Oh No, Oh No - We Got More Snow!

If Manitoba were a child and I were her mother, I would declare that she needs discipline. She is out of control. Absolutely no respect. Every spring she taunts us with a week or two of warm weather.
The sun comes out.
We spot a robin or two.
The snow melts...and melts BIG time.
We should know better, but we start to dream of barbeques and flip flops and walks in the park. We think, "This year is different. This year we will truly begin spring in MARCH, like our good friends in the United States. Ahhh. What a life!"

And just when we're all adequately delusional, we get up one morning to find out that Manitoba has done it once again:She's dumped on us.
As most of you know we got a brutal storm this week that iced the roads and coated them in over a foot of snow. Schools were cancelled and we were housebound!
So we spent three whole days in the house (and for those of you who know me well, this is a fairly big deal. Daily (or almost daily) outings are part of what makes us a happy, somewhat peaceful family!) We did our best to make the most of it. Because, after all, this is the LAST snow we're going to get this year. (Didja hear that, you dysfunctional climate??)

So we brought some snow inside and 'made soup' and 'shovelled hay'...and ate it, of course.
Then we'd do the dishes to warm up little fingers. (Yup, both activities made a big mess...but I ended up with a cleaner house as a result!)
We read books...
...and ate leftover birthday ice cream.
Delicious!!
Watched a few too many movies and wore cool hats.
Learned to use a spoon...and were quite satisfied with this new skill! (although talk about being messier than his big sister ever was! When he had sufficient amounts of rice stuck to his hands he'd wave them around, sending rice flying all over the kitchen.)

As the week progressed, sanity levels seemed to decline quickly. Here's Ellie pretending that her pink pig is retching into a bowl. The sound effects were surprisingly realistic:

Sibling rivalry went up (these were the smiles right before the tears):

And energy levels soared!

But we are survivors. The house is still in tact and we all still love each other madly. And we even got one great snowman out of the deal, thanks to my dad!

So Manitoba, it's time for a talk. You need to get into line. The Vernal Equinox has passed. We've done our time indoors. Our fingers are calloused from zipping up parkas and tugging on boots. Our cheeks are chapped, our fingers are dry, and our lungs are begging for fresh air.
Spring IS coming...or it better be, anyways. That's all I have to say about that.

A few thoughts as Ellie turns three...

Whenever the kids celebrate a birthday I find myself (as you probably do too) musing about WHO they are, how far they've come, and how glad I am that God decided (out of kazillions of possibilities) for exactly ELLIE and JOSH to be our kids. He sure knows how to pick 'em!

To try and keep this short and sweet, here are three things that bless me the most about three year old Ellie:

1. Her EBULLIENCE. She is super cheerful (90% of the time :) and full of energy! From day one she had lungs and at three weeks a killer smile. At 4 months she had strangers at the grocery store stopping in their tracks because her happy shriek was so incredibly loud that she sounded like a sort of prehistoric bird. By six 1/2 months she was talking. At 10 months she'd yell "HI!" to anyone who'd listen, and by a year she had over 2 dozen words...and hasn't slowed down since. There are a few negatives to her talkative nature (teaching her to not to interrupt adults, my daily SANITY, etc.) but mostly it's been hilarious and way too fun - especially since I'm chatty too. Ellie sees the positive side of almost anything, and reminds me a lot of my favourite classic Disney personality - Pollyanna.

2. Another one of my favourite qualities in Ellie is her heart to encourage others. She will often lean over towards a friend and say, "Wow, that's a really beautiful picture you colored!". Today at biblestudy group when her favourite toddler, Benjamin, smiled at her she quipped, "That's a great smile, Benjamin! Great smiling!" Or sitting at the table in the morning she will spontaneously say things like, "You are my best mommy in the whole world!" The day before Ellie's birthday we decided to take her out for pizza as a special treat. After we had finished our pizza and paid our bill we were about to head out the door. Ellie had about 3 old ladies in the waiting area asking her questions and giggling at her answers when suddenly Ellie looked up and gasped, "OH! I forgot to tell the lady she made great pizza!!" So we had to go back to find our teenage waitress and Ellie shouted over the noise, "You make great pizza!!" That sure earned her a fast lollipop!
3. A third beautiful quality in Ellie is her quickness to forgive - and apologize. She's suddenly come to the point where if we're having a tough morning, and I say, "Boy, it's a tough morning Ellie, hey?" She'll go, "Mommy, I'm really sorry I...(fill in blank)" and she's always dead on with something she did that wasn't obedient, etc.. And it's very rare that I ask her for forgiveness for something that I've done that she doesn't come up with something to apologize about too. It's a wonderful place to be at - both of us knowing we can fail each other, but that there's always grace and forgiveness to be found. Of course as we forge ahead into year three there are many new challenges that are arising (I am not oblivious to the kids' flaws by any means!), but the point of this post is to bless. These are some of the things that make Rob and I get teary-eyed at night as we think of Ellie growing up and getting hurt and leaving home etc.. Three year old Ellie is a treasure to behold, a gift from God, and she fills our hearts to overflowing every day. Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

