Kids

Kids

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Happy Birthday Papa!

A few weekends back we went to Cardston for Sunday afternoon. With our different church responsibilities, it is difficult to sneak away. It was our Stake Conference and we didn't have out usual Sunday duties, so we took the opportunity to go. The day before was Papa's birthday, so after dinner we had a cake and sang happy birthday. The kids were so excited!!

Another reason we went down was so Doug could help Dad with providing a priesthood blessing for Mama. That following Wednesday she was scheduled for her knee replacement and of course, she was nervous. I wish I could express the feeling that was felt during the blessing...peace, strength, love, clarity. It was beautiful. just yesterday, Mama shared her experience with us in regards to the blessing. Just to share a piece of what she said, as soon as both Papa and Doug's hands were on her head, she said she could feel the power to the priesthood radiate through her body. She knew everything was going to be great.

I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and especially the priesthood. I have been blessed time and time again by the gift of the priesthood. How unbelievably grateful I am to Doug for holding and honouring the priesthood he holds. It is such a privilege to watch my father in law honour and exercise his priesthood. Papa, you are. Shining example to us - especially your son and grandsons.

I love spending time with my mother and father in law. You guys are amazing. Thanks for loving me like your own!!

Bird house

For Easter, the Easter Bunny brought the kids a Bird house to decorate. Rob went on a daddy son date, John went for a nap and Nola and I painted the Bird house. She painting for a full hour and a half! She would paint it one way, the re paint it another, then another! If you could peel each layer of paint back, you could see all her different masterpieces. The Bird house is now outside on our front entry way :)

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Being present

My best friend and I (Hi Simone!!!) were talking on the phone today, and as always, we got talking about the kids. One of the main things I LOVE about my relationship with Simone is that we can be so openly and blatantly truthful with one another. We talk a lot about the realities of motherhood...you know, the stuff no one wants to talk about. Today, however, our conversation really got me thinking.

We were taking about the opportunity we have of truly being present mothers. We are our children's primary caregivers and we spend majority of our time with them. Now, I will be the first to admit that spending so much time with my children can drive me absolutely insane, however it really is a privilege to be able to do so. The blessing we were talking about in regards to being present in our children's lives is the opportunity to answer their questions. She shared a humorous story about Adam, her 5 year old son, and his determination to understand why women have breasts. Does every woman have boobs? Did you always have boobs? Are they all big? Can they be as big as the roof? We had a good laugh about this, but then the conversation got a little deeper and has really got me thinking.

Nola is 5 and at this stage of life she has a lot of questions. A LOT of questions. She is curious about everything around her and she is truly trying to understand how things work in the world. Most of the time, the questions are about the world around us - why don't dog's talk? Where does the water in the swimming pool come from? How did my shorts get a picture of a heart on them? Why are our eyes different? Why can't scissors cut this rock? Is Batman from the Avengers or the Justice League?

The questions don't stop...like ever. BUT, and there is a big but, every once in a while you get a question like Mommy, is Jesus really real? Or How did I get to be your daughter and you got to be my mommy? When I grow up, can I teach my daughter how to make buns?

With all these questions, she also blesses me with the answers she does know. Mom, you married Daddy because you love him and he loves you. God wants me to pray. Home is my favourite place. My family loves me. When I feel sad, Jesus holds me and males me feel better.

Funny, isn't it usually the things that drive you the most crazy about mothering that bring forth the sweetest fruits? I hope I can take the time and effort to see these opportunities with my children for the slices of heaven they are. To answer the questions, even if the question is how many real cats do you think we could fit in the van.

I love my kids, ferociously. I want to be the best mother, the best person I possibly can be for them. My thanks is to God not only for the privilege of being a mother, but also for the humility and guidance to be a better mother tomorrow than I was today.

Nola, Rob and John, if and when you read this, please know that I am trying my best to be your mom. Being a mother is ridiculously hard... I have no idea why I am doing, but I turn to the Lord and ask for his guidance in all decisions I make. When I make the wrong choice, I ask for His forgiveness and I ask for your too. I love you guys SO much. Too much for words. Too much for this blog. Too much for me to every express in one go. I hope ans pray that you will always know how much your mother loves you.

Last week

Last week was amazing. Simply amazing. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Dougie and I had holidays from work. For our days off, we had such a perfect balance of play, 'honey-do's' and down time. We got so much done around the house! I finished up decorating John's room, we hung photos in the basement, Doug finished building the shelves in the garage and I'm nearly done Nolas quilt. We had our Calgary trip, went on family walks, snuggled while watching a movie and played games.

Last week was exactly what the doctor ordered - concentrated doses of family time. This week, we are right back into the thick of life. Doug is in audit, I'm working, we've got birthday parties, stake conference and other commitments filling our days. How truly grateful I am for the strength, peace and joy I feel from my family. They give me such perspective and drive to push through the day to day challenges I face - no matter how big or small. There is no doubt in my mind whether or not the family is of God. Family IS the centre of the Lords great plan of happiness for us....even when they drive you crazy :)

Monday, April 6, 2015

Family fun trip!

