Mom got almost all the grandkids Christmas presents bought.  It definitely helped to have all the moms there telling her what their kids would like/need!

We shopped until we dropped… quite literally!  We were so tired!  We managed to get back to the hotel, get a bit of a break and then change into our church clothes so that we could go meet up with Aunt Marilyn for the General Woman’s broadcast.  It was an excellent meeting and fun to catch up with Aunt Marilyn.

We all went to sleep a lot earlier that night than the night before!  Rachel had to get up early so that she could drive back to Cranbrook in time for church.  The rest of us left in good time, although I didn’t make it back in time for church!  It was such a fun weekend.  I am so blessed to have such amazing sisters and mom that are my best friends.

Family Pictures

We’ve had good intentions to get more family pictures done for over a year now.  I finally contacted a photographer and just booked it… and then I had to get my act in gear and figure out what we were going to wear! (Worst part of family pictures).  We went to Lethbridge last night and I managed to find some shirts that would work and then this afternoon, my friend, Dina, did Emma’s hair for me.  We headed out to Waterton where we met Jill (our photographer).  She was pretty quick taking pictures – in a half hour we were done!  We’re hoping that we’ll get some good ones! 

After she left, I snapped a few with my iphone, just so I’d have a few now.  The kids were quite the little posers!

Gas Can Be a Wonderful Thing…

We finally got the phone call that the gas company was ready to get the gas line put in to our hangar!  Lennard has been off work, so it worked out well that he could be there and ‘supervise’ where he wanted the line to come in.  The guys that he works with came out with the backhoe and dug the trench and within a few hours the line was in and ready to be hooked up.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have the meter, so we’ll have to wait until next week for that and then we’ll have to wait for when they can come and install the heater, but at least we’re one step closer to having heat in our hangar!

First Day of Preschool

The day finally came!  Ben got to go to preschool today!  He was so excited to finally get to go to school.  When we were taking these pictures outside, he was yelling to all the kids going past, “I’m going to school today!” It was so fun to see his pure joy of getting to go!

We got to the school, found his hook for his backpack and he was gone!  I hardly got a goodbye!  It was bittersweet seeing him at school and knowing that I was going home to an empty house.  I’m so happy that he’s glad to go, but it’s definitely been a strange morning without him home.

Piano

We have a piano!  When I signed the kids up for piano lessons, we wondered what we would do about getting a piano.  Did we just get a keyboard for now?  Look for a piano?  What to do… Then my mom offered to let us borrow her piano.  Wow.  I was very touched that she would even suggest it.  This piano is the very first piano that she bought with her own money when she was moving to Lethbridge.  She was completing her Grade 10 piano exams and needed a piano to practice on.  Since then it has moved multiple times!  Not only that, but thousands of hours have been played on this piano.  Every single one of us kids has played this piano (some more than others – namely me), but we’ve all come to love music.  There have been countless hours spent gathered around this piano singing hymns and building relationships and memories as a family.  Seeing this piano leave my parents house was heart wrenching.  Both my mom and I were crying.  It was a truly bittersweet moment.  I can only hope that Emma and Ben come to realize how special this piano is and work hard to develop their skills.  I am so blessed to have such incredible parents that sacrifice for their children and grandchildren.  Thanks, Mom. 

Happy Birthday, Benny!

At 5 years old, you are 44” tall and 41 lbs. You love watching shows all snuggled up on our bed.  You love anything chocolate, but don’t like chewy candies.  You love cereal and would eat ‘crunchy Froop Loops’ every morning if we let you (although waffles is a close second!). You love playing with friends!  The second you are up in the morning you are asking to go play.  You love helping dad.  You practically live on your bike.  You love going to preschool.  You are very tender hearted and cry if you think you’ve done something wrong, even if was an accident.  You love snuggling with mommy.  You have the best laugh and twinkle in your eyes.  You love ‘surprising’ us in the morning by getting dressed and making your bed all by yourself.  You love to scare your sister by jumping out at her when she comes out of a room.  You love playing with Lego and are getting to be quite creative making things.

We love you, Ben.  Happy 5th Birthday!

Party Time!

We had a birthday party for Ben today with a bunch of his friends.  He was SO excited that he could hardly wait for 1:00 to come.  He requested a Spider Man party, so that is what he got.  We had all kinds of webs around the house.

The kids were all given Spider Man masks that they had fun racing around in. 

In the first picture:  Emma, Nash, Jett, Joey, Liam, Ben, Landon

After a few games, the kids got to have spider cupcakes.  I made them last night, and wasn’t impressed when I opened the lid and the icing hadn’t held up.  Oh well, the kids didn’t seem to notice!

After cupcakes and ice cream, Ben (finally) got to open his presents!  He has such good friends.  It was fun to watch their excitement for him.

The party ended at 3:00 and all the boys went home… and then I got started on making lasagna rollups for dinner tonight!  We were going to do his birthday dinner with my parents tomorrow on his birthday, but Dave & Nysha moved up their baby blessing to tomorrow, so we moved everything up so that my mom and dad could be there!

Lennard ordered a DQ ice cream cake for our family dinner and Ben was thrilled that it had Spider Man on it!  How is it possible that he’s five years old tomorrow!  The time has gone by so incredibly fast!

He was definitely excited for more presents!  His expressions in these pictures make me laugh.

He got a Kubota tractor from Aunt Alicia and a ‘meccano’ set from Emma.  

Grandpa Nichols bought him Lego and Grandpa & Grandma Murray bought him a watch, some pencils and candy.

We bought him some airplanes (what else?!) from the movie ‘Fire and Rescue’.  I loved that as soon as we were done, the boys had the Lego out and were all building together.  It’s been such a fun day.  I’m totally exhausted!