Long time no see??!!

Holy cow it’s been forever since I last posted anything! It’s either because we've so busy I haven't had time to sit down and write anything or it’s because nothing exciting is happening and so I don't know what to write! It’s probably a little bit of both, lol. Some weeks we are so busy and other weeks not so much. And then other weeks I just gave up on updating the blog altogether. But about a week ago a good of mine encouraged me to update--so here I am!

I guess a lot has happened since I lasted posted. Ava finished her first year of elementary school. That is so crazy to me! She completed in the French Immersion program very well and she will continue on with French immersion into grade one. Deciding to put Ava into French Immersion was not a decision we took lightly. After a lot of thinking and praying we felt very confident that this was a fantastic program for Ava. I am so glad we listened to our intuition and the Spirit as it guided us through this process. Ava has accepted it so well and very much enjoys going to school and learning new French words. She had a wonderful teacher that was loving and really understood Ava. She took the time to get to know Ava and really understood what she was all about. Ava really surprised us when she first started school in how quiet she was. Ava is a very outgoing, easygoing kind of girl who just goes with the flow. She can even be quite noisy. Oh who am I kidding, she is noisy all the time! But that’s ok, she’s 5--all 5 years are noisy and hyper and very, very opinionated, right? But not at school, Ava was the quietest kid in her class. And we're convinced the first month of school she didn't talk to a single soul while at school. She came a long way through her first year and we couldn't be more proud of her!

Ava on her last day of school....

Sienna has really grown a lot in the last few months, too. Sienna can be a very complicated little girl. Well, I'm not sure complicated is the best way to describe, but that’s the best word I could come up with! She’s full of emotion and, like me; she wears her emotions and her heart on her sleeve! She is very easily offended and even more easily embarrassed. Anytime anybody laughs at her when she doesn't think its funny, the tears come and so does the scream. She sure is a cute one though! Oh my goodness, the things that girl says and the faces she makes are just priceless! If you've ever spent a little time with Sienna you know just what I'm talking about. Sienna is so full of life and is always testing her boundaries.

Elliott is the boy we've been waiting for! Not that we were going to keep having children until we got our boy but we were very happily surprised when he was born Steve announced he was a boy. And he has lived up to being the only boy in the house to in fact act very much like a little boy. He loves cars and trucks. And his newest love is superheroes. All superheroes he loves--Spiderman, Batman, Superman! I can't help but love that he’s so much a boy and the adventure and unknown he brings to our little girl world.

Elliott in daddy's army boots...

Well, I think that’s all I will write for tonight as I am sitting outside at nearly 8:30 at night and completely convinced that I've been bitten on the face by a mosquito, gross!!!

Stay tuned for more updates this week.... xoxoxo

Winter...

Wow! It’s been a long time since I last posted. We are now right smack in the middle of winter and hats and snow pants are just annoying now. We walk Ava to school, which is only about a 20 minute walk and I love the exercise. And thankfully we have a double jogging stroller that keeps Sienna and Elliott dry and protected from the wind. Anyways, we walk Ava to school most days and with all the snow it has been almost impossible to get to the school. It’s quite hilarious for me to picture myself plowing through the snow in this giant red, yellow and blue stroller with 2 little ones tucked inside with a cozy blanket giggling with each other having no clue what they're mother is enduring. I feel like a good mom on those days, lol!  Now that the middle of February is here, here is Nova Scotia, the kids get a 2 week "winter break" due to the Canada Games being hosted here in Halifax. I love that Ava home for these 2 weeks. Taking her to school and then having to go get every day is a lot of working. Let me tell you, having a kid in school completely changes your life. Since Ava is our first child going to school it has been quite an adjustment for us. None the less, she loves it and it’s pretty awesome to hear your kid learning to read in french!

