MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Morning, excited and waiting to open presents!

It's 8:30am here on Christmas morning. It's just Brooklynn and I awake right now and we're waiting for Dad to come out and open presents with us! We had a great Christmas Eve with lots of family. There were 45 people to share dinner with which was hosted by Jason's Aunt and Uncle. Brooklynn looked as cute as ever, and we're so greatful to have her in our family this year to share this wonderful season. I can't wait until she understands Santa!

I hope all of you enjoy family, and the celebrations of this season, and remember the true meaning, which is none other then the birth of our Savior and that he came into the world for the sake of us having eternal life. I'm so thankful for my family and the great joy and wonderful blessings they are to share this life with.

Hope you all enjoyed your day, Merry Christmas :)

Ward Christmas Party

I wonder how she will act towards Santa next year? I witnessed two extremes from other kiddies full of uncontainable joy and excitement, or tears and screaming.

As much as I enjoyed it, I am soo glad it's over! I am on the activities committee, and when it comes to Christmas and planning the party, stress is instantly on the rise. I didn't have to do as much work this year as last year because they cut me some slack having a baby and all, hee hee I love getting that type of sympathy. Babies can be the greatest excuses sometimes when you can't make it/ are too tired to go to a meeting or something- haha! Well I would always get minutes over the phone instead of actually having to drive to someones house. I was seriously never able to make them because they held them when I'd be feeding Brooklynn and putting her to bed while Jason was still at a YM's activity or something, so it wasn't really my fault either...

Funny, I was watching Dawson's Creek today (random I know) and Dawson's mother said you're trying to hard to make excuses for something when you end up using more than one excuse. Oh I do feel guilty, there the truth is out! But I put forth my best effort in fulfilling my task of putting together the program and I was very happy with how it turned out. All was well and our little family really enjoyed it. And any mother who has/ had a little baby girl will tell how fun it is to take them out in a cute fancy dress to show them off. I did exactly that.

Christmas Camera Action

Random pic update for your enjoyment. We hope you are all getting in the Christmas spirit. We send our love :)

Mom is happy because I am about to go to bed...

"Oh Picture time!"
"Hi Family, I miss you"

"I am sooo excited for Christmas, aren't you?"

'Ugh, how many more pictures?"

Future Prima Ballerina

Quick wardrobe change, she puked on her shirt.

"Did you do your scripture study today"?

Max sleeping under the tree.

Max loves the camera too.

Birthdays, Trips, and Adventures

November has been a fun month with great weather. I am really enjoying the back to back Chinooks we've had, minus the little migraines here and there from the pressure change, but a couple Advil and I'm good to go. Sure beats driving in the snow and waking up to freezing temperatures in the morning, which I know will be well on their way shortly :( So last weekend was a fun one for Jason and his dad while they hit up the 49ers game on Thursday and saw some families he knew from his mission. Jason isn't the greatest with giving lots of details, and I usually receive his watered down version of most instances or stories, so as far as I am concerned or know he had a lot of fun there, wants to move there and was happy the Niners won. The End.
We were lucky he even made it there at all because the day before he flew out he had to get a rush passport done in Edmonton. He thought he would be fine getting into the States with his birth certificate because he is American, however that is not the case... Airlines will ONLY accept a passport! SO we had a fun little, and LAST minute trip to Edmonton Tuesday night and stayed with his sister. We were able to go out to dinner and check out West Edmonton mall, which is amazing, and I must get back there soon so I can see more than the fraction I caught a glimpse of the hour before it closed. I did manage to grab some very cute things for Brooklynn at H&M, man they have the BEST clothes for little girlies and great prices.
Things are winding down now only for a short time before the hustle and bustle pick up around this Christmas Season. My tree is up, but just waiting to be decorated. I've really been busy lately trying to cook up some good baby food ideas from scratch and scrapbooking. I took on an ADVANCE (see I told you Megan) scrapbooking project on the weekend. It's a advent calendar Christmas tree, and I am quite proud of it. I may have to post a picture when it is completed. For those of you who know me, know that I struggle and haven't quite jumped the bandwagon and developed the beautiful talent of scrapbooking, especially the way my in-laws do. Maybe one day, I am just soo incredibly slow with it.

Happy 25th Birthday Jason!

Little 49ers fan in the making.

Spending some time with her cousin Treyden, they are really cute with each other and he loves to give her hugs and kisses.

