7 Weeks of Snow Fall Warnings!

Just in case anyone is interested ... this is what 7 weeks of snow fall warnings looks like!

Busy Past Month

The past month has been really busy for me. A good busy.

Here are a few photo's of what we have been up to ... they are not in order, such is my life! ;)

Jarem's littlest brother David married beautiful Priscila!

We had a great trip to Calgary enjoying the festive event, CrossIron Mills mall, and hotel pool fun

... and really crummy roads home!

Emery turned 8 years-old and we enjoyed 2 great weekends of celebrating. We enjoyed a Saturday afternoon at the pool with many of his new friends. Then 2 weeks later family came up and he was Baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. He was SO excited, as you can tell from the picture! He is growing into a great little man!

This week marked a year since my Mother-in-Law Peggy passed away. She was a beautiful woman, with a beautiful heart. I am so grateful for her and what I have learned of myself through her the past 2 years.  This is one of my favorite pictures of her, she is holding Marjie who is 2 weeks old in the picture.

We had family pictures taken. First 'real' family pictures since 2006!

This picture pretty much sums up our little family! 

2 super silly's, 1 in his own world, Marjie trying to go the opposite direction, 

Mom holding on best she can 

and Dad sitting there with a goofy look on his face!

who they were yesterday, made me who I am today.

The past few days have led myself to contemplate and think about our decision to move here to Grande Prairie. We are so happy that we live here and really do love it! Jarem has no desire to leave, and I am behind him 100%!

At first I was happy that it had a Costco, but as we have now spent 3 and a half months here my list of what Grande Prairie has to offer has grown tremendously and we are feeling very blessed! Particularly with all the people we have met to far. Some I have actually known since I was a small child, others are new friends and I look forward to many years ahead of us.

Now let me take you back several years. We were living in Edmonton and found out there was a chance to move to Saskatoon. We wondered how we could possibly make such a big move ... while we sat in our good friends home ... they had moved from Spain a few years previous. Needless to say, they didn't offer much comfort, they wondered why we were being so whiny about moving 5 hours away.

So, we moved to Saskatoon for Jarem to finish school.

Three years later Jarem moved to Lloydminster, a 2 hour move. 6 months later the kids and I joined him.

After some adversity and jobs that were not making our family happy we decided, well, more felt inspired that our family needed a change. We tried really hard to stay in Saskatchewan, and even tried to go back to Saskatoon, but it wasn't meant to be.

After Jarem interviewed with FFP here in Grande Prairie, we knew that higher powers had a hold on our lives. There was no stopping it.

Our house sold with 1 showing. (selling our house in Saskatoon took 10 months, 6 of them on my own and pregnant with #4). When we put an offer on a home here in GP that had only been on the market 2 days, it was accepted, no altering required.

3 weeks later we made the 8 hour drive to our new home.

As I look back on these several years I could not have done it without a lot people who came and went in our lives, but never left our hearts. There are way too many to name everyone and that would make a huge post, but I do need to point out a few that got me to where my family is today. In the past several months I have shed a lot of tears when I think of the experiences that I shared with these few families. I am so grateful to the Lord for placing them in my life exactly when I needed them.

1. Our Spanish Family in Edmonton. They showed us that distance doesn't matter and you can build a family around you anywhere.

2. The Coomb and Tanner Families in Saskatoon. I can't even begin to explain how much these families did for me. Phone calls exactly when I felt so overwhelmed with all that was going in life. They offered so much kindness and support. Taught me how to support my family on next to nothing, how to 'put myself out there', and how to listen for those small promptings from the Lord.

3. The Onofrychuk, Low and Passey Families in Lloydminster. They were there for us in a huge time of need. We suffered a lot of heartache during our short stay, but these wonderful people were there for weekly 'therapy' walks/talks and late night dips in the hot tub that made our burdens and the loss of my mother-in-law Peggy bearable.

Because of them I am so blessed here in Grande Prairie, hours away from home, but know that I am home.

WHY i do, WHAT i do!

This morning is one of those perfect mornings as a stay-at-home-Mommy!

I watched my two Biggies walk to school out the window, while snuggling on the couch with my two Littles. Then kissed my Hubby goodbye, and sent him off to work for the day.

I took my two Littles to their school where they get to run and jump and play with others and burn off some steam, all the while with Mommy right beside them.

We came home and as always, Mommy has things that need to be done and the two Littles headed off to play.

I just got to sit for over an hour while peeling apples and folding laundry, listening to my Littles play together in the next room, my 4 year-old son reading books to his little sister, telling her stories about Jesus (not sure where he heard those stories, but that's beside the point). They played kitchen, they played bedtime, and yes they argued.

But it was PERFECT! Mornings like this don't happen everyday, but it's morning like this that remind me why I made the decision 10 years ago to be a Stay-at-Home-Mommy!

Because I don't want to miss a SECOND!

So Far, Soooo Good!!

I thought I would take a minute to put up a quick update. We have REALLY been enjoying our new home and all it has to offer! We love the city, the people, the surrounding area and the amenities!
An hour south of Grande Prairie is Musrou Lake (the locals pronounce it muss-row). The beach and lake do not at all compare to the lakes I grew up swimming in, but it has provided my kids with a few days of fun!

It took Jarem a little while to get used to the water!

15 minutes from our house is Wapiti River and the O'Brian Provincial Park. It is a beautiful area with HUGE spruce trees and picnicking area's and grassy spots and really just beautiful! If you scale the river bank and get down there is a great little area for the kids to play where the current is almost backwards it's so slow! The kids even found a little pool filled with Tadpoles, they caught roughly 100 they said, but sadly the container got left out in the sun too long and they all died! Oops!

Behind E is the neatest little place where the water comes over the sandbar creating little rivers that the kids can tube down on, I have a video of N going down, but I'm not technically inclined enough to post it!

Just to give you an idea as to high TALL these trees are!

Heading back after a long hot day in the sun!

As of Late ...

 

I didn't make this quilt. My Mother-in-Law did. This was her last work of art. She tried very hard to finish it, but her health would not allow it, and her Heavenly Father called her home before she could.

My Father-in-Law asked me to finish the binding, so it could be given to its Owner (the cute little one in the following pictures).

Have you ever heard the term "blood, sweat & tears" when referring to hard work? Well, most of the quilts I make have blood on them from pricking my fingers, but this is the first that has my tears. I have never been so moved as I was working on this.

I can't help but smile when I'm with these 2 little guys!

Last Christmas I asked my Sister-in-Law what she wanted ... and she wanted me to make her a Baby Sling.

 

 

I didn't end up using all the fabric we had ordered, so for this Christmas I made this ...

It was my first attempt at fabric flowers ... I was happy with the results!

Slavery

So, in preparation to a Daddy/Daughter Activity tonight at the Church, Darby has been asked to write a letter to her Dad.

In discussing with me what D would like to put in the letter, she told me her Dad is the best dad ever, even though they don't get to see him much. When I said, "Actually D, you see your dad WAY more than most kids see theirs," she replied:

Yeah, some kids are kidnapped and then forced into slavery and never see their families again.

What?!?!