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I took this picture a few months ago with the intent to use it for some type of blog post… not really knowing what.
Her face was just so pudgy and cute.
Now when I look at it I have a new sense of amazement – there is no drool, snot or trace of a left over meal anywhere on her beautiful face. How those moments are very few and far between these days.
Lately, Marie has been working on her eye teeth and with it has come crankiness and an excess of saliva and snot that she won’t let me get near at any cost. Sigh…
If we ever venture out of the house, I try my best to clean her up. But the scene usually ends with a half wiped face, tears and me throwing my arms up in surrender and hoping that anyone who sees her will have mercy on me and not think I’m a negligent mother.
I heard recently of others using microfiber cloths to wipe their children’s faces instead of a scratchy washcloth or tissue with great results. I picked a few up today while I was out and I’m praying for a miracle.
I want my beautiful, clean little face back!
A Mother.
On Presidents Day my mom finally ended her battle with cancer. God called her back home and now she can sing His praises with the angels.
While I was home last week, we had a chance to visit with our parish priest who was to celebrate her funeral mass. One thing he said to us, which I have thought a lot about in the time since, is how my mother’s life (and all our lives) is a gift. God gives us the gift of life and the gift of those who are close to us and then when he calls us back we must give that life back to Him as a gift. Our lives have never belonged to us and we can only hope that we give God glory in the short time we have here on earth.
This has given me a lot of peace in the last few days as I think of all the times to come when I know I will miss my mom being here on earth.
I want to thank everyone who has sent their sympathies and offered prayers for my mom and our family.
So in all of the traveling, Christmas preparations and chaos we’ve had in the last two months I’ve been a bit absent from this little blog.
Hopefully our lives will settle down and return to a more normal pace.
I have been meaning to share our big news for about two months now, and well… I just didn’t get around to it.
So here it is…
Marie is a big sister! We’d like to think she’s pretty excited about it, but at almost 14 months old I’m not quite sure she has grasped the idea yet.
Baby #2 will be making its appearance in late May – early June. Which means that I’m already half way there!
One of the main reasons we went back home to Minnesota last month was for all the men to get together and shoot some deer.
Tyler did very well this year with four kills to his name!
Here he is with his uncle Myles who also got a deer.
Butchering his own meat – a job he’s gotten out of in years past.
While the men were busy tending to their kill. We had the kids outside to get some fresh air.
Not wanting to carry Marie or let her crawl in the dirt, I put her in a wagon and cousin Peter (a.k.a. the grim reaper) kindly offered to pull her around!
Soon Clara wanted in the wagon and auntie Amy pulled them all around the yard…
… until they were plum tuckered out!
Ok, I’m finally getting some photos up from our trip back home. Sorry for the delay!
When we were back in Minnesota it was great to spend time with family, but what I want to share with you today is a few scenes from the birthday party we had for Marie.
It was her first time eating cake and she wasn’t afraid. She had her piece devoured almost before we could document it!
Here is the rundown…
“It’s all for me?!”
No licking the icing or taking a little piece – she manhandled the whole thing!
“This is hard work!”
“I have conquered the cake!”
Then she started playing and it ended there. I didn’t want to have to fish cake out of her eye!
Yesterday my mail in ballot arrived. So this morning I sat down to fill it out.
For years election time didn’t mean much to me. Being Canadian… I couldn’t vote. I didn’t pay much attention to the issues and had no opinion on which candidates I liked better.
This is my second election season since becoming a citizen and my how things have changed! I wouldn’t say I’m a politics lover (or even liker), but I’m much more aware of what’s going on. This may not be from my own incentive, but when your husband decides to dive head first into the political world to make a difference because no one else will…
Lets just say that our conversations in the last few months have been politics heavy!
I’m so proud of my husband for knowing what he believes in and deciding to take a stand when no one else would. Who knows what the next few days will bring as election day comes closer.
He could win or lose… but I’m happy to vote for him!
Today was the day that all the little kids went in to Tyler’s office for some ‘trick-or-treating’ All Saints style.
If you remember from a few weeks ago, I shared that I had been working on Marie's costume. Thankfully I finished it up this morning and I think she ended up looking pretty cute!
The kids went from cubicle to cubicle collecting their candy. Marie was so sacrificial and decided to give hers to the poor :)
But we kept catching her trying to sneak a few for herself!
On the way around the office we ran into another Mother Teresa (Miss Cynthia) who organized the whole event.
