5 Years - Our family birthday & anniversary

We celebrated our 5 Year Family Birthday just before we packed up our things in Germany. We seem to have a knack for big events happening around that time of year (we've been moving or traveling every year). That always seems to make it difficult to plan something, especially when we are in the middle of the move. So we did our best! 

Since we want our anniversary to have a family aspect we try to celebrate similarly to how we would celebrate one of our birthdays. Naturally, we start the day with pancakes. Jason makes awesome buckwheat pancakes. He has a knack for breakfast foods for which I am very grateful, as are the kiddos.

Then Jason and I got to get a little sentimental as we talked about when we got married in the temple and the importance of that event with the kids, particularly the part about being a forever family. I love seeing the kids' eyes light up as talk about the temple. 

And then it was off for an adventure. We went for a row boat ride through Burgerpark. Perfect pick. We weren't sure how the kids would take to it, and they were a little hesitant to get on the boat, but they loved it. It was beautiful. I think the kids' favorite part was getting to be right next to the ducks. I just loved getting to experience something new and to be in such beauty with my family. 

The kids were quite attached to me for the first half of the trip, but by the second half they had demagnetized and Milayla was even walking around the boat.

It really was a beautiful little boat ride.

Milayla watching the ducks.

And after a picnic lunch (and dealing with a flat tire) we went for our last bike ride out to Snutenlecker (the organic farm with fresh ice cream!) to enjoy a treat. We sure will miss that place. Such a great spot.

We really were blessed with great weather. The rain held back right until we got home. And that was including Jason having to venture back to the farm to retrieve a lost backpack. And once we were all cleaned up and had everything ready for Sunday some friends of ours came to stay the night so that Jason and I could have a little getaway (thanks again, Alex and Shaylin!!). It was nothing crazy, just dinner and a big comfy hotel bed. But that big comfy hotel bed felt like heaven when we had been sleeping on our pull out sofa for the few weeks prior. Any guesses where we went??

It was lovely. And while the kids were a little sad about the fact that they didn't get to come with us, all was well again when we came home the next morning to take them off to church. So glad that we got to celebrate our family birthday all together and that Jason and I were able to get a little bit of time away from the craziness of moving. I feel pretty blessed with this little family. So much love - they're awesome.

5 Years

Celebrating 5 years today! Wow! It feels like we've packed a lot into those 5 years. 

Sure, there have definitely been some stressful moments. Moving between countries (that are also two different languages) with a pretty new baby - twice? Not something I would recommend to anyone. Ever. 

But we did it. And we got stronger. And we laughed. A lot. Mostly at ourselves. We learned to have joy in the moment. To smile through the hard times. To love deeper. And to hold tighter when life gets tough.

In the past 5 years we have done more than finally get some pictures on our shelves (though, that was a mighty accomplishment in itself), 

We've also welcomed two wonderful little people into our family and can scarcely remember what our life was like before them. I'm sure we learn more lessons from them as we try to be the best parents we can than they learn from us. But I suppose that's the way it goes and at the end of the day we're all just grateful to have each other. 

We've felt the power of family. Not only of our own little family that is sealed for the eternities. But also our extended family and a group of incredible friends that may as well be family. It's been a support unit that has aided us in so many ways.

We've learned to embrace the moment. Or rather, we've gotten better at it. Because it's not so easy to embrace those moments that aren't exactly what you expected.

We've made new friends. Whom we could not imagine having not met. They've left their mark on our hearts in so many lovely ways. We're pretty lucky with that.

We've explored a little of our love for traveling and cultures. And we've seen that love grow in unique ways in each of our children. It's been an adventure, an absolute pleasure and a source of many interesting stories like the brilliant idea to take a short cut by carrying our stroller (with child) down the spanish steps. Or the turkish bus ride - that's a family favorite. 

We've moved. A lot. It may not be the most relaxing thing but it certainly reminds us of our priorities to more deeply ingrain in ourselves that the most precious things in life aren't things.

We've learned that home is wherever we are at together. During one of our travels we made a poor hotel choice; it was dirty, run down and in a rather worrisome neighbourhood, but that didn't matter to the kids. At the end of the day we were going "home" because we were all there together and it didn't matter that the hotel wasn't the nicest because there was comfort and security in our family - right where it should be. 