Brooklynn loves her new highchair, thanks again Grandma and Grandpa. I LOVE it too, sure makes feeding time a lot better :)

Happy Birthday Jason

I know this is late, but I was SOO busy last weekend. We were running all over the place.
I know Jason had a wonderful Birthday though, I booked him an hour long massage and I will never question in my head again if that was a good birthday gift or not. IT WAS PERFECT. I wish I had a picture of him when he was done, he looked as if he came out of hibernation! He was so relaxed and calm afterwards, it was cute.
We had cake at our place later on, and then the following day (Saturday morning) we headed out to his parent's house and had breakfast with them. Jason recieved yet another amazing gift, tickets to the 49er's game this Thursday! Yep, Jason and his dad are off the California tonight (Wednesday) until Saturday. They will have a lot of fun, and I'm so excited for him!
Happy Birthday Sweetie - xoxo

Happy Be-lated Halloween!

Brooklynn's first Halloween was just as good as it gets with dressing up and looking cuter than ever, going to parties, and staying up late! We even went Trick or Treating with Daddy, Mommy and Max (to one house, The Brown's) and got a Kinder Surprise. Can't wait for next year.

I Love Nothing More...

than big baby kisses,
and soft baby hands grabbing my face

squeezing my cheeks

because this is how she shows her love

I believe In MIRACLES

Today started off with me being a little flustered as I was bracing myself for the news I might receive as I went for an ultrasound. 4 1/2 months ago my doctor explained that I would have to have my whole right ovary removed because it had ballooned so big with the cyst attached to it. This had been really hard for me to deal with and I cried at times thinking my ability to have more children decreased 50%, or I was simply losing part of my womanhood too. However I knew it had to be dealt with and the size was quite worrisome (it was as large as Brooklynn's head when she was born!)
My follow up appointment today was to see if the cyst had shrunk at all, and if it would alter the type of operation I'd need to deal with it. When the Tec came back in the room she said the Doctor thought everything looked great. In my head I thought, "what the heck does great mean?", "is it doing just fine, still large, and hanging out on my ovary???" Then she added it's completely disappeared and things are back to normal. I started to cry, and told her how I couldn't believe it, and I was preparing myself to undergo surgery and have my ovary removed next month, and that this was the GREATEST news she could possibly share with me. I'm still in shock. This is the answer to my many prayers, where I told my Heavenly Father that I was leaving this matter in his hands, and that he knew my concerns, but I would have the faith I needed to take care of this and go on with life, having had the surgery if needed.
He gave me my own little miracle today, along with the many he places in my life all the time, but this is an experience that strengthened my testimony for he surely hears and answers our prayers.

Love

Today hasn't been a day much different than any other, ran a few errands, cleaning, and tending to Brooklynn as usual, however I feel lately I'm really coming into my role as a mother and the things I do for responsibility now. Sometimes I don't give myself credit for all that I do because I never seemed satisfied with all I get done in the run of the day, like I just don't accomplish enough to feel a sense of gratification with myself most of the time.
At the end of today I was getting Brooklynn ready for bed and I changed somewhere around the 7th diaper of the day, and started to cry a little. NOT because I was upset, or breaking down because this is probably the 3000th diaper I've changed... No. It actually was one of the moments where I felt I crossed over a little further into the role of motherhood, where I understand that I love to do this and take care of my little girl because I love her SO much. I would do anything for her, and I have to admit I don't always take credit for the work I do in the run of a day or week or however long it's been. I tell her I love her all the time, I kiss her, snuggle her and enjoy all her little giggles and smiles, but lately I've witnessed many milestones and she is going to be 6 months old next week. She is growing so fast and is so healthy and taking the moment to ponder that tonight as I wiped her bum really brought tears to my eyes. I'm so proud of her and her accomplishments are my greatest accomplishments. How rewarding it truly is to see how amazing her life has made mine. I'd do ANYTHING for her, I can't thank my Heavenly Father enough for letting me care for and enjoy my life with such a little angel. She's the greatest thing to ever happen to me.
It's kind of ironic how changing her diaper brought on such emotion, but it really is moments like that, that I realize the type of service we so easily render from true LOVE.

Who's This Big Girl?

She is quite the little charmer....
Has been getting her feet wet...

She reeally LOVES the water,

and sits up so well on her own... sometimes...

and is almost 5 months old!

HALLELUJAH

Happy First Day of BACK TO SCHOOL!!!

