When absolutely everything makes you happy...

This girl is a delightful piece of work!  (I really can't describe her any other way;)

Prior to her 9th birthday last week, Jess and I would often talk about what she might like as a gift.   She'd think about it and then come back to me, every time, sincerely exclaiming, "I don't know Mom.   I just can't think of anything that I need or want!"    

Um...hello child, are you for real?!!!!

I figured that as her big day drew near, she'd surely think of something to request, but nope - 

she never did, and instead, only ever remarked on how happy she was with what she had!   

I was proud of her.   Impressed with her.   Humbled by her.

...and stumped.  

What do you get the 9 year old that doesn't want for anything?

I tried my best:

Due to a really really busy weekend, we decided to throw her a big birthday breakfast, first thing in the morning, with her local cousins.    Waffles, sausages, eggs, ham...and cousins!

Now, who wouldn't want that?

That evening we let Jessica decorate her own cake and open her presents.   We ended up giving her a giant stuffed dog that she can cuddle with at night (this girl needs bedtime snuggles!), money, and a darling little umbrella.    Despite the fact that none of those gifts were things she'd actually asked for - she did seem very happy to receive them.   Seriously, if every kid could be this easy to please!   (Sam, for example, is the opposite and keeps insisting that for his birthday, I can just chose between a cello or a boa constrictor;)  

Sandwiched between those two celebratory activities was my favorite gift to Jess.    

Her and I went on an afternoon date out to Waterton!!!   (Again, not something my other kids would necessarily enjoy?)   It was a chilly day, but we searched for eagles, took pictures, dined at our favorite restaurant Vimy's for lunch, and sat by the shore and pretended it was a beautiful summer day.   

Oh yeah, and while sitting there- we both witnessed our first skinny dipper ever.

Imagine it.  There we were, sitting on two giant red chairs staring out at the lake, when Jessica, (binoculars in hand) suddenly spotted a naked man emerge from the water just below the prince of whales hotel.  He was absolutely freaking out (uh...yeah buddy, the waters cold;) as he gathered his clothes and ran back to his car.   

Luckily, there was an entire lake between us?   

FYI - It was at this moment that I pleaded with Jessica to never grow up to be a moron.

It was a pretty great day spent celebrating this kid.  

I loved having an afternoon with her to just talk and laugh and visit.  

I'm pretty sure that's all she really wanted, anyways.

She's kinda awesome like that!

Family Day= Ski Day

We're just wrapping up a most relaxing week off of school.   It's weeks like this that make me feel grateful that I am married to a school teacher.  Our holiday week began on Monday, which also happened to be Family Day.  We thought of heading to Castle Mountain for a bit of downhill skiing, but decided instead to X-country ski in Waterton.    There was still lots of snow higher up in the mountains despite the fact that we've been enjoying above zero temperatures all week.   This day was no exception.    The kids started their trek wearing winter gear, but it was a fight to get our kids to keep their coats on.  

The trail was pretty busy but occasionally we would find ourselves alone on the trail, enjoying this perfect day together.   Nate probably enjoyed it most of all.  Due to the fact that he only wore his gum boots, he was forced to ride on the sled the whole way there and back.  

A punishment he didn't seem to mind very much;)

As we reached the Cameron Lake parking lot I was shocked to see that construction has already begun.   It looked SO different!!   Hundreds of trees have been chopped down so far and all around us were stumps and logs, waiting to be hauled away.  (Probably when warmer weather comes.)

I understand why the park is expanding the parking lot, but I have to admit, seeing all those trees really did make me sad.   It was a little to Lorax-y for my liking.  

(Cue Joni Mitchell singing "Paved Paradise"...;)

After safely making it back to the van we met up with Jewel and Kendall and their kids down in the town site.   Nate and Sam were able to test out their Bitty Qs and we finished the day with some swimming and hot tubing at the Lodge.   

Mountains...Wiener Roasts...and a pool party.

It's a pretty sweet way to celebrate Family Day!

Iphone Update (Take two) and Valentines Day highlights

I know, I know.   Again with the iphone photos.   

Man, I wish I'd take the time to write a real journal entry and document all the good things happening in our family life - but 7 pictures from my phone are all I have to show for the past few weeks.   Perhaps, instead of always feeling guilty about not writing, I should take this as a sign that I am off living a great life and am much too busy to blog?    (Or maybe it's just that my priorities are all outta whack.  If I spent the time blogging that I do watching Netflix....)

