Mexico trip....

So today is the day to leave for Mexico... I didn't sleep at all from fear of missing the alarm clock and amara wakin up to nurse and adessa goin to the bathroom. So I got up at 5:30 got everyone ready, cleaned up the hous and we were on the road by 7 am. Right on time! However when we got to the airport we discovered that our flight has been delayed 4 hours!!! And we aren't even quite sure why- apparently it was still in Mexico or something! So with our wonderful friends Amelia and Nathan Lowe who met is at the airport to take our van we went for our free voucher breakfast at white spot within the airport. But you can only sit so long before everyone goes stir crazy! So we got up and walked around awhile which led us to 10:30 am... When we were supposed to be boarding!!! Our friends the lowes are house sitting near the airport so invited us over for a bit- which we happily obliged! 

It is a gorgeous old heritage home with ocean view and i am sitting here on the couch looking at this.... 

I just put amara down to nap in a playpen already set up and the girls are happily playing with the numerous toys! 

It is so awesome how God always provides for us! So as upset as I am by the delay in making this an extra extra long day and not arriving until super late... We will make the best of it as He always provides for us!!! Hopefully there are no more delays and both girls sleep on the airplane and hopefully my next post will be in Mexico!!!! 

Trip update... Back at the airport for 1 pm to go through customs, flight delayed another 1.5 hrs!!! Argh!! So we are sitting at the airport in the play area with the girls for 2.5 hrs 😩 

The lady at the gift shop recommended this book... So hopefully I get a chance to sip on my chai and read while breathing deeply... This is going to be a looooong day!!!! 

No school today!

Today was a day off of school for Danika. We actually didn't send Adessa to school at all this week because we are leaving for Mexico in 2 sleeps. And there is a nasty flu going around the school. We are getting so very excited with squeals every morning this week as the countdown is on! 

I have been slowly packing all week and trying to organize the house. Packing for a family of five is quite the feat, it has been challenging trying to pack for 2 weeks away with an infant. 

We have been trying to take meeko for lots of walks this week and today we went out to the dog park and as we pulled up there was a huge frenzy with a pit bull attacking a lady's dog who we always see there. It was scary, eventually they pulled the dog off and the lady drove off quickly quite upset with the dog. I was so thankful we weren't out at that time! 

It was a fun walk... I love watching my girls play outside together as they have been fighting a lot at home, but outside they seem to forget their annoyances with one another and just have fun.

Big sister holding her 'baby sister'

Danika's 'present' to Adessa in their home at the beach

This Kid is just awesome

Whenever we walk to the beach at Osborne Bay the girls pretend this area is their house... I stay at the beach and play fetch with Meeko during this time!

Cool fog on the ocean... it was a lovely afternoon!

Amara is 11 months old and she just realized that she could start moving around her crib and for the past 2 weeks I have found her sitting up in it and sleeping on her tummy. It took her awhile to figure it out, but now that she has she is so proud of herself! 

She is also picking up speed with her crawling and trying to follow me around the house, but has a forehead with bruises because her head gets going ahead of her hands, poor little girl! 

My morning greeter... such a happy baby!

Pizza party with the girls. Amara is trying to eat the pizza!

I finally got around to making Amara's blanket. It took me FOREVER to remember how to work my sewing machine... it has been awhile but I was shocked not to be able to remember... thank goodness for youtube!

The first 2 have their blankets that they are attached to... I am hoping Amara finds comfort with this one!

Amara's hair every morning and after naps. We have had to cut out a few of her dreadlocks, but it is hard to keep on top of untangling them!

A few random shots from our Christmas Season

Our Christmas tree... we bought it on clearance at the end of the season last year as our first real one came with so many creepy crawlies!

Annual Christmas in Crofton parade... it was actually really good. The few stores in Crofton were handing out goodie bags, Santa was on one of the floats, there was popcorn, hot chocolate and Christmas carols put on by our church. Small town living at it's finest!

It happened... my husband got his vasectomy. And our wonderful friend the vet brought over a little gift! 

Just a day hanging out with Dess

Adessas darling preschool crafts- baby Jesus made out of nylons and a manger scene out of tongue depressors! 

One day right before Christmas I came into the living room to see Amara had scooted her bum to grab the Christmas tree!

And then she learned how to scoot herself backwards... not fun for anyone...but especially not her, no way to direct herself!

My 2 little elf's!

A couple days after Christmas we took the ferry to Thetis island to visit the Brownley's. Steve and his crew just finished tearing down their home and rebuilding it on their existing foundation. It has been quite the overhaul and quite the headache having to deal with getting supplies over on the ferry as Thetis has zero amenities on it! But they have moved in, and we wanted to bring over a moving in gift. There are still the finishing touches, but I have never been over to Thetis before and I was anxious to see it. Thankfully we went over on another gorgeous day on the island!

Once the place is completely done and they are fully moved in, we will get our friend the photographer to come over and take good photos...but here are a few from our phone! The quality of the place is absolutely amazing! The view is unreal, they overlook the ocean, with their own beach and it is like having the discovery channel outside your window. 

They said for us to pick a weekend in the summer and they will go camping and we can come take over their home... I am very much looking forward to that! 

We started a few new traditions this year. One was to drive around and find the coolest lights... this one took the cake. They had their own radio station that you tuned into right outside their house and their lights went to each song... it was pretty amazing! I can't imagine the amount of work that went into it... or their power bill for the month!