We have been sick off and on all winter and I cannot tell you how excited I am for Easter to come this year. I'm not really sure why, maybe it has to do with some personal goals I've set for myself that need to be completed by Easter or maybe because Easter is usually the first sign of Spring. Either way, I'm super excited about it. I love spring time and the anticipation of summer. I have decided that we need to make our gardens a priority this summer. So I hope to do some reading on gardening this winter since I have no clue what I'm doing out in the gardens. But hopefully with some research on my part and a lot of patience (and a miracle) we'll have a beautiful flower garden and some fresh veggies this summer.



Anyways, here are some pics of the kids....

Ava at her first school Christmas Concert

(Shes in the middle in the red dress)

I love this girl, dirty face and all!!

Christmas morning!  Ava and Elliott were both sick, poor babies!

Thankfully Santa brought a few new movies so we could all relax and get better.

We celebrated Elliott's 2nd Birthday this winter!

Happy Birthday baby boy!

We love you!!

xo

Well I am off, hopefully with a sooner update than the last one, hehe!

Love Amber

xoxo

Halloween Fun and Ava's 5th Birthday!!!

Well we are in full swing of Birthdays in our house, half way there!  Birthdays, in our house, are basically the last six months of the year.  So this weekend we celebrated Ava's 5th Birthday.  Its hard to believe this sweet girl has been in our lives for over 5 years now.  Ava had a really fun Birthday.  She had her school Halloween party, which I think, she had a blast.  Ava will have her friends party in a couple weeks.  But we celebrated with our little family by going out to dinner.  Its been quite a while since we've gone out to dinner as a family and I have to say I was very pleased with how well-behaved the kids were during dinner.  The next day was our ward Halloween party at the church.  The kids got dressed up in their costumes and played games and went "Trunk or Treating".  Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, that was our big Halloween celebration.  The kids had tonns of fun and got more candy than they could handle.  Here are some pics of our weekend.  Boy do I love these guys!!!! 

For Ava's class party I made pumpkin cake balls.  Since she is in french immersion I decided to write Happy Birthday in french!

Pumpkin cake balls!

Cake balls I made for Steve to take to work.

Happy 5th Birthday Ava!  We love you soooo much!!!

Ava's Jessie cupcakes she requested for her Birthday. 

She LOVED them!



Our little Strawberry, Jessie the Cowgirl and Spider.

HALLOWEEN PJ'S!!!!!

Silly kids!

Happy Halloween everybody, sure hope you had as much fun as we did!

First day of school...

So, today was Ava's very first day of school.  The day started out pretty chaotic with us running around trying to get everybody ready for the day and wanting to get there a little early since we didn't know who her teacher was going to be.  We woke the kids up just before 7:00am and as I was looking for clothes for them, Ava turned over and tried to go back to sleep, as she did I told her that she needed to get up because she was going to school today and she sat right up and said "yeah, am I a big kid now?"  So cute!  Shes been saying the funniest things lately.  Ava is such a sweet girl and has gotten really quiet and shy with people she doesn't know.  We've been working with her the past few months and trying to get her to talk more to people, especially with school starting and us not being there to coach her through theses social situations.  So, when we picked her up from school we were asking her a million questions.  All we got out of her was "I just don't know".  Steve had asked her if she talked to any of the kids and she said the little boy beside her asked if she was finished her lunch and she said yes.  Oh, and she asked the teacher if she could go potty.  That was all she really said, at least that's what she told us.  I can see her being super quiet all day because when she was at soccer we saw her not say a peep to any of the kids. 

School is just as overwhelming for me as it was Ava.  The thing I'm going to have to adjust the most to is that its EVERYDAY!  As we walked her into the school, I found myself getting overwhelmed and emotional.  Once we got into the classroom and found her desk, the teacher said for the children to say good-bye to mommy and daddy.  As I looked around at the other parents, one mom looked so surprised and said "already?"  and I just lost it, tears started streaming.  Thankfully, Ava was not around to see my little melt-down as Steve was with her at her little desk.  As I saw her come running over to say good-bye to me I pulled myself together and said bye to her.  What a moment that was, saying good-bye to my little 4 year-old and sending her off into the world to fend for herself.  I can only hope and pray that she will be in tune with the Spirit of the Holy Ghost to guide her and help her make the right choices.  Ava has such a spirit about her and I hope that her teacher feels that sweetness that she has in her and treats with love. 