Anyhoo...  Another iphone update, coming right up:

1.  February began with a birthday party in memory of Grandma Hardy.   Grandpa joined us for dinner, as always, but he surprised us by bringing KFC from Lethbridge.   This made me smile, because nothing says party to some of my kids like KFC does.  haha.   Rachel, Maddax and Savanna joined us for dinner as well - which made it feel extra special!   I'd gone down earlier in the day and purchased a few pink balloons with helium and we gave the kids a few minutes to write a quick memory/loving thought about Grandma.   We tied those notes to the balloons and then sent them up to Heaven.   Well, of course not really up to heaven.   They probably ended up in a tree somewhere along Lee Creek - but still.   It was meant to metaphorically turn the kids thoughts to Grandma, and for a few short minutes, I think it did.   Besides, who doesn't love letting go of a helium balloon and watching it disappear into the pitch black winter sky?    

2.  The second picture was taken one evening as I was cuddling with the girls.   Of course no one in the photo was actually asleep, we were all faking it.   We took about 100 shots of us pretending to sleep.  Then Jessica stood up and performed her "footloose" routine that she's been learning.  Then Abby tried to weasel a few more minutes worth of studio C on her ipod.... but eventually they did fall asleep.   Sigh...our bedtime routine could use some fine tuning;)

3.  Abby is going to Ottawa this spring with the Girls choir that she is a part of.  It's kinda a big deal.   For starters,  Abby has never really travelled away from home before without us, which has got me nervous.   In addition to that, she is about to travel further east then John or I ever have, which has got me kinda jealous;)     Early in February she (along with her choir mates) prepared almost 400 pizzas as a fundraiser.   I'm telling ya, that was a LOT of pizza!

4.  For about a week, Sam was obsessed with a science experiment he was doing at school.   John and I were largely in the dark about it, which was frustrating, especially because he kept adding to the list of items we needed to procure for him.     A bike pump, rubber stopper, hose, , matches, water jug...

Sam kept insisting that he was supposed to bring all of those items to school, and I insisted that if he was supposed to - then surely I'd have heard about it.  Turns out, his teacher had given them a chance to do any experiment they want to and had left it entirely in their hands.   I was actually impressed at how excitedly Sam took that and went with it.  The result - he was able to make fog. Cool beans!   

5.  Nate is a genuine Picasso in the making.   I adore his sly little smile.  That's all there is to say about that.

6.  John and the kids LOVE perusing the YouTube channel "King of Random."   They've made all sorts of things (inspired by him) from homemade stress balls to apple swans.   Recently John and the boys whipped up these darling little "Bitty-Qs" for future hot dog roasts.  They are each made out of an emptied pop can.  (The hardest part of this project was waiting long enough for John to find some discarded energy drink cans at school.  They're the perfect little size)   Once made, you just place hot coals in the bottom, lay a wiener on the grill, and BBQ until your hearts content!   

Yup folks - this is what happens when John gets his craft on!

7.  The last picture to share in this post is of a beautifully sunny February day in which John, the kids and friends enjoyed an impromptu game of Jackpot.   

It's been an unusually warm February, one in which tossing around the ol' football and making tiny BBQs makes perfect sense!

And what would a February post be without mention of Valentines Day!
I truly love watching my kids prep their classmates valentines each year.   Nate and Sam cared little about it, I admit.   Abby took a bag of heart shaped chocolates to pass around.   And Jess - well, she worked her darling little fingers off making homemade Valentines for everyone remotely dear to her.  Her teachers, siblings, favorite elderly couple, Grandpa ... they all got hand made Valentines.  This one that she made for Abby was particularly delightful:

"Dear Abby.  ...You are my only sister and my favorite.  Even though we are having a big fight, you are still fairly nice and fun to be around.   I am sorry that I have been doing and saying things that I shouldn't have. ...Love, your sorry sister Jessica "

Um...could she be any sweeter?!

"I must have flowers, always and always!" - Monet

January via the iphone

Because January flew by, all I have to show for it are a few photos from my phone. 

I'll try my best to recap:

1.  Right around Christmas time I booked my entire family in for their annual dental checkups.  BIG mistake!   Though my kids love going to the dentist, most of them required a follow up visit or two this time around, which has meant that our holidays and the entire month of January consisted of visits to the dentist.   Nate had to get two teeth taken out (due to overcrowding) and was nervous about it in a big way.  I was so proud of the way he went, quivering lip and all, and handled it so bravely.   Last week, we finally spent our last afternoon there for the year (touch wood).   It made me laugh though, when the other night, John and I ran into the receptionist at all smiles.   He jokingly came up to me and commented on how nice it was to actually see me outside of the dental office.    

