Mothers Day!

This past week has been a bit rough. Adessa has had a fever for about 4 days on and off and yesterday during church Amara started to get one too. But it forced me to slow down a bit and play games with the girls, read, colour and cuddle. I also got in a good movie all by myself while I had one on for the girls. 

Mothers day was so special. My girls had been planning it all week and Saturday Steve took the girls shopping. I woke up to my girls bringing me breakfast in bed and coffee... Adessa has been making me coffee for a couple months now and she has perfected the pot, so lucky I am! 

Steve has been fighting a painful sinus infection for awhile and hasn't been sleeping great and so I volunteered to go help make the "main course" There was french toast, whipping cream and bacon. After breakfast the girls loaded me up with presents, handmade gifts of necklaces, bracelets, a coaster with a poem by Danika, A photo frame with Adessa's face, cards that made me cry with their beautiful words and then a Vancouver Island Starbucks mug, that they bought with their own money. Steve then presented me with 2 brand new knifes from pots and paraphernalia in Duncan... I have been complaining for years about my bad knifes so I was very excited!!! I was spoiled rotten! I can't believe God has given me the privilege to be a mother and raise these three beautiful girls. I am blessed indeed!

After church we went to our friends house the Nelsons for a hike and dinner, they just got home from packing up their lives for 6 weeks in a little 20 foot trailer and driving down the states to California. It was good to see them... apparently their kids have also been fighting fevers, so our kids were in good company! We left the kids and the adults went for a nice hike with our pups. It was a lovely day with a delicious dinner to finish off! 

A little tribute I posted on my moms wall for Mothers day... sure missed her today! 

11 Years

Last weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to get away for a night to the Tigh-Na-Mara Resort in Parksville to celebrate our 11th Anniversary. Our good friends the Nagtegaal's took the girls Saturday overnight. Saturday we dropped them off and headed to the mall in Nanaimo! We seriously haven't stepped into a mall or gone shopping in AGES... small town living at its finest. It was so nice to shop with a booster juice in hand and my husband spoiled me. We both got a few new items that we loved and then we headed onto Parksville. We checked into our beautiful oceanfront room (they are quite dated, but the views are amazing!) and then headed to their onsite restaurant for an amazing 3 course dinner with wine pairings. The food was delicious, after dinner we had passes to the mineral pool, so headed to the spa for the twilight swim. In the morning we slept in a bit, had a delicious brunch, strolled on the beach and headed to Costco for plants and grocercies. It was a busy weekend, but so nice to have different scenery and pace. 

I am seriously so in love with this man... he works hard and has grown his business with patience and integrity and God has blessed him. He is an amazing dad to his three beautiful daughters and they absolutely adore him. Men look up to him for his wisdom. I love being by his side and seeing the fruit of his labor pay off. Reflecting on our past 11 years was fun, thinking of where we started- newly weds in a basement suite with a newborn baby and not a penny to our names. The journey has been crazy, but I have fallen more and more in love with this man God has given me. And I am so thankful for all God has brought us through. 

I LOVE growing older with this guy and can't wait for many more years!!!

Dion & the Belmonts

Danika performed in her first ever play production last night at the Island Savings Centre. Her teacher Mr. Hollett, included the grade 5,6,7 girl choir from school in the high school production of Dion and the Belmonts, written by Danikas teacher, Mr. Hollett.
It was such a wonderful performance, and from a school that doesn't have many students to choose from, they sure put on amazing productions every year.
Danika has been practicing for months now, and was so excited... she is definitely a gifted little actress and singer and I can't see what God has in store for my little lady as she explores her gifts. However I am excited for the two songs she has been singing daily to be put to rest! She has been practicing day in and day out... always singing!
It was so fun getting my girl ready for her big night. Curling her hair, putting on makeup and then watching her perform. She was definitely the most engaged on the the stage, dancing and singing, and bee-bopping with her little ponytail bouncing away. I was so proud of her!

A Whole Year!?!

