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!