2.  Nate has been hugely independent lately.  He bathes himself, does his chores on his own, cooks his own ichiban, hot dogs and hot chocolate.... what else does a 6 year old need to know?   Well on one particular evening he was building something that involved cardboard and a whole lot of duck tape.   Suddenly he came running to me, crying that he'd cut his finger really bad!   And he definitely had.   Poor boy took a pretty decent chunk out of his thumb.  He cried from the pain of it most of the night.   It's so hard watching your kids suffer and not being able to take their hurts away.   :(  

3.  Jessica's good friend Courtney Rowe was sick and needed to spend a week in the Lethbridge hospital.  While visiting her, Nate got a kick out of the fact that this was the same hospital that he had been born in.   He made me take a picture of him out front.   It's only after taking this picture that I realized that a) he was wearing shorts in January  b) his shorts were on backwards   c) those gumboots are actually Jessica's  and d) he had no shirt on under his spring Jacket.    Seriously!!  How did we get all the way to Lethbridge without noticing the state this kid was in?

4.  Despite Nate's crazy antics, he sure is a lot of fun.  I love the days when I don't have to work and him and I have our mornings together before he leaves for school.  On days like that, Monopoly, Sorry, War and Go Fish are our activities of choice!

5.   Jessica has been enrolled in the Children's Theatre Academy for the past few weeks.   The play she is a part of is called "On the Radio" and her performances will be later in March.   It has been fun to watch her learn her lines and practice her music and dance moves.    She even experiences her first audition and she recited the poem "Snowball" by Shel Silverstein.   Two other kids also recited the same poem as well.  Clearly us Moms were all on the same page and turned to good ol' google for inspiration.  haha.   She nailed it though and I was soo proud of her!

6.  There are a couple of days in each week that are busy for my kids from 8am-7pm.  School, cubs, activity days, young women's, choir, piano lessons etc - all happen on a Tuesday or Thursday.  For the most part, I love the fact that my kids' commitments fall efficiently on those two days - but it does mean that, while they all rush about after school, Nate is largely left out.    One Tuesday afternoon, after dropping the other three off where they needed to be, Nate talked me into making a key lime pie with him.   I couldn't get over how delighted he was.   For the record, there is no better distraction, when you are feeling sad or lonely, then Key Lime Pie! ;)

That's January for ya!

Happy New Year!

It's always hard to go back two months and try to remember the things I wanted to record.   In an effort to catch up, the next few journal entries will be a reflection of the pictures I found on my camera.    

These New Years Eve shots brought back some fun memories!  

As per our family tradition, we spent New Years with my siblings and their awesome people.  We always feast on finger food and we always prepare way too much.  There was a lot a lot of eating throughout the course of our holiday (like a LOT) and New Years Eve was no exception.   Ham and Cheese sliders, ships and dip,  rollmops....  yummmmm.

(ps:  google "rollmops" - you'll barf.   No one could actually muster up the courage to eat one)

It was a great time playing games, visiting, and catching up.  Unfortunately, I had to help chaperone at a Stake youth dance and so John and I sadly left the Hardy Party just before 9, to head to the church.   We weren't sure how many youth would show up (there was also a youth dance in Lethbridge that night) but we ended up having a great turnout.   Good thing to because we had ordered pizza for 200 and it was being delivered at midnight.  We definitely needed kids there to eat it all!  I did spend a large chunk of the evening wondering how my kids were doing and wishing I was with them to welcome in the New Year together.   Next year!;)

New Years day was just as fun.
We drove out to Waterton with every intention of going cross country skiing.   Everyone was equiped with either skis or snow shoes, and we were going to trek in to Cameron Lake.    We were feeling optimistic that, despite the cool -15 temp in town, it'd be much warmer up at the trailhead?  

Nope.

It was a blustery, frigid day in Waterton, and by the time we got to the starting point - none of us wanted to leave the warmth of our vehicles!   

We drove back down to the town site and found a camp kitchen where we could enjoy some hot chocolate and try to warm up by a small fire.   

I totally give us props for trying though.   

We're awesome like that!

That evening, Heather and Crystal served us all the most delicious Indian food for supper.   Butter Chicken, naan bread...baclava and dates for desert...    I don't know how I managed to feel hungry after all that food the day before, but it was delicious!   Jewel had invited the missionaries over for supper as well and once we had finished supper, we all rolled ourselves downstairs for some fun games of Mafia and Kahoot.   

Yup, that's right.  There's no better way to welcome in a New Year, then with this fun group!