Ellie's Rainbow Party

On Monday we celebrated Ellie's third birthday with a "rainbow" party. I am in no way gifted at throwing parties - in fact, I usually find them really stressful to plan and get ready for. But I had a little extra help this year. The day of Ellie's birthday I decided to start of the morning by reading Proverbs 16. This verse jumped out at me: "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." (vs 3) I've recently learned how different my days can look when I start them off by asking God to order them...but on this particular day I knew I'd need extra grace! I committed my to-do list of 500 things to the Lord and asked him to bring peace and order to the whole day. It was quite extraordinary. We had an incredibly peaceful, productive day.
Anyhow, for some bizarre reason I am hard-wired to believe that I can't plan a child's party without a theme of some sort or another. I try to tell myself that it would be fine to just do nothing, but a theme always ends up happening anyways. After humming and hawing with Ellie over a few different options (she suggested 'oceans' and 'cherries'), I realized that choosing a 'rainbow' theme would be appealing to her and super easy for me. So with a little persuasion, a rainbow party it was!

Shortly before Ellie's friends arrived we painted a rainbow on her cheek. She was over the top excited about her guests coming!! We chose to do a supper party so that just Ellie's closest four friends and their moms could come (siblings stayed at home with their dads - we're pretty cramped for space). All four girls have been Ellie's friends since birth...and it was pretty amazing to see them all relating to each other as 'mature' three year olds. :)

Not all of them wanted rainbows on their cheeks, but they did all pitch in and help to 'decorate' our 'table cloth'.

Noodles and meatsauce and veggies and dip were the main course! Most girls were too excited and distracted to really eat.

After supper everyone went and played, and of course, dressed up.

For dessert we decorated ice cream sundays (with rainbow m&ms and sprinkles) instead of having cake. I nearly forgot the candle...so Ellie's ice cream was almost melted and finished by the time we stuck it in there.

The sugar did it's job!

Next came the gifts. Here's Ellie's dear friend, Chloe, telling her all about the gift she gave her.

I couldn't believe how peaceful it was with no babies! After the girls went home with their (what else) rainbow-themed goody bags, Ellie slept loooong and hard. I was so thankful that God had reminded me to trust him with the details. Normally this details-oriented, perfectionist of a mom would have been exhausted and tense by the end of a party day. But there was only peace and joy to be found instead. I was reminded yet again everything is better when He is involved, and that God is a truly a transformer of hearts!

p.s. I hope to post a little bit about "3 year old Ellie" yet, but am having trouble finding free time these days!! So there's more to come...check back.

The latest on Joshua

For the last half of this week I've been fighting something resembling laryngitis (I've already called into work sick for tonight because I have no voice!) so there hasn't been too much going on aside from waiting for it to pass. Because next week is Ellie's birthday and the spotlight will be on her, I thought I'd write a bit about where Joshua's at these days, since babies change so stinkin' quickly! (Note: Because I am madly in love with this child, the ranting nature of this post will probably be more appealing to our long-distance family members!)
Joshua is now just over 14 months old. He's not walking yet (which doesn't concern me...Ellie took so long that I don't have very high expectations!) but he's a very speedy crawler...forwards and backwards! He also likes to climb and will occasionally be found grinning on top of the coffee table.

Aside from the random bad teething day (Joshua is STILL working on all four eye teeth) Joshua is a super happy, super goofy, affectionate little guy. He makes all of us laugh all the time, and enjoys a good snuggle, especially before bed. When we're in public he'll still become quite serious and watch everyone else, but at home he often steals the show! I think he has Rob's sense of humor - you only get to see the full, ridiculous extent of it if you know Rob really well. For instance - Joshua loves to tease Ellie by poking her in the face (often she laughs, other times it's hugely offensive) :

Then he notices that we WANT him to do it again, so he decides to make mashed cookies with his forehead instead:And when he lifts his face up he gives us his best goofy grin of all time (click the picture to see it enlarged - it cracks us up every time!):

The other day I was playing ball with Joshua. Suddenly he lifts the ball over his head as if to throw it back to me, gives me this knowing grin, then speed-crawls over to the baby gate with the ball in one hand and throws it over the gate and down the stairs, giggling the whole time. I think he'll make the ideal pesky little brother!!