All and all the day was good, we all survived and are ready to get up in the morning and do it all over again.  Thankfully tomorrow is a Friday and we'll have 3 days off.  Here is Ava on her first day of school, all ready to go with her new backpack that she wanted so badly!

Jessie from Toy Story 2&3!!

Look who had a Birthday!!!

This past week has been so busy with celebrating Sienna's birthday and our Anniversary.  Not to mention getting Ava ready to start school.  Sienna's birthday was super fun.  We celebrated her actual birthday with cupcakes and her choice of food, which was pizza.  Sienna decided she wanted a Minnie Mouse themed Birthday.  Easy enough, I thought.  Turns out finding baking supplies for Minnie Mouse was harded than I thought.  But we figured it out and everything turned out great, Sienna was very pleased!  This past Saturday Sienna had a few friends come over for a little party.  We had lotts of fun and Sienna sure enjoyed having her little friends over.  Thanks, everybody for making Sienna feel special on her day!  xo

Cupcakes I made for our Anniversary, yummy!

Roses Steve brought home for me for our Anniversary, beautiful!

Cupcakes I made for Sienna on her Birthday.

Minnie Mouse pizza!

Happy Birthday, Sienna!

Sienna's Minnie Mouse cake I made for her party.  It turned out pretty good, the bow kinda fell apart when I tried to put on the cake but in the end I was pleased with it and most importantly Sienna loved it!

We had a great week with all our celebrations.  It was nice to be able to talk with our families on the phone, but sure did miss them.  There is always something missing when a birthday comes around in our house.  But life is what it is.  Well, I am off to another busy with the antisapation of Ava's very first day of school.  Stay tuned for a post on that!  :)

Soccer Star

I completely forgot to mention Ava playing soccer this summer.  I'm not sure how that slipped my mind since we were at the soccer field a couple times a week and Steve was even able to coasch a few games! 

Ava sure loved going to soccer and playing with all her little friends.  We saw a different side of her, though.  She was really quiet and didn't talk to any of the other kids.  She was the youngest (and the smallest) on her team and was one of the only ones who had not started school yet.  I think that makes a big difference with simple things like knowing how to form a line-up and basic social skills that she hasn't learned yet.  But all in all it was a good season.  Her team colour was green and they decided a good name for the team would be "Shamrocks"  which I thought suited it perfectly!  Ava was jersey number 1, which made Steve really proud.

Summer

So, its been like forever since I’ve posted anything.  But this little blog has been on my mind for months, literally, months!  The summer has been busy and fun.  The kids are loving the sunshine and being able to wear shorts everyday is a real treat for them.  This summer has been so beautiful, hardly any rain.  So, here’s our summer...

