Spring 2017

The Spring has come and gone and now we are well into summer. In my last post I mentioned that Elva had her Mahogany preschool Graduation on June 17. Caeleb's last day of Grade 1 with Ms Feltham at Copperfield school was Wednesday June 28th. He spent his last 3 days of school learning how to rollerblade for gym class. How fun! Also, Caeleb and his class went to the Zoo at the beginning of June and Elva and her class went on a field trip to Butterfield acres. I am proud of both kids and all they have accomplished this year with their schooling. Caeleb is becoming a good little reader and writer - he loves to write and illustrate his own little books. Elva has become good at patterns and counting numbers.

Caeleb lost his first 2 teeth in June. It was really interesting. The adult teeth had been coming in behind the baby teeth so he had 2 sets of teeth for what seemed like a few months. Those 2 front bottom baby teeth wanted to keep holding on and I even tried tying some floss around them to pull them out which loosened them more and they both fell out soon after. Of course he left them under his pillow for a visit from the tooth fairy and he got a toonie per tooth so he is getting rich.

Mary is talking so much now. Her language took off in April I believe and she has been repeating everything everyone says. Shoe was one of her favorite first words and she loves to get her "shoes" on and go "owsi" (outside). She says so much now and is speaking short sentences - "les go (Lets go), Come on, eat, peas (please), tankoo (thank you). And she sure knows the word No! She says that one and stomps her foot when she does not want to do something. She is an opinionated little girl and like most 1 year olds, she wants to be outside exploring all the time. Oh, and she just learned to say her age. When asked how old she is, she say "un" (one).

We are watching Max and Sebastian Tuesday to Friday this Summer from 7:30 to 5:15 which makes for a long day and really limits us to staying at home as we do not have enough seats in the van but I guess we do not have much money anyways, so we best stay at home so as to not spend money. The kids play pretty well - with the standard daily fight or two or three. But Sebastian and Caeleb are best friends and they all do have fun together - even Mary tries to keep up and toddles after them as fast as she can go. I am not sure if  we will have more kids so I need to enjoy this time with these 5 kids running around. I can hear them all playing downstairs right now and I am going to miss this someday - it really is a busy beautiful sound!. And now I hear Mary crying so I got to run. Until next time.

To the Men in my life

Well, when I wrote my "shout out to women" post, I said that I would write about Fathers day and that was almost a month ago but it has been on my mind. I think my thoughts may flow better if I just start writing. I hope Chris had a good Fathers Day. It was Elva's preschool graduation the day before and Nana and Papa came up for that. Elva looked so cute in her graduation cap ( I did take pictures but can not upload them here as it is tricky to do). They sang "Down by the bay where the watermelons grow" and "where or where has preschool gone." Elva had two amazing teachers who went above and beyond with their class. She had 8 classmates. Afterwards, I took the kids to the farm so that Chris could study a little and then have the evening to himself to do whatever he wanted. He has been working so hard and I wanted to give him some time to relax. We came back on Sunday after going to Sacrament meeting in Champion. I had to teach Relief Society. Then we had supper and an evening as a family. We went for a long walk discovering new paths around Copperfield.

I am so grateful for my husband Chris. Sometimes I have my eyes down and it is hard to see past the bumps and curves in life's road but when I do look up, I see forever and I see Chris. He is part of that forever and that makes complete sense to me even when I have a hard time making sense of the here and now. I am grateful for Chris' christ like example. For is optimism. For his perseverance. For the love that he has for his children. For his unconditional love for me. I would feel lost without him!

I am grateful for my dad. For his christ like example, his quiet goodness, his steadfastness to doing what is right, his simple yet strong unwavering faith, his love for his Grandkids.

I am grateful for my brother, for his love of life, his love of new hobbies and adventures. For his ability to be an amazing uncle/second dad to the kids.

I am grateful for my father in law Gary, for his love of life. He always has a twinkle in his eye and is always laughing and enjoying the present.  And we always love listening to his stories.

I think some things that these men have in common is that they don't waste time fretting about the future but they enjoy the moment to the fullest. They don't compare themselves to others, they don't spend time thinking about regrets, they just move forward and they are okay being who they are. I admire these attributes and want to do better applying them in my life.

I know that Fathers day is important. There are some amazing men in the world and they need to know how amazing they are!