Wow, I can't believe an entire year has passed since I last posted on my beloved little blog... we are just about to celebrate our 11th anniversary and my last post was going to celebrate our 10th. This year has been an absolute whirlwind, with so many changes, its hard to reflect on. For the first time since we've been married and started our little family I feel like I have time to myself and I even have moments where I am wondering what I should be doing? It is a different place to be and I have found myself questioning what my role and purpose is meant to be in this stage of life? I have had break downs of feeling like my life is mundane... doing the same things day in and day out, wake up at 6 am, do my devotions with coffee, make breakfast and lunches, get kids ready for school, clean, clean, clean, grocery shop, dog walks, pick up from preschool, come home make lunch for steve and Scott, Amara and myself, clean again, pick up from school, homework, playdates, after school snacks, make dinner, clean dinner, bathe girls, play with girls, sports or girls activities, read books, bedtime routine, collapse on the couch with Steve and zone out with a show, pass out by 10 pm, and hit repeat! With many things missed in between... reading that I wonder how I have time to be bored... or struggle with my purpose, but I have friends who work, have home businesses- get to be appreciated for some aspect of their lives. Blah. I love my life, I really do. I am thankful and grateful I get to stay home and be on the front lines of raising my girls.... but sometimes its just hard, you know?
What I really need to do is get back in shape... Im currently shaping the shape round in my mid section, and I am happiest when I am in a workout routine, but I have just felt to blah to even do that!
I am hoping to put Amara into some kind of longer program in the fall, as preschool is just a few hours in the morning... doesn't feel long enough to be purposeful. And the plan is to start working for Steve... doing administrative stuff and website updating. So hopefully I can find some passion for that.
My girls are all growing like crazy and lately I've been thinking about how things just end without really realizing it or giving it a milestone... we hit milestones the first time they walk, talk, potty train, sleep through the night, but we forget when things happen, like rocking Amara to sleep and singing to her, and calming my girls through the night (which I'm not saying I miss at all!) or them needing me for every little thing through the day. ITs a wonderful stage and I am loving it and the stages and ages of my girls. Amara stopped napping the same day we took her soother away, it was on our trip to Calgary at Christmas. We lost her soother and then naps went with it... that was sad. But she was almost 4 so I was spoiled.
Danika is almost 11 and is a very busy little lady. She is friends with everyone and is very involved in school. She is part of the high school musical, in the choir and she is very excited! She finished off soccer at the end of April, and I am glad to be done that. She improved so much and I had fun helping coach her team. We just had parent teacher interviews and Mr. Hollett was raving about how Danika is so confident, friends with everyone, kind to everyone and has a beautiful singing voice. She does struggle with writing and math, but they are not her strong points and I need to be supportive and helpful in those areas.
Adessa is my little 7.5 year old sunshine. She wakes up happy and is so eager to help with everything. She is excelling at school and she amazes me daily with the school knowledge she retains. She scores 100% on all her spelling tests, she is moving up all the time in her levels of reading group and she loves to read. I just heard her yesterday reciting the water cycle to my mom on the phone and I was amazed at how she remembers every single detail. She is friends with everyone and has playdates often. She is a creative little artist and loves to make messes... her latest idea with her little buddy was making a mud pit in the backyard and using it as "paint" to paint paper, the fences and the shed!
Amara is 4 and is so.full.of.life She is a pure delight to be around and brings smiles to everyone who meets her. Her voice is the cutest thing in the world, seriously. Everyone comments on it and I'm going to miss it dearly when she grows out of it! She is a tiny little pixie... 30 pounds and has been for the last couple years. But that doesn't slow her down, she keeps up with all her buddies, and her sisters, always wanting to do more, be faster and bigger. She still continually gets hurt, but is one tough little cookie. She also has an amazing memory and surprises us daily with little facts she remember or events that happened that we barely remember. She has many friends, constant playdates, loves preschool and is already asking for playdates... and very upset we say she's not old enough. She's my little buddy and helps me with all my errands.I currently have her in swim lessons to try and get her a bit more comfortable with the water before we open up the pool!

Steve is crazy busy.... like crazy busy. Like I don't know how he does it all. He has hired our old Paster Scott Carruthers as a sale person, who is currently working from our home until they get into the house they bought. It has been nice for Steve to have someone to share the burden of the company with. They are getting numerous calls a day for new work and have several homes lined up for the next year. I am so proud of him. WE are both currently feeling pretty burned out at the moment and are looking forward to going to the tighnamara in parksville for a night for our anniversary next weekend.