The employees were encouraged to dress up as saints or figures from the Bible as well.
Tyler informed me of this yesterday morning. He wanted to dress up as St. Joseph of Cupertino (his patron saint). I went to the thrift store hoping to find some brown fabric or sheet to use as a robe. But I had no success. So I went to Target and bought a king sized flat sheet and crossed my fingers that I could turn it into something that somewhat resembled a monk’s robe.
I’m happy to say that with a few hours of labor it turned out looking pretty good!
By the end, Marie was getting pretty tired and cranky. As we put her in the car for the drive home we gave her a bite sized Hershey bar (in the wrapper) to play with and gnaw on. Since she had been doing this for the last 30 minutes or so I didn’t think it would do any harm… until half way home when I could smell chocolate from the backseat.
I knew that the wrapper had burst and was sure Marie would be a mess by the time we got home.
This is how I found her…
… lesson learned!
Have a great Halloween and All Saints Day!
I will warn you now… this post is FULL of photos.
Tyler thought that it would nice to try and get some family photos while the leaves are so beautiful and yesterday provided the perfect day. Remember as you peruse through the photos that try is the key word. With no one behind the camera to attract Marie’s attention our task proved harder than we first imagined!
This was about as good as it got… as you scroll down you’ll see just a small sampling of the not so great options we had to choose from.
Thinking the leaf Marie was holding was keeping us from getting a good picture, we took it away… big mistake!
So eventually we smartened up and realized the only way to get Marie to cooperate was to let her do her own thing. She was really loving all the leaves, so we let her have some fun.
Hoping you all had a wonderful Sunday!
Today Marie and I went for a bit of walk to enjoy the crisp air and autumn colors that have finally appeared.
Marie got pretty excited at the squirrels that scampered by and the all the dogs out being walked while I got excited about sipping my Pumpkin Spice Latte that I treated myself to while we were out.
Small pleasures that made my day!
I took a bit of a break last week, not because I didn’t have anything to share but because I’m realizing that many of the things that I’ve been working on are turning into Christmas gifts!
Yes, the season is almost upon us and I’m determined not to be rushed to get all the necessities done when all I really want to do is relax with family and drink hot chocolate.
So, my posts may be fewer and farther between as I get my (secret) Christmas gifts prepared.
As a side note… I took this photo of Marie taking her nap yesterday. She is the craziest sleeper and many times I’ll go in to check on her and find her in the most bizarre positions! I think this one is pretty funny.
Imagine sleeping with your bum up in the air… doesn’t seem to comfortable to me.
Have a great Friday everyone!
Today we took Marie to the park across the street from our place. The jungle gym had been under construction for the last couple of months to replace the old one (which wasn’t that old). So I was excited to see the new changes.
They had a designated area for little ones (2-5 yrs.) which was great for Marie.
She swung on the swings.
Twirled in a plastic tub (which she didn’t particularly enjoy).
Thought the wood chips looked pretty yummy…
but thought it was even more fun to feed them to me!
Marie is such a sweetheart, there are days I wish she would stay a baby forever. I snapped a few shots of what she usually spends her mornings doing now that she is fairly mobile and can get herself around!
Practicing her walking skills!
Getting into anything she can get her hands on.
Reading all of her books.
Thinking about naptime!
Since Marie came into our lives there have been very few late mornings. Lately, Marie has developed some sort of internal alarm clock which goes off within minutes of 6 am everyday! I am not a morning person (which I’m sure my husband could attest to), and so there are times when Marie’s early morning wakeup call puts me in a less than chipper mood. A few days ago was one of those days.
When I get desperate for a little more pillow time I’ll bring Marie into our bed. Ok, Tyler brings her into our bed because I’m trying to pretend she isn’t awake yet. Aren’t I a good mom? Don’t answer that. I do this in hopes that she will magically fall back asleep and we can both get a little more shut eye. This rarely happens. Usually she’ll fuss all the louder because she’s awake and we’re around and that means play time!
So the other day when I was tired and didn’t feel like facing the sunless sky, we tried for a miracle once again. And it worked! Marie fell peacefully asleep on my shoulder. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ll take what I can get. But trying to sleep with a little head on your shoulder is not the easiest thing! I was trying to get comfortable, but didn’t want to move an inch in fear that she might wake back up and thus end my added sleep time. So we made it work and I somehow dosed back to dreamland.