Adessa on Christmas morning... she got a new Maplea Doll named Leonie, a backpack for said doll and new goggles... she had to try them all on and give them a try outside. She is pretty awesome!

One comment she made this holiday- in the car one day she straight faced said. "You know what I want for Christmas? A new born baby so it can suck on my nipple." Totally straight faced... Steve and I could not keep it in and have been laughing ever since! Crazy kid! 

Fun Saturday!

Yesterday we headed out to our good friends Chris and Sharon's for the afternoon. As soon as we got there Chris took Steve off for the afternoon on the quads. They had a blast and were gone a couple hours. During that time Sharon and I prepped dinner- she had already spent the morning chopping veggies for Chinese food that evening. Then we took the kids out for a long walk. It was a gorgeous day, and all the puddles were frozen over so the kids had tons of fun cracking them all up! It was fun watching the kids having so much fun together! 

Sharon- the awesome hostess loaded me up with a hot chai before heading out. 

Baby snuggles! This little monkey didn't nap all afternoon! But she was still in such a great mood! 

Such a great day, we always have so much fun with this lovely family! 

Christmas concerts

This year both girls concerts were on the same night... different places! Thankfully though, Danika had a performance at 1 in the afternoon so Steve was able to take off time to come watch her at that first performance and then we pulled her from the evening one to go watch her little sister!

Adessa has been singing her song for about a month straight, so she was very excited!
Danika didn't talk about her's very much, and she was very serious the whole time... but she sang her little heart out. My pretty little girl!

Adessa made this costume with her buddy at school. She was very excited!

New Years at Pacific Shores- Amara crawls!

I bought a groupon during the summer for one of our favorite place up near Parksville. We had been there a couple times before. Once the girls and I went up for Canada day with my parents when Adessa was a baby and again with mom, dad, Linsey and Adam when they all came for a visit. It is a pretty special place. We were fortunate enough to book it for New years and went up for 2 nights. Once again we filled the back of Steves truck... babies come with a lot of baggage!!! Stroller, playpen, high chair, food for 3 days, clothes, life jackets, floaty toys. The list is extensive. We were all a little stressed when we finally got up there, even though it is only a couple hours. But we had to stop for groceries and to pick up our traditional New years eve feast that we are carrying on from my childhood!

We got there, set everything up and sat back and treated ourselves to a bit of cable television as we haven't had cable in our house for about a year. The girls were fascinated by commercials and I was quickly reminded why we decided to get rid of it!!!

Amara has been sick for about a month, fighting one thing after another... its been a hard month in that regard, we have found since she turned about 9 months that things have become a bit tricky! The first 2 girls are so big and independent and we were at the point of just packing up and going, and now Amara needs her 2 naps a day or else she is GRUMPY and it kind of wrecks the rest of everyone's day! But we love her to bits and wouldn't trade her for anything... its just a bit tough! We went out for a walk around the resort and the weather was so balmy the entire time we were there. Around 10 degrees and shoots were coming up all over and the cherry blossoms were starting to bloom!

Amara and I dropped Steve and the girls off at the pool and headed back to the room for nap time. Amara slept and I prepped dinner then talked to my mom for awhile. My parents were just getting back from their annual ski trip... I was very sad to miss it, we sure missed our family this Christmas! It was so nice to catch up! I was getting a bit worried about Steve and the girls though as they had been gone for 3 hours! But it was nice to enjoy some quiet with Amara and just enjoy my quickly growing little babe.

The night was rough and no one slept very good at all, so the next morning we all slept in a bit, watched a lot of TV, made french toast, then slowly got ready and went out to explore the beaches. We came back, ate lunch, watched more TV then went to the pool for a couple hours. We took Amara this time and she had a blast... she loves the water!!

We went out to the outdoor hot tub and had the place to ourselves...it felt like we were somewhere tropical, as it was so warm outside and there were palm trees and waterfalls!

When we got back to our room, we were surprised by a good friend visiting from Ucluelet. She also has 3 kids. Her youngest is 1 week younger than Amara. We had a drink together and nice visit. Her daughter, Charlotte has been crawling for a few months and then something funny happened. I was saying how Amara cant crawl yet, just scoots herself around and we look at her and she is slowly crawling toward the kitchen table! So AMARA CRAWLS!

Then I prepared our yummy chicken cordon bleu dinner and twice baked potatoes with Martinellis. We had a big plan for the night with treats, movies and games. But right after dinner Adessa said she wanted to go to bed, so we put Amara and Adessa to bed at the same time- 6:50pm... the lack of sleep the night before and all the swimming wore them out.

Oh and Adessa and Danika are pretty awesome little swimmers. Danika swims across the pool no problem and Adessa has no fear which is kind of terrifying. She jumps in and dives under... taught herself how to do somersaults underwater and sit on the bottom of the pool with her big sister! They are going to be ready for MEXICO... which we are leaving for in 17 more sleeps! Excitement is running pretty high in this household!

The day we had to pack up and leave there was a little party for Heather's daughter, Natalie who was turning 4, so a few girlfriends and their daughters came up from Crofton and we had a little party with lots of giggling girls! There was snacks in the resort room and then a pool party where we had the whole place to ourselves!

Beautiful room, with kitchen and 1 bedroom... 

Beautiful view from our room

One blessed mama!!!

Love this photo... a special shell 

Some ladies walked by as we were exploring and asked to take a family photo!