Great Birthday Day!!

My girls at Grandmas house for Kyndals early birthday celebration!

I really need to record these days that are just so good. These days that make all of the hard ones worth it. That I could not ask for a thing more other than that time could just stand still and stay so wonderful. Sometimes I wish that, but only on good days, like today.

Today was Kyndals 6th birthday. We had a great day! We cuddled in the morning, so excited that it is her special day. We played this morning and read some of her new books. She then went out for lunch, a special birthday date with her Daddy. This while I ran a few errands getting ready for her party! We then went sledding for well over an hour with Uncle Todd, while the babe slept at home with daddy. It was just so much fun!! To feel like a kid again and enjoy that together!

We then got ready for her birthday party which was a candyland theme. It went really well. The first themed party that I have vever really done. We played the candyland game and then used the game board as a map for a scavenger hunt around the house to find the characters in the Peppermint Forest or the Snow Flake Lake. Once to the end, the Candy Castle we decorated Gingerbread houses. It was so fun! I will post some pictures later! One of the little girls here kept saying "THIS IS THE BEST PARTY EVER!!" That sure helped to make my day as well!

It was just really fun! I am grateful for putting in the effort to make it special for Kyndal and all of us as well. What a great day!

My Joys!

Here are some fun pictures of my big girls. They are just growing so much and every single day I can't believe how big they are getting. They are so full of personality and minds of their own. They are so fun to spend each of my days with. I am grateful to have them. It is true that our kids are meant to bring us joy.

Baby Talk

So my babe Dawsyn doesn't talk much. She makes some funny non-verbal grunting, throaty kinds of noises but doesn't say much. I was feeling a little concerned about it because she is behind developmentally where she should be for speech but even more that she doesn't even try to make noises or say anything. She is 18 months now so she should be making a few different noises. She even used to say Mama and Dada but had stopped doing that.

Well she has just had a breakthrough this week. I was coaxing her to say Mama again and after a week of working hard on it she began to say it again. Since then she is at least trying to say words. She still hasn't gained new sounds but is so cute to try and say things. She says Mama, Dada, Bye-bye, Knock-knock, gock (for sock), she even said something that sounded like 'who's there' (the girls tell a lot of knock-knock jokes) it was so amazing. I have been so excited about her making some progress. She has always made different intonations that copy the way that our words are said, so it is cute to hear her now trying to say some verbal sounds with it as well. I am really so excited to hear her. It is so wonderful, a babies first little words!

My darling baby! 18 months has gone by in the blink of an eye!

Our babe enjoying one of our hikes to enjoy the beauty of Fall!

She is so full of personality

Our candy apples for a Halloween FHE. Does she look like she is enjoying it?

Oct Update!

My sweet girls!

I have been having a really good time with homeschool. Even through this really crazy month of Oct with working two to three times more then usual and having my Young Womens calling taking so much time and energy, I have been trying to not stress about our school too much. It is especially good on a day like today, where we did some great fun school projects in science, art and math. Then we went for a bike ride together and played at the park because it was gorgeous outside. Kyndal also read her first chapter book today all by herself, it was just so exciting. These days are what make the harder days all worth it! Here are some pictures of some things we have been doing.

We went on a few fall hikes, trying to enjoy the leaves, as they last so short a time!

Walking beside the big horn sheep here in the Kananaskis was really fun.

We made a pinata for Elliettes birthday. It took us a week but was a fun art project to do and turned out pretty good.

Our Halloween of Trunk-or-Treating. Paul had leprosy, i had on a great 80's sequined dress, Kyndal and Dawsyn were leopards and Elliette a Butterfly. We had a fun time! We also had fun with all us girls crimping our hair. You can't see Dawsyn but her tiny bit of hair was crimped as well.

Book of Mormon Challenge

So I am so excited about the work that we are doing with our Young Women right now. We have begun a challenge to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. This is quite a challenge, we have 76 days. We will be dividing into teams and keeping track of their progress. This adds some good challenge, motivation and accountability to each other on their teams. I am just so excited, I have thought about hardly anything else the last few days, as I have prepared to bring this program about. So here's to reading and helping our girls to gain or strengthen their testimonies of this the most correct book upon the face of the earth. Horray!

Kamille

Ps- I would be welcoming any ideas for rewards along the way!

Montreal!

We just got back from an exciting trip to Montreal! Paul had a conference for 2 days and we toured around for the other 4 days. We had a really great time appreciating the amazing history there that we don't get here in the west. We walked a lot and enjoyed the great food that Montreal offers. We had a great time and missed the girls like crazy. That is what I think vacations are for, to help me miss and appreciate my family and life more. After a fun 6 days I was so ready to come home to them and the wonderful life we have here! I am so grateful for it and to get to come home!!

Here are some pictures!

The Montreal landscape from the top of Mont Royal. It was really beautiful!

It was so amazing to see all the maple leaves around. The ones that had fallen to the ground were red but mostly it was all green still.

We ate at the famous Schwart's. It was a really neat atmosphere, very old school, and great meat. They marinate their brisket for something like 15-30 days, then smoke it for10 hours and the cook it for 3 hours. It makes for very tender meat.

We were taking pictures of this neat building when an older lady came up and asked us why in the world were we taking pictures of the hospital. It looked more like a castle to me. Built in 1893, the Victoria hospital, she said that these were the nurses dorms. So neat!

