Chalk and Snow Castles

This was pretty much my day today! Beautiful weather!!

Our Little "Oinker"

"Look, Mum, I can oink!"

Tending to Their Needs

This little girl always leaves me feeling so guilty when bed time rolls around. Stories are read and she gets tucked in and smothered in hugs and kisses. Last night after stories and kisses I brought Hyrum up and put him in his crib and then went to my little girls bed side. I gave her a nice long kiss on the cheek and a tiny squeeze and whispered in her ear, "I love you soo much!". Being the good little girl that she is, she pretended to be asleep. I went downstairs feeling super guilty about putting her to bed, or rushing through stories and the "routine". Then it went further, and I felt guilty for little things that went wrong that day, or how I expect too much of her, or the time outs that she had, or how I was too busy doing dishes to go and see her "snow angel" that she made in the office. Guilt is a terrible thing...

Come the end of the day I always find myself thinking, "Ya know, you really do have good kids". I just wish I would think that more during the day, or in the heat of a bad mommy moment.

I have been thinking about the word tending a lot lately. It's just such a soft, and gentle word. It has made me think a lot about what it means to tend to my children and be there each and every time they need me. 

In my studying and pondering I came across an article from the New Era in 1972 -- Kind of humorous, but there were a few lines in there that I love.

"Keep the children busy, happy, and safe, and you shouldn’t have any discipline problems."

This line was like a light bulb for me and made me realize my role in keeping Camilla busy will help me avoid problems. I love it!

"Always be kind and loving to the children; use the outer limits of your patience, and think of them first."

I almost laughed out loud when I read this. The words "outer limits" will definitely be flashing in the back of my mind as I go about my days from now on. I do also find that I have less patience when I'm thinking about me, or what I want to do/get done in the day.

"The children always come first—you should tend them and not the time. Be happy! Children notice and will be happy too. Be excited and enthusiastic—it’s contagious. Remember there is never a time when you are in the house with children that you are not communicating with them in some way; everything you do is teaching the children."

I super cherish the line "tend them and not the time" (this will be the quote of the week on my fridge I think). I find myself watching the clock a lot during the day, counting down the hours until Daddy will be home. On the days that I tend my children rather than the time, there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to spend with them playing and laughing. 

Then another quote came to me from a book I read a few months back. It's kind of humorous and I'm not entirely sure why it has stuck with me. (I really should have been born "back in the day" I love stuff like this).

"I would like to see the time when our sisters will take more pains to beautify their children. When your children arise in the morning, instead of sending them out of doors to wash in cold, hard water, with a little soft soap, and wiping them as though you would tear the skin off them, creating roughness and darkness of skin, take a piece of soft flannel and wipe the faces of your children smooth and nice, dry them with a soft cloth; and instead of given them pork for their breakfast, give them good wholesome bread and sweet milk..."

~Brigham Young

I always think of this when I take a warm cloth to wipe my babe's dirty faces. I have shared many a sweet moment with my children over a warm cloth and a dirty face.  Some so tender that tears of joy fill my eyes. How precious these little children are! I am so grateful for the atonement and opportunity I have to repent each day as I strive to become a better Mommy to my children. I really like what is said in this video about how motherhood  "is something that you have to be partners with the Lord about". Motherhood is such a wonderful thing. What a truly special role we have to play.

Time to Use that Gift

 For Valentine's Day, Mr. Stannix scored us two tickets to a hockey game which was on Saturday evening. It was quite an enjoyable evening. After we gave our awesome babysitter the rundown of the evening, bedtime routine and all that fun stuff we ended up running half a block to catch our bus! A nice romantic jaunt to start off the evening.

As we rode the bus, I feared for my life and wasn't sure how Mr. Stannix didn't have a heart attack every day when he rode the bus (and I told him so). His reply was, "This? This is nothing!" And if that's the case, I now fear for my husbands life every day... He asked me if I had my transfer ticket and when I replied, "No" he frantically began searching his pockets for it. I opened up my hand to show him that I had it all along and then we joked that we need to hang out more so that we can tell when we're joshing each other.

We cruised by his office on our way to the LRT station. Mr. Stannix had planned to hit up Tim's for some Hot Chocolate before. I got me a Danish, but it was pecan something or other instead of cherry cheese. Sad day. It was still delish though. We held hands and walked the rest of the way to the LRT, hot chocolates burning our other hands, and waited on the platform for our train to arrive.  The two teams playing are from the two places we've been debating to settle. We joked that we would settle in the place of whatever team played better. Just let them decide...

The game was super fun. I always love hockey game music. It reminded me of watching hockey every weekend in my small hometown. I felt like I was reliving my youth (really, who am I kidding though? I still feel like I am in my youth most of the time). We laughed, watched, gave them the what-for when fights broke out... it was great. 

 

Mr. Stannix even told me stories from his nights at hockey. It was a pretty eventful game, and there was almost more fighting than Hockey. At least five of the away team got sent home and at the end of the game there was only three players left on the bench. Because our team scored in the last period (twice, three times?) every fan there got a gift certificate to Earls. It was a great way to finish off the evening! 