10 years

Friday was our 10 year anniversary. So crazy to think how far we have come in 10 years and all by Gods amazing grace.  

The day was insane with housecleaning, grocery shopping, girls had a half day, then play dates, then gymnastics for both of them. Rushed home took the dough out of the bread maker and made our Friday pizza, then got ready quickly for our schools production of Mary Poppins at the Duncan theatre... Which was almost sold out for two nights. While I took the girls and their friends to the play Steve and Mara went to the airport to pick up tom and Patrice for the weekend. 

We all walked in the door around 10:30 pm. Such a crazy day- I barley had a chance To say hi to Steve! 

We passed out after a quick visit and then woke up Saturday and took Steve's parents on the boat to our favourite... Galiano island for a day of island and beach exploring. 

It was a gorgeous day but terrifying when we tried pulling into the beach at extremely low tide and these big waves started coming over the back of the boat as we were stuck. Very scary with girls screaming. But Steve handled it so well and kept his cool and got us all out of there in one piece! 

After a picnic lunch Steve took his dad out fishing (with no luck) while Patrice and I got in some good visits and sunshine! 

The girls had a wonderful day exploring, then we headed home to yummy pulled pork I had in the crock pot. 

It was a wonderful day and everyone slept so well. 

This morning was Mother's Day and I came down to the kitchen with a full breakfast of bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs, toast and fruit. The girls were helping grandpa and were so cute and excited with their presents they made from school. I am one lucky mom with three beautiful, thoughtful princesses. 

Currently Steve and I are on the Washington state ferry heading to Seattle and enjoying some quiet (he's catching up on work... Blah... It never ends!) 

We are looking forward to a couple days of sight seeing and the hill song concert tomorrow night. Should be good! And we are so fortunate that tom and Patrice flew out to take care of our little girls. Feeling pretty blessed today!!! 

Chick sitting

Sunday evening we picked up our good friends chicks to "chick sit." 

They are away for a week and have one week old layer chickens that needed watching so my girls happily volunteered. They have been in love, and they are pretty fun to watch and hold... Other then the smell in my kitchen! 

This morning they took them for show and tell and they were quite the hit! 

Adessa was so excited to hold them and show them off and tell them their names...

Danika loves them and is quite bossy with them as they are her friends- Hannah's chicks that she got as a birthday present! 

Amara constantly wants to hold them and loves them so much. I'm just scared she'll love one too much! 

After school today we went to the Nagtegaal farm for a horseback ride on their beautiful new horse- Molly. All the girls are in love! She is such a sweet horse and Caroline is loving having it. 

Amara was so brave and loved being on the horse.. Acting like it was no big deal and wanting to go faster! 

Pretty lucky to have such awesome friends! And we just filled our freezers with a quarter cow, and half a pig, and pick up our farm fresh eggs from them. As well as got a load of cow poo for our garden beds! So exciting. Hopefully we can grow some food this year! 

TC 10K

Second annual times colonist 10 km race with this chica. So fun to go up Saturday night, we stopped and had fun at a thrift store and both scored some fun deals then went out for a fun Mexican dinner complete with strawberry margaritas. We fell asleep early (I didn't sleep much) and then was awake by 5 am... Must have been excited to get running! 😁

I didn't train much this year but had the goal to just keep running and run the entire time... Even through the water stations... Which ended up with me pouring water down my face instead of in my mouth. 

I was hurting pretty good at the 8k mark but pushed through and picked up my pace for the end, knowing the course from last year. 

There were 7900+ racers this year... It was insane, but so much fun! 

I ran it in 56 minutes this year compared to an hour and 3 minutes last year... So maybe every year I'll get a bit faster?! 

We showered up at the hotel and then headed to Costco to load up for the week... Child free! 

We stopped for coffees and then stopped at a yummy breakfast place to reward ourselves with delicious eggs Benedict. 

Came home to my family totally refreshed (and exhausted!) but was so proud of myself and had a good weekend with my good friend. Xo