We've grown. As individuals. As a couple. As a family. And learned more about one another in the process. 

But the most important thing? We're together, we're happy and we're grateful; grateful that we made the choice to marry one another, our best friend, in the House of the Lord 5 years ago today. 

Here's to celebrating that wonderful choice and to looking forward to an infinite future together.

Love you, Jason!

Happy Family Birthday

Our 4th Family Birthday (aka, our anniversary) came up just over a month ago. We attempt to make a tradition to go on a little family trip/outing as a family to celebrate the Family Birthday side of things, then to go out for a nice dinner as a couple to celebrate the Anniversary side of it. Of course, it rarely works out quite the way we hope or plan for (eg., last year, despite planning well in advance, moving week wiped out a good majority of our plans). Perhaps it means that we need to do better at making our anniversary a priority and not letting other things crowd in and take over. We'll be experts come our 25th Wedding Anniversary for sure.

This year was no exception to the rule. Plans were made. The day before came. Plans (and babysitters) fell through and we were left trying to reschedule or come up with something new. In the end we did a combination of both (new plans and rescheduling).

First up, Jason was able to take the day off from work so that we could go on a family bike trip. We headed across the city and out to a pick-your-own-blueberries-farm and a corn maze. 

I asked Atticus what that face was, he replied "My monkey smile." ...nice.

That's better!

The ride there was beautiful. We had gorgeous weather, happy kids and plenty of sunscreen.

Perhaps it's a sign that it's been far too long since we were back in Calgary, but there were certain parts of the ride that felt very Calgary-esque. Like this nature reserve that we biked through. With big, blue skies, hay fields and plenty of cattle it certainly felt a little bit like our Canadian home. It was beautiful. (Still missing the mountains in the distance)

When we arrived we headed straight for the corn maze.

There were a number of markers that needed to be found throughout the maze and answer trivia questions. We managed to find all but one. The kids had a really good eye for finding the markers - we were impressed.

After the maze it was time for a quick lunch before heading out to the blueberry fields.

We were so pleasantly surprised how much both kids enjoyed picking blueberries. While there were a few distractions, like the occasional gust of wind...

or those special yellow flowers that Atticus enjoys picking so much...

for the most part it was just a whole lot of blueberry picking. The fruits of our labours were a few blueberry stained fingers and shirts and a nice big box of delicious blueberries!

We had to get a little creative about how to make sure that the blueberries didn't spill over on the bike ride home (we probably should have brought containers for that...) but they made it in tact and relatively unspilt in time to have some individual watermelon cakes!

Some of you may recall the first time that we made watermelon cake for Milayla's Birthday, well it's become a much-loved (and often requested) tradition around here. We decided to give it a little bit of a twist this go around. Instead of making a whole cake, everyone got to choose a cookie cutter shape to make their own little cake.

Then we piled on the "icing" (yogurt) and "sprinkles" (blueberries).

It was so good! We gobbled up a couple each.

We did have a nice dinner at home as a couple, but the nice dinner out had to wait for the weekend. We went to a wonderful local restaurant that focuses on in-season, local, whole foods. Their menu is constantly changing based on what is available locally and it is always creative. 

Well, it wasn't what we had planned, but we sure enjoyed celebrating. How blessed we are to have this little family of ours along with the knowledge that we can be together forever.

4 Years

It's hard to believe it's only been 4 years since Jason and I were married and I mean that in the kindest way possible. So much has happened in a short amount of time and it has been a lovely ride. It certainly has had it's share of stressful moments and bumps in the road, but boy, have we enjoyed it.

The last year of our marriage brought with it a wonderful addition to the family (Milayla) and another move with a little baby. Those experiences though, along with many others, have helped us grow and progress as individuals, as a couple and as a family. We certainly feel blessed to have one another and love discovering all the ways that we help to balance one another off.

this lovely photo was one of our engagement photos by a wonderful photographer named Chelsey (she also did our wedding photography!). Be sure to check out more of her photography here

We are excited to celebrate 4 wonderful years together this week and looking forward to many more celebrations ahead.