My Birthday 2014

I was thoroughly spoiled with tons of love (in the form of hugs, kisses and time together) on my birthday. Starting with a yummy breakfast, time with my awesome kiddos, and then a little bit of time with Milayla while I took her to the doctor. 

I particularly loved the birthday banner - so colorful and beautiful! 

taking pictures at the doctor :)

love that smile! She was such a brave and happy girl at the doctor!

Jason took the day off so that we could head to a little museum at McGill that is only open during the week. I love exploring museums with the family!

Then we had an afternoon together complete with a great dinner (homemade indian! yum!) and gf angel food cake (it's been a long time since I have had that!). I was so touched by how hard Jason and the kiddos worked to make it a nice day for me. I feel pretty blessed to have such a loving family. They're awesome. They all worked especially hard to make the incredible angel food cake. We all LOVED it. Soooo good. Made with so much love and enjoyed by everyone.

I got plenty of cuddle time in with the kiddos and even a few gifts before Jason swept me off to see my first ever Cirque du Soleil show. It was great, but I couldn't help wish the kiddos were there because I know they would have been absolutely entranced by it. I so genuinely love getting to spend time together as a family. We've been eagerly looking for (and going to) theatre type things with the kiddos since (more to come on that!).

The show was great. So creative and unique. I simply could not pick my favorite part of the show. Though, I would say enjoying the show with Jason was definitely the overall best part. I sure do love being married to my best friend :).

When we returned home, I immediately went and checked on the kids who were sound asleep in their beds (and a report from the babysitter that they did great). I love those kiddos so much. And I love that they just giggle about the fact that they have a mom who takes pictures of the cute faces and positions I find them sleeping in when I check on them. 

Such a great day. Feeling overwhelmingly blessed and grateful for this family. They are each so special and unique and I could not imagine a better way to celebrate my birthday than with them. THANK YOU for making it such a lovely day. LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

Dear Baby

Dear Little Baby,

Tomorrow is your due date and we are all getting very anxious to meet you. You have two big siblings who would like to give you some cuddles and sing you some songs that they have been practicing. And you have a Momma who cannot wait to have you cuddle up on her shoulder and a Daddy that is really looking forward to sneaking in some cuddles and enjoying those baby yawns. There is a lot of excitement and anticipation about waiting for you!

We know you are going arrive when you're ready but we do hope it's soon as we cannot wait to meet you and begin getting to know you better. You are already loved so much.

Love you dearly,
Mom

May iPhone

Some bits of May that were captured on my phone. Not entirely in order...

homemade poutine (so that we could get it gf and without all that deep fried bits).

The Tulip Festival.

Atticus working on his birthday gift for Milayla - a pig finger puppet. It was a bit hit.

Milayla working hard on learning her letter sounds. She's loving it.

Having fun with a mirror at the store while we search for storage solutions.

Finished pig puppet. Well done!!

Me sneaking a picture of those not-so-tiny-anymore-but-still-cute-toes of Milayla's.

Atticus working hard on some copy work which is also used to help him memorize some songs for Primary.

Loved this quote on a book at the store. Jesus wants me for a sunbeam!

Can't get enough of how precious the kiddos look when I go in at night to check that they are still snuggly tucked in.

Milayla loves hanging out in the swing that our neighbour has created to hang out back.

She also can't seem to get enough of her new workbook that she got for her birthday. She works really hard on it!

The kids are pretty stoked about their new bunk bed.

Had a Mommy-Daughter date at the swimming pool and Milayla was pretty excited to get to climb on the rocks afterward.

Lots of days at the park. Can't believe we were still sporting winter jackets in May!

Another darling sleeping babe.

Atticus chilling in the swing as well!

Hard at work at the table.

So proud of his work on the finger puppet - as he should be!

Can't help but love the onset of spring and the colorful flowers!

The kids were pretty eager to help Jason get the bunk bed together.

I surprised the kiddos with french toast for breakfast on a weekday - they were super excited about that and were all smiles for the surprise!

May overnight date 2014

Last year we had this brilliant idea that we would do an overnight date for our anniversary each year. Well, since this year will welcome with it a new little bundle of joy, we headed for an overnight date in May instead. We had hoped to make a dash out of the city and into the mountains but it didn't pan out. Instead we found ourselves at a nice hotel downtown. 

We strolled around downtown and even ate out. Eating out is a serious rarity around here. We lucked out with a great menu, great food and lovely company. 

We also used the time to talk about family goals that we want to see happen and to start piecing together a vision about what we need to do with our time here in Montreal as we work to be improve our parenting and build a strong family. The result was some new insights, more motivation, goals for our family and actions to get us towards those goals. Loving the journey we're on with this family!

It was a great little reset together. Though, coming home to those cheerful kiddos was a great reminder of what this is all for - the eternal family :). 

May Date Night

We haven't done a ton of exploring of this city yet. By the time we started getting settled in, winter was in full force and walking around downtown didn't seem like a very pleasurable experience. Since then, we have done plenty of museums and sites with the kiddos but when date night rolled around, Jason and I decided to venture out on our own. We headed to old Montreal with nothing in particular planned except to walk around, enjoy each other's company and take some pictures of the city. Jason even let me take some touristy photos of him - what a great sport!

It was a nice little time together and the slight feeling of being reminiscent of Europe was rather fun. We even discovered that there is a Christmas store downtown - how fun! 

We really lucked out in getting some beautiful colors in the sky as the sun was setting, too! Fun time together.

Notre Dame

Baby belly! 31 weeks. LOVE!

that sky!!! God is an artist.

Pretty funky looking building. Need to look into what exactly it is.