We were able to go on vacation to visit our family in Ontario.  Which was a real treat.  We haven't been back home in a couple years and most of our family hadn't even met Elliott!  A couple weeks before we went on our vacation Ava had an eye test at her school.  Steve took her, so when he got home he told me she didn't pass and was referred to an ophthalmologist.  I made an appointment right away, and to make a long story short we found out Ava needed glasses.  It turns out she is near-sighted with astigmatism and can't see things far away!  Huh, who knew!?  We certainly didn't.  The doctor said this is something she probably had since birth.  We had no idea she had any vision problems!  In fact, I was so sure she didn't have any vision problems that I almost cancelled her appointment, convinced that the nurse at the school didn't know what she was talking about.  Thank goodness I didn't allow my denial get the best of me.  Ava happily wears her glasses and is so proud to wear them.  Shes excited that she gets to pick between 2 different styles and colours.  She looks absolutely adorable in them and I am so grateful that we got this taken care of before school starts.  Her adjustment to wearing her glasses has been a breeze.  The first time she put them on, she looked at something far away and pointed to it and said "mommy look it".  Then she took them off and then put them back on again.  Ava has also been known to get car sick quite easily and we just thought it was from her not eating properly before travelling.  It turns out she just needed to wear glasses.  We saw this be true just a few days ago when we were driving home from a friends home late at night.  I allowed Ava to take her glasses off and within 2-3 minutes of driving she was almost ready to be sick.  Once we pulled over and got her glasses back on her she felt much better.  The day we left for Ontario was the day Ava got her glasses.  We stopped off at the store, picked up her glasses and were on our way to Ontario.  We decided to drive since now that our family has grown and it would be breaking the budget if we flew.  We had heard of other families travelling through the night on long drives with small children so we thought we would give it a try.  I thought it would be a breeze to get the kids to sleep in the car and stay asleep.  That was not the case.  Sienna was our trooper, fell asleep before the other 2 and slept beautifully with no complaints.  But for the other 2, they were quite the little rebels.  They didn't fall asleep until after 12:00am and was up through the night more times than I can count, crying and fussing.  Lets just say it was a long, long night for all of us.  We made better time than we thought and arrived in Ontario early in the afternoon.  We surprised my younger sisters, which was really fun.  We had a wonderful time visiting family and loved seeing our children get to know family members that had never met before.  We were able to stay a little longer than we expected.  We tried to do all the fun thing we enjoyed as a kid growing up.  It was a really great trip, loved every minute of it.  I think I fell in love with my husband all over again.  We tried to have a stress-free vacation and I think it was just that, theres just nothing like the love of your family.  I miss them terribly, but Nova Scotia is where we need to be at this time in our lives. 

 Once we were home and settled from our vacation,  we celebrated my birthday.  I made a cake (yes, I made my own birthday cake, because that’s what I like to do and its cheaper!) and went out for dinner.  Our summer has consisted of the beach, lots of BBQ’s, lots of trips to the park, and preparing for school.  Our summers, for the last 3 years, have ended on a great note.  Our Wedding Anniversary and Sienna's Birthday.  We celebrated our 8th wedding Anniversary this past Monday with a BBQ rib dinner and my wonderful husband bringing home 2 dozen long stem roses.  What a surprise that was-they sure are beautiful!  And then the next day, we celebrated Sienna's 3rd Birthday (she was born early in the morning, the day after our 5th wedding anniversary!)  What a blessing Sienna is to our home.  Shes a feisty little one, full of personality!  We sure do love our little Sienna.  Happy Birthday, baby girl!

 In one week Ava will be starting school.  I get butterflies just thinking about that day.  I am so excited, nervous and proud to send her to school.  She is one sweet little girl.  She always has been.  As a small baby I could feel her sweet little spirit.  She is really excited to go to school and meet new friends.  But I don't think she realizes the work involved in going to school.  She thinks shes going to go to school and play, all day long.  Ava going to school is going to change our lives, as we know, dramatically....

To end this post, here are some photos.  But since my camera battery is dead enjoy the limited photos I was able to get off of it before the battery died!

My sweet Ava sporting her new glasses, just adorable!

We enjoyed a lunch with just our 2 girls at the "Rain Forest Cafe" 

while Elliott stayed home with my mom.

 Again, at the "Rain Forest Cafe", they LOVED it there!

                    We had so much fun at "Marineland"

                                Ava really loved the Killer Whale.

                              The girls really loved feeding the deer.

                 Sienna and Ava on the tour bus at African Lion Safari.

                                Daddy and Elliott on the tour bus, too!

                                They loved bing able to get really close to the animals.

Thats all I was able to upload from the camera, come visit again in the next couple days to see how we celebrated Sienna's 3rd Birthday!