We came home to a quiet house with sleeping babes. Our babysitters are simply the best. It was a great night out!

Strange Things My Kids Do

 Last night before bed we made shamrock shakes. I didn't have whip cream or sprinkles, but they were still delish! Camilla knows that milkshakes have kind of become a Sunday night tradition and will start asking after dinner, "when is it milkshake time?" It's super cute!

Yesterday Camilla ate half her cheese slice and made the other half into a "snowball" and put it in this container. I found it at breakfast this morning. She wanted to eat it. Yum (but not really). She's been running around all morning singing, "it's spring time, it's spring time, lalala spring time!". I think some time at the park is in order this afternoon for a sunny, blue sky day such as this one!

After milkshakes last night we put the kids up to bed. Mr. Stannix and I snuggled on the couch and listened to them chat with each other. Finally they both zonked out. I went up later to pull up their covers before I went to bed and found Hyrum sleeping in a big lump in the middle of his crib. It was too funny not to take a picture...

Canadian Winters

I love Canadian winters. I love skating and watching hockey (which Mr. Stannix and I are going to do tonight for our date). I love the humor of Canadian winters though. You never know what to expect from day to day. Some weeks it's so cold that you don't leave your house for a long time, and other times, like today, it's practically T-shirt weather! I love the Winter-Spring transition time. As I played out on the back deck with the kiddos this morning a memory was brought back from growing up at the Acreage. One year around this time we built a walk-way out of plastic milk crates and boards over the snow and to the trampoline. We would go out in T-shirts, or shorts even, bare foot or socks, and just soak up the warm sun on the black surface of the trampoline, surrounded by snow. 

Today, we went out for some fresh air and our skins happily soaked up the suns rays while we relaxed on the back deck.

 Camilla cracked me up with her little toes.

 The sunshine was super bright!!

 We did some rocket-ship rides way up to the sky...

 I snuggled my little man (who's feeling much better today).

 Hyrum had fun in the swing and exploring on the deck. Camilla and I made snowballs to throw at the remains of our snowman. 

 Man, these two are getting way too big!!
 

Bul Go Gi House

Last night we spent some great time with family. Mr. Stannix's cousin, Tessie, was out from the East for a visit. We got together with some of the Stannix clan for dinner at the Bul Go Gi House. It's a delicious Korean restaurant! It was my first time there and it was super enjoyable. 

 Camilla enjoyed playing around with the chop sticks. We only had one major spill which is pretty good for dinner time and most of it was caught by the tray. When the waitress came by to see if any of us wanted drinks we were all good with water, but Camilla tried to order herself some pop, it was cute. Hyrum was a little warm and snuggly when we left the house. He cuddled Uncle Mike for most of the evening.

Auntie Chris ordered for us and picked some delicious things. Definitely next time we'll be ordering the Wantons again!

It was great to finally meet Tessie and be able to spend some time with her! I might have to get a cousin picture from Auntie Chris to put up here because I neglected to take one of the three cousins together. 

 Camilla tired so hard to use the chopsticks like the rest of us. She ate a lot of chicken and rice and also enjoyed her wanton. I was pretty proud of her.

Jake taught me how to use chopsticks and I had a blast eating with them! I only used my fork to cut my meat. Then Hyrum wanted to snuggle with his Mommy and no one else. He had a pretty good temp and luckily it was almost time to go. When dinner was over Hyrum ended the night by barfing all over the both of us. I think my shirt soaked up most of it. We went to the bathroom to clean up only to discover there was no paper towel in there. I stripped him down and wrapped him in my sweater so that I wouldn't be bringing a naked baby back to the table. He wore his diaper and his snowsuit home.

We all came back here and visited over dessert (big bowls of ice cream). Jake and Tessie read a million bed time stories to miss Camilla and she loved the attention. Great conversation was shared by all! Spending time with family rocks!

Chubby Fingers

Today after lunch Hyrum snuggled into his favorite sleepy-time blanket while I drew on his face with my fingers. Before long he was asleep. I couldn't help but stare at him while he slept. I am in love with his whispy hair. I adore his long, dark eye lashes. I am fond of his tiny nose and his pink lips. But his chubby little boy fingers will always have a special place in my heart.

Lunch Prayers

The highlight of my day so far is when Camilla said lunch prayers. 

My favorite line from the whole thing was 

"Please bless Camilla, she'll be obedient...." 

I had to try really hard not to laugh. She's such a sweetheart.

More of McQueen

Mr. Hyrum is super obsessed with this little red car. Now that he has mastered getting on and off he is on to a new challenge. He was such a laid back kid, we figured he would never have the desire to walk for a long time, but I guess we were wrong! If there's one thing I love about this little boy it's that he has his Daddy's determination. Once he starts something, there's no stopping him until he's mastered it. He walked around the house all afternoon yesterday with McQueen practicing his steps and his balance.

He would get so frustrated when he would fall down, but before long he'd decide that crying was a waste of time and then he'd get right back up and continue saying "Go! Go! Go!" over and over.

Right Left Right Left Right Left

And ya know what? He's almost got it!