Joshua enjoys watching videos with Ellie, but isn't capable of sitting safely on a chair yet. So he's adopted the diaper drawer as his new video-watching post:Joshua loooves to talk as much as his sister. It can get awful loud at our dinner table! The only thing is, most of Joshua's words consist of once syllable: "Ahhhhhhh!" in every different tone. He really believes he's telling us a story. Here he is pointing to the cars outside and 'telling' me about them:
He has about 15 actual words in his vocabulary (including "Hiyeee" (hi),"joojoo" (choo choo) and "bapa" (Grandpa)), but his annunciation is pretty terrible, and he mostly enjoys doing animal sounds. He usually gets too excited about what he's going to say to actually say it clearly. It's quite amusing!
Have I mentioned that Joshua excels at temper tantrums? They're short, but they're frequent! When we say 'no' to Joshua he listens, but makes him mad, so he does this quick little yell-and-eat-the-carpet routine. He usually recovers after about 3 seconds and goes on to something else. I'm glad he has a will (it's important for the future!) but I'm also glad that mine is stronger. :)

A few other things Joshua enjoys are:
combing other people's hair (must get that from Ellie):

Drawing (there are pencil crayons everywhere in our house! Yeah, they're sharper than crayons, but at least he can't eat them when I'm not looking) We will often find him laying on the floor drawing all by himself.And he's also beginning to like dressing up, too. :) He put this necklace on himself and was quite proud!
Often when he's really quiet I'll check on him and find him trying very hard to put on his socks or a hat. He doesn't get frustrated very easily, even though he never gets it. It must be a trait of a second-born...he's not the perfectionist that Ellie can be.
Joshua loves to wrestle, he loves to put toys away (and his stinky diapers, too - he suddenly started cleaning them up on his own!), and he still loves to dance - especially while standing in a shopping cart! He's passionate about rubbing food in his hair, splashing wildly in the tub, and sticking his hands in the toilet.

14 month old Joshua sure adds a lot of color to our lives.
We love you Monkey!
(Good job if you made it to the end of this post :)

A Day in the Life of a Flower Girl (Ellie's perspective)

So on Saturday two of my best adults got married - Uncle Tig and Auntie Doris. People kept calling Tig "Tyler", but I don't really know why. I call him Tig. I was pretty excited that they asked me to be their princess for the day! Here's what happened:

First we drove to Winnipeg. I don't really know what Winnipeg IS, so I asked my mom and dad "Are we at Winnipeg?" at least 30 times that day. They started getting grumpy about that question. We went to the hair salon and I ate my lunch while a lady named "Amanda" did my hair like a princess.

Fluffy watched the whole time. Fluffy is one of my best friends. She helped me keep my attitude good on a pretty long, busy day.

Amanda did a pretty good job!
After we went to Uncle Jon and Auntie Dana's house so we could put on our wedding clothes. I thought Daddy looked just like a prince! (I kinda want to marry him one day)

After I got into my princess dress, mommy made me practice my best fake smile!

Then it was time for the REAL pictures. I thought Doris looked like the most beautiful lady in the world! I really like her.

There were lotttts of people dressed pretty! We were all supposed to smile at the same time. It didn't always work.
One thing neat about Doris is that even though it was her most special day in her life, she always took time to talk to me too:

Uncle Tig is the same way. He calls me his 'niece' even though I'm not! I love that guy.
Here's Daddy looking so handsome again. My mommy made a good choice!

Here he is telling me how pretty he thinks I am (and thinking about how hard he's gonna cry when I get married).
Pictures is HARD WORK!

After pictures we went back to Uncle Jon and Auntie Dana's and I had SO much fun with their puppy Dexter that I TOTALLY ruined my princess hair! Mommy panicked a little bit, and then decided that she'd just put it in a pony tail and let bygones be bygones! Then it was time for my most important job ! Throwing flowers on the white carpet! I did my best and I think I even made my Nana and Grandpa cry some tears of joy.
Then it was time for the reception (and by this time I was pretty tired). I spent most of the time practicing my dance moves, even when I wasn't supposed to. I call the dance floor the 'living room'. Me and the ring bearers had lots of fun chasing each other around! Mommy didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I let out my loudest, most fakest yawn during one of the speeches! Daddy and his friends called the 'groomsmen' were REALLY goofy and made a lot of people laugh and smile.

Uncle Tig and Auntie Doris looked sooo happy together. I think they'll have a happy life, and I sure hope they get me some new 'cousins'! Thanks for inviting me to be your little wedding princess, Tig and Doris! I had a blast!