I know you can't tell by his expression but he is really excited... we're ALL excited, aren't we???
After a yummy breakfast we dropped Jason off at school to start the first day of his 2 year journey at Mount Royal UNIVERSITY (they've changed all the signage on campus already). Jason will finish his Bachelors in Business Administration there. So best of luck Jason, we're with you all the way :)

Birthdays, Cabins, and the ending of our Summer

Before you dive into my massive post below, here is a picture of the curtains I made for Brooklynn's room. The valance is made from her old crib bumpers that came with her bedding set and the drapes are fabric I bought to match. I'm not a sewer by any means so I am actually proud of my work and especially wanted my mom to see the end product. Thanks to Grandma Bennion too for all her tips and help :)

Here We Go:

We continue to be busy over here, and any moment I think things will slow down and we'll being staying put for a bit, we take off again. I returned back to Calgary on August 9th and since then we've been out to Invermere, and Shuswap.
I had a great trip home and it was so nice to kick my feet up and relax and have tons of willing arms to place Brooklynn in. I love her so much but it's always nice to find more breaks in the run of my day and have my hands a little more free because she's getting kinda heavy! We had a doctor's appointment last week and she is almost 16 lbs now, and very strong for her age. At four months she was rolling over both ways, and starting sitting up at 4 1/2 months. It looks awkward and unbalanced but still it's great progress for her and I love witnessing all these big milestones lately.
Right now we are enjoying a nice and relaxing long weekend at home and making sure Jason has everything ready to head back to school. He's attending Mount Royal, which now has University status. Jason will be finishing his Bachelors in Business Administration and is really looking forward to getting back into to groove of school and just finishing up already. I'm really happy for him to go back but will definitely miss having him around the house, however he was always very busy here dealing with the property management. I have to take on more of the management responsibilities now and have already been doing some of the showings. I really enjoy it too so it hardly feels like work, well so far at least.

On a side note: We have a few available places right now so if anyone if looking for a place to live be sure to let me know, we love have lots of young married couples and Ysa in our buildings.

Before I post a schwack of photos I have to do my little recap of the events in my title and the first to mention is my sister's Amanda's birthday. It was lovely. Brooklynn gave her some Mac makeup wrapped up in a (clean) diaper. I took that cute idea from my sister in-law who gave me a present in a diaper. I added ribbon and stuff and had fun wrapping it, I recommend it for anyone to try. Jason and I took her out to dinner at Open Sesame and my other sister in-law Jenna came too. We were sad to miss Jenny but she was in Hamilton with her husband attending a wedding.
We were very happy to be invited out to the Allred's cabin for the last part of August and beginning of September. We stayed out there for almost a whole week. We love being able to spend time with Jordan and Trisha who are still at BYU finishing up their education and because of that we don't see them very often. Jordan came down with the flu too while we were out there which was sad, luckily we got some wake boarding and tube rides in before that happened.
It was really nice for Jason to have some fun out in Shuswap again because the way things ended off in July at his cabin sucked. He was suffering from 2nd degree burns and had to stay out of the water completely. They are healing very well, but his legs look a little weird for the time being. They're patchy with variations of pigment. Poor guy.
So now we're winding down and waiting for fall to come and go so ever quickly. I wish it lasted longer in Calgary but the weather here is so crazy and inconsistent. So my fingers are crossed and I hope it can at least be similar to last year which was really nice (for Calgary), we didn't have snow until November.
That reminds me, does anyone have cute Halloween costume ideas for babies? I'd love for us to match as a family somehow but I seem to have thinking block on this topic so any suggestions would be great :)

Auntie Manda and Brooklynn

Shuswap Adventures:

Digging out part of the mountain for the Allred's cabin extension.

Max and Jason being towed after some crazy tube rides.

Brooklynn with her Unkie Mort

We ended up staying an extra 2 days that I didn't plan on. There was no washing machine out there and we were all out of outfits for our little girl so Jason washed Brooklynn's clothes in a bucket of hot water and soap and hung them to dry. What a great dad!

Brooklynn working on her sitting stance.

Queen of the cabin, wearing Jordan's neckbrace as a crown

The forest fires were insane and the air was so thick from smoke and ash that it was hard to breathe sometimes. You couldn't even see the mountain range across the lake.

This is the blood red sun on Sunday morning. This photo doens't do it justice and the night before there was a blood red moon over the lake.

Finally got to see Auntie Jenny after being away again.

Came to see Grandma Lee after coming home from the cabin.

How we spent out Labour Day:

Our family stroll to the frisbee park

He is so possessive of his frisbee that he won't let it out of his site. He has to carry it all the way to the park and on the way home. Very OCD but cute.

Daddy and his girl

She loves to play with her dad. I'm just not as fun as he is...

I'm not quite sure where she got her piercing blue eyes from but they amaze me and I love her sooo much!