Ah, the Walton family fun trip :)

We do the exact same thing every time we have our family fun trip - up to Calgary to the Crossiron Mills mall, lunch at South Street Burger, walk around Bass Pro Shop, pick a toy from them Disney store, run the mall halls and finish off with an ice cream. Pretty. Darn. Awesome.

A few fun things to note
- Nola brought the glasses from her Dr set and wore them around the mall! We had people staring at her left, right and centre. SO funny!!
- the kids ate so good! Even Rob ate all of his lunch and supper :)
- John was good for quite some time just sitting in his stroller, but once we let him out to run, he was a wild man!! He also went up to every other baby in a stroller and said 'Hi!'
- the kids picked some toys from the Disney Store. Nola picked a big Marie kitty. She has a small Marie and has loved it to death. Now she has a fresh new big one! Rob picked Hulk hands. Hahaha! He is hilarious! He walked around the mall with his angry hulk face and his big hulk hands.
- we took the kids to the arcade. Now, for those who know me, I am cheap, but I swear I wasn't being cheap! We let them play all the games without paying. Why? Last time we actually had the kids play the games, they didn't know how and lost interest! Rob would simply walk away from the car racing game because the car wasn't moving! So, we let them just sit in the games are press the buttons and they thought they were winning!!

We had so many people stare at us today, but most of those staring gave us a great big smile and had a little chuckle at our darling children.

We had such a happy day. Man, I just love my family!!

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Easter Morning

Easter morning was a hoot, as most holidays are with little ones. The kids were so excited that the Easter bunny came and hid some eggs for them. Nola and Robbie were able to hunt for the eggs upstairs, but they had to wait for John John to wake up before going down stairs. One of the best parts for me? Watching Nola with her brothers. She loves them dearly. Not only did she share the eggs she had in her basket, but when she found eggs, she would call either of her brothers over to grab them. It was darling to watch.

The kids are all crazy for chocolate...we knew that a long time ago! They got spoiled by GG, Nana and Papa, Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle AJ and Auntie Sar. It was a perfect Easter morning at home with our little family.

Just Us

Dougie and I have booked time off work this week for family holidays. Our plan has always been to go to Creston to see Simone and Britt. Well, mid last week it became blatantly obvious that we just needed to stay home and have some family time. At first, I was pretty darn bummed about this. I was SO looking forward to spending some time with my girls in Creston, but I could see the need here.

I am happy to report that so far, this family time has been amazing! We were able to do Easter just us, conference just us, a snowy walk and building a snowman just us, and simply being together just us.

As the days and years pass, I am realizing more and more that THIS is it. Doug, Nola, Rob and John are my family. Now, I don't want to make it sound like think our parents, siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews, best friends or whoever are unimportant, but nothing compares to 'just us'. And really, I think this is how it supposed to be. This is the second holiday we have spent 'just us' and it is freakin' awesome. I love my family. I love the memories we are creating together. I love the questions I get to answer for my kids. I love the conversations we have - the goofy, the serious and everything in between.

I love my family. And I'm so happy to be 'just us'.

General Conference

Can I just start by saying how much I love General conference?!? It truly is one of my most cherished times of the year. For those who do not know what it is, each year the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints hold two semi-annual conferences from Salt Lake City. In these conferences, our prophet, currently Thomas S. Monson, his counselors, the 12 apostles and quorums of the seventy speak to us. We get to hear from the Prophet of God! What a gift and blessing!! With each session I am touched by the Spirit of the Lord and feel such a resolve to do better, to try harder,to be more. This time was no exception.

With having three small kids, it's tricky to actively listen to conference. Often, Dougie and I catch up the following weeks by listening to them online or reading them in the Ensign. With that being said, we felt this year that we need to be getting the kid more involved with conference. We didn't set our expectations too high, but we had a plan.

We played a game. The night before, Nola and I prepared notes of papers with specific word on them. We had 'prayer',
'happiness', 'scriptures', 'love', 'Jesus', 'blessings' and 'temple'. We also had pictures of all the apostles posted on the wall. When each speaker was presented, the kids would pick a word from the hat and then take down the speakers picture from the wall and post them on the eisle. Every time they heard the word from the paper, they had to raise their hand and then they would get to eat one of their Easter chocolates. It worked pretty good!! Nola caught on and was catching words left, right and centre! Robbie just ran around pretending he was Thor and John bounced back between snuggling and ripping the picture off the wall. All in all, it was a success!

It is a privilege to be able to teach our children about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I am so grateful to them for all that I have!!


...I do just have to share a funny little story. One of the speakers spoke in his native language and it was translated in English. So while this man spoke, another voice was recorded over top of his voice speaking English. My kids love the movie 'Prince of Egypt' so when the voice over came on, Robbie gasped and said 'Is it Moses?!?!' Doug and I tried not to laugh because he was totally serious! We explained to him what was going on and told his that the man was named Rafael. With an even more confused look on his face, Robbie burst out laughing and said 'No! That's not Raphael!!' Remember, Robbie IS a ninja turtle, and he knew that the guy on tv was not Raphael. We continued to explain what was going on, but then the speaker started talking about the artist Michaelangelo!!! At that point, Dougie and I couldn't hold it on anymore. We laughed until our stomachs hurt! What were the odds!!