Hiking Mont Royal

I like these flowers as they have different centers on the same stems. And wildflowers still a third of the way through Sept is pretty impressive!

One tree trying to change colors!

This old building at the top of Mont Royal, I couldn't find where it said how old it was, but it had paintings inside of history from the late 1500's to mid 1700's.

I just love these old stones that these super old buildings are built with. It is so neat!

Enjoying more history at McGill

My Hubby walking around in Old Montreal along the cobblestone street. We went into a bunch of art galleries that line this old street as well. Oh and the food was so good, we ate at the restaurant on the corner here.

Enjoying gelato made with the abundance of maple syrup that Quebec produces.

Playing along the St Lawrence river

With the biodome in the background.

The view of Montreal from along the St Lawrence

This is inside the Notre Dame Basilica. It was so ornate and interesting. I haven't spent much time in a catholic church and found it quite interesting with the statues of saints and apostles and things. So elaborate!

Posing!

Oh, she makes me laugh!! So fun to see her and she is obviously excited too!

Our welcome Home!!

I spent a fair bit of time looking for presents for the girls because I missed them so much. They were succesful!

So glad to be back home to them!!

This makes my day. (But of course it turns into a wresting match and someone ends up crying but still cute. Reminds me of my sister!)

A Sad Day!

A little while ago Dawsyn got her second haircut. This one, provided by Elliette, was not planned or appreciated. It was a big chunk taken out of the back of her head. Probably not something that was really obvious to anyone but me but enough that it would bother me all the time. So we had to cut it short to match the missing chunk. I was so sad as she had just gotten her hair into a cute little bob and the front would reach into cute little pony tails.

So here is our little miss with a boys name and haircut. It was a sad day! (Thankfully I have mostly gotten over it by now, but still not fun. I'm excited for it to grow more!)

She is such a funny, goofball of a girl! She is always making me laugh just with this goofy face that she makes!

And a black eye, I don't know where from exactly. And now she actually has another one, even bigger then this. This poor girl looks beat up!

Welcome to our Place!

Okay I have been meaning to post pictures of our House since there are many who haven't been here to see it. This has been put off for a moment when the house is fairly clean. So since everything has been put away for the carpets to get shampooed and they are looking good again, I have finally taken some pictures.

Here is our living room on the main floor. I am trying a new layout for the summer with the couch actually in front of the fireplace. It is nice to be able to move things around some, I like to change it up. We really like our furniture. It is new to this house. One of the best things with kids is the storage ottoman. It is really a ten-second-tidy where we can hurry and stick all the toys in there and the room is clean again!
It has been fun to play the piano. Paul played tonight for 30-40 mins while I tidied up the kitchen. It was so nice!

Standing in the living room you can see how great and open it is. With our dining and kitchen and living room all together we can be cooking then quickly transition to dancing around the living room if a good song is on. One of our favorite things! This kitchen will be great for still growing into in the future as the tall cupboard we aren't even using all of. It is sure great to know we can keep on having room to grow!

Here is our office. This room is very used and it will always be a work in progress as it has kids crafts, my crafts, computer, homeschooling stuff, paperwork, play dough, puzzles and books. It is great that it has french doors and when I can't manage to keep this room very clean at least I don't have to always look at it!

This is our upstairs family room. This is the best room in the house. It has so many windows so is really bright and beautiful. In the winter we had kept them open all the time and enjoyed all of the light. It also had a beautiful view of the field at the church property, the church and the mountains behind it. It is so much fun!! This room is also big enough to accommodate all of us and whatever we could want to do! It has bins of all the kids toys, books, TV, including Paul's games on there. I also have a corner set up for my sewing or other craft that I am doing right now. It even has a mini trampoline and basketball hoop. This truly is a room for our family to all spend time in together.

Here is Dawsyn demonstrating the comfort of our favorite chair. This is the cuddle couch! It is so much fun and perfect for all of us to be able to cuddle on. We can all watch a movie or read books comfortable on this chair. I have taken a really nice afternoon nap cuddled with my girls on here! We really enjoy it!

This is Dawsyn room. I really love the squares on the wall. Sharan got Dawsyn a really cute jungle animal rug for her first birthday and I was so excited to hang it on the wall. It goes so perfectly and is a great big piece of art just right for a kids room!

Here is our room. I have always loved our big white bed. It feels to me like floating on a cloud. This room is really great because it is a good size but it is not too big. I don't need room for a sitting room in here but it is just right!

This is Kyndal and Elliettes room. It is a great big room for them. It looks nearly bare here because the carpets were just cleaned and so I stacked all of the things, including Elliettes bed, on top of Kyndals bed. In the corner of this picture you can see the lines that go around the room at the top of the wall. They are cute but when I am done making quilts for the girls be I have big plans for decorating their room and adding a shelf all the way around the room along those line painted there. It will be so cute if it ever happens!

I took this picture to show a project that I just made. This is one of the slip covers that I am making for the girls little drawer things. They are just plastic drawers in a metal frame so I am making these for them so that they look nice. It is also funny to see Dawsyn following me all around the house taking pictures. She really does follow me around everywhere!

So there is the digital tour of our house. I forgot the backyard but I'm sure you have had enough of reading all that I had to say already. I know that I talk a lot and I am learning that I don't really know how to do a short post on here either! Well I hope you enjoyed the glimpse into